When a state’s political leadership announces a ceasefire and its military keeps firing, the instinct is to reach for deception as the explanation. In Iran’s case, the more unsettling answer may be structural. The gap between what Iranian presidents say and what Iranian forces do reflects not a coordinated lie but a command architecture deliberately engineered to operate without central direction. In a serious conflict, the consequences of that architecture would be felt well beyond Iran’s borders.
A Command Architecture Designed to Survive Decapitation
In September 2008, IRGC Commander General Mohammad Ali Jafari oversaw a sweeping restructuring that divided the force into thirty-one provincial corps, each empowered to conduct military operations within its zone without requiring authorization from the center. As Michael Connell of the Center for Naval Analyses noted in his analysis for the United States Institute of Peace, the intent was to strengthen unit cohesion and ensure operational continuity under degraded command conditions. He flagged explicitly that the decentralization could produce unintended escalation dynamics, particularly in the Persian Gulf.
That warning deserves serious attention. The IRGC’s Mosaic Defense doctrine was not designed to make Iran more responsive to political leadership in a crisis. It was designed to ensure that military operations could continue regardless of what happened to that leadership. A force structured that way does not stop firing because a president gives a speech.
The Apology That Wasn’t
The internal contradiction becomes clearest when traced through a hypothetical cascade. A president announces a ceasefire and attributes the directive to an Interim Leadership Council. A fellow council member publicly declares that heavy strikes will continue. A hardline cleric addresses the president directly, calling his position untenable. By the time the president’s original statement is reposted, the ceasefire language has been quietly removed.
The IRGC’s own posture in this scenario resolves the ambiguity on structural grounds. It endorses the president’s language, then appends a caveat that renders it inoperative: all US and Israeli military bases and interests across the region remain primary targets. Since every GCC state hosts American forces, that framing preserves full operational freedom while allowing the presidency to project restraint. The contradiction is not incidental. It is the doctrine functioning as designed.
The Theological Dimension
Iran is not simply a military organization. It is a theocratic state whose constitutional legitimacy flows from velayat-e faqih, the guardianship of the Islamic jurist, which vests supreme authority in a single clerical figure whose religious and political mandates are inseparable. Remove that figure, and the system’s legitimating architecture is suspended rather than transferred. The Assembly of Experts is constitutionally mandated to elect a successor, but wartime conditions would disrupt that process at precisely the moment its resolution matters most.
A RAND Corporation analysis prepared for the Office of the Secretary of Defense identified the IRGC as the institution best positioned to shape any post-Khamenei transition, with the organizational reach and economic weight to determine outcomes that civilian institutions cannot contest. The result, in a decapitation scenario, is a theocratic state operating without its theological anchor and a military operating under pre-delegated authority with no one capable of recalling it.
Durability Without Effect
The Mosaic Defense doctrine would prove, above all, durable. A decentralized force can survive catastrophic leadership losses and sustain operations. But durability is not the same as capability, and sustained fire is not the same as strategic effect.
Iran’s theory of regional attrition, the calculation that sustained strikes against Gulf infrastructure and American basing would fracture GCC cohesion and coerce Arab neighbors toward neutrality, has produced no evidence of working. The GCC bloc has held. Individual member states have coordinated their responses rather than fractured under pressure. The country absorbing the sharpest volume of Iranian strike activity, the UAE, has demonstrated air defense performance that has exceeded even optimistic prewar assessments. Publicly available figures suggest UAE systems have defeated upward of ninety percent of inbound threats, a result that reflects years of sustained investment, deep integration with American and Israeli platforms, and an operational tempo that has stress-tested those systems at genuine scale.
The picture that emerges is not one of Iran winning a war of attrition. It is one of an Iran burning through accessible inventory, losing launch infrastructure faster than it can regenerate, and discovering that the regional architecture it spent years attempting to destabilize has proven considerably more resilient than it calculated.
That resilience carries its own strategic meaning. A weakened force operating under pre-delegated authority, without a supreme leader to set limits, remains dangerous in a narrow tactical sense. But it is operating without a coherent end state, and the environment it faces is not the one it anticipated. The GCC’s collective posture and the demonstrated effectiveness of layered air defense across the Gulf have closed off the strategic outcomes Iran’s doctrine was written to achieve.
The scenario is instructive for what it reveals about the limits of decentralized military design. A force built to keep firing regardless of political direction is also a force that cannot be steered toward an exit. But the Gulf states have demonstrated something of equal importance in response: that resilience, properly built and consistently resourced, can outlast a doctrine designed for chaos, and that the regional order Iran sought to unravel has shown itself capable of absorbing the blow.
March 8 (UPI) — The Pentagon on Sunday afternoon announced that a seventh U.S. service member has died during the U.S. and Israeli conflict with Iran.
The service member was seriously wounded during an attack on U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia on March 1, military officials said.
“Last night, a U.S. service member passed away from injuries received during the Iranian regime’s initial attacks across the Middle East,” U.S. Central Command said in a post on X.
“Major combat operations continue. The identity of the fallen warrior will be withheld until 24 hours after next of kin notification,” CENTCOM said.
The seven service members have been killed during the first week of Operation Epic Fury, which the United States and Israel launched on Feb. 28.
Since the beginning of the onslaught, Iran has launched retaliatory strikes at its neighbors, some of which host U.S. bases and assets that are being used in the war.
A March 1 retaliatory strike on an Army sustainment unit based in Kuwait killed six service members and injured 18 others, whose remains returned to the United States on Saturday.
Overall, Iran’s retaliatory strikes have killed at least 20 people across the region, The New York Times reported, while between 800 and 1,300 hundred people in Iran have died during the widening conflict.
Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., speaks to the press outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday. Earlier today, President Donald Trump announced Mullin would replace Kristi Noem as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security. Photo by Bonnie Cash/UPI | License Photo
DORAL, Fla. — President Trump said Saturday that the United States and Latin American countries are banding together to combat violent cartels as his administration looks to demonstrate it remains committed to sharpening U.S. foreign policy focus on the Western Hemisphere even while engaged in war in the Middle East.
Trump encouraged regional leaders gathered at his Miami-area golf club to take military action against drug trafficking cartels and transnational gangs that he says pose an “unacceptable threat” to the hemisphere’s national security.
“The only way to defeat these enemies is by unleashing the power of our militaries,” Trump said. “We have to use our military. You have to use your military.” Citing the U.S.-led coalition that confronted the Islamic State group in the Middle East, the Republican president said that ”we must now do the same thing to eradicate the cartels at home.”
The gathering, which the White House called the “Shield of the Americas” summit, comes two months after Trump ordered an audacious U.S. military operation to invade Venezuela and capture its president, Nicolás Maduro, and whisk him and his wife to the United States to face drug conspiracy charges.
Looming even larger is Trump’s decision to launch a war on Iran with Israel a week ago, a conflict that has left hundreds dead, convulsed global markets and unsettled the broader Middle East.
Trump’s time with the Latin American leaders was limited: Afterward, he set out for Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to be on hand for the dignified transfer of the six U.S. troops killed in a drone strike on a command center in Kuwait. They were killed one day after the U.S. and Israel launched their war on Iran.
Trump called the American deaths a “very sad situation” and praised the fallen troops as “great heroes.”
With the summit, Trump aimed to turn attention to the Western Hemisphere, at least for a moment. He has pledged to reassert U.S. dominance in the region and counter what he sees as years of Chinese economic encroachment in America’s backyard.
Trump also said the U.S. will turn its attention to Cuba after the war with Iran and suggested his administration would cut a deal with Havana, underscoring Washington’s increasingly aggressive stance against the island’s communist leadership. “Great change will soon be coming to Cuba,” he said, adding that “they’re very much at the end of the line.”
Cuban officials have said on several occasions that they were open to dialogue with the U.S. as long as it was based on respect for Cuban sovereignty, but they have never confirmed that such talks were taking place.
Who was there
The leaders of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Panama, Paraguay, and Trinidad and Tobago joined the U.S. president at Trump National Doral Miami, a golf resort where he is set to host the Group of 20 summit later this year.
The idea for a summit of like-minded conservatives from across the hemisphere emerged from the ashes of what was to be the 10th edition of the Summit of the Americas, which was scrapped during the U.S. military buildup off the coast of Venezuela last year.
Host Dominican Republic, pressured by the White House, had barred Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela from attending the regional gathering. But after leftist leaders in Colombia and Mexico threatened to pull out in protest — and with no commitment from Trump to attend — the Dominican President Luis Abinader decided at the last minute to postpone the event, citing “deep differences” in the region.
The Shield of the Americas moniker was meant to speak to Trump’s vision for an “America First” foreign policy toward the region that leverages U.S. military and intelligence assets unseen across the area since the end of the Cold War.
To that end, Ecuador and the United States conducted military operations this week against organized crime groups in the South American country. Ecuadorean and U.S. security forces attacked a refuge belonging to the Colombian armed group Comandos de la Frontera in the Ecuadorean Amazon on Friday, authorities reported.
This joint fight against drug traffickers “is only the beginning,” said Ecuador’s president, Daniel Noboa.
Notably missing at the summit were the region’s two dominant powers — Brazil and Mexico — as well as Colombia, long the linchpin of U.S. anti-narcotics strategy in the region.
Trump grumbled that Mexico is the “epicenter of cartel violence” with drug kingpins “orchestrating much of the bloodshed and chaos in this hemisphere.”
“The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump said. ”We can’t have that. Too close to us. Too close to you.”
The challenge from China
Trump made no mention of his administration’s position that countering Chinese influence in the hemisphere is a top priority for his second term.
His national security strategy promotes a “Trump corollary” to the 19th century Monroe Doctrine, which had sought to ban European incursions in the Americas, by targeting Chinese infrastructure projects, military cooperation and investment in the region’s resource industries.
The first demonstration of the more muscular approach was Trump’s strong-arming of Panama to withdraw from China’s Belt and Road Initiative and review long-term port contracts held by a Hong Kong-based company amid U.S. threats to seize the Panama Canal.
More recently, the U.S. capture of Maduro and Trump’s pledge to “run” Venezuela threaten to disrupt oil shipments to China — the biggest buyer of Venezuelan crude before the raid — and bring into Washington’s orbit one of Beijing’s closest allies in the region. Trump is scheduled to travel to Beijing later this month to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
For many countries, China’s trade-focused diplomacy fills a critical financial void in a region with major development challenges that include poverty reduction and infrastructure bottlenecks. In contrast, Trump has been slashing foreign assistance to the region while rewarding countries lined up behind his crackdown on immigration — a policy widely unpopular across the hemisphere.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted the leaders for a working lunch after Trump left for the event in Delaware. The lunch gave Kristi Noem, whom Trump fired as Homeland Security secretary on Thursday, the chance to make her debut in her new role as a special envoy for the newly formed Shield of the Americas.
“We want our hemisphere to be safer, to be more sovereign, and to be more prosperous,” Noem told the leaders.
Madhani, Goodman and Richer write for the Associated Press. Madhani and Goodman reported from Doral and Durkin Richer from Washington. AP writer Gabriela Molina in Quito, Ecuador, contributed to this report.
At least 10 people have died, and more than 100 have been injured, after Iran launched barrages of missile and drone attacks against every member of the GCC in retaliation for US-Israeli strikes on Tehran.
Until February 28, few in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) could have imagined missiles flying overhead, let alone crashing into the glass facades of five-star hotels. For decades, cities such as Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Doha had been marketed as luxurious, safe havens—business and financial hubs seemingly shielded from the harshness of the desert and regional geopolitical turbulence, thanks to vast petrodollar wealth.
Recent attacks have punctured that sense of invulnerability.
The economic implications remain uncertain, but the US-Iran war marks a clear turning point. With much of the region still on high alert, business activity has begun to slow down and investors are reassessing risk. In January, the World Bank projected 4.4% growth for GCC countries this year. On March 2, however, JPMorgan cut its non-oil growth forecast by 0.3 percentage points.
“Businesses shift quickly into contingency mode: staff safety, operational coverage, supply, and cash-flow discipline,” says Abdulaziz Al-Anjeri, Founder & CEO, Reconnaissance Research in Kuwait. “You also see immediate attention to the ‘price of risk’—airspace and logistics friction quickly translate into higher war-risk premiums, insurance costs, and delayed decisions. The strongest response is quiet competence—keeping the lights on without drama”
Even in the most remote areas of the GCC feel the effects of the crisis. In Khasab, the last Oman town on the coast of the Strait of Hormuz and a popular tourist destination for outdoor activities, Ali Al Shuaili runs a diving center.
“Everything is normal, but the sea is closed so we can’t go fishing or diving and, of course, all tourist bookings have been cancelled,” he tells Global Finance via WhatsApp. “Life-wise, it looks normal, but everybody is worried about the business. We pray for everything to settle down quickly.”
For now, banks in the region are absorbing the shock, supported by strong liquidity and capital buffers.
“We are not seeing any direct impact on banking operations in the UAE or the wider GCC,” says Bader Al Sarraf, Research Analyst at Standard Chartered’s UAE office. “Financial institutions across the region continue to operate normally, supported by strong infrastructure, resilient financial systems, and established operational resilience frameworks that enable banks to continue facilitating transactions and supporting business activity even during periods of heightened uncertainty.”
Banks and major institutions focus first on continuity— keeping core functions stable: payments, customer access, liquidity management, and clear reassurance, adds An-Anjeri. “In moments like this, finance is not only about balance sheets; it’s also about maintaining confidence, because uncertainty can do damage even without physical disruption.”
Across the region, the prevailing approach among institutions, corporates, and investors is to monitor developments rather than take immediate action, according to Al-Sarraf.
“Given that the situation remains fluid and still in its early stages, many are in a ‘digest and risk assessment’ phase before making strategic decisions,” he says. “This reflects a period of careful observation as developments continue to unfold and as businesses and investors evaluate the potential implications across sectors and economic activity.”
One immediate concern is digital infrastructure. The Gulf has spent years positioning itself as a regional hub for data centers, but the conflict has exposed its vulnerability. Amazon Web Services reported that drones attacked three of its facilities in the UAE and Bahrain, disrupting cloud and IT services across the region. In the UAE, several bank customers briefly lost access to their online accounts. Such incidents could prompt US tech giants, including Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle, all of which have invested heavily in Gulf data infrastructure, to reassess their exposure.
Weaknesses Exposed
The war has highlighted structural weaknesses in the region’s economic model. Despite years of diversification efforts, most GCC economies still rely heavily on hydrocarbon revenues.
QatarEnergy, the world’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) producer, halted production afte drones hit two of its facilities. Oil exports are also affected. Saudi Arabia partially shut the Ras Tanura refinery, one of the largest in the Middle East, with a capacity of 550,000 barrels a day.
Now, all eyes are on the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic chokepoint through which roughly a fifth of the world’s hydrocarbon supply transits. For GCC economies, the disruption translates into billions of dollars in daily revenue at risk.
“If the war drags on, you can get a mixed picture: energy revenues may benefit from risk pricing, while the broader economy pays through confidence, logistics, insurance, and financing costs,” says Reconnaissance Research’s An-Anjeri. “Non-oil sectors tend to feel prolonged uncertainty first because they’re confidence-sensitive—services, travel, retail, private investment. GCC states have buffers, but buffers don’t replace stability.”
Another major concern is food security: The region relies overwhelmingly on imports to feed its population, with roughly 70% of food shipments arriving through the Strait of Hormuz. The system has faced stress tests before—during the Covid-19 pandemic, for instance, and in 2017 when several GCC countries, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE, imposed an embargo on Qatar. At the time, Doha imported around 90% of its food. Since then, the country has invested heavily in domestic production and is now self-sufficient in milk, but it still depends on imports for much of the rest.
Water security may be an even more critical vulnerability. Nearly 90% of drinking water in GCC countries comes from desalination plants. Any disruption, whether from direct damage or oil spills affecting coastal facilities, could quickly trigger a humanitarian crisis within days.
For now, most governments and businesses are in a wait-and-see mode. But as the conflict widens, including in Lebanon and, to a lesser extent, towards Cyprus and Turkey… longer-term scenarios are beginning to enter boardroom discussions.
“In the short run, if the war ends quickly, I don’t think there will be any significant impact on the banks, but if the conflict extends over weeks and if the flow of oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz continues to be even temporarily interrupted, eventually this will definitely affect GCC economies, government revenues, and trade flows,” notes Beirut-based Ali Awdeh, head of research at the Union of Arab banks.
For Al-Anjeri, the situation evolves, a number of lessons are already emerging: “For institutions, the takeaway is to treat stress-testing as real: cyber scenarios, telecom dependencies, liquidity access, supply-chain choke points, and customer-communication playbooks that are ready before the crisis—not written during it,” he says. “Hardware matters, but crisis governance matters too: credible communication, continuity discipline, and de-escalation channels so one incident doesn’t trigger a chain reaction.”
One of the best action blockbusters of the past few years has just been added to Netflix just in time for an adrenaline-fuelled weekend viewing
‘Phenomenal’ action film called ‘pure adrenaline’ now on Netflix(Image: UNIVERSAL PICTURES)
Netflix has just added an exhilarating action film starring two of Hollywood’s greatest stars that you won’t want to miss.
Both leads are featuring in some of the most highly anticipated films of 2026, while the director is one of the most prominent action filmmakers in recent years.
The Fall Guy stars Ryan Gosling as stunt performer Colt Seavers, who reluctantly agrees to a comeback after a life-threatening injury when his ex-girlfriend Jody Moreno (played by Emily Blunt) lands her first gig as the director of a major studio film.
However, the pair soon find themselves wrapped up in a complex conspiracy when the movie’s lead actor, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), goes missing.
When Colt is covertly hired to go after the people the producers suspect are responsible for his disappearance, he leaps at the chance to win back his ex by saving her debut. But he quickly realises he’s in over his head.
Both megastars are poised to rule the box office over the coming months. Gosling is about to return to the big screen for the bombastic space opera Project Hail Mary, while Blunt is also tackling extraterrestrial threats in Steven Spielberg’s new sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day.
She is also returning to one of her most iconic roles in The Devil Wears Prada 2, along with Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. With The Fall Guy available to stream on Netflix, now is the perfect time to revisit one of their best films ahead of their must-see cinematic experiences.
Fans have been raving about the film since its release, and it received an impressive 82 percent Rotten Tomatoes score from critics, with 84 percent from audiences.
One five-star review from an RT user gushed: “A truly phenomenal film! It’s fun, but locks in when seriousness is needed. I love it so much!”
Someone else described it as “Pure adrenaline popcorn perfection that delivers unfiltered chaos candy!”
The stellar reviews continued on IMDb, where one viewer called The Fall Guy “Pure entertainment” and said: “While watching this movie, I found myself smiling nearly the entire time. If you are looking for pure, unfettered fun (in the form of romcom action of course), then this is the movie for you.
“The plot was fun, the acting was solid, the situations that the characters found themselves in were hysterical, the action was on point, the cinematography was nice, and the romance was entertaining.”
And a final fan wrote: “The Fall Guy is insanely fun, with incredibly cool action scenes, romantically charming elements, and a captivating world of stuntmen.
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“It’s full-on entertainment, especially for film enthusiasts, with meticulously crafted action sequences in both real and fake movies that look fantastic, grand, and impressively complete.
“Both Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt have impeccable chemistry, and the portrayal of the stuntman profession is sharp. The film cleverly satirizes the Hollywood industry with excellence.
“Watching this movie in theaters is an absolutely delightful experience. Director David Leitch nails every aspect of the film, truly delivering on the action-packed excitement.”
The Fall Guy is available to stream on Netflix.
For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new **Everything Gossip** website.
The United States-Israeli war with Iran continues to rage, as Washington pledges to send more troops and military assets to the Middle East and Tehran widens its retaliatory strikes across the region.
But on Thursday, top officials under US President Donald Trump shifted focus to another military front: Latin America.
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Since taking office for a second term, Trump has indicated he plans to exert US dominance over the entire Western Hemisphere. His push for control has coincided with military operations against alleged criminal networks across the region.
At Thursday’s inaugural “Americas Counter Cartel Conference”, speakers such as White House security adviser Stephen Miller assured reporters that Latin America would remain a top military priority for the US, regardless of events in the Middle East.
“We are not going to cede an inch of territory in this hemisphere to our enemies or adversaries,” Miller said, adding the US was “using hard power, military power, lethal force, to protect and defend the American homeland”.
Miller further maintained there is no “criminal justice solution” to drug cartels, which he likened to armed groups like al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).
Organised crime, he concluded, “can only be defeated with military power”.
Since Trump took office last year, his administration has applied what experts describe as a “global war on terror” approach to Latin America, including by labelling drug cartels “foreign terrorist organisations”.
Figures like Miller, a key architect behind Trump’s hardline immigration policies, have championed the president’s militaristic approach, even as critics warn it raises human rights and legal concerns.
Last September, for instance, the administration began striking alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific Ocean, in what rights groups have decried as extrajudicial killings.
And in early January, the US launched an extraordinary operation to abduct Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. It has since pursued a pressure campaign against Cuba designed to weaken its communist government.
Just this week, on Wednesday, the Pentagon announced it had launched joint operations with Ecuador’s military “against Designated Terrorist Organizations” in the South American country.
The announcement indicated a new front for US military actions in the region, which officials have said could include land operations.
But the broadening scope of Trump’s military involvement in Latin America, combined with the nascent war with Iran, has raised questions about the US’s ability to sustain such intense military activity.
Prepared to ‘go on offence alone’
The “Americas Counter Cartel Conference” came as Latin American leaders arrived in South Florida to attend a regional summit hosted by Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate.
Attendees included officials from the Trump-allied conservative governments in Argentina, Honduras and the Dominican Republic.
But despite support from several regional governments, Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth nevertheless told the audience that the US was “prepared to take on” Latin America’s cartels and “go on the offence alone, if necessary”.
“However, it is our preference — and it is the goal of this conference — that, in the interest of this neighbourhood, we all do it together,” Hegseth added.
The secretary also praised Trump’s take on the 1823 Monroe Doctrine, which sought to establish a US sphere of influence, separate from Europe, in the Western Hemisphere. Administration officials have dubbed Trump’s parallel approach the “Donroe doctrine”.
Hegseth framed the administration’s attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats as a keystone of Trump’s effort to maintain regional influence.
The US military has carried out at least 44 aerial strikes on vessels in the Caribbean Sea and eastern Pacific Ocean, resulting in an estimated 150 known deaths.
The identities of the victims have not been released, with several family members saying fishermen and informal workers were among those targeted.
The Pentagon chief said the approach was meant to “establish deterrence”.
“If the consequence was simply to be arrested and then released, well, that’s a consequence they’d already priced in a long time ago,” Hegseth said.
He then pointed to a “few weeks” in February in which there were no strikes on alleged drug boats.
The pause in attacks, he said, was evidence of the strategy’s success. But that break notably came as the US surged assets to the Middle East.
Emphasis on ‘heritage’
Neither Hegseth nor Miller specifically referred to the war with Iran, but the pair touched on themes that have been present in the administration’s messaging on the war.
Trump, for example, said Iran’s government “waged war against civilisation itself”. There have been reports, meanwhile, that US military officials have referenced the biblical “end times” as a religious underpinning for the war.
Those remarks have reflected what critics consider Trump’s embrace of Christian nationalism and his view of the Americas as a European-derived “civilisation” threatened by outside forces.
At Thursday’s conference, Miller himself referenced violence in European history as justification for the modern-day military actions in Latin America.
There were periods in European history throughout the 18th and 19th centuries during which “ruthless means were used to get rid of the people who were raping and murdering and defying established systems of order and justice,” Miller said.
He also echoed Trump’s allegation that Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” as a result of left-wing leadership and immigration.
“The reason why many Western countries are struggling today is they’ve forgotten the eternal truth and wisdoms they once followed,” Miller said.
Hegseth, meanwhile, described all the countries at Thursday’s meeting as “offsprings of Western civilisation”.
Representatives in attendance, he said, faced a test “whether our nations will be and remain Western nations with distinct characteristics, Christian nations under God, proud of our shared heritage with strong borders and prosperous people ruled not by violence and chaos but by law”.
He added that foreign “incursions” represent “existential questions” for the region, seemingly referencing the growing influence of China as an economic and political partner in the Americas.
Authorities in Tehran have called for international action and solidarity after several hospitals and schools were impacted by United States and Israeli air strikes on the country as Iran continues to fire missiles and drones across the region.
Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said on Monday that the two countries “continue to indiscriminately strike residential areas, sparing neither hospitals, schools, Red Crescent facilities, nor cultural monuments”.
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“These actions constitute the deliberate commission of the most heinous crimes of international concern. Indifference to this ongoing and extreme injustice will only further darken the future of humanity by jeopardising the shared values upon which our global community stands,” he wrote in a post on social media.
Pir Hossein Kolivand, the head of the Iranian Red Crescent Society, wrote a letter publicised late on Sunday to the president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), demanding an explicit condemnation of attacks impacting children and educational and medical centres.
He also said monitoring and support mechanisms outlined in the Geneva Conventions must be invoked, adding that the ICRC must “adopt immediate measures” to stop similar incidents from taking place again as the war rages.
“The Red Crescent Society of the Islamic Republic of Iran, as a member of the global Red Cross and Red Crescent movement, declares its full commitment to the fundamentals of humanity, impartiality and independence, emphasising that damaged centres had no military applications,” Kolivand wrote.
ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric said in a statement at the start of the war on Saturday that rules of war must be upheld as an obligation, not a choice.
“Civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, homes and schools must be spared from attack. Medical personnel and first responders must be allowed to carry out their work safely,” she said.
Hospitals sustain damage
Multiple Iranian hospitals have been damaged as a result of air attacks and were evacuated by authorities, but there are not believed to have been any direct strikes on any hospitals yet.
In Tehran, major strikes on Sunday damaged multiple medical centres located in two areas, according to official accounts, footage circulating on social media and information geolocated by Al Jazeera.
Videos broadcast by state media from the entrance and surrounding area of Gandhi Hospital in northern Tehran showed significant damage after a projectile struck a nearby area.
Mohammad Raeiszadeh, the head of Iran’s Medical Council, told state media from the hospital on Monday that the in-vitro fertilisation department was destroyed along with its equipment, forcing staff to move cells and embryos. Footage also showed an infant being moved by nurses on Sunday night.
The hospital appears to have been damaged after the Israeli military struck buildings housing Iranian state television’s Channel 2 and a communications antenna nearby.
This led to state television programmes being disrupted for several minutes. The broadcaster confirmed that some of its departments were bombed on Sunday without divulging details.
World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said reports of damage to the hospital are “extremely worrying” and the United Nations agency is working to verify the incident.
After a separate attack on Sunday, the Iranian Red Crescent Society released a video showing the aftermath of strikes near one of its main buildings located near Khatam al-Anbiya Hospital.
[Translation: Right now. Direct attacks by the Zionist regime and America on the vicinity of the Red Crescent building, Khatam al-Anbiya Hospital, Welfare Organisation, and Motahari Hospital in Tehran]
Footage circulating online showed plumes of smoke rising and debris scattered after the strikes. According to the Red Crescent, the ICRC’s Spoljaric visited the site of the damaged medical treatment facility on Monday and condemned any strikes impacting humanitarian centres.
Khatam al-Anbiya Hospital, the Motahari Hospital specialising in helping burn victims and the Valiasr Hospital are all located nearby. They reported either sustaining some damage or having to hurriedly move patients out.
The main target hit by Israeli warplanes in the area appeared to have been the central headquarters of the Iranian police. Police Chief Ahmad-Reza Radan did not comment specifically on the targeting of the headquarters but confirmed that police buildings were receiving regular direct hits.
On Monday afternoon, fighter jets conducted bombing runs across Tehran once again. Attacks damaged the main building of the province’s medical emergency services, located in Iranshahr Street in the downtown area. Videos released by state-affiliated media showed staff evacuating, and the state-run Tasnim news agency said several staff members were injured.
According to Iranian authorities, the Aboozar Children’s Hospital in western Iran’s Ahvaz and three medical emergency centres in the provinces of East Azerbaijan, Sistan-Baluchistan and Hamedan were also damaged.
The Iranian Red Crescent said that by noon on Monday at least 555 people had been killed after 131 counties across the country were attacked.
During and after the killing of thousands of people during January’s nationwide protests, Iranian authorities have consistently rejected calls for transparency and condemnations by the UN and international human rights organisations for attacks on hospitals by state forces to detain protesters and medical staff helping the wounded. A number of doctors and medical personnel remain incarcerated and face national security and other charges.
Schools, sports centre take hits
In Tehran, an air strike targeting 72 Square in the eastern neighbourhood of Narmak damaged a high school with authorities reporting that at least two children were killed.
Local media said the target of the attack was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the former populist president who may potentially have a role in shaping Iran’s political future after the killing of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other officials. It was unclear whether Ahmadinejad was present at the site of the attack or was harmed.
There were also multiple casualties after a sports centre was targeted in Lamerd in the southern province of Fars, local authorities said on Saturday.
But the single largest casualty incident announced by Iranian authorities was from a girls school in the southern city of Minab.
After two days of working through the debris, authorities said 165 people were killed and 95 wounded, most of them children. The governor on Monday afternoon released a handwritten list of 56 of the victims but did not provide further information.
The US said it was aware of civilian casualty reports from the school and was investigating. The Israeli army said it was not aware of any Israeli or US strikes in that area.
Education International, a global federation that brings together organisations of teachers and other education employees, condemned the school attack.
“Children, teachers, and schools must never be military targets. The killing and wounding of students and educators is an intolerable violation of human rights and a grave breach of international humanitarian law,” it said.
BERKELEY — University of California President James B. Milliken, in his first extensive interview since taking the helm of the nation’s premier public higher education system, defended UC’s diplomatic approach to President Trump’s fusillade of actions against the institution — contrasting it with the more aggressive fight Harvard is waging with the government.
UC has not repeatedly sued the federal government or publicly criticized Trump, while Harvard battles the administration in and outside court amid billions in White House funding freezes.
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“We could have said, ‘We’re going to sue tomorrow.’ We saw that movie with Harvard,” Milliken said of his first seven months on the job dominated by federal attacks. “Harvard is still in negotiations to settle the federal government’s actions, but they have had a series of devastating enforcement actions taken … Given our responsibility to the university and to the state of California, the better course for us was to engage.”
Yet days after the interview, the U.S. Department of Justice leveled another strike against UC in a lawsuit alleging UCLA “routinely ignored” and “failed to report” employee complaints of antisemitism since 2023.
In a statement after the interview, Milliken said UC has already committed to combating anti-Jewish hatred without court interference.
“Antisemitism has no place at UC and we have taken important actions to protect our Jewish students, faculty and staff … We will always have work to do, and our commitment to our community is unwavering,” the statement said. “In light of this — and our oft-cited willingness to work with the government in good faith — the new lawsuit is unfortunate and, in our view, unnecessary.”
In a wide-ranging interview at UC Berkeley’s Grimes Engineering Center, Milliken, 68, offered his assessment of Trump’s actions to overhaul higher education and declined to say whether UC would pay an amount smaller than the $1.2-billion proposed fine over UCLA’s alleged campus antisemitism.
On federal talks, Milliken said UC would “never compromise” on its independence, governance, values and academic freedom.
James B. Milliken.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
He touted UC’s accomplishments despite the challenges: Four faculty members received Nobel prizes last year — the largest ever number from one institution — and UC secured more patents for inventions last year than any university in the world.
Aside from Trump, UC faces internal pressures: multiple campuses, including UCLA, are in deficit. Labor unions are demanding better job conditions. Members of the UAW 4811 academic workers union have authorized a potential strike.
Milliken spoke in favor of diversity, celebrated immigrants and said he wanted to expand student access to the university. He said UC should lead on artificial intelligence.
Milliken started in August after more than six years as chancellor of the University of Texas system. He previously held top roles at the City University of New York, the University of Nebraska and the University of North Carolina. A news and history buff and former Wall Street lawyer who prefers reading paper over pixels, he often cites his study of “The Gold and the Blue,” a two-volume chronicle of UC’s ascent in the 1950s and struggles during the political turmoil of 1960s written by former UC Berkeley Chancellor turned UC President Clark Kerr.
He said his job is “to do everything we can to demonstrate the value that’s delivered by these amazing places … I don’t want to underestimate the difficulty in the current political environment,” but, he added, universities have been a national boon “over generations.”
Trump and higher education
Adjusting to the possibility of further retrenchment of Washington’s university research funding is among Milliken’s top concerns.
UC relies on $17.5 billion annually in federal monies, including research grants, Pell grants and hospital payments for Medicare and Medicaid. Last year, the government suspended $584 million in UCLA federal medical, science and energy research grants before a UC faculty-led lawsuit restored the money. But roughly $170 million in grants is still on hold systemwide.
Another independent faculty- and union-led federal suit has temporarily halted the $1.2-billion UCLA settlement demand seeking rightward ideological change on campus. But UC remains open to talks to quash federal probes on its own terms.
James B. Milliken.
(Christina House / Los Angeles Times)
Milliken was vague on the status of negotiations and whether UC would pay a fine — such as the $200 million Columbia University signed off on last year — to settle federal investigations.
“It would be foolhardy of me to speculate on what ultimately might be proposed to the University of California or what we might find acceptable,” he said.
He declined to specify how he would uphold his promises to protect UC’s independence, governance, values and academic freedom.
“I’m not going to go into detail on those because it gets pretty close to the line of what could be a discussion with the federal government,” Milliken said.
Educational access
Milliken was more verbose on the role of higher education and his big-picture visions for UC.
College “helps make sure that we have an educated citizenry that is prepared to actively participate in a democracy that understands our civic traditions, that understands our political system, that understands how our economic system works,” Milliken said.
“Talent is universal,” he said, “but opportunity often isn’t.” Universities “match this talent with the opportunity.”
But federal moves have threatened to change access to education. The Trump administration has sued California’s public universities and community colleges for allowing undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition. A Trump travel ban on dozens of countries has stalled student and faculty applications from Asian, African and South American nations, while a $100,000 fee for new H-1B visas for highly skilled foreign hires could hurt university and hospital recruitment.
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Milliken pledged to protect immigrants.
“I think we need to take a step back and recognize how fundamental the country’s embrace of people from around the world has been,” Milliken said. “It has been an enormous boon in terms of talent and culture and the kinds of things that make this country what it is today. I know people are worried, they’re anxious. In some cases, they’re afraid … One of the things that our university presidents and chancellors think about every day is keeping these communities safe.”
Lifelong learning
UC — home to several of the most selective and prestigious campuses in the nation — continues to grow in size and popularity. The system set a record enrollment of about 301,000 students in 2025. And 252,000 high school and transfer students have submitted applications for the coming fall, another record high. Yet, vast numbers of academically qualified students do not get in, especially to UCLA and UC Berkeley.
Campuses, including UCLA, have upped professional certificate programs and extension school offerings in recent years. Milliken said universities should further embrace learning programs outside of the undergraduate experience. UCLA is developing a plan called “UCLA for Life” to reimagine the Westwood campus’ role for professionals.
“A four-year baccalaureate experience is not enough to prepare you for 40 years or 50 years of a career. You’re going to need to retool, going to need to re-skill. And I look at universities. Students ought to turn to their alma maters. There’s a relationship that you ought to have for life,” Milliken said.
The university’s future and evolution
Milliken wants UC to take on a lead role in AI.
“The continued adaptation of AI is inevitable, and there are good things and not so good things about that. But UC is the most important, impactful university in the world, and it should not be following others in developing what is the ethical and responsible,” Milliken said. “… We’re in a place where I think leadership, whether we wanted it or not, is a responsibility.”
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More Californians should take stock of UC’s role outside of undergraduate education, he said.
“Two-thirds of our students are undergraduates. It’s a hugely important thing. But so is the research we do. So is the healthcare that we do across the state. So is the work we do at national laboratories which support incredible innovation and national security,” he said.
Milliken said he hoped the cuts to university research were a short-term “aberration.”
New research funding state bond bill
UC has put its weight behind a $23-billion bond proposal that will be on the November ballot to create a California Foundation for Science and Health Research, which would fund university and private institutions in ways similar to the National Institutes of Health.
If voters pass it, Milliken said the measure would “go an enormous way” toward making up for federal losses but that it was “impossible to speculate” on the extent as federal research funding, priorities and procedures fluctuate.
“I hope we never get to the question of whether California can replace federal funding,” he said. “Would I like to see it supplement, ensure that disruptions — even if shorter term — don’t derail the important science that’s going on here and the preparation of the next generation of scientists? Yes, I think that’s an incredibly worthwhile endeavor for the state.”
Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the main opposition People Power Party, attends a press conference at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 20 February 2026. Photo by YONHAP / EPA
Feb. 27 (Asia Today) — The People Power Party on Thursday condemned a joint prosecutors-police raid on its headquarters as a politically motivated investigation and warned it could resort to what it called “extraordinary measures.”
The joint investigation team earlier in the day searched the party’s central office in Yeouido and a company managing its membership list as part of a probe into allegations that members of the religious group Shincheonji were improperly enrolled as party members during the 2021 presidential primary.
According to reports, the warrant cited alleged violations of the Political Parties Act and obstruction of business.
In a statement, senior party spokesperson Park Sung-hoon called the search “a targeted investigation against the main opposition party,” alleging it was intended to deflect criticism over the ruling party’s handling of controversial judicial reform bills.
“This is blatant oppression of the opposition,” Park said, accusing investigative agencies of acting as “shields for those in power while wielding swords against the opposition.”
Party lawmakers also questioned why other allegations involving figures linked to the ruling camp had not seen similar investigative momentum.
Rep. Joo Jin-woo cited bribery allegations involving former Oceans Minister Jeon Jae-soo, claiming the joint team was prioritizing action against the opposition while sidelining probes into ruling party figures. He called for the immediate appointment of a special prosecutor.
Rep. Jin Jong-oh urged authorities to apply the same investigative standards to the ruling Democratic Party, while floor leader Song Eon-seok described the situation as “suppression and annihilation of the opposition,” warning that the party would mobilize “extraordinary measures” in response.
Following news of the search, party leader Jang Dong-hyuk and other senior officials went to the headquarters to review the warrant with legal advisers and discuss countermeasures.
The investigation centers on claims that Shincheonji officials directed followers to register as responsible party members during the 2021 primary process. Authorities have not publicly detailed specific findings.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has warned she could take possible legal action following comments from right-wing tech billionaire Elon Musk, accusing her of ties to cartels.
At her morning news conference on Tuesday, the president was asked for her response to Musk’s statements a day prior. Musk had described her as being beholden to the cartels.
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“Well, we are considering whether to take any legal action,” she began. “The lawyers are looking into it.”
She then proceeded to describe the allegations that she leads a “narco-government” as “absurd” and demonstrably false.
“It falls apart all on its own,” she said, dismissing the accusation as hackneyed. “They don’t even know what to invent any more, right? Honestly, it’s laughable.”
Sheinbaum has faced criticism for her national security policies following a spate of cross-country violence over the weekend.
Killing of El Mencho
The violence erupted after the death on Sunday of a top cartel leader, Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, known by the nickname El Mencho.
The Mexican military had tracked El Mencho to the town of Tapalpa in central Mexico. He died while en route to medical care after being shot by authorities.
Members of El Mencho’s criminal organisation, the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, responded to the news of his death with road blocks, arson and clashes with security forces. Dozens of people were killed in the violence.
Musk was among the online commentators criticising Sheinbaum’s handling of Mexico’s security in the aftermath of the attacks.
His posts came in response to a video clip circulating on social media, showing Sheinbaum advocating for alternatives to the militaristic “war on drugs” approach.
“She’s just saying what her cartel bosses tell her to say,” Musk wrote in response to the video.
“Let’s just say that their punishment for disobedience is a little worse than a ‘performance improvement plan’.”
A vocal critic of left-wing governments like Sheinbaum’s, Musk is closely aligned with United States President Donald Trump, who has likewise pushed for more military action against cartels.
In September, for instance, Trump’s State Department listed Mexico as an area of concern for drug-trafficking and outlined steps it expected to see to address the issue.
“Much more remains to be done by Mexico’s government to target cartel leadership, along with their clandestine drug labs, precursor chemical supply chains, and illicit finances,” the State Department wrote.
“Over the next year, the United States will expect to see additional, aggressive efforts by Mexico to hold cartel leaders accountable and disrupt the illicit networks engaged in drug production and trafficking.”
Trump himself has accused Sheinbaum of inefficacy in her campaign to crack down on illicit drug trafficking.
“She’s not running Mexico. The cartels are running Mexico,” Trump told Fox News in the hours after launching a January 3 military operation to abduct Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
“She’s very frightened of the cartels. They’re running Mexico. I’ve asked her numerous times, ‘Would you like us to take out the cartels?’”
Sheinbaum has repeatedly refused the prospect of unilateral US intervention, arguing it would violate Mexican sovereignty. Still, Trump has repeatedly warned that the US is considering military strikes on Mexican soil.
“Something’s going to have to be done with Mexico,” he told Fox News.
Upping the pressure
Sheinbaum, however, has defended her administration’s track record. Faced with US tariffs in February 2025, she deployed nearly 10,000 members of Mexico’s National Guard to the country’s northern border to crack down on fentanyl trafficking.
She has also taken targeted military actions against cartels, though she has argued that the process should be focused on prosecuting criminals, rather than killing them in law enforcement operations.
Her administration has also overseen the extradition of dozens of Mexican nationals suspected of crimes in the US. In January 2025, for instance, 37 people were sent to the US. In April and August, groups of 13 and 14 suspects were transferred, respectively.
Sunday’s capture and killing of El Mencho was the fulfilment of a decades-long goal for the Mexican government, which has long sought his arrest.
Still, on Monday, Trump briefly posted a message on his Truth Social platform indicating that he expected Sheinbaum to do more.
“Mexico must step up their effort on Cartels and Drugs,” he wrote in a post that was later removed.
Sheinbaum, meanwhile, used Tuesday’s news conference to dismiss the criticism as out of touch with what was happening in Mexico. She added that what matters to her is the opinion of the Mexican people, not Musk.
“The vast majority of people recognise the work of the armed forces and the work we are doing every day, not only in security, but for the good of the country, for the wellbeing of all Mexicans,” she said. “That is what will guide us.”
England captain Leah Williamson says she would “never rule out” strike action to get players’ messaging across to governing bodies about schedule concerns.
Williamson, 28, missed five months with injury following England’s victory at Euro 2025 as she recovered from knee surgery.
She returned to action at the start of December, helping Arsenal win the Women’s Champions Cup in February, and was selected for this month’s World Cup qualifiers.
Williamson is one of several big-name players who are still returning to full fitness following England’s success in Switzerland, alongside Chelsea’s Lucy Bronze.
Speaking before England’s game against Ukraine on Tuesday, 3 March (17:00 GMT kick-off), Williamson was asked about the potential causes of injury.
“We’ll never know for sure but I don’t think people argue against the scheduling for fun. There’s reasons behind it,” said Williamson.
“If you listen to the players’ group, of course we want to play all the time, but the more successful you are – and this team has been very successful – then the less rest you have and the higher risk of injury there is. It’s an accumulation.
“The players, I’m sure, would love to just turn up and play football, but we use our voice and we try to get involved in conversations with the hierarchy so that they at least have our perspective. Whether they listen to it or not, is out of our control.”
Players’ union FifPro released a report, external in November saying that last year was the first time since it started collecting data in 2020 that the top 15 players in the world had all played 50 games or more in a season.
Asked whether Williamson would consider more drastic action, such as players striking, she said: “I’ve not had any conversations about this right now, but if a group of people don’t feel like they’re getting listened to, then history suggests that’s the only way they can be heard.
“I would never take it off the table. I don’t think that’s where we are now. I think we’re still in a place where we can collaborate, listen and educate.”
Williamson also revealed players have been “forthcoming” with providing stakeholders with training load and female health data.
“It’s mainly around the rest periods and trying to get all governing bodies to align. It always sounds like we’re asking for a holiday, but that’s not the case,” she added.
“I’m a professional footballer and part of my job is also to rest, which I’m encouraged to do so by my managers and the environments we play in.
“So why is that not prioritised when we’re left to our own devices?”
What is the point of AI alarmism if the people warning the world aren’t changing course?
A series of warnings from artificial intelligence (AI) industry insiders shows how the debate around AI drives extreme news cycles, swinging between hype and alarm.
The result is media coverage that overlooks the intricacies of this technology and its impact on everyday life. We examine the real risks, what’s being overstated, and what major tech companies stand to gain from all the fearmongering.
Contributors: Rumman Chowdhury – Founder, Humane Intelligence Mutale Nkonde – Founder, AI for the People Chris Stokel-Walker – Author of the book How AI Ate the World
On our radar
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations’ special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territories, has found herself in the middle of a political firestorm, all because of comments she never actually made.
After a manipulated video of Albanese calling Israel the “enemy of humanity” went viral, there were calls for her resignation across Europe. The UN has labelled these allegations part of a wider smear campaign to discredit Albanese and the UN itself.
A curated view of Israel for African journalists
For decades, the Israeli government and pro-Israel organisations have sponsored trips for politicians, celebrities and journalists, inviting them to visit and, as they put it, tell the “real story” about Israel. In the past, those invitations largely targeted figures from Western countries. But since October 7th, there has been a noticeable shift towards African journalists and social media influencers.
The objective is clear: to shape coverage in African media and influence audiences across the continent.
The Listening Post’s Nic Muirhead reports on the African journalists taking part in these fully funded, tightly managed visits to Israel.
Featuring: Hassen Lorgat – Media critic and activist Makhudu Sefara – Editor, Sunday Times Timnit Gebru – Founder, the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) Njahira Gitahi – Reporter, The Standard
Twelve Palestine Action activists, including hunger strikers, who were charged with breaking into the British site of an Israeli-linked defence firm, reunited with their families outside London’s Central Criminal Court after they were granted bail on Friday.
Activists released on bail include four hunger strikers: Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi.
Published On 20 Feb 202620 Feb 2026
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Twelve activists linked to the Palestine Action group who were charged with breaking into the British site of an Israel-linked defence firm have been released on bail.
There were tears of joy at London’s Central Criminal Court, better known as the Old Bailey, as the 12 prisoners, including hunger strikers Teuta Hoxha, Kamran Ahmed, Qesser Zuhrah and Heba Muraisi, were released on Friday.
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The group – which also included Zara Farooque, Salaam Mahmood, Moiz Ibrahim, Finn Collins, Hannah Davidson, Harland (Harley) Archer, Louie Adams and Liam Mullany – had been held on remand in connection with a raid on the Elbit Systems factory in Filton, near Bristol, on August 6, 2024.
“Despite the state’s best efforts to break each and every one of them, they will walk out today with their heads held high,” said a spokesperson for the Filton 24 Defence Committee, hailing their release as a “monumental victory”.
The release of the 12, which comes after 11 other defendants charged in connection with the raid were also granted bail, means that 23 out of the so-called “Filton 24” are now out of prison.
On February 4, six of the activists were acquitted of aggravated burglary, the most serious of the charges they faced in connection with the raid at London’s Woolwich Crown Court. The jury was unable to reach a verdict on charges of criminal damage.
On Wednesday, the same court dropped aggravated burglary charges, which carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, against the remaining 18 Filton 24 members, granting five more defendants bail.
Only Samuel Corner, who faced an additional charge of allegedly hitting a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer, remains on remand. He did not apply for bail on Friday.
The Filton 24 Defence Committee called for Corner’s release. “This isn’t right, or just, given he has already spent over 18 months in prison with no convictions. He should also be granted immediate bail,” said the spokesperson.
The release of the activists comes after the British High Court ruled that the government’s ban on Palestine Action as a “terror group” was unlawful and disproportionate.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said in a statement that she was “disappointed” and that she intended to appeal the judgement in the Court of Appeal.
Some fans were using the new AI video generator, backed by ByteDance, to refashion the finales for shows like “Game of Thrones” and “Stranger Things.” Others created battle scenes between iconic superheroes like Wolverine and Superman or between a Transformer and Godzilla.
As these Seedance videos amassed millions of views on social media, industry guilds like SAG-AFTRA and the Motion Picture Assn. have criticized the AI platform that was launched last week. Now, many major Hollywood studios are threatening to take legal action against ByteDance, the same Chinese parent that oversees TikTok.
Netflix, Warner Bros. Discovery, Paramount and Disney have all sent individual cease and desist letters, detailing the unauthorized reproduction of each of the studios’ copyrighted intellectual property.
Netflix and Warner Bros. Discovery were the latest studios to send cease and desists letter to ByteDance on Tuesday.
Netflix calls Seedance “a high-speed privacy engine” and says that they “will not stand by and watch ByteDance treat our valued IP as free, public domain clip art,” as stated in the letter. The streamer also cites the illegal use of sets derived from “Squid Game,” costumes from “Bridgerton” and character design from “KPop Demon Hunters.”
Warner Bros. Discovery looks to repurposed content, including characters from the “Harry Potter” and “Lord of the Rings” franchises, as well as superheroes like Batman, as “ blatant infringement” by ByteDance. The studio argues that it’s clear that their AI technology was trained on Warner Bros. copyrighted material “without authorization.”
“But the users are not the ones at the root cause of the infringement; they are merely building on the foundation of infringement already laid by ByteDance as Seedance comes pre-loaded with Warner Bros. Discovery’s copyrighted characters,” wrote the studios’ legal executive vice president Wayne Smith. “That was a deliberate design choice by ByteDance.”
Disney and Paramount were the first of the studios to call out ByteDance, sending their letters last Friday and Saturday. Disney accuses ByteDance of loading its Seedance service “with a pirated library of Disney’s copyrighted characters from Star Wars, Marvel, and other Disney franchises.”
“Over Disney’s well-publicized objections, ByteDance is hijacking Disney’s characters by reproducing, distributing, and creating derivative works featuring those characters. ByteDance’s virtual smash-and-grab of Disney’s IP is willful, pervasive, and totally unacceptable,” Disney’s attorney David Singer wrote, per Axios.
Paramount’s cease and desist letter was reviewed by The Times and makes similar assertions about ByteDance’s unapproved use of copyrighted material.
ByteDance has since pledged to implement more safeguards to protect copyrighted material in response to these letters.
“ByteDance respects intellectual property rights and we have heard the concerns regarding Seedance 2.0,” a company spokesperson said in a statement shared with CNBC. “We are taking steps to strengthen current safeguards as we work to prevent the unauthorized use of intellectual property and likeness by users.”
But with or without the safeguards, Dan Purcell, chief executive of Midnight Labs, an AI-powered company that specializes in IP protection for high-value entertainment, said these letters might be a bit of a delayed reaction from the studios.
“Once synthetic content is generated, it spreads instantly and at a massive scale. By the time lawyers engage, the damage is done,” said Purcell in a statement. “The only path forward is strict licensing, real-time enforcement, and consequences that actually hurt. Reactive letters won’t fix this. The industry needs to move at the speed of AI — not the speed of litigation.”
