The possibility of Iran’s withdrawal from the Nuclear Non‑Proliferation Treaty (NPT) is under discussion in Tehran, Iranian media reported on Saturday, Anadolu reports.

Relevant government bodies, including parliament, are currently “urgently” mulling withdrawal, Iran’s semi-official Tasnim News Agency reported.

On the US social media company X, Tehran Deputy Malek Shariati said an “emergency plan to support the nuclear rights” of Iran has three main areas. These include a declaration of withdrawal from the NPT, the cancellation of the countermeasure law in implementing the 2014 Iran nuclear deal, and support for a new international agreement with like-minded countries for the development of peaceful nuclear technologies, including Shanghai and the BRICS bloc of Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, and others.

The possibility of withdrawal comes with the entire region on alert since the US and Israel launched an air offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, since killing over 1,340 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.

Though analysts say the US has not been clear in its objectives in the war, Washington has long objected to Iran enriching nuclear material to weapons-grade.

Iran responded to the offensive with drone and missile attacks targeting Israel, as well as Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting US military bases, causing casualties, infrastructure damage, and disruption to global markets and aviation.

The Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) has announced staging the 63rd wave of its ongoing retaliatory Operation True Promise 4 in the face of unprovoked American-Israeli aggression, targeting oil facilities associated with the United States in the region.

The latest phase took place on Wednesday, following recent attacks on Iranian energy infrastructure, the Corps' Public Relations Office said in a statement. Staged "with full force," the 63rd wave also came in retaliation for the martyrdom of Iran's Intelligence Minister Esmaeil Khatib and others during the aggression, it added.

The Corps denounced the “deceitful and lying enemy” for targeting the country's energy facilities.

By conducting the strikes, it added, the adversaries had also sought to exact revenge on the nation over the ongoing countrywide rallies it has been staging in support of Iran's Islamic establishment and in protest against the aggression.

'Attack on Iran's energy infrastructure took conflict to new stage'

"The Islamic Republic did not intend to expand the war to oil facilities and did not wish to harm the economies of friendly and neighboring countries," the IRGC said.

"However, with the enemy’s aggression against energy infrastructure, Iran has effectively entered a new stage of the conflict, and the necessity to defend the country’s energy infrastructure compelled a retaliatory strike against American-linked energy facilities."

Message to Iranian people

Addressing the nation, the IRGC declared, "Your brave sons in the Armed Forces immediately launched an offensive in response to the enemy’s malice, and through a heavy, targeted operation, set fire to a series of oil facilities considered to be American interests in the region.

The reprisal, it added, "inflicted damage proportional" to the one that had been imposed on the country.

Zionist targets

"As many as 80 military and military support targets" were struck in the southern and central parts of the occupied territories, including Rishon LeZion, Ramla, and Lod in the center; Eilat in the south; and Ramat Gan and Bnei Brak east of Tel Aviv, as well as Bat Yam and Holon south of Tel Aviv.

The targets lying in the south included a gathering of Israeli forces.

All targets were hit surgically using multi-warhead missiles and attack drones.

Warning to US, Israeli forces

The IRGC also issued a stern warning to the American-Zionist aggressors against repeating their strikes against the country's energy sites.

"If this is repeated, subsequent attacks on your energy infrastructure and that of your allies will not cease until total destruction, and our response will be far more severe than tonight’s strikes.”

Operation True Promise 4 began momentarily following the launch of Washington's and Tel Aviv's most recent bout of unlawful aggression towards the Islamic Republic late last month.

The reprisal has hit sensitive and strategic targets in the heart of the occupied territories, including those lying in the city of Tel Aviv, the holy occupied city of al-Quds, the occupied port of Haifa, Be'er Sheva, which serves as the regime's technological epicenter, and the Negev Desert.

American outposts across the region, including those based in Qatar, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia, have also faced intense retaliation.

Penetrating the highly-advanced Israeli missile systems stationed across the occupied territories, Iranian missiles have inflicted heavy damage upon Tel Aviv, killing two settlers and wounding tens of others in the process.

Hebrew news outlets reported that since the early hours of Wednesday, Tel Aviv and its surrounding areas have been struck by Iranian missiles at least twice, while Israeli missile systems have been unable to intercept the incoming projectiles.

According to the news outlets, Iran’s massive missile and drone attacks resulted in the loss of electricity and evacuation of thousands of settlers in Tel Aviv and surrounding areas.

More than 4,000 settlers have been forced to evacuate, the reports said.

Israeli paramedics and first responders have been sent to eight areas across Tel Aviv while a major train station has been severely damaged, according to the reports.

The mayor of Tel Aviv said that because of the attacks, the movement of trains across and around Tel Aviv have been suspended until further notice.

Furthermore, several towns around Tel Aviv have lost electricity after being hit by Iranian missiles. Israel’s Channel 14 said two setters were killed when an Iranian missile hit the town of Ramat Gan, in the suburbs of Tel-Aviv.

In a statement on Wednesday, the spokesperson for Iran’s army said that in recent days the armed forces have been using highly-advanced weaponry which they had not used before.

“God’s willing, after the war, we will have a new order in the region, without the US,” he added.

In another statement, the Army said it targeted the Ben Gurion airport with drones where Israeli regime’s refueling airplanes were stationed.

In remembrance of the martyred soldiers aboard Dena destroyer, as well as martyr Ali Larijani, and martyr General Qolamreza Soleimani, the Army launched a flurry of drones towards Ben Gurion airport where the regime holds its refueling airplanes, it said.

The army also thanked the Iranian people for their glorious presence during the funeral ceremony of the Dena Destroyer sailors.

“It is the people’s support that encourages the brave personnel of the Armed Forces to continue their war against the US-Israeli aggression,” the statement added.

Meanwhile, Australia’s Ministry of Defense said the al-Menhad military base in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where Australian armed forces have a strong presence, have been targeted and damaged by Iranian missiles.

The Iranian Armed Forces have been attacking Israeli targets across the occupied territories and US bases across the region since February 28, after the US and Israel attacked several locations across Iran, assassinating several high-ranking officials, including Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei.

According to Iran’s Ministry of Defense, Iranian forces have killed at least 600 American troops at various US bases since the start of the imposed war.

Bullets:

The TPY-2 radars are part of the THAAD missile defense system, and identify and direct allied air defenses against inbound ballistic missiles.In the early days of the war, Iranian forces targets the radars, knocking out at least four, across four countries.Raytheon (RTX) is the Pentagon contractor for the TPY-2 radars, which cost $500 million each, and feature a Gallium-Nitride populated array. China has a monopoly on the production of gallium, with 98% of the world's total. China also has export bans on its gallium to weapons makers, including Raytheon.

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Report:

Good morning.

In the earliest days of the war, Iranian forces launched drone and missile attacks against strategic radars across the Persian Gulf region. These radar installations are crucial in air and missile defense, and serve as a theater-wide warning system. The THAAD system is Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, and identifies and engages incoming ballistic missiles.

Obviously this system is reliant on radars to make that all work, and Iran is knocking out those radars. At an Air Force Base in Jordan, a TPY-2 radar was hit, and those come with a $500 million price tag. That’s just for the radar, plus the cost of the missiles, which are useless without that radar. Another attack took out a radar in Saudi Arabia. And two others in the UAE and Qatar.

A replacement radar is being hurried over to Jordan to replace the one blown up there, and further down the Wall Street Journal points out that another race is on to finish the war in Iran before stockpiles of interceptor missiles run out.

From the start of this channel we have pointed out that the supply chains for the Pentagon all run through China. Literally not a single weapons platform or strategic asset gets built without rare earth metals, and China has monopolies on almost all of them. What’s more, China has dual-use export bans, that expressly forbid their sale to companies that are building weapons. All the Pentagon contractors, in other words, cannot source raw materials from Chinese companies.

The TPY-2 radars are built by Raytheon, and are scarce. This is a press release from Raytheon from last May, 2025, after the company delivered just the 13th TPY-2 radar, and which was the first such delivery to the US Missile Defense Agency.

So in the first few days of the war, Iran took down at least four of them. The system is a Gallium Nitride populated array system. Gallium Nitride allows for longer range and surveillance capability.

China has a monopoly on the production of gallium. 98% of the global production of gallium comes from here, while the United States is 100% dependent on imports. So these radar systems that are being blown up by Iranian drones and rockets, cannot be replaced until China relaxes those export bans to weapons makers.

A caveat here, because this is a common point of confusion: China previously had hard bans on all exports of gallium, germanium, and antimony. But as part of the trade deal with the Trump Administration, that restriction was removed, last November. But exports from China to weapons makers, and to companies on the dual-use export control list—those stay.

This is to say that some Western civilian manufacturers can import these metals, including gallium. But weapons makers cannot: Raytheon is one of the companies on that list. China’s “Unreliable Entities List” includes top Pentagon contractors, like Lockheed Martin, General Dynamics, and Raytheon, and those companies are banned from importing from China. So all these radars that got blown up in the first two weeks -- $2 billion so far and counting just for the THAAD system radars -- they’re gone forever.

Be Good.

**Resources and links:**China’s rare-earth mineral squeeze will hit the Pentagon hardhttps://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/04/chinas-rare-earth-mineral-squeeze-will-hit-pentagon-hard/404776/RTX's Raytheon delivers 13th AN/TPY-2 radar for the U.S. Missile Defense agencyhttps://www.rtx.com/news/news-center/2025/05/19/rtxs-raytheon-delivers-13th-an-tpy-2-radar-for-the-u-s-missile-defense-agencyTerminal High Altitude Area Defense Radar Successful in Integrated Flight testhttps://raytheon.mediaroom.com/index.php?s=43&item=667The US military needs Chinese semiconductors to build advanced weapons. Not the other way around.

Presidential Document: Addressing the Threat to the Domestic Supply Chain From Reliance on Critical Minerals From Foreign Adversaries and Supporting the Domestic Mining and Processing industrieshttps://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/10/05/2020-22064/addressing-the-threat-to-the-domestic-supply-chain-from-reliance-on-critical-minerals-from-foreignChina suspends ban on exports of certain metals used in chip and electronics manufacturing to the u.s.https://www.cnbc.com/2025/11/09/china-suspends-ban-on-exports-of-gallium-germanium-antimony-to-us.htmlCritical Minerals and Defence technologieshttps://www.sfa-oxford.com/knowledge-and-insights/critical-minerals-in-low-carbon-and-future-technologies/critical-minerals-in-defence-and-national-security/Radar Bases Linked to US THAAD Systems Hit in Jordan, Saudi Arabia and uaehttps://politicstoday.org/radar-bases-linked-to-us-thaad-systems-hit-in-jordan-saudi-arabia-and-uae/U.S. Rushing to Replace ThAAD Radar in jordanhttps://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/iran-war-news-updates-2026/card/u-s-rushing-to-replace-thaad-radar-in-jordan-P764k4GQIjTocK36lHLr

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Hezbollah has launched a number of new resistance operations, striking Israeli bases, military equipment and gatherings of soldiers deep inside the occupied territories.

In a series of statements, the Lebanese resistance movement said on Sunday that its forces successfully struck the Pilmakhim air base south of Tel Aviv, 140 kilometers from the Lebanese border, with a missile.

The strike, which took place on Sunday morning, reportedly inflicted heavy losses on Israeli forces and damaged military equipment.

A number of Israeli armored vehicles and soldiers’ gatherings were targeted with a barrage of drones during an operation by resistance fighters in Khullah al-Uqsa area on the suburbs of the border city of al-Oddesah, the resistance movement added.

In another operation, Hezbollah also targeted Israeli defense systems with a barrage of missiles in Maalot area of the occupied territories. This is while an arms manufacturing complex belonging to Rafael company was struck in north of Kiryat city.

In addition to that, a barrage of rockets also targeted military positions in Naharia city in the northern part of the occupied territories.

Hezbollah started launching retaliatory operations earlier this month after Israel attacked southern and eastern Lebanon on a daily basis in violation of a November 2024 ceasefire.

Hundreds of Lebanese, mostly civilians, have been killed since then.

Israel informed the US this week that it is running critically low on ballistic missile interceptors as the conflict with Iran rages on, US officials told Semafor.

Israel had reportedly entered the current war already low on interceptors that were fired during last summer’s conflict with Iran. Israel’s long-range defense system has strained under Iran’s attacks; CNN reported that Iran was adding cluster munitions to its missiles, which may exacerbate the depletion of the stock.

The US has been aware of Israel’s low capacity for months, one US official said: “It’s something we expected and anticipated.”

This official emphasized to Semafor that the US is not running similarly low on interceptors of its own. That comment comes amid broader concerns about interceptor depletion from a longer military engagement in Iran leaving the US in a poor position.

It’s also unclear whether the US might seek to sell or share any of its own interceptors with Israel, which would pose its own strain on domestic supplies. The US has included missile defense assets in past provisions of military aid to Israel.

“We have all that we need to protect our bases and our personnel in the region and our interests,” the US official said, adding that Israel is “coming up with solutions to address” their shortage.

Israel has other ways to defend against Iranian missiles during the war, including via fighter jets, but the interceptors are among the most effective defensive weapons against long-range fire. Its Iron Dome missile defense system is designed to repel more short-range fire.

President Donald Trump said earlier this month that the US has a “virtually unlimited” munitions stockpile, although analysts have long said US stockpiles are lower than the military would like.

Last June, the US fired over 150 THAAD interceptors during the 12-day war with Iran, the Center for Strategic and International Studies found — believed to be around a quarter of US inventory at the time. The US is also believed to have used around $2.4 billion worth of Patriot interceptors in the first five days of this war, according to some reports.

In January, the Pentagon made moves to begin substantially increasing its production of the THAAD missile defense system. The US official said that the administration has plenty of THAADs and fighter jets, as well as mid-level interceptors.

Chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell told Semafor in a statement that the department “has everything it needs to execute any mission at the time and place of” Trump’s choosing.

In a statement after publication of this story, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told Semafor that US stockpiles are “more than enough” to achieve Trump’s goals against Iran “and beyond.” She added that Trump is also always “focused on strengthening our Armed Forces and he will continue to call on defense contractors” to quickly build US-made weapons.

“The United States Military’s accomplishments alongside the Israel Defense Forces speak for themselves — Iranian drone attacks are down 95 percent, ballistic missile attacks are down 90 percent, and the regime’s dismal situation will only get worse,” she said.

The Israel Defense Forces did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Semafor.

Florida State Capitol // Michael Rivera // Wikimedia Commons

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On Tuesday, the Florida legislature passed a bill that would ban all local governments from "promoting" or "adopting" activities related to diversity, equity, and inclusion—and bar any recipients of city contracts or grants from doing the same. The bill explicitly includes gender identity and sexual orientation in its definition of DEI, meaning any official activity "with reference to" LGBTQ+ people could trigger a violation. That could include promoting or supporting local Pride events with any city resources or funding LGBTQ+ community health centers. The bill also contains a novel and extreme enforcement mechanism: any elected official the governor deems in violation would be guilty of "misfeasance in office," which under the Florida Constitution gives Governor DeSantis the power to immediately suspend that official by executive order—without a court hearing. It is a power he has already weaponized twice against elected Democratic state attorneys, and which would now expand to every city commissioner and county official in the state.

The new bill, SB 1134, is sweeping and deliberately vague. It states that any city or county office or official acting in their official capacity cannot "promote or adopt training, programming, or activities designed or implemented with reference to race, color, sex, ethnicity, gender identity, or sexual orientation." It also mandates that local governments not use funds for "contractors, employees, vendors, volunteers, or agents" who will "ascribe to, study, or be instructed" using materials with reference to the same identity categories, which could impact community health centers, hospitals, and nonprofit services in cities across the state.

Importantly, this bill contains an extreme enforcement mechanism. Under Florida's constitution, the governor can suspend elected officials from office for misfeasance—and this does not require a court hearing. The governor can simply issue an executive order, and the official is out. The suspended official's only recourse is an appeal to the Republican-controlled Florida Senate, which holds a 28-12 supermajority. SB 1134 would expand those powers to include declaring support for LGBTQ+ activities or programming in an elected official's official capacity to be an act of misfeasance worthy of removal from office, with DeSantis himself able to use these powers with a stroke of his pen. He has already weaponized this provision twice—suspending Hillsborough County State Attorney Andrew Warren in 2022, in part for pledging not to criminalize gender-affirming healthcare, and suspending Ninth Circuit State Attorney Monique Worrell in 2023. The Florida Supreme Court upheld his authority to do so. This bill would hand him the same power over every city commissioner, county official, and municipal officer in the state.

The bill could have enormous consequences for Pride across the state. While it does not technically ban Pride events, the practical effect on Pride parades may be devastating. Florida's drag ban, which was recently put back into effect by the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in December, has already been interpreted to potentially bar parades that include drag performers—which is most Pride parades—from allowing minors to attend. When the drag ban first passed in 2023, Port St. Lucie canceled its Pridefest parade entirely, and Tampa Pride canceled all 2026 events citing the political climate, loss of corporate sponsorships, and the "discontinuation of DEI programs." Now, SB 1134, should it be signed by the governor, would extend the assault even further, barring any city from co-sponsoring, funding, or officially promoting Pride events.

Under broad interpretations of the bill's language, this could prohibit cities from displaying Pride flags on government property, sending official city delegations to march in parades, posting Pride events on city websites or social media, issuing proclamations recognizing Pride Month, or providing city resources like water trucks and staff time to support festivals. These are not hypotheticals—the City of Wilton Manors currently spends $50,000 in direct funding and an additional $48,000 in city services to co-sponsor Stonewall Pride, a large Pride event in the state. The bill arrives in the context of an escalating war on LGBTQ+ visibility in Florida: the state already forced cities across South Florida to remove Pride rainbow crosswalks last summer under a separate law, including the rainbow crosswalk outside the Pulse nightclub memorial in Orlando where 49 people were murdered. City officials in Key West, Fort Lauderdale, and Delray Beach who fought to preserve their crosswalks would, under SB 1134, now risk being removed from elected office for doing so.

"This bill is dangerous, vague by design, and part of a broader political agenda of censorship and government overreach," said Stratton Pollitzer, executive director of Equality Florida, in a statement following the bill's passage. "Once again, Florida lawmakers have manufactured a sweeping anti-LGBTQ law—legislation intended to bully local governments and have a chilling effect on how they celebrate and support the diverse communities they serve. Florida's LGBTQ community knows all too well how to fight back against unjust laws. Just as we did following the passage of Florida's notorious 'Don't Say Gay or Trans' law, we will fight every step of the way to limit the impact of this legislation, including in the courts."

Florida is not the first place to attempt this. Under Prime Minister Viktor Orbán—whose anti-LGBTQ+ policies DeSantis's office has openly acknowledged as a model for Florida's Don't Say Gay law—Hungary banned Pride outright last year, even amending its constitution to block legal challenges. When Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony defied the ban by designating Pride as an official city event and leading 200,000 people through the streets, the government filed criminal charges against him. SB 1134 creates a strikingly similar mechanism on American soil: a local official who uses their office to support Pride commits misfeasance, and the governor can suspend them unilaterally. In Hungary, the mayor faces a fine. In Florida, DeSantis wouldn't even need to go to court.

The bill now heads to Governor DeSantis's desk. Given his record on LGBTQ+ issues—including signing Don't Say Gay, a drag ban, and the ban on gender-affirming care for trans youth—a veto is virtually inconceivable. If signed, the bill takes effect January 1, 2027, at which point any existing local ordinances, resolutions, programs, or policies deemed to relate to LGBTQ+ people and other “DEI” activities would be immediately void. The bill is likely to face court challenges, though the 11th Circuit Court and Florida’s Supreme Court have both been among the most hostile courts towards LGBTQ+ people.

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Do all children have a right to an education? As educator Mariluz Arriaga tells us, the Mexican Constitution of 1917 was clear: yes, they do!

In contrast, the US Constitution makes no mention of education, and the Supreme Court has always ruled that education is not a fundamental right. If a state decided to provide public education, the only federal requirement was the 14th Amendment, passed after the abolition of slavery, which required states to give everyone, regardless of race or citizenship, the right to be included in any public program.

Many states tried to get around that law. For decades, Native, Black, Latino and Asian students students were sent to separate and unequal schools. It would take legal suits under the 14th Amendment to pry open white school doors. The most famous case, won by Black parents in 1954, was Brown vs. Board of Education, when the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was unconstitutional.

But that was not the first case! In 1947, Gonzalo and Felicitas Mendez, Mexican farmers in California, tried to enroll their daughter in the local school. The Westminster School Board told them she had to go to a separate school for Mexican Americans. Refusing to send their child to a shack with broken-down desks and raggedy old books, they gathered four other Mexican families and sued the school district. They won. Mendez vs. Westminster laid the groundwork for the Brown family’s case.

Arriaga tells us about Mexican educators’ courageous commitment to supporting justice for their students’ communities. In the US, parents like the Mendezes and Browns demonstrate how ordinary people can transform entire educational systems. Public education has been and continues to be a critical arena of social struggle. What and how children are taught must be contested, because education is the bedrock of democracy.

Girls school in Mexico, c. 1900

María de la Luz Arriaga Lemus, a classroom teacher before joining the economics faculty at Mexico City’s revered National Autonomous University of Mexico, has been a long-time union activist. In 1993, she co-founded the Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education with her US and Canadian counterparts. Six years later, she helped launch, on a broader scale, the Social Network for Public Education in the Americas. Her latest effort: the Casa Obrero Socialista Jose Antonio Vital. Arriaga, all told, has spent half a century defending public education as a social right in Mexico and beyond.

May Day, 2023

How did Mexican teachers come to play an important role in Mexican history?

In the Mexican Revolution’s 1917 constitution, education was guaranteed as a social — not an individual — right. It affirmed that education must be public, universal, secular and free, a constitutional right that was unique in Latin America. Mexico doesn’t have a Ministry of Education; it has a Ministry of Public Education.

After 1917, President Carranza faced a monumental task: to educate children in every corner of the country. To prepare new teachers, the government built hundreds of free normal schools where the future teachers lived together, many of them children of laborers and peasants. They grew their own food and kept a few cows and took care of the school’s domestic chores. Their backgrounds made them sensitive to the poor and rural communities from which they came.

The villages had three important people: the teacher, the doctor and the priest. During the 1930s and 1940s, when the progressive President Lázaro Cárdenas del Río was redistributing land, educators had the skills to draft petitions to obtain communal lands. They became revolutionary fighters, supporting the demands of the poor, especially in the Southern region, where today the teachers remain the most militant and continue to play a leading role for radical change.

Image from a 1939 Proletarian Liberation Primer produced by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education’s literacy campaign during the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas.

What was the agenda of educational reform under neoliberalism?

Neoliberalism seeks to turn everything into a consumer product, bought and sold on the private market and to eliminate social rights such as health, education and pensions. It replaces social responsibility with individual responsibility — each for themselves alone.

In Mexico, neoliberals attempted to change the consciousness of teachers and students, pressuring them to conform. For students, their revised textbooks removed the history of Mexican resistance and eliminated important legends. In a story about the Niños Héroes (Boy Heroes), set in the Mexican-American War, military cadets jumped off a cliff to their deaths rather than allow invading US forces to capture the Mexican flag. While not a fully factual historical event, it inspired young students with Mexican national pride and anti-imperialist consciousness.

Private school tuition was made tax-deductible so that, in effect, the public paid for private education. Education had been free from preschool through college. In the 1980s and 1990s, the government attempted several times to defund public universities, impose quotas on the number of university students and charge tuition. A massive student revolt protested this — 500,000 students took to the streets.

For teachers, in the past, after you finished teachers college, you were guaranteed a job. Enrique Pena Nieto eliminated that policy.

His funding cuts led to worsening working conditions. Salaries became based on “merit” and “performance,” contradicting the constitutional right to equal pay for equal work. Now, only a third of a teacher’s salary was guaranteed as base pay.

Inequality increased, and the incentive to compete replaced teacher cooperation. University professors focused more on publishing than on teaching.

How was teacher performance measured? Through standardized tests — a plague on the profession! The tests covered all subjects, so a history teacher had to pass the science section, and those subjects change a lot over decades! If you failed for three years, even with 30 years of teaching experience, you were dismissed or removed from teaching duties. Obviously, these tests don’t measure the level of teacher preparation or the quality of the education provided to students.

Children waiting for the afternoon bell at the Albino Corzo primary school in Mexico. Photo: Nina Lakhani

How was the Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education formed?

Neoliberal reforms began as early as 1973 in Chile under the dictator Augusto Pinochet and in Mexico and the United States in the 1980s and were then fully institutionalized in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) of 1993.

Dan Leahy, from Evergreen State College in the State of Washington, organized a trinational conference with more than 200 people, 40 of them Mexican.

It wasn’t a union meeting, although many union activists participated; we didn’t meet to defend wages and contracts.

We issued a declaration in defense of education as a right, fundamental to building democratic societies. Dan from the US, myself from Mexico and Larry Kuehn from Canada initially formed the Coalition in 1993-1994. In our conferences, US, Mexican and Canadian educators share the realities of each country and support each other as equals.

After his 2018 election, President López Obrador directly attacked neoliberalism. Did he change the education system?

His social programs improved many people’s standard of living. The stipends, for students aged 5 to 17, have helped the poorest; some families use that money to buy food. It’s hard for children to learn if they’re hungry. All the “social welfare” programs are universal for their target populations — senior citizens, single mothers and children with disabilities — creating a more stable home environment for children.

The distribution of millions of free textbooks continues — and they are wonderful! Many are in Indigenous languages, and historical accuracy has been restored. Of course, the far right, such as the oligarch Ricardo Salinas Pliego, calls for the books to be burned because they are “communist!”

However, AMLO’s promise to completely reverse Peña Nieto’s reforms wasn’t kept. The worst policies, such as the punitive teacher evaluation system and the threat of dismissal, were eliminated. But the evaluation mechanisms for access to employment, promotion and inclusion in merit- or productivity-based pay programs remain.

The business-oriented concept of education, where students and exam scores are products, still underlies the system — quantitative, not qualitative, measures are valued.

AMLO’s administration did initiate something different — the New Mexican School, which reorients basic education to a model of radical critical pedagogy. It replaces teaching separate subjects with students participating in project-based learning. They work collectively on real-life projects that require information and skills from mathematics, science, research and other subjects to be utilized together.

Teachers from the CNTE (National Coordinator of Education Workers) were already employing this methodology, primarily in Oaxaca and Michoacán, and soon in Guerrero, where collective approaches are essential to the indigenous cultures that predominate in the southern region. Indigenous teachers are able to develop projects of decolonization rather than assimilation and to develop their own curricula and methodologies.

What is the current agenda of the Trinational Coalition, which amazingly has continued for 35 years?

Since the attack on public education goes beyond the USMCA countries, in 1999 we expanded to create a continental coalition: Initiative For Democratic Education in the Americas, the IDEA Network. The Trinational Coalition became an affiliate.

Today, it’s not just neoliberalism, we must confront the rise of neo-fascism. As US hegemony wanes, it has become more desperate. Led by Trump, the US exerts power through violence and terror. Our mission is to explain the new situation to the public and to shape an alternative consciousness.

To that end, we must affirm the principle of education as a social right — public, free, universal, and secular — as it was guaranteed by that still revolutionary document: the 1917 Mexican Constitution.

Image from a 1939 Proletarian Liberation Primer produced by Mexico’s Ministry of Public Education’s literacy campaign during the Presidency of Lázaro Cárdenas.

Meizhu Lui’s experiences as the daughter of Chinese immigrants and as a single mom led her to focus on addressing inequalities based on race, gender, and immigration status. A hospital kitchen worker, she was elected president of her AFSCME local. She coordinated the national Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative, and co-authored The Color of Wealth: The Story Behind the U.S. Racial Wealth Divide. Liberation Road, a socialist organization, has been her political home.

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  Analysis | Interviews

  In Defense of Universal Public Education

  March 12, 2026March 12, 2026

  An interview with María de la Luz Arriaga Lemus, a teacher, long-time union activist, co-founder of the Trinational Coalition in Defense of Public Education, the Social Network for Public Education in the Americas, who works with Casa Obrero Socialista Jose Antonio Vital.

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The post In Defense of Universal Public Education appeared first on Mexico Solidarity Media.

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A wide range of anonymous X (Twitter) users have reported that their real names are suddenly being Googled in Israel shortly after they began criticizing the country for its actions in Palestine. Some connected the phenomenon to Au10tix, the software X requires users (even anonymous ones) to use in order to verify their real identities.

Au10tix is an Israeli company founded and staffed by former Israeli spies from the elite Israeli military intelligence group Unit 8200. MintPress News investigates this disturbing phenomenon.

“The Largest Honeypot Operation On the Planet”

“I’m not even kidding when I say my full legal name, including my middle name, has been searched up in Israel 11 times in the past day,” wrote TransFemPOTUS, an anonymous X user who has been highly critical of Israel’s actions.

This was not an isolated incident. “So apparently my full legal name got searched for in Israel the other day,” revealed TheAtlantean9, an anonymous far-left user with a Palestinian flag in their bio.

Meanwhile, artist Bionico Bandito stated that “My full name got searched 100 times in Israel when I posted this,” referring to a cartoon depicting associates of Jeffrey Epstein being executed.

Across the world, from conservative Japanese accounts to American conspiracy theorists, anonymous users are reporting that data from Google Trends shows their real names, not divulged anywhere online, are being mass searched in Israel.

How could this be happening? Some laid the blame at Au10tix’s door. “Only Au10tix and X holds my data obtained from ID verification,” wrote one user in a viral post, adding, “The rumors are absolutely true.”

“Israel is now 100% confirmed to be Googling anonymous users on X and their family members shortly after they speak out against the country,” wrote another, concluding that, “X is now the largest honeypot operation on the planet.”

The theory centers around Israeli security company Au10tix, who, in 2023, was tasked with verifying users’ identities, a prerequisite for joining X’s premium service which allows users a far greater reach.

The process requires individuals to upload a picture of their passport or other photo I.D., and allow Au10tix to scan their face via their device’s camera. Au10tix claims that it deletes users’ data within 72 hours of receiving it. However, the fact that the company was founded and is staffed by veterans of notorious Israeli spying group Unit 8200 – a group that has been behind many of the most outrageous hacking, infiltration, and cyberwarfare scandals of the past decade – has led many to be extremely suspicious.

The idea that Au10tix itself, or the Israeli government could be using the data given to it by users in order to combat online criticism is far from outlandish. The Department of Homeland Security is already known to be doing the same, sending hundreds of subpoenas to Google, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, Discord, and other large social media apps demanding they share the personal information and identities of anonymous users who have criticized the actions of Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE). Government officials confirmed to The New York Times that platforms have often complied with their requests.

Au10tix: Authentically Israeli

Au10tix was founded in 2002 by Ron Atzmon, a Unit 8200 veteran whose father was treasurer of Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party. It got its start providing hi-tech security systems at airports and other venues, before branching out into the online sphere.

Atzmon does not hide his strong political views. His professional LinkedIn profile is littered with posts supporting Israel, or condemning American students protesting Israel’s attack on Gaza, comparing them to the Ku Klux Klan, or reposting videos of far–right commentator Douglas Murray presenting the protestors as antisemitic supporters of terror.

A significant number of Au10tix’s employees are also ex-Israeli spooks. Until 2016, Eliran Levi was a Unit 8200 agent. In 2022, the company hired him as a developer. Others, however, go straight from the intelligence services into Au10tix. Lior Emuna, for instance, left her job as an intelligence analyst at Unit 8200 to join Au10tix. She is now an analytics manager. And in 2019, Sara Benita left her position as a mobile communications systems operator at Unit 8200 to become an engineer for the company. Director of product management, Shay Rechter, meanwhile, was a senior Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) commander before joining the organization.

Unit 8200 is the IDF’s most elite intelligence unit. Often described as “Israel’s Harvard,” it serves as the centerpiece of the country’s hi-tech spying and military apparatus. The unit is dedicated to surveillance, cyberwarfare, and online manipulation operations, and has been responsible for many of the most shocking acts of tech-based sabotage and terror in recent years.

This includes the 2024 Lebanese pager attack, where agents smuggled thousands of booby-trapped electronic devices into the country, exploding them en masse, killing 42 people and wounding thousands more. The event was widely condemned, even by former director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, as an act of terrorism.

Unit 8200 also created the notorious Pegasus software that was used to spy on more than 50,000 journalists, politicians, diplomats, business leaders and human rights defenders worldwide. Confirmed targets included President Emmanuel Macron of France, Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan, and Iraqi president, Barham Salih.

Known purchasers of Pegasus include the Central Intelligence Agency and the government of Saudi Arabia, who used it to spy on Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi before he was assassinated by Saudi agents in Türkiye. All sales of Pegasus had to be approved by the Israeli government, who reportedly had access to the data Pegasus’ foreign customers were accruing.

Unit 8200 also reportedly produced malware that attacked Microsoft Windows operating systems, using loopholes it found to attack control systems, delete hard drives, and shut down key systems, such as the energy infrastructure of Iran.

Surely their most deadly endeavor, however, is Project Lavender. The group developed the Lavender software, which uses A.I. and big data to develop a profile on every person in Gaza (including children), assigning them a score of 1-100, based on individuals’ perceived connections to Hamas. A wide range of characteristics, including sharing similar work schedules to or being in a WhatsApp group with a known Hamas member, would raise one’s score. If an individual’s number reached a certain level, they would automatically be put on a list.

These A.I.-driven kill lists allowed the IDF to find a way around what they called “targeting bottlenecks,” with Lavender identifying over 37,000 Palestinians to be executed in the first few weeks of the attack alone. There was little-to-no human oversight on these systems.

Lavender is known to be distinctly hit-or-miss. Many professions with similar communication patterns to Hamas, including police and firefighters, or even people with the same name as a resistance fighter, were flagged for execution. IDF sources themselves suggest a 10% false positive rate.

Unit 8200 was able to do this thanks to the massive surveillance apparatus it has built up over time. Palestinians’ every public move is watched over by facial recognition cameras. Their calls, texts, and emails are monitored. Dossiers on every Palestinian, including their medical history, sex lives and search histories, are compiled, so that this information can be used for extortion or blackmail later. If, for example, an individual is cheating on their spouse, desperately needs a medical operation, or is secretly homosexual, this can be used as leverage to turn civilians into informants and spies for Israel. One former Unit 8200 operative said that as part of his training, he was assigned to memorize different Arabic words for “gay” so that he could listen out for them in conversations.

This is why X working with Au10tix, an organization established and run by agents of foreign power, compelling users to give it their most intimate personal details, is so controversial. Unit 8200 exists to carry out cyberwarfare and clandestine spying operations around the world, and it is an open question to what extent anyone ever truly retires from the business of espionage.

While its reputation is highly controversial around the world, Unit 8200 is considered the most prestigious group within the Israeli military. In a country with mandatory national service, parents spend fortunes on science and math classes for their children, hoping they will make the highly-competitive selection process, knowing that it represents a fast track to a lucrative career in the country’s burgeoning hi-tech sector. Hundreds end up working at Google, Amazon, Facebook, and other big American tech platforms.

Au10tix has insisted that it does not store users’ personal data, including their identities. But when a company is founded, headed and staffed by individuals from one of the most infamous spying organizations on the planet – one whose modus operandi has been to infiltrate, surveil, and blackmail both its allies and its opponents – the question arises: why would we trust them?

The post X Users Find Their Real Names Are Being Googled in Israel After Using X Verification Software “Au10tix” appeared first on MintPress News.

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Iran says it has bombed wanted war criminal Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Israel. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps are also claiming that they have attacked the Israeli air force headquarters.

Palestine Chronicle reported that:

According to Tasnim News Agency, the Public Relations office of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps announced that the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the location of the commander of the Israeli air force were attacked in what it described as “targeted and surprise attacks.”

The Times of Israel has reported that:

Israel says there were no injuries in the strikes.

And, Netanyahu’s office has dismissed Iran’s claims that the “fate” of the Israeli PM is unclear. As yet, details remain entirely unclear – Iran’s assertions have not been verified, nor has Netanyahu’s location.

At the weekend, Netanyahu – along with various co-criminal Western leaders – crowed about the assassination of Iranian leader Ali Khamenei and his family. It’s hard to argue that turnabout is not fair play. However, it will be no surprise to see Keir Starmer and other ‘leaders’ condemn Iran for ‘disproportionately’ retaliating for what Israel did to it – just as Starmer did on 1 March after the US and Israel slaughtered Iranian schoolchildren and bombed hospitals.

Featured image via the Canary

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Fixed the title. Article contents intact:

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has unveiled dozens of nuclear-capable rocket launchers ahead of a key congress of the governing Workers’ Party, according to state media.

Kim hailed the 600mm-calibre rocket launchers as “wonderful” and “attractive” during the ceremony on Wednesday, adding that new military and construction goals will be set during the upcoming congress.

Fifty such ⁠launchers were presented by North Korean munitions workers, the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday.

“When this weapon is used, actually, no force would be able to expect God’s protection,” Kim said, according to the KCNA

“It is really a wonderful and attractive weapon,” Kim said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.

He described the launchers as the “world’s most advantageous weapon for concentrated super-powerful attack”, according Yonhap.

Photos released by state media showed dozens of launch vehicles parked in neat rows on the plaza of Pyongyang’s House of Culture, which will host the congress.

The weapon was “appropriate for a special attack, that is, for accomplishing a strategic mission”, Kim said, using a common euphemism for nuclear weapons.

He said the weapons incorporate “AI technology and compound guidance systems” and would deter unnamed enemies.

^Kim\ Jong\ Un\ inspects\ a\ multiple\ rocket\ launcher\ during\ a\ presentation\ ceremony\ of\ the\ launchers\ to\ the\ Ninth\ Congress\ of\ the\ Workers’\ Party\ of\ Korea\ in\ Pyongyang,\ North\ Korea,\ on\ February\ 18,\ 2026^

Kim has been touting the progress of various projects in advance of this month’s 9th Congress of the Workers’ Party, which is widely viewed as North Korea’s most important political event.

Kim said on Wednesday that the 9th Congress “will declare the next phase of the self-reliant defence initiative” and accelerate the “project of constantly renewing our military capabilities” in order to “subdue any threats ⁠and challenges from outside forces”.

The political gathering is expected to lay out North Korea’s foreign policy, war planning and nuclear ambitions for the next five years.

State media have in recent days carried reports of delegates arriving for the gathering, fuelling speculation it could start any day.

‘Four to five rounds could devastate an entire airbase’

The South Korean military is closely watching North Korea’s activities to develop weapons, a spokesperson for the South Korean Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Thursday.

Hong Min, an analyst at the Korea Institute for National Unification, told the AFP news agency that the launch system could fire rockets with an estimated range of 400 kilometres (250 miles), covering all of South Korea.

“Its primary purpose is to neutralise the combined air power of South Korea and the United States,” he said.

“If equipped with tactical nuclear warheads, a single battery firing four to five rounds could devastate an entire airbase.”

South Korea’s capital Seoul is less than 50 kilometres (30 miles) from the North Korean border at its nearest point.

North Korea has suspended nearly all talks and cooperation with South Korea since 2019, when Kim’s nuclear diplomacy with United States President Donald Trump derailed over US-led sanctions.

Relations worsened in recent years as Kim discarded North Korea’s longstanding goal of peaceful reunification and declared a hostile “two-state” system on the Korean Peninsula.

In a separate KCNA report on Thursday, the North Korean leader’s sister, Kim Yo Jong, acknowledged a South Korean minister’s apology regarding alleged civilian drone incursions, but said Pyongyang is bolstering border security against the “enemy”.

North Korea had said the incidents occurred in September of last year and again in January.

The South Korean government has denied operating any drones during the times specified by North Korea, but law enforcement authorities are investigating three civilians suspected of flying drones into the North from border areas.

Kim Yo Jong said ⁠it would be to South Korea’s benefit to prevent the recurrence of such severe infringement of North Korea’s sovereignty.

“The border with the enemy should be solid,” Kim Yo Jong said, according to KCNA.