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… The country has about two million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country’s overall murder rate is near zero … The European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don’t even require a permit. But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use … Many Swiss see gun ownership as part of a patriotic duty to protect their homeland. Most Swiss men are required to learn how to use a gun. Unlike the US, Switzerland has mandatory military service for men. The government gives all men between the ages of 18 and 34 deemed “fit for service” a pistol or a rifle and training on how to use them.

In 2018, the Virginia Coalition for Human Rights (VCHR) successfully stopped the state from adopting textbook edits made by the Institute for Curriculum Services (ICS), a pro-Israel “educational” institution. The ICS promotes itself as improving the accuracy of K-12 instruction on Judaism and Jewish history in the United States. Yet, backed by the Israel lobby, its strategy appears more in line with advocating a Zionist narrative than enhancing education …MintPress News uncovered how ICS is twisting the truth about Israel in U.S. schools … Requested ICS changes to public school textbooks included: Replace “settlers” with “communities,”; … Discourage students from conducting open internet research, and instead recommend the Anti-Defamation League’s website and the JewishVirtualLibrary.org.; Delete all references to “Palestinian Territories.” …

Over 50,000 Jewish nationalists marched through and around Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday afternoon to mark Jerusalem Day, some of them chanting racist slogans and clashing with Palestinians and police. Throughout the parade in the Old City, hundreds of marchers chanted “May your villages burn” and “Death to Arabs.” “Shuafat will go up in flames!” called out Jewish Israeli participants, referring to a Palestinian neighborhood in East Jerusalem — as well as Muhammad Abu Khdeir, a teenage resident of the area murdered by Jewish extremists in 2014. Sporadic clashes broke out between right-wing Israeli marchers and Palestinians throughout the day. At least 50 people were detained for violence, according to the Israel Police.

Thousands of Israeli nationalists, some of them chanting “Death to Arabs,” paraded through the heart of the main Palestinian thoroughfare in Jerusalem’s Old City on Sunday, in a show of force that risked setting off a new wave of violence in the tense city. The crowds, who were overwhelmingly young Orthodox Jewish men, were celebrating Jerusalem Day — an Israeli holiday that marks the capture of the Old City in the 1967 Mideast war … As the march got underway, groups of Orthodox Jewish youths gathered outside Damascus Gate, waving flags, singing religious and nationalistic songs, and shouting “the Jewish nation lives” before entering the Muslim Quarter. One large group chanted “Death to Arabs,” and “Let your village burn down” before descending into the Old City.

A new survey on US attitudes to the Israel-Palestinian conflict found that younger Americans feel as positive if not more so toward Palestinians as they do toward Israelis, and that American adults are not paying attention to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. The findings are part of an expansive new survey by the Pew Research Center published on Thursday that found US public opinion has shifted to be more positive toward both sides in the Israel-Palestinian conflict. The survey was conducted March 7-13 among 10,441 US adults … Overall, Americans have historically expressed more positivity toward Israelis than toward Palestinians and rate the Israeli government more favorably than the Palestinian one.

The Iran nuclear agreement (JCPOA) of 2015 was signed by Iran, the US, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China. It was also ratified as a UN Security Council resolution. After President Trump withdrew the US from the agreement, Joe Biden pledged to return the US to compliance. However, his administration has failed to do so. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir Abdollahian says that the issue of the IRGC being on the US blacklist of terrorist groups is a minor issue that the Israel lobby has exaggerated and magnified. He also warns that American interests and US foreign policy have been taken hostage by the Israeli regime. This video report includes remarks by IHR Director Mark Weber, who notes the key role of Jewish leaders in shaping US Middle East policy. Runtime: 4:50 mins.

… Where is the historic, scientific or empirical proof of the defining dogma of American democracy that “all men are created equal”? … Over half a century after the civil rights revolution, incomes and wealth are not equal … President Joe Biden’s people have pledged to Black America that they will mandate and deliver that equality of results. If equity does not now exist, the Biden administration will impose it. And why not? … What we witness today is the refusal of true believers in egalitarian ideology to accept that their core doctrine may not only not be true, but may be demonstrably false. What we are witnessing in America is how true believers behave when they realize the church at which they worship has been erected on a bright shining lie and reality must inevitably bring it crashing down.

To defend the homeland against advancing enemy forces during the final months of World War II, all able-bodied civilian men aged 16 to 60, who had not already been called up for military service, were enlisted in the Volkssturm, Germany’s local defense militia. This was similar to Britain’s civilian “Home Guard” of 1940-41, but on a much greater scale. Many were armed with a rifle or “Panzerfaust,” a formidable anti-tank weapon. Some 650,000 Volkssturm men were in combat against Soviet forces in the East, where casualty rates were sometimes as high as 70 to 80 percent. Perhaps 150,000 Volkssturm men served in the West and South. A Mark Felton Production. Runtime: 12:06 mins.

… Almost two weeks after the death of the veteran Palestinian-American reporter for Al Jazeera, a reconstruction by The Associated Press lends support to assertions from both Palestinian authorities and Abu Akleh’s colleagues that the bullet that cut her down came from an Israeli gun … Multiple videos and photos taken on the morning of May 11 show an Israeli convoy parked just up a narrow road from Abu Akleh, with a clear line of sight. They show the reporters and other bystanders in real time taking cover from bullets fired from the direction of the convoy. The only confirmed presence of Palestinian militants was on the other side of the convoy, some 300 meters (yards) away, mostly separated from Abu Akleh by buildings and walls.

In recent weeks, the leaders of the three largest European Union countries by population — France, Germany, and Italy — have all come out in favor of negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow as a way to end the fighting in Ukraine. Unlike President Biden, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi have all spoken with Russian President Vladimir Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. The three European leaders have all signed off on sending weapons to the Ukrainians, but have also been calling for a ceasefire. After speaking with Putin by phone on Friday, Scholz wrote on Twitter: “There must be a ceasefire in Ukraine as quickly as possible.” In an address to European Parliament last week, Macron said, “We are not at war with Russia.”

Washington has been deliberately lying about Ukraine’s prospects to ever join NATO, knowing that the former Soviet republic isn’t a legitimate contender to qualify for membership of the Western military bloc, former US Ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul has acknowledged. The ex-diplomat made the revelation in a public policy forum, the semi-annual Munk Debates, earlier this month in Toronto … Walt questioned why Washington has been consistently pushing for Ukraine’s NATO membership, despite the security concerns raised by Moscow … McFaul interrupted the professor, suggesting that Washington has never actually been serious about such prospects. “And did you believe that?” the ex-ambassador asked. “So, our diplomats are lying?” Walt shot back. “Yes! Yes, that’s the real world, guys, c’mon,” McFaul replied …

.. . The shaky video, filmed by Al Jazeera cameraman Majdi Banura, captures the scene when Abu Akleh, a 51-year-old Palestinian-American was killed by a bullet to the head at around 6:30 a.m. on May 11 … Eyewitnesses told CNN that they believe Israeli forces on the same street fired deliberately on the reporters in a targeted attack … An investigation by CNN offers new evidence — including two videos of the scene of the shooting — that there was no active combat, nor any Palestinian militants, near Abu Akleh in the moments leading up to her death. Videos obtained by CNN, corroborated by testimony from eight eyewitnesses, an audio forensic analyst and an explosive weapons expert, suggest that Abu Akleh was shot dead in a targeted attack by Israeli forces.

The French volunteers of the Second World War constituted an entirely separate division in the Wehrmacht, and after that the Waffen-SS which consisted of units that were called the 33rd Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne (1st French) and the Charlemagne Regiment. With an impressive strength of an estimated 7,400-11,000 at its peak in 1944, the numbers came down to a mere sixty, as of May 1945 … As of 28 April, about 108 Soviet tanks had been destroyed in south-east Berlin within the S-Bahn, 62 of which were destroyed by the Charlemagne Sturmbataillon alone … With the Soviets now launching a full-scale attack into the central sector, the battle became more intense than ever and involved brutal combat. The last defenders of Hitler’s bunker, the French Charlemagne units remained until May 2 …

A gripping first-person memoir of soldierly sacrifice, heroism and fierce combat against numerically superior Soviet forces during World War II, by a charismatic Belgian writer and politician turned front-line infantryman. New, revised IHR edition, with index and photos. Here is the epic story of the Walloon Legion, a volunteer Belgian unit of the World War II pan-European SS force, as told – in absorbing prose — by the legendary Degrelle. Captures the grit, terror and glory of Europe’s crusade against Communism.

The US and UK are eyeing the complete defeat of Russia in Ukraine. Breaking with other NATO members that prefer a negotiated settlement, an American official stated the war ends with the “defeat” of Russia, and a high-level British official said Russian President Vladimir Putin “must lose.” Speaking to an Italian outlet, UK Foreign Minister Liz Truss said Russia must be defeated in Ukraine, and there were no exit ramps for Putin. “Putin must lose in Ukraine, and we must see its sovereignty and territorial integrity restored.” … Along with Paris, Germany and Italy are pushing for a diplomatic over a military resolution. However, the White House appears in line with Downing Street … Since the start of the invasion, Washington has been committed to the militaristic path in Ukraine.

A week ago, we made note of a May 11 New York Times news article, documenting that all was not going well for the U.S. in Ukraine, and a companion opinion piece hinting that a shift in direction might be in order. Now on May 19, “The Editorial Board,” the full Magisterium of the Times, has moved from hints to a clarion call for a change in direction … The Editorial Board has declared that “total victory” over Russia is not possible and that Ukraine will have to negotiate a peace in a way that reflects a “realistic assessment” and the “limits” of U.S. commitment … To ensure that there is no ambiguity, the editorial declares that: “A decisive military victory for Ukraine over Russia, in which Ukraine regains all the territory Russia has seized since 2014, is not a realistic goal … Russia remains too strong …”

Former U.S. secretary of state Henry A. Kissinger said Monday that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia to help end the invasion, suggesting a position that a vast majority of Ukrainians are against as the war enters its fourth month. Speaking at a conference at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Kissinger urged the United States and the West to not seek an embarrassing defeat for Russia in Ukraine, warning it could worsen Europe’s long-term stability. After saying that Western countries should remember Russia’s importance to Europe and not get swept up “in the mood of the moment,” Kissinger also pushed for the West to force Ukraine into accepting negotiations with a “status quo ante,” which means the previous state of affairs.

Hidden behind the headlines on Ukraine, the Biden administration just moved one alarming step closer to war with Iran. According to Israel’s Channel 13, the U.S. has agreed to participate in Israel’s large-scale drill stimulating a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities later this month … This suggests that Biden is moving further than any U.S. president in signaling approval for Israel to start war with Iran, despite his promise to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, a multilateral agreement that prevented both an Iranian bomb and a region-wide war with Iran. There can be little doubt about the signal Washington would be sending Tehran by participating in these Israeli drills: If and when Israel strikes Iran, it will have done so with the approval, assistance, and direct or indirect participation of the United States.

Rep. Thomas Massie (R–Ky.) is stoking outrage for being the lone dissenting vote on a seemingly unobjectionable resolution condemning antisemitism. But the congressman’s opposition looks a lot more reasonable considering the resolution’s implications for free speech and internet regulation. On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 1125, which broadly condemns antisemitic speech and violence while also endorsing calls for more online monitoring and censorship of antisemitic views and conspiracy theories. It passed the House 420-1. Massie’s solitary “no” vote attracted heated criticism from some of the organizations that pushed for the resolution. Massie himself has said on Twitter that his opposition was based on free speech concerns. That’s fair enough given some of the language contained in the resolution.

America’s mood is uneasy and worried. Amid continued inflation and stock market declines, large majorities describe their mood as such, and the percentage who call the economy bad has hit highs for the Biden presidency. The number who say things in the country are going badly overall is at the highest level of President Biden’s tenure, too … Looking ahead, there is large — and growing — pessimism about the national economy, the stock market and inflation … As the administration has been critiqued for being slow to address inflation, that now echoes in the public’s larger criticism directed at Mr. Biden, that he is slow to react generally. It’s not just his political opponents who say this: more than a third of Democrats say it of Mr. Biden, too.

Both Finland and Sweden are applying to join NATO. The Blob, as the foreign policy establishment has come to be known, is ecstatic. It cannot conceive of saying no to any alliance applicant, no matter how insignificant or irrelevant. Once upon a time, serious nations defended themselves, rather than begging faraway great powers to do the job for them. And no serious great power would do so unless it believed the other state to be essential for its own security. As Great Britain’s Lord Palmerston remarked, countries had no permanent friends, only permanent interests … The U.S. should go to war only when forced to do so, to defend itself. That was not the case with Kiev, which is why America neither forced Ukraine’s inclusion in NATO nor joined in Ukraine’s defense against Russia.

… It would not be overstating the case to suggest that the neoconservative movement together with its liberal interventionist colleagues are dominating foreign policy thinking across the board in Congress and the White House … The unifying principle that ties many of the mostly Jewish neocons together is, of course, unconditional defense of Israel and everything it does, which leads them to support a policy of American global military dominance which they presume will inter alia serve as a security umbrella for the Jewish state … Biden himself embraces a characteristically extremely bellicose view on a proper relationship with foreign nations “claiming that he is defending democracy against its enemies.”

Republican Representative Paul Gosar (Arizona) has condemned the push from both parties in Washington to send billions of dollars worth of weapons to Ukraine. “Crippling debt, inflation and immigration problems,” he declared, are not “[Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s fault.” Gosar, an immigration hardliner and anti-interventionist, was one of 57 GOP lawmakers to vote against a $40 billion economic and military aid bill for Ukraine on Tuesday … “Calling us names is not a logical position,” Gosar shot back, stating: “I have no principle to follow but the path of peace and non-intervention. My grown children have known nothing except American war and intervention for naught.” “Ukraine is not our ally,” he continued. “Russia is not our enemy. We need to address our crippling debt, inflation and immigration problems. None of this is Putin’s fault.”

Henry Kissinger made his first public remarks on the Ukraine war in an interview with the Financial Times of London in Washington on May 11th. In this appearance, he identified the miscalculation that turned the long simmering hostilities between the now warring parties in this conflict into a catastrophe affecting the entire world. This error was the failure of one or both sides not “find[ing] out where the inner red line of the opponent is.” … Kissinger was an early and consistent critic of NATO’s post-Cold war expansion eastward which he foresaw to be a dangerous provocation of Russia … Notably, Kissinger does not see Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as an attempt by Putin to recreate the USSR. But after the war ends, he foretells: “We are not going back to the previous relationship.”

.. Yet, that’s what the [Canadian] federal government will attempt to do, and join several countries in Europe, including Germany, that make Holocaust denial a crime. However, like any legislation that seeks to curb expression, it could be subject to Charter challenges … Along with a number of initiatives to fight antisemitism, including $20 million for a new Holocaust museum in Montreal, the budget also revealed the government’s intent to amend the Criminal Code … The amendment would “prohibit the communication of statements, other than in private conversation, that willfully promote antisemitism by condoning, denying or downplaying the Holocaust.” But while many advocates welcome the legislation, some legal experts question its constitutionality.

Famous Swedish fashion designer Johan Lindeberg has asserted that Sweden must embrace its new multicultural identity because “civil war” is the alternative. Lindeberg, known for his collaborations with Diesel and Absolut, made the comments in an opinion piece published in Sweden’s national newspaper Expressen. Calling on readers to “embrace the New Sweden,” Lindeberg urged Swedes to celebrate “the most progressive country in the world” … As anyone who is vaguely aware of what multiculturalism has done to Sweden will know, Lindeberg is completely incorrect in his opinions. The country is routinely beset by violent rioting … Sweden had gone from being one of the safest European countries 20 years ago in terms of gun crime to the second most dangerous, with most shootings linked to criminal migrant gangs.

… In today’s America, where competing racial, cultural and linguistic claims now make it nearly impossible even to speak of national identity, questions about history have become a struggle for the possession of America’s past … Something that well-meaning whites did not understand is that an “inclusive” history — one that would be all things to all people — is impossible … How, for example, is a multicultural history to treat the discovery and settlement of North America by Europeans? The old history called it a triumphant advance for civilization. But for Indians, the same historical events are an unending sequence of defeats and disaster. Does a multicultural textbook call this a triumph or a disaster or both or neither?

“Was Hitler Jewish?” is a frequently asked question but it is one that requires clarification to answer correctly. In essence, it encompasses two related sub-questions: “did Hitler have Jewish origins/family members?” and “was Hitler himself Jewish?” … As for the question of Jewish origins, Ian Kershaw, Hitler’s highly acclaimed most recent biographer, points out that the belief that Hitler had a Jewish family member began amongst the rumors, sensationalist journalism, and claims of political rivals, even within the Nazi Party, of the 1920s and ‘30s. The exact family member in question is Hitler’s paternal grandfather, whose exact identity remains unknown to this day … Ultimately, the answer to the question, in both of its forms, is a definitive `no.’

For the first time, the Israeli Air Force will practice for a widescale strike in Iran later this month, during the military’s major “Chariots of Fire” exercise, The Times of Israel has learned. In light of growing uncertainty regarding a return by Iran to the 2015 nuclear deal, amid long-stalled negotiations with the United States, the Israel Defense Forces in the past year has ramped up its efforts to prepare a credible military threat against Tehran’s nuclear facilities. The large-scale air maneuvers, including a simulated attack on Iranian nuclear targets, will take place over the Mediterranean Sea during the fourth and final week of the monthlong exercise, starting May 2 … By September [2021], Kohavi said the army had “greatly accelerated” preparations for action against Tehran’s nuclear program.

Congressman Chip Roy (R-Texas) has condemned House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer for stating that the US is “at war,” presumably with Russia. Roy hammered Democrats and Republicans alike for deepening America’s involvement in the Ukraine conflict in order to “feel good about ourselves.” In a video clip posted by Roy’s press office on Wednesday, the Texas Republican took aim at Hoyer for declaring on Friday that the US is “at war,” and that critics of the Democratic Party should “focus on the enemy” instead of rising energy costs at home.

Declassified U.S. State Department documents prove that Mainstream Media and the U.S. government are deceiving the public. Russia has been asking for the same kind of security that the US demands for itself. Putin has cited promises made by US and other European leaders in 1990-91 that, after the end of Soviet control of withdrawal from east Germany, Poland, and so forth, the NATO military alliance would not be expanded eastwards against Russia. Those promises were broken. Now the US media and US government officials deny that such pledges were ever made. They are lying. Runtime: 10:36 mins.

… The largest nation on earth with twice the territory of the US, Russia has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal and exceeds the US and China in tactical nuclear weapons. It has vast tracks of land and sits on huge deposits of minerals, coal, oil and gas. But Russia also has glaring weaknesses and growing vulnerabilities … Where does Mother Russia go from here? Bitter at their losses in the Cold War and post-Cold War years, many Russian nationalists are urging the regime to align with today’s great power antagonist of the United States, Xi Jinping’s China … In 230 years, the United States has never gone to war with Russia. Not with the Romanovs nor with the Stalinists, not with the Cold War Communists nor with the Putinists. US vital interests dictate that we maintain that tradition.

The Victorian [state] government has introduced landmark legislation to parliament to ban the public display of the Nazi swastika in a move described as a “thunderous blow” to white supremacists and far-right extremists. Victoria will be the first jurisdiction in the country to criminalize the display of the hate [?] symbol, enabling police to remove and confiscate items that breach the ban … The Summary Offences Amendment Act (Nazi Symbol Protection) Bill is expected to have bipartisan support. Symes said she expected it to be dealt with expeditiously. Once in effect, 12 months after the bill passes parliament, those caught intentionally displaying the Nazi symbol in public – including in graffiti – face a maximum of 12 months in jail and a $22,000 penalty. The ban does not extend to online displays …

The swastika is a symbol that was used in the 20 th century by of one of the most hated men ever to have lived … But Adolf Hitler was not the first to use this symbol. In fact, it was used as a positive and powerful symbol thousands of years before him, across many cultures and continents. For the Hindus and Buddhists in India and other Asian countries, the swastika was an important symbol for many thousands of years and, to this day, the symbol can still be seen in abundance – on temples, buses, taxis, and on the cover of books. It was also used in Ancient Greece and Rome, and can be found in the remains of the ancient city of Troy, which existed 4,000 years ago. The ancient Druids and the Celts also used the symbol, reflected in many artifacts that have been discovered. It was used by Nordic tribes, and even early Christians …

In an almost offhand fashion last week, Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told several congressional committees that his Department of Homeland Security had created a new body, the Disinformation Governance Board (DGB) … We have seen this saga before … We refer here to the Committee on Public Information, created by President Woodrow Wilson on April 14, 1917, one week after the United States entered World War I … In the next 18 months that the war lasted, the CPI grew willy-nilly into a ministry of propaganda. “There was no part of the great war machinery that we did not touch, no medium of appeal that we did not employ,” Creel wrote after the war … The CPI soon began declaring “the facts,” calling out Americans who dared to dissent, and even chastising small town editors who took minor exception to administration policy.

The top Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land has condemned the Israeli police beating of mourners carrying the casket of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, accusing the authorities of violating human rights and disrespecting the Catholic church. Latin patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa told reporters that Friday’s incident, broadcast around the world, was a “disproportionate use of force” against a large crowd of people waving Palestinian flags as they proceeded from the hospital to a nearby Catholic church in Jerusalem’s Old City. The attack drew worldwide condemnation and added to the shock and outrage over the death of Abu Akleh, who was killed during an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) operation in the occupied West Bank.

The US’s most powerful pro-Israel lobby group is pouring millions of dollars into influencing Democratic congressional primary races to counter growing support for the Palestinian cause within the party, including elections today in Pennsylvania and North Carolina. The American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s money is focused on blocking female candidates who, if elected, are likely to align with “the Squad” of progressive members of Congress who have been critical of Israel. But it is funneled through a group, the United Democracy Project (UDP), that avoids mention of its creation by Aipac and seeks to decide elections by funding campaign messages about issues other than Israel. The UDP has thrown $2.3 million in to Tuesday’s Democratic primary race for an open congressional seat in Pennsylvania …

A French court acquitted Eric Zemmour, a French politician, of denying a crime against humanity by saying that a French collaborator with the Nazis had saved most French Jews. The Appeals Court of Paris last week confirmed an earlier ruling from January by a lower court that said that Zemmour, a Jewish journalist with far-right views who ran unsuccessfully for president in April, was innocent of the action, which is illegal in France. Several left-leaning anti-racism groups had filed complaints against Zemmour over his 2019 comments saying that Philippe Pétain, whom the Nazis allowed to administer a part of France after they occupied the country in 1940, had sacrificed foreign Jews living in France to save Jewish citizens. The issue is divisive because it touches on the question of French complicity in the Holocaust.

Former MK Rachel Azaria shared with his followers on social media that her great-grandmother, Frieda Friedman, received a handwritten letter from Adolf Hitler in response to a letter she had sent German President Paul von Hindenburg, who had appointed the Nazi leader as the head of the government in 1933 … Azaria said that upon Hitler’s rise to power, her grandmother wrote the German president about the new attitude toward Jews despite their contribution to the country … The president said he took her complaints seriously and gave it to Hitler for comment. The newly appointed German chancellor wrote back, in handwriting, that she was making baseless accusations and that there were no calls for violence against Jews.

Even by Washington standards, the Biden Administration’s recent request for $33 billion for military aid to Ukraine was shocking. Surely a coalition of antiwar progressives and budget-hawk Republicans would oppose the dangerous and expensive involvement of the US in the Russia/Ukraine conflict? No! Not only did Congress not object: they added nearly seven billion MORE dollars to the package! In the end, not a single House Democrat voted against further US involvement in the war, and just 57 Republicans said “no” to funding yet another undeclared war … This massive giveaway to Ukraine equals nearly the entire yearly budget of the US State Department and is larger than the budget of the Department of Homeland Security!

After Joe Biden announced his extraordinary request for $33 billion more for the war in Ukraine — on top of the $14 billion the U.S. has already spent just ten weeks into this war — congressional leaders of both parties immediately decided the amount was insufficient. They arbitrarily increased the amount by $7 billion to a total of $40 billion, then fast-tracked the bill for immediate approval. As we reported on Tuesday night, the House overwhelmingly voted to approve the bill by a vote of 388-57. All fifty-seven NO votes came from Republican House members … While a small portion of these funds will go to humanitarian aid for Ukraine, the vast majority will go into the coffers of weapons manufacturers such as Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Boeing and the usual suspects. Some of it will go to the CIA for unspecified reasons.

Footage released Monday from last week’s funeral for slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh showed dozens of Israel Police officers rushing into a hospital before the procession began, hitting and shoving people inside, including patients, and firing from the grounds of the medical center. The video clips — security footage from inside East Jerusalem’s Saint Joseph’s Hospital — were presented by local Christian leaders at a press conference during which they tore into police conduct during Abu Akleh’s funeral. Police have already been under immense international scrutiny for other scenes captured at the Friday funeral, namely of officers rushing at and beating mourners as they carried Abu Akleh’s casket outside the hospital, nearly causing it to fall to the ground, and the firing of stun grenades.

Israeli police attacked a funeral procession in occupied East Jerusalem for slain journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Friday, beating mourners with batons and causing them to almost drop the coffin. Thousands of mourners, some hoisting Palestinian flags, attended the funeral for the Palestinian-American reporter, who witnesses say was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday while covering a military raid in the occupied West Bank. Palestinian journalist Daoud Kuttab and president of “Americans for Peace Now” (and former Israeli soldier) Hadar Susskind discuss the killing and what it means for the future. Runtimes: 10:33 mins.

… Brimming with overconfidence after Putin’s serial failures, Washington, London and Kyiv are now in the process of switching places with Moscow when it comes to expectations of military victory, though nobody seems to know what would constitute a victory. Would this mean Russia returning to pre-February lines, its total eviction from Ukraine or regime change in Moscow? … American intelligence chiefs largely confirmed fragmentary but fascinating reports from Russia suggesting that elements of the army and security services do not blame Putin for going to war, but they do blame him for not waging a total war … In expanding their war aims, the US and the Nato powers are doing Ukrainians no favours, but they are dooming them to living in an arena where outside powers fight each other over issues that have nothing to do with Ukraine.

… What patriot would commit his own country, in perpetuity, to go to war on behalf of another country not his own? Why would America surrender to the Finns our freedom of action in deciding whether or not to fight a nuclear-armed Russia? … In his farewell address, President George Washington warned his countrymen against “permanent alliances.” In conscious echo of our first president, Thomas Jefferson warned against “entangling alliances.” … The last quarter-century of NATO’s encroachment into Russia’s space and onto Russia’s front porch has been a leading cause of the worsening relationship between the world’s two great nuclear powers. The repeated refusal of Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to rule out NATO membership for Ukraine was a primary cause of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The US House of Representatives passed a bipartisan bill on Tuesday to award the Congressional Medal of Honor to Benjamin Ferencz, the last surviving prosecutor of the Nuremberg Trials. The measure was introduced by Rep. Lois Frankel (D-Fla), in whose district Ferencz resides. “Nearly 80 years after the conclusion of these trials we meet here, during Jewish-American history month, after having just celebrated Israel’s Independence Day and observing Yom Hashoah, the day set aside for Jews to remember the Holocaust. It is important to recognize that we are still fighting an ongoing battle against racism, anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in this country and around the world,” said Frankel.

The Nuremberg Tribunal of 1945-46 — the most spectacular judicial enterprise in history — was meant to prove that the defeated German regime had been one of unique and monstrous deceit, rapaciousness and evil. But in fact the Tribunal dispensed not justice, but injustice. The four Allied powers that organized and ran it were themselves guilty of some of the very same crimes they accused the German defendants of having committed. The Tribunal operated on the basis of “ex post facto” law created after the fact expressly for the occasion, and which the Allies applied only to the defeated. The hangings of German leaders ordered by the Tribunal were little more than murders glossed over with a veneer of makeshift, hypocritical pseudo-legality.

… In his plea, Major Poullada systematically confronts one emotion-charged issue after another, calmly but persistently challenging the judges to set aside prejudice and presumption to consider all the evidence with an open mind. Poullada concludes with an eloquent defense of traditional Anglo-American standards of justice. As Poullada repeatedly emphasizes, these postwar “war crimes” trials violated basic principles of justice. With specific examples, he shows how the prosecution has encouraged witnesses to give clearly false hearsay testimony evidence. With prosecution connivance, Poullada establishes, some witnesses gave demonstrably perjured testimony.

… Ukraine deserves America’s sympathy, not America’s defense. There is no vital interest at stake that warrants the US going to war … Washington should be working to end the war. Moscow’s brutal invasion was murderous, unjustified aggression. It should fail. However, the imperative is to end the conflict. Ukraine, the battleground, is suffering grievously, with thousands of deaths, millions of refugees, multiple cities wrecked, and an economy in collapse. It is up to Kyiv to decide its future, but the allies should indicate their support for a negotiated settlement. The longer the conflict continues, the greater the chance that the fighting will spread, with catastrophic consequences. Any war is dangerous. One in which some combatants and potential entrants have nuclear weapons is far worse.

… Why are we going beyond assistance to the Ukrainians in defending themselves, into making this American’s war? … These statements by U.S. leaders reinforce Putin’s line that Russia is besieged by a U.S.-led Western alliance that fears and detests Mother Russia and wishes to see her defeated and diminished … America’s vital interests in this war, however, are to prevent it from becoming a U.S.-Russia war or a third world war or a nuclear war. The U.S. goal of imposing a crushing defeat of Russian aggression is secondary to our far more vital interest in avoiding a U.S.-Russia war. America’s interests are best served by an early and negotiated peace. Such a goal rules out imposing humiliating terms on Russia, which cause Moscow and Putin to escalate militarily — to survive politically.

Israeli police attacked a funeral procession for slain Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh on Friday, beating mourners with batons and causing them to almost drop the coffin. Thousands of mourners, some hoisting Palestinian flags and chanting “Palestine, Palestine,” attended the funeral in Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem for the Palestinian-American reporter, who witnesses say was shot and killed by Israeli forces on Wednesday while covering a military raid in the occupied West Bank. The mourners tried to march with the coffin on foot out of a hospital to a Catholic church in the nearby Old City. Runtime: 2:15 mins.

A veteran Palestinian-American correspondent for Al Jazeera has been killed while covering a raid by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. The Qatar-based network said Shireen Abu Aqla was shot “deliberately” and “in cold blood” by Israeli troops in Jenin. Her producer was also wounded. Israel’s prime minister said it was “likely” they were shot by Palestinian gunmen during an exchange of fire. But his military chief said it was not yet able to determine what happened … Shireen Abu Aqla, 51, was widely known and widely admired – by viewers and colleagues alike. Early on Wednesday morning she went to the Jenin refugee camp to report on a raid by Israeli soldiers and security forces, which the Israeli military said was conducted to apprehend “terrorist suspects”.

The killing of Al Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank has cast a spotlight on the high rate of Israeli attacks against media workers, particularly Palestinians, and the relative impunity under which they operate, according to local journalists, advocates and rights groups. Abu Akleh, 51, was fatally shot in the head on Wednesday while covering Israeli raids in the city of Jenin. Palestinian authorities said the veteran journalist was shot by Israeli forces … Journalists on the scene, including Shatha Hanaysha, who was also wounded in the incident, have rejected that narrative, saying Abu Akleh was in an “exposed area” with three other journalists when they were fired upon and that “there were no confrontations or shots being fired by Palestinian fighters”.

… Failure to foresee the aggressive and disintegrating role which a victorious Soviet Union might be expected to play in a smashed and ruined Europe and Asia was the principal blunder of America’s crusading interventionists … It was an illusion that the United States was at any time in danger of invasion by Nazi Germany. It was an illusion that Hitler was bent on the destruction of the British Empire. It was an illusion that China was capable of becoming a strong, friendly, western-oriented power in the Far East. It was an illusion that a powerful Soviet Union in a weakened and impoverished Eurasia would be a force for peace, conciliation, stability, and international co-operation.

… The [German-American Bund] demonstrations [in 1938] terrified New York’s Jewish community, many of whom had relatives in Europe, and had been watching the headlines from Germany with growing alarm. A former US congressman and judge named Nathan David Perlman saw the path the Bund was on, and he wanted it stopped. He knew their actions weren’t illegal, but the judge had a revelation … as Michael Benson describes in his new book, “Gangsters v Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters Battled Nazis in Wartime America” … He [Perlman] called Meyer Lansky, New York’s preeminent Jewish gangster … When it was over, Benson writes, “scattered about were injured Nazis. So much blood.” Some lay unconscious after their heads were pummeled, others with compound fractures of the limbs.

In the feverish eight years of world history immediately preceding the entry of the United states into World War II, there streaked across the American political firmament a rather noisy meteor officially called Das Amerikadeutscher Bund, more generally referred to as the German-American Bund or simply as the Bund. In its brief lifetime, the Bund was the object of much hostility, suspicion and fear. It had an almost universally “bad press” and wild exaggerations concerning its aims, its size and its resources were uttered with patent self-interest and arrières pensées [ulterior motive] by a number of politicians, journalists and assorted public figures. Yet post-war historians usually dismiss the Bund in a sentence or two when writing general histories of the American thirties.

The chief executive of Volkswagen has called for a negotiated settlement between Russia and Ukraine so that sanctions can be lifted to avoid damaging the German economy. Herbert Diess said that Brussels should be pushing for a peace deal so that free trade can resume to protect the European Union’s commercial interests … Speaking at an industry summit organised by the Financial Times, Mr Diess said: “I think we should do the utmost to really stop this war and get back to negotiations and get back to trying to open up the world again. “I think we should not give up on open markets and free trade and I think we should not give up on negotiating and trying to settle.” He added that if global trade continues to struggle, “Europe will suffer most, and Germany, but I think it will be bad for the whole world”.

… Ask Jews their opinion on magnate Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter and, to a large extent, those on the political Right will say it’s a good thing and those on the political Left will say it’s a bad thing. As to why Jews and Israelis should care is that Twitter is an extremely powerful weapon that can be used to shape the hearts and minds of people, and has seen virulent antisemitic and anti-Israel posts, including by celebrities … Craig Dershowitz, CEO of Artists 4 Israel, said he can’t be certain if Musk taking over is good or bad, but for now he’s optimistic … But some worry a lessening of monitoring could lead to more antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment, which are already rising … Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League released a statement calling Musk’s takeover of Twitter “a sad day for democracy.”

On Tuesday, China accused the US of “political manipulation” after the State Department changed the wording of a Taiwan fact sheet on its website. The State Department removed a line that said the US “does not support Taiwan independence.” It also removed a line that said the US recognizes “the government of the People’s Republic of China as the sole legal government of China, acknowledging the Chinese position that there is but one China and Taiwan is a part of China.” … “This kind of political manipulation on the Taiwan question is an attempt to change the status quo in the Taiwan Strait, and will inevitably stir up a fire that only burn,” said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian. State Department spokesman Ned Price defended the edits to the fact sheet, insisting it did not mean a change in policy.

The United States and its allies have dropped at least 326,000 bombs and missiles on countries in the greater Middle East/ North Africa region since 2001. That is the conclusion of new research by Medea Benjamin and Nicolas J.S. Davies of anti-war group Codepink. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen are the countries that have felt the worst of the violence … The total amounts to an average of 46 bombs dropped per day over the last 20 years. Codepink’s numbers are based primarily on official U.S. military releases, as well as data from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, the Yemen Data Project, and the New America Foundation … The United States has been at war for nearly every year of its existence as an independent nation, fighting in 227 years of its 244-year history.

Interfering in another state is tricky business – so says the gutsy University of Chicago international relations scholar John Mearsheimer (The Great Delusion: Liberal Dreams and International Realities). It is tricky – and dangerous – and the exceptional nation, the US, may think pushing NATO (with its missile sites and troop placement) to Russia’s borders is benign. But another state – Russia – thinks it is threatening … The realist Mearsheimer chides the US (and, indirectly its allies) that if they had a “rudimentary understanding of geopolitics should have been seen this coming.” … “No Russian leader would tolerate a former enemy’s military alliance moving into Ukraine. Nor would any Russian leader stand idly by while the West helped install a government in Kiev that was determined to join that alliance.”

The Church of England on Sunday apologized for anti-Jewish laws that were passed 800 years ago and eventually led to the expulsion of Jews from the kingdom for hundreds of years. A special service held at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford was attended by Britain’s Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and representatives of Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby to mark the Synod of Oxford, passed in 1222. The synod forbade social interactions between Jews and Christians, placed a specific tithe on Jews, and required them to wear an identifying badge. They were also banned from some professions and from building new synagogues. The decrees were followed by more anti-Jewish laws, and eventually the mass expulsion of England’s 3,000 Jews of the time in 1290. It would be another 360 years before Jews were permitted to return.

This year is on track for record lobbying spending after lobbyists collectively clocked the biggest first quarter haul in history — with more than $1 billion disclosed during the first quarter of 2022 alone. At this point in 2021, 10,503 lobbyists had brought in less than $929 million across all industries. The federal budget was the most lobbied issue from January through March, with 3,394 clients paying for lobbying on the issue. Health issues were also heavily lobbied, with 2,068 clients. Lobbying related to health continues to dominate spending as recovery from the coronavirus pandemic continues … Technology companies were also among the top 10 lobbying spenders of 2022’s first quarter. Facebook’s parent company, Meta, spent nearly $5.4 million on lobbying while online retail giant Amazon spent over $5.3 million.

Harvard University’s student-run daily newspaper has announced its support for and endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the Israeli occupation, making it one of the most significant steps by an American university against the occupation. The Harvard Crimson Editorial Board announced in its paper yesterday that it now “proudly” endorses the BDS movement, stating that “We are proud to finally lend our support to both Palestinian liberation and BDS – and we call on everyone to do the same.” The paper’s Editorial Board admitted that where it previously held a “sceptical” stance on the matter, it has now shifted to fully supporting the BDS campaign, insisting that “The weight of this moment – of Israel’s human rights and international law violations and of Palestine’s cry for freedom – demands this step.”

Seventy Harvard-affiliated faculty have condemned the university’s student newspaper for endorsing the boycott movement against Israel 10 days ago, a move that whipped up a firestorm of controversy and was seen as a possible omen of changing sentiment toward Israel on campuses. An editor at the newspaper, the Harvard Crimson, and at least eight former staffers also condemned the editorial board’s endorsement of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement on April 29. The faculty statement released on Monday was signed by leading scholars including Steven Pinkner, Ruth Wisse, Jesse Fried, Gabriella Blum, and Lawrence Summers, who is also a former president of the university and was the US secretary of treasury under former US president Barack Obama.

A motion passed by the University of Melbourne Student Union (UMSU) against Israel on Friday has been described as “blatantly antisemitic”. The motion, titled “UMSU stands with Palestine – BDS and Solidarity Policy”, accuses Israel of “massacres, forced expulsion and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians”, calls Zionism “a racist, colonial ideology” and supports the right of Palestinians “to engage in self-defence against their occupiers”. It goes on to condemn “all forms of anti-semitism against students of the Jewish faith”. Put forward by the People of Colour Committee, the motion passed 10-7 … Australasian Union of Jewish Students (AUJS) president Natalie Gunn said the motion “egregiously misrepresents Jewish students’ beliefs, falsifies history, misconstrues Zionism and incites hate”.

Russia has intensified its propaganda campaign against Sweden, accusing the Scandinavian nation of Nazism. Posters linking national Swedish heroes with the Nazis have appeared at bus stops around Russia, according to reports on Tuesday. The slogan “We are against Nazism, they are not” appeared alongside photos of Swedish figures such as Astrid Lindgren, famed for her children’s books featuring the character Pippi Longstocking; Ingvar Kamprad, founder of IKEA; and Ingmar Bergman, a Swedish film director. The word “we” was printed in the colors of the Russian flag, while the word “they” was printed in the colors of the Swedish flag. On the poster, alongside his photo, Kamprad was quoted from a 2011 book, saying: “I was a Nazi! I admired Hitler!”

Russia’s foreign ministry accused Israel on Tuesday of supporting neo-Nazis in Ukraine, escalating a row that began when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had Jewish origins … The Russian foreign ministry said in a statement that Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid’s comments were “anti-historical” and “explain to a large extent why the current Israeli government supports the neo-Nazi regime in Kyiv”. Moscow reiterated Lavrov’s point that Zelenskiy’s Jewish origins did not preclude Ukraine being run by neo-Nazis.

… Much of the world, it seems — from Asia to Africa to Latin America — is no longer willing to get lessons in morality from Washington … In 2003, the United States invaded a sovereign state in an elective and “preemptive” war. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis — most of them civilians — were killed. Portrayals of Iraq as a threat to the US and its neighbors were exposed as lies … Biden has already claimed that Washington will lead the “free world” in this “new world order.” But this “free world” is increasingly looking like the US, Europe, and a handful of other allies versus everyone else.

… The wide-ranging [Israeli] policy imposes new restrictions on foreigners who marry Palestinians or who come to the West Bank to work, volunteer, study or teach, further extending Israel’s nearly 55-year military rule into nearly every corner of Palestinian life. The rules do not apply to people visiting Israel, or the more than 130 Jewish settlements scattered across the West Bank. “It’s outrageous that the Israeli military thinks it can micromanage Palestinian society to this extent, to decide who’s qualified to teach at a university, who is entitled to have foreign volunteers,” said Jessica Montell, director of the Israeli human rights group HaMoked … The policy could also anger the U.S., which has long refused to enter into a visa waiver program with Israel, in part because Israel treats Palestinian-Americans differently than other U.S. citizens.

… Over a year into Biden’s presidency, there is still no nuclear deal with Iran. Blinken has admitted that the Trump administration’s “decision to pull out of the agreement was a disastrous mistake.” Iran represented the possibility of an easy, early victory for Biden in the new age of relentless diplomacy. But, instead of acting quickly and early to return the US to compliance and save the JCPOA nuclear agreement, Biden hesitated, increased sanctions instead of snapping back to compliance and refused to guarantee that the US wouldn’t break its promise again … Iran was never engaged in a nuclear weapons program … And the US knows Iran is not building a bomb … So, for the US to complain about a rush to a bomb goes against their own publicly declared evidence.

Russia’s Federal Security Service (the successor of the KGB) has declassified documents from the case file of Adolf Hitler’s personal pilot on Friday, revealing details of the final hours of the Nazi dictator. Hitler committed suicide on April 30, 1945, just days before Soviet troops captured Berlin, effectively ending World War II in Europe. His body had been doused with gasoline and burned. Lieutenant General Hans Baur who worked for Hitler for more than a decade, was captured by Soviet soldiers on May 2, 1945, and faced trial in Moscow. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) published previously classified documents from Baur’s file. The papers from the FSB’s Novgorod region branch include Baur’s handwritten autobiography and its translation from German, as well as his testimony.

Hitler honors 20 young German volunteers who had shown extraordinary commitment and courage in defending the homeland against enemy forces. This Mark Felton production includes final images of the German leader as he meets with Hitler Youth boys and teenagers outside the Reich Chancellary in Berlin are from March 20, 1945 — six weeks before he took his life in his beleagurered command post. Runtime: 11:16 mins.

A day before his death in his beleaguered command center in central Berlin, Adolf Hitler summoned Traudl Junge, his youngest secretary, for an important task. Standing at a large table in the conference room of the cramped underground concrete bunker complex, he paused a bit before he began dictating “My Political Testament,” a declaration that would be his final words to the German people, as well as a statement for coming generations … Hitler also sought to explain why things had turned out so calamitously, and he anticipated accusations that would be made against him in the years ahead.

The bodyguard who was the first to lay eyes on Adolf Hitler’s dead body has described the last minutes of the Fuhrer’s life in intimate detail. Rochus Misch’s autobiography explains how the Nazi leader said all soldiers were “released” from loyalty and that he wanted his body to be burned, before killing himself. Mr Misch, who was the last surviving member of Hitler’s entourage when he died in Berlin aged 96 in 2013, also described how he walked in on mistress Eva Braun in a “flimsy nightie” … Mr Misch was kidnapped by the Soviet Red Army, and imprisoned in labour camps for eight years, after trying to escape into hiding. He spoke fondly of Hitler until his later years, describing him as a “wonderful boss” and “no brute” …

Catholicism is losing its grip in Latin America as the percentage of people who say they identify as evangelical has grown, data shows. Why it matters: The Catholic Church has historically influenced Latin American laws and politics. Its decline is starting to impact some countries’ policies, even as other faiths grow. For example, several countries have recently decriminalized abortion, recognized gay marriage and pushed for transgender rights. By the numbers: Overall, the number of Latin Americans who said they don’t have a religion jumped by six percentage points from 2010 to 2020, according to the most recent Latinobarómetro, the premier regional annual survey. Annual survey. The percentage of people who identify as Catholic dropped from 70% in 2010 to 57% in 2020, Latinobarómetro found.

Fewer than one percent of Democratic Party voters identify Israel as one of the United States’ top two allies, behind eight other countries, according to a new poll published on Wednesday. The poll, conducted by the University of Maryland (UMD), found that 0.5 percent of Democratic respondents saw Israel as the first-choice US ally, while 0.9 percent found Israel a second-choice. The UK, Canada, Germany, Mexico, France, Japan, South Korea and China all rated higher among Democratic voters, according to the survey. The poll showed that more Republicans, 20 percent, see Israel as their top ally, as do four percent of registered Independents.

Despite the phrase “never again” long linked to Holocaust commemoration, almost half (47%) of the Israeli public are concerned that another Holocaust will strike the Jewish people, according to a new survey. The poll was conducted just days ahead of Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, which starts Wednesday evening, April 27, by the Pnima movement and first published in the Israeli newspaper Israel Hayom. The survey found that women expressed more anxiety about another Holocaust compared to men (55% versus 42%) and that younger Israelis are especially fearful … Notably, religiously observant Israelis are more worried about an ensuing Holocaust. Israelis who define themselves as haredim (ultra-Orthodox) responded that they were very concerned about the likelihood …

The US government today likes to pretend that it is the perennial champion of political independence for countries that were once behind the Iron Curtain. What is often forgotten, however, is that in the days following the fall of the Berlin Wall, Washington opposed independence for Soviet republics like Ukraine and the Baltic states. In fact, the Bush administration openly supported Mikhail Gorbachev’s efforts to hold the Soviet Union together rather than allow the USSR to decentralize into smaller states. The US regime and its supporters in the press took the position that nationalism — not Soviet despotism — was the real problem … Indeed, in the case of Ukraine, President George H. W. Bush even traveled to Kyiv in 1990 to lecture the Ukrainians about the dangers of seeking independence from Moscow, while decrying the supposed nationalist threat.

Worker productivity fell to start 2022 at its fastest pace in nearly 75 years while labor costs soared as the U.S. struggled with surging Covid cases, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. Nonfarm productivity, a measure of output against hours worked, declined 7.5% from January through March, the biggest fall since the third quarter of 1947. At the same time, unit labor costs soared 11.6%, bringing the increase over the past four quarters to 7.2%, the biggest gain since the third quarter of 1982. The metric calculates how much employers pay workers in salary and benefits per unit of output.

… For well over a decade, Putin had warned of the red line at NATO expansion into Ukraine … Putin forced diplomacy back onto the menu in February 2022 by serving the US a proposal on mutual security guarantees and a request for immediate negotiations … Ukraine was committed to taking Crimea and the Donbas, they were refusing to talk and now troops were massing at the border and artillery shelling was increasing horrifyingly. Russia feared the imminent invasion and operation against the ethnic Russians of the Donbas. That was the moment Russia chose to invade Ukraine. That doesn’t make it legal. That doesn’t make it moral. But that may explain why, after more than a dozen years of warnings, Russia chose now to go to war.

… According to ABC, the Department of Homeland Security is bracing for as many as 18,000 migrants per day at the U.S. southern border if Title 42 is revoked. Most of these migrants still come from Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, but growing numbers now come from all over the world. They are of every race, nationality, culture, creed, and ethnicity, and they are steadily converting America from a First World Western nation into a predominantly Third World country. By failing or refusing to do his constitutional duty to defend the nation from invasion, Biden is letting this happen. Through his passivity and inaction, he is remaking America. What we are witnessing is the Third Worldization of the USA.

Russia’s President Vladimir Putin has apologised after his foreign minister said that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood”, Israel says. Mr Putin made the apology in a call with Israeli PM Naftali Bennett, his office said in a statement … Sergei Lavrov made the initial comments to try to justify Russia’s portrayal of Ukraine as “Nazi,” despite the fact that its president is Jewish. Mr Lavrov spoke to Italian TV on Sunday … When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to “de-Nazify” Ukraine when President Volodymyr Zelensky is himself Jewish, Mr Lavrov said: “I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood. [That Zelensky is Jewish] means absolutely nothing. Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-Semites are usually Jews.”

… The stubbornly persistent — and dangerous — idea of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler having Jewish ancestry dates back as far as the 1920s, focusing on the origins of Hitler’s paternal grandfather. Hitler’s father, Alois, was born in 1837, the illegitimate child of 42-year-old Maria Anna Schicklgruber. No father is recorded on his baptism certificate, which became the source of the speculation that Hitler’s grandfather was actually Jewish. “Rumours to that effect circulated in Munich cafes in the early 1920s, and were fostered by sensationalist journalism of the foreign press during the 1930s,” wrote Ian Kershaw in his biography, “Hitler.” Wild speculation abounded, including that … the fabulously wealthy Baron Rothschild sired Alois when his mother was working as a servant in the Rothschild mansion in Vienna.

When Mexican police found a pile of about 150 skulls in a cave near the Guatemalan border, they thought they were looking at a crime scene, and took the bones to the state capital. It turns out it was a very cold case. It took a decade of tests and analysis to determine the skulls were from sacrificial victims killed between A.D. 900 and 1200, the National Institute of Anthropology and History said Wednesday … Experts said Wednesday the victims in the cave had probably been ritually decapitated and the skulls put on display on a kind of trophy rack known as a “tzompantli.” Spanish conquistadores wrote about seeing such racks in the 1520s, and some Spaniards’ heads even wound up on them.

The 28th annual report on antisemitism worldwide, published by the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University’s Faculty of Humanities, shows a a sharp increase in the number of antisemitic incidents in many countries, even compared to the pre-pandemic year of 2019 … The authors report a dramatic rise in the number of antisemitic incidents in the US, Canada, the UK, Germany, and Australia – as well as other countries … “It’s time to admit: The struggle is failing,” commented the report’s authors. Prof. Uriya Shavit, Head of the Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry, said: “Something just isn’t working …”

An article on the front page of the Iranian Kayhan newspaper, affiliated with Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, on Thursday stated that Hitler was “smarter and more courageous” than current European leaders because he “expelled” the Jews from Germany … “The logic that Hitler showed by expelling them from Germany is that he is smarter and more courageous than all current European leaders,” read the article. “Hitler expelled [the Jews] and European countries live by ransom and confirm the myth of the Holocaust, they look for an excuse for their cowardice and humiliation …”

Carlyle Group co-founder David M. Rubenstein has been heralded for what he calls his “patriotic philanthropy” … Rubenstein will donate $15 million to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to support and expand its collection. The gift, which helps the museum exceed its $1 billion fundraising goal a year early, will be celebrated Monday … In the 1970s, Rubenstein worked for Stuart E. Eizenstat, a domestic policy adviser to President Jimmy Carter who was instrumental in forming the commission that led to the building of a national Holocaust museum, which opened in 1993. In January, President Biden tapped Eizenstat to be chairman of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council, which acts as the museum’s board of trustees.