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Banning Le Pen, playing with fire The French people must decide who leads them, not the courts. Tom Slater

https://www.spiked-online.com/2025/03/31/banning-le-pen-playing-with-fire/

An insurgent politician, spoiling to cause an upset and topple the establishment, removed from the ballot paper following corruption charges. No, I’m not talking about Erdogan’s Turkey, or some other faraway autocracy, but nominally democratic France, where a court has just upended the next presidential election.

Marine Le Pen – leader of the right-wing National Rally (RN), preparing for a fourth tilt at the French presidency in 2027 – has been banned from standing for election for five years. She’s been found guilty for her role in siphoning off millions of euros in European Parliament funds and using it to fund RN’s domestic political activities. She’s also been fined €100,000 and sentenced to four years in prison – though she would only serve half of that, under house arrest.

It might not come to that – Le Pen will immediately appeal her sentence, a process that could take years. But the five-year ban on her running for president, or any other form of elected office, will take effect immediately, making another bid for the Élysée in two years’ time incredibly unlikely, if not totally impossible.

On the embezzlement charges themselves, Le Pen may well be bang to rights – even if a little creative accounting has long been par for the course among the Brussels set. The judge said National Rally staff had signed ‘fictional contracts’, establishing that ‘all these people were in reality working for the party and not for the MEP to which they were theoretically attached’. Le Pen refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing throughout, leading to a harsher sentence.

Canada Embraces European Suicide By J.B. Shurk

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/canada_embraces_european_suicide.html\

Installed Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will likely retain his office following the country’s snap election on April 28.  His Liberal Party is riding a wave of anti-Trump, anti-American mania ignited by the U.S. president’s imposition of tariffs and emasculation of boy-band-backup-singer Justin Trudeau.  Given that Carney is a globalist central banker who will use the “global warming” hoax to further diminish Canadians’ national sovereignty and private property rights, it is dreadfully ironic that the Liberal Party is benefiting from recent patriotic fervor up north.  

As a patriotic American who despises the federal government’s encroachment on the individual states’ sovereignties and Americans’ individual rights here at home, I can certainly appreciate Canadians’ love for country and regional pride.  I just think Mark Carney and the Liberal Party are incapable of providing true patriotic stewardship when they openly push for the abolition of national borders and the advancement of global government.

Such is politics.  Populations often get caught up in the emotions of the moment and make poor choices that echo discordantly for decades.  After 9/11, I wanted payback at any cost.  Had I been wise enough to realize that those costs would include the Patriot Act, the abrogation of the Fourth Amendment, airport pat-downs, Homeland Security censorship, twenty years of war, chaos in the Middle East, mass migration into the United States, trillions in debt, thousands of servicemembers killed or wounded in action, and two generations of veterans struggling with PTSD, perhaps I would have better appreciated the price of vengeance.  

Sometimes what we think we want isn’t what we want at all.  I have a feeling a fair number of Canadians will relearn that lesson once Carney is empowered to claim a globalist mandate that only weakens Canada more severely.

‘Don’t You Know This City Belongs to Muslims?’: The Persecution of Christians, February 2025 by Raymond Ibrahim

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21512/persecution-of-christians-february

Some accounts of the “pure genocide” experienced by Christians at the hands of Muslims. — Nigeria.

“We, all Muslims, residents of Paccerakkang, especially Neighbourhood 02 and 03 STRONGLY REJECT the Establishment of a Church and worship activities in our environment forever.” — Text printed on banners, majesty.co.id, February 11, 2025, Indonesia.

Coptic Christians, for some inexplicable reason, appear to have become the most careless and fire-prone people in the world: more Coptic churches than any other kind seem to keep on “catching fire.” — copticsolidarity.org, February 20, 2025, Egypt.

The following are among the abuses and murders inflicted on Christians by Muslims throughout the month of February 2025.

The Muslim Slaughter of Christians

Democratic Republic of Congo: The beheaded corpses of seventy Christians—men, women, and children—were found inside a church. Earlier, on Feb. 12, Muslim militants of the Allied Democratic Forces, which is affiliated to the Islamic State, rounded up and marched 70 Christians to a Protestant church in Kasanga. There, the Christians were “tied up and decapitated with knives.” According to a regional expert,

“This was not just an act of terror. It was a targeted massacre of Christians, and it will not stop here… The ADF is part of a growing extremist network that wants to wipe out Christianity in the region. If nothing is done, more attacks will follow.”

No Time Left: China and Russia Making Sure Iran Goes Nuclear Before End of Trump’s Ultimatum by Majid Rafizadeh

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21507/nuclear-iran-no-time-left

Now, with Trump’s ultimatum delivered on March 7 to Iran— giving the regime a two-month deadline either to give up its nuclear and missile programs or face severe consequences — Beijing and Moscow have simply been accelerating Tehran’s efforts to join the nuclear club and to possesses at least six nuclear bombs before Trump’s deadline expires.

A meeting between Iranian and Chinese officials in Beijing, followed by Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s outright rejection of Trump’s warnings, could signal a dangerous development: Iran has likely received guarantees from China and Russia that they will protect the regime, support its nuclear program, and ensure that it acquires nuclear weapons before the possibly-too-generous deadline Trump has set, no matter the consequences.

Iran’s bold rejection of Trump’s threats may not be based on internal strength but on external guarantees. Beijing and Moscow have likely calculated that if Iran regime joins the nuclear club and possesses nuclear bombs before Trump’s deadline expires and he takes direct action, then the West will be forced to accept a nuclear-armed Iran, just as it has had to accept a nuclear North Korea.

With Trump’s ultimatum in place, these adversaries are racing against the clock to ensure that Iran becomes a nuclear-armed state. If the US and its allies fail to act immediately, the balance of power could shift permanently, and the West could lose the war before realizing it had even begun.

Talk surrounding Iran’s nuclear ambitions has long focused on the ruling ayatollahs and their determined pursuit of nuclear weapons. The West’s primary focus has been mainly on Iran’s domestic leadership: the Supreme Leader, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and Iran’s nuclear scientists. What remains overlooked is the significant role that China, North Korea and Russia have been playing to make sure that Iran achieves nuclear weapons breakout before US President Donald J. Trump’s “two-month ultimatum” runs out.

Carney’s Snap Election — And Trump Saw It Coming By Sonia Bailley

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/carney_s_snap_election_and_trump_saw_it_coming.html

Mark Carney’s snap election is a globalist power grab disguised as leadership, continuing Trudeau’s agenda with a more polished image. But Donald Trump saw this coming — and he may be the only one ready to stop it.

Mark Carney’s sudden rise to power isn’t a win for democracy — it’s a globalist takeover in a Canadian suit. Recentlyinstalled as Prime Minister of Canada without a single vote, Carney now leads both the country and the Liberal Party just months before a federal snap election that he called. This isn’t about Canadian politics — it’s about global control. 

But Canadians have seen this movie before. Carney is former prime minister Trudeau’s spiritual twin: polished, elitist, and devoted to the same globalist networks. The only difference? Carney doesn’t wear blackface — he wears a central banker’s smile. If you think you’re voting for a nationalist in Carney, think again. You’re voting for a globalist in a Canadian suit.

Trump saw it coming long before most Canadians did. His unapologetic stance against Trudeau wasn’t just bluster — it was a strategic masterstroke. When Trump floated the idea of annexing Canada, it wasn’t a real policy proposal. It was a provocation designed to rattle the status quo — and it worked. Trudeau’s image crumbled under the weight of his own hypocrisy, incompetence, and allegiance to foreign interests. Trump exposed him on the world stage without firing a shot.

Now, Trudeau is gone — but the machine that backed him is not. Mark Carney stepped into power not through a democratic vote, but by appointment: unelected, unaccountable, and even more dangerous than his predecessor. A longtime insider of the World Economic Forum (WEF), the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, and the UN’s climate finance movement, Carney is not a nationalist. He is a globalist operative tasked with keeping the Liberal regime alive and Canada under elite control.

Nurses in Iran Face Poverty Dwindling numbers under barbaric tyranny. by Struan Stevenson

https://www.frontpagemag.com/nurses-in-iran-face-poverty/

Women in Iran have been treated as second-class citizens by the mullahs for almost five decades. Women’s dress codes are under constant scrutiny. They must wear the hijab, and ‘morality police’ are on relentless patrol to enforce the law. The death in custody of the young Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini in September 2022 for not wearing her hijab properly ignited a nationwide uprising and a brutal crackdown by the mullahs that led to more than 750 deaths and tens of thousands of arrests. Women, particularly young women like Mahsa Amini, are singled out for brutal attacks for the ‘crime’ of malveiling. Girls who were deemed to be improperly dressed in the street have suffered horrific acid attacks and stabbings, in assaults openly condoned by the mullahs. Teenage girls arrested for the offense of posting videos of themselves dancing or singing on social media have been publicly flogged. Young female students attending end-of-term parties have been fined and beaten. This is what gender equality looks like in Iran today. But courageous women have led the protests, chanting “Women, resistance, freedom.” They have been on the front line of demonstrations calling for overthrowing the theocratic regime.

Against this background of unrelenting misogyny and discrimination, the exploitation of Iranian nurses, a respected and hardworking sector of society, continues unabated. As the Iranian economy collapses under a tsunami of political incompetence, corruption, warmongering, and international sanctions, the rial has halved in value since Masoud Pezeshkian, the so-called ‘moderate’ president, took office in August last year.

Iran Apparently Planning to Outwit or Outwait Trump, Not Relinquish Its Nuclear Programme by Con Coughlin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21505/iran-plans-outwit-outwait-trump

“Something’s going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran — and I’ve written him a letter, saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate.’ Because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing — for them.” — US President Donald J. Trump, interview with Fox News, March 7, 2025.

So long as the Islamic Republic of Iran indulges in its usual tactic of prevarication in the hope that, by engaging in delaying tactics, it can buy more time to achieve its nuclear ambitions, the credibility of the Trump administration taking direct action against Tehran needs to increase.

Iran’s demand, for example, that it might consider opening negotiations with Washington if the Trump administration first agreed to lift punitive economic sanctions, is a classic exercise in the regime’s attempts to play for time.

Iran’s refusal to accept US President Donald Trump’s demand that it completely dismantle its controversial nuclear programme, which Western intelligence officials are convinced is ultimately designed to build nuclear weapons, raises the very real risk of the US launching direct military action to destroy the programme.

Trump’s initial offer to negotiate an end to Iran’s nuclear programme was contained in a letter he wrote to the ayatollahs on March 7, in which he indicated he was willing to engage in talks concerning Iran’s nuclear activities. But the letter also contained an explicit warning that any failure by Tehran to respond positively to his overture could lead to direct military action.

The Trump administration’s determination to end the threat posed by Iran’s nuclear ambitions once and for all was confirmed by the recent revelation by the Axios news website which, quoting a US official and other sources, said the American president had set a “two-month deadline for reaching a new nuclear deal.”

The new administration’s focus on Iran was confirmed by Steve Witkoff, Trump’s envoy, who confirmed in an interview with Fox News that Trump’s personal approach to Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, was aimed at avoiding direct military action.

“We don’t need to solve everything militarily… Our signal… to Iran is ‘Let’s sit down and see if we can, through dialogue, through diplomacy, get to the right place’. If we can, we are prepared to do that. And if we can’t, the alternative is not a great alternative.”

Meanwhile, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz has warned that Iran needs to “hand over and give up” all elements of its nuclear programme including missiles, weaponization and enrichment of uranium “or they can face a whole series of other consequences,” adding that “Iran has been offered a way out of this.”

The latest comments made by Witkoff and Waltz reflect a deepening resolve with the Trump administration to end Iran’s long-running nuclear plans. As Trump himself remarked after announcing his initial overture to Iran, “You can’t let them have a nuclear weapon.”

“The time is coming up. Something’s going to happen one way or the other. I hope that Iran — and I’ve written him a letter, saying, ‘I hope you’re going to negotiate.’ Because if we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing — for them.”

Beyond belief More evidence of Britain’s inspiring stand for rationality and decency Melanie Phillips

https://melaniephillips.substack.com/

Here are three stories from the Telegraph illustrating Britain’s imaginative use of the language of “diversity” and “inclusivity”.

(Readers in Jerusalem can find below these reports a promised respite from the loss of reason.)

Damon Joshua, a sewage maintenance engineer employed by Severn Trent Water, felt so strongly about the October 7 Hamas massacre that he posted on his company’s intranet site, along with an Israeli flag:

One year ago our valued partners and friends, Israel, were horrifically attacked by a group of violent and disgusting terrorists. I can say with confidence today that the vast majority of STW’s employees stand in solidarity with our Jewish, Israeli and Zionist colleagues against the evil of Islamist terror.

He was promptly suspended and then sacked after a disciplinary hearing. The Telegraph reports:

At his disciplinary hearing he was told that the post had caused “significant offence” to three members of staff who complained about it. Managers concluded that “this offence is in relation to a protected characteristic, specifically religious belief” and dismissed him for gross misconduct. He was told that “the language used in the post caused offence to employees with different perspectives, particularly those with Muslim or Palestinian backgrounds”…

Mr Joshua claimed that in the disciplinary hearing that one of his managers asked “How do you think a Palestinian employee would feel reading this?” They also raised concerns that “the wording in the post explicitly suggests support of a particular geopolitical stance”. They told Mr Joshua his claim that the majority of STW staff supported Israel “creates exclusion and assumptions of solidarity”.

So to the managers of Severn Trent Water, opposing the barbaric savages of Hamas offends Muslims or “Palestinians” and is a form of prejudice against Islam.

Trump, the Mullahs and Skin in the Game Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next? by Kenneth R. Timmerman

https://www.frontpagemag.com/trump-the-mullahs-and-skin-in-the-game/

Trump took out Qassem Soleimani for attacking the US Embassy. Who wants to be next?

You could call it the Donald Trump theory of international relations: getting skin in the game without sending US troops.

That’s what you saw when President Trump offered Zelenskyy the deal to exploit Ukraine’s rare earth minerals. The Z-man was obsessed with getting US “security guaranties” – a promise to send US troops should Russia attack again in the future.

Trump rightly said, no. Instead, he offered to put US companies on the front lines, essentially making those civilians a tripwire should Russia dare attack.

Similarly, last week Trump convinced both Putin and Zelenskyy to engage in a limited ceasefire by ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure, and then floated the idea that Ukraine should sell its power plants to U.S. companies as a deterrent to Russian attacks.

Now as a shareholder, I’m not sure I would want my company owning such a high risk asset. But still. The intent was clear: skin in the game.

Without skin in the game, we see what happens. On Friday, Russia launched waves of armed drones against the Black Sea port city of Odessa, sparking power outages, and the Ukes responded by allegedly blowing up a gas metering station near Kursk, Russia.

Both seemed to be pretty clear ceasefire violations. But with no skin in the game, neither attack has led to consequences, yet.

With NATO, President Trump is using a similar strategy.

Last week, he floated the idea of allowing a French (or other non-American) general to become the Supreme Allied Commander, the first time ever a non-American would command NATO. Some Republicans on the Hill were unhappy with that, but that’s because they don’t understand the notion of skin in the game.

Syria: Terrorists in Suits and Ties No Future for Christians or Other ‘Infidels’ by Lawrence A. Franklin

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21489/syria-terrorists-in-suits-and-ties

[Ahmed] Al-Sharaa, on taking power in Syria in December, originally professed to be a “moderate.” The Biden administration even lifted a $10 million bounty for his arrest, for previous terrorist activity linked to Al Qaeda, presumably in the hope of moderation actually being delivered. Since that time, however, al-Sharaa and his followers have appeared more as terrorists in suits and ties.

The country’s new constitution, published on March 14, stipulates that Islamic Sharia jurisprudence is the sole source of judicial decision-making. This constitution also asserts that Syria’s president must be a Muslim and that the executive branch has almost dictatorial powers. Moreover, the constitution includes no provision for protecting Syrian ethnic or religious minorities, which include Christians, Alawites, Kurds and Druze.

Sunni jihadist government forces are reportedly reveling in the massacre of the Alawites, and Turkey has already set up secret cells throughout Syria “to use as proxies abroad.” Christians throughout Syria are afraid that after the Alawites, they will be next. It is also possible that al-Sharaa’s HTS will be successful in uniting most of Syria under its control, then initiate a genocidal purge against Christians and the rest of the “infidels.”

Some of Syria’s minorities have been seeking help from nearby Israel. Some Druze community leaders even asked Israel officially to annex their villages. Israel has established a strategic “buffer zone” in areas of Syria adjacent to the countries’ shared border, to deter potential jihadist and Turkish attacks, and may yet again turn out to be threatened minorities’ greatest protector.

In December 2024, after an offensive lasting less than two weeks that swept through much of Syria, a Turkish-backed Sunni militia led by Ahmed al-Sharaa ousted the Assad regime, which had ruled the country for 54 years.

From March 6-9 – unchecked by al-Sharaa’s professedly “moderate” interim government – his jihadist troops slaughtered an estimated 1,080 Syrians in 72 hours, apparently mostly civilian members of the minority Alawite religion. The Alawite sect, which split off from Shia Islam in the ninth century, is regarded by other Shiites as heretical. To people who practice Sunni Islam — the religion of al-Sharaa and Turkey — all non-Sunnis are infidels. Alawites are estimated to be up to 10% of Syria’s population, and the deposed Assad family belong to the sect.