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TODAY IN HISTORY
May 2, 1611: This is probably the date upon which English printer Robert Barker produced the very first edition of the King James Version of the Bible. I say “probably” because it’s the date you most often find cited for the KJV’s publication but as far as I know there’s no documentary evidence backing that up. Regardless, the KJV proved to be a monumental achievement that not only stands as probably the most important vernacular (meaning I’m excluding the Latin Vulgate) translation of the Bible but also a fundamental text in the development of the modern English language. So it’s probably worth commemorating.
May 2, 2011: Not long after midnight (local time), according to the official narrative, a team of US special forces operators raids a house in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, in the process killing al-Qaeda boss Osama bin Laden. There have been more than a few alternative theories offered about bin Laden’s death, partly to try to explain how America’s Most Wanted Man was able to spend years living in the Pakistani equivalent of West Point without our good pals in Islamabad ever finding out and/or letting us know. The official story has relevance, since it’s the version of events most people believe. Anyway, the good news is that we all lived happily every after.
May 3, 1815: In a clash that offered a kind of foreshadowing of the later Battle of Waterloo, an army led by the Napoleon-installed king of Naples, Joachim Murat, is badly defeated by a smaller Austrian army at the Battle of Tolentino. Murat abandoned Naples altogether and fled to Corsica, leading to the end of the Neapolitan War and the restoration of Ferdinand I as king of Naples and Sicily.
May 3, 1978: Gary Thuerk, an employee of the Digital Equipment Corporation’s marketing department, sends a marketing email to hundreds of addresses on the US Advanced Research Projects Agency Network (ARPANET). This was the first known instance of unsolicited bulk email, AKA “spam,” and as you might expect it drew a fairly hostile reaction from the recipients. Unfortunately, that negative response only delayed the spread of the tactic and today it is of course ubiquitous.
INTERNATIONAL
The friendly friends of OPEC+ held their monthly supply meeting on Sunday and the group’s core members—Russia and Saudi Arabia, primarily—agreed to another increase in their production quota. Starting next month they will raise that limit by 188,000 barrels per day—or at least they will raise it in theory, since the current closure of the Strait of Hormuz puts a hard cap on global oil supplies that no OPEC+ quota adjustment can remedy. Notably The Gang said nothing at all about the UAE’s decision to quit their ranks, in large part so that it would no longer be bound by these oil supply caps.
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA
The Syrian military has reportedly incorporated four new brigades comprised of former Syrian Democratic Forces fighters. They’ve been deployed to the northeastern Syrian cities of Hasakah, Kobani, Malikiyah (also known as Derik), and Qamishli. This is the most substantive step yet in the integration process that the SDF and the Syrian government agreed to undertake earlier this year.
LEBANON
The Israeli military (IDF) killed at least 10 people across southern Lebanon on Sunday and a whopping 41 for the weekend in total. While there is still a nominal ceasefire in place the Israelis are not abiding by it (nor, for that matter, is Hezbollah, though it has mostly targeted the Israeli forces that are currently occupying a large swath of southern Lebanon).
ISRAEL-PALESTINE
The IDF killed at least one person and seriously wounded four others in a raid in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sunday. Israeli officials say they were targeting “terrorists” who had thrown rocks at IDF personnel.
In Gaza, with the “ceasefire” stalled Al Jazeera reports on indications that the IDF may be gearing up to resume full-scale conflict to try to force Hamas to accept disarmament. Among its preparations, the IDF has expanded the “yellow line” to incorporate some 59 percent of Gaza under its direct control, up from 53 percent under the terms of the “ceasefire.” It’s also apparently been shifting personnel from Lebanon to Gaza.
IRAN
The US and Iranian governments have traded yet another round of proposals for resuming peace talks, to no apparent effect although the Iranians are still reviewing the latest US pitch. The newest 14-point Iranian proposal rejects an extended ceasefire and calls for ending the war within 30 days after settling an array of issues including “guarantees against future attacks, a withdrawal of US forces from around Iran, the release of frozen Iranian assets worth billions of dollars and the lifting of sanctions, war reparations, ending all hostilities, including in Lebanon, and ‘a new mechanism for the Strait of Hormuz.’” This doesn’t sound very much like what the “losing” side of the war would be offering under these circumstances, but make of that what you will.
Donald Trump rejected the Iranian framework on Saturday, despite having not yet seen it, arguing that he “can’t imagine that it would be acceptable in that [Iran has] not yet paid a big enough price for what they have done to Humanity, and the World, over the last 47 years.” Neither has the US, though I don’t see anybody making a big deal about that. On a somewhat positive note Trump didn’t sound interested in resuming the shooting war in his comments to reporters, though he’s one or two mood swings away from changing his tune on that front.
Elsewhere, a bulk cargo carrier came under attack by presumably Iranian speedboats near the Strait of Hormuz on Sunday. There’s no indication of any casualties or serious damage. Trump excitedly compared his blockade of Iran to piracy on Friday. This is of course admitting to a crime but that nuance seems to have been lost on him. On Sunday he declared via social media the start of what we’re apparently supposed to call “Project Freedom,” an effort to help extricate ships that have been trapped by the strait’s closure. This is not an escort mission. It appears to be the implementation of the “Maritime Freedom Construct” coalition that the US State Department has been trying to form, which aims to “share information, coordinate diplomatically and enforce sanctions.” From Trump’s language this effort is only about freeing ships that are currently stuck, not about reopening the strait in full. Nevertheless there’s a reasonable possibility that this operation could threaten the ceasefire.
On a similar note (i.e., Donald Trump sounding like an idiot), Drop Site’s Murtaza Hussain asks the question that I’m sure has been on everybody’s mind lately: “Why isn’t Iran’s oil infrastructure exploding like Trump said it would?” This stems from an interview Trump gave to Fox News last weekend in which he said that “both mechanically and in the earth, something happens where it just explodes, and they say they only have about three days left before that happens.” The “it” there is Iran’s oil infrastructure once its storage capacity has been exhausted due to the blockade. Three days have come and gone and there are no reports of any spontaneous pipeline explosions, which is because Iran probably hasn’t exhausted its storage capacity and also because oil infrastructure doesn’t just “explode” in these situations. If the Iranians have to shut down their oil wells that could cause some damage to their infrastructure but a) it’s unclear if/when they’ll have to do that and b) the damage almost certainly won’t be catastrophic.
ASIA
PAKISTAN
UAE authorities appear to be on a deportation spree when it comes to Pakistani nationals, and especially Pakistani Shiʿa. New Lines Magazine reports that this seems to be part of a larger effort to punish Pakistan:
These reports come amid strains in UAE-Pakistan ties. As the South Asian nation emerged as a mediator between the United States and Iran, the UAE made a surprise request for its longtime ally Islamabad to immediately repay a debt of $3.5 billion, prompting Saudi Arabia, which signed a mutual defense pact with Pakistan last year, to step in with financial support.
Observers said the demand may have been punitive and reflected Abu Dhabi’s growing frustration with Islamabad, particularly as the latter deepens ties with Riyadh and over what was seen as Pakistan’s muted response to Iranian attacks on the Gulf.
Moreover, remittances from the UAE are a critical source of foreign exchange for Pakistan, so deportations could affect thousands of families as well as the broader economy.
The Pakistani government already has a fraught relationship with the country’s Shiʿa minority, so their mass deportation (according to New Lines some 5000 families, or 15,000 individuals, have been sent back to Pakistan thus far, many stripped of their possessions and denied access to their bank accounts) puts Islamabad in a difficult position.
CHINA
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued what it called a “prohibition order” on Saturday in response to another round of US sanctions designations related to Iranian oil exports. Among those targets was China’s second-largest independent or “teapot” refinery—the designation refers to facilities that handle Iranian and/or Russian oil and are not tied to major energy firms to insulate those companies from sanctions risk—along with four smaller operations. The ministry issued this order under its blocking rules, which legally prohibit designated firms from complying with the sanctions.
AFRICA
SUDAN
Sudan’s Emergency Lawyers activist group reported that a drone strike killed at least five people in Khartoum on Saturday, blaming the Rapid Support Forces militant group. This was the second drone strike in the Sudanese capital region in less than a week, following an attack on Tuesday in the Jabal Awliya area just south of the city. The strikes break what has been a fairly calm period after the Sudanese military seized full control of the region last May. Another RSF drone strike killed at least nine people in central Sudan’s Gezira state on Saturday night. The target was Abu Aqla Kaykal, the commander of the pro-military Sudan Shield Forces militia group, and all of those who were killed were members of his family.
MALI
Jamaʿat Nusrat al-Islam wa’l-Muslimin fighters have reportedly seized a military base in the central Malian town of Hombori and have captured two checkpoints near Bamako. The Russian Africa Corps unit denied losing the Hombori facility but the reporting on the checkpoints is consistent with JNIM’s announced plan to blockade the Malian capital. The fact that the Malian army and Africa Corps have shown no hint that they’re even ramping up to a counterattack more than a week after JNIM and the Azawad Liberation Front launched their major offensive in northern Mali is a fairly damning statement about their situation.
EUROPE
UKRAINE
A Russian drone strike killed at least two people in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson on Saturday. Further attacks overnight into Sunday killed at least two people in Odesa oblast, while Ukrainian drones killed at least one person in a town west of Moscow. Ukrainian strikes also reportedly hit Russia’s Baltic Sea port of Primorsk as well as at least three of its “shadow fleet” tankers, a Karakurt-class missile corvette, and a patrol boat of some type.
GERMANY
With Donald Trump still apparently seething over Friedrich Merz’s criticism of the Iran war a few days ago, the Pentagon announced on Friday that it will withdraw 5000 US soldiers from Germany “over the next six to twelve months.” Supposedly this decision follows “a thorough review of the Department’s force posture in Europe,” but if you believe that then I’m afraid I need to ask you to submit your wallet for immediate inspection. In fairness, it’s been reported for several weeks that Trump was considering a withdrawal of forces from Europe as a way to punish NATO members who were refusing to fight Iran for him (and who, lest we forget, also refused to give him Greenland). But the decision to pull them out of Germany specifically seems pretty clearly to be a retaliation for Merz’s remarks. German officials don’t seem terribly upset by the announcement.
AMERICAS
MEXICO
Sinaloa state Governor Rubén Rocha left his post on Friday evening, two days after the US Justice Department indicted him over his alleged ties to the Sinaloa cartel. Rocha characterized this as a “temporary leave” while he defends himself from charges he insists are false, rather than a permanent resignation. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that she will need US officials to provide “clear evidence” supporting their allegations against Rocha before she considers approving any extradition request.
UNITED STATES
Finally, TomDispatch’s William Hartung considers the Trump administration’s “unprecedented shift of resources” toward military spending:
Right at this moment, we are witnessing an unprecedented shift of resources from domestic investments in the United States to the military-industrial complex (aka the war machine). The only comparable period in our history was the buildup to World War II, when the United States confronted a powerful adversary in Nazi Germany with designs to control not just Europe, but the world. The current buildup is breathtaking in scope and will certainly prove devastating in its impact — not just on this country’s foreign and domestic policies but also on the economic prospects of average Americans.
When, in 2023, my colleague Ben Freeman and I first conceived of our book, The Trillion Dollar War Machine, we viewed it in part as a cautionary tale about just how high the Pentagon budget might rise in the years to come (absent pushback from Congress and the taxpaying public). By the time our book came out in November 2025, however, the Pentagon budget had already topped the $1 trillion mark and, only recently, President Trump has proposed to instantly add another $500 billion to that already staggering figure and to do so in a single year’s time. And imagine this: such a proposed increase alone is higher than the total military budget of any other nation on Earth. Mind you, the current high levels of spending have already underwritten a provocative, unnecessary intervention in Venezuela and a region-wide war in the Middle East, and the larger costs of all this in human lives and damage to the global economy are guaranteed to shape the lives of the rest of us globally for years to come.
To add insult to injury, the Pentagon announced that it would seek a $200 billion supplemental appropriation to pay for its war on Iran, which has spread across the Middle East. That $200 billion would have been in addition to the $1.5 billion proposed for the Pentagon’s future budget. According to an analysis by Pentagon budget expert Stephen Semler, the Iran war, which started on February 28th with Israeli and U.S. air strikes on that country, cost the United States more than $28 billion just in its first two weeks. And to put that in perspective, $28 billion is more than three times the Trump administration’s proposed annual budgets for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Environmental Protection Agency (at a time when the climate crisis and the need to head off future pandemics are essential to the health and security of all Americans). Worse yet, it’s all for a completely senseless war that should never have been started.
As President Trump alternates between engaging in negotiations to end the war and threatening to wipe Iran off the map — or even just walking away to bomb another day — there are reports that the supplemental budget request to pay for the war on Iran will shrink from the proposed $200 billion to $98 billion. And that $98 billion will include other things in addition to war costs, including disaster relief and aviation modernization.