Headlines

It is becoming increasingly clear that political leaders on the left and Big Tech are joining arms to not just deplatform dissident voices from social media, but to bar them from the digital space entirely, including from having the ability to make and receive payments online … PayPal has admitted to closing accounts flagged by the Southern Poverty Law Center in 2019, now, PayPal has announced a partnership with the left-leaning Anti-Defamation League to focus on “further uncovering and disrupting the financial pipelines that support extremist and hate movements.” In their joint statement, neither PaylPal nor the Anti-Defamation League explicitly define what they mean by extremist and hate movements …

The American medical establishment is touting its turn toward race-based, social justice-oriented health care. A report done by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) — the leading organization for medical schools, teaching hospitals, and scientific studies — shows the expansion of race-based ideology in the practice of medicine. The report, titled “The Power of Collective Action: Assessing and Advancing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Efforts at AAMC Medical Schools,” outlined self-audits from schools regarding the level to which they were pushing the political agenda into aspects of their functions … Nearly every level of the American medical establishment is involved with the push toward racial preferences in the practice of medicine.

The arm of the American Bar Association that accredits U.S. law schools on Friday voted to eliminate the longstanding requirement that schools use the Law School Admission Test or other standardized test when admitting students. But under a last-minute revision, the rule change will not go into effect until the fall of 2025 — giving law schools time to plan for new ways to admit students. The ABA’s Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar overwhelmingly voted to do away with its testing mandate after years of debate and over the objections of nearly 60 law school deans who warned such a move could harm the goal of diversifying the legal profession.

Comedian Dave Chappelle reportedly tricked SNL producers into allowing his controversial stand-up routine in relation to Kanye “Ye” West to be broadcast by providing them with a fake monologue during dress rehearsal. Chappelle was blasted for “desensitizing” Americans to anti-semitism after he told a number of jokes relating to Jewish power interests in Hollywood and the media. Although the comedian opened his monologue by saying, “I denounce anti-semitism in all its forms, and I stand with my friends in the Jewish community,” he proceeded to riff on the double standards of how scrutiny of Jews is treated differently to other ethnic groups … “If they’re black, it’s a gang. If they’re Italian, it’s a mob. If they’re Jewish, it’s a coincidence, and you should neeeever speak about it,” said Chappelle.

Canada is betting big on immigration to fill the gap in its economy left by aging Baby Boomers leaving the workforce – but not everyone is on board with bringing in so many people from abroad. Earlier this month, the federal government announced an aggressive plan to take in 500,000 immigrants a year by 2025, with almost 1.5 million new immigrants coming to the country over the next three years. This plan would see Canada welcome about eight-times the number of permanent residents each year – per population – than the UK, and four-times more than its southern neighbour, the United States. But a recent poll shows that there is also anxiety about welcoming in so many newcomers ….

… We raised $16 million to strengthen pro-Israel Democrats and Republicans. We supported 365 pro-Israel members of Congress and candidates. AIPAC is “the single most influential big money group in democratic electoral politics,” says Salon. We defeated 13 candidates seeking to weaken the U.S.-Israel relationship.

When Rep. Karen Bass is sworn in as Los Angeles mayor next month, Black people will be leading the four largest cities in America. “As Black mayors continue to win elections this cycle, we are excited that, for the first time, the four largest cities – New York City, Los Angeles, Chicago & Houston – are each led by an African American mayor,” the African American Mayors Association said on Thursday. Bass, a six-term congresswoman who represents south and west Los Angeles, will be Los Angeles’ first female mayor. She will be sworn in on December 12. New York City Mayor Eric Adams, a retired New York Police Department captain, took his oath earlier this year … The four of them are members of the Democratic party.

The Associated Press fired a reporter over a retracted story about Russian missiles amid ongoing tension in Europe and the war in Ukraine. In an alert sent shortly after a Nov. 15 explosion in Przewodów, Poland, the AP reported a senior U.S. intelligence official said the explosion was the result of missiles that had been launched by Russia. That report, which relied on a single anonymous source, turned out to be false, and the news organization eventually retracted the report and replaced it online with a correction … An investigation from Poland and NATO suggested that it was actually a Ukrainian air defense missile that struck four miles from the border.

… An array of disruptive, bloody tragedies — most notably those in the Balkans, Afghanistan (again), Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Yemen — mark Uncle Sam’s global trail of wreckage … Future U.S. policymakers also need to avoid repeating the faulty performance of their predecessors. To do so, they must make three significant changes to U.S. foreign policy. First, Washington should utterly renounce nation-building. Trying to remake alien societies by force and impose Western political, economic, and social values is the essence of folly … Third, U.S. leaders must do a much better job of distinguishing vital national interests from secondary or peripheral ones.

… In my lifetime, the United States has overthrown or attempted to overthrow more than 50 governments, mostly democracies. It has interfered in democratic elections in 30 countries. It has dropped bombs on the people of 30 countries, most of them poor and defenceless. It has attempted to murder the leaders of 50 countries. It has fought to suppress liberation movements in 20 countries. The extent and scale of this carnage is largely unreported, unrecognised, and those responsible continue to dominate Anglo-American political life … Having soaked for 82 years in a deep bath of righteousness that is the official version of the last world war, isn’t it time those who are meant to keep the record straight declared their independence and decoded the propaganda? The urgency is greater than ever.

A look at lies and deceit in the two world wars. Fantastic stories about German atrocities in World War I were promoted to mobilize public opinion in the US, Britain and France. In World War II, the disastrous British evacuation of Dunkirk was portrayed as a great success. Another durable propaganda myth is the story of “merciless” German bombing of Coventry. Actually, it was the British who first began indiscriminate bombing of civilians. As historian Phillip Knightley points out, German news reports about the war were generally more accurate and reliable than those of the Allies.

In 1941, as Nazi German troops swept through Soviet-era Ukraine, Josef Stalin’s secret police blew up a hydroelectric dam in the southern city of Zaporizhzhya to slow the Nazi advance. The explosion flooded villages along the banks of the Dnieper River, killing thousands of civilians … Ukraine suffered heavy losses both during World War II and under Stalin. The Zaporizhzhya events took place in August 1941. As Nazi troops approached the city, Moscow sent in agents from the NKVD, the predecessor of the KGB, to blow up the city’s DniproHES hydroelectric dam … The explosion also flooded villages and settlements along the Dnieper River. The tidal surge killed thousands of unsuspecting civilians, as well as Red Army officers who were crossing over the river .,. Most historians put it at between 20,000 and 100,000 …

At least $1 billion of customer funds — and possibly as much as $2 billion — have gone missing in the shocking implosion of the crypto currency exchange FTX, according to reports. FTX’s flamboyant founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, known in the industry as “SBF,” secretly funneled $10 billion of customer funds into his trading company, Alameda Research, sources told two media outlets. Alameda Research is run by Bankman-Fried’s girlfriend, Caroline Ellison. Two senior FTX officials claimed they saw the evidence that the money was missing in copies of financial records Bankman-Fried shared with company executives last week, according to Reuters. At least $473 million of the missing money might have been hacked or stolen, FTX claimed early Saturday.

Sam Bankman-Fried, the now-bankrupt founder of crypto exchange FTX, is a prolific donor of Democratic candidates and liberal causes, and infused at least $38 million into left-wing groups during the 2022 election cycle. Bankman-Fried was the second-largest contributor to Democratic-affiliated political action committees (PACs) and organizations, behind only liberal financial magnate George Soros, who donated nearly $127 million during the midterm cycle, according to Federal Election Commission (FEC) data. However, the collapse of FTX this week has called into question Bankman-Fried’s finances. A full-fledged liquidity crisis forced FTX to file for bankruptcy on Friday, and Bankman-Fried’s wealth, which was estimated to be $15.6 billion earlier this week, has sharply plummeted …

Israel has called the US Department of Justice’s decision to investigate the killing of Palestinian-American reporter Shireen Abu Aqla a “mistake”. Outgoing Defence Minister Benny Gantz said he had told US representatives that Israel would not co-operate. The DoJ and FBI declined to comment, but Abu Aqla’s family praised the “important step toward accountability”. The Al Jazeera correspondent was shot in the head during an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank in May. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) concluded that one of its soldiers probably killed her, but called her death unintentional and ruled out a criminal inquiry. Shireen Abu Aqla, who was 51, arrived in Jenin refugee camp on 11 May to report on an Israeli army raid which had seen gun battles break out between soldiers and Palestinian militants.

Alessandra Mussolini, the granddaughter of Italian dictator and father of fascism Benito Mussolini, is once again a member of the European Parliament (MEP). She was one of the eight replacements for Italian MEPs who have taken up seats in the national parliament, the Chamber of Deputies. Mussolini previously served as MEP for central Italy from 2014 to 2019, when she lost her re-election bid. Prior to that, she was a member of the Chamber of Deputies on two occasions, in 1992-2004 and 2008-2013 … Born in Rome in 1962, Alessandra is the daughter of Mussolini’s fourth son, Romano. Prior to entering politics, she had a career in modeling and acting, helped along by her maternal aunt, actress Sophia Loren. Mussolini also has three children.

The former deputy to Mort Klein, president of the Zionist Organization of America, is suing him and the group, accusing the often combative leader of racist and sexist behavior. John Rosen, whom the organization fired as executive director in August, is seeking $1.2 million in damages. Klein and the ZOA have denied any wrongdoing. According to the lawsuit, which was filed earlier this month in New York Supreme Court, Klein has a history of denigrating Black people and women. Rosen accused Klein of offensive behavior after he was accused of racism for criticizing the Black Lives Matter Movement as a “dangerous Soros-funded extremist group of haters” during the racial justice protests in 2020.

A savvy Black comedian takes a sharp, hilarious look at Jewish influence in Hollywood, the Kanye West furor, the mid-term elections, the widespread fear of being called “anti-Semitic,” Donald Trump’s appeal, the corrupt “System,” and more. Dave Chappelle’s shrewdly worded 15-minute monologue on Saturday Night Live has gained more than eight million YouTube views, and has predictably prompted irate complaints from influential Jewish groups and leaders.

Dave Chappelle certainly didn’t pull any punches, as usual, with his opening monologue on Saturday Night Live. The comedian opened his nearly 15 minute set by addressing Kanye West’s recent antisemitism … In typical Chappelle form, he managed to get right up to the line himself as he continued to discuss the topic … “I’ve been to Hollywood, this is just what I saw. It’s a lot of Jews. Like a lot … You might go out in Hollywood and you might start connecting some kind of lines, and you might adopt the delusion that Jews run showbusiness. It’s not a crazy thing to think, but it’s a crazy thing to say out loud,” he said.

Dave Chappelle’s comments about the Jewish community during his “Saturday Night Llive” monologue are being slammed as antisemitic. Anti-Defamation League chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt took to Twitter on Sunday to criticize the comedian and the NBC late night show. “We shouldn’t expect @DaveChappelle to serve as society’s moral compass, but disturbing to see @nbcsnl not just normalize but popularize #antisemitism,” Greenblatt tweeted. “Why are Jewish sensitivities denied or diminished at almost every turn? Why does our trauma trigger applause?” The controversial comic hosted the show and addressed the firestorm around Kanye West … Writer Adam Feldman tweeted “That Dave Chappelle SNL monologue probably did more to normalize anti-Semitism than anything Kanye said.”

… The Jewish denial that Hollywood is controlled by Jews is a great lie which can be attested to by anyone who has ever been associated with the film industry … It is positively insulting for them to deny their influence and power — particularly when they themselves are continually boasting in their own circles about their “overrepresentation” in these fields. And it is absolutely infuriating when this denial reaches the point that non-Jews are attacked by Jewish agitators and Zionist zealots for stating obvious facts and truth.

U.S. military forces have been engaged in unauthorized hostilities in many more countries than the Pentagon has disclosed to Congress, let alone the public, according to a major new report released late last week by New York University School of Law’s Brennan Center for Justice … The report, which relies on published work by investigative reporters, interviews with knowledgeable officials and congressional staff, official documents and records, as well as the author’s legal analysis, identifies 13 countries with Section 127e programs in addition to Somalia and Cameroon. They include Afghanistan, Egypt, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Niger, Nigeria, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. But it stressed that the list is almost certainly not exhaustive.

… More than 80 public schools across the United States chose to drop their namesakes in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, citing the individuals’ racist acts, according to a USA Today analysis of federal data. “It’s all part of this power struggle around the schoolhouse,” said Hilary Green, the James B. Duke Professor of Africana Studies at Davidson College. She studies Confederate monument removal and school renaming trends. Green said she expects the country will continue to see an uptick in the number of schools abandoning racist namesakes. Hundreds of Confederate monuments fell nationwide, as local officials vowed to eradicate symbols of racism in their communities.

Warsaw intends to calculate damages caused to the country by the USSR during World War II in a process similar to that which preceded a demand for compensation from Germany, the Polish Foreign Ministry has said. The research effort was mentioned in a statement on Friday, which provided a breakdown of Polish claims formally sent to Berlin earlier this month. Senior officials in the country had previously argued that both Russia and Germany should pay compensation to Poland, with President Andrzej Duda making a case for this in an interview last month … The German government reiterated this week that it considered the “question of reparations” for Poland closed, after Warsaw said last month that it wanted 1.3 trillion euros from Berlin.

Monuments commemorating the Red Army’s “liberation” of Poland after World War Two have been demolished. The destruction of the statues in the towns of Glubczyce, Byczyna, Bobolice and Staszow were live streamed online and took place simultaneously. The monuments were erected by Poland’s post-war communist leaders, but a 2016 law prohibits the promotion of totalitarian regimes and has resulted in the commemorations being torn down.

… Politicians and the media always say that this is the most important election ever, but all too often once the voting is over and the smoke has cleared, not much changes. The Washington uni-party takes over and makes sure the status quo is maintained. It doesn’t have to be this way. An incoming Republican House and Senate, for example, could take early steps to reassure their supporters that their votes weren’t wasted on Tweedledee vs. Tweedledum in Washington. Here are three suggestions to get things off to a good start. First, Republican Party Leadership must vow to end the massive money spigot opened by the last Congress for Ukraine.

Sixty years ago today (October 28) the U.S. and Russia stepped back from the brink of nuclear war by making a deal. Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev would yield to President John F. Kennedy’s demand that Soviet missiles be removed from Cuba; Kennedy pledged not to invade. There is an instructive analogy with Ukraine today. Soviet documents that were revealed after the USSR imploded show how this all went down – and how we all would have “gone down,” literally, were it not for the statesmanlike behavior of both leaders and their acute realization of the stakes involved … How is Ukraine Like Cuba? Short answer: President Putin is convinced he may soon face the same kind of MRBM-type threat as President Kennedy faced 60 years ago. I know of no knowledgeable Russian expert who expects Putin to relent on Ukraine.

… On October 27, after a long delay, the US Department of Defense finally released its Nuclear Posture Review. The review contained a bombshell that failed to explode in the media because it was understandably lost in the glare of three other bombshells that the Secretary of Defense dropped. The US insistence that it would use a nuclear weapon in a first strike, that it would use a nuclear weapon in the face of a conventional threat and that it would use a nuclear weapon, not only to defend itself, but to defend an ally were colossal enough to draw all the attention. But that meant that what went unnoticed was the colossal admission that Iran is not even building a nuclear weapon nor has it even made a decision to pursue one. The Nuclear Posture Review makes that admission, not once, but twice.

Americans by wide margins don’t want colleges considering race when they pick students — polling that suggests Americans would get behind the Supreme Court overruling affirmative action policies. A YouGov survey found that 54 percent of adults in the US were against universities considering race as a factor in selecting applicants — even as part of efforts to boost diversity on campus. That far outweighs the 23 percent who wanted admissions tutors to use race to guide selections, and similar numbers who were unsure. Democrats were much more supportive of affirmative action policies than were Republicans. The Supreme Court is weighing the legality of race-conscious admissions rules in cases involving Harvard University and the University of North Carolina (UNC), which imperil affirmative action schemes nationally.

… As scientists, we must fiercely defend affirmative action, if we wish for equity in science and in U.S. society. In the 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision, the majority opinion expressed hope that affirmative action would no longer be needed 25 years later … As scientists, we need to improve the public’s understanding of systemic racism as an unjust social, political and legal power structure, as well as that there are no innate “deficiencies” in nonwhite people. Clearly, we will need more than 25 years to achieve such a goal.

… Whatever became of France? Once the most beautiful, brilliant and civilised country on earth, it is now caught in a seemingly irreversible spiral of decline. The French know it — a survey last year found that 61 percent believe the country is in decline — but they feel powerless to prevent it. The mood is sullen, resentful and angry … The crisis has countless causes. At its heart, however, is the despair of a people who have been deceived for so long that they no longer believe anything their leaders say — even if they tell the truth … Much of France is in a perpetual state of panic or rage about uncontrolled immigration and its own profoundly alienated Muslim population … The graffiti, vandalism and filth that disfigure the streets of Paris are ubiquitous elsewhere too.

Germany’s defeat in May 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe, did not bring an end to death and suffering for the vanquished German people. Instead the victorious Allies ushered in a horrible new era that, in many ways, was worse than the destruction wrought by war. In a sobering and courageous new book, After the Reich: The Brutal History of Allied Occupation, British historian Giles MacDonogh details how the ruined and prostrate Reich (including Austria) was systematically raped and robbed, and how many Germans who survived the war were either killed in cold blood or deliberately left to die of disease, cold, malnutrition or starvation.

… The American public has long thought of the Allied effort in World War II as a “great crusade” that pitted good and decency against Nazi evil. Even after all these years, it is likely that the last thing the public wants to learn is that vast and unspeakable wrongs were committed by both the Western Allies and the Soviet Union during the war and its aftermath. It flies in the face of that reluctance for MacDonogh to tell “the brutal history” at great length [in his book, After the Reich: The Brutal History of the Allied Occupation]. That willingness is commendable for its intellectual bravery.

… What do liberal Democrats do, if, in a free and fair election, U.S. voters throw them out and replace them with people our elites routinely equate with fascists and Nazis? We may be about to find out … “Democracy” is not on the ballot. What is on the ballot is a huge slice of the leadership and ruling class of the national Democratic Party, which is not the same thing … Democracy has not failed America. The reigning Democrats have failed America. And their desperate leaders are urging us to equate their party’s defeat and repudiation with a rejection of our political system. If we lose the election to these Republicans, Democratic leaders have been telling America, it is because the American people preferred fascism to democracy.

… After the police murder of George Floyd in May of 2020, Minneapolis became a worldwide symbol of the police brutality long endured disproportionately by Black people. In a kind of Newtonian response, the city became the epicenter of the culturally seismic “Defund the Police” movement. But that progressive local effort fizzled with a decisive referendum last November. Now, with its police department under investigation by the Department of Justice, the city of 425,000 is trying to find a way forward amid a period of heightened crime that began shortly after Floyd’s death. That year, the number of murders soared to nearly 80 — dwarfing the 2019 body count of 46. It has cooled somewhat this yea … Homicides are on pace to surpass the 2020 figure.

Crime has been rising in the U.S. in the last few decades, and it’s only getting worse. Violent crime can be defined as a crime where the perpetrator uses force to commit a crime or threatens to use force on a victim.

The United Nations General Assembly First Committee, which deals with disarmament and international security issues, called on Israel to get rid of all its atomic weapons and place its nuclear sites under the supervision of the International Atomic Energy Agency in a 152 to 5 vote. Five countries – Canada, Israel, Micronesia, Palau and the United States – opposed the resolution on Friday over the “risk of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East.” Twenty-four other countries abstained, including members of the European Union … The resolution notes that Israel is the only country in the Middle East and one of the few among the 193 UN member states not to have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The Israeli occupation of Palestinian territory is unlawful under international law due to its permanence and the Israeli government’s de-facto annexation policies, according to a new report issued by the United Nations General Assembly … The report, released on Thursday by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, noted “[a] coercive environment intended to force Palestinians to leave their homes and alter the demographic composition of certain areas [in the occupied West Bank.]” … The report detailed Israeli efforts to drive Palestinians out of the West Bank. According to the authors, Israel has confiscated land for military purposes but then used it for settlement construction.

Russian President Vladimir Putin believes the world stands at the precipice of a tumultuous decade that will bring the most danger and unpredictability in several generations as Western hegemony inevitably draws to a close. “We are standing on a historic frontier,” Putin said on Thursday at the Valdai Discussion Club’s annual meeting in Moscow. “Ahead is probably the most dangerous, unpredictable and, at the same time, important decade since the end of World War II.” … He said the US and its NATO allies helped to incite the Russia-Ukraine conflict while at the same time stoking a crisis over China’s sovereignty in Taiwan to enforce its global dominance … The Russian leader noted that when Moscow laid out the security concerns that would need to be addressed to avert the Ukraine crisis last December, NATO cast the proposal aside.

Complete text in English, with video and simultaneous translation, of the Russian President’s address at the Valdai conference in Moscow, Oct. 27, including the question-and-answer session. Vladimir Putin lays out his view of the global social-political tensions of our age, his guiding principles and worldview, and what he sees as the most pressing challenges of our time.

… This relentless cult of novelty, with its assertion that art need not be good or pure, just so long as it is new, newer, and newer still, conceals an unyielding and long-sustained attempt to undermine, ridicule and uproot all moral precepts … To decorate public spaces we put up sculptures that aestheticize pure ugliness — but we no longer register surprise. And if visitors from outer space were to pick up our music over the airwaves, how could they ever guess that earthlings once had a Bach, a Beethoven and a Schubert, now abandoned as out of date and obsolete?

The Balfour Declaration may be the most extraordinary document produced by any government in world history. It took the form of a letter [Nov. 2, 1917] from the government of His Britannic Majesty King George the Fifth, the Government of the largest empire the world has even known, on which — once upon a time — the sun never set; a letter to an international financier of the banking house of Rothschild who had been made a peer of the realm … Malcolm’s belief in the Balfour Declaration as a means of bringing the United States into the war was confirmed by Samuel Landman, secretary to the Zionist leaders Weizmann and Sokolow, and later secretary of the World Zionist Organization.

… Diverse documentary evidence shows that Zionists pushed for the U.S. to enter the war on Britain’s side as part of a deal to gain British support for their colonization of Palestine … In 1917 British Foreign Minister Lord Balfour issued a letter to Zionist leader Lord Rothschild. Known as the Balfour Declaration, this letter promised that Britain would “view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people,” and “use their best endeavors to facilitate the achievement of this object.” … The influence of Brandeis and other Zionists in the U.S. had enabled Zionists to form an alliance with Britain, one of the world’s great powers, a remarkable achievement for a non-state group, and a measure of Zionists’ by-then immense power.

… A famous abstract painting by the Dutch artist Piet Mondrian has been hanging upside down in museums for more than 75 years — after it was first displayed the wrong way at the Big Apple’s MoMA, an art historian revealed this week. The lattice-style 1941 piece, titled “New York City I,” features multicolored tape thickening at the bottom of the canvas — however the thicker tape should really be at the top, German museum curator Susanne Meyer-Büser said Thursday, according to The Guardian. “I am 100% certain the picture is the wrong way around,” said Meyer-Büser of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen museum in Düsseldorf. “The thickening of the grid should be at the top, like a dark sky.”

Christianity has remained at the forefront of the nation’s political and social conversations for centuries — but new research shows that could be changing. A new report by Pew Research Center and the General Social Survey … found that the large numbers of people in the U.S who practice Christianity are declining. The religion’s demographic has been dwindling since the 1990s, the report said, as many adults transition to an identity of atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular.” In the early ’90s, about 90% of people in the U.S. identified as Christians, the report said. In 2020, Christians accounted for about 64% of the U.S. population, including children. Meanwhile, those who are not affiliated with a religion has grown from 16% in 2007 to 30% in 2020, according to the research.

No one thought Illinois schools were a shining beacon in the education landscape, but we didn’t know how truly awful so many of them are. A new report by Wirepoints using the state’s data shows that an epidemic of indifferent instruction and social promotion has left children unable to perform at even the most basic educational level. Statewide, in 2019, 36% of all third grade students could read at grade level. That’s an F … Statewide, the system records a 30 percentage-point achievement gap between black students and white students … This year 100% of Chicago teachers were evaluated as excellent or proficient. The students are failing but the teachers are great? That contradiction shows the system is corrupt as well as incompetent.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused historic learning setbacks for America’s children, sparing no state or region as it erased decades of academic progress and widened racial disparities, according to results of a national test that provide the sharpest look yet at the scale of the crisis. Across the country, math scores saw their largest decreases ever … Nearly four in 10 eighth graders failed to grasp basic math concepts … Those are the findings from the National Assessment of Educational Progress — known as the “nation’s report card” — which tested hundreds of thousands of fourth and eighth graders across the country this year. .., Math scores were worst among eighth graders, with 38% earning scores deemed “below basic” … Confirming what many had feared, racial inequities appear to have widened.

Children differ widely in how well they do at school. In recent years, researchers have shown that around two-thirds of differences in school achievement can be explained by differences in children’s genes. Genes have been shown to influence how well children do at primary school, at the end of compulsory education, and even in different subjects … We found that about 70 percent of the stability in achievement is explained by genetic factors, while 25 percent is accounted for by the twins’ shared environment, such as growing up in the same family and attending the same school … We found the influence of genes remained substantial – at 60 percent – even after accounting for intelligence, which was measured using several verbal and nonverbal tests taken by the twins over the course of childhood and adolescence.

Several people who were once close to the artist formerly known as Kanye West told CNN that he has long been fascinated by Adolf Hitler — and once wanted to name an album after the Nazi leader. A business executive who worked for West, who now goes by Ye, told CNN that the artist created a hostile work environment, in part through his “obsession” with Hitler. “He would praise Hitler by saying how incredible it was that he was able to accumulate so much power and would talk about all the great things he and the Nazi Party achieved for the German people,” the individual told CNN … West spoke openly about reading “Mein Kampf,” Hitler’s 1925 autobiographical manifesto, and expressed his “admiration” for the Nazis and Hitler for their use of propaganda.

“Kanye is right about the Jews.” That’s what one of three banners hung over the busy 405 Freeway in Los Angeles read over the weekend. Another banner said, “Honk if you know.” A third banner promoted a video platform that streams antisemitic content operated by the Goyim Defense League, a network of antisemitic conspiracy theorists. Several of the activists were photographed making “Heil Hitler” salutes on the overpass on Saturday. The sign is a reference to recent antisemitic statements made by rapper Ye — also known as Kanye West.

Since the 1979 revolution, women have worked to regain rights attained during the monarchy. The status of women has improved in some fields, especially in health and education … The gains, however, have been uneven. Between 2011 and 2022, women outnumbered men on college and university campuses, yet women in the labor force accounted for only 19 percent in 2020 … The women who are employed reportedly earn 41 percent less than men for the same work. Gender inequality has persisted. As of 2022, women faced “discrimination in law and practice, including in relation to marriage, divorce, employment, inheritance and political office,” Amnesty International reported. Married women could not travel outside the country without a husband’s permission. And they had limited protection from domestic violence at home.

Major Iranian car manufacturers have seen sales growth over the past months despite U.S. sanctions. Iran Khodro (IKCO), Saipa Automotive Group and Pars Khodro, three Iranian major automakers, have sold about 536,000 units of various products during the first half of the current Iranian year, which started on March 20, Iranian Donya-e-Eqtesad daily recently reported. According to the report, the sales of these car manufacturers increased by about 26 percent compared to the same period in the previous year … To overcome the repercussions of the U.S. sanctions, Iranian automakers managed to launch production lines and step into the markets of other countries, including Venezuela which has experienced good relations with Iran over the past decades.

Germans feel increasingly less committed to Israel and hold less favorable views of it, a new survey published on Monday shows. The study, entitled “Germany and Israel today: Between connection and alienation,” found Israelis have a more positive opinion of Germany than Germans have of Israel … In both countries, those surveyed were asked if they thought Germany has a special responsibility toward the Jewish people. In Israel, 58% of respondents said it should have, while in Germany only 35% agreed. The study found that only 27% of Germans feel Germany should have a responsibility for the State of Israel while 57% of Israelis answered that it should. The results indicated that Israelis have expectations from the German state while most Germans rejected that notion.