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There’s a group of artists who most of the general public has yet to know exist. These are highly skilled painters, sculptors, and draftsmen trained in ateliers or academies who are not embarrassed to utter the word “beautiful” at a time when that word is generally scorned by the contemporary art establishment … These artists value quality over quantity, sincerity over cynicism, intrinsic value over marketing hype, and the Western tradition of fine art over the avant garde fixation on newness. In an ironic twist of history, these traditional artists are perhaps the most radical and marginalized group of artists living today … This resurgence is happening now after more than one hundred years of deskilling that led to the deterioration of visual art standards, which started when all of the “-isms” arose, such as modernism, postmodernism, and so forth.

These are difficult times across Europe … Foremost among such deep rumblings are the anxieties of the European publics on matters to do with immigration, identity and Islam … While politicians talk about immigration solely in terms of the benefits it brings — and clearly it does bring some — the public are understandably concerned that the downsides of migration are not merely ignored but actively covered up … Europeans are united in a sense that the uncontrolled movement of people into their continent, especially illegally, brings significant problems. Another is they disapprove of the way the EU has dealt with these challenges, and are willing to withdraw support from it and bring matters like borders back to a national level of control if the EU does tackle the issue properly.

.. .. Nearly 400,000 Britons died. Millions more were scarred by the experience, physically and mentally. But was it worth it? Her answer – and the answer of many of her contemporaries, now in their 80s and 90s – is a resounding No. They despise what has become of the Britain they once fought to save. It’s not our country any more, they say, in sorrow and anger … They feel, in a word that leaps out time and time again, ‘betrayed’ … “Those comrades of mine who never made it back would be appalled if they could see the world as it is today.” … “Our British culture is draining away at an ever increasing pace,” wrote an ex-Durham Light Infantryman, “and we are almost forbidden to make any comment.”

… The extraordinary fact is that Germany no longer exists anymore as the nation-state of the Germans — as the political expression of the German people. The very notion of the German nation was deconstructed long before the Muslim invasion started … These are the results of years and years of re-education after the horrors of National Socialism. First the Germans were obliged to see themselves as “Europeans.” Then their country became a land of nowhere, a culturally and historically undefined entity, open for everybody, governed by a political class which already substituted “Europeanism” with “universalism.” As a German, I am forced to contemplate the possibility that maybe it is too late — and there is no way back.

[ Text of address given in Stockholm, April 2015 ] … In spite of its relative economic prosperity, Europe today is in greater danger than ever before in its history. Far worse than the consequences of military defeat, a terrible war, or a devastating plague, Europe is threatened with cultural, ethnic and racial extinction … The current malaise of the West is the entirely predictable result of policies based on the premises about life and society of the prevailing egalitarian-individualist ideology … We must not permit intimidation, malicious smears or threats to keep us from affirming what is true, and doing what is right, strengthened by the confidence that future generations will respect us, and history will vindicate us.

The cameras shudder as blinding light flashes across the earth. Deformed white clouds balloon and mutate from the force of the nuclear test explosions. These are some of the images captured in raw footage of bomb tests carried out by the United States between 1945 and 1962 in Nevada and the Marshall Islands. For the first time, the footage is available in an online archive after some of about 10,000 nuclear testing films were restored, scrutinized and declassified in a project by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California. The bulk of the videos, some only seconds long and others just over seven minutes, had been stored at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

… William J. Perry is 89 now, at the tail end of one of his generation’s most illustrious careers in national security … The former U.S. secretary of Defense, a trained mathematician who served or advised nearly every administration since Eisenhower … has set out on an urgent pilgrimage … Nukes are suddenly — insanely, by Perry’s estimate — once again a contemporary nightmare, and an emphatically ascendant one … “Today, the danger of some sort of a nuclear catastrophe is greater than it was during the Cold War,” Perry said in an interview in his Stanford office, “and most people are blissfully unaware of this danger.” It is a turn of events that has an old man newly obsessed with a question: Why isn’t everyone as terrified as he is?

… I believe that we are now on the verge of a new nuclear arms race, and that we are drifting back to a Cold War mentality. Moreover, I believe that the risk of a nuclear catastrophe today is greater than it was during the Cold War — and yet our public is blissfully unaware of the new nuclear dangers they face … I believe that it is time to take a deep breath and ask what we really should be doing on this issue that affects the very survival of our civilization. We should not accept that diplomacy is incapable of reducing the present antagonism between the U.S. and Russia, any more than we accepted that it was impossible to use diplomacy with Iran. We have many common interests with Russia. Even as we confront Moscow on disputed issues, we must work together on others such as preventing nuclear proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

… Among Russians, there are signs that people are starting to see him more as an “effective manager” and a symbol of Soviet-Russian power. According to a poll by the state-backed VTsIOM polling agency, the results of which were published on July 20, “more than half of Russians (62 percent) agree with the view that plaques, busts, [and] paintings that talk about the success of Stalin should be put in public places … Seventy-seven percent of respondents aged 18-24 years supported such Stalin memorials, while 63 percent of respondents 60 years and older favored them … Russia’s attitude toward Stalin is reflected by Russian state propaganda and pro-Kremlin public figures.

… Trust in political institutions – including the electoral process itself – are at an all-time low … Societies the world over are experiencing a strong backlash to a system of government that has largely been the hallmark of developed nations for generations … The level of public trust in democratic institutions in the US has been plummeting for decades. According to a survey carried out in 2015 by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan organisation in Washington DC that investigates demographic trends, only 19 percent of people trust the government to do the right thing “always or most of the time.” In 1958, when the American National Election Study asked the same question, 73 percent of people did.

The claim: The US has the highest taxes in the world. Reality Check verdict: The total amount of tax raised by the United States as a proportion of the size of its economy is not the highest in the world. It also does not have the highest rates of taxes on households. By one measure, it does have the highest rate of corporation tax. / At a rally in Ohio on Tuesday, President Trump claimed that the US had the highest taxes in the world … The US is clearly not at the top of this list based on figures from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). In 2015, the US tax take came in at 26.4 percent of GDP, well below countries such as Italy at 43.3 percent, France at 45.5 percent, and Denmark at 46.6 percent. So, for overall tax, the US is certainly not the highest.

… In that contest, Iran won, and the United States lost. This is what most Americans have avoided confronting ever since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003. Ever since then, Americans from all walks of life have blindly thanked the troops for their “service” in Iraq, without giving any thought to exactly what such “service” consisted of. … The troops in Iraq were never fighting to defend our rights and freedoms. They were fighting for a regime change … Rather sad and pathetic, I’d say, considering 4,500 U.S. soldiers have been killed in Iraq and more than $1 trillion in U.S. taxpayer money were spent on the invasion and occupation. I wonder how many Americans realize that U.S. troops are now back in Iraq, helping to fortify the Iran-aligned Islamic regime they installed and protected for eight years?

… We invaded Iraq because a powerful group of pro-Israel ideologues — the neoconservatives — who had mustered forces in Washington over the previous two decades and at last had come into the White House were able to sell a vision of transforming the Middle East that was pure wishful hokum but that they believed: that if Arab countries were converted by force into democracies, the people would embrace the change and would also accept Israel as a great neighbor … The evidence for this causation is at every hand … America needs to come to terms with the extent to which it allowed rightwing Zionists to dominate discussions of going to war. This matter is now at the heart of the Republican embrace of the war on Iran. There is simply no other constituency in our country for that war besides rightwing Zionists.

Britain’s National Archives released records Thursday showing then prime minister Winston Churchill’s attempts to cover up a Nazi plot to collaborate with members of the British royal family. The elaborate plan to install the Duke of Windsor as king, should the Nazis successfully invade Britain, involved luring the abdicated king out of neutral Portugal to Spain to offer him a deal. Former king Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 over his marriage to US divorcee Wallis Simpson. He was known to have Nazi sympathies. Nazi telegrams detailing the plot were found after the war in German archives … Top secret documents, made available Thursday by the National Archives at Kew, showed how Churchill tried to stall the publication of the plot after World War II as he was worried about how the royal couple would be perceived.

The proprietor of the Daily Mail [newspaper] sent a series of supportive and congratulatory telegrams to Nazi Germany’s leaders, including Hitler, just months before the second world war, papers released today reveal. Intercepted messages from Lord Rothermere to Berlin are among the first papers to be released from Foreign Office intelligence files … “Our two great Nordic countries should pursue resolutely a policy of appeasement for, whatever anyone may say, our two great countries should be the leaders of the world,” he told Joachim von Ribbentrop, Hitler’s foreign minister, on July 7 1939. Ten days earlier, Rothermere had written to Hitler: “My Dear Führer, I have watched with understanding and interest the progress of your great and superhuman work in regenerating your country.”

Non-governmental organizations, civil libertarians, and business leaders warn that Ukraine appears to be sliding toward an increasingly nationalistic, anti-Semitic era characterized by hooliganism, threats, and, in some cases, outright violence to Jews. The precise degree of the culture’s drift toward a nationalism bordering on fascism — with a strong anti-Jewish drift — is difficult to determine … The Simon Wiesenthal Center has complained about the growing anti-Semitism in Ukraine, and filed several protests in recent months over the direction this nation of 42.5 million souls appears to be taking … Concern over rising anti-Jewish bigotry in Ukraine escalated further with the news the Ukrainian capital of Kiev intended to name city streets after Ukrainian nationalists Stefan Bandera and Roman Shukhevych.

… Most Americans today do not fully grasp the fragility of their status as “the leader of the free world.” Indeed, Washington has been standing astride the globe as a superpower for so long that most of its leaders have almost no understanding of the delicate design of their country’s global power built so carefully by two post-World War II presidents … By the time President Trump took his oath of office, negative, long-term trends had already started to limit the influence of any American leader on the world stage. These included a declining share of the global economy, an erosion of U.S. technological primacy, an inability to apply its overwhelming military power in a way that achieved expected policy goals on an ever more recalcitrant planet, and a generation of increasingly independent national leaders, whether in Europe, Asia, or Latin America.

As German forces advanced into the Soviet Union in 1941, many people welcomed the troops as liberators from Bolshevik tyranny. The welcome was especially warm in the Baltic countries, western Belarus and western Ukraine. As this four-minute video (no narration) shows, grateful people express appreciation for the troops who brought freedom from harsh Soviet rule, and restored ancient rights. German soldiers, as well as troops of German-allied nations, often helped local people repair homes and buildings, fix damaged infrastructure, and re-open churches that the Bolsheviks had shut down or destroyed.

Glimpses of life of Russians, and people of other Soviet nationalities, under German occupation during World War II, are shown. Included are scenes of people showing appreciation for German troops and administration, and for restoring freedoms that the Soviets had taken away. Runtime: 4:01 mins. With music, but no narration. Also shown are soldiers of the German-sponsored, anti-Stalinist “Russian Liberation Army.” In addition to the many former Soviet citizens who served in military units that fought with Germany and its allies against the Red Army were many others who served as volunteer “Hiwis.”

… Even though the Germans were the foe, more often than not, they treated us better than Stalin’s Reds. My dad was picked up by the Germans after being left for dead by Stalin’s troops, and was taken to one of their field hospitals. When he felt strong enough he left with the help of peasants and made his way home … For many in the West it may seem hard to believe, but Nazi occupation, despite reprisals, was better than being under Stalin. Because, for the first time, farmers could work the land free of the disastrous Bolshevik collective system, bumper crops were harvested. The Germans organized efficient food distribution. At last there was no starvation in the land.

… When all other parties to the deal and the IAEA agree that the deal is working as intended, it isn’t credible to assert that Iran isn’t complying without simply making things up. Trump wants his advisers in the White House to do just that. The trouble here isn’t just that Trump is desperate to find a way to renege on the deal, but that he wants to do so when the deal is doing exactly what it is supposed to do … Tillerson couldn’t “make sure” allies were “on board” with what Trump wanted because they see no reason to deny that Iranian compliance is happening when they all know that it is. Unlike Trump, they judge the deal on its merits, and they see no benefit in sabotaging it. Trump gave Tillerson an absurd, impossible job, and then faults him for failing to deliver on it.

Donald Trump’s disdain for the truth does not prevent reality from repeatedly bumping up against his policies … As for what was probably Barack Obama’s leading foreign policy accomplishment — the agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), to restrict Iran’s nuclear program — the reality that Trump rejects is that the accord is working as intended to prevent an Iranian nuclear weapon and that Iran is complying with its obligations under the agreement, as verified by inspectors of the International Atomic Energy Agency … The Trump White House already has violated not only the spirit but the letter of the JCPOA by openly and explicitly discouraging other countries, as it did at the G-20 summit meeting, from conducting normal business with Iran.

With two years of successful implementation in the books, Washington should be celebrating the anniversary of a historic Iran nuclear deal. Instead, President Trump is violating the pact and prompting its demise. With each passing day, it becomes less plausible that his violations are mistakes rather than malicious … Considering, too, that the U.S. has the positive obligation to “agree on steps to ensure Iran’s access in areas of trade, technology, finance, and energy,” Trump’s private urging to foreign countries to withdraw business ties with Iran puts the U.S. in irrefutable breach of the JCPOA. No one can any longer remain agnostic or in denial as to this basic fact … So far, though, the effect of Trump’s policy is to isolate only the United States.

… Trump also made a terrible mistake when, during the NATO summit in May, he tried to persuade European allies to stop their trade and financial transactions with Iran. By doing this, the United States accomplished the dubious feat of being the first power to violate the Iran nuclear deal. For instance, in the accord, the United States and European Union pledge to “refrain from any policy specifically intended to directly and adversely affect the normalization of trade and economic relations with Iran inconsistent with their commitments not to undermine the successful implementation of this [agreement].” They also agreed on “steps to ensure Iran’s access in areas of trade, technology, finance and energy.”

A group of retired U.S. generals and admirals urged the Trump administration Tuesday to maintain the framework of the Iran nuclear deal, saying the agreement is critical to national security and has successfully blocked the Islamic Republic’s path to a nuclear weapon. In an open letter to President Donald Trump, 38 former flag officers from the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines said that the Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action (JCPOA) has achieved its aims over the two years since it was signed by the Obama administration, Iran and five world powers … Despite reservations about Iran’s connection to terrorist groups, the retired officers argued that establishing regular diplomatic talks with Tehran could help reduce that suspicion and prevent war.

… The wars in Syria, Libya and Yemen were never authorized by Congress. The civilian dead, wounded and uprooted in Syria, and the malnourished millions in Yemen, represent a moral cost that seems far beyond any proportional moral gain from those conflicts. In which of the countries we have attacked or invaded in this century — Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Yemen — are the people better off than they were before we came? And we wonder why they hate us … Meanwhile, the Americans, $20 trillion in debt, running $800 billion trade deficits, unable to fix their health care system, reform their tax code, or fund an infrastructure program, prepare to fight new Middle East war.

… The media’s claim that the fighting in Syria was due to a spontaneous popular uprising was false. The repressive Assad government was widely unpopular but the uprising was another CIA ‘color-style’ operation. The object of this operation was to overthrow President Assad and his Shiite-leaning regime, which was supported by Iran, a bogeyman to all the US-backed feudal Arab oil monarchies. Syria was also to be punished because it refused Washington’s demands to sever ties with Iran and accept US tutelage … The result of the western-engendered carnage in Syria was horrendous: at least 475,000 dead, five million Syrian refugees driven into exile in neighboring states (Turkey alone hosts three million), and another six million internally displaced … The US has no real business in Syria and no strategic interests.

Just six months after his inauguration, Americans already are split down the middle, 42 percent – 42 percent, over whether President Trump should be removed from office, a new USA Today/ iMediaEthics Poll finds. While no serious effort is now underway in Congress to impeach Trump, the results underscore how quickly political passions have become inflamed both for and against the outsider candidate who won last year’s campaign in a surprise. A third of those surveyed say they would be upset if Trump is impeached; an equal third say they would be upset if he’s not … Nearly half, 46 percent, say Trump isn’t likely to complete his first term, for whatever reason. Only about one in four, 27 percent, express confidence he’ll serve all four years of his term. Even one in ten Republicans doubt he’ll finish his tenure.

Almost one in three people in southern German state of Bavaria favor independence from Germany, German media reported on Monday, citing a newly-released survey. A total of 32 percent of Bavarians supports independence for the region, which marks the highest such independence streak of the country’s 16 states, according to a survey carried out by the market research firm YouGov for the popular German daily newspaper Bild. This was a higher percentage than any of the other 15 German states surveyed, with residents of both Saarland and Thuringia tied at second place at 22 percent … The wealthy state of Bavaria, well known for its Oktoberfest beer festival and its traditional culture, is Germany’s largest state by land area and its second-most populous state, with more than 12.8 million residents.

… The research and development carried out in Peenemünde was not only crucial to the course of the biggest war in history, but impacted the future of weapons of mass destruction, as well as space travel … German rocket scientists and engineers who worked for the Nazi regime were offered citizenship and jobs in the USSR, Great Britain, France and the US. Most famously, von Braun went on to live in the US and work for Nasa, where he developed the rockets that launched the Apollo-manned lunar landings. In addition to impacting the space race and guided missiles of the Cold War, the research and development performed at Peenemünde informed all later developments in rocket engineering.

Recordings of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu attacking the European Union, bashing former US President Barack Obama and admitting to previous Israeli strikes against Iranian-backed groups in the region were leaked Wednesday to the shock of the public and to the dismay of the premier. Netanyahu made all the comments as part of a closed-door meeting … while the microphone he was wearing remained activated and his words could be heard by journalists … Speaking about the change in US administration, Netanyahu attacked former President Barack Obama. ”We had a big problem with the United States. It’s different now. There’s a renewed American presence in the region [Syria and the Middle East at large] and more bombings. That’s positive,” he said, implying that he approved of the new tone set at the White House …

… I still count our meetings with Adolf Hitler as highlights in my life. For us he was a leader who dedicated, and sacrificed, himself for his people, one who eminently fulfilled his life’s mission. He united his countrymen, of all classes and stations, from the aristocracy to the farmers and laborers, as had no man before him. His soldiers fought heroically to the last, particularly the men of the Waffen SS, not only Germans but from across Europe. Like my beloved brother, who died in combat in the ranks of the SS, and my husband, I think of Adolf Hitler as the first European.

… The big explosion in military spending comes as the US is planning to dramatically increase its military actions overseas. The president is expected to send thousands more troops back to Afghanistan, the longest war in US history … In Syria, the United States has currently established at least eight military bases even though it has no permission to do so from the Syrian government nor does it have a UN resolution authorizing the US military presence there … President Trump seems to be incapable of understanding that it is US intervention and occupation of foreign countries that creates instability and feeds terrorism. Continuing to do the same thing for more than 17 years – more US bombs to “stabilize” the Middle East – and expecting different results is hardly a sensible foreign policy. It is insanity.

Senator John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told President Trump’s nominee for Army Undersecretary, Ryan McCarthy, a Lockheed Martin Executive and former aid to Secretary of Defense Bob Gates, that “the U.S. Army is facing a crisis.” … The failures in Army modernization and readiness are due to the Army generals’ fanatical resistance to fundamental organizational reform, prudent modernization, and change in the way the Army must fight in the future … Bad news is never welcome in Washington, DC, but it’s necessary. The fighting power of an army lies in its combat formations, not in gross numbers of soldiers. Today’s Army is spread too thinly around the world, and its fighting formations are Cold War relics … The world Americans have known for fifty years is crumbling.

The most striking fact about the United States of America is not its supposed founding principles — more often lauded than observed — but how often “the greatest country on earth” has waged war. If we count wars against internal “enemies” (i.e., the Indians), covert foreign wars, and aid to other states’ aggressive external and internal wars, we can see the United States has been at war almost continuously since it broke free from Britain. By one estimate this nation has been at war 214 out of the 228 years since the Constitution took effect — that’s 94 percent of the time … From the start, war was an acceptable means to national policy ends, whether to open markets or to install friendly regimes. It’s a gross understatement to call this record shameful. It’s criminal when you calculate the predictable butcher’s bill …

President Donald Trump was eager to declare Iran in breach of the nuclear deal but was talked out of it by national security aides who rushed to the Oval Office to persuade him as a midnight deadline approached, administration officials say. Trump agreed Monday night [July 16] to let the issue go, but only for a few more months — and only after last-minute changes to distance Trump further from the deal … The deadline comes up again in three months. Given Trump’s strong reluctance to certify Iran’s compliance, it’s highly unlikely he will agree to do it again … Top advisers scurried to the White House, with Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and national security adviser H.R. McMaster urging Trump to preserve the status quo — at least until the Iran review is completed and a new U.S. policy ready to be unveiled.

A British presentation, with English-language narration, of the Allied aerial assault on Hamburg in late July 1943. The British-American “Operation Gomorrah” bombings killed 42,600 civilians and wounded 37,000. It created a 1,500-foot-high tornado of fire, a firestorm. A million civilians fled the city. This was an example of Allied “area bombing,” which targeted for death all Germans — including all women and children. British prime minister Winston Churchill himself wrote in a memo of the Allied policy of “bombing of German cities simply for the sake of increasing the terror.”

… The firestorm was so strong that it turned streets into wind tunnels. I saw roofs flying through the sky; it was like a film, like science fiction, but real. Wherever there was asphalt, it was burning and melting. I saw two women, a younger and an older one, running across the asphalt and their shoes getting stuck in the boiling asphalt. They pulled their feet out of their shoes – which turned out to be impractical, however, as they now had to walk across the boiling asphalt barefoot. They collapsed and just lay there. Like flies in hot candle wax.

… Six months after taking office, Tillerson’s State Department is populated by ghosts, with office after office empty, top positions unfilled, key ambassadorships unnamed. Under Tillerson’s uncertain leadership, America’s diplomatic expertise – its ability to bring experience to bear on knotty international problems, its facility for reconciling warring parties and conflicts from the Middle East to Asia – has been decimated … Trump and Tillerson have yet to nominate candidates to fill more than 83 senior-level positions and ambassadorships, and that’s only a partial count. At the level of assistant secretary – the folks who actually manage day-to-day diplomacy – out of 22 positions, only two people have been nominated, and one confirmed.

Some 310 violations have been committed by Israeli forces against journalists since the start of the year, the Committee for the Support of Journalists revealed in a report yesterday. The report, which covers the period between January 1 and June 30, states that excessive force was used against media personnel in violation of all international and human rights conventions which guarantee the freedom of press. Journalists were arrested, detained and prevented from entering areas to provide coverage, the organisation said, while many had their equipment damaged or confiscated. Others were barred from travel or had their homes raided, while media outlets were shut down or threatened. There were 78 cases in which journalists were shot, either using live bullets or rubber coated live munitions …

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday [July 16] Israel opposes the cease-fire in Syria brokered by the United States and Russia because it empowers Iran. Netanyahu made the comments to reporters after a meeting with French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris … According to Haaretz, Netanyahu discussed his displeasure with the cease-fire in southern Syria with Macron and made it known that Israel was opposed to the plan. A senior Israeli official told Haaretz Israel believes Iran intends to expand its presence in Syria by sending advisers and military forces there. The Israeli official said Tehran wants to establish a base for Iranian aircraft and a naval base for Iran in Syria.

In the years after the creation of the Israeli state hundreds of babies went missing. Their parents, mostly Jewish immigrants from Yemen, were told their children had died, but suspicions linger that they were secretly given away to childless families – and newly released documents have revealed some disturbing evidence … Testimony given under oath at one of the earlier inquiries revealed that four undernourished babies died after being given an experimental protein injection, and that many children died as a result of medical negligence … In some cases the children’s hearts were removed for US doctors, who were studying why there was almost no heart disease in Yemen … One of the disturbing aspects of the Yemenite Children Affair is the way the darker-skinned immigrants appear to have been treated as second-class citizens.

The criminalization of political speech and activism against Israel has become one of the gravest threats to free speech in the West … Now, a group of 43 senators — 29 Republicans and 14 Democrats — wants to implement a law that would make it a felony for Americans to support the international boycott against Israel, which was launched in protest of that country’s decades-old occupation of Palestine … Perhaps the most shocking aspect is the punishment: Anyone guilty of violating the prohibitions will face a minimum civil penalty of $250,000 and a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison … The bill’s co-sponsors include the senior Democrat in Washington, Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, his New York colleague Kirsten Gillibrand, and several of the Senate’s more liberal members …

In a recent speech on the Senate floor, New York Senator Charles Schumer said that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism. (In a 2010 speech Schumer said that God made him a ‘guardian of Israel’). Schumer, the Senate minority leader, made his remarks at the end of a speech on health care. Schumer said he wanted to thank French President Emmanuel Macron for his recent comments claiming that anti-Zionism was antisemitism. Schumer claimed that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an extremely diverse movement that includes many Jewish individuals and groups, is “antisemitic.” Schumer said: “The global BDS movement is a deeply biased campaign that I would say, in similar words to Mr. Macron, is a ‘reinvented form of anti-Semitism’ because it seeks to impose boycotts on Israel and not on any other nation.”

… [Christopher] Nolan, who wrote and produced as well as directed Dunkirk, has made an intensely dramatic and moving film about what Winston Churchill called “a colossal military disaster.” He has managed to combine the epic and the intimate … This is a juddering, nerve-fraying movie to sit through. Nolan doesn’t skimp from showing the blind terror and helplessness of the 400,000 British soldiers stranded on the beach in the summer of 1940, seemingly abandoned … The filmmakers have gone to extraordinary lengths to portray the Dunkirk evacuation in as realistic a fashion as possible. At the same time, the film has a mythic dimension. Amid the suffering and squalor, it showcases the quiet heroism of pilots, sailors, soldiers and civilians alike.

From first frame to last, Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk is a monumental achievement, a World War II epic of staggering visual spectacle (see it in IMAX if you can) that hits you like a shot in the heart. Leave it to a filmmaking virtuoso at the peak of his powers to break both new ground and all the rules – who else would make a triumphant war film about a crushing Allied defeat? And who but Nolan, born in London to a British father and an American mother, would tackle WWII without America in it? … The cast is reliably superb, but this is not a film that needs or encourages star turns – it’s as fine and unselfish a display of ensemble acting as you’ll see anywhere … Nolan’s film is, above all, a celebration of communal heroism – the “Dunkirk spirit” that enabled these soldiers, despite heavy casualties, to fight another day.

A British writer believes he may have uncovered the mystery behind Hitler’s decision to stop German troops advancing on Allied Forces at Dunkirk – despite having them almost surrounded … Hitler’s attempt at a peace treaty with Britain was rejected by the Prime Minister on Oct. 10, 1939 … but Mr Davis claims the dictator may have tried again during the Battle of Dunkirk. He added: “What is known is that on the day Hitler stopped the troops advancing his generals reported in their diaries that he was in very good humour and told them the war would be over within days or weeks. Ten days after the German tanks began to attack France, General Jodl wrote in his diary that the Führer was ‘beside himself with joy,’ adding that he was ‘working on the peace treaty.’ After which he [Hitler] told them he would make a `just peace’ settlement with Britain.”

Scholars of the life of Gertrude Stein were startled to learn that in 1938 the prominent Jewish-American writer had spearheaded a campaign urging the Nobel committee to award its Peace Prize to Adolf Hitler … Stein’s seemingly paradoxical views about Hitler and fascism have never been a secret. As early as 1934, she told a reporter that Hitler should be awarded the Nobel peace prize.

Seventy-five years on from the Battle of Britain, the question remains: was Churchill right to reject peace overtures from Germany in 1940? Did the moral grounds for a continuation of the war – a just cause, a proportionate cost and a realistic likelihood of victory – exist? Was more war morally justifiable? … In 1940, Hitler had neither the means nor the intention of invading Britain … The British “Victory” of 1945 is largely mythic. The cost of not ending the war in 1940 included the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Britons, the ruination of most British cities, and a debt burden to the US that lasted three generations.

… Despite the American people caring far more about health care than any other issue, the media has swamped the airwaves with Trump/Russia conspiracies to the detriment of nearly everything else. The difference between the people and the press was so jarring, I created a chart comparing the two studies … Just six percent of Americans think Russia is the top issue, yet nightly newscasts devoted 75 percent of their airtime to the story. Meanwhile, Americans’ biggest concern, health care, only garnered four percent of the major networks’ total coverage. The media have shown how drastically out of step they are with their own audience. If they want to earn back their hemorrhaging Nielsen numbers, perhaps they can spend time on something other than Russia Russia Russia.

Turkey’s state-run news agency leaked the positions of U.S. military bases and special forces stationed in northern Syria Tuesday as Ankara continues to vent its anger over Washington’s support for Syrian Kurds on its southern border. Anadolu news agency reported that the U.S. has ten military points in northern Syria to assist the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, in the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) … The news agency said the bases are “usually hidden for security reasons,” but proceeded to list ten bases in the northern and northeastern Syrian districts … The report goes on to list the U.S. areas of operation and the precise district in which they are stationed. It also provides the presence of U.S. and French special forces at particular bases, and the number of elite forces stationed there.

In the latest display of Turkish anger at U.S. policy in Syria, the state news agency has divulged the locations of ten U.S. military bases and outposts in northern Syria where the U.S. is leading an operation to destroy the so-called Islamic State in its self-styled capital of Raqqa. The list published by the Anadolu news agency points to a U.S. presence from one end to the other of the Kurdish self-administration region — a distance of more than 200 miles. The Anadolu news agency even listed the number of U.S. troops in several locations … The U.S. operation in Syria is in many respects an unusual case. Not only is the United States acting against the express wishes of NATO ally Turkey, which says its national security is directly endangered, it’s also operating without the permission of the Assad regime.

… There is a growing crisis in the land of make-believe — a soaring increase in the number of homeless people living on its streets. Homelessness in Los Angeles County soared by 23 percent in the past year and it shows. The problem has become tangible and inescapable, with makeshift tent encampments cropping up across the sprawling metropolis. Tourists are shocked to find themselves stepping over people draped in filthy blankets and begging on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame … The yearly homeless count in Los Angeles County rose to 58,000 in 2017, up from 46,874 in 2016. Neighbouring areas, such as Orange County, are also experiencing the same upwards trend …. Young people – aged 18-24 – are the fastest growing group of homeless people, up 64 percent. And children without a home increased 41 percent.

… The United States has tried its hand a lot at regime change. By one count, the US tried to overthrow 72 different governments during the Cold War alone — and that’s before the most recent misadventures in Iraq and Libya. It’s not exactly a track record of success: the United States failed most of the time to accomplish the fundamental goal of toppling the target. And a quick glance at Iraq is enough to remind you that even when America “succeeds,” it often really fails. Despite this track record, the Wall Street Journal opinion pages called for US-led regime change in North Korea and Iran on the same day. That’s the same Wall Street Journal that championed the Iraq War over and over again …

On July 20, 1944, a group of German conspirators tried to kill Hitler and violently seize power in Berlin. In the US and Germany today, the anti-Hitler conspirators are portrayed as men of exemplary courage, conscience and principle. This prevailing, “politically correct” idealization, Weber explains, is a gross distortion of reality. By today’s standards, von Stauffenberg and the other leading conspirators were “Nazis.” They supported the policies and principles of the National Socialist government for at least five years, and only belatedly turned against the Hitler regime. Runtime: 50 mins.

… Are we really at war with Russia? Is Russia really our enemy? … What are the roots of this hostility to Russia and hatred of Putin, whom a Fox analyst called “as bad as Hitler”? During the Cold War, every president sought detente with a USSR that was arguably the most blood-soaked regime of the century … Yet [now] hostility to Russia and hatred of Putin seem to exceed anything some of us remember from the worst days of the Cold War … If America stumbles into a war with Russia that all our Cold War presidents avoided, the Russia baiters and Putin haters will be put in same circle of hell by history as the idiot war hawks of 1914 and the three blind men of Versailles in 1919.

Senior Israeli Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu believes the Israeli army should stop arresting Palestinians and execute them instead. “It must execute them and leave no one alive,” Eliyahu wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday, according to Defend Democracy Press. Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the city of Safed, has a record of making racist remarks about Arabs and Muslims. He once said Israel should take “revenge” against Arabs, and that Palestinians, whom he once labeled enemies of Israel, must be “destroyed and crushed in order to end violence.” “If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill 1,000,” Eliyahu told the Jerusalem Post in 2007. “And if they do not stop after 1,000, then we must kill 10,000. If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million.”

An Israeli Jewish rabbi described on Sunday the Palestinians as “monsters,” calling for slaughtering them to “get closer to God.” Chief Rabbi of Safed and Member of the Israeli Chief Rabbinate Council Shmuel Eliyahu said: “The Palestinians are monsters and killing them is a religious duty.” Speaking to the Israeli TV Channel 7, Eliyahu added: “Slaughtering the Palestinians getting us [Jews] closer to God.” He said that slaughtering the Palestinians is a “biblical duty and implementing it is as important as respecting Saturdays.” Eliyahu called on the “state of Israel to work on carrying out this duty.” In January this year, Eliyahu called for the Israeli army to stop arresting the Palestinians, but to execute them instead. Several other rabbis have issued similar orders calling for killing Palestinians, naming this a religious duty.

Enraged by Dublin’s financial aid to anti-Israel Palestinian rights groups, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has lashed out at visiting Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney over his country’s pro-Palestine policy. Netanyahu’s office made the criticism in a statement issued on Tuesday after the premier’s meeting with Coveney in Jerusalem al-Quds. The premier “expressed his dissatisfaction over Ireland’s traditional stance” on Palestine, and urged Coveney to condemn what he called Palestinian “incitement,” the statement read. He also challenged the top Irish diplomat over Dublin’s assistance to the “NGOs that call for the destruction of Israel,” it added.

Nelson Mandela said that the teachings of Mahatma Gandhi had helped to topple apartheid in South Africa … Yet not all African leaders are inspired by the man known as the “Father of India”. An online petition, which has been signed by more than 1,000 people, has been started by professors at the University of Ghana. They call for the removal of a statue of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi from the campus grounds in Accra. The academics say that Gandhi, who has been praised by public figures for leading India’s non-violent movement to freedom from British colonial rule during the mid-20th century, had a “racist identity”. The petition lists quotes from the writings of the Indian leader, in which he described Africans as “savages or the Natives of Africa” and “kaffirs” (an insulting racial slur for a black African).

Iran’s top diplomat Sunday accused President Trump of violating the international nuclear deal. “The United States has failed to implement its part of the bargain,” Iran foreign minister Javad Zarif told CNN’s “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” He pointed to Trump’s recent meetings in Germany with world leaders as evidence of the US violating the two-year-old deal. “President Trump used his presence in Hamburg during the G-20 meeting, in order to dissuade leaders from other countries to engage in business with Iran. That is violation of not the spirit but of the letter of the JCPOA, of the nuclear deal,” Zarif said. “I believe the United States needs to bring itself into compliance with its party of the obligation under the deal.” Trump campaigned on ripping up the “disastrous” Iran nuclear deal that was negotiated by President Obama’s administration.

More than 40 crimes were recorded at a far-right music festival in Thuringia over the weekend, including participants giving the Hitler salute. The state’s left-wing leader now wants such festivals banned. Police confirmed on Monday that they were investigating a video which they claim shows dozens of people repeatedly displaying the Hitler salute at the “Rock against Foreign Domination” music festival in the town of Themar. In the video the festival goers also appear to chant “Heil”, a reference to the Nazi greeting “Sieg Heil.” The displaying of Nazi symbols is illegal in Germany, as is denial of the Holocaust and glorifying the Nazi era. In total 46 crimes were recorded at the festival, at which around 6,000 people turned up.

… Our Founding Fathers’ political philosophy originated with their Saxon forefathers, and the ancient rights guaranteed by the Saxon constitution … If Jefferson begrudged the malign influence of the Normans on the natural law he so cherished, imagine how he’d view America’s contemporary cultural and political conquistadors — be they from Latin America, the Arabian Peninsula, and beyond — whose customs preclude natural rights and natural reason! … To Jefferson, early Americans were the contemporary carriers of the Anglo-Saxon project … Like it or not, Thomas Jefferson, author of The Declaration, was sired and inspired by the Anglo-Saxon tradition.

Until recently, life in Qatar was quite pleasant. But then Saudi Arabia, backed by President Donald Trump, who has gone from critic to fan of the ruling royals there, led an effort to isolate its smaller neighbor. With supreme irony, Riyadh, whose people have done more to fund and man terrorist attacks on Americans than any other nation, accused Doha of backing terrorists … The half-dozen Gulf states share a critical characteristic: all are essentially fake countries … All contract out the hardest work, from manual to professional, to foreigners. Instead of being countries, they resemble country clubs, in which a dominant few … Up to 90 percent (some estimates are a bit lower) of the residents of the United Arab Emirates are foreigners. Roughly 85 percent of Qatar’s population is foreign. Kuwait comes in at 70 percent.

… This is a reminder of the maxim that for many people, the only use of history is to disregard it. The United States has a long history of fomenting regime change in other countries — including Iran, in a CIA-sponsored coup in 1953 — and the results have generally been calamitous. Yet its appeal persists … It was not Iran that spawned the scariest enemy now on the horizon — the Islamic State group. It was the U.S. occupation of Iraq after we invaded in 2003 to, yes, topple the government … Relying on any means short of war to overthrow the government has little chance of working. Military force might be more effective, but it would mean full-scale war in Iran. Even if we were to win, the outcome would most likely yield more chaos, conflict and terrorism.

My personal experience in writing about this issue for more than a decade and a half illustrates the very American tale of media omission on Palestine. Just last week another episode showed that the saga continues … Most recently, Truthout, a progressive website with a large readership that publishes much excellent work, accepted an article I had submitted about government monitoring of Palestine activism. My piece went through the standard editing and fact-checking, and the next day the article was published on the website. Briefly. It was quickly removed when higher-ups saw it and the staff then told me courteously and apologetically it wasn’t “the right fit for Truthout.” I asked what this meant, exactly, but haven’t heard back.

The Chilcot inquiry’s conclusion that the invasion of Iraq was unnecessary and undermined the United Nations requires the prosecution of [former British Prime Minister] Tony Blair, the high court has heard. In his opening argument calling for a war crimes trial in Britain, Michael Mansfield QC said that the offence of waging an aggressive war has effectively been assimilated into English law. The attempt to bring Blair – with the former foreign secretary Jack Straw and the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith – to court has been launched by the former Iraqi general Abdulwaheed al-Rabbat.

A memorial for a lawyer who counted accused neo-Nazis and white nationalists among her clients went ahead at a Toronto Public Library branch Wednesday evening, despite calls from local politicians and human rights advocates for the library to cancel the event. “It certainly will discredit the Toronto library system,” said Bernie Farber, former CEO of the Canadian Jewish Congress, who said he was “stunned” that the library agreed to rent space at its Richview branch in Etobicoke for a memorial in honour of Barbara Kulaszka … Kulaszka represented some of Canada’s most famous far-right extremists, including German-born Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, who was deported back to his home country in 2005 after a Canadian judge deemed him a security threat.

In recent years, considerable attention has been devoted to the supposed danger of “Holocaust denial.” Politicians, newspapers and television warn about the growing influence of those who reject the Holocaust story that some six million European Jews were systematically exterminated during the Second World War, most of them in gas chambers. In several countries, including Israel, France, Germany and Austria, “Holocaust denial” is against the law, and “deniers” have been punished with stiff fines and prison sentences … Often overlooked in this controversy is the crucial question: Just what constitutes “Holocaust denial”?

The Washington, D.C., transit system has rejected an innocuous IHR advertisement that simply proclaims “History Matters!,” absurdly claiming it violates guidelines that prohibit ads “intended to influence members of the public regarding an issue on which there are varying opinions,” and that “are intended to influence public policy.” The proposed digital display ad consists of the two words “History Matters!,” superimposed on an image of a globe, along with the name of the sponsoring organization and the IHR logo and website address. “By any rational standard,” says IHR director Mark Weber, “the guidelines cited by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority do not reasonably apply to this ad. If Washington Metro sees fit to ban a ‘History Matters!’ display, it can justify banning anything.”

… Number one on my little list is Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley, who is particularly dangerous as she is holding a position where she can do bad things. Haley has been shooting from the lip since she assumed office … It is never clear whether she is speaking for herself or for the White House … At various UN meetings Haley has repeatedly and uncritically complained of institutional bias towards Israel, asserting that the “days of Israel bashing are over,” without ever addressing the issue that Israeli treatment of the Palestinians might in part be responsible for the criticism leveled against it. Her description of Israel as an “ally” is hyperbolic and she tends to be oblivious to actual American interests in the region when Israel is involved.

In his Warsaw speech on Thursday, Donald Trump threw down the gauntlet on the meaning and essence of Western Civilization, and it fell at the feet of two writers for The Atlantic — Peter Beinart and James Fallows. They avidly took it up, and in the process distilled a fundamental debate of our time … The debate centers on whether American values, however they may be defined, are a legacy of the Western heritage or whether America is “an idea,” as Fallows puts it, that transcends any concept of civilization or the people who created it. Indeed, in the Beinart-Fallows view, merely an overly abundant mention of “the West”’ or “our civilization” constitutes a kind of white nationalism or tribalism … Essentially, it is about the definition of America … This matter … lies at the heart of the country’s current deadlock crisis. It isn’t going away anytime soon.

Two thousand years ago, Roman builders constructed vast sea walls and harbor piers. The concrete they used outlasted the empire — and still holds lessons for modern engineers, scientists say … The harbor concrete, a mixture of volcanic ash and quicklime, has withstood the sea for two millennia and counting. What’s more, it is stronger than when it was first mixed. The Roman stuff is “an extraordinarily rich material in terms of scientific possibility,” said Philip Brune, a research scientist at DuPont Pioneer who has studied the engineering properties of Roman monuments. “It’s the most durable building material in human history, and I say that as an engineer not prone to hyperbole.” By contrast, modern concrete exposed to saltwater corrodes within decades. The mystery has been why the ancient material endured.

… Ambassadors in Washington are clueless these days, or rather clues are all they have, because, as this one was explaining to me, the usual avenues of diplomacy in the US capital have broken down. The same words were spoken by several ambassadors from across the globe that I’ve spoken to in DC recently … America isn’t taking one for the team anymore, because President Trump isn’t a team player. So diplomats make sure they go into their meetings with an idea that Mr Trump can claim as a victory. It must be structured, as one diplomat put it, “so he can say to people, ‘we scored a win here,’ because for him it’s all about winning” … After laying out this elaborate strategy, the Western diplomat confessed, “but then there are those who say the most important thing is to be the last person to talk to him before he makes a decision.”

… Bethlehem is the most heavily Christian city in Palestine. Its Arab Christian mayor, Vera Baboun, describes her hometown the “capital of Christmas” and says that between Bethlehem proper and the surrounding Bethlehem governate, there are upward of 38,000 Christian residents. Christmas celebrations there form an integral part of city life … The existence of Palestinian Christians, and the difficulties they face under Israeli occupation in their homeland, is a blind spot for American Christians. Evangelicals in particular are often strong supporters of Israel and suspicious of Muslims but don’t seem to realize that those aren’t the only groups at play in the region.

The State Department has finally released a much-awaited volume of internal documents from 1951 to 1954 … Although many scholars of Iran anticipated new revelations about the actual overthrow of Mossadeq in August 1953, few expected such information … It is a goldmine of astounding information — especially on three important arenas. First, it reveals how deeply the US — not just the CIA but also the US embassy headed by Ambassador Loy Henderson — was immersed in the nitty-gritty of internal day-to-day Iranian politics … This meddling in internal politics may well explain why the State Department was so reluctant to release these embassy dispatches … Anyone interested in the workings of imperialism in a semi-colonial state would learn much wading through this morass of badly written and turgid double-speak.

The Pew Research Center released last week the results of one of its periodic surveys of global views of the United States and its leadership and policies. More than 40,000 people were polled in 37 countries across six continents between February and May. The most salient finding is a dramatic drop in confidence in the United States and, more specifically, in the current U.S. leadership. When asked about “confidence in the U.S. president to do the right thing in world affairs,” 22 percent of those surveyed expressed confidence in Donald Trump and 74 percent expressed no confidence … As documented by the Pew survey, there is less confidence in Trump to do the right thing than in Xi Jinping of China or Vladimir Putin of Russia. The three adjectives that respondents most attached to Trump were “arrogant,” “intolerant,” and “dangerous”.

… We have recently acquired 4,000 new pages of documents from the Pentagon and CIA through the Freedom of Information Act … These documents for the first time demonstrate that the US government has worked behind the scenes on over 800 major movies and more than 1,000 TV titles … A similar influence is exerted over military-supported TV, which ranges from Hawaii Five-O to America’s Got Talent, Oprah and Jay Leno to Cupcake Wars, along with numerous documentaries by PBS, the History Channel and the BBC. National Security Cinema also reveals how dozens of films and TV shows have been supported and influenced by the CIA … In all, we are looking at a vast, militarised propaganda apparatus operating throughout the screen entertainment industry in the United States.

Ron Chernow has written a detailed and sometimes tedious history of one of the world’s most prominent international banking families [The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family] … Chernow provides insight into how Jewish patricians operate in society, and how their roles changed during the turbulent twentieth century … If anyone can be called the father of the Federal Reserve Bank, the New York Times has rightly noted, it is Paul Warburg … An international network of Jewish organizations and charities devoted to the well-being of Jewish communities around the world operated as a shadow government for this scattered, stateless population … They also played an major role in domestic and international politics.

If you wish to understand the degree to which the supposedly free western media are constructing a world of half-truths and deceptions to manipulate their audiences, keeping us uninformed and pliant, there could hardly be a better case study than their treatment of Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. All of these highly competitive, for-profit, scoop-seeking media outlets separately took identical decisions: first to reject Hersh’s latest investigative report, and then to studiously ignore it once it was published in Germany … Hersh’s version suggests that Trump acted against the intelligence advice he received from his own officials, in a highly dangerous move that not only grossly violated international law but might have dragged Assad’s main ally, Russia, into the fray.

Conan Doyle, the creator of the legendary Sherlock Holmes, would have titled his story about this incident “The Bizarre Case of Bashar al-Assad” … It concerns the evil deeds of Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian dictator, who bombed his own people with Sarin, a nerve gas, causing gruesome deaths of the victims … The first question Sherlock Holmes would ask is: What is the motive? Who has something to gain? Bashar had no motive at all. He could only lose by gas-bombing his citizens. Unless, of course, he is crazy. And nothing indicates that he is. On the contrary, he seems to be in full control of his senses … One would like to believe that the world – and especially the “Western World” – is full of honest newspapers, which investigate thoroughly and publish the truth. That is not so … They are unconscious prisoners of lies.

The pro-Israel campaign in state legislatures against boycotting Israel just scored another victory in North Carolina. Last month corresponding bills were passed in Nevada, Ohio, and Kansas. Similar laws are also being passed in U.S. cities and at the federal level. Members of the North Carolina House of Representatives voted 96 to 19 and state Senators voted 45 to 3 for legislation that prevents state institutions from doing business with companies that boycott Israeli companies and/or products made in Israel … Some of the other groups promoting the legislation are The Israel Project, a national pro-Israel organization; United for Israel, an international organization; and the American Jewish Committee, which created a letter opposing BDS that all 50 US governors signed. The AJC called it “a big win for Jewish advocacy and Israel.”

German lawmakers approved a bill on Friday aimed at cracking down on hate speech on social networks, which critics say could have drastic consequences for free speech online. The measure approved is designed to enforce the country’s existing limits on speech, including the long-standing ban on Holocaust denial. Among other things, it would fine social networking sites up to 50 million euros ($56 million) if they persistently fail to remove illegal content within a week, including defamatory “fake news.” … Social media platforms such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have become a battleground for angry debates about Germany’s recent influx of more than one million refugees … Among those cheering the law was Germany’s main Jewish organization, which called it a “strong instrument against hate speech in social networks.”

Saudi Arabia is the chief foreign promoter of Islamist extremism in the UK, a report has warned. The conservative Henry Jackson Society said there was a “clear and growing link” between Islamist organisations preaching violence and foreign state funding. In a new report entitled “Foreign Funded Islamist Extremism in the UK,” the thinktank calls for a public inquiry into extremism bankrolled by other countries. It suggests several Gulf states and Iran are responsible for much of the foreign funding of extremism in the UK, but that Saudi Arabia in particular had spent millions on exporting its conservative branch of Wahhabi Islam to Muslim communities in the West since the 1960s.

… Was the discovery of America and conquest of this continent from 1492 to the 20th century among the most glorious chapters in the history of man? Or was it a half-millennium marked by mankind’s most scarlet of sins: the genocide of native peoples, the enslavement of Africans, the annihilation of indigenous cultures, the spoliation of a virgin land? … Watching our Lilliputians tearing down statues and monuments, renaming buildings and streets, rewriting history books to replace heroes and historical truths with the doings of ciphers, are we disassembling the nation we once were?

A combination of circumstances has increased the risk that armed conflict will break out between the United States and Iran. Such a war is no certainty, but the chance that one will occur is greater today than it has been in years … Politically potent interests have their own narrow reasons to keep U.S.-Iranian relations bad and to keep Iran isolated. Foremost among those interests is the right-wing government of Israel, for which Iran as chief bête noire serves to cripple a competitor for regional influence, to explain all regional trouble in terms that do not relate to Israel, to distract attention from matters (especially the occupation of Palestinian territory) the Israeli government would rather not discuss, and to keep the United States wedded to Israel as supposedly its only reliable regional partner.

U.S. President Donald Trump made his emotional address to the Poles speaking at the foot of the metal-and-stone Monument to the Warsaw Uprising, a heroic but failed 1944 uprising by Poland’s clandestine Home Army against the occupying Nazi Germans. The monument stands near the still-existing entry into the city’s sewer system that the insurgents and civilians used to flee the area as it was being overtaken by the Nazis. At least 150,000 Poles – both fighters and civilians – died in the fierce street fighting in the uprising … It shows some fighters entering the sewer opening, while others are fleeing a wall that is collapsing after an explosion. It is a site of great emotions and pride for Poles.

…Trump distorted history in favor of Poland’s view of things. Trump described how the Poles stood against the Bolshevik army in 1920 and saved Europe from Soviet conquest (despite the vexing fact that Poland’s wish to annex the best pieces of Ukrainian and Belorussian territories actually inflamed conflict). He also said that in 1939, Poland was “attacked again – by Nazi Germany from the West and the Soviet Union from the East,” this, despite the fact that Poland initially shared defeated Czechoslovakia with the Third Reich and then reaped what it had sown) … Among those precise hits was also the Polish version of the Warsaw Uprising.

General Bor, leader of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, meets with the German commander, SS General von dem Bach. After 63 days of fierce and heroic combat, in which many tens of thousands lost their lives, 9,000 Polish fighters surrender and turn in their arms. In ranks four abreast, they march into captivity with honor and pride. Portion of the German weekly newsreel, “Die Deutsche Wochenschau” of Oct. 18, 1944. With German-language narration.

… After Washington overthrew the rulers of Iraq and Libya, it became painfully apparent that small nations without nuclear weapons were vulnerable to US ‘regime change’ operations. The North Koreans, who are very eccentric but not stupid, rushed to accelerate their nuclear weapons and delivery systems … Growing US hysteria over North Korea, a nation of only 25 million, recalls the propaganda storm launched by Washington to justify its invasion of equally small Iraq … Would it not be easier and less expensive for grand deal-maker Trump to recognize North Korea, set up diplomatic relations, stop trying to overthrow the Kim regime, and finally end the Korean War?

Two days after North Korea defied the international community by testing an intercontinental ballistic missile, hope for a unified response is fading as the Trump administration’s plans meet with firm opposition from Russia and China. President Trump warned Thursday that he’s considering “some pretty severe things” in response to what he called “very, very bad behavior” from the North, though he did not mention any specific plans. “Something will have to be done about it,” he said in a speech in Warsaw. At an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley accused China and Russia of “holding the hands” of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

US officials say China has betrayed Washington in efforts to contain North Korea, citing a nearly 40 percent growth in trade between the two Asian countries. Chinese and Russian observers say the US doesn’t have its facts straight, and that Washington must work with, rather than ignore, Russian and Chinese initiatives on ensuring peace in the peninsula. US UN Ambassador Nikki Haley has warned that Washington might use its “considerable military forces” against North Korea if necessary, and called on Russia and China to cut trade ties with the Asian country … Russia and China used the emergency meeting to present their own joint initiative aimed at reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and urged Washington and Seoul to immediately suspend and abolish the deployment of THAAD missile defense on South Korean soil.

… The fact is that Israel is extremely active in an enterprise that falls in the gray area between covert operations and overt governmental activity … The practice is so systemic, involving recruitment, training, Foreign Ministry-prepared information sheets, and internet alerts to potential targets, that it is frequently described by its Hebrew name, hasbara, which means literally “public explanation.” It is essentially an internet-focused “information war” that parallels and supports the military action whenever Israel enters into conflict with any of its neighbors or seeks to influence public opinion in the United States and Europe … That Israel is engaged in perception management on a large scale has more-or-less been admitted by the Israeli government …

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed cohorts of Israel loyalists in the United States by video link last week at the annual conference of Aipac, the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee. They should, he said, follow his government’s example and defend Israel on the “moral battlefield” against the growing threat of the international boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement. In Mr Netanyahu’s simple-minded language, support for Palestinian rights, and opposition to the settlements, is equivalent to “delegitimisation” of Israel. The current obsession with BDS reflects a changing political environment for Israel … Israel will soon have to accept that the apartheid genie is out of the bottle – and it cannot be put back.

A tape shows Binyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, discussing ways to undermine the Oslo Accords and calling the United States “easy” to manipulate. The video was filmed in 2001, apparently without Netanyahu’s knowledge, during a meeting with Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank. It aired on Friday night [July 16, 2010] on Israel’s Channel 10, and several translations have been posted online … Netanyahu – who did not hold political office when the recording was made – was dismissive of the United States, calling it easily manipulated. “I know what America is,” Netanyahu said. “America is a thing you can move very easily, move it in the right direction. They won’t get in the way.” Netanyahu also spoke extensively about undermining the Oslo Accords, the agreement signed in 1993 …

Bravo Monsieur le president Macron! You have gotten off to a most impressive start. France’s five-year national depression – known as ‘morosité – has lifted and been replaced by a sense that the republic is not doomed after all. In fact, quite the contrary. France’s new 39-year old president has astounded nearly everyone … Emmanuel Macron declared himself and his new ‘En Marche’ party above politics and dedicated to ending the vitriolic battle between left and right that has wounded France since the 1930’s. French were sick of the left-right bickering and trench warfare of their professional politicians. Americans should take notice. Amazingly, France’s Socialist and Communist parties pretty much collapsed in the recent presidential election. So too the far right National Front and the center-right Republicans.

… After Pearl Harbor there were consequences for another group: American citizens of Japanese ancestry. “The Japanese race is an enemy race,” wrote Lieutenant General John DeWitt in Final Report, Japanese Evacuation from the West Coast, 1942. “While many second and third generation Japanese born on American soil, possessed of American citizenship, have become ‘Americanized,’ the racial strains are undiluted.” In February 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt issued Executive Order 9066, sending 120,000 people from the US west coast into internment camps because of their ethnic background. Two-thirds of them were born in America. There were ten camps across the US. On average, Japanese American internees spent three years behind barbed-wire fencing.

Recent news reports describe a massive increase in civilian casualties at the hands of the US military or US allies … The US claim is that of “self-defense”— that the Syrian warplane threatened US-backed rebel forces attacking ISIS-held areas. But the United States has no legal right to be in Syria — not under international law, and not even under US domestic law. Asserting the right to shoot down any plane supposedly threatening US troops anywhere in the world, regardless of the legality of those troops’ presence, is not a legitimate claim. Things could deteriorate very quickly, and the icy cold war between the United States and Russia could heat up very rapidly if more of these provocations take place.

Most Russians believe the Soviet military would have been able to win World War II without the efforts of the U.S. or its allies, a new poll finds. The Soviet Union suffered the most casualties in the conflict, and the issue is highly emotional for many Russians. Victory Day — the Soviet-style celebration of the end of the war— is one of Russia’s most popular holidays, behind only New Year’s Eve. Evidence of Soviet supremacy in forcing the Nazis into retreat on the eastern front was widely taught in Russian schools in Communist times, and most Russians still seem to hold on to that view. Two-thirds of Russians (63 percent) said the Soviet Red Army would have overwhelmed Germany’s troops regardless of the actions of the U.S., the U.K., France and their allies, according to the survey by the Levada Center, Russia’s largest independent pollster.

We’ve written quite a bit over the past couple of months about the pending financial crisis in Illinois which will inevitability result in the state’s debt being downgraded to “junk” at some point in the near future … Unfortunately, the state of Illinois doesn’t have a monopoly on ignorant politicians … Since the end of World War II, those ignorant politicians have been promising American Baby Boomers more and more entitlements while never collecting nearly enough money to cover them all … it’s all been a massive state-sponsored scam … Some of the largest of the many entitlement ‘scams’ in this country are America’s public pension funds. Up until now, these public pensions have been covered by stealing money set aside for future generations to cover current claims … it’s a Ponzi it’s a Ponzi scheme of epic proportions … $5-$8 trillion to be exact.

… Sometimes referred to as America’s “civil religion,” one can also call it “American exceptionalism” or the “leadership of the free world” or even “responsibility to protect,” but the reality is that a broad consensus has developed in the United States that enables serial interventionism with hardly a squeak of protest coming from the American people … We are already at war with Syria even though the media and Congress seem blissfully unaware of that fact. We are also making aggressive moves intended to create a casus belli for going to war with Iran, and are doubling down in Afghanistan with more troops on the way, so Donald Trump’s pledge to avoid pointless wars and nation-building were apparently little more than glib talking points intended to make Barack Obama look bad.

A Bank of Japan policymaker praised Adolf Hitler’s economic policies on Thursday, but said they enabled the Nazi dictator to do “horrible” things to the world. Yutaka Harada, a member of the board of Japan’s central bank, said Western policymakers helped bring Hitler to power by being slow to apply John Maynard Keynes’ proposals to fight the Great Depression. Hitler had taken “wonderful” fiscal and monetary stimulus steps … “Because Hitler had taken appropriate fiscal and monetary policy steps, tragedy resulted. What I’m saying is that someone should have taken appropriate fiscal and monetary policy steps before Hitler did,” said Harada, an academic-turned BOJ policymaker.

Japan’s central bank issued a rare apology on Friday over a board member’s praise for Adolf Hitler’s economic policies. Yutaka Harada, a member of the board of the Bank of Japan, told a seminar on Thursday Hitler’s economic policies had been “appropriate” and “wonderful” but had enabled the Nazi dictator to do “horrible” things to the world. “The Bank of Japan views with regret the fact that the remarks of one of its Board Members have become a source of misunderstanding, and will see to it that such incident will not repeat itself,” the central bank told Reuters on Friday … Harada said he had only been trying to express the importance of conducting appropriate economic policies at an early stage.

Germany’s national security council approved the sale of three more nuclear-capable submarines to Israel for a combined price of some $1.3 billion, in a deal marred by controversy surrounding corruption allegations against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Israeli Navy currently maintains a fleet of five state-of-the-art German underwater vessels of the Dolphin Class, which can be equipped with nuclear warheads, with a sixth due for delivery this year … Submarines, unmatched in their ability to hide from enemy navies, have long been a major facet of Israel’s defense policy. Israeli subs are reportedly armed with cruise missiles topped with nuclear warheads, affording the tiny Jewish state “second strike” capabilities …

Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin has been voted the most “outstanding” figure in Russia’s history, beating the country’s most beloved poet, Alexander Pushkin, and current Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The poll, by Russia’s independent Levada Center, is the latest to showcase the changing view amongst Russians of Stalin, who presided over mass deportations, a network of concentration camps — or gulags — and is believed to be responsible for the deaths of around 20 million Soviet citizens. But for many Russians it is Stalin’s role in winning World War II that is remembered and encouraged in government propaganda. Recent approval ratings of Stalin and the man he succeeded — Vladimir Lenin — show that both enjoy majority approval in Russia.

The United Nations said Thursday that Tehran is in compliance with its obligations under an international nuclear deal, but U.S. envoy Nikki Haley disputed that. “Today’s meeting of the Security Council on the implementation of resolution 2231 is taking place against a backdrop of steady implementation, cooperation and progress,” U.N. political chief Jeffrey Feltman said in his semi-annual briefing on the subject. The resolution was adopted in July 2015, endorsing the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) that aims to ensure Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons. The five permanent members of the Security Council plus Germany negotiated the deal with Iran.

… The ever more obvious symptoms of social decay are inevitable in a nation as unhealthy as today’s America. We understand that a nation guided by false principles, wishful thinking and unrealistic notions about society and history cannot and will not survive; that a society as inwardly sick as this one will not last … On this anniversary of American independence, it is altogether fitting that we recall the sacrifices and the outlook of the men who acted boldly out of principle, and risked everything in following the dictate of their conscience.

… Iran has loomed as the primary bogeyman of the Trump crowd. Fear of Iranian influence has prompted the administration to all but cancel the 2015 nuclear deal, intensify a number of proxy wars, consider pushing for regime change in Tehran, and even intervene in the mother of all battles between the Shia and Sunni variants of Islam. … The conflict is escalating in Syria, where Iran backs the regime of Bashar al-Assad, and the United States supports a shifting set of anti-regime groups … The Iraq War against Saddam Hussein begat the war against the anti-occupation forces, which in turn generated a war against the Islamic State, which now promises to escalate into a war against the axis of Russia, Iran, and Syria.

As the White House formulates its official policy on Iran, senior officials and key allies of President Donald Trump are calling for the new administration to take steps to topple Tehran’s militant clerical government. Supporters of dislodging Iran’s iron-fisted clerical leadership say it’s the only way to halt Tehran’s dangerous behavior … “The policy of the United States should be regime change in Iran,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who speaks regularly with White House officials about foreign policy. “I don’t see how anyone can say America can be safe as long as you have in power a theocratic despotism,” he added … Secretary of State Rex Tillerson appeared to endorse subverting the Iranian regime during recent testimony …

Once expunged from its official history, documents outlining the U.S.-backed 1953 coup in Iran have been quietly published by the State Department, offering a new glimpse at an operation that ultimately pushed the country toward its Islamic Revolution and hostility with the West. The CIA’s role in the coup, which toppled Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh and cemented the control of the shah, was well-known by the time the State Department offered its first compendium on the era in 1989. But any trace of American involvement in the putsch had been wiped from the report, causing historians to call it a fraud … The 1,007-page report, consisting of letters and diplomatic cables, shows U.S. officials discussing a coup up to a year before it took place.

Newly released documents by the US Department of State provide an inside look at the motivations and tactics used by the US Central Intelligence Agency in orchestrating the 1953 coup in Iran that toppled the democratically elected government of former Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddegh, reinstating the rule of the U.S.-friendly Shah monarchy … In documents taking stock of “western assets” in Iran months before the coup took place, the CIA notes that they were stockpiling “enough arms and demolition material to support a 10,000-man guerilla organization for six months.” They were also paying millions of dollars in bribes … In the year leading up to Mosaddegh’s removal and immediately following it, U.S. officials were keenly aware that one of their most important tasks was to affect public opinion through mass propaganda campaigns.

A producer at CNN has said the theory about collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign is mostly false, and that the network has no significant proof, despite continuing to push the narrative … The exchange was secretly recorded and released by the nonprofit Project Veritas. Since President Donald Trump won the vote in November, CNN has been at the forefront of sustaining the theory that Russia interfered with the election and colluded with the Trump campaign. The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC have placed the story line front and center for more than six months, though there is no sign of substantial evidence … The recording also reveals that, according to Bonifield, CNN continued to pursue the false narrative solely because it yields ratings.

… Given the present risk of war, possibly involving nuclear weapons, it is absurd that we should be obligated to fight what Mattis says would be a “catastrophic” war, because of a treaty negotiated six decades ago by Eisenhower and Dulles. “The commonest error in politics,” Lord Salisbury reminded us, “is sticking to the carcass of dead policies.” But we should also tell South Korea that if she desires a nuclear deterrent against an attack by the North, she should build it. Americans should not risk a nuclear war, 8,000 miles away, to defend a South Korea that has 40 times the economy of the North and twice the population. No vital U.S. interest requires us, in perpetuity, to be willing to go to war to defend South Korea, especially if that war entails the risk of a nuclear attack on U.S. troops or the American homeland.

The World Jewish Congress and the leading Jewish group in Hungary objected Friday to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s praise for Miklos Horthy, the World War II-era leader who allied Hungary with Nazi Germany. WJC President Ronald Lauder said his organization would always condemn “deplorable actions” like Horthy’s and rejected any attempts to excuse or justify them … In a speech on Wednesday, just hours before he hosted Lauder in Parliament, Orban called Horthy and other Hungarian leaders “exceptional statesmen” for leading the country after the traumatic disintegration of the Austro-Hungarian Empire after World War I … Several busts and statues of Horthy have been erected [in Hungary] in the past few years, mostly on private property.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum condemns any attempt to rehabilitate the reputation of Hungary’s wartime leader, Miklos Horthy, who was a vocal anti-Semite and complicit in the murder of the country’s Jewish population during the Holocaust. On June 21, 2017, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orban asserted at a public ceremony that the Hungarian nation was able to survive in the 1920s and 1930s due to “some exceptional statesmen like Regent Miklos Horthy …” Identifying Horthy, who served as Hungarian head of state from 1920 to 1944, as an “exceptional statesman” is a gross distortion of historical fact and is the latest in a long series of propagandistic attempts of the Fidesz political party and the Hungarian government that Mr. Orban leads to rewrite Hungarian history.

Hungary’s Regent and head of state, Miklos Horthy, along with his wife, visits Germany in August 1938. Together with German leader Adolf Hitler, Horthy reviews a large military parade in Berlin. Crowds of joyful Berliners watch. Horthy and wife drive along beflagged boulevards. Large crowds cheer Hitler, Horthy and Göring as they appear on a balcony. British “Movietone” newsreel. No narration. Runtime: 4:35 mins.

… Mustard was not used on the battlefields of World War II, but Allied armies, gearing for its possible use or other chemical warfare, conducted mustard gas experiments on their own soldiers during that war. And, possibly, to a degree much larger than already disclosed, according to a new book, “Toxic Exposures,” by Susan L. Smith, a history professor at Canada’s University of Alberta in Edmonton. Quoting recent public estimates of experiments conducted on more than 2,500 Canadians, 2,500 Australians, 7,000 Britons and 60,000 Americans, Smith writes: “These are all likely low estimates due to incomplete records and government restrictions on still classified military records.” … “Americans engaged in poisoning themselves in the name of saving lives,” she writes.

… Thanks to public apathy, combined with aggressive politicians, we get wars, even when so much of the population doesn’t want them. The ordinary people — the ones who suffer the most from war and who pay for it — aren’t the ones making policy. It may be true that a large majority of the people don’t want war. But it’s unfortunately also true that the minority that does want war is especially influential in Washington. I’ve seen a lot of people with good intentions come to Washington … In fact, the reality in Washington should make it clear to us now that simply “sending the right people” to Washington isn’t going to solve the problem.

It’s a time of trial and tribulation for America’s allies and adversaries alike. Just what is U.S. policy these days? More fundamentally, who is deciding U.S. policy? … The Trump administration has turned foreign policy into an embarrassing spectacle. It wouldn’t matter if Bhutan, Slovenia, Chad, Fiji or Chile behaved that way; no one would much care if such nations so ostentatiously mismanaged their foreign policy. But as the globe’s dominant economic, political and military power, America’s actions can transform, for good or ill, countries and regions. Today, no one knows what to expect or even who is the “decider,” in Bush-speak. That’s not good for the United States, and it’s not good for those affected by Washington’s decisions — which means the rest of the world.

Last year on the campaign trail, crowds roared when Donald Trump denounced his opponent as “trigger-happy” Hillary. But President Trump is rapidly incarnating the vice he condemned. Nowhere is this more evident than in Syria, where Trump’s recklessness risks dragging America into a major war … Four years ago, Trump warned in a tweet: “If the U.S. attacks Syria and hits the wrong targets, killing civilians, there will be worldwide hell to pay.” But the Trump administration has sharply increased U.S. bombing while curtailing restrictions that sought to protect innocents. A British-based human rights monitoring group estimated Friday that U.S.-led coalition strikes had killed almost 500 civilians in the past month … The Syrian government has never threatened the United States, and Congress has not approved attacking it.

… A closer examination of US policy toward Syria, as well as of the development of the Syrian conflict over time, suggest that in fact there was (and still is) a Western plot to overthrow the Assad government and replace it with one more friendly to US interests. This plot has resulted in US support for Islamic militant groups that, in other contexts, would be considered terrorists by the West … Evidence of such a plot is abundant and openly available in the Western press if one takes the care to look … It is Syria’s challenge to US and Israeli aggression and hegemony in the region that necessitates regime change, from the US perspective. The US desire to topple the Syrian government reaches back to at least 2001, when prominent neoconservatives in the US government threatened to invade not only Iraq, but also Syria and Iran.

The war in Syria was planned years in advance, and the motive was to overthrow a regime that Israel regards as hostile, says former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas. “I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were preparing something in Syria,” said Dumas in a recent interview with French television LCP … Responding to a question on the motive behind the war, which has claimed tens of thousands of lives, Dumas said, “Very simple! With the very simple aim! To overthrow the Syrian government, because in the region, it’s important to understand, that this Syrian regime has a very anti-Israeli stance. Consequently, everything that moves in the region — and I have this from the former Israeli prime minister, who told me ‘We’ll try to get on with our neighboring states, but those who don’t get along, we will take them down’.”

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani has censured Israel for supporting terrorism, saying the regime is, either covertly or overtly, complicit in almost all crises gripping the Middle East region. “Today, it happens rarely for Zionists not to have a hand, either behind the scenes or openly, in rifts among regional countries,” Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Wounded terrorists receive treatment in Israeli hospitals, he said, adding that the Tel Aviv regime arms terrorists and bombards the region in favor of them. “It is clear that they (Israelis) support terrorism in the region,” President Rouhani said. “Undoubtedly, the split between regional countries and the Muslim world, such as the ones between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Saudi Arabia, and Egypt and Turkey eventually benefits global Zionism and usurping Israel.”

Facebook will not block Holocaust-denying content on its platform in countries where it remains legal, saying it is merely the expression of an opinion. / Facebook will continue to allow Holocaust-denying content on its platform in in countries where Holocaust denial is legal, a Facebook executive announced. Israel’s NRG news reported Monday that Facebook’s head of policy in Israel, Jordana Cutler, in a letter to Member of Knesset (MK) Uri Maklev, wrote that Holocaust denial is illegal in Israel, and therefore such content is blocked for Israeli users as well as in other countries where it is illegal. However, where Holocaust denial is permitted, the social media platform will not block the content.

… Ciccarone is on the frontline of efforts to understand and combat the US’s rapidly escalating opioid crisis and he makes no bones about the scale and impact of what he says is an unprecedented public health emergency. “We are moving beyond an epidemic. I would call it a crisis,” he says. According to official statistics opioids, including heroin and prescription versions of the drug, killed more than 33,000 people in the US in 2015 – a record surge that is expected to see yet more increases. A New York Times analysis earlier this month estimated that overdose deaths are rising faster than ever. And, as the Guardian has reported, more US citizens die from overdoses than from gun fatalities or car crashes. It is now becoming the leading cause of death for the under-50s.

Senior Israeli Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu believes the Israeli army should stop arresting Palestinians and execute them instead. “It must execute them and leave no one alive,” Eliyahu wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday, according to Defend Democracy Press. Eliyahu, the chief rabbi of the city of Safed, has a record of making racist remarks about Arabs and Muslims. He once said Israel should take “revenge” against Arabs, and that Palestinians, whom he once labeled enemies of Israel, must be “destroyed and crushed in order to end violence.” “If they don’t stop after we kill 100, then we must kill 1,000,” Eliyahu told the Jerusalem Post in 2007 … “If they still don’t stop we must kill 100,000, even a million.” In a previous Facebook post, Eliyahu argued Palestinians who are arrested should not be kept alive.

Last night [June 26], the White House issued a surprise statement accusing the Syrian government of preparing a chemical weapons attack and threatening to make them pay “a heavy price” for doing so. This immediately suggested another US attack on Syria was imminent. No one saw this coming, including the Pentagon and the State Department. Pentagon officials say they were totally unaware if this putative evidence of a chemical attack until the moment the White House issued the statement, something they completely didn’t see coming … The White House has since offered a secondary comment insisting that all of the officials who are quoted in the media saying they didn’t know about the announcement are lying, and that the White House did, somehow, consult with everybody without anybody knowing about it.

Moscow has warned the US against taking unilateral action in Syria, as there is no threat from the Syrian military, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said. The statement comes after the US accused Syria of preparing for a chemical attack, without giving any evidence. Asked if Russia had warned the US administration against any unilateral action in Syria, Russia’s deputy foreign minister, Gennady Gatilov, replied that Russian officials have “always spoken about that, including in relation to their [US] latest strikes on Syrian armed forces.” “We believe that it’s unacceptable and breaches Syria’s sovereignty, isn’t caused by any military need, and there is no threat to the US specialists from the Syrian Army. So it’s incendiary, provocative action,” Gatilov said, as cited by RIA Novosti.

Three prominent CNN journalists resigned Monday night after the network was forced to retract and apologize for a story linking Trump ally Anthony Scaramucci to a Russian investment fund under congressional investigation. That article — like so much Russia reporting from the U.S. media — was based on a single anonymous source, and now, the network cannot vouch for the accuracy of its central claims … CNN is hardly alone when it comes to embarrassing retractions regarding Russia. Over and over, major U.S. media outlets have published claims about the Russia Threat that turned out to be completely false — always in the direction of exaggerating the threat and/ or inventing incriminating links between Moscow and the Trump circle … Several of the most humiliating of these episodes have come from the Washington Post.

Dozens of international historians have come to the defense of a Holocaust scholar who is accused of slandering Poland’s reputation with research that focuses on the participation of some Poles in the killing of Jews during World War II. The Polish League Against Defamation says that Jan Grabowski’s scholarship “falsifies the history of Poland, proclaiming the thesis that Poles are complicit in the extermination of Jews.” The group made its claim in a public statement earlier this month signed by dozens of Polish academics. Since then Grabowski, who is based at the University of Ottawa in Canada, has received several death threats, leading to security patrols in his department.

European Parliament members from more than 20 EU [European Union] member- states and five European political groups have backed a pledge to increase support for Holocaust survivors and their families who are seeking the return of stolen and looted WWII property, the World Jewish Restitution Organization told The Jerusalem Post. Seventy-one MEPs from across the political spectrum issued a joint declaration promising to work together on Holocaust-era restitution and to address the growing welfare needs of survivors, many of whom live in poverty. The statement calls on the European Commission and EU member-states to appoint special envoys for Holocaust-related issues.

The U.S. State Department’s office to monitor and combat anti-Semitism will be unstaffed as of July 1 … The Trump administration, which has yet to name an envoy to head the office, would not comment on the staffing change … The State Department told JTA in a statement that it remained committed to combating anti-Semitism … “We want to ensure the Department is addressing anti-Semitism in the most effective and efficient method possible and will continue to endeavor to do so,” the statement said … “The Department, our Embassies, and our Consulates support extensive bilateral, multilateral, and civil society outreach to Jewish communities,” the statement continued. “Additionally, the State Department continues to devote resources towards programs combating anti-Semitism online and off, as well as building NGO coalitions in Europe.”