Monday, June 30, 2025

Polaris of Enlightenment

Obama’s ancestors were slave owners

Published 1 July 2023
– By Editorial Staff
Trump's ancestors were not involved in the slave trade - unlike Obama's.
2 minute read

The London-based news agency Reuters recently conducted a genealogical survey of the US political elite, finding that at least 118 of the country’s most influential leaders have at least one slave-owning ancestor. Former President Barack Obama’s ancestors owned at least two slaves, according to the survey.

Of the living former presidents, one name stands out whose ancestors did not own any slaves – Donald Trump.

A recent investigation conducted by Reuters examined the ancestry of the top American elite – including its legislators and presidents – and their possible connection to the American side of the slave trade of the past.

The results of the survey showed that two Supreme Court justices, 11 governors, over 100 members of Congress and several presidents are direct descendants of slave owners.

Prominent members of both parties figure prominently. These include Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R) and Democrats such as Senators Elizabeth Warren and Tammy Duckworth. Even Barack Obama (D), is the descendant of a slave owner on his white mother’s side of the family.

The only living president whose ancestors did not own slaves is Donald Trump (R). While other presidents have deep roots in America, Trump’s ancestors immigrated to the US only after the abolition of slavery in 1865. Thus, none of his grandparents were born in the US, which can be seen as an explanation of this fact.

Donald Trump has a history of defending symbols of the Confederacy. For example, as president, he opposed the renaming of US military bases named after Confederate generals, although the Department of Defense was open to making changes.

He is also one of the presidents who has shown a strong commitment to African-American issues. During his time in office, unemployment among blacks reportedly dropped to record lows. He also increased funding for historically black colleges and universities and introduced several criminal justice reforms. However, an overwhelming majority of African-American voters ultimately chose to vote for Joe Biden in the 2020 elections.

At this stage, none of the respondents have commented on the survey.

According to Reuters, the US political elite's slave-owning ancestors include these living US presidents:

- Joe Biden (D) - A direct ancestor, five generations removed, owned one slave.
- Barack Obama (D) - A direct ancestor, six generations removed, owned two slaves.
- George Bush (R) - A direct ancestor, six generations removed, owned 25 slaves.
- Bill Clinton (D) - A direct ancestor, five generations removed, owned one slave.
- Jimmy Carter (D) - A direct ancestor, four generations removed, owned 54 slaves.

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Priest in West Bank’s last Christian village: “We live under constant fire from settlers”

The situation in Gaza

Published today 23:24
– By Editorial Staff
Today, Taybeh has approximately 1,300 inhabitants, and the village has maintained a Christian presence for at least 1,500 years.
3 minute read

Violence is escalating in the West Bank – including in Taybeh, the very last entirely Christian village in the region. Here, residents have experienced firsthand how extreme Jewish settlers are intensifying their attacks against Palestinian communities in the area.

– We live under constant fire from settlers, and under the crossfire of the Israeli occupation army, says Bashar Fawadleh to AsiaNews.

Fawadleh has been the parish priest at the Church of the Redeemer, which belongs to the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem, since 2021. He reports that the violence has forced more than ten Christian families to leave Taybeh since October 2024.

Taybeh, with approximately 1,300 residents, is located about 30 kilometers north of Jerusalem and 15 kilometers northeast of Ramallah in the West Bank. The village is surrounded by both Palestinian communities and several Jewish settlements. During the past week, residents, both Latin Catholic and Greek Orthodox, have experienced an escalation in attacks.

On Tuesday, June 25, dozens of masked settlers attacked the nearby village of Kafr Malik. According to journalist Ihab Hassan, the attack was carried out with support from the Israeli army. The settlers reportedly shot at civilians and set fire to cars and houses – three people were killed and nine were injured, one seriously.

Refuse to abandon their homes

Parish priest Fawadleh describes the situation in the village as desperate. In a statement to news agency ACIMENA, he says:

– Yesterday (Wednesday) evening, settlers attacked homes in the Karamelo roundabout, an area at the eastern entrance to the village

– The incident coincided with an attack by dozens of settlers on the village of Kafr Malik, which is near us, and which led to the death of three martyrs and the burning of many vehicles and homes.

Despite the violence, he says Taybeh’s residents refuse to yield or abandon their homes:

– We are living in very difficult conditions, but we are not afraid to remain in our land. We are not afraid of those who kill. We are a people who love our land and will never abandon it.

Aim to ethnically cleanse the area

The situation in the West Bank has been unstable since Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, and settler attacks have escalated in recent months. According to analysts, extremist Jewish settler groups are trying to drive out both Muslims and Christians from areas they consider “the promised land”.

At the same time, radical settlers have gained political strength. Through their influence in the government – particularly via the Jewish Power and Religious Zionist parties – their agenda has gained increased traction.

Both parties are part of the coalition led by Benjamin Netanyahu and have pushed for expansion of settlements, increased arming of settlers, and a tougher stance against Palestinians in the West Bank.

Recently, The Nordic Times reported how Jewish settlers near the Gaza border openly advocate for ethnic cleansing, wanting all Palestinians to be expelled – so they can take over the area themselves.

IDF soldiers admit: We kill hungry civilians every day

The situation in Gaza

Published today 10:29
– By Editorial Staff
Israeli soldiers testify about how they use mortars and machine guns on a daily basis to fire upon desperate and starving Palestinians.
3 minute read

Israel’s military handling of aid distribution in Gaza has long been condemned internationally. Now, several Israeli soldiers testify about how they are ordered, on a daily basis, to open fire on and kill unarmed and hungry Palestinians attempting to reach food distributions – despite these individuals posing no threat.

– It’s a killing field. Where I was stationed there, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire, a soldier tells the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

– We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces. I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons, he continues.

The soldier describes the situation as a deadly version of the children’s game “Red Light, Green Light,” and his account of the Israeli military systematically executing hungry civilians is corroborated by other soldiers.

– Firing mortars to keep hungry people away is neither professional nor humane. I know there are Hamas operatives among them, but there are also people who simply want to receive aid, explains another soldier.

– It’s become a place with its own set of rules. The loss of human life means nothing. It’s not even an ‘unfortunate incident’, as the IDF used to say.

Palestinian authorities: 549 killed

According to the Palestinian Health Ministry, 549 people have been killed and 4,000 injured since May 27 while trying to receive humanitarian aid at Gaza Humanitarian Foundations (GHF) distribution sites or waiting for UN food convoys. These figures have not been independently verified.

An analysis of reports from Gaza between May 27 and June 24, conducted by The Times of Israel, shows that at least 19 shooting incidents related to aid distribution occurred during this period. In most of these cases, the IDF has admitted to opening fire but described it as “warning shots” against people who came too close to soldiers or tried to enter when the sites were closed.

The repeated mass casualty incidents were recently discussed at a meeting within the Israeli defense establishment, according to Haaretz. Representatives from the Military Advocate General’s Office (MAG) and the IDF Southern Command were among the participants.

According to meeting reports, MAG representatives expressed serious concern about the international outcry over the killing of civilians at aid distribution sites. The Southern Command defended itself by claiming these were isolated incidents and that fire was only opened on Palestinians who posed a threat.

“Dozens killed every day”

But the MAG representatives disagreed, according to a source who attended the meeting.

– The claim that these are isolated cases doesn’t align with incidents in which grenades were dropped from the air and mortars and artillery were fired at civilians, a MAG representative reportedly said.

– This isn’t about a few people being killed – we’re talking about dozens of casualties every day.

In response to the criticism, the Israeli military stated that they don’t deny anything in the reporting. However, they claim that Hamas is trying to sabotage the aid operations.

According to Haaretz, the IDF Military Advocate General has this week formally instructed a special investigation unit to investigate possible war crimes in connection with the Israeli attacks.

Kennedy halts US support for global vaccine alliance

The criticized covid vaccinations

Published yesterday 12:37
– By Editorial Staff
According to Kennedy, Gavi has exhausted the public’s – and the US government’s – trust.
2 minute read

US Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced during a meeting in Brussels this week that the country is withdrawing its financial support for the global vaccine alliance Gavi.

The announcement comes as Gavi has launched a new funding round with the goal of raising at least $9 billion for the next five years.

Kennedy, who has long been highly skeptical of large-scale mass vaccination programs and experimental vaccines, sharply criticized Gavi and its collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) during the coronavirus crisis in a brief video address. He accused the alliance of systematically silencing “dissenting views” and ignoring health risks and safety issues related to the vaccines.

“In its zeal to promote universal vaccination, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance has neglected the key issue of vaccine safety”, Kennedy later wrote in a post on X, and continued:

“When vaccine safety issues have come before GAVI, it has treated them not as a patient health problem, but as a public relations problem”.

Kennedy also questioned the safety of the combined vaccine against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis, claiming that research shows girls who received the vaccine are at higher risk of dying from other causes than unvaccinated children. He also expressed skepticism about WHO’s and Gavi’s recommendation to vaccinate pregnant women against COVID-19 – a recommendation he called “questionable”.

“I call on GAVI to re-earn the public trust and to justify the $8 billion dollars that America has provided in funding since 2001. Until that happens the United States won’t contribute more to GAVI. Business as usual is over”, he declared.

US promised one billion

According to Kennedy, Gavi must start “consider the best science available, even when that science contradicts established paradigms”.

In a statement on Thursday, Gavi claimed that the organization’s highest priority is children’s health and safety. They also stated that all decisions about which vaccines to procure are made according to recommendations from WHO’s expert group on vaccines.

Gavi is a global partnership between WHO, UNICEF, the Gates Foundation, the World Bank, and several governments, working to promote affordable mass vaccination programs in poor countries. The United States has long been one of the organization’s largest donors – and had, before Donald Trump’s re-election, promised support of $1 billion through 2030.

North Korea inaugurates luxury tourist resort

Published 27 June 2025
– By Editorial Staff
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un called the inauguration "one of the greatest successes this year" and described the facility as "the proud first step" towards developing North Korea's tourism sector.
2 minute read

North Korea has inaugurated a new luxury tourist resort on the country’s east coast, a development described as the beginning of a new era for the country’s tourism. Despite the opening, it remains unclear when foreign visitors might be allowed.

North Korea has officially opened the large-scale Wonsan-Kalma tourist resort on the country’s east coast. The project is described as a nationally treasured tourist area and a symbol of a new era in the country’s tourism, reports TravelNews, via North Korean state media.

The new resort, inaugurated by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un on June 24, features hotels, restaurants, shopping centers, and a water park along a four-kilometer coastline and has the capacity to accommodate nearly 20,000 visitors.

Kim Jong-un called the inauguration one of the greatest successes this year”, and described the facility as the proud first step towards developing North Korea’s tourism sector.

The resort opens for domestic tourists from July 1, but there is still no indication of when or if foreign visitors will be allowed.

Started in 2018

The project, which began in 2018 but was delayed by the pandemic and supply chain issues, is part of Kim Jong-un’s initiative to boost the country’s economy through tourism, despite extensive international sanctions.

The Wonsan-Kalma resort is located near an international airport and a newly built train station, suggesting ambitions to attract foreign tourists in the future, primarily from Russia and China.

The Russian ambassador attended the inauguration ceremony, reflecting Pyongyang’s increasingly close ties with Moscow at a time when the country remains isolated from the Western world.

Analysts suggest that the tourist resort is unlikely to be economically viable with domestic visitors alone, making the question of international access crucial.

Despite the opening, significant uncertainties remain regarding North Korea’s future tourism. The country has not yet lifted its restrictions on broader international tourism, and many regions remain inaccessible to foreign visitors.

Meanwhile, the investment in Wonsan-Kalma is seen as an attempt to generate much-needed foreign revenue and signal a certain opening towards the outside world.

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