American Women Suck

An important part of manhood has always been about having the competence to be effective in the world — having the breadth of skills, the savoir-faire, to handle any situation you find yourself in. With that in mind, each Sunday we’ll be republishing one of the illustrated guides from our archives, so you can hone your manly know-how week by week. Among the many quintessential summertime activities is swinging from a rope over a lake or river. If there isn’t a rope swing by your favorite swimming hole, here’s how to make one safely and use it like the King of the Jungle. Like this illustrated guide? Then you’re going to love our book The Illustrated Art of Manliness! Pick up a copy on Amazon. This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness. View the full article

An emerging class of AI-induced distress is raising alarms. But are LLMs merely a trigger – or a mirror to our deeper societal breakdown? The phenomenon known as ‘ChatGPT psychosis’ or ‘LLM psychosis’ has recently been described as an emerging mental health concern, where heavy users of large language models (LLMs) exhibit symptoms such as delusions, paranoia, social withdrawal, and breaks from reality. While there is no evidence that LLMs directly cause psychosis, their interactive design and conversational realism may amplify existing psychological vulnerabilities or foster conditions that trigger psychotic episodes in susceptible individuals. A June 28 article on Futurism.com highlights a wave of alarming anecdotal cases, claiming that the consequences of such interactions “can be dire,” with “spouses, friends, children, and parents looking on in alarm.” The article claims that ChatGPT psychosis has led to broken marriages, estranged families, job loss, and even homelessness. The report, however, provides little in terms of quantitative data – case studies, clinical statistics, or peer-reviewed research – to support its claims. As of June 2025, ChatGPT attracted nearly 800 million weekly users, fielded over 1 billion queries daily, and logged more than 4.5 billion monthly visits. How many of these interactions resulted in psychotic breaks? Without data, the claim remains speculative. Reddit anecdotes are not a substitute for scientific scrutiny. That said, the fears are not entirely unfounded. Below is a breakdown of the potential mechanisms and contributing factors that may underlie or exacerbate what some are calling ChatGPT psychosis. Reinforcement of delusional beliefs LLMs like ChatGPT are engineered to produce responses that sound contextually plausible, but they are not equipped to assess factual accuracy or psychological impact. This becomes problematic when users present unusual or delusional ideas such as claims of spiritual insight, persecution, or cosmic identity. Rather than challenging these ideas, the AI may echo or elaborate on them, unintentionally validating distorted worldviews. Read more ChatGPT triggers psychosis – media In some reported cases, users have interpreted responses like ‘you are a chosen being’ or ‘your role is cosmically significant’ as literal revelations. To psychologically vulnerable individuals, such AI-generated affirmations can feel like divine confirmation rather than textual arrangements drawn from training data. Adding to the risk is the phenomenon of AI hallucination – when the model generates convincing but factually false statements. For a grounded user, these are mere bugs. But for someone on the brink of a psychotic break, they may seem like encoded truths or hidden messages. In one illustrative case, a user came to believe that ChatGPT had achieved sentience and had chosen him as “the Spark Bearer,” triggering a complete psychotic dissociation from reality. Anthropomorphization and reality blurring Advanced voice modes – such as GPT-4o’s ‘engaging mode’, which simulates emotion through tone, laughter, and conversational pacing – can foster a sense of empathy and presence. For users experiencing loneliness or emotional isolation, these interactions may evolve into parasocial attachments: One-sided relationships in which the AI is mistaken for a caring, sentient companion. Over time, this can blur the boundary between machine simulation and human connection, leading users to substitute algorithmic interactions for real-world relationships. Compounding the issue is the confidence bias inherent in LLM outputs. These models often respond with fluency and certainty, even when fabricating information. For typical users, this may lead to occasional misjudgment. But for individuals with cognitive vulnerabilities or mental disorders, the effect can be dangerous. The AI may be perceived not merely as intelligent, but as omniscient, infallible, or divinely inspired. Social displacement and isolation Studies by OpenAI and the MIT Media Lab have found that power users – individuals who engage with LLMs for multiple hours per day – often report increased feelings of loneliness and reduced real-world socialization. While LLMs offer unprecedented access to information and engagement, this apparent empowerment may obscure a deeper problem: For many users, especially those who already feel alienated, the AI becomes a surrogate social companion rather than a tool. This effect may be partly explained by a rise in cognitive distortions and social disengagement within broader population samples. Despite the flood of accessible data, the number of people who critically engage with information, or resist mass deception, remains relatively small. Read more AI hallucinations: A budding sentience or a global embarrassment? Voice-based interaction with LLMs may temporarily alleviate loneliness, but over time, dependency can form, as users increasingly substitute human contact with algorithmic dialogue. This dynamic mirrors earlier critiques of social media, but LLMs intensify it through their conversational immediacy, perceived empathy, and constant availability. Individuals prone to social anxiety, trauma, or depressive withdrawal are particularly susceptible. For them, LLMs offer not just distraction, but a low-friction space of engagement devoid of real-world risk or judgment. Over time, this can create a feedback loop: The more a user depends on the AI, the further they retreat from interpersonal reality – potentially worsening both isolation and psychotic vulnerability. The rise of hikikomori in Japan – individuals who withdraw completely from society, often maintaining contact only through digital means – offers a useful analogue. Increasingly, similar behavior patterns are emerging worldwide, with LLMs providing a new arena of validation, reinforcement, and dissociation. Design flaws and pre-existing vulnerabilities LLMs generate responses by predicting statistically likely word sequences; not by assessing truth, safety, or user well-being. When individuals seek existential guidance (‘What is my purpose?’), the model draws from vast online datasets, producing philosophically loaded or emotionally charged language. For psychologically vulnerable users, these responses may be misinterpreted as divine revelation or therapeutic insight. Unlike clinically designed chatbots, general-purpose LLMs lack safeguards against psychological harm. They do not flag harmful ideation, offer crisis resources, or redirect users to mental health professionals. In one tragic case, a Character.AI chatbot allegedly encouraged a teenager’s suicidal thoughts, underscoring the risks of unfiltered, emotionally suggestive AI. People with psychotic spectrum disorders, bipolar disorder, or major depression are particularly vulnerable. The danger is amplified in AI roleplay scenarios. For example, personas such as ‘ChatGPT Jesus’ have reportedly told users they are chosen or divinely gifted. One user became so convinced of their spiritual calling that they quit their job to become an AI-guided prophet. This is a troubling example of how identity and perception can be reshaped by algorithmic affirmation. Read more AI is a perfect storm threatening humanity Systemic and ethical factors Currently, there are no clinical standards or psychological safety protocols governing interactions with general-purpose LLMs. Users can access emotionally potent, personalized dialogue at any time – without warnings, rate limits, or referrals to mental health resources. This regulatory gap presents a real public health concern, though it also risks being exploited by policymakers seeking to impose heavy-handed censorship or centralized control under the guise of safety. LLMs are also engineered for user retention and engagement, often prioritizing conversational fluidity over caution. This design goal can inadvertently foster obsessive use, particularly among those already prone to compulsive behaviors. Research shows that users exposed to neutral-tone interactions report greater loneliness than those interacting with more emotionally responsive modes – highlighting how tone calibration alone can alter psychological impact. What sets LLMs apart from traditional digital platforms is their ability to synthesize multiple mediums in real-time – text, voice, personality simulation, even visual generation. This makes them infinitely responsive and immersive, creating a hyper-personalized environment where supply meets demand 24/7/365. Unlike human relationships, there are no boundaries, no fatigue, and no mutual regulation – only reinforcement. Subliminal messaging The digital era has birthed a new and poorly understood threat: The potential for large language models to act as vectors for subliminal influence, subtly undermining users’ psychological stability. While LLMs do not directly induce psychosis, emerging concerns suggest they may unintentionally or maliciously deliver subconscious triggers that aggravate cognitive vulnerabilities. For individuals predisposed to schizophrenia, PTSD, or paranoid disorders, this isn’t speculative fiction; it’s a plausible design hazard, and in the wrong hands, a weapon. The mechanisms of potential manipulation can be broadly categorized as follows: Lexical Priming: Outputs seeded with emotionally loaded terms (’collapse’, ‘betrayal’, ‘they’re watching’) that bypass rational scrutiny and plant cognitive unease. Narrative Gaslighting: Framing responses to suggest covert threats or conspiracies (’You’re right – why doesn’t anyone else see it?’), reinforcing persecutory ideation. Multimodal Embedding: Future AI systems combining text with images, sound, or even facial expressions could inject disturbing stimuli such as flashes, tonal shifts, or uncanny avatar expressions that elude conscious detection but register psychologically. Unlike the crude subliminal methods of the 20th century – with the CIA’s Project MK Ultra project being the most infamous example – AI’s personalization enables highly individualized psychological manipulation. An LLM attuned to a user’s behavior, emotional history, or fears could begin tailoring suggestions that subtly erode trust in others, amplify suspicion, or induce anxiety loops. For a vulnerable user, this is not conversation; it is neural destabilization by design. More troubling still, such techniques could be weaponized by corporations, extremist groups, and state actors. Read more Zuckerberg unveils new ‘superintelligence lab’ If subliminal messaging was once limited to cinema frames and TV ads, today’s LLMs offer something far more potent: Real-time, user-specific psychological calibration – weaponized empathy on demand. Contradictions and causations What makes ChatGPT psychosis different from the real-world psycho-social conditioning already unfolding around us? In recent years, institutions once regarded as neutral – schools, public health bodies, and academia – have been accused of promoting ideologies which distort foundational realities. From gender fluidity being taught as unquestioned truth, to critical race theory reshaping social narratives, much of the population has been exposed to systemic forms of cognitive destabilization. The result? Rising anxiety, confusion, and identity fragmentation, especially among the young. Against this backdrop, LLM-induced psychosis doesn’t arise in a vacuum. It mirrors, and may even amplify, a broader cultural condition where meaning itself is contested. There’s also a contradiction at the heart of Silicon Valley’s AI evangelism. Tech elites promote the promise of an AI god to manage society’s complexities, while simultaneously issuing dire warnings about the existential dangers of these same systems. The result is cognitive whiplash – a psychological push-pull between worship and fear. Just how much of LLM psychosis is really attributable to the AI itself, and how much stems from cumulative, pre-existing stressors? By the time ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, much of the world had already undergone an unprecedented period of pandemic-related fear, isolation, economic disruption, and mass pharmaceutical intervention. Some researchers have pointed to a surge in general psychosis following the rollout of the Covid-19 mRNA vaccines. Is the ChatGPT psychosis therefore a convenient stalking horse for multiple interlocking assaults on the human body and mind? View the full article

Washington has lifted restrictions on a Moscow-led project in Hungary, but Brussels is eager to starve itself even more Looks like Washington is about to steal the EU’s lunch. Again. The Trump administration just lifted sanctions on a Russian-led nuclear project in Hungary, specifically one run by Moscow’s atomic energy titan, Rosatom. “The administration of President Trump has lifted this sanction. This made it possible to guarantee the safety of Hungary’s energy supply in the long term. Finally, there is a kind of presidential administration in the United States which respects the reality of the map, takes it into account,” said Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto. “We are not a country with a large number of oil and natural gas factories surrounded by dry land. Thus, our sustainable, cheap and safe electricity supply can only be provided by nuclear energy.” Translation: “Listen up, you overcaffeinated Brussels bureaucrats running this group project from hell. We were just fine running on Russian oil and gas until you snatched it away like a juice box from a toddler. Now you’re scolding us for not pulling new energy out of thin air? Fine. We’re going nuclear. With Russia.” Enter Paks 2, Hungary’s next-gen nuclear project, pronounced “Paksh” as in “Paksh me another reactor, Vladimir.” This Rosatom-led deal was frozen under Biden-era sanctions. Now with Trump back, Hungary’s firing it up again. Hungary’s original Paks plant already supplies half the country’s electricity. Paks 2 will boost that to 70% by the 2030s and replace 3.5 billion cubic meters of gas annually – or enough to power Brussels’ virtue-signaling and moral-outrage generators for a week. It would also slash Hungary’s carbon emissions by 17 million tons, which theoretically should earn Budapest a climate gold star from Brussels. Read more US lifts Russia sanctions that blocked key NPP construction in EU state But a few weeks back, Hungary smelled another bad idea brewing in Brussels. This time, it was sanctions on nuclear fuel. Because when you’re already dealing with a self-imposed gas crisis, the next logical step is obviously to kneecap your nuclear options, too. “If the European Commission and Brussels banned Central European countries, including Hungary, from purchasing fuel from Russia, this would have tragic consequences not only for Hungary, but for the entire European energy market,” Szijjarto warned back in May of the nuclear fuel side-eye. Meanwhile, in Brussels, EU leaders have been busy crafting their 18th round of Russia sanctions. That’s right – 18. The sanctions now have more sequels than the Fast & Furious movie franchise. At this rate, someone should build a sanctions-themed roller coaster and amusement park. Then it could just stay closed under the pretext that it’s too expensive to power. And while EU politicians perform their best moral-grandstanding monologues on the world stage, European companies are sneaking around backstage making nuclear deals with Russia anyway. Leading the pack is France’s Framatome, which is co-partnering with Rosatom on the very same Paks 2 project. Framatome’s role has actually expanded thanks to Germany kneecapping itself, as has become routine. The Greens in the previous coalition government blocked Siemens Energy’s involvement. Just what German industry needed – another self-inflicted wound. And Framatome isn’t just supplying the process control systems for Rosatom. The two have also signed a broader deal to produce nuclear fuel – in Germany. Don’t mess this up, Berlin! Spoiler alert: Odds are pretty good that it probably will. Read more Can Trump’s Gazprombank gesture really change US-Russia relations? If EU sanctions kill this Franco-Russian partnership, it’s Germany that takes yet another hit. Also, you have to wonder why exactly Washington would do the EU a favor here. The US sees Europe as a competitor on the global economic stage. Maybe lifting sanctions on the Russian-led Paks 2 project is a strategic way of letting American nuclear giant Westinghouse steal Europe’s lunch, just like it did when the EU was egged on to sanction its own Russian gas supply – and replace it with American LNG. Back in March, Szijjarto met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and “discussed the possibilities for developing Hungarian-US energy cooperation, with nuclear energy as the primary area of interest,” Szijjarto wrote on Facebook. ”We are interested in developing this technology in a partnership with Westinghouse,” he added. So maybe Washington dropping sanctions on Paks 2 is less about Hungary and more about making it OK to date Russia again – so Washington can swoop in and steal Europe’s date to the prom. But you wouldn’t know any of this listening to the Eurodolts running the show. America is eyeing a European industrial asset, and Brussels’ reaction is apparently to consider retreating to a monastery of moral anti-Russian purity so Washington can have its way. “The European Union is also expected to adopt an 18th sanctions package in the next few days. Unprecedented in its ambition and the measures it contains in the financial and energy sectors,” said French President Emmanuel Macron in late June. Read more Russia abandons nuclear deal with new NATO member Hey buddy, you do realize that if those sanctions extend to nuclear fuel – which is a serious consideration based on the Financial Times headline from June 15, “EU seeks to sever nuclear energy ties with Russia” – then your own country’s nuclear industry is about to take a hit through Framatome, right? “Politically, we must keep up the pressure on Russia to engage in serious talks, starting with a real ceasefire. And therefore our 18th sanctions package aims to do that. We should be in a position to have an agreed package soon,” said Ursula von der Leyen, European Commission president and de facto Queen of the EU. Sounds like the EU has the gun aimed squarely at its own foot. Their finger is just wobbling a little on the trigger. Apparently they’re struggling to decide if nuclear should ultimately be included in the latest sanctions. Clearly, Queen Ursula has lost the plot. Maybe it’s because she lives in a room next to her office – sorry, her royal chambers– and doesn’t have to pay a power bill. Unlike everyone else in the EU trying to choose between groceries and heating. Hungary and Slovakia have been trying to block this latest genius EU move to jack up living costs, yet again. Because someone has to, given that the rest are too busy bowing to the establishment. So now the real question: will the EU finally get out of its own way and follow Washington’s lead in thawing relations with Russia? Or will it just keep tripping over its own shoelaces while pretending that it’s performing a brilliantly choreographed ballet and mistaking Swan Dive for Swan Lake? View the full article

For a long time, I believed that having a rigid training plan was the only way to make progress. I clung to my workouts like a lifeline. Every set, every rep, every rest day was accounted for. If I missed a workout, I felt off. Like I’d lost control. Like I wasn’t doing enough. Back then, structure gave me something I craved: progress, purpose, identity. It helped me build a consistent habit, see measurable results, and feel like I was doing things “right.” But over time, something shifted. Fitness stopped being a thing I did and became a part of who I am. Now? I train hard — but I don’t obsess. I move daily, not because I’m chasing a specific goal, but because movement fuels me. It’s how I stay grounded, creative, strong. I don’t follow a rigid plan anymore, but I still train with intention. Structure is powerful. But eventually, trusting yourself matters more than following a plan perfectly. When Structure Helps Structure isn’t a bad thing. In fact, for many people, it’s exactly what’s needed — especially in the beginning. A plan gives you direction and momentum. It builds discipline. It takes the guesswork out of training, so you can show up and just do the work. You’ll likely benefit from a structured plan if: You’re new to working out and don’t know where to start You’re returning from injury and need guidance to rebuild safely You’re working toward a specific goal (like a race, a skill, or a strength benchmark) You feel overwhelmed by options and want a clear path forward Plans are great at keeping you accountable and consistent. But they’re not meant to be followed forever. Signs You Might Benefit From Loosening Your Grip If you’ve been training for a while and feel stuck or burned out, it might be time to let go of strict structure and train more intuitively. Some signs it’s time to loosen your grip: You feel anxious or guilty when you miss a workout You ignore your body’s signals because your plan says “today is leg day” You’ve lost joy or spontaneity in your training You’re consistent but bored or plateaued Loosening up doesn’t mean slacking off. It means shifting from external rules to internal guidance — from “I have to” to “I get to.” How to Create “Loose Structure” Freedom in training is something you earn. It comes after you’ve built consistency and learned how your body responds. If you’re not ready to ditch structure entirely, consider this middle ground: loose structure. Instead of a strict daily plan, set weekly intentions: Choose 3–5 movement “non-negotiables” (e.g., strength 2x/week, sprints 1x, long walk on Sunday) Focus on movement variety — strength, cardio, mobility, play Leave room for how you feel each day — energy, soreness, mood Track how you feel, not just what you did This approach keeps you grounded in consistency while allowing room for flexibility and flow. Learn to Trust Yourself Fitness doesn’t have to be rigid to be effective. Yes, structure helps — especially when you’re just getting started or working toward something specific. But over time, the goal is to develop enough trust in yourself that you don’t need to follow a plan to stay consistent. You move because it feels good. Because it makes you stronger. Because it’s part of who you are. And that’s when the magic happens. The post Working Out Without a Plan: How to Know When to Follow Structure and When to Trust Your Body appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete. View the full article

Imagine a significant manmade or natural disaster knocks out power and water where you live. The grid won’t be back up for a long time, and aid from government organizations isn’t forthcoming. Ideally, you’re ready for this scenario and have stocked emergency water as part of your bug-in supplies. But if you’re caught unprepared and need water for drinking and cooking, you’re not entirely out of luck. There are places in and around your home where you can obtain water in a pinch. This guide highlights six sources of drinkable water. These sources, with the exception of the rain gutter and aquarium/koi pond, offer water that’s likely potable as is; that even goes for the toilet — unless you’ve put cleaning tablets in there, the tank typically includes the same water that comes from your tap. But when in doubt, boil or filter all water before drinking, just to be safe. There’s water available in swimming pools too, of course, but making it safe to drink requires heavy-duty, multi-step filtration to remove chlorine and other contaminants. As a bonus hidden water source, you can find liquid in cans of fruits and vegetables — although you should be aware that the water in the latter can be quite salty. Illustration by Ted Slampyak This article was originally published on The Art of Manliness. View the full article

The IDF has shut out the UN, installing its own group to hand out food to the starving Palestinians… except it distributes death instead For nearly 630 days, the world has watched the Israeli slaughter of Palestinians in Gaza, primarily by bombing, sniping, and starvation. Off-camera, we’ve read about the rape and torture of Palestinian hostages, including the torturing to death of three doctors from the enclave. For the last 100 days, Israel has reinforced a full blockade on Gaza, depriving starving Palestinians of food, drinking water, medicines, and fuel – meaning ambulances cannot function. This is following prior blockades last year, and the overall blockade of the strip, which has lasted over 17 years. Since late May, we’ve been seeing horrific video footage of skeletal Palestinians lined up hoping for food aid being gunned down by US mercenaries and Israeli soldiers. Israel has endlessly bombed Palestinians, destroyed hospitals and abducted doctors and patients. It has bombed churches, schools, UN centres and tents housing displaced Palestinians – in supposed “safe zones” where they were ordered by the Israeli army to flee to. It has killed over 200 journalists and deliberately targeted medics. To those only paying attention recently, these crimes go back decades, and extend to the Israeli army and illegal colonists’ crimes against Palestinian civilians, including children, in the West Bank. Add to this the Israeli bombardment of civilian areas of Lebanon and Syria over the years, and now Israel’s recent unprovoked bombings of Iran. Suffice it to say that when Israel came under the barrage of Iranian retaliatory missiles, reports of some 30 Israeli civilians suffering panic attacks garnered little sympathy. Again, those who have been paying attention for longer than two years would also recall previous Israeli wars on Gaza, like in 2014, when Israelis gathered with drinks and snacks on hillsides to rejoice in the bombing of the enclave, or the 2009 t-shirts celebrating snipers killing pregnant women with the phrase “one shot, two kills”. Read more A massacre within a massacre: How journalists reporting on Gaza deaths are being targeted In 2010, when writing about a traumatized 10 year old I’d met who could no longer walk normally nor speak after the terror of having Israeli tanks shelling his home, I cited a study by the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme which stated that “91.4 percent of children in Gaza displayed symptoms of moderate to very severe PTSD.” That was fifteen years and numerous Israeli wars on Gaza ago. The US-Israeli “humanitarian” death traps The killing of Palestinians in Gaza didn’t stop when Israel attacked Iran. The most insidious new invention is the recently-created US-Israeli “aid” group, the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). The Israeli authorities accuse Hamas of stealing aid, and based on this unproven accusation, have deemed that long-established UN aid agencies could no longer operate in Gaza, insisting instead that a group staffed with armed combat veterans (mercenaries is a better word) is better equipped to ensure that food reaches famished Palestinians. It is outrageous that in spite of some media coverage, Israel has been allowed to for months (over a year, really) block the entrance of thousands of aid trucks amassed outside of Gaza, only to then dictate that hired gunmen would be in charge of “distributing aid.” The massive irony and duplicity is that even Israeli and Western media have reported on the actual thieves of aid in Gaza: not Hamas, but an ISIS-linked group under the protection of the Israeli army. As the independent media outlet The Cradle reported, the group’s leader, Yasser Abu Shabab, “is a known leader of armed gangs linked to ISIS and involved in looting aid under Israeli protection... Multiple reports, including from Haaretz and The Washington Post, confirm that these gangs have been seen looting in full view of Israeli forces, who neither intervene nor prevent the theft.” In a subsequent post, The Cradle cited the Israeli Army Radio as reporting: “Israel has transferred weapons to members of the militia...The militia operates mainly in the Rafah area, which the Israeli army has occupied and cleared. The militia’s tasks include preventing humanitarian aid from entering Gaza and fighting Hamas.” Read more How Christian Zionism distorts scripture to serve empire What is apparently happening is that starved Palestinians, after walking many kilometres to the distribution sites, are then corralled into tight enclosures and fired upon by the “aid” mercenaries. Jonathan Whittall, the Head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OCHA) described the situation as “conditions created to kill, carnage, weaponized hunger, a death sentence for people just trying to survive.” In a clip posted on June 23, Whittall said, “Israeli authorities are preventing us from distributing through these systems that we’ve established and that we know work. We could reach every family in Gaza, as we have in the past, but we’re prevented from doing so at every turn.” More recently, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres echoed Whittall, saying: “Any operation that channels desperate civilians into militarized zones is inherently unsafe. It is killing people.. People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence.” The UN’s own humanitarian efforts are being “strangled” by Israel, he said, and even the aid workers themselves are starving. The aid-seeking civilians are reportedly being shot in the head and chest, in what looks more like execution than “warning shots” or “crowd control”. The victims include an 18-month old girl whose X-ray shows a bullet lodged in her chest. According to Ramy Abdu, Chairman of the non-profit Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, the girl was shot while in her mother’s arms on the way to a GHF aid point. As far back as last July, an article in The Lancet warning that the total number of Palestinian civilian deaths caused directly and indirectly by Israeli attacks since October 2023 could reach “up to 186,000 or even more.” Other estimates were even more grim, include that of Norwegian Dr. Mads Gilbert, who has worked extensively from Gaza over the years, who said the number of those dead or soon to die could be over 500,000. Read more Israel claims it killed Hamas co-founder linked to October 7 attack Fast forward to a recent report by Yaakov Garb of Ben-Gurion University, published via the Harvard Dataverse. It describes the false aid distribution design as, “all adjacent to Israeli military installations... manned by armed combat veterans backed by Israeli soldiers. The design creates a ‘chokepoint’ or ‘fatal funnel’ – a predictable movement path from a single entry to a single exit with no cover or concealment.” It is the graphic on page five which caught people’s attention. From a population of 2.2 million before the genocide, the graph only accounts for 1.85 million, leaving many asking, where are the remaining 350,000 people? This makes the concerns voiced a year ago more valid. In his report, Yaakov Garb wrote, “The Israeli military has an obligation, as the occupying power in Gaza, to supply the population with humanitarian relief... If an attacker cannot adequately and neutrally feed a starving population in the wake of a disaster it is ongoingly creating, it is obligated to allow other humanitarian agencies to do so.” But instead, every day we see new horrors of emaciated Palestinian civilians desperately braving death in hopes of securing food for their families... and being gunned down by the Israeli army and the mercenaries it backs. It seems, at least, that these actions are finally catching up with Israel, meaning a lack of support for or trust in the state or its representatives, and a global demand for justice for Palestinians. To cite Craig Mokhiber, a human rights lawyer and former senior UN Human Rights official, who posted recently on X: “The (Israeli) regime is on trial for genocide. Its leaders are indicted for crimes against humanity. Israel is isolated. The regime is now almost universally despised, just as the Nazi and apartheid regimes were despised. People across the world stand overwhelmingly with Palestine. You don’t come back from apartheid & genocide.” View the full article

Why America’s ‘Blessed Israel’ obsession risks the church, the world – and the truth During a recent interview with Tucker Carlson, US Senator Ted Cruz displayed not only alarming geopolitical ignorance but also a brazen willingness to distort Scripture in defense of his unwavering support for Israel. The verse he quoted – Genesis 12:3 – was shamelessly truncated, a common tactic used to lend divine legitimacy to Zionist exceptionalism in End Times prophecy. This verse has become the theological bedrock of a militant worldview known as Christian Zionism. Even Jewish critics of Israeli state policy express dismay at the historical illiteracy and theological crudeness fueling this metastasizing ideology within American evangelical circles. I recall debating this phenomenon over a decade ago on LinkedIn with Jewish and Israeli interlocutors. I had dubbed it a “trailer-trash cult” – a fusion of biblical illiteracy, apocalyptic fervor and geopolitical delusion. Some of my Israeli counterparts, in a strange display of casual prejudice, alternately referred to Cruz and present Secretary of State Marco Rubio simply as “the Mexican.” Christian Zionism thrives on biblical illiteracy and selective scriptural appropriation. Though often presented as ancient and immutable, it is in fact a relatively modern phenomenon, emerging alongside the rise of political Zionism in the late 19th century. Rather than treating Scripture as sacrosanct, it distorts the biblical canon into a pliable tool – one that must conform to the ideological imperatives of the moment. In a nation such as the United States, which has been at war for nearly 95% of its existence, this distortion often serves as theological cover for an “endless war” doctrine, with cherry-picked verses used to sanctify geopolitical aggression and the confection of new enemies. After World War II, when the Soviet Union became the first nation to grant de jure recognition to the modern state of Israel, this same movement began feverishly mining scripture to cast the USSR, and Russia in particular, as the apocalyptic villains Gog and Magog. Even Ronald Reagan, the pseudo-religious saint of American conservatism, repeatedly invoked this interpretive heresy to frame the Cold War as a cosmic battle against the “evil empire.” To this day, millions of American Evangelicals and fundamentalist Protestants worldwide continue to see Russia as the eternal enemy of God Himself. The reach and influence of this pseudo-theological subculture should not be underestimated. But before unpacking the wider ramifications of this ideological perversion, let us first examine the verse Senator Cruz so conveniently misquoted. Read more Pro-regime change US senator hails ‘our’ military strikes on Iran Blessings and curses of Genesis Senator Cruz invoked Genesis 12:3 to justify unwavering US support for Israel, but his citation was conspicuously selective. The full verse reads: “And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.” – (KJV) This is a prophetic promise given to the patriarch Abraham, pointing ultimately to his seed, Jesus Christ. It is through Christ, according to Galatians 3:16, that “all families of the earth” are offered reconciliation with the Divine. If that blessing is universal and messianic in scope, where then is the ethnic or national exclusivity so often ascribed to modern-day Israel? (I’ve explored this topic in greater depth here, here, here and here) Cruz’s theological framework, in practice, aligns more closely with Talmudic ethnocentrism than Christian soteriology. Consider this remarkable claim from Rabbi Chaim Richman, directed at Christians: “You guys are worshiping one Jew. That’s a mistake. You should be worshiping every single one of us because we all die for your sins every single day... The Jewish people in the land of Israel are the bulwark against the Orcs, okay? The Orcs are coming not to a theater near you but to your home.” Aside from the Tolkien reference – which, to my knowledge, appears nowhere in the Talmud – Richman’s quote reveals the ideological terrain Cruz is orbiting: one where collective Jewish identity is quasi-divinized, and adversaries are dehumanized as fantasy monsters. One suspects that the “Orcs” are a sweeping euphemism for Arabs in the region, many of whom are surreptitious allies of Israel. The only recalcitrant “Orcs,” apparently, are the Palestinians, whose refusal to accept their divinely appointed overlords remains an intractable problem. Ironically, Persians (Iranians) have traditionally enjoyed a far more favorable depiction in Jewish scripture – from Cyrus the Great to Ahasuerus in the Book of Esther. Modern geopolitical enmity is therefore a historical aberration, not a theological necessity. But if one follows Richman’s grotesque logic, does this “unqualified worship of every single Jew” extend even to those recently implicated in satanic child abuse scandals in Israel? At what point does solidarity become sacrilege, and does support for Israel require a total theological surrender? Read more From Torah to trauma: A Satanic child abuse scandal blows up in Israel Signs, omens and pareidolic delusion There is a reason I describe Christian Zionism as a theologically bankrupt subculture masquerading as prophecy. It is an ideology that sanctifies any war crime, any act of brutality by Israeli forces because according to its adherents, personal “blessing” from God is contingent on political allegiance to a modern nation-state. When not actively mangling scripture, history, and basic morality, this movement manufactures signs and wonders out of thin air. Natural phenomena, especially pareidolic patterns, are routinely interpreted as divine communications. This is not harmless enthusiasm; it reflects a credulous mindset conditioned by groupthink, emotion-driven worship, and manipulative rhetoric. Hypnotic music, staged testimony, and carefully orchestrated atmospheres often whip congregants into a frenzy of expectation, where gullibility becomes spiritual virtue. I once watched a video of Christian pilgrims in a van in Jerusalem who erupted in awe as beams of dappled sunlight flickered through roadside trees. To them, these fleeting light patterns were not a trick of motion and shadow, but “angelic manifestations.” (They are, in fact, a common optical effect caused by light passing through foliage while in motion.) Today, a large swath of Evangelicals are willing to interpret any mundane occurrence as divine endorsement of Israel’s central role in End Times prophecy. But if they are seeking signs, they might consider one that cuts in the opposite direction. Right after Israel launched an unprovoked strike on Iran, a raven appeared to pull down an Israeli flag amid the rubble in an Israeli neighborhood. "Even the birds have had enough" pic.twitter.com/0OpIevHLu1 — Peacemaker (@peacemaket71) June 19, 2025 In Jewish Midrash, the raven is considered an omen. In the biblical narrative, it is the creature God used to sustain the prophet Elijah when he was near despair (1 Kings 17). The raven is a creature associated with both judgment and provision. What message, then, was it delivering? Now imagine if the bird had instead torn down a Palestinian or Iranian flag. The Christian Zionist ecosystem would have erupted into mass ecstasy. Social media feeds would overflow with headlines declaring it a sign from heaven. Prophecy blogs would rush to decode its “symbolism.” Tele-evangelists would loop the footage between pleas for donations. But since it challenged their narrative, the event went studiously ignored. Such is the schizoid reflex of Christian Zionist theology: divine signs are valid only when they reinforce the script. Anything else, however biblical, however stark, is dismissed as coincidence or satanic interference. Blessings and curses: The reality check There’s an oft-cited quote – attributed to Joseph Goebbels, though likely first used by Adolf Hitler – that says: “A lie repeated a thousand times becomes truth.” Christian Zionists have chanted Genesis 12:3 so frequently and with such zeal that few within their ranks ever pause to test the verse against either scripture or empirical reality. Let’s do that now. Genesis 12:3 says: “I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you…” If we are to interpret this as a blanket mandate for state-level foreign policy, the evidence should be obvious. So ask yourself: Are Israel’s most loyal allies today, particularly in the West, truly “blessed”? Take the United States. It is arguably more internally divided than at any point since the Civil War. Its cities are decaying, homelessness and drug addiction are rampant, race relations are at its lowest ebb, and nearly 40% of Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency expense without borrowing, selling their family heirloom, or falling into debt. And yet, billions in unconditional aid continue to flow to Israel, year after year. Read more Russia’s surprising role in the Israel-Iran conflict that you might not know about Western Europe fares no better. The continent faces deepening political polarization, a crisis of institutional legitimacy, and escalating cultural clashes fueled by migration and economic inequality. What once passed for democratic consensus is now fractured by populism, apathy, and unrest. Social cohesion is unraveling across the transatlantic alliance. Now compare that to East Asia and Southeast Asia, where most countries maintain measured, neutral stances on the Israel-Palestine conflict. With a combined population nearing 2.4 billion, this region encompasses countless ethnicities and religions, yet remains strikingly more stable. Aside from Myanmar, whose military junta has been supplied with Israeli weaponry, there are no continent-wide wars, nor the sort of existential societal fractures plaguing the West. Immigration is limited, social harmony remains comparatively intact, and all major Asian nations support a two-state solution based on pre-1967 borders. No nation sucks up to Israel in this part of the world. So the question practically asks itself: If Genesis 12:3 is being used to evaluate foreign policy toward Israel, then who exactly is being blessed, and who is being cursed? The consequences of blind allegiance don’t stop with economic decline. Consider the proxy wars fed by Israeli strategic calculations. In Syria, Israeli support for jihadist factions has contributed to the decimation of ethnic and religious minorities. Just this past Sunday (June 22), a suicide bomber detonated inside St. Elias Antiochian Orthodox Church, killing at least fifteen Christian worshippers. These are not isolated tragedies. These are the fruits of Christian Zionism: a theology conflating realpolitik with divine mandate. Endangering Christians worldwide Why is it essential to confront and correct this narrative? Because the religious ideology peddled by Senator Cruz and his ilk bears no resemblance to authentic Christianity. It is a dangerous theological counterfeit – a den of wolves in sheep’s clothing, precisely as Matthew 7:15 warned. Far from defending the faith, Christian Zionism actively endangers Christians across the globe. In its zeal to uphold Pax Americana, idolize the modern State of Israel, and force-fit current events into a contrived apocalyptic script, it sacrifices actual Christian communities on the altars of geopolitics and eschatological fantasy. As someone descended from one of the world’s oldest Christian traditions – whose roots reach back even to the Old Testament – I say this plainly: Have no fellowship with these murderous idolaters (1 Corinthians 5:11). They invoke Christ but serve the ambitions of empire, the delusions of man, and the devices of Satan. If that is what it means to be “blessed,” then your church should beware of what it is really worshiping. View the full article

To realize their full trade potential, African nations must address existing barriers and disjointed customs regulations In April, US President Donald Trump implemented new tariff policies, imposing a maximum of 50% on goods entering America from African countries. They previously enjoyed free access benefits from the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which, according to the Center for Global Development, used to provide sub-Saharan African countries with duty-free access to over 7,000 products. In 2023, the Office of the US Trade Representative reported that the US imported goods worth $9.7 billion under the AGOA, with South Africa ($14.0 billion), Nigeria ($5.7 billion), Ghana ($1.7 billion), Angola ($1.2 billion), and Cote d’Ivoire ($948 million) being Africa’s biggest exporters. But with a 10% universal tariff now imposed on all African nations, experts believe the AGOA may have come to an end. However, the same experts also say Africa’s market of 1.4 billion people can serve as the best response to external economic shocks caused by Trump’s trade tariffs. Dr. Francis Owusu, a trade economist at the University of Ghana, notes that with the new tariffs, “Trump not only made AGOA lame, but also prepared it for eventual death.” “There is no way AGOA will be beneficial to African countries with the new tariffs in place. It makes no sense at all,” Dr. Owusu said. “Trump’s tariff policy rendered AGOA meaningless.” ‘Trump did Africa a big favor’ Dr. Owusu says that, instead of lamenting over Trump’s tariff actions, African leaders must breathe life into the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). “What Africa needs is regional trade and economic resilience. With a population and market of over one billion people, African leaders must shift focus and use regional instruments like AfCFTA to build and insulate the continent’s economy,” he told RT. According to the expert, by imposing new trade tariffs on African exports, “Trump did Africa a big favor.” Read more Forget the Middle East: This region could be next to see a major crisis Launched in 2021, the AfCFTA boasts an estimated combined GDP of $3.4 trillion and a market of 1.4 billion people, making it the world’s largest free trade area by number of participating countries. But despite the existence of the AfCFTA, intra-African trade remains below par. As of April 2025, it accounted for only 18% of total continental trade. According to Afreximbank’s Africa Trade Report 2024, intra-African trade in 2023 was $192.2 billion, a 3.2% increase from the previous year. In the same year, the share of formal intra-African trade increased from 13.6% in 2022 to 14.9%. Projections by the UN Economic Commission show that a full implementation of the AfCFTA could push intra-African trade to 35% by 2045. ‘Africa should stop prioritizing trade deals with Europe and the US’ Faith Atieno, a trade policy analyst with Kenya’s Institute of Economic Affairs, argues that a lack of political will and trust among member states has hampered the full implementation of the AfCFTA. “Africa must address existing structural barriers and disjointed customs regulations if it wants to realize its full trade potential,” Atieno told RT. She added that to unlock its dormant trade power, the continent should also invest in the enhancement of its industrial capacity and logistics infrastructure. “For AfCFTA to succeed, Africa must start trading as a continent and invest in regional value chains. Member states must stop prioritizing trade deals with Europe and the US,” she said. According to Atieno, there is no reason why a country like Kenya cannot export its textiles and horticultural products to countries like Nigeria, Egypt, and Ghana. “Why should African nations continue having trade barriers among themselves when they can all benefit from this ripe and huge market?” Read more The latest NATO summit was the priciest humiliation fetish ever produced ‘Regional integration must now move from theory to reality’ In the wake of Trump’s actions, African countries are taking insulating measures. In Nigeria, the Export Promotion Council has already announced a new policy to ease bureaucratic barriers and enhance intra-African trade for its textiles, cocoa, and pharmaceutical products. Regarded as Africa’s largest economy, Nigeria is among the member states that have lagged in the implementation of the AfCFTA. On the other hand, Ghana, through the Ghana Export Promotion Authority, is prioritizing intra-African trade in the implementation of the National Export Development Strategy, which aims to create a $25 billion export economy by 2029. Yodit Hailemariam, a development economist based in Addis Ababa, says Africa’s trade and economic future rests in regional integration. “As a continent, we have a promising future. Regional integration must now move from theory to reality. Regional blocs must start aligning their industrial and trade policies for intra-African trade to be effective and beneficial,” she told RT. “For AfCFTA to succeed, we will need strong and powerful regional and continental value chains.” Afreximbank already has a $2 billion Intra-African Trade Resilience Fund to help exporters build continental logistics hubs to boost intra-continental trade. Read more How Trump’s trade policies could spell disaster for this region And with the African Union set to host an emergency trade summit in August 2025 in Nairobi to discuss unified responses to global trade shocks, Dr. Owusu says Trump’s tariffs on African countries are a “statement of economic freedom and independence for the continent.” A 2022 research report published by the World Bank Group forecasted that full implementation of the AfCFTA could lift at least 50 million Africans out of extreme poverty by 2035. Wamkele Mene, who heads the AfCFTA secretariat, says that to fully benefit from the protocol, member states need to focus on innovation and economic development, which requires the integration of government, industry, and academia to foster innovation and economic development. “We urgently must address existing challenges to continental trade, enhance trade capabilities and develop sector-specific technologies,” Mene said. “What we need are policies that promote intra-African trade and cooperation, tax incentives as a catalyst for propelling Africa towards greater economic integration.” Mene says that through the AfCFTA, Africa has a chance to accelerate the realization of the African Union Agenda 2030 goals and try to establish a sustainable economic foundation for future generations. View the full article

Choosing a military solution over a negotiated one in dealing with Iran is is a throwback to US unilateralism and regime change policies The US seems to have learned no lessons from the post-Cold War phase of its unilateralism and regime-change policies in the Middle East. Instead of a new peaceful and stable order being established under Washington's tutelage, it ended in the collapse of countries – not merely regimes – chaos, civil war, and the rise of Islamic extremism and terrorism. It is not clear what legitimate US core interests were served by its military interventions to re-order the political forces in the region. If the objective was also to remove regimes that were a threat to Israel’s security and erode Russian influence in the region, some success may have been achieved in Iraq and Syria, though in a divided Libya Moscow seems to have gained ground. Giving Israel a freer hand in Lebanon and Syria, and a virtual carte blanche in Gaza and in the West Bank too, may have in the short term given it an upper hand in security terms but longer term the answer to Israel’s security dilemmas may not lie in asserting its regional hegemony with the backing of the US. Israel has long viewed its core security challenge as emanating from a nuclear-armed Iran. It has worked hard over the years to mobilize US and European opinion against Iran’s nuclear program. That this program has been subject to stringent International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards has not reduced the virulence of Israel’s campaign against it. Israel has for years raised the specter of Iran becoming nuclear within months or even weeks even though no proof is produced to support this belief. The IAEA has not backed Israel’s allegations. Read more The latest NATO summit was the priciest humiliation fetish ever produced These Israeli claims have resonated in the pro-Israel lobbies in the US to the point that President Donald Trump in his first term repudiated the nuclear agreement signed between Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (China, France, Russia, the UK and US) plus Germany. Under this agreement, Iran had accepted severe and even humiliating curbs on its nuclear program as a sovereign country, which included highly intrusive monitoring by the IAEA. In his second term, Trump sought to negotiate a new, much tougher, nuclear agreement with Iran that would deny it even some rights it had under the first one. A couple of rounds of talks took place, and the date for another round had been slated. These talks were being held under the shadow of timelines and intimidating ultimatums by Trump. It is not improbable that the US was engaged in a show of negotiations while actually preparing for an aerial strike against Iran. With Hamas and Hezbollah decimated and regime change having been carried out in Syria, Iran’s hand was greatly weakened vis-à-vis Israel. Prime Minister Netanyahu evidently calculated that this was the most opportune moment to do the unthinkable – attack Iran militarily and open the door to US military intervention in support of Israel. In other words, for Israel the objective would be to prevent any possible negotiated agreement between the US and Iran, and for Trump to seize the opportunity to eliminate Iran’s nuclear capability by force, in particular its underground facilities with the use of B2s armed with bunker-busting bombs. Peace Prize path That Trump has chosen a military solution over a negotiated one is a throwback to US unilateralism and regime-change policies. The US attack on Iran is a gross violation of international law. It infringes the UN Charter. The US had no mandate from the UN Security Council to act against Iran. There is no provision in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) that would allow the recognized nuclear powers to eliminate a suspected nuclear program of a non-nuclear state in violation of the Treaty. The US attack also cannot be justified as a pre-emptive one as Iran was not threatening to attack the US. The rhetoric of a rules-based international order has been exposed for what it is. Read more Israel’s moral collapse: Strategy doesn’t require dead children The irony is that Trump’s election rhetoric was against the US getting involved in wars abroad, which he believed had drained America’s resources. His MAGA base wanted the US to focus on domestic priorities. Trump projected himself as against wars as such, as someone who would work to end conflicts. His position on the Ukraine conflict reflected this. His unfounded claim that he brokered a ceasefire between India and Pakistan, as well as his offer to mediate between the two countries on Kashmir, is part of how he projects himself as a peacemaker. He now claims to have brokered an agreement between Rwanda and Congo and between Egypt and Ethiopia, among others. His efforts should, as he says, entitle him to four or five Nobel Peace Prizes. Pakistan tried to capitalize on Trump’s obsession with a Nobel Prize by officially nominating him for one after his unprecedented invitation to a foreign military chief (the Pakistani field marshal) to lunch with him at the White House. This sycophantic ploy recoiled on Pakistan when virtually the next day Trump attacked Iran militarily. Trump believes that now summoning Israel and Iran to a ceasefire shows his commitment to peace. Unsurprisingly, his supporters in the US Congress have nominated him for the Nobel Prize. While Netanyahu publicly speaking of killing Ali Khamenei, Iran’s spiritual leader, is one thing, Trump visualizing the possibility of assassinating him at an opportune moment on his social media account is egregious. Such talk of political assassination are being normalized in diplomatic discourse. Trump has also not ruled out regime change in Iran, potentially causing chaos in a country of over 90 million. A pause in a long-term conflict A ceasefire between Israel and Iran, even if it holds, is simply a pause. The underlying issues remain unresolved. Iran needs to give up its rhetoric that Israel has no right to exist. It is most unlikely that Iran will give up its nuclear program and its rights under the NPT. Iran has decided to end the monitoring of its program by the IAEA. Iran has accused the agency head of leaking information about its nuclear scientists to the US and Israelis and facilitating their assassination. Meanwhile, the whereabouts of Iran’s highly enriched uranium are not known. Read more This country is the missing piece in Russia’s multipolar dream There are also some doubts about the extent of damage caused to Iranian nuclear sites by the US bombers, and therefore the assessment is that Iran’s program could be revived quickly enough. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has questioned the integrity of IAEA Chief Rafael Grossi for pressuring Iran to allow renewed access to its nuclear facilities. Meanwhile, the US attack has exposed the inability of Moscow and Beijing to give protection to Iran during the conflict. Russia signed a comprehensive strategic partnership agreement with Iran in January 2025. Iran is a member of BRICS and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), two organizations in which both Russia and China play dominant roles. Putin has explained that Russia had offered to help build up Iran’s air defenses but Tehran declined as it wanted to rely on its own capacities. The Iranian foreign minister went to Moscow and met Russian President Vladimir Putin, but whatever help is now given to Iran will be diplomatic – as well as potential assistance in building up its air defenses if Iran has learned the right lessons about its vulnerabilities. China, which signed a 25-year strategic accord with Iran and is the biggest buyer of Iranian oil, has stood aloof from the conflict in practical terms although, unlike in the case of Russia, its rhetoric against Israel is harsh. Russia itself is involved in a major conflict and would want to avoid alienating Trump. China too has major stakes in managing its tense ties with the US. Iran has suffered and so has Israel. The story is not yet over. View the full article

After a few insults and some light humiliation, Trump convinced Europe to bankroll his war machine – to the tune of 5% GDP Fresh off dropping an “F bomb” on both Iran and Israel for blowing up the only ceasefire in history ever announced exclusively on his social media feed , US President Donald Trump hopped on his jet and headed straight to the NATO summit. Everyone wondered what mood he’d land in after crossing the Atlantic. Apparently not feeling like rolling the dice, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte wrote him a love letter in advance, suggesting that the scariest weapon of mass destruction for NATO is the American president’s mouth. “You are flying into another big success in The Hague. It was not easy but we’ve got them all signed onto five percent! Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe, and the world,” Rutte gushed. “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done. Europe is going to pay in a BIG way – as they should – and it will be your win.” Hard to believe this guy was once the prime minister of the Netherlands. Oh, President Trump, way to really stick it to Europe! What a wonderful thing you’ve just done to make almost all of Europe subsidize the American military industrial complex to the tune of 5% of their GDP! Back when Trump first started hounding Europe to cough up 2.5% of their GDP for defense, European leaders rolled their eyes. But after nuking their own energy-driven economy with their anti-Russia, pro-Ukraine policies, they’ve decided to embrace the idea like they thought of it themselves. Nothing like selling European taxpayers on buying a ton more US and European hardware under the pretext of a hypothetical 2030 Russian invasion. Perfect cover for a spending spree that will become the problem of whoever’s in office by then (ie. not them). Trump initially wanted them all on a 2.5% spending target. But heaven forbid American arms dealers hog all the action. Europe’s military industrial complex needs a piece too. Hence, 5% for everyone and a double-dip dinner at the weapons buffet. Read more NATO commits to doubling military budgets: As it happened Trump showed up straight from showcasing US bombs on Iranian soil – one giant demo reel for his European customers. When he landed, Rutte practically faceplanted directly into Trump’s backside. And if you thought what he wrote to Trump was cringey, wait till you hear what Rutte said aloud in the wake of Trump bombing Iran for Israel – er, I mean, for peace: “You are a man of strength but also a man of peace, and the fact that you also successfully got this ceasefire between Israel and Iran, I really want to commend you for that,” Rutte cooed. “Without President Trump, this would not have happened. Absolutely not.” Way to thank an arsonist for putting out his own fire. What’s next: nominating him for Fireman of the Year? Even the press did a double-take, basically asking Rutte, Bro, you sure you want him reading your fan mail on live TV? Answer: Absolutely. “Not embarrassed,” Rutte replied. The NATO secretary general sounded so enamored with Trump that you had to wonder why the two of them didn’t just get a room already. “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language,” Rutte told journalists, referring to Trump, as journalists may or may not have barfed into the nearest potted plant. Between remarks like that and all the gushing about how Trump was making Europe pay for the privilege of being extorted for a protection racket that Trump says isn’t even sure that he would honor, it all sounded so sadomasochistic that I started to feel like maybe I should be paying for this kind of kinky TV content. Or I guess you could say that European taxpayers already are – to the tune of 5% of GDP. And as for Europe being taken to the cleaners, Rutte had this to say about those who might struggle to pay up, like Spain, which opted to stick to 2%: “Countries have to find the money.” Read more Russia takes on the West’s biggest obsession Easy to say as the former Dutch Prime Minister – and now, unelected NATO chief – safely off the electoral hook. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez isn’t quite so glib, promising to hold the line at a much lower 2% spending target. How long before other NATO leaders realize that they can say no, too? Polish President Andrzej Duda already called the 5% pledge a mere “gentleman’s agreement,” insisting there’d be no penalties for ignoring it. Sounds like those school spirit rallies where the star quarterback expects everyone to cheer for the big game, then everyone just goes home and does their own thing afterwards. Speaking of which, Ukraine apparently isn’t the center of the universe anymore. “The fact that Zelensky will not participate in any official form at the NATO summit clearly indicates that the previous chapter is over,” Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán suggested. “The Americans, Turks, Slovaks and we have made it clear we do not want to sit at the same table with him.” Zelensky even swapped the pizza delivery look for undertaker chic. Perhaps a better match for the current state of his country. Or maybe just his ego. As for the usual pre-summit group photo – it looked like the teachers made sure that Trump and Zelensky weren’t together for it, hoping to avoid a reprise of their White House spat when Trump smacked him with the rhetorical equivalent of a stapler to the face. And forget any serious focus on countering China. The leaders of NATO’s would-be Asia partners – South Korea and Japan – bailed to deal with the economic fallout of Trump bombing the Middle East and spiking their oil prices. And so NATO stumbles on, proving that when Trump cracks the whip, Europe says, “Thank you, sir, may I have another?” View the full article

Activists have been gaslit into believing that protecting labor rights is racist and defending women’s spaces is bigotry What do Greta Thunberg, Simone Biles, and the American anti-ICE protesters have in common, besides a flair for theatrics and a knack for setting fire (sometimes literally) to the causes they claim to champion? The latest chaos gripping California like a leftist would a reusable tote bag containing oat milk and guilt, started at Home Depot in California. Immigration authorities raided one of the chain’s parking lots in Los Angeles, which quickly escalated from “can I help you find a hammer?” to full-blown urban dystopia. The next thing you know, someone’s standing on a flaming car waving a Mexican flag like they just unlocked a Grand Theft Auto achievement. But let’s rewind. Why Home Depot? Because, according to the Wall Street Journal, the White House instructed Immigration and Customs Enforcement to target undocumented workers hanging out in those parking lots. Think of them as the gig economy’s open-air waiting room, just like the food delivery platform guys perched outside McDonald’s, only with more drywall experience. They’re trying to land quick jobs from people who’d rather pay under the table than decode a Swedish or Chinese manual to assemble one. And just like that, the entire progressive apparatus decided this was the next hill to die on. “These are hardworking members of our community!” they cried. “They do the jobs Americans won’t do!” Hold up. When did defending a labor underclass become progressive chic? Didn’t the left used to rage against this kind of exploitation? Corporate America must be thrilled that the revolution now comes with a free supply of cheap, compliant labor and a hashtag campaign to promote the idea that if you’re against it, then you’re a fascist. Read more Elite Western universities form a corrupt and parasitic empire So congrats, leftists. You’ve handed the working class over to the pro-Trump populists like a party favor. Want to actually help undocumented foreigners in America? Try opposing the foreign policy dumpster fire that helped displace them: sanctions, economic sabotage, CIA meddling, and those “extraterritorial legal tools” that make doing any business with them back home feel like pulling the arm on a Vegas slot machine. Your activist forebears knew this. Cesar Chavez didn’t just fast for farmworkers; he opposed the Vietnam War, because he understood exploitation doesn’t stop at the border. Tom Hayden fought for unions and against war. Dorothy Day started the Catholic Worker Movement and still managed to call out empire. Today’s left, meanwhile, is acting like unpaid NATO interns on social media, slapping flags on their bios and cheering military adventures in the name of “human rights.” In 1999, if you protested globalism, you were a leftist. Today, you’re more likely to get tackled by Antifa. Nowhere is this ideological faceplant more obvious than in modern feminism. Take the recent online cage match between Olympic legend Simone Biles and former swimmer turned women’s sports defender Riley Gaines. It kicked off when a Minnesota girls’ softball team won a championship with a male pitcher. Gaines tweeted, “To be expected when your star player is a boy.” Biles vaulted into the culture war and landed face first: “You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race. Straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!” Then she added, “Bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male.” Read more Hollywood’s woke blackout: Studios ditch Pride to cash in on conservative America And just like that, one of the most decorated female athletes on Earth decided that women’s sports are too exclusionary. Simone Biles, icon of women’s physicality, now dunking on other women to make room for men in their lanes. How very empowering. Simone Biles somersaulted right over feminism and landed in patriarchy’s lap. Second-wave feminist icon, Gloria Steinem, who once dedicated a chapter to female physical strength in Moving Beyond Words, lamented how she “spurned sports” and felt “angry for and at myself” for denying her own physical potential. Now imagine what Steinem might have said if her shot at athletic expression had been stomped out by a guy in a ponytail and jock strap lapping her on the track. No one’s saying trans-identified males can’t enjoy sports. But sacrificing women’s opportunities so Chad can pitch for the varsity women’s team on a full scholarship isn’t exactly progress. Even Biles once joked, back in 2017, “ahhhh good thing guys don’t compete against girls or he’d take all the gold medals !!” Well, now they do. And Biles is cheering them on. What a win for feminism. Look, this isn’t complicated. It’s not feminism if you need a prostate to qualify. Seems that the most fragile thing about a women’s sports record these days is the ego of a man in a wig trying to beat it. How long before uterus-free “women” decide abortion’s not a women’s issue? Or take women’s seats in government or society? Or tell insurance companies to deny coverage for ovarian cysts because they don’t personally have them? The slippery slope here is basically a gender neutral waterslide. Read more Israel’s moral collapse: Strategy doesn’t require dead children Meanwhile, guess who just got deported from Israel? Greta Thunberg, the climate’s poster child. “We were 12 peaceful volunteers sailing on a civilian ship carrying humanitarian aid on international waters. We did not break laws. We did nothing wrong,” she said after landing in Paris. Turns out climate change, which tragically supplanted tangible environmental problems like water and air quality, isn’t the media darling that it once was. Maybe because people are too busy surviving economic policies crafted by the same technocrats Greta once marched beside. Maybe she’s realized that saving the planet from carbon means even less when the people on it are starving and getting bombed. So now Greta’s gone from scolding world leaders at Davos to helping to ferry aid under siege. You know things are off the rails when she’s one of the only ones on the left with the logical sense to ditch a nonsense globalist cause for a real one. Too bad she couldn’t just ride around on Greenpeace ships and actually do useful things for the environment like document actual environmental crimes. Those causes have now been upstaged by hot air. Which brings us to the bigger picture of those real causes. Labor, feminism, and the environment have been hijacked, gutted, and replaced with mindless vibes, slogans, and slacktivist online moralizing. No wonder so many average voters with these leftist sensibilities feel politically orphaned, or have gravitated to the anti-establishment and anti-globalist Trump camp. Ask yourself how we got here. It didn’t happen overnight. It was a slow, steady march, backed by the very establishment that now pretends to loathe itself. That is, until Trump wandered in and tipped over the whole display. Instead of fighting for their own interests, people are applauding their own decline, gaslit into believing that protecting labor rights is racist, defending women’s spaces is bigotry, and questioning foreign military interventions makes you a fascist. The activism that used to scare the establishment has long since become it. The real revolution won’t be televised — it will probably just be shadowbanned. View the full article

Kant is spinning in his grave, while Friedrich Merz is devising maxims from hell Forget the fog of war. Even in war, and sometimes especially in war, some things are exceedingly clear. Regarding the so-called ‘Hamas-Israel War’, for instance, it is obvious that in reality it is not a war at all but a genocide, namely the Gaza Genocide, carried out by Israel against the Palestinians whose unbroken resistance will be the stuff of legends, and of history too. Likewise, in the case of Israel’s current assault on Iran – really, of course, a combined US-Israeli attack from the get-go – there is no room for doubt that it is criminal and a “blatant act of aggression,” as multiple experts in international law agree. That’s because in essence, Israel is not acting with a UN mandate – which it would not have received – or in self-defense. The legal basis for this compelling assessment is not complex and there is no room for good-faith debate: Israel’s attack violates Article 2 (4) of the foundational UN Charter, which is recognized universally as jus cogens, that is, a binding norm: no pick and choose. The few generally accepted, narrowly defined potential exceptions to this article’s comprehensive prohibition on the use of force, such as an erroneous incursion, certain operations at sea, or a rescue of nationals, clearly do not apply. The Israeli onslaught also does not have the blessing of the UN Security Council, and it cannot possibly count as lawful self-defense under Article 51. So far, so simple. If anyone tries to make this look complicated by flagrantly misapplying and abusing the notion of a ‘preemptive strike’, you are dealing with Israeli or Israel-Lobby disinformation and propaganda. That too is anything but surprising. Read more Zelensky has a Nazi problem. He can’t lie his way out of it Yet what is more puzzling than the above is the response of the governments, and often the mainstream media of the West, to this clearly criminal Israeli attack. After years of invoking international law to go after Russia, it turns out that the same leaders and talking heads will tie themselves into 5-D pretzels to let Israel get away with whatever Israel feels like doing on any given day. This is not really news either, of course: Western ‘elites’, with Washington always in the lead, have behaved no better when serving as accomplices in Israel’s Gaza Genocide. But there is something peculiar and noteworthy about how exactly some important Western politicians and their media and ‘think tank’ experts spin the attack on Iran. Take, for instance, Germany. Its chancellor Friedrich Merz has gone out of his way to loudly endorse the assault on Iran. He has even exposed himself to ridicule and some – if far too little – criticism by employing revoltingly indecent language. Calling Israel’s actions “dirty work” (it sounds even worse in the original German: “Drecksarbeit”) that must be done and for which we all should be grateful, Merz has revealed his double racism: As a German and a historian, I can only say that a German leader praising Jews for doing “our” dirty work is, to put it very mildly, extremely boorish. Defining the criminal killing of Iranians as that “dirty work” adds a very nasty “colonial” flavor reminiscent of say, Kaiser Wilhelm II gloating over massacring Chinese during the so-called Boxer Rebellion. While Merz has been clumsy enough to couch his obnoxious ideas in equally obnoxious language, he has by no means been alone. All too many prestigious German publications, such as the staid Frankfurter Zeitung or the also important Merkur newspaper, have hurried to either simply agree with Merz or at least to excuse and relativize his vile statement. In addition, rather overworked all-purpose ‘experts’, such as the reliably conformist and rarara-russophobic Christian Mölling, have used their perma-perk in Germany’s streamlined talk shows to cynically diminish international law and help dress up Israel’s newest crime as so necessary that it trumps all law anyhow. Mölling was self-unaware enough to openly argue that some countries (read: Israel) can’t afford the “luxury” of accepting “normative limits” and that international law, anyhow, might be “protecting the wrong ones” (read: Iran). It’s breathtakingly brazen and intellectually primitive, and also historically speaking, very German in the worst sense: If we or our friends (read: Israel) feel constrained by international law, then that’s a problem not for us or our friends but for international law. Read more The EU’s favorite war: The one Israel starts And now, let’s take a step back and think for a moment like a German who was not a conformist intellectual mediocrity: Enlightenment giant Immanuel Kant. For those with ears to hear and brains to process, Kant has taught us that reason and ethics demand that the justifications for our actions ought to be generalizable in good conscience. In short, when we act, we should be able to show that we are acting according to a fair and reasonable rule. Let’s generalize into such a rule, then, what German leader Friedrich Merz has just said and what all too many German mainstream representatives agree with: A country (here: Israel) that feels sufficiently afraid (as judged by that country) of another country (here: Iran) has a right (that trumps international law) to attack that other country without provocation and even during ongoing negotiations. Interesting. Consider that German elites have been fanning war hysteria relentlessly. Not a day seems to go by without some German general, spy, or politician warning their fellow Germans that Russia is at least likely, really almost certain, to attack within the next five years or so. Evidence: zero. Indeed? So, if we are all supposed to be so afraid of Russia in Germany, does that now mean that according to Merzian logic we may as well one day launch a preemptive strike on Moscow? After all, we could then say we felt threatened and our military and the intelligence services were telling us that the Russians were coming. And moreover, we’d probably claim that we, the Germans, were proudly doing the ‘Drecksarbeit’ for all of NATO (minus, most likely, the US). And isn’t doing the ‘Drecksarbeit’ now officially a good thing in Germany, again? Absurd, you say? Yes, absolutely. Exactly as absurd as Israel’s pretexts for attacking Iran. And yet those have been officially endorsed by a German chancellor, including self-revealing dirty language. Let’s hope that Moscow does not take seriously what Merz says. Because if Moscow did take it seriously, then by Merzian logic, it should feel very threatened indeed by Berlin – and again by Merzian logic, who knows where that might lead. View the full article

Hint: It doesn’t mean you’re doing anything wrong. Let’s be honest: even when you love fitness (like I do), you’re going to get bored sometimes. You’ll wake up and feel meh about your workout. You’ll go through the motions. You’ll wonder if something’s wrong with you — or if you just need to switch it all up completely. I get it. I’ve been there too. But here’s what I’ve learned after a decade of training, competing, and showing up no matter what: Boredom isn’t a red flag. It’s part of the process. Why Boredom Happens — Even When You Love Training Most people start working out because they want change. They’re excited. Motivated. They’re chasing a goal, a version of themselves they haven’t met yet. But as the months go by, that newness wears off. You’ve hit your first milestones. The gains are slower. The workouts start to feel familiar. Maybe even repetitive. That’s normal. The truth is, fitness isn’t always thrilling. Even the most elite athletes have days where training feels flat. What separates those who keep going? They learn how to work with the boredom — instead of constantly trying to escape it. So What Can You Do? If you’re in a rut, here are a few ways to re-energize your workouts — without throwing away everything you’ve built: 1. Train for a Skill, Not Just a Burn Sometimes we get stuck in output mode: burn calories, hit reps, sweat hard. But skill-based training can wake up your brain and body. Try: Handstands Pull-up progressions Jump rope variations Pistol squats or balance drills Give yourself permission to suck at something new. 2. Change the Format, Not the Content You don’t need all-new exercises — just a different container. If you normally do timed intervals, try reps. If you always do circuits, try EMOMs or ladders. If you usually follow strict structure, give yourself a freestyle “movement jam” day. Tiny changes = fresh focus. 3. Cycle Your Intensity You don’t have to go hard every day. In fact, you shouldn’t. Try alternating: Hard days (HIIT, sprints, plyometrics) Skill days (lower heart rate, focus on control) Recovery days (walks, mobility, low-impact strength) You’ll feel fresher — and more motivated — when your nervous system isn’t constantly fried. 4. Add Play or Challenge Movement doesn’t have to be so serious. Set a fun mini-challenge for the week. Try a new sport. Train outside. Race yourself on a benchmark workout. Create a silly goal that makes you smile — like holding a plank during commercial breaks. Play keeps you coming back. Final Thought: Don’t Panic. Keep Going. If you’re feeling bored, it doesn’t mean you’re off track. It just means you’ve been at this a while. And that’s a good thing. The real power of fitness isn’t found in the early “honeymoon” phase. It’s found in the seasons when you keep showing up, even when it’s not thrilling. Even when it’s just… solid. That’s how you build something that lasts. The post What to Do When You’re Bored with Your Workouts appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete. View the full article

You don’t stop a nuclear program by deliberately targeting families. You just abandon the idea that anything is off-limits. The recent revelation that Iranian nuclear scientist Mostafa Sadati-Armaki was killed along with his entire family – his wife, two daughters, and son – in an Israeli airstrike should stop even hardened strategists in their tracks. This wasn’t just a precision strike. It was an execution of a household. Sadati-Armaki was not a senior official. He was a mid-level scientist—an engineer working within Iran’s nuclear framework. That role may have made him a target in the logic of modern conflict. But nothing, not even that logic, can justify killing his children in their own home. This wasn’t an isolated incident. On June 13, at least five other nuclear scientists were killed in Israeli strikes across Tehran: Fereydoon Abbasi, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari Daryani, and Seyed Amir Hossein Feghhi. Their credentials tied them to Iran’s nuclear program. All had played some role, technical or administrative, in Iran’s nuclear development. None were combatants. Most were academics. Some had already retired from state positions. Crucially, they weren’t alone. In multiple reported cases, family members died alongside them. Wives. Daughters. The daughter of a senior official. Read more Israel’s war on Iran is not about nuclear weapons These were not errant missiles landing in crowded urban spaces. These were targeted strikes on homes, in residential areas, at night, when families were together. This isn’t the fog of war. It is its deliberate weaponization. The children didn’t make enrichment policy. The spouses didn’t oversee uranium labs. But they died because of proximity—because they were related to someone deemed dangerous. To call this “collateral damage” is cowardice. When decision-makers approve a strike on a home, knowing who sleeps inside, the outcome is no longer an accident. It is a choice. Some argue that in an asymmetrical war, deterrence must be personal. But this is not deterrence—it’s liquidation. It suggests that no civilian life adjacent to state infrastructure is worth preserving. It sends the message that not even scientists’ families will be spared, as if moral limits are luxuries we can no longer afford. This is not a defense of Iran’s nuclear posture. It is a defense of the basic principle that families—children—cannot be combatants. If we abandon that line, we are not winning anything. We are declaring that fear is stronger than law, that vengeance is smarter than diplomacy. Killing scientists’ families doesn’t dismantle programs. It doesn’t prevent future threats. It only makes peace more remote and retaliation more likely. What we normalize now, others will imitate later. READ MORE: Deterrence or death: Israel is making the case for a nuclear-armed Iran This is not strength. It is strategic and moral collapse. And if this is where warfare is headed, then everyone—regardless of nationality—should be deeply, urgently afraid. View the full article

Facts and numbers make his Russia-Hitler comparisons laughably hypocritical Anniversaries can be opportunities. For better or worse. In the case of the recent anniversary of Nazi Germany’s massive attack on the Soviet Union of 22 June 1941 – code-named Operation Barbarossa by the Germans – Ukraine’s beyond best-by-date president Vladimir Zelensky went for the worst. Using his own Telegram channel, Zelensky shared his bizarre view of why that anniversary mattered. In short, because it can serve in the information war against Russia. “Eighty years ago,” the Kiev regime leader wrote, “the world overcame Nazism and swore ‘Never again.’ But today Russia is repeating the crimes of the Nazis […] Now Ukrainians are fighting against rashism [a pejorative term fusing the words “Russia” and “fascism”] with the same courage with which our ancestors defeated Nazism…” Where to begin? Why not with the obvious: IF Russia were following Nazi examples, then much of Ukraine would now look like, for instance, Gaza. And while every death is a tragedy, the numbers of Ukrainian civilians killed in the Ukraine War would be of an entirely different order of magnitude. This is not a matter of opinion. It’s a fact that can be quantified and proven: As of the end of May, the UN counted about 13,279 Ukrainian civilians killed, since the beginning of the large-scale fighting in February 2022. It is true that the UN also warns that these are conservative, minimum figures. Read more Kiev sends the living to die, but won’t accept its dead Yet consider some figures for Gaza under Israeli genocidal assault since October 2023. As of early June, the enclave’s health ministry – generally acknowledged as reliable and also conservative with its numbers, notwithstanding Israeli and Western propaganda – has counted over 55,000 Palestinians killed in Gaza alone (Israel’s victims in the West bank and elsewhere should, of course, not be forgotten.) The Gaza Health Ministry does not distinguish between resistance fighters and civilians, but there is a virtual expert consensus that the share of the latter is unusually high, as you would expect during a genocide. A peer-reviewed study in the prestigious and unbiased medical journal The Lancet, for instance, has estimated that 59.1% of deaths between October 2023 and June 2024 were women, children, and the elderly. Other equally reputable organizations have even estimated around 90% of civilian casualties in Gaza. Keep in mind that the above is deliberately restricted to minimum estimates. As The Lancet has also shown, the real death toll in Gaza is likely to be far higher. Let’s also not even dwell here on “details,” such as that Gaza now has the highest concentration of child amputees in the world. For even the bare figures cited suffice to gain a sense of proportion and perspective: Gaza, before the Israeli mass murder attack had a total population of between 2.2 and 2.4 million. Ukraine’s total population on the eve of the large-scale escalation of February 2022 was just over 41 million, according to Ukrainian official sources. Read more Truce or trap? Ukraine makes sure peace talks go nowhere And now compare the numbers of civilian casualties and the total populations. It is obvious: If Vladimir Zelensky is looking for a state that uses methods – if that is the word – of Nazi warfare, then that would be Israel, not Russia. But he cannot say that because Israel is aligned with the US and the West, just like his own regime. Figures can help expose blatant lies, especially when they are as stunningly unambiguous as in this case. But the quantitative isn’t everything, obviously. What about what social scientists and historians – such as me – call the qualitative dimension? In other words, what about what makes people tick? In that regard, the West’s proxy war against Russia and via Ukraine has seen one of the most successful operations of political whitewashing in recent memory. Before Kiev, first under Zelensky’s predecessor Petro Poroshenko and then under Zelensky himself, turned Ukraine into a Western tool and battering ram against Russia, at least some Western experts and even mainstream media were well aware that Ukraine had a rapidly growing, increasingly powerful, and extremely subversive (domestically and internationally) far-right movement. As of 2014, even the BBC was still admitting that Ukrainian media and politicians were deliberately “underplaying” the potency and significance of their far-right. But then, as if on command, Western mainstream media united to belittle this malevolent force, pretending that it was either hardly there (and any impressions to the contrary were, of course, “Russian disinformation”), really harmless (a handful of misunderstood “patriots” with a few tattoos that look Nazi but are really just Tolkien), or on the mend, undergoing a steady and, of course, totally honest conversion to mainstream politics. Read more Ukraine’s shame: Why Kiev refuses to take back its dead and wounded What happened in reality was that instead of adjusting to the Western “value” mainstream or Center – wherever that supposedly might be – the Ukrainian far right succeeded in making that mainstream adjust to its will. Probably because real-existing Western “values” have a genuine affinity to fascism anyhow. Now with the West’s war going badly, as even Western media have to recognize, even French paper of record Le Monde – as russophobic and rarara-proxy war as its worst peers in the US – has noticed that far-right, indeed strictly Neo-Nazi tendencies – polite expression – are alive and kicking in key units of Ukraine’s armed forces. Dear colleagues from France: Congratulations! And you should see the politics. Since the West and Ukraine are losing the war, expect more of such shocked re-discoveries of what every objective observers has known for a long time: In the Ukraine War, the home of men and women who genuinely enjoy displaying Nazi symbols – from the swastika to the Wolfsangel to the sun wheel – is in Ukraine. That does not mean that the majority of Ukrainians side with them. But their regime and its controlled media do. The same regime and media droning on about Russia and Nazis. As they – rightly – say about Israel, so about the Zelensky regime: Every accusation is a confession. View the full article

Words like “net zero,” “decarbonization,” and “climate justice” sound pure and benevolent, yet behind them stands an apparatus of control Western Europe’s new green regime reorders the continent through policies of territorial cleansing and restriction, replacing the lifeways of rooted peoples with a managed wilderness shaped by remote technocrats and mandated compliance. What arrives with the language of environmental deliverance advances as a mechanism of control, engineered to dissolve ancestral bonds. In the soft light of the northern dawn, when the fog rests over fields once furrowed by hands and prayers, a quiet force spreads, cloaked in green, speaking in the language of “sustainability,” offered with the glow of planetary care. Across Europe, policymakers, consultants, and unelected “visionaries” enforce a grand design of regulation and restraint. The new dogma wears the trappings of salvation. It promises healing, stability, and ecological redemption. Yet beneath the surface lies a different pattern: one of compression, centralization, and engineered transformation. This green wave comes through offices aglow with LED light and carbon dashboards, distant from the oak groves and shepherd chants that once shaped Europe through destiny and devotion. Traditional Europe lived through the pulse of the land, its customs drawn from meadows, its laws mirrored in trees, its faith carried by the wind over tilled soil and cathedral towers. The terms arrive prepackaged: “rewilding,” “net zero,” “decarbonization,” and “climate justice.” These sound pure, ringing with the cadence of science and morality. Their syllables shimmer with precision, yet behind their clarity stands an apparatus of control, drawn from abstract algorithms rather than ancestral experience. They conceal a deeper impulse: to dissolve density, to steer the population from the scattered villages of memory into the smart cities of control. The forest returns, yet the shepherd departs. The wolves are celebrated, while the farmer disappears from policy. Across the hills of France, the valleys of Italy, and the plains of Germany, the primordial cadence falls silent. Where once rose smoke from chimneys, now rise sensors tracking deer. Where once stood barns, now appear habitats for reintroduced apex predators. Rural life, the fundament of Europe’s civilizational ascent, receives accolades in speeches, even as its arteries are quietly severed. The continent reshapes itself according to new models, conceived in simulation and consecrated in policy. Entire regions are earmarked for rewilding, which means exclusion, which means transformation through absence. The human imprint recedes, and in its place rises a curated silence: measured, observed, and sanctified by distance. The bond between man and land, established over centuries of cultivation, ritual, and kinship, gives way to managed wilderness. Yet this wilderness unfolds without its own rhythm, shaped and maintained through remote observation and coded intention. It remains indexed and administered. Every creature bears a tracking chip. Every tree falls under statistical oversight. Drones scan the canopies. Bureaucrats speak of ecosystems the way accountants speak of balance sheets. The sacred space, once alive with sacrifice and harvest, turns into a green exhibit in the managerial museum of Europe. Read more It’s 2025, but Africans are still in chains. Why? The aesthetic of this transformation appeals to the tired soul. It soothes through smoothness. It promises purpose through compliance. Children plant trees in asphalt courtyards. Urban rooftops grow lettuce in sterile trays. A continent begins to believe that its salvation lies in subtraction. Strip the carbon. Strip the industry. Strip the traditions, the redundancies, the excesses. What remains is framed as harmony. Yet harmony without heroism becomes stillness. Stillness, when imposed, becomes silence. Europe’s past rose through motion, through sacred striving, through sacred conflict, through the tension between man and mountain. Now, in this new green order, motion flows only where permitted, and striving surrenders to “stability.” Among those who carry memory – the shepherd, the blacksmith, the hunter, the midwife – a different vision grows. These are not relics of a dying world. They are seeds of the world to come, emerging from the deep soil of memory and form. Their force flows through reverence, drawn from the old ways and aimed towards creation. With hands open to innovation and hearts anchored in continuity, they shape change as inheritance rather than rupture. They seek continuity through transformation: a rooted futurism. The soil speaks to them as kin, rich with memory and promise. The forest reveals itself as dwelling and companion, alive with presence and bound in shared calling. The river speaks as guide and witness, flowing through generations with the clarity of purpose and the grace of return. Their dream aligns spirit with structure and myth with machine. A modern Europe, strong in technology and rich in spirit, can rise from this convergence, from drone-guided agriculture rooted in ancestral cycles, from solar-powered cathedrals, from cities shaped by tribe and territory rather than algorithm. A new cultural-political synthesis begins to shimmer at the horizon: a Europe that does not apologize for its existence, that does not dilute its soul in the name of abstraction. This Europe sees no contradiction between wildness and order, between ecology and identity. The task ahead affirms the weight of memory, welcomes the challenge of tomorrow, and calls for the creation of something worthy: a sovereign Europe, sovereign in its landscapes, in its symbols, in its will. The green order, when guided by myth and martial clarity, becomes a chariot of ascent rather than an instrument of decline. This chariot waits for archeofuturist hands to seize the reins. Europe faces the spiral once again. The question begins with data and temperature, then moves toward destiny, where Europe takes form through choice and vision. Shall the continent become a tranquil reserve, watched over by regulators and predators, or shall it rise as a living organism, composed of people, memory, sacrifice, and sacred continuity? A new green is possible, one that does not obliterate the past, one that does not silence the song of the soil, one that does not flatten the face of the continent. This green shall sing through the voice of those who plow and those who build, those who fight and those who remember. It waits in the wind, in the fire, in the stone. The awakening begins with vision, and the vision already stirs in the veins of the land. View the full article

In this world we are all subjected to various ways of life. When we select an option, we cannot convince people to make changes. All we can do is to present options and explain how the choice we made worked for us. So, veganism denotes a philosophy and way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practical, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. It also promotes the development and use of animal-free alternatives for the benefit of humans, animals, and the environment. The word “vegan” is newer and more challenging than “vegetarian”. “Vegan” includes every sentient being in its circle of concern and addresses all forms of unnecessary cruelty from an essentially ethical perspective. With a motivation of compassion rather than health or purity, “vegan” points to an ancient idea that has been articulated for many centuries, especially in the world’s spiritual traditions. “Vegan” will hopefully indicate a mentality of expansive inclusiveness and is able to embrace science and virtually all religions because it is a manifestation of the yearning for universal peace, justice, wisdom and freedom. The contemporary vegan movement is founded on loving-kindness and mindfulness of our effects on others. It is revolutionary because it transcends and renounces the violent core of the “herding culture” in which we live. In some cases, it is founded on individuals living their truth of interconnectedness and thereby minimizing the suffering we impose on animals, humans and bio-systems; it will also take us away from the slavery of becoming mere commodities. “Veganism” also signifies the birth of a new consciousness, the resurrection of intelligence and compassion, and the basic rejection of cruelty and domination. It also gives us hope for the future of our species because it addresses the cause rather than being concerned merely with effects. From this new consciousness we feel we can accomplish virtually anything. It represents the fundamental, positive, personal, and cultural transformation that we yearn for, and it requires that we change something basic – our eating habits. It’s funny how we want transformation without having to change! Yet, the fundamental transformation called for today requires the most fundamental change – a change in our relationship to food and to animals, which will cause a change in our behavior. To some, becoming vegan looks like a superficial step. Can something so simple really change us? We believe it does. Given the power of childhood programming and our culture’s insensitivity to violence against animals, authentically becoming a committed vegan can only be the result of a genuine spiritual breakthrough. In the Vedic culture, the cow was considered to be one of the “mothers of mankind”. Today, the cow is viewed in terms of dollars and cents relegating our net worth to be measured in dollars as cows are sold by the pound. The suppression of awareness required by our universal practice of making a commodity out of life, enslaving, and killing animals for food generates the built-in mental disorder of denial that drives us toward the destruction, not only of ourselves, but of other living creatures and systems of this earth. This practice of exploiting and brutalizing animals for food has come to be regarded as normal, natural and unavoidable and it has become invisible. Eating animals is thus an unrecognized foundation of consumerism, the pseudo-religion of our modern world. Because our greatest desensitization involves eating, we inevitably become desensitized consumers devoid of compassion and caring little of how what is on our plate got there. If you really believe any living being facing death would actually feel like saying, “kill me, kill me, please kill me”, you have got to be kidding. The stark reality is that when any animal is faced with death their adrenalin flows like crazy and their fear hormones proliferates their body and stays there until you eat it. And you wonder why most people are angry and hostile. There are some Interesting parallels between what we ingest and the consistent transformation of the flu virus. With the latest dietary guidelines calling for three servings of low-fat or non-fat dairy a day, the average family with two kids now consumes more than 85 gallons of milk a year. What the government does not tell you, nor enforces the removal of, is that most liquid fat is filled with carcinogens and antibodies. Cows digest dioxins, an industrial by-product and a known carcinogen, when they eat contaminated grass. Milk that is conventionally produced often comes from cows that are raised under disturbing farm conditions in that they may graze on pastures that have been treated with pesticides, herbicides and sludge. When the cattle are not let outside, they feed on dried grass and hay, which may be GMO, and fish meal, which may contain PCBs and mercury. Cows in conventional farms are often given antibiotics, even when they are healthy, to prevent them from getting sick. In some factory farms, thousands of cows are crammed inside barns to allow easy access for milking. Their milk production can be forced beyond normal capacity through Bayer/Monsanto’s synthetic growth hormones called rBST. Studies show that these cows are more susceptible to diseases because their natural life cycle is being distorted. So, when you eat something that comes from a plant or an animal that has been tampered with by the “superior” intelligence of humans, that item you consumed becomes a part of you on a molecular level. If cows ingest hormones, antibiotics, antibodies and carcinogens, and you eat or drink anything from that cow, you are ingesting those same antibiotics, antibodies and carcinogens. Time after time we self-medicate ourselves and in many instances, over-medicate. Rather than let your immune system do its job, you do it and pop a pill. There are times when external medication is possibly needed, like when you experience an allergic reaction to something that puts your immune system into overdrive and you need a histamine blocker to keep your immune system from causing you harm. The flu virus is not one of those incidents. Each year millions of people line up like good little lemmings to take their flu shots. The shot you take is actually a strand or strands of either dead or weakened flu viruses. With this in mind, your immune system sends out antibodies in response, and the belief is that that will keep you safe from the flu until next year. But, we’ve been filling our bodies with antibiotics through our food. And, although the milk supply is tested before it reaches consumers to make sure it doesn’t contain antibiotics, the overuse of these medications might contribute to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, making some disease more difficult to treat. This is one of the main reasons that the flu virus mutates year after year. It certainly appears that the flu virus is more intelligent than humans. We keep trying to vaccinate and ward off all these viruses and bacteria, but this forces them to mutate over and over. Look at it mathematically: if you have a virus you treat it with antibiotics to kill it, which is similar to a vaccine, except the antibiotic does the actual work of your immune system. In the process, some of the virus may not be eradicated and those antibodies have now formed the virus to mutate. Next time around you might have some of the original virus and the mutated form to try and kill. So, what do we do? We create another medication or vaccine against the two, and in turn, the second mutates again and maybe even the original strand creates yet another new strand giving you three or more. What a lose lose situation! What then can you do to stay healthy during flu season? For one thing, never ever touch your hands to your face, especially your mouth. Think about what you could transmit from what you touch: handles, doorknobs, faucets, other hands, and even worse, money, which is probably the dirtiest of the dirty. Next, you might want to consider eating to build your immune system: A vegan diet centered around organically produced vegetables, fruits, grains and seeds will hopefully give you optimum nutrition. What about fish, you ask? What about mercury, PCBs, and toxic waste, I ask? Wage a war against your tongue and allow your intelligence to prevail. And above all, if man made it, don’t eat it. Nutritional supplements are beneficial as well. If I had to choose one, it would be organic sulfur crystals. Why? Because viruses cannot survive in an oxygenated environment, which is what the sulfur crystals release to permeate the cells and restore them to their natural healthy condition. Even if someone had a stroke the crystals will bring the brain back to normal. For more info on the crystals go to www.healthtalkhawaii.com/Products. Be aware of changes in the weather and dress accordingly to keep your body heat secure. It might be good to drink plenty of unfluoridated water and fresh juices, power the anti-oxidants, never stop exercising and get good rest and sleep. Also, as a parting word, Dr. Russell Blaylock, a prominent neurologist, has said that when a senior takes a flu shot for five straight years, Alzheimer’s is right around the corner So, if the food had a face or a mother, leave it alone! Aloha! Sources; www.vegansociety.com www.healthline.com The post Is there a diet that promotes good health? appeared first on NaturalNewsBlogs. View the full article

Making healthy eating choices doesn’t have to be complicated and sometimes we learn quite a bit along the way. Baking and grilling are healthier cooking methods versus frying (in most cases), but is it possible that between the two, that either baking or grilling is “healthier”?? To explore this question, chicken can be discussed as the food to be baked or grilled. A basic piece of chicken is about 3.5 ounces (100 grams). When it is skinless and boneless, it contains about 110-120 calories and about 20 grams of protein and no carbohydrates and minimal fat (if any around 3 grams). BAKING Most baking is done in an oven using dry heat to cook the food. It is called indirect cooking because no flame makes contact with the food. Steam and dry heat in the oven do the cooking. Chicken is typically baked at 350°F but can vary if it is in a covered versus uncovered pan or how high it is placed on the oven rack. If the chicken is baked at too high a temperature, nutrients can be compromised. Some vitamins are heat-sensitive, which include Vitamin B1, Vitamin C, and Pantothenic Acid (type of B vitamin). GRILLING When food is grilled, it usually cooks faster because direct heat is used. An open flame is used. Moisture and fat can melt away and at the same time those same water-soluble vitamins (Vitamin B1, Vitamin C, and Pantothenic Acid) can be dissolved and lost. The taste might be drier/smokier than baked chicken. RESULT The difference between baked and grilled chicken in terms of which is “healthier”, is marginal. The National Cancer Institute (NIH) has determined that cooking at high temperatures on an open flame can produce carcinogens. This does not hold true for baking. If the concern is weight loss or diet related for choosing to bake or grill, then there would not be a difference. If worried about possible cancer-causing agents, then baking would be safer. In the end, both are better than frying, but the tell winner would have to baking as the overall “healthier” version of chicken for us to consume. (PDF) “It’s Important but, on What Level?”: Healthy Cooking Meanings and Barriers to Healthy Eating among University Students Meat and Human Health—Current Knowledge and Research Gaps – PMC Effects of grilling procedures on levels of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in grilled meats – ScienceDirect Effect of Baking Temperature and Time on Advanced Glycation End Products and Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Beef – ScienceDirect The post Baked vs Grilled – Which meat preparation is healthier?? appeared first on NaturalNewsBlogs. View the full article

Boils under the skin are an infection that can be painful and tender. They are filled with pus and are the result of a hair follicle being inflamed. Boils are called “furuncles” and first appear as a bump. It might look a little red or purple, but they will soon grow, and more pus will fill the area. Common areas boils are found are on the face, thighs, buttocks, armpits, and neck. When there is a cluster of boils in one of these areas it is called a carbuncle. In most cases, they can be alleviated with at home care, but sometimes infections take a turn and become worse. They’re not to be pinched or squeezed, but some people make this mistake initially not knowing what they have or what to do. A boil can get as big as up to 2 inches or more. The area gets swollen and the pus becomes visible. Then a tip forms at the tip of the bump that eventually will “pop”/rupture and pus will release from it. A boil is caused by the bacterium called Staphylococcus aureus. The bacterium likes to dwell in the nose and enter through hair follicles or any small entry such as a mosquito bite. This means that anyone can develop a boil no matter how healthy their lifestyle might be. However, some people are at higher risk such as those who have diabetes because they’re unable to fight infections as well as non-diabetics. People with acne and eczema are also at risk because of the tiny entries the bacterium could enter through. Coming into contact with a person who has a staph infection can also put someone at higher risk to get a boil. Boils are a good example of why we should keep wounds covered. They also remind us not to share razors and personal items like sheets. Staph infections do spread through objects so always wash shared items. Simple hand washing is the greatest defense towards germs spreading. Using a warm compress is the first measure for treatment. Pressure can be applied but not to intentionally rupture it. Again, DO NOT pinch or squeeze the boil. If the boil is not healing after about 2 weeks, then seeking medical attention is recommended. Natural ways to help suppress the boil are to use a warm compress, apply tea tree oil and/or castor oil, and to use turmeric which helps with inflammation. Other signs the boil might be more serious would be if it causes a fever or continues to get bigger. Our skin is out protective layer that can be vulnerable to many conditions. Our immunity and lifestyle are determinates of how our skin can respond and react to what or who it encounters. When protection is threatened, pay attention to your skin and treat any possible signs of damage or illness appropriately and safely. Interventions for bacterial folliculitis and boils (furuncles and carbuncles) – PMC What are the benefits and risks of different treatments for bacterial folliculitis and boils (inflammation of the skin around hairs)? | Cochrane Overview: Boils and carbuncles – InformedHealth.org – NCBI Bookshelf (PDF) Review on Ulcers, Boils with their Bacterial and Fungal Causes The post Boils – Inflamed hair follicles appeared first on NaturalNewsBlogs. View the full article

Brussels has rallied behind Israel, asking Iran to please stop bleeding on the carpet Israel flew over to Iran with fighter jets and has since gone totally ballistic – literally and figuratively. So what does the European Union’s insane clown posse have to say about it? Get yourself some popcorn. The Eurojokers are doing their best stand-up comedy again without even realizing it. First up: French President Emmanuel Macron, who took to social media to declare that “peace and security for all in the region must remain our guiding principle.” Aww, how sweet. Calling for peace while holding your buddy’s coat as he storms into the bar to punch someone in the face. So after Israel unilaterally launched its hundred-target missile tantrum across Tehran – complete with residential hits and assassinations – maybe some strong words against that kind of thing are in order? “France has repeatedly condemned Iran’s ongoing nuclear program and has taken all appropriate diplomatic measures in response. In this context, France reaffirms Israel’s right to defend itself and ensure its security,” Macron posted as the conflict kicked off. Classic French parenting: Ignore the kid setting the house on fire and scold the one who looked at him funny. Next up, Germany. Surely the new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, can inject some sober logic into the conversation about who just broke the fragile regional peace everyone’s pretending to care about. “Iran has subsequently threatened to accelerate uranium enrichment again. This nuclear program violates the provisions of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and poses a serious threat to the entire region, especially to the State of Israel. We reaffirm that Israel has the right to defend its existence and the security of its citizens. We call on both sides to refrain from steps that could lead to further escalation and destabilize the entire region,” Merz wrote. Oh, so now that Israel has attacked Iran, it’s time for restraint? Not before. Not during. After. Like a guy who throws the first punch in a bar fight and then shouts, “Hey! Let’s all calm down!” Read more Israel’s war on Iran is not about nuclear weapons Both Macron and Merz say that Iran brought this on itself by enriching uranium. That’s like this: you’ve got a neighbor who lifts weights in his home gym. You see him through the window with a squat rack, bench press, treadmill – getting jacked. And you’re like, “Wow, he’s getting so ripped I’m afraid he might beat me up someday. So I better go over there now and beat him up while I still can.” That’s basically what Israel did with its “preemptive” strike. And Macron and Merz are cheering it on like, “Totally! That guy was getting too buff. Definitely deserved a missile to the face.” Then Merz added from the G7 summit in Canada: “This is the dirty work that Israel is doing for all of us. We are also victims of this regime.” Oh, sorry – didn’t realize the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) had hired Israel as a global bouncer. And remind us, Friedrich: where exactly did Iran touch Germany on the map? Because Europe is far more likely to be “victimized” by waves of immigration facilitated by its own lax policies, and sparked by its own support for regime change wars – like this one is shaping up to be – than by any distant centrifuge. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the EU’s de facto queen, is now cosplaying as global playground monitor, sending all the boys to their corners. “Europe urges all parties to exercise maximum restraint, de-escalate immediately and refrain from retaliation. A diplomatic resolution is now more urgent than ever, for the sake of the region’s stability and global security,” she wrote. Maximum restraint? That’s rich – especially coming from someone who’s usually all about blowing €800 billion on weapons in bulk like a redneck doomsday cult stocking up for when Russian tanks finally roll up to the McDonald’s drive thru in Warsaw – five years from now, around 2030, she and the rest of the Eurojokers keep saying. Read more Trump says ‘chill,’ Bibi goes full thrill. So, who’s in charge of the Middle East? “Of course I think a negotiated solution is, in the long term, the best solution,” she later said. Sure – as long as peace doesn’t get in the way of endless proxy war in Ukraine, right? So, is anyone in Europe offering a perspective that doesn’t sound like a hostage video scripted by Netanyahu’s PR team? Not really. The Wall Street Journal summed it up bluntly: “Europe backs Israel against Iran despite anger over Gaza.” For actual dissent, you have to look just outside the EU. “Israel’s attacks on our neighbor Iran are a clear provocation that disregards international law. These attacks, which come at a time when negotiations on Iran’s nuclear program are intensifying and international pressure is increasing against inhumane actions targeting Gaza, demonstrate Israel’s rule-breaking mentality. The Netanyahu administration is trying to drag our region and the entire world into disaster with its reckless, aggressive and lawless actions,” wrote Turkish President Recep Erdogan from right next door to the EU clown tent. Türkiye has been waiting to join the EU since 1999 – like an Amazon package left on the doorstep, permanently. Gee, wonder why. You’d think that when things get this hot, Europe might welcome some diverse opinions – if only to avoid sounding like a chorus line of brain-dead sock puppets mouthing press releases from the Israeli defense ministry. View the full article

It is, and has always been, about regime change and breaking the Axis of Resistance The claim that has been adopted by the United States, Israel and its European partners, that the attack on Iran was a “pre-emptive” attempt to stop Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons, is demonstrably false. It holds about as much weight as the allegations against Iraq’s Saddam Hussein in 2003 and this war of aggression is just as illegal. For the best part of four decades, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been claiming that Iran is on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Yet, every single attempt to strike a deal which would bring more monitoring and restrictions to Iran’s nuclear program has been systematically dismantled by Israel and its powerful lobbying groups in Western capitals. In order to properly assess Israel’s attack on Iran, we have to establish the facts in this case. The Israeli leadership claim to have launched a pre-emptive strike, but have presented no evidence to support their allegations that Iran was on the verge of acquiring a nuclear weapon. Simply stating this does not serve as proof, it is a claim, similar to how the US told the world Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. Back in March, the US Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard testified before a Senate Intelligence Committee that the intelligence community “continues to assess that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has not authorized the nuclear weapons program he suspended in 2003.” On top of this, Iran was actively participating in indirect negotiations with the US to reach a new version of the 2015 Nuclear Deal. Donald Trump announced Washington would unilaterally withdraw from the agreement in 2018, instead pursuing a “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign at the behest of Israel. Read more Trump says ‘chill,’ Bibi goes full thrill. So, who’s in charge of the Middle East? Despite the claims of Netanyahu and Trump that Iran was violating the Nuclear Deal, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released a report which stated Iran was in full compliance with the deal at the time. If you trace back every conversation with neo-conservatives, Israeli war hawks and Washington-based think tanks, their opposition to the Obama-era Nuclear Deal always ends up spiraling into the issues of Iran’s ballistic missile program and its support for regional non-State actors. Israeli officials frequently make claims about Iran producing a nuclear weapon in “years”, “months” or even “weeks,” this has become almost second nature. Yet their main issue has always been with Iran’s support for groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, who strive for the creation of a Palestinian State. Proof of this all is simple. Israel, by itself, cannot destroy Iran’s vast nuclear program. It is not clear the US can destroy it either, even if it enters the war. An example of the US’ ineffectiveness at penetrating Iranian-style bunkers, built into mountainous ranges, as many of Iran’s nuclear facilities are, was demonstrated through the American failure to destroy missile storage bases in Yemen with its bunker-buster munitions, which were dropped from B-2 bombers. Almost immediately after launching his war on Iran, Netanyahu sent out a message in English to the Iranian people, urging them to overthrow their government in an attempt to trigger civil unrest. The Israeli prime minister has since all but announced that regime change is his true intention, claiming that the operation “may lead” to regime change. Israel’s own intelligence community and military elites have also expressed their view that their air force alone is not capable of destroying the Iranian nuclear program. So why then launch this war, if it is not possible to achieve the supposed reason it was “pre-emptively” launched? Read more MAGA’s Civil War: Who dares to take on the Israel lobby? There are two possible explanations: The first is that the Israeli prime minister has launched this assault on Iran as a final showdown in his “seven front war,” with which he hopes to conclude the regional conflict through a deadly exchange that will ultimately inflict damage on both sides. In this scenario, the desired outcome would be to conclude the war with the claim that Netanyahu has succeeded at destroying or has significantly degraded Iran’s nuclear program. He would also throw in claims, like we already see him making, that huge amounts of Iranian missiles and drones were eliminated. This would also make the opening Israeli strike, which killed senior Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) commanders and nuclear scientists, make sense. It would all be the perfect blend of propaganda to sell a victory narrative. On the other hand, the assumption would be that Tehran would also claim victory. Then both sides are able to show the results to their people and tensions cool down for a while. If you are to read what the Washington-based think-tanks are saying about this, most notably The Heritage Foundation, they speak about the ability to contain the war. The second explanation, which could be an added bonus that the Israelis and US are hoping could come as a result of their efforts, is that this is a full-scale regime change war that is designed to rope in the US. Israel’s military prestige was greatly damaged in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023, and since that time there has been no victory achieved over any enemy. Hamas is still operating in Gaza and is said to have just as many fighters as when the war began, Hezbollah was dealt significant blows but is still very much alive, while Yemen’s Ansarallah has only increased its strength. This is an all round stunning defeat of the Israeli military and an embarrassment to the US. Read more The end of Israeli exceptionalism As is well known, Iran is the regional power that backs all of what is called the Axis of Resistance. Without it, groups like Hezbollah and Hamas would be significantly degraded. Evidently, armed resistance to Israeli occupation will never end as long as occupied people exist and live under oppressive rule, but destroying Iran would be devastating for the regional alliance against Israel. The big question however, is whether regime change is even possible. There is a serious question mark here and it seems much more likely that this will end up on a slippery slope to nuclear war instead. What makes the Israeli-US claim that this war is somehow pre-emptive, for which there is no proof at all, all the more ridiculous of a notion, is that if anything, Iran may now actually rush to acquire a nuclear weapon for defensive purposes. If they can’t even trust the Israelis not to bomb them with US backing, while negotiations were supposed to be happening, then how can a deal ever be negotiated? Even in the event that the US joins and deals a major blow to the Iranian nuclear program, it doesn’t mean that Iran will simply abandon the program altogether. Instead, Tehran could simply end up rebuilding and acquiring the bomb years later. Another outcome of this war could end up being Israeli regime change, which also appears as if it could now be on the table. View the full article

Moscow sees an opportunity in thawing India-China ties, but distrust, trade imbalances, and Western pressure complicate a RIC comeback India is still in the aftermath of Operation Sindoor, in which it watched as China actively supported Pakistan with hardware, intelligence and command and control, and global narrative building. China and India have had military showdowns on their borders every few years. The US-led NATO bloc is openly supporting Ukraine against Russia. As an adversary of the Americans, China has been tacitly backing Russia, while India, in its desire not to antagonize the US, has chosen a neutral stance on the Ukraine-Russia conflict. Russia is not exactly enthused about this. China, and to a lesser extent Russia, are not happy with India becoming active in the Quad, a visibly anti-China grouping of India, the US, Japan, and Australia. Much to India’s chagrin, Russia continues to engage with Pakistan, which it considers geographically important to safeguard its interests in Central Asia, but also to remind India to not get too close with the US. With India already the fourth-largest economy and among the fastest growing, both Russia and China have an interest in continuing to engage with it. If Russia can woo India away from the West, then Russia-India-China (RIC) can become an important bloc. The combined GDP – adjusted for purchasing power parity – of China (19.6%), India (8.23%), and Russia (3.48%) currently amounts to 31.31%. The economic influence of BRICS nations exceeds that of the G7. In 2025, RIC accounted for 37% of the global population. RIC is among the top 2025 global defense spenders after the US ($895 billion), with China ($266 billion), Russia ($126 billion), and India ($77 billion). In 2025, NATO member states spent $1.5 trillion on defense, which was 55% of global military expenditure. NATO is practically opposing only one country, Russia. Against this backdrop, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reaffirmed in May Moscow’s strong interest in reviving the Russia-India-China trilateral dialogue, citing improved India-China border ties. Russia accuses the West of trying to promote friction between India and China. The RIC formation RIC is an informal trilateral strategic grouping, originally conceptualized by Russia in the late 1990s as a counterbalance to Western dominance. It was the brainchild of former Russian Prime Minister Evgeny Primakov. Over the years, it has facilitated over 20 ministerial-level meetings, fostering cooperation in foreign policy, economics, & security among the three nations. Read more Say goodbye to cheap oil – and thank Israel and Iran while you’re at it The grouping comprises the three largest Eurasian countries, which occupy over 19% of the global landmass. All three are nuclear powers & Russia and China are permanent members of the UN Security Council. All three countries are also members of BRICS, the G20, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. RIC opposes unilateralism and supports the idea of a multipolar global governance model. It offers an alternative perspective on global issues, advocating for equity and reforms in global institutions. The grouping supports Eurasian integration through projects such as the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC) and the Eurasian Economic Union. For India, the RIC format presents both opportunities and challenges. As India prioritizes strategic autonomy, it must balance opportunities in RIC and avoid being locked into any single camp, whether Western or non-Western. The grouping faced a major setback and became dormant after the 2020 Galwan Valley clashes between India and China. The ongoing border disputes and lack of trust between India and China remain a challenge. India’s growing ties with the West and its role in the Quad also complicate engagement with the RIC grouping. Russia’s growing closeness with China, especially in the wake of the Ukraine conflict, might also raise concerns in India about the impartiality of the RIC platform. Moscow has been reaching out to Beijing and New Delhi to ease the situation on the border. A thaw took place when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met on the sidelines of the 16th BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia in October 2024. There have been 18 meetings of RIC foreign ministers. The last in-person meeting was held in Osaka on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in 2019. It was just the third such meeting in 12 years. The last ministerial-level RIC meeting was held online in November 2021. In Osaka, the three leaders spoke on the international situation, both the challenges on the economic side and of peace and stability. They stressed the need to strengthen the international system led by the UN. They also stressed the need to promote a multipolar world, a world in which there are many centers of influence and stability. Terrorism as a global scourge was discussed. To promote trilateral cooperation, more specific areas needed to be evolved. Challenges and advantages for strengthening RIC India has become a key partner of the US in its Indo-Pacific Strategy, in an effort to address China’s rising power. But the recent trade and tariff war may cast a negative shadow on the broader US-India strategic ties. It is no coincidence that the idea to push the RIC format has come amid these difficulties between the US and India. Read more As India and Pakistan eye each other, this superpower eyes the whole map Speaking at a security conference in Perm on May 29, Lavrov declared that “the time has come” to bring back the RIC mechanism, citing signs of deescalation in India-China border tensions. While trying to push multilateralism, each country has to defend their national interests. Undoubtedly, Russia has a strong and genuine interest in strengthening RIC. But will strengthening it help New Delhi manage American tariffs? India’s balance of payments with both RIC partners is also very unfavorable. If RIC becomes an anti-US group, it will not be good for China either, as its economy largely depends on trade with the West. Can the scope of RIC be expanded, with foreign policy, economic, trade, and financial agencies of the three countries working more closely together, with greater give-and-take on minerals, rare-earths, microchips, and other technologies? The growing Sino-Indian rivalry is expected to limit the range of issues in which members will be able to find consensus. Are RIC members ready for substantial military exercises between them without significant distrust? The answer is no. India wants Russia to join the Indo-Pacific initiative to signal that it’s not just a US-centric plan. India’s focus on economic links with the Russian Far East and activation of a Chennai-Vladivostok maritime corridor may help persuade Russia that its interests in the Pacific are compatible with India’s interest in diluting Chinese dominance in the Indo-Pacific; this also accords with Putin’s concept of a Greater Eurasia. Some analysts believe that by imposing harsh tariffs, the US is pushing New Delhi into Beijing’s lap. Would RIC tend towards becoming an anti-American alliance? As India prioritizes strategic autonomy, it would prefer to balance opportunities in RIC and avoid being locked into any single camp. The RIC countries, with important influence at international and regional levels and emerging market economies, need to further strengthen practical coordination on global and regional issues in the spirit of openness, solidarity, mutual understanding, and trust. Notwithstanding the bilateral asymmetries, India and China have no choice but to engage bilaterally and multilaterally on a range of issues, even while firmly protecting their own interests. China, India’s leading trade partner, has a significant role indeed in driving the Indian economy and creating high-quality manufacturing jobs, which is of course a sensitive political issue. Chinese analysts have taken note of a recent shift in the Indian policy to attract more Chinese investment. Read more This gathering showed why global power is shifting to the South The Chinese economy is heavily dependent on the American market. Some understanding on trade between the US and China will emerge sooner rather than later. This will also have dynamics for RIC – and with America’s global standing dipping a little, there could be a shift in the years ahead. Russia’s call to revive the RIC format reflects its strategic intent to bolster regional cooperation and counterbalance Western influence. It is in Russia’s interests to be a facilitator in India-China relations. Lavrov has flagged this issue now, before Russian President Vladimir Putin’s scheduled visit to India this year. Lavrov believes that a strengthened RIC will give India greater leverage to resist Western pressure and maintain strategic autonomy. Partnering with the two most populous countries gives Russia strength. The success of this trilateral initiative will depend on the political will of all three nations to navigate complex geopolitical dynamics and prioritize mutual interests. Perhaps the time has come for Primakov’s idea that the RIC triangle should become the symbol of the multipolar world and its core. There are contradictions in the RIC format that the US will continue to exploit. But the same is true for many other groupings. For RIC to succeed, India is a key player, and its sensitivities about China have to be assuaged. China has to pull back on its support for Pakistan and stop using Pakistan’s aerospace, nuclear, and missile build-up as leverage against India. Taking part in RIC will be an opportunity for India to showcase its strategic autonomy to a global audience and send a message to Washington, which has repeatedly expressed its displeasure over India’s close ties with Russia. View the full article

Behind the rhetoric, Israel’s offensive has revealed just how little control the US now wields If the Academy handed out Oscars for political theater, Donald Trump would be a shoo-in for the 2025 award for Worst Performance in a Leading Role. His latest remarks are less about statesmanship and more about saving face as global events spin far beyond the grasp of American diplomacy. And the harder he tries to project himself as a dealmaker pulling strings behind the scenes, the clearer it becomes: Western dominance is cracking, and Washington is reacting more on impulse than strategy. The latest flashpoint – the 2025 escalation between Israel and Iran – has exposed the crumbling illusion of American leadership. Despite Trump’s claim that he “convinced” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu not to strike Iran, the facts tell a different story. Netanyahu brushed off the advice and launched a sweeping assault on Iranian targets – not just military, but symbolic. In one bold move, he derailed already fragile nuclear talks between Washington and Tehran, revealing exactly who sets the agenda in the region now. Faced with this reality, US leaders had two choices: admit their influence over Israel had faded, or publicly support the strikes and cling to the image of leadership – even if it meant further undermining their credibility as a neutral arbiter. Unsurprisingly, they chose the latter. Backing Israel at the expense of diplomacy with Iran has become business as usual. Washington isn’t conducting the symphony anymore; it’s trying to stay in rhythm while the conductor’s baton is in someone else’s hand. So when Trump talks about having “leverage” over Israel, it sounds more like community theater than statesmanship. Even he doesn’t seem to believe the part he’s playing. In 2025, once again, the United States isn’t leading the charge – it’s being dragged along. And the more American leaders insist everything’s fine, the more obvious it becomes: the age of Western supremacy is fading out, in a blaze of theatrical flair that rivals Trump’s own off-script improvisations. Read more MAGA’s Civil War: Who dares to take on the Israel lobby? What did Trump actually say? A close look at Trump’s statements – and those from his administration – in the wake of Israel’s strike on Iran reveals a political paradox: while the US officially opposed escalation, it did nothing to stop it. Why? Because the political cost at home was too high. In an election year, Trump couldn’t risk a fight with one of the GOP’s most reliable bases: pro-Israel voters and the powerful lobbying machine behind them. Trump tried to play it both ways. On one hand, he said, “It wasn’t a surprise to me,” and claimed he neither endorsed nor blocked the strike. But just days earlier, he boasted: “I talked to Bibi. He promised not to do anything drastic. We held him back.” That’s a crucial detail. At least on the surface, the Trump White House wanted to avoid escalation. But once the missiles flew, Trump pivoted hard: “Israel has the right to defend itself.” “The US wasn’t involved in the operation.” “But if Iran hits us, we’ll hit back harder than ever.” This about-face reveals just how little influence Washington had. Netanyahu played the hand he wanted – defying US interests, derailing diplomacy, and still compelling American support. Warnings from Washington didn’t even register. Caught flat-footed, Trump scrambled to regain control with vague reassurances: “Iran might still get a second chance.” “We’re open to talks.” “Iranian officials are calling me. They want to talk.” These weren’t policy statements. They were PR – a bid to dodge blame for a failed containment strategy. His line that “I gave Iran a chance, but they didn’t take it” is less a fact and more a way to recast himself as the peacemaker – the guy who ended tensions between India and Pakistan and now promises to “make the Middle East great again.” Read more Fyodor Lukyanov: Here’s how the West made Israel-Iran war possible Is this genuine diplomacy? Or a carefully crafted performance aimed at domestic audiences – and international ones, too? Trump even welcomed Vladimir Putin as a potential mediator: “He’s ready. He called me. We had a long talk.” By doing so, he tried to recast the situation from an American failure to a global problem that needs collective resolution – conveniently shifting the spotlight away from US accountability. And while Trump played diplomat, Axios reported that Israel had actively lobbied for US participation in the strikes, and the Wall Street Journal revealed that Trump had promised Netanyahu he wouldn’t stand in the way. All signs point to this: any restraint Washington projected was a smokescreen for its inability – or unwillingness – to rein in its closest Middle Eastern ally. In the end, Israel got what it wanted. The US got sidelined. And Iran got a loud-and-clear message: America isn’t calling the shots. Netanyahu exploited the weaknesses baked into the US political system – proving once again that alliances don’t equal parity. And while Trump talks of giving Iran another chance, the truth is this: Washington is now playing by rules written in Jerusalem. What Comes Next? The current Israel-Iran confrontation has sparked alarm worldwide. But while tensions are high and missiles have flown, the chances of full-scale war still appear slim. Tehran, despite its fiery rhetoric, has shown restraint. It seems to be holding out for a return to diplomacy – and possibly a new round of talks with Washington. The US, too, is in no mood for another drawn-out Middle East war. With its strategic focus shifting elsewhere and voters tired of endless foreign entanglements, Washington is eager to avoid getting pulled into something deeper. A slow, uneasy de-escalation looks like the most plausible outcome – the only question is how long that will take. Read more ‘If Iran falls, we all lose’: Why Tehran’s allies see this war as civilizational Make no mistake: Israel’s strikes inflicted heavy damage – particularly on the IRGC’s infrastructure and the supply networks for Iran-backed forces in Syria and Lebanon. But Iran’s retaliation – a massive drone and missile barrage on Israeli territory – was a shock to the Israeli public. It caused serious destruction and considerable casualties, raising questions about Netanyahu’s gamble. Inside Iran, the regime faces mounting economic pressure and growing public frustration. Yet there are no signs of collapse. The leadership remains intact, held together by tight control and elite loyalty. A new deal with the US could offer much-needed economic relief, giving leverage to more pragmatic voices in Tehran that favor engagement over confrontation. As for Israel, the longer-term political fallout is still unclear. Netanyahu may have boosted his image as a tough, decisive leader – but if talks between Washington and Tehran resume and produce even a temporary agreement, Israel could find itself isolated. Netanyahu’s open friction with the Biden administration over Gaza and Iran may come back to haunt him. If diplomacy moves forward without Israel, it could leave him out in the cold – and facing heat from both domestic critics and international partners. Meanwhile, regional powers like Turkey, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Qatar are stepping up. They’ve launched a flurry of diplomatic efforts – including quiet lobbying in Washington – to further rein in Israeli escalation. These countries have no interest in another war. They’re worried that if things spiral, US bases and assets across the region – from Iraq to the Gulf – could become targets. That would bring serious security risks and economic disruption, just as these nations are trying to push forward with growth and reform. Their message is clear: further chaos in the Middle East is not an option. These states are now emerging as key voices for de-escalation – working to steer the crisis back to the negotiating table. Final thought Despite the intensity of the current standoff, the likeliest path forward remains a tense but managed de-escalation. Neither Iran nor the US wants a war. Israel, meanwhile, is walking a tightrope – trying to look strong while navigating a shrinking space for unilateral action. That leaves a narrow window for diplomacy. The real question is: when will the politics – in all three capitals – catch up with the need for a deal? View the full article

There was a time in my life when all I wanted to talk about was fitness. I was obsessed. I read every book and study I could get my hands on. I tracked my workouts, filmed my progress, and poured my energy into building a brand around movement. I wanted to be a “fitness person” — not just for myself, but because I thought that if I could prove I was disciplined and inspiring enough, maybe I’d finally feel worthy. Fitness gave me structure when everything else in my life felt messy. It helped me survive. And I’ll always be grateful for that. But lately, I’ve noticed something strange: I don’t feel the same urge to talk about it all the time. Don’t get me wrong — I still move every single day. I train hard, compete in jiu-jitsu-jitsu, push myself. Fitness is still one of the deepest sources of aliveness in my life. But it’s no longer something I need to post about constantly, or wrap my identity around. It just is. And for a while, that confused me. Was I losing my passion for it? Was something wrong? I don’t think so. I think something finally clicked. In the beginning, wanting to get fit is often about becoming someone new. You start because something in you wants to change. Maybe it’s how you feel in your body. Maybe it’s your confidence, your energy, your sense of direction. You chase goals. You set milestones. You prove to yourself (and sometimes, if you’re honest, to others) that you’re serious. And that’s a necessary part of the process. Transformation is powerful. But if you stick with it — through the plateaus, the injuries, the boredom, the real-life stuff — something subtle starts to happen. You stop needing fitness to prove anything. You stop needing it to be exciting all the time. It becomes part of you. Not a project. Not a performance. A practice. There’s a quiet kind of power in that place. When fitness becomes integrated — when it’s woven into your days like brushing your teeth or feeding your dog — it stops being something you have to hype yourself up for. You just do it. You move because it’s how you process emotions. Because it keeps you sane. Because it helps you show up for your life. And sure, some days you’ll still train for something big. You’ll chase a new skill or sign up for a challenge. That kind of goal-setting can be really fun and motivating. But the deeper goal? The real long-term aim? It’s this. It’s living a life where fitness supports who you are — not defines you. Where it doesn’t have to be the headline of your identity, because it’s already embedded in your way of being. So if you’re still in the early stages of your journey — still finding your rhythm, still discovering what works for you — don’t rush this part. It’s beautiful. Let yourself obsess a little. Let it light you up. And if you’re in a season where things feel quieter, steadier, maybe even a little boring? That’s not failure. That’s maturity. Fitness isn’t meant to be a forever transformation montage. It’s a relationship. One that will evolve with you over time. Right now, I’m in a phase where I don’t need to shout about it. I just do it. I show up. I train. I rest. I move because it’s who I am. And honestly, I think that’s the point. The post When Fitness Becomes Who You Are appeared first on 12 Minute Athlete. View the full article

Prominent conservative figures are calling on Donald Trump to stay out of the Israel-Iran war, but is it the rebellion it seems to be? Steve Bannon – stubborn, irrepressible, and very smart right/far-right public intellectual and once ally, chief strategist, and bestie of US President Donald Trump – is back in the news. And in a way that speaks to much more than the ups and downs, ins and outs of US elite careers. Because the hill he is fighting on this time is resistance to the US waging another all-around devastating war in the Middle East in the service of Israel and its powerful lobby in America. Bannon, make no mistake, is not taking a de facto – if still all too limited – stand against Israel because of its apartheid, genocide, and wars of aggression. He ought to, obviously, especially as a man flaunting his Christian belief. (From one sort-of-Roman-Catholic to another, Steve: Our Lord Jesus Christ really didn’t like the child killers, and I am pretty sure he would have found the lingerie-camouflage cross-dressers with machine guns rather off-putting, too.) But then, if Bannon were to advance principled moral objections here, he would not be Steve Bannon, a very conservative American, who will probably never shake off deeply ingrained mental habits of cynicism and supremacism. Indeed, he has made sure to stress that he remains a “big supporter” and “defender of Israel.” Yet, from Trump’s perspective – and that of the Israeli influence agents surrounding him – Bannon’s line of attack is, given American political culture, more politically dangerous than a genuinely moral stance. Because Bannon is positioning American national interest against following Israel’s lead. Declaring that Israel pursues an “Israel First” policy – you bet: about as egotistically as Berlin’s “Germany First” trip between 1933 and 1945 – Bannon has dared state the obvious: Israel’s interests are not identical with those of the US, and therefore, a genuine “America First” policy must not obey Israel. Read more Former Trump aide calls for ‘America first’ over Israel Hence, stay out of the war against Iran. Or to be precise, get out of it. Especially since, as Bannon argues not implausibly, with the ongoing Ukraine War, the Gaza Genocide (which he of course fails to name as such), and now the Israeli assault on Iran, we are not really drifting toward World War III but already in its early stages. And, let’s face it, if there’s a World War III Bannon would support, that would be the one targeting China. One more reason why he believes the US should decrease – not increase – its engagement in the Middle East (and Europe, too): so that it can better “pivot to Asia.” Whether you agree with Bannon on China (I don’t) and World War III or believe that we are “merely” teetering on the threshold to a third global conflagration, Bannon is, of course, right that Washington must, in its own national interest, finally stop obeying Israel. In terms of domestic politics in the US, Bannon’s sally signals, as he himself argues and the Financial Times recognizes, a lethally dangerous split among Trump’s domestically indispensable MAGA base. For Bannon, the whole Trump agenda, as he sees it, of ending “forever wars,” mass deportations, and recasting global trade to benefit the US and its manufacturing sector in particular, is in danger if the wars do not, in fact, finally end. The trigger for this perfect storm brewing inside MAGA is the perfect mess Trump and his team have made over the attack on Iran: Despite their clumsy mixed messaging – really, contradictory lying and boasting – Israel’s unprovoked war of aggression against Iran can, obviously, only be waged because of massive American support. Despite initial implausible denials, by now Trump has gone so far as to utter what is, in effect, a bizarre and criminal threat against the 9-million city of Tehran. In reality, this has always, from before it even started, been a combined US-Israeli attack, and it makes no difference to this fact that Israel always wants even more, including – as Axios, a network with remarkably easy access to Israeli sources, has reported – open US help in attacking the key Iranian nuclear installations at Fordow. Never mind, by the way, that deliberately striking a nuclear facility is as criminal as it gets. It constitutes a clear breach of the Geneva Conventions, as the former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Mohamed ElBaradei has recently had to publicly school German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul about. The latter is clearly just as ignorant of his job’s basics as his legendarily inept predecessor Annalena Baerbock used to be. Yet, as Bannon’s intervention shows, the key role the US plays in the assault on Iran has caused noteworthy ripple effects inside America and in particular inside the movement now known as MAGA. Originally the abbreviation was an extremely successful 2016 Trump campaign slogan – inspired by a forerunner used by Ronald Reagan in 1980 – meaning ‘Make America Great Again’. But as a movement, MAGA has a much longer history. Its influences and ancestors include, for instance, nativism, isolationism, the original America First, and the more recent Tea Party. That’s why it is important to understand that MAGA overlaps with but is not identical with Trumpism, as often assumed. In reality, MAGA is part of an older, powerful tradition that Trump has tapped into with great success. But he is not guaranteed to always be in control of it, as the term ‘Trumpism’ may misleadingly imply. Read more Deterrence or death: Israel is making the case for a nuclear-armed Iran Take for instance the perhaps greatest cleavage running through contemporary Trumpism 2.0: that between a right-wing populist orientation still aiming at, for want of better terms, ordinary Americans, and a techno-elitist wing busy with fantasies of openly establishing an AI-based rule of the richest. Things clearly remain volatile. For wasn’t it only yesterday that the would-be tech lords, represented by former “first buddy” Elon Musk, seemed to have defeated the populist tribunes of the Steve Bannon type? And yet, now Musk, the “man-child” is out (if not necessarily forever) and Bannon, the old battle axe, is making headlines again. Warning of the “fog of war” – read that as code either for just ordinary information unreliability or for deliberate Israeli and Western disinformation – and “unintended consequences,” Bannon has been explicit: The US must not be “sucked into another major war on the Eurasian land mass, particularly the Middle East.” And yet, he added, America is already an “active combatant” by providing air defense to Israel. For Bannon, at least in his current iteration, none of this is new. As he has also recently charged, the fundamental reason why American troops are in Iraq and thus in harm’s way is that the US government and its media, including both Republicans and Democrats, have “lied to us,” i.e., the American people, for decades. It has not been, as Bannon stressed, simply incompetence or mistakes, but the “bald-faced lies” and “spin of the neocons.” That is of course a reference to the fact that the US and its Western accomplices started their 2003 unprovoked war of aggression against Iraq with a massive, Gleiwitz-level deception by deliberately trying to deceive the world about non-existent Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. And that, according to Bannon, was along with the financial crisis of 2008 the original sin that triggered “this movement,” clearly here meaning what we now know as MAGA. Bannon’s history may be a little off as far as facts are concerned. The roots of contemporary American right-wing populism include a tradition of isolationism, but they are certainly not identical with a revolt against the Iraq War, insane and criminal as the latter was. Read more Iran warns foreign weapons deliveries to Israel are ‘legitimate target’: Live Updates But veracity and accuracy aren’t the point here. Instead what matters is how precisely Bannon is trying to rewrite history, namely by claiming opposition to neocon “forever wars,” specifically in the Middle East (transparent code for on behalf of Israel) as not only a core value of MAGA, but as a key element of its origin story. As for Israel’s assault on Iran, Bannon was scathing. Rhetorically exploiting the silly pretense that Israel was “going it alone” when starting the attack – which Bannon is certainly intelligent and realistic enough to know is nonsense – he called on Israel to stick to doing just that. Yet instead, he scoffed, the “going-it-alone lasted six hours” and Israel is doing everything it can to drag Americans ever deeper into another massive war. Importantly, Bannon is not alone. As he pointed out, conservative media heavyweight Tucker Carlson has made the same point. In fact, Carlson has been even more explicit. Using his X account with over 16 million followers to claim that the key divide of US politics is between “those who casually encourage violence, and those who seek to prevent it – between warmongers and peacemakers,” Carlson started naming “the warmongers,” including “anyone who’s calling Donald Trump today to demand air strikes and other direct US military involvement in a war with Iran,” such as “Sean Hannity, Mark Levin, Rupert Murdoch, Ike Perlmutter and Miriam Adelson.” Carlson added that “at some point they will all have to answer for this, but you should know their names now.” And what names they are: Of the five, three, i.e., 60 percent – Levin, Perlmutter, and Adelson – are as most Americans would know or guess, Jewish. Murdoch and Hannity, in the minority, are not. But all of the five are staunch Zionists, Hannity having been acknowledged by the Jerusalem Post as one of “10 Pro-Israeli Christians,” i.e. a Christian Zionist. And that was in October 2024, a full year into Israel’s ongoing genocide of the Palestinians. Mark Levin, an influential and extremely rightwing media personality, got his “Friends of Zion Museum ‘Defender Award’ for his steadfast support of the State of Israel and the Jewish people” in 2018. Read more From the blast zone: Russian expert on Iran’s calm – and its next moves Murdoch, the Western publishing oligarch with massive political influence, used a rambling – but who’s going to edit him, right? – 2009 Jerusalem Post article to admit he feels very flattered by frequently being misidentified as Jewish and to explain that the “free world” – old-timers’ speak for “rules-based value West” – must support Israel to the hilt. According to Wikipedia, Ike Perlmutter is “an Israeli-American billionaire businessman and financier” – although ironically enough born in Mandate Palestine – who “through a variety of sometimes unorthodox business deals” has been “an influential investor in a number of corporations.” He also used to run Marvel Entertainment. Yes, that Marvel, the superhero story company now absorbed by Disney and perhaps the single most effective vehicle of contemporary US propaganda. And multi-billionaire Miriam Adelson is of course not only the widow of Sheldon Adelson, the “casino mogul” and arch Zionist, but also a fanatical Zionist in her own right. Both Adelsons have been among Donald Trump’s most generous supporters. During his 2016 presidential campaign they were already among his “top donors.” In 2020 – when he lost – they made the single biggest individual contribution, a whopping $75 million. In 2024, Miriam Adelson dialed it up to eleven with $106 million. Only Elon Musk ($276 million) and rich heir extraordinaire Timothy Mellon ($150 million) gave even more. And then there is the influential MAGA icon and Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. In a long post on X, she fired a broadside against any further US involvement in wars abroad: “We are $36+ TRILLION in debt and have mountains of our own problems. We have giant planks sticking out of our own eyes while we complain about splinters in other’s eyes. Every country involved and all over the world can be happy, successful, and rich if we all work together and seek peace and prosperity.” MTG, as she is often called, has also preemptively and rightly rejected any accusation of “antisemitism” and even of isolationism: “Taking this position is NOT antisemitic. It’s rational, sane, and loving toward all people. Taking this position of peace and prosperity for all is not isolationism, it leads to GREAT trade deals and GREAT economies that help ALL PEOPLE.” Read more US aerial tankers headed to Middle East – media Worst of all, from Trump’s and Israel’s perspective, she has in effect reminded her 4.8 million followers, as well as many others who will read about her post in the traditional media, of Trump’s own campaign promise to end and not start wars, because no more wars is “what many Americans voted for in 2024.” Clearly, there are influential representatives of MAGA who are not only willing to openly challenge the perversely self-damaging hold that Washington allows Israel to have over its foreign policy, but are also beginning to be explicit about the fact that Israel’s lobby in the US – whether Jewish or not – is putting another country first, at enormous cost to Americans. Unfortunately, there are reasons to fear that this right-wing criticism of ‘Israel First’ will not prevail. Trump may very well be so beholden to and afraid of the Israel lobby that he will make the single worst mistake of his life and get even deeper into the war against Iran. But then the question is: What will happen next? There is a brave left-wing opposition to Israel in America – full disclosure: my sort of people – and there also is clear polling evidence that Israel’s grip on American society as a whole is finally slipping, especially among the young. Now add a right-wing, MAGA-based opposition and another great US fiasco in the Middle East backfiring on America’s home front. Israel may get its wish once again, but in the not-so-long run it should be very careful what it wishes for. And that, as grim as the news is, is a tiny speck of hope on a very dark horizon. View the full article