Author: nick

Farage’s Financial Foul-Up Should Not Frighten Reform

Economy & Power

Will the scandal over an undeclared donation to Nigel Farage finally put an end to his prime ministerial ambitions? That certainly seems to be the hope of Britain’s liberal media class, who have reported relentlessly and breathlessly on a multimillion-pound gift from the cryptocurrency billionaire Christopher Harborne to the Reform UK leader before he took up his seat in parliament in the July 2024 general election.  The scandal surrounds a £5 million personal gift Harborne gave Farage in 2024. Farage insists it was above board. The donation, he says, was “unconditional” and given as a reward for his Brexit campaigning.…

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Trump’s Diplomacy Has Stalled – The American Conservative

Media Bias

In the realm of international diplomacy, President Donald Trump is an optimist. Peace, or at least stability, is always just around the corner. The political and security disagreements that have sustained some of today’s most destructive wars, he insists, can always be resolved. And it’s only a matter of time before the very same conflicts that have vexed negotiators in the past are nipped in the bud.  Like all politicians, Trump is prone to gross exaggeration of his accomplishments and minimization of his failures. He’s certainly not the only politician to do this. When Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi was killed…

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Can states prosecute ICE agents? A Minnesota case could test the limits.

Political Spin

The day after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent Christian Castro shot Minneapolis resident Julio Cesar Sosa-Celis in the leg, Kristi Noem, then the secretary of homeland security, described that use of force as a clearly justified response to “an attempted murder.” Sosa-Celis and two other Venezuelans had “ambushed and attacked” Castro, Noem averred, “beat[ing] him with snow shovels and the handles of brooms.” Although the Department of Homeland Security has not retracted that account of the January 14 incident, federal prosecutors later admitted it was not true. The fallout from that lie continued on Monday, when Hennepin County Attorney…

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Senators Propose To Head Off ‘Automatic’ Draft Registration by Repealing Selective Service

Geopolitics & War

On May 14th, Senators Ron Wyden (D-OR), Rand Paul (R-KY), and Cynthia Lummis (R-WY)  reintroduced the Selective Service Repeal Act, S. 4537). This bill already has the endorsement of dozens of peace and antiwar groups, draft resisters, religious organizations, antiwar feminists, and civil libertarians. This bipartisan bill to abolish the Selective Service System (SSS) and end preparations for a military draft has been proposed in each session of Congress since 2019, but has yet to get a hearing or a floor vote in either the House or Senate. The timing of this bill is more critical than ever: Unless Congress…

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When Global Order Begins to Fracture

Conspiracy Theories

There are moments in history when the world changes with noise — sirens, speeches, falling statues. And then there are moments when it changes so quietly that almost nobody realizes it is happening. We are living through the second kind. No formal announcement marked the transition. No historic summit collapsed on live television. No leader stepped forward to say: the old rules no longer apply. And yet, somewhere between the war in Ukraine, the tightening strategic alignment between Russia and China, and the silent expiration of the New START in February 2026, the global system that kept great-power rivalry inside predictable boundaries began to dissolve. Not explode.…

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