Monday, June 23, 2025
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Monday, June 23, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

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This article was published 2 years ago

https://nordictimes.com/world/french-knifeman-reportedly-granted-refugee-status-in-sweden/

World

Sweden reportedly granted refugee status to French knifeman

Published 9 June 2023
– By Editorial Staff
The stabbing took place in Annecy in eastern France.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

On Thursday morning, a man attacked several small children and at least one adult with a knife in Annecy, France. According to French media, the perpetrator is a Syrian who was granted refugee status in Sweden as recently as April.

At 09:45, the man carried out the attack at a playground in a park in the city, and according to Reuters, four young children and one adult were injured. Three of the children are said to have suffered life-threatening injuries and are aged three.

According to witnesses, at least one of the children was in a stroller when it was stabbed, and many are shocked by what has happened.

–  We saw a person attacking playing children. They were obviously small, a witness says.

“An attack of absolute cowardice in a park in Annecy this morning. Children and an adult are between life and death. The nation is in shock. Our thoughts are with the victims, their families as well as the emergency services”, commented Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

The offender was reportedly arrested after a quick police operation, but it is unclear why he carried out the knife attack. In recent months, he has been seen in the park almost daily.

There are also reports that the offender was denied asylum in France last year – and then was granted it in Sweden. However, it is unclear why the man returned to France.

“Horror, again. This attack on children is the height of evil”, said Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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https://nordictimes.com/world/ritter-the-maga-movement-is-dead/

World

Ritter: The MAGA movement is dead

Donald Trump's USA

Published today 11:23
– By Editorial Staff
Scott Ritter says it is clear that Trump is putting Israel's interests first.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Former UN weapons inspector and Marine Corps officer Scott Ritter condemns Donald Trump’s decision to drag the US into a new war in the Middle East.

On social media, Ritter asserts that Trump has not only broken his own promises of peace, but also dragged the entire MAGA movement down with him.

“MAGA is officially dead as a movement”, Ritter writes, arguing that by wearing his trademark red MAGA cap while allowing the US to enter yet another war, Trump has stripped the movement of all meaningful content and turned it into an empty symbol.

“When a President wears a MAGA hat while conspiring to take America to war after promising that, as the leader of MAGA, he would pursue peace, MAGA stands for nothing”, Ritter concludes.

Ritter, who became known for his fearless stance during the UN weapons inspections in Iraq in the 1990s, is now directing his message directly to Trump’s voters. He urges them to openly distance themselves from the president and those who stand by him, whom he believes are pursuing a dangerous agenda that has nothing to do with the original ideas of MAGA.

“If you’re MAGA, then you must disassociate yourself from this President and everyone who stands with him. They are not MAGA. They are Israel first. And that’s the most dangerous ideology facing America today”, he writes.

“A national disgrace”

The former UN inspector dismisses Trump’s bombing of Iran as a pointless and pathetic attempt to save face after talking himself into a corner.

“An act of theater. Trump’s big mouth had boxed him into a corner. Iran wouldn’t play his game. So he had to bomb Iran to save face”.

The action itself, Ritter argues, was as ineffective as it was cynical.

“He bombed two empty facilities that had been previously struck by Israel. And he bounced six bombs off an indestructible facility (Firdos), claiming destruction despite the opposite being the case. That’s it. A ‘contained’ strike. A nothing burger”.

The outspoken commentator concludes his criticism by describing Trump as a leader unworthy of both his office and the trust of his voters.

“And this is the man whose supporters call the greatest leader in the world. He’s a national disgrace”.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/war-with-iran-will-be-the-empires-next-great-disaster/

World

Comment: War with Iran will be the Empire’s next great disaster

The escalation in the Middle East

A war against Iran will not liberate the people, but unleash forces that no one can control anymore. The history of Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria risks repeating itself – at a terrible cost. That's the assessment of award-winning journalist and war correspondent Chris Hedges.

Published today 10:09
Chris Hedges believes that the war against Iran will be very costly for the US - on several levels.
2 minute read
This is an opinion piece. The author is responsible for the views expressed in the article.

War opens a Pandora’s box of evils that once unleashed are beyond anyone’s control. The warmongers who ordered the strikes by US bombers on Iranian nuclear sites have no more of a plan for what comes next in Iran than they had in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya or Syria. European allies, whom Israel and Trump have alienated with these air assaults, are in no mood to cooperate with Washington.

The Pentagon, even if it wanted to, does not have the hundreds of thousands of troops it would need to attack and occupy Iran – the only way Iran might be subdued. And the idea that the marginal and discredited Iranian resistance group Mujahedeen-e-Khalq (MEK), which fought alongside Saddam Hussein in the war against Iran and is viewed by most Iranians as composed of traitors, is a viable counter force to the Iranian government is ludicrous.

In all these equations the 90 million people in Iran are ignored just as the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria were ignored. They will not welcome the United States and certainly not Israel as liberators. They may hate the regime, but they will resist. They don’t want to be dominated by foreign powers.

A war with Iran will be interpreted throughout the region as a war against Shiism. Soon there will be retaliation. Lots of it. It will come at first with desultory missile strikes and then attacks carried out by elusive enemies on ships, military bases and installations. Steadily it will grow in volume and lethality.

The death toll, including among the some 40,000 soldiers and Marines stationed in the Middle East, will mount. Ships, including aircraft carriers, will be targeted. We will, as we did in Iraq and Afghanistan, begin to lash out with a blind fury, fueling the conflagration we began.

Those who lured us into this war know little about the instrument of war and even less about the cultures or peoples they seek to dominate.

Blinded by hubris, believing their own hallucinations, they have learned none of the lessons of the last two decades of warfare in the Middle East. A war with Iran will be a self-defeating and costly quagmire, one more nail in the rotting edifice of the empire.

 

Chris Hedges

 

This article was originally published by Chris Hedges on Substack.

https://nordictimes.com/world/trump-breaks-promise-launches-overnight-attack-on-iran/

World

Trump breaks promise – launches overnight attack on Iran

The escalation in the Middle East

Published yesterday 10:21
– By Editorial Staff
Trump announced the US decision to attack Iran during a press briefing at the White House overnight. On the right, a large B2 bomber used in the strike.
2 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

Overnight Sunday, the US carried out airstrikes against three Iranian nuclear facilities – Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan – in a dramatic escalation of the conflict between Israel and Iran. “America first” President Donald Trump, who has now officially dragged the country into a new war of aggression at Israel’s request, described the attack as “very successful” and claimed that Iran’s nuclear capability was “totally destroyed”.

The decision followed weeks of tension in which Israel, since 13 June, has attacked Iranian targets to stop what it claimed, without evidence and contrary to intelligence reports, was an imminent nuclear weapons program.

Trump gave Iran a two-week deadline for diplomatic negotiations but acted after only two days, according to sources, due to pressure from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been described as desperate to draw the US into the war of aggression against Iran.

Immediate repercussions

Iran condemned the attacks as “outrageous” and warned of “serious and lasting consequences”. In response, Iran fired ballistic missiles at Israel, injuring at least 23 people in cities such as Tel Aviv and Haifa. Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar claimed that Iran’s nuclear program had been “set back two to three years” despite 30 years of never being able to demonstrate that it was close to producing any nuclear weapons.

International reactions

The attack has provoked strong reactions globally. Netanyahu called Trump’s decision “historically courageous”, while UN Secretary-General António Guterres described it as “a dangerous escalation”. Cuba and Venezuela condemned the attacks, and Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier expressed concern that we are “sliding toward World War III”. In the US, congressmen such as Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Thomas Massie criticized the decision as “unconstitutional” because it lacked congressional approval.

Economic and regional impact

Financial markets are expected to react negatively due to increased uncertainty and rising oil prices. Airlines are avoiding Middle East airspace, and the Houthi movement in Yemen announced that a response to US attacks is “inevitable”. Trump warned Iran of “force far greater” if it does not seek peace, increasing the risk of a wider conflict.

While Trump touts the attack as a military success, analysts fear it could trigger a wave of retaliation, threatening US bases and destabilizing the region. Iran’s Atomic Energy Authority insists that its nuclear program will continue despite the damage.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

https://nordictimes.com/world/trump-voters-oppose-us-involvement-in-israels-war/

World

Trump voters oppose US involvement in Israel’s war

Donald Trump's USA

Published 19 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Many Trump voters were attracted by his promises to avoid expensive and unnecessary wars.
3 minute read
Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

A majority of Donald Trump’s supporters oppose US military intervention in Israel’s war against Iran. This is according to a new opinion poll published on Wednesday.

According to the comprehensive survey by The Economist/YouGov, conducted over the weekend, 53 percent of voters who supported Trump in the 2024 presidential election want the US to stay out of Israel’s attacks.

Only 19 percent of Trump’s supporters advocate US military intervention, while 63 percent prefer the administration to try to negotiate with Iran over its nuclear program.

Among all voters in the survey, 60 percent believed that the US should refrain from using military force in the conflict.

The results reflect long-standing public support for peaceful solutions to the Iran issue. An April poll by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs-Ipsos showed that eight in ten Americans preferred diplomacy or tougher economic sanctions to military action to stop Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

And even if diplomacy or sanctions were to fail, many Americans prefer other methods. The same Ipsos poll showed that 60 percent could envisage US cyberattacks against Iranian systems, but only 48 percent of Americans supported air strikes against nuclear facilities.

“A terrible mistake”

Opposition to military escalation is also evident among several Republican politicians.

“This is not our war. But if it were, Congress must decide such matters according to our Constitution“, Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman from Kentucky, wrote on X earlier this week. He expressed his support for an attempt to gather support in the House of Representatives for a bipartisan resolution to limit the president’s war powers.

Libertarian Senator Rand Paul is also a very vocal opponent of dragging the US into yet another unnecessary war.

– I will not vote to send american kids to Iran. I think its a terrible mistake, every way is not our war. Our country is bankrupting itself over our own obligations to our own people. We should not ever send one soldier to Iran and I hope I am pretty clear on that, he recently declared in an interview.

Tim Burchett, Republican congressman from Tennessee, told CNN on Wednesday that he wanted to see “very little” US involvement in the escalating conflict.

– We don’t need another endless war in the Middle East. Old men make decisions and young men die, and that’s the history of war, he said.

– We need to take a deep breath and slow down this thing and let the Israelis do their thing. We do not need a three-front war in our lifetime.

At the same time, powerful neoconservative actors and the Israel lobby are waging an intense campaign to get the Trump administration to drag the US into the war – despite popular opposition and the president’s earlier promises to be a “peacemaker” and end all wars.

Editorial Staff
editorial@nordictimes.com

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