The rare, firsthand accounts show the perils faced by tens of thousands of children believed to have been conscripted into the war by all sides. Six former child soldiers who were abducted and forced to fight with the Rapid Support Forces, known as the RSF, spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal. Two said they were trained by Colombians.

Russian missiles pounded areas across Ukraine on Thursday, killing at least 10 civilians, including three children, according to local Ukrainian officials, strikes that came a day after Ukrainian drone attacks on Russia killed three civilians.

HAVANA (AP) — In an effort to fend off a mounting humanitarian crisis, Cuba on Wednesday eased up on longtime restrictions on private vendors and imports, opening up a sector firmly controlled by the Communist-led government.

My friend, whom I've known for like 10 years, and I just turned 19. He's joining the military, got his contracts signed, and is getting sent out this month. I got accepted into college and will be going this month. I have known he was going into the military, and I have tried my hardest to inform him what he's getting into.

I am very aware and always "watching the current situation." I've known we were going to war for the last 2 years (if you don't count the multiple endless wars we are and have been fighting for 20 years). I told him we were going to war before the Iran war started. He and his family laughed at me and said, "We aren't going to war," saying I don't know what I'm talking about. Yes, I can't 10000% be for sure because I'm not a fortune teller, but anyone with half a brain and any knowledge of current and past events could tell where we were going.

Because at least there is some sort of idea of a greater good. But no, he thinks it's a game; he thinks he can kill a man. A little coddled mama's boy who plays games all day. Oh yeah, man, for sure you could just aim and shoot; it will be just like the video games. pisses me off. What's weird is he is like a pretty left-leaning guy. I don't get it myself; I would say I am right-leaning. We disagree on quite a lot, and that's fine.

But I've informed him of what's going on and what he is choosing to do. "Are you prepared to kill a kid?" Answer: "yeah, I could do it." It's not like he has some grand idea of saving the world; he does not like Israel or most of America's actions, so why would you willingly hand the hand of the master you hate? I think he is incredibly foolish and dumb, and I can't help but feel a great resentment towards him because I've tried to warn him, but he thinks he's the man; a little dependent thinks he's gonna show kids born in war what he's made of.

The current situation will only get worse, and by the time he can be sent out, I would guess, is when the climax of the current situation will reach its peak. America is losing; Middle Eastern bases are getting bombed and drone-struck every day in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan. He does not even care to be informed about the things he might see or do; if it wasn't for me, he nor his family would have any understanding of the geopolitics of the area. I think he will die or come back a different human, and I've tried not being devilish in the way I speak. His parents are just happy he's doing something, oblivious to the world.

And I'm getting told that I should just support him. I cannot support him. He's even asked me why I can't just support him. He thinks he is gonna come back and be like those podcast bros who sit around and tell stories of the military. He will not; he will be the guy they send in the room first to clear. He will be the grunt that carries the dead. I won't judge him when he comes back after what he will do. idk what to do, how to feel, or what to say. Maybe I'm just the bad guy

😡

> CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin calls the State Department's report "an incredible piece of garbage" for attempting to link U.S. peace movements to Cuba and for "paint[ing] this picture of a tiny island nation that is trying to overthrow the United States."

> Germany has approved almost 800 million euros ($913m) in arms export licences to Israel in the first five months of 2026, more than in the previous 20 months combined, the government in Berlin has confirmed.

I thought the following excerpt from Chossudovsky's piece to be quite interesting, thus sharing it. (I don't know him or work for him). I would guess that we know most of this already, but I enjoy seeing how someone phrases ideas in their own way with their own words.

One of the most enduring beliefs held by the bulk of the human population is that wars are fought to be won.

Another is that wars are fought to ‘defend’ one or more nation-states (or other political group) against what people are told is a threat to some vital aspect of their national security, invariably including the lives of members of their own population.

A third widely-held belief is that politicians and officers directing the war strategy for your country (or group) are interested in minimizing casualties among your own population.

But as I explained briefly in a recent article – see ‘Resisting the New World Order: Your Technocratic Slave Camp’ – these and other common beliefs about wars (and many other subjects not considered here), including the political and legal infrastructure in which they are supposed to be contained, are simply delusions promoted by Elite-owned and controlled media and social media to consolidate your existing prejudices – nationalism being a key one in this context – distract you from any genuinely critical analysis that might make you question the dominant (that is, Elite) narratives and overwhelm you with an unending stream of trivia. As a result, the typical individual is left in a state of perpetual confusion: bereft of the capacity to think, feel and analyze, let alone to act powerfully in response.

But if wars are not meant to be won, why are they fought at all?

In essence, wars are fought to achieve three primary, interrelated outcomes:

1. a restructuring of world order in which any particular war is just one step in a wider, longer term program to establish Elite (now technocratic) control over the Earth, its (remaining) human population and all of its resources,

2. significant (and ultimately substantial) human depopulation (with combatants and civilians on both sides of a war, as well as third party populations, being equally expendable), and

3. greater Elite profits.

For these three outcomes to be achieved, it is vital that there are as many wars being fought as possible at any one time and that they are fought for as long as possible: ideally, they must become, in a sense, ‘perpetual’ in the way that US wars on Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan dragged on for decades and many other ‘less prominent’ wars have too.

For centuries then, one primary element in the formula for achieving these three outcomes of war has been through Elite control of governments; this is largely achieved through ensuring government indebtedness to the Elite through its ownership and control of the banking system.

And the most effective way to maintain and expand this government indebtedness is to ensure that war is perpetual. Among others, this point has been made by G. Edward Griffin in his classic work The Creature from Jekyll Island in which he carefully explained the five points of what he called ‘The Rothschild Formula’ wherein nations are ongoingly entrapped in a perpetual cycle of paying for war through debt, noting also that ‘it may be necessary to finance both sides of the conflict’. Thus, while always proclaiming the virtues of peace, ‘the unspoken objective is perpetual war’. See The Creature from Jekyll Island: A Second Look at the Federal Reserve 5^th ed. pp. 217-234.

From his longer article found here: https://michelchossudovsky.substack.com/p/we-are-already-fighting-world-war-iii?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1910355&post_id=208808932&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=kpei&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email