The dreadful atrocities by Hamas on 7 October 2023 horrified the world and triggered the destruction of Gaza, the deaths of more than 50,000 Gazan men, women and children and the wounding of tens of thousands more.

 

John Stace

Was Israel complicit in the 7 October 2023 massacre?

 

Israeli leaders placed the entire blame on Hamas for the deaths of 1200 Israelis and others and the kidnapping of another 250. But the attack would not have been so devastating if the Israel Defence Force had responded to the evidence that Hamas was preparing a large military action.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will deliver a speech on Monday acknowledging that the era of globalization has come to an end, The Times has reported.

Starmer will make the address in response to US President Donald Trump imposing sweeping tariffs on the majority of America’s trading partners, including the UK, earlier this week, according to the article on Sunday.

The outlet said the prime minister will say that tariffs are “wrong,” but would also stress that he understands Trump’s “economic nationalism” and why the voters, who believe they have seen no benefits from free trade and mass immigration, support it.

Starmer will also stress that the fallout from the US charges on imports means that the government in London should “move further and faster” to boost economic growth at home.

WASHINGTON -- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is reportedly looking to leave the Trump administration following the president's "reciprocal tariff" announcement, which has raised concerns about its impact on the economy, The New Republic reported on Saturday.

On MSNBC's Morning Joe, contributor Stephanie Ruhle revealed that Bessent, once a hedge fund manager, is increasingly isolated within the administration and may be seeking an exit to salvage his credibility, possibly aiming for a position at the Federal Reserve.

According to the report, Bessent's frustration stems from Trump's tariff policy, which includes a 10 percent baseline tariff on nearly all foreign goods, a move that Bessent warned could escalate global trade tensions.

The Hungarian prime minister said the EU Commission's call for people to prepare a 72-hour emergency kit was scary. "What's on these people's minds? Are they up to something?" the politician lamented, speaking on public radio.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first national leader to react to the EU Commission's advice for people to prepare a 72-hour survival kit for emergency situations.

Having written two celebrated books on fascism in the 20th century, Jewish-American scholar John Stanley draws direct parallels with the second Donald Trump presidency.

"Fascism is what the Trump administration is now doing," he told DW of the president's second term in office.

In late March, Stanley announced his decision to quit Yale University and move to Canada, where he will work at the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. He follows Timothy Snyder and Marci Shore,  two Yale history professors who are a married couple, who also left for Toronto after the US presidential election.  

 

Peter Dutton’s election campaign is faltering just as momentum should be building, fuelling growing unease inside the Coalition that his abrasive image and perceived ideological closeness to Donald Trump is pushing away the swing voters he needs to win.

What was meant to be a disciplined opening to a five-week campaign, centred on cost-of-living pressures and national security, was instead overshadowed by muddled messaging, strategic drift and a leader whose tough-guy persona – unyielding, combative, defiantly anti-woke – now seems misaligned with voters unsettled by Trump’s assault on the global rules-based order.

X is not real life, but its tentacles slither into the increasingly online landscape that defines real life. It’s not X’s fault; it has merely become an incubator of a trend launched years ago by the 24-hour news cycle. Really, then, much of our modern malaise is the fault of Ted Turner, a man so wise he saw fit to marry Jane Fonda in 1991, well after she had publicly aired her crazy in myriad ways. 

And while information is good, there’s only so much of it that comes out in a day, which leaves lots of hours left to fill. Hence, the terrain quickly shifted from constant news to constant hysteria. Which is fine, if toting a fainting couch around with you is your thing, but there’s really no need to live this way. Take, for example, the latest outrage to animate us all: President Trump’s tariffs. 

Russia will have little difficulty reaching its target of 1.5 million active military personnel, despite the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander in Europe Christopher Cavoli has predicted.

During a US Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Thursday, the four-star US Army general evaluated Moscow’s ability to enhance its military capabilities.

”I believe the personnel they’ll be able to build as quickly as they want to,”Cavoli stated, referencing the launch of a spring conscription campaign on Tuesday that aims to enroll 160,000 recruits for military training. Unlike Kiev, Moscow does not deploy conscripts to the front lines, relying instead on volunteers.

Lyndon LaRouche (8 September 1922 – 12 February 2019), was an American economist, and political activist who founded various political organizations under the umbrella of what was termed the LaRouche Movement, and the Schiller Institute, founded by his spouse, Helga-Zepp-LaRouche.

 

The LaRouche Outlook: Between the British and US Economic Models    BY Tamer Mansour

 

A prominent American who does not look like an American in his views 

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reassured NATO member states that Washington remains committed to the military bloc, while insisting that members must drastically increase spending on their militaries.

Rubio made the remarks at NATO’s foreign ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Thursday.

US President Donald Trump had previously threatened to leave NATO if bloc members failed to increase their military spending. He has called for a huge hike to 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) from the current 2% benchmark only reached by 23 of its 32 members in 2024.

“The United States is in NATO ... The United States is as active in NATO as it has ever been,” Rubio told reporters, dismissing doubts about that commitment as “hysteria.”

Trump’s ‘sledgehammer’ approach may cause trade wars – financial analyst
The US president is applying primitive tactics in both the economic and political issues he’s dealing with, Henry Johnston tells RT

US President Donald Trump’s tactics in both political and economic matters are very similar and are tantamount to using a sledgehammer for a problem that requires nuance, financial analyst Henry Johnston has told RT. On Wednesday, Trump announced a new round of sweeping tariffs on scores of trading partners, part of what he has branded his ‘Liberation Day’ plan.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has urged Washington’s trading partners not to retaliate against President Donald Trump’s latest set of tariffs.

Trump on Wednesday announced reciprocal tariffs on exports from countries around the world, part of what he has branded his ‘Liberation Day’ plan, raising fears of a global trade war.

Speaking to Fox News shortly after Trump’s announcement, Bessent said that the levies aimed to lay the groundwork for long-term economic growth.

“My advice to every country right now is do not retaliate,” Bessent said. “Sit back, take it in, let’s see how it goes.” 

He warned that retaliation would lead to escalation.

The initiation of mass firings of over 20,000 scientists and public health workers at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) marks a historic turning point in the collapse of American democracy and the Trump administration’s efforts to establish a fascist dictatorship in the United States.

 

The historic significance of Trump’s fascist assault on science    BY Evan Blake

 

“We’re not, but we should be.”

That was French economy minister Éric Lombard’s response to a question on March 1 asking if France is now in a war economy.

In June 2022, French president Emmanuel Macron addressed the country’s defense industry, four months after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. “Everything has changed,” Macron said, arguing that a war economy would be necessary to ensure Europe’s collective defense against Russia.

 

On the first day of April in 2022, shocking videos began circulating on Ukrainian social media, showing the streets of Bucha, a town in Kiev region, strewn with dead bodies.  The “Bucha massacre” quickly became one of the most widely discussed and controversial chapters of the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict. Western media immediately accused the Russian army of mass killings, while Vladimir Zelensky declared that these acts were not only war crimes but a genocide against his country's people.

 

By Petr Lavrenin