As Arthur Snell so eloquently put it in his Substack:

... And if an aggressor needlessly starts an unjustified and illegal war, and casualties ensue, the aggressor is responsible for all of them. This is all directly America's fault and choice. They started a war for the good of nothing.

Iran is likely thinking that they not only want to survive—which is practically a win for a relatively weaker power attacked by a stronger one—but also that they want to impose enough costs on enough parties that the US assault becomes a cautionary tale. Trump started something he can’t control.

We need to take responsibility. The United States shot a missile into a school that killed hundreds of children. We did this, and there is no redemption.

I knew that the Department of War shot a missile into a school & killed 175 civilians, mostly children. This is learned today: Secretary of War Hegseth had cut the teams assigned to prevent such tragedies by 90%. www.npr.org/2026/03/11/n...

As some commenters in this thread have pointed out, the money we've burned through in one week in Iran is about the equivalent of 1 JWST. Or the annual budget of the NSF. The money is there to do big things, the question is what are the big things we want to do?

🚨IRAN UPDATE:🚨 Charlie Gammell joined me a second time to talk about the latest. podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/b...

“Europeans had weeks of notice that US president Donald Trump was about to trigger a war in the Middle East,” notes @ecfr.eu. “The conflict is now wreaking carnage in the world’s most energy-rich region on an hourly basis, increasing the direct costs to Europeans and boosting Russia’s war coffers."

Problem here is the implied "and we surrendered to its stupidity and deliberately neutered and rubbished the anti movement" Like we know, Rachel, we know. Labour are a *long* way into this nose dive now, and it'll take serious action to pull out.

"we must not assume overshoot will be temporary or even reversible. Some of the proposed plans to reverse temperatures are, upon inspection, extremely threadbare, serving as little more than mood music intended to maintain optimism. The reality is that large-scale CO2 removal, does not exist"

As we witness the horror of attacks on desalination plants, we need to be aware, on a warming planet, conflict over water, using water as a weapon of war, & targeting people seeking water is on the rise - in the past 4 years, it's nearly doubled: share.google/p0PrSGiLMdz0...

Acknowledging reality means admitting they were wrong about Trump. That they’re not as smart as they think. They’re not in on the con, they’re some of its biggest marks. And people they don’t like had a point. The psychic pain of that is too much. They’ll avoid it as long as physically possible.

We already know the winner in the war with Iran and that's Russia. The closure of the Straits of Hormuz has swung Russian crude from pariah to prized commodity. Urals oil price is the highest since right after the Ukraine invasion. Putin is loving this... robinjbrooks.substack.com/p/markets-in...

A fascist United States is our strategic enemy and only one European leader seems to be acknowledging that. Which is bad.

They've either allowed the use of their bases, or spoken in favour of the intervention, or cast it in traditional military terms. This approach encourages further recklessness. Going softly on Trump doesn't work. Only international ostracisation has any chance of success. Sanchez gets it.

Musa, it is weird how when I explain the way America is as having roots in this simple thing, people think I am crazy or paranoid. But this is all Obama backlash, directly or indirectly. America is fundamentally mean, suspicious and bigoted.

Do they think people have literally no memory of past events at all?

Most of all they lied to themselves about their motives.

When Brexit was slammed for being an act of pure prejudice, all the Brexiters howled about ‘sovereignty’ and ‘taking back control’. Now, the very same people howl that we should just obey Trump and put our country in the firing line. They lied about everything. All of it. Every single part.

Public service announcement: this is a FOSSIL FUEL CRISIS Not an 'energy crisis'. People need energy: it keeps them alive. This is a crisis due to forced dependency on the most unreliable and unstable fuel product in human history. THIS IS A FOSSIL FUEL CRISIS.

It feels like another tipping point is being crossed rn… back-&-forth refinery strikes, Tehran in flames. Trump demanding unconditional surrender, de facto boasting of bombing Iranian desal. US & Israel are pushing Iran to fire everything it has at the region’s weakest links. Unimaginably dangerous.

I wonder if a drone has hit Dubai Marina. Or whether it was just debris from a successful interception. If only loads of Dubai based accounts, including Isabel Oakeshott's, could tell me.

2) Overshoot will not be temporary or even reversible. Some of the proposed plans to reverse temperatures are, upon inspection, extremely threadbare, serving as little more than mood music intended to maintain optimism. The reality is that large-scale carbon dioxide removal, does not exist. 5/11

Followup posts update that it's not confirmed WHICH gen ai tool was used, but likely either OpenAI or Anthropic models usage directly led to the murders of 150 children. When pressed for comment, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth offered a "Whoopsie-doodle"

Sorry, my initial post was wrong (as @chronotope.aramzs.xyz pointed out.) This reporting says AI systems were used for targeting was used in Iran, and that it was likely responsible for the school strike. It doesn't identify Claude. But we do know Claude was being used: www.wsj.com/livecoverage...

Trump's Iran war makes the case for the energy transition to renewables for most countries much clearer and immediate. @pkrugman.bsky.social 1/

As I have said since Feb 2025, Trump is in office to solve Putin's problems. How else are you going to ensure that Putin's failed state becomes prosperous? it is already having to be propped up by China.

This is interesting. But it is more interesting that Trump is rewarding Moscow for doing this by helping Russia sell oil, repeating Russian propaganda points, and senselessly burning through weapon stocks. www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

the stove has been well and truly touched, man

I'm not suggesting this is an open secret within the climate science community, but it's remarkable how little impact this sort of research is generating. Because if the rate of warming really has *doubled* then you can kiss goodbye to 2°C. www.carbonbrief.org/pace-of-glob...

From FT comments

🤦 The US Treasury Secretary confirms Washington has authorised India to purchase Russian oil from tankers at sea. Bessent explained such traitorous behaviour by pretending it will ease the situation on the energy market, not just enriching Russia and ruining years of sanctions

U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children.

Raising the previously-low global oil/gas prices, to bail out the struggling Russian war economy that relies so much on selling fossil fuels... Putting extra burdens on the supply of defences against Russian missiles... ... Trump sure is working hard to help Putin, by starting this war with Iran!

Line go up.

Yes. Glad to say Spain, once again, is an outlier who has condemned the attacks on Iran as a violation of international law.

By failing to call for an immediate cessation of hostilities and openly backing Trump and Netahjahu's attack on Iran, European leaders (von der Leyen, Merz, Macron, Starmer) undermine the case for international solidarity with Ukraine.

All Europeans will pay the price for their leaders' reaction to the 🇺🇸🇮🇱 attack on Iran this weekend. European leaders (all except Pedro Sanchez) have now accepted the end of international law. The consequences of this will be felt not for weeks, not for years, but for decades

If Europe had properly built up production for Ukrainian air defence, we'd be in a position now to supply countries being targeted by Iran Every time, in every context, the evidence is that we would be better off taking the war with Russia seriously rather than coasting along betting on status quo

Hell of a chart, this, from @financialtimes.com. Spot the JCPOA. on.ft.com/4kSuQYO

Spanish PM Pedro Sánchez: “Today more than ever, it is essential to remember that one can be against a hateful regime as is the case with the Iranian regime…and at the same time be against an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law.”

Another miscalculation. It isn't necessary to support a bad war illegally launched by a deluded President who has less of a plan that the US had when it went into Libya or Iraq.

The essential podcast right now: please like and share

There are few things more important than challenging the narrative that international law is irrelevant. If power is all that matters then what is our justification for condemning Putin's attack on Ukraine.

The US is not a 'partner'. It's in their National Security Strategy to support far right parties that oppose multicultural liberal democracy here. They are behaving lawlessly at home and abroad, summarily executing their own citizens, and now bombing Iran with no coherent rationale or plan.

Remember Obama negotiated a deal with Iran to prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon. trump got rid of that deal, failed to secure a new one and is now at war with Iran to prevent them from acquiring a nuclear weapon.

You’re missing step 4 where you invite the enemy to camp david and schedule a hasty withdrawl to blame on the next admin non stop.

1. kill khamenei and bomb everyone 2. ????? 3. liberation and peace for everyone forever and ever great glad we’ve got that all figured out

This is excellent news and a huge deal! (Here's my explainer on OpenSafely and why it is incredibly cool.) takes.jamesomalley.co.uk/p/how-to-use...