Headlines

The Trump administration’s effort to deport a Columbia University graduate student, Mahmoud Khalil, in retaliation for Khalil’s role in campus protests opposing Israel’s war in Gaza, showed the lengths the White House is prepared to go to police speech about Israel. The administration’s unprecedented decision to seek the deportation of a U.S. permanent resident without bringing any criminal charges has an overlooked ally, however: the largest financier of Trump’s three presidential campaigns, Israeli-American billionaire Miriam Adelson. Adelson’s support for the administration’s campaign to stifle criticism of Israel on college campuses isn’t a new focus … Tax documents reveal that she is directly overseeing a social media campaign targeting Khalil and Columbia University.

China has built the equivalent of the entire [British] Royal Navy in just four years as Beijing races to become a global maritime power, according to a Washington-based research group. Between 2019 and 2023, four shipyards in the country – Dalian, Guangzhou, Jiangnan and Hudong-Zhonghua – churned out at least 39 warships with a combined displacement of around 550,000 tonnes. This is more than the Royal Navy’s battle force fleet, which includes 19 surface ships and 10 submarines and displaces around 440,000 tonnes, according to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) … Already the People’s Liberation Army Navy boasts more warships than the US Navy and by 2030 it is on track to have a fleet of 425, significantly higher than the 300 expected by America.

Britain stands alone in a brutish world. Our small, impoverished yet special nation has spent too long lying to itself. The horrifying reality is that we have no real friends, just interests and beliefs … Those of us who love America must acknowledge how the US ruthlessly exploited its participation in the wars to demolish Britain’s financial, maritime and geopolitical power. It treats its allies as vassals, rather than equals. In Stalin’s War, Sean McMeekin recounts how Roosevelt suggested to Stalin in 1943 that India be taken away from Britain. It was best “not to discuss the question of India with Mr Churchill”, the US president said, arguing that America and Russia should remake India “from the bottom, somewhat on the Soviet line”.

Finland and several other Nordic countries have been – once again – assessed as leading the world in happiness, according to an annual report released Thursday that analyzed the views of respondents’ quality of life in more than 140 countries and territories over the last three years. … For the eighth straight year, Finland was ranked No. 1 … The consistently happy nation also ranked high in categories such as inequality, social support, freedom and perceptions of corruption … Absent from that top group is the United States, which fell to its lowest ranking (No. 24, one spot below the United Kingdom and two below Germany) since the World Happiness Report’s launch 13 years ago. Perhaps relatedly, the number of people dining alone in the U.S. has spiked by 53% over the past two decades, according to the authors.

The world’s happiest country has managed to keep its No. 1 ranking for eight years running. The picture in the United States isn’t so rosy. While Finland once again tops the World Happiness Report’s rankings, the United States — at No. 24 — earned its lowest ranking yet in the 2025 report … In the United States and parts of Europe, declining happiness and social trust have contributed significantly to the rise of political polarization and votes against “the system,” the report finds …  The World’s 20 happiest countries in 2025: 1. Finland; 2. Denmark; 3. Iceland; 4. Sweden; 5. Netherlands; 6. Costa Rica; 7. Norway; 8. Israel; 9. Luxembourg; 10. Mexico; 11. Australia; 12. New Zealand; 13. Switzerland; 14. Belgium; 15. Ireland; 16. Lithuania; 17. Austria; 18. Canada; 19. Slovenia; 20. Czech Republic.

About eight-in-ten American adults (81%) say civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. has had a positive impact on the United States, according to a Pew Research Center report that comes ahead of the 60 th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. This majority includes nearly half of Americans (47%) who say King’s impact has been very positive. Just 3% say his impact on the country has been negative. However, views of King haven’t always been so positive. In May 1963, only about four-in-ten Americans (41%) had a favorable opinion of King, according to a Gallup survey … By August 1966, only a third of Americans had a favorable view of the civil rights leader. More than six-in-ten (63%) viewed him unfavorably, including 44% who viewed him highly unfavorably.

When Austria joined the German Reich in March 1938, Hitler helped the Jewish physician in Linz who had been the doctor for his family when he was a boy and teenager. He remembered Eduard Bloch with gratitude. He said of him: “If all Jews were like him, there would be no Jewish question.” After the 66-year-old Bloch wrote to Hitler asking for help, the German leader personally intervened to ensure his safety. The doctor and his wife remained in Linz without disturbance for nearly three years. Then, they left to join their daughter in New York City. In the US, Dr. Bloch spoke honestly about Hitler as a boy and young man to US officials who questioned him, and he wrote truthfully for publication about the German leader’s character and personality. This video was written and researched by Tony Wilkins. Runtime: 14:52 mins.

… What kind of boy was Adolf Hitler? Many biographers have put him down as harsh-voiced, defiant, untidy; as a young ruffian who personified all that is unattractive. This simply is not true. As a youth he was quiet, well-mannered and neatly dressed … In the practice of my profession it is natural that I should have witnessed many scenes such as this one, yet none of them left me with quite the same impression. In all my career I have never seen anyone so prostrate with grief as Adolf Hitler.

Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian has ruled out talks with the US “while being threatened”, according to Iranian state media. “It is unacceptable for us that they (the US) give orders and make threats. I won’t even negotiate with you. Do whatever the hell you want,” state media reported … On Saturday, Khamenei reiterated his view, saying he would not be bullied into talks with the US … “There are two ways Iran can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal,” Trump said. “I would prefer to make a deal because I’m not looking to hurt Iran. They’re great people.” Trump said he hoped to negotiate a deal, reiterating what has become a classic carrot-and-stick approach to his diplomacy. “If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” he said.

… Hansen is just one supporter of a growing movement across Europe and Canada to boycott U.S. products. People are joining Facebook groups where they exchange ideas about how to avoid U.S. products and find alternatives. Feelings are especially strong across the Nordic region — and very possibly strongest in Denmark given Trump’s threats to seize Greenland … At the same time, a global backslash is also building against Tesla as the brand becomes tied to Trump, with plunging sales in Europe and Canada … Trump’s policies have “brought the Danish Viking blood boiling,” said Jens Olsen, an electrician and carpenter. He is now considering replacing $10,000 worth of U.S.-made DeWalt power tools even though it will cost him a lot … “I’m 66 years old and I have never seen the Danes so upset before,” he said.

“Germany is back,” says the country’s nextchancellor, Friedrich Merz, as he announces a deal in the German parliament to drastically change the country’s debt rules to allow a boom in military and security spending. “It is a clear message to our partners … but also to the enemies of our freedom: We are capable of defending ourselves,” Merz, whose centrist-conservative CDU-CSU parties won the recent national election, speaks at a news conference. “Germany is back. Germany is making a significant contribution to the defense of freedom and peace in Europe,” he adds.

… To be sure, the cancer at the heart of the Israel-US relationship, if one might even call it that, has been in place for a long time … Any and all “free speech” which is critical of or offensive to the foreign nation to which most American politicians and much of the fawning mainstream American media owe their primary allegiance clearly is considered outside the pale of acceptable behavior, even when supportive of every value and principle to which US governments have hypocritically claimed to adhere … The government is pressuring America’s colleges and universities to stamp down hard on anyone who demonstrates in defense of the Palestinians, using the DeSantis formulation that they are both antisemites and terrorism supporters.

The Trump administration is trying to deport 30-year-old Mahmoud Khalil, a green card holder who was arrested by ICE agents over the weekend, for activity that is “contrary” to US foreign policy based on his involvement in protests critical of Israel’s war on Gaza at Columbia University. A White House official told The Free Press that Khalil’s activity was a “threat to the foreign policy and national security interests of the United States.” “The allegation here is not that he was breaking the law,” the official told The Free Press. “He was mobilizing support for Hamas and spreading antisemitism in a way that is contrary to the foreign policy of the US.” US officials have labeled pro-Palestine protests “antisemitic” even though many Jewish students participated in and helped organize the demonstrations.

William Shakespeare’s birthplace will be `de-colonised’ over fears that portraying his success as the ‘greatest’ playwright ‘benefits the ideology of white European supremacy’. Shakespeare’s Birthplace Trust owns buildings in the playwright’s hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. It wants to ‘create a more inclusive museum experience’ and announced it will move away from Western perspectives after concerns were raised that Shakespeare’s ideas were used to advance ‘white supremacy’ ideas. The trust also said that some of its items could contain language or depictions that are racist, sexist, or homophobic … Some productions of his works have been slapped with trigger warnings for misogyny, racism and ‘problematic radicalised dynamics’ that link whiteness to beauty.

More than 1,300 Voice of America employees were placed on leave on Saturday and funding for two U.S. news services that broadcast to authoritarian regimes was terminated, one day after President Donald Trump ordered the gutting of the government-funded media outlet’s parent and six other federal agencies. Michael Abramowitz, Voice of America’s director, said that nearly his entire staff of 1,300 journalists, producers and assistants had been put on administrative leave, crippling a media broadcaster that operates in nearly 50 languages … VOA’s parent agency, the U.S. Agency for Global Media (USAGM), also terminated its grants to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which broadcasts to countries in Eastern Europe, including Russia and Ukraine …

Hungary’s prime minister on Saturday vowed to rid his country of those he claims work for the interests of foreign powers, saying his right-wing government will eliminate a global “shadow army” serving the European Union and a “liberal American empire”. In a public address … Viktor Orbán told a group of several thousand supporters that Hungary in the coming weeks will uproot media outlets and other organisations that have received funding from abroad. “After today’s festive gathering comes the Easter cleaning. The bugs have overwintered,” Orbán said. “We will dismantle the financial machine that has used corrupt dollars to buy politicians, judges, journalists, pseudo-NGOs and political activists. We will eliminate the entire shadow army.”

Joe Rogan, who hosts one of the most popular podcasts in the country, invited a Holocaust revisionist to his studio just over a week after interviewing someone who spreads antisemitic conspiracy theories. Rogan’s interview of so-called “historian” Darryl Cooper on Thursday followed his interview of conspiracy theorist Ian Carroll last week. In Carroll’s interview on March 5, he claimed sex offender Jeffrey Epstein “was clearly a Jewish organization working on behalf of Israel and other groups” … In this week’s interview, Rogan gave Cooper free rein to espouse his views, which he praised as “nuanced” and “comprehensive.” … Cooper promoted similar falsehoods in his Rogan interview and devoted a long segment to explaining — at Rogan’s request — Adolf Hitler’s antisemitism as borne of battle weariness and economic hardship.

This sweeping look at World War II is a magnificent work of scholarly synthesis, packed with eye-opening facts, keen observations and shrewd insights. As American historian McMeekin explains in this overdue reassessment, it was Stalin, not Hitler, who was the central animating figure of World War II. McMeekin details the belligerent character of the Soviet regime, and especially Stalin’s aggressive policies of 1939-1941 and his ambitious plans for the future. The misguided wartime views and lavishly pro-Soviet policies of President Roosevelt and other high-ranking US officials, the author shows, were based on ignorance or delusional naiveté about the Stalinist regime, and driven by an utterly unrealistic vision of the postwar world.

President Trump continues to brag about his ability to make deals. Whether with tariffs, gaining mineral rights or even ending conflicts, he always comes back to his particular expertise … His assumption, and the foundation of transactional politics, is that business deals and diplomatic deals are similar … But business deals and diplomatic negotiations are not the same. Business deals involve dollars and cents. Diplomatic negotiations involve countries and citizens … Diplomatic negotiations are based on historic relationships with international ramifications. Business deals involve results on a spread sheet. Diplomatic negotiations include unquantifiable national prestige … If Trump continues to be transactional, he risks losing the trust of those who have historically been with the United States.

We have previously discussed polling showing the media at record lows in public trust. Well, the latest survey from Gallup shows that the media hit another all-time low. What is most impressive is that plummeting readers, revenues, and layoffs have done little to convince the mainstream media that the problem is not the public but themselves. The only institution with a lower level of public trust is Congress, and that says a lot … Some 69 percent of Americans now say that they have no or little trust in the media. Only 31 percent say that they have a great deal or fair amount of trust … In my book, The Indispensable Right, I discuss how journalists and journalism schools have destroyed their own profession by rejecting objectivity and engaging in open advocacy journalism.

The US relationship with Israel “has no parallel in recorded history,” says Prof. John Mearsheimer. Israel receives enormous and “unconditional” economic, military and diplomatic support from the US even though it is a “strategic albatross around our neck,” and is also “in the process of committing genocide in Gaza.” The reason for this remarkable relationship, he says, is the power of “the Israel lobby.” John Mearsheimer is an influential American scholar of political science and international relations. He is a professor at the University of Chicago, and the author of several books. He is speaking here with Andrew Napolitano, a former New Jersey Superior Court judge. Runtime: 3:11 mins.

… Israel occupies the apex of power in the United States … It is no surprise, therefore, that the law is routinely warped to cosset or shield Israel. One prominent example is the Leahy Law of 1997, which prohibits security assistance to any security unit of a foreign country credibly accused of a gross violation of human rights, such as extrajudicial killing, torture or prolonged arbitrary detention. The State Department has de factocarved out an Israel exception to the Leahy Law. No Israeli security unit has ever been disqualified from U.S. security assistance despite what all the world knows and can see … Based on these background tax exemption principles, an indeterminate number of 501 (c) (3) organizations with an Israel nexus seem in violation of their tax-exempt status.

The US Department of Justice said Thursday that its recently created “Federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism” will be heading to four US cities as part of the Trump administration’s broad crackdown on college protests critical of Israel. The DOJ said the task force, led by attorney Leo Terrell, will be visiting the leadership of New York, Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles to discuss “their responses to incidents of antisemitism at schools and on college campuses in their cities over the last two years.” While the pro-Palestine protests that swept college campuses have been labeled “antisemitic,” many Jewish students and organizations have participated.

Just over a week after the U.S. Department of Justice announced it would visit ten schools in an effort to fight antisemitism, the U.S. Department of Education has released a list of 60 schools under investigation. Northwestern University will get a visit from a federal task force that was formed to fight antisemitism, the DOJ said Feb. 28. On Monday, the Department of Education released a list of 60 schools under investigation for alleged antisemitic discrimination and harassment, including Northwestern and Illinois Wesleyan. The department warned of possible consequences for schools that fail to comply with policies to protect Jewish students. Other schools on the list include Indiana University, the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin.

A former high-level Israeli official says that Israeli Jews routinely use “the Holocaust” and the charge of anti-Semitism to intimidate and silence critics of Israel’s policies. “It’s a trick. We always use it,” says Shulamit Aloni. When Europeans criticize Israeli policy, she goes on to explain, “we bring out the Holocaust,” and when Americans are critical of Israel’s policies, they are called anti-Semitic. Jews routinely bring up “the Holocaust and the suffering of the Jewish people” to “justify everything we do to the Palestinians.” This is effective, she adds, because the Jewish-Zionist organizational structure in the US “is strong and has a lot of money.” Aloni, who held several Israeli government ministerial posts, makes these comments during an interview with Amy Goodman during a “Democracy Now!” broadcast, Aug. 8, 2002. Runtime: 1:47 mins.

This important work focuses on the phenomenon of anti–Semitism, and explains why hostility toward Jews has persisted over the centuries in a wide range of cultures and societies. This scholarly book – with source notes, bibliography, and index – is the second in an important trilogy by Kevin MacDonald, a professor of psychology at California State University at Long Beach. In a review published in the IHR’s Journal of Historical Review, Peter Harrison wrote of this book: “One would have to go back at least 50 years to find anything comparable to this extraordinary work. It is serious, exhaustively researched, and relentlessly factual.”

UN experts have accused Israel of increasingly using sexual and gender-based violence against Palestinians and carrying out “genocidal acts” through the systematic destruction of maternal and reproductive healthcare facilities. A report commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council documents alleged violations, including rape, in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since Hamas’s 7 October 2023 attack on Israel triggered the Gaza war. It also says the destruction of maternity wards in Gaza and embryos at a fertility clinic could indicate a strategy to prevent births among a particular group – one of the legal definitions of genocide … Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu responded angrily, calling the Human Rights Council “an antisemitic, rotten, terrorist-supporting and irrelevant body”.

There should be little doubt about how a lasting peace can be established in Ukraine … Ukraine will eventually cede more territory than it would have in April 2022 — yet it will gain the essentials: sovereignty, international security arrangements, and peace. In the 2022 negotiations, the agreed issues were Ukraine’s permanent neutrality and international security guarantees for Ukraine … The best resolution, in my view, is to put the security guarantees under the authority of the UN Security Council. This means that the U.S., China, Russia, U.K., and France would all be co-guarantors, together with the rest of the UN Security Council. This would subject the security guarantees to global scrutiny.

New polling from Gallup has found support for Israel among Americans has hit “the lowest in 25 years” of the company’s annual tracking — well below 50 percent — as sympathy towards Palestinians has continued a steady upward trend. The U.S. has proven Israel’s staunchest ally since the October 7, supporting Israel even against seeming overwhelming pressure in the United Nations … The issue hit home throughout the conflict, with protests at college campuses across the country that drew headlines for their occasional clashes between protesters and counter-protesters or police. Antisemitic incidents and sentiments also rose, not only in the U.S. but in Europe as well … Support broadly follows party lines, with Republicans more likely to support Israel and Democrats more likely to support Palestinians.

The US government is building a massive megastructure in Lebanon, a country with the area and population of Connecticut. This is supposed to be the new US embassy. But given its immense size, with housing for perhaps 5,000 people, this is certainly not a “normal” embassy. As British author and former diplomat Craig Murray explains, this sprawling compound is meant to secure US hegemony in Lebanon and the Middle East region. This video includes eye-opening interviews with Leila Hatoum, editor of the MENA news agency, and Hasan Illaik, a prominent Lebanese journalist. Runtime: 15:23mins.

… Trump referenced only two presidents in that inaugural address: William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. There is something ominous in these choices .. 1898 … was a year of struggle for the American soul. That year, America faced a choice: remain a former colony mindful of its past and respectful of other nations’ sovereignty, or become an expansionist power, discard its conscience, and pursue colonialism and coups. America’s expansionist ambitions overrode concerns of conscience, and Hawaii, Cuba, the Philippines, Guam and Puerto Rico would, in rapid succession, become the first to feel the results of that struggle for America’s soul … On day one, Trump signed an executive order that celebrated how McKinley “heroically led our nation to victory in the Spanish-American War.”

Columbia University senior Maryam Alwan was visiting family in Jordan over winter break when she received an email from the school accusing her of discriminatory harassment. Her supposed top offense: writing an op-ed in the student newspaper calling for divestment from Israel. The probe is part of a flurry of recent cases brought by a new university disciplinary committee — the Office of Institutional Equity — against Columbia students who have expressed criticism of Israel, according to records shared with The Associated Press. In recent weeks, it has sent notices to dozens of students for activities ranging from sharing social media posts in support of Palestinian people to joining “unauthorized” protests.

The Trump administration is immediately pulling $400 million of federal funding from Columbia University, saying it failed to fight antisemitism on campus. A statement by four federal agencies said the funding cut was due to “continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students”. The New York college was the epicentre of pro-Palestinian protests on college campuses last year against war in Gaza and US support for Israel. Earlier this week, President Trump had threatened to pull funding from schools and universities that allow “illegal protests”. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in Friday’s statement that Jewish students on campus who had been the victims of “relentless violence, intimidation, and antisemitic harassment on their campuses” were “ignored” by university authorities.

Romanian far-right populist Calin Georgescu has lost his appeal against a ruling barring him from participating in May’s presidential election. The Constitutional Court issued the final ruling on Tuesday afternoon after deliberating for two hours. It said the decision was unanimous. The Central Electoral Bureau had earlier rejected Georgescu’s candidacy for a rerun of the presidential election in May. Georgescu had won the first round of last year’s presidential vote, but it was annulled after intelligence revealed Russia had been involved in setting up almost 800 TikTok accounts backing him … In a Facebook video on Tuesday night, Georgescu did not call for further protests – but instead suggested supporters could choose another candidate to back in the re-run election in May.

Wikileaks has revealed that the US allegedly transferred nearly half a billion dollars ($472.6 million) through Internews Network, a global media non-governmental organization (NGO) suspected of promoting covert censorship and media control. Internews claims to have “worked with” 4,291 media outlets, producing 4,799 hours of broadcasts in one year alone, reaching up to 778 million people globally. It also “trained” over 9,000 journalists in 2023 and supported social media censorship initiatives, Wikileaks said in a series of posts on X. USASpending data shows that 87% of the funding, equivalent to $415 million, came from USAID in the last 17 years, while an additional $57 million was awarded by the US Department of State in the same period.

… What could be a post-Trump, post-liberal grand strategy of the United States? To understand the debate, one needs to have a fundamental grasp of what realism in foreign policy is … Trump is an effect of the last quarter century of liberal internationalist policy, not the cause, and to attribute the directional changes of American foreign policy to an individual would be fallacious … For the realist, the post-liberal era is characterized by the fading hegemony of liberal international institutions, and the return of great power politics. By this definition, the post-liberal age is already upon us. We are only in the process of working out its full implications … The age of democratic nation-building adventures is gone, and with it, the ability to automatically assume American hegemony. Great power rivalry is here to stay.

… International affairs should be discussed quietly. This is probably pointless advice when offered to products of democratic political systems … Recent days have, or should have, offered a lesson in the folly and dangers of megaphone “diplomacy.” .. The initial U.S. proposal (or demand) to Ukraine for control of its mineral reserves was indeed completely illegitimate and utterly unacceptable to Kyiv or any independent and self-respecting government on the face of the planet … This kind of thing is bad for the Trump administration and dangerous for the peace process … This seems to work quite well [for Trump] at home. In international affairs however it can be disastrous … Sometimes indeed Trump’s remarks are open — and utterly gratuitous — insults to countries, including some old and close allies.

A young college student is now suing her old school district in Connecticut after she graduated with honors even though she supposedly cannot read or write. Aleysha Ortiz, 19, has filed a lawsuit against the Hartford Board of Education and the city of Hartford for alleged negligence after she spent 12 years in the district but apparently never learned these essential skills … She also earned scholarships to attend the University of Connecticut, where she is currently enrolled full-time but not attending classes due to mental health concerns … SAT results are not required for admission into UConn, which uses a “holistic approach” … “In this system, failing students are socially promoted to the next grade without mastering even the most basic skills, perpetuating a cycle of mediocrity,” claimed Frank Ricci, a Yankee Institute fellow.

The American Jewish Committee and Anti-Defamation League (ADL) condemned deputy Pentagon press secretary Kingsley Wilson over social media posts they described as antisemitic. “Anyone who posts antisemitic conspiracy theories lifted right out of the neo-Nazi playbook should not be in public office,” the American Jewish Committee wrote in a Wednesday post on the social platform X…. The comments from the committee and ADL come after Wilson criticized the ADL for their decision to condemn the lynching of Leo Frank, a Jewish man who the ADL says was falsely convicted for the murder of a 13-year-old in 1913. “Leo Frank raped & murdered a 13-year-old girl. He also tried to frame a Black man for his crime,” Wilson wrote in August of last year.

One of the most sensational criminal cases of twentieth century America was the brutal murder in August 1913 of Mary Phagan, a teenage white female factory worker in Atlanta, Georgia. At the conclusion of a widely publicized trial, the factory’s Jewish manager was found guilty of the crime and sentenced to death. Sexual coercion, racial bigotry, planted evidence, apparent rape, Jewish community pressure, and alleged anti-Jewish prejudice all figured prominently in the dramatic murder trial, which generated nationwide attention. For any open-minded person, this book convincingly establishes that Leo Frank murdered Mary Phagan. This 536-page work is illustrated with maps, diagrams, and photographs, and is referenced with more than a thousand footnotes.

China has warned the US it is ready to fight “any type” of war after hitting back against President Donald Trump’s mounting trade tariffs. The world’s top two economies have edged closer to a trade war after Trump slapped more tariffs on Chinese goods. China quickly retaliated imposing 10-15% tariffs on US farm products. “If war is what the US wants, be it a tariff war, a trade war or any other type of war, we’re ready to fight till the end,” China’s embassy said on X, reposting a line from a government statement on Tuesday. It is some of the strongest rhetoric so far from China since Trump became president … On Wednesday, China’s Premier Li Qiang announced that China would again boost its defence spending by 7.2% this year and warned that “changes unseen in a century were unfolding across the world at a faster pace.”

Israeli government officials, actors and the media industry have lashed out at Hollywood and the directors of the Israeli-Palestinian film No Other Land after it won the best documentary film award at the 97th Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Sunday. The film, co-directed by Palestinian journalist Basel Adra and Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham, chronicles the Israeli army’s attempts to expel the residents of the occupied West Bank area of Masafer Yatta – Adra’s hometown – from their land. The film has received international critical acclaim for its documentation of Palestinian life under occupation, and resistance to Israeli violence, and attempts at displacement. Various Israeli figures have accused the film and its creators of spreading false narratives, antisemitism and harming Israel’s interests in the world.

… The average U.S. household income in 1950 was about $3,300, and $20 still had decent purchasing power for necessities and beyond. It was, for instance, possible to plan a full holiday meal for your family with much less than $20 … It cost just under $7 for a meal that included a 16-pound turkey, potatoes, stuffing, dinner rolls, cranberries, and pumpkin pie throughout the entirety of the 1950s … The cost of medical care was much lower in the 1950s as well — $20 could cover three or four checkups with your doctor, at about $5 to $6 a visit … While $20 doesn’t go very far in the fast-food realm today, in the 1980s, it bought a lot: A McDonald’s value meal deal cost a mere $2.59, meaning $20 could feed a family of seven …

… Most Ukrainians desperately want an end to the war. After almost three years of relentless fighting, with hundreds of thousands dead or wounded and cities reduced to rubble, the appetite for continued conflict is fading … This grim reality is precisely what Scott Horton unpacks in Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine. His leaves no doubt — Ukraine is not just losing; it was set up to lose from the very start. Horton does not absolve Russia — far from it … The book’s strength lies in its refusal to accept the simplistic, manufactured narrative that the war is merely a battle between good and evil … This war was not inevitable, but it was engineered. Horton maintains that decades of Western arrogance, interventionism, and broken promises created the crisis we see today.

The Trump administration has approved a major nearly $3 billion arms sale to Israel, bypassing a normal congressional review to provide the country with more of the 2,000-pound bombs that it has used in the war against Hamas in Gaza. In a series of notifications sent to Congress late Friday, the State Department said it had signed off on the sale of more than 35,500 MK 84 and BLU-117 bombs and 4,000 Predator warheads worth $2.04 billion … Deliveries are set to begin next year, it said. Using the same justification, the department also said Rubio had approved another munitions sale to Israel worth $675.7 million to be delivered starting in 2028. In addition, it said Rubio had approved the emergency sale of D9R and D9T Caterpillar bulldozers worth $295 million.

Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting didn’t wait for the final results of his country’s election on Sunday to herald a new era in Europe. Declaring the US indifferent to this continent’s fate, Friedrich Merz questioned the future of Nato and demanded Europe boost its own defences. Quickly. This tone from the close US ally – and from Friedrich Merz who is known to be a passionate Atlanticist – would have been unimaginable even a couple of months ago. It’s a seismic shift. That may read like hyperbole, but what we are now experiencing in terms of transatlantic relations is unprecedented in the 80 years since the end of World War Two. Big European powers have been shocked to the core by the Trump administration, which suggests it could revoke the security guarantees to Europe in place since 1945.

I recently wrote how public educators and unions were methodically killing public education. The best example this week comes from New York where a school board committee has solved the dismal math and reading scores for children in the system: they lowered the standards … New York will permanently lower the math and reading proficiency standards after embarrassing results in state testing. It is akin to shortening the 100 yards dash to 50 yards to stay competitive on speed … This may seem insane to anyone with a proficiency in logic, but it is being shrugged off by many in New York. There is now an acceptance that the public schools cannot actually educate students to proficiency levels needed to succeed in the modern world … We are pouring billions into schools that cannot produce a single proficient student in basic subjects.

It began in 1944 as Russian troops began the blitz toward Berlin from the east and the Allies were charging in from the west … The women were the spoils of war. This has happened in every war since ancient Rome. Women were not only raped, they were also beaten. Severely beaten … Of course, the grandparents and children valiantly tried to protect their mothers, daughters, and granddaughters. But they were beaten down and often shot … It wasn’t just women who were raped. Tens of thousands of young boys were raped, too … Over one million German civilians were sent to Siberian work camps by the Russians on the march to Berlin.

… We hear a lot about terrible crimes committed by Germans during World War II, but we hear very little about crimes committed againstGermans. Germany’s defeat in May 1945, and the end of World War II in Europe, did not bring an end to death and suffering for the vanquished German people. Instead, the victorious Allies ushered in a horrible new era of destruction, looting, starvation, rape, “ethnic cleansing,” and mass killing … Even though this “unknown holocaust” is ignored in our motion pictures and classrooms, and by our political leaders, the facts are well established. Historians are in basic agreement about the scale of the human catastrophe, which has been laid out in a number of detailed books.

Israel has cut off the entry of all food and other goods into Gaza in an echo of the siege it imposed in the earliest days of its war with Hamas. The United Nations and other humanitarian aid providers are sharply criticizing the decision and calling it a violation of international law. “A tool of extortion,” Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry said. “A reckless act of collective punishment,” Oxfam said. Key mediator Egypt accused Israel of using “starvation as a weapon.” Hunger has been an issue throughout the war for Gaza’s over two million people, and some aid experts had warned of possible famine. Now there is concern about losing the progress that experts reported under the past six weeks of a ceasefire.

… Viewership of the annual Academy Awards telecast is less than half of what it was 25 years ago, but the event is still a substantial mile marker … There is a nice mix of Jewish stories among this year’s nominees. The most notable is “The Brutalist,” a massive concrete slab of a movie from director and co-writer Brady Corbet. The film, which has 10 nominations in total, stars Adrien Brody as a Hungarian-Jewish concentration camp survivor who comes to America to discover a new shade of antisemitism … So even if the rumors are true, and Hollywood is run by center-left Jews with private allegiances to Israel, they also hate anything reeking of censorship and respect a good business hustle.

President Donald Trump posted a bizarre AI-generated video to social media Monday evening depicting an imagined future version of Gaza with bearded belly dancers on the beach, a giant golden statue of Trump, money raining from the sky, Elon Musk eating pita and a “Trump Gaza” hotel. The video, posted on Trump’s Truth Social and Instagram accounts, appears to have been first spread by a network of pro-Israel social media accounts. It draws on images generated by artificial intelligence that were created after Trump said in early February that the U.S. would “take over the Gaza Strip.” The posts quickly drew condemnation from many users on Truth Social and Instagram, even from people who identified themselves as Republicans.

… Our allies must recognize this moment for what it is. Namely, they must come to terms with the fact that we are at the end of the American-led global order that was built in the wake of the Second World War. America can no longer be trusted to responsibly manage the international system it was principally responsible for creating … The sooner our allies accept that America can no longer be trusted with global leadership, the better prepared they’ll be for the turbulent times ahead. While decoupling from U.S. leadership will be painful in the short-term, remaining tethered to an increasingly unstable and predatory superpower poses far greater dangers. The post-war order built on American leadership is over, and in its wake our allies must now build something new without us.

… Why didn’t the Biden administration choose to push for an end to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine? Why didn’t the majority of the Democrats demand it? Instead, they went down the path of putting Liz Cheney on a pedestal and having former Vice President Kamala Harris brag about having the most lethal military in the world while Trump positioned himself as a peace candidate — justifiably or not … Why did the Democrats under former President Joe Biden choose to transform the party into one that embraced war and glorified warmongers like Cheney, while protecting and enabling a genocide? … A profound reckoning is needed within the Democratic Party to save it from slipping into becoming neocon by default … Trump currently speaks more about peace than the Democrats do.

… These are just a few recent examples of the tendentious journalism about IQ that routinely appears in mainstream news outlets otherwise dedicated to scientific rigour and accuracy. Reporting and commentary like this would lead any reasonable citizen to conclude that intelligence tests are biased and that the study of IQ is pseudoscientific … One of the reasons that news on intelligence research is so often negative is that some of the field’s most robust findings are unwelcome to the general public … This negativity only increases when intelligence research contradicts egalitarian viewpoints on controversial topics … It is easier to simply dismiss findings like these (and those who discuss them) as racist rather than grapple frankly with their implications.

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.

The Europeans are furious. Last week, America’s vice president swaggered into Munich and on Friday [Feb. 14] unleashed a blistering tirade against Europe. At least, that’s how pearl-clutching Eurocrats received Vice President J.D. Vance’s speech at the annual Munich Security Conference … The speech, and especially this passage, was a badly needed corrective to the excesses of post–Cold War liberalism, but in truth, Vance wasn’t very clear on what he thinks the Europeans are defending themselves for — nor who he thinks we Westerners really are … The vice president, with recurring praise for free speech and fair elections, never exited the frame of civic nationalism. … The true nature of this elemental commonality, and the source of its endurance, were never elaborated … Who are we?

Just a third of Democrats have a favorable view of Israel, a steep decline from just a few years ago, according to a Gallup poll. That’s in contrast to 83% of Republicans who view Israel favorably — a partisan gap of 50 points. Responding to the results, Jewish Democratic leaders said they remained confident in their party’s pro-Israel bona fides — though one sounded notes of caution. Jewish Republicans celebrated the poll. The poll, published on Monday, is the latest stark sign that Democrats are losing their love for Israel … The poll demonstrates that, in the span of three years, Democratic favorability ratings for Israel have plummeted 30 points … The percentage of independents who view Israel favorably has also plunged in that time, from 71% in 2022 to 48% this year.

In this closely reasoned and spirited address, American historian Mark Weber examines the accelerating crisis of the West, and the factors behind the malaise, distrust and anxiety that have spread across the Western world. He looks at what this means for those who care about the heritage and future of the West, and outlines prospects for the future. Given at a meeting in central Stockholm organized by Logik Förlag publishers (Sweden) in cooperation with Counter-Currents Publishing (USA). About 130 people, many in their twenties and thirties, gathered for this conference. Some attendees traveled from Norway, Denmark and Britain. Runtime: 34 mins.

Americans are changing their shopping habits and even dumping their favorite stores in a backlash against corporations that have shifted their public policies to align with the Trump administration, according to a poll exclusively shared with the Guardian. Four out of ten Americans have shifted their spending over the last few months to align with their moral views, according to the Harris poll. 31% of Americans reported having no interest in supporting the economy this year – a sentiment especially felt by younger (gen Z: 37%), Black (41% v white: 28%) and Democratic consumers (35% v 29% of independents and 28% of Republicans). A quarter (24%) of respondents have even stopped shopping at their favorite stores because of their politics (Black: 35%, gen Z: 32%, Democratic: 31%).

Today marks the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine … These maximalist goals have led to a high cost in human life and economic destruction, with no clear gain. Ukraine has failed to regain any significant territory in the last two years and the very same issues that have been at the heart of the conflict since the beginning, such as Russia’s desire for a neutral Ukraine that was not affiliated with NATO, and Ukraine’s need for security from future Russian aggression, remain unsettled and will still have to be handled diplomatically. Indeed, Ukraine is probably in a worse position to gain concessions from Russia today than it would have been had talks been opened much earlier in the war.

The deputy speaker of the Israel parliament has called for the separation of children from their mothers and the killing of adults in Gaza. During an interview with Kol BaRama radio, Nissim Vaturi called Palestinians “scoundrels” and “subhumans”, adding that this is a group of people that cannot be accepted. “Who is innocent in Gaza? Civilians went out and slaughtered people in cold blood,” Vaturi said on Kol BaRama radio. “They are outcasts and no one in the world wants them,” he said, adding that Israel needs to “separate the children and women and kill the adults in Gaza, we are being too considerate.”

A dramatic day of high stakes diplomacy at the United Nations has exposed growing cracks in the transatlantic alliance since President Donald Trump returned to the global stage and massively shifted US foreign policy. When Russia invaded Ukraine three years ago, Europe had no stronger partner than the United States. But this week, in the halls of the General Assembly and at the Security Council, the US worked against its closest allies and sided with Russia, Belarus and North Korea to pass resolutions on the conflict in Ukraine … The move caught Europe off guard. One European diplomat told the BBC that the US behaved like a bully and did not take into account their stance on their continent’s security.

… In February 1945, US President Franklin Roosevelt, Britain’s Winston Churchill, and Soviet ruler Josef Stalin met to decide postwar Europe’s future. In modern history’s greatest betrayal, the Allied war leaders handed half of Europe to Soviet rule, betraying tens of millions of its people to the gulag, dictatorship, and confiscation of all their property … The Soviet Union had done the lion’s share of fighting in Europe, destroying 75 percent of all German land and air forces, and naturally expected the lion’s share of the spoils.

Omer Bartov, a renowned Israeli-American scholar of Holocaust and Genocide Studies at Brown University, says that Israel’s treatment of Palestinians in Gaza meets the criteria for genocide, demonstrating a clear intent for ethnic cleansing, fueled by dehumanizing rhetoric. Germany faced its Holocaust guilt with deep introspection: can Israeli society ever do the same for the suffering it has inflicted on Palestinians? Bartov tells Imran Garda that only a political process within Israel can pave the way for genuine regret and meaningful change. On this episode of The InnerView, Imran Garda asks Bartov whether a recent ceasefire is a step toward lasting peace or just a fleeting pause.

Portraits of Winston Churchill have been removed from Parliament since Labour’s landslide general election victory … Drawings, prints and photographs of the Second World War leader were taken down following the arrival of new MPs in Westminster last year. Churchill’s legacy has been revised in recent years, with some academics and activists arguing that he was a racist imperialist who was responsible for the Bengal famine. Five images of the two-time prime minister were removed from parts of the parliamentary estate occupied primarily by MPs’ offices … Images of other great Britons, including the Duke of Wellington, were also removed from display after Labour’s victory … The collection was audited for possible links to slavery and racism following the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.

… There is no question that Winston Churchill was a heroic figure in 1940 when he took over the premiership in Great Britain … However, there was another Churchill … These are the myths we have been raised on since we were kids, and this is one reason I wrote the book … Our grandfathers and fathers destroyed Western Civilization … Chamberlain and Churchill blundered serially, again and again, to bring about a war with Germany. Hitler didn’t want war with the West. He didn’t want war with Poland. He didn’t want a world war. He wasn’t even prepared for a world war. To say that Hitler did horrible things in wartime is correct, but, as I say, had there been no war, there would have been no Holocaust, and I’m not sure there would have been a war if the British hadn’t issued this insane war guarantee to Poland.

A carefully researched and persuasive debunking of the widely-accepted “official” story of the origins of World War II, by one of America’s most astute and influential public affairs commentators. In this masterful and provocative book, Buchanan draws on the work of more than a hundred historians to trace the fateful failures of judgment that consigned millions to decades of subjugation under Soviet Communist tyranny, and ended Europe’s central role in world affairs. This is also an important dissident treatment of the origins and consequences of the First and Second World wars, and a devastating critique of the “cult” image of Winston Churchill. Buchanan concludes with timely warnings about US foreign policy today. With 36 photos, source references, bibliography and index.

Churchill is viewed positively by just a fifth of Britain’s young people, new research has found. Those aged 18-24 are a third less likely than over-65s to say they admired the former prime minister, while 36 per cent of the public overall reported they think of him positively. The poll, commissioned by centre-Right think tank Policy Exchange, appears to show that Sir Winston’s reputation among the British public is declining over time, with 47 per cent of respondents saying they admired him in a similar poll in 2018. Respondents in the latest poll were asked whether they had a “largely positive” view of him where “the good things he did outweigh the bad”, or the reverse. Around 20 per cent of the public said they had a “mixed view” … In a 2002 BBC poll, the British public voted the former prime minister as “the greatest Briton of all time” …