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Schools in Arizona, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania have cracked down on tent cities

More than 40 people were arrested on Friday as authorities moved to dismantle pro-Palestinian encampments at the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Arizona, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

Protesters against the Israeli war on Gaza have set up tent cities across major American universities over the past three weeks, starting at Columbia University in New York City. 

Around 4am on Friday, police in riot gear surrounded the encampment at MIT, giving protesters 15 minutes to leave. The ten students that chose to stay were arrested, according to MIT President Sally Kornbluth. The group of protesters who gathered outside the camp to chant “pro-Palestinian slogans” was dispersed by 6am, the school said.

“This is only going to make us stronger. They can’t arrest the movement,” Quinn Perian, an undergraduate student and organizer for MIT Jews for Ceasefire, told AP. “MIT would rather arrest and suspend some students than they would end their complicity with the genocide going in Gaza.”

Perian vowed the students won’t back down until MIT “agrees to cut ties with the Israeli military.”

Read more Police break up pro-Palestine protest at French university (VIDEOS)

In a statement about Friday’s arrests, Kornbluth said that MIT’s responsibility was to ensure both free speech and campus safety, and that the protests had “increasingly made it impossible” to meet both obligations.

About 90 minutes after the MIT raid, campus and Philadelphia police moved against the camp at the University of Pennsylvania, which had been in place for more than two weeks. The school said that students and faculty members were among the 33 people detained and charged with “defiant trespass.”

Campus police at the University of Arizona in Tucson tore down the protest camp late on Thursday. The school cited policy violations and safety concerns after protesters had fortified their tent city with wooden pallets. 

Police had fired tear gas to clear the area after getting pelted with rocks and water bottles, the school said. No arrests were reported, however.

More than 2,800 people have been arrested at 56 colleges and universities across the US since April 18, when the pro-Palestinian protests began, according to AP.  The demonstrators have called for their schools to stop doing business with Israel or companies that support the Israeli war effort against Hamas in Gaza, which has killed over 34,000 Palestinians since last October.

Beijing and Budapest aim to establish an “all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership”

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping in Budapest on Thursday, where the two leaders agreed to elevate their partnership and establish a “new era” in bilateral relations.

Both Xi and Orban spoke highly of each other’s nations, with the host praising China as “one of the pillars of the new world order” during their joint press conference.

“Prime Minister Orban and I both agree that China and Hungary have always been good friends that trust and support each other as well as good partners that seek win-win cooperation over the years. We should further elevate our relations and enrich our cooperation,” Xi told members of the media at the press conference.

The two leaders unveiled a declaration “on the establishment of an all-weather comprehensive strategic partnership for the new era.” The document provides a vision for building a closer relationship between the two nations.

Beijing and Budapest originally established a “comprehensive strategic partnership” back in 2017, which was later deemed fruitful by both sides.

“China and Hungary view each other as a priority partner for cooperation, always respect and treat each other equally, and set a good example of mutually beneficial pragmatic cooperation,” the new document reads. It promises that both have “agreed to maintain high-level exchanges, strengthen political mutual trust, and deepen cooperation for mutual benefit.”

Read more Xi marks 25th anniversary of NATO atrocity

Xi’s state visit to Hungary comes as a part of his first European tour in five years.
Earlier this week, the Chinese leader visited France, holding talks with his counterpart Emmanuel Macron during a two-day stay. While Xi has expressed a readiness to “maintain strategic communication with France,” Macron praised the “friendly relationship and productive cooperation” the two countries enjoy.

Afterwards, Xi visited Serbia, with the trip coming on the 25th anniversary of the 1999 NATO bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade, which left three Chinese citizens dead and 20 more injured.

“The Chinese people cherish peace, but we will never allow such tragic history to repeat itself,” Xi wrote in an opinion piece published on Tuesday by the Serbian newspaper Politika.

The Chinese president met his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic during the visit, with the two leaders charting a “shared future” for their countries. “Serbia became China’s first strategic partner in central and eastern Europe eight years ago, and it becomes the first European country with which we shall build a community with a shared future,” Xi said.

Backing Kiev pushed Russia and China into an alliance, Dominic Cummings has said

The UK and its allies got tricked into backing a “corrupt mafia state” in Ukraine and getting into a war of attrition against a Moscow-Beijing partnership, Dominic Cummings has said in an interview.

The longtime Tory political strategist led the Vote Leave campaign for Brexit and was one of the key aides to then-PM Boris Johnson until resigning in November 2020.

“We should have never got into the whole stupid situation,” Cummings told the outlet I News in an interview published on Wednesday, commenting on London’s full-throated support for Kiev. He also described Ukraine as a “corrupt s**thole that doesn’t matter at all.”

“This is not a replay of 1940 with the Potemkin [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky as the Churchillian underdog,” he added. “This whole Ukrainian corrupt mafia state has basically conned us all and we’re all going to get f**ked as a consequence.”

Western sanctions have been “more of a disaster” for the EU than for Russia, driving up the cost of living while pushing Moscow and Beijing closer together, according to Cummings. All the West managed to do is get into a war of attrition with Russia, “who we pushed into an alliance with the world’s biggest manufacturing power.”

Read more British sanctions failing to harm Russia – UK MP

Cummings also addressed the argument that Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to be “taught a lesson” about invading neighbors.

“The lesson we’ve taught Putin is that we’re a bunch of total f**king jokers,” he said. “I mean, Putin already knew that before the war. But this has emphasized it and broadcast it to the entire world, what a bunch of clowns we are,” he added.

Between the sanctions regime and the US trying to seize frozen Russian assets, the West is encouraging the emergence of alternative global financial systems, he explained.

That’s not teaching Putin any lesson, only that we’re idiots.

Cummings slammed Johnson – with whom he is no longer on speaking terms – for using the Ukraine conflict for “acting out his Churchillian fantasies,” as well as the Parliament, which “swallowed all of his total bulls**t on Ukraine and actually took it seriously.”

Johnson was the key figure in getting Kiev to reject a peace deal with Russia in April 2022, according to the top Ukrainian negotiator, as well as Ukrainian media.

The former PM denied his role in scuttling the talks, calling the account “total nonsense and Russian propaganda.” However, he confirmed that he told Zelensky the UK would back him “a thousand percent” and that any deal with Moscow would be bad.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told The Guardian he favors deploying military instructors with air defense cover to Ukraine

NATO could create a coalition of military instructors to be sent to Ukraine, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis suggested in an interview with The Guardian on Thursday. If such a deployment goes ahead, participating nations would need to provide their military personnel with additional air defense cover, he said.

In recent months, French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly refused to rule out the idea of sending NATO troops to Ukraine, describing his comments as part of the West’s “strategic ambiguity.” Several other member states have pushed back on Macron’s comments, however, insisting they have no plans to deploy troops.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday that the US-led military bloc “has no intention of deploying forces to Ukraine,” adding that Kiev has not made such a request.

Speaking to The Guardian on Thursday, Landsbergis said it would be “more practical” to train Ukrainian troops in their home country rather than on NATO soil.

Read more NATO to rule out boots on ground in Ukraine – media

“You don’t need to transport them all the way. You have everything that they need right there,” he said. “It could be that the trainers stationed as part of the coalition to train the Ukrainians in Ukraine could be defended with air defense.”

According to the diplomat, such a move would send a message to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “it’s not up to him to decide the way that we’re helping Ukraine.” 

Landsbergis also revealed that the Lithuanian parliament has already given the green light to a potential training mission. He noted, however, that Vilnius would prefer to do it as part of a broader coalition with other Western nations.

On Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk revealed that “there are some [NATO] troops there, I mean soldiers” in Ukraine. He clarified that these are “observers [and] engineers.” He said that NATO has no desire to further embroil itself in the Ukraine conflict for fear that a “nuclear war could break out.” 

READ MORE: Russia launches new offensive – Kiev

A day earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed that the “entire Western community is working for our enemy, dreaming about Russia ceasing to exist in its current form.” 

Speaking during a press briefing earlier this week, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that tactical nuclear weapons drills announced on Monday were a response to a new and “unprecedented” escalation of tensions on the part of some top Western officials. 

“They talked about the readiness and even the intention to send armed contingents to Ukraine, that is, to actually put NATO soldiers in front of the Russian military,” he clarified. 

The US has threatened to cut off supplies of offensive weapons if Israel enters population centers in the Gazan city

A “measured expansion” of Israel’s operation in the densely populated city of Rafah in southern Gaza was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Thursday night, multiple outlets have reported.

The reports come after US President Joe Biden vowed to stop the supply of offensive weapons to Israel if its military goes into the city’s population centers.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks and troops entered the eastern part of Rafah in the early hours of Tuesday morning, seizing the border crossing that links Gaza and Egypt, as well as launching airstrikes.

Axios reported on Friday that an “expansion of the area of ​​operation” had been approved, citing three sources with knowledge of the decision. Hebrew media also reported that the IDF was widening its area of operation.

Two of Axios’s sources said the operation does not cross Biden’s stated red line, while a third believed it “could be interpreted by the US” as going too far.

Read more Israel will fight with its ‘fingernails’ – Netanyahu defies US ultimatum

All three said the cabinet had instructed Israeli negotiators to continue efforts to reach a deal to free hostages captured by Hamas in its October 7 cross-border attack on Israel. National Security Minister Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are said to have voted against that decision.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel was ready to “stand alone” in its war on Gaza after Biden threatened to halt the supply of certain weapons. “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said.

According to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Washington has already paused one shipment of weapons to Israel due to concerns over Rafah, which is currently sheltering 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled the northern parts of the enclave that have been bombarded by Israeli strikes since October. 

Reuters reported on Friday that Israeli tanks had captured the main road between the eastern and western parts of the city, while Hamas said it had attacked Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east.

READ MORE: WATCH Israeli tank crush ‘I love Gaza’ sign in Rafah

The IDF reported on X (formerly Twitter) that some Hamas militants were killed in”face-to-face” battles with its troops near the border crossing and that several underground tunnels dug by the Palestinian fighters have been found.

So far, around 110,000 people have fled Rafah seeking safety amid increasing attacks, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said. “Nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are atrocious,” the agency wrote on X.

The US has threatened to cut off supplies of offensive weapons if Israel enters population centers in the Gazan city

A “measured expansion” of Israel’s operation in the densely populated city of Rafah in southern Gaza was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Thursday night, multiple outlets have reported.

The reports come after US President Joe Biden vowed to stop the supply of offensive weapons to Israel if its military goes into the city’s population centers.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks and troops entered the eastern part of Rafah in the early hours of Tuesday morning, seizing the border crossing that links Gaza and Egypt, as well as launching airstrikes.

Axios reported on Friday that an “expansion of the area of ​​operation” had been approved, citing three sources with knowledge of the decision. Hebrew media also reported that the IDF was widening its area of operation.

Two of Axios’s sources said the operation does not cross Biden’s stated red line, while a third believed it “could be interpreted by the US” as going too far.

Read more Israel will fight with its ‘fingernails’ – Netanyahu defies US ultimatum

All three said the cabinet had instructed Israeli negotiators to continue efforts to reach a deal to free hostages captured by Hamas in its October 7 cross-border attack on Israel. National Security Minister Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are said to have voted against that decision.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel was ready to “stand alone” in its war on Gaza after Biden threatened to halt the supply of certain weapons. “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said.

According to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Washington has already paused one shipment of weapons to Israel due to concerns over Rafah, which is currently sheltering 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled the northern parts of the enclave that have been bombarded by Israeli strikes since October. 

Reuters reported on Friday that Israeli tanks had captured the main road between the eastern and western parts of the city, while Hamas said it had attacked Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east.

READ MORE: WATCH Israeli tank crush ‘I love Gaza’ sign in Rafah

The IDF reported on X (formerly Twitter) that some Hamas militants were killed in”face-to-face” battles with its troops near the border crossing and that several underground tunnels dug by the Palestinian fighters have been found.

So far, around 110,000 people have fled Rafah seeking safety amid increasing attacks, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said. “Nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are atrocious,” the agency wrote on X.

The US has threatened to cut off supplies of offensive weapons if Israel enters population centers in the Gazan city

A “measured expansion” of Israel’s operation in the densely populated city of Rafah in southern Gaza was approved by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet on Thursday night, multiple outlets have reported.

The reports come after US President Joe Biden vowed to stop the supply of offensive weapons to Israel if its military goes into the city’s population centers.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF) tanks and troops entered the eastern part of Rafah in the early hours of Tuesday morning, seizing the border crossing that links Gaza and Egypt, as well as launching airstrikes.

Axios reported on Friday that an “expansion of the area of ​​operation” had been approved, citing three sources with knowledge of the decision. Hebrew media also reported that the IDF was widening its area of operation.

Two of Axios’s sources said the operation does not cross Biden’s stated red line, while a third believed it “could be interpreted by the US” as going too far.

Read more Israel will fight with its ‘fingernails’ – Netanyahu defies US ultimatum

All three said the cabinet had instructed Israeli negotiators to continue efforts to reach a deal to free hostages captured by Hamas in its October 7 cross-border attack on Israel. National Security Minister Ben Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich are said to have voted against that decision.

Netanyahu said on Thursday that Israel was ready to “stand alone” in its war on Gaza after Biden threatened to halt the supply of certain weapons. “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone,” he said.

According to US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Washington has already paused one shipment of weapons to Israel due to concerns over Rafah, which is currently sheltering 1.4 million Palestinians who have fled the northern parts of the enclave that have been bombarded by Israeli strikes since October. 

Reuters reported on Friday that Israeli tanks had captured the main road between the eastern and western parts of the city, while Hamas said it had attacked Israeli tanks near a mosque in the east.

READ MORE: WATCH Israeli tank crush ‘I love Gaza’ sign in Rafah

The IDF reported on X (formerly Twitter) that some Hamas militants were killed in”face-to-face” battles with its troops near the border crossing and that several underground tunnels dug by the Palestinian fighters have been found.

So far, around 110,000 people have fled Rafah seeking safety amid increasing attacks, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) said. “Nowhere is safe in the Gaza Strip and living conditions are atrocious,” the agency wrote on X.

The US is expected to veto the resolution at the Security Council

The UN General Assembly passed a resolution accepting Palestine as the 194th member of the world body on Friday. The US has previously vetoed Palestinian statehood at the Security Council, however.

Palestine has been a non-voting observer in the global body since 2012. The new resolution would grant it “new rights and privileges,” as well as full membership if approved by the Security Council. It was adopted with 143 votes in favor, nine against, and 25 abstentions.

US Deputy Ambassador Robert Wood said his government was opposed to the resolution, indicating that Washington would veto Palestinian membership at the council again – as it did last month.

Friday’s resolution included an expression of “deep regret and concern” by the General Assembly that the US had vetoed the admission of Palestine on April 18, and urged the council to “reconsider the matter favorably” in line with the UN Charter and decisions by the International Court of Justice.

Read more US could stop funding UN over Palestine – Reuters

The General Assembly voiced its “unwavering support for the two-state solution of Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security within recognized borders, based on the pre-1967 borders.”

Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan accused the General Assembly of “shredding the UN Charter with this vote,” proceeding to feed a copy of the document through a paper shredder he brought to the podium.

Though Israel has nominally accepted the idea of Palestinian statehood in the abstract, the government in West Jerusalem has rejected its implementation in practice. During last month’s Security Council debate, Erdan described the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank, as “a terror-supporting entity that does not deserve any status in the UN.”

Watch: Israeli ambassador to the UN @giladerdan1 used a paper shredder to shred the UN charter on the podium of the UN general assembly ahead of a vote that will give new privileges to the Palestinians at the UN pic.twitter.com/mWQ85c8uwK

— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) May 10, 2024

Israel has also vowed to completely destroy Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, after last year’s October 7 attacks.

After exercising his veto last month, Ambassador Wood said that the US action “does not reflect opposition to Palestinian statehood, but instead is an acknowledgement that it will only come from direct negotiations between the parties,” adding that Palestine can’t join the UN so long as Hamas is in control of Gaza.

Russia’s permanent representative to the UN Vassily Nebenzia has accused the US of holding the Security Council “hostage” over events in the Middle East. He also argued that Palestinian statehood and UN membership would “equalize the starting negotiating positions of the parties.”

READ MORE: US has taken UN Security Council hostage – Moscow

An estimated 1,200 Israelis died in the October 7 attacks by Hamas. More than 34,000 Palestinians have been killed in the subsequent Israeli offensive, which is presently targeting the city of Rafah in the south of Gaza. Israel has pressed the attack despite the reservations of the US, made known at official levels.

The prime minister’s pledge comes after President Biden warned the IDF against a major offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah

Israel will continue its military campaign against Hamas in Gaza regardless of disapproval from its key allies, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said. His remarks came shortly after US President Joe Biden warned the Israeli leadership that any large-scale operation in Rafah would mean a halt in the supply of key defense equipment.

The city in southern Gaza is the last major population center still not under Israeli control. Hundreds of thousands of internally displaced Palestinians have taken shelter there in recent months, with some estimates putting the current population of the city, usually around 400,000, at over a million. Movement of humanitarian convoys bringing food and medicine has reportedly been disrupted as the Israeli offensive continues.

Earlier this week, Israeli troops and tanks entered the eastern districts of Rafah in what itl described as a “limited” operation, after fighter jets bombarded the city.

Speaking on Thursday, Netanyahu stated: “If we have to stand alone, we will stand alone. If we need to, we will fight with our fingernails. But we have much more than fingernails.” He noted that in 1948 Israel gained independence despite an “arms embargo.”

Read more US ‘actively participating in genocide’ in Gaza – congresswoman

On the same day, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesperson Daniel Hagari insisted that the military “has armaments for the missions it plans, and for the missions in Rafah, too.”

In an interview with CNN on Wednesday, US President Biden warned: “If they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities – that deal with that problem.”

He noted that the Israeli military has not “gone into the population centers.” He also reaffirmed Washington’s commitment to Israel’s defense, saying that the US would “continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently.”

On Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told members of Congress that Washington had already put arms shipments to Israel on hold last week, as quoted by the Financial Times. The newspaper claimed that the US had not made the final decision regarding the weapons though.

The paused delivery allegedly included thousands of 2,000-pound and 500-pound bombs.

According to the FT, the US had not resorted to such shipment restrictions since the start of the conflict in Gaza last October, with more than 100 arms deliveries approved to date.

The defense minister also announced that Berlin had purchased three HIMARS rocket launcher systems for Ukraine

The majority of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) will be under NATO command by 2025, with around 35,000 soldiers placed on the “highest levels of readiness,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced during a keynote speech at Washington’s Johns Hopkins University on Thursday.

The announcement comes as Germany struggles to resolve major personnel and equipment shortages in its army, with many replacement items purchased for the Bundeswehr being sent to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. A parliamentary report in March revealed that the army is also “aging and shrinking,” with 20,000 unfilled positions and a “very high” dropout rate.

“The security of our allies is our security. Therefore, by next year, the majority of the Bundeswehr will be placed under NATO command,” Pistorius said in his Thursday speech, adding that “approximately 35,000 of them will be at the two highest levels of readiness.”

The minister said Berlin’s focus remains on “protecting our allies on NATO’s eastern flank,” and pointed to Germany’s recent moves to increase its military presence in the region.

Read more Germany backs arming Ukraine with Russian funds

Last month, Germany sent an advance team of soldiers to Lithuania as part of a plan to establish a full-strength armor brigade of 4,800 soldiers, which are to be permanently stationed in the Baltic nation bordering Russia by 2027. At the time, Moscow said the move would require “special measures” be taken in response.

Speaking about the Lithuanian deployment in the US, Pistorius called it “an unprecedented case in German history” and a “clear signal” to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “every inch” of NATO territory will be defended.

Earlier in the day, Pistorius also met with his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and revealed that Berlin had purchased three US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers for Ukraine.

“They come from US armed forces’ stocks and will be paid for by us,” he said. HIMARS launchers are mounted on a truck chassis and can fire multiple missiles in quick succession.

READ MORE: NATO soldiers operating in Ukraine – Polish PM

Pistorius also commented on the possibility of reintroducing compulsory military service in Germany to help solve its personnel issues, saying its decision to end conscription in 2011 was a “mistake.” 

Times have now changed, he said, and “I am convinced that Germany needs some form of conscription.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appears less keen on the idea, however, saying last year that reintroducing the draft is “not a good idea.”

The defense minister also announced that Berlin had purchased three HIMARS rocket launcher systems for Ukraine

The majority of the Bundeswehr (German Armed Forces) will be under NATO command by 2025, with around 35,000 soldiers placed on the “highest levels of readiness,” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced during a keynote speech at Washington’s Johns Hopkins University on Thursday.

The announcement comes as Germany struggles to resolve major personnel and equipment shortages in its army, with many replacement items purchased for the Bundeswehr being sent to aid Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. A parliamentary report in March revealed that the army is also “aging and shrinking,” with 20,000 unfilled positions and a “very high” dropout rate.

“The security of our allies is our security. Therefore, by next year, the majority of the Bundeswehr will be placed under NATO command,” Pistorius said in his Thursday speech, adding that “approximately 35,000 of them will be at the two highest levels of readiness.”

The minister said Berlin’s focus remains on “protecting our allies on NATO’s eastern flank,” and pointed to Germany’s recent moves to increase its military presence in the region.

Read more Germany backs arming Ukraine with Russian funds

Last month, Germany sent an advance team of soldiers to Lithuania as part of a plan to establish a full-strength armor brigade of 4,800 soldiers, which are to be permanently stationed in the Baltic nation bordering Russia by 2027. At the time, Moscow said the move would require “special measures” be taken in response.

Speaking about the Lithuanian deployment in the US, Pistorius called it “an unprecedented case in German history” and a “clear signal” to Russian President Vladimir Putin that “every inch” of NATO territory will be defended.

Earlier in the day, Pistorius also met with his US counterpart, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, and revealed that Berlin had purchased three US-made HIMARS multiple rocket launchers for Ukraine.

“They come from US armed forces’ stocks and will be paid for by us,” he said. HIMARS launchers are mounted on a truck chassis and can fire multiple missiles in quick succession.

READ MORE: NATO soldiers operating in Ukraine – Polish PM

Pistorius also commented on the possibility of reintroducing compulsory military service in Germany to help solve its personnel issues, saying its decision to end conscription in 2011 was a “mistake.” 

Times have now changed, he said, and “I am convinced that Germany needs some form of conscription.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz appears less keen on the idea, however, saying last year that reintroducing the draft is “not a good idea.”

Authorities in Latvia and Germany took issue with individuals displaying Soviet and Russian symbols on May 9

Latvian police apprehended 19 people across the country for displaying banned Soviet and Russian symbols during Victory Day celebrations on May 9 – the date when WWII commemorative ceremonies were traditionally held in the Soviet Union. Similar scenes played out in Berlin.

Jauns media outlet, citing the Latvian police, reported that the authorities had launched two criminal probes into the “justification of genocide, crime against peace, and war crimes.”

One man was reportedly detained for “listening to music loudly” at Salaspils Memorial, the site of a Nazi concentration camp near Riga. RT Russian, citing an eyewitness, said that the man was listening to a popular Soviet song, ‘Zhuravli’ (Cranes), which was written in the late 1960’s and devoted to the fallen soldiers of WWII.

Read more Russian military parade celebrates victory over Nazi Germany (VIDEO)

Among other violations detected by Latvian officers throughout the country were attempts to lay flowers at the sites of dismantled war memorials as well as cars featuring Soviet symbols.

Elsewhere in Europe, a group of bikers donning t-shirts and vests with the ‘Night Wolves’ biker club insignia arrived at Treptower Park in Berlin on Thursday, where a major Soviet war memorial is situated. According to Bild, there was a heavy police presence at the site, with officers checking people for forbidden symbols and attire that included historic military uniforms and the ribbon of Saint George. The media outlet reported that a total of ten people were detained for various offenses. The article claimed that some people managed to smuggle banned items through the police cordons, with some reportedly also insulting officers.

Commenting on the Berlin authorities’ ban during a press briefing on Wednesday in Moscow, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova described it as yet another manifestation of Western “cancel culture.”

“They are also banning the songs that Red Army soldiers were singing as they liberated Berlin... Is that normal?” the diplomat inquired. Zakharova added that such bans are the true face of “liberal democracy.”

The Foreign Ministry spokeswoman urged Berlin authorities to rescind the restrictions and to “stop rewriting history.”

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were once all constituent Soviet socialist republics of the USSR, but this period of their history is now officially regarded there as having been a foreign occupation; as a result, there are laws in place making most Soviet symbols off-limits. The three Baltic states have removed a number of WWII memorials since declaring independence in 1991.

Since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, a number of other European countries have imposed similar restrictions, also covering numerous Russia-related symbols. These include the flags of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as the Latin letters Z and V, which have come to symbolize Moscow’s military campaign against Ukraine. The ribbon of Saint George – a popular symbol of Victory Day celebrations in Russia in recent years – is also banned in a number of European nations.

The besieged city in southern Gaza currently hosts 1.4 million Palestinians displaced from other parts of the enclave

Israeli tanks entered the city of Rafah in southern Gaza earlier this week, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisting that the operation that had been delayed for several months was essential to secure “total victory” over the Palestinian armed group Hamas.

Rafah currently hosts some 1.4 million Palestinians displaced from other parts of Gaza as a result of Israeli airstrikes and ground offensives since October 7.

The UN warned that an Israeli invasion would be a “catastrophe” for civilians, while US President Joe Biden threatened to stop deliveries of “offensive” weapons to Israel in the event of a full-scale invasion of the city.

Netanyahu has been reluctant to give in to pressure from Washington, vowing that Israel would “fight with our fingernails” against Hamas if the flow of American arms comes to a halt.

The whistleblower was previously targeted over her sexual assault allegations against the US president

The run-up to the US election is exposing President Joe Biden’s scandals to the public eye, including his family’s alleged money laundering schemes in Ukraine, RT contributor and former US Senate aide Tara Reade has said.

She accused the Biden administration of weaponizing government institutions to silence Americans like her and the 2021 Capitol riot participants.

In the wake of her 23-minute interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson, which aired on Thursday, Reade told RT she hopes her example will motivate others to come forward and tell their stories.

“I’ve been contacted a couple of times in the past by women who wanted to come forward, but because of what happened to me, were too frightened,” she said.

Although Reade's claim that Biden sexually assaulted her in 1993 did not surface until the 2020 election campaign, she said she had logged a report with the Senate right after the purported incident, and was still trying to get the report files unsealed.

Read more Tucker Carlson interviews Biden accuser Tara Reade

“The election year is just bringing it to light, because I think there’s other corruption that needs to come to light about Biden, particularly the misconduct he’s done around Ukraine, and the money laundering and the other activities that he and his family had been enriched by, in this proxy war that the US and NATO are fighting against Russia via Ukraine,” Reade explained.

She added that while “people in America and other NATO countries are seeing the corruption,” the leaders of those states are “unfortunately still benefiting.”

After sharing details of the alleged assault, Reade described “weaponization of the government coming after me, that was quite frightening, and coming after my family.” 

READ MORE: Hunter Biden’s lawyers threaten Fox News

She suggested that the Carlson interview shows the public is becoming more aware of this.

“People are seeing the political weaponization of the DOJ (Department of Justice) and FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation) against American citizens and other citizens,” she claimed, arguing that the Capitol riot participants were persecuted in a similar way, with the Biden administration “using intelligence to go after Americans.”

Watch the full interview below:

James Stavridis has called Kaliningrad a “geographic wedge” between the bloc’s members

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander James Stavridis has suggested that the US-led military bloc’s members should “neutralize” Russia’s westernmost exclave of Kaliningrad if Moscow seriously endangers the security of the Baltic states.

Kaliningrad (formerly Konigsberg) belonged to Germany until the end of World War II, when it was handed over to the USSR under the Potsdam Agreement. It remained part of Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union and, after several consecutive waves of NATO expansion, found itself completely surrounded by the bloc’s members.

In an op-ed for Bloomberg, published on Thursday as Russia was celebrating the 79th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany, Stavridis outlined his views on Kaliningrad as the last remaining nuisance that prevents the Baltic Sea from turning into a “NATO lake.”

“A glance at a map shows that is largely (but not completely) true – the coastline has a couple of slivers of Russian territory. The rest of the coastal littoral is in NATO hands: Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Germany and Denmark,” the retired US Navy admiral and former supreme allied commander of NATO wrote.

Stavridis praised last year’s Baltic Operations exercise as a demonstration of “how NATO could use its Baltic Sea forces across the spectrum of naval activity” to send an “ominous signal” to Russia.

Read more EU state threatens to ‘neutralize’ Russian region

“Look for NATO to use its Baltic lake to put pressure on tiny Kaliningrad, which acts as a geographic wedge between NATO’s Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – and the rest of the alliance,” Stavridis wrote. “In the event of war, Kaliningrad will need to be neutralized so Russian land forces – likely operating through Moscow’s vassal state Belarus – cannot take control of the critical Suwalki Gap.”

The Suwalki Gap is a narrow strip of land between Moscow’s ally Belarus and Kaliningrad that runs along the Lithuania-Poland border. In the wake of the Ukraine conflict, NATO’s Baltic members have limited overland traffic between the Russian mainland and Kaliningrad under an EU embargo. However, they stopped short of imposing a full blockade as some analysts have suggested severing Russia’s access to its own territory could, to some extent, be considered a ‘casus belli’ – a cause for the declaration of war.

Read more Russia will try to prevent global conflict – Putin

Poland and Lithuania recently staged military exercises in the strategic area, as Western media outlets and officials speculated that Russia could target the territory in the event of a full-scale conflict. 

Russia has repeatedly denied having any plans to attack the alliance, with President Vladimir Putin stressing that Moscow “has no interest… geopolitically, economically or militarily” in doing so.

“Russia will do everything to prevent a global conflict, but at the same time we will not allow anyone to threaten us,” Putin stated in his address to the Victory Day military parade in Moscow.

Support for Israel has damaged America’s standing in the Middle East

While both China and Russia have improved their standing in the world over the past year, the US has seen its approval rating deteriorate in the Middle East and even in Europe, according to respondents from 53 countries.

Dubbed the Democracy Perception Index 2024, the survey was compiled by the German company Latana, on behalf of Alliance of Democracies, an NGO headed by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Russia and China are now viewed as positively as the US in most of the surveyed countries in Asia and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), as Washington’s approval has plummeted due to the conflict in Gaza. Among Europeans, support for the US has also seen a decline.

“For the first time since the start of the Biden administration, many Western European countries have returned to net negative perceptions of the US,” according to Frederick DeVeaux, the senior researcher at Latana.

Read more Putin twice as popular as Biden in Mideast and African states – poll

The reversal of previously positive attitudes has been “particularly stark in Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland,” DeVeaux said.

America’s global reputation has taken a beating since last year, in particular in Muslim-majority countries surveyed – Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, and Türkiye. The researchers attributed this to President Joe Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, sentiments on Russia and China in every region except Europe are steadily getting more positive, the survey found.

The European region is the only one besides the US that still supports cutting economic ties with Russia over the Ukraine conflict, while the rest of the world wants to maintain business links with Moscow. The world is also divided “between the West and the rest” when it comes to sanctioning Beijing if it were to “invade” the island of Taiwan.

The Democracy Perception Index is an annual survey carried out in 53 countries. This year’s research canvassed some 63,000 respondents for opinions about “democracy, geopolitics and global power players.”

Support for Israel has damaged America’s standing in the Middle East

While both China and Russia have improved their standing in the world over the past year, the US has seen its approval rating deteriorate in the Middle East and even in Europe, according to respondents from 53 countries.

Dubbed the Democracy Perception Index 2024, the survey was compiled by the German company Latana, on behalf of Alliance of Democracies, an NGO headed by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.

Russia and China are now viewed as positively as the US in most of the surveyed countries in Asia and the Middle East/North Africa (MENA), as Washington’s approval has plummeted due to the conflict in Gaza. Among Europeans, support for the US has also seen a decline.

“For the first time since the start of the Biden administration, many Western European countries have returned to net negative perceptions of the US,” according to Frederick DeVeaux, the senior researcher at Latana.

Read more Putin twice as popular as Biden in Mideast and African states – poll

The reversal of previously positive attitudes has been “particularly stark in Germany, Austria, Ireland, Belgium and Switzerland,” DeVeaux said.

America’s global reputation has taken a beating since last year, in particular in Muslim-majority countries surveyed – Algeria, Egypt, Indonesia, Malaysia, Morocco, and Türkiye. The researchers attributed this to President Joe Biden’s unequivocal support for Israel’s war on Gaza.

Meanwhile, sentiments on Russia and China in every region except Europe are steadily getting more positive, the survey found.

The European region is the only one besides the US that still supports cutting economic ties with Russia over the Ukraine conflict, while the rest of the world wants to maintain business links with Moscow. The world is also divided “between the West and the rest” when it comes to sanctioning Beijing if it were to “invade” the island of Taiwan.

The Democracy Perception Index is an annual survey carried out in 53 countries. This year’s research canvassed some 63,000 respondents for opinions about “democracy, geopolitics and global power players.”

The IDF destroyed landmarks and tore down Palestinian flags after taking over the border crossing on the Gaza-Egypt border

The Israeli military attacked Palestinian landmarks after taking over the Rafah border crossing earlier this week, deliberately running them over with tanks, disturbing footage circulating online suggests. 

The damage depicted in the footage appears to have been inflicted by tanks with the Israeli 401st Iron Tracks Brigade, which entered the Rafah crossing on Tuesday morning.

The border crossing connects the Palestinian enclave with Egypt. 

One video circulating online, filmed by a Merkava tank crew member, shows the vehicle maneuvering in front of a ‘I love Gaza’ sign at the crossing. The tank then takes aim at the sign and runs it over.

An IDF tank also destroyed a sign reading ‘Gaza’ located in front of a border-crossing facility. 

Another video appears to show Israeli forces tearing down Palestinian flags at the location and hoisting Israeli ones to replace them. 

Israel launched its long-discussed attack on the southern Gaza city of Rafah on Monday night. The ground advance was accompanied by airstrikes on the densely populated city, which had seen a major influx of refugees from the north amid the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

Texas has become a test case for Washington’s newest LGBT push

The US Department of Education has launched a civil rights investigation into a school district in southern Texas, after LGBT student activists denounced its pronoun policy as discrimination.

The Katy Independent School District (ISD) near Houston serves about 94,000 students. Last August, its board voted to require notification of parents if students identify as transgender or ask to use pronouns different from their biological sex.

Cameron Samuels, who graduated from one of the Katy ISD high schools in 2022, filed a complaint about the policy with the federal government.

The DOE’s Civil Rights Office responded by opening a probe against the district earlier this week, for “discrimination on the basis of sex or disability,” according to local media.

“I hope this can help set an example to other school boards across the country that are trying to pass similar policies,” Kadence Carter, a transgender 17-year-old who left the school district after the policy was enacted, told reporters on Monday.

Katy ISD has denied any wrongdoing and says it was “committed to offering equal educational opportunities to our entire community.”

Read more US teachers ‘subversively’ transitioning kids – Daily Mail

The Department of Education’s move comes just weeks after the Biden administration redefined sex discrimination under Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act to include “sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation.” 

The new rules are supposed to take effect in August, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has already instructed schools in his state to disregard them.

“Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. [President Joe] Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women,” Abbott said last month. He called the new rules an “illegal dictate” that violated Texas laws that prohibit men competing in women’s sports.

The Katy policy, adopted by the board of trustees in a 4-3 vote, requires students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that “correspond with their biological sex,” bans district employees from discussing gender-related issues with students, allows teachers to refuse requests to call students by pronouns that do not reflect their biological sex, and requires administrators to notify parents or guardians of such requests or transgender identifications.

“Using pronouns is a way of social-transitioning children. We’re protecting them from that,” school board president Victor Perez said at a board meeting last summer.

The district made about 20 such notifications in the first few months since the policy was adopted, according to local media. Carter was the only student who cited the policy as the reason for moving out of the district. 

Texas has become a test case for Washington’s newest LGBT push

The US Department of Education has launched a civil rights investigation into a school district in southern Texas, after LGBT student activists denounced its pronoun policy as discrimination.

The Katy Independent School District (ISD) near Houston serves about 94,000 students. Last August, its board voted to require notification of parents if students identify as transgender or ask to use pronouns different from their biological sex.

Cameron Samuels, who graduated from one of the Katy ISD high schools in 2022, filed a complaint about the policy with the federal government.

The DOE’s Civil Rights Office responded by opening a probe against the district earlier this week, for “discrimination on the basis of sex or disability,” according to local media.

“I hope this can help set an example to other school boards across the country that are trying to pass similar policies,” Kadence Carter, a transgender 17-year-old who left the school district after the policy was enacted, told reporters on Monday.

Katy ISD has denied any wrongdoing and says it was “committed to offering equal educational opportunities to our entire community.”

Read more US teachers ‘subversively’ transitioning kids – Daily Mail

The Department of Education’s move comes just weeks after the Biden administration redefined sex discrimination under Title IX of the federal Civil Rights Act to include “sex stereotypes, pregnancy, gender identity and sexual orientation.” 

The new rules are supposed to take effect in August, but Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, has already instructed schools in his state to disregard them.

“Congress wrote Title IX to protect women. [President Joe] Biden, with no authority to do so, rewrote Title IX to protect men who identify as women,” Abbott said last month. He called the new rules an “illegal dictate” that violated Texas laws that prohibit men competing in women’s sports.

The Katy policy, adopted by the board of trustees in a 4-3 vote, requires students to use bathrooms and locker rooms that “correspond with their biological sex,” bans district employees from discussing gender-related issues with students, allows teachers to refuse requests to call students by pronouns that do not reflect their biological sex, and requires administrators to notify parents or guardians of such requests or transgender identifications.

“Using pronouns is a way of social-transitioning children. We’re protecting them from that,” school board president Victor Perez said at a board meeting last summer.

The district made about 20 such notifications in the first few months since the policy was adopted, according to local media. Carter was the only student who cited the policy as the reason for moving out of the district.