Trump and War Crimes

 

Annie Crabill, Senior digital editor at the Economist, reports:

If Donald Trump goes ahead with his latest threats against Iran—every bridge “will be decimated”, he promised on Monday, and every power plant “out of business, burning”—he will probably violate the laws of war. Strikes on civilian infrastructure may also fail to achieve their primary objective: to rob Iran’s regime of funding. The civilian economy has long been in a dire state. The regime relies on other sources of income, and war has been good for business. (Crabill, n.d.)

International Criminal Court in The Hague, Netherlands.

(International Criminal Court, n.d.)

 

Jayme Poisson, correspondent with CBC Front Burner, broadcast, on April 7, 2026, a check-in on Israel’s expanding wars in Iran and Lebanon, violence in the West Bank and details of a new law that could see the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of deadly attacks. Meron Rapoport returns to the show. Meron has been reporting on Israel for over 30 years, and was formerly the head of news at Israel's Ha’aretz newspaper. He’s now an editor with the Hebrew-language news site Local Call. Israel cannot conquer Lebanon and Iran, certainly not at the same time, even as Netanu claims that Israel is going to be a “Super Sparta” CBC transcripts (Poisson, n.d.)

Canada is a member of the International Criminal Court. The United States and Israel are not. If President Donald Trump or Prime Minister Benjamin "Bibi" Netanyahu were to find themselves in one of the member countries of the ICC (125 countries are States Parties to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.) does that country have the power or responsibility to arrest them and charge them with war crimes and retain them in custody prior to trial at the International Court of Justice at the Hague, charged to bring justice to leaders of Nazi Germany.

References

Crabill, A. (n.d.). Trump and War Crimes. The Economist | Go beyond breaking news. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://www.economist.com/ 

International Criminal Court. (n.d.). Wikipedia. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Criminal_Court 

Poisson, J. (n.d.). Front Burner. Trump and War Crimes. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner 

Life for Ordinary Cubans

 Peter Kornbluh, senior analyst at the National Security Archive and author of ‘Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana.’ was interviewed recently by Jayme Poisson on CBC Podcasts News Front Burner who asked …

Havana Harbour

“And what about life for ordinary Cubans on the island?”

There's a lot of controversy about Fidel's legacy in Cuba. On the one hand, he universalized education, he made sure that all Cubans had health care. He expanded Cuba's doctors program not only to create many, many doctors for the Cubans themselves, but also a surplus of doctors to send around the world. They are still in countries now, although the Trump administration is pressuring those countries to expel Cuban doctors. And you know, so the Cuban Revolution had for a while great fame for its levels of education and the levels of health care but of course, there were no kind of democratic rights, there was no opposition. There were no political parties besides the Communist Party that Fidel led. He was in power for over 50 years. And then, of course, his brother took over from him, Raul Castro. So, you know the, Cuba is, I think, a great mixed legacy. In the end, when the revolution in some ways depended on having subsidies from first the Soviet Union and then from countries like China and then finally Venezuela. So in some ways the revolution was kind of made possible by these very unique arrangements that Castro was able to secure but once those arrangements were no longer possible, as is the case today, the Cubans are looking at the United States once again becoming the dominant patron and dominant power in Cuban society, Cuban economy and Cuban politics. And that's where we are today. (Kornbluh, 2026)

References

Kornbluh, P. (2026, March 25). America’s long standoff with Cuba - Transcript. CBC Radio Front Burner. Retrieved March 31, 2026, from https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/americas-long-standoff-with-cuba-transcript-9.7141962