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Poverty in Britain - Why Are Millions of Brits So Broke?
Video - DW (Germany)
Britain has a historically low unemployment rate of 3.6%. Yet poverty levels are breaking all records. It’s a paradoxical situation: almost 15 million Britons are considered poor these days, although there’s almost full employment. The reason: inflation and high energy costs. Galloping inflation and a dramatic spike in energy costs in recent months are forcing millions of Britons into poverty. Wages fluctuate in an “uberized” working world of precarious employment conditions. Over the past 10 years, beginning with David Cameron, the government has scaled back its support to vulnerable members of society … Disadvantaged Britons are dying 10 years sooner than their wealthier compatriots – victims of what’s become known as the “shit life syndrome” – a life marked by poor living conditions, disease and addiction.
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New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ administration is touting reparations payouts as a solution to the wealth gap between blacks and whites, the latest sign of interest in a policy that voters reject by wide margins. A report from the city’s Department of Health and the Federal Reserve Bank says Washington-led reparations payments to the descendants of slaves are the ‘best’ way to end inequality … The report comes as New York Gov Kathy Hochul weighs whether to sign a bill that would start work on a state reparations scheme, as other US states and cities roll out their own efforts that may cost billions. The 40-page document calls for reversing America’s deep-rooted inequalities, saying the average white family holds nearly eight times the wealth of black families, and more than five times that of Hispanics.
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Majority of College Students Favor Reporting Professors for ‘Offensive’ Opinions, New Poll Shows
The Hill
Both conservative and liberal college students believe they should report a professor if they say something they find offensive, according to a survey from the Sheila and Robert Challey Institute for Global Innovation and Growth at North Dakota State University exclusively shared with The Hill Wednesday. Overall, 74 percent of all students say professors should be reported for saying something found offensive, while 26 percent disagree. Eighty-one percent of liberal students and 53 percent of conservative ones agree with reporting the professor, according to the survey … It found 40 percent of all students believe a professor should be reported if they say “there is no evidence of anti-black bias in police shootings.”
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The Shadow of the Valkyrie Plot to Kill Hitler Still Haunts Germany
Nigel Jones – The Spectator
Seventy-nine years ago today, 20 July 1944, Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg, a much-wounded young Wehrmacht officer, packed a briefcase in a broiling Berlin and flew to the ‘Wolf’s Lair’ the headquarters of Adolf Hitler …Some Germans still see Stauffenberg and his colleagues not as heroes but as traitors who stabbed Germany in the back at her time of greatest peril. Moreover, many seek to denigrate Stauffenberg’s towering reputation by pointing out that he and his fellow conspirators were conservative nationalists who wanted to keep the territorial gains that Hitler had annexed or won: including Austria, Alsace-Lorraine and much of Poland. Others allege that the conspirators only acted because after Stalingrad, Kursk and D-Day they knew that Germany had irretrievably lost the war …
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Reality and Legacy of the 1944 `Valkyrie' Conspiracy to Kill Hitler
Mark Weber – Video
In July 1944 a group of German conspirators tried to kill Hitler and violently seize power in Berlin. In the US and Germany today, the anti-Hitler conspirators are portrayed as men of exemplary courage, conscience and principle. This prevailing, “politically correct” idealization, Weber explains, is a gross distortion of reality. By today’s standards, von Stauffenberg and the other leading conspirators were “Nazis.” They supported the policies and principles of the National Socialist government for at least five years, and only belatedly turned against the Hitler regime. Runtime: 50 mins.
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… About an hour and a half after the “Valkyrie” order was given [by the von Stauffenberg conspirators], my regiment, by then combat-ready, moved into the areas to be sealed off in accordance with its orders. The normal guard units, such as those at the War Memorial and the Bendlerblock, the headquarters of the Commander of the Replacement Army and of the Defense Production Office, remained at their posts … Goebbels asked me to address the troops assembled there, which I did. Their outrage at the traitorous goings-on was so great that they would have torn every single conspirator to pieces, had they been there.
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For the first time, a poll has shown that 22 percent of eligible voters would vote for the Alternative for Germany party (AfD), putting the party four points ahead of the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) and solidly in second place. The poll, conducted by the Ipsos polling institute, showed that the party had gained three points in just one month. The party has scored a string of victories in the last month, including its first-ever district administration race and its first mayorship. While the poll shows the Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) in first place at 26 percent, the party has dropped four points, and is now within four points of the AfD … German citizens have rarely been “as dissatisfied with the development of the country as they are at the present time.”
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Germany’s Far-Right Makes a Comeback With First Electoral Victory
Ze'ev Avrahami – Ynet News (Israel)
During a visit to the district where Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won power for the first time, we witnessed young people giving Nazi salutes, spontaneous ‘Heil Hitler’ chants, signs with fascist slogans … / … As I was filming next to the kindergarten, a young couple deviated from their jogging route in my direction. I asked if they were willing to be interviewed. They said “We admire what Israel is doing to the Muslims”, but they don’t talk to the “lying media”, raised their right hands loudly declaring “Heil Hitler” and went back to their run … AfD is already the most popular party in Thuringia with polls predicting 30% of the votes in state elections. … The harder German authorities try to restrict the party, the stronger it gets … Not everyone who votes for AfD is a right-wing extremist, but everyone who votes for them is consciously voting for a racist, antisemitic, anti-democratic party.
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Heigh-ho, heigh-ho it’s off to the job centre they go — for the seven dwarves have been replaced by ‘magical creatures’ for Disney’s live-action remake of Snow White. The character of the fictional princess, who will be played by Rachel Zegler in the film, has been pictured for the first time with her new companions who appear to be a mix of genders, ethnicities and heights … Disney bosses also came under fire for giving the titular role Zegler, despite the story being about a traditionally ‘fair’ German princess. The film – which also stars Wonder Woman star Gal Gadot as the evil stepmother – is set to be released in March 2024. Co-written by Barbie’s Greta Gerwig, the upcoming adaptation will not feature a Prince Charming and will instead focus on a ‘stronger’ Snow White who dreams of becoming a leader.
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77 Percent of Young Americans Do Not Qualify for Military Service, Pentagon Study Finds
American Military News
A Pentagon study revealed that 77 percent of young Americans do not qualify for military service without a waiver due to being overweight, drug use, or mental or physical problems. “When considering youth disqualified for one reason alone, the most prevalent disqualification rates are overweight (11 percent), drug and alcohol abuse (8 percent), and medical/physical health (7 percent),” the Pentagon’s 2020 Qualified Military Available Study of Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 read. Several key findings were noted in the summary of the report. For example, most ineligible youth (44 percent) are disqualified for multiple reasons rather than in only one area.
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New Hampshire followed dozens of other states Thursday in prohibiting state contracts or investments involving companies that boycott Israel and its trade partners. The executive order signed by Gov. Chris Sununu makes New Hampshire the 37th state to enact such regulations, according to the Israeli-American Coalition for Action. Shawn Evenhaim, the coalition’s chairman, praised Sununu for “standing up against national origin discrimination and defending the deep cultural and commercial ties between Israel and New Hampshire.” The Council on American-Islamic Relations, however, condemned the order as “a total assault on our First Amendment rights.” … Sununu was joined at the signing by Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations …
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More than 33 US states have passed laws punishing small businesses that choose to boycott Israeli products, in violation of constitutional freedom of speech laws. Julia Bacha speaks with “Middle East Eye.” Runtime: 2:44 mins.
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More than two dozen Black Americans respond to the question: “What are white people superior at?.” What they say is not flattering. “White people” are “superior,” they explain, at lying, oppression, genocide, stealing, and violence, and in other similarly bad ways. More than half a million people have viewed this 2020 video. Runtime: 58 secs. For decades the mainstream media, political leaders of both major parties, and the educational establishment have promoted a double standard with regard to public discussion of race and racial differences. As a result, videos in which white (White?) Americans express unflattering views about Black (black?) people are routinely banned or suppressed, whereas videos with demeaning or negative views of white people – such as this one — are not.
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California will officially adopt a new “equity” and “social justice” based mathematics framework for its K-12 schools after a vote from the State Board of Education on Wednesday. After multiple revisions and years of development, the board unanimously passed the 2023 Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools … The 1000-page document, which has seen three revisions and two public hearings, aims to “structure the teaching of the state’s math standards around ‘big ideas’ that integrate rather than isolate math concepts,” “allow students to ‘see themselves’ in curriculum and in math-related careers by making math instruction culturally relevant and empowering” and “instill confidence in learners by dispelling myths about who can and cannot learn math.”
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In Scotland, ‘Holocaust Denier’ Facing Extradition to France Has Hearing Moved to October
The Independent
The extradition hearing of a Holocaust denier wanted by authorities in France has been pushed back until later this year. Vincent Reynouard’s lawyer told Edinburgh Sheriff Court on Thursday he no longer wished to proceed with a legal debate he had been due to go through concerning the Frenchman’s case and moved to set a date for a full hearing. Reynouard was arrested in Fife then remanded in custody last year after crossing the Channel to evade French authorities who had been pursuing him for two years. The 54-year-old went on the run after he was convicted under anti-Nazi laws and handed a four-month jail sentence in November 2020, then a further six-month spell in January the following year. Holocaust denial has been a criminal offence in France since 1990 and Reynouard has been convicted on multiple occasions.
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Dutch law covering the ban on racism and discrimination is to be expanded to specifically cover denying the Holocaust and other war crimes have taken place, the caretaker cabinet has decided. Justice minister Dilan Yeşilgöz said the legislation was being amended because “denying this sort of gruesome crime has unfortunately become the order of the day.” “The anti-Semitism monster is rearing its head and this worries me,” she said. “We must not leave this unanswered because the Holocaust is not a history lesson.” The change is in line EU legislation and will also apply explicitly to whitewashing, downplaying and denying genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. Those found guilty face up to one year in jail.
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Why is the Name of the `Most Vicious Anti-Semite in the World’ Still So Prominent at Cornell?
B. Ivry – Forward
August 13 will mark the bicentenary of UK educator Goldwin Smith, described by one historian as “perhaps the most vicious antisemite in the English-speaking world.” Cornell University’s Goldwin Smith Hall, housing its College of Arts & Sciences, was named in his honor. At the end of 2020, the Cornell University Board of Trustees accepted a recommendation by a special task force to rename the honorary Goldwin Smith Professorships, currently held by 14 faculty members in the College of Arts and Sciences … Smith called Jews “parasites” who absorb the “wealth of the community without adding to it” and attributed the “repulsion” they provoked in others to their “preoccupation with money-making,” which made them “enemies of civilization.”
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The Vexing `Jewish Question’
Goldwin Smith
… Those who maintain that there is nothing in the character, habits, or disposition of the Jew to provoke antipathy have to bring the charge of fanatical prejudice not only against the Russians or against Christendom, but against mankind … Critics of Judaism are accused of bigotry of race, as well as of bigotry of religion. The accusation comes strangely from those who style themselves the Chosen People, make race a religion, and treat all races except their own as Gentiles and unclean … We have given up the fancy that the Jew is accursed. We must cease to believe that he is sacred.
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Americans Are Widely Pessimistic About Democracy in the United States, New Poll Finds
Associated Press
Only about one in ten U.S. adults give high ratings to the way democracy is working in the United States or how well it represents the interests of most Americans, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. Majorities of adults say U.S. laws and policies do a poor job of representing what most Americans want on issues ranging from the economy and government spending to gun policy, immigration and abortion. The poll shows 53% say Congress is doing a bad job of upholding democratic values, compared with just 16% who say it’s doing a good job … In interviews, respondents worried less about the machinery of democracy — voting laws and the tabulation of ballots — and more about the outputs.
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France Burns
Eric Margolis
… Mobs of teenagers rampaged down the street right outside our restaurant window. Chairs, tables, cars, vans – all were smashed or burned by the surging mobs. Many were Africans, but plenty of Arabs were evident as were a sizeable number of young whites. Most of the rioters wore heavy helmets, goggles, thick clothing and carried either sticks or iron bars. Screams and howls of fury dominated the evening … Riots also struck the French cities of Lyon, Marseilles, Nantes and, of course, Paris, which was wreathed in tear gas … As per usual, politicians all blamed their opponents … France’s five million Muslims largely originated from importing low-cost workers and from the offspring of the Algerian soldiers, known as harkis, who fought for ‘French Algeria’ then fled to France at the war’s end.
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U.S. Sets a Grim Milestone With New Record for the Deadliest Six Months of Mass Killings
Associated Press
Slain at the hands of strangers or gunned down by loved ones. Massacred in small towns, in big cities, inside their own homes or outside in broad daylight. This year’s unrelenting bloodshed across the U.S. has led to the grimmest of milestones: The deadliest six months of mass killing recorded since at least 2006. From Jan. 1 to June 30, the nation endured 28 mass killings, all but one of which involved guns. The death toll rose just about every week, a constant cycle of violence and grief. Six months. 181 days. 28 mass killings. 140 victims. One country. “What a ghastly milestone,” said Brent Leatherwood, whose three children were in class at a private Christian school in Nashville on March 27 when a former student killed three children and three adults.
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Jewish Audiences, and Adolf Hitler, Revered This Famous Entertainer
B. Ivry - Forward
The Swiss performer, born Charles Adrien Wettach, who died in 1959 … was idolized by generations of fans, including Jews and non-Jews alike … Grock proudly displayed inscribed photos from Adolf Hitler and Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels in his Italian home, where he hobnobbed with Nazi officials, during the 1930s … In 1942, Strength Through Joy (KdF), a Nazi leisure organization, sent Grock on a tour to Germany, where he performed for munitions workers and wounded soldiers … So convinced was Grock that Hitler had improved Germany’s economy that he invited his brother-in-law to take a propaganda trip to the Third Reich … Grock himself bragged in his memoirs that Adolf Hitler had applauded his shows over a dozen times, and met him repeatedly to express his admiration.
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Evanston, Illinois, has become the first city in the U.S. to deliver on its promise of paying reparations to Black residents. The city committed in 2019 to spend $10 million over 10 years on local reparations. Two years later, it approved a program to give eligible Black residents $25,000 housing grants for down payments, repairs, or existing mortgages, in an effort to atone for the city’s past racist housing policies. Evanston’s program is being funded through revenue from a 3 percent tax on the sale of recreational marijuana and a real estate transfer tax on properties worth over $1 million when they are sold. City officials said $1.18 million in revenue has been generated so far, the Evanston RoundTable reported.
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Some of history’s most accomplished men and women revealed their repugnant antisemitic nature. Will that knowledge about their character change how you think of them? Should we excuse them because antisemitic sentiment was so prevalent in their time? … Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel; Martin Luther; Ezra Pound; T. S. Eliot; Charles Lindbergh; Richard Wagner; Charles Dickens; Roald Dahl.
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Kissinger at 100: `If It Were Not For The Accident of My Birth, I Would Be Antisemitic’
B. Ivry – Forward
How readers may choose to commemorate the birthday o Henry Kissinger, who turns 100 on May 27, may well depend on their previous readings about the former Secretary of State and National Security adviser … In 2011, hitherto secret U.S. State Department documents from late 1972 were likewise published, revealing that Kissinger was irked by the concern expressed by American Jews about the fate of Soviet Jewry, calling the former “self-serving … bastards.” … At a contemporaneous meeting of the Washington Special Actions Group, a government crisis task force, Kissinger grumbled, “If it were not for the accident of my birth, I would be antisemitic.” He added: “Any people who has been persecuted for two thousand years must be doing something wrong.”
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Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. denied allegations of racism and anti-Semitism Saturday after he reportedly suggested Covid-19 could have been genetically engineered to reduce risks to Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people. Kennedy — a longtime vaccine skeptic who is running a longshot primary campaign against President Joe Biden — said during a Tuesday night press event that Covid-19 was “targeted to attack Caucasians and Black people.” He went on to say that “the people who are most immune are Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese.” After a broad backlash to his comments, first reported by the New York Post, Kennedy took to Twitter to defend himself, calling the reporting “mistaken” and writing that he did not believe Covid-19 had been deliberately engineered against specific ethnicities.
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Americans Sour on Both Democratic and Republican Parties, New Poll Shows
G. Minnis - The Center Square
Voters across the country have largely soured on the two major political parties, with just 20% of respondents in a new State Policy Network (SPN) survey considering the parties civil and fewer than half of partisans finding their own party “ethical.” In the poll of 2,043 voters conducted from June 14-18, fewer than one in five of respondents also indicated they see either of the parties as “civil” and just half of interviewees view their own party that way … Just 28% of Democrats say “fair” describes their party’s ideals and policies vs. 30% of Republicans. An average of 31% of interviewees view their party’s ideals and policies as irresponsible, topped by 35% of Democrats.
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What’s the Matter With the `Liberal Press’
Ralph Nader - CounterPunch
… What’s occurring at the Washington Post, the New York Times and big regional daily newspapers is a flight toward stupefying their material in a desperate plunge to retain readers – print and online … To adjust to digital age readers, the New York Times has replaced much of its content with gigantic photographs, graphics and other visuals, not just in its regular sections on style/arts, sports and food, but also in the daily news departments as well as the Sunday Business and Opinion sections. The influential New York Times Editorial Page – once featuring some fifteen or more editorials a week – is now down to three editorials a week … Various forms of its daily features – entertainment, sports and style/arts – are given enormous space, while coverage of daily local and national civic activity is severely restricted.
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The Supreme Court stopped short of ending affirmative action in military service academies in a historic decision Thursday [June 29] that otherwise banned the practice in universities. The justices writing for the 6-3 conservative majority noted the federal government had written a friend-of-the court brief urging them to protect the use of race as a factor in admissions decisions — often called affirmative action — in part to ensure racial diversity in service academies … Many veterans have dismissed claims that affirmative action is necessary for national security … Far from boosting morale, this group maintained, affirmative action “can only foster a culture of arbitrary advancement, disunity, and frustration.”
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A 2003 Supreme Court Decision Upholding Affirmative Action Planted the Seeds of its Overturning, as Justices Then and Now Though
K. L. Shropshire - The Conversation
In an anticipated but nonetheless stunning decision expected to have widespread implications on college campuses and workplaces across the country, the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court on June 29, 2023, outlawed affirmative action programs that were designed to correct centuries of racist disenfranchisement in higher education … In my view as a race and equity legal scholar focused on business, the court had subtly established an affirmative action expiration date in its 2003 Grutter v. Bollinger decision. In that case, Associate Justice Sandra Day O’Connor wrote in her majority opinion that “race-conscious admissions policies must be limited in time,” adding that the “Court expects that 25 years from now, the use of racial preferences will no longer be necessary to further the interest approved today.”
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The Ideological Subversion of Biology
J. A. Coyne, L. S. Maroja – Skeptical Inquirer
Biology faces a grave threat from “progressive” politics that are changing the way our work is done, delimiting areas of biology that are taboo and will not be funded by the government or published in scientific journals, stipulating what words biologists must avoid in their writing, and decreeing how biology is taught to students and communicated to other scientists and the public through the technical and popular press … Nearly all the ideologically driven distortions of biology come from one mindset: radical egalitarianism. This is the view that the sexes, different ethnic groups, and, to some extent, individuals in a population are genetically nearly identical in behavior and psychology (though not in appearance) and that most behavioral differences are due to socialization and other environmental effects.
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In the absence of official scrutiny of Washington’s spending spree on Ukraine, The Grayzone conducted an independent audit of US funding for the country. We discovered a series of wasteful, highly unusual expenditures the Biden administration has yet to explain … Though many Americans likely believe that US dollars allocated for Ukraine are spent directly on supplies for the war effort, the lead author of this report, Heather Kaiser, conducted a thorough review of Washington’s budget for the 2022 and 2023 fiscal year and discovered that is far from the case … Our inspection of US government spending in Ukraine demonstrates that Washington has prioritized its supposed fight for “democracy” abroad over the well-being of the American people.
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NATO has no place in Asia and should stick to its original focus, that is the security of the Transatlantic region, former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has argued. The Labour politician, who served in office from 1991 to 1996, also warned against attempts to “circumscribe” China … Keating went on to describe NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg as the “supreme fool” on the international stage who is conducting himself like an “American agent.” … The former Australian leader noted that the NATO chief conveniently ignored the fact that “China represents twenty per cent of humanity and now possesses the largest economy in the world.” He added that Beijing, unlike Washington, “has no record of attacking other states.”
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Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir has hit out at US President Joe Biden for his recent remarks calling Israel’s current government the “most extreme” he’s seen in the country’s history, with Ben Gvir saying Israel is “no longer a star” on the American flag. “President Biden needs to realise that we are no longer a star on the American flag,” Ben Gvir said on Twitter … Last month there were at least 85 incidents of Israeli settlers attacking Palestinians, prompting security officials in Israel to warn that ongoing violence could lead to anarchy. Attacks have been ongoing. The Jenin operation was condemned by civil society and rights groups, as well as the UN, which has refused to issue a retraction of its condemnation.
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Iceland is the most peaceful country in the world for the 15th straight year while the world has gotten a little less peaceful overall, according to a new report. The Institute for Economics and Peace recently released its annual 2023 Global Peace Index noting of the top 10 countries renowned for their peace and tranquility. Iceland ranked first in the list for 2023 as the most peaceful country in the world, while two other northern nations — Denmark and Ireland — follow suit, taking the second and third most peaceful spots, respectively. Here’s the full list of the top ten most peaceful countries in the world: 1. Iceland; 2. Denmark; 3. Ireland; 4. New Zealand; 5. Austria; 6. Singapore; 7. Portugal; 8. Slovenia; 9. Japan; 10. Switzerland. Out of the 163 countries listed, the United States came in at 131.
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Palestinians Are Prohibited From Defending Their Families From Violent Aggression
Gideon Levy - Haaretz
There aren’t many populations in the world as helpless as the Palestinians who live in their own country. No one protects their lives and property, let alone their dignity, and no one intends to do so. They are totally abandoned to their fates, as is their property. Their houses and cars can be torched, their fields set on fire. It’s all right to shoot them mercilessly, killing old people and babies, with no defense forces at their side. No police, no military: no one. If some such desperate defense force is organized, it’s immediately criminalized by Israel. Its fighters are labeled “terrorists,” their actions “terror attacks,” and their fates sealed, with death or prison the only options. Amid the utter chaos created by the occupation, the ban on Palestinians defending themselves is one of the craziest rules; it’s an accepted norm that isn’t even discussed.
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A majority of Americans approve of the Supreme Court ruling restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions … according to a new ABC News/ Ipsos poll … On Thursday [June 29], the Supreme Court set new limits on affirmative action programs in cases involving whether public and private colleges and universities can continue to use race as one factor among many in student admissions. A little more than half of Americans — 52% — approve of the U.S. Supreme Court decision on restricting the use of race as a factor in college admissions, while 32% disapprove and 16% saying they don’t know. A majority of Republicans (75%) and independents (58%) approve of the ruling, while a distinct minority of Democrats approve (26%).
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When the poor French suburbs catch media attention, it is usually because they are up in flames. The current conflagration is no exception. It was triggered by the killing of Nahel M, 17, after police say he failed to comply with an order to stop his car in Nanterre near Paris. The tragedy has turned the spotlight again on the so-called “banlieues” – the suburbs of French cities – which have been hit by another wave of riots across France … But whichever way you look at France’s banlieues, their problems have long been recognised by the authorities – and will not be resolved any time soon … The poorest neighbourhoods – now labelled “quartiers prioritaires” – are home to more than five million people. Many are either immigrants or third- or fourth- generation French.
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St Paul’s Cathedral Removes Description of Winston Churchill as ‘White Supremacist’ and `Unabashed Imperialist’
Evening Standard (Britain)
St Paul’s Cathedral has removed an “offensive” online description of Winston Churchill after receiving a flood of complaints. The post on the [London] Cathedral’s website sparked fury after it called the wartime leader an “unashamed imperialist” and “white supremacist”. It noted Sir Winston’s role in fighting the Nazis but added: “He is also a figure of controversy, as he was an unashamed imperialist and white supremacist.”
The description had been online for more than a year but was altered on Friday. It now describes him as “a figure of controversy, especially when viewed from a modern perspective”. -
Winston Churchill: An Unsettled Legacy
Mark Weber
The well-entrenched idealization of Churchill is part and parcel of a drastically misleading view of the Second World War that Americans have been fed for decades. One common deceit is to give the impression that Hitler sought war against Britain and France, and that Germany aggressively attacked those two countries … Churchill’s enduringly stellar image is all the more remarkable considering that his views on a range of issues were, by today’s standards, hopelessly backward and politically incorrect … Along with most Britons (and Americans) of his era, he was also an unabashed racist.
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Conditions didn’t seem favorable in early May as Stuart Eizenstat entered annual negotiations with the German government over reparations for the estimated 240,000 remaining Holocaust survivors around the world … Yet the compensation package Eizenstat helped secure for the Claims Conference — more than $1.4 billion — was the largest monetary figure agreed to for a single year since German reparations began more than seven decades ago … Some of the $1.4 billion that Germany agreed to spend will be paid directly to survivors; the bulk will fund social welfare services such as home care and food packages, administered through about 300 agencies across 83 countries. Germany also agreed to boost funding for Holocaust education programs.
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Historian Hilberg Denounces Jewish 'Blackmail' Against Switzerland
Institute for Historical Review
For several years now, the World Jewish Congress and other major Jewish organizations have waged a fierce and much-publicized campaign to force Switzerland to pay millions to Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors … Among those who have spoken out against it is Holocaust historian Raul Hilberg. “I was nearly alarmed when I heard that the Swiss banks would pay 1.25 billion dollars,” he said in a recent [1999] interview published in the respected Swiss weekly Weltwoche. In the campaign against Switzerland, Hilberg went on, “the Jews have used a weapon that can only be described as blackmail.”
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Netanyahu Takes Aim at U.S. Diplomacy Again
Melvin Goodman - CounterPunch
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s leading anti-American protagonist, is at it again. The Israelis, presumably at Netanyahu’s direction, are leaking sensitive information regarding secret talks between the United States and Iran. The talks are designed to curtail Tehran’s nuclear program, liberate three American prisoners; and end proxy attacks on U.S. forces in Syria. Netanyahu visited Israeli Aerospace Industries last week and stated that any understanding between the United States and Iran would be “unacceptable to us.” … Anti-Americanism in Israel is not a new development, although Netanyahu has been more stubborn than his predecessors in challenging U.S. administrations.
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Voters are souring on the state of the nation, with a stunning 74% saying the US is on the wrong track, according to a survey released Sunday. The NBC poll found just 20% of respondents say America is moving in the right direction … The same poll sees a likely rematch between Democratic President Biden and former President Donald Trump … Many voters see a Biden-Trump rematch as gloom vs. doom, with 68% of voters concerned about 80-year-old Biden’s health, and 55% saying the same about Trump, 77. Though Trump leads in the primary race, about half of Republican voters said they prefer a new leader to Trump, the survey found.
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Israel 'Drifting Into Apartheid' With 'Government Driving Jewish Supremacy': What Ex-UN Chiefs Saw on Their Visit
Haaretz (Israel)
Mary Robinson, formerly president of Ireland and UN human rights commissioner, visited Israel and the Palestinian territories last week. Now chair of The Elders, a group of global leaders active in human rights, she told Haaretz in Tel Aviv that, since her last visit in 2012, the deterioration in political conditions and for civil society in the region is “very serious.” “It’s very shocking and sad … to see the reality of one state with a government driving a kind of Jewish supremacy,” she said. Robinson noted that in every meeting in Israel and the Palestinian territories she attended together with former UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, The Elders’ deputy chair, “we heard the word apartheid.”
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Affirmative Action: Supreme Court Justices Clash Over `Colorblind’ America
Anthony Zurcher – BBC News
The US Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution prohibits American universities from considering the race of applicants as part of its admissions process. The court once again has divided sharply on ideological lines. The six conservative justices in the majority heralded the decision as a step toward a more colourblind society, where students will be measured by their accomplishments, not their race. The three liberals condemned the ruling, arguing that it ignored the ongoing reality of discrimination in America. The sweeping decision applies to every university, public and private, across the US. But it is the prestigious Ivy League institutions like Harvard, where tens of thousands of applicants compete for hundreds of spots a year, that could be affected the most by the ruling.
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Most Americans Wanted The Supreme Court To End Affirmative Action — Kind Of
M. Potts - FiveThirtyEight
In a ruling on two related cases on Thursday written by Chief Justice John Roberts, the Supreme Court just ended affirmative action in higher education as we know it. The two cases — Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina — both argued that the use of race in college admissions should end, but for slightly different reasons … Although it’s a quiet — not explicit, but functional — reversal of more than 50 years of precedent, this decision might actually be popular … How Americans view affirmative action depends a lot on how they’re asked about it.
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Los Angeles Police Department officers, Los Angeles City personnel and people directly involved in the LAPD recruiting and hiring process are going public for the first time with their concerns. “I have nothing to gain from this, but it’s the right thing to do,” says James Williams, who supervised LAPD Police Background Investigations for 20 years. Williams retired a year ago. He says after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020, followed by massive protests across the country and anti-police sentiment, the LAPD began changing its recruiting process. “We were given direction to focus more on diversity candidates … Williams said … Other LAPD sources who asked FOX 11 to protect their identities for fear of retaliation corroborated Williams’ allegations … “A lot of the people that are being hired right now should not be police officers,” another said.
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The far-right Alternative für Deutschland has won a district council election in Germany for the first time, in what is being referred to as a watershed moment in the country’s politics. The eastern town of Sonneberg, in the state of Thuringia, elected Robert Sesselmann to the post of district administrator, the equivalent of a mayor, with 52.8% of the vote, ousting the Christian Democrats’ (CDU) Jurgen Köpper on 47.2%. The Thuringia branch of the anti-immigrant party has been classed as rightwing extremist by intelligence services … Established parties from the Social Democrats to the CDU as well as civil society organisations called the result a turning point to which defenders of democracy would be forced to find a way of responding. The Central Council of Jews in Germany said it was devastated by the result.
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Far-right views and positions pose the biggest threat to German democracy and voters should bear this in mind before casting their ballot for the nationalist, anti-immigrant Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany, AfD) party, according to the country’s domestic spy agency. Thomas Haldenwang, the chief of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), made the remark at a news conference … “[P]arts of the AfD spread hate and agitation against all kinds of minorities in Germany, especially migrants … We see that parts of the AfD also hold and promote an anti-Semitic attitude,” said Haldenwang. “We see that parts of the AfD are very much influenced by Moscow and continue to spread Russian narratives”, particularly with regards to Russia’s all-out war in Ukraine, Haldenwang added.
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Roseanne Barr, 70, has shocked here former fans again after some confusing comments about the Holocaust during a recent podcast appearance. “This Past Weekend” host Theo Von might have found himself lost in Barr’s byzantine bit … “And the truth is that Biden got 81 million votes by winning 36 counties. And that is just incredible. It really, really is.” Barr later continued, “And that is the truth. And nobody died in the Holocaust, either. That’s the truth. It should happen. Six million Jews should die right now ’cause they cause all the problems in the world. But it never happened. But it never happened — mandated.” Barr then noted that she herself is “100%” Jewish – no sarcasm implied.
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‘Avalanche’ of Demand for `Nazi’ Artefacts Ahead of Australian Ban on Sale of `Hate’ Symbols
The Guardian
Australian militaria shops say there is an “avalanche” of demand for Nazi artefacts in anticipation of an impending ban on the sale of Nazi symbols. A bill introduced to federal parliament in mid-June will ban the public display and sale of Nazi symbols, making it an offence to seek to profit from such material in stores or online. It will not ban private ownership or transfers of artefacts that are not for profit. Sellers say the bill has prompted a frenzy of buying and selling, with signed pictures of Hitler, Himmler and Rommel sold at an auction last weekend … Jamey Blewitt, the owner of JB Military Antiques, Western Australia’s largest military antiques store which sells a range of Nazi memorabilia, told Guardian Australia he had never seen so much demand.