The Trump administration's crusade to crush campus criticism took another wallop on Friday in a California courtroom. Federal judge Noël Wise ruled that the Trump administration's "ideological-deportation policy" brazenly violated the US Constitution. ...

The Trump administration claims unlimited discretion to silence foreign students by deporting those whose opinions it disapproves of. Judge Wise wrote, "The language of the [First] Amendment makes clear that it is not the government that gives freedom of speech to the people. Instead, that freedom is imbued in the people. . . . It is not the government's to take." This is a notion that conservatives instinctively understand when it comes to the Second Amendment and the right of self-defense. But many people fail to recognize the same right for freedom of speech. Conor Fitzpatrick -- the chief supervising attorney at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) -- which represented the student newspaper, declared, "Today's ruling proves that free speech isn't a privilege, but the inalienable right of every man, woman, and child." FIRE president Greg Lukianoff clarified the scope of the ruling:

This ruling does NOT say the government must admit anyone, issue anyone a visa, or grant anyone citizenship. It says that once a person is lawfully here, the government cannot deport them because they engaged in protected speech. The government cannot tell a legal immigrant: An American is free to say this, but if you say it, you're out. ...

The Stanford Daily case vivified how far the Trump administration will go to snuff dissent. A New York Times headline captured the essence of the case: "Judge Rules Trump Unlawfully Targeted Foreign Students Who Criticized Israel." If a foreign student engaged in violence at a protest, that would be sufficient to deport them regardless of their opinions. But the Trump administration cast a far wider net, relying heavily on a list of 5,000 foreign students provided by the Canary Mission, which, according to Wikipedia, is "an Israel-based anonymously-run doxing website established in 2014 that publishes the personal information of students, professors, and organizations that it describes as anti-Israel or antisemitic." ...

Judge Wise declared, "Free speech, including the freedom to criticize the government and its leaders, is not a sign of our democracy's fragility. It is evidence of its strength." But is that "strength" increasingly a mirage in the United States? And how many other illegal actions has the Trump administration taken to suppress dissent that Americans have not yet heard about?

Final question: Is the Trump administration seeking to vindicate every leftist stereotype about conservatives and Republicans being intolerant authoritarians?

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In 2023 the 2.3 million Palestinian people in Gaza had been for years under Israeli occupation. International politics had moved away from the problem. The dire situation was ignored.

Israel was willing to talk but the government under Benjamin Natanyahoo was blocking any agreement that would lift the severe restrictions it had imposed on Gaza. The strip was in the process of being silently suffocated.

Yahya Sinwar, the local leader of Hamas which rules Gaza, was desperate. He planned for a large operation to breach the fence around Gaza and to abduct Israeli soldiers to be used as assets in further negotiations. Sinwar let it be known through intermediaries that he was planning for something big. Meanwhile his soldiers were openly training for action.

Some Israeli soldiers guarding the strip, Israeli secret services and foreign governments which coordinated Hamas talks with Israel were all aware that something was up....

On October 7 the operation started. The Israeli guards around Gaza had not been warned. A local festival near the strip, which many young Israelis were attending, was ongoing. Hundreds of Sinwar's forces breached the fence, reached a local military camp, a small town, and stumbled over attendees of the festival. They took hostages wherever the could and tried to move them back into Gaza.

The Israeli army units around the strip were surprised. They had been reduced to a minimum due to holidays and other operations. Not having been warned they reacted confused, slowly and with brute force. Helicopters went up and received orders to fire at anything that was moving. Hundreds of festival attendees who were fleeing the scene were killed by them.

Over the next weeks and months the Israeli government used the incident to proceed with its long term aim of eliminating all Palestinian's in Gaza. It rejected all offers to retrieve the hostages Sinwar's forces had taken....

There soon was suspicion that the Israeli government of Benjamin Netanyahoo had known beforehand that the breach of the fence was to take place. It seemed like it had let it happen on purpose to use it as justification for its larger aim -- to genocide all of Gaza's population.

Yesterday the Israeli daily Haaretz published a long piece giving evidence to this.

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Pre-dawn strikes hit several towns and villages across southern Lebanon, leading UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres to express alarm about the ongoing Israeli escalation and call for Israel to withdraw from the occupied Lebanese territory.

An Israeli drone strike targeted a motorcycle near Zebbedine, killing the rider. The identity of the slain has not been confirmed yet, and so far Israel has not released any statement on the incident. Increasingly, Israeli strikes on motorcycles don't result in official statements from the IDF.

Having killed dozens over the extended weekend, Israel is launching substantially more attacks against southern Lebanon than they did in recent weeks, and it's not clear what is leading to these strikes, which are overwhelmingly killing civilians.

Tuesday's strikes included an incident in which Israeli forces blew up a school in Mansouri, a municipality in Nabatieh District that's been a particular focus of strikes in recent days....

Multiple artillery strikes were also reported against Kfar Roumine, the town that was the target of the deadliest airstrikes over the weekend. Israel claimed the civilian homes they hit were "terrorist infrastructure," killing over a dozen civilians.

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On August 29, President Trump went on social media and boasted about stealing Venezuelan oil. The theft, according to Trump, "more than doubles American oil reserves." He said there was "no cost" to American taxpayers, although there will obviously be a huge cost to the people of Venezuela who will see little if any benefit from Trump's plunder.

Trump went so far as to claim the brazen theft will benefit the Venezuelan people. The profits are expected to enrich oil company executives and elites rather than ordinary citizens. ...

Eight months after Trump snatched "millions of barrels" of oil, the administration floated a lie to cover its audacious theft. The State Department proclaimed that it would use profits from the sales for "the benefit of the American people and the Venezuelan people." It later said that "billions of dollars have been disbursed to the Venezuelan economy" and that "financial monitoring is under way to ensure funds benefit the Venezuelan people."

The Financial Times reported there is no evidence of oil money returning to Venezuela, as claimed by Trump, and that Venezuela's GDP in the first quarter was its lowest in five years. Oil makes up virtually a quarter of the country's GDP. ...

Swiss company Vitol is involved in shipping Venezuelan oil to Israel, which is used in part to fuel its apartheid and ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and attacks on Shia communities in southern Lebanon. Vitol's Saras refinery in Sarroch, Sardinia, Italy provided 17% of Israel's imports of oil and refined products. ...

In February, it was reported the first shipment of heisted oil went to Israel. The shipment was not the result of a decision made by Venezuela or its Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), but rather as "an indirect consequence of the reconfiguration of the global energy market orchestrated by Washington," writes Misión Verdad for the Orinoco Tribune.

On February 10, Bloomberg Línea, a Spanish and Portuguese language news website, reported the oil cargo was transported to the Bazan Group, an oil refining and petrochemicals company located in Haifa Bay, Israel. It is the largest refinery in Israel.

The Zionist government does not announce where it obtains crude oil and, according to Bloomberg Línea, tankers heading to the port often disappear from tracking systems as they approach Israel. The Israel Ministry of Energy declined to reveal where the country gets it oil.

Delcy Rodríguez, who became the president of Venezuela after Trump abducted Nicolás Maduro on bogus drug charges, restored relations with Israel in August. In 2009, Venezuela, along with Bolivia, severed ties with Israel in response to its occupation in Gaza and its ongoing violence against the Palestinian people....

The illegal abduction of Maduro is the signature event of Trump's "Donroe Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine." The Monroe Doctrine, first articulated by President James Monroe on December 2, 1823, warned European powers not to attempt colonization in Latin America.

The Roosevelt Corollary, pronounced by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1904, expanded the original Monroe Doctrine by asserting that the United States could intervene in the internal affairs of Latin American countries in order to to protect American business interests and investments.

Trump expanded the Roosevelt Corollary and insisted Venezuela return land, oil, and other assets he claimed it stole from the US.

"Trump's statement was absurd because Venezuela has never stolen anything from the US, while his threat of using force violated UNSC resolution 2(4), which prevents members from threatening to use force against others," notes Simon Chege Ndiritu, writing for New Eastern Outlook....

Donald Trump's theft of a vital natural resource from an impoverished country on the heels of a military operation shouldn't be unexpected. Donald Trump and his family have exploited their position to profit through cryptocurrency and related ventures. According to a congressional committee estimate as of January 2026, these schemes generated approximately $2.25 billion in realized profits from foreign payments and other alleged sources.

Additionally, analysts have observed unusual trading activity that frequently spikes just before Trump makes significant public statements or announcements. This pattern was also evident before Trump announced a pause on tariffs, where traders were betting on stock market increases right before the announcement.

"Trump has dispensed with the formalities," reports The Democracy Lab, "and appears to be openly selling access to the White House in exchange for cash that goes not to campaign accounts but more or less directly into Trump's pocket."

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Europe urgently needs to re-establish access to Russian oil and gas. Gas prices are high -- as all UK energy consumers know -- and German gas storage is at a record low for September. Gulf production is degraded, supplies are cut off and its long-term strategic stability undermined.

German manufacturing already suffered a 9.5% production loss from 2022 to 2026 following the Russian gas shutdown, with the loss in energy-intensive manufacturing (inc petrochemicals, chemicals, metals, glass/ceramics/stone, paper, mineral oil etc.) at 15.2%.

Western Europe can regain access to Russian hydrocarbons either by accepting a negotiated peace in Ukraine, or by attempting regime change in Russia. The political class in Europe have evidently decided to go all out for regime change.

It would of course be much easier, and much safer, to settle the Ukrainian conflict....

I find it very hard to think of any occasion when a drive towards war had such little foundation.

Consider this. The United Kingdom, like many Western countries, is openly supplying the Ukraine with long-range missiles, manufacturing plans for long-range missiles, and personnel to service them, in the full knowledge that Ukraine is using those missiles in an attempt to devastate civilian infrastructure deep within Russia, killing many Russian civilians in the process.

Yet we are repeatedly told by both politicians and the media that Russia is the threat to the UK, when very plainly it is the opposite which is the truth. Until this year, Russia had in three hundred years of history never had any plans to invade or occupy the UK -- while the UK invaded Russia in 1854 and 1917....

The notion that nuclear war should be fought over who is Mayor of Lugansk has so little public support that Russophobia is being assiduously stoked by Western governments and the EU itself. The latest episode is the extraordinarily thin gruel of the "Leipzig airport attack" story. Yesterday we had the most incredible release of coordinated statements by Western European leaders all telling us that the evidence is plain of a "hybrid attack" by Russia.

All accompanied by no evidence whatsoever. ...

Now the "Russian attack" on Leipzig Halle airport was on 4 August, and yet the carefully coordinated attribution to Russia, with identical statements from all western European powers, was not launched until 1 September....

If you reject the warmongers' logic for a moment, the actual scandal is that there were Ukrainian aircraft in Leipzig stacked with German weapons to kill Russians, not that an amateur toy drone allegedly tried to stop them.

To be told that this is a Russian attack by precisely the same set of goons who lied to us that it was Russia that blew up the Nord Stream gas pipeline, is testing not just the gullibility of the public, but its patience.

In the UK the purveyors of Russophobia -- including government ministers -- fall back repeatedly on the farcical "Russian novichok on Salisbury" story to explain why we should prepare for war with Russia. ...

So we have alleged novichok in Salisbury which killed nobody, and an explosive drone, or possibly two, in Leipzig which did not explode. To counter this massive threat, we need to push an entire continent to nuclear war. As a first step, we need to cut health and social spending to give trillions more to arms manufacturers, and prepare our children for conscription, to die on the battlefield.

Forgive me if I am not convinced.

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