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… Despite the clear indication that American weapons were being used to carry out an alleged Israeli genocide, the bombs continued to flow and the wholesale massacres never stopped … That same evidence of genocide, starvation, ethnic cleansing, and forced displacement was clearly available to the Biden administration, yet it lied to the American public to hide its own criminal culpability in the war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide … What matters is evidence of the crime, and there is more than enough for the ICC’s chief prosecutor to issue an application for an arrest warrant for Biden, just as it did for Netanyahu … In the end, it’s the American taxpayers who are financing the genocide.

Technology has been used to recreate the voice of the medieval king Richard III, complete with a distinctive Yorkshire accent. A digital avatar of the monarch went on display at York Theatre Royal on Sunday after experts helped to generate a replica of his voice. Richard III was king of England from 1483 until his death in 1485, at the age of 32. His remains were discovered in 2012 under a car park in Leicester by Phillippa Langley through her Looking for Richard project. His skeleton was identified using a range of scientific disciplines including DNA analysis, and now experts have managed to recreate his voice.

The world’s top war-crimes court issued arrest warrants Thursday for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the 13-month war in Gaza. The warrants said there was reason to believe Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant have used “starvation as a method of warfare” by restricting humanitarian aid, and have intentionally targeted civilians in Israel’s campaign against Hamas in Gaza — charges Israeli officials deny.

After the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, warned allies of the United States on Friday that if they attempt to enforce it, the U.S. will “crush your economy.” The ICC, which is seated in The Hague, Netherlands, issued multiple warrants on Thursday for those involved in the ongoing Israel-Gaza war … Netanyahu has called the ICC’s arrest warrant an “antisemitic decision” … Several countries including U.S. allies such as Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, Lithuania, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Turkey, Jordan, Norway and Sweden, have said they will comply with the ICC’s arrest warrant or are open to it.

The US has blocked a Gaza ceasefire draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council – the fourth time it has used its veto power during the conflict to shield its ally, Israel. Fourteen of the 15 Council members voted in favour of the draft, which demanded that the war in Gaza “must end immediately, unconditionally and permanently and all remaining hostages must be immediately and unconditionally released”. Deputy US ambassador to the UN, Robert Wood, said the document “abandoned” the necessity for there to be “a linkage between a ceasefire and the release of hostages”. Critics of the veto sharply rebuked the US, with France saying it “deeply regretted” the move.

Experts had tipped a far-right candidate as one of the favorites in Romania’s presidential election, predicting a runoff with an established politician in a poll monitored closely as a barometer of populism in Europe and eroding public support for Ukraine in its war with Russia. The experts were right and wrong. Yes, a far-right candidate will go to Romania’s presidential runoff on December 8.But it wasn’t the one they and polls were predicting. Calin Georgescu, an independent who barely registered in pre-election polling, not only did better than expected: The 62-year-old agricultural engineer won the November 24 first round with about 22 percent of the vote.

A Romanian political hopeful who could become honorary president of the country’s fourth-largest political party praised an antisemitic 1930s fascist leader during a primetime TV interview on Monday night [Feb. 2022], drawing sharp condemnation from Jewish and other groups. Speaking on Antena 3 news channel, Calin Georgescu, a sustainability expert formerly affiliated with the United Nations, said Corneliu Zelea Codreanu “fought for the morality of the human being.” … Codreanu led the fiercely antisemitic Legionnaire Movement until his execution in 1938. The group espoused an extreme version of ethnic and religious nationalism … Two years after its founder’s death, the movement entered the government of Romania’s pro-Nazi dictator Ion Antonescu.

Horia Sima, leader of the Legionary movement, and General Ion Antonescu, Romanian head of state, address many thousands at this large outdoor rally in Bucharest, Oct. 1940. Above them is a large portrait of Corneliu Codreanu, founder of the Christian-nationalist Legionary movement, who was murdered two years earlier by the previous government. With English subtitles. Runtime: 5:38 mins.

… Călin Georgescu, an independent candidate in the presidential race, not affiliated with any political party, came in first with 22.94 % of the vote. He didn’t spend too much on his campaign. Georgescu simply made TikTok videos; lots and lots of TikTok videos. Polls indicated he would only get something like 9% of the vote … He has a Ph.D. in Soil Science. It appears that before 2016 he was very much a globalist … He was the Director of the UN Global Sustainability Index Institute in Switzerland … He worked for a time for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. It appears that some time between 2016 and 2020 he began to become more nationalistic … He praises both Corneliu Codreanu and Ion Antonescu as national heroes.

A July poll shows that a majority of the American public does not support sending U.S. troops to defend Taiwan or Ukraine, sentiment that lines up with findings from other recent surveys on these heated subjects, which suggests that Americans appear to be warming to restraint and non-interventionism in international affairs. Indeed, another poll, conducted by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs in February found that a majority of Americans (56%) do not believe that the United States should pick a side in Israel’s war on Gaza. And a more recent survey from Council this month found that just four in ten support the United States sending troops to defend Israel if attacked by its neighbors. Similarly, Americans’ suspicions of foreign intervention were uncovered in a recent YouGov poll …

Industry clusters are areas of dynamic growth and innovation, as the concentration of talent and capital generate faster advances. Typically industry clusters take many decades to evolve, as evidenced by London’s Fleet Street, New York’s Wall Street, Hollywood, and Silicon Valley. But China’s approach to industry clustering was targeted and deliberate, from the top down. What’s more, it took place during China’s urbanization: the cities themselves did not yet exist, let alone as specialized industrial hubs. China now leads the world in industrial clusters of all types, and notably in Science and Technology where double-digit growth is being realized across many of them. And with China on track to bring another 400 million to cities over coming decades, these advances are very likely to continue. Runtime: 9:27 mins.

The Israeli military is conducting an ethnic cleansing operation in the northern Gaza Strip. The few Palestinians remaining in the area are being forcibly evacuated, homes and infrastructure have been destroyed, and wide roads in the area are being built and completing the separation of the communities in the northern Strip from the center of Gaza City. “The area looks like it was hit by a natural disaster,” Haaretz military correspondent Yaniv Kubovich concluded after a tour with Israeli forces there last week. What Kubovich saw, however, was not a natural disaster but rather a premeditated act of human destruction. A senior IDF officer … Brig. Gen. Itzik Cohen, the commander of the 162nd Division, explained to reporters: “There is no intention of allowing the residents of the northern Gaza Strip to return to their homes.”

… Israel’s depravity has ended any prospect of normalized relations by Arab states with it … The hateful things Israel is doing have made it the most hated society on the planet … Israel is a pariah everywhere outside the West. No one other than a dwindling band of American politicians now wants to be seen in Israel’s or Netanyahu’s company … Commitments to defend other sovereign states subject those who make them to the risk of becoming embroiled in fights that are not their own to advance interests they may not share. George Washington understood this well, which is why he counseled Americans to avoid entangling alliances as well as passionate attachments to other nations. Our current leadership does not understand the wisdom of such a self-interested and flexible approach to foreign affairs.

German WW2 air force ace Werner Baumbach speaks about his career in the Luftwaffe in this film presentation – with English subtitles — of March 1944. Baumbach flew 147 missions as a bomber pilot during World War II, and was highly decorated for his skill and daring. He was removed from active duty in 1942 to work on new bomber designs. He also helped design a composite bomber system. After three years as a prisoner of war, he moved to Argentina, where he worked as a test pilot. Runtime: 22 mins.

Remarkable saga of the rise and fall of one of history’s great air forces, as told by one of its most decorated and honored officers, Werner Baumbach. A key figure in the aerial campaigns over England, Russia, the Mediterranean, and the Arctic, Baumbach became head of the Luftwaffe’s Bomber Command before his thirtieth birthday. Here he gives a detailed, frank, inside account of Germany’s air war, seen from the top: Hitler as leader and strategist; assessments of key Luftwaffe figures as Göring, Milch, Udet, Jeschonnek, and Galland; and the great controversies over tactics and strategy that helped decide the war.

Populism has many faces, but its pattern is always the same. Whether it’s coming from Donald Trump in the US, Narendra Modi in India or from Björn Höcke and Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) it is always about supposed elites who have conspired against the people … The rise of populist parties has become a serious challenge for democratic states … The ultimate measure against the threat to democracy is now being debated in Germany: legal proceedings to ban the AfD. For years, courts, security authorities and civil organizations have been collecting evidence that the party is dangerous. An outright ban on the party, however, faces high legal hurdles.

The International Criminal Court’s (ICJ) January finding of a “plausible genocide” in Gaza, and subsequent ruling that Israel is responsible for an apartheid system in the West Bank and East Jerusalem would not have surprised former Presidents Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson, Carter, or indeed Reagan, who famously denounced Israel’s 1982 levelling of West Beirut to Prime Minister Menachem Begin as a “holocaust.” Israel is the only US ally that has been exercising such oppression and terror for a lifetime. For many years, consecutive American administrations, both Democratic and Republican, condemned Israel’s recurring practice of terror … Harry S Truman recognised Israel in May 1948, yet once re-elected in November, wrote of his “disgust” over how “the Jews are approaching the refugee problem”.

As President Biden’s term approaches its end, the US and several parts of the rest of the world are significantly worse off than they were when he took office. While the president is frequently lauded by members of the foreign policy establishment as a successful foreign policy leader, his tenure has been marked for the most part by  deepening US involvement in foreign conflicts that show no signs of ending anytime soon. US policies under Biden have served only to stoke destabilizing conflict, and the president has shown no inclination to bring any of the wars currently backed by Washington to an end. Biden’s presidency showed the world just how extensive the rot in US foreign policy is, and most other nations will not soon forget what restored American “leadership” wrought.

For decades, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee had been an influential presence on Capitol Hill, working behind the scenes to lobby politicians and their staffers in support of Israel … Flush with millions of dollars from loyal donors, among them Republican billionaires and megadonors to former President Donald Trump, AIPAC embraced a new strategy. It would use its vast funds to oust progressive members of Congress who have criticized human rights abuses by Israel and the country’s receipt of billions of U.S. dollars in military funding. Just two years after it started pouring money into campaigns, AIPAC has become one of the largest outside spenders in congressional elections.

When Theodore Roosevelt succeeded William McKinley as president in 1901, he realized the US was no longer just a continental republic; with the Spanish-American War of 1898, America now claimed Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines as territories, Cuba a protectorate and annexed Hawaii … In the slightly less than a hundred years from 1898 to 1994, the U.S. government (directly or indirectly) has intervened successfully to change governments in Latin America, alone, at least 41 times. That amounts to once every 28 months for an entire century. Overall, while the United States engaged in 46 military interventions from 1948–1991, from 1992–2017 that number increased fourfold to 188.

The end of the Second World War is often considered the defining moment when the United States became a global power. In fact, it was another war forty years earlier, a war that ended with America having an empire of its own stretching thousands of miles beyond its continental borders. The Spanish-American War [of 1898], which lasted five months, catapulted the United States from provincial to global power … As a result of the war the United States annexed the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico, and occupied Cuba until 1903. Although Washington granted Cuban independence, it retained a say in Cuban affairs. The Spanish-American War made the United States a global power … Like many conventional state-on-state conflicts, the Spanish-American War upset the old order and set the stage for a new one.

Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan called for a complete embargo on Israel and an end to trade at the Arab League Extraordinary Joint Summit Meeting in Saudi Arabia on Monday. “As Islamic countries, we must pioneer the steps that can be taken against Israel,” he said, also calling for the Muslim world to stand united against Israel on Monday. “It is extremely important to impose an arms embargo on Israel, end trade with Israel, and isolate Israel internationally unless its aggression ends,” he said. He continued to call the idea of reaching a two-state solution ‘impossible,’ saying part of the solution involved “[encouraging] more countries to recognize Palestine.” Erdogan reiterated his belief that the Islamic world should “show the whole world that they have one voice.”

New statistics from Austria reveal that more than three-quarters of students in Vienna’s middle schools do not speak German at home, a figure which has prompted political outcry and demands for urgent changes in the education system. According to Statistics Austria’s STATcube, only 8,479 of Vienna’s 26,816 middle school students use German as their primary language, while 76 percent predominantly speak other languages.

In specific districts, the numbers soar above 90 percent, with areas like Margareten (95.4 percent), Hernals (92.2 percent), and Alsergrund (91.2 percent) reporting the highest proportions of students speaking languages other than German at home.

The figures are sparking debates over the impact on academic performance, teacher retention, and integration efforts within schools.

Germany’s ruling coalition and the conservative opposition have agreed on a joint call for government crackdowns against anti-Semitism despite concerns the effort could be misused to curb criticism of Israel. The draft motion declares that the German government should continue to “actively support the existence and legitimate security interests of the State of Israel.” The three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left coalition announced the agreement on Saturday along with the opposition conservative CDU/CSU bloc. The motion, which is not legally binding, is set to be debated and voted on in Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, as early as next week. The draft calls for “loopholes in the law to be closed and repressive options to be consistently exploited” against those deemed by the German state to be anti-Semitic …

The youngest Canadians are the most likely to believe Jews exaggerate the devastation of the Holocaust, according to a new national poll. The survey, conducted by Leger for the Association for Canadian Studies, found that Canadians between the ages of 18 and 24 were considerably more likely to agree with the statement that “Jews exaggerate the Holocaust,” at 16 per cent, compared with 25 to 34-year-olds at seven per cent and those between 55 and 64 at five per cent. When evaluated alongside a respondent’s view of Jews, more broadly, the study found that those with the strongest belief that Jews exaggerated the Shoah held the worst views of the community. More than 52 per cent of those agreeing that the Holocaust was exaggerated by Jews held a negative opinion of the community.

… The problem, then, goes well beyond the strengths and weaknesses of one or another presidential candidate. The problem is the foreign policy establishment itself, which serves a single overarching purpose: to patrol the parameters of the acceptable and the sayable in order to prevent the country at large from understanding what is being done in its name. In other words, the US foreign policy establishment has been, and remains, at the forefront of a decades-long exercise in obfuscation. As such, the establishment is implacably hostile to truth. There are things that must not be said, things that must not be acknowledged. For example, we must not acknowledge that our interventions in the Middle East over the past quarter century have resulted in deaths of almost a million people.

Movie star Susan Sarandon claims she was blacklisted in Hollywood after she said, at a pro-Palestinian rally in November of last year, that US Jews fearing for their safety, given a spike in antisemitism, “are getting a taste of what it feels like to be a Muslim in this country.” The Hollywood talent agency UTA cut ties with the Oscar-winning actress as a client a few days after a clip from the rally went viral, despite her issuing an apology … “There are so many people out of work right now [since] November of last year … who have lost their jobs as custodians, as writers, as painters, as people working in the cafeteria, substitute teachers who have been fired because they tweeted something, or liked a tweet, or asked for a ceasefire,” she told the British newspaper.

Wikipedia has officially added “Gaza genocide” to its “List of Genocides” page, marking a major shift in how Israel’s aggression on the besieged enclave is being documented on the world’s largest online encyclopaedia. The addition, which now appears as the first entry due to the list’s reverse chronological order, comes after months of extensive debate among the platform’s editors. On its “Gaza genocide” page, it states that “Experts, governments, United Nations agencies, and non-governmental organisations have accused Israel of carrying out a genocide against the Palestinian people during its invasion and bombing of the Gaza Strip in the ongoing Israel–Hamas war.” … Editors supporting the inclusion argued that it met the page’s criteria of events “classified by significant scholarship” as genocide.

A November 8 video report by a 16-year-old who publishes YouTube reports under the moniker “Bender” provided extensive on-the-ground footage of a mob of armed Tel Aviv Maccabi ultras hunting victims, throwing metal poles at police vehicles, threatening journalists, and even being detained after attacking undercover police officers. While Western corporate media, US President Joe Biden and the Dutch government have faithfully echoed the Israeli propaganda narrative that the Maccabi ultras were innocent victims of an antisemitic “pogrom,” no mainstream media outlet has reported to date that the Israeli football hooligans attacked police vehicles and undercover officers, in addition to their assaults on Muslim taxi drivers and other Dutch citizens.

… This could be mistaken for a scene from one of the many antisemitic purges Europe has witnessed in past centuries. But it happened in Amsterdam on Thursday night, when Israeli football fans were hunted down in a coordinated act of violence … The events of Thursday night highlight a painful truth: Europe’s experiment with mass migration has left Jews increasingly vulnerable … The events of Thursday night highlight a painful truth: Europe’s experiment with mass migration has left Jews increasingly vulnerable. Antisemitism has risen as the continent has absorbed more people from regions where this prejudice is endemic, particularly in parts of the Islamic world.

In an internal email sent on November 3, Patrick Soon-Shiong, medical technology billionaire and owner of the Times, outlined some of the reasons behind his decision that the paper would not endorse a candidate for president this year. In the email, sent to the LA Times’s top editor and the president and COO and obtained by Drop Site News, Soon-Shiong says the policies supported by both candidates – in what is a clear reference to Israel’s brutal war on Gaza – played an important role in his decision. “Has there ever been a time in our history,” he writes, “when our nation is knowingly providing arms to another nation using those weapons to kill children, women, innocent people and target the press, doctors and medical workers? And policies enabling this are supported it seems by both candidates?”

Revered abolitionist Harriet Tubman, who was the first woman to oversee an American military action during a time of war, was posthumously awarded the rank of general on Monday. Dozens gathered on Veterans Day at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park in Maryland’s Dorcester County for a formal ceremony making Tubman a one-star brigadier general in the state’s National Guard. Gov. Wes Moore called the occasion not just a great day for Tubman’s home state but for all of the U.S. “Today, we celebrate a soldier and a person who earned the title of veteran,” Moore said. “Today we celebrate one of the greatest authors of the American story.”

A report from the Israeli newspaper Haaretzpublished on Wednesday [Nov. 6] detailed the situation in Beit Lahia, a city in northern Gaza near the Israeli border where Israeli forces are implementing an ethnic cleansing campaign. At the beginning of October, Israel ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians living in northern Gaza to head south. Many ignored the order since there was nowhere safe to go, and the Israeli military focused its renewed assault on the north on Beith Lahia and neighboring Beit Hanoun and Jabalia, where it imposed a full siege to starve out civilians. The Israeli military has said it forcibly expelled 55,000 Palestinians from the Jabalia refugee camp, and it has no intention of allowing them back.

President-elect Trump faces a tall order in the Middle East. More than 13 months after Hamas’ terror attack against Israel on October 7, 2023, and Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, there is no end in sight to the violence. The Middle East remains on the brink of full-scale, region-wide war, with the potential for direct U.S. involvement. The decision by Washington to place itself at the center of these conflicts is a symptom of a broader self-defeating U.S. Middle East policy. To fix this, Trump should center U.S. Middle East policy on two chief objectives: disentanglement and deprioritization. The most immediate issue in the Middle East is America’s deep involvement in Israel’s wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and in the continued escalation between Israel and Iran.

Israeli football hooligans tore down Palestine flags as they marched through Amsterdam in a Wednesday night of chaos ahead of Maccabi Tel Aviv’s visit to Ajax. Videos show dozens of hooded figures dressed fully in black cheering and chanting ‘f*** you Palestine’ and ‘ole’ as one climbed halfway up the front of a building and removed a flag on the Rokin, a major street. Footage also shows one thug thumping a taxi with crowbar before the driver takes off, while there have been reported clashes between the visiting hooligans and cabbies. Meanwhile, clips shared by a prominent pro-hooligan page depict bust-ups purported to be between Maccabi fans and a group of Moroccan Ajax supporters.

… It all started on Wednesday, the day before the match, when a sizable number of Maccabi fans arrived into Amsterdam to watch their team take on Ajax in the Europa League. Coinciding with the Maccabi fans’ arrival, pro-Palestinian activists assembled in Dam Square in protest of Israel’s ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in Gaza. Groups of Maccabi fans reportedly went through the city, confronting the pro-Palestine protesters and generally causing trouble. Videos show Maccabi fans tearing down Palestine flags from the windows of private residences. In one such video, you can hear people serenading the flag-ripper with “Fuck you, Palestine.” …Tensions remained high going into Thursday, the day of the match. Maccabi fans again took to the streets, at times chanting racist phrases like “Death to the Arabs.”

Harvard professors are biting their tongues and dodging political issues out of fear of losing their jobs, being ‘cancelled’ or attracting heat online. Harvard is the nation’s premier university, and produces a disproportionate number of our leaders. It’s expected to set an example and be a bastion of discourse and debate — with its professors boldly leading the way. But a survey published by the university’s own Open Inquiry and Constructive Dialogue Working Group found a solid majority of profs now avoid touchy topics both inside and outside of the classroom, after things boiled over in the last year with campus protests related to the war in Gaza. The 1,411 surveyed faculty and staff were prompted to “think about teaching a controversial issue in a class at Harvard” — and their primary reaction seems to be fear.

Packing their bags! After former President Donald Trump’s election victory over Vice President Kamala Harris, some of the biggest stars in Hollywood have threatened to leave the US. America Ferrera is reportedly ready to pack her bags after Trump’s victory. The 40-year-old is allegedly looking to start a new life in the UK with her husband, Ryan Piers Williams, and their two children … Sharon Stone echoed her fellow actress’s sentiments, stating it’s time for her to flee America … “Game of Thrones” vet Sophie Turner also pledged to “get the f–k out” of America and move back to her home country of the United Kingdom if Trump were to step into power.

Millionaire Democrats are lining up in droves to leave the US following Donald Trump’s historic presidential election win. According to a high-net worth investment consultancy, the number of enquiries about leaving the country had increased fivefold in the 24 hours after the election result was announced. Dozens of celebrities have said they would consider emigration if Mr Trump won a second term, including Sharon Stone, Cher and Barbara Streisand. The most popular destinations for millionaire expats are Canada, Australia, the UK and New Zealand, the consultancy told The Telegraph … Most of the potential clients were motivated by “ideological and emotional factors” after Mr Trump’s win.

A growing number of wealthy Americans are making plans to leave the country in the run-up to Tuesday’s election, with many fearing political and social unrest regardless of who wins, according to immigration attorneys. Attorneys and advisors to family offices and high-net-worth families said they’re seeing record demand from clients looking for second passports or long-term residencies abroad. While talk of moving overseas after an election is common, wealth advisors said this time many of the wealthy are already taking action. “We’ve never seen demand like we see now,” said Dominic Volek, group head of private clients at Henley & Partners, which advises the wealthy on international migration.

Boeing reportedly dismantled its global diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) department as part of an overhaul of its operations ordered by the company’s new top executive – becoming the latest major company to ditch the controversial initiative. The aerospace giant – which was slammed by tech mogul Elon Musk for prioritizing DEI over safety and quality controls after a near-catastrophic blowout during an Alaska Airlines flight – said staff from its DEI office would be absorbed into another human resources team focused on talent and employee experience, according to Bloomberg News … A conservative influencer who has launched viral campaigns that forced other high-profile companies – including John Deere, Harley Davidson and Jack Daniels – to scrap their DEI policies took credit for Boeing’s overhaul.

A majority of Israeli Jews believe that former U.S. President Donald Trump would serve the Jewish state’s interest better than Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, according to a survey published on Monday. The poll, conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute’s Viterbi Family Center for Public Opinion and Policy Research and published less than 24 hours before the presidential vote, shows that 72% of Jewish Israelis believe that a Republican win would help to advance their country’s interests. Only 11% of Israeli Jews think a Harris White House would be better. Among the country’s Arab citizens, almost half of the respondents (46%) said they see no difference between the two candidates … Trump is especially popular among younger Israelis …

… The federal government understates inflation, while making wages, profits, and economic growth appear stronger. Dr. Antoni and Dr. St. Onge use a more accurate measure of inflation than that used by government to uncover the true state of the economy. Their calculations show that the US economy has been in recession since 2022 … The federal government’s figures also show the American people’s disposable income increased by 12.9 percent from 2019 through the first half of 2024. However, when the more accurate way of calculating price inflation is used, it shows Americans’ disposable income declined by 2.3 percent.

… [Barack] Ravid is far from the only Israeli ex-spook working at top U.S. media outlets, working hard to manufacture Western support for his country’s actions. Ravid has quickly become one of the most influential individuals in the Capitol Hill press corps … Most of these stories consisted of simply printing anonymous White House or Israeli government sources, making them look good, and distancing President Biden from the horrors of the Israeli attack on Palestine. As such, there was functionally no difference between these and White House press releases … Ravid was personally presented with the award by President Biden, who embraced him like a brother … Ravid has made a name for himself by uncritically printing flattering information given to him by either the U.S. or Israeli government and passing it off as a scoop.

David Lloyd George’s childhood cottage is to be “decolonised” with the help of funding from the Welsh Government. The Liberal prime minister’s modest birthplace in rural Wales has been converted into a museum, which has been swept into plans to make his homeland `anti-racist.” The museum in Llanystumdwy honouring Britain’s First World War leader has worked with a “decolonisation consultant” to change its approach to history, and LGBT displays could be included in future. The decolonising consultancy service was paid for by Labour government grants set aside for museums to conduct work which will “set the right historic narrative” and “promote a multicultural, vibrant and diverse Wales”.

The United States has provided Israel with billions of dollars’ worth of security assistance and weapons over the past year since it began retaliating for Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack. In addition, the Biden administration has deployed the US military in direct support of Israel. The Gaza conflict has since broadened into an invasion of southern Lebanon amid fears of an even wider war … Separate from the US military’s own efforts in defence of Israel, Washington has significantly increased military assistance funding sent to Israel and has approved more sales of arms and equipment to the country. Israel had already received more US military aid – and more US aid of any type – than any other country since World War II.

… In proportion to their numbers, Jews are the most successful and powerful group in the United States today. They have both raw power, political and economic, and enormous intellectual influence, shaping America’s self-understanding … The Jews don’t really “run” America; but they haunt it in a peculiar way that makes it seem as if they run it, and gives them a leverage out of all proportion to their numbers, and even to their raw power. They have a certain moral authority, which isn’t altogether specious, but is certainly lopsided, since they are exempted from the kind of public criticism they are free to dish out.

Recent national assessments reveal that French CM2 (5th grade) students, evaluated for the first time this year, face significant challenges in mastering fundamental skills in mathematics and French. According to the Ministry of Education’s findings published on Thursday, less than half (46.7 percent) of these students show proficiency in “conjugated verb agreement,” and more than 50 percent struggle to “recognize the main components of a sentence.” CM2 students are in their final year of French primary school and are typically 10-11 years old. The findings signal troubling gaps in knowledge that continue to impact student performance as they transition into middle school.

What happens in a country without cultural conservatism? Look no further than Canada, where the national identity is disintegrating. In 2015, soon after taking office, the new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gushed to a fawning New York Times that, “There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada. There are shared values – openness, respect, compassion, willingness to work hard, to be there for each other – but there is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.” Along with his fellow travellers in the institutions, he set to work ripping the country’s historic identity to shreds. The three prongs of the attack involved setting fire to its past, promoting LGBTQ and critical race theory in schools and government, and unleashing an unprecedented wave of mass migration.

Donald Trump’s campaign proposals would increase the US national debt by double the amount Kamala Harris’s would, according to a new analysis by a non-partisan group. Both candidates would add trillions to the national debt if their campaign pledges were enacted, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Trump would add $7.5 trillion, and Harris would add $3.5 trillion, the group said. The think tank warned on Monday that neither party appeared willing to address the country’s growing $35.6 trillion debt. Both candidates have, at least partially, backed extending major tax cuts that the US passed during Trump’s first term.

Donald Trump on Monday told supporters in Georgia he is “the opposite of a Nazi,” as he responded to comparisons of his Sunday rally at Madison Square Garden to a 1939 pro-Nazi gathering at the same venue … Harris responded to those reports at a CNN town hall, saying she thinks Trump is a fascist and that “the people who know him best on this subject should be trusted.” … Referring to Democrats, Trump added: “They use that word — really, it’s both words. ‘He’s Hitler.’ And then they say, ‘He’s a Nazi.’” “I’m not a Nazi,” Trump said. “I’m the opposite of a Nazi.” Trump also responded to Harris calling him a fascist by saying, “She’s a fascist, OK? She’s a fascist.”

Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) said on Monday the American servicemen who fought in World War II were not fighting for leftist causes, and would likely vote for Donald Trump. In a social media post, Vance, who is former President Donald Trump’s (R) running mate in the race for the White House, shared an image of American servicemen storming the beaches of Normandy on June 6, 1944, which is known as D-Day. “These guys weren’t fighting to open the borders of their own nation or give taxpayer funded sex changes to illegal aliens. Sorry!” he wrote …

South Africa filed 750 pages of “overwhelming” proof that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza to the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands on Monday, the deadline for submitting final evidence in the ongoing trial. South African Ambassador to the Netherlands Vusi Madonsela delivered the legal document — known as a memorial — to the ICJ headquarters in the Dutch city. Under the court’s rules, the contents of the memorial cannot be made public at this time. According to a statement from the office of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, the memorial is a “comprehensive presentation of the overwhelming evidence of genocide in Gaza.”

Italy’s far-right government has sparked wide criticism after celebrating a major World War II battle, praising the defeated fascist soldiers who lost their lives. In a social media post on Wednesday to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the 1942 battle of El Alamein in Egypt, Italy’s Defense ministry paid homage to the Italian soldiers “who sacrificed their lives for our freedom.” It described the Italian and Nazi loss to the Allies as “heroic and tragic.” The second El Alamein battle took place in Egypt in October 1942 and was won by the Allies thanks to a huge effort involving about 190,000 men. It marked the defeat for the German-led Axis and a major blow to its ambitions in North Africa. Thousands of Italians were among those killed or captured in the battle, fought under the fascist regime of dictator Benito Mussolini.