The Pentagon has also spent more than $10 million on operations across the Middle East since October 7, 2023, according to the document

The US has provided Israel with $21.7 billion in military assistance during the two years of the conflict in Gaza, a new report has said.

The paper by the Costs of War project at Brown University's Watson School of International and Public Affairs was released on Tuesday, the second anniversary of the October 7, 2023 incursion into Israel by Palestinian armed group Hamas, in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 others taken hostage.

Israeli airstrikes and a ground offensive in Gaza, launched in response to the attack, have left more than 67,000 people dead and almost 170,000 injured, according to the Palestinian health authorities. Last month, a UN commission described West Jerusalem's actions as "genocide."

Mass confirmation includes ambassadors and senior officials as shutdown enters seventh day

Senate Republicans confirmed a staggering tranche of President Donald Trump's nominees on Tuesday as the government shutdown continues.

Lawmakers voted along party lines to confirm the batch of 107 of Trump's nominees, a move that whittled down the remaining pending nominees on the Senate's calendar to double digits. It also came as the upper chamber was deadlocked in the midst of a government shutdown, during which floor votes have largely been dedicated to trying to reopen the government.

The slate of confirmed nominees included many of Trump's top allies and former candidates that he hand-picked to run in previous elections.

Netanyahu may yet call it diplomacy, but the world saw something else: a man reduced from an arrogant boaster of his control over the American president, to that president's water boy.

What unfolded this weekend between Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu was as much a tremendously needed diplomatic breakthrough to end Israel's war of aggression upon the people of Palestine, as it was a public display of hierarchy; a master-servant dynamic disguised as an agreement so stunning that even The New York Times was forced to frame it this way. They did so in their news analysis piece by Isabel Kershner from Jerusalem on October 5th: "Strong-Armed by Trump, Netanyahu Embraces Gaza Deal as a Personal Win - Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel took credit for an emerging agreement, but it was clear that President Trump was calling the shots", despite that the piece introduces some critically erroneous propaganda. What is clear, however, is that Netanyahu's war policy for Gaza effectively experienced a coup at the hands of Trump.

Newly declassified memoranda show then-Vice President Joe Biden's staff intervened in February 2016 to block the Central Intelligence Agency from circulating an intelligence report to policymakers that summarized how senior Ukrainian officials perceived his son's business dealings and his December 2015 trip to Kyiv.

According to the documents, the request came from the vice president's national-security adviser and was relayed inside the intelligence community by Biden's Presidential Daily Brief briefer: "I just spoke with VP/NSA and he would strongly prefer the report not/not be disseminated. Thanks for understanding."

A senior CIA official described the intervention as "extremely rare and unusual," saying the material otherwise met the threshold for distribution to U.S. officials working on Ukraine policy.

The report compiled reactions from officials in the government of then-President Petro Poroshenko following Mr. Biden's visit. Those officials "privately mused" about U.S. media scrutiny of Hunter Biden's business ties in Ukraine and "viewed the alleged ties of the U.S. Vice President's family to corruption in Ukraine as evidence of a double-standard within the United States Government towards matters of corruption and political power," the CIA relayed.

The same officials "expressed bewilderment and disappointment" that the vice president did not engage in expected substantive discussions with Mr. Poroshenko or other senior figures, Just the News reports.

Kirill Dmitriev replied to recent revelations regarding the former US president's dealings published by the CIA.

Former US President Joe Biden provoked the Ukraine conflict to hide his family's corrupt dealings, Kremlin investment aide Kirill Dmitriev said on X on Tuesday. He was commenting on a set of CIA documents declassified by the agency's director, John Ratcliffe, earlier in the day.

In 2016, then-Vice President Biden asked the CIA to cover up a report about his family's alleged business dealings in Ukraine, according to an email published in the records.

"The truth is coming out - and justice must follow," Dmitriev said.

The former US president's family has long been linked to Ukrainian gas company Burisma. His son Hunter Biden, a convicted felon, was paid millions to sit on the company's board during his time as vice president.

People who can recall or who are aware of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech to the nation in January 1961 usually remember it for his use of the phrase "military-industrial complex."

Eisenhower wrote:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence — economic, political, even spiritual — is felt in every city, every State house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

It is not an understatement to say that Eisenhower's warning not only was unheeded but also was prophetic, and the endless military involvement of US armed forces around the world for the past half century is proof that the president was right. However, the speech contained another warning about the role of science and scientists in our society that also went unheeded:

Europe is losing its old values; the ancient Greeks would turn in their graves if they saw how "democracy" is practiced by the current incompetent leaders of the EU and its member states. The fact is that members of the European Parliament are not elected directly by the people; only the national parliaments of the EU member states are — and even that is questionable due to the massive election fraud witnessed recently. The EU is staging coups d'état in the style of the "color revolutions" it learned from its mentor, the United States, as seen in Romania, for example. Similar attempts have also been made in Serbia, Hungary, Slovenia, and, most recently, Moldova.

What the elites once called "democracy" has been entirely eroded; nothing of it remains today. Democracy literally means demos (people) and krateo (to rule) — translated, it is "the rule of the people." Today, we are witnessing the loss of this very value, which the elites now exploit to justify their fascist actions.

I would compare this to the term "antisemitic," a word Israel uses against its enemies, particularly the Arabs, or rather the Palestinians. Yet, all peoples in the Middle East are Semitic, including the Israelis themselves. Therefore, to insult their "brother peoples," the Arabs, by labeling them "antisemitic" is completely devoid of context.

Returning to the European Union: the false flags, accusations, and ill-conceived plans are arriving in rapid succession. Many of these initiatives were, for all intents and purposes, already in motion. Consider, for instance, the absurd proposal to construct a "drone wall" against Russian threats. However, since 2022, new walls have already been under construction in the Baltic states, Finland, and Poland. The physical barriers are already in place, and the establishment of a complementary drone defense system is likely well advanced. According to the EU and NATO — and as stated by Ursula von der Leyen — it is projected to be completed by 2026.

In recent weeks, we have witnessed a series of false flag attacks in the European Union, with nearly every country bordering Russia or Belarus reporting a drone attack allegedly originating from one of these nations. Officials have been hesitant to assign full blame to Russia, leading to statements in various state-run media outlets that read: "Probably Russian drones, but we are not entirely sure." EU leaders have already activated NATO's Article 4, and following another false flag attack, NATO's Article 5 will likely be invoked as well. This is because the EU is NATO, and NATO is the EU. With the election of former Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as Secretary General of NATO, any remaining distinction has vanished, and the two organizations have effectively become one.

New group of vessels intercepted in international waters while at least seven people from previous flotilla still held

A Gaza-bound humanitarian flotilla aimed at breaking Israel's naval blockade has been intercepted by the Israeli military, days after the detention of activists on an earlier flotilla led to international outrage and widespread protests.

Nine sailing vessels flying Italian and French flags and a motor ship registered in Timor-Leste were intercepted and boarded starting at 4.34am on Wednesday in international waters roughly 120 nautical miles off the coast of Gaza, the group's organisers the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) and Thousand Madleens to Gaza said in a statement.

It came as 82 parliamentarians from the Council of Europe parliamentary assembly and the European parliament called for the immediate and unconditional release of activists from the earlier Gaza Sumud flotilla (GSF) held last week by Israel. At least seven of the more than 450 people detained remain in custody, according to Israeli media reports.

At Valdai, Moscow laid out not a challenge to the West, but a blueprint for a world of equals - where balance replaces control.

Every year, Vladimir Putin's address at the Valdai Discussion Club is more than a policy statement - it's a philosophical manifesto. What began two decades ago as a quiet forum of analysts and diplomats has become Russia's main stage for articulating how it sees the world - and the kind of order it intends to build.

This year's theme, "The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use," marked a shift from theory to blueprint. Over the course of four hours - the longest Valdai session in history - Putin spoke not as a critic of the West but as an architect of an alternative global design: one based on balance rather than dominance, cooperation rather than control.

It was unexpected, but the advocates of generalized war, the Straussians, expelled from the governing bodies of the United States, have regrouped in intergovernmental organizations. To everyone's surprise, they are present in the European Union, but especially in the United Nations and in the Contact Group on the Defense of Ukraine. Institutions dedicated to peace have been hijacked by the warmongers.

For nearly a year, President Donald Trump has been putting America back in order. He has reestablished the principles of equality before the law and merit-based promotion at the expense of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). He has slashed federal budgets for anything related to imperial spending and attempted to restore the military's primary function: homeland defense.

At the same time, we all see how he is failing to achieve the peace he hoped for in Ukraine and Palestine. He is letting the Europeans fight not for Ukraine, but against Russia and Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition persisting in its program of a "Greater Israel," that is, the annexation of its neighbors [ 1 ] .

However, we fail to see the worst of it: the Straussians, who held the upper hand under George Bush Jr., Barack Obama, and Joe Biden, are still not defeated. They have retreated into two intergovernmental organizations: NATO and the UN.