radiofree.asia

Category: donald trump

  • Trump’s Attempt To Destroy Due Process Meets 7–2 Scotus Defeat

    On Friday afternoon, the Supreme Court issued an emphatic and unusual decision declaring that the Trump administration violated the due process rights of Venezuelan migrants in its attempt to deport them to a Salvadoran prison. The government’s late-night race to expel these individuals, the court held, “surely does not pass muster” under the Constitution, failing to provide them with fair notice and an opportunity to contest their removal. The court also extended an injunction to stop the government from deporting an entire class of migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 while the case works its way through the lower courts.

    The post Trump’s Attempt To Destroy Due Process Meets 7–2 Scotus Defeat appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Did the US’s Descent Into Authoritarianism Start With Policing in Blue Cities?

    Anyone who witnessed or was affected by Baltimore’s failed experiment with zero-tolerance policing during the aughts remembers the unrelenting chaos it created. As reporters working for a newspaper, we witnessed the onslaught of so-called quality of life arrests as a fast-moving crisis that seemed to accelerate with each illegal charge. The policy was driven by the idea that even the most…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump’s Order to Expand Logging Threatens to Increase Climate-Fueled Wildfires

    On March 1, President Donald Trump signed an executive order titled “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production.” The order claimed “onerous Federal policies” have hindered domestic timber production and that expanding logging was a matter of protecting “national and economic security.” It ordered the secretary of the Interior and head of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Behind Trump and DOGE’s Reckless Destruction Is a Determination to Crush Workers

    Even the most alarmed predictions of left-leaning commentators failed to capture the extremity of the onslaught that flooded forth from the second Trump administration in its first few months. Only recently has the real severity of that opening assault come into better focus. That relentlessness was very much by design, a well-worn page of Steve Bannon’s playbook: To “flood the zone” is to leave…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Supreme Court Again Blocks Trump’s Alien Enemies Act Deportations

    For the second time in less than a month, the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday ruled against the Trump administration’s dubious use of an 18th century law to deport immigrants including at least one person with protected status without due process. In a 7-2 ruling — with far-right Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel A. Alito dissenting — the high court found that President Donald Trump violated…

    Source

  • The High Human Cost of Syria Sanctions

    On May 13, U.S. President Trump announced he is ordering the removal of sanctions on Syria.

    Some of the U.S. sanctions can be quickly terminated because they were issued by Executive Order. Other sanctions, including the extremely damaging 2019 “Caesar” sanctions, were imposed by Congressional legislation and may require Congressional action to terminate.

    The Syrian people are joyous at the prospect of the end of their country’s economic nightmare. In 2010, before the conflict began, Syria was a middle-income country with free education, free healthcare, and no national debt. It was largely self-sufficient in energy and food. After fourteen years of war, occupation, and strangulating Western sanctions, the U.N. reports that “nine out of ten Syrians live in poverty and face food insecurity”.

    Why Syria Was Targeted

    In 2007, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, General Wesley Clark, publicly revealed that Washington neo-cons had a hit list of seven countries to be overthrown in the wake of 9-11. The list included Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Lebanon, Syria, Iran.

    The list is essentially the same as that identified by Benjamin Netanyahu in his 1995 book Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network. The premise of this book is that Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements are “terrorist,” and any nation that supports them should be overthrown. He targets Iran, Libya, Syria, and Sudan for supporting Palestinian rights and says. “Take away all this state support, and the entire scaffolding of international terrorism will collapse into dust.”

    In 2007, Democratic Party leader Nancy Pelosi visited Syria and tried to persuade Assad to end Syria’s support of the Palestinian and Lebanese resistance movements. When Assad would not comply with US and Israeli wishes, Syria was marked for regime change. The Netanyahu and neo-conservative hit list had somehow been adopted by the Western foreign policy establishment. This was confirmed by the former French Foreign Minister Roland Dumas. In a 2013 interview he says, “I went to England almost two years before the start of hostilities (2011). I met British officials, some of whom are friends of mine. They confessed, while trying to persuade me, that preparations for something were underway in Syria. This was in England, not the US. Britain was preparing gunmen to invade Syria…. This operation goes way back. It was prepared, conceived, and planned for the purpose of overthrowing the Syrian government because … this regime has an anti-Israeli stance.”

    Hybrid Warfare against Syria

    The overthrow of the Syrian government was not easy. It involved massive funding from seven countries (USA, UK, France, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE). In the early years, the CIA budget alone was $1 billion per year. The campaign included military, diplomatic, media/information and economic warfare.

    The regime change operation began in March 2011. While part of the population was hostile to the Assad dynasty, the majority supported the government and a secular Syria. The opposition came largely from sectarian jihadist elements, including the Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds of factions and cells were supplied and funded by a host of countries, including Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the U.S., and the UK. Thousands of foreigners were recruited and provided access to Syria.

    The political and media war on the Assad government was intense. Historian Stephen Kinzer wrote, “Coverage of the Syrian war will be remembered as one of the most shameful episodes in the history of the American press.”

    Accusations that the Assad government used chemical weapons against civilians were widely broadcast in the West. They were used to justify Western bombing attacks on Syria. Acclaimed U.S. investigative journalist Seymour Hersh uncovered evidence that the chemical weapons attacks were by the opposition, aided by Turkey, NOT by the Assad government. He had to go abroad to have the explosive article published.

    The dubious chemical weapons accusations and US driven political corruption of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) are now exposed in a February 2025 book by one of the technical professionals from the OPCW. The book is titled The Syria Scam: An insider look into Chemical Weapons, Geopolitics and the Fog of War.

    By the end of 2018, the Syrian army had largely defeated the diverse jihadists. However, instead of conquering or expelling the opposition, Syria allowed them to have a safe haven in Idlib province on the border with Turkey. With Turkey, Iran and Russia seeking to find a solution through the Astana Accords, the conflict was frozen, and the jihadists were allowed to regain strength. Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS) became the de facto leader of the opposition factions and the government of Idlib.

    The Frozen Conflict

    In 2019, the U.S. turned the screws on Syria and escalated attacks on Lebanon. The extreme Caesar sanctions did what they were intended to do. They crushed the Syrian currency and economy, made it impossible to rebuild, and impoverished the vast majority of Syrians. The spreading poverty and inability to counteract it led to widespread demoralization and dissatisfaction. With consummate cynicism, the “Caesar” sanctions were named the “Caesar Civilian Protection Act”.

    Meanwhile, in the HTS safe haven of Idlib province on the Turkish border to the north, conditions were very different. Although HTS was designated a terrorist organization in the U.S. and the West, they were helped economically. The HTS fighters were trained and supplied with modern military weaponry, including drones, sophisticated communications equipment, etc.. Very recently, when people from Damascus traveled to Idlib, they were shocked to find new highways, Wi-Fi widely available, and electricity 24 hours a day. Teacher salaries are ten times higher in Idlib than in Damascus.

    The Fall of Damascus

    With a demoralized population and Syrian army, the Assad government fell in a few weeks, and HTS, led by Ahmad Al Sharaa, took power on 8 December 2024. The new leader of Syria has been greeted and endorsed by the Gulf monarchies and Western countries that paid for and promoted the overthrow in Syria: the UK, Germany, France, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and of course, Turkey.

    Since the change, there have been numerous sectarian massacres of Alawites and Christians along the coast.

    There have been attacks on Druze in Damascus. To date, there have been no punishments for the massacres of civilians. A nun reports, “there is no security” in Damascus or elsewhere in Syria.

    Meanwhile, Israel has invaded and occupied all of the Golan and parts of southern Syria. They have built military bases in Quneitra and other strategic locations. Israel has carried out a bombing blitzkrieg, destroying all known Syrian ammunition depots. Israel can now fly over any part of Syria at will.

    Instead of condemning the Israeli violation of Syrian land and airspace, Ahmad al Sharaa has criticized Iran and Hezbollah. In recent weeks, the new Syrian regime has arrested Palestinian leaders and closed their offices in Damascus. The normalization of relations with the Zionist state has begun.

    Lifting Sanctions on Syria

    Of course, the sanctions on Syria should be lifted. They never should have been imposed.

    U.S. sanctions, known officially as “unilateral coercive measures”, are condemned by the vast majority of world nations. Over 70% of the world’ nations say that US sanctions are “contrary to international law, international humanitarian law, the Charter of the UN and the norms and principles governing peaceful relations among States.”

    Without exaggeration, the West and their allies sponsored terrorism in Syria through Al Qaeda and other fanatical violent terrorist groups. They destroyed a once prosperous and independent nation. With a diverse Syrian population ruled by a sectarian leadership prone to violence, there may be more dark days ahead. While Israel, Turkey and the Gulf monarchies are pleased with the removal of the Assad government, a very heavy price has been paid by the majority of Syrians. And the cost is ongoing.

    The post The High Human Cost of Syria Sanctions first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Why the Wall of Silence on the Genocide of Gazans is Finally Starting to Crack

    As Israel unveils its final genocide push, and mass death from starvation looms in Gaza, western media and politicians are tentatively starting to speak up.

    Who could have imagined 19 months ago that it would take more than a year and a half of Israel slaughtering and starving Gaza’s children for the first cracks to appear in what has been a rock-solid wall of support for Israel from western establishments.

    Finally, something looks like it may be about to give.

    The British establishment’s financial daily, the Financial Times, was first to break ranks last week to condemn “the West’s shameful silence” in the face of Israel’s murderous assault on the tiny enclave.

    In an editorial – effectively the paper’s voice – the FT accused the United States and Europe of being increasingly “complicit” as Israel made Gaza “uninhabitable”, an allusion to genocide, and noted that the goal was to “drive Palestinians from their land”, an allusion to ethnic cleansing.

    Of course, both of these grave crimes by Israel have been evidently true not only since Hamas’ violent, single-day breakout from Gaza on 7 October 2023, but for decades.

    So parlous is the state of western reporting, from a media no less complicit than the governments berated by the FT, that we need to seize on any small signs of progress.

    Next, the Economist chimed in, warning that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers were driven by a “dream of emptying Gaza and rebuilding Jewish settlements there”.

    At the weekend, the Independent decided the “deafening silence on Gaza” had to end. It was “time for the world to wake up to what is happening and to demand an end to the suffering of the Palestinians trapped in the enclave.”

    Actually much of the world woke up many, many months ago. It has been the western press corps and western politicians slumbering through the past 19 months of genocide.

    Then on Monday, the supposedly liberal Guardian voiced in its own editorial a fear that Israel is committing “genocide”, though it only dared do so by framing the accusation as a question.

    It wrote of Israel: “Now it plans a Gaza without Palestinians. What is this, if not genocidal? When will the US and its allies act to stop the horror, if not now?”

    The paper could more properly have asked a different question: Why have Israel’s western allies – as well as media like the Guardian and FT – waited 19 months to speak up against the horror?

    And, predictably bringing up the rear, was the BBC. On Wednesday, the BBC Radio’s PM programme chose to give top billing to testimony from Tom Fletcher, the United Nation’s humanitarian affairs chief, to the Security Council. Presenter Evan Davis said the BBC had decided to “do something a little unusual”.

    Unusual indeed. It played Fletcher’s speech in full – all 12 and a half minutes of it. That included Fletcher’s comment: “For those killed and those whose voices are silenced: what more evidence do you need now? Will you act – decisively – to prevent genocide and to ensure respect for international humanitarian law?”

    We had gone in less than a week from the word “genocide” being taboo in relation to Gaza to it becoming almost mainstream.

    Growing cracks

    Cracks are evident in the British parliament too. Mark Pritchard, a Conservative MP and life-long Israel supporter, stood up from the back benches to admit he had been wrong about Israel, and condemned it “for what it is doing to the Palestinian people”.

    He was one of more than a dozen Tory MPs and peers in the House of Lords, all formerly staunch defenders of Israel, who urged British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to immediately recognise a Palestinian state.

    Their move followed an open letter published by 36 members of the Board of Deputies, a 300-member body that claims to represent British Jews, dissenting from its continuing support for the slaughter. The letter warned: “Israel’s soul is being ripped out.”

    Pritchard told fellow MPs it was time to “stand up for humanity, for us being on the right side of history, for having the moral courage to lead.”

    Sadly, there is no sign of that yet. Research published last week, based on Israeli tax authority data, showed Starmer’s government has been lying even about the highly limited restrictions on arms sales to Israel it claimed to have imposed last year.

    Despite an ostensible ban on shipments of weapons that could be used in Gaza, Britain has covertly exported more than 8,500 separate munitions to Israel since the ban.

    This week more details emerged. According to figures published by The National, the current government exported more weapons to Israel in the final three months of last year, after the ban came into effect, than the previous Conservative government did through the whole of 2020 to 2023.

    So shameful is the UK’s support for Israel in the midst of what the International Court of Justice – the World Court – has described as a “plausible genocide” that Starmer’s government needs to pretend it is doing something, even as it actually continues to arm that genocide.

    More than 40 MPs wrote to Foreign Secretary David Lammy last week calling for him to respond to allegations that he had misled the public and parliament. “The public deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity,” they wrote.

    There are growing rumblings elsewhere. This week France’s President Emmanuel Macron called Israel’s complete blockade on aid into Gaza “shameful and unacceptable”. He added: “My job is to do everything I can to make it stop.”

    “Everything” seemed to amount to nothing more than mooting possible economic sanctions.

    Still, the rhetorical shift was striking. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, similarly denounced the blockade, calling it “unjustifiable”. She added: “I have always recalled the urgency of finding a way to end the hostilities and respect international law and international humanitarian law.”

    “International law”? Where has that been for the past 19 months?

    There was a similar change of priorities across the Atlantic. Democratic Senator Chris van Hollen, for example, recently dared to call Israel’s actions in Gaza “ethnic cleansing”.

    CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, a bellwether of the Beltway consensus, gave Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Sharren Haskel, an unusually tough grilling. Amanpour all but accused her of lying about Israel starving children.

    Meanwhile, Josep Borrell, the recently departed head of European Union foreign policy, broke another taboo last week by directly accusing Israel of preparing a genocide in Gaza.

    “Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of genocide,” he said, adding: “We’re facing the largest ethnic cleansing operation since the end of the Second World War.”

    Borrell, of course, has no influence over EU policy at this point.

    A death camp

    This is all painfully slow progress, but it does suggest that a tipping point may be near.

    If so, there are several reasons. One – the most evident in the mix – is US President Donald Trump.

    It was easier for the Guardian, the FT and old-school Tory MPs to watch the extermination of Gaza’s Palestinians in silence when it was kindly Uncle Joe Biden and the US military industrial complex behind it.

    Unlike his predecessor, Trump too often forgets the bit where he is supposed to put a gloss on Israeli crimes, or distance the US from them, even as Washington ships the weapons to carry out those crimes.

    But also, there are plenty of indications that Trump – with his constant craving to be seen as the top dog – is increasingly annoyed at being publicly outfoxed by Netanyahu.

    This week, as Trump headed to the Middle East, his administration secured the release of Israeli soldier Edan Alexander, the last living US citizen in captivity in Gaza, by bypassing Israel and negotiating directly with Hamas.

    In his comments on the release, Trump insisted it was time to “put an end to this very brutal war” – a remark he had very obviously not coordinated with Netanyahu.

    Notably, Israel is not on Trump’s Middle East schedule.

    Right now seems a relatively safe moment to adopt a more critical stance towards Israel, as presumably the FT and Guardian appreciate.

    Then there is the fact that Israel’s genocide is reaching its endpoint. No food, water or medicines have entered Gaza for more than two months. Everyone is malnourished. It is unclear, given Israel’s destruction of Gaza’s health system, how many have already died from hunger.

    But the pictures of skin-and-bones children emerging from Gaza are uncomfortably reminiscent of 80-year-old images of skeletal Jewish children imprisoned in Nazi camps.

    It is a reminder that Gaza – strictly blockaded by Israel for 16 years before Hamas’ 7 October 2023 breakout – has been transformed over the past 19 months from a concentration camp into a death camp.

    Parts of the media and political class know mass death in Gaza cannot be obscured for much longer, not even after Israel has barred foreign journalists from the enclave and murdered most of the Palestinian journalists trying to record the genocide.

    Cynical political and media actors are trying to get in their excuses before it is too late to show remorse.

    The ‘Gaza war’ myth

    And finally there is the fact that Israel has declared its readiness to take hands-on responsibility for the extermination in Gaza by, in its words, “capturing” the tiny territory.

    The long-anticipated “day after” looks like it is about to arrive.

    For 20 years, Israel and western capitals have conspired in the lie that Gaza’s occupation ended in 2005, when Israel’s then prime minister, Ariel Sharon, pulled out a few thousand Jewish settlers and withdrew Israeli soldiers to a highly fortified perimeter encaging the enclave.

    In a ruling last year, the World Court gave this claim short shrift, emphasising that Gaza, as well as the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, had never stopped being under Israeli occupation, and that the occupation must end immediately.

    The truth is that, even before the 2023 Hamas attacks, Israel had been besieging Gaza by land, sea and air for many, many years. Nothing – people or trade – went in or out without the Israeli military’s say-so.

    Israeli officials instituted a secret policy of putting the population there on a strict “diet” – a war crime then as now – one that ensured most of Gaza’s young became progressively more malnourished.

    Drones whined constantly overhead, as they do now, watching the population from the skies 24 hours a day and occasionally raining down death. Fishermen were shot and their boats sunk for trying to fish their own waters. Farmers’ crops were destroyed by herbicides sprayed from Israeli planes.

    And when the mood took it, Israel sent in fighter jets to bomb the enclave or sent soldiers in on military operations, killing hundreds of civilians at a time.

    When Palestinians in Gaza went out week after week to stage protests close to the perimeter fence of their concentration camp, Israeli snipers shot them, killing some 200 and crippling many thousands more.

    Yet, despite all this, Israel and western capitals insisted on the story that Hamas “ruled” Gaza, and that it alone was responsible for what went on there.

    That fiction was very important to the western powers. It allowed Israel to evade accountability for the crimes against humanity committed in Gaza over the past two decades – and it allowed the West to avoid complicity charges for arming the criminals.

    Instead, the political and media class perpetuated the myth that Israel was engaged in a “conflict” with Hamas – as well as intermittent “wars” in Gaza – even as Israel’s own military termed its operations to destroy whole neighbourhoods and kill their residents “mowing the lawn”.

    Israel, of course, viewed Gaza as its lawn to mow. And that is precisely because it never stopped occupying the enclave.

    Even today western media outlets collude in the fiction that Gaza is free from Israeli occupation by casting the slaughter there – and the starvation of the population – as a “war”.

    Loss of cover story

    But the “day after” – signalled by Israel’s promised “capture” and “reoccupation” of Gaza – brings a conundrum for Israel and its western sponsors.

    Till now Israel’s every atrocity has been justified by Hamas’ violent breakout on 7 October 2023.

    Israel and its supporters have insisted that Hamas must return the Israelis it took captive before there can be some undefined “peace”. At the same time, Israel has also maintained that Gaza must be destroyed at all costs to root out Hamas and eliminate it.

    These two goals never looked consistent – not least because the more Palestinian civilians Israel killed “rooting out” Hamas, the more young men Hamas recruited seeking vengeance.

    The constant stream of genocidal rhetoric from Israeli leaders made clear that they believed there were no civilians in Gaza – no “uninvolved” – and that the enclave should be levelled and the population treated like “human animals”, punished with “no food, water or fuel”.

    Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich reiterated that approach last week, vowing that “Gaza will be entirely destroyed” and that its people would be ethnically cleansed – or, as he put it, forced to “leave in great numbers to third countries”.

    Israeli officials have echoed him, threatening to “flatten” Gaza if the hostages are not released. But in truth, the captives held by Hamas are just a convenient pretext.

    Smotrich was more honest in observing that the hostages’ release was “not the most important thing”. His view is apparently shared by the Israeli military, which has reportedly put that aim last in a list of six “war” objectives.

    More important to the military are “operational control” of Gaza, “demilitarization of the territory” and “concentration and movement of the population”.

    With Israel about to be indisputably, visibly in direct charge of Gaza again – with the cover stories stripped away of a “war”, of the need to eliminate of Hamas, of civilian casualties as “collateral damage” – Israel’s responsibility for the genocide will be incontestable too, as will the West’s active collusion.

    That was why more than 250 former officials with Mossad, Israel’s spy agency – including three of its former heads – signed a letter this week decrying Israel’s breaking of the ceasefire in early March and its return to “war”.

    The letter called Israel’s official objectives “unattainable”.

    Similarly, the Israeli media reports large numbers of Israel’s military reservists are no longer showing up when called for a return to duty in Gaza.

    Ethnic cleansing

    Israel’s western patrons must now grapple with Israel’s “plan” for the ruined territory. Its outline has been coming more sharply into focus in recent days.

    In January Israel formally outlawed the United Nations refugee agency UNRWA that feeds and cares for the large proportion of the Palestinian population driven off their historic lands by Israel in earlier phases of its decades-long colonisation of historic Palestine.

    Gaza is packed with such refugees – the outcome of Israel’s biggest ethnic cleansing programme in 1948, at its creation as a “Jewish state”.

    Removing UNRWA had been a long-held ambition, a move by Israel designed to help rid it of the yoke of aid agencies that have been caring for Palestinians – and thereby helping them to resist Israel’s efforts at ethnic cleansing – as well as monitoring Israel’s adherence, or rather lack of it, to international law.

    For the ethnic cleansing and genocide programmes in Gaza to be completed, Israel has needed to produce an alternative system to UNRWA’s.

    Last week, it approved a scheme in which it intends to use private contractors, not the UN, to deliver small quantities of food and water to Palestinians. Israel will allow in 60 trucks a day – barely a tenth of the absolute minimum required, according to the UN.

    There are several catches. To stand any hope of qualifying for this very limited aid, Palestinians will need to collect it from military distribution points located in a small area at the southern tip of the Gaza strip.

    In other words, some two million Palestinians will have to crowd into a location that has no chance of accommodating them all, and even then will have only a tenth of the aid they need.

    They will have to relocate too without any guarantee from Israel that it won’t continue bombing the “humanitarian zones” they have been herded into.

    These military distribution zones just so happen to be right next to Gaza’s sole, short border with Egypt – exactly where Israel has been seeking to drive the Palestinians over the past 19 months in the hope of forcing Egypt to open the border so the people of Gaza can be ethnically cleansed into Sinai.

    Under Israel’s scheme, Palestinians will be screened in these military hubs using biometric data before they stand any hope of receiving minimum calorie-controlled handouts of food.

    Once inside the hubs, they can be arrested and shipped off to one of Israel’s torture camps.

    Just last week Israel’s Haaretz newspaper published testimony from an Israeli soldier turned whistleblower – confirming accounts from doctors and other guards – that torture and abuse are rife against Palestinians, including civilians, at Sde Teiman, the most notorious of the camps.

    War on aid

    Last Friday, shortly after Israel announced its “aid” plan, it fired a missile into an UNRWA centre in Jabaliya camp, destroying its food distribution centre and warehouse.

    Then on Saturday, Israel bombed tents used for preparing food in Khan Younis and Gaza City. It has been targeting charity kitchens and bakeries to close them down, in an echo of its campaign of destruction against Gaza’s hospitals and health system.

    In recent days, a third of UN-supported community kitchens – the population’s last life line – have closed because their stores of food are depleted, as is their access to fuel.

    According to the UN agency OCHA, that number is rising “by the day”, leading to “widespread” hunger.

    The UN reported this week that nearly half a million people in Gaza – a fifth of the population – faced “catastrophic hunger”.

    Predictably, Israel and its ghoulish apologists are making light of this sea of immense suffering. Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, argued that critics were unfairly condemning Israel for starving Gaza’s population, and ignoring the health benefits of reducing “obesity” among Palestinians.

    In a joint statement last week, 15 UN agencies and more than 200 charities and humanitarian groups denounced Israel’s “aid” plan. The UN children’s fund UNICEF warned that Israel was forcing Palestinians to choose between “displacement and death”.

    But worse, Israel is setting up its stall once again to turn reality on its head.

    Those Palestinians who refuse to cooperate with its “aid” plan will be blamed for their own starvation. And international agencies who refuse to go along with Israeli criminality will be smeared both as “antisemitic” and as responsible for the mounting toll of starvation on Gaza’s population.

    There is a way to stop these crimes degenerating further. But it will require western politicians and journalists to find far more courage than they have dared muster so far. It will need more than rhetorical flourishes. It will need more than public handwringing.

    Are they capable of more? Don’t hold your breath.

  • Middle East Eye
    • The post Why the Wall of Silence on the Genocide of Gazans is Finally Starting to Crack first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • How The GOP Is Saving The Fossil Fuel Industry From Trump

    On April 2, so-called Liberation Day, President Trump announced a suite of sweeping tariffs on virtually every country in the world, including some entirely populated by penguins . Of all the nations Trump picked a trade war with, China was set to be hit with the most aggressive tariffs at a rate of 145% for Chinese goods set to be sold in the United States.

    The announcement of these tariffs, essentially a tax on goods and supplies sold domestically, sent shockwaves through the global economy forcing corporations to scramble to find expedient answers to cope with rising prices and dim economic forecasts.

    The post How The GOP Is Saving The Fossil Fuel Industry From Trump appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • US Authorities Fire Intelligence Officials Who Contradicted Trump

    The US government fired two high-ranking officials of the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) who had contradicted the Trump administration’s claim that the Venezuelan government has ties with the now defunct Tren de Aragua gang.

    The director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, expelled the interim president of the NIC, Michael Collins, and his deputy, Maria Langan-Riekhof, who were responsible for the investigation that destroyed the Venezuelan far-right’s propaganda about alleged links between the gang and the government of Nicolás Maduro.

    Gabbard’s fired these two NIC officials because their findings did not agree with Trump’s political agenda of continuing a false narrative against Venezuela.

    The post US Authorities Fire Intelligence Officials Who Contradicted Trump appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Trump just sparked another major national security row – not that he cares

    Concerns surrounding president Donald Trump’s acceptance of a lavish gift—a Boeing 747-8 from Qatar—raise profound questions about national security and ethics within the highest echelons of US governance.

    The jet, valued at approximately $400 million and previously owned by the Qatari royal family, is under scrutiny not only for its luxury but for the implications of accepting such a significant gift from a nation long accused of funding extremist groups.

    This potential acceptance exemplifies a troubling collusion between political elites in America and foreign interests that may undermine the core values of democracy and security.

    Donald Trump: here we go again…

    US senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican, voiced grave concerns regarding the technology embedded in the aircraft. He noted that the nation could technically accept the gift, but he highlighted the imperative of safeguarding national secrets that might be compromised by this foreign asset.

    Grassley’s apprehensions are echoed by experts who assert that the aircraft lacks essential defensive capabilities, such as missile defence systems and electromagnetic pulse protection, which are critical for any aircraft serving as Air Force One. This retrofitting notion adds another layer of complexity, with significant questions about execution costs and feasibility amid ongoing complications in US security operations.

    The controversy is compounded by Trump’s history of prioritising personal gain over governmental integrity.

    Critics argue that the acceptance of such extravagant gifts goes against the very essence of his “America First” policy. Trump’s defenders have tried to downplay these concerns by likening the jet to France’s donation of the Statue of Liberty—an analogy that rings hollow for many.

    This incident lays bare a broader narrative of ‘soft corruption,’ where money is leveraged for influence, often at the expense of ethical governance.

    Moreover, Trump’s financial ties to Qatar raise serious ethical dilemmas.

    All in this together?

    Prominent figures within his administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and former FBI Director Kash Patel, have benefitted from financial relationships with Qatari interests. Institutions perceived to be reputable, such as Newsmax and think tanks like the Brookings Institution, have also accepted Qatari funding, further entrenching this web of influence.

    The deeper this relationship grows, the more transparency and accountability wane, spotlighting a disturbing pattern of entitlement and complicity that extends beyond individual actors.

    As discussions surrounding the legality of accepting foreign gifts swirl, it becomes clear that historical precedents, while allowing for certain exceptions, face scrutiny under modern ethical standards.

    Legal experts have pointed out that while past presidents received gifts without consequence, enforcement remains murky, creating a breeding ground for potential misuse of power. The emoluments clause in the US Constitution, meant to prevent foreign corruption, faces challenges in its interpretation, exposing vulnerabilities in oversight mechanisms intended to safeguard democracy.

    This situation is underscored by Trump’s strategic engagements in the Gulf.

    Good for Trump – but not anyone else

    During his presidency, Trump embraced a transactional relationship with Gulf monarchies, deriving mutual benefits from both national policy favour and personal business opportunities. Although this approach seemingly offers US political leverage, it risks alienating those in the Global South who perceive these dealings as self-serving rather than aligned with genuine support for democratic values.

    In response to such controversies, congressional Republicans find themselves torn. While some express cautious disapproval, there has been little initiative for a full investigation, reflecting a reluctance to confront the uncomfortable truths of their own leadership.

    This lack of accountability invites further normalisation of practices that prioritise wealth and influence over the public good, an erosion of standards that threatens the very fabric of US governance.

    Cronyism

    Ultimately, the proposed acceptance of the Qatari jet signals a troubling crossroads for America, as it balances pressing national security concerns against the seductive allure of wealth and foreign influence.

    If Trump is allowed to pursue this course unchecked, it could open the floodgates for a new era of political transactionalism, challenging the very ideals of democratic integrity and placing national safety at stake.

    Featured image via the Canary

    By Steve Topple

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • US close to letting UAE import millions of Nvidia AI chips

    The US has a preliminary agreement with the United Arab Emirates to allow it to import 500,000 of Nvidia’s most advanced AI chips per year, starting in 2025, two sources familiar with the situation said, boosting the Emirates’ construction of data centres vital to developing artificial intelligence models. The sources, who spoke on condition of…

    The post US close to letting UAE import millions of Nvidia AI chips appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • Trump scraps Biden-era plan to limit sale of personal data

    The US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is scrapping a proposal issued under former President Joe Biden that would have sharply limited the sale of Americans’ private information by “data brokers”, according to a Federal Register notice issued Wednesday. The agency also yanked proposals that sought to extend consumer protections to the use of new digital…

    The post Trump scraps Biden-era plan to limit sale of personal data appeared first on InnovationAus.com.

    This post was originally published on InnovationAus.com.

  • As Trump basks in Gulf Arab applause, Israel massacres children in Gaza

    Nakba Day today marks 15 May 1948 — the day after the declaration of the State of Israel — when the Palestinian society and homeland was destroyed and more than 750,000 people forced to leave and become refugees.  The day is known as the “Palestinian Catastrophe”. 

    By Soumaya Ghannoushi

    US President Donald Trump’s tour of Riyadh, Abu Dhabi and Doha is not diplomacy. It is theatre — staged in gold, fuelled by greed, and underwritten by betrayal.

    A US president openly arming a genocide is welcomed with red carpets, handshakes and blank cheques. Trillions are pledged; personal gifts are exchanged. And Gaza continues to burn.

    Gulf regimes have power and wealth. They have Trump’s ear. Yet they use none of it — not to halt the slaughter, ease the siege or demand dignity.

    In return for their riches and deference, Trump grants Israel bombs and sets it loose upon the region.

    This is the real story. At the heart of Trump’s return lies a project he initiated during his first presidency: the erasure of Palestine, the elevation of autocracy, and the redrawing of the Middle East in Israel’s image.

    “See this pen? This wonderful pen on my desk is the Middle East, and the top of the pen — that’s Israel. That’s not good,” he once told reporters, lamenting Israel’s size compared to its neighbours.

    To Trump, the Middle East is not a region of history or humanity. It is a marketplace, a weapons depot, a geopolitical ATM.

    His worldview is forged in evangelical zeal and transactional instinct. In his rhetoric, Arabs are chaos incarnate: irrational, violent, in need of control. Israel alone is framed as civilised, democratic, divinely chosen. That binary is not accidental. It is ideology.

    Obedience for survival
    Trump calls the region “a rough neighbourhood” — code for endless militarism that casts the people of the Middle East not as lives to protect, but as threats to contain.

    His $110 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia in 2017 was marketed as peace through prosperity. Now, he wants trillions more in Gulf capital. As reported by The New York Times, Trump is demanding that Saudi Arabia invest its entire annual GDP — $1 trillion — into the US economy.

    Riyadh has already offered $600 billion. Trump wants it all. Economists call it absurd; Trump calls it a deal.

    This is not negotiation. It is tribute.

    And the pace is accelerating. After a recent meeting with Trump, the UAE announced a 10-year, $1.4 trillion investment framework with the US.

    This is not realpolitik. It is a grotesque spectacle of decadence, delusion and disgrace

    Across the Gulf, a race is underway — not to end the genocide in Gaza, but to outspend one another for Trump’s favour, showering him with wealth in return for nothing.

    The Gulf is no longer treated as a region. It is a vault. Sovereign wealth funds are the new ballot boxes. Sovereignty — just another asset to be traded.

    Trump’s offer is blunt: obedience for survival. For regimes still haunted by the Arab Spring, Western blessing is their last shield. And they will pay any price: wealth, independence, even dignity.

    To them, the true threat is not Israel, nor even Iran. It is their own people, restless, yearning, ungovernable.

    Democracy is danger; self-determination, the ticking bomb. So they make a pact with the devil.

    Doctrine of immunity
    That devil brings flags, frameworks, photo ops and deals. The new order demands normalisation with Israel, submission to its supremacy, and silence on Palestine.

    Once-defiant slogans are replaced by fintech expos and staged smiles beside Israeli ministers.

    In return, Trump offers impunity: political cover and arms. It is a doctrine of immunity, bought with gold and soaked in Arab blood.

    They bend. They hand him deals, honours, trillions. They believe submission buys respect. But Trump respects only power — and he makes that clear.

    He praises Russian President Vladimir Putin: “Is Putin smart? Yes . . .  that’s a hell of a way to negotiate.” He calls Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan “a guy I like [and] respect”. Like them or not, they defend their nations. And Trump, ever the transactional mind, respects power.

    Arab rulers offer no such strength. They offer deference, not defiance. They don’t push; they pay.

    And Trump mocks them openly. King Salman “might not be there for two weeks without us”, he brags. They give him billions; he demands trillions.

    It is not just the US Treasury profiting. Gulf billions do not merely fuel policy; they enrich a family empire. Since returning to office, Trump and his sons have chased deals across the Gulf, cashing in on the loyalty they have cultivated.

    A hotel in Dubai, a tower in Jeddah, a golf resort in Qatar, crypto ventures in the US, a private club in Washington for Gulf elites — these are not strategic projects, but rather revenue streams for the Trump family.

    Reward for ethnic cleansing
    The precedent was set early. Former presidential adviser Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, secured $2 billion from Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund shortly after leaving office, despite internal objections.

    The message was clear: access to the Trumps has a price, and Gulf rulers are eager to pay.

    Now, Trump is receiving a private jet from Qatar’s ruling family — a palace in the sky worth $400 million.

    This is not diplomacy. It is plunder.

    And how does Trump respond? With insult: “It was a great gesture,” he said of the jet, before adding: “We keep them safe. If it wasn’t for us, they probably wouldn’t exist right now.”

    That was his thank you to Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar; lavish gifts answered with debasement.

    And what are they rewarding him for? For genocide. For 100,000 tonnes of bombs dropped on Gaza. For backing ethnic cleansing in plain sight. For empowering far-right Israeli politicians, including Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as they call for Gaza’s depopulation.

    For presiding over the most fanatically Zionist, most unapologetically Islamophobic administration in US history.

    Still, they ask nothing, while offering everything. They could have used their leverage. They did not.

    The Yemen precedent proves they can act. Trump halted the bombing under Saudi pressure, to Netanyahu’s visible dismay. When they wanted a deal, they struck one with the Houthis.

    And when they sought to bring Syria in from the cold, Trump complied. He agreed to meet former rebel leader turned President Ahmed al-Sharaa — a last-minute addition to his Riyadh schedule — and even spoke of lifting sanctions, once again at Saudi Arabia’s request, to “give them a chance of greatness”.

    No US president is beyond pressure. But for Gaza? Silence.

    Price of silence
    While Trump was being feted in Riyadh, Israel rained American-made bombs on two hospitals in Gaza. In Khan Younis, the European Hospital was reportedly struck by nine bunker-busting bombs, killing more than two dozen people and injuring scores more.

    Earlier that day, an air strike on Nasser Hospital killed journalist Hassan Islih as he lay wounded in treatment.

    As Trump basked in applause, Israel massacred children in Jabalia, where around 50 Palestinians were killed in just a few hours.

    This is the bloody price of Arab silence, buried beneath the roar of applause and the glitter of tributes.

    This week marks the anniversary of the Nakba — and here it is again, replayed not through tanks alone, but through Arab complicity.

    With every cheque signed, Arab rulers do not secure history’s respect. They seal their place in its sordid footnotes of shame

    The bombs fall. The Gaza Strip turns to dust. Two million people endure starvation. UN food is gone.

    Hospitals overflow with skeletal infants. Mothers collapse from hunger. Tens of thousands of children are severely malnourished, with more than 3500 on the edge of death.

    Meanwhile, Smotrich speaks of “third countries” for Gaza’s people. Netanyahu promises their removal.

    And Trump — the man enabling the annihilation? He is not condemned, but celebrated by Arab rulers. They eagerly kiss the hand that sends the bombs, grovel before the architect of their undoing, and drape him in splendour and finery.

    While much of the world stands firm — China, Europe, Canada, Mexico, even Greenland – refusing to bow to Trump’s bullying, Arab rulers kneel. They open wallets, bend spines, empty hands — still mistaking humiliation for diplomacy.

    They still believe that if they bow low enough, Trump might toss them a bone. Instead, he tosses them a bill.

    This is not realpolitik. It is a grotesque spectacle of decadence, delusion and disgrace.

    With every cheque signed, every jet offered, every photo op beside the butcher of a people, Arab rulers do not secure history’s respect. They seal their place in its sordid footnotes of shame.

    Soumaya Ghannoushi is a British Tunisian writer and expert in Middle East politics. Her journalistic work has appeared in The Guardian, The Independent, Corriere della Sera, aljazeera.net and Al Quds. This article was first published by the Middle East Eye. A selection of her writings may be found at: soumayaghannoushi.com and she tweets @SMGhannoushi.

    This post was originally published on Asia Pacific Report.

  • Covering for Predatory Politicians Is Also Corruption

     

    Eric Lipton NYT, Bluesky: Corruption requires explict quid pro quo. It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift--a bribe. Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.

    Bluesky (5/12/25)

    New York Times reporter Eric Lipton (Bluesky, 5/12/25) defended his reference to lobbyists giving the Trump family millions of dollars to buy access to the president as “potentially corrupt.”

    “Corruption requires explicit quid pro quo,” Lipton maintained. “It is not corrupt to take an action that aligns with the interest of a person who gives you a gift, unless the official action was in direct response to that gift—a bribe.”

    Lipton was Timesplaining the legal definition of “bribery,” which has indeed been narrowed by the Supreme Court to require an explicit quid pro quo. But the president is also bound by federal laws prohibiting the solicitation of gifts (CRS, 8/16/12), and the Constitution forbids him to accept any foreign payment (or “emolument”) without congressional approval.

    Moreover, “corruption” is primarily an ethical, not a legal term (SCOTUSblog, 9/25/19). Trump’s access auction certainly meets Transparency International’s definition of corruption as “the abuse of entrusted power for private gain.”

    Lipton got up on his highest horse: “Terms matter. Accuracy and fairness matters. Regardless of what social media wants.” It’s hard to say what social media want, but it would be nice to have elite reporters who didn’t redefine terms to provide cover for self-enriching politicians.

    ACTION ALERT: You can send a message to the New York Times at letters@nytimes.com or via Bluesky: @NYTimes.com. Please remember that respectful communication is the most effective. Feel free to leave a copy of your message in the comments thread here.


    This content originally appeared on FAIR and was authored by Jim Naureckas.

    This post was originally published on Radio Free.

  • Judge Orders Release of Georgetown Scholar Badar Khan Suri From ICE Detention

    On Wednesday, a federal court ordered the release of Georgetown scholar Badar Khan Suri, an Indian postdoctoral student who was abducted by U.S. immigration officials two months ago, after a judge found that he was improperly denied his due process rights and would likely succeed in a habeas corpus case against the government. Suri, whose research focuses on peace studies and conflict…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump Pushes Talks With Iran, But Israel’s Genocide Continues in Gaza

    Amid President Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East, we continue our interview with DAWN’s Sarah Leah Whitson and HuffPost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed about Trump’s acceptance of a luxury plane gifted to him by the Qatari government, nuclear negotiations with Iran and Saudi Arabia, a less cooperative relationship with Israel and more. This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • This Musk Adviser and DOGE Employee May Be Violating Ethics Rules, Experts Say

    One of Elon Musk’s employees is earning between $100,001 and $1 million annually as a political adviser to his billionaire boss while simultaneously helping to dismantle the federal agency that regulates two of Musk’s biggest companies, according to court records and a financial disclosure report obtained by ProPublica. Ethics experts said Christopher Young’s dual role — working for a Musk…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • ‘Crypto Is the Biggest Corruption Issue With Trump’CounterSpin interview with Bartlett Naylor on Trump crypto grift

     

    Janine Jackson interviewed Public Citizen’s Bartlett Naylor about Trump’s crypto grift for the May 9, 2025, episode of CounterSpin. This is a lightly edited transcript.

     

    Common Dreams: 'A Crime With No Immunity': Trump Solicits Buyers for Corrupt Crypto Dinner

    Common Dreams (5/6/25)

    Janine Jackson: I read, thanks to Jake Johnson at Common Dreams, that Trump is planning a fancy private dinner for top investors in the $Trump meme coin. It has a dollar sign in front of it, but I don’t know how to pronounce that. But it’s the crypto token that is enriching him hand over fist, and with other crypto-related investments, has reportedly gifted the Trump family $2.9 billion in just the last six months.

    I would be ashamed, but I believe that a lot of listeners are with me as I ask, “Huh? It’s a what? That’s doing what?” Here to help us make sense of what’s happening, and why it matters, is Bartlett Naylor. He’s financial policy advocate at Congress Watch, part of the indispensable group Public Citizen. Welcome back to CounterSpin, Bart Naylor.

    Bartlett Naylor: Many thanks for having me.

    JJ: What’s a meme coin? And why would anybody pay money for it?

    BN: I don’t know and I don’t know!

    So a meme coin is generally a term of derision within the cryptocurrency community for a coin that is simply developed as a joke to make fun of something, to take advantage of an internet theme. Folks have heard of Bitcoin, and a meme coin, like Bitcoin, is simply a digital receipt that you paid money for something. It’s not shares in a company that is an enterprise that, ideally, would make a profit and pay you a dividend. It’s just a digital receipt. With Bitcoin, you could sell that to somebody else, and if they paid you more than you paid for it, you’d make money.

    Marketing Trump's $Trump meme coin: Donald Trump; Fight Fight Fight; Join Trump's Special Community

    $Trump marketing website

    And that’s the idea with Trump’s meme coin, which surprisingly, for such a selfless guy, he named $Trump. So when you buy one, you are basically sending him money, and you’re also having a trading fee, which is where he’s actually made most of his money, which also goes to Donald Trump.

    You get nothing, according to him. He even says on the website, “This is not an investment opportunity. You should do this to celebrate me, to celebrate my leadership, my willingness to fight, fight, fight.”

    And he announced a few weeks ago that those 220 that buy the most will be invited to a dinner with him. It’s been a little unclear, sometimes he says the White House; other times he says it’s a golf club near Washington, DC.

    Middle East Eye: UAE's ruling family agrees to $2bn transaction with Trump crypto firm

    Middle East Eye (5/1/25)

    For background: you can’t do this. The law forbids the president from soliciting gifts. The law also forbids the president from accepting gifts from a foreign state, and this $2 billion that you had mentioned is coming from the United Arab Emirates, a sovereign fund in Dubai, and they’re going to use a separate cryptocurrency called the stablecoin. And, again, that’s a coin that is tied to a fiat currency such as the dollar. One Trump stablecoin equals $1, which basically, when you sent him that, you’re giving him an interest-free loan.

    JJ: Soliciting gifts—you’ve just said it, but soliciting gifts is a crime, right? And you wrote to the DoJ, you and others wrote to the DOJ and the Office of Government Ethics, to say just that.

    BN: Exactly. And so we are waiting on the edge of our seat that Pam Bondi will file a federal indictment of the president. I speak in jest, of course, and Trump controls the federal prosecutors. So for another three years and ten-ish months, nine months, we will await actual accountability for this.

    JJ: I mean, just to be clear, there are laws. I know that our minds are all blown, but there are laws, there are precedents, there are things to rely on. And, you know, I wasn’t a fan of the status quo. I don’t want to return to bipartisan gentility, but there are things where you think, “Wow, I didn’t even know that we needed a law to prevent that, because no one’s ever tried to do that.” Where are we, in terms of response and resistance?

    Bartlett Naylor

    Bartlett Naylor: “A number of senators have called this the biggest corruption in presidential history.”

    BN: A number of senators have called this the biggest corruption in presidential history, called for federal prosecution. Senator Ossoff of Georgia, Chris Murphy of Connecticut, Senator Blumenthal, also of Connecticut, have called for an investigation by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. There are calls for this. But of course, we have a captured Congress, a captured Republican Party, and now a captured Justice Department that will not act.

    JJ: Well, what would you ask from journalism at this point? It’s strange times that we’re in, and we want to acknowledge that some of the groundwork has been laid in previous administrations. But at the same time, something new is happening. And I just wonder, finally, what you would ask from reporters on this.

    BN: Ongoing attention to this crypto grift. Because the two main stories of political influence in the 2024 election were the $280 million by Elmo Musk, to basically buy himself a co-presidency for a while. But the second was a hundred and some million dollars spent by the crypto industry, mostly to defeat anti-crypto lawmakers, the most prominent being Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio. And that has sent a chill through all of Congress, and especially Democrats, who otherwise would responsibly be jaundiced about cryptocurrency, but they are voting in favor of it.

    There’s going to be a vote today. We actually don’t know the outcome, but it may well enable and give federal imprimatur to the cryptocurrency stablecoin, the kind that Trump just unveiled, this billion-dollar deal with Dubai. And they’re doing that because they’re afraid of political spending from the crypto industry.

    The advertisements paid for by the crypto industry don’t say, “Vote for Bernie Moreno because he’s pro-crypto, and vote against Sherrod Brown because he’s anti-crypto.” No, the political spending doesn’t mention crypto at all. It mentions something else, some problem that they made up about Sherrod Brown, or Katie Porter in California, or something else.

    Other PAC’s have done the same thing. If their own issue isn’t particularly popular, they pick something else. But voters need to know that crypto is the biggest bad corruption issue with Trump, and they should hold their lawmakers to account if they enable it.

    JJ: I’d like to end right there, but I just need to ask you—somebody is like, “What the hell is crypto? What is it that I’m concerned about?” Do you have your quick explanation for people who don’t even know where to start with this issue?

    CNN: Trump, who once trashed bitcoin as ‘based on thin air,’ addresses crypto’s largest convention

    CNN (7/27/24)

    BN: I would call it thin air, a Ponzi scheme. Cryptocurrency was devised by an anonymous person in 2008, as somehow a way to have a payment system that doesn’t rely on banks. And if we all just use his currency, Bitcoin, then we wouldn’t have to rely on the mega banks that crashed the economy in 2008, like JP Morgan. There would be a limited amount of them, and we would just use that.

    In fact, it has not caught on, for a number of reasons, as a currency. It takes a ridiculous amount of energy to validate the transaction between, let’s say, you and me, and it’s unwieldy. But, again, I will call cryptocurrency thin air.

    And I’m actually quoting President Trump of 2018. He also understood that cryptocurrency was a big nothing. He has since realized that he can personally make a lot of money, so he’s grifting away.

    JJ: Yep. Times have changed. Well, thank you very much for that.

    We’ve been speaking with Bart Naylor of Congress Watch at Public Citizen. They’re online at Citizen.org. Thank you so much, Bart Naylor, for joining us this week on CounterSpin.

    BN: Thank you for having me.

     

    This post was originally published on FAIR.

  • Responding to Qatari Jet Gift, Schumer Places Hold on Trump DOJ Nominees

    Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) announced on Tuesday that he was placing a hold on all of President Donald Trump’s remaining nominees at the Department of Justice (DOJ), in light of the president reportedly accepting a $400 million luxury jet as a gift from the government of Qatar. The jet is set to be used by Trump to act as Air Force One, after which it will be a featured…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Russian and Ukrainian human rights defenders focus on end to the war in Ukraine.

    In the past weeks and months, Russian and Ukrainian human rights activists have been focusing on negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Back in January, human rights activists and the People First campaign raised several issues to parties involved in ongoing negotiations in the hopes that the negotiations would prioritise those affected by the conflict, particularly prisoners of war, detained Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian children which have been taken to Russia, and Russian political prisoners.

    The invasion of Ukraine was only possible thanks to a system of political repression Russia has inflicted on its own people for decades.

    In February, on the third anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, a group of UN special rapporteurs and experts called for parties involved in negotiations to put legal and humanitarian issues at the forefront of discussions. They stressed that the Russian government must be held accountable for its aggression and war crimes in Ukraine committed, and its repressive policies towards its own citizens.

    The invasion of Ukraine was only possible thanks to a system of political repression Russia has inflicted on its own people for decades. According to experts, over 3,000 individuals have been persecuted by Russian authorities for political reasons. Despite recent efforts by human rights activists to advocate for person-centred negotiations, it seems more and more doubtful that the focus will be on human rights

    —

    Russia’s aggression against Ukraine has challenged the established system of international relations, which has now proven to be woefully fragile. Most countries see Putin’s decision to unleash outright war on Ukraine as unacceptable. While many democratic countries have continued to provide Ukraine with assistance, this has at times proven insufficient in the face of Russian violence.

    Since January, the rejection by the US of legal norms in place since the two world wars has unleashed a new crisis in international politics.

    US tactics to repeal basic human rights seem eerily familiar for Russian activists, who have been fighting similar state tactics for the past 25 years.

    The new American administration’s policy is increasingly similar to Putin’s own tactics. Both favour the “right of the strong”, whereby great powers can decide the fate of others and dictate conditions. The US has shown itself to be less interested in international law, making it increasingly easy for norms to be overlooked.

    US tactics to repeal basic human rights seem eerily familiar for Russian activists, who have been fighting similar state tactics for the past 25 years. Russians knew a world without regard for international human rights or legal norms long before 2025, or the invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

    For 25 years, Putin’s government has created a country which prioritises the interests of the state and denies basic human rights.

    What is happening in the US is recognisable to many Russians.

    By wanting to end the war in Ukraine and find a quick solution, the US president is effectively equating the aggressor with the victim of aggression.

    Negotiations thus far suggest Trump is more likely to ensure Russian interests that are detrimental both to the safety of the Ukrainian people, who have been subjected to aggression and occupation, and to justice and a sustainable peace.

    Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine was the result of years of human rights violations within Russia and the lack of a response from the international community to these violations.

    An unfair peace — a “deal” that contradicts the norms of international law — sets a dangerous precedent. It normalises the war against Ukraine, thereby giving Russia the green light to repeat its aggression and to enact even harsher repressive policies inside Russia.

    Such a “deal” is a signal to the whole world, a move towards dangerous instability, reminiscent of the brink of the outbreak of the world wars. Departing from the principles of human rights and international law in peacekeeping practices encourages impunity and will inevitably lead to new wars of aggression. Democracy in many countries will also be at risk, as the new rules of the game will open up opportunities for autocrats and dictators to violate human rights in their countries without regard for international institutions and their international obligations.

    No peace without rights 

    We call on the leaders of all democratic countries, all politicians for whom human rights are not merely empty words, and civil society to take a stand and bring human rights back into international politics.

    This is the only way to create reliable conditions for long-term peace in Europe and prevent the emergence of new-large scale military conflicts globally. Otherwise, the world will find itself in a situation where the fate of countries and the people living in them will be decided through wars unleashed by imperialist predators.

    We call on all parties taking part in peace negotiations in Ukraine to prioritise the human aspect: the fate of prisoners of war and the protection needed for civilians, including in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine.

    We insist that negotiations be based on the fundamental norms of international legal agreements, including the UN Charter and the Helsinki Final Act, as they define aggression, protect the principle of territorial integrity and sovereignty, and link military and political security with human rights. Without this, it will be impossible to achieve a just and sustainable peace.

    The appeal was drafted and signed by members of the the Council of Russian Human Rights Defenders: Galina Arapova, Sergey Davidis, Yury Dzhibladze, Leonid Drabkin, Sergey Krivenko, Sergey Lukashevsky, Karinna Moskalenko, Oleg Orlov, Lev Ponomarev, Alexander Cherkasov, and Yelena Shakhova.

    The names of the other Council members who signed the appeal are not given for security reasons.

    https://novayagazeta.eu/articles/2025/05/11/no-peace-without-human-rights-en

    This post was originally published on Hans Thoolen on Human Rights Defenders and their awards.

  • Trump Is Making America Constitutionally Literate—By Violating the Constitution

    Few modern political figures have done more to prompt spontaneous national discussions about the Bill of Rights and constitutional limits on government power than Donald Trump—if only because he tramples on them so frequently.

    Indeed, President Trump has become a walking civics lesson.

    Consider some of the constitutional principles that Trump can be credited with bringing into the spotlight unintentionally during his time in office.

    First Amendment (free speech, press, religion, protest, and assembly): Trump’s repeated confrontations with the First Amendment have transformed free expression into a battleground, making it impossible to ignore the protections it guarantees. From branding the press as “the enemy of the people” and threatening to revoke media licenses to blacklisting law firms, threatening universities with funding cuts for not complying with the government’s ideological agenda, and detaining foreign students for their political views, Trump has treated constitutional protections not as guarantees, but as obstacles.

    Second Amendment (right to bear arms): Trump has shown an inconsistent and, at times, authoritarian approach to gun rights, summed up in his infamous 2018 statement: “Take the guns first, go through due process second.” At the same time, Trump has encouraged the militarization of domestic police forces, blurring the line between civilian law enforcement and standing armies—a contradiction that cuts against the very spirit of the amendment, which was rooted in distrust of centralized power and standing militaries.

    Fourth Amendment (protection against unreasonable searches and seizures): Trump’s expansion of no-knock raids, endorsement of sweeping surveillance tactics, sanctioning of police brutality and greater immunity for police misconduct, and the use of masked, plainclothes federal agents to seize demonstrators off the streets have revived conversations about privacy, unlawful searches, and the right to be secure in one’s person and property.

    Fifth & Fourteenth Amendments (due process and equal protection): Perhaps nowhere has Trump’s disregard been more dangerous than in his approach to due process and equal protection under the law. The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments guarantee that neither citizens nor non-citizens can be deprived of liberty without fair procedures. Yet Trump’s Administration has repeatedly floated or enacted policies that sidestep due process, from the suggestion that he could suspend habeas corpus to the indefinite detention of individuals without trial, and openly questioned whether non-citizens deserve any constitutional protections at all.

    Even the Sixth (right to a fair and speedy trial) and Eighth Amendments (protection against cruel and unusual punishment) have found new urgency: Trump has promoted indefinite pretrial detention for protesters and immigrants alike, while presiding over family separations, inhumane detention centers, and support for enhanced interrogation techniques. Trump has also doubled down on his administration’s commitment to carrying out more executions, including a push to impose the death penalty for crimes other than murder.

    Tenth Amendment (states’ rights): The Tenth Amendment, which preserves state sovereignty against federal overreach, has been tested by Trump’s threats to defund sanctuary cities, override state public health measures, and interfere in local policing and elections. His efforts to federalize domestic law enforcement have exposed the limits of decentralized power in the face of executive ambition.

    Fourteenth Amendment (birthright citizenship): No clause has been more aggressively misunderstood by Trump than the Citizenship Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. His push to strip citizenship from children born on U.S. soil to immigrant parents (birthright citizenship) ignores over a century of legal precedent affirming that citizenship cannot be denied by executive whim.

    Article I, Section 8 (commerce and tariffs): Trump’s use of tariff authority provides another example of executive power run amok. Although the Constitution assigns Congress the power to regulate commerce with foreign nations, Trump has imposed sweeping tariffs on allies and used them as political leverage. These actions not only undermine the constitutional balance between the branches but also weaponize trade policy for political ends.

    Article I, Section 9 (Emoluments Clause): Trump’s disregard for the Emoluments Clause—a safeguard against presidential profiteering—brought this obscure constitutional provision back into the public eye. Between continuing to profit from his private businesses while in office and his reported willingness to accept extravagant gifts, including a $400 million luxury plane from the Qatari government, he has raised urgent ethical and legal concerns about self-dealing, corruption and backdoor arrangements by which foreign and domestic governments can funnel money into Trump’s personal coffers.

    Article I, Section 9 (power of the purse): Trump has trampled on Congress’s exclusive power over federal spending, attempting to redirect funds by executive fiat rather than operating within Congress’s approved budgetary plan. He has also threatened to withhold federal aid from states, cities, and universities deemed insufficiently loyal.

    Article II (executive powers): At the heart of Trump’s governance is a dangerous misreading of Article II, which vests executive power in the president, to justify executive overreach and the concept of an all-powerful unitary executive. He has repeatedly claimed “total authority” over state matters, wielded executive orders like royal decrees in order to bypass Congress, and sought to bend the Department of Justice to his personal and political will.

    Historical Emergency Powers and Legal Precedents: Trump has also breathed new life into archaic emergency powers. He invoked the Alien Enemies Act to justify rounding up, detaining, and deporting undocumented immigrants without due process. He has also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy troops domestically in order to deal with civil unrest, raising the specter of martial law cloaked in patriotic language.

    In routinely violating the Constitution and crossing legal lines that were once unthinkable, Trump is forcing Americans to confront what the Constitution truly protects, and what it doesn’t.

    Still, what good is a knowledgeable citizenry if their elected officials are woefully ignorant about the Constitution or willfully disregard their sworn duty to uphold and protect it?

    For starters, anyone taking public office, from the president on down, should have a working knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and should be held accountable for upholding their precepts. And if they violate their contractual obligations to uphold and defend the Constitution, vote them out—throw them out—or impeach them.

    “We the people” have power, but we must use it or lose it.

    Trump may have contributed to this revival in constitutional awareness, but as we warn in Battlefield America: The War on the American People and A Government of Wolves: The Emerging American Police State, the challenge isn’t just knowing our rights—it’s defending them, before they’re gone for good.

    The post Trump Is Making America Constitutionally Literate—By Violating the Constitution first appeared on Dissident Voice.

    This post was originally published on Dissident Voice.

  • Trump’s Tariffs And The New Cold War On China

    The first thing to say about the Trump administration’s tariff war is that it is primarily designed to weaken, undermine and isolate the People’s Republic of China.

    It’s part of a broader program of “decoupling” from China and a broader New Cold War on China – a system of hybrid warfare incorporating economic measures, diplomatic measures and propaganda measures, along with a significant military component: the deployment of hundreds of thousands of troops to the Pacific region; the US military bases in the Philippines, Guam, Okinawa, Japan, South Korea, Australia; the deployment of sophisticated weapons systems to the region; and the various attempts to create some sort of Asian NATO.

    The post Trump’s Tariffs And The New Cold War On China appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • Energy Secretary Claims Trump ‘Wants To Use Force’ Against Venezuela

    US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said that President Donald Trump wants to use force to compel political change in Venezuela. Wright’s remarks were made during an interview with Fox News on Sunday, May 11.

    “President Trump wants to use United States force, our energy independence, to force change in Venezuela,” the US regime’s energy secretary said. Using the allegation of the migration of criminal gang Tren de Aragua, which the Venezuelan government has reported is extinct, Wright added: “We need to change the situation in Venezuela, not just for Venezuelans, but for all gang members and the refugees fleeing that country, and ‘millions’ of them ending up in the United States.”

    The post Energy Secretary Claims Trump ‘Wants To Use Force’ Against Venezuela appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.

  • DNC Moves to Oust David Hogg After He Says Party Isn’t Standing Up to Trump

    A Democratic National Committee (DNC) panel voted on Monday to void the result of a vote electing David Hogg as vice chair of the party after the young Democrat criticized the party for being “asleep at the wheel” as the Trump administration moves the U.S. swiftly toward fascism. As a result of a challenge from Kalyn Free, a losing candidate in the election, the committee decided that the…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump Says He’s Ending US Sanctions on Syria as He Cozies Up to Saudi Arabia

    President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he is ordering the “cessation” of U.S. sanctions on Syria, seemingly bringing an end to the U.S.’s decades-long economic suppression of the country as he cozies up to Saudi Arabian leaders. “I will be ordering the cessation of sanctions against Syria in order to give them a chance at greatness,” Trump said in a speech at an investment forum in…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Republicans Sneak “Nonprofit Killer” Bill Into Reconciliation Package

    Republicans have revived an effort to pass legislation deemed the “nonprofit killer” following warnings from left-wing and civil society groups that the move would give President Donald Trump broad leeway to crush dissent and attack his political opponents. The proposal was tacked onto the end of Republicans’ tax proposal, unveiled on Monday, which Republicans are planning to pass via…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Left-Wing Streamer Hasan Piker Says He Was Detained by Customs Over Trump Views

    Hasan Piker, a left-wing political commentator with millions of followers on social media, was detained and interrogated on his political views for hours by U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents after he returned from a trip overseas this week. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security claimed that Piker, a U.S.-born citizen who was carrying his passport after…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Trump Is “Unrestrained” in Use of Presidency for Pursuit of Personal Wealth

    As President Donald Trump meets with leaders in the Middle East this week, we look at how his administration and family have opened wide to foreign powers and wealthy interests willing to spend big to gain influence. Top buyers of Trump’s novelty cryptocurrency have spent millions as part of a contest to have dinner with the president. Trump’s sons Donald Jr. and Eric have also signed a number of…

    Source

    This post was originally published on Latest – Truthout.

  • Campaigners are set to celebrate Tesla’s nosediving car sales – by hijacking its own events

    The 17 May is set to be a big day for Tesla, with the company advertising ‘Discover Tesla’ days for multiple locations to boost the troubled its flagging UK sales. So Tesla Takedown UK, the anti-Tesla group, are hosting ‘Discover Tesla Takedown’ days at dealerships in Bristol, Glasgow, Winchester, and London Park Royal.

    Tesla Takedown: celebrating the sales woes of Elon Musk

    These fun, lively pickets will have a different character in each city.

    Winchester will be welcoming dogs and giving out free badges. London will have a Tesla de-badging station, a make-your-own-sign stand, a bubble machine, and more. Bristol will have a chill vibe with lawn chairs, music, balloons and treats.

    Meanwhile, Glasgow will offer henna tattoos, face painting, ice cream. There will also be rides in a genuine eco-vehicle – Obama the Pony’s cart – which normally brings disabled children to experience parts of the world that wheelchairs can’t reach without assistance.

    Obama’s owner Simon Mulholland said:

    I dislike Elon Musk for buying the election of Trump after Trump’s disgusting mockery of a disabled journalist. And, as a vehicle designer, I feel Musk missed two really easy open goals.

    Protests will start at 11am on 17 May at the following locations:

    • Bristol Tesla Showroom, 5 Centaurus Road, Patchway, Bristol, BS34 5TS
    • Glasgow Tesla Showroom, 20 Kennedy Street, Glasgow, G4 0EB
    • London Tesla Park Royal Showroom, 152 Duke’s Road, London W3 0SL
    • Winchester Tesla Showroom, Easton Lane, Winchester, SO23 7RR

    Toxic Musk tanks thanks to public protest

    Showing that protests work, Tesla has removed mention of all Discover Tesla days from its website listings. Notably however, it’s still accepting RSVPs for some. Overall though, it has been delisting all planned London events.

    Tesla sales nosedived 62% year-on-year in April, with just 512 vehicles sold. This is the company’s lowest figure in more than two years, even though electric vehicle (EV) sales rose by 8.1%. But the battle is far from over. While Tesla’s market share has tumbled by a quarter from 12.5% a year ago, the brand still holds 9.3% of the UK EV market.

    Tesla Takedown organiser Theodora Sutcliffe, who has picketed Tesla showrooms, a Tesla pop-up shop and the Everything Electric show, said:

    You don’t need a huge number of people to disrupt Tesla’s ability to sell cars. Tesla is a brand that’s historically relied on people feeling good about their choices. Pickets highlight how toxic those choices have become under Elon Musk.

    Featured image supplied

    By The Canary

    This post was originally published on Canary.

  • Episcopal Church Refuses To Resettle White Afrikaners

    In a striking move that ends a nearly four-decades-old relationship between the federal government and the Episcopal Church, the denomination announced on Monday that it is terminating its partnership with the government to resettle refugees, citing moral opposition to resettling white Afrikaners from South Africa who have been classified as refugees by President Trump’s administration.

    In a letter sent to members of the church, the Most Rev. Sean W. Rowe — the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church — said that two weeks ago, the government “informed Episcopal Migration Ministries that under the terms of our federal grant, we are expected to resettle white Afrikaners from South Africa whom the U.S. government has classified as refugees.”

    The post Episcopal Church Refuses To Resettle White Afrikaners appeared first on PopularResistance.Org.

    This post was originally published on PopularResistance.Org.