Latest Analysis and Commentary
by Majid Rafizadeh • December 28, 2024 at 5:00 am
In addition, now that Syria has been closed off as a supply route to rearm Hezbollah, Iran is reportedly considering weapons airlifts directly to Lebanon to resupply Hezbollah, so they both can continue their shared goal of eliminating Israel. The mullahs have got to go. So long as they remain in power, the chances for enduring peace in the region is zero. Iran's recent losses have left the regime clinging to the hope that nuclear weapons will enable it to secure its reign and dominate the Middle East, then the rest of the world, using Venezuela and the Caribbean to incapacitate the "Great Satan," the United States. Allowing Iran to succeed in these endeavors is not a great idea. Both the Iranian people and the entire region need to be freed from a future of tyranny. The future of a nuclear-armed Iran, run by mullahs on a mission, must be averted; the opportunity will not be there forever.
Both the Iranian people and the entire region need to be freed from a future of tyranny. The future of a nuclear-armed Iran, run by mullahs on a mission, must be averted; the opportunity will not be there forever. Pictured: A Fattah hypersonic ballistic missile is displayed during the annual military parade in Tehran, on September 22, 2023. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
This year, thanks to the relentless -- and often maliciously vilified -- efforts of Israel standing alone, like David against Goliath, to save the West from an autocratic tyranny, the Iranian regime has at last been facing significant setbacks. Israel, unthanked, has weakened Iran and its proxies, Hezbollah and Hamas, diminished their influence and destabilized their plan to wipe Israel -- and after that Western civilization -- off the map. Compounding this, Iran's longstanding ally, Bashar al-Assad of Syria, collapsed, further isolating Iran's regime. These events have collectively dealt a heavy blow to Iran's strategic leverage and regional ambitions. Complacency, however, would be a grave mistake.
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by Drieu Godefridi • December 27, 2024 at 5:00 am
Literally "flat, dark calm," Dunkelflaute is characterized by a simultaneous lack of wind and sun in winter, when demand for electricity in Germany is at its highest... On December 12 of this year, for example, German electricity production from wind and solar power was thirty times lower than the demand for it. But this is "for the planet", right? Not even close. Despite its commitment to so-called green energies, Germany still has a high carbon footprint due to its increased reliance on coal and lignite to make up for energy shortfalls. Germany's high electricity prices are leading to the relocation of its industry, as companies look for sites where energy costs are more affordable. How can you stay viable when you pay three times more for electricity than your competitors? Whole swathes of Germany's proud industry are collapsing. We only remember the big names -- VW, BASF, Mercedes-Benz -- but every big company that disappears or downsizes takes with it a myriad of small and medium-sized enterprises that end up collapsing along with it. Dependence on unreliable energy sources (wind, solar), combined with the hasty phase-out of nuclear power, has made Germany's electricity the most expensive in Europe and compromises the country's -- and ultimately the continent's -- energy autonomy.
Dependence on unreliable energy sources (wind, solar), combined with the hasty phase-out of nuclear power, has made Germany's electricity the most expensive in Europe and compromises the country's -- and ultimately the continent's -- energy autonomy. Pictured: An array of solar panels operated by the multinational energy company RWE, at the Hambacher Forst opencast lignite mine near Elsdorf, Germany, photographed on November 12, 2024. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
Solar and wind power production falls drastically during unfavorable weather conditions. It happens, in fact, every year. This condition, however, now has far-reaching economic and environmental repercussions, revealing the flaws in an energy policy based on intermittent renewable energies. Why does Germany, while having one of the highest carbon footprints, now consume the most expensive electricity in Europe? How did the country lose its energy autonomy? For the last fifteen years, Germany invested massively in solar and wind energy, while sabotaging its own nuclear power stations. By 2023, renewable energies accounted for 55% of electricity production in the country. In 2022, it was only 48%.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • December 26, 2024 at 5:00 am
"For the longest time, I struggled with my identity. A Palestinian kid born inside Israel. Like...wtf. Many of my friends refuse to this day to say the word 'Israel' and call themselves 'Palestinian' only. But since I was 12, that did not make sense to me. So, I decided to mix the two and become a 'Palestinian-Israeli.' I thought this term reflected who I was. Palestinian first. Israeli second. But after recent events, I started to think. And think. And think. And then my thoughts turned to anger. I realized that if Israel were to be 'invaded' like that again, we would not be safe. To a terrorist invading Israel, all citizens are targets.... And I do not want to live under a Palestinian government. Which means I only have one home, even if I'm not Jewish: Israel." — Nuseir Yassin ("Nas Daily"), Israeli Arab blogger, the day after October 8, 2023. These [Arab Israeli] leaders will do anything to grab the attention of the media – even if that means inciting against Israel. They know that when they deal with the real problems facing their Arab constituents – such as unemployment and poverty – no one will write about them in the media. Yet, when these leaders make fiery statements against Israel, they often win headlines and front-page stories. As far as they are concerned, "I don't care what you write about me as long as you spell my name right." By engaging in anti-Israel incitement, these Israeli Arab leaders are causing huge damage to their own constituents. These leaders make the Israeli Arabs look as if they are a "Fifth Column" -- an enemy within. These leaders are stoking fear and mistrust between Jews and Arabs inside Israel, while ignoring that most Israeli Arabs say they feel comfortable living in the Jewish state. If Israeli Arabs want to secure a prosperous future for themselves and their children, they need to get rid of extremist Arab leaders who speak and act against the interests of the Arab community inside Israel. If these Arab leaders are unhappy living in Israel, they are welcome to move to the West Bank, Gaza Strip or any Arab country -- where they will quickly miss Israel's democracy and freedom of speech.
While the attitudes of the Israeli Arabs toward Israel are encouraging, some of their leaders continue to act against the interests of their own people. These leaders, including current and former members of the Israeli Knesset (parliament), have long been taking advantage of the country's democratic system to engage in anti-Israel rhetoric, causing huge damage to their own constituents. Pictured: Arab Israeli Members of Knesset Ayman Odeh (L), Ahmad Tibi (R) and Aida Touma-Suleiman in the Knesset chamber, in Jerusalem on July 10, 2023. (Photo by Menahem Kahana/AFP via Getty Images)
The Iran-backed Palestinian Hamas terrorist group has long been seeking to spark a civil war between Israel's Arab and Jewish citizens. Over the past few years, Hamas has called on the two million Arab citizens of Israel to revolt against their own country and join the Jihad against Israel. Hamas's attempts were partially successful in May 2021, when some Arabs attacked their Jewish neighbors. The assaults occurred at the same time as an Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip. That operation was launched in response to rockets fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups at Israel. Fortunately, the violence that erupted in 2021 ended quickly.
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by Lawrence Kadish • December 25, 2024 at 2:00 pm
Pictured: The HL-2M nuclear fusion tokamak, at a research laboratory in Chengdu, China. (Photo by STR/AFP via Getty Images)
As dreams of renewable green energy fade, along with electric car batteries that freeze in winter, explode in summer and cannot conveniently take you as far as you might want to go without a long refill that may or may not be available, and with windmills and solar panels that are dependent upon wind and sun when there might not be much of either, the future keeps looking better and better for long-lasting, totally clean nuclear fusion energy – if and when it can be developed. Increasingly, people are starting to see nuclear fusion as the wave of the future for both affordable energy and "saving the planet" from being overrun by pollutants. One small reactor in your car could enable it to travel for "a million kilometers" – quite different from trying to find a charging station while crossing a desert.
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by Nils A. Haug • December 25, 2024 at 5:00 am
Israel's enemies in Gaza today, like the Philistines of old, constitute a mortal threat to the nation, although that threat diminishes as Israel again succeeds in overcoming its enemies. One hopes, with the astounding team of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and US President-elect Donald J. Trump, who successfully initiated the Abraham Accords, that jihads, pogroms and similar events will no longer take place, and that Israel will soon herald in a new dispensation of peace and redemption, as promised to Moses on Mt. Sinai, and live once again as "a kingdom of priests and a holy nation."
Hamas has been occupying Gaza, as did the Philistines. Both tribes had a similar agenda: eliminating all Israelites, the Israelis of today. Pictured: Hamas terrorists with their child trainee at a rally in Gaza City on May 24, 2021. (Photo by Mahmud Hams/AFP via Getty Images)
The Hebrew prophet Amos lived some 2,700 years ago, during the reign of King Jeroboam II of Israel. At the time, the Israelites' main enemies were the Philistines of Gaza, reputed to be the most menacing tribe in the region and dedicated to the destruction of Israel. Amos predicted dire punishment for the Philistines, who had taken "captive whole communities and sold them to Edom." The Philistines had attacked the Israelites, enslaved and sold them to another of their enemies, the tribe of Edom. According to Amos, divine retribution was at hand. Certain passages of Amos's prophecy cite the punishment of Israel's Gazan enemies: "Because she took captive whole communities
and sold them to Edom,
I will send fire on the walls of Gaza
that will consume her fortresses.
I will destroy the king of Ashdod
and the one who holds the scepter in Ashkelon.
I will turn my hand against Ekron,
till the last of the Philistines are dead."
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by Charles Jacobs and Uzay Bulut • December 25, 2024 at 4:00 am
The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock. The number of Christians intentionally murdered, let alone tortured, raped, kidnapped and forcibly converted to Islam far exceeds the number of Gazans killed unintentionally as Israel directs its fire at terrorists who hide behind civilians. Indeed, Israel is defending its population from the very same jihadist assaults faced by African Christians. Ahsan Raja Masih, a young Pakistani Christian, has been sentenced to hang for his faith over false "blasphemy" charges. The Catholic Bishops of Pakistan have recently joined the Christian community's outcry against the death sentence. Where is the Pope? By turning reality on its head, the Pope's shameful defamation of the Jews complements his passivity in the face of Islamic jihad against Christians. Perhaps he believes that pointing a finger at the Jews will divert Muslim rage from the Vatican. Surely, it distracts the world from his own cowardice and failure to protect Christians.
"Nigeria is the most violent country in the world for Christians. Every two hours, a Christian is killed in Nigeria," according to Open Doors. Pope Francis has not called for an investigation of the jihadists and their sponsors. Pictured: State officials walk past wounded survivors of a jihadist attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Ondo State, Nigeria, in which they murdered 50 Christians, on June 5, 2022. (Photo by AFP via Getty Images)
Christians face persecution, discrimination, forced conversion and even mass murder for their faith in many parts of the Muslim world, yet Pope Francis, in his upcoming book called Hope, calls for an investigation to see if the Jews are committing a "genocide" against Palestinian Muslims in the Gaza Strip. The Jews are not committing genocide against Muslims in Gaza, whose population grew almost 3% last year. Muslims, however, are committing mass murder via jihad against Christians in Africa. Yet the Pope cowers from defending his own flock. Africa has become the epicenter of radical Islamic terrorism. Murderous jihad attacks against Christians abound in Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Egypt, Niger, the Central African Republic, Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Cameroon.
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December 25, 2024 at 3:00 am
(Photo by Bruce Yuanyue Bi/Getty Images)
Wishing only the best for our friends, the Free World and the brave men and women protecting our freedom. Countless thanks and very warmest best wishes for the New Year!
— All of us at Gatestone.
by Gordon G. Chang • December 24, 2024 at 5:00 am
[T]rying to reach a grand bargain with China — what [Trump] was hinting at — would be exactly the wrong approach at this or any other moment. Trump has already tried to reach an accommodation with China: his Phase One Trade pact of January 2020. He calls it "the best trade deal" ever, but it is now widely viewed as a bust. The Chinese, during an election year in America, never honored its terms. [Chinese President Xi Jinping's] actions are the inevitable result of China's communist political system, which idealizes violence, struggle, and domination. This system means there can be no accommodation with the Communist Party. The Chinese regime believes the world is its enemy. No enduring understanding, pact, deal or agreement is possible.
"China and the United States can together solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it," President-Elect Donald Trump said on December 16. But trying to reach a grand bargain with China — what he was hinting at — would be exactly the wrong approach at this or any other moment. The Chinese regime believes the world is its enemy. No enduring understanding, pact, deal or agreement is possible. Pictured: Chinese President Xi Jinping hosts then President Trump in Beijing on November 9, 2017. (Photo by Thomas Peter-Pool/Getty Images)
"China and the United States can together solve all of the problems of the world, if you think about it," President-Elect Donald Trump said on December 16, at a Mar-a-Lago press conference. He also called China's President Xi Jinping "amazing" and confirmed he had invited the Chinese leader to his inauguration. Earlier in the month, Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Paris and stated this in connection with efforts to end the war in Eastern Europe: "China can help." The victorious Trump of December was noticeably more friendly to China than the Trump of the long, grueling campaign. During the campaign, the Republican candidate was often in trade-war mode, promising to impose an additional across-the-board tariff of more than 60% on all Chinese goods.
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by Robert Williams • December 23, 2024 at 5:00 am
Samidoun ("Steadfast"), a "Vancouver-based terrorist group," was founded in 2012 -- ostensibly to "assist Palestinian prisoners" -- by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization in the United States, European Union and Canada. In practice, Samidoun is a front for the PFLP. Who funds this terrorist-supporting madness? Samidoun, which does not publish any donor information, has a financial sponsor in the US, the Alliance for Global Justice, a registered 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization that reportedly works to bring about a communist revolution through building coalitions of organizations, many involved in pro-Hamas activity, and, according to its own website: "We also act as fiscal sponsor to over 90 economic, social justice and human rights projects around the world that do not have their own tax-exempt status." Who funds the Alliance for Global Justice? According to Influence Watch, several of the same megadonors that fund the Democratic Party in the US, such as George Soros' Open Society Foundations, and the Tides Foundation. The Tides Foundation, which was once described as a "charitable money laundering" organization, and was previously supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, also sponsors anti-Israeli groups such as Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow, both of which are active in the ongoing protests. The Alliance for Global Justice also receives funds from the Arca Foundation, Surdna Foundation, Public Welfare Foundation, and the Brightwater Fund. The support for groups such as Samidoun by the Alliance for Global Justice led to demands to revoke its tax-exempt status.... It is now six months later, and the IRS has done nothing.
Samidoun, a "Vancouver-based terrorist group," was founded in 2012 by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization in the United States, European Union and Canada. In practice, Samidoun is a front for the PFLP. Pictured: An anti-Israel protest by Samidoun in Duisburg, Germany, on October 9, 2023. (Photo by Ina Fassbender/AFP via Getty Images)
Antisemitism in the West, which has risen to unprecedented levels since the October 7 attacks on Israel, is being deliberately driven by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with links to Palestinian terrorist organizations. One of the most active NGOs, Samidoun ("Steadfast"), a "Vancouver-based terrorist group," was founded in 2012 -- ostensibly to "assist Palestinian prisoners" -- by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization in the United States, European Union and Canada. In practice, Samidoun is a front for the PFLP. The PFLP is an active terrorist organization, which participated in the October 7, 2023 atrocities, including in hostage taking, and shared celebratory videos and other material of the massacres online.
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by Raymond Ibrahim • December 22, 2024 at 5:00 am
"The [US State] department's annual reports on human rights and human trafficking do not mention Coptic women in their sections on Egypt.... the secretary of state should raise the issue directly with Sisi at their next meeting." — "Egypt's Disappearing Women," Washington Examiner, November 14, 2024. "Under U.S. law, a portion of the $1.3 billion in military aid that Egypt receives each year is contingent on Cairo's efforts to improve its record on human rights. When the next review of Cairo's record begins, the safety of Coptic women should be front and center." — "Egypt's Disappearing Women," Washington Examiner, November 14, 2024. "Migrant youths" have been terrorizing a small Swiss town, Soyhières... "sowing terror" in the small village of 433 people.... the "same group of migrant youths has been seen in the night roaming with knives and carrying a small axe...." The police, apparently, are powerless: "due to their age, the youths cannot be prosecuted." — rmix.news, November 27, 2024. A court sentenced Tomaj Aryankia, an Iranian convert to Christianity, to 10 years' imprisonment for "propaganda against the Islamic Republic through promoting Christianity." Iranwire.com, November 18, 2024, Iran.
According to a November 14 report on Egypt, "Coptic Christians remain a target of persecution; hundreds of young women have been kidnapped, forced to convert to Islam, and coerced into marriage." Pictured: Christian women pray during the Good Friday procession at the Church of St. George in the city of Mahalla in the north of Egypt, on April 14, 2017. (Photo by Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of November 2024. The Muslim Rape and Forced Conversion of Christian Girls Pakistan: On Nov. 7, a Muslim man brutally raped a teenage Christian girl. The Muslim, Ansar Shah, initially went up to Eman Khuram, 18, as she was walking home late in the evening (as the eldest daughter, since the family's father had abandoned them, she had been working long hours every day). He told her that he had kidnapped her younger brother, and unless she got on his motorcycle and rode with him, he would kill the boy. Terrified, she complied. He drove her around for 30 minutes, during which time he continued issuing threats, until he finally stopped at a secluded brick factory.
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by Amir Taheri • December 22, 2024 at 4:00 am
["Liberator of Damascus" Ahmed al-Sharaa alias Abu-Mohammed] al-Jolani may have done Iran two more favors. First, he has shown that spending money and blood on killing other peoples to keep a hated tyrant in power isn't good politics or economics. Even the dumbest or most hoodwinked policymakers in Tehran may have gotten that message. Secondly, if Turkey under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wishes to replace Iran's Khomeinist cabal as pretender to leadership of the Islamic world, let it taste some of the witches brew...
Pictured: Ahmed al-Sharaa, alias Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, leader of Syria's jihadist Hayat Tahrir al-Sham group, is greeted at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus on December 8, 2024. (Photo by Abdulaziz Ketaz/AFP via Getty Images)
In most government offices in Tehran, the first thing a visitor encounters is a cardboard effigy of the late General Qassem Soleimani, presented as "the greatest military commander in Islamic history." Also labeled as "the martyr Haj Qassem," his bust adorns public squares and sport stadiums in more than 100 Iranian towns and cities. Eulogized as the leader who defeated the United States, humbled Israel and conquered Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and parts of Yemen, Haj Qassem is one of the trio that dominate Khomeinist mythology, the other two being the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the current "Supreme Leader" Ali Khamenei. But what if the tide is turning against Haj Qassem? Plans to install his bust in more of Iran's 1,000 towns and cities have been quietly "postponed" in recent days, and the narrative about his derring-do adventures toned down in the official media and Friday sermons.
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by Majid Rafizadeh • December 21, 2024 at 5:00 am
When it comes to national security, appeasement is not an option. Bribing aggressors only finances their militaries for attacks on the West in the future. Israel's approach to combating terrorism has always been characterized by thoroughness and determination -- for which is usually put through the tortures of hell by the very countries it is working to save. With a vision of ultimately fostering peace, harmony, security and prosperity throughout the region, as in the Abraham Accords, Israel expanded its military operations beyond Hamas... reshaping the Middle East into a region free of the grip of terror... Make Persia Great Again! So long as Iran's regime remains in power, brutalizing its people and making plans for global expansion, there can be no chance for peace in the region. Removing the regime... would bring lasting security and prosperity to the Middle East and beyond.... One could then set about subduing Turkey and its terrorist proxies in Syria.
When it comes to national security, appeasement is not an option. Bribing aggressors only finances their militaries for attacks on the West in the future. Israel's approach to combating terrorism has always been characterized by thoroughness and determination -- for which is usually put through the tortures of hell by the very countries it is working to save. Pictured: Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian and commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps' Aerospace Force Amir Ali Hajizadeh look on as a Jihad missile is displayed at a parade in Tehran on September 21, 2024. (Photo by Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images)
After Hamas carried out its horrific October 7, 2023 massacre by invading Israel, murdering hundreds of people and kidnapping individuals from various countries, Israel reached a breaking point. This act of terrorism ignited a wave of decisive actions across the Middle East that catalyzed remarkable developments, aimed at countering and eliminating terror networks. For decades, the region has been plagued by violence and instability, but Israel's response marked a significant turning point, showcasing its resolve to confront terrorism head-on and help usher in a new era of security.
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by Khaled Abu Toameh • December 20, 2024 at 5:00 am
Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity among Palestinians. Although many Palestinians support Hamas's policy of rejecting Israel's right to exist, the Islamist group's victory greatly reflected the desire of the Palestinian public to end corruption in the PA government and institutions. The most common forms of corruption seem to be the offenses of favoritism, nepotism, embezzlement of public funds, breach of trust, abuse of power, bribery and money laundering. The best way to undermine Hamas and help the Palestinians is by offering the people a better alternative to the Islamist movement. The current Palestinian Authority leadership is just not seen by many Palestinians as a better alternative to Hamas. That is because the United States, European Union and other donors are not banging on the table and demanding an end to the PA's authoritarian and corrupt conduct.
Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity among Palestinians. The current PA leadership is just not seen by many Palestinians as a better alternative to Hamas. That is because the US, EU and other donors are not banging on the table and demanding an end to the PA's authoritarian and corrupt conduct. Pictured: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken meets with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Amman, Jordan on October 13, 2023. (Photo by Jacquelyn Martin/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
Had the international community held the Palestinian Authority (PA) accountable for financial and administrative corruption after the signing of the Oslo Accords 30 years ago, the Iran-backed Hamas terrorist group would not have gained popularity among Palestinians. Hamas became so popular that its representatives won the last elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), in 2006. The Hamas-affiliated Change and Reform list received 44.45% of the vote and won 74 of the 132 seats in the PLC. Although many Palestinians support Hamas's policy of rejecting Israel's right to exist, the Islamist group's victory greatly reflected the desire of the Palestinian public to end corruption in the PA government and institutions. Justin Curtis wrote in Harvard University's Exposé Magazine in 2016:
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by Robert Williams • December 19, 2024 at 5:00 am
"Border Patrol zones across Texas, Arizona and California had no agent presence for weeks and months at a time. Those who did not want to be caught could simply walk in. We have no idea who and what entered our country over this time." — Aaron Heitke, retired chief patrol agent for the San Diego Sector of the U.S. Border Patrol, testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, September 18, 2024. "Simultaneously, in San Diego we had an exponential increase in [Special] Interest Aliens (SIAs). These are aliens with significant ties to terrorism.... I was told I could not release any information on this increase in SIA's or mention any of the arrests. The administration was trying to convince the public that there was no threat at the border." — Aaron Heitke, testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security, September 18, 2024.
More than half a million Venezuelans have entered the US illegally since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021. These included criminals from the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which, according to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, has "a history of flooding other countries with military-aged Venezuelan males to establish a base of operation to carry out violent crimes in those countries." Pictured: Illegal immigrants, mostly Venezuelans, arrive to be processed by U.S. Border Patrol agents on September 29, 2023 in Eagle Pass, Texas, after agents allowed them into the United States to make asylum claims. (Photo by John Moore/Getty Images)
More than half a million Venezuelans have entered the US illegally since President Joe Biden took office in January 2021, according to the Federation for American Immigration Reform. Until Biden became president, few Venezuelans arrived illegally. Only around 4,500 arrived in 2020. After Biden's inauguration, however, numbers exploded: 50,499 Venezuelans illegally entered in 2021, another 189,520 in 2022 and a whopping 334,914 in 2023. This means that Venezuelans now rank second in illegal immigration into the US, after Mexicans, who still take the number one spot. For more than two decades, Venezuela has been a close ally of Iran, and a regional home base for Hezbollah, Iran's proxy in the Middle East. Hezbollah, according to one 2020 Atlantic Council report, helped to "turn Venezuela into a hub for the convergence of transnational organized crime and international terrorism."
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by Lawrence Kadish • December 18, 2024 at 2:00 pm
This is the month that, in 1900, quantum theory was presented by German physicist Max Planck in a paper to his scientific peers. Planck may play a role in directing the future of the 21st Century. A number of respected scientists believe quantum mechanics can play an important role in determining how best to create and sustained a controlled fusion reaction. Pictured: Planck in 1910. (Photo by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
This is the month that, in 1900, quantum theory was presented by German physicist Max Planck in a paper to his scientific peers. Defining it for us lay people remains a challenge but, essentially, his theory suggests that energy is not continuous and can display itself as if it is physical matter. For those who mastered physics, a doctoral thesis could likely be written about quantum theory and Planck's brilliance in offering his insight on this subject. For the rest of us, it is a matter of asking: what did the quantum theory spawn, how does it have a hand in today's technology race among nations, and what does the future hold when brilliant minds in other countries explore physics for the purpose of advancing their government's global ambitions?
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