Politics

US To Open Fly Production Facility For Combating Mexican New World Screwworms

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins launched a facility in South Texas on Wednesday that will release millions of sterile flies to fight the threat of flesh-eating parasites that are infecting cattle in Mexico and could reach the U.S. border soon, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) said in a June 18 statement.
Livestock in pens at the Chihuahua Regional Livestock Union facility, outside Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, wait to be exported to the United States on Feb 10, 2025,. Jose Luis Gonzalez/Reuters

The parasite, New World screwworm (NWS), is a “devastating pest that causes serious and often deadly damage to livestock, wildlife, pets, and in rare cases, humans,” the USDA said. Some U.S. agriculture and cattle industry officials are worried that if the migration isn’t checked, the NWS flies could reach the border by the end of summer.

According to the agency, NWS females lay eggs on wounds or orifices of warm-blooded animals. Once the eggs hatch into larvae, they burrow into the wound and feed off the flesh. As more maggots hatch and feed, the wound becomes deeper and larger. Eventually, it becomes so severe that the host animal dies.

A single female NWS fly can lay up to 3,000 eggs over its lifespan. As such, a large infestation poses considerable risks to farmers raising cows, sheep, and other animals.

In the 1950s, a strategy called sterile insect technique (SIT) was developed, which was used to eradicate NWS from the United States, Mexico, and Central America, the USDA said in an April 2025 document. SIT used gamma radiation to turn NWS pupae into sterile male flies.

When the male flies are released en masse, they mate with wild female flies who end up laying unfertilized eggs, eventually leading to the eradication of these pests.

“While NWS has been eradicated from the United States for decades, recent detections in Mexico as far north as Oaxaca and Veracruz, about 700 miles away from the U.S. border, led to the immediate suspension of live cattle, horse, and bison imports through U.S. ports of entry along the southern border on May 11, 2025,” said the USDA statement.

The facility launched by the agriculture secretary is an $8.5 million sterile NWS fly dispersal site located at Moore Air Base in South Texas.

The United States currently can procure 100 million flies per week from a sterile fly production facility in Panama. The USDA has invested $21 million in a production facility in Mexico that, when operational, will provide another 60-100 million flies weekly. Combined, at least 160 million flies per week are expected to be available for disbursal through the Moore Air Base facility.

In addition, the USDA is also looking at installing a sterile fly production facility at Moore Air Base to complement the new dispersal facility.

“The United States has defeated NWS before, and we will do it again,” said Rollins. “We do not take lightly the threat NWS poses to our livestock industry,…

Will US Strike Iran? Trump’s Strategic Rubicon, Israel’s Precision Gambit, & China’s Calculated Game

Authored by Tamuz Itai via The Epoch Times,

Just before dawn on June 13, Israel unleashed Operation Rising Lion, its largest air campaign ever, deploying over 200 fighter jets in coordinated waves that dropped more than 330 munitions on at least 100 strategic targets across Iran. The Natanz Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant—vital for housing roughly 1,700 IR4 and IR6 centrifuges, capable of enriching uranium to weapons-grade levels—was hit hard, its above-ground portion severely damaged. Israel also struck additional nuclear sites near Esfahan, Arak, Fordow, Parchin, and multiple IRGC bases—evidence of a meticulously calibrated campaign designed to hobble Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

Yet not every fortress fell.

The deeply buried Fordow facility—shielded under hundreds of feet of rock—remains intact, beyond the reach of Israel’s arsenal.

It’s precisely this gap that has stirred urgent talk in Washington: should the United States now bring out its GBU57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the 15-ton bunker-buster designed to penetrate hardened underground sites?

When Precision Strikes Collide With Political Calculus

Iran responded almost immediately, unleashing a barrage of over 150 ballistic missiles and 100 drones toward Israeli territory. The Iron Dome and allied air defenses neutralized the bulk of this threat, with only a fraction breaching the shield, causing limited but symbolic damage. U.S. intelligence officials reported that Iran expended nearly a quarter of its missile stockpile—estimated originally between 2,000 and 3,000—in just days, a testament to its waning capacity.

President Trump, who issued a 60-day deadline in the spring demanding that Iran curtail its nuclear pursuits, faces a choice. According to The Wall Street Journal, he has privately approved military options, including U.S. strikes, yet holds his hand in the public arena—supporting Israel through missile defense deployments and regional force posturing while refraining from final orders. Trump’s posture is not aggressive by impulse—it’s measured with intent. His record suggests he is more anti-failure than anti-action, ready to act decisively, but only with the promise of lasting results.

Bunkers, Bombs, and the Burden of What Comes Next

It’s one challenge to dispatch bunker-busters; it’s another to envision the aftermath. Should a U.S. strike succeed in obliterating Fordow, the question becomes: What fills the vacuum it leaves?

One optimistic scenario, mentioned by some, centers on Reza Pahlavi, the Shah’s exiled son, potentially returning as a transitional figure. A domestic reformer with ties to expatriate moderates, Pahlavi could lay groundwork for a Western-aligned governance, economic reopening, and perhaps even a regional peace architecture reminiscent of the Abraham Accords. But optimism must be tempered. After Saddam Hussein was toppled in Iraq, the country unraveled into sectarian warfare and militant fragmentation, giving rise to ISIS, and later Iranian influence—a sobering aftermath of authoritarian collapse. Iran, for all its faults, retains stronger institutional and historical coherence. Unlike Iraq which was a new country, Iran has centuries of common history.

Still, signs of stress are evident: Tehran has seen mass evacuations; the economy teeters under the weight of sanctions and societal unrest; and the ruling elite, already rattled by losses in Natanz and elsewhere, appear divided. Left unmanaged, this fracture could spawn armed militias—some with control over…

‘Worst Ally’: Army Colonel Removed From US Joint Chiefs Staff Over Israel Criticism

A United States Army colonel has been removed from his position on the Pentagon staff supporting the Joint Chiefs after his Israel-critical social media posts were publicized by Jewish News Syndicate (JNS). Until this week, Army Col Nathan McCormack led the Joint Chiefs of Staff’s Levant and Egypt branch. That team is part of the Joint Staff J5, which proposes strategies, plans, and policy recommendations to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs. Within hours of Tuesday’s JNS report, McCormack was yanked from his post, with a Pentagon official telling JNS:

“The individual is being returned to [the Army] while the matter is being investigated…The information on the X account does not reflect the position of the Joint Staff or the Department of Defense…Our global alliances and partnerships are vital to our national security, enhancing our collective defense, deterrence and operational reach.” 

Colonel Nathan McCormack was commissioned as an infantry second lieutenant two months after the United States invaded Iraq over false claims of a nuclear weapons program   

Here are the published comments that led to McCormack’s removal: 

May 2025: “Netanyahu and his judeosupremacist cronies are determined to prolong the conflict for their own goals: either to remain in power or to annex the land.”

June 2024: “The more Israel’s death cult escalates toward Hezbollah, the more we will see show-of-force attacks like this and 13 April.” 

June 2024: “The U.S. has not been an honest broker. We have overwhelmingly enabled Israel’s bad behavior.”

May 2024: Amid talk of pushing Gaza residents into other countries, McCormack wrote, “[Israel] wants to expel them and cleanse ‘Eretz Israel’ of ethnic Palestinians.” 

April 2024: “I’ve lately been considering whether we might be Israel’s proxy and not realized it yet. Our worst ‘ally.’ We get literally nothing out of the ‘partnership’ other than the enmity of millions of people in the Middle East, Africa and Asia.” 

Oct 2023: “I agree that Israel has an absolute right to respond militarily, and that civilians may legally be caught in the crossfire, but you are ignoring the requirement of proportionality. Israel’s responses always (always—not hyperbole) disproportionately target Palestinian civilians.” 

The JNS report that prompted McCormack’s removal from the J5 gave no indication of how his semi-anonymous posts came to the pro-Israel outlet’s attention. Up until his 2021 death, zealously pro-Israel billionaire and mega-campaign-contributor Sheldon Adelson was JNS’s largest single donor​​​​. The JNS article included a disapproving quote from another Adelson-funded entity, the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, which — despite its generic-sounding name — declared in its initial tax-exempt-status-filing that its goal was to “enhance Israel’s image in North America.” 

McCormack’s posts were made on X under an account using the name “Nate” and the handle “@mick_or_mack,” with a profile that used a cartoon version of himself. His account no longer exists, but several of his posts are still viewable via internet archive links. McCormack didn’t strive for full anonymity, as he once posted a photo of a Meritorious Service Medal certificate showing his full name. In May, he replied to an X user, “I’m the…

Trump Says US Intel Assessment Of Iran’s Nuclear Program “Was Wrong”, Tulsi Responds

Authored by Jacob Burg via The Epoch Times,

President Donald Trump said on June 20 that his director of national intelligence’s assessment in March that Iran had yet to decide on building a nuclear weapon was wrong.

Trump made the remarks to reporters on Friday while standing next to Air Force One at the Morristown Municipal Airport in New Jersey.

The president was asked about the U.S. intelligence community’s assessment that it had no evidence that Iran was building a nuclear warhead before Israel’s strikes on its military and nuclear sites last week.

“Well, then my intelligence community is wrong,” Trump said. “Who in the intelligence community said that?”

When he was told that it was his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who gave those remarks to lawmakers in March, Trump replied, “She was wrong.”

After Trump’s comments, Gabbard took to social media to share a clip of her March testimony to lawmakers on Capitol Hill, and accused the media of twisting her words.

“The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division,” Gabbard wrote. “America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the assembly. President Trump has been clear that can’t happen, and I agree.”

The dishonest media is intentionally taking my testimony out of context and spreading fake news as a way to manufacture division. America has intelligence that Iran is at the point that it can produce a nuclear weapon within weeks to months, if they decide to finalize the… pic.twitter.com/mYxjpJY2ud
— DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) June 20, 2025
Gabbard said in her testimony at the time that the intelligence community had determined that Iran was not currently building a nuclear weapon. However, as part of that assessment, she said there were alarming signals that warranted continuous monitoring for any change.

The signs Gabbard mentioned included indications that Iranian decision-makers who wanted the country to have nuclear arms were becoming increasingly emboldened in their pursuit, and that Iran’s enriched uranium stockpiles were at “unprecedented” levels for a state without nuclear weapons.

In remarks to reporters, Trump reiterated that he believes, based on the quantity of enriched uranium that Iran currently possesses, that the regime could develop a nuclear bomb “within a matter of months.”

“We can’t let that happen,” Trump said, adding that he believes his current military intelligence is more accurate than what then-President George W. Bush used as a pretext to invade Iraq in 2003, which Trump opposed.

He was asked what makes the current situation different than the one 22 years ago, and Trump said: “Well, there were no weapons of mass destruction [in Iraq]. I never thought there were.”

“There was a nuclear age [in 2003], but nothing like it is today. And it looked like I’m right about the material that they’ve gathered already,” he said.

The United Nations’ nuclear watch group said early last month…

Escobar: Iran Now First Line Of Defense For BRICS & The Global South

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

This is as serious as it gets. Let’s survey the chessboard – from micro to macro…

The crying shadow in the funeral dance,The loud lament of the disconsolate chimera.

T. S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

Israel’s shock’n’awe on Iran – straight from the trademark US playbook – essentially failed, despite the initial combination of speed, meticulous military planning and the element of surprise, including hacking the Iranian electronic communications within the military grid; decapitation of the vertical IRGC nomenklatura; the spiderweb drone attack playbook; and bombing – ultimately ineffectual – of key nodes of the Iranian nuclear infrastructure.

It took hours for top Iranian technicians to get their grid back. And once that happened, the tide began to turn, to the point that after surgical missile volleys deep in the night on Sunday, the IRGC announced its capability to seriously disrupt Israel’s command and control systems using “enhanced intelligence”, thus breaching Iron – or Paper – Dome.

Absolutely key infrastructure nodes in Tel Aviv and Haifa have been destroyed – from the Rafael weapons complex (specialized in missiles, drones, cyber warfare and Iron Dome components) to the power plant and oil refinery in Haifa. This is historic in more ways than one.

Compound the cries of joy all across the lands of Islam to the massive psychological trauma inflicted on Israel. The myth of Israeli invincibility has been definitely shattered. Unleashing hell from above, killing women and children and spinning like there’s no tomorrow does not win a war against a real opponent.

The tweaked IRGC strategy – applied by an instantly revamped leadership – is being fine-tuned day by day in a calculated, surgical manner. It’s not that hard for the IRGC to totally paralyze Israel’s economy. Israel has only one oil refinery (already bombed); three ports, of which one is already bankrupt (Eilat) and another is on fire (Haifa); and one airport (already in dire straits).

The blowback on Tel Aviv’s desperate, indeed suicidal move – no chess involved – is in effect. Tehran is proving that every Zionist axis calculation that Iran could – and was – bled dry in a matter of hours was, predictably, false.

The POTUS, for his part, fell into a voracious trap. His MAGA base is already fractured – in depth. Non-Zionist MAGA is the overwhelming majority. He admitted in a stunning infantilist post that he knew everything about the Israeli shock’n awe all along.

Less than 10 days ago, in a meeting in New York packed with billionaire usual suspects, Steve Witkoff himself – Trump’s Talleyrand – explicitly noted that Iranian ballistic missiles are “a threat to America”. Considering their performance in the last 48 hours, everything points to Washington de facto entering the Hot War.

Diplomatic sources in Tehran point out that the leadership is working under this scenario. That’s why they are essentially still holding their capabilities – and carefully calibrating the next big steps in the escalatory ladder. Once again: Iranian strategic patience on display.

The…