Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Con Coughlin • April 18, 2025 at 5:00 am
The appointment, however, of several officials to key national security positions in the Trump administration, who vehemently oppose direct military action against Iran, has raised concerns that the White House might be backing away from its commitment to eliminate the threat Iran poses to global security. In particular, these concerns relate to the recent appointments to the Pentagon of influential figures such as John Byers for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (South and South-East Asia), and Michael DiMino, a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism official, for Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Middle East). Similarly, concerns have arisen that DiMino will be able to use his position as the Pentagon's new chief Middle East policy adviser to advance an anti-Israel stance while questioning the Trump administration's confrontational stance towards Iran. As with Byers, DiMino was previously linked to the libertarian Koch brothers, having held tenure as a fellow at the Washington think tank Defense Priorities, which is funded by the Koch team. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff recently downgraded Trump's professed demands by asking Iran just to lower uranium enrichment -- a statement he quickly had to walk back. Iran has already stated that it could move its stockpiles of highly enriched uranium to "safe and undisclosed locations," presumably for use at a later time. Russia, in an apparent burst of generosity, has offered to host the enriched uranium. How kind of them! While Trump keeps offering perfect negotiating parameters, such as, "All hostages must be released by Saturday or all hell will break out," or, "Iran issue is easy to solve, they cannot obtain nuclear weapons," his statements always seem to be instantly undermined.
While President Donald Trump keeps offering perfect negotiating parameters, such as, "the Iran issue is easy to solve, they cannot obtain nuclear weapons," his statements always seem to be instantly undermined by officials in his administration. If this continues, the growing band of isolationists, both media personalities such as Tucker Carlson and people who occupy senior positions in the Trump administration, will have won the policy battle -- a victory that will seriously imperil the US and the wider world. Pictured from L-R: Carlson, US Rep. Byron Donalds, Trump and J.D. Vance at the Republican National Convention on July 15, 2024 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Fears that the Trump administration is back-tracking on its declared policy of seeking to dismantle Iran's nuclear programme have deepened following the appointment of several officials to key national security positions who are reportedly opposed to launching military action against Tehran. Following his meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington earlier this month, US President Donald Trump was explicit about his determination to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons. "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if the talks aren't successful, I actually think it'll be a very bad day for Iran," Trump told reporters after meeting with Netanyahu. Trump even suggested that Israel could be the "leader" for any future military action against Iran if the ayatollahs refused to give up its nuclear weapons programme.
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Witkoff In His Own Words
Is Witkoff breaking new ground or repeating Biden's errors?
by Daniel Greenfield • April 17, 2025 at 5:00 am
Witkoff, whatever his flaws, is far more honest than his PR men on X or Capitol Hill, and has never denied that he was just implementing the policies of the Biden administration. What new solutions has Witkoff come up with? The Obama ones. Negotiate with terrorists. Pretend they're reasonable. Give them what they want. Act confused when it doesn't work out. Figuring out what the terrorists want and trying to give it to them were the signature diplomatic policies of the Carter, Clinton and Biden administrations. Those are the "old-school globalist solutions," which is why President Donald Trump is such a breath of fresh air and Witkoff isn't. Whatever Witkoff's agendas are, he's in over his head, and he outsourced his negotiations to everyone from the Biden team to the Islamic terror state of Qatar, with whom he's done business and whose terrorist leaders he has repeatedly praised. Knowing nothing about the Middle East hasn't given him a fresh perspective: it just made him an easy dupe for everyone who does. It's an honest admission. Witkoff's defenders, who pretend that he's a genius shaking up diplomacy by appeasing Islamic terrorist states, could at least try to be as honest as him.
What new solutions has Steve Witkoff come up with? The Obama ones. Negotiate with terrorists. Pretend they're reasonable. Give them what they want. Act confused when it doesn't work out. Pictured: Witkoff on the grounds of the White House on February 4, 2025, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Steve Witkoff, the real estate tycoon turned international negotiator, has become the subject of controversy with some conservatives attacking him and others rushing out to defend him. "In a world left in chaos thanks to Joe Biden, Steve Witkoff is the diplomat America needs right now," US Senator Jim Banks claimed this month. Tucker Carlson hailed Witkoff as "the most effective American diplomat in a generation." But Witkoff, whatever his flaws, is far more honest than his PR men on X or Capitol Hill, and has never denied that he was just implementing the policies of the Biden administration. In January, at Mar-a-Lago, Witkoff stated that "the Biden administration is the tip of the spear" in the Hamas negotiations. Biden has "got a solid team, and I appreciated that they're allowing us to be collaborative." "I think Steve Witkoff has been a terrific partner in this," then Secretary of State Blinken praised him on MSNBC.
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by Uzay Bulut • April 16, 2025 at 5:00 am
The problem is that at the same time as Texas was celebrating "Pakistan Day", in Pakistan, Christian citizens were being arrested and sentenced to death for "blasphemy," and Muslims were abducting young Christian girls to sexually abuse, forcibly "marry," and coerce into converting to Islam. Pakistan's national and provincial parliaments have given their consent to these atrocities.... Christians, Hindus and other non-Muslim communities in Pakistan have been enduring increased levels of violence and persecution.... Under Pakistan's blasphemy laws, anyone found guilty of insulting Islam, its prophet or other religious figures can be imprisoned and sentenced to death.... The police are often biased and refuse to file reports from Christians and Hindus. The Texas House of Representatives might instead have dedicated March 23 to Pakistan's abduction victims and abused children. "The introduction of a 'Single National Curriculum' in schools denigrates religious minorities and enforces the teaching of the Quran and subjects like Mathematics and Science in an Islamized manner. Thus, religion is permeating school education... Radical Islamic groups are flourishing... Such groups are innumerable and even a ban will only make them re-organize, re-brand and re-emerge. The default option for dealing with radical Islamic movements (who are able to mobilize millions for street demonstrations) is appeasement and even accommodation..." — Open Doors, December 2024. "Occupations that are deemed low, dirty, and degrading—such as cleaning sewers or working in brick kilns—are reserved for Christians by the authorities. Many believers are referred to as 'chura', a derogatory term meaning 'filthy'. Christians are also vulnerable to being trapped in bonded labor." — Open Doors, 2024. Have Pakistani Texans done anything to help the victims of these horrific human rights abuses in Pakistan or raised awareness of them in any way while in the US? In what areas have they effectively cooperated with the US government? Have they used their resources to fight Islamic terror groups; if so, to what extent? Has Pakistan been a great US ally? What has the government of Pakistan actually done to deserve being celebrated with an official day by the Texas House of Representatives?
At the same time as Texas was celebrating "Pakistan Day", in Pakistan, Christian citizens were being arrested and sentenced to death for "blasphemy," and Muslims were abducting young Christian girls to sexually abuse, forcibly "marry," and coerce into converting to Islam. (The above is an AI-generated image by OpenAI)
The Texas House of Representatives passed a resolution on March 28, officially recognizing March 23 as "Pakistan Day." The resolution, introduced by State Representative Dr. Suleman Lalani, claims that Pakistani Texans have made "significant contributions in the state's social, religious, linguistic, and economic spheres." Pakistan's Consul General in Texas, Muhammad Aftab Chaudhry, was present at the event. The problem is that at the same time as Texas was celebrating "Pakistan Day", in Pakistan, Christian citizens were being arrested and sentenced to death for "blasphemy," and Muslims were abducting young Christian girls to sexually abuse, forcibly "marry," and coerce into converting to Islam.
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by Lawrence A. Franklin • April 15, 2025 at 5:00 am
For decades, Communist China's spies, hackers and businessmen have feasted on the forced transfer of technology from vulnerable US corporate enterprises drawn to the vast Chinese market. Little has been accomplished to reduce this massive theft of intellectual property. US businesses seem to have resigned themselves to such unfair practices as the price of doing business in China. In the last two years, however, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) cyber-attacks against America have undergone a deadly shift that seriously threatens the US's capability to prevail in any open conflict with China. The second revolutionary advance in China's offensive cyber-warfare capabilities that target US interests is more deadly. It threatens a Pearl Harbor-magnitude attack on America. "Volt Typhoon," aka "Vanguard Panda," involves the stealthy insertion of potentially debilitating malware into the computer systems that control critical nodes of US infrastructure. "[W]e have been, over the years, trying to play better and better defense when it comes to cyber. We need to start going on offense and start imposing, I think, higher costs and consequences to private actors and nation state actors that continue to steal our data, that continue to spy on us, and that even worse, with the Volt Typhoon penetration, that are literally putting cyber time bombs on our infrastructure, our water systems, our grids, even our ports." — Mike Waltz, shortly before he was appointed National Security Adviser, CBS News, December 15, 2024. Trump might also convene a cabinet meeting to assure that all aspects of American public and private capabilities should be mobilized to build resiliency in critical national infrastructure, while simultaneously examining US cyberspace vulnerabilities. The US also might also go on the offense and target China's critical national infrastructure, perhaps starting with the Cyberspace Administration of China?
A revolutionary, deadly, advance in China's offensive cyber-warfare capabilities that target US interests involves the stealthy insertion of potentially debilitating malware into the computer systems that control critical nodes of US infrastructure. The malicious code is designed to remain quiescent and undiscovered until China activates it during a future military confrontation with the US. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
China's multidimensional war against US interests is already underway and well-documented. One underappreciated dimension of its attack on American primacy, however, is the arena of cybersecurity. For decades, Communist China's spies, hackers and businessmen have feasted on the forced transfer of technology from vulnerable US corporate enterprises drawn to the vast Chinese market. Little has been accomplished to reduce this massive theft of intellectual property. US businesses seem to have resigned themselves to such unfair practices as the price of doing business in China. In the last two years, however, the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) cyber-attacks against America have undergone a deadly shift that seriously threatens the US's capability to prevail in any open conflict with China. These changes in the CCP's cyber offensive on America consist of two basic capabilities.
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by Bassam Tawil • April 14, 2025 at 5:00 am
Peaceful and permitted outdoor tours to the grounds around the Al-Aqsa Mosque are regularly described by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas as violent incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. It is time for the US and other Western countries to impose consequences on Palestinian leaders, especially Mahmoud Abbas and his senior representatives, for spreading falsehoods and libels against Israel and Jews. It is precisely this type of rhetoric that incentivizes Palestinians to carry out terrorist attacks against Israelis and Jews. The message to Palestinian leaders should read: "Stop using the Al-Aqsa Mosque as an excuse to slaughter Jews. The mosque remains intact, and is not facing any threat, despite Palestinian libels and lies." Failure to comply would result in international donors imposing financial sanctions on the Palestinian leadership. If anyone is desecrating the mosque, it is those who exploit it to encourage their people to carry out terrorist attacks.
Peaceful and permitted outdoor tours to the grounds around the Al-Aqsa Mosque are regularly described by the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas as violent incursions into the Al-Aqsa Mosque. "The Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher are ours. They are all ours, and they [Jews] have no right to defile them with their filthy feet. We salute every drop of blood spilled for the sake of Jerusalem. This blood is clean, pure blood, shed for the sake of Allah... Every martyr will be placed in Paradise, and all the wounded will be rewarded by Allah." — PA President Mahmoud Abbas. (Image source: MEMRI)
As the Hamas-Israel war continues in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has resumed its false claim – first propagated in 1929 by Adolf Hitler's subsequent ally, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin al-Husseini, and again and again after that -- that Jews are violently "storming" the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem and planning to divide it in time and space between Jewish and Muslim worshipers. Such claims were also used by the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group to justify the October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, in which Gazan terrorists murdered 1,200 Israelis and wounded of thousands. On that day, another 251 Israelis were kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, where 59 -alive and dead – remain in captivity. It is worth noting that Hamas called its invasion of Israel "Operation Al-Aqsa Flood."
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by Guy Millière • April 13, 2025 at 5:00 am
[A]ll Hamas needs to do to prevent this destruction is return all the hostages it should not have kidnapped in the first place. Amnesty International has served up a remarkable inversion of facts. "What's shocking is that people in the Cease-Fire Now crowd don't appear to have much interest in making any demands of Hamas equivalent to those they make of Israel. They want Israel to stop firing. But do you often hear them insisting that Hamas return the favor? They want Israel to provide Gaza with humanitarian relief in the form of electricity, fuel and other goods. But I haven't seen those protesters in the street demanding that Hamas provide Israel with humanitarian relief in the form of immediately freeing all hostages.... For Israelis, what 'Cease-Fire Now' means is 'Surrender Now.' No wonder they decline to heed the call.... Whatever else one thinks of Israel, no country can be expected to sign its own death warrant by indulging those who, if given the chance, would annihilate it." — Bret Stephens, New York Times, November 21, 2023. Clearly a massive dark-money problem obscenely exists within far too many universities and cities both in the US and Europe. It is also important to highlight the unabashedly toxic role of the United Nations.... [T]he United Nations quickly became the world's leading organization for, among other unsavory practices, propagating hatred of Israel and a general hatred of Jews. The Palestinian Authority to this day pays its citizens to murder Jews -- the more Jews, the larger the payments. In Europe, organizations that fight anti-Semitism.... Often left-wing, they primarily denounce far-right anti-Semitism, but never far-left anti-Semitism, and never ever Islamic anti-Semitism -- currently the only form of anti-Semitism in Europe that attacks and kills Jews. Most Jewish organizations in Europe support Israel, but more often than not advocate for dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians and still support the mirage of a "two-state solution." The vast majority of Israelis seem finally to have understood that the goal of Palestinian organizations is not to create a state living in peace alongside Israel, but to destroy Israel.
The vast majority of Israelis seem finally to have understood that the goal of Palestinian organizations is not to create a state living in peace alongside Israel, but to destroy Israel. The West, wrote the columnist Melanie Phillips, needs "to take off its blinders, join up the dots and fight like Israel to survive." Pictured: Hamas terrorists on their way into Israel from Gaza Strip, on their mission to murder Jews, on the morning of October 7, 2023. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
In the mainstream European and American media, the unspeakable October 7, 2023 Hamas massacre in Israel seems largely forgotten. The media rarely describe Hamas as a terrorist organization with genocidal aims. When the word "genocide" is used, even by self-described "human rights organizations," it is to accuse the victim of the attacks, Israel. Israel forcibly removed every Jew from Gaza in 2005 – long before the October 7, 2023 massacre. Nevertheless, one of Amnesty International's current campaigns, "End Israel's Genocide against Palestinians in Gaza," continues to refer to the "occupied Gaza Strip." Gaza has not been occupied for twenty years; it is not occupied now. Gaza is the theater from where Palestinians are still firing rockets and missiles at civilian targets in Israel.
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by Amir Taheri • April 13, 2025 at 4:00 am
Even the European Union, which initially threatened hell and high fire, is beginning to realize that if you are in a hole, you stop digging. Even China, which seems to have embarked on a game of chicken against the US, is almost certain to realize that it cannot afford a full-scale trade duel with the US. Trump is accused of protectionism. But here, too, a measure of protection is conducive to economic development. Without protectionism, Victorian England would not have been able to build its industrial revolution and create a global empire. It is obvious that achieving parity in most if not all those domains isn't a realistic aspiration, and that in any trading relationship one partner is at a disadvantage. Now in his second term, Trump intends to go further by addressing other problems inherent in the global system, including the vulnerability of supply chains and the danger inherent in strategic dependency on foreign sources of vital goods and services.
Despite the great deal of sound and fury that it has generated, it is perhaps too early to assess the lasting impact of President Donald Trump's latest fireworks on tariffs. Trump also intends to go further by addressing other problems inherent in the global system, including the vulnerability of supply chains and the danger inherent in strategic dependency on foreign sources of vital goods and services. Pictured: Trump displays a chart listing the tariffs he is introducing on imports, on April 2, 2025 at the White House in Washington, DC. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images)
Despite the great deal of sound and fury that it has generated, it is perhaps too early to assess the lasting impact of President Donald Trump's latest fireworks on tariffs. Some things, however, are certain. Contrary to assertions by talking heads on the small screen, we are not heading for a global trade war. True, the US is the world's biggest economy and ranks second as a trading power. But its share of world trade hovers around 12 percent, or under 10 percent of its GDP. The remaining 88 percent of world trade by 192 nations won't be immediately affected. Moreover, almost half of US foreign trade is with its two neighbors, Canada and Mexico which had a tussle over tariffs with Trump in his first term but managed to reach a deal and are poised to do the same this time.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • April 12, 2025 at 5:00 am
Tehran has played this game before: Agree to talks. Make vague promises. Extract sanctions relief. Then quietly continue nuclear development under the radar. This formula has worked for more than two decades. Right now, the only reason Iran is talking is to stall, to promise just enough to prevent America from striking it -- "We are almost there!" -- to keep its regime and avoid seeing its uranium centrifuges and enrichment sites blasted to rubble. The regime does not want war -- but it also cannot accept total nuclear disarmament. The Islamic Republic has smoothly outmaneuvered every administration. It has accepted deals to avoid confrontation, then quietly violated them. With each round of negotiations, Iran gained what it needed -- time, money, legitimacy -- and gave away nothing it could not reverse. Worse, Iranian officials have themselves confirmed what skeptics have long argued: that the regime's nuclear program was always military in nature. Former parliamentary speaker Ali Motahhari openly admitted in an interview that the Islamic Republic's nuclear activities were initially designed to build weapons, not generate electricity. That was not a slip of the tongue. It was a rare moment of honesty from a system built on lies. [W]orse yet, [the regime] could announce one day that it already possesses several nuclear bombs -- and that there is nothing anyone can do about it. Will the world then be forced to live with a nuclear-armed theocracy that sponsors terrorism, oppresses its people, and seeks to export its ideology across the region? That does not sound like a cheery future to accept. The Islamic Republic has demonstrated that it cannot be trusted to negotiate in good faith. It has lied, manipulated and deceived at every turn. Hoping for a different outcome, unfortunately, is self-deceptive make-believe. Negotiations only serve to give Iran what it wants: time and space to complete its nuclear project. Axios reported on April 10 that "sources said the Iranians think reaching a complex and highly technical nuclear deal in two months is unrealistic and they want to get more time on the clock to avoid an escalation." After watching what happened to Libya after it gave up its nuclear weapons program, and to Ukraine when it gave up its warheads. Iran's regime could hardly have any intention of abandoning their quest for the bomb. Diplomacy will not stop them. Appeasement will not deter them. The only solution, sadly, seems to be force. If the US and Israel fail to act now, we will soon be facing a world where the Islamic Republic of Iran has crossed the nuclear threshold and commands its bombs. Then what?
Negotiations for Iran's mullahs are simply a sign of strategic necessity. The regime needs breathing room -- and, most importantly, it needs to preserve what it sees as its ultimate insurance policy: a nuclear arsenal. Pictured: Iran's President Masoud Pezeshkian looks on as a 'Qasem Soleimani' missile is displayed during a military parade in Tehran, on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
The Trump administration is once again engaging with the Iranian regime, this time in Oman, to encourage it to end its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs the way Libya's late leader Muammar Ghaddafi did. As US President Donald J. Trump transparently put it: "I would love to make a deal with them without bombing them." In recent weeks, the Trump administration has called for direct talks with Iran, in the apparent belief that a fresh deal -- tougher, broader and more binding than the Obama administration's 2105 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- could prevent Iran from an imminent nuclear weapons breakout. Unfortunately, the Islamic Republic of Iran has never been thrillingly honest about its nuclear ambitions, although, in fairness, an Iranian "senior aid" has already let it be known that the regime might "expel UN inspectors if the threat persists" and transfer "stocks of enriched uranium to secret locations."
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by Nils A. Haug • April 11, 2025 at 5:00 am
Global Terrorism Index 2025, published by the Institute for Economics & Peace, reveals that the primary instigator of global terrorism during 2024 was the Islamic State (ISIS) and associated groups -- such as al Qaeda, Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen, Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, and al- Shabaab -- together responsible for more than 7,500 deaths. Although the West is experiencing escalating terrorism in countries such as Sweden, Australia, Finland, the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, the Sahel region evidently remains the "global epicentre of terrorism, accounting for over half of all terrorism-related deaths in 2024." Here, conflict deaths exceeded 25,000 for the first time, of which nearly 4,000 were directly connected to terrorism. A perturbing factor is that in Europe, "one in five persons arrested for terrorism is legally classified as a child." The consequence is, of course, that with the West's retreat, ISIS has free rein to action their visions of global influence. They are present in 22 countries at present.... Russia's Wagner mercenary militia, although rebranded as an "Expeditionary Corps," continues its predatory activities in the area, offering "governments in Africa a 'regime survival package' in exchange for access to strategically important natural resources." Covertly obtained Russian documents reveal how the group strives to "change mining laws in West Africa, with the ambition of dislodging Western companies from an area of strategic importance." The upshot is accelerating anti-Western sentiment, resulting in the local states seeking to expel hitherto entrenched foreign interests. "This is the Russian state coming out of the shadows in its Africa policy." Russia's patent objective is therefore to "seize control of critical resources," and "aggressively pursue the expansion of its partnerships in Africa, with the explicit intent to supplant Western partnerships." — Jack Watling, Royal United Services Institute, February 20, 2024. Currently, the significant strategic, political, and economic benefits in the region are reaped by Russia, China and Turkey. The West is nowhere to be seen.
Pictured: Soldiers inspect a damaged armored personnel carrier captured from Boko Haram jihadists on display in Goniri, Yobe State, in Nigeria's northeast on July 3, 2019. (Photo by Audu Marte/AFP via Getty Images)
The center of world terrorist activity and violent death is no longer the Middle East. The "Sahel region of Africa is now the 'epicentre of global terrorism,'" responsible for "over half of all terrorism-related deaths" worldwide, according to the respected Global Terrorism Index. The sub-Saharan Sahel is largely unknown to much of the world. It can be described as the large, mostly flat, strip, nearly 600 miles wide, located between the savannahs of Sudan to the south and the Sahara desert to the north. During the last ten years or so, according to the Royal United Services Institute, the world's oldest defense and security think tank, headquartered in London, the Sahel has undergone a "significant surge in jihadist violence. Armed actors take advantage of porous borders, fragile states, and local grievances to extend their operational reach,"
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by Anna Mahjar Barducci • April 10, 2025 at 5:00 am
A larger problem, apart from tariffs, is that China does not have a private sector. The Chinese Communist Party is the founding and only ruling party of the People's Republic of China. Hence, all Chinese companies directly support the CCP's priorities and ambitions to replace the United States as the world's leading superpower. This plan obviously has little that might be good for the US, its national security, or its interests abroad. China has openly been pursuing a policy of threatening to take over pro-Western neighbors such as Taiwan, the Philippines, South Korea, the Solomon Islands, India and Japan. In addition, Chinese warships have reportedly been invading Australian airspace and sailing alarmingly close to Australia. The CCP has also recently been trying to make it a "new normal" to have around Taiwan drills that at any time could turn into combat. It has become increasingly clear that China's plan to take over Taiwan and other neighbors is a question not of "if" but "when." It is therefore crucial to understand that there is no private sector in China. In the 14th Five Year Plan, the CCP identified the following industries as critical to China's economic development: Artificial intelligence, semiconductors, robotic technology and biotechnology, to name a few. Investing in China's "private sector" underwrites China's expansionist ambitions in Asia and enables it to continue claiming ownership of the South and East China Seas, as well as everything near it, to control world trade.
Investing in China's "private sector" -- effectively the same as its military -- destroys the West's interests, weakens its allies and fast-tracks the CCP in reaching its goals of seizing Taiwan and other neighbors, and possibly triggering a war with the United States. Investing in China's "private sector" underwrites China's expansionist ambitions in Asia and enables it to continue claiming ownership of the South and East China Seas, as well as everything near it, to control world trade. (Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
US President Donald J. Trump's current trade stand-off with the People's Republic of China (PRC) has already induced some Chinese companies, such as Shein, BYD, TikTok and Temu's parent company PDD Holdings to move away from China and have induced some Western companies – including Apple, Dell, Hasbro, Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, Stanley Black and Decker, Foxconn, Nintendo, BYD Auto, TSMC, Intel, Mazda, Google and Samsung also to move away or diversify. A larger problem, apart from tariffs, is that China does not have a private sector. According to the United States–China Economic and Security Review Commission: "China's government has developed numerous avenues through which to monitor corporate affairs and direct nonstate firms and resources toward advancing the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) priorities."
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by Lawrence Kadish • April 10, 2025 at 4:00 am
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright could easily start assembling a Trump Manhattan Project for Nuclear Fusion Energy this week. If he did, he would no doubt find himself catapulted from stardom to superstardom, while at the same time serving his country, its global leadership and its president. Pictured: Wright stands behind President Donald Trump as he holds an executive order after signing a series of orders on American energy production, in the White House on April 8, 2025. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
While all eyes are focused on tariffs, deportees, taxes, and the stock market of course, President Donald J. Trump's cabinet choice currently positioned to emerge as the leading member of Trump's cabinet and the MVP of the Trump Administration's Golden Age of Energy is Secretary of Energy Chris Wright. Wright is already doing an exemplary job leading the revival of America's great asset, oil, to "Make America Great Again." By enabling lower prices, massive energy exports, and making the US not just energy-secure but energy-dominant, both he and Trump can be assured of success. However, the greatest leap to global preeminence for the United States, and as a stunning legacy for Trump and Wright, will happen if and when they succeed in catapulting America ahead of China in the newest global race for the only energy that is clean, inexpensive, and limitless: nuclear fusion energy.
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by Drieu Godefridi • April 9, 2025 at 5:00 am
The signal is clear: in the United States, no one any longer jokes with those who hinder the economy and trample on the rights of others under the guise of idealism. Greenpeace would apparently like organizations such as itself to directly or indirectly cause hundreds of millions of dollars worth of damage, while preventing any court from intervening. The applicability of the EU anti-SLAPP directive to the judgment in question is doubtful... It looks as if the EU, through this directive, once again is trying to dictate the law on American soil. Transatlantic tensions, already fuelled by trade disputes, issues of free speech, NATO funding and the war in Ukraine, would mount further.
In a spectacular decision, a court in North Dakota ordered the environmentalist organizations that comprise Greenpeace to pay $665 million in damages for "defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts," to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. Pictured: Activists who attempted to block construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline set structures on fire at the Oceti Sakowin protest camp, on February 22, 2017 in Cannon Ball, North Dakota. (Photo by Stephen Yang/Getty Images)
The news came down like a thunderbolt. In a spectacular decision, the Morton County courthouse in Mandan, North Dakota, ordered the environmentalist organizations that comprise Greenpeace to pay $665 million in damages to Energy Transfer, the company behind the Dakota Access Pipeline. The figure appears a monumental slap in the face to Greenpeace, which was sued by Energy Transfer for "defamation, trespass, nuisance, civil conspiracy and other acts," following demonstrations against the pipeline project in 2016 and 2017. The North Dakota jury did not pull any punches. Greenpeace was declared liable; its methods illegal and its actions harmful. Greenpeace has already announced that it will appeal. Beyond the legal wrangling, this ruling raises the question: what if this case marks the start of a major transatlantic rift between an America defending its energy interests and a Europe mired in its green romanticism?
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by Robert Williams • April 8, 2025 at 5:00 am
[World Economic Forum founder Klaus] Schwab appears to be a great admirer of the Chinese Communist state, which he praised in 2022 as a "model" to emulate. In reality, the purpose of the smart city, as seen by its widespread use in China, has little to do with improving quality of life. Instead, it is overwhelmingly about state surveillance, followed by total monitoring and control of the inhabitants and the uninhibited extraction of their data for its system of social credits. Smart cities, in fact, are a Chinese Communist idea, established by the Chinese government in its 12th Five-Year Plan, issued in 2011. In China, smart cities have been purposely developed into terrifying tyrannical nightmares. In many cities, including Shanghai and Hangzhou, every district has a data-hub, known as a so-called "City Brain," that monitors and stores unbelievable amounts of information about all citizens. The data is gathered by millions and millions of surveillance cameras with facial recognition technology, aided by artificial intelligence. They all feed in the smallest details, such as whether a construction worker is wearing his helmet on the job, wrongful disposal of garbage and other minute offenses. Police patrols access the monitoring systems through a mobile app, to enable them to act immediately against any offenses of the law. Offenses lead a citizen to receive a low social credit score, which in turn can lead to blacklisting from traveling on airplanes and high-speed trains, a ban on leaving the country, denial of access to services and even being barred from renting an apartment. This is the Chinese system which Schwab so openly admires. According to a 2024 World Population Review article, "Smart cities started in Europe with early adopters being Barcelona and Amsterdam..." No mention of China and its more than 500 smart cities, because that might start people questioning the plan. Better to pretend that it is a European concept. But who is watching the watchers? The entire concept is based on the fox watching the henhouse. Schwab has made it clear that he and his political and business cohorts have a grim, all-encompassing grip in store for the free world – total surveillance, total control. Schwab's own yearly Davos meetings, in which the world's political, business and cultural elites hold secret meetings about the future of the world without facing any critical questions, are -- obviously -- not subject to any form of transparency. The WEF is apparently so fearful of criticism and transparency that it has turned off comments on its own X account. Elected leaders, ostensibly in Davos to take care of "we the people's" interests, continue to worship at Schwab's altar nevertheless. They flock to his annual January meeting there, presumably in the hope that they, the anointed, will be the chosen to be the rulers in his elite global politburo.
For years, the UN and the World Economic Forum, led by Klaus Schwab, have been promoting global surveillance in the form of so-called "smart cities." The purpose of the smart city, as seen by its widespread use in China, is overwhelmingly about state surveillance, followed by total monitoring and control of the inhabitants and the uninhibited extraction of their data for its system of social credits. Schwab appears to be a great admirer of the Chinese Communist state, which he praised in 2022 as a "model" to emulate. Pictured: Schwab shakes hands with China's President Xi Jinping at the World Economic Forum, on January 17, 2017 in Davos, Switzerland. (Photo by Fabrice Coffrini/AFP via Getty Images)
Once upon a time, long before the Covid-19 lockdowns, the West pretended to be concerned about things such as freedom, the right to privacy, and the dangers of surveillance and data harvesting from its citizens. China's surveillance police state was, at least publicly, mostly described as an abomination that threatened human rights -- not an example to emulate. Sadly, that no longer seems to be the case. For years, in the name of environmental sustainability, energy efficiency, safety and convenience, the United Nations and the World Economic Forum (WEF), led by Klaus Schwab, have been promoting global surveillance in the form of so-called "smart cities." In China, already by 2018, there were more than 500 smart cities in place.
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by Lawrence Kadish • April 8, 2025 at 4:00 am
(Image source: iStock/Getty Images)
President Donald Trump is no fan of wind turbines. Grounded in the economics of business, he appreciates that the energy rate of return for the enormous investment required to build wind turbines makes little sense. He remains focused on some of America's greatest energy resources, domestic fossil fuels, making us not only capable of running our economy but independent of foreign crude and those control that spigot. And yet, there is an energy shortage on our nation's horizon.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • April 7, 2025 at 5:00 am
The last thing the Palestinians need are more calls from Qatar-based extremist for terrorism and jihad. If these Muslim "scholars" really want to help their Palestinian brothers, they should be calling on Hamas to release all the Israeli hostages they kidnapped, then to disarm, and then to stop pursuing the disastrous path of terrorism and jihad. The "scholars" leading the IUMS live safely in Qatar, not in the Gaza Strip, and they are therefore not directly affected by the war that Hamas launched. That such a call by an influential Islamic group comes from an organization based in Doha illustrates why Qatar cannot be trusted as an honest mediator in the Hamas-Israel war.... Since then, Qatar's royal family -- who amusingly seem to imagine that they are doing the US a favor by hosting the largest US Air Force base in the Middle East -- have smoothly persuaded the Americans and other Westerners that they are neutral, trustworthy mediators in the Hamas-Israel war. In reality, they are doing their utmost to protect their long-term client, Hamas, and keep it in power, just as they protected their other client, the Taliban, in Afghanistan to make sure it remained in power. If the US were to transfer its air base to a real ally, such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar would probably not survive a week. It is time for the US to understand that Qatar continues to serve as a base and platform for jihad and Islamist terrorism. Qatar is not an ally in the war on terrorism. Qatar is the predominant sponsor and leading voice that promotes Islamist terrorism. Qatar is also, perilously, the towering donor to universities in America. To American voters, it must look as if Qatar's sham-negotiations to keep Hamas in power are being conducted by US President Donald J. Trump's envoys primarily with an eye to avoid disrupting any future real estate deals with the emirate, rather than actually to stop the Hamas-Israel war and free the hostages. At the very least, the US might threaten to withdraw its military assets from Qatar's Al-Udeid Air Base, just to put the most minimal pressure on the Doha to stop supporting the Muslim Brotherhood and other questionable Islamist organizations. The US might also designate the Muslim Brotherhood and IUMS as Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
The Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), an association of extremist Islamic theologians affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) calling for jihad (holy war) against Israel. The fatwa, shared by IUMS Secretary-General Ali al-Qaradaghi, calls for "urgent, widespread action by Muslim countries and peoples, including military action [against Israel]." Pictured: Al-Qaradaghi (L) speaks with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal at an IUMS conference in Doha, Qatar on September 21, 2014. (Photo by Faisal Al-Tamimi/AFP via Getty Images)
While Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are facing death and destruction as a result of the October 7, 2023 Hamas-led attack on Israel, the Qatar-based International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS), an association of extremist Islamic theologians affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood, has issued a fatwa (Islamic ruling) calling for jihad (holy war) against Israel. The IUMS, a largely Sunni group founded in 2004, consists of some 95,000 Muslim "scholars" globally and 67 Islamic organizations. It included among its members the late Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh, killed by Israel in an explosion last year in Iran. These Muslim "scholars" also called for "urgent, widespread action by Muslim countries and peoples, including military action [against Israel]."
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