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By Mark Taliano

Beneath the apparent silence and complicity of Legacy Media messaging, Western-supported terrorists, the same ones who have committed massacres throughout the Regime Change War on Syria, are massacring Syrians and committing genocide right now.

Article Two of the Genocide Convention defines genocide in these terms:

In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

1. Killing members of the group;
2. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
3. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
4. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
5. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group. (1)

The above definition includes a “mental element” of intent and a range of physical elements in which only one is necessary.

The elements of genocide, both mental and physical, have been recorded by terrorists themselves in Syria.

In the following video, as an example, a terrorist announces intent to mass slaughter.

Western-Supported Genocide Against Syrian Minorities

Credible information confirms that a company from Idlib has taken control of the area for real estate investment.

In western Hama, the villages of Al-Aziziya and Arzeh were also completely depopulated, and families from the town of Khattab were settled there instead—following brutal massacres against innocent civilians.

In northern Homs, the village of Tisnin and its surroundings were forcibly emptied as well. Many other villages, neighborhoods, and residential communities in Homs and Rural Damascus are seeing their original residents being pushed out—either directly or through intimidation, threats, abductions, and killings.

Additionally, propaganda campaigns are promoting the settlement of Bedouin populations in various parts of the Syrian coast and some neighborhoods in Homs, replacing the original inhabitants.

This is a clear plan of demographic change, and it requires immediate action to confront it.

We call for:

Engaging international lawyers and human rights advocates in Europe, America, and worldwide

Mobilizing political parties and international public opinion

Documenting this as a new crime committed by the de facto authorities and their leadership: the forced demographic change and displacement of dozens of Alawite villages and bringing in new populations in their place

These acts are part of a broader ongoing campaign of genocide, adding to the long list of violations.

We will not remain silent. We urge everyone to resist this scheme and refuse to accept or normalize it.

By Julian Rose

The brutal murder of eight Red Cross paramedics and five aid workers in Southern Gaza on March 23^rd 2025 – each shot more than 20 times and then buried in a sandpit along with their vehicles – should be ‘an event too far’ for Israeli soldiers. The brave precedent for saying ‘no’ already having been set by colleagues refusing to follow the commands of the Israeli war cabinet.

This vile atrocity must have crossed the red line for these recruits, as well as seasoned soldiers of the Israeli army, if they are still to be considered human beings.

It has already been reported that a small but growing number of Israeli military have refused to engage against Palestinians in Gaza, demanding that Netanyahu stands by the terms of the hostage exchange negotiated with Hamas.

But this hostage exchange ‘quid pro quo’, as vital as it obviously is, is now joined by another critically important concern that must be addressed: are the soldiers carrying out these executions under the influence of a mind control program similar to that developed by MK Ultra in the USA in the 1950’ and 60’s?

This is possible. Israel has a sophisticated A.I. development program and Mossad is no doubt fully prepared to exercise its controls over its own people.

Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli professor of history and top advisor to the Word Economic Forum cabal, has made a point of stating how human beings are now “hackable”, and how this will enable the reengineering of the human into a gene edited version in which ‘all the faults have been removed’. With the result that this entity will then become ‘superior to God’.

“We will do better than God” in Harari’s words.

This has a strong throw-back to Hitler’s preoccupation with the pre World War Two eugenics program, designed to result in the breeding of ‘the perfect Aryan’. In the Nazi’s case, an athletic, blond haired, blue eyed ‘ubermensch’.

A god like figure, whose qualities were supposed to lead to Nazi Germany developing a race of superior beings ‘with most of the faults removed’.

The program was initiated in 1927 in the USA under the title ‘Planned Parenthood’ and continued after World War Two, finally being dissolved in 1976. Planned Parenthood had direct covert links with the MK Ultra mind control agenda. 

Of course, in both the Nazi and US cases, this was a ‘breeding program’ and as such, was based on selective sexual reproduction as the means to the end product. But new versions have moved this eugenics process into the purely technological sphere. 

Now eugenics breeding is to be an A.I. exercise, with the particular qualities of this laboratory species decided by those in charge of the programs. No doubt individuals with a very limited concept of what would constitute ‘fault removed superior entities’.

Israeli Zionists are obsessed with the superiority of the Jewish bloodline. This overtly supremacist position is behind all Netanyahu’s attempts to destroy the Palestinians of Gaza, and most likely all other Palestinian enclaves that remain after decades of pogroms into their territory by the Israeli military.

Many of those military men and women – apparently willing to perform acts of cold blooded murder on their Palestinian brothers, sisters and children – may be less than human themselves.

Either so deeply indoctrinated in the supremacist values of the Zionists – who regard Palestinians as no more than worthless animals – or open books for mind control exercises using the A.I. frequency bending techniques lauded by Harari. 

Those same electromagnetic pulses that are already coming down the microwave pipeline into Smart Phones via 5/6G transmitter masts and thousands of Elon Musk’s Space X satellites.

The difference is technical only – the intent is the same. One has to call it what it is: demonic.

One must conclude that President Trump, and other backers of Netanyahu’s displacement and massacre of innocents, also belong to this camp. Maybe as lesser evils, but complicit nonetheless.

This anti-life cult has as its goal a process which culminates in the eradication of all the sentient qualities that make humans ‘human’. 

It wishes to replace the Supreme Source which stands behind all our lives – and indeed the creation of Life itself – with the man made genetically modified/computerized Transhuman. An objective favored by Yuval Noah Harari and fellow architects of the technocratic, digital and algorithmic control system going under the banner of ‘the Great Reset and Fourth Industrial Revolution’.

Most don’t want to recognise this reality, in spite of the fact that it stares us all in the face.

But quite simply, we must. Because one can’t build a resistance movement without knowing what it is one is resisting.

So, one more time: we are resisting the deliberate and overt sterilization of the creative life force, as it manifests itself in the vast diversity of sentient, empathetic and loving expressions of the inhabitants of our richly endowed planet. 

The central motivation for such an act of war is unlimited power, control and material possession. All other factors to be stripped away and discarded as obstructions to the achievement of that goal.

Including the architects of control most feared enemy, the never dimming spiritual flame whose unseen light never ceases to guide us towards our true awakening and omnipotent potential to become at one with the source of (our) creation. This ascent process is our reason to be. Why we were born. To maintain its equilibrium is not a passive affair. It’s a struggle. An endless struggle. But for those who persist – a deeply rewarding one.

Our dark oppressors try everything to make us give up this struggle, because it’s a huge threat to their dominance.

They want us to fall back on the superficial and seductive attraction of mediocrity, convenience and slavery. 

The regime promoted by globalist deep state aligned institutions, governments, corporations, military and media –  reveals a calculated lack of pragmatic intervention in the Gaza holocaust. Apart from some well chosen expressions of ‘shock’, they turn their heads away.

This clearly defines them as either being in the same camp as the chief Israeli perpetrators – or simply too cowardly and self interested to intervene to prevent the further massacre of innocent Palestinian men, women and children.

As a major contribution to putting an end to this horror, we must step out of the prison of our mind controlled perception that ‘we can’t intervene’ – either directly or indirectly – and are victims of something beyond our power to change. Such thinking makes us into yet more canon fodder for the parasitic perpetrators of the bloody crimes in Gaza.

We must go onto the front foot – here and now – and enter fully into the struggle to overcome both our self imposed blockages and those put in our path by the perpetrators of these heinous crimes. The same sect who plan the genetic modification of the human race.

The choice put in front of us is stark: to be brave or to be cowards. Be brave. Be human. Take actions that promote Life. We are both the directors of our destinies and the ultimate destiny of our planet.

*

Julian Rose is an early pioneer of UK organic farming, a writer, international activist and broadcaster.

14 April 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Nexus

10 Apr 2025

Yanis Varoufakis was Greece’s finance minister during the Greek debt crisis in 2015. Some called him the rock star finance minister for resisting the faceless bureaucrats from the European Union, the IMF – and the rapacious bankers. We get his views on Trump’s Tariffs, Free Speech in the West, and Transhumanism where he warns we’re all at risk from the techno-feudal lords who are taking over the world.

Video:  Yanis Varoufakis Explains Trump’s Tariffs

14 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Tyler Durden | Zero Hedge

Trump, Hegseth Say It’s Happening

8 Apr 2025 – With much of the globe and US public focused exclusively on tariff mania, President Trump as well as Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth unveiled massive news yesterday, which would have normally made a bigger impact in headlines.

By Chris Hedges

12 Apr 2025 – The Israeli government, backed by the Trump administration, is laying the groundwork for the full expulsion of Palestinians from Gaza, a move that has the potential to ignite a regional conflagration.

Israel is poised to carry out the largest campaign of ethnic cleansing since the end of World War II. Since March 2, it has blocked all food and humanitarian aid into Gaza and cut off electricity, so that the last water desalination plant no longer functions. The Israeli military has seized half of the territory — Gaza is 25 miles long and four to five miles wide — and placed two-thirds of Gaza under displacement orders, rendered “no-go zones,” including the border town of Rafah, which is encircled by Israeli troops.

On Friday Defence Minister Israel Katz announced that Israel will “intensify” the war against Hamas and use “all military and civilian pressure, including evacuation of the Gaza population south and implementing United States President [Donald] Trump’s voluntary migration plan for Gaza residents.”

Since Israel’s unilateral ending of the ceasefire on March 18 — which was never honored by Israel — Israel has been carrying out relentless bombing and shelling against civilians, killing over 1,400 Palestinians and wounding over 3,600, according to the Palestinian health ministry. An average of one hundred children are being killed daily according to the United Nations. Israel is, at the same time, inciting tensions with Egypt to lay what I suspect will be the groundwork for a mass expulsion of Palestinians into the Egyptian Sinai.

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, echoing Katz, said Israel would not lift the total blockade until Hamas was “defeated” and the remaining 59 Israeli hostages were released.

“Not even a grain of wheat will enter Gaza,” he vowed.

But no one in Israel or Gaza expects Hamas, which has weathered the decimation of Gaza and sustained mass slaughter, to surrender or disappear.

The question no longer is will the Palestinians be deported from Gaza but when they will be pushed out and where they will go. The Israeli leadership is apparently torn between driving Palestinians over the border into Egypt or shipping them to countries in Africa. The U.S. and Israel have contacted three East African governments – Sudan, Somalia and the breakaway region of Somalia known as Somaliland – to discuss the resettlement of ethnically cleansed Palestinians.

The consequences of wholesale ethnic cleansing will be catastrophic, jeopardizing the stability of the Arab regimes allied with Washington and setting off firestorms of protests within Arab countries. It will likely mean the severing of diplomatic relations between Israel and its neighbors Jordan and Egypt, already close to the breaking point, and push the region closer to war.

Diplomatic relations have fallen to their lowest point since the signing of the Camp David Accords in 1979. The Israeli embassies in Cairo and Amman are largely empty with Israeli staff withdrawn over security concerns following the Oct. 7 incursion into Israel by Hamas and other armed Palestinian factions. Egypt has refused to accept the credentials of Uri Rothman, who was appointed to be the Israeli ambassador last September. Egypt did not name a new ambassador to Israel when former ambassador, Khaled Azmi, was recalled last year.

Israeli officials are accusing Egypt of violating the Camp David accords by increasing its military presence and building new military installations in the Northern Sinai, charges Egypt says are fabricated. The peace treaty’s annex permits additional Egyptian military hardware in the Sinai.

Former Israeli chief of the general staff, Herzi Halevi, warned of what he calls Egypt’s “security threat.” Katz said that Israel would not allow Egypt to “violate the peace treaty” between the two countries signed in 1979.

Egyptian officials note that it is Israel that has violated the treaty by occupying the Philadelphi Corridor, also known as the Salahuddin Axis, which runs along the nine mile border between Gaza and Egypt and is supposed to be demilitarized.

“Every Israeli action along Gaza’s border with Egypt constitutes hostile behavior against Egypt’s national security,” Egyptian General Mohammed Rashad, a former military intelligence chief, told the Arabic language newspaper, Asharq Al-Awsat.

“Egypt cannot sit idly by in the face of such threats and must prepare for all possible scenarios.”

Israeli officials are openly calling for the “voluntary transfer” of Palestinians to Egypt. Knesset member, Avigdor Lieberman, stated that “displacing most Palestinians from Gaza to the Egyptian Sinai is a practical and effective solution.” He contrasted the high population density — Gaza is one of the most densely populated places on the planet — with the vast “untapped lands” in the Egyptian Northern Sinai and noted that Palestinians share a common culture and language with Egypt, making any deportation “natural.” He also criticized Egypt because it allegedly “benefits economically from the current political situation,” as a mediator between Israel and Hamas and “reaps profits from smuggling operations through the tunnels and the Rafah crossing.”

The Israeli think tank Misgav Institute for National Security, staffed by former Israeli military and security officials, published a paper on Oct. 17, 2023, calling on the government to take advantage of the “unique and rare opportunity to evacuate the entire Gaza Strip,” and resettle Palestinians in Cairo with the assistance of the Egyptian government. A leaked document from the Israeli Intelligence Ministry proposed resettling Palestinians from Gaza to the Northern Sinai and constructing barriers and buffer zones to prevent their return.

Any expulsion would likely happen swiftly with Israeli forces, which are already mercilessly herding Palestinians into containment areas in Gaza, carrying out a sustained bombing campaign against the trapped Palestinians while creating porous evacuation portals along the border with Egypt. It would entail a potentially lethal standoff with the Egyptian military, instantly throwing the Egyptian regime of Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, who has described any ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians in Gaza as a “red line,” into crisis. It would be a short step from there to a regional conflict.

Israel has seized territory in Syria and southern Lebanon, part of its vision of “Greater Israel,” which includes occupying land in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia. It covets the maritime gas fields off Gaza’s coast and has floated plans for a new canal to bypass the Suez Canal, to connect Israel’s bankrupt Eilat Port on the Red Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. These projects require emptying Gaza of Palestinians and populating it with Jewish colonists.

The anger on the Arab street — an anger I witnessed over the past few months during visits to Egypt, Jordan, the West Bank and Qatar — will explode in a justifiable fury if mass deportation takes place. These regimes, simply to hold on to power, will be forced to act. Terrorist attacks, whether by organized groups or lone wolves, will proliferate against Israeli and western targets, especially the United States.

The genocide is a recruitment dream for Islamic militants. Washington and Israel must, on some level, understand the cost of this savagery. But it appears as though they accept it, foolishly trying to obliterate those they have cast out of the community of nations, those they refer to as “human animals.”

What do Israel and Washington believe will happen when the Palestinians are expelled from a land they have lived in for centuries? How do they think a people who are desperate, deprived of hope, dignity and a way to make a living, who are being butchered by one of the most technologically advanced armies on the planet, will respond? Do they think creating a Danteesque hell for the Palestinians will blunt terrorism, curb suicide attacks and foster peace? Can they not grasp the rage rippling through the Middle East and how it will implant a hatred towards us that will endure for decades?

The genocide in Gaza is the greatest crime of this century. It will come back to haunt Israel. It will come back to haunt us. It will usher to our doorsteps the evil we have perpetrated on the Palestinians.

You reap what you sow. We have sown a minefield of hatred and violence.

______________________________________________

Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief.

14 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Jeffrey D. Sachs

11 Apr 2025 –The multipolar world will be born when the geopolitical weight of Asia, Africa, and Latin America matches their rising economic weight.

Writing in his cell as political prisoner in fascist Italy after World War I, the philosopher Antonio Gramsci famously declared: “The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.”  A century later, we are in another interregnum, and the morbid symptoms are everywhere.  The US-led order has ended, but the multipolar world is not yet born.  The urgent priority is to give birth to a new multilateral order that can keep the peace and the path to sustainable development.

We are at the end of a long wave of human history that commenced with the voyages of Christopher Columbus and Vasco da Gama more than 500 years ago.  Those voyages initiated more than four centuries of European imperialism that peaked with Britain’s global dominance from the end of the Napoleonic Wars (1815) to the outbreak of World War I (1914).  Following World War II, the US claimed the mantle as the world’s new hegemon.  Asia was pushed aside during this long period.  According to widely used macroeconomic estimates, Asia produced 65 percent of world output in 1500, but by 1950, that share had declined to just 19% (compared with 55% of the world population).

In the 80 years since World War 2, Asia recovered its place in the global economy.  Japan led the way with rapid growth in the 1950s and 1960s, followed by the four “Asian tigers” (Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, and Korea) beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, and then by China beginning around 1980, and India beginning around 1990.  As of today, Asia constitutes around 50% of the world economy, according to IMF estimates.

The multipolar world will be born when the geopolitical weight of Asia, Africa, and Latin America matches their rising economic weight.  This needed shift in geopolitics has been delayed as the US and Europe cling to outdated prerogatives built into international institutions and to their outdated mindsets.  Even today, the US bullies Canada, Greenland, Panama and others in the Western Hemisphere and threatens the rest of the world with unilateral tariffs and sanctions that are blatantly in violation of international rules.

Asia, Africa and Latin America need to stick together to raise their collective voice and their UN votes to usher in a new and fair international system.  A crucial institution in need of reform is the UN Security Council, given its unique responsibility under the UN Charter to keep the peace.   The five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the P5) – Britain, China, France, Russia, and the United States – reflect the world of 1945, not of 2025.  There are no permanent Latin American or African seats, and Asia holds only one permanent seat of the five, despite being home to almost 60% of the world population.  Over the years, many new potential UN Security Council permanent members have been proposed, but the existing P5 have held firmly to their privileged position.

The proper restructuring of the UN Security Council will be frustrated for years to come.  Yet there is one crucial change that is within immediate reach and that would serve the entire world.  By any metric, India indisputably merits a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.  Given India’s outstanding track record in global diplomacy, its admission to the UN Security Council would also elevate a crucial voice for world peace and justice.

On all counts, India is a great power.  India is the world’s most populous country, having overtaken China in 2024.  India is the world’s third largest economy measured at international prices (purchasing-power parity), at $17 trillion, behind China ($40 trillion) and the United States ($30 trillion) and ahead of all the rest.  India is the fastest growing major economy in the world, with annual growth of around 6% per year.  India’s GDP (PPP) is likely to overtake that of the US by mid-century.  India is a nuclear-armed nation, a digital technology innovator, and a country with a leading space program.  No other country mentioned as candidate for a permanent UN Security Council member comes close to India’s credentials for a seat.

The same can be said about India’s diplomatic heft.  India’s skillful diplomacy was displayed by India’s superb leadership of the G20 in 2023.  India deftly managed a hugely successful G20 despite the bitter divide in 2024 between Russia and the NATO countries.  Not only did India achieve a G20 consensus; it made history, by welcoming the African Union to a new permanent membership in the G20.

China has dragged its feet on supporting India’s permanent seat in the UN Security Council, guarding its own unique position as the only Asian power in the P5.  Yet China’s vital national interests would be well served and bolstered by India’s ascension to a permanent UN Security Council seat.  This is especially the case given that the US is carrying out a last-ditch and vicious effort through tariffs and sanctions to block China’s hard-earned rise in economic prosperity and technological prowess.

By supporting India for the UN Security Council, China would establish decisively that geopolitics are being remade to reflect the true multipolar world.  While China would create an Asian peer in the UN Security Council, it would also win a vital partner in overcoming the US and European resistance to geopolitical change.  If China calls for India’s permanent membership in the UN Security Council, Russia will immediately concur, while the US, UK, and France will vote for India as well.

The US geopolitical tantrums of recent weeks – abandoning the fight against climate change, attacking the Sustainable Development Goals, and imposing unilateral tariffs in contravention of core WTO rules – reflect the truly “morbid symptoms” of a dying old order.   It’s time to make way for a truly multipolar and just international order.

______________________________________________

Jeffrey D. Sachs, Professor of Sustainable Development and Professor of Health Policy and Management at Columbia University, is Director of Columbia’s Center for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

14 April 2025

Source: transcend.org

By Michael Whitney

The Trump tariff extravaganza was never about trade deficits, reindustrialization, or bringing jobs back to America. It was always about China. Now that Trump has either eased or lifted the tariffs on 90 other countries, we can see what’s actually going on. Trump is using the ‘tariffs smokescreen’ to implement his decoupling policy, a strategy that is designed to isolate, encircle and eventually crush the People’s Republic of China. That’s the motive that drives the policy. The tariffs were just a means to an end. This is from CNN:

President Donald Trump announced a complete three-month pause on all the “reciprocal” tariffs that went into effect at midnight, with the exception of China, a stunning reversal from a president who had insisted historically high tariffs were here to stay.

But enormous tariffs will remain on China, the world’s second-largest economy. In fact, Trump said they will be increased to 125% from 104% after China announced additional retaliatory tariffs against the United States earlier Wednesday. All other countries that were subjected to reciprocal tariff rates Wednesday will see rates go back down to the universal 10% rate, he said.

“Based on the lack of respect that China has shown to the World’s Markets, I am hereby raising the Tariff charged to China by the United States of America to 125%, effective immediately,” Trump said in his social media post. “At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other Countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable,” he wrote. Trump announces 90-day pause on ‘reciprocal’ tariffs with exception of China, CNN

China’s “lack of respect”? So, Trump is setting US trade policy based on bruised feelings?

That’s just not a credible explanation. Something else is going on here.

China is being targeted because China’s meteoric rise and explosive growth has made it a threat to America’s global hegemony. That is why China has entered Washington’s crosshairs. By imposing prohibitive 125% tariffs on Chinese exports, Trump is indicating that the era of integrated markets in a globalized system is over. The world is being redivided into warring blocs by wealthy Capitalists in the West who cannot compete with China’s government-led model that controls the nation’s critical industries and recycles massive profits back into vital infrastructure, education, R&D and technology. The West’s highly financialized model—that increasingly depends on skimming the cream off toxic securities and stock buybacks—cannot remake itself into a manufacturing powerhouse willing to compete with China on a level playing field. Instead, it must use its waning influence to jolt the system with some unexpected fireworks display (the tariffs) that sends shockwaves through the system and panic across the markets. These contrived spectacles, that border on economic terrorism, are all part of Uncle Sam’s repertoire that are used to subdue the opposition and maintain Washington’s tenuous grip on power.

But do they work?

Trump seems to think so. Here’s Trump with his billionaire friends discussing ‘the killing’ they made when he eased the tariffs and markets soared.

[https://twitter.com/Megatron_ron/status/1910238378064257143]

We should have seen through this hoax from the very beginning. After all, if Trump was serious about bringing jobs back to the US, wouldn’t he have convened a Blue-Ribbon panel of industry experts and economists to create an industrial policy that would provide a roadmap for how to proceed? Wouldn’t he have looked into the feasibility of re-industrialization in a country that has already shuttered the bulk of its factories and no longer has a workforce that is trained to do the jobs that are about to be created? And wouldn’t he have solicited the support of wealthy Capitalists who could be persuaded to make the long-term investments required for an industrial project of this magnitude?

Yes, he would have. But he didn’t do any of those things, because he wasn’t serious about any of it. The whole tariffs-fracas was just an illusionist’s trick aimed at creating a pretext for attacking China. That’s why it was so easy for Trump to end the charade with a wave of his hand as if nothing had happened. Because nothing had happened. It was all a glitzy light-show devoid of any real substance.

And no one makes my case that ‘this was all about China’ better than Trump’s right-hand man, Treasury Scott Secretary Bessent. Check out this clip of Bessent boasting about how he tricked China.

@BehizyTweets

Treasury Secretary Bessent just revealed that President Trump laid a trap and China fell into it. “This was driven by the president’s strategy… You might even say that he goaded China into a bad position. They responded. They have shown themselves to the world to be the bad actors, and we are willing to cooperate with our allies and with our trading partners who did not retaliate.” “It wasn’t a hard message. Don’t retaliate. Things will turn out well.” China screwed up badly.

[https://twitter.com/BehizyTweets/status/1910032448676626726]

Bessent is obviously pleased that he and Trump were able to ‘pull a fast one’ on China. Bessent thinks that’s good policy. And, of course, the American people—most of whom are distrustful of China to begin with—agree. “China is ripping us off”, says the president whose nation’s bank account is $36 trillion overdrawn and whose country lives on ‘the generosity of strangers.’ “China is stealing our jobs”, say the corporate bosses who uprooted their businesses and factories lock-stock-and-barrel and shipped them to China to take advantage of the cheap labor and free security. But now China must be crushed for aspiring to compete with “their betters” in the USA. Now China must be ‘brought to heel’.

Isn’t that what’s really going on? (if we’re honest with ourselves) Isn’t this really a case of sour grapes?

Indeed, it is. China has overtaken the US as the manufacturing capitol of the world through intelligence, hard work, ingenuity and an organizational model (recycled profits into productive activity) that is the result of good governance. That is why China is rapidly surpassing the US in science, technology, AI, quantum computing, robotics and nearly everything else. Because they are governed by people who aspire to create a civilization in which individuals and community achieve their full potential. This is why the entire country is crisscrossed with high-speed rail linking shiny, space-age cities together in a vision of 21st century modernity that is unrivaled in the world today. Whatever one may think about China, they must admit that—as a civilization and a society—they are headed in the right direction while the dilapidated, threadbare and deeply polarized US is in steep decline.

In any event, China’s success has generated considerable envy among western elites who are now determined to do everything in their power to turn back the clock to the post war era when the global economy was their oyster, and the “rules-based order” was the only game in town. The goal is to “contain China’s growth”, which is a sobriquet for subverting China’s development at every turn. The particular strategy even has a name. It’s called “decoupling” which refers to the process by which the United States (and other Western countries) reduce their economic, technological, and financial interdependence with China. In other words, western elites want to terminate trade with China as much as possible which will lead to isolation, encirclement and eventually, regime change. Sound familiar?

The trick is to make “decoupling” (economic isolation) look like it is being forced upon the United States which is why Trump keeps repeating the inane phrase, “China is ripping us off.”

Just to clarify that point: China gives US consumers quality merchandise that requires expensive resources, factories and investment in exchange for green sheets of paper of diminishing value. On which end of that deal would you rather be?

Take a minute and watch this short video with economist Larry Summers who explains that China is NOT cheating anyone by producing inexpensive goods that it is willing to exchange for USD.

[https://twitter.com/RnaudBertrand/status/1910296288610189704]

Lawrence Summers:

“If China wants to sell us things at really low prices and the transaction is we get solar collectors or we get batteries that we can put in electric cars and we send them pieces of paper that we print. Do you think that’s a good deal for us or a bad deal for us?”

Characterizing this as “cheating”, like Summers rightly says, should be rejected entirely. At the end of the day, who’s more “cheated”: the party doing the hard work of producing goods at very low prices on razor thin margins, or the party that simply prints a virtually infinite amount of fiat money to pay for all this stuff?

In short, the ‘tariffs flap’ was just a way to kick off the new policy (which is decoupling) which is aimed at intensifying the hostility between Washington and Beijing. With that in mind, I asked Grok the following question:

Does President Trump support decoupling with China?

Yes, former President Donald Trump has been a strong advocate for decoupling from China, both during his presidency (2017–2021) and in his subsequent political activities as of April 2025….

Trump initiated a trade war with China in 2018 by imposing tariffs on billions of dollars worth of Chinese goods… In 2018, the U.S. imposed tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports, followed by additional tariffs on $200 billion more in 2019….Trump framed this as a necessary step to “decouple” from China’s economy.

Trump banned U.S. companies from using equipment from Chinese telecom giants like Huawei and ZTE, citing national security risks. He also pushed for restrictions on TikTok and WeChat, arguing they posed threats to data privacy and could be used for espionage… He encouraged allies to exclude Huawei from their 5G networks, framing it as part of a broader effort to reduce technological dependence on China…..

During his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump repeatedly called for even tougher measures against China, including higher tariffs (proposing rates as high as 60% on all Chinese goods) and a complete overhaul of trade relations. In a speech in Ohio in March 2024, he said, “We’re going to decouple from China like never before. They’ve ripped us off for decades, and it’s time to end it.”

Trump has argued that decoupling would protect American jobs, strengthen the economy, and reduce national security risks. In a post from January 2025, he wrote, “China has taken advantage of us for too long. We need to cut the cord and build everything here at home.”

As of 2025, however, his tone has hardened, with less emphasis on negotiation and more on confrontation….

Posts on X from early 2025 show Trump doubling down on his anti-China stance, with supporters praising his “toughness”…. Grok

So, Trump is a big proponent of decoupling, which tells you everything you need to know.

Also, Trump’s hard-nosed policies towards China are heaped under the patriotic-sounding rubric, “economic nationalism”, as if American workers derived some benefit from higher prices and soaring inflation. The fact is, however, is that ordinary people will suffer greatly from decoupling and see their standards of living fall even further. That’s because the policy is not intended to create jobs, increase wages, improve health care or provide lower-cost education. It is aimed at preserving Washington’s grip on global power so that corrupt western elites can create more mischief while driving the country further into debt and despair. Here’s more from Grok:

Many economists forecast that these wide-ranging tariffs will accelerate inflation and dampen US economic growth, resulting in stagflation as economic growth falters even as prices remain painfully high…. Additionally, China is unlikely to lower its tariffs to appease Trump; instead, it has retaliated with 34% tariffs on US goods. Both countries’ increased tariffs will reduce bilateral trade.

While China can survive without importing most of the US$125 billion in American goods, the US and many other countries will continue to rely on China for various parts and components. Even if the US imports goods from other countries, those countries will still depend on China for parts.

Potential contradictions and economic consequences

Trump’s reciprocal tariffs are likely to cause a self-inflicted recession in the US. Also, it could create confusion and unintended consequences… Seven years ago, Trump’s first wave of tariffs raised the cost of Chinese goods by 20%, but US imports from China continued to grow….

In the future, even if tariffs on Chinese products rise to 54%, the US will still need to buy from China. By contrast, American products, such as soybeans or crude oil, have limited competitiveness in China. China’s retaliatory tariffs on the US will force it to find alternative markets, leading to losses for US soybean and crude oil exporters….Grok

What part of the above excerpt sounds like a ‘good deal’ for the American people?

None of it. It’s all bad. And the one glimmer of light in this whole dismal affair is the fact that the American people oppose the policy because they know they’ll be hurt by it. Take a look at this survey at PEW:

Tariffs On China

Tariffs are another key part of Trump’s foreign policy. Increased tariffs on China, specifically, receive more negative than positive evaluations…. Many more think the increased tariffs on China will be bad for the U.S. than say they will be good, though around a quarter either see them having no effect or are unsure.

Views of the tariffs’ personal impact are similarly negative: Americans are about five times as likely to say the increased tariffs on China will be bad for them as they are to say the tariffs will be beneficial.

Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say increased tariffs on China will be good for the U.S. and good for them personally. Still, when it comes to the personal impact of these tariffs, Republicans are more likely to say the impact will be bad (30%) than good (17%), even as substantial shares express uncertainty or anticipate the tariffs will have limited personal impact. Tariffs On China, PEW Research Center

So, at least there exists a slim majority of Americans who oppose decoupling, oppose the relentless provocations and incitements, and oppose Trump’s pointless War on China. Let’s hope that majority holds.

*

Michael Whitney is a renowned geopolitical and social analyst based in Washington State.

13 April 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Prof Michel Chossudovsky

Article 13 of the Washington Treaty describes a simple procedure for a NATO member state, to cancel its membership.

Below is the stated objective of NATO: Peace and Security, Individual Liberty and the Rule of Law, Safeguard Freedom and  Democracy.

See below:

“The Parties to this Treaty reaffirm their faith in the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations and their desire to live in peace with all peoples and all governments.

They are determined to safeguard the freedom, common heritage and civilisation of their peoples, founded on the principles of democracy, individual liberty and the rule of law. They seek to promote stability and well-being in the North Atlantic area.

They are resolved to unite their efforts for collective defence and for the preservation of peace and security. They therefore agree to this North Atlantic Treaty.”

Sounds good but it’s a bold face lie.

NATO is an instrument  of  continuous warfare.  What utter nonsense. They do not support the Charter of the United Nations.

US-NATO-Israel’s “humanitarian wars” consist of crimes against humanity, genocide and the destruction and fragmentation of entire countries:

Palestine, Vietnam, Cambodia, Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Ukraine, …

not to mention military coup’s, regime change, color revolutions, … poverty and famine.

Famine in Afghanistan (invaded by NATO forces in October 2001) on the pretext that Afghanistan had attacked America on 9/11 allegedly in support of Al Qaeda.

Read Article 13 of the Washington Treaty which describes the procedure.

“Article 13

“After the Treaty has been in force for twenty years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation.

A NATO Member State may cease to be “A Party of NATO ” one year after its notice of denunciation has been given the the Government of the U.S.A” (emphasis added)

A  NATO member state may decide to “WITHDRAW from NATO.” 

We are at a dangerous crossroads in our history which is characterized by a system of alliances of nation-states (namely NATO) which unequivocally supports and finances the United States military agenda. The latter also includes an option to conduct nuclear war. A 1.3 trillion dollar nuclear weapons program, slated to increase to 2 trillion by 2030.

While Article 13 of the Washington Treaty appears to be simplistic, one can expect numerous pressures and fraudulent actions with a view to preventing a NATO member state from canceling its NATO membership.

What is crucial is to fracture and weaken NATO: an intergovernmental alliance of 32 member states.

There is also the issue of cross-cutting alliances and coalitions, namely countries which are members of NATO, while also having alliances or agreements with so-called enemies of NATO.  Turkey is a NATO member state which has economic and strategic alliances with both Russia and Iran.

The withdrawal from NATO of one or more member states could have a significant impact. It creates a precedent, which would encourage more NATO member states, “to say goodbye.”

How to Reverse the Tide of War: “Say Goodbye to Nato”

A. Withdrawal (Art 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty)

1. A mass movement at the grassroots of society to withdraw from NATO (Art. 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty)

2. Actions within the legislature of the 32 member states. Motions “to cease to be a party” of NATO (Art 13) 

B. NATO Wants Money From Member States. It Also Wants Weapons

“During the 2014 summit, all NATO members agreed to spend at least 2% of their GDPs on defense by 2025″.

Pressure governments to freeze defense spending. Demand withdrawal of soldiers from the war theater.

C. The Restoration of Peace and Democracy

3. Persistent actions against corrupt heads of state who support NATO. 

4. Restoration of the democratic process, elect politicians firmly committed to “CEASING TO BE A PARTY” OF NATO (ART 13)

D. Democratization of the Media

5. Actions against media, which are supportive of terrorism and crimes against humanity committed by  NATO forces. 

E. Actions Within the United Nations System 

6. Meaningful actions within the United Nations System.

7. Actions against NGOs which support NATO.

F. Legal Actions

8. Legal actions against the military industrial complex and the financial establishment 

9. Actions against the billionaire philanthropists which endorse and finance US NATO Israel, acts of war

10  Actions against NATO member governments which commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide

---

The Motto of NATO: “Increase defense spending to prevent war. NATO must spend more.” 

“The Lie Becomes the Truth”

_______________________________________________________

See The Washington Treaty  (Complete Text)

 

See the text of Article 13 of the North Atlantic Treaty below.

Text of Article 13

A  NATO Member State may take the decision to WITHDRAW from NATO.

The procedure is described in Article 13 of the Washington Treaty.

Article 13

After the Treaty has been in force for twenty years, any Party may cease to be a Party one year after its notice of denunciation has been given to the Government of the United States of America, which will inform the Governments of the other Parties of the deposit of each notice of denunciation.

A NATO Member State may cease to be “A Party of NATO ” one year after its notice of denunciation has been given the the Government of the U.S.A.

14 April 2025

Source: globalresearch.ca

By Mahmoud Khalil

Mahmoud Khalil, who has been detained and targeted for deportation by the Trump administration for speaking out about the atrocities in Gaza, dictated a letter to the public from his detention cell in Louisiana. In this letter, Mahmoud Khalil, exposes the systemic injustices within U.S. immigration facilities and how his arrest reflects the crackdown on dissent, underscoring the urgent need to defend civil liberties and the right to protest.

My name is Mahmoud Khalil and I am a political prisoner. I am writing to you from a detention facility in Louisiana where I wake to cold mornings and spend long days bearing witness to the quiet injustices underway against a great many people precluded from the protections of the law.

Who has the right to have rights? It is certainly not the humans crowded into the cells here. It isn’t the Senegalese man I met who has been deprived of his liberty for a year, his legal situation in limbo and his family an ocean away. It isn’t the twenty-one-year-old detainee I met, who stepped foot in this country at age nine, only to be deported without so much as a hearing.

Justice escapes the contours of this nation’s immigration facilities.

On March 8, I was taken by Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents who refused to provide a warrant and accosted my wife and me as we returned from dinner. By now, the footage of that night has been made public. Before I knew what was happening, agents handcuffed and forced me into an unmarked car. At that moment, my only concern was for Noor’s safety. I had no idea if she would be taken too, since the agents had threatened to arrest her for not leaving my side. DHS would not tell me anything for hours — I did not know the cause of my arrest or if I was facing immediate deportation. At 26 Federal Plaza [in New York City], I slept on the cold floor. In the early morning hours, agents transported me to another facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey. There, I slept on the ground and was refused a blanket despite my request.

My arrest was a direct consequence of exercising my right to free speech as I advocated for a free Palestine and an end to the genocide in Gaza, which resumed in full force Monday night. With January’s cease-fire now broken, parents in Gaza are once again cradling too-small shrouds, and families are forced to weigh starvation and displacement against bombs. It is our moral imperative to persist in the struggle for their complete freedom.

I was born in a Palestinian refugee camp in Syria to a family that has been displaced from their land since the 1948 Nakba. I spent my youth in proximity to yet distant from my homeland. But being Palestinian is an experience that transcends borders. I see in my circumstances similarities to Israel’s use of administrative detention — imprisonment without trial or charge — to strip Palestinians of their rights. I think of our friend Omar Khatib, who was incarcerated without charge or trial by Israel as he returned home from travel. I think of Gaza hospital director and pediatrician Dr Hussam Abu Safiya, who was taken captive by the Israeli military on December 27 and remains in an Israeli torture camp today. For Palestinians, imprisonment without due process is commonplace.

I have always believed that my duty is not only to liberate myself from the oppressor, but also to liberate my oppressors from their hatred and fear. My unjust detention is indicative of the anti-Palestinian racism that both the Biden and Trump administrations have demonstrated over the past sixteen months as the United States has continued to supply Israel with weapons to kill Palestinians and prevented international intervention. For decades, anti-Palestinian racism has driven efforts to expand US laws and practices that are used to violently repress Palestinians, Arab Americans, and other communities. That is precisely why I am being targeted.

While I await legal decisions that hold the futures of my wife and child in the balance, those who enabled my targeting remain comfortably at Columbia University. Presidents [Minouche] Shafik, [Katrina] Armstrong, and Dean [Keren] Yarhi-Milo laid the groundwork for the US government to target me by arbitrarily disciplining pro-Palestinian students and allowing viral doxing campaigns — based on racism and disinformation — to go unchecked.

Columbia targeted me for my activism, creating a new authoritarian disciplinary office to bypass due process and silence students criticizing Israel. Columbia surrendered to federal pressure by disclosing student records to Congress and yielding to the Trump administration’s latest threats. My arrest, the expulsion or suspension of at least twenty-two Columbia students — some stripped of their BA degrees just weeks before graduation — and the expulsion of SWC [Student Workers of Columbia] president Grant Miner on the eve of contract negotiations, are clear examples.

If anything, my detention is a testament to the strength of the student movement in shifting public opinion toward Palestinian liberation. Students have long been at the forefront of change — leading the charge against the Vietnam War, standing on the front lines of the civil rights movement, and driving the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. Today, too, even if the public has yet to fully grasp it, it is students who steer us toward truth and justice.

The Trump administration is targeting me as part of a broader strategy to suppress dissent. Visa holders, green card carriers, and citizens alike will all be targeted for their political beliefs. In the weeks ahead, students, advocates, and elected officials must unite to defend the right to protest for Palestine. At stake are not just our voices, but the fundamental civil liberties of all.

Knowing fully that this moment transcends my individual circumstances, I hope nonetheless to be free to witness the birth of my firstborn child.

14 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org

By Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor

Palestinian Territory – The Israeli forces’ deliberate destruction of Gaza City’s Al-Ahli Arab Hospital reflects a broader intent to systematically dismantle essential aspects of life in the Gaza Strip. This attack is part of a clear strategy to erode all means of survival by disregarding international legal protections for civilians in order to deliberately deprive them of basic living conditions and strike vital infrastructure; it demonstrates a calculated Israeli policy designed to induce a slow collapse and push the people in the Strip towards a total breakdown.

Euro-Med Monitor emphasises that this escalation marks a dangerous phase in a systematic strategy meant to eliminate Palestinian civilians in the besieged enclave. The targeting of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital is the targeting of Gaza City’s last refuge for the sick and wounded, who should always be protected, and of medical personnel working under catastrophic conditions to save lives. Bombing a hospital sheltering critically ill patients is a direct violation of the right to life and, in a broader context, is part of Israel’s ongoing genocide against the Palestinian people in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli aircraft struck the emergency building of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital in central Gaza City with two bombs at around 2:10 a.m. on Sunday 13 April 2025. The attack occurred less than 30 minutes after the hospital received an Israeli call demanding evacuation. The strike destroyed the building and caused particularly extensive damage to the reception area and emergency department, laboratory, and pharmacy, which all caught fire.

According to eyewitnesses, people sheltering inside the hospital and medical staff were forced to evacuate dozens of patients and wounded people—some in critical condition—from the hospital to the surrounding streets. Patients were left lying on sidewalks, exposed to the risk of death and denied access to medical care, highlighting the severity of the escalating humanitarian crisis. Following the evacuation process, an injured child, Hatem al-Nabih, died outside the hospital.

As international law mandates the protection of medical facilities, the Israeli army’s order to evacuate the entire hospital within less than 30 minutes falls far short of the minimum standards required for a safe and effective evacuation. The order reflects a deliberate failure to provide genuine safeguards for civilians, including patients, the wounded, and medical staff. Given the Israeli pattern of issuing formal warnings to justify actions that still result in egregious harm due to the lack of time allotted for evacuation, Israel is not absolved of its legal responsibility.

Furthermore, the issuing of evacuation orders does not revoke a hospital’s protected status under international law, nor justify targeting and destroying it, especially when the facility plays such a vital role in the survival of civilians, as was the case with Al-Ahli Arab Hospital. An operating hospital remains a site of humanitarian use, and under no circumstances may civilians be deprived of its services, even after evacuation.

Demanding the immediate evacuation of a hospital overcrowded with critically ill patients, many of them on life support, amid a total blockade and absence of safe zones, cannot be seen as a humanitarian measure. Instead, it is an impossible demand—one that turns the so-called warning itself into a tool of coercive pressure aimed at the destruction of the population, both physically and psychologically. With no escape, refuge, or international intervention, this strategy deliberately drives individuals into a further state of absolute despair, as they see themselves being pushed towards a fate in which their people’s existence has been eliminated.

Israel’s claim of Hamas’ “military use” of the hospital is a familiar and well-worn justification that is often invoked to legitimise its systematic killings and destruction after the fact. This claim lacks credibility in the absence of concrete evidence, especially when considered within the broader context of the deliberate Israeli policy of targeting civilian infrastructure—most notably hospitals. Israel’s bombardment of these facilities has been central to its attacks, despite there being no legal basis for this type of targeting, as such buildings are protected under international humanitarian law.

The principle of proportionality prohibits civilian harm that is excessive in relation to the anticipated military advantage. Therefore, the destruction caused by Israel’s bombing of Al-Ahli Arab Hospital and the consequent severe physical and psychological suffering inflicted on patients, medical staff, and displaced civilians who were seeking shelter there outweigh any claimed military benefit. There is no question, then, that the attack flagrantly violates international humanitarian law and constitutes an international crime warranting legal prosecution and accountability.

Euro-Med Monitor stresses that this attack is not the first to target Al-Ahli Arab Hospital since Israel began its genocide against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in October 2023. It is also part of a broader, systematic campaign to completely disable all health facilities in the besieged enclave. Following the destruction and shutdown of most other hospitals by Israeli forces over the past 18 months, Al-Ahli Arab Hospital was the last relatively functional hospital, serving over one million people in Gaza City and the northern part of the Strip.

Prior to the attack on Al-Ahli Arab Hospital, media outlets close to the Israeli army published a video on March 21 showing Israel’s bombing and destruction of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital in southern Gaza City. As one of the largest specialised hospitals, it served over 12,000 cancer patients. Israel had already targeted this hospital in November 2023 and again in mid-2024, after which Israeli forces turned it into military barracks. This action deprived thousands of patients of vital care, and led to the deaths of approximately 500 cancer patients due to lack of treatment.

Israel’s bombing of both Al-Ahli Arab Hospital and of the Turkish-Palestinian Friendship Hospital—despite the latter being under Israeli control—indicate that these attacks are being carried out without any legitimate military necessity. They reveal that Israel’s true objective is not security, but the deliberate creation of widespread destruction and unliveable conditions in the Gaza Strip, with the ultimate aim of forcing the remaining Palestinian population to leave it.

The ongoing targeting of hospitals and healthcare infrastructure in the Gaza Strip constitutes both a war crime and a crime against humanity. It exposes the systematic nature of the Israeli aggression and its goal of eliminating the civilian population by dismantling their most basic means of survival—most notably the healthcare system, which remains the last lifeline amid the ongoing genocide and total siege imposed on the Strip’s civilians.

Since 2 March 2025, Israel has blocked the entry of medicine and medical supplies along with all other humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip, which was already facing a severe shortage of such supplies due to the strict blockade prior to the January 2025 ceasefire, shattered by Israel on 18 March. The crisis has been compounded by the escalating Israeli airstrikes and the rising number of casualties they continue to cause.

All states must fulfil their individual and collective legal obligations and take urgent action through all available means to stop Israel’s ongoing genocide in the Gaza Strip. They must employ effective measures to protect Palestinian civilians, including by safeguarding medical facilities, health workers, the wounded, and the sick, to halt the continuation of Israel’s policy of mass extermination in the Strip.

Euro-Med Monitor calls on the international community to ensure Israel’s compliance with international law and the rulings of the International Court of Justice, and to hold it accountable for its horrific crimes against the Palestinian people. The international community must also enforce the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court against the Israeli Prime Minister and Defence Minister without delay.

In addition, the international community must impose economic, diplomatic, and military sanctions on Israel for its systematic and grave violations of international law. These should include an arms embargo; a halt to all political, financial, and military support or cooperation; a freeze on the assets of officials implicated in crimes against Palestinians; and travel bans against these officials. Additionally, trade privileges and bilateral agreements that grant Israel economic advantages that enable its continued violations should be suspended.

All relevant states and entities must hold accountable those complicit in Israel’s crimes—most notably the United States and other Israeli allies that assist in enabling Israeli violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. This includes aid and other forms of cooperation in the military, intelligence, political, legal, financial, and/or media sectors, as well as any other sectors that contribute to the continuation of the aforementioned crimes.

Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is a Geneva-based independent organization with regional offices across the MENA region and Europe

14 April 2025

Source: countercurrents.org