# entry

guid: 68265e726660b200012863ca
title: U.S. Opposes Zelenskyy Being at June NATO Summit?
author: ;David Shavin
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/us-opposes-zelensky-being-at-june-nato-summit/
hash: �8�հ1��:(�5o
tags: #U.S. and Canada #Russia and Ukraine #NATO #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>While Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been invited and featured at the last two NATO summits—2023 in Vilnius and 2024 in Washington—it is now reported that the U.S. wants to keep him out of next month’s annual summit in The Hague. Italy’s ANSA news agency reported yesterday, citing anonymous diplomatic sources, that the U.S. is against Zelenskyy being invited, and that “for now … a NATO-Ukraine Council at the level of leaders is not planned.” They report that “at the moment, a very concise program is expected at the summit, in contrast to what has happened in recent years, to avoid possible friction with Donald Trump.”</p>
<p>Some non-member countries will be able to participate in some of the meetings, but only at the level of foreign and defense ministers. ANSA reported that Japan, South Korea, Australia, and New Zealand have already been invited, but not yet Ukraine.</p>
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guid: 682675516660b200012863e5
title: Bolivian President Drops Re-election Bid, Amidst Political and Economic Upheaval
author: ;Cynthia Rush
hash: �Yj��$T�;ʏ\��t�
tags: #Collapsing Imperial System #Ibero-America and Caribbean #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora announced on May 13 that he will not run for re-election in this year’s Aug. 17 presidential elections and called on former President Evo Morales to do the same. Although the Plurinational Constitutional Court has ruled that Morales may not run for a third term in office, the former President insists that he will be a candidate no matter what, and is mobilizing his large base of indigenous and peasant supporters toward that end.</p>
<p>Against a backdrop of extreme political polarization and economic crisis, Arce explained that he was withdrawing his candidacy so as not to be “a factor of division.” He, Morales, and newly-announced candidate Andronico Rodriguez, the 35-year-old Senate president, represent the “left,” while there are several right-wing candidates who don’t appear willing to unite around one individual. Arce called on all “popular and democratic forces” to unite behind Rodriguez, who would be the candidate of the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) party, which ruled Bolivia for almost two decades, before it split between supporters of Morales and Arce. Bad feelings between the groups are intense.</p>
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link:
https://eir.news/2025/05/news/bolivian-president-drops-reelection-bid-amidst-political-and-economic-upheaval/


guid: 682682ef6660b20001286420
title: NATO Head Rutte Plays the Fool, Gets Schooled by Zakharova
author: ;David Shavin
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/nato-head-rutte-plays-the-fool-gets-schooled-by-zakharova/
hash: ��~�V���F����,�
tags: #Collapsing Imperial System #Russia and Ukraine #NATO #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, on the sidelines of today’s gathering of NATO Foreign Ministers in Antalya, Türkiye, continued with the pretend game, that peace in Ukraine can be achieved without having to take any notice of Russia’s “root issues.” Assumedly, all Russian President Vladimir Putin has to do is to come to Istanbul and agree to a 30-day truce, while allowing the proxy war to be rearmed.</p>
<p>Rutte explained: “The Russians are sending a low-level delegation now and not taking up the opportunity [that] President Zelenskyy has been providing. He said: ‘I’m willing to sit with Putin; as soon as the ceasefire is there, we are willing to negotiate a peace deal.’ So Ukraine is clearly ready to play ball, but that ball is now in the Russian court.”</p>
<p>Spokeswoman of Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova is not one to suffer fools lightly. At a time today when Zelenskyy had still not committed to send a delegation to Istanbul, Zakharova responded to Rutte: “We have not only the ball, but also the truth on our side. The problem is that no matter how much the NATO hooligans shout from the bench in order to score a goal, we need the Ukrainian team on the pitch.”</p>


guid: 68268a8f6660b20001286460
title: Zelenskyy Belatedly Accedes To Sending a Team to Istanbul Negotiations
author: ;David Shavin
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/zelensky-belatedly-accedes-to-send-a-team-to-istanbul-negotiations/
hash: j��}��)��lJD�6
tags: #Strategic War Danger #Russia and Ukraine #Ukraine conflict #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Russian President Vladimir Putin did exactly what he had called for last Sunday, May 11, when he proposed returning to the successful Istanbul negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in March 2022. The team that he appointed reflects that successful 2022 team, including the same leader of the delegation, Vladimir Medinsky.</p>
<p>They arrived in Istanbul this morning and waited, while Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy decided whether Kiev would send a delegation. Zelenskyy, who had spent five days in a clownish effort to redirect the Istanbul negotiation away from substantial issues and into a public relations showdown with Putin, was somewhat disoriented, and announced that he needed a lengthy meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan before he could decide what to do. When he arrived in Türkiye’s capital, Ankara, he complained about the Russian delegation to reporters: “We don’t yet know the official level of Russians, but from what we see, it looks phony.” Then he posted: “Our delegation is of the highest level, including representatives from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, my Office, the military and intelligence…. The level of the Russian delegation remains officially unknown to me, but from what we see, it appears more decorative than substantive. We will decide our next steps after talks with President Erdoğan….”</p>
<p>U.S. and European officials, as reported in yesterday’s <em>Washington Post</em>, had said that Zelenskyy was prepared to cancel the negotiations as he “didn’t see the point in going at all.” Whatever occurred during that lengthy meeting, Zelenskyy finally announced that he would send a delegation led by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. The process took so long that there was no time left for the expected first session, now planned for Friday, May 16.</p>
<p>Zelenskyy explained: “Despite the relatively low level of the Russian delegation, out of respect for President Trump, out of respect for the high level of the Turkish delegation and for President Erdoğan, we still want to try to take at least the first steps towards a ceasefire, so I have decided to send our delegation to Istanbul now….” Then <a href="https://x.com/ZelenskyyUa/status/1923023738951319629">he posted</a> on X his report of his meeting with Erdoğan: “Today, Russia once again demonstrated that it does not intend to end the war, having sent a delegation of rather low-level representatives. Moreover, such a Russian approach is a sign of disrespect—toward the world and all partners. We expect a clear and strong response from partners.”</p>
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guid: 68268cad6660b2000128646e
title: German Chancellor Merz Discusses Ukraine and Trump
author: ;Carl Osgood
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/german-chancellor-merz-discusses-ukraine-and-trump/
hash: $�z4XM�å(x��+
tags: #Strategic War Danger #Europe #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Friedrich Merz, Germany’s Chancellor from BlackRock, has declared that he will take responsibility for bringing the U.S. into line on Ukraine. In his first policy speech to the Bundestag, Merz emphasized his desire to keep the Trump administration onboard with support for Ukraine. Merz noted how he had spoken with President Donald Trump twice recently, and stressed how he was grateful for Trump’s support for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine. “Anyone who believes Russia would be content with a victory over Ukraine or parts of Ukraine, or the annexation of parts of the country, is wrong,” Merz said, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/germany-merz-government-europe-us-ukraine-trump-a7c00f72102d6b8d0b70c3ea9d3559e5">reported AP</a>. He rejected the idea of a “dictated peace” or the “subjugation” of Ukraine.</p>
<p>“We hope, and we all are working hard for this, that this clear position will not just be held everywhere in Europe but also by our American partners,” Merz said, adding: “It is of paramount importance that the political West not let itself be divided, so I will continue to make every effort to produce the greatest possible unity between the European and American partners.”</p>
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guid: 68268e996660b2000128647e
title: Human Rights Watch Says All Signers Have &amp;#039;Duty To Prevent&amp;#039; Genocide
author: ;Carl Osgood
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/human-rights-watch-says-all-signers-have-duty-to-prevent-genocide/
hash: C'������S=�W1x
tags: #Collapsing Imperial System #Southwest Asia #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Human Rights Watch issued a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2025/05/15/gaza-latest-israeli-plan-inches-closer-extermination">statement</a> early this morning warning that parties to the 1948 Genocide Convention, who don’t act to stop genocide that they know or should know is ongoing, are complicit in that crime. “Hearing Israeli officials flaunt plans to squeeze Gaza’s 2 million people into an even tinier area while making the rest of the land uninhabitable should be treated like a five-alarm fire in London, Brussels, Paris, and Washington,” said Federico Borello, interim executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Israel’s blockade has transcended military tactics to become a tool of extermination.”</p>
<p>Israel’s stated plans in Gaza trigger the “duty to prevent” under the Genocide Convention, the statement continues. “For the 153 states that are parties to it, the duty to prevent genocide arises as soon as a state learns, or should normally have learned, of a serious risk that genocide may be committed.”</p>
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guid: 682694926660b20001286498
title: U.S.-Iran Negotiations: Is a Deal in the Works?
author: ;Stewart Battle
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/us-iran-negotiations-is-a-deal-in-the-works/
hash: ��f�{]�q�7�Ҭ�c
tags: #Strategic War Danger #Southwest Asia #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>There is more rhetoric than result at this point in the negotiating process between the U.S. and Iran, but President Trump is doing little to improve that. On May 15, during his visit in Qatar, Trump claimed, “We’re not going to be making any nuclear dust in Iran [meaning no bombing—ed.]. I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this.” He added that Iran should “say a big thank you” to Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who had pushed back against military action. “He doesn’t want us to do a vicious blow to Iran,” Trump said.</p>
<p>Also on May 15, Trump said that Iran has “sort of agreed to the terms.” While he didn’t elaborate on his meaning, Trump posted on Truth Social an article about <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/iran-enriched-uranium-nuclear-deal-trump-rcna206833">an interview</a> NBC News had conducted on May 14 with Ali Shamkhani, a top political, military, and nuclear advisor to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Shamkhani told NBC News that Iran was willing to commit to never making nuclear weapons, getting rid of its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium, only enrich uranium to the lower levels needed for civilian use, and allow international inspectors to supervise the process—in exchange for the immediate lifting of all economic sanctions on Iran.</p>
<p>Asked if Iran would agree to sign an agreement today if those conditions were met, Shamkhani said, “Yes. It’s still possible. If the Americans act as they say.” However, he ridiculed Trump’s “olive branch” remarks from Riyadh on May 13, saying: “He talks about the olive branch, which we have not seen. It’s all barbed wire.”</p>
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guid: 682696be6660b200012864a4
title: Iran Rebukes Trump
author: ;Stewart Battle
link: https://eir.news/2025/05/news/iran-rebukes-trump/
hash: ay3��G�H� y�
tags: #Strategic War Danger #Southwest Asia #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Trump’s bombastic remarks framing Iran as the biggest “agent of chaos and terror,” as he said from Riyadh May 13 and as he reiterated again at a meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council on May 14, have drawn a strong response from Iran. President Masoud Pezeshkian said on May 14 that Iran will not “bow to any bully.” “He thinks he can come here, chant slogans and scare us. For us, martyrdom is far sweeter than dying in bed. You came to frighten us? We will not bow to any bully,” Pezeshkian said in comments broadcast live on state TV.</p>
<p>Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi also strongly rejected Trump’s remarks. “He tries to portray Iran as the cause of insecurity, but who killed 60,000 people in Gaza?” Araghchi said to reporters on the sidelines of a cabinet meeting in Tehran on May 14, <a href="https://www.tasnimnews.com/en/news/2025/05/14/3312834/iranian-fm-slams-trump-s-deceptive-hypocritical-anti-iran-remarks">reported Tasnim</a>. “Is it us who cause insecurity?”</p>
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guid: 68269fbe6660b200012864b3
author: ;Stewart Battle
hash: �i�,RԨЪx�+��O
tags: #Strategic War Danger #Europe #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
title:
Britain&amp;#039;s Financial Times Writes, Trump Is Learning It Is Putin Who Is &amp;#039;Biggest Obstacle to Peace&amp;#039;

content:
<p>As the Global NATO plan for war with Russia continues to disappear, the British are pulling out their mouthpieces to try and change the narrative with regard to Russia, Ukraine, and Trump. A <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/9a75a55d-21d4-460a-bb50-5b4fe9c000a1">May 14 article</a> in the <em>Financial Times</em> promotes the notion that as negotiations with Russia drag on without a deal, there is a “noticeable shift in tone by the Trump administration. U.S. officials appear increasingly impatient with Vladimir Putin, as suspicions grow that the Russian leader, rather than Zelenskyy, may be the biggest obstacle to peace.”</p>
<p>This is, of course, just what the British and neocons want—for Trump to get frustrated over the challenges of peace talks and return to the Biden policy of all-out war against Russia.</p>
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link:
https://eir.news/2025/05/news/britains-financial-times-trump-is-learning-it-is-putin-who-is-biggest-obstacle-to-peace/


guid: https://www.mondialisation.ca/?p=5698597
title: Trump dit qu’il commence à « douter » que Zelensky conclue un accord de paix avec Poutine
author: ;Ahmed Adel
hash: ��ОOE��Z��]�)�
tags: #Francais @fr #Mobile
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>La proposition du président russe Vladimir Poutine de reprendre les négociations directes avec l’Ukraine sans conditions préalables est une décision magistrale qui met l’Ukraine et ses alliés européens dans une position difficile vis-à-vis de la communauté internationale, en particulier avec …</p>

link:
https://www.mondialisation.ca/trump-dit-quil-commence-a-douter-que-zelensky-conclue-un-accord-de-paix-avec-poutine/5698597


guid: CCAL-119scal-2025-05-19
title: Senate Calendars, DAILY - Senate Calendars for May 19, 2025 - 119th Congress, 1st Session
link: https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/CCAL-119scal-2025-05-19
hash: �x_:]�yQ�yk��N
tags: #Proceedings of Congress and General Congressional Publications
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<h2>Content Files</h2>
 <a href="https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CCAL-119scal-2025-05-19/pdf/CCAL-119scal-2025-05-19.pdf">PDF</a><br>
 
 
 
 
 <h2>Metadata download</h2>
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guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747236270
title: What is famine, and why is Gaza at risk of reaching it soon?
hash: � ��#�oh^���[L
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
One in five in Gaza face famine as Israel's blockade continues. What does starvation do to the human body?

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/what-is-famine-and-why-is-gaza-at-risk-of-reaching-it-soon?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://strategic-culture.su/?post_type=article&amp;p=885326
title: Storia dell’arsenale nucleare israeliano (2)
author: ;A A
link: https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/05/16/storia-dellarsenale-nucleare-israeliano-2/
hash: �X�w!�H����"
tags: #Italiano #Arms Race #Iran #Israel #Middle East #Nuclear Weapons
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p><strong><em>L’Iran definisce Israele il principale ostacolo alla non proliferazione nucleare. Storia del programma nucleare di Israele di Giacomo Gabellini parte 2. </em></strong></p>
<p><strong><span><span><em>Segue nostro</em></span> <a href="https://t.me/SCF_Italiano" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Telegram</a><a href="https://t.me/SCF_Italiano" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" src="https://strategic-culture.su/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tlg.jpg" alt="" width="25" height="25" data-sanitized-class="alignnone wp-image-875659"></a><a href="https://t.me/SCF_Italiano" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>.</span></a></span></strong></p>
<p><a href="https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/05/09/storia-dellarsenale-nucleare-israeliano/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><strong>Parte 1</strong></a></p>
<p>La desecretazione di alcuni documenti testimonia in realtà che il presidente Kennedy, consapevole che le autorità israeliane – Shimon Peres <em>in primis</em> – mentivano riguardo alla natura del programma nucleare, avesse esercitato fortissime pressioni sul primo ministro Ben-Gurion per indurlo a desistere dall’intento di dotarsi di un’arma atomica. Fece notare al capo del governo israeliano che la Cia aveva scoperto l’accordo segreto tra Tel Aviv e la Dassault in base al quale l’avanzata azienda francese era stata incaricata di realizzare 25 missili a media gittata in cambio di 100 milioni di dollari. Il presidente sapeva che questa tipologia di missile, denominato Jericho-1, era in grado di trasportare una testata nucleare miniaturizzata a 500 km di distanza.</p>
<p>Di fronte all’evidenza, Ben-Gurion smise di negare e assunse posizioni molto più equivoche, conformemente alla dottrina della “utile ambiguità”, che consisteva essenzialmente nel non confermare né smentire l’esistenza dell’arsenale nucleare israeliano. Un concetto sintetizzato nella celebre formula coniata da Shimon Peres – e sistematicamente utilizzata da tutti i successivi governi israeliani – per <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/09/israel-nuclear-weapons-secret-united-states/380237/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rispondere</a> a Kennedy: «<em>non saremo i primi a introdurre armi atomiche in Medio Oriente</em>». Sul piano operativo, le autorità israeliane cercarono di convincere Kennedy ad autorizzare Israele a dotarsi della bomba atomica sulla base di ragioni legate alla difesa del Paese da aggressioni straniere. «<em>Signor presidente, il mio popolo ha il diritto di esistere e questa esistenza è in pericolo</em>», scrisse Ben-Gurion in una nota diretta a Kennedy. Il presidente Usa continuò tuttavia a tenere la propria linea di ferma contrarietà, arrivando a rifiutare la proposta di Ben-Gurion di sottoscrivere un trattato di sicurezza con Israele e, soprattutto, a invitare nella sua tenuta in Florida il ministro degli Esteri israeliano Golda Meir allo scopo di delegittimare il premier, specialmente alla luce della forte acredine che c’era tra quest’ultima e il premier; un’acredine di cui Kennedy era perfettamente al corrente. Assieme a Pinchas Sapir, Golda Meir era la <em>leader</em> dell’ala del partito Mapai – lo stesso di Ben-Gurion – che contestava il programma nucleare israeliano, considerandolo il principale fattore d’intralcio nei cruciali rapporti con gli Stati Uniti. È probabilmente in forza di ciò che Kennedy si mostrò molto più aperto e conciliante con la Meir, assumendo un impegno di enorme importanza per Israele: «<em>gli Stati Uniti</em> – <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/56131/the-israel-lobby-and-us-foreign-policy-by-john-j-mearsheimer-stephen-m-walt/9780141031231" target="_blank" rel="noopener">confidò</a> Kennedy al ministro degli Esteri israeliano – <em>hanno in Medio Oriente un rapporto speciale con Israele, paragonabile solo a quello intrattenuto con la Gran Bretagna in un ampio ambito di questioni internazionali […]. Penso sia chiaro che, nell’eventualità di una invasione, gli Usa interverrebbero in aiuto di Israele. Ne abbiamo le capacità e le stiamo potenziando</em>».</p>
<p>Si tratta di un’assicurazione che le autorità di Tel Aviv non erano mai riuscite ad ottenere da Eisenhower, che per di più assumeva una valenza particolare con la fornitura a Israele degli Hawk – missili difensivi terra-aria fabbricati dalla Raytheon – autorizzata dallo stesso Kennedy. Il successo diplomatico capitalizzato da Golda Meir spinse nell’angolo il primo ministro Ben-Gurion, il quale decise di dimettersi e ritirarsi a vita privata. L’opinione pubblica israeliana attribuì il gesto di Ben-Gurion ad alcuni contrasti insanabili con le potenti organizzazioni sindacali e con l’<em>establishment</em> del partito Mapai per ragioni squisitamente interne, ma, secondo alcune ricostruzioni, a fare la differenza erano state le manovre diplomatiche di Kennedy, le quali avrebbero indotto al ritiro quello che molti abitanti dello Stato ebraico consideravano, al pari di Chaim Weizmann, un eroe nazionale.</p>
<p>In quegli anni, Shimon Peres segnalò a Benjamin Blumberg un giovane rampante di nome Arnon Milchan, titolare di una piccola impresa specializzata in prodotti chimici che sarebbe divenuto successivamente un famoso produttore di Hollywood. Milchan accettò subito di entrare a far parte del Lekem, per conto del quale mise in piedi una fitta rete di società di copertura attraverso cui furono trafugati svariati progetti delle centrifughe per l’arricchimento dell’uranio dal consorzio europeo Urenco – stessa cosa avrebbe fatto, anni dopo, lo scienziato Abdul Qadeer Khan, padre dell’atomica pakistana. Questo primo impotente successo consentì a Milchan di accreditarsi ad intermediario per la vendita di armi a Tsahal, nonché di ottenere lucrose commissioni su conti stranieri che sarebbero state messe quasi subito a disposizione sia del Lekem che del Mossad.</p>
<p>Una volta indossate le vesti di stimato <em>businessman</em>, Milchan ebbe modo di stringere un’alleanza strategica con Richard Kelly Smyth, vicepresidente della società Rockwell (poi confluita nella Boeing), che pose le basi per la fondazione della Milco, una società con sede in California incaricata di acquistare tecnologie da inviare in Israele. La Milco divenne istantaneamente uno dei principali fornitori della Heli Trading, principale compagnia di copertura del Lekem. La penetrazione della Milco nei settori nevralgici dell’industria bellica Usa e nei grandi centri di ricerca militare disseminati in tutto l’Occidente consentì al Lekem di acquisire tecnologie fondamentali per il programma nucleare e missilistico israeliano, tra cui il progetto originale del missile Pershing-2, la cui testata sarebbe stata riprodotta e sviluppata per le versioni più avanzate del missile Jericho. Parallelamente, il Lekem ebbe modo di acquisire, tramite una società di copertura, una cospicua partita di ossido di uranio (conosciuto come <em>yellowcake</em>) presso la città portuale belga di Anversa, facendo risultare la vendita come una normale transazione tra Italia e Germania. Lo <em>yellowcake</em> fu stipato in contenitori recanti l’etichetta <em>plumbat</em> (un innocuo derivato del piombo) e imbarcato su una nave presa a noleggio da una società liberiana di facciata. Secondo alcuni documenti declassificati statunitensi e britannici, in quel periodo (prima metà degli anni ‘60) Israele avrebbe inoltre ottenuto un secondo carico di ossido di uranio  dall’Argentina, nonché istituito un fruttuoso rapporto di collaborazione con Nyman Levin, un brillante fisico ebreo che si era imposto come responsabile di altissimo livello del programma nucleare britannico e che godeva di solidi agganci presso la comunità scientifica che aveva lavorato al Progetto Manhattan. Stando alla dettagliata <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2016-09-24/ty-article-magazine/.premium/did-u-k-nuclear-chief-nyman-levin-spy-for-israel/0000017f-e606-d97e-a37f-f76749e60000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ricostruzione</a> di «Haaretz», Levin avrebbe passato a Israele una ragguardevole mole di informazioni sensibili circa le tecnologie sviluppate dalla Gran Bretagna e dagli Usa in campo nucleare a cavallo tra gli anni ’50 e ’60, riuscendo a eludere la sorveglianza degli investigatori dell’Mi5 preoccupati di evitare che si ripetesse un caso analogo a quello di Klaus Fuchs, il dotatissimo fisico teorico tedesco naturalizzato inglese arrestato nel 1950 per aver passato dati cruciali riguardanti il nucleare britannico e statunitense (Fuchs aveva preso parte al Progetto Manhattan) all’Unione Sovietica. Da alcune piste investigative sono inoltre emerse prove relative a un possibile coinvolgimento in attività spionistiche a favore di Israele di altre grandi personalità della comunità scientifica internazionale. Spicca in particolare il nome del fisico teorico ungherese naturalizzato statunitense Edward Teller, il principale artefice della bomba all’idrogeno portatore di una concezione politica iper-oltranzista (Stanley Kubrick si ispirò a lui per caratterizzare il celebre Dottor Stranamore) e favorevole allo Stato ebraico, nonché dotato di contatti diretti con l’influente scienziato israeliano Yuval Ne’eman – che in seguito avrebbe fondato il partito Tehiya. Grazie ai suoi ricorrenti viaggi a Tel Aviv, dove risiedeva la sorella, e ai suoi altolocati contatti negli ambienti scientifici e militari israeliani, Teller fu in grado di prevedere già verso la metà degli anni ‘60 che l’arsenale atomico israeliano era ormai un dato di fatto con cui gli Usa avrebbero dovuto fare i conti. Lo confidò al vicedirettore del Dipartimento di Scienza e Tecnologia Usa Carl Duckett, il quale dichiarò di averlo visto molto preoccupato per i passi da gigante compiuti dallo Stato ebraico in ambito nucleare. Osservazione che contrasta palesemente con quanto asserito dallo stesso Ne’eman, secondo cui Teller aveva fornito un contributo tanto entusiastico quanto sostanziale a convincere le autorità Israeliane a non aderire al Trattato di Non Proliferazione nucleare. Non a caso, il comportamento, tipico dei doppiogiochisti, tenuto da Teller in quelle fasi cruciali è ancora fonte di forti sospetti circa la sua lealtà agli Stati Uniti.</p>
<p>Negli Stati Uniti, intanto, l’assassinio di Kennedy aveva consacrato l’ascesa del suo vice Lyndon Johnson, senatore texano da sempre molto sensibile alla causa israeliana. Fu infatti il primo presidente ad inaugurare una sinagoga, dopo essersi adoperato negli anni ‘30, quando era congressista, per accogliere in Texas un cospicuo numero di ebrei in fuga dal “vecchio continente” aggirando la normativa che proibiva di accordare il permesso di soggiorno ai profughi europei negli Stati Uniti. Sotto l’amministrazione Johnson, gli Usa fornirono inoltre a Israele non solo 200 carri armati <em>M-48</em>, ma anche i vettori in grado di trasportare le testate atomiche che venivano fabbricate a Dimona, come i caccia <em>Skyhawk</em> e <em>Phantom</em>. Seymour Hersh, celebre giornalista investigativo, <a href="https://www.ibs.it/opzione-h-libro-seymour-hersh/e/9788817841566">nota</a> a questo proposito che «<em>i forti legami emotivi tra Johnson e Israele, e la sua convinzione che le armi sovietiche stessero alterando l’equilibrio di potere nel Medio Oriente, lo indussero a diventare il primo presidente americano ad avere rifornito Israele di armi offensive ed il primo ad aver coinvolto pubblicamente l’America in sua difesa</em>». Non stupisce quindi che, una volta messo al corrente dal direttore della Cia Richard Helms che Israele si era ormai dotato di armi nucleari ed aveva anche effettuato esercitazioni aeree per mettere a punto adeguate tecniche di sganciamento, Johnson comunicò a Golda Meir l’intenzione di mantenere questa scoperta segreta, anche per evitare che il Trattato di Non Proliferazione appena approvato dalle Nazioni Unite venisse rigettato dai Paesi arabi nemici dello Stato ebraico.</p>
<p>Questo salto di qualità nelle relazioni israelo-statunitensi nasce soprattutto dalla necessità degli Usa di controbilanciare la fornitura di armi sovietiche all’Egitto di Nasser, il quale, fiutata l’aria che tirava, cercò a sua volta di dotarsi di armi atomiche rivolgendosi a Mosca, che però rifiutò la proposta in conformità all’obiettivo di evitare di favorire una corsa agli armamenti nucleari in Medio Oriente. L’Egitto si rivolse allora a scienziati tedeschi che avevano lavorato al programma missilistico varato dai nazisti, riuscendo a reclutare Heinz Krug, che aveva svolto un ruolo di primo piano nella messa a punto dei micidiali missili <em>V-1</em> e <em>V-2</em>. <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/holocaust-remembrance-day/2016-03-27/ty-article/the-strange-case-of-a-nazi-who-became-a-mossad-hitman/0000017f-df03-df9c-a17f-ff1b3c520000" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Secondo</a> «Haaretz», Krug si mise alle dipendenze di Nasser dopo aver declinato l’offerta del suo ex eminente collega Werner Von Braun di lavorare per gli Stati Uniti, e riuscì a mettere insieme una squadra di tecnici (Wolfgang Pilz, Hans Kleinwachter, ecc.) con cui aveva lavorato in precedenza con il fine di realizzare un moderno programma missilistico per conto dell’Egitto. Venuto a conoscenza delle manovre di Nasser, il Mossad inviò al Cairo, con l’incarico di scoprire l’identità degli scienziati tedeschi, un commando formato da Yitzhak Shamir, Zvi Malkin e nientemeno che Otto Skorzeny, l’ex pupillo di Hitler che aveva svolto molte operazioni segrete dietro ordine esplicito del <em>Führer</em>. Passato alle dipendenze degli israeliani per vedere il proprio nome depennato dalla lista di Simon Wiesenthal ed evitare così di incorrere nello stesso destino toccato ad Adolf Eichmann, Skorzeny e la sua unità non solo rapirono e uccisero Krug, ma passarono anche al Mossad la lista completa di tutti i tecnici implicati nel programma nucleare egiziano, puntualmente eliminati da sicari israeliani nell’ambito dell’Operazione Damocles. Alcuni dei tecnici che lavoravano al progetto furono uccisi dallo stesso Skorzeny, attraverso un pacco bomba recapitato presso il sito militare noto come Factory-333.</p>
<p>Il “patto con il Diavolo” aveva evidentemente dato i suoi frutti.</p>
<p></p>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747362907
title: US senators seek to block Trump’s UAE, Qatar defence deals
hash: wOۙ�tUsn���a �
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Senators accuse US President Donald Trump of engaging in 'corruption of US foreign policy' with defence deals.

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guid: 1031100 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Why Is The Secret German Spy Report On The AfD Party Only Filled With Public Statements?
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: @�5 ;ox�p�Z�iq�n
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Why Is The Secret German Spy Report On The AfD Party Only Filled With Public Statements?</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><em><a href="https://rmx.news/article/why-is-the-secret-german-spy-report-on-the-afd-party-only-filled-with-public-statements/">Via Remix News,</a></em></p>

<p>The German domestic spy service, the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has released a 1,100-page report on the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which it used to label the party a “confirmed” right-wing extremist party. The report is huge and reads like it was written by Antifa, but that was to be expected. <strong>However, one interesting point is that it contains only public statements, including quotes made by AfD politicians and a lot of<a href="https://x.com/jonasgreindberg/status/1922764456985231822"> memes</a>.</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/20250515_RMX_02.jpg?itok=AfveXFCG" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/20250515_RMX_02.jpg?itok=AfveXFCG"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9a680130-db39-4377-b1d6-7a34c383a589" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/20250515_RMX_02.jpg?itok=AfveXFCG" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>Why is that?</strong></p>

<p>We already know that the BfV is secretly surveilling AfD members in certain German states, mostly in the east, where the party is “confirmed right-wing extremist” already. This designation allows for the BfV in those states to partake in extraordinary surveillance powers over AfD members, including reading their chats and emails. Presumably, they can also track their browsing history, and perhaps they are even listening in on their conversations at home.</p>

<p>What this means is that the BfV has plenty of statements, memes and content to use based on <em>private statements</em>, but it is purposefully choosing not to use them. After all, a certain number of those AfD members, in private moments, probably also express opinions, post memes, or share thoughts that the BfV would love to include in a secret report on the party, which many hope will eventually justify an outright ban.</p>

<p><strong>Again, why is the BfV not using these private statements?</strong></p>

<p>There are multiple reasons.</p>

<p><strong>For one, a big part of the apparatus of spy agencies is to obtain information, but not release it to the public.</strong> The public may not be able to stomach such personal and private information and the means that were used to obtain it. Since the Edward Snowden revelations, and even before then, we have become acutely aware that we have accepted devices into our lives and homes that can be used to spy on us on a scale never seen before in history. However, even now — even after all this information has been revealed — I believe nearly all of us still cannot quite grasp what this means — nor do we want to.</p>

<p><strong>Yes, we know that AfD members are being spied on across Germany. Their emails are read, their phone calls are recorded. </strong>AI is being used to sort out keywords of interest to the security services. However, nobody really knows how this information is being processed and what it is being used for, or even who is reading it. The spies who control this information have extraordinary power. As a significant portion of them are now far left, at least in Germany, they believe they are acting as a bulwark against the rise of Nazism, and the ends justify the means when it comes to the AfD. There are other psychological motives at work, of course, as spy agencies are on the whole very good at keeping their secrets, not even necessarily because of internal controls, but because the spies are dedicated to their mission. There is, also, the sense of power that comes with being the watcher, and for many spies, this is a powerful intoxicant. They know, while you are in the dark.</p>

<p><strong>In practice, these spies know which AfD members are having affairs, their personal struggles, their health issues, their financial situation, and even their personal browsing history.</strong> In other words, they know their targets better in many cases than even their close friends and family. The spies of the world, not just in Germany, are now in many ways gods and mind readers, seeing through the walls people build up around themselves and accessing their darkest fears and secrets — all due to rapid advances in technology and the rise of smartphones.</p>

<p><strong>Earlier this month, commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, the famed Dutch activist reported that she was alerted that her phone was being breached with Pegasus-like spyware, </strong>mainly produced in Israel, which can unlock essentially every aspect of her personal life, including chats, location data, photos, contacts, and so on. With this software, they can even record her in real time, including personal conversations in her home, as well as turn on her camera to record her in her most personal moments.</p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">After having been alerted that the deep state is spying on me through mercenary spyware, I've been feeling like there is someone standing in the room with me at all times.<br><br>
Now, I'm not naive: exposing the wicked ways of the establishment is quite literally at the core of my… <a href="https://t.co/16dXkeJMAq">pic.twitter.com/16dXkeJMAq</a></p>
— Eva Vlaardingerbroek (@EvaVlaar) <a href="https://twitter.com/EvaVlaar/status/1920160052239089964?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 7, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p><strong>This software, and software like it, has been used on thousands of people, including journalists, politicians, and activists, sometimes with deadly results. </strong>It is not just the right, but far-left activists have also been targeted, including human rights activists. It is also unclear how long Vlaardingerbroek may have been targeted in such a manner. Previous versions of Apple iOS may have not been able to detect this software on her phone. In short, much of her personal life may already be in a database somewhere waiting to be used by intelligence.</p>

<p>Vlaardingerbroek is not in the AfD or even German, but she has backed the party, and she and people like her are most certainly the target of intelligence operatives in countries across Europe.</p>

<p>The point is that this software and the means for surveilling people are very unsettling.<strong> In a privacy-minded country like Germany, revealing the scale of surveillance being used against the AfD may be a scandal within itself, and could taint the entire report, which at the end of the day, should be used to justify a ban of the AfD.</strong></p>

<p>There may have been voices in the BfV who were calling to use secretly recorded data in the report as well, but the agency also knew this report would eventually be leaked and made public. The agency does not appear to want to divulge who they are surveilling, what information they have about them, and how they obtained this information.</p>

<p>Another important consideration is also to be taken into account. The BfV decided it did not need to include this secret information in the report because it is likely confident that it can get what it wants using public statements alone. It can still keep the scale of its surveillance secret and get the ban it desires — at least that is the gamble the agency is making.</p>

<p><strong>Surveillance is everywhere, it is being practiced by the left, the right, and many foreign governments are also active in the West, collecting data on targets.</strong> So, this is not a uniquely German issue by any means. However, if the establishment in Germany becomes truly desperate, there is probably a secret report waiting that includes far more information and personal details than many Germans want to believe is possible.</p>

<p><a href="https://rmx.news/article/why-is-the-secret-german-spy-report-on-the-afd-party-only-filled-with-public-statements/"><em>Read more here...</em></a></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T06:00:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 02:00</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/why-secret-german-spy-report-afd-party-only-filled-public-statements


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747256432
title: Trump’s decision to lift Syria sanctions fuels dreams of economic revival
hash: ��4uv�'�W�&����
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content:
Analysts say that sanctions relief will be a boon to Syria, but may take some time to affect the country.

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guid: https://gript.ie/?p=323661
title: Naomh Breandán
author: ;Pól Ó Meadhra
link: https://gript.ie/naomh-breandan-3/
hash: �{�s;$��Ÿ�ʧ�
tags: #Culture #Naomh Breandán #St Brendan Navigator
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<p><strong>Is duine de na naoimh luath-mhainistreacha na hÉireann agus de Dhá Aspal Déag na hÉireann é Naomh Breandán Chluain Fearta nó ‘An Loingseoir’ mar a tugadh air.</strong></p>
<p>Rugadh Breandán  thart faoin mbliain 484 A.D., gar don <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Fhianait">Fhianait</a> i g<a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contae_Chiarra%C3%AD">Contae Chiarraí</a>.</p>
<p>Ar feadh cúig bliana, chuir Naomh Íde nó ’Bríd na Mumhan’ mar a tugadh uirthi, léann air agus lean sé a chuid léinn ina diaidh faoi stiúir Naomh Erc. Is cosúil gur dhein sé staidéar ansin i mainistir <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluain_Ioraird">Chluain Ioraird</a> faoi Naomh Finian.</p>
<p>Oirníodh mar <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sagart">shagart</a> é i 512.</p>
<p>Idir AD 512 agus 530 thóg Breandán cillíní mainistreacha in Ard Fhearta agus an Seanchaol ag bun Shliabh Bhréanainn, i gCiarraí. Is ón gceantar seo a thug sé faoina thuras cáiliúil seacht mbliana go Tír na nAoibhneas.</p>
<p>Ba é a chéad turas farraige Bhreandáin go hOileáin Árann, áit ar bhunaigh sé mainistir. Thug sé cuairt níos déanaí ar <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albain">Albain</a> agus shroich sé <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inse_Ghall">Inse Ghall</a>, agus b’fhéidir áiteanna níos faide i gcéin. Níos deireanaí fós thaistil sé go dtí <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Bhreatain_Bheag">an Bhreatain Bheag</a> agus <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8D_Cholm_Cille">Oileán Í</a>, an t-oileán naofa ar chósta thiar na <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alba">hAlban</a>. Tuairiscítear gur thug Breandán cuairt ar <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inse_Orc">Inse Orc</a>, <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inse_Shealtainn">Inse Shealtainn</a>, agus ar an m<a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Bhriot%C3%A1in">Briotáin</a>, sa Fhrainc, fiú.</p>
<p>Tar éis dó teacht ar ais go hÉirinn, bhunaigh sé mainistir ag Inis dhá Dhroim i bparóiste Chill an Dísirt i g<a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contae_an_Chl%C3%A1ir">Contae an Chláir</a> thart ar an mbliain 550. Chomh maith leis sin, bhunaigh sé mainistir in <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Inis_Mhic_U%C3%AD_Chuinn&amp;action=edit&amp;redlink=1">Inis Mhic Uí Chuinn</a>, Contae na Gaillimhe agus in <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inis_Gluaire">Inis Gluaire</a>, <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contae_Mhaigh_Eo">Contae Mhaigh Eo</a>. Ba í an mhainistir ba cháiliúla a raibh baint aige léi ar ndóigh ná <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cluain_Fearta">Cluain Fearta</a>, a bhunaigh sé thart faoin mbliain  560.</p>
<p>Tá an tagairt is luaithe de Bhreandán sa <em>Vita Sancti Columbae</em> (Beatha Naomh Columba) scríofa idir AD 679 agus 704. Tá an tagairt is luaithe de mar mharaí le feiceáil i Mairtíreolaíocht Thamhlachta sa naoú haois.</p>
<p>Ach níl aon amhras ach go bhfuil an cháil is mó air mar gheall ar an iomramh seacht mbliana finscéalach, trasna an Aigéin Atlantaigh, go ‘Tír na nAoibhneas’. Déantar cur síos air sna  téacsanna Laidine <em>Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis,</em> a théann siar go dtí 800 AD ar a laghad. D’agair Naomh Aonghus ina Liodáin, a cumadh i ndeireadh an ochtú haois i dTamhlacht, “an seachtar déag a bhí in éineacht le Naomh Breandán agus é ar thóir Thír na nAoibhneas”.</p>
<p>Le linn an iomraimh, thánadar ar <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ollph%C3%A9ist">ollphéist</a> mara, eachtra a roinn sé le duine de lucht a chomhaimsire, Naomh <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colm_Cille">Colm Cille</a>. An scéal is coitianta faoi seo ná nuair a cheapadar go raibh siad tar éis teacht i dtír ar oileán,  ní oileán in aon chor a bhí ann ach ollphéist mór mara darbh ainm Jasconius<em>.</em> Faigheann siad amach é seo nuair a lasann siad tine chun <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/C%C3%A1isc">an Cháisc</a> a cheiliúradh agus dúisíonn Jasconius!</p>
<p>Nuair a scaip an scéal faoin iomramh, thosaigh <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilithreacht">oilithrigh</a> agus daltaí ag teacht go hArd Fhearta le teagasc agus treoir a fháil uaidh. Dá bharr seo, bhunaigh sé pobail mhainistreacha nua in áiteanna mar Ghallarais, Chill Maoilchéadair, Chnoc Bréanainn agus ar na Blascaodaí i gCiarraí.</p>
<p>Tuigtear anois gur thuras go Meiriceá a bhí i gceist leis an scéal. Meastar go raibh Colambas ar an eolas faoi is gur spreag sé é an gaisce céanna a dhéanamh.</p>
<p>Agus é cinnte go raibh an finscéal bunaithe ar fhírinne stairiúil chomh maith, thóg an taiscéalaí Tim Severin macasamhail de churach Bhreandáin i 1976.  Ag baint úsáide as uirlisí traidisiúnta,  tógadh bád dhá chrann seoil 11 mhéadar ar fhad de fhuinseog agus dhair, le nach mór 3 km d’iall leathair, fillte le 49 seithí bulláin agus séalaithe le gréisc olainn.</p>
<p>Ar an 17 Bealtaine, 1976, sheol Severin agus a chriú ón áit chéanna as ar sheol Breandán agus a chompánaigh nach mór míle go leith bliain roimhe sin. Baisteadh <em>the Brendan</em> ar a mbád.  Thar dhá shamhradh agus breis is 13 mhí, thaistil siad 7,200 km, ag teacht go Ceanada ar an 26 Meitheamh, 1977, ag tuirlingt ar Thalamh an Éisc. Dúirt Severin le tuairisceoirí, “Tá sé cruthaithe againn gur féidir le bád leathair dul trasna an Atlantaigh Thuaidh ar bhealach nach ndéanfadh mórán luamhairí nua-aimseartha iarracht.” Ar an iomramh, chonaic Tim Severin a lán rudaí, <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnoc_oighir">cnoic oighir</a> agus <a href="https://ga.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%ADol_m%C3%B3r">míolta móra</a> ina measc. Léiríonn na tagairtí a bhí déanta de na radhairc seo i scríbhinní Naomh Breandán gur sheol sé an bealach céanna inar sheol Severin. Ba  leabhar sárdhíola a scríobh sé ina dhiaidh dar teideal, <em>The Brendan Voyage</em>, a aistríodh go 16 theanga.</p>
<p>D’éag Naomh Breandán tráth éigin idir na blianta 570 agus 583 is cuireadh é ag a mhainistir i gCluain Fearta. Is naomh pátrún é do mhairnéalaigh agus dóibh siúd a mbíonn ag taisteal.  Is é an 16 Bealtaine a lá féile.</p>

<figure aria-describedby="caption-attachment-276173" data-sanitized-id="attachment_276173" data-sanitized-class="wp-caption alignnone"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/St-Brendan-Flickr.jpg" alt width="960" height="1488" data-sanitized-class="size-full wp-image-276173"><figcaption data-sanitized-id="caption-attachment-276173" data-sanitized-class="wp-caption-text">C: Joachim S. Müller / Flickr / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0</figcaption></figure>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747367717
title: Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,177
content: These are the key events on day 1,177 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
hash: ^Q �҆ælt1�y�I
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/russia-ukraine-war-list-of-key-events-day-1177?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031101 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Global Population Is Projected To Begin Declining In 2085
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/global-population-projected-begin-declining-2085
hash: �y"�V& �"Pcu@Rz
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Global Population Is Projected To Begin Declining In 2085</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>The global population is undergoing a major demographic shift.</strong></p>

<p>As fertility rates fall and life expectancy rises, average ages are climbing in nearly every country, while population growth is steadily tapering off.</p>

<p>This infographic, <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/the-worlds-aging-population-and-falling-growth-rate-1980-2100">via Visual Capitalist's Niccolo Conte, </a>visualizes global population growth and average age from 1980 to 2100, based on data from the IMF’s <a href="https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2025/04/22/world-economic-outlook-april-2025">World Economic Outlook</a>, April 2025 edition.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Aging-Population_04-web.jpg?itok=HodxLiaZ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Aging-Population_04-web.jpg?itok=HodxLiaZ"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a374ae93-5b98-448f-ba2f-a228c4341425" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="651" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Aging-Population_04-web.jpg?itok=HodxLiaZ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<h2>How the World Will Age as Population Growth Falls</h2>

<p>As of 2025, the average person is <strong>33.6 years</strong> old, up from 26.5 years in 1980. Over that same period, global population growth has slowed from 1.8% to 0.9% in 2025.</p>

<p>This trend is expected to continue through the end of the century, as shown in the table below, which breaks down the projected average age and population growth rate from 1980 to 2100:</p>

<table data-sanitized-id="tablepress-5602" data-sanitized-class="tablepress tablepress-id-5602"><thead><tr data-sanitized-class="row-1"><th data-sanitized-class="column-1">Year</th>
			<th data-sanitized-class="column-2">Average population growth (%)</th>
			<th data-sanitized-class="column-3">Average population age (years)</th>
			<th data-sanitized-class="column-4">Lower range of expected population growth (%)</th>
			<th data-sanitized-class="column-5">Upper range of expected population growth (%)</th>
		</tr></thead><tbody data-sanitized-class="row-striping row-hover"><tr data-sanitized-class="row-2"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">1980</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.8%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">26.5</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.9%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.9%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-3"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">1985</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.8%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">26.9</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.8%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.9%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-4"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">1990</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.8%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">27.3</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.8%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.8%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-5"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">1995</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.5%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">28.0</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.5%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.6%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-6"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2000</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.4%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">28.9</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.4%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-7"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2005</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.3%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">29.8</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.5%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.4%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-8"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2010</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.3%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">30.7</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.4%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.4%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-9"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2015</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.2%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">31.6</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.3%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.4%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-10"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2020</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">1.0%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">32.5</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.2%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">2.0%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-11"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2025</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.9%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">33.6</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.1%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.9%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-12"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2030</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.8%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">34.7</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">0.0%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.7%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-13"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2035</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.7%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">35.7</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.1%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.6%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-14"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2040</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">36.6</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.2%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.4%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-15"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2045</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.5%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">37.4</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.2%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.3%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-16"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2050</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.4%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">38.1</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.3%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.1%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-17"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2055</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.3%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">38.8</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.4%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">1.0%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-18"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2060</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.3%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">39.5</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.4%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.9%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-19"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2065</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.2%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">40.1</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.5%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.8%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-20"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2070</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.2%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">40.7</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.5%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.7%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-21"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2075</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.1%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">41.2</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.6%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-22"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2080</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.0%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">41.6</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.5%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-23"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2085</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">0.0%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">42.0</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.4%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-24"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2090</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">-0.1%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">42.5</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.3%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-25"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2095</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">-0.1%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">42.9</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.6%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.2%</td>
		</tr><tr data-sanitized-class="row-26"><td data-sanitized-class="column-1">2100</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-2">-0.1%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-3">43.2</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-4">-0.7%</td>
			<td data-sanitized-class="column-5">0.2%</td>
		</tr></tbody></table><p><strong>The global population is projected to begin declining in 2085, as the average age rises to 42 years. </strong>By the year 2100, the average person is expected to be 43 years old, with population growth at -0.1%.</p>

<p>However, the trend is divided across countries. Advanced economies like <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/japans-aging-problem-in-one-chart/">Japan</a>, Germany, and Italy are aging rapidly and seeing population declines. Meanwhile, emerging economies like India still have growing populations, but the growth is slowing down.</p>

<p>The gradual decline is largely due to falling fertility rates globally, along with improvements in healthcare and life expectancy resulting in larger <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-size-of-the-global-senior-population/">senior populations</a>.</p>

<h2>The Impacts of an Aging Population</h2>

<p>Many economies are reaching their demographic turning points—when the share of the working-age population in their total population begins declining.</p>

<p>European countries like Germany, France, and Italy crossed this mark pre-2000, and are now among the world’s <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/visualizing-the-worlds-super-aged-societies/">“super-aged societies”</a>. The United States, the U.K., and China have followed in the last two decades.</p>

<p><strong>But what does this mean for economic growth and the global economy?</strong></p>

<p>Population aging carries several economic challenges. These include <a href="https://www.visualcapitalist.com/global-retirement-boom/">shrinking</a> labor forces, slower productivity growth, and increased fiscal pressure on pension and healthcare systems.</p>

<p>However, there is a silver lining: the IMF notes that while people are living longer, they’re also aging more healthfully. This could result in longer working lives and enhance productivity among older workers, potentially easing the economic impacts of an aging population.</p>

<p><em>If you enjoyed this infographic, check out <a href="https://www.voronoiapp.com/economy/A-Visual-Breakdown-of-Where-Economic-Power-Lies-in-2025-4715">A Visual Breakdown of Where Economic Power Lies in 2025</a>, on the Voronoi app.</em></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T06:45:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 02:45</span>


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=329823
title: OTD: 16 May 1920, Joan Of Arc was canonised a saint
author: ;Gript Column
link: https://gript.ie/otd-16-may-1920-joan-of-arc-was-canonised-a-saint/
hash: ���h��ߟ�����
tags: #ON THIS DAY #culture #History #Joan of Arc
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p><strong>ON THIS DAY: 16<sup>th</sup> May 1920, Joan Of Arc was canonised a saint</strong></p>
<p><em>“You Englishmen, who have no right in this Kingdom of France, the King of Heaven sends you word and warning, by me Jehanne the Maid, to abandon your forts and depart into your own country, or I will raise such a war-cry against you as shall be remembered forever. And this I write to you for the third and last time, nor shall I write further.”</em></p>
<p><strong>In Joan’s own words to the Anglo-Burgundians at the siege of Orléans</strong></p>

<hr>
<p><strong>Joan of Arc</strong> (French: <strong>Jeanne d</strong>‘<strong>Arc)</strong> was a young French woman who was burnt at the stake in 1431 on accusations of heresy. She is considered a heroine of France for her role during the Lancastrian phase of the Hundred Years’ War. She is renowned for fulfilling a legend told years before her birth, that a young woman, known as “the maid of lorraine” would liberate France and create a free nation spared from the brutalities of the English. Despite her powerful faith in God which was the spark that lit her fight for independence, it wasn’t until 489 years after her death that her works would be recognised by the Catholic church.</p>
<p>Born in the small village of Dorémy, France in 1412, she was the youngest of 5; she never learned to read or write but was skilled in sewing and spinning. From the age of 13 Joan claimed to have heard divine voices and seen visions of St. Michael, St. Catherine of Alexandria and St. Margaret of Antioch. At first, these messages were merely instructions for Joan to attend mass frequently and be a good child to her parents. Over time, however, her voices became more insistent. At the tender age of 17, St. Catherine and St. Margaret urged her to go to the aid of the King of France, Charles of Valois whom the English had disinherited. Her goal was help Charles reclaim his crown and to unite the ordinary French people with the Burgundian forces of France who had sided with the English. She was pivotal to the morale-boosting of the French nationalists, who desired a united country.</p>
<p>At this time, France was predominantly under English control, but French lands were also occupied by Burgundy, England’s French allies, led by Philip, Duke of Burgundy. This volatile period of English control consisted of many invasions of French villages and cities. Joan experienced Anglo-Burgundian invasions first-hand and many in her village of Dorémy were forced to abandon their homes because of the constant threat of invasion. Her witness to French suffering, along with the incessant instructions of her voices, propelled her to journey to Chinon, the site of the prince Charles’ palace and convince him to allow her to lead his army to victory.</p>

<p><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/JoanOfArcStainedGlass.jpg" alt width="960" height="860" data-sanitized-class="alignnone size-full wp-image-254646"></p>
<p><em>Stained Glass imagery of Joan of Arc </em></p>
<p>_ _ _ _ _ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _</p>
<p>In May 1428, Joan travelled to Vaucouleurs, a nearby garrison of those who swore loyalty to Charles. Initially, she was rejected by the local magistrate Sir Robert De Baudricourt who dismissed her as fanciful, but her determination to complete the task bestowed upon her compelled others to believe that she was the maid in the legend, destined to save France. She acquired a small band of followers and when Sir Robert relented, she dressed herself in men’s clothes, cut her hair and led her followers across enemy lands to Chinon.</p>
<p>Naturally, Joan’s authenticity was questioned by many, especially by those in the Church who believed a peasant girl incapable of having correspondence with divine spirits. After reaching Chinon, it is said that she proved her divine credentials by revealing to Charles information that only a messenger of God could know. To this day, the details of this private audience are unknown. Joan promised Charles that he would be crowned king of France in 4 months if he granted her an army to lead to Orléans, then under siege from the English. Charles, dismissing advice from most of his advisors and generals to disregard her, allowed her this request and sent her off to quell the Siege of Orléans. In March of 1429, Joan, after sending a rebellious letter to the opposition, led several attacks which ousted the Anglo-Burgundians from Orléans and forced them to retreat over the Loire river. The territory was then claimed for France. Depicted as a fierce and brave warrior, Joan also recoiled from the grim realities of battle, according to accounts. During the first day she fought to lift the siege of Orléans, she is said to have wept for the fallen on both sides.</p>
<p>This colossal victory was a definite morale-boost for the French people, who long thought independence a mere fantasy. Her reputation spread widely and her accomplishment at Orléans enabled Charles’ coronation in July 1429. Joan, along with other commanders, then insisted that the French should attempt to retake Paris, France’s capital. Charles, though hesitant, sanctioned the attack, even amid warnings from his trustee Georges de La Trémoille that Joan was becoming too powerful. The Anglo-Burgundians succeeded in maintaining their positions in Paris and conquered an invasion led by Joan in September. A number of factors caused this loss, including the fact that Charles was disinclined to send the mass of his forces to her assistance.</p>
<p>Joan’s efforts would never again receive support from the King, who was more determined to strengthen and secure his gains than to come to her aid. In May 1430, Joan, with a mere few hundred men challenged a Burgundian assault on Compiegne. Though Joan was told by the saints a few months prior to the assault that she would soon be captured by the English, she went to defend Compiegne nonetheless. Joan aided the town’s protectors by leading several small attacks on the large Burgundian force but on May 23 one of her attacks failed, giving way to the enemy to chase her forces out. Although many of her soldiers succeeded in escaping the town, Joan was captured by a Burgundian, the Duke of Luxembourg. When news of her capture reached Paris, the Bishop Beauvais requested that, in the name of England, the maid be handed over in return for 10,000 livres. The money was welcomed and she was handed over and taken to the castle of Bouvreuil, inhabited by the Earl of Warwick, the English commander at Rouen, to face trial. Though her transgressions against England and the Lancastrian monarchy were evident and common knowledge, she was put to trial before a church court because many theologists at the University of Paris wished her to be tried as a heretic. She threatened the Church’s authority through her claims that she, a lowly peasant girl, communicated with God through the visions and voices of St. Catherine and St. Margaret. Her trial also served to tarnish Charles VII by displaying that he owed his coronation to a witch or heretic. Throughout Joan’s trial and incarceration, Charles made no effort to rescue the 19-year-old who implemented his coronation, preferring to distance himself from an accused heretic.</p>
<p><img decoding="async" src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/1024px-Adolphe_Alexandre_Dillens_-_Capture_of_Joan_of_Arc_-_WGA06347.jpg" alt width="960" height="700" data-sanitized-class="alignnone size-full wp-image-254644"></p>
<p><em>The capture of Joan of Arc oil on panel by Adolphe-Alexandre Dillens, 1847-1852. Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia</em></p>
<p>_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _</p>
<p>In the trial, Joan was ordered to respond to 70 charges laid against her, including witchcraft, blasphemy and dressing like a man, an act she committed under the command of her voices to protect herself from sexual assault. In March 1431, during her trial of condemnation, Joan predicted that within seven years the English would suffer a far greater loss than that which they suffered at Orléans, and would subsequently lose all of France. In May 1431, after a year in captivity and upon threats of painful death, Joan submitted and signed a form of renunciation, stating that she had never received divine instruction or messages. She then agreed to wear women’s clothes. Though reluctant, because the signing would represent a denial of everything she had stood for, she eventually did so out of unimaginable fear. She was then sentenced to life imprisonment and was dressed in women’s clothes. Several days later, however, the judges found her in male attire. When pressed with questions, Joan answered that St. Catherine and St. Margaret had come to her and told her that her abjuration was a betrayal. She confessed her shame of how fear of torture propelled her to deny her beliefs and that she could deny them no longer.</p>
<p>Joan was again insistent that her voices were true and that they came from God. As a result, on May 29 the judges agreed that she must be handed over to secular officials and on May 30, 1431, she was burned at the stake. Her final wish was to a Dominican in the crowd who she asked to hold a crucifix level with her eyes. As the fire was lit, she cried out “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” until she died.</p>
<p>Joan’s death inspired many Frenchmen to continue her legacy, and, as Joan predicted, on November 12, 1437, six years and eight months after her prophecy in the trial, Henry VI lost Paris. This historic event is widely recognised as the event that drove the English from France.</p>

<hr>
<p><em>Irish teenager <strong>Muireann S</strong> reflects on French teenage heroine and patron saint of France, Joan of Arc, on the 100 year anniversary of her canonisation</em></p>


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330713
title: PERRINS: Netflix better not ruin Pride and Prejudice
author: ;Laura Perrins
link: https://gript.ie/perrins-pride-prejudice-netflix/
hash: &���-@��'D�V��r
tags: #Culture #Featured #Featured Picks #Highlights #books #culture #Laura Perrins #Media #Television
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p><strong>Last week alone saw the election of an American Pope, the 80th anniversary of VE day, a UK – US trade deal and a possible war between India and Pakistan, which was narrowly averted.</strong> However, oddly enough, what has been keeping me up at night is the very real possibility of a <em>woke</em> Pride and Prejudice. It was announced that Netflix are to adapt one of the greatest novels in the English canon, Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen for the small screen.</p>
<p>Now, if you’ve no interest at all in Pride and Prejudice, you can probably skip the next ten paragraphs, and ask yourself why you clicked on a piece about the book. If on the other hand you are a cultured person who has made time to read one of the greatest novels ever written, stick with me.</p>
<p>The six-part series will star Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet, Jack Lowden as Mr Darcy and Olivia Colman as the mother Mrs Bennet. The adaptation will be written by the author and Sunday Times columnist Dolly Alderton.</p>
<p>I am going into this with an open mind, truly, but alarm bells are ringing already. Olivia Colman is a good choice as the anxiety filled Mrs Bennet, a part she will no doubt have much fun with. Personally, I always thought Mrs Bennet has been subject to undeserved criticism over the years.</p>
<p>Mrs Bennet is usually dismissed as either silly or scheming (surely you cannot be both) but what else was a mother of five daughters with a modest entailed property to do but make it “the business of her life” to get her daughters married? If the daughters remained unmarried Mrs Bennet and the girls would have to leave the family home Longbourn and become homeless on the death of husband and father Mr Bennet. The cousin Mr Collins would inherit the family home. The prospect of homelessness would certainly impact my ‘nerves’ and concentrate my mind. In fact Mrs Bennett would be very much <em>at home</em> with today’s obsession with mental health. It will be interesting to see what Colman does with the part.</p>
<p>It is not like Mr Bennet was of any use. He spent all his time escaping to his library. He refers to his daughters Kitty and Lydia as ‘uncommonly foolish.’ And whose fault is that might I ask but the patriarch of the family? So negligent in fact is Mr Bennet as a father that the entire family is threatened when the youngest daughter elopes with a rouge. That’s on you daddy dearest, not Mrs Bennet.</p>
<p>I don’t fancy Emma Corrin as Elizabeth Bennet. The same error was made when Kiera Knightley was cast as Lizzie twenty years ago in a film version of the novel. Both actresses are too slim and too pretty to play Elizabeth. The big question is who will play Jane, described as a rare beauty in the novel. She <strong>must be</strong> prettier than Elizabeth or the entire thing falls at the first hurdle.</p>
<p>If Elizabeth is prettier than Jane, it makes no sense then when Mr Darcy first refuses to dance with Elizabeth at the critical ballroom scene. Mr Bingley who has been dancing with Jane all night encourages Darcy to dance. But Mr Darcy protests that it would be positively beneath him to dance with any of the ladies at the gathering. “You are dancing with the <strong>only</strong> handsome girl in the room” he tells Bingley.</p>
<p>When encouraged to ask Elizabeth to dance, Mr Darcy replies, “She is tolerable; but not handsome enough to tempt <em>me</em>; and I am in no humour at present to give consequence to young ladies who are slighted by other men.” So that’s that then. Mr Darcy has revealed his pride which will return to haunt him. The point is, Elizabeth has quick wit and fine eyes but she is not a stunning beauty. That honour belongs to Jane so whoever is cast as the elder Miss Bennet she must be more attractive than Emma Corrin.</p>
<p>Which brings me to Mr Darcy. Now, like every suburban mother in her 40s, there is truly only one Mr Darcy and that man is Colin Firth. They can trot out whatever hot young thing is the latest hot young thing and they will still fall far short of the performance Colin Firth gave in playing Mr Darcy in the BBC adaptation in 1995. Yes, that adaptation is 30 years old this year and it can never be bettered. But actors have got to eat, hence why we have this Netflix 2025 version.</p>
<p>I never cared for Matthew Macfadyen who played Mr Darcy in the 2005 film opposite Kiera Knightley. He seemed to think being angry and sulky was the same as being proud, brooding and handsome. They are not. The key point about Mr Darcy’s character however is not just his haughtiness and his pride but his sharp eye. Mr Darcy is always surveying the scene, weighing people up and forming judgments of those around him.</p>
<p>This is completely foreign to today’s audience who spend all their time with their heads stuck in a smartphone. They wouldn’t spot an inappropriate attachment if it was standing right in front of them but Mr Darcy watches carefully. Sadly, he also comes to the wrong conclusion judging that Jane’s attachment to Mr Bingley insufficient for Bingley to propose.</p>
<p>In the crucial scene where Mr Darcy and Elizabeth finally dance together, Elizabeth questions Mr Darcy closely on the wisdom of forming character judgments too firmly. The chemistry between them is electric, the intellectual sparring unmatched in modern dramas.</p>

<p>(Jane Austen said of her heroine, ‘I must confess that I think her as delightful a creature as ever appeared in print, and how I shall be able to tolerate those who do not like <em>her</em> at least I do not know.’)</p>
<p>Jack Lowden will play Mr Darcy. I admit I never heard of this chap before and it turns out he is married to Irish actress Saoirse Ronan. The powers that be have decided to go with a <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cg72ppydrxyo" rel>ginger</a> Darcy, which in all seriousness is a mistake. Perhaps I can get past that but I doubt it.</p>
<p>What I do not want to read about in the coming weeks are the following words, modern, a drama for a modern audience, an <em>up – to – date</em> version, or reimagined. Lord, save us from a “reimagined” Pride and Prejudice.</p>
<p>The Netflix peeps do not have a better imagination than Jane Austen. We do not need their take on the social mores of the time. I want to see the social mores of the Napoleonic era <em>presented to me as Jane Austen presents them in the novel.</em> What I want to see is a drama that is ‘faithful to the original’. What we need is some good old fashioned humility, not the arrogance of a bunch of people who think they know better and can write better than Jane Austen herself.</p>
<p>The only words worse than modern or reimagined are diverse and inclusive. Keep your diversity for Bridgerton which I enjoyed as it was a modern book adapted for a modern audience. Therefore the casting in that programme was fine.</p>
<p>Pride and Prejudice however depicts a very exclusive world. For instance Lady Catherine De Bourgh objects to the engagement between Darcy and Elizabeth as she feels Elizabeth is not within Darcy’s class. The class system excludes people – exclusion is the entire point!</p>
<p>Elizabeth in this conversation counters not ‘oh love conquers all’ or ‘maybe Darcy would like to slum it with me for a while’ or ‘shut your pie-hole you old bat.’ Instead, she points out to Lady Catherine that yes Mr Darcy is a gentlemen and <em>“I am a gentleman’s daughter. So far we are equal.”</em></p>
<p>There was a gargantuan difference in incomes between Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet but they were of the same class therefore Elizabeth can make a suitable wife for Mr Darcy and mistress for the big pile of bricks that is his estate at Pemberley.</p>
<div data-sanitized-class="captioned-image-container">
<figure><div data-sanitized-class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F35f550f5-0b47-4f45-993c-e1e151d03138_1024x768.jpeg" alt width="1024" height="768" data-attrs='{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/35f550f5-0b47-4f45-993c-e1e151d03138_1024x768.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":768,"width":1024,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":168259,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/jpeg","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://lauraperrins.substack.com/i/163047650?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2F35f550f5-0b47-4f45-993c-e1e151d03138_1024x768.jpeg","isProcessing":false,"align":null}' data-sanitized-class="sizing-normal"></picture><div readability="6.5" data-sanitized-class="image-link-expand">
<div readability="8" data-sanitized-class="pencraft pc-display-flex pc-gap-8 pc-reset">
<p><em>(Some costumes from the Jane Austen museum in Bath that I visited with my daughters in August 2022.)</em></p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</figure></div>
<p>Likewise Charlotte Lucas daughter of Sir William Lucas, Mr Collins who is to inherit the Bennet family home and rogue Wickham are all critical characters who must be cast appropriately. If the Netflix crowd decides to get their diversity wand out and have us believe that actually there were plenty of vicars of colour around in 1813 I am going to throw all my toys out of the pram.</p>
<p>Just don’t waste time and energy adapting the story if you can’t be bothered to be faithful to the original work. Also do not spend millions on the costumes, cutting the empire line dresses to perfection, if you are going to make them out of Nylon. Nylon was not invented then – it should be silk for the snobby Bingley sisters and cotton for everyone else. And no Georgiana, Darcy’s younger sister, was not secretly transgender. This is not why she nearly ran off with Wickham. I just want to say that now.</p>
<p>If Netflix manages to stay faithful to Pride and Prejudice as portrayed by Jane Austen, that is an artistic and political win. It is a sign of our post-woke times proving that hope springs eternal. Now, where is my bonnet?</p>
<div data-sanitized-class="captioned-image-container">
<figure><div data-sanitized-class="image2-inset"><picture><source type="image/webp"><img decoding="async" src="https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/w_1456,c_limit,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff9079c49-a73d-408e-bd58-e7341c5d64cd_768x1024.jpeg" alt width="768" height="1024" data-attrs='{"src":"https://substack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com/public/images/f9079c49-a73d-408e-bd58-e7341c5d64cd_768x1024.jpeg","srcNoWatermark":null,"fullscreen":null,"imageSize":null,"height":1024,"width":768,"resizeWidth":null,"bytes":177890,"alt":null,"title":null,"type":"image/jpeg","href":null,"belowTheFold":true,"topImage":false,"internalRedirect":"https://lauraperrins.substack.com/i/163047650?img=https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Ff9079c49-a73d-408e-bd58-e7341c5d64cd_768x1024.jpeg","isProcessing":false,"align":null}' data-sanitized-class="sizing-normal"></picture></div>
</figure></div>


guid: 1031104 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Ukraine Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill Reportedly In Final Stages
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/crypto/ukraine-strategic-bitcoin-reserve-bill-reportedly-final-stages
hash: ��b�:�ݾb�F����
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Ukraine Strategic Bitcoin Reserve Bill Reportedly In Final Stages</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ukraine-bitcoin-reserve-bill-final-stages-report"><em>Authored by Zoltan Vardai via CoinTelegraph.com,</em></a></p>

<p><strong>Ukraine is reportedly moving closer to adopting Bitcoin as a national reserve asset, a move that could bolster its financial resilience amid the ongoing war with Russia.</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/0196d332-3e35-7d3f-853e-fc1af464.jpg?itok=9FXp6419" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/0196d332-3e35-7d3f-853e-fc1af464.jpg?itok=9FXp6419"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="193cf19b-9046-43e1-8c48-0dc434569e0d" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/0196d332-3e35-7d3f-853e-fc1af464.jpg?itok=9FXp6419" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Lawmakers are reportedly working on a Bitcoin national reserve proposal, with a draft bill in its final stages, according to Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of parliament who <a href="https://incrypted.com/en/ukraine-announced-preparations-potential-creation-national-bitcoin-reserve/">confirmed</a> the plan to local media outlet Incrypted.</p>

<p>The proposal was announced during the CRYPTO 2025 conference in Kyiv on Feb. 6. </p>

<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>“We will soon submit a draft law from the industry allowing the creation of crypto reserves,” </strong></em>Zhelezniak said.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Cointelegraph reached out to Zhelezniak for comment on the bill’s status but had not received a response by publication.</p>

<p>Bitcoin has gained international attention as a national reserve asset since <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/us-elections">the election of</a> US President Donald Trump in November 2024. On March 7, Trump <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/donald-trump-signs-executive-order-strategic-bitcoin-reserve">signed an executive order</a> to establish a national Bitcoin reserve seeded with BTC confiscated from criminal cases.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/019570dd-6ecd-7682-99a7-aad3aede.jpg?itok=JlCpggRq" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/019570dd-6ecd-7682-99a7-aad3aede.jpg?itok=JlCpggRq"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d7a2e4e2-ab91-41c1-9cab-9838fd21d564" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="571" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/019570dd-6ecd-7682-99a7-aad3aede.jpg?itok=JlCpggRq" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><em>Source: </em><a href="https://x.com/MargoMartin47/status/1897802829474955415"><em>Margo Martin</em></a></p>

<p>A month later, Swedish MP Rickard Nordin issued an open letter urging Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson to consider adopting <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/swedish-mp-bitcoin-reserve-finance-minister">Bitcoin as a national reserve</a> asset, citing its growing recognition as a “hedge against inflation,” Cointelegraph reported on April 11.</p>

<h2>Legal challenges may delay adoption</h2>

<p>While Ukraine’s push for a national Bitcoin reserve marks a potentially historic shift in crypto policy, it may require “significant legal change,” according to Kyrylo Khomiakov, regional head of CEE, Central Asia and Africa, at crypto exchange Binance.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>“We commend Ukraine’s ambition to establish a strategic crypto reserve,” </strong></em>he told Cointelegraph. </p>

<p><em><strong>“Implementing such a reserve would necessitate significant legal changes, indicating that this process will not be swift.”</strong></em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>He added,<em> “Another positive aspect is that this initiative will likely lead to greater regulatory clarity in Ukraine, as the government will need to articulate its stance more clearly.”</em></p>

<p><a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ukraine-crypto-legalization-2025-no-tax-breaks">Ukraine was reportedly</a> planning to legalize cryptocurrencies in early 2025 with the finalization of a draft bill in coordination with the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), according to Daniil Getmantsev, head of the tax committee of the Verkhovna Rada.</p>

<p>On April 8, <a href="https://cointelegraph.com/news/ukraine-floats-23-percent-tax-crypto-excludes-stablecoins">Ukraine’s financial regulator</a> proposed taxing certain crypto transactions as personal income with a rate of up to 23%, excluding crypto-to-crypto transactions and stablecoins.</p>

<p><strong>Not all voices in Ukraine’s crypto industry are optimistic about the timing of the proposal.</strong></p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>”The country is broke. More than 50% of the budget is in grants and loans from the European Union,” </em>said Michael Chobanian, the founder of Ukraine-based Kuna exchange.</p>
</blockquote>

<p><strong><em>“The population is decreasing at the fastest rate in the world. Men are kidnapped and sent to the army against their will. What kind of BTC reserves are we talking about here? This is done only to divert your attention,” </em></strong>Chobanian claimed.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T07:30:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 03:30</span>


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330695
title: MCGUIRK: Have you noticed the price of butter?
author: ;John McGuirk
link: https://gript.ie/mcguirk-have-you-noticed-the-price-of-butter/
hash: ����v�o#���q��
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/kerrygold-butter-set-to-return-to-us-supermarket-shelves-after-disappearing-e1747322343467.jpg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Over the past year or so, like many people, I have watched the cost of butter creep inexorably upwards.</strong> A review of some old weekly shopping receipts tells me that in March of 2024, a pound of Kerrygold’s finest (no oil-based spreads in this house, thank you very much) has risen from €3.50 to €5.50 in the brand-name supermarket that supplies the McGuirk household. You can obtain butter elsewhere for less, but not by a whole lot less. That’s an almost 50% rise in the cost of a staple good over the last calendar year. The income in this house, let me tell you, has not risen at the same rate.</p>
<p>My wife and I talk in glum terms, quite often, about what we refer to as “the €50 rule”. That means, in essence, that while it is <em>technically possible</em> to leave the house and go to the local town without spending at least fifty quid, it is increasingly hard. You could just about live frugally if you bought only ingredients, and did most of the cooking at home yourself. Some people have time for that seven days a week. Not us.</p>
<p>I am conscious that I’m writing here from a position of relative privilege, as well: We are DINKS – double income, no kids – and we both have what would be considered relatively good jobs. Despite the increasing pressures on cash, there are many hundreds of thousands of Irish families in much worse positions than ours. Most especially those with two or three or four children, a mortgage or rent to pay, and two parents working, necessitating childcare.</p>
<p>What’s more, I am not sure that the full extent of people’s financial struggles in this Irish economy is appreciated or even admitted. This is particularly true of middle class taxpayers, where admitting to hardship is a stigma in and of itself.</p>
<p>I was speaking to one man this week, close enough of a friend to talk to me about such things, who “almost snapped”, he said, when a request came home from school for €50 to fund a school outing. I was shocked, because I thought he and his wife were doing well, and said as much to him. “Well on paper”, he said in response. “But day to day I have to check every penny I spend to make sure we don’t run out by the end of the month”.</p>
<p>I do not think he is alone.</p>
<p>The Government, we are told, will do nothing specifically to alleviate the pressure on families in this year’s budget. Indeed, the Taoiseach has specifically ruled out a targeted cost-of-living package in this year’s set of accounts. That means no repeat of previous years goodies, like a set of credits on your ESB bill to help you through the cold winter.</p>
<p>Economically, this makes sense, annoying though it is: Officially, the inflation rate in Ireland this year is just 1.8% year on year. That is a healthy number. The problem is that while the increase in costs has slowed, the massive inflation of 2023 and 2024 has not been reversed: A great many families are still paying 2025 bills on 2022 salaries.</p>
<p>Pumping a bunch of money directly into people’s pockets to deal with the cost of living in recent years, you’ll note, hasn’t actually done anything to reduce the cost of living. It has simply cushioned the impact of the pain families have been subjected to. But that’s a very inefficient way to spend public money: It doesn’t build anything or generate a return. It is literally just throwing cash into a black hole of spending, and probably making inflation slightly worse at the margins.</p>
<p>But the Government deciding not to do anything to help people this year would only be defensible if there was some kind of obvious and coherent economic strategy to bring down the cost of living in the medium term. And frankly, there is not one.</p>
<p>This is especially so because of the amount of the cost of living which is directly attributable to the Irish Government.</p>
<p>ESB bills alone, for example, are amongst the highest in Europe. This is a direct result of the Government explicitly favouring expensive energy over cheap energy, shuttering gas power plants in favour of subsidised windmills, and making power more scarce in the process. On fuel, Government taxes have Irish people paying some of the most expensive oil and fuel bills in the western world. Dublin Hotels are as expensive as they are as a direct result of the Government commandeering so much of the tourist sector for migrant accommodation. Insurance costs are still shunted higher by Government taxes and levies. Competition in that sector, as well as in most financial services, is limited.</p>
<p>And of course, the housing crisis that Government policy has foisted on the country does not help.</p>
<p>Across this country, real people are not just feeling the pinch. They are feeling excruciating economic pain. Many of them, in my experience, are suffering in silence. On paper, this is a rich country. In practice, the absence of a Government bailout for families this winter may well be devastating.</p>
<p>That is an indictment of the political record. One we do not talk about enough. A pound of butter should not cost €5.50.</p>

tags:
#Comment Ireland #Featured #Featured Picks #Highlights #Irish News #Budget #Cost of Living #Economics #Energy #fuel #inflation


guid: 6826b51c6660b2000128652e
author: ;Helga Zepp-LaRouche
hash: 5�P�a�9m�/�Q0�
tags: #New World Paradigm #LaRouche movement #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
title:
Complete [Webcast with Helga Zepp-LaRouche](https://youtu.be/ZRUc108woo8), Founder and Chairwoman Schiller Institute

content:
<p>Note: A technical error cut out 12 minutes of the transcript from the May 14 webcast in the briefing for May 15. We present the complete transcript here:</p>
<p><strong>Three Stooges Plus One Rally Behind the Puppet Zelenskyy</strong></p>
<p>Wednesday, May 14, 2025</p>
<p>HARLEY SCHLANGER: Hello and welcome to our weekly dialogue with Schiller Institute founder and chairwoman Helga Zepp-LaRouche. Today is Wednesday, May 14, 2025. I’m Harley Schlanger and I’ll be your host. You can send your questions and comments by email to Mrs. Zepp-LaRouche at questions@schillerinstitute.org, or post them on the chat page.</p>
<p>Now, Helga, we’re in the midst of a series of very high-profile diplomatic initiatives, with President Trump in Southwest Asia, a meeting between representatives of Ukraine and Russia scheduled for tomorrow in Istanbul, ongoing deliberations between the U.S. and Iran, and between India and Pakistan, trade talks between the U.S. and China, and on and on and on. The move from kinetic warfare to diplomacy would be a welcome step forward, but there are still many obstacles to overcome. Before we go to the specific cases, I’d like your thoughts on the overall dynamic underway, which you described as an historic wave toward a New Paradigm, following the Victory Day celebrations on May 9 in Moscow, and President Putin’s May 11 press conference.</p>
<p>HELGA ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think that the overall dynamic is that of a new world economic order. But before I come to that, I think President Trump in the last several days has clearly tilted the situation by trying to end the war in Ukraine—as you said, tomorrow is the meeting in Istanbul where from the Russian side it is unclear who will be there. Maybe Ushakov, an advisor of Putin; maybe Lavrov; maybe some surprise, in the form of Putin which I don’t think will happen, but it’s not to be excluded. In any case, it was reiterated from the Russian side that what is on the table is the Putin offer to return to the negotiations as they were in March-April 2022; which obviously would be the reasonable way to go. Zelenskyy is saying he will be there, he will be there before the Russians, whatever. If it would come to such a meeting and direct discussions would take place, it would be a great fortune.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, one can also see that the so-called “Coalition of the Willing,"—the British, the French, the Germans, the Poles—they are still playing around with putting European troops in Ukraine as a so-called “peace force,” which has been rejected by Russia. And also ongoing talk coming from the new German government of Merz of not disclosing from now on anymore what kinds of weapons will be delivered to Ukraine. Why do you need to deliver weapons, even by implication the Taurus, when there is a clear perspective for peace? Merz has basically said that the time when it will be said very clearly what kinds of weapons will be sent to Ukraine is over; from now on this will be done in secrecy. Kiesewetter, the de facto defense spokesman for Merz, implied that if Russia is not making compromises, the Taurus will be delivered. This is a clear break of the absolutely last red line, which would make Germany a war party.</p>
<p>Now Bundestag member Miersch from the SPD said the SPD will stick to their policy of no Taurus missiles to Ukraine because it would make Germany a war party. But I think this noise coming from the new government is very dangerous, and I think that given the fact that the delivery of the Taurus would make Germany a war party, given the fact that only German soldiers can operate that cruise missile; I think this is a degree of irresponsibility to even contemplate that. I have had discussions with some colleagues and friends and contacts in the last several days, and we were all agreeing that what is the most remarkable is the complete detachment of the present establishments from considering what will be the consequences of their actions. It is as if they are being pulled by some internal or external mechanism which has nothing to do with reality, but is some kind of a drive to keep doing what they have been doing to maintain a position of hegemony, of dominance.</p>
<p>I think it’s very, very important that the population gets more active and wakes up, because I think the biggest problem in Germany is still the passivity. When you think of what is at stake, that if Germany ends up in a conflict with Russia, the likelihood that nothing at all would be left of Germany is almost 100%. Then you have the actions of these politicians, which I find to be such a discrepancy that it’s scary. I am happy to announce that next week on this same format, the very famous and extraordinary rocket and nuclear missile expert Ted Postol will be on the program. He will prepare, especially for the German population, a clear message of what the deployment of the Taurus to Ukraine would mean for Germany. So, that is the immediate comment on that.</p>
<p>Naturally, it is good that there seems to be some agreement between the U.S. and China on trade issues. The Trump trip to the Emirates and the Arab states seems to be mainly dominated by business deals, arms sales from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately, it does not seem to be impacting the horrendous situation in Gaza, which has reached a point beyond any description.</p>
<p>SCHLANGER: We have a number of questions going in more deeply to these particular cases: First of all on Ukraine and Russia, several people wrote to say they have no trust that Zelenskyy is serious about peace, especially as the European leaders—Starmer, Macron, Merz, and Tusk, dubbed by one viewer as “the Three Stooges Plus One”—seem committed to permanent war. Do you believe that the insistence from Europe for a ceasefire first, rather than negotiating for an end to the war, is designed to provoke Putin to refuse to negotiate, so they can place the blame on him?</p>
<p>ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yeah. That was an obvious attempt by these four countries, or their leaders, to basically create a trap for Putin. But Putin, I think very swiftly judoed this: After all, he has a black belt for judo, so he has proven one more time that he can put these European leaders on the floor rapidly. So, I think that was successfully judoed.</p>
<p>SCHLANGER: And it seemed that Trump was backing him up, by saying that Zelenskyy should be there to negotiate.</p>
<p>ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Yes, yes. I think so. I think it’s very clear, that with all ifs and whatnot, you can say there is an agreement between Washington and Moscow to end that war, and the difference between those Europeans is becoming utterly clear to the whole world.</p>
<p>SCHLANGER: Now, you brought up the question of the horrendous situation in Gaza, with the Israelis committed to a policy of starving people, openly suggesting that that’s what they intend to do. But, at the same time, you have previously unthinkable developments, such as the U.S. going around Netanyahu to negotiate with Hamas, with Yemen, with Iran. A journalist from Iran asked this question: “Do you think President Trump has a coherent plan, or is he improvising day by day?”</p>
<p>ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I don’t think he has a long-term plan. I think he has an impulse, and I think he ended the war with Yemen, because even the <em>New York Times</em> had a lengthy article, saying that it completely failed; and several commentators in the recent period pointed to the fact, you know, it becomes more and more clear that military means to settle conflicts have utterly failed, all of them! Vietnam, complete failure! Afghanistan, shameful failure! Iraq, failure. Libya, catastrophe. And now, Ukraine: Ukraine is lost. Prime Minister Orban of Hungary, just at the recent meeting in Budapest, said, the Ukraine war has been lost and the Western leaders have a tremendous difficulty to admit it, because losing such a war is not such an easy thing to digest, and now the war with Yemen was lost, because Trump was presented with figures that the Pentagon had tremendous losses, you know, drones, jets, high costs, but no result. So Trump decided to end that war as well.</p>
<p>And I can only say that the Trump position on Iran seems to be that he, indeed, says, as long as Iran agrees to have no nuclear weapons, that this conflict can be settled, too. And given the fact that there’s still a fatwa in Iran it is contrary to Islamic religion to go for nuclear weapons, I think there is a good chance that that conflict can be settled peacefully, as well.</p>
<p>SCHLANGER: Now, the same reporter asks: “Is Trump’s present trip just about selling military hardware?” But then, there was also a question from Iran, “Do you have anything to report on the progress around the Oasis Plan?”</p>
<p>ZEPP-LAROUCHE: Well, I think that Trump, if you look at how he behaves, you know, many people have been noting that, and I’m not saying anything terribly surprising, but I think, if you want to understand how Trump acts, he does most things, what other people do with diplomacy, or visions or so forth, he does as a businessman. And he sees the way how to increase the influence of the United States in Southwest Asia, basically, by business deals. And this became clear in the speech he made in Saudi Arabia, where he said, he wants to see the region building cities, instead of throwing bombs against each other; making deals, creating stability through economic cooperation, so that is obviously fitting with, you know, Saudi Arabia seems to play both sides. They want to have on the one side, good relations with the BRICS; they are sort of in it, but not really. But at the same time, they have now a plan where they put pretty much their entire defense system on U.S.-delivered weapons.</p>
<p>So, I think that, as far as this goes, it’s definitely a step in the right direction, but it does not address the horrendous situation in Gaza, and I don’t want to anticipate your questions, Harley, but it’s really—this has reached a point, and in case our viewers are not fully in tune, let me just restate where we are: Yesterday, there was a UN Security Council meeting, where the main UN responsible for the situation, in the most dramatic way, said that this is an ongoing genocide; it fulfills all the criteria for the legal definition of what genocide is; and even Josep Borrell, people may remember, he was the so-called “EU Commission High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy,” the person who had said that Europe is a garden and the rest is a jungle. Now, he said, what is happening in Gaza fulfills with all legal criteria the condition of an ongoing genocide. Now, the UN representative at this UN Security Council meeting basically made the crucial point, he said: We have to confront the fact that future generations will ask us, what have we done to stop this, given the fact that it was absolutely known, and what is going on on the scene, Netanyahu just announced that the IDF will go in for another intervention in the next days. For 60 days, there has been no food, medical supplies, or water, so the official qualification is that there is now an official condition of famine; the whole Gaza at Level 4, and 22% of the people at Level 5, which means that they are dying like flies as we are speaking here! And the other ones are not far behind.</p>
<p>Now, the Israeli forces have basically dismantled the previously existing 400 distribution points for food, water and medical supplies, to only 4; and the service, given that there was a huge campaign to eliminate UNRWA from the scene, is now given to a private firm, where Tony Blair, of all people, is somehow involved. And that means that the starving people have to run through the rubble field to get to one of these distribution points, and then, they are not allowed to ever go back!</p>
<p>So, this is part of a generally acknowledged now, even by the mainstream media, the effort to completely go for ethnic cleansing, drive out the Palestinians altogether, and basically for Israel to take over the entirety of the Gaza Strip.</p>
<p>Now, there is an Australian journalist, Caitlin Johnstone, and she made a point, commenting on the fact that finally, after 19 months, some Western media are starting to report the horrendous truth about what is going on, by saying, “well, it is now clear, the wind is shifting, and it can no longer be hidden any more, and therefore, some media are starting to report, in a CYA mode (meaning “cover your a-dot-dot”), to be able afterwards, to say, “oh yeah, we reported on that.”</p>
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link:
https://eir.news/2025/05/news/webcast-with-helga-zepp-larouche-https-youtu-be-zruc108woo8-founder-and-chairwoman-schiller-institute/


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747375892
title: Peru arrests suspect in gold rush massacre
hash: �Y^P�ȵ�Ud ��?�
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
'Cuchillo’ (Knife) accused of organised crime, aggravated kidnapping and homicide over murder of 13 miners.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/peru-arrests-suspect-in-gold-rush-massacre?traffic_source=rss


guid: yt:video:BuIrXv-C_NU
title: Ibrahim Traore and his people
author: ;Middle Nation
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuIrXv-C_NU
hash: N�N����A s���
attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/v/BuIrXv-C_NU?version=3","title":"Ibrahim Traore and his people","type":"application/x-shockwave-flash","height":390,"width":640,"thumbnails":["https://i3.ytimg.com/vi/BuIrXv-C_NU/hqdefault.jpg"]}]}


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165404/feux-foret-incendie-asthme-urgence-hopital
title: Feux de forêt 2023 : les visites aux urgences pour des cas d’asthme en forte hausse
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165404/feux-foret-incendie-asthme-urgence-hopital
hash: ^ 7�l�63G?M˂#�
content:
<p>Une analyse de données ontariennes montre que le nombre de visites a augmenté de 11 à 24 % par jour.</p>

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/16x9/air-qualite-toronto.JPG","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165483/amazon-quebec-syndicat-entrepot
title: Amazon : des millions pour un immense centre de livraison ouvert deux jours
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165483/amazon-quebec-syndicat-entrepot
hash: ��k� \&$�)���f
content:
<p>Amazon dit qu'il est courant de cesser les activités dans des entrepôts qui ne répondent pas à ses standards.</p>

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/essentiels-info/16x9/boites-amazon-entrepot.JPG","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165305/garderies-criteres-selection-memoire-aqcpe-pl95
title: Admission en services de garde : la réforme de Québec va trop loin, selon les CPE
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165305/garderies-criteres-selection-memoire-aqcpe-pl95
hash: �t�'� NKp0ਈB'
content:
<p>Le projet de loi 95 équivaut à « jeter le bébé avec l'eau du bain », jugent les centres de la petite enfance.</p>

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/transit/16x9/photo-radio-canada-ivanoh-demers-garderies-cpe-stockshots-images-generiques-pour-cpe-centre-petite-enfance-educatrice-educateurs-famille-poupons-enfants-bebes-bebe-photo-prise-au-cpe-idee-fixe-a-montr-99335.jpg","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


title: La formation des infirmières victime des compressions budgétaires de Québec
hash: g�F��# �$C]�uҾ
guid:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165169/externat-formation-etudiantes-infirmieres-stages-compressions-quebec

content:
<p>La Fédération des cégeps et l’Ordre des infirmières dénoncent les restrictions dans l’offre d’externats. </p>

link:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165169/externat-formation-etudiantes-infirmieres-stages-compressions-quebec

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/16x9/infirmieres-infirmier-hopital-soins-clinique-poste-sante-urgence-rapport.jpg","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165456/presidence-trump-telerealite-en-direct
title: Analyse | La présidence Trump, une téléréalité en direct
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165456/presidence-trump-telerealite-en-direct
hash: +�!��,t�N�'R0�B
content:
<p>Depuis janvier, une nouvelle téléréalité a envahi les écrans, partout dans le monde. Appelons-la Trump 2.0.</p>

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/16x9/trump-66599.jpg","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


title: Les Autochtones plus susceptibles d’être condamnés à la prison, dit Statistique Canada
hash: ����! �"����pEH
guid:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-autochtones/2165349/autochtones-prison-peine-justice-statistque-canada

content:
<p>Les Autochtones sont également surreprésentés devant les tribunaux pour adultes à travers le pays.</p>

link:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/espaces-autochtones/2165349/autochtones-prison-peine-justice-statistque-canada

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-premiere/16x9/le1518-justice-balance-generique.jpg","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


guid: 1030918 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: The Nuclear Missile Launch Sites Buried Under Greenland's Ice Revealed
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/nuclear-missile-launch-sites-buried-under-greenlands-ice-revealed
hash: ֦�v�8a/DU�=.�tL
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">The Nuclear Missile Launch Sites Buried Under Greenland's Ice Revealed</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Camp Century, part of a secret Pentagon plan called Project Iceworm, was designed in the late 1950s as a hidden network of nuclear missile launch sites beneath Greenland’s ice. Built in 1959 and abandoned by 1967 due to unstable ice, the facility was meant to store 600 medium-range ballistic missiles.</p>

<p>Today, it lies buried under at least 100 feet of ice, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-us-camp-century-nuclear-base-91e8abea?st=SiTsNi&amp;reflink=article_email_share">according to the Wall Street Journal</a>, who wrote a lengthy piece on the sites this week.</p>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.31%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=QwUuJJda" data-link-option="0" href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.31%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=QwUuJJda"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="53abf58f-ca0d-401d-86dd-16a02281cc95" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="421" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.31%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=QwUuJJda" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption>Photos: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-us-camp-century-nuclear-base-91e8abea?st=SiTsNi&amp;reflink=article_email_share">WSJ</a></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p>Although presented as a research station, its real military purpose remained classified until 1996. Nina Erofeeva explained: <em>"The first [licenses] have been received for the creation of oil storage facilities, in the Krasnoyarsk territory. This was also an unusual case. Russia has never had oil storage facilities. Oil has always been pumped through pipelines. Given recent events and the lack of infrastructure in the Arctic zone, oil storage facilities are needed in several regions. Accordingly, oil will be placed in these oil storage facilities so as not to burn it during pilot development."</em></p>

<p>With 21 tunnels stretching nearly two miles under the ice, the base housed around 200 personnel and operated on nuclear power. Robert Weiss, a physician stationed there in the early 1960s, recalled: <em>“We did realize that it was important; that the Russians could come over the top of the Pole.”</em></p>

<p>Life at Camp Century was harsh but bearable. <em>“When I got there, it was blowing snow and minus 50 degrees,”</em> Weiss said, remembering how he spent weeks underground. <em>“It wasn’t very hard living from that standpoint.”</em> Joking about the isolation, he added: <em>“We used to say that there was a pretty girl behind every tree. Of course, there was one problem: There were no trees.”</em></p>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.39%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=bSDsW38N" data-link-option="0" href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.39%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=bSDsW38N"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="96e16eed-6d53-470d-b8f7-04353e6a4079" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="339" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.39%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=bSDsW38N" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption>Photos: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-us-camp-century-nuclear-base-91e8abea?st=SiTsNi&amp;reflink=article_email_share">WSJ</a></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p>The <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-us-camp-century-nuclear-base-91e8abea?st=SiTsNi&amp;reflink=article_email_share">Journal writes</a> that the base’s full scale wasn’t revealed until April last year, when NASA’s cryospheric scientist, Greene, captured the first complete images using advanced ice-penetrating radar. <em>“You see how the buildings and tunnels were connected, how people had to move about in their day-to-day life, and think what a wild experience it must have been to be stationed there,”</em> Greene said.</p>

<p>The U.S. presence in Greenland has long been controversial. During the Cold War, the U.S. operated 17 bases there and stationed about 10,000 troops. Today, fewer than 200 remain at Pituffik Space Base.</p>

<p>Tensions rose again when President Trump openly criticized Denmark for not securing Greenland and even suggested taking the island by force for U.S. security. Denmark reminded Washington of the 1951 treaty that already allows U.S. bases there but firmly rejected any takeover.</p>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.11%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=i0A2OnUp" data-link-option="0" href="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.11%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=i0A2OnUp"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f066ebf5-d17e-41b7-9ae6-78effdff808f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="194" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.20.11%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=i0A2OnUp" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption>Photos: <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/greenland-us-camp-century-nuclear-base-91e8abea?st=SiTsNi&amp;reflink=article_email_share">WSJ</a></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p>Denmark’s uneasy compromise with U.S. military interests goes back to World War II. In 1941, a Danish envoy in Washington handed control of Greenland’s defense to the U.S. without Copenhagen’s consent. After the war, the U.S. offered to buy Greenland for $100 million, but Denmark refused.</p>

<p><em>“In the 1940s Denmark learned that if you say no to the U.S., the U.S. will go ahead anyway,”</em> said Ulrik Pram Gad of the Danish Institute for International Studies. <em>“Denmark has been allowed to maintain sovereignty over Greenland by outsourcing some of it—security—to the U.S.”</em></p>

<p>The U.S.’s undisclosed storage of nuclear weapons in Greenland and a 1968 crash of a nuclear-armed B-52 near Thule Air Base caused long-lasting tensions. More recently, reports of increased U.S. espionage and Trump’s interest in buying Greenland have pushed Greenlanders closer to Denmark.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T08:15:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 04:15</span>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747368303
title: ‘New paradigm’: A fractured Portugal votes again, amid corruption cloud
hash: ��~�9W͠��b�cv4
tags: #Features
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Housing is unaffordable. Migrants are a flashpoint issue. The far right is here to stay. And Portugal is deeply divided.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2025/5/16/new-paradigm-a-fractured-portugal-votes-again-amid-corruption-cloud?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747327067
title: Influencer shot live on TikTok: How rampant is femicide in Mexico?
hash: �ty���ɖ��x ��x�
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Mexico has the fourth-highest rate of femicide in Latin America and the Caribbean. Valeria Marquez is the latest victim.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/influencer-shot-live-on-tiktok-how-rampant-is-femicide-in-mexico?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031105 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Is This The Most Honest Interview Ever?
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/most-honest-interview-ever
hash: ,�d�i��'� �d�l�
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Is This The Most Honest Interview Ever?</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><em><a href="https://modernity.news/2025/05/15/the-most-honest-interview-ever">Authored by Steve Watson via Modernity.news,</a></em></p>

<p><strong>Could this be the most up front and honest interview ever conducted?</strong></p>

<p><strong><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/illegal_0.jpg?itok=HDNW6GhJ" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/illegal_0.jpg?itok=HDNW6GhJ"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9010f0c9-c9c8-4aee-a886-a3e478a40f38" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/illegal_0.jpg?itok=HDNW6GhJ" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></strong></p>

<p>GB News reporter Patrick Christys went to Calais, the French port where migrants camp out waiting to jump into boats and cross the English Channel to illegally arrive in Britain.</p>

<p>He encountered one future surgeon or astronaut who told him <em><strong>“In England they will give me money, you can help me with anything I need.”</strong></em></p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Illegal alien: "Anything I need, give me" <a href="https://t.co/Ye4rKR0FtP">pic.twitter.com/Ye4rKR0FtP</a></p>
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) <a href="https://twitter.com/EndWokeness/status/1922641107046826077?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>Ok, yeah that’s true of the government, which currently literally gives these people debit cards and houses them in luxury hotels before providing benefits to help them buy houses.</p>

<p>When Christys asked why the people of Britain should give him money for a house, (we think) he replied “just give it to me.”</p>

<p>Christys’ expressions say it all. He’s all of us in this moment.</p>

<p>Here’s an extended version of the report from Christys:</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/iudYCpc-HtU" title="'Britain Will Give Me ANYTHING I Need!' | BRAZEN Migrant on Why He Chose to Come to UK" width="560" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin"></iframe></p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">He speaks almost no English. The only words he knows are “give me.” That sums up the whole problem. <a href="https://t.co/qDNMNJGfHC">https://t.co/qDNMNJGfHC</a></p>
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) <a href="https://twitter.com/MattWalshBlog/status/1922657571602633197?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-conversation="none" data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">That’s literally all of them. They’re not here to improve our countries, they’re here to exploit them.</p>
— David Santa Carla 🦇 (@TheOnlyDSC) <a href="https://twitter.com/TheOnlyDSC/status/1922642256906903981?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-conversation="none" data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Imagine thinking you can just show up in a new country and get everything for free! I believe the term for this is “GIMMIGRANT”!</p>
— Sarah Smith (@Defundmedianow) <a href="https://twitter.com/Defundmedianow/status/1922652037772177724?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-conversation="none" data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Send him back until he learns "please" in English, at least!</p>
— C.F. Dalton (His Lordship/His Majesty) (@cfdalton1) <a href="https://twitter.com/cfdalton1/status/1922658205181567362?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-conversation="none" data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">This is your country's immigration policy in 1 video</p>
— _RN03xx_ (@_RN03xx_) <a href="https://twitter.com/_RN03xx_/status/1922867633315102807?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-conversation="none" data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">He could be a Harvard professor the way he so clearly boiled down the leftist argument.</p>
— Anthony Galli (@RallyWithGalli) <a href="https://twitter.com/RallyWithGalli/status/1922653054500807151?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>Would this guy pass Kier Starmer’s “you must speak fluent English” test?</p>

<p><iframe data-secret="tMrUuNV7YY" frameborder="0" height="500" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://modernity.news/2025/05/13/uk-pm-starmer-mercilessly-dragged-for-telling-immigrants-to-speak-english/embed/#?secret=tMrUuNV7YY" title="“UK PM Starmer Mercilessly Dragged For Telling Immigrants To “Speak English”” — modernity" width="600" data-sanitized-class="wp-embedded-content" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe></p>

<p>Starmer has pivoted to this sudden “control the borders” stance because he knows he is finished politically if he doesn’t do something following massive gains for Reform UK in local elections and opinion polls.</p>

<p><iframe data-secret="nGTsi6AzEp" frameborder="0" height="500" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin" scrolling="no" security="restricted" src="https://modernity.news/2025/05/14/starmers-immigration-pledge-token-gesture-to-stave-off-populists/embed/#?secret=nGTsi6AzEp" title="“Starmer’s Immigration Pledge: Token Gesture To Stave Off Populists” — modernity" width="600" data-sanitized-class="wp-embedded-content" allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share"></iframe></p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">46% of the UK population want migration at less than zero or zero. Only 5% support migration at current levels.<br><br>
Despite relentless 'diversity is our greatest strength' social engineering, we've won the argument.<br><br>
Time to implement the will of the people.</p>
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) <a href="https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1922962894200709378?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>He’s now posting stuff like this every day…</p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Starmer's daily "I'm against illegal immigrants now, honest" post drops. <a href="https://t.co/FDENRy21Ht">https://t.co/FDENRy21Ht</a></p>
— m o d e r n i t y (@ModernityNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/ModernityNews/status/1922990549822218411?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 15, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Settlement in the UK is a privilege that is earned, not a right.</p>
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1922310240973791552?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">I know you're angry about immigration. I get it.<br><br>
Mark my words: I will take back control of our borders.<br><br>
That means cutting migration, ending the use of asylum hotels, and ramping up our efforts to stop small boat crossings.<br><br>
We will smash the people smuggling gangs at source.</p>
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1922564643433627824?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>He’s framing it in a way to solely blame the Conservative Party, despite the fact that mass immigration started under successive Labour governments and ballooned out of control under the Tories while Labour refused to oppose it as a central policy.</p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">The Tories lost control of our borders.<br><br>
My Labour government is going further than ever to tackle illegal immigration at its source.<br><br>
And Nigel Farage voted against it. <a href="https://t.co/BhOdJBTfm9">pic.twitter.com/BhOdJBTfm9</a></p>
— Keir Starmer (@Keir_Starmer) <a href="https://twitter.com/Keir_Starmer/status/1922634624955810173?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>Stamer himself openly spoke out in support of open borders for years.</p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Starmer is a hypocrite who believes in open borders.<br><br>
Here he is making the case for freedom of movement just a few years ago.<br><br>
Nobody believes a word he says. <a href="https://t.co/D2JBUxT740">pic.twitter.com/D2JBUxT740</a></p>
— Nigel Farage MP (@Nigel_Farage) <a href="https://twitter.com/Nigel_Farage/status/1921899717786587272?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>Until he does something meaningful to close the border and stop all <em>mass</em> migration, his words mean nothing.</p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Having immigration fall from 1 million a year to half a million a year isn't 'controlling immigration'.</p>
— Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) <a href="https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/1921856487791444113?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 12, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">You called this rhetoric dangerous and far-right, Keir. Now you’re parroting it to save your polling. This isn’t leadership, it’s cowardice in a suit. You haven’t taken back control, you’ve just handed in your spine for a focus group script.</p>
— Peter Malcolm (@pmal5098) <a href="https://twitter.com/pmal5098/status/1922327734337847391?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 13, 2025</a></blockquote>
<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Where was this 5 years ago?</p>
— Josh Barnett-AZ (@BarnettforAZ) <a href="https://twitter.com/BarnettforAZ/status/1922484177506623557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 14, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/3HDHRWwEhmc" title="They Lost Their Minds" width="560" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin"></iframe></p>

<p>* * *</p>

<p><em>Your support is crucial in helping us defeat mass censorship. Please consider donating via <a href="https://pauljosephwatson.locals.com/support" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">Locals</a> or check out our unique <a href="https://www.modernity.news/shop" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">merch</a>. Follow us on X <a href="https://x.com/modernitynews" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">@ModernityNews</a></em>.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T09:00:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 05:00</span>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747302813
title: Poland presidential election 2025: From migration to EU, what’s at stake?
content: The two main contenders may disagree on the EU, but they have both embraced anti-migrant sentiment.
hash: ��,�� +�i.�#��
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/poland-presidential-election-2025-from-migration-to-eu-whats-at-stake?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747384578
title: Nuggets and Thunder set up winner-take-all NBA showdown in Game 7
hash: uƜ�uy�ҠZ����
tags: #Sport
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Julian Strawther provides the spark off the bench, and even loses a tooth, as Nuggets force Game 7 against Thunder.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/5/16/nuggets-and-thunder-set-up-winner-take-all-nba-showdown-in-game-7?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330748
title: Macron shuts down calls for migrant referendum
author: ;Ben Scallan
link: https://gript.ie/macron-shuts-down-calls-for-migrant-referendum/
hash: ;dJ�!�C��O�R�
tags: #Featured #World News #Ben Scallan #Emmanuel Macron #Immigration
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Emmanuel-Macron.jpg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Dear Reader,</strong></p>
<p>It is a simple statement of fact that if you are looking for diversity of thought in the Irish media, you will struggle to find it. That is why we founded Gript – to serve the gap in the market left by so many of our colleagues, when they decided that the job of journalists was not to challenge consensus thought, but to herd around it, and defend it fiercely.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a media outlet that blames everything on the “far right” in Ireland, then you don’t have to go far to find one. If, by contrast, you are looking for a media outlet that looks beyond that cheap sloganeering, and tries to understand and report on the real concerns held by ordinary people – and a good few prominent people, albeit privately – then that is what we try to do here.</p>
<p>But we cannot do it without your support, and your subscription.</p>
<p>We reject Government funding, because, in our view, that would be the end of our independence. The moment we did so, we would begin looking over our shoulder, and wondering if our coverage of a particular issue might lead to that money being taken away. In time – not all at once, but slowly and inexorably – we would become just another safe, consensus, state-funded voice.</p>
<p>But there’s a bargain to be struck here: If you value our independence, then you must support it. If you want us to be answerable to you, then you must take a stake in our work.</p>
<p>What we try to do here is to be open, honest, and brave. That does not mean that you will always agree with us. It does mean that there will be times when we will annoy you, and publish things you disagree with: That’s part of the deal. We are independent, not servants of one cause, or another.</p>
<p>That is what media is supposed to be, but too often in Ireland no longer is. We are trying to change that, and we need your help. I am, therefore, asking for it, and would deeply appreciate a subscription at the level you can afford.</p>
<p>With gratitude,</p>
<p><strong>John</strong></p>


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165500/optimisme-ford-budget-2025-infrastructures-recession
title: Analyse | L’optimisme de Doug Ford
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165500/optimisme-ford-budget-2025-infrastructures-recession
hash: �޿�L9�?�x�?�`�
content:
<p>Le premier ministre espère que ses énormes investissements en infrastructure sauveront l'économie ontarienne.</p>

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/16x9/doug-ford-budget-2025-bethlenfalvy.JPG","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747388143
title: Trump says ‘a lot of people starving’ in Gaza
hash: �!/��G�Z~��D՟
tags: #Show Types
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
The US president says he is looking for a solution to ‘bad things’ happening in Gaza, including starvation.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/5/16/trump-says-a-lot-of-people-starving-in-gaza?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1030912 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Russia Readies Its First Underground Oil Storage Facility
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/russia-readies-its-first-underground-oil-storage-facility
hash: �����sk�#~�Պ
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Russia Readies Its First Underground Oil Storage Facility</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Russia’s first underground oil storage facility, built by a subsoil user in the Krasnoyarsk territory, is ready for trial operation, said Nina Erofeeva, head of the Oil and Gas Geology, Groundwater and Structures Department at the Federal Subsurface Resources Agency, <a href="https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/111428/#:~:text=May%2014%20(Interfax)%20-%20The,Resources%20Agency%2C%20or%20Rosnedra%2C%20told">according to Interfax.</a></p>

<p>Speaking at a conference on subsoil use, reserves appraisal, and regulations, Erofeeva said: <em>"The first [licenses] have been received for the creation of oil storage facilities, in the Krasnoyarsk territory. This was also an unusual case. Russia has never had oil storage facilities. Oil has always been pumped through pipelines. </em></p>

<p><em>"Given recent events and the lack of infrastructure in the Arctic zone, oil storage facilities are needed in several regions. Accordingly, oil will be placed in these oil storage facilities so as not to burn it during pilot development."</em></p>

<p><em><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.15.21%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=4S6pt-UK" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.15.21%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=4S6pt-UK"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="1b0a6403-2ab0-47aa-b0b8-f31e5a3346c5" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="308" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Screenshot%202025-05-15%20at%209.15.21%E2%80%AFAM.jpg?itok=4S6pt-UK" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></em></p>

<p>The idea of building underground oil storage was actively discussed in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic caused oil demand and prices to fall.</p>

<p>Interest in the idea grew again in March 2022 after Russian crude oil faced a global boycott. Experts from the Russian Gas Society said the ideal reserve volume should be 10-20% of annual production—about 55-100 million tonnes based on 2019 levels. They estimated it would take 10-12 years to build such facilities from scratch, but only 3-5 years if built in depleted oil fields.</p>

<p>Interfax <a href="https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/111428/#:~:text=May%2014%20(Interfax)%20-%20The,Resources%20Agency%2C%20or%20Rosnedra%2C%20told">writes</a> that in September 2023, Rosnedra’s Central Commission approved the project for this first underground storage facility.</p>

<p>At the time, Igor Shpurov, head of the State Mineral Reserves Commission, clarified: <em>"There is not a very large volume there, this for operating storage of oil, not strategic."</em></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T09:45:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 05:45</span>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747325394
title: Q&amp;A: India’s Neeraj Chopra on mental pressure, social media and 90m barrier
hash: X��|�|� U�� �°
tags: #Sport
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Chopra talks to Al Jazeera about the pressure of being a high-profile athlete in India and the 2025 season.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2025/5/16/india-neeraj-chopra-javelin-olympics-record-arshad-nadeem-world-athletics-doha-diamond-league?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747376535
title: Gaza death toll passes 53,000 as Israel drives towards ‘conquest’
hash: df��) w%/"g��
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Israel intensifies its bombardment of enclave as threatened, as curtain comes down on Trump's Middle East tour.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/gaza-death-toll-passes-53000-as-israel-drives-towards-conquest?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031109 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: MAHA Chief Medical Advisor Demands mRNA COVID Jab Moratorium
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/covid-19/maha-chief-medical-advisor-demands-mrna-covid-jab-moratorium
hash: K��^��Ʉ�:��+;�q
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">MAHA Chief Medical Advisor Demands mRNA COVID Jab Moratorium</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://jonfleetwood.substack.com/p/there-is-overwhelming-evidence-to"><em>Authored by Jon Fleetwood via substack,</em></a></p>

<p>British cardiologist and author Dr. Aseem Malhotra, the newly appointed Chief Medical Advisor to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative, says there is “overwhelming evidence” to ban the COVID-19 mRNA shots.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20%281%29_9.jpg?itok=L0naUya2" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20%281%29_9.jpg?itok=L0naUya2"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f213058f-4745-427b-a48c-1462df15bb69" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="360" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20%281%29_9.jpg?itok=L0naUya2" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>Dr. Malhotra is a former U.K. government and long-time ally of MAHA leaders like HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (RFK Jr.) and NIH head Dr. Jay Bhattacharya.</strong></p>

<p>He’s campaigned for taxes on sugary drinks, worked to lower the amount of Brits taking statins unnecessarily, and worked with government leaders to remove ultraprocessed foods from hospitals and schools, per <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-14703505/aseem-malhotra-new-head-maha-rfk-jr-health-plans.html">The Daily Mail</a>.</p>

<p>Though Malhotra is not formally employed by the federal government, he will serve as a leading voice of the movement and work closely with grassroots groups to advance its policy agenda.</p>

<p>In a Wednesday Twitter/X post, the British best-selling author (<a href="https://x.com/DrAseemMalhotra">@DrAseemMalhotra</a>) left no question where he stands on the COVID jab.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>“It’s what you’ve been waiting for,” he <a href="https://x.com/DrAseemMalhotra/status/1922704650907553941">wrote</a>. “There is OVERWHELMING evidence to call for a moratorium on the mRNA covid jabs &amp; help the vaccine injured. Let it rip.”</strong></em></p>
</blockquote>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20%282%29_7.jpg?itok=Ke_fHFIB" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20%282%29_7.jpg?itok=Ke_fHFIB"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="868a4191-f337-4322-9d51-a70b2f1a29dd" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="881" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/httpssubstack-post-media.s3.amaz%20%282%29_7.jpg?itok=Ke_fHFIB" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>On the same day, MAHA Action, an organization founded by former Team Kennedy leadership, announced Malhotra’s appointment:</p>

<blockquote>
<p>We are honored to announce that Dr. Aseem Malhotra has joined MAHA as our Chief Medical Advisor.</p>

<p>Dr. Malhotra is an NHS-trained Consultant Cardiologist and an internationally renowned authority in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of heart disease.</p>

<p>He has served as Honorary Council Member at Stanford’s Metabolic Psychiatry Clinic and Visiting Professor of Evidence-Based Medicine at the Bahiana School of Medicine. As Founding President of the Public Health Collaboration and a founding member of Action on Sugar, Dr. Malhotra has led national efforts to curb sugar intake and champion low-carb diets for type 2 diabetes.</p>

<p>He is the bestselling author of The Pioppi Diet, The 21 Day Immunity Plan, and A Statin-Free Life, and played a key advisory role for the UK government on the link between obesity and COVID-19. His publications have garnered an Altmetric score exceeding 10,000, one of the highest worldwide for a clinical doctor.</p>

<p>We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Malhotra to the MAHA team and look forward to the invaluable expertise and passion he brings to our mission of Making America Healthy Again.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Malhotra told Daily Mail, “It’s very clear to me that perhaps this is the most important issue that has galvanized MAHA and helped elect President Trump,” he said, referring to criticism of mRNA COVID injections.</p>

<p><em><strong>“There is a pandemic of the vaccine injured. We can’t make America healthy again if we don't address this.”</strong></em></p>

<p>The doctor believes there are “hundreds of thousands” of vaccine injuries and wants states to pass legislation halting use of the drugs because they have shown “more harm than good and never should have been rolled out in the first place.”</p>

<p>CDC data <a href="https://openvaers.com/">show</a> 38,541 deaths have been linked to the COVID jab since 2020, but if fewer than 1% of adverse events are reported—as a 2010 HHS-funded Harvard <a href="https://digital.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/publication/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-report-2011.pdf">analysis</a> suggests—the real number could exceed 3.8 million, compared to just 7,109 deaths that got propoxyphene <a href="https://www.citizen.org/article/petition-to-ban-all-propoxyphene-darvon-products/">pulled</a> after nearly 30 years on the market.</p>

<p><strong>Malhotra recently told Fox News he began to doubt the safety of the COVID shot after his father died after suffering cardiac arrest.</strong></p>

<p>You can watch the <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/video/6372813094112">segment</a> below:</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="410" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UTL7t6x3FfI" title="GRILLED ON THE HILL: RFK Jr. praised by top MAHA advisor following chaotic hearing" width="728" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin"></iframe></p>

<p>Now leading America’s most unapologetic health freedom initiative, Malhotra is making one thing crystal clear: the COVID shot crisis isn’t over—it’s just finally being confronted.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T10:30:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 06:30</span>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747380478
title: Russia targeting journalists in Ukraine hotel strikes: Report
hash: ��� ��<X].��-�U
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Reporters Without Borders and Truth Hounds found that Russia's attacks on hotels intended to 'discourage' war coverage.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/russia-targeting-journalists-in-ukraine-hotel-strikes-report?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747231729
title: ‘Xenophobic’: Neighbours outraged over Mauritania’s mass migrant pushback
hash: x �� �1VT*����
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Governments of Senegal and Mali are angry at how their nationals are being treated in the northwest African nation.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/xenophobic-neighbours-outraged-over-mauritanias-mass-migrant-pushback?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031086 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Jaw-Dropping Lawsuit Accuses 'New Soros' Of Proposing 'Threesomes', Other Sexual Harassment
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: J��+�E�ճ����
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Jaw-Dropping Lawsuit Accuses 'New Soros' Of Proposing 'Threesomes', Other Sexual Harassment</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><strong>Swiss billionaire Hansjorg Wyss—dubbed the <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2024-01-25/meet-the-swiss-billionaire-cast-by-us-conservatives-as-the-new-george-soros">“New Soros”</a> by conservatives for his funding of leftwing causes—has been accused of sexual harassment in what is being described as a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/us-news/left-wing-swiss-billionaire-hansjorg-wyss-proposed-threesomes-with-female-worker-and-future-hubby-wild-sex-harassment-suit-claims/">“jaw-dropping” lawsuit</a>. </strong></p>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/crop_with-Bloomberg_GettyImages-468292814_jpg_92a.jpg?itok=TEfej2tS" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/crop_with-Bloomberg_GettyImages-468292814_jpg_92a.jpg?itok=TEfej2tS"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="711cb745-9df3-4b94-a4ae-8d47610b4c2d" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/crop_with-Bloomberg_GettyImages-468292814_jpg_92a.jpg?itok=TEfej2tS" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption><em>Craig Barritt—Getty Images for Oceana</em></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p>The lawsuit, filed in California's San Luis Obispo County Superior Court last month, <strong>claims that Wyss exposed himself, “brazenly groped,” and made other unwanted sexual advances toward Madison Busby before forcing her to resign her job, </strong>according to a 'jaw-dropping' lawsuit filed in San Luis Obispo County Superior Court on April 25.</p>

<p><a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/us-news/left-wing-swiss-billionaire-hansjorg-wyss-proposed-threesomes-with-female-worker-and-future-hubby-wild-sex-harassment-suit-claims/">New York Post</a> reports: </p>

<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Busby, 30, met her now-husband Bryce Mullins in 2019, when he was helping Wyss manage the 2,700-acre winery, <a href="https://www.instagram.com/halterranch/p/BvxUdgAFRo8/">Halter Ranch</a>. </strong>The two later began dating and moved in together on the Paso Robles property. Mullins filed a separate suit April 1 alleging that Wyss fired him after Busby complained about the sexual misconduct in a private email to the billionaire — and reneged on providing him up to $30 million in equity interest in Halter Ranch after Mullins had operated the winery for six years, starting when he was just 26 years old.</em></p>

<p><em>Early on, <strong>Wyss “shared unwelcome stories about his sexual exploits and various affairs,</strong>” said<strong> “how much he enjoyed having a threesome, even with another man,” </strong>and suggested once<strong> “if Bryce is not behaving, you can join me in bed,</strong>” according to the Busby suit.The “abusive and predatory behavior” also included asking Mullins for “sexy” photos of Busby — and even groping her butt before she started working for him in September 2019, the suit alleges.</em></p>

<p><em><strong>Wyss eventually floated a “foursome” with the couple and another friend of his named “Lori” </strong>and even subjected Busby to a live phone sex Facetime call between himself and the woman, the suit goes on. </em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>By summer 2024, Busby had expressed discontent with what what calls “unreasonable expectations” and “inappropriate behavior and misconduct” exhibited by Wyss, who, the lawsuit claims, allegedly conceded that <strong>if Busby "ever went after me for sexual harassment, you would win.”</strong> She later quit her job, citing “her own anxiety and distress,” per the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/us-news/left-wing-swiss-billionaire-hansjorg-wyss-proposed-threesomes-with-female-worker-and-future-hubby-wild-sex-harassment-suit-claims/">lawsuit</a>. </p>

<p>A representative for the winery strongly denied the explosive claims laid out in the filing. </p>

<p>“Through all these years, they never complained about the owner’s conduct, or simply declined to spend so much time with him, until after they voluntarily left their employment at the winery in 2024,” a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/us-news/left-wing-swiss-billionaire-hansjorg-wyss-proposed-threesomes-with-female-worker-and-future-hubby-wild-sex-harassment-suit-claims/">statement</a> from the winery’s press representative reads. “The allegations in the complaint are not true and we intend to vigorously advance the facts that surround their time at the winery and their departure.”</p>

<p>Wyss is no stranger to sexual harassment allegations -<strong> having previously settled out of court for $1.5 million with a Colorado woman</strong> who claimed she experienced sexual abuse while employed at his Wyss Foundation, according to the <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2015/06/08/hillarys-no-ceilings-project-accepted-5-million-from-sexual-abuser/">Daily Caller</a>.</p>

<p><strong>Wyss, a foreign national who sold his medical device company Synthes for nearly $20 billion to Johnson &amp; Johnson</strong>, has poured millions of dollars into leftwing organizations focused on climate change through his own foundation and groups connected to the dark money network operated by the shadowy Arabella Advisors. He has also supported leftwing causes via his advocacy group the Berger Action Fund, which has <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dark-money-democrats-wyss-politics-elections-601d40cd01569190559d545418afe396">reportedly</a> donated $339 million to non-profits since 2016. </p>

<p>"<strong>What was important for him was to find out that he could exert an influence through his foundation,</strong>" Heidi Wyss, the billionaire's sister, once <a href="https://apnews.com/article/dark-money-democrats-wyss-politics-elections-601d40cd01569190559d545418afe396">wrote</a>. "At a single meeting, the board of trustees quite often allocated several million dollars. Thus behind the scenes a Swiss plays an important part in American politics." </p>

<p>“The Wyss Foundation and Berger Action Fund have no involvement with this matter,” a spokesperson said in a statement obtained by the <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/05/15/us-news/left-wing-swiss-billionaire-hansjorg-wyss-proposed-threesomes-with-female-worker-and-future-hubby-wild-sex-harassment-suit-claims/">Post</a>. “The organizations’ charitable activities are totally separate from those of the Halter Ranch.”</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2b72c002-e93c-4106-a724-520235269abc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="134" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/TBI_Ad_1500x400px_MemorialDay_1%282%29.jpg?itok=XNvyQwGv" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T10:55:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 06:55</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/jaw-dropping-lawsuit-accuses-new-soros-proposing-threesomes-other-sexual-harassment


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330755
title: No criminal checks for visa-free travellers to Ireland
author: ;Ben Scallan
link: https://gript.ie/no-criminal-checks-for-visa-free-travellers-to-ireland/
hash: ]�����>&�� t+��
tags: #Featured #Irish News #Ben Scallan #Crime #Department of Justice #Immigration #Visa
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Plane-1.jpg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Dear Reader,</strong></p>
<p>It is a simple statement of fact that if you are looking for diversity of thought in the Irish media, you will struggle to find it. That is why we founded Gript – to serve the gap in the market left by so many of our colleagues, when they decided that the job of journalists was not to challenge consensus thought, but to herd around it, and defend it fiercely.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a media outlet that blames everything on the “far right” in Ireland, then you don’t have to go far to find one. If, by contrast, you are looking for a media outlet that looks beyond that cheap sloganeering, and tries to understand and report on the real concerns held by ordinary people – and a good few prominent people, albeit privately – then that is what we try to do here.</p>
<p>But we cannot do it without your support, and your subscription.</p>
<p>We reject Government funding, because, in our view, that would be the end of our independence. The moment we did so, we would begin looking over our shoulder, and wondering if our coverage of a particular issue might lead to that money being taken away. In time – not all at once, but slowly and inexorably – we would become just another safe, consensus, state-funded voice.</p>
<p>But there’s a bargain to be struck here: If you value our independence, then you must support it. If you want us to be answerable to you, then you must take a stake in our work.</p>
<p>What we try to do here is to be open, honest, and brave. That does not mean that you will always agree with us. It does mean that there will be times when we will annoy you, and publish things you disagree with: That’s part of the deal. We are independent, not servants of one cause, or another.</p>
<p>That is what media is supposed to be, but too often in Ireland no longer is. We are trying to change that, and we need your help. I am, therefore, asking for it, and would deeply appreciate a subscription at the level you can afford.</p>
<p>With gratitude,</p>
<p><strong>John</strong></p>


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330758
title: BREAKING: State withdraws IPAS centre plan for Coolock
author: ;Dr Matt Treacy
link: https://gript.ie/breaking-state-withdraws-ipas-centre-plan-for-coolock/
hash: y�?�!'ċ<F��W �N
tags: #Comment Ireland #Featured #asylum #Coolock #IPAS #protests #withdrawn
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/COOLOCK-SAYS-NO.jpg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Dear Reader,</strong></p>
<p>It is a simple statement of fact that if you are looking for diversity of thought in the Irish media, you will struggle to find it. That is why we founded Gript – to serve the gap in the market left by so many of our colleagues, when they decided that the job of journalists was not to challenge consensus thought, but to herd around it, and defend it fiercely.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a media outlet that blames everything on the “far right” in Ireland, then you don’t have to go far to find one. If, by contrast, you are looking for a media outlet that looks beyond that cheap sloganeering, and tries to understand and report on the real concerns held by ordinary people – and a good few prominent people, albeit privately – then that is what we try to do here.</p>
<p>But we cannot do it without your support, and your subscription.</p>
<p>We reject Government funding, because, in our view, that would be the end of our independence. The moment we did so, we would begin looking over our shoulder, and wondering if our coverage of a particular issue might lead to that money being taken away. In time – not all at once, but slowly and inexorably – we would become just another safe, consensus, state-funded voice.</p>
<p>But there’s a bargain to be struck here: If you value our independence, then you must support it. If you want us to be answerable to you, then you must take a stake in our work.</p>
<p>What we try to do here is to be open, honest, and brave. That does not mean that you will always agree with us. It does mean that there will be times when we will annoy you, and publish things you disagree with: That’s part of the deal. We are independent, not servants of one cause, or another.</p>
<p>That is what media is supposed to be, but too often in Ireland no longer is. We are trying to change that, and we need your help. I am, therefore, asking for it, and would deeply appreciate a subscription at the level you can afford.</p>
<p>With gratitude,</p>
<p><strong>John</strong></p>


guid: yt:video:1lW8XsYZjS0
title: China US Geneva agreement, but core division remains. Grand philosophy behind US China tension.
author: ;Awakening Richard
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1lW8XsYZjS0
hash: �� �cL���'���7ɚ
attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://www.youtube.com/v/1lW8XsYZjS0?version=3","title":"China US Geneva agreement, but core division remains. Grand philosophy behind US China tension.","description":"In this episode of Awakening, I dive into the real reasons behind the recent U.S.-China tariff truce and why I’m skeptical of the so-called &quot;victory&quot; many claim it to be. This isn’t just about tariffs — it’s about how the U.S. dollar functions globally, and why America’s dominance relies on closing currency loops through trade. I break down the three core methods the U.S. uses to do this — conventional, unconventional, and artificial — and explain why none of them are working against China anymore. If you really want to understand the deeper mechanics behind global trade and power, this video is for you.\n\n0:00 - Intro\n1:24 - Currency circulation\n24:55 - Conclusion\n\nDonation and Support:\n\nhttps://buymeacoffee.com/windspiritz\n\nhttps://www.patreon.com/Awakening_Richard","type":"application/x-shockwave-flash","height":390,"width":640,"thumbnails":["https://i2.ytimg.com/vi/1lW8XsYZjS0/hqdefault.jpg"]}]}


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747389577
title: Was ex-FBI chief Comey’s ’86 47′ post calling for Trump assassination?
hash: !��nV�k�,=�NC��
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Critics say Comey's use of an old restaurant term referring to sold out or removed items is a call to violence.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/was-ex-fbi-chief-comeys-86-47-post-calling-for-trump-assassination?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1030624 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Living On Meds, Vitamin C, &amp; Ibogaine: American Precarity
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/living-meds-vitamin-c-ibogaine-american-precarity
hash: ､��?R�E'�&6�
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Living On Meds, Vitamin C, &amp; Ibogaine: American Precarity</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://charleshughsmith.blogspot.com/2025/05/living-on-meds-vitamin-c-and-ibogaine.html"><em>Authored by Charles Hugh Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,</em></a></p>

<p><em>Favoring capital over wage earners is the long-established policy of both political parties.</em></p>

<p><strong>Cribbing a line from a Grateful Dead song</strong> ("ain't it a shame") <strong>seems appropriate when discussing the prospects of America's burgeoning <em>Precariat Class</em></strong> who are increasingly depending on tips, side hustles, credit cards and <em>buy now, pay later</em> schemes to survive in a stupidly high-cost economy where all the media-hyped "GDP growth" benefits the few at the top, a fact well-documented here courtesy of FRED-Federal Reserve charts.</p>

<p><strong><em>Living on Meds, Vitamin C and Ibogaine</em> is not a high quality of life,</strong> and the only thing that has any real meaning is the quality of life of the majority of the citizenry, particularly the bottom 60% who own the fewest income-producing assets (i.e. capital).</p>

<p><strong>If the quality of life of the majority is tanking, all the glowing economic statistics in the world are nothing but the self-serving bleating</strong> of financial toadies, apparatchiks and sycophants who are <em>part of the problem, not the solution</em>, as all the statistics they tout are <em>misdirections</em>.</p>

<p><strong>My focus on the quality of life of America's Precariats is rooted in my own experiences as a Precariat.</strong> Construction is notoriously boom and bust, and when work dries up, precarity is the order of the day. In the brutal 1973-74 recession, work dried up and I emptied my boyhood piggy bank to buy a few gallons of gas.</p>

<p>In the brutal recession of 1980-82, I was down to around $100 cash, which in today's money is equivalent to about $25.</p>

<p><strong>Small business owners face a particularly intense level of precarity due to their responsibilities for employees and high fixed costs.</strong> When work finally picked up in 1983, cash flow didn't, as banks only release construction loan payments after the work has been done, so my partner and I had to take cash advances on our own credit cards to make payroll for our crews. We couldn't afford to pay ourselves so we lived on fumes until the cash flow increased--often a couple of months.</p>

<p>This is common in the world of small businesses: <em>after paying your crew, there's nothing left for you.</em></p>

<p><strong>The reality is even outwardly successful small businesses are going broke and the owners are burning out.</strong> Expenses are increasing in leaps and bounds, but there's only so much you can charge customers. So small business owners sacrifice themselves to try to make it work--something that is increasingly impossible.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.sfgate.com/food/article/sf-osito-restaurant-set-to-close-20316091.php">'Doesn't make financial sense': Michelin-starred SF restaurant calls it quits.</a> <em>"Even with the busiest the restaurant's ever been, it just doesn't make financial sense," Stowaway said. "We've done a lot of great things and we're proud, but the financial instability starts to affect everyone, and you have to make big changes."</em></p>

<p>Free-lance writing has always been poorly paid, and being paid $150 or $250 for an article was typical in the go-go 1990s. I was so far below "poverty level" (generally considered 80% of median income in one's region) in the high-cost, high-income San Francisco Bay Area that to me a "poverty level" income was like a king's ransom.</p>

<p><strong>We hear that high-paying jobs are stressful. Yes, they are, but precarity is stressful without the reward of ample compensation.</strong> Most people working for a living are stressed out, and so anti-anxiety / anti-depression meds, pain-killers, etc., are part of the self-medication menu, along with supplements (Vitamin C, etc.). But no med or supplement can fix what's actually broken--our economy and society.</p>

<p><strong>Ibogaine makes the list because it's being studied as a treatment for PTSD / traumatic experiences, addiction and severe depression.</strong> These have a high correlation with precarity, for those with these conditions have a difficult time escaping precarity, and precarity is itself a low-level trauma that few economic cheerleaders acknowledge.</p>

<p><a href="https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2023/05/425246/ibogaine-inspires-new-treatments-addiction-and-depression">Ibogaine Inspires New Treatments for Addiction and Depression:</a> <em>Targeted Molecules Are More Powerful Than SSRI Antidepressants and Avoid Dangerous Side Effects.</em></p>

<p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/05/health/psychedelic-ibogaine-what-to-know.html">What to Know About Ibogaine:</a> <em>Some researchers hope the drug, still illegal in the United States, may be considered as a treatment for addiction, PTSD and brain injuries.</em></p>

<p><strong>Beneath the endlessly hyped "growth" of the economy, precarity and immiseration are the order of the day for the bottom 60% as wages' share of the national income has continued its 50-year decline.</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bottom90workers2.jpg?itok=BQZ417FP" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bottom90workers2.jpg?itok=BQZ417FP"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="36d801e3-15c0-4b23-ad6d-6b95cdd315bf" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="266" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bottom90workers2.jpg?itok=BQZ417FP" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Where did the trillions of dollars of "growth" go? To those who own capital, not wage earners. That's the only possible outcome of the system in its current configuration. <a href="https://www.oftwominds.com/blogapr25/21st-century-win-lose4-25.html">The Winners and Losers in 21st Century America.</a></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/wages-share4-25a_0.jpg?itok=kKlDpA-7" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/wages-share4-25a_0.jpg?itok=kKlDpA-7"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b2c808cf-94b1-4195-935a-b2a5ab3d315e" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="417" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/wages-share4-25a_0.jpg?itok=kKlDpA-7" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>The reality of the American economy is people earning $22/hour and $24/hour are living in their cars/vans because rents are unaffordable.</strong> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/11/realestate/colorado-homeless-parking-lot-affordable-housing.html">In a Snow Paradise, They Live in This Parking Lot:</a> <em>People experiencing homelessness can sleep in their cars in this wealthy ski town in Colorado, but only if they have a job.</em></p>

<p><strong>So much for trickle-down:</strong> the Federal Reserve gooses M3 money supply, and guess who gets the "free money": <a href="https://www.wsj.com/economy/1-trillion-richest-families-wealth-increase-bc13874a">$1 Trillion of Wealth Was Created for the 19 Richest U.S. Households Last Year</a> <em>The richest of the rich in America control record slice of nation's wealth.</em> (WSJ.com)</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/M3-money-supply5-25a.jpg?itok=YpnVMIU1" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/M3-money-supply5-25a.jpg?itok=YpnVMIU1"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="84a66e80-afa6-4aa3-9a4a-81d44a4c5b0d" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="409" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/M3-money-supply5-25a.jpg?itok=YpnVMIU1" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>Here are the facts: the bottom 50% own a wafer-thin $4 trillion (2.5%) of the nation's $160 trillion in household net worth.</strong> The top 10% own $107 trillion and the top 1% own $49.4 trillion--more than ten times the net worth of half the households in America.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/net-worthUSD-bottom50a_0.jpg?itok=39got0TH" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/net-worthUSD-bottom50a_0.jpg?itok=39got0TH"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ec3db56c-7128-43d2-851d-631ec1170ad1" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="418" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/net-worthUSD-bottom50a_0.jpg?itok=39got0TH" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>The bottom 50%'s share of income-producing assets is signal noise.</strong> The real money is made not by owning a depreciating vehicle or a family home, it's made by owning income-producing assets such as stocks, bonds, rental housing, etc., and 90% of income-producing assets are owned by the top 10%.</p>

<p><strong>Since the bottom 60% earn such a modest share of the nation's income, they pay only a sliver of the total federal income tax.</strong> So cutting taxes doesn't boost the bottom 60% at all; it simply diverts more of the national income to the 10% who collect the lion's share of both income and capital gains.</p>

<p><strong>Favoring capital over wage earners is the long-established policy of both political parties.</strong> This study found that $80 trillion in capital gains has been sheltered from taxation by policies that reward the already-rich. <a href="https://equitablegrowth.org/working-papers/the-distribution-of-capital-gains-in-the-united-states/">The distribution of capital gains in the United States</a>.</p>

<p><strong>The taboo that can't be acknowledged lest the status quo collapse is that the only way to reduce the precarity of the bottom 60% is to restore the balance between labor and capital</strong> by shifting the gains of the economy to wage earners at the expense of the owners of capital.</p>

<p><strong>If we can't manage this restoration, then the status quo will collapse anyway.</strong> When people can no longer make enough to pay for essentials, history is rather definitive on the outcome: the status quo is overthrown, and nobody will care whether the nobility is Democrat or Republican.</p>

<p>*  *  *</p>

<p><em><a href="https://www.patreon.com/charleshughsmith">Become a $3/month patron of my work via patreon.com</a>.</em></p>

<p><em><a href="https://charleshughsmith.substack.com/">Subscribe to my Substack for free</a></em></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T11:20:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 07:20</span>


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139023
title: Immigrant-Invader Bites Off German Policewoman’s Ear
author: ;pcr3
link: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/immigrant-invader-bites-off-german-policewomans-ear/
hash: d"aZ�wb� �KѴ�u�
tags: #Guest Contributions
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Immigrant-Invader Bites Off German Policewoman’s Ear</p>
<p>The reason not to have immigrant-invaders and female police.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.infowars.com/posts/african-bites-off-german-police-womans-ear">https://www.infowars.com/posts/african-bites-off-german-police-womans-ear</a><span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139019
title: Colorado Murder Rate Dives After ICE Deports Tren de Aragua Gangbangers
author: ;pcr3
hash: K�;���N���Ĕhʻ
tags: #Guest Contributions
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Colorado Murder Rate Dives After ICE Deports Tren de Aragua Gangbangers</p>
<p>But the anti-white Democrats still protect the immigrant-invaders.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/05/14/colorado-murder-rate-dives-after-ice-deports-tren-de-aragua-gangbangers/">https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/05/14/colorado-murder-rate-dives-after-ice-deports-tren-de-aragua-gangbangers/</a><span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>

link:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/colorado-murder-rate-dives-after-ice-deports-tren-de-aragua-gangbangers/


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139021
title: Perhaps Trump Will Free America from Satanic Israel’s Control
author: ;pcr3
hash: F|�z��>3��{/�(J
tags: #Guest Contributions
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Perhaps Trump Will Free America from Satanic Israel’s Control</p>
<p>Donald of Arabia</p>
<p><a href="https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/donald-of-arabia?utm_campaign=email-half-post&amp;r=15k3qo&amp;utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email">https://www.thefocalpoints.com/p/donald-of-arabia?utm_campaign=email-half-post&amp;r=15k3qo&amp;utm_source=substack&amp;utm_medium=email</a><span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>

link:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/perhaps-trump-will-free-america-from-satanic-israels-control/


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139035
title: Ex-FBI director Comey under investigation for ‘call to assassinate Trump’
author: ;pcr3
hash: ��{6A�Bx5��<
tags: #Guest Contributions
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Ex-FBI director Comey under investigation for ‘call to assassinate Trump’</p>
<p><a href="https://www.rt.com/news/617661-comey-accused-threats-trump/">https://www.rt.com/news/617661-comey-accused-threats-trump/</a><span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>

link:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/ex-fbi-director-comey-under-investigation-for-call-to-assassinate-trump/


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330765
title: Sentence delayed for mother who faked her death
author: ;Fatima Gunning
link: https://gript.ie/sentence-delayed-for-mother-who-faked-her-death/
hash: ���_��@o+�����
tags: #Featured #Irish News #Crime #fake death #Fraud
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/IMG_7785.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>A woman who faked her own death in order to avoid the attention of Gardaí has had her sentencing delayed again before the Circuit Criminal Court before.</strong></p>
<p>This morning, Ms. Justice Orla Crowe, delayed passing sentence on <span>Amy McAuley (35) who has an address at Connagh, Fethard-On-Sea, Co. Wexford, for a second time.</span></p>
<p><span>Judge Crowe said that the court wanted the assistance of the Probation Service in assessing the most appropriate way of dealing with the mother of one, and that the court had read “extensive documentation” on her. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that McAuley is currently residing in Dublin with her parents in order to facilitate her Dublin court appearance, and an application was granted to vary her sign on conditions from a Garda station in New Ross to Blanchardstown Garda station where she is to continue signing on twice a week.</span></p>
<p><strong>Case History</strong></p>
<p><span>During the hearing of the case, counsel for the State described the facts as “somewhat complicated and unusual”. </span></p>
<p><span>McAuley pleaded guilty to multiple charges related to incidents of fraud where she purchased mobile phones using false instruments and subsequently used false instruments to avoid Gardaí, ultimately faking her own death. </span></p>
<p><span>Sergeant Eoin Kirwan gave evidence of how Garda Des Rogers of Pearse St. Garda station had been contacted by Mark Kelly, a representative of 3 Mobile, on the 6th of December 2020 in relation to suspected fraud in respect of the ordering of 9 mobile phones with a combined value of €3,199.</span></p>
<p><span> The court heard that the phones were ordered online in the name of the CEO of Yield Lab, Sinead Ford, who when contacted by Gardaí, said she had placed no such order. </span></p>
<p><span>A Nicole Deacy was used as a “point of contact” for the transactions where a copy of the woman’s passport and a Panda waste receipt were fraudulently supplied. </span></p>
<p><span>When contacted, Ms. Deacy said that she had not been involved in any transaction where the order was to be sent to an address at Bramble Park Bridgetown, Wexford, the then address of the defendant. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that Ms. Deacy had previously employed the defendant as a childminder, and that the copies of her personal information had been obtained at this time. </span></p>
<p><span>Deacy supplied a photograph of McAuley’s passport which she had taken when employing her.</span></p>
<p><span>When Garda Rogers contacted McAuley in May 2021 to inform her of the investigation into the purchase of the mobile phones and expressed his wish to interview her, she acknowledged this and agreed to liaise with Pearse St. station</span></p>
<p><span>This was during the covid pandemic, the court heard, and so the defendant made a note of Garda Rogers’ phone number. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that the defendant supplied a medical certificate from the Rotunda Hospital saying that she was not fit to be interviewed due to “illness” and her “mental health” made out by a John Hastings, which later turned out to be false. </span></p>
<p><span>In December of the same year, Gda Rogers was contacted by a woman who claimed to be McAuley’s sister who said her name was Gillian.</span></p>
<p><span>The woman claimed that McAuley had “gone into treatment” and was therefore unavailable to cooperate with Gardaí, however this woman was later discovered to have been the defendant herself although she does have a sister by that name. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that at the time Gardaí had no reason to suspect they were being misled and accepted the communications were genuine. </span></p>
<p><span>It was accepted that McAuley had acted alone in the deception, which she later admitted when interviewed by Gardaí.</span></p>
<p><span>On the of 26th May 2023, contact was made from a private number by a woman who said her name was Winnie Paddion who said she had found Gda Roger’s phone number on the mobile of her sister who she claimed had passed away. </span></p>
<p><span>This woman, who also turned out to be the defendant, assured Gda Rogers that she would supply him with a death certificate in respect of her sister. </span></p>
<p><span>On the 30th of May 2023, Gda Rogers received an email containing a death certificate purporting to be from a firm of solicitors, which turned out to have been sent by McAuley herself. </span></p>
<p><span>At the time of receipt, the state accepted that communication was genuine and proceedings that were in place against the defendant ended. </span></p>
<p><span>A phone call was made to Gda Rogers purportedly by a real solicitor named Ciara McLoughlin who works with Carter Anhold Solicitors, but Ms. McLoughlin, who had previously represented McAuley in another matter, said that she had not made this call when contacted. </span></p>
<p><span>It was noticed that the phone number supplied for Ms. McLoughlin was the same phone number that had been given as contact for Winnie Paddion. </span></p>
<p><span>When Gda Rogers checked RIP.ie for a death notice in respect of McAuley, he saw that one had been uploaded, but had been removed after the site was contacted to say that the defendant was not in fact dead. </span></p>
<p><span>A second RIP.ie notice in respect of the defendant was uploaded on the 4th Jan 2023 after a death notice was sent from a Shankill Funeral Directors with an address in Belfast, which turned out to be a fake certificate sent from a fake company by the defendant. </span></p>
<p><span>The RIP.ie notice said that McAuley had died on the 26th of December and that her remains had been reposed at St. Mary’s Church Lucan, and had been cremated at Mount Jerome.</span></p>
<p><span>When Gda Rogers contacted the local parish priest, he was told that there was no funeral for someone by that name. Mount Jerome said that nobody with that name was cremated. </span></p>
<p><span>On the 6th of June 2023, Gda Rogers went to the registry of births, deaths, and marriages where he was shown two death certificates in respect of McAuley, one of which was made out to her name in Irish, Amy Nic Amhlaoibh. </span></p>
<p><span>A doctor John Straton had signed one of the death certificates but when he was contacted said he was not aware of the supposed death.</span></p>
<p><span>The other death certificate was signed by a Dr. Paul Deacy who, in like manner, said he was not aware of it. </span></p>
<p><span>Gda Rogers received information that McAuley was likely to attend a wedding in Enniscorthy in June 2023 and obtained CCTV footage from the Riverside Hotel from which he was able to identify the defendant. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that by this time she had married and was the mother of a young child. </span></p>
<p><span>A search warrant was obtained which was executed on the 23rd of June 2023.</span></p>
<p><span>When Gardaí arrived at the address the door was answered by the defendant’s husband, who the court heard was completely unaware of his wife’s offending. </span></p>
<p><span>A number of documents that were significant to the investigation were found and laptops were seized. </span></p>
<p><span>When McAuley was interviewed by Gardaí she made “full admissions” and was not in any way “difficult”, the court heard. </span></p>
<p><strong>Theft of money from former employer. </strong></p>
<p><span>The court heard that during the course of the investigation into the phones, it was realised that McAuley was also the subject of proceedings into the theft of large sums of money in relation to a former employer in 2015. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that this fraud had been reported, but due to delays and the onset of the covid pandemic the investigation hadn’t gone anywhere. </span></p>
<p><span>This charge, to which the defendant pleaded guilty, relates to the possession of monies that the person knows or believes (or is reckless as to whether or not) the property is the proceeds of criminal conduct.</span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that at that time McAuley was employed as an accountant with MultiBank and had directed repayments from clients to be sent her an account in her own name.</span></p>
<p><span>Over €49,000 was transferred to McAuley in the form of repayments from Allied Beef Processors in 10 invoices intended for MultiBank, a sum which has not been recovered. </span></p>
<p><span>Tipperary Coop made repayments of €6,550.78 o which were unknowingly sent to the defendant’s PTSB account. The court heard that this money was repaid in two transactions of  €5,000 and €1,550 euro. </span></p>
<p><strong>Previous court appearance</strong></p>
<p><span>The accused had previously received a two year suspended sentence in relation to the theft of €111,000, which was amended by the Court of Appeal as being overly lenient. </span></p>
<p><span>The COA extended the period of suspension of the sentence from two to ten years with a view that the defendant would be able to return the stolen money within the time frame, however the Circuit Criminal Court heard today that to date only €30,000 has been repaid.</span></p>
<p><strong>Payments made due to supposed death. </strong></p>
<p><span>The court heard that when she falsely claimed to have died, McAuley was working remotely at a UK company that operated a “death in service benefit” program. </span></p>
<p><span>The company was contacted by a woman claiming to be Winnifred Paddion who said that she was now in custody of McAuley’s young son after the defendant had supposedly passed away due to “maternity related complications”. </span></p>
<p><span>The woman, who turned out to be the defendant,  said that she needed the benefit – which was over €96,000 – to be paid out “up front” because the child needed an operation. </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard that the company transferred a sum of €9,000 “on good will” to an AIB account belonging to the defendant with the rest to be paid in trust to the aforementioned Ciara McLoughlin of Carter and Anhold Solicitors, who was not in any way involved in the scheme. </span></p>
<p><span>The balance of the benefit money was not transferred. </span></p>
<p><strong>Arrest and interview by Gardaí. </strong></p>
<p><span>McAuley was arrested on the 5th of January 2024 and conveyed to Pearse St. Garda station where she made full admissions. The offences were committed during the term of the suspended portion of her prison sentence which was amended by the Court of Appeal.  </span></p>
<p><span>The court heard she has four previous convictions all of which relate to the 30th of November 2015.</span></p>
<p><span>Defending counsel, Ms. Rebecca Smith JC, argued that her client had pleaded guilty to all the matters before the court today and that she suffered from mental health issues. </span></p>
<p><span>Sgt. Kirwan accepted that McAuley is now on medication but was “definitely not” at the time of her offending. </span></p>
<p><span>Ms. Smith argued that the defendant’s young son also has a number of “difficulties” and that her client’s reasoning behind faking her own death was that she did not want to leave him if she was sent to prison. </span></p>
<p><span>She admitted to her wrongdoing “Having realised the jig was up”, she said, adding that at one time McAuley had moved to Galway to “run away from her troubles”. </span></p>
<p><span>The stolen money was used to pay for expenses like rent, medication, and daily costs, she said. </span></p>
<p><span>There was no evidence that the funds have been used to pay for holidays to fund and extravagant lifestyle, Smith said.</span></p>
<p><span>At the time McAuley said her life had “spiralled out of control” and that she was experiencing depression. </span></p>
<p><span>She admitted to making the various calls in which she had “pretended to be other people” but said that she didn’t remember all of them. </span></p>
<p><span>McAuley has said that she did what she did for her son. She had become pregnant again since, but lost that child due to a miscarriage, the court heard. </span></p>
<p><span>McAuley was hospitalised due to an overdose in recent times, her counsel argued. </span></p>
<p><span>She had apologised for her behaviour and has shown remorse, Ms. Smith said, adding that she is in “constant” contact with the Gardaí in order to abide by her bail conditions. </span></p>
<p><span>The DPP advised the court that the maximum sentence for attempts at perverting the course of justice is life in prison.</span></p>


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139028
title: Democrats block white political refugees from refuge in America
author: ;pcr3
hash: �԰s �@Db�^b��
tags: #Articles &amp; Columns
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Democrats block white political refugees from refuge in America</p>
<p>Paul Craig Roberts</p>
<p>Here is Richard Stengel, a talking head “political analyst” at MSNBC and former blah-blah person in the Obama regime.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Apparently, the Democrats are blocking white South Africans from refuge status in the United States.  <a href="https://x.com/amuse/status/1922988576544858194">https://x.com/amuse/status/1922988576544858194 </a></p>
<p>Stengel’s excuse, explained in the video, is that South Africa was once an apartheid state.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>That was three decades ago before the white government voluntarily gave up rule to the blacks.</p>
<p>Stengel alleges that the South African refugees are the “descendants of the people who created the most diabolical system of white supremacy in history.” He goes on to demonize white people and drags in the Confederacy.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>His argument is that the sins of the fathers are visited upon the sons.</p>
<p>Stengel is  Jewish and so he says nothing about the Apartheid state of Israel in which only Jews can be citizens–thus making Israel the only ethnically pure state on earth–and which is in the final stages of appropriating the entirety of Palestine, all of which was stolen from the Palestinian people in order to complete the creation of an Apartheid Israeli state.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>But it is OK for Jews, God’s Chosen People, to do this.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>But others who do it are diabolical white supremacists.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>Stengel was editor of Time Magazine for 7 years, so you can see how Americans came to be a brainwashed people.</p>

link:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/democrats-block-white-political-refugees-from-refuge-in-america/


guid: 1031254 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: "We're Going To Be Fair": Trump Will Set Tariff Rates For Other Nations In Weeks
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: w6�G��eLX�<@�6
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">"We're Going To Be Fair": Trump Will Set Tariff Rates For Other Nations In Weeks</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>President Trump has departed Abu Dhabi aboard Air Force One, concluding a historic week in the Middle East that saw the signing of more than a <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-touts-14-trillion-investment-ai-other-sectors-uae-final-mideast-stop">trillion dollars in deals</a> aimed at advancing his 'America First' agenda. </p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">.<a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> boards Air Force One in Abu Dhabi — marking the end of his HISTORIC week in the Middle East.<br><br>
🇺🇸🇸🇦🇶🇦🇦🇪 <a href="https://t.co/npvAVuJvGj">pic.twitter.com/npvAVuJvGj</a></p>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1923321748440694913?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>Ahead of his departure from the Middle East, President Trump addressed business leaders in Abu Dhabi, stating that his administration will unilaterally set tariff rates for U.S. trading partners within the next two to three weeks.</p>

<p>"We just reached a fantastic trade deal with the United Kingdom. And we have another big one that we reached with China," the president said. </p>

<p>He continued, "At the same time, we have 150 countries that want to make a deal—but you're not able to see that many countries." He added that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick "will be sending letters out essentially telling people what "they'll be paying to do business in the United States."</p>

<p>"I think we're going to be very fair. But it's not possible to meet the number of people that want to see us," Trump said. </p>

<p>The president did not specify which countries want to make deals, nor the ones that will receive letters. </p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Trump: And we have.. 150 countries that want to make a deal but you’re not able to see that many countries so at a certain point over the next two to three weeks… we’ll be telling people what they will be paying to do business in the United States. <a href="https://t.co/iZdCfb8ksh">pic.twitter.com/iZdCfb8ksh</a></p>
— Acyn (@Acyn) <a href="https://twitter.com/Acyn/status/1923290154309202129?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>Talks remain ongoing with top trading partners, including Japan, South Korea, India, the EU, and China, with recent progress...</p>

<ul><li>
	<p><em><a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/trump-reveal-major-trade-deal-between-us-uk">Trump Hails U.S.-U.K. Trade Deal As "Breakthrough", Says Lower Barriers Will Unlock Transatlantic Growth</a></em></p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p><em><a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-china-reach-agreement-lower-tariffs-90-day-cool-period">U.S., China Reach Agreement To Lower Tariffs In 90-Day Cool-Off Period</a></em></p>
	</li>
</ul><p>However, the administration appears to have abandoned comprehensive negotiations in favor of setting terms directly for many countries due to what Bloomberg says "the lack of manpower and capacity makes it impossible to hold concurrent negotiations with all the countries caught up in the president's so-called reciprocal tariffs plan." </p>

<p>Earlier this week, the U.S. and China <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-china-reach-agreement-lower-tariffs-90-day-cool-period">announced</a> a breakthrough trade agreement that temporarily lowered tariffs on each other's products for 90 days. The U.S. dropped its 145% on Chinese goods to 30%, while China lowered levies from 125% to 10%. </p>

<p>Goldman illustrates the rollercoaster ride of the tit-for-tat trade war between the U.S. and China in recent months, as well as the temporary cooling period aimed at de-escalating tensions.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-14_08-47-23.png?itok=rVqxCfRf" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-14_08-47-23.png?itok=rVqxCfRf"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="bf9298b4-0fd7-4558-bf2e-99d765c41e91" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="363" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-14_08-47-23.png?itok=rVqxCfRf" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>On Wednesday morning, Goldman analyst Jerry Shen told clients, "We Now Expect the Effective Tariff Rate to increase by 13pp." </p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-14_08-47-37.png?itok=wAsRQU9a" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-14_08-47-37.png?itok=wAsRQU9a"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f40fd620-af5f-49ae-ad44-0ec1f867669c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="242" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-14_08-47-37.png?itok=wAsRQU9a" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Last week, Trump stated, "We have four or five other deals coming immediately. We have many deals coming down the line. Ultimately, we're just signing the rest of them in."</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2b72c002-e93c-4106-a724-520235269abc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="134" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/TBI_Ad_1500x400px_MemorialDay_1%282%29.jpg?itok=XNvyQwGv" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T13:25:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 09:25</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/think-were-going-be-fair-trump-will-set-tariff-rates-other-nations-weeks


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330768
title: Jilted lover punched new flame and followed him in car
author: ;Fatima Gunning
link: https://gript.ie/jilted-lover-punched-new-flame-and-followed-him-in-car/
hash: �,� �a�y *O�
tags: #Featured #Irish News #Crime #domestic violence
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/8112199-e1747395984134.jpeg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Dear Reader,</strong></p>
<p>It is a simple statement of fact that if you are looking for diversity of thought in the Irish media, you will struggle to find it. That is why we founded Gript – to serve the gap in the market left by so many of our colleagues, when they decided that the job of journalists was not to challenge consensus thought, but to herd around it, and defend it fiercely.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a media outlet that blames everything on the “far right” in Ireland, then you don’t have to go far to find one. If, by contrast, you are looking for a media outlet that looks beyond that cheap sloganeering, and tries to understand and report on the real concerns held by ordinary people – and a good few prominent people, albeit privately – then that is what we try to do here.</p>
<p>But we cannot do it without your support, and your subscription.</p>
<p>We reject Government funding, because, in our view, that would be the end of our independence. The moment we did so, we would begin looking over our shoulder, and wondering if our coverage of a particular issue might lead to that money being taken away. In time – not all at once, but slowly and inexorably – we would become just another safe, consensus, state-funded voice.</p>
<p>But there’s a bargain to be struck here: If you value our independence, then you must support it. If you want us to be answerable to you, then you must take a stake in our work.</p>
<p>What we try to do here is to be open, honest, and brave. That does not mean that you will always agree with us. It does mean that there will be times when we will annoy you, and publish things you disagree with: That’s part of the deal. We are independent, not servants of one cause, or another.</p>
<p>That is what media is supposed to be, but too often in Ireland no longer is. We are trying to change that, and we need your help. I am, therefore, asking for it, and would deeply appreciate a subscription at the level you can afford.</p>
<p>With gratitude,</p>
<p><strong>John</strong></p>


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139032
title: While Trump Speaks of Ukraine Peace, Washington Opens a Second Front Against Putin
author: ;pcr3
hash: �Ǣ?�Co =֧��v��
tags: #Articles &amp; Columns
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>While Trump Speaks of Ukraine Peace, Washington Opens a Second Front Against Putin</p>
<p>Paul Craig Roberts</p>
<p>The US House of Representatives Has Passed the MEGOBARI Act (HR 36) that places Georgia, now an independent country and once a province of the Soviet Union, under American protection.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Washington has to protect free and fair elections in Georgia from Russia and protect Georgia’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity from further Russian aggression.”</p>
<p>There has been NO Russian aggression against Georgia.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>With the collapse of the Soviet Union caused by the Politburo’s house arrest of Russian President Gorbachev, Russia under Yeltsin accepted Washington’s dismemberment of the Soviet Empire.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Soviet republics, some of which had not ever been independent states, such as Ukraine, were turned by Washington into New Countries. <span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>In 2008 a Georgian Army trained and equipped by Washington invaded South Ossetia, a Russian protectorate and a part of Georgia that did not want to exit Russia.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Russian peacekeepers were killed, and this brought Putin, inattentive as always, back from the Chinese Olympics to send in the Russian Army. The American equipped and trained Georgian Army was totally defeated within a few hours, and Georgia was in Putin’s hands.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>What did he do?<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>He released Georgia to themselves and took his army home.</p>
<p>How is this Russian aggression?</p>
<p>As is obvious the members of the US House of Representatives are completely ignorant and uninformed morons.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>America, as Mark Twain said, elects morons to represent them. And that is what Americans have. We are governed by morons.</p>
<p>Protecting Georgia from Russia is the excuse for Washington to take over Georgia, and, of course, bags full of money will facilitate the process by being handed over to key members of the Georgian government.</p>
<p>So what we have here is Washington’s effort to open a second war front against Russia.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Adam Dick with the Ron Paul Institute gives us a reliable indiction of what is happening.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span><a href="https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/no_author/us-house-approves-megobari-act-to-pursue-in-georgia-more-ukraine-style-intervention-and-conflict-with-russia/">https://www.lewrockwell.com/2025/05/no_author/us-house-approves-megobari-act-to-pursue-in-georgia-more-ukraine-style-intervention-and-conflict-with-russia/</a><span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>So, what do we make of this?<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>On the one hand Trump is pursuing peace negotiations in Ukraine with Russia.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>On the other hand, Washington is preparing another Maidan, this time in Georgia.</p>
<p>How stupid are the Russians?<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Did they learn nothing from the Minsk Agreement?<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Is the Kremlin blind to the obvious fact that Washington is sequencing its wars with Russia and China by pulling out of Ukraine, turning it over to Europe, so that Washington can focus o<i>n </i>China<i>. </i>This is the policy described<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>by West Mitchell in <em>Foreign Affairs</em>.  Why has no one but myself and John Helmer commented on this revealing article?</p>
<p> </p>

link:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/while-trump-speaks-of-ukraine-peace-washington-opens-a-second-front-against-putin/


guid: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/?p=139025
title: Is the Supreme Court in the Process of Burying American Democracy?
author: ;pcr3
hash: 4~��l�o%���k�+
tags: #Articles &amp; Columns
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p>Is the Supreme Court in the Process of Burying American Democracy?</p>
<p>Paul Craig Roberts</p>
<p>American voters elected Trump president three times.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>The first election was prevented from producing any results that the people wanted by fake charges of Russia-gate, 2 impeachments, pornstar-gate, documents-gate, insurrection-gate. The second election was stolen by the Democrats and media.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>The third election is being stolen by the judiciary, which is in the process of deciding that alleged rights of immigrant-invaders prevail over the will of citizens as expressed in elections.</p>
<p>The courts seem determined to impose on us the Camp of the Saints.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Judges regard democracy as less important than the right of a pregnant woman to sneak into the country and give birth to an anchor baby, thus making the entire family US citizens. To forbid birth citizenship harms the right of all other illegals to steal citizenship in this way.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Deporting immigrant-invaders harms their and the entire world’s right to live in the United States.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>The judiciary has no concern about the harm done to US citizens by their rulings.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>Obviously, like everything else, no careful attention was given to the appointment of judges. <span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></p>
<p>All of this is fine with the judges.<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space">  </span>It advances Kritarchy, rule by judges.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/supreme-court-wrestles-with-nationwide-injunctions-in-birthright-citizenship-case-5858275?utm_source=RTNews&amp;src_src=RTNews&amp;utm_campaign=rtbreaking-2025-05-15-2&amp;src_cmp=rtbreaking-2025-05-15-2&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;est=3G2saKcXfFU/hj1nj2lIZaN1zym1Vv/7Udp6j/o/Q9LY0z+/3XkXkg==">https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/supreme-court-wrestles-with-nationwide-injunctions-in-birthright-citizenship-case-5858275?utm_source=RTNews&amp;src_src=RTNews&amp;utm_campaign=rtbreaking-2025-05-15-2&amp;src_cmp=rtbreaking-2025-05-15-2&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;est=3G2saKcXfFU/hj1nj2lIZaN1zym1Vv/7Udp6j/o/Q9LY0z+/3XkXkg==<span data-sanitized-class="Apple-converted-space"> </span></a></p>
<p>Here is an anchor baby, now a Democrat US Representative, asserting the rights of illegals over rule by citizens: <a href="https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/05/14/watch-dem-rep-daughter-illegal-migrant-demands-kristi-noems-resignation/"> https://www.breitbart.com/immigration/2025/05/14/watch-dem-rep-daughter-illegal-migrant-demands-kristi-noems-resignation/ </a></p>

link:
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2025/05/16/is-the-supreme-court-in-the-process-of-burying-american-democracy/


guid: 1031272 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Novo Nordisk CEO To Step Down Following Brutal Bear Market
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/novo-nordisk-ceo-step-down-following-brutal-bear-market
hash: F�����/C��Am}
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Novo Nordisk CEO To Step Down Following Brutal Bear Market</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Novo Nordisk announced a <strong>surprise leadership shake-up</strong>, with CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen stepping down by mutual agreement with the Board. The move comes amid a sharp downturn in the company's stock in European markets, which has lost half its value over the past year, marking the <strong>steepest decline in Novo's history as a public company</strong>. The leadership change follows investor concerns over the future of its anti-obesity drug pipeline and competition from compounding pharmacies eroding demand for Wegovy.</p>

<p>"A search for Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen's successor is ongoing, and an announcement will be made in due course," Novo wrote in a press release, adding, "In connection with the change, Lars Rebien Sørensen, chair of the Novo Nordisk Foundation, will join the Novo Nordisk Board, initially as an observer."</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bye.jpg?itok=dF3lKtTh" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bye.jpg?itok=dF3lKtTh"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="f41174d3-e5be-4a8e-9b8f-cb510345dab2" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="500" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bye.jpg?itok=dF3lKtTh" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Novo praised Jørgensen's eight years at the helm but noted <strong>"recent market challenges Novo Nordisk has been facing, and the development of the company's share price since mid-2024."</strong></p>

<p>It appears the <strong>collapse in share price is what prompted</strong> the company to search for a new CEO:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>In light of this, the Novo Nordisk Foundation Board initiated a dialogue with the Novo Nordisk Board on the merits of an accelerated CEO succession and expressed a wish to increase its representation on the Novo Nordisk Board.</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Since mid-2024, <strong>Novo shares in Copenhagen have plunged 58%</strong>, the steepest bear market ever for the publicly traded company, according to trading data from 1990. </p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/Snag_6f4ed1d_0.png?itok=M8PK7v1f" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Snag_6f4ed1d_0.png?itok=M8PK7v1f"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="27b9524a-c4d1-49fc-a21c-3e4d145cc088" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="271" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/Snag_6f4ed1d_0.png?itok=M8PK7v1f" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Much of the decline is based on investor concern about the company's ability to compete in the weight-loss market because of the emergence of compounding pharmacies. Plus, the drugmaker's next-generation shot CagriSema has underwhelmed in clinical trial results.</p>

<p>Last week, Novo slashed its <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/novo-cuts-outlook-copycat-anti-obesity-drugs-hit-sales">full-year guidance</a> because compounded anti-obesity drugs flooded the market. However, Novo pointed to an inflection point in the second half of this year as it plans to crack down on copycat obesity drugs. </p>

<p><strong>We await Goldman's James Quigley</strong>—Novo bull—to weigh in on the leadership shake-up. </p>

<p>The <strong>question becomes</strong> whether leadership change is enough to reverse the bear market.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T12:05:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 08:05</span>


guid: yt:video:1Vb0G3hD71w
title: Pros and Cons of Trump's Mideast Tour
author: ;The LaRouche Organization
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Vb0G3hD71w
hash: �z��5�\�i���>�
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guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747397089
title: What to make of Donald Trump’s “historic” tour of the Middle East
hash: @�C �}�@�p^J
tags: #Show Types
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
From multi-billion-dollar deals to diplomatic agreements, Donald Trump had a lot going on during his Middle East trip.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/newsfeed/2025/5/16/what-to-make-of-donald-trumps-historic-tour-of-the-middle-east?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747385612
title: Court rejects Australian soldier’s defamation appeal over Afghan killings
hash: i� �YǬIlߙ§O
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Decorated veteran Ben Roberts-Smith failed to have reports that he "murdered four Afghan men" quashed.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/court-rejects-australian-soldiers-defamation-appeal-over-afghan-killings?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031281 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: US Futures Rise For Fifth Day In A Row As S&amp;P 6000 Looms
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/us-futures-rise-fifth-day-row-sp-6000-looms
hash: t3 sA�'��(��/
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">US Futures Rise For Fifth Day In A Row As S&amp;P 6000 Looms</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>US stock futures are set for a fifth straight session in the green, as US equity funds benefited from their first inflows since the Liberation Day shock, and with 6000 in the S&amp;P now less than a 100 points away. As of 8:00am, S&amp;P 500 futures were up 0.3% after the index closed up 4.5% for the week on Thursday as the latest economic data spurred speculation the Fed will cut interest rates twice this year. Nasdaq futures gained 0.4% with Mag 7 leading (TSLA (+1.1%), GOOGL (+0.9%), and NVDA (+0.7%) are outperforming). The powerful rally this week has pushed the tech-heavy equity benchmark into overbought territory, while the S&amp;P closed Thursday at the highest level since February. Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 gauge also gained, heading for a fifth weekly advance. The dollar weakened for a second session against major peers, while the yen and Swiss franc gained, and the 10-year Treasury yield was lower after declining 10 basis points Thursday as traders priced in more Fed cuts: bond yields are lower, with 2-, 5-, 10-, and 30-year yields down by 3.09bp, 3.7bp, 3.5bp, and 2.6bp respectively. Commodities are mostly lower, led by gold while oil reversed earlier losses. Overnight headlines were largely quiet. Today, we will receive University of Michigan Sentiment survey data, where consensus expects a modest bounce (to 53.5 vs. 52.2 prior).</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/ES%202025-05-16_7-54-37.jpg?itok=r5ZPsFcT" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ES%202025-05-16_7-54-37.jpg?itok=r5ZPsFcT"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="33b0f767-6992-42d4-b56f-26b19e94698c" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="314" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/ES%202025-05-16_7-54-37.jpg?itok=r5ZPsFcT" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>In premarket trading, Mag 7 stocks are mostly higher with the exception of Meta after an equal-weighted gauge of the group fell over 1% on Thursday (Alphabet +1.5%, Tesla +1.1%, Nvidia +0.9%, Amazon +0.4%, Microsoft little changed, Apple +0.1%, Meta Platforms -0.1%). Charter Communications (CHTR) gains 9.4% after agreeing to merge with Cox Communications in a deal that values Cox at an enterprise value of about $34.5 billion. Vistra (VST) is up 5.1% after it said it executed a definitive agreement to acquire seven modern natural gas generation facilities from Lotus Infrastructure Partners for $1.9 billion. Here are some other notable premarket movers:</p>

<ul><li>Archer Aviation (ACHR) shares rise 5.7%, adding to gains from Thursday following its announcement that the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft company had been selected as the ‘Official Air Taxi Provider’ for the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games.</li>
	<li>Doximity (DOCS) drops 18% after the healthcare-software company’s full-year forecast disappointed, with analysts pointing to a cautious tone from the management team on the call regarding the outlook for market growth.</li>
	<li>Globant (GLOB) shares sink 28% after the technology services provider cut full-year revenue guidance for 2025 to a level that undershot analysts’ expectations.</li>
	<li>Pentair (PNR) shares rise 2.2% after JPMorgan upgrades the water-treatment company to overweight from neutral on expectations of potential guidance upside.</li>
	<li>Quantum Computing (QUBT) shares are up 9.7% after the quantum optics technology company reported its first-quarter results.</li>
	<li>Rocket Cos. (RKT) gains 4.4% after ValueAct Capital Management LLC reported a 9.9% holding in the mortgage finance company, according to a new 13D filing with the US Securities &amp; Exchange Commission.</li>
	<li>Take-Two (TTWO) falls 2% as the video-game publisher’s full-year forecast for revenue came up short.</li>
	<li>Travere Therapeutics (TVTX) shares drop 17% after the biotech’s application for its kidney disease treatment Filspari (sparsentan) failed to get priority review status from the US FDA and is set to face an advisory panel.</li>
</ul><p>One month after the nevertrump media hyperventilated about the "US exceptionalism" trade dying, US equities are back in favor following the de-escalation of trade tensions between the US and China. Stocks are now trading like last month’s rout never happened, even though uncertainty remains about the effect of tariffs on the US economy and the direction that the global trade war will take in the coming months. Bank of America's Michael Hartnett said weekly US equity inflows resumed at $19.8 billion for the first time since Liberation Day. Meanwhile, stocks haven’t been getting rewarded for earnings beats: firms that topped expectations in the first quarter reports saw their share prices rise by less than usual, according to JPMorgan strategists. Meanwhile, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta President Raphael Bostic said he expects the US economy to slow this year but not fall into recession.</p>

<p><strong>“For now, we believe that the path of least resistance is still higher for risky assets,” </strong>said Mohit Kumar, chief economist and strategist at Jefferies International. “We would start turning a bit more cautious around June/July when we expect the hard data start weakening.”</p>

<p>Thursday afternoon brought a deluge of 13F filings, which showed hedge funds adding healthcare exposure and cutting tech over the first three months of the year. Michael Burry’s Scion Asset Management liquidated almost its entire listed equity portfolio in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway trimmed its holdings of financials stocks. </p>

<p>Traders are also watching negotiations around the US budget with its promise of large tax cuts and the potential impact that will have on the fiscal deficit.  </p>

<p>Elsewhere, <strong>Japan’s economy shrank for the first time in a year as the surging yen crushed exports, </strong>illustrating its vulnerability even before sustaining the impact of Trump’s tariff measures. Paradoxically, the yen gained 0.2% on Friday to trade around 145 per dollar even as Bank of Japan official Toyoaki Nakamura, the most dovish board member, warned against hurrying to raise the benchmark interest rate.</p>

<p>Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 gauge also gained, heading for a fifth weekly advance as cooling global trade tensions improve investor sentiment and corporate earnings season comes in better than expected. Health care and food and beverage sectors outperform. Among single stocks Richemont rises after reporting a rise in full year sales. Here are the most notable European movers:</p>

<ul><li>Richemont shares rise as much as 5.5% after the Swiss firm’s jewelry division saw strong growth thanks to demand for its high-end Cartier and Van Cleef &amp; Arpels brands.</li>
	<li>Orsted shares rise as much as 2.1%, snapping three days of declines, after UBS analysts say the stock is pricing in a “close to worst case” scenario when it comes to a potential halt order on the Danish company’s two US offshore projects.</li>
	<li>1&amp;1 shares soar after its parent United Internet submitted a partial offer to acquire as much as 9.19% of 1&amp;1 shares, for a cash consideration of €18.5 apiece.</li>
	<li>Tate &amp; Lyle shares gain as much as 3.1%, among the best performers in the Stoxx 600’s food, beverage and tobacco subgroup, after Citi upgrades the stock to buy from neutral, saying the risk/reward “looks attractive.”</li>
	<li>CVC Capital shares climb as much as 5.4%, to the highest in six weeks, after Morgan Stanley upgrades its recommendation on the alternative investment manager to overweight, seeing scope for recovery after recent underperformance.</li>
	<li>Nibe falls as much as 4.1% after Handelsbanken cut its recommendation on the Swedish heat-pump manufacturer to sell from hold, quoting recent strong share performance.</li>
	<li>Eutelsat shares drop as much as 11% after the satellite operator said on earnings call that it’s “far too early” to discuss the European Union’s revenue commitment to its next-generation low-earth orbit satellites, dampening hope of enhanced government support in the near term.</li>
	<li>Rubis shares fall as much as 3.7% after the French energy solutions firm said Nils Christian Bergene will step down as chairman and a member of the supervisory board, a departure that CIC analysts called a surprise.</li>
	<li>Workspace Group shares fall as much as 11% after the landlord to mostly small- and medium-sized London businesses warned rising vacancies in its portfolio will dent profits.</li>
	<li>Future shares decline as much as 9.2% after the UK specialist publisher said its FY25 organic revenue will face a low-single-digit decline, below estimates.</li>
	<li>Tokmanni falls as much as 14%, the most since last July, after the Finnish retail group missed expectations in its first-quarter report.</li>
	<li>Dino Polska drops as much as 7.5%, most since August, as Poland’s food retailer reported slowing like-for-like sales in 1Q, raising concerns about its business model and triggering profit taking after 42% rally YTD.</li>
</ul><p>Earlier in the session, Asian stocks traded in a narrow range as the rally sparked by US-China trade talks continued to cool and earnings from Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba underwhelmed. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index swung between a gain of as much as 0.3% and loss of 0.2%. NetEase was the biggest contributor to the gains, after the China-based video-game company reported first-quarter results that beat expectations. Meanwhile, Alibaba was among the major drags, after its quarterly revenue missed estimates and cloud business disappointed. Key indexes dropped in mainland China, Hong Kong and India, while benchmarks rose in Australia and Taiwan. Goldman Sachs strategists raised their 3-month and 12-month targets for the MSCI Asia Pacific ex-Japan Index to 610 and 660, respectively, from 570 and 620, expecting “moderately higher” returns for the region thanks to improved earnings growth amid a better-than-expected outcome to US-China trade talks.</p>

<p>In FX, the Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index fell as much as 0.2%, declining for the second straight day; it is on track to end the week 0.1% higher; the yen and Swiss franc among the beneficiaries.  </p>

<p>In rates, the 10-year Treasury yield was lower after declining 10 basis points Thursday as traders added bets on Fed rate cuts; treasuries are richer across the curve with futures adding to Thursday’s gains and <strong>10-year yields dropping back to 4.405% and near 100-DMA. </strong>US yields richer by 2bp to 3bp across the curve with spreads broadly within a basis point of Thursday close; in the 10-year sector bunds and gilts outperform Treasuries by 2.5bp and 1.5bp so far on the day.</p>

<p>In commodities, gold fell to extend its weekly loss as demand for haven assets waned. Oil prices declined after Iran’s foreign minister cast doubts on the status of US-Iran nuclear talks.</p>

<p>Looking at today's US data calendar, key events includes April housing starts/building permits, import/export price index, May New York services business activity (8:30am), University of Michigan sentiment (10am) and March TIC flows (4pm). Fed speaker slate includes Daly at 9:40pm</p>

<p><strong>Market Snapshot</strong></p>

<ul><li>S&amp;P 500 mini +0.3%</li>
	<li>Nasdaq 100 mini +0.3%</li>
	<li>Russell 2000 mini +0.4%</li>
	<li>Stoxx Europe 600 +0.6%</li>
	<li>DAX +0.7%, CAC 40 +0.6%</li>
	<li>10-year Treasury yield -3 basis points at 4.4%</li>
	<li>VIX -0.2 points at 17.66</li>
	<li>Bloomberg Dollar Index -0.1% at 1228.52</li>
	<li>euro +0.2% at $1.1208</li>
	<li>WTI crude -0.3% at $61.45/barrel</li>
</ul><p><strong>Top Overnight News</strong></p>

<ul><li>Donald Trump said he’d set tariff rates for US trading partners “over the next two to three weeks.” BBG</li>
	<li>US Deputy Treasury Secretary Faulkender said he is not concerned about persistent increases in prices, while he added that inflation will return to target levels and they are setting the foundation for the US economy to take off in H2.</li>
	<li>The Trump administration plans to put a number of Chinese chipmaking companies (including memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory) on an export blacklist, but some officials want to delay the move to avoid hurting efforts to strike a long-term trade agreement with China. FT</li>
	<li>Hopes faded for Russia-Ukraine talks set to take place today in Istanbul. The focus now shifts to when Trump may meet Vladimir Putin.</li>
	<li>US President Trump says deals from his trip are worth USD 12-13tln, includes deals already announced and some that will be outlined "very shortly". Will be sending out letters to nations for trade deals soon.</li>
	<li>China approves 10 nuclear reactors, putting the country on pace to surpass the US in nuclear power capacity by 2030. Nikkei</li>
	<li>NVDA is seeing to build a research and development center in Shanghai that would help the world’s leading maker of AI processors stay competitive in China, where its sales have slumped due to tightening US export controls. FT</li>
	<li>Japan’s Q1 GDP falls short of expectations, dropping 0.7% on an annualized basis vs. the consensus forecast of -0.3%, with the shortfall driven by weak consumption and higher imports. Nikkei</li>
	<li>Japan has signaled it is prepared to hold out for a better deal with the US over trade tariffs, pushing for full removal of his 25% duty on imports of Japanese cars rather than risk a domestic political backlash. FT</li>
	<li>The Fed’s Raphael Bostic said in a May 14 interview that he expects the US economy to slow this year but not fall into recession, and reiterated that he sees one rate cut in 2025. BBG</li>
	<li>The cost to ship a container of Chinese-made goods to the U.S. is jumping as importers race to pull cargo across the Pacific during a 3 month trade war truce. Freight rates from China to the US west coast have risen about 8% this week as bookings have boomed. Importers rushing to ship Chinese goods to the US during a short reprieve from higher tariffs may boost freighters. The surprise truce is seen causing a surge in transpacific shipping, Bloomberg Intelligence said. BBG, WSJ</li>
	<li>BofA card spending, week to May 10th: -1.3% (1.0% April average), spending has seen a recovery from the Easter slowdown.</li>
</ul><p><strong>Tariffs/Trade</strong></p>

<ul><li>US President Trump's administration is reportedly split on adding Chinese chip makers to export blacklists as some US officials fear the move could jeopardise trade talks with Beijing, while the Commerce Department has compiled a list of Chinese companies including memory chipmaker ChangXin Memory to add to the 'entity list' although the timing of the move has been complicated by the recent agreement by China and the US to cut tariffs, according to sources cited by the FT.</li>
	<li>US told Vietnam its trade deficit is unsustainable and a major concern amid tariff talks, according to Vietnam state media.</li>
	<li>Mexican President Sheinbaum spoke with Canadian PM Carney regarding the importance of USMCA in strengthening the competitiveness of the three North American countries, while they also discussed the continuity and strengthening of the seasonal agricultural worker program.</li>
	<li>Greenland's Foreign Minister has suggested that she wants to deepen bilateral ties with the EU, highlighting Greenland's mineral resources as an area for collaboration, via Politico.</li>
	<li>Japan has reportedly indicated that it is prepared to hold out for a better deal with the US, pushing for the full removal of the 25% duty on car imports, via FT.</li>
</ul><p><em>A more detailed look at global markets courtesy of Newsquawk</em></p>

<p><strong>APAC stocks traded mixed after the recent soft US data releases spurred Fed rate cut bets, while participants also digested weak data from Japan and earnings reports. </strong>ASX 200 was led by strength in miners and outperformance of gold producers after the recent rally in the precious metal. Nikkei 225 initially retreated amid recent currency strength and after GDP data for Q1 showed a steeper-than-expected contraction in Japan's economy, although the index gradually recovered and returned to flat territory as USD/JPY regained some composure and with the weak data effectively narrowing the scope for the BoJ to resume normalisation. Hang Seng and Shanghai Comp declined with sentiment dampened by earnings releases after Alibaba's results underwhelmed which pressured its Chinese blue-chip tech and ecommerce peers such as Tencent, Meituan and JD.com.</p>

<p><em>Top Asian News</em></p>

<ul><li>BoJ Board Member Nakamura said Japan's economy has recovered moderately, but some weakness has been seen, while he added the economy is facing mounting downward pressure due to the implementation of US tariff policies. Nakamura said the momentum for wage hikes has accelerated but could weaken depending on impact of US tariff policies and noted that it is appropriate to keep monetary policy steady for the time being. Furthermore, he said uncertainty over the economic outlook is heightening, so a cautious monetary policy approach is necessary and hiking rates prematurely when growth is slowing could curb consumption and capex.</li>
	<li>Japan's Economy Minister Akazawa said improvements in job and income conditions are likely to underpin moderate economic recovery, while he added must be mindful downside risk to the economy from US trade policy and the hit to consumption and household sentiment from sustained price rises also becoming a downside risk to Japan's economy.</li>
</ul><p><strong>European bourses (STOXX 600 +0.6%) opened modestly firmer across the board, and have traded with an upward bias this morning. </strong>European sectors hold a strong positive bias, with only a handful of industries in negative territory. Healthcare takes the top spot, with gains in the sector seemingly broad based. In terms of stock specific stories, Sanofi (+2.2%) gains after it received FDA orphan designation for treating sickle cell disease. Bayer (+3.5%) benefits from an FT report which suggested it is seeking a Roundup settlement.</p>

<p><em>Top European News</em></p>

<ul><li>ECB's Villeroy says "we are not currently in a currency wars situation but rather a trade war situation".</li>
	<li>ECB's Kazaks says a meeting by meeting approach at the ECB is right and notes a lot of uncertainty around trade measures, according to CNBC.</li>
</ul><p><strong>FX</strong></p>

<ul><li>Dollar is on the backfoot, continuing the pressure seen following Thursday’s disappointing Retail Sales and softer-than-expected PPI data. As a reminder, this led money markets to fully price in two Fed cuts by year-end; currently pricing in roughly 57bps. DXY currently sits in a 100.52-78 range. Further downside for the index will see a potential test of the week’s trough at 100.27 – should that be taken out, 100.00 will be next in focus. Ahead, US Import Prices, UoM Survey and commentary from Fed's Barkin.</li>
	<li>EUR is modestly firmer vs the Dollar, with specific for the Bloc very light today – Final Italian inflation metrics were revised marginally lower but ultimately had little impact on the Single-Currency. Commentary via ECB’s Kazaks and Villeroy this morning has not added too much to the agenda; the former reiterated the need for a meeting-by-meeting approach and highlighted the uncertainty around trade. This morning EUR has climbed back above the 1.12 mark and has traded in a busy 1.1182-1.1219 range.</li>
	<li>JPY is slightly firmer vs the Dollar after choppy price action overnight, which saw USD/JPY initially trickle lower amid initial haven flows into the yen and recent declines in US yields, but later bounced off support at the 145.00 level. USD/JPY was little moved following weaker-than-expected GDP data. USD/JPY currently trading around 145.30 in a 144.93-145.68 range</li>
	<li>GBP is flat/incrementally firmer vs the Dollar and holds just above the 1.33 mark, in a very thin 1.3300-1.3320 range. UK-specific updates have been lacking today. Some focus has been on an FT article which suggested that EU leaders are urging UK PM Starmer to improve the region’s mobility deal – particularly for EU students.</li>
	<li>Antipodeans are the best performers vs the Dollar, nursing some of the losses seen in the prior session. The Kiwi is the best G10 performer today; overnight, New Zealand 1yr and 2yr inflation expectations are both seen higher, which may explain some of the outperformance in today’s session. Do note that the NZD is outmuscling the AUD in the AUD/NZD cross; some traders may be focused on next week’s RBA meeting, where markets widely expect the Bank to deliver a 25bps cut.</li>
	<li>PBoC set USD/CNY mid-point at 7.1938 vs exp. 7.2085 (Prev. 7.1963).</li>
</ul><p><strong>Fixed Income</strong></p>

<ul><li>Firmer start to the day as USTs continue the data-induced upside from Thursday with newsflow since a little light and markets largely awaiting updates on numerous geopolitical situations. At the top-end of a 110-10 to 110-20 band. As it stands, on track to end the week almost flat, opened the week at 110-18, despite the marked pressure seen in the first half on US-China progress. Trade developments that sparked notable hawkish action Monday through Wednesday, before being offset by Thursday’s data deluge. Ahead, the docket is comparably light but does feature Building Permits/Housing Starts, Import Prices (factor into PCE) and the prelim. Uni. of Michigan series for May.</li>
	<li>Bunds are in-fitting with USTs, but with action slightly more pronounced as EGBs experienced a marginal rally early doors as European players entered the fray and reacted to the bullish bias of APAC trade. Specifics light. A few ECB officials on the wire but nothing that has fundamentally shifted the narrative. Bunds just off highs in a 130.11-50 confine and, as with USTs, near-enough on track to end the week flat despite a WTD range in excess of 135 ticks.</li>
	<li>Gilts are outperforming slightly, likely on account of the marginal underperformance vs Bunds seen at points this week and as such, the UK is catching up on the final session of the week. As above, Gilts are also set to end the week essentially unchanged, currently just off highs in a 91.84-92.00 band. Resistance at 92.59 from mid-April and thereafter 93.00 before highs from the last few weeks, beginning at 93.59.</li>
</ul><p><strong>Commodities</strong></p>

<ul><li>A hesitant start for WTI and Brent as geopolitics dominates ahead of the weekend. WTI and Brent traded largely flat through the morning but are currently down by around USD 0.10/bbl, nearing overnight lows.</li>
	<li>In terms of Iran-related headlines, crude prices whipsawed on conflicting media reports yesterday and mixed signals from US and Iranian officials. This morning, Iran's Foreign Minister stated that negotiations will continue as long as the other party remains engaged, maintaining that no formal proposal from the US has been received.</li>
	<li>On Russia-Ukraine, talks are underway in Istanbul, with the Trilateral meeting between Turkey-US-Ukraine supposedly concluded. We are yet to hear the readout from it. Ahead, there will be another trilateral meeting, this time with Russia taking the place of the US.</li>
	<li>Spot gold is continuing losses, pulling back from yesterday’s gains after soft data, lower yields and Fed rate cut bets aided the yellow metal. At the time of writing, the yellow metal trades towards the upper end of a USD 3,205.49-3,252.17/oz range.</li>
	<li>Base metals are softer after the subdued mood in its largest buyer, China, overshadows the positive sentiment in Europe this morning. 3M LME Copper currently rests within, but at the lower-end of, a USD 9,474.9-9,591.42/t range.</li>
	<li>Shanghai Copper warehouse stocks +27.44k/T (prev. -8.60k/T), Aluminium stocks -13.59k/T (prev. -6.19k/T)</li>
	<li>ADNOC Chief says the UAE and the US plan investment of USD 440bln in the energy sector through 2035.</li>
</ul><p><strong>Geopolitics</strong></p>

<ul><li>US President Trump says he is willing to meet with Ukrainian President Zelensky and Russian President Putin as soon as arrangements can be made; going to take care of Gaza; will make good progress on geopolitical situations in the next two or three weeks In one way or another, will take care of Iran.</li>
	<li>Iranian Foreign Minister says the nation's position is clear and we are ready to build confidence and adopt transparency in our Nuclear Programme in exchange for the lift of sanctions. Not received any agreement proposal from the US; is possible will be informed via a meditator</li>
	<li>Hamas is reportedly holding direct negotiations with the US Administration, according to a senior Hamas official cited by Al Arabiya.</li>
</ul><p><strong>US Event Calendar</strong></p>

<ul><li>8:30 am: Apr Housing Starts, est. 1363.5k, prior 1324k</li>
	<li>8:30 am: Apr P Building Permits, est. 1450k, prior 1467k</li>
	<li>8:30 am: Apr Import Price Index MoM, est. -0.3%, prior -0.1%</li>
	<li>10:00 am: May P U. of Mich. Sentiment, est. 53.5, prior 52.2</li>
	<li>4:00 pm: Mar Net Long-term TIC Flows, prior 112b</li>
	<li>4:00 pm: Mar Total Net TIC Flows, prior 284.7b</li>
</ul><p><strong>Central Banks</strong></p>

<ul><li>May 16: Fed’s Barkin Gives Commencement Speech</li>
	<li>May 17: Fed’s Daly Gives Commencement Address</li>
</ul><p><strong>DB's Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap</strong></p>

<p>Markets continued to advance over the last 24 hours, as weak US inflation data and lower oil prices raised expectations that the Fed would still cut rates this year. By the close, that meant the S&amp;P 500 (+0.41%) had posted a 4th consecutive gain, which now brings its advance since the April low to +18.75%. In fact, the index isn’t far away from a +20% gain that would mark the technical definition of a bull market, and futures this morning are pointing to another modest gain. So it’s been an astonishing turnaround from where we were just over a month ago at the height of the tariff uncertainty.</p>

<p>There were several factors driving the rally, but a critically important one was the US PPI data for April. It showed inflation pressures were much softer than expected, with headline PPI down -0.5% on the month (vs. +0.2% expected). So that marked the biggest monthly decline in producer prices since April 2020 and the Covid lockdowns, and it pushed the year-on-year reading down to +2.4% (vs. +2.5% expected). Core PPI was also softer than expected, with the measure excluding food energy and trade down -0.1% on the month (vs. +0.3% expected), which was the first negative print since April 2020. It also helped broader inflation expectations to move lower, and the US 10yr inflation swap fell -4.7bps on the day to 2.50%, marking its biggest decline in over a month.</p>

<p>With investors feeling less concerned about inflation, they then dialled up their expectations for Fed rate cuts in response. For instance, the amount priced in by December up +7.1bps on the day to 56bps. And in turn, that contributed to a large rally in Treasury yields across the curve, with the 2yr yield (-9.0bps) falling back to 3.96%, whilst the 10yr yield (-10.5bps) fell to 4.43%.</p>

<p>Those moves got further momentum from the latest decline in oil prices, which added to the sense that inflationary pressures were easing. The move followed comments from President Trump, who said “I think we’re getting close to maybe doing a deal” with Iran. Moreover, Trump posted an NBC news story citing a top Iranian official that Iran would sign a nuclear deal in exchange for lifting economic sanctions. So the newsflow led to growing expectations that oil supply could rise, and Brent crude fell another -2.36% on the day to $64.53/bbl.</p>

<p>The fall in yields came despite comments from Fed Chair Powell yesterday, who indicated that the Fed were reconsidering the language on average inflation targeting in their latest review. For reference, in 2020 they changed their approach to permit a period of inflation above the 2% target, if it followed a period of inflation running beneath target, so that was a significant shift. However, the potential to move back off that again was seen in a hawkish light, as it implied less tolerance for higher inflation in the future, and Treasury yields briefly spiked as the headlines came through.</p>

<p>Nevertheless, the Powell comments weren’t enough to counteract the broader rally, and there was also relief yesterday that the US data continued to point away from a recession. For instance, the weekly initial jobless claims remained at 229k over the week ending May 10 (vs. 228k expected), so still in their recent range and not signalling a sharper deterioration. In the meantime, the retail sales data showed modest growth of +0.1% in April (vs. unch expected), which was a slowdown from March, but still not the contractionary territory that might be expected in an outright recession. And with the latest data in hand, the Atlanta Fed’s GDPNow estimate for Q2 moved up to an annualised +2.5% pace.</p>

<p>That environment proved to be a strong one for equities on both sides of the Atlantic, with the S&amp;P 500 up +0.41% on the day. The advance was reasonably broad-based, with 75% of the index moving higher. Defensive sectors outperformed, with utilities (+2.12%) and consumer staples (+2.00%) leading the gains for the S&amp;P 500. By contrast, the Magnificent 7 (-1.09%) ended a run of 5 consecutive gains. Within the Mag-7, Meta fell -2.35% following a WSJ report that it was delaying the rollout of a flagship AI model. In terms of other individual moves, Walmart (-0.50%) lost ground after their earnings, and they warned that prices would go up as a result of the tariffs. And Cisco Systems gained +4.85% following their own earnings after the previous day’s close.</p>

<p>Earlier in Europe, bond markets had also rallied on hopes for weaker inflation, and yields on 10yr bunds (-7.7bps), OATs (-8.5bps) and gilts (-5.2bps) all moved lower. There were similar gains for equities, with the STOXX 600 (+0.56%) closing at a 7-week high, alongside a fresh record for the DAX (+0.72%). That positivity was reinforced by strong UK GDP numbers, with Q1 growth running at a quarterly +0.7% pace (vs. +0.6% expected), and the FTSE 100 (+0.57%) closed above its Liberation Day level for the first time.</p>

<p>Overnight in Asia however, the tone has generally been more negative, with several of the major indices losing ground. Sentiment hasn’t been helped by Japan’s Q1 GDP reading, which showed a larger-than-expected contraction, with the economy shrinking at an annualised -0.7% pace in Q1 (vs. -0.3% expected). So that raised fears about how resilient the economy was, particularly given those numbers were before the Liberation Day announcement in April. Against that backdrop, Japan’s Nikkei fell -0.28%, and elsewhere there’ve been losses for the Hang Seng (-0.76%), the CSI 300 (-0.57%) and the Shanghai Comp (-0.52%). That said, there have been some gains, including South Korea’s KOSPI (+0.19%), and Australia’s S&amp;P/ASX 200 (+0.57%).</p>

<p>Looking forward, the planned US budget reconciliation bill will remain in focus today. Politico reported yesterday evening that today’s planned procedural vote in the House Budget Committee may be in peril due to opposition from fiscally hawkish Republicans to the CBO’s scoring of the bill, and proposed delays to Medicaid cuts. Yesterday our US economists published a report (see here) analysing the details of the tax bill released this week, which they see putting the US on course for a 6.5% of GDP fiscal deficit in the coming years.</p>

<p>In geopolitics, it’s also worth keeping an eye on today’s talks between Russian and Ukrainian officials in Istanbul. These mark the first direct talks since spring 2022, but with Moscow sending a relatively low-level delegation, no immediate progress is expected. Trump claimed yesterday that “nothing’s going to happen” in terms of resolving the war in Ukraine until he and Putin meet.</p>

<p>To the rest of the day ahead, data releases include the University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment index for May, along with April’s building permits, housing starts, and the import and export price indices. In the Euro Area, we’ll get the March trade balance. And from central banks, speakers include the Fed’s Barkin, the ECB’s Lane, and the BOE’s Lombardelli.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T12:23:08+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 08:23</span>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747398185
title: Trump’s visit to UAE sends the message, “You are part of our camp”
hash: G?_�@5�y���ģ��
tags: #Economy
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“The United States has come forward and said [to the UAE], You can count on us, we won’t put you in the enemy camp.”

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/video/quotable/2025/5/16/trumps-visit-to-uae-sends-the-message-you-are-part-of-our?traffic_source=rss


title: La victoire des libéraux confirmée dans une circonscription en Ontario
hash: >0j� ���Rv�T)�
guid:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165575/elections-victoire-liberaux-milton-est-halton-hills-sud

content:
<p>Élections Canada confirme la victoire de la candidate libérale dans Milton-Est—Halton Hills-Sud.</p>

link:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165575/elections-victoire-liberaux-milton-est-halton-hills-sud

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guid: 1031299 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Single-Family Home Permits Plunged In April, But 'Renter Nation' Returns
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: Vc�{��s�/²��:
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Single-Family Home Permits Plunged In April, But 'Renter Nation' Returns</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>A day after homeBUILDER sentiment finally cracked (though still dramatically more 'confident' than homeBUYERS)...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmCEB7_0.jpg?itok=dF9QLj5X" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmCEB7_0.jpg?itok=dF9QLj5X"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="32707741-efba-499c-8d43-17df8b6c8f35" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="278" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmCEB7_0.jpg?itok=dF9QLj5X" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>...and mortgage rates are rebounding higher, Housing Starts and Building Permits expectations were mixed ahead of this morning's print.</p>

<p>The actual data was indeed mixed but both were disappointly below expectations as Starts rebounded just 1.6% MoM (below the +4.0% exp) from the 10.1% MoM collapse last month (small revision higher) while <strong>Permits (more forward looking) plunged 4.7% MoM (vs -1.2% MoM)</strong>...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm5CA8.jpg?itok=PdIlrc3r" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm5CA8.jpg?itok=PdIlrc3r"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="397d811f-c6a0-4aa7-970c-e548d96c7b1b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="274" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm5CA8.jpg?itok=PdIlrc3r" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>That is the <strong>biggest MoM drop in Permits since March 2024</strong>, dragging the SAAR down tits lowest since July 2024...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm3BE9.jpg?itok=kjuY6dIM" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm3BE9.jpg?itok=kjuY6dIM"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="39b64538-2ac1-43f0-b549-a3924df2a8b0" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="275" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm3BE9.jpg?itok=kjuY6dIM" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>The drop in <strong>Permits was largely driven by a huge 5.1% MoM drop in Single-Family apps</strong> (multi-family fell 4.4% MoM) - the biggest drop since Dec 2022...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm8667.jpg?itok=lAf2VsBC" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm8667.jpg?itok=lAf2VsBC"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="97c51deb-82e0-4598-ab99-7f16bf1d5bfb" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="278" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm8667.jpg?itok=lAf2VsBC" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><strong>Housing starts were dominated by multi-family unit increases (for the third month in a row) as Renter Nation returns...</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm6636.jpg?itok=JT5UxxWO" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm6636.jpg?itok=JT5UxxWO"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="37871b74-fff7-4aca-9e77-6b7536e1025f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="270" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm6636.jpg?itok=JT5UxxWO" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<ul><li>
	<p>Single-Family down 2.1% to 927K, lowest since July 2024</p>
	</li>
	<li>
	<p><strong>Multi-family up 11.1% to 420K, highest since Dec 2023</strong></p>
	</li>
</ul><p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%282%29_5.jpg?itok=HAYmkXLT" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%282%29_5.jpg?itok=HAYmkXLT"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="3b471544-5e25-4f16-9f87-9232488d51a4" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="340" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/get_attachment_url%20%282%29_5.jpg?itok=HAYmkXLT" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Interstingly Starts picked up modestly despite the plunge in Homebuilder future sales expectations.,..</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm5A5C.jpg?itok=n1Lkd3ez" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm5A5C.jpg?itok=n1Lkd3ez"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d5b0cf11-a497-48cf-8eb7-9db30d062054" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="276" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm5A5C.jpg?itok=n1Lkd3ez" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>Perhaps the most shocking chart - that explains why builders are not building single-family homes is that <strong>inventories of unsold NEW homes is surging</strong>...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmE45.jpg?itok=mc9A_aRb" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmE45.jpg?itok=mc9A_aRb"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="81ca11f9-eb1c-4284-9a8a-3bb670518714" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="277" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmE45.jpg?itok=mc9A_aRb" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>Rate-cut expectations are not helping...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmC751.jpg?itok=y2Sp_Sj2" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmC751.jpg?itok=y2Sp_Sj2"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="742a045c-cdae-4565-86a5-c87f7bdb32b6" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="278" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmC751.jpg?itok=y2Sp_Sj2" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>So, don't bank on The Fed to save the day.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T12:44:42+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 08:44</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/single-family-home-permits-plunged-april-renter-nation-returns


guid: yt:video:WIP73zg2ohA
title: Imagine If Gaza Was Jewish And The People Bombing It Were Muslims
author: ;Caitlin Johnstone
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIP73zg2ohA
hash: ��|?�O ������N!
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guid: 1031279 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: 5 Takeaways From Supreme Court Hearing On Nationwide Injunctions, Birthright Citizenship
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: n�Z��*R:v�.4�&�
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">5 Takeaways From Supreme Court Hearing On Nationwide Injunctions, Birthright Citizenship</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://www.theepochtimes.com/us/5-takeaways-from-supreme-court-hearing-on-nationwide-injunctions-birthright-citizenship-5858365?utm_source=partner&amp;utm_campaign=ZeroHedge"><em>Authored by Sam Dorman and Matthew Vadum via The Epoch Times,</em></a></p>

<p>The Supreme Court on May 15 heard oral arguments in relation to the Trump administration’s request to lift nationwide injunctions placed on the president’s birthright citizenship order.</p>

<p><strong>The decision could determine how judges can address presidential actions.</strong></p>

<p>During the argument, the justices posed questions about how far lower court judges could go in issuing relief from particular policies.</p>

<p>Solicitor General D. John Sauer told the court that nationwide injunctions exceed judges’ authority under Article 3 of the Constitution.</p>

<p>While members of the Supreme Court have criticized nationwide injunctions in the past, they seemed skeptical that it was appropriate to remove the injunctions in this case.</p>

<p>President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14160, signed on Jan. 20, states that “the Fourteenth Amendment has never been interpreted to extend citizenship universally to everyone born within the United States.”</p>

<p>The executive order has prompted debate over the meaning of the 14th Amendment’s citizenship <a href="https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/essay/amdt14-S1-1-2/ALDE_00000812/">clause</a>, which states that “all persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”</p>

<p>Here are some takeaways from the arguments, as well as considerations surrounding the Supreme Court’s ruling.</p>

<h2>1. No Final Ruling Expected on Constitutionality</h2>

<p>The argument stemmed from an emergency request made by the Trump administration to limit three separate nationwide injunctions blocking the president’s birthright citizenship order.</p>

<p>At such an early stage in the litigation, the justices wrestled more with procedural considerations such as the scope of relief rather than the constitutionality of birthright citizenship for illegal immigrants.</p>

<p>However, judges can still consider the likelihood that each side will succeed with its arguments about the more substantive issues. The issue could also reach the Supreme Court again after further deliberation in lower courts, teeing up an opportunity for the justices to make a more definitive ruling on birthright citizenship.</p>

<p>Sauer could have asked the Supreme Court to delve deeper into the constitutional issues, but he did not. Justice Amy Coney Barrett pressed him on this point and asked why he wanted there to be more consideration by lower courts before the justices took on the issue.</p>

<p><strong>“So this one isn’t clear-cut on the merits?”</strong> she asked.</p>

<p>Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson said that if Trump’s order is legally wrong, allowing the administration to continue implementing it would be inconsistent with the rule of law.</p>

<p>“It seems to me that your argument says we get to keep on doing it until everyone who is potentially harmed by it figures out how to file a lawsuit, hire a lawyer, etc.,” she said. “And I don’t understand how that is remotely consistent with the rule of law.”</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%282%29_19.jpg?itok=pPeBXsDk" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%282%29_19.jpg?itok=pPeBXsDk"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="3c416b10-8582-4e9b-a998-011b345d5644" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="334" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image%20%282%29_19.jpg?itok=pPeBXsDk" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><em>Solicitor General nominee, D. John Sauer, prepares to testify during his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Capitol Hill on Feb. 26, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</em></p>

<h2>2. Several Judges Critical of Trump’s Order</h2>

<p>During the May 15 arguments, Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan seemed to think that the administration had misinterpreted the 14th Amendment when it ordered a halt to illegal immigrants’ children receiving birthright citizenship.</p>

<p><strong>“As far as I see it, this order violates four Supreme Court precedents,” </strong>Sotomayor told Sauer.</p>

<p>Later, Kagan suggested to Sauer that the administration would continue to lose in defending its policy before lower courts. She was asking what incentive the government would have to appeal the case to the Supreme Court if another judge had not issued a nationwide injunction.</p>

<p>“If I were in your shoes, there is no way I'd approach the Supreme Court with this case, so you just keep on losing in the lower courts, and what’s supposed to happen to prevent that?” she asked.</p>

<h2>3. Dispute Over Courts’ Historical Authority</h2>

<p>Justice Clarence Thomas seemed the most sympathetic to Sauer’s position and suggested that nationwide injunctions do not have a solid historical basis.</p>

<p>Sauer had argued that the first nationwide injunction was issued in 1963 and that the court had consistently said relief should be limited to plaintiffs.</p>

<p><strong>“So we survived until the 1960s without universal injunctions?” </strong>Thomas asked.</p>

<p>Sotomayor, meanwhile, asked New Jersey Solicitor General Jeremy Feigenbaum, “We’ve had universal injunctions in some form—correct?—since the founding.”</p>

<p>Both justices asked about the history of courts issuing orders known as “bills of peace,” which resolve a dispute for multiple parties. Sauer described the practice as similar to a modern class action and different from a nationwide injunction. Sotomayor disagreed with that comparison.</p>

<h2>4. Alternatives to Nationwide Injunctions?</h2>

<p>Justice Brett Kavanaugh suggested that class actions, or lawsuits in which multiple plaintiffs sue on behalf of a larger group of plaintiffs, could take the place of nationwide injunctions.</p>

<p>If nationwide injunctions were not available in this case, people could file class actions, which could “solve a large part of the problem in a way that complies with the rules,” the justice said.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%281%29_17.jpg?itok=oWF9Kz68" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%281%29_17.jpg?itok=oWF9Kz68"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="baa740c1-6dab-4174-b7f3-91d7523768fb" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image%20%281%29_17.jpg?itok=oWF9Kz68" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><em>Supreme Court Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Brett Kavanaugh, and Chief Justice John Roberts attend inauguration ceremonies in the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 20, 2025. Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images</em></p>

<p><strong>Kelsi Corkran, an attorney for immigration advocacy groups, disagreed, saying such an approach is “just channeling the problems through a different mechanism.”</strong></p>

<p>Kagan said the state of New Jersey, a litigant in the case, is arguing that without the availability of nationwide injunctions, it could face “administrative costs and ... workability problems” as a result of possibly inconsistent court rulings being issued in different states on the citizenship question.</p>

<p><strong>This could also lead to a “magnet problem” as “everybody moves to the state where the more favorable rule exists,” Kagan said.</strong></p>

<h2>5. Difficulties Involved in Suing Over Birthright Citizenship</h2>

<p>Jackson said the government’s proposal to curtail nationwide injunctions would make it more difficult for people to sue to vindicate their rights.</p>

<p><strong>“Your argument seems to turn our justice system ... into a ‘catch me if you can’ kind of regime ... where everybody has to have a lawyer and file a lawsuit in order for the government to stop violating people’s rights,” she said.</strong></p>

<p>Sauer disagreed, saying that given the status quo, “the ‘catch me if you can’ problem operates in the opposite direction where we have the government racing from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, having to sort of clear the table in order to implement a new policy.”</p>

<p>“Many of us have expressed frustration at the way district courts are doing their business,” Kagan said.</p>

<p>The current system encourages forum-shopping, she said, referring to plaintiffs choosing to file a case in a jurisdiction where they think that the judge will be sympathetic to their case.</p>

<p>During the first Trump administration, litigants sought favorable rulings by filing in courts perceived to be friendly in San Francisco, but in the succeeding Biden administration, litigants filed in Texas, Kagan said.</p>

<p><strong>“There is a big problem that is created by that mechanism,”</strong> she said.</p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T12:55:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 08:55</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/5-takeaways-supreme-court-hearing-nationwide-injunctions-birthright-citizenship


title: C’est parti pour le Festival international du journalisme
hash: ��b�_,�}�H��_��
guid:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165562/festival-international-journalisme-carleton-information

content:
<p>Trois jours d'échanges sur les médias s'amorcent au Festival international du journalisme de Carleton-sur-Mer.</p>

link:
https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165562/festival-international-journalisme-carleton-information

attributes:
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guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330762
title: Mountbatten raped boys from Kincora, book claims
author: ;Niamh Uí Bhriain
link: https://gript.ie/mountbatten-raped-boys-from-kincora-book-claims/
hash: �|OKs�����_i�J�
tags: #Featured #Irish News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p><strong>Fresh claims have been made in a newly-published book by veteran journalist Chris Moore that British Earl, Lord Mountbatten, sexually assaulted and raped boys at the infamous Kincora Boys’ Home and at his Mullaghmore estate – and that a cover-up of the scandal continues.</strong></p>
<p>Moore travelled to Australia to interview Arthur Smyth who was placed in Kincora in 1977 after his parents’ marriage broke up. Mr Smyth alleges that he was raped by Mountbatten when he was 11-years-old at the Home having previously been assaulted by William McGrath, the brutal paedophile who was housemaster in Kincora who was jailed in 1981 for violently raping boys in his care.</p>
<p>Mr Smyth says McGrath brought “his friend Dickie” to Kincora, and told Moore that after he was allegedly raped by Mountbatten he felt sick: “I was crying in the shower. I just wanted it all to stop.” However, he says, Mountbatten returned to sexually assault him again.</p>
<p>He told Chris Moore that he had no idea who ‘Dickie’ until two years later, now at another children’s home, he saw a news item on television with photographs and footage of Mountbatten after the IRA placed a bomb on his boat in Mullaghmore, Co Sligo, in 1979, killing the British Earl, his 14-year-old grandson Nicholas Knatchbull, and Paul Maxwell, a teenage boy from Enniskillen.</p>
<p>“I went up to my bedroom. I started crying. I felt sick. That somebody in high stature like this could do such a thing, because we all think that a paedophile is a bloke that you don’t know, that he’s weird looking or he doesn’t look right, but he fooled everybody,” Arthur Smyth told Chris Moore.</p>
<p>“He charmed everybody. To me, he was king of the paedophiles. That’s what he was. He was not a lord. He was a paedophile and people need to know him for what he was… not for what they’re portraying him to be.”</p>
<p>Allegations of trafficking and abuse involving Kincora and of a cover-up involving MI5 have persisted for decades, but in 2017 the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry found that the perpetrators were William McGrath and two others who worked at the boys home, Joseph Mains and Raymond Semple, with chairman Sir Anthony Hart, saying the inquiry was satisfied there is no evidence to support allegations that prominent individuals were involved in sexual abuse of Kincora residents.</p>
<p>Hart’s report was critical of MI5 officers for consistently obstructing police investigations by the RUC and the destruction of MI5 files relating to Kincora.</p>
<p>One of the abuse victims at Kincora, Clint Massey, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/may/30/n-ireland-child-abuse-inquiry-turns-to-kincora-home-and-claims-of-mi5-blackmail">told the Guardian in 2015</a> that when he tried to file a report at an RUC station in east Belfast in the mid-1970s about the sexual abuse at the home he was forcibly marched out of the station and his complaint was not recorded.</p>
<p>Chris Moore <a href="https://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/politics/i-was-raped-by-mountbatten-in-kincora-at-age-11-he-wasnt-a-lord-to-me-he-was-king-of-the-paedophiles/a41686225.html">says that</a> the Northern Ireland Office “has confirmed that files compiled on Kincora created between 1981-83 were destroyed shortly before the HIA sat”.</p>
<p>“Other Kincora files have been locked away by the Government to 2065 and 2085. Kincora has become the shame of the British establishment. No matter how hard they try to ignore it, it won’t go away,” he added.</p>

<p><img fetchpriority="high" decoding="async" src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/KincoraMoore-325x480.avif" alt width="325" height="480" data-sanitized-class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-330763"></p>
<p>Moore says that Detective Chief Inspector George Caskey, who later led an investigation into the abuse at Kincora  told him that MI5 had “obstructed” his work.</p>
<p>“In this book, I have pulled together all the small pieces of evidence that the British government and MI5 were trying to conceal,” he says.</p>
<p>“Secret documents, including MI5 memos, have been given to me. They show that, in 1983, MI5 legal adviser Bernard Sheldon made Margaret Thatcher’s government do a U-turn on its promise of holding a judicial inquiry into Kincora.</p>
<p>“Instead, at MI5’s insistence, we got a very watered down inquiry with inadequate scope.”</p>
<p>The journalist believes that William McGrath was an agent informer for MI5 in the 1970s, and asks if Kincora was the base for a paedophile ring which sought to exploit the habits of rich and powerful individuals to give the state agency leverage over them.</p>
<p>“What of a Kincora-based paedophile ring, which operated on both sides of the Irish border to supply boys for sex with a client list of rich and powerful individuals?” he asks.</p>
<p>“Such intelligence might have given MI5 leverage over rich and powerful individuals anxious to avoid their paedophilic habits becoming public knowledge. The organisation was known to exploit such human weaknesses,” he says.</p>
<p>MI5 has denied that William McGrath worked for them, and Sir Anthony Hart said that he was also satisfied Kincora was not used by any security agencies as a “honeypot” to entrap, blackmail or otherwise exploit men.</p>
<p>Chris Moore also interviews two other alleged victims of Mountbatten, including Richard Kerr, who says he and his friend Stephen Waring were brought by Kincora warden Joe Mains to be met by Mountbatten’s security men who drove them to Mullaghmore where they were sexually assaulted.</p>
<p>Previously, it emerged that the FBI held files on Lord Mountbatten and his wife Edwina, which included a description of the pair as being ‘considered persons of extremely low morals’, by Baroness Decies, a close friend of former Queen Elizabeth.</p>
<p>She also said, the FBI files recorded, that Mountbatten ‘was known to be a homosexual with a perversion for young boys’.</p>
<p>Arthur Smyth has launched a legal action against the Department of Health, the Secretary of State, the Police Service of Northern Ireland, Belfast Health and Social Care Trust and the Business Services Organisation, seeking damages for alleged assault and battery, negligence, misfeasance in public office and breach of statutory duty under the Children and Young Persons Act (Northern Ireland) 1968.</p>
<p>His solicitor, Kevin Winters of KRW Law, said in a statement in 2022: “In issuing this action today Arthur Smyth has now put down a marker and taken the next important step in his battle to get justice over the horrific abuse suffered by him when he was a child.</p>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747291939
title: Will Artificial Intelligence replace teachers in classrooms?
hash: �6����As�o ٸ:
tags: #TV Shows
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
Will AI transform education for the better, or will it come at the cost of human connection and critical thinking?

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-stream/2025/5/16/will-artificial-intelligence-replace-teachers-in-classrooms?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747389573
title: Has India offered Trump zero tariffs? What we know and why it matters
hash: 3�;��9�����'}B�
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
President Trump said India has made an offer to drop tariffs on US goods as part of ongoing trade negotiations.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/has-india-offered-trump-zero-tariffs-what-we-know-and-why-it-matters?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747395166
title: Global hunger hits new high amid conflict, extreme weather: UN
hash: �g�C��*��\P���
tags: #News
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
More than 295 million people faced acute hunger in 2024, with the outlook 'bleak' due to funding cuts for aid efforts.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/5/16/global-hunger-hits-new-high-amid-conflict-extreme-weather-un?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031304 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Charter-Cox $34.5 Billion Deal Leapfrogs Comcast As New Cable Giant
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/charter-cox-345-billion-deal-leapfrogs-comcast-new-cable-giant
hash: �y��H� <�Y.VH��
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Charter-Cox $34.5 Billion Deal Leapfrogs Comcast As New Cable Giant </span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Charter Communications has agreed to acquire Cox Communications in a blockbuster merger that will create the largest cable TV and broadband provider in the U.S., surpassing Comcast.</p>

<p>The transaction values Cox Communications at $34.5 billion, including $21.9 billion in equity and $12.6 billion in net debt and other obligations. According to a <a href="https://corporate.charter.com/newsroom/charter-communications-and-cox-communications-announce-definitive-agreement-to-combine-companies">press release</a>, the valuation aligns with Charter's enterprise value-to-2025 estimated Adjusted EBITDA multiple of 6.44x. </p>

<p>Charter, the second largest publicly traded cable company behind Comcast, was up 3% in premarket trading in New York from its Thursday close of $419.57. The Cox family privately holds Cox. </p>

<p>Charter will acquire Cox's commercial fiber, IT, and cloud businesses and contribute Cox's residential cable assets to Charter Holdings. </p>

<p>Cox Enterprises will become the largest shareholder of the combined entity's fully diluted shares outstanding with a 23% stake and have seats on the board. </p>

<p>"This combination will augment our ability to innovate and provide high-quality, competitively priced products, delivered with outstanding customer service, to millions of homes and businesses," Chris Winfrey, President and CEO of Charter, said in a statement.</p>

<p>Winfrey said, "We will continue to deliver high-value products that save American families money, and we'll onshore jobs from overseas to create new, good-paying careers for U.S. employees that come with great benefits, career training and advancement, and retirement and ownership opportunities." </p>

<p>The combined company will remain headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and keep a "significant presence on Cox's Atlanta, GA campus following the closing," according to the press release.</p>

<p>The merger with Cox follows Charter's announcement of an all-stock acquisition of Liberty Broadband, with both transactions expected to close concurrently.</p>

<p>Charter expects $500 million in annualized cost synergies within three years of closing the deal. </p>

<p>Bloomberg added context to the merger, describing it as part of an escalating "turf war" in the telecom industry:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>Cable and phone companies have been engaged in an intense turf war, seeking to win over customers in areas that others have dominated. Cable providers have been selling their own mobile phone plans by leasing network access from major carriers. At the same time, phone carriers have been poaching home internet subscribers from cable companies.</em></p>

<p><em>The bet is that customers will in the future prefer to buy their internet and mobile phone services from the same provider — a trend referred to as convergence. A combination of Charter and Cox would position them to better compete in that environment by allowing them to bundle offerings and more efficiently invest in infrastructure.</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Bloomberg Intelligence analysts noted:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>"Charter is aggressively marketing its converged mobile fixed bundles at competitive rates to improve subscriber acquisition and retention.</em></p>

<p><em>"Regardless, the entire cable sector is being hurt by intensifying telecom competition from both fiber coverage and fixed wireless access."</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Axios pointed out:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>Some layoffs are expected to result from the merger. Other Cox Enterprises businesses, including Axios and Autotrader, are not directly impacted.</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Just like that, the combined entity is set to become America's largest cable TV and broadband provider. </p>

<p>Recall <a href="https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/far-left-agents-change-armed-crowbar-Sabotages-f-35-parts-factory-uk">one of the heirs</a> to the Cox empire is a far-left radical...  </p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">Fergie Chambers is the heir to the Cox Media empire. He is also a devoted Communist and a fan of Mao (see tattoo on his thigh). He is spending his fortune from capitalism on a proletariat Revolution to overthrow capitalism.<br><br>
How was he introduced to Communism? By a history… <a href="https://t.co/V0KeJutqr7">pic.twitter.com/V0KeJutqr7</a></p>
— Xi Van Fleet (@XVanFleet) <a href="https://twitter.com/XVanFleet/status/1732907093416423557?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2023</a></blockquote>
<p>Sigh. </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>

<p> </p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T13:15:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 09:15</span>


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747391185
title: Omar El Akkad: Gaza genocide and the failure of US liberalism
content: Marc Lamont Hill speaks with author Omar El Akkad on Gaza and the failure of Western liberalism.
hash: ơ�.��=��2;��S
tags: #Economy
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/upfront/2025/5/16/omar-el-akkad-gaza-genocide-and-the-failure-of-us-liberalism?traffic_source=rss


guid: 1031310 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Macron, Starmer Blast 'Unacceptable' Russian Stance In Talks, Zelensky Urges More Sanctions
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: �����ƼXle�?�
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Macron, Starmer Blast 'Unacceptable' Russian Stance In Talks, Zelensky Urges More Sanctions</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><u><strong>Update(11:30ET):</strong></u> Zelensky in a phone call with President Trump soon on the heels of the Istanbul meeting, which lasted just under two hours, touted that he's willing to "take the fastest possible steps to bring real peace" - but the West needs to hold "a strong stance". Also on the group call were the leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland.</p>

<p>Zelensky after the phone call told reporters that <strong>"pressure on Russia must be maintained". </strong>He stated: "Our position — if the Russians reject a full and unconditional ceasefire and an end to killings,<strong> tough sanctions must follow</strong>."</p>

<p>Kiev's top European allies blasted Russia's stance as presented in Istanbul "unacceptable":</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, joined by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish leader Donald Tusk, said in a statement on Friday that <strong>“the Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time,”</strong> according to Reuters.</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>And PM Starmer followed by saying, "As a result of that meeting with President Zelensky and the discussion with President Trump, we are now closely aligning and coordinating our responses and will continue to do so."</p>

<p>But importantly, neither side has yet shut the door on the possibility of more rounds of direct Russia-Ukraine talks. Certainly the Trump White House wants to see this happen.</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqupwud000b3b6mne51icei@published">As for the Russian delegation, its head Vladimir Medinsky announced that "each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire, detailing it in writing." Here's the Russian readout:</p>

<blockquote>
<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqupwud000b3b6mne51icei@published">We are satisfied with the outcome and ready to continue our contacts. Here is what has been agreed:<br><strong>First,</strong> in the coming days, there will be a large-scale prisoner exchange: 1,000 for 1,000 people.<br><strong>Second,</strong> the Ukrainian side has requested direct talks between the heads of state. We have taken this request under advisement.<br><strong>And third,</strong> we have agreed that each side will present its vision of a possible future ceasefire, detailing it in writing. Once these visions have been presented, we believe it is appropriate-as has also been agreed-to continue our negotiations.”</p>
</blockquote>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/macrstarmer.jpg?itok=pq8wbxSE" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/macrstarmer.jpg?itok=pq8wbxSE"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="381aefdc-8ee6-4fdd-9125-154372f80990" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/macrstarmer.jpg?itok=pq8wbxSE" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption><em>Speaking from Albania on Friday after conference call with Trump and Zelensky, via Reuters.</em></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p>Ukraine is likely to continue pushing for Europe and the US to ramp up the sanctions campaign, and to commit more money and weapons.</p>

<p>* * *</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqv79wq000s3b6mqhcbppa0@published">The leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Poland said Russia’s position at its talks with Ukraine on Friday was “unacceptable,” after a holding a phone conversation with President Donald Trump.</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqw7om300153b6mtziowfoe@published">British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, joined by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Polish leader Donald Tusk, said in a statement on Friday that “the Russian position is clearly unacceptable, and not for the first time,” according to Reuters.</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqw9rk4001e3b6mhl9q7e53@published">The four leaders were speaking on the sidelines of a European meeting in Tirana, Albania, where they were joined by Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and held a group call with President Trump.</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqwb3xw001g3b6mw4ayd5k2@published">“As a result of that meeting with President Zelensky and the discussion with President Trump, we are now closely aligning and coordinating our responses and will continue to do so,” he said,” Starmer said, according to Reuters.</p>

<p>* * *</p>

<p>The Friday meeting between Ukrainian and Russian officials, the first direct engagement of its kind in some three years, has ended, according to Turkey’s foreign ministry, and lasted <strong>a little under two hours</strong>.</p>

<p>Each side will in the aftermath convey to the press its version of things, and Ukraine has been right out the gate telling CNN that there was nothing meaningful to come out of these first talks.</p>

<p>A Ukrainian source <a href="https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/russia-ukraine-peace-talks-intl-05-16-25?t=1747401821338">said</a> the Russia delegation "did not have a mandate to make important decisions" and that <strong>"they are not ready to decide anything meaningful to end the war."</strong></p>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/delegationsistanbul.jpg?itok=wWvTAHws" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/delegationsistanbul.jpg?itok=wWvTAHws"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="115e4f39-9c69-4631-b812-766923f92ddc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="333" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/delegationsistanbul.jpg?itok=wWvTAHws" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption><em>Turkish Foreign Minister's Press Office/EPA/Shutterstock</em></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p>Many international headlines Thursday described the team of junior officials sent by the Kremlin as an 'insult' to the peace process; however, it's also the case that no matter who President Putin sends, he is the one who will ultimately make the decisions.</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqssgae002f3b6mmasvxqqc@published"><em>Wall Street Journal</em> has <a href="https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/russia-ukraine-peace-talks-begin-amid-low-expectations-f010d73b?st=sEfTsr&amp;reflink=mobilewebshare_permalink">described</a> that "The talks, in the Dolmabahçe Palace in Istanbul, came about as the result of President <strong>Trump’s pressure</strong>, so far <strong>mostly applied on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky</strong>, to find an end to the war."</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqssgae002f3b6mmasvxqqc@published">But, "Just as the negotiations started, Russia struck near the Ukrainian city of Dnipro with a salvo of ballistic missiles, according to local officials."</p>

<p data-article-gutter="true" data-component-name="paragraph" data-editable="text" data-uri="cms.cnn.com/_components/paragraph/instances/cmaqssgae002f3b6mmasvxqqc@published">And Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-ukraine-hold-first-direct-peace-talks-over-3-years-2025-05-16/">agrees</a> in its assessment that there are "<strong>no apparent sign of progress so far in narrowing the gap between the sides</strong>, and a Ukrainian source called Moscow's demands 'non-starters'.</p>
<a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/ukrfm.jpg?itok=a4BUUIsV" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/ukrfm.jpg?itok=a4BUUIsV"><picture><figure role="group" data-sanitized-class="caption caption-img inline-images image-style-inline-images"><img alt="" data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d7d71365-508d-4741-a351-f9e04d935344" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="281" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/ukrfm.jpg?itok=a4BUUIsV" typeof="foaf:Image" width="500"><figcaption><em>Ukrainian Foreign Ministry via AFP</em></figcaption></figure></picture></a>

<p><strong>Neither side has so far offered no major concessions</strong>, and issues like permanent control over Crimea and the four eastern territories remain sticking points for Moscow. </p>

<p>During the Istanbul meeting, according to WSJ's foreign correspondent <a href="https://x.com/yarotrof/status/1923364225742745933">Yaroslav Trofimov</a>:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em><strong>Russia demanded in Istanbul that Ukraine withdraw its troops from four regions</strong> — areas that Moscow has been trying to conquer but failed since 2022 — <strong>as a precondition for ceasefire</strong>. That’s an area twice the size of the country of Lebanon and home to more than a million Ukrainians. Not going to happen.</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson were annexed in 2022, declared part of the Russian Federation, but Moscow forces <strong>still don't have 100% control over them</strong>.</p>

<blockquote data-sanitized-class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en" xml:lang="en">The talks in Istanbul lasted fewer than 2 hours and led nowhere, it looks. Russia demanded that Ukraine surrender, Ukraine refused. <a href="https://t.co/WR5A5jcI4e">https://t.co/WR5A5jcI4e</a></p>
— Yaroslav Trofimov (@yarotrof) <a href="https://twitter.com/yarotrof/status/1923365737005031672?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
<p>And it doesn't look like there was any progress on achieving a Trump and Zelensky-backed 30-day ceasefire. Moscow sees this as a tactic for Ukraine forces to simply rearm and regroup, at a moment they are in dire need of more manpower and artillery. </p>

<p>President Zelensky has meanwhile been making clear that Ukraine will not surrender its territory as "this is Ukraine's land" - and he isn't so much as ready to even offer Crimea. Zelensky and European leaders are reportedly holding a phone call with US President Trump in the wake of the Istanbul meeting.</p>

<p>They will likely try to convince the US leader that <strong>attempts to negotiate an end to the war with Putin are futile</strong>. This seems to have been Zelensky's aim all along: getting Washington and Trump back on his side, and securing the unending flow of weapons, cash, and intelligence.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2b72c002-e93c-4106-a724-520235269abc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="134" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/TBI_Ad_1500x400px_MemorialDay_1%282%29.jpg?itok=XNvyQwGv" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>
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      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T17:30:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 13:30</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/russia-ukraine-talks-wrap-under-2-hours-nothing-meaningful-end-war


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165585/feux-foret-whiteshell-evacuation-urgence
title: Feu de forêt au Manitoba : évacution du parc du Whiteshell
content: <p>Un feu non maîtrisé le long de la frontière ontarienne de plus de 27 000 ha menace le parc.</p>
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165585/feux-foret-whiteshell-evacuation-urgence
hash: �xX�q%4����5���1
attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/16x9/feux-foret-whiteshell-evacuation-urgence.png","type":"image/png","length":0}]}


guid: https://www.aljazeera.com/?t=1747390524
title: Seventy-seven years after the Nakba, we are naming our new ruin
hash: *�@��6�9�+��?r
tags: #Opinions
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
What began in 1948 has become something even darker. On this anniversary, we call it al-Ibādah - the Destruction.

link:
https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2025/5/16/seventy-seven-years-after-the-nakba-we-are-naming-our-new-ruin?traffic_source=rss


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165573/lion-electrique-autobus-investisseurs
title: Lion électrique ressuscitée par un groupe d’investisseurs du Québec
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165573/lion-electrique-autobus-investisseurs
hash: r� -~��t {���i��
content:
<p>Lion électrique est aux prises avec une dette s'élevant à 500 millions de dollars américains.</p>

attributes:
{"enclosures":[{"url":"https://images.radio-canada.ca/q_auto,w_635,h_357/v1/ici-info/16x9/autobus-scolaire-electrique-abitibi.JPG","type":"image/jpeg","length":0}]}


guid: 1031306 at https://www.zerohedge.com
title: Corporate Stock Buybacks – Do They Affect Markets?
author: ;Tyler Durden
link: https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/corporate-stock-buybacks-do-they-affect-markets
hash: ��L�U���l�� B5
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">Corporate Stock Buybacks – Do They Affect Markets?</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p><a href="https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/blog/corporate-stock-buybacks-do-they-affect-markets/"><em>Authored by Lance Roberts via RealInvestmentAdvice.com,</em></a></p>

<p>Fisher Investments recently wrote an interesting article asking whether corporate stock buybacks affect markets. Here is their conclusion:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>“Yes and no? Stocks move on supply and demand. Stock buybacks, where a company buys and takes shares off the market, theoretically reduce supply. They can also raise earnings per share, thus rewarding shareholders. So, all else equal and on paper, stock buybacks are bullish. But reality, as always, is more complicated. Buybacks are just one factor affecting supply. There are others, and demand matters, too. They may not reduce supply if they merely offset secondary issuances, like employee stock awards. Often, buybacks merely ‘sterilize’ new issuance. Other negative (or less bullish) fundamental factors might matter more in pricing, lowering demand even as supply shrinks. <strong>So buybacks are a factor, but not the factor.</strong>“</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>While the statement is mostly correct, I am unsure they looked at the actual impact that corporate stock buybacks have on the market. We have discussed this topic and the past misstatements of corporate stock buybacks. Here is a listing for more background.</p>

<ol><li><em>They are not a return of capital to shareholders; <a href="https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/blog/corporate-buybacks-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/"><strong>dividends are.</strong></a></em></li>
	<li><em>Corporate stock buybacks <strong><a href="https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/blog/buffett-on-buybacks/">are the worst use of cash</a>.</strong></em></li>
	<li><em>It is a benefit that almost </em><strong><a href="https://realinvestmentadvice.com/resources/blog/corporate-buybacks-a-wolf-in-sheeps-clothing/"><em>entirely benefits corporate insider</em>s</a>.</strong></li>
</ol><p>But, without rehashing the many problems of corporate stock buybacks, let’s focus on these transactions’ impact on the overall market.</p>

<p>As of May 2025, corporate stock buyback authorizations are on track to eclipse $1.35 trillion this year, with more than $1 trillion executed. This will exceed any other year in the market since the turn of the century. Such should be unsurprising with Apple (AAPL) announcing an additional $100 billion and Google adding another $70 billion to their programs (those two programs will account for 12% of the <em>total alone).</em></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-16_05-22-37.jpg?itok=ekC7YKFO" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/2025-05-16_05-22-37.jpg?itok=ekC7YKFO"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a1571f34-0559-4037-8573-0612497cbee0" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="169" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/2025-05-16_05-22-37.jpg?itok=ekC7YKFO" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>The data should lead one to question why corporate stock buybacks have grown steadily since the turn of the century. Such is particularly the case when the overreliance on buybacks at non-accretive valuations to boost stock prices has become commonplace. Such a statement undermines the fallacy that corporate stock buybacks are solely a return of capital to shareholders. For example, <strong>Apple’s $110 billion buyback plan in 2024</strong> raised questions among some investors about whether the company <strong>focused too much on immediate stock price increases rather than on investments that could drive long-term value.</strong> That statement should not be overlooked, given that 5-year annualized revenue growth has been flat since 2018. <em>(Chart courtesy of <a href="https://simplevisor.com/home"><strong>SimpleVisor.com</strong></a>)</em></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-100-1024x328.jpg?itok=j2n9Ph6J" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-100-1024x328.jpg?itok=j2n9Ph6J"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b5e1e5a7-1ced-432b-938a-82bdfaace3ac" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="160" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-100-1024x328.jpg?itok=j2n9Ph6J" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>If corporate stock buybacks are not a significant factor in increasing stock prices, why do companies engage in them so heavily? Why not just let market dynamics carry the load? The reason is simplistic to understand.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>“Corporate executives give several reasons for stock buybacks but none of them has close to the explanatory power of this simple truth: <strong>Stock-based instruments make up the majority of their pay and in the short-term buybacks drive up stock prices.”</strong></em> – <em>Financial Times.</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>So, how much of a factor are buybacks?</p>

<h2 data-sanitized-id="h-are-buybacks-an-important-factor"><strong>Are Buybacks An Important Factor</strong></h2>

<p>It is a pretty easy task to see whether or not corporate stock buybacks influence stock prices. As we penned last year, the impact of buybacks extends beyond individual companies. Since 2000, net corporate buybacks have accounted for <strong>100% of the equity market’s net asset purchases</strong>—a reflection of the diminished participation from pensions, mutual funds, and individual investors:</p>

<ul><li><strong>Net Flow:</strong> +$5.2 trillion</li>
	<li><strong>Pensions &amp; Mutual Funds:</strong> –$2.7 trillion</li>
	<li><strong>Households &amp; Foreign Investors:</strong> +$2.4 trillion</li>
	<li><strong>Corporations (Buybacks):</strong> +$5.5 trillion</li>
</ul><p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-65-1_0.jpg?itok=nUaJ8Ti9" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-65-1_0.jpg?itok=nUaJ8Ti9"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="36a3ed3f-43e3-4e5b-9d33-db6afb332014" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="300" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-65-1_0.jpg?itok=nUaJ8Ti9" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>In other words, without corporate stock buybacks, the stock market would be roughly 30% lower today.</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>“The chart below via Pavilion Global Markets shows the impact stock buybacks have had on the market over the last decade. The decomposition of returns for the S&amp;P 500 breaks down as follows:</em>“</p>
</blockquote>

<ul><li><em>6.1% from multiple expansions (21% at Peak),</em></li>
	<li><em>57.3% from earnings (31.4% at Peak),</em></li>
	<li><em>9.1% from dividends (7.1% at Peak), and</em></li>
	<li><em><strong>27% from share buybacks</strong> (40.5% at Peak)</em></li>
</ul><p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-38-6.jpg?itok=FdS4DvGC" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-38-6.jpg?itok=FdS4DvGC"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a1d46f31-dc7e-4c6b-b8c2-3ff6f01c60c9" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="363" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-38-6.jpg?itok=FdS4DvGC" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Yes, buybacks are that important.</p>

<p>However, to Fisher’s question directly, there is more than just a minor correlation between corporate stock buybacks and the market. The chart below overlays the 4-week change in stock buybacks versus the 4-week change in the S&amp;P 500 index. It is worth noting that before 1982, the SEC considered share buybacks an illegal form of market manipulation. <em><strong>(In 1982, the SEC adopted Rule 10b-18, which provided “safe harbor” from “liability of market manipulation. In other words, the SEC recognizes that buybacks manipulate the financial markets but provided a “shield” to corporations.)</strong></em></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-103-1024x535.jpg?itok=2-uClDay" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-103-1024x535.jpg?itok=2-uClDay"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="0f0defee-fa24-40bf-8468-7aa21a779b81" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="261" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-103-1024x535.jpg?itok=2-uClDay" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>The chart above is complex due to the large amount of data. The chart below is from 2021 to present, where changes to buybacks <em>(increase or decrease)</em> significantly impact changes to stock prices. It is worth noting that the nearly 20% decline in April was exacerbated by the sharp reversal in buyback activity and vice versa.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-102-1024x536.jpg?itok=X3l-wdTf" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-102-1024x536.jpg?itok=X3l-wdTf"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="9eef106c-043f-44b0-be41-898b9fc1640f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="262" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-102-1024x536.jpg?itok=X3l-wdTf" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>While Fisher suggests that buybacks have little to do with market movements, a high correlation exists between the 4-week percentage change in buybacks and the stock market. More importantly, since the act of share repurchases provides a buyer for those shares, the .85 correlation between the two suggests this is more than just a casual relationship.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-101_0.jpg?itok=JDwAUDHL" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-101_0.jpg?itok=JDwAUDHL"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="8237bf62-0c04-4aa1-b0a7-f120ca9180c4" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="301" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-101_0.jpg?itok=JDwAUDHL" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>But yes, Fisher is correct, other factors support higher asset prices.</p>

<h2 data-sanitized-id="h-buybacks-affect-more-than-just-prices"><strong>Buybacks Affect More Than Just Prices</strong></h2>

<p>In 2023, Jason Zweig penned an article for the WSJ stating:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>“Over the past five years, according to S&amp;P Dow Jones Indices, <strong>big U.S. companies have spent $3.9 trillion repurchasing their own stock</strong>.</em> <em><strong>Buybacks are neither bad nor good. They are simply a tool. Just as you can use a hammer either to build a house or knock one down, buybacks are useful in the right corporate hands and dangerous in the wrong ones.</strong>“</em> – <em><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/stock-buybacks-arent-bad-they-arent-good-either-6b63356a?reflink=e2twmkts">Jason Zweig, WSJ</a></em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>That is a fair statement. The impact of share buybacks is vital to manufacturing earnings growth since we measure earnings on a per-share basis. In other words, if you reduce the number of shares outstanding, corporate earnings <em>“per share”</em> improve, as shown below.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-104_1.jpg?itok=UmcnCvDw" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-104_1.jpg?itok=UmcnCvDw"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="ba5e2f46-05c0-4db1-b2ad-e38789d512d5" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="345" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-104_1.jpg?itok=UmcnCvDw" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>As discussed previously, the annual rate of change in earnings growth is one of the best predictors of forward stock market returns.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-106-1024x537.jpg?itok=j87P9mSt" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-106-1024x537.jpg?itok=j87P9mSt"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="110c4971-b1a5-4ebb-ade7-578ab9362c8b" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="262" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-106-1024x537.jpg?itok=j87P9mSt" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>However, investors must be cautious about understanding the impact of buybacks on earnings when investing in companies. As Warren Buffett noted:</p>

<blockquote>
<p><em>Finally, an important warning: <strong>Even the operating earnings figure we favor</strong> <strong>can easily be manipulated by managers </strong>who wish to do so. Such tampering is often considered sophisticated by CEOs, directors and their advisors.</em> <em>Reporters and analysts embrace its existence as well. <strong>Beating ‘expectations’ is heralded as a managerial triumph. That activity is disgusting. It requires no talent to manipulate numbers:</strong> Only a deep desire to deceive is required. ‘Bold, imaginative accounting,’ as a CEO once described his deception to me, <strong>has become one of the shames of capitalism.</strong>“</em></p>
</blockquote>

<p>Why would CEO’s want to manipulate earnings? Unsurprisingly, a WSJ survey of CFOs found that 93% pointed to <strong><em>“influence on stock price” </em>and <em>“outside pressure”</em></strong> as the reasons for manipulating earnings figures.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-130.jpg?itok=rvnF7wmx" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-130.jpg?itok=rvnF7wmx"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="a0859efc-df6a-44ab-981a-af33f651a7b4" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="277" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-130.jpg?itok=rvnF7wmx" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Of course, one misnomer is that corporate CEOs execute buybacks when they believe the stock is undervalued. However, the reality is quite the opposite, and they tend to execute share repurchases when their current optimism is elevated. When share prices decline, and buybacks could be done at accretive prices, there is little incentive to do so.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image-105_0.jpg?itok=UiFUwxpN" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image-105_0.jpg?itok=UiFUwxpN"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="64b4d113-ba62-45c6-828c-b3a2f7426bd7" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="296" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image-105_0.jpg?itok=UiFUwxpN" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<h2 data-sanitized-id="h-conclusion"><strong>Conclusion</strong></h2>

<p>The evidence is clear: corporate stock buybacks are not a marginal force in markets—<strong>they are central to the mechanics of price inflation</strong>. When buybacks account for the entire net demand for equities over the last two decades, it’s hard to argue they’re simply <em>“a”</em> factor. They aren’t just reducing supply on paper—they are the demand. Without them, equity valuations would look very different.</p>

<p>But what’s more concerning is the <em>why</em>. Despite the popular narrative that buybacks return capital to shareholders, the data and behavior of corporate management tell a different story. Buybacks overwhelmingly inflate earnings per share and boost short-term stock prices, which are tied directly to executive compensation. That incentive skews the timing and intent of buyback programs away from long-term value creation and toward short-term financial engineering.</p>

<p>To Fisher’s credit, markets are complex. Demand, sentiment, interest rates, and macroeconomic factors all matter. However, dismissing buybacks as one variable among many overlooks just how much they dominate equity flows. Their influence is measurable, intentional, and reinforced by corporate leadership’s financial incentives.</p>

<p>The question for investors is not whether buybacks matter—they do. <strong>The question is whether they’re being used to create real value or mask its absence.</strong></p>
</div>
      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T13:50:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 09:50</span>


guid: https://gript.ie/?p=330784
title: COOLOCK: Court case opposing IPAS site brought forward
author: ;Dr Matt Treacy
link: https://gript.ie/coolock-court-case-opposing-ipas-site-brought-forward/
hash: $#NH���A����?�
tags: #Comment Ireland #Featured #Alan Croghan #asylum #Coolock #court case #IPAS
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div><img src="https://gript.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Coolock-Says-No-e1747403661636.jpg" data-sanitized-class="ff-og-image-inserted"></div><p><strong>Dear Reader,</strong></p>
<p>It is a simple statement of fact that if you are looking for diversity of thought in the Irish media, you will struggle to find it. That is why we founded Gript – to serve the gap in the market left by so many of our colleagues, when they decided that the job of journalists was not to challenge consensus thought, but to herd around it, and defend it fiercely.</p>
<p>If you are looking for a media outlet that blames everything on the “far right” in Ireland, then you don’t have to go far to find one. If, by contrast, you are looking for a media outlet that looks beyond that cheap sloganeering, and tries to understand and report on the real concerns held by ordinary people – and a good few prominent people, albeit privately – then that is what we try to do here.</p>
<p>But we cannot do it without your support, and your subscription.</p>
<p>We reject Government funding, because, in our view, that would be the end of our independence. The moment we did so, we would begin looking over our shoulder, and wondering if our coverage of a particular issue might lead to that money being taken away. In time – not all at once, but slowly and inexorably – we would become just another safe, consensus, state-funded voice.</p>
<p>But there’s a bargain to be struck here: If you value our independence, then you must support it. If you want us to be answerable to you, then you must take a stake in our work.</p>
<p>What we try to do here is to be open, honest, and brave. That does not mean that you will always agree with us. It does mean that there will be times when we will annoy you, and publish things you disagree with: That’s part of the deal. We are independent, not servants of one cause, or another.</p>
<p>That is what media is supposed to be, but too often in Ireland no longer is. We are trying to change that, and we need your help. I am, therefore, asking for it, and would deeply appreciate a subscription at the level you can afford.</p>
<p>With gratitude,</p>
<p><strong>John</strong></p>


guid: yt:video:CDtZ9gn4WCY
title: Who’s That Senator?
author: ;Senate of Canada | Sénat du Canada
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDtZ9gn4WCY
hash: E$�Gd�)��L���o
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guid: https://strategic-culture.su/?post_type=article&amp;p=885330
title: Si sta preparando un nuovo tribunale fittizio
author: ;A A
link: https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/05/16/si-sta-preparando-un-nuovo-tribunale-fittizio/
hash: /�����r��j��7
tags: #Italiano #European Union #International Law #Kallas #Russia
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<p><strong><em>Nuove proposte deliranti dei leader dell’UE</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><span><span><em>Segue nostro</em></span> <a href="https://t.me/SCF_Italiano" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Telegram</a><a href="https://t.me/SCF_Italiano" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" src="https://strategic-culture.su/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tlg.jpg" alt="" width="25" height="25" data-sanitized-class="alignnone wp-image-875659"></a><a href="https://t.me/SCF_Italiano" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><span>.</span></a></span></strong></p>
<p>L’<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/05/09/ukraine-aggression-tribunal-europe-russia-war-court/a8720174-2cdd-11f0-a724-3bc879c9f843_story.html">annuncio delirante e ridicolmente inopportuno</a> di Kaja Kallas, fatto il giorno dopo il trionfo della Russia nel Giorno della Vittoria del 9 maggio a Mosca, secondo cui i leader fantoccio europei stanno progettando di istituire un <a href="https://enlargement.ec.europa.eu/news/international-coalition-agrees-establishment-special-tribunal-crime-aggression-against-ukraine-2025-05-09_en">“tribunale speciale” nell’ambito del Consiglio d’Europa</a> per giudicare la Russia per “aggressione” e altri presunti crimini in Ucraina, riporta alla mente alcuni ricordi dell’Aia. L’ICTY, il Tribunale penale internazionale per l’ex Jugoslavia, ha sede proprio lì, così come il nuovo tribunale citato da Kallas. L’autore di questo articolo ha trascorso lì alcuni degli anni più interessanti della sua vita.</p>
<p>Un ricordo indelebile è quello dell’ex presidente serbo e jugoslavo Slobodan Milosevic, rapito dal regime vassallo insediato nel suo Paese dopo la rivoluzione colorata dell’ottobre 2000 e inviato all’Aia per essere processato. Durante la sua prima comparizione in aula, rivolgendosi ai giudici e al procuratore Carla del Ponte, Milosevic definì il tribunale un “falso tribunale”.</p>
<p>Quella frase mi è rimasta impressa. L’inglese di Milosevic era adeguato, ma non perfetto. Da qui la pittoresca espressione che ha usato. Se avesse avuto una maggiore padronanza dell’inglese idiomatico, avrebbe parlato di tribunale “fasullo” o “falso”. Invece ha tradotto direttamente dal suo serbo madrelingua ciò che voleva dire, con un risultato più divertente che accademicamente preciso. Ma non ha fatto nulla di male. Anzi, date le circostanze, quella locuzione palesemente non idiomatica ha rafforzato ancora di più il suo profondo significato.</p>
<p>Purtroppo, Kaja Kallas non ha rivelato i dettagli tecnici del tribunale previsto, che dovrebbero essere resi disponibili prima di poter valutare adeguatamente la credibilità di questa iniziativa. Ci sono diversi parametri che devono essere stabiliti prima che un “tribunale” di questo tipo possa essere preso sul serio.</p>
<p>Il primo di questi è una chiara definizione del mandato del nuovo organo giudiziario. Non è sufficiente affermare semplicemente che si occuperà dei crimini di guerra e dei crimini contro l’umanità derivanti dal conflitto in Ucraina dal febbraio 2022. Quali crimini saranno oggetto dell’indagine e, in ultima analisi, del giudizio del tribunale? La logica alla base della creazione di questo tribunale solleva serie questioni al riguardo. Lei fa riferimento esclusivamente ai “crimini russi”, un riferimento ripreso anche dalla presidente della Commissione europea Ursula van den Leyen e dal commissario europeo per lo Stato di diritto Michael McGrath. Nessun altro è stato visto commettere crimini in Ucraina durante il periodo in esame, o forse risalendo un po’ più indietro, al 2014? Se sussistono ancora dubbi al riguardo, che incidono direttamente sull’obiettività del Tribunale, essi sono stati chiariti dalla precisazione pubblicata dalla Commissione europea sul suo sito web:</p>
<p>“Il Tribunale avrà il potere di indagare, perseguire e giudicare i leader politici e militari russi che hanno la maggiore responsabilità per il crimine di aggressione contro l’Ucraina”.</p>
<p>La parte per cui parla Kallas ha definito ‘guerra su vasta scala’ le operazioni militari nel contesto delle quali sarebbero stati commessi i crimini di cui il Tribunale si appresta a occuparsi. Appare credibile, in un conflitto di così ampia portata, limitare a priori la commissione e il giudizio dei crimini a una sola parte, e questo prima ancora che il tribunale abbia iniziato i suoi lavori e che sia stata condotta un’indagine adeguata? Un simile approccio può conquistare la fiducia e il rispetto della comunità internazionale nei confronti dell’organo giudiziario che lo adotta? Per “comunità internazionale” intendiamo il mondo nel suo insieme, non la parte relativamente piccola che si raggruppa attorno alle potenze leader dell’Occidente collettivo. La reazione della comunità internazionale in senso inclusivo ai procedimenti del tribunale previsto dovrebbe avere un certo significato per i promotori e i creatori del Tribunale ucraino. Si dice che «la giustizia non solo deve essere fatta, ma deve anche essere vista». Il consueto teatro giudiziario, con i giudici in toga rossa e dall’espressione severa, non impressiona più nessuno. La configurazione del mondo è cambiata e l’evento del 9 maggio a Mosca è stato un vivido riflesso di questa trasformazione. Un atteggiamento negligente nei confronti dell’apparenza della giustizia comprometterebbe gravemente la capacità del nuovo Tribunale di raggiungere il suo scopo propagandistico e lo renderebbe sterile. Kaja Kallas e i suoi colleghi ci hanno pensato? Il buon senso suggerisce che il loro Tribunale dovrebbe fingere di giudicare in modo imparziale o astenersi del tutto dal partecipare.</p>
<p>È improbabile che questo Tribunale segua una delle due linee di condotta sopra descritte. Non può farlo perché, a differenza degli altri tribunali fittizi dell’Aia, è stato istituito in modo tale da ignorare deliberatamente anche la parvenza di indipendenza giudiziaria che potrebbe ingannare qualcuno. È il prodotto di un trattato concluso tra la Commissione europea e l’Ucraina, una delle parti in conflitto, che inoltre, almeno nelle fasi iniziali dell’operazione, fornirà al Tribunale le “prove” necessarie per svolgere il suo lavoro. Tale accordo ricorda in modo sospetto quanto accaduto nell’estate del 1943, quando sotto l’egida tedesca furono riesumate le vittime di Katyn. Furono le autorità naziste tedesche a fornire le prove sul campo del crimine alla “commissione internazionale” istituita appositamente da Goebbels per stabilire la responsabilità dell’esecuzione degli ufficiali polacchi catturati. Le conclusioni della Commissione Goebbels seguirono il prevedibile schema.</p>
<p>È interessante notare che la cronologia della Commissione europea per la costituzione del Tribunale ucraino afferma che <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_25_398">il progetto è stato avviato nel marzo 2022</a>, solo poche settimane dopo l’inizio della presunta “aggressione”, con il mandato di indagare sui “crimini internazionali fondamentali commessi in Ucraina”. Sarebbe naturale chiedersi come abbiano potuto essere commessi in così poco tempo crimini di gravità e portata tali da giustificare l’avvio di un’impresa così complessa. La risposta è suggerita più avanti nello stesso documento della CE: “A seguito delle scoperte delle atrocità commesse a Bucha e in altre zone liberate dell’Ucraina, la Commissione si è impegnata a sostenere le indagini e il perseguimento dei crimini di guerra e dei crimini contro l’umanità commessi in Ucraina”. Questo non svela forse il gioco?</p>
<p>Inoltre, segue esattamente lo schema originariamente introdotto in Bosnia all’inizio degli anni ’90 per creare le motivazioni per l’istituzione dell’ICTY, il Tribunale dell’Aia per l’ex Jugoslavia. I precedenti del Tribunale per l’Ucraina, come chiaramente ammesso nel testo citato, risalgono all’operazione sotto falsa bandiera organizzata immediatamente dopo il ritiro delle forze russe da Bucha nel marzo 2022. Come ricorderanno coloro che hanno memoria integra, anche il meccanismo di propaganda utilizzato per l’istituzione dell’ICTY era un’operazione sotto falsa bandiera. Fu inscenata nella via Vasa Miskin a Sarajevo nel maggio 1992, dove, come a Bucha, persone innocenti furono sacrificate senza pietà per un “superiore” scopo politico.</p>
<p>C’è un’altra somiglianza altamente indicativa che collega i due “Tribunali” fraudolenti. Il Tribunale per l’Ucraina non fa mistero del compito fondamentale che gli è stato assegnato, anzi lo ostenta. Si tratta di incriminare la parte russa prima ancora che siano state esaminate le prove. Questo obbligo predetermina necessariamente i futuri verdetti del Tribunale. Durante la guerra in Bosnia, gli stessi attori geopolitici hanno agito in modo identico. Dubbie “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/09/world/cia-report-on-bosnia-blames-serbs-for-90-of-the-war-crimes.html">valutazioni dei servizi segreti</a>” sono finite nelle mani di Madeleine Albright, che le ha prontamente diffuse all’ONU per preparare il terreno all’ICTY. Queste conclusioni fasulle sostenevano, senza uno straccio di prova o alcuna giustificazione metodologica, che il 90% dei crimini di guerra in Bosnia erano stati commessi dai serbi, lasciando solo una piccola parte che poteva essere stata commessa da altri. Come nel caso attuale, anche allora i colpevoli designati erano stati scelti in anticipo.</p>
<p>È già evidente, anche prima dell’inaugurazione ufficiale del Tribunale per l’Ucraina, prevista per il 2026, che si tratta di una pallida copia del suo famigerato predecessore e che probabilmente non ne deriverà nulla di rilevante. Se fosse stato avviato prima, mentre la mania per l’Ucraina era ancora al culmine, forse avrebbe potuto avere un impatto. Da allora, però, è subentrata la stanchezza per l’Ucraina e persino alcuni dei principali sostenitori del progetto lo stanno abbandonando, rendendo terribile il momento scelto per questa impresa sconsiderata. Sarà una imitazione scadente e inefficace di un originale molto imperfetto e in gran parte inutile.</p>
<p>Ma non ha senso dirlo ai <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jdmoNCxSqw">leader europei cocainomani</a> che hanno perso ogni creatività e che non hanno mai potuto vantare un buon senso.</p>
<p></p>


guid: yt:video:kBgyW-vcpdg
title: Qui est cette sénatrice?
author: ;Senate of Canada | Sénat du Canada
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBgyW-vcpdg
hash: �&�5� y�C���h�8
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guid: https://strategic-culture.su/?post_type=article&amp;p=885331
title: Trump’s Middle East theatricals were all about putting Bibi in his place
author: ;A A
hash: Ӣ�L������^�YP��
tags: #Americas #Middle East #World #Donald Trump #Israel #Saudi Arabia #United States
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<div data-sanitized-class="code-block code-block-2">
<p><strong><em>Trump is literally taking control of U.S. foreign policy in the region and pushing back Israel’s attempts to bomb its way to peace.</em></strong></p>
<p><strong><span>Join us on </span><a href="https://t.me/strategic_culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Telegram</a><a href="https://t.me/strategic_culture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" src="https://strategic-culture.su/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/tlg.jpg" alt="" width="25" height="25" data-sanitized-class="alignnone wp-image-875659"></a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/SCJournalOnline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Twitter</a><a href="https://twitter.com/SCJournalOnline" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" src="https://strategic-culture.su/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/twitter.jpg" alt="" width="25" height="25" data-sanitized-class="alignnone wp-image-875661"></a><span>, and</span> <a href="https://vk.com/strategicculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">VK</a><a href="https://vk.com/strategicculture/" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><img loading="lazy" src="https://strategic-culture.su/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/wk.jpg" alt="" width="25" height="25" data-sanitized-class="alignnone wp-image-875662"></a>.</strong></p>
</div>
<p><strong><span>Contact us:</span> </strong><a href="mailto:info@strategic-culture.su" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><u><strong>info@strategic-culture.su</strong></u></a></p>
<p>Was it Bill Clinton in the White House with Benjamin Netanyahu who, in a press conference, muttered those vulgar and certainly immortal words “who’s the f*** superpower around here?” The question was really about whether the U.S. is running Israel and its activities in the Middle East or it is in fact Israel which is running the U.S.</p>
<p>In recent months in both the Biden administration and the Trump one which followed, many pundits have claimed that Israel is in control of U.S. foreign policy, with some even going as far as speculating that this control even goes beyond the Middle East itself. This cabal of online commentators made so much of how Trump adjusted Bibi’s seat when he sat down in the Oval Office.</p>
<p>We can see now though that this idea of the tail wagging the dog, even if once it might have been true to some extent, has now been dealt with head on by Trump.</p>
<p>His visit to the Middle East and his impressive speech in Saudi Arabia which mocked the bellicose approach to bombing civilians was a direct message to Netanyahu in Israel: America is back.</p>
<p>Trump is literally taking control of U.S. foreign policy in the region and pushing back Israel’s attempts to bomb its way to peace, whether this be in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria or, of course, in Iran.</p>
<p>The move comes at a tough time in the region where the country which seemed to bring about a revolution with the Arab Spring – Tunisia – <a href="https://maghrebi.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/Maghrebi-Week-Edition-006.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">is falling into an abys as it becomes a leading example of a dictatorship</a> which knows no limits on its brutal suppression.</p>
<p>For Netanyahu, a number of pundits now are pointing to the “clear light” between Trump and him with some claiming that these two leaders aren’t even talking anymore. Trump defied him by talking to Iran, negotiating with the Houthis and now scrapping sanctions in Syria.</p>
<p>Israel cannot even dream of attacking Iran with the U.S. help and so a big part of Netanyahu’s mojo has been removed. And now Trump is calling the shots on aid to Gaza, but stopped short of calling for the Palestinians to have their own state.</p>
<p>Yet his move on Syria is telling. Israel’s plans were always to have head-chopping extremists running the show – which they backed in the Syria civil war – with a constant mayhem present so that they can always take advantage of the chaos while ensuring that the path which once stood between Tehran and Beirut is always blocked.</p>
<p>Trump’s announcement that all sanctions will be lifted will not be welcomed by Bibi who will see the move as a stunt by the Donald to demonstrate who is running the show, although the announcement itself might prove to be premature.</p>
<p>Senator Lindsey Graham states only Congress can change the country’s designation as a “state sponsor of terror” and that Trump must make his case to Congress for that to happen.</p>
<p>“That report has not been received, and Congress has the opportunity to review this action if it chooses. The designation of Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism has tremendous ramifications apart from the sanctions,” Graham stated. The senator stated that he is sure that Congress must be informed before sanctions are lifted, and the legislative body would then “make an informed decision on whether or not it should approve the change in designation.” But he also stated that Israel’s opinion matters and that Congress would consult Netanyahu so it’s fair to say that Syria’s fate is still yet to be decided regardless of whatever Trump has said at the podium in Riyadh. It would appear that Bibi and Trump are set to clash now and we shouldn’t be surprised at what resources Trump will deploy to show Israel’s leader that Trump is both serious about peace in the region but also that Israel must put aside its warmongering – which may well include even supporting a two-state solution, pushed more recently by France and the UK. And then we will see who is the f*** super power and who is the client state. Almost certainly the fate of Syria and Gaza will be used as a rod for Bibi’s back until he succumbs to Trump’s rule.</p>
<p></p>

link:
https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/05/16/trump-middle-east-theatricals-were-all-about-putting-bibi-in-his-place/


guid: yt:video:A_-L2a6SkEA
title: Premier Doug Ford commits $38M to Wasaga Beach tourism – May 16, 2025
author: ;cpac
link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A_-L2a6SkEA
hash: ��WE�{=_���Q�b
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guid: 1031333 at https://www.zerohedge.com
author: ;Tyler Durden
hash: /�>=����. ��-�r�
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
title:
UMich Survey Suggests Women, Democrats, &amp; Low-Income Americans Are Out Of Their TDS-Addled Minds

content:
<span property="schema:name" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-title field--type-string field--label-hidden">UMich Survey Suggests Women, Democrats, &amp; Low-Income Americans Are Out Of Their TDS-Addled Minds</span>

            <div property="schema:text" data-sanitized-class="clearfix text-formatted field field--name-body field--type-text-with-summary field--label-hidden field__item"><p>Having embarrassed themselves with their TDS-driven cognitive dissonance over the past few months, Democrat-voting UMich respondents (and women, and low income Americans) in the preliminary May survey (a month after Liberation Day and also post-Pause and the massive meltup in stocks) turned the TDS-terror dial to '11'.</p>

<p><strong>Consumer Expectations are now at their lowest since - drum roll please... May 1980...</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm8C86_1.jpg?itok=giHUIOzI" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm8C86_1.jpg?itok=giHUIOzI"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="117a2ba4-4b85-4706-ba93-c598e1cf97a8" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="279" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm8C86_1.jpg?itok=giHUIOzI" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><strong>Tariffs were spontaneously mentioned by nearly three-quarters of consumers, up from almost 60% in April;</strong> uncertainty over trade policy continues to dominate consumers’ thinking about the economy. </p>

<p>Note that interviews for this release were conducted between April 22 and May 13, closing two days after the announcement of a pause on some tariffs on imports from China.</p>

<p><strong>The percentage of UMich respondents making unsolicited negative comments about news they've heard on government economic policy has surged to a record high of 66%!</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm91F.jpg?itok=Vdvh25-P" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm91F.jpg?itok=Vdvh25-P"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="44bf8e96-8412-47c7-ad11-f1a9910cb483" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="275" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm91F.jpg?itok=Vdvh25-P" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><strong>The share of consumers expecting unemployment to rise in the year ahead increased for the sixth consecutive month </strong>and is now more than double the November 2024 reading and the highest since 2009.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm789.jpg?itok=ps6YT2QW" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm789.jpg?itok=ps6YT2QW"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="b7e2668a-e60d-4f7e-980c-75a4eacb1fa6" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="279" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm789.jpg?itok=ps6YT2QW" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><strong>Year-ahead inflation expectations surged from 6.7% last month to 7.3% this month, the highest reading since 1981</strong> and marking five consecutive months of unusually large increases of 0.5 percentage points or more.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm69C8_0.jpg?itok=HoYaxhwN" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm69C8_0.jpg?itok=HoYaxhwN"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="3a8ca012-0850-4161-9c76-9ac22a77af8e" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="276" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm69C8_0.jpg?itok=HoYaxhwN" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>Source: Bloomberg</strong></p>

<p><strong>This month’s rise was seen across all three political affiliations. </strong>Long-run inflation expectations climbed from 4.4% in April to 4.6% in May, reflecting a particularly large jump among <strong>Democrats to a ridiculous 9.6% over the next year!!</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmC107_1.jpg?itok=_BJY-acn" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmC107_1.jpg?itok=_BJY-acn"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="d45080e8-4b14-41b3-8355-ca1d312a9ba1" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="276" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmC107_1.jpg?itok=_BJY-acn" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><strong>Republicans did forecast a rise in their view of 5Y inflation expectations</strong> (while Democrats were flat at 5.1%)...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm2DE7_0.jpg?itok=w938a-O0" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm2DE7_0.jpg?itok=w938a-O0"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="5022adb2-3ac0-46e1-a658-5a52411613ed" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="274" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm2DE7_0.jpg?itok=w938a-O0" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><strong>Spot the odd one out </strong>- UMich Democrats, The NY Fed, or The Market...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm8E9D.jpg?itok=TLlvnQGP" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm8E9D.jpg?itok=TLlvnQGP"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="82f70f4f-87e7-4912-a905-8a9c60e19f4f" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="278" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm8E9D.jpg?itok=TLlvnQGP" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>One more for fun - comparing Democrats view of the inflationary outlook to the 'hard' inflationary data...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm90B7.jpg?itok=9qocFpsi" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm90B7.jpg?itok=9qocFpsi"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="c33cc6e7-efaa-40f3-bfa7-6b27a8414168" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="277" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm90B7.jpg?itok=9qocFpsi" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p>Finally, given their <strong>historic track record (completely refusing to acknowledge the surge in inflation under Biden</strong>), should we simply be ignoring the manic Democrats screaming about inflation now?</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmCC55.jpg?itok=aDZCz5XT" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmCC55.jpg?itok=aDZCz5XT"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="560ba8ec-43c8-4ac4-a945-19791d5cfea6" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="277" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmCC55.jpg?itok=aDZCz5XT" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Source: Bloomberg</p>

<p><em><strong>The Republicans seemed to get it? </strong>But then again, they're all racist ignoramuses with no PhDs... so there's that, right!?</em></p>

<p>Sorry, one more that made us fucking laugh... <strong>one-third of women surveyed believe inflation over the next year will be 15% or higher...</strong></p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmB8BB.jpg?itok=5ca1a7MV" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmB8BB.jpg?itok=5ca1a7MV"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="da3214ae-ad75-43a1-a85a-35b196dbe60a" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="289" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmB8BB.jpg?itok=5ca1a7MV" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Low-Income Americans are also terrified like never before...</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfmB54A.jpg?itok=6pwewIoH" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfmB54A.jpg?itok=6pwewIoH"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2df99c2b-3845-427c-8281-d1baf7cf902a" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="297" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfmB54A.jpg?itok=6pwewIoH" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p><strong>So someone is lying</strong>: actual spending all time high while reported sentiment (based on 250 polled UMich respondents) is all time low.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%283%29_18.png?itok=13DZHN_Z" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/image%20%283%29_18.png?itok=13DZHN_Z"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="99147286-4c6d-42fa-b1ec-0a7a1dbfc258" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="309" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/image%20%283%29_18.png?itok=13DZHN_Z" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Is the soft-data slump all driven by leftists imbibing mainstream media's desperate propaganda-fueled terror of what Trump is doing?</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="" data-image-href="/s3/files/inline-images/bfm866D_2.jpg?itok=dqymgM1J" data-link-option="0" href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/bfm866D_2.jpg?itok=dqymgM1J"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="00314400-61ac-4f90-b9c3-0e7c505e9960" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="276" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/bfm866D_2.jpg?itok=dqymgM1J" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>

<p>Perhaps that explains why soft survey data has started to turn back up to hard data reality in the last week as it's hard to hate and keep pushing out your depression-era forecasts when stocks are at record highs and jobless claims remain near record lows.</p>

<p><a data-image-external-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-image-href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/" data-link-option="2" href="https://store.zerohedge.com/rancher-direct-clean-food/"><picture><img data-entity-type="file" data-entity-uuid="2b72c002-e93c-4106-a724-520235269abc" data-responsive-image-style="inline_images" height="134" width="500" src="https://assets.zerohedge.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_mobile/public/inline-images/TBI_Ad_1500x400px_MemorialDay_1%282%29.jpg?itok=XNvyQwGv" alt="" typeof="foaf:Image" data-sanitized-class="inline-images image-style-inline-images"></picture></a></p>
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      <span rel="schema:author" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-uid field--type-entity-reference field--label-hidden"><a title="View user profile." href="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" lang="" about="https://cms.zerohedge.com/users/tyler-durden" typeof="schema:Person" property="schema:name" datatype="" xml:lang="" data-sanitized-class="username">Tyler Durden</a></span>
<span property="schema:dateCreated" content="2025-05-16T18:30:00+00:00" data-sanitized-class="field field--name-created field--type-created field--label-hidden">Fri, 05/16/2025 - 14:30</span>

link:
https://www.zerohedge.com/personal-finance/umich-sentiment-collapses-near-45-year-record-lows-democrats-inflation-dissonance


guid: https://strategic-culture.su/?post_type=article&amp;p=885334
title: ‘Europe Day’ hides the Nazi-fascist threat
author: ;A A
link: https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/05/16/europe-day-hides-the-nazi-fascist-threat/
hash: ]����j9U=)I٨�
tags: #Europe #World #European Union #Fascism #Nazism #Ukraine
attributes: {"enclosures":[]}
content:
<div data-sanitized-class="code-block code-block-2">
<p><strong><em>May 9 does not mean the same for all the nations of Europe. Which could be surprising, even absurd, since the date represents the defeat of Nazi-fascism, the greatest continental scourge of the last centuries.</em></strong></p>
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<p>May 9 does not mean the same for all the nations of Europe. Which could be surprising, even absurd, since the date represents the defeat of Nazi-fascism, the greatest continental scourge of the last centuries.</p>
<p>May 9 is Victory Day, the evocation of a day of unrestrained joy for all the peoples of the European continent. Celebrations of a light and relieved awakening after an endless nightmarish night.</p>
<p>This joy overflowed without restraint, for moments without any stains or shadows on their faces, despite the fact that almost all those who celebrated freedom had at least one family member killed or injured during the six years of conflict; to which we must add the three catastrophic years of the Spanish Civil War, the first and bloody image stamped by Nazi-fascist terrorism.</p>
<p>Despite the act of freedom, humanism, hope and democracy that was the signing of peace on the ruins of the Hitler regime, two anniversaries are now being celebrated evoking the 9th of May: the peoples of Europe and the governments of nations that contributed the most and suffered the most to make peace possible, mark the 80th anniversary of Victory Day; the governments of the «Western Allies», who are scrambling to save themselves from the shipwreck of this artificial entity they called the European Union, are celebrating Europe Day. Not the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi-fascism, but the 75th anniversary of a so-called Schuman Declaration, which they considered the first step in the process of European integration. It is a case to ask what there is to celebrate. And the people of the 27 would do so if they were given the opportunity to have their say on the subject at all.</p>
<p><strong>Fleeing the celebration of the defeat of Nazism</strong></p>
<p>The governments of the European Union limit themselves to signalling Hitler’s defeat in bureaucratic and restricted ceremonies of their declassed political classes and in which the people do not and could not fit. And they do it with zero conviction, zero emotion, zero memory and 100% falsified history; and, at the same time, in a provocative spirit, confirming at the present time the treacherous and mystifying intentions with which the Western powers were forced, for the sake of survival and terror in the face of Hitler’s shredding apparatus, to make an alliance with the Soviet Union.</p>
<p>It is not worth talking about the ingratitude of governments that exclude Russia from their plastic celebrations. They organize them to pretend, perhaps afraid of the image of insensitivity that the omission could still entail; and also with obvious propagandistic intentions, to give free rein to his schizophrenic pathology, and already very deep-rooted, induced by the cult of the dishevelled «Russian threat». The paid advertising campaign of Portuguese television on the extreme virtues of «Europe Day» – with the inappropriate participation of UNICEF, totally in defiance of the UN statute – did not hide its intentions to brainwash an evocation unknown to everyone. This translates the irremediable certainty of the autocrats of the European Union that there is a total disconnect between them and the peoples of the continent.</p>
<p>These procedures of the political castes of the European Union reveal, at the same time, the ambivalence of their governments and predecessors towards Nazi-fascism. Using it in the 30s and 40s of the last century as an instrument to try to materialize the fixed idea of destroying the Soviet Union; a strategy that ended up failing in military terms and that, despite this, has now been resumed against the Russian Federation, arm in arm with Ukrainian Nazi-Banderism, by the way inherited and inspired by the murderous Nazism of the Third Reich. Denying this evidence is a governmental and media practice that has become mandatory to build the single militaristic and militarized opinion that they want to foist on us and also a reason to vulgarize the persecution against citizens who demonstrate, without appeal, the Nazi character of the Kiev regime and defend a negotiated solution to the conflict.</p>
<p>For all these reasons, the governments of the European Union do not feel comfortable marking the fall of Nazi-fascism alongside the current representatives of a people and a country without which they would not be who they are. Or perhaps they were, perhaps, because a victorious Nazism could recycle itself, with the passage of time, in the form of a liberal democracy like today’s, applying neoliberalism as a recipe for maximum exploitation of the peoples. We feel it well all around us.</p>
<p><strong>The dawn of freedom cost 26.6 million dead</strong></p>
<p>When they find it necessary, albeit grudgingly, to talk about the outcome of the Second World War, the governments of the European Union and their totalitarian media apparatus fill our eyes and ears with the strategically overrated Normandy landings.</p>
<p>A remarkable military feat, no doubt, in which the US troops, after years of seeing where fashions stopped, ended up playing an important role against a Nazi machine much weakened and demoralized by the failures in the East.</p>
<p>There would be no landing in Normandy, however, without more than 26.6 million Soviets having sacrificed themselves to contain the overwhelming Hitlerian advance to the East, with the primary objective of conquering the Soviet Union. More than 26 million people… two and a half times the current population of Portugal. And although it seems cruel to evoke it, because it is a matter of resorting to bloody arithmetic, four times more than the victims of the Holocaust. The shameless Zionist hijacking of this tragedy makes it absolutely necessary to reflect on the numbers used to justify a sinister expansionist propaganda. These are numbers that our governments should not forget, if they were aware, a rare commodity in these lands.</p>
<p>When Hitler’s troops faced the Normandy landings, the amputation of their troops from the campaign in the East had reached 8.6 million troops; had lost about 75% of their tanks and planes in the Soviet Union, plus 74% of their artillery guns and mortars. During the six years of war the Soviet people razed 607 German divisions; The Western Allies would go on to crush 176 divisions.</p>
<p>The conditions for the Normandy landings became possible after the containment of Nazi troops at the gates of Moscow in the autumn of 1941, the first military defeat of the Reich and which put an end to the myth of the “lightning war”.</p>
<p>The population of Leningrad, for its part, resisted victoriously 872 days of savage siege, in which one million people died of starvation, disease and German bombings. The hypocritical Western governments of today refuse to recognize the genocide against the Soviet people, but Germany prides itself on making material reparations to the heirs of families who were victims of the siege: as long as they declare themselves Jews. German complicity with Zionist fascism and segregationism could not be more repugnant.</p>
<p>After the Nazi defeat in the long and deadly battle of Stalingrad, in which Hitler’s troops lost a million and a half troops between 1942 and 1943, the course of the Second World War was reversed; following martyrdom and prolonged Soviet resistance, the total defeat of the Reich became possible from then on.</p>
<p>This was followed by the terrible and decisive battle of Kursk in 1943, which involved the largest number of tanks ever and whose immediate consequence was the landing of US and British troops to accelerate the liberation of Italy and remove Mussolinian fascism from the field. Operation Bagration, which then allowed the Soviet Union to liberate Belarus, Poland and Lithuania in 1944, had an incalculable strategic weight in the successes of the offensive on the western front, which began in June of that year.</p>
<p>In the victorious cavalcade to Berlin, liberating Poland, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Norway, Bulgaria, Romania, Austria, much of Germany, saving the survivors of many of the hells of the Nazi concentration camps, the Soviet Union lost another million soldiers.</p>
<p><strong>History Revised by Mercenaries and Counterfeiters</strong></p>
<p>The history revised by some mercenaries and forgers, Western historians claiming that only the Western Allies liberated concentration camps, was born in the catacombs where deranged minds conspire to try to replace factual reality with their lies.</p>
<p>When they exclude Russia from the commemorations of the Nazi defeat, the governments of the Western powers explain who they are and what really moves them: they only mark their own victories, which would have been impossible without the sacrifice of the Soviet people, but they do not fail to demonstrate that they have not been able, to this day, to disguise their disenchantment with the fact that the Soviet Union survived the Nazi invasion. So, it is not difficult for us to understand the current rage of the US empire and the colonialism of the European Union against the Russian Federation and the willingness to do everything possible and impossible with the aim of dismantling it. In practical terms, they risk causing the devastation of the continent, on the verge of extinguishing life on the planet to try to achieve what not even the hordes of Hitler, Napoleon and others before them, the Swedes, for example, achieved.</p>
<p>It is a natural behaviour and it is not surprising that the European Union prefers to celebrate 9 May not as Victory Day but as ‘Europe Day’, in this case the 75th anniversary of the ‘Schuman Declaration’, considered the kick-off of European integration.</p>
<p>It was then realized, as it continues to be, that this process was nothing more than a way to perpetuate the military, economic and political control of the United States over Europe. So much so that it was enough for the lunatic Trump to threaten that this conservatorship could end and soon the European Union buried itself in an orphan crisis with a suicidal vocation.</p>
<p><strong>The fallacy of the United States of Europe</strong></p>
<p>The so-called “fathers of Europe” or grandparents of Europe, or rather, two of whom – Schumann himself and the Italian Alcide de Gasperi, are in the process of being canonized by the Holy See, thus sanctifying the birth of the inhuman European Union – have associated the process of continental integration with the creation of a United States of Europe. A twisted, opportunistic, undemocratic and, above all, very artificial idea.</p>
<p>As if it were possible to merge into a federative magma countries, nations and peoples of Europe with their identities, cultures, traditions, languages and even national rivalries, each with a deep-rooted personality and, moreover, many of them with centuries and centuries of independence. Making this parallel and intending to give it shape generated a situation that is impossible to materialize and that continues to cost us very dear in terms of human and social dignity. A process of this kind can only be imposed from the top down, through lies and authoritarianism, in the opposite direction to democracy.</p>
<p>The US regime and the federal state have nothing to do with deep and real Europe. They were born on the extermination of native peoples and have been consolidated, in just 250 years, through the union of non-sovereign states, almost all of them – except those stolen from their neighbours – demographically and culturally homogeneous, without history and with the same language. And yet, this process only achieved unification after a bloody civil war between the confederal and federal options.</p>
<p>Only idealists or, much more likely, lying and opportunistic post-war conspirators in the service of interests opposed to those of the European peoples could impose this path to impossible integration. That is why, in the end, in the full awareness of their fraudulent intentions, they have eradicated popular consultations and referenda from any stage leading to the European Union and even to a single currency. Konrad Adenauer, the first post-Nazi chancellor of the Federal Germany, himself surrounded by recycled Nazis, including in the formation of the secret police, hastened to declare that referendums were unconstitutional.</p>
<p>Even the idea of creating, as an alternative, a confederation of sovereign states, as General De Gaulle proposed, was flatly set aside by the founding core of integration, because it “subverted NATO” by creating a European army – without US tutelage – and structuring a common foreign policy.</p>
<p>It is worth remembering the intentions expressed by the founding fathers and acolytes, such as Winston Churchill, and comparing them with today’s reality. It will not be difficult to conclude that 75 years ago we lived in a fiction, transformed today into a parallel reality cultivated by the Orwellian propaganda apparatus, which operates light years from the will and interests of the peoples.</p>
<p>Robert Schuman, French Foreign Minister, said: ‘The creation of a European federation is essential for the preservation of peace.’</p>
<p>Jean Monnet, historically considered the main progenitor of the European Union and also the inspirer of the Schuman Declaration, did not, however, emerge from political circles. He was a cognac merchant and banker with interests in the United States, a shadowy behind-the-scenes personality who never ran for any political office. He said: “Only a European federation can make war unthinkable and materially impossible.” Moreover, “there will be no peace in Europe if states are reconstituted on the basis of national sovereignty and all that it implies.”</p>
<p>Churchill’s ideas coincided but always wrapped up in imaginative phrasing. According to the former British Prime Minister, “only supranationality can eliminate the European evils of nationalism and warmongering.” Moreover, states “are too small to prosper alone” and within a United States of Europe “workers will be able to regain joy and hope.” While the German Chancellor Adenauer proclaimed that the reconciliation of nations “is possible only by their integration into a supranational association.”</p>
<p>Could it be that our founding fathers or grandparents were wrong in their predictions or were they already putting us in an eleven-rod shirt using soft and poisonous words, in what are followed by today’s political classes, made autistic and self-sufficient in their mediocrity, illiteracy and mellifluous and suicidal authoritarianism?</p>
<p>The founders had the decorum not to abuse the word democracy – they were even quite restrained. The heirs, however, proclaim in its place a corruption, the so-called liberal democracy, an adjective that serves for everything, even to try to kill any democratic remnant.</p>
<p>The initiators of the process of European integration openly assumed federalism; Their successors today practice it but hide it, they steal our sovereignty by invoking the defence of national interests, in short, in their ineptitude and with the help of authoritarian manipulation they are even more hypocrites and liars.</p>
<p><strong>False Birth Promises</strong></p>
<p>The forefathers of the European Union guaranteed that integration was a measure against nationalism and warmongering. What do we have today? More nationalisms, warmongering and Nazi-fascism returning, in old or updated forms, looked upon with benevolence by our political classes, ready to use them as instruments of their interests. It is seven and a half decades of mystification, manipulation and lies that the governments of the European Union celebrate, instead of the defeat of Nazi-fascism.</p>
<p>The alliance between the pro-European leaders and the various forms of Nazi-fascism in affirmation is not something embryonic or unnatural. At stake is not only involvement in the defence of Kiev’s Banderism; the implicit, often explicit, support for the genocide practiced by Zionism against the Palestinian people, accepting Israel as the “only democracy in the Middle East” and representative of the “civilization and cultural superiority of the West”, makes the governments of the European Union co-authors of a massacre that takes us back to the times of the horrors of the Holocaust. Israel is Zionism and Zionism is a supremacist, racist, apartheid and fascist doctrine – the words are there to be used. And they are not anti-Semites, they are anti-Zionists, concepts that are not only different but opposite.</p>
<p>The founding fathers of this now moribund European Union insisted on the fundamental role of European integration and federalism in defending peace and creating the conditions to make war impossible. Seventy-five years later, the governments of the European Union invest what they have and, above all, what they do not have in a shameful war effort in defence of a fascist regime, not hesitating to dismantle the already precarious social structures of most of the 27 member countries; and plunging European populations into demeaning levels of poverty, the suppression of many of their civil and human rights and blatant situations of inequality.</p>
<p>They thus intend to prepare, without a trace of humanism, to throw a generation of young Europeans into the bonfire of war, a tragedy that they say they cherish as a virtuous path to peace. Brussels and almost all the governments of the 27, that “Christian and Western” elite, are autistic even before the Popes, both Francis and the current Leo XIV who, in his first interventions, made a piercing appeal for peace and the “end of the third world war piecemeal”, which he reinforced with the cry of “war never again”. Peace, as we know, has become a cursed word in the European Union. There will be no lack of those in Brussels and in these capitals who will pronounce the sentence that the new Pope is going down the wrong path.</p>
<p>The European Union cannot, and will not, as long as it exists, celebrate 9 May as Victory Day. It is the natural order of things.</p>
<p>In this context, we all have a great challenge on our hands: to do what we can to make it unnecessary to celebrate what they call Europe Day, which means freeing the peoples of Europe from the shackles of the European Union.</p>
<p></p>


guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165597/proces-attaque-camion-belier-rimouski
title: Drame d’Amqui : le jury est formé au procès de Steeve Gagnon
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165597/proces-attaque-camion-belier-rimouski
hash: �=�C���V},���/
content:
<p>Ces éléments ont été soumis au jury au 2e jour du procès de l'auteur présumé de l'attaque du 13 mars 2023.</p>

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guid: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165594/proces-hockey-canada-london-jury-remercie-juge-seule
title: Le procès des hockeyeurs se poursuivra devant juge seule
content: <p>La juge a libéré les jurés : le « jury est compromis », selon elle.</p>
link: https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/2165594/proces-hockey-canada-london-jury-remercie-juge-seule
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guid: https://strategic-culture.su/?post_type=article&amp;p=885336
title: In Riyadh, Donald Trump confirms his cowboy policy
author: ;A A
link: https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/05/16/in-riyadh-donald-trump-confirms-his-cowboy-policy/
hash: �^��Zaw�b�čʼ %
tags: #Americas #Middle East #World #Diplomacy #Donald Trump #Iran #Saudi Arabia
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<div data-sanitized-class="code-block code-block-2">
<p><strong><em>The American style never disappoints. But remember: when cowboys challenge each other, only one survives.</em></strong></p>
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</div>
<p><strong><span>Contact us:</span> </strong><a href="mailto:info@strategic-culture.su" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><u><strong>info@strategic-culture.su</strong></u></a></p>
<p><strong>We had no doubts</strong></p>
<p>To date, no peacemaker has ever emerged from the United States of America. All leaders have waged war on someone, somewhere in the world, after having waged war at home for centuries. Nothing more, nothing less.</p>
<p>We therefore had no doubts about the outcome of Donald Trump’s meetings in Riyadh, held in the well-known climate of friendship that binds the Saudi world to the US, which has literally built Saudi Arabia banknote by banknote as a watchdog for the Middle East.</p>
<p>This is how Trump made a series of very significant statements, which need to be analyzed from several points of view.</p>
<p>The salient points were, in his own words:</p>
<ul>
<li>My dream is for Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords.</li>
<li>Saudi Arabia will join the Abraham Accords at its own pace.</li>
<li>We want the Middle East to be known for trade, not chaos, and for exporting technology, not terrorism.</li>
<li>A few days ago, we reached a historic ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan. Millions of people could have died in the conflict between India and Pakistan.</li>
<li>Secretary Rubio will participate in the Russia-Ukraine talks.</li>
<li>I am here today not only to condemn the past chaos of Iran’s leaders, but to offer them a new path and a much better way toward a much better and more promising future.</li>
<li>Iran can have a much brighter future, but we will never allow it to threaten America and our allies with terrorism or a nuclear attack.</li>
<li>Iranian oil supplies will be reduced to zero and the country will go bankrupt if Tehran abandons the nuclear deal.</li>
<li>We have launched more than 1,100 strikes against the Houthis.</li>
<li>The people of Gaza deserve a better future.</li>
</ul>
<p>Well, now that we’ve made the list, let’s read it all again.</p>
<p>In the words of the Potus, there is a trace of inconsistency in true American style, or rather, true cowboy style: ready to play the gentleman, only to fire a shot from his revolver when you least expect it.</p>
<p><strong>The Abraham Accords and the “Houthi problem”</strong></p>
<p>Trump’s intention to include Saudi Arabia in the Abraham Accords is a very interesting strategic move. The treaties have been signed, from September 15, 2020, to date, by five states, namely Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan (with some reservations), and Morocco. Each of these countries has a major economic interest, because in fact it is a matter of protecting commercial interests, particularly oil, using the excuse of ‘international security’, which is seen as threatened by Iran’s influence in the region. Next on the list, after Saudi Arabia, are Oman, Qatar and Kuwait.</p>
<p>In this way, Trump is pursuing his MAGA policy by seeking to restore the commercial supremacy of the dollar through the world’s leading business. This is a decidedly “old style” move, because the oil route had already been traveled several times by previous occupants of the Oval Office, working successfully until the end of the 1990s, before beginning a slow decline at the beginning of this century, requiring a couple of wars to ensure at least a good exit.</p>
<p>It is indisputable that the US has long dominated the crude oil market, but things are no longer as they were, not only because of the de-dollarization that Trump found at the doorstep of his presidency, but also because trade routes have changed, or rather, the weight of specific routes has changed.</p>
<p>In all this, the real target of the Abraham Accords is the Axis of Resistance. Not only Iran, which acts as a strategic coordination center, but also Palestine itself. The betrayal of the Palestinian cause, already condemned by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas, is a moral charge that the Islamic countries of the Gulf have found themselves facing. Strengthening the Accords is an important move for Trump – and for the entire Western collective – in an attempt to limit the disintegration of interests in the region.</p>
<p>Iran remains one of the two main preoccupations of the Trump administration, along with China, with almost unconditional support from the entire West. During the Riyadh meeting, he even said, as we mentioned, that he hopes for a positive turn in relations, but “only on condition that.” This, once again, underscores American arrogance: either things are done their way, or else they resort to strong-arm tactics. Yet the US should have understood by now that Iran is not a state that bows to the blackmail and cowardice of a few Yankees with hats and guns. Iran has been there for millennia, not just two short centuries, and it does not need lessons in “civilization” from anyone.</p>
<p>In the context of the Axis, the Houthis in Yemen continue to be a thorn in the side of the Americans. A few days ago, Trump boasted of having reached an agreement with the Houthis, and now he is boasting about how that land has been massacred by American bombing. Could this be a coded message?</p>
<p>The longevity of the agreement, which is more of a politically unstable truce, could be very short. Trump just needs to secure a “replacement” in the management of tensions so that he can come out of the affair diplomatically clean and confirm himself, for the American public and Western leaders, as clean and a guarantor of Western interests. After all, as we know, it is better to retreat in style than to suffer a resounding defeat.</p>
<p><strong>Syria arrives</strong></p>
<p>Of course, Syria cannot be left out of all this, the new Syria, the Syria of the cutthroat democrats.</p>
<p>The blond-haired man thought it wise to praise the child beheader, complimenting him. It’s a bit like when your boss at work comes to tell you that you’ve done a good job.</p>
<p>At the heart of the meeting was the discussion of the lifting of sanctions. The international applause began, intent on celebrating something unclear, given that, realistically, the lifting of sanctions does not include:</p>
<ul>
<li>The end of the illegal occupation of Syrian territory by the United States or the plundering of Syrian oil</li>
<li>It does not stop Israeli air strikes on Syrian territory</li>
<li>It does not reverse the theft of entire factories by Turkey, taken across the border</li>
<li>It does not reopen bombed spice factories, fertilizer industries or textile factories</li>
<li>It does not allow Syria to trade, grow, or build freely without US supervision and Zionist approval</li>
<li>It does not compensate Syria for thousands of tanks, aircraft, and missiles destroyed in a war it did not start</li>
<li>It does not rebuild the Syrian army</li>
<li>It does not address the problem of unemployment</li>
<li>It does not restore the Syrian currency</li>
<li>It will not reunite the Kurds or Druze with the Syrian national fabric.</li>
</ul>
<p>So, it is clear that this choice has nothing to do with the Syrian people, while we can be sure that it will be a success for the wallet of terrorist head of state Al Julani and his loyalists.</p>
<p>The fact that the American president did not listen to Netanyahu is seen as another small crack in their relationship, after the different opinions that have already emerged on the approach to take towards Iran and the Houthi militias in Yemen.</p>
<p>The Syrian state news agency Sana showed videos and photos of people celebrating in Ummayad Square in Damascus after Trump’s announcement of the lifting of sanctions, in the hope that the country cut off from global finance (including credit cards) will be able to return to receiving the investment it desperately needs.</p>
<p>But this is just demagoguery, pure demagoguery in perfect American style.</p>
<p>After Syria, he visited Qatar, where defense and aviation agreements were signed. Speaking to local journalists, Trump briefly addressed the issue of indirect nuclear talks between the United States and Iran. He described the talks as an interesting situation and expressed his hope for the success of the diplomatic operation. In short, one day he points the finger, the next day he withdraws it. American schizophrenia is a strategy already familiar to the Middle East. Trump warned that Iran will never have a nuclear weapon, adding that his offer of an agreement will not last forever, even though the Islamic Republic has repeatedly stated that it is not pursuing a military nuclear program. And, to seal his good intentions, he imposed new sanctions as soon as he returned to America. Consistent, isn’t it?</p>
<p>Congratulations, Donald, well done. The American style never disappoints. But remember: when cowboys challenge each other, only one survives.</p>
<p></p>


