As I write these lines, the attention of the entire world is focused on one man. His every word is studied, dissected and analysed in the most extraordinary detail, in the hope that one might derive some sense as to what it may, or may not, signify.

In the early hours of Friday, 13 June, Israel launched a massive attack on Iran, taking out part of its military leadership and hitting some of its nuclear facilities. A second wave of Israeli strikes is ongoing at time of writing, hitting targets in Tehran, Keraj and Qom, as well as the Natanz Nuclear Enrichment Facility for a second time. This brazen act of aggression threatens to unleash a deadly regional conflagration with far-reaching consequences.

Since the 1st of Khordad, 1404 (22 May, 2025), Iran has witnessed a significant eruption of class struggle as lorry drivers and truckers launched a nationwide strike. This is a determined protest against intolerable working conditions and a spiralling cost of living crisis, highlighting the ever-deepening crisis of Iranian capitalism.

On Monday, the sailboat Madleen – part of the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) – was stormed in a nighttime raid by the IDF. Surrounded by Israeli speedboats and drones, armed combat units boarded the ship as its 12 passengers, including Greta Thunberg and French MEP Rima Hassan, sat in the main cabin of the boat with their hands above their heads, fearing for their lives.

On 5 June, 14 tonnes of machine-gun parts were due to be loaded onto an Israeli cargo ship at the port of Fos-sur-Mer in southern France, bound for Haifa, Israel. The day before, however, the CGT general union of dockworkers and port handling personnel of the Gulf of Fos issued a press release announcing its categorical refusal to load the 19 pallets of military equipment.

The Red Line demonstration in The Hague on 18 May attracted more than 100,000 participants and was the largest demonstration in the Netherlands since the trade union demonstration on Museumplein in October 2004, more than 20 years ago. It is clear that the mood in the Netherlands is shifting.

Two months after Benjamin Netanyahu broke the short-lived ceasefire, the situation in Gaza has reached catastrophic levels. Aid, medicine, and essentials have dried up thanks to Israel’s complete blockade, and the IDF’s relentless bombing has resumed. Countless humanitarian organisations have warned that the blockade is on the precipice of killing tens of thousands of people in a widespread famine.

“This land belongs only to the people of Israel. All of Gaza, all of Lebanon should be cleansed of these camel riders.” This chilling speech, delivered by an ultranationalist rabbi at a meeting overlooking the war-torn Gaza Strip, is just one example of the genocidal fervour expressed freely and with impunity by Zionist settlers in Louis Theroux’s latest documentary.

A month has passed since the short-lived ceasefire between Israel and Hamas came to a violent end on 18 March. Since then, Benjamin Netanyahu has once again upped the ante in his genocidal war on Gaza.

On Wednesday, 19 March, Turkey awoke to the news of a major round of arrests targeting opposition figures. Around a hundred politicians, journalists and academics were arrested, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu. The latter is Erdoğan’s greatest adversary. He was planning to stand in the upcoming presidential elections.

Throughout Tuesday 18 March, the Israeli Defence Force (IDF) launched barrages of bombs upon the people of Gaza, shattering the fragile ceasefire with a rain of death and destruction. Over 400 Palestinians were killed and more than 600 injured in the strikes, making it the single bloodiest day of Israel’s genocide since late 2023.

Since December, when the Islamist group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) swept to power in Damascus, European diplomats and Arab leaders have been meeting the now besuited ex-ISIS, ex-Al Qaeda commander al-Jolani in order to launder the new regime’s image, with the help of the press. Now we see the real face of their friends in Damascus. Since Friday, fighters loyal to the al-Jolani regime have swept through coastal villages, towns and cities, carrying out a pogrom that has left over 1,200 Alawite civilians dead so far; men, women and children killed for being Alawites.

The Palestinian issue has reignited Egyptian politics. Since Trump proposed the plan to relocate Palestinians from Gaza to Sinai, it has become the main preoccupation of the Egyptian public and the most important topic of conversation, in café discussions among friends, on social media, in the workplaces and at school.

Late on 4 February, in a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, US President Donald Trump proposed that the US should take over Gaza and force the whole of its population (2 million Palestinians) to relocate to other “plots of land” (in Jordan and Egypt) so that the area could be rebuilt as an international enclave, which he described would be “like the Riviera of the Middle East”.

Recent reports into NEOM – an impossibly ambitious series of megaprojects being constructed by the Saudi Arabian monarchy in the desert – have revealed the slave-like conditions of the workers, which have already led to 20,000 deaths.