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Google said Thursday it would “pause” its Gemini chatbot’s image generation tool after it was widely panned for creating “diverse” images that were not historically or factually accurate — such as black Vikings, female popes and Native Americans among the Founding Fathers. Social media users had blasted Gemini as “absurdly woke” … Examples included an AI image of a black man who appeared to represent George Washington, complete with a white powdered wig and Continental Army uniform, and a Southeast Asian woman dressed in papal attire even though all 266 popes throughout history have been white men … Gemini even generated “diverse” representations of Nazi-era German soldiers, including an Asian woman and a black man decked out in 1943 military garb.

After critics slammed Google’s “woke” generative AI system, the company halted the ability of its Gemini tool to create images of people to fix what it acknowledged were “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions.” … The problem appeared to be that, in trying to compensate for gender- and racial-representation bias in AI, the system was creating ahistorical images of people. Among the bizarre results generated by Google Gemini that users posted on social media was a racially diverse group of images depicting a “1943 German soldier” … Other historically anomalous images generated by Google Gemini included Black Vikings; a woman as the Catholic pope; women NHL players; the founder of Google depicted as Asian men; and non-white people in a scene of the U.S.’s Founding Fathers.

On the fourth day of public hearings at the International Court of Justice on the accusation that Israel has created a permanent and illegal occupation of Palestinian lands, China argues that Palestinians have the right to engage in “armed struggle” against Israel. Ma Xinmin, a Chinese Foreign Ministry legal adviser, argues that “in pursuit of the right to self-determination” the Palestinian people have the right to the “use of force to resist foreign oppression and to complete the establishment of the Palestinian state.” Citing examples of “various people [who] freed themselves from colonial rule” through armed resistance, he argues that acts of violence against Israelis by Palestinians are not terrorism but rather legitimate armed struggle. Runtime: 5:00 mins.

China has backed the right of the Palestinian people to use armed force to combat Israel’s occupation of their land, calling it an “an inalienable right well founded in international law”. The comments on Thursday were made by the Chinese ambassador to the UN, Zhang Jun, during the fourth day of public hearings held by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands … He described the Palestinian use of armed resistance as legitimate and not an act of terrorism … In his speech, Jun criticised Israeli policies, characterising them as “oppression that has severely undermined and impeded the exercises and full realisation of the Palestinian people’s right to self-determination”.

Now is the time for the United States, and in its wake the international community, to make a decision: Will the endless cycle of violence between Israel and the Palestinians continue, or are we going to try to put a stop to it? Will the United States continue to arm Israel and then bemoan the excessive use of these armaments, or is it finally prepared to take real steps, for the first time in its history, to change reality? … There is no point in appealing to Israel. The current government, and the one that is likely to replace it, does not and never will have the intention, courage or ability to generate change. … The issue is not just ending the war, but mainly, what will happen when it’s over.

… Nearly 50,000 American and 100,000 British soldiers deserted from the armed forces during World War II. (The British were in the war much longer.) Some fell into the arms of French or Italian women. Some became black-market pirates. Many more simply broke under the strain of battle. These men’s stories have rarely been told. During the war, newspapers largely abstained from writing about desertions. The topic was bad for morale and could be exploited by the enemy. In more recent decades the subject has been essentially taboo, as if to broach it would dent the halo around the Greatest Generation. “The Deserters: A Hidden History of World War II,” by the historian and former ABC News foreign correspondent Charles Glass, thus performs a service. It’s the first book to examine at length the sensitive topic of desertions during this war …

There is growing pessimism across Europe over the war in Ukraine, with twice as many people expecting Russia to win than Kyiv, new polling has found. Only 10 per cent believe that Kyiv can win, half the number who think a Russian victory is more likely. Almost four times the number of people who believe the Ukrainians can be victorious think that Ukraine must accept a “compromise settlement” without regaining all its territory after the Russian invasion. The study, based on polling in 12 countries for the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), a Berlin-based think tank, concludes that the European Union must adopt a policy “rooted in reality” making a distinction between a “negotiated peace” and a settlement on Russia’s terms.

Former President Jimmy Carter speaks from his home in Plains, Georgia, about his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. In this interview, he talks about pressure put on the American political system that results in US support of Israel. Runtime: 4:26 mins.

… Because the myth of Israel’s birth was so closely linked to the horrors of the Holocaust, to question its truth was for years as unthinkable as doubting the truth of the Holocaust itself. But today a new breed of historians is challenging much of that myth. Palestinian and other Arab scholars, Western Middle East specialists, and non-Zionist Jews such as Elmer Berger, Alfred Lilienthal, and Norman Finkelstein have already published well-documented refutations of the official version of Israel’s history. The current debunking process, however, is being carried out for the first time by Israeli Jews a younger generation of historians with impeccable credentials as Zionists, patriotic Israelis and scholars.

U.S. households are carrying a record amount of credit card debt, according to a new Federal Reserve Bank of New York report released Tuesday [Feb. 6]. The bank said the data indicates financial distress is on the rise, particularly among younger and lower-income Americans. Total household debt grew by $212 billion, rising to $17.5 trillion in the fourth quarter of 2023, the Fed’s quarterly report on household debt and credit shows. Credit card balances rose by $50 billion to hit a record $1.13 trillion … “For example, 49% of credit cardholders carry debt from month to month, up from 39% in 2021.” … Credit card delinquencies have also soared more than 50% in the past year, with the Fed’s report finding that about 6.4% of all accounts are now 90 days past due, up from 4% at the end of 2022.

Credit card debt has notched another new high. Americans now owe $1.13 trillion on their credit cards, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York reported Tuesday. Balances jumped 10% from a year ago, according to a separate quarterly credit industry insights report from TransUnion, with the average balance per consumer hitting $6,360, also a historic record … Meanwhile, households continue to show signs of strain — more cardholders are carrying debt from month to month or falling behind on payments. Credit card delinquency rates jumped across the board, the New York Fed and TransUnion found. Credit card delinquencies surged more than 50% in 2023, the New York Fed reported. According to TransUnion’s research, “serious delinquencies,” or those 90 days or more past due, reached the highest level since 2009.

The United States on Tuesday vetoed an Arab-backed and widely supported U.N. resolution demanding an immediate humanitarian cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war in the embattled Gaza Strip, saying it would interfere with negotiations on a deal to free hostages abducted in Israel. The vote in the 15-member Security Council was 13-1 with the United Kingdom abstaining, reflecting the strong support from countries around the globe for ending the war … It was the third U.S. veto of a Security Council resolution demanding a cease-fire in Gaza …

The International Court of Justice is weighing whether Israel’s occupation of the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and East Jerusalem has led to systemic racial discrimination and apartheid, and while its ruling isn’t legally binding, experts say it will send a message across the globe. At The Hague on Monday morning, Palestinian representatives pleaded with the court. “The only solution consistent with international law is for this illegal occupation to come to an immediate, unconditional and total end,” spokesman Riyad Al-Maliki said. A panel of 15 international judges is weighing the legality of Israel’s 57-year occupation of lands sought for a Palestinian state. Palestinians argue that Israel’s occupation of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem violates international law.

… Recently, Biden’s government has sought $106 billion in the latest aid for arms for Israel and Ukraine, the biggest expenditure since the Vietnam War. This while the bills for the incredibly foolish war in Afghanistan keep coming in, to date $2 trillion. Now, the US in high-fever pre-election time, is lavishing billions upon Israel. Most of the world is trying to get Israel out of its lethal rampage in Gaza, but the US and its failing colonial partner, Great Britain, continue to wave the banner of empire … Biden and his aides seem to have lost all concept of money. What’s being dished out to Ukraine and Israel is green paper. This huge amount was not raised in true democratic style but by slapping these mammoth charges on the national credit card – better known as the national debt.

… Who is responsible for this tragic treatment of Palestinians? If you ponder that question, bear in mind that Israel could not possibly commit this criminal behavior without automatic, unqualified, U.S. government support year after year. Pro-Israel lobby pressure controls all major news media. Congress behaves like a committee of the Israeli parliament. No president since Dwight Eisenhower has had the courage to stand up to Israeli wrongdoing. Those who know the truth are afraid to speak out for fear of paying a heavy price – maybe loss of employment. All citizens of the United States must face the truth: Our government is complicit in Israeli crimes against humanity.

Latest edition! Back in Print! / Deluxe hardcover edition of an outstanding historian’s masterful, in-depth look at Adolf Hitler, Third Reich Germany and World War II. With full color dust jacket, photos, source notes, and index. A product of 25 years of dedicated research and unmatched scholarship, written in gripping, page-turning prose, this monumental work traces Hitler’s entire epoch-making career. In this meticulously referenced work – the crowning achievement in the career of a fiercely independent, best-selling historian – Irving demolishes the familiar propaganda image of Hitler and the Third Reich, tearing apart one historical fable after another. Sumptuously illustrated with more than a hundred photographs, including 40 in color.

On Wednesday [Feb. 14], the House passed a bill that prohibits the US from opening diplomatic relations with the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad and expands harsh sanctions on Syria to prevent other countries from normalizing with Syria. The Assad Regime Anti-Normalization Act passed in a vote of 389-32, demonstrating broad bipartisan support for the economic war against Syria. Only 28 Democrats and four Republicans voted against the bill. The legislation now heads to the Senate. The bill was introduced as a reaction to Arab countries repairing relations with the Assad government and Syria being brought back into the Arab league … Secretary of State Antony Blinken has previously said it’s US policy to “oppose the reconstruction of Syria” as long as Assad remains in power.

Israel Defense Forces officers brought Israeli civilians into detention centers and allowed them to watch and film Palestinian prisoners being tortured, according to survivor testimonies published this week by the Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor … The former detainees said groups of 10-20 Israeli civilians were brought in and allowed to record torture sessions in which the men, stripped nearly naked, were beaten with metal batons, electrocuted, and had hot water poured over their heads. The ex-prisoners said some of the Israelis laughed while filming their torture.

Britain’s decline over the past 25 years has been staggeringly rapid. Almost everything is getting worse, and almost nothing is getting better. Our public and private institutions are broken, presided over by an incompetent, selfish and narcissistic ruling class. Living standards, when adjusted properly for living and property costs, are declining. Even the simplest things don’t work any longer … Free riding, crime, disorder, fraud, littering and generalised rule-bending are rife, and all too often tolerated by apathetic citizens and an indifferent state … Like a frog in boiling water, few saw the full scale of the decline coming until it was too late … Yet even in 2024, when millions now realise that Britain is on the wrong track, there is no hope of meaningful improvement … Britain is hanging on by a thread.

George Soros looks set to control radio company Audacy and its more than 220 stations nationwide, stoking fears of an ultra-progressive billionaire having a megaphone during the 2024 election. Soros Fund Management has bought up more than $400 million of the radio and podcast company’s highest-ranking debt, bankruptcy court filings show. That would make Soros’ investment firm the biggest shareholder when Audacy emerges from bankruptcy. It runs New York’s WFAN and 1010 WINS, and Los Angeles-based KROQ, bankruptcy filings show. The debt buyout has alarmed conservatives, who have railed against Soros’ multimillion dollar payouts to progressive political causes aligned with the Democratic Party.

Buried in ash after Mount Vesuvius’ cataclysmic eruption in A.D. 79, hundreds of papyrus scrolls have kept their secrets hidden for centuries. But archeologists have now been able to decipher some of the ancient text with the help of artificial intelligence. Discovered in the ruins of a villa thought to have been owned by Julius Ceasar’s father-in-law, Lucius Calpurnius Piso Caesoninus, the Herculaneum papyri are a collection of around 1,000 scrolls that were carbonized during the eruption, along with thousands of other relics. Found by a farmworker in the 18th century, they are named after the place where they were buried, Herculaneum … Previous attempts to unlock their secrets have failed because most of the scrolls were turned into carbonized ash and broke into pieces.

Among the many great Russian writers of the 20th century, one man stands out in particular, whose works have had the greatest impact on social and political views on modern life in the country. This Nobel Prize winning philosopher is often quoted by Russian President Vladimir Putin. An ideologist who had envisioned the turn from Soviet ideology (which ran the show for 70 years) to the period of national revival, he also predicted the conflict in Ukraine half a century before it occurred … In general, he was a staunch supporter of traditional values, noted the importance of the family, and encouraged population growth. As a former prisoner of the Stalin camps, he opposed repressions and oppression … His views were based on the 1,000-year history of Russian statehood and the historical strength of the Russian people.

… 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?

… Post–Gaza, apartheid Israel is unlikely ever to recover what place it enjoyed, merited or otherwise, in the community of nations. It stands among the pariahs now. The Biden regime took this risk, too, and it has also lost. Its support for the Israelis’ daily brutalities comes at great political cost, at home and abroad … When the history of America’s decline as a hegemonic power is written, the Gaza crisis is certain to figure in it as a significant marker in the nation’s descent into a morass of immorality that has already contributed to a collapse of its credibility. We come to U.S. media … Their coverage of the Gaza crisis has been so egregiously and incautiously unbalanced in Israel’s behalf that we might count their derelictions as unprecedented.

Israel will not be pressured into accepting a Palestinian state, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday, following a Washington Post report that Israel’s main ally the United States was moving plans to establish a Palestinian state. “Israel categorically rejects international dictates regarding a permanent settlement with the Palestinians,” said Netanyahu, in a statement published following a call with U.S. President Joe Biden. “Israel will continue to oppose unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state.”

Israel’s inhumane treatment of non-Jews, as well as the often arrogant outlook of the organized Jewish community, reflect a centuries-old mindset that has roots in the Hebrew scriptures (the “Old Testament”). As Weber explains in this hard-hitting broadcast, Judaism is not just “another religion.” Its character and core values are markedly unlike those of Christianity and the other great world religions. Jews are encouraged to regard themselves as separate from the rest of humanity, and as members of a community with interests distinct from those of everyone else.

The German government has announced a package of legal measures aimed at fighting right-wing extremism. It comes after weeks of mass demonstrations against the far-right swept through German towns and cities … Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said …. “We want to break up right-wing extremist networks, cut their funding and take away their weapons.” Ms Faeser said the 13-point plan would fight right-wing extremism … Proposals include new laws that make it easier to freeze bank accounts and cut funding models for extremists. Even donors would be targeted, Ms Faeser said … Officials will also be able to ban right-wing extremist events more easily and far-right activists will be stopped from entering or leaving Germany whenever possible. Gun laws will be tightened, and it will be easier to dismiss state employees found guilty of extremism.

Remember the claims that Russia’s economy was more or less irrelevant, merely the equivalent of a small, not very impressive European country? … Seldom has the West so grossly misjudged an economy’s global significance … “The Russian economy is considerably more important than what we thought.” … And when you measure Russia’s GDP based on PPP, it’s clear that Russia’s economy is actually more like the size of Germany’s, about $4.4 trillion for Russia versus $4.6 trillion for Germany … Such commanding importance in the production of so many essential commodities means that Russia, like few other countries on the planet, is in many respects a linchpin of the globalized production chain.

There has been much written and said about Tucker Carlson’s interview with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week. As of this writing the video on Twitter alone has been viewed nearly 200 million times … What the US mainstream media was really worried about was that the “other side of the story” might start to ring true with the public. So they attacked the messenger. The CNN reporting on Tucker’s interview pretty much sums up the reaction across the board of the US mainstream media. Their headline read, “Tucker Carlson is in Russia to interview Putin. He’s already doing the bidding of the Kremlin.” … The massive success of the Tucker Carlson interview with Vladimir Putin demonstrates once and for all that the American people are sick to death of their mainstream media propagandists and liars.

Amid reports of growing frustration in the White House with Benjamin Netanyahu, NBC News reported on Monday that US President Joe Biden has been expressing his exasperation with the prime minister in private conversations — even calling him an “asshole” — but is not about to make any major policy changes … The president called Netanyahu an “asshole” in at least three recent instances, according to three of the anonymous sources. “He just feels like this is enough,” one of the sources told NBC, regarding Biden’s thoughts on Netanyahu’s behavior. “It has to stop.” Biden, the report also said, believes that Netanyahu wants to extend the war to stay in power. However, the sources said Biden thinks it would be counterproductive to be too critical of Netanyahu in public.

Words fail; ordinary terms are inadequate to describe the horrors Israel daily perpetrates, and has perpetrated for years, against the Palestinians… But the horror generally falls on deaf ears in most of Israel, in the U.S. political arena, in the mainstream U.S. media. Those who are horrified — and there are many — cannot penetrate the shield of impassivity that protects the political and media elite in Israel, even more so in the U.S., and increasing … Critics of Israel note increasingly that Israel is self-destructing, nearing a catastrophe of its own making. Israeli journalist Gideon Levy talks of a society in “moral collapse.”

Gaza is home to some of the oldest churches and mosques in the world, but many have not escaped the widespread destruction of Israel’s military offensive. Of 117 religious sites which were reportedly damaged or destroyed between 7 October, when Israel’s campaign began, and 31 December, the BBC has verified 74 cases. Seventy-two are mosques and two are churches.

In the last months of World War II, Allied bombers from the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force conducted several major bombing raids on the eastern German city of Dresden. Beginning on the night of February 13, 1945, more than 1,200 heavy bombers dropped nearly 4,000 tons of high-explosive and incendiary bombs on the city in four successive raids. An estimated 25,000 people were killed in the bombings and the firestorm that raged afterward. More than 75,000 dwellings were destroyed, along with unique monuments of Baroque architecture in the historic city center. With photographs.

This striking video shows the beautiful German city of Dresden before, during, and after the devastating British-American air attack of February 1945. No narration. Runtime: 7:47 mins.

The destruction of the virtually undefended German city of Dresden by bombers of the Royal Air Force and U.S. Army Air Force, in mid-February 1945, remains one of the most controversial episodes of the Second World War … British military historian, Alexander McKee, has produced a new account of the Dresden bombing, based in part upon an examination of official records recently declassified, as well as interviews from survivors of the attack and Allied airmen who flew in the raids. McKee had doubts about the efficacy of area bombing when, as a soldier with the 1st Canadian Army, he witnessed the results of the Allied bombing of “friendly” French towns.

… Why do we hear endless repetition of the Holocaust and next to nothing about the even more murderous Soviet crimes of mass murder? The artful British were the war’s premier propagandists. They not only helped draw the US into WWII, but they also largely masked the alliance between the US and Britain with the murderous Soviet regime. In fact, the strategic goal of the British was to divert attention away from Soviet crimes by emphasizing Nazi crimes. This process continues today. The Jewish holocaust has almost become a state religion while the larger, earlier Ukrainian holocaust (or Holodomor) is slipping away down the memory hole.

… Last October, after arriving in Florida, David Irving fell ill and has been in declining health ever since. He is now back in the UK and requires round-the-clock care, a demand we’ve had to arrange privately due to constraints with NHS services. He was hospitalised for nearly two months, enduring the kind of challenges we never anticipated he would face. It is with sadness that we must accept that David is now unable to engage in his life’s work. His unwavering dedication to unveiling Real History has not only defined his career but also enriched the minds of readers worldwide.

As politicians and the Anti-Defamation League call for crackdowns on Middle East peace protesters, the ADL’s undue influence within the FBI as a trainer is finally exposed. / The Department of Justice released the Anti-Defamation League’s Basic Field Training Course. The course is mandatory for all FBI New Agent Trainees (NATs) and New Intelligence Analyst Trainees (NIATs). This release follows a decade of Freedom of Information Act requests and denials by the Department of Justice (PDF) and evasion by publicly funded content contributors. The ADL course is developed and conducted by ADL instructors. It selects materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum and Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial. Marcus Appelbaum, Museum Director of Law … resisted any public review of the curriculum …

… As the incendiaries fell, the phosphorus clung to the bodies of those below, turning them into human torches. The screaming of those who were being burned alive was added to the cries of those not yet hit. There was no need for flares to lead the second wave of bombers to their target, as the whole city had become a gigantic torch. It must have been visible to the pilots from a hundred miles away. Dresden had no defences, no anti-aircraft guns, no searchlights, nothing … The affair was a war crime at the highest level, a stain upon the name Englishman that only an apology made in full public view would suffice to obliterate.

Harrowing footage from World War Two showing the annihilation of the German city of Dresden by Allied forces has resurfaced on the anniversary of the bombings which killed up to 25,000 people. Video from 1945, shown as part of an American news report, shows the fearsome bomb attacks undertaken by the [British] RAF [air force] on the night of February 13 … At the start of the clip, with the American narrator describing the Allied attacks, British bombers are seen high above the Saxony city. Dresden is then seen at night, with the aerial view showing the terrifying sound and light of the explosions… The narrator said the Allied airmen were ‘linking up their attacks with Marshal Stalin’s army’. The bombings were also intended to cause a state of alarm and panic in the civilian population and weaken the German war effort.

… In February 1945, American bombers reduced this treasure to crushed stone and embers; disembowelled her with high explosives and cremated her with incendiaries … It is with some regret that I here besmirch the nobility of our airmen, but, boys, you killed an appalling lot of women and children. The shelter I have described and innumerable others like it were filled with them. We had to exhume their bodies and carry them to mass funeral pyres in the parks, so I know … The “Get Tough America” policy, the spirit of revenge, the approbation of all destruction and killing, have earned us a name for obscene brutality.

Mass killing and terrorism were the sole objectives of the horrific World War II air attack on Dresden, which British diplomat and author Harold Nicolson called “the single greatest holocaust by war.” On February 13-14, 1945, some 2,000 British and American bombers took part in the devastating raid on an undefended city packed with women and children fleeing ad­vancing Soviet forces. One of Europe’s great cultural and ar­chitectural treasures, this beautiful German city had no importance as a military target. Here is the full story — from the perspectives of both per­petrators and victims — of the horrific firestorm raid that took the lives of tens of thousands of civilians, who were burned alive, suffocated or succumbed to poisonous fumes. Hardcover book, with dust jacket, photos, maps, source and reference notes, and index.

Immigration is expected to add 6.1 million people to the UK population by mid-2036, according to official projections that add pressure on British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak over a sensitive issue in the run-up to an election. The UK’s population will grow from 67 million in mid-2021 to 73.7 million in mid-2036, driven almost entirely by migration, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) forecast on Tuesday. Migration has become a dominant issue in Britain and will figure prominently in a national vote later this year where Sunak’s ruling Conservatives are forecast in opinion polls to lose power. The projected jump, over the 15-year period, also reflects a projection of 541,000 more births than deaths, the ONS said. Figures released in November showed annual net migration to the UK hit a record of 745,000 in 2022 and has stayed high since.

A majority of Germans oppose the government’s radical immigration law, which will allow up to 2.5 million foreigners to obtain German citizenship in time for the federal election in 2025. The poll, which was conducted by Insa on behalf of the Protestant News Agency, found that 51 percent of Germans are opposed to the new law, with only 32 percent supporting it … Arguably an even more devastating poll from the Security Report 2024, conducted by the Allensbach Institute, shows that the population’s overall approval of the federal government’s current refugee policy is extremely low, with 65 percent of those surveyed saying that they did not consider their policy to be correct. According to the security report, over 80 percent of those surveyed have little or no trust in the federal government’s migration policy.

… It was Reagan’s initial reaction after a commando squad blew up the US Marine barracks in Beirut on Oct. 23, 1983, killing 241 Americans. We can be grateful that he changed his mind … A truck bomb carrying six tons of explosives smashed into the Marine barracks … Reagan reacted with the angry resolve that Americans expect at such moments … Soon, however, Reagan began having second thoughts. Pursuing the bombers would have meant plunging into Lebanon’s burgeoning civil war … On Feb. 7, 1984, Reagan announced that instead of sending the Marines to charge into war, he was ordering them to charge out … Reagan coolly assessed America’s self-interest rather than reacting with violent anger. An American intervention that could have turned into a long and bloody occupation never happened.

… At what point do open borders and mass illegal immigration into the US become an “invasion,” which would grant governors the authority – and obligation – to take action? By some estimates, more than six million illegal immigrants have crossed into the United States during the three years of the Biden Administration. These illegals likely mostly come from Mexico and Central America, but the fact is we have no idea how many of them may be arriving from, for example, the Middle East or other war-torn areas of the world. Last month even the New York Times wrote of the disaster on the US border that, “thousands of migrants are arriving at the border every day, trekking from the farthest reaches of the globe, from Africa to Asia to South America, driven by relentless violence, desperation and poverty.”

In the wake of the Oct. 7 attacks on southern Israel, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) has reaped a $90 million fundraising haul, according to confidential internal documents reviewed by The Lever. Large donations flowed as the influential pro-Israel lobbying group hosted a remobilized Israeli military official … In October alone, the documents show that AIPAC received more than triple that amount — more than $40 million in pledged donations. In the following two months, donors pledged another nearly $50 million. Top benefactors on a list of 2023 donors reviewed by The Lever represent a cross-section of the U.S. elite …

… Make no mistake, a strategic bombing campaign directed at Iran sends a clear and unambiguous message: The United States is at war with the Iranian state, its people, and its armed forces. At this point, whether Biden does or does not remove Iran from his target list, Americans should still be beware. There is no shortage of bombing activists inside the beltway who are convinced that war with Iran is the only solution to Iran’s hostility to Israel. Bombing is not diplomacy, but politicians like it because it conveys the impression of substantive action. Bombing is neither a strategy nor a simple exercise in virtue signaling. Bombing is an act of war. Bombing does not contain conflict, nor does bombing deter an opponent from future action. If anything, bombing escalates tension and leads to all-out war.

US President Joe Biden called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “bad fucking guy” amid tensions between the two leaders over the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, according to a report Sunday. Politico cited White House officials on Biden’s support for Israel in the war against Hamas and the political backlash from some in his party and among voters. Some Biden administration events have been disrupted by protesters calling for a ceasefire. Biden has grown suspicious of Netanyahu as the war, triggered by Hamas’s October 7 massacre, finished its fourth month, and has privately called him a “bad fucking guy,” the report said … Since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the Biden administration has fast-tracked the sale of hundreds of millions of dollars’ worth of munitions to Israel, bypassing congressional review.

A French Holocaust denier arrested in Scotland was handed over to France on Friday after losing his extradition battle, a source close to the case told AFP. Vincent Reynouard was arrested in November 2022 in Scotland, where he had been living in a fishing village under a false identity. The 54-year-old private tutor was wanted by authorities in France, where he had been convicted in absentia for offences related to Holocaust denial. A French warrant for his arrest cited videos posted to the internet in which he denied Nazi crimes … Although British law does not criminalise Holocaust denial, the judge ruled that the charges against Reynouard — namely “public trivialisation of a war crime” and “public challenge to the existence of crimes against humanity” — amounted to a breach of the Communications Act.

… We hear a lot about the evils of “Holocaust denial.” But those who question the conventional version of Nazi history are only retrospective and speculative. They don’t influence events. That can’t be said for those who assisted and glorified the Soviet Union under Stalin while it was still active and thereby facilitated its enormous crimes. I don’t mean Warner Brothers. I mean Joseph Davies. I mean Walter Duranty. And I especially mean the man who inspired this movie, Franklin Roosevelt. Stalin’s victims were in part his victims too. The cynical and mendacious Roosevelt had a strange soft spot for Stalin and Communism.

Iraqi government officials on Saturday condemned U.S. airstrikes on Iran-linked targets in Iraq, saying the attacks showed that U.S. forces had become a threat to their host country — a sentiment that will likely hasten demands for the U.S.-led military coalition in Iraq to leave … A spokesman for the group told the AP the targeted bases were mostly empty at the time of the U.S. attacks. The Iraqi government spokesman condemned the strikes targeting the Popular Mobilization Forces as “blatant aggression” and a violation of Iraqi sovereignty … The Iraqi government declared three days of mourning for the dead.

A massive US bombing campaign struck scores of targets in Iraq and Syria with over 100 bombs, leaving about 40 people dead, including civilians. President Joe Biden ordered the strikes as tensions in the Middle East are rapidly escalating. On Friday, US Central Command announced the “military forces struck more than 85 targets, with numerous aircraft to include long-range bombers flown from United States.” … Baghdad and Damascus issued statements blasting Washington over the strikes … The White House did not seek Congressional authorization for starting the war. Additionally, the White House admitted it could not directly link Tehran to the strike in Jordan. It does not appear that any Iranians were killed by US forces on Friday.

… This article is based on conversations with former members of the Obama and Biden administrations, interviews with leading experts on Israel and Palestine, and a review of hundreds of mostly forgotten congressional hearings, speeches, and articles in which the president has explained how he sees the conflict. Together, they reveal instinctive sympathy for Israel contrasted by incuriosity about Palestinians; an increasingly outdated view of the domestic politics on the issue … A former Obama administration official I spoke with could not recall any situation in which Biden was not the most sympathetic person to Israel in the room.

More than half of Gaza’s buildings have been damaged or destroyed since Israel launched its retaliation for the Hamas attacks of October 7, new analysis seen by the BBC reveals. Detailed before-and-after imagery also shows how the bombardment of southern and central Gaza has intensified since the start of December … Across Gaza, residential areas have been left ruined, previously busy shopping streets reduced to rubble, universities destroyed and farmlands churned up, with tent cities springing up on the southern border to house many thousands of people left homeless. About 1.7 million people – more than 80% of Gaza’s population – are displaced, with nearly half crammed in the far southern end of the strip …The analysis suggests between 144,000 and 175,000 buildings across the whole Gaza Strip have been damaged or destroyed.

… One of the most widely respected Italian political theorists and sociologists in this century is Vilfredo Pareto. Indeed, so influential are his writings that “it is not possible to write the history of sociology without referring to Pareto.” Throughout all of the vicissitudes and convulsions of twentieth-century political life, Pareto remains “a scholar of universal reputation.” Pareto is additionally important for us today because he is a towering figure in one of Europe’s most distinguished, and yet widely suppressed, intellectual currents. This broad school of thought … stands in staunch opposition to rationalism, liberalism, egalitarianism, Marxism …

Early Sunday morning, local time, a drone successfully struck a US military facility on the Iraq/ Syria/ Jordan border. Three US servicemembers were killed and several dozen were injured … Most Americans likely do not understand that US forces are illegally occupying a large portion of Syrian territory – a country with which Washington is not legally at war … Sen. Lindsey Graham, who has never seen a war he doesn’t want other people to fight, has offered his own explanation as to why US troops are getting killed in Syria: “Our forces in Jordan and Syria are there to protect the American homeland.” But as thousands illegally enter our actual American homeland every day with total impunity, it is a claim that is unlikely to resonate with most Americans.

Gaza is experiencing mass starvation like no other in recent history. Before the outbreak of fighting in October, food security in Gaza was precarious, but very few children – less than 1% – suffered severe acute malnutrition, the most dangerous kind. Today, almost all Gazans, of any age, anywhere in the territory, are at risk. There is no instance since the second world war in which an entire population has been reduced to extreme hunger and destitution with such speed … Palestinian children in Gaza will die, in the thousands, even if the barriers to aid are lifted today … Never before Gaza have today’s humanitarian professionals seen such a high proportion of the population descend so rapidly towards catastrophe … If the US and UK fail to use every possible lever to stop the catastrophe, they will be complicit.

The “very first Britons were Black”, an exhibition on the diverse history of Britain has claimed. The Brilliant Black British History exhibition held at Black Cultural Archives in Brixton makes a range of contentious claims about British history. Visitors are informed that “the very first Britons were Black”, and that “Britain was black for 7,000 years before” white people arrived … The exhibition at the Black Cultural Archives, which receives funding from Lambeth council and Arts Council England, is based on the Bloomsbury children’s book Brilliant Black British History, by Atinuke, the Nigerian-born poet and author.

Georgia lawmakers passed a bill on Thursday that would define antisemitism in state law, with Republicans uniting in support of Israel’s war on Hamas and some Democrats splitting over fears of suppressing support for Palestinians … Georgia has a hate crimes law that allows higher criminal penalties for crimes motivated by certain types of bias. The definition, which is only referred to in the bill, describes antisemitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

Germany’s public broadcaster, Deutsche Welle, has revised its code of conduct to require support for Israel’s right to exist, and employees who fail to do so may now be fired … DW is not the only German media company to expressly endorse Israel’s right to exist. In 1967, the Axel Springer company, one of Germany’s biggest media conglomerates that now owns Politico and [Business] Insider, established “corporate principles” that include “support [for] the Jewish people and the right of existence of the State of Israel.” The DW code made public on Sept. 1 declares that “Germany’s historical responsibility for the Holocaust is also a reason for which we support the right of Israel to exist.”