Wednesday, July 16, 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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Trump urges Zelensky to attack Moscow

The war in Ukraine

Published today 6:55
– By Editorial Staff
2 minute read

Donald Trump has secretly urged Ukraine to carry out attacks against the Russian major cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg – as a strategy to force Russia to the negotiating table, according to the Financial Times.

The conversation reportedly took place on July 4 between American and Ukrainian representatives, where Trump posed direct questions to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky:

– Volodymyr, can you hit Moscow? . . . Can you hit St Petersburg too?

According to the newspaper’s sources, the plan is to make Russia “feel pain” in order to pressure a settlement. Trump has previously expressed frustration over the war’s duration and said:

– I’m disappointed in President Putin because I thought we would have had a deal two months ago.

At the same time, it is reported that Zelensky has received a list of long-range weapons that Trump wants to deliver through intermediaries – to circumvent Congress’s ban on direct military aid.

Escalation in the war

The revelations come at a sensitive time. The Kremlin has repeatedly warned that Russia could strike against the West if its weapons are used against Russian territory.

President Vladimir Putin has claimed that Russia has the right to “use our weapons against military facilities in countries that allow their weapons to be used against our facilities”.

In November 2024, Russia tightened its nuclear doctrine, which now allows nuclear response if Russia is attacked with conventional weapons by “non-nuclear states supported by nuclear powers”.

So far, Ukraine has primarily used domestically produced long-range drones in its attacks inside Russia. Neither the White House nor the Ukrainian government has commented on the revelation.

Over 100 killed in Gaza over the weekend

The situation in Gaza

Published 14 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
Ruins after bombings in Gaza, archive image.
1 minute read

On Saturday alone, at least 70 people were killed in Gaza and 208 were injured, reports the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.

At least 40 more people were killed in new attacks on Sunday, including six children who were killed at a drinking water distribution point, according to a spokesperson for Gaza’s civil defense authority to AFP. Representatives from Al-Awda Hospital confirm that they received ten bodies following an Israeli attack on a water collection point in nearby Nuseirat. Hospital staff estimate that the actual death toll is 129 and that 33 of those killed were queuing for humanitarian aid.

The Israeli military, which has recently intensified its operations in Gaza, has according to Defense Minister Israel Katz received orders to establish a concentration camp that they refer to as a “humanitarian city” in the southern part of Gaza, where they aim to eventually house Gaza’s entire population.

According to health authorities in Hamas-controlled Gaza, the death toll now exceeds 58,000 people.

North Korea declares “full support” for Russia

The war in Ukraine

Published 14 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during their meeting in Wonsan, North Korea.
1 minute read

North Korea is providing its “unconditional support” to Russia in the war against Ukraine. This was declared during a meeting between Kim Jong-Un and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Wonsan on Saturday, according to North Korean state media.

Kim Jong-Un informed Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the country stands ready to provide strong assistance in the conflict against Ukraine during a meeting that took place on Saturday in the coastal town of Wonsan on North Korea’s east coast, a location that the country has recently attempted to market as a tourist destination.

According to the North Korean news agency KCNA, Kim Jong-Un told Lavrov that North Koreans have “expressed full sympathy and support for all the measures taken by the Russian government to remove the root cause of the Ukrainian conflict”.

The North Korean leader is also said to have expressed his “firm conviction that the Russian army and people” will triumph and “achieve the sacred cause of defending the country’s dignity and fundamental interests”, KCNA reports.

Before the meeting with Kim Jong-Un, Lavrov met with his North Korean counterpart, Foreign Minister Choe Son-Hui, earlier in the day.

Deepened military cooperation

Lavrov’s visit to North Korea marks increasingly extensive military and political ties between the two countries, which have accelerated in connection with the war in Ukraine.

Pyongyang has previously sent thousands of soldiers to the Russian border region of Kursk to participate in fighting against Ukrainian forces that occupied parts of the area.

War hawk: Trump will send “record amounts of weapons” to Ukraine

The war in Ukraine

Published 14 July 2025
– By Editorial Staff
War hawk Lindsey Graham with Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo to the right in a meeting in Helsinki, Finland in August last year.
2 minute read

The US will send more weapons than ever to Ukraine. These are the tones being heard around the Trump administration as NATO chief Mark Rutte now visits Washington.

A large part of Trump’s voter base is generally considered to be voters who voted for him in hopes that he would reduce US involvement in foreign wars, partly because he promised during the campaign that he would end the war in 24 hours. However, these promises seem to be becoming increasingly distant for the American president.

On Monday, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte is scheduled to meet Trump in Washington, and Rutte can be pleased that more weapons than ever are now heading to the war in Ukraine. This according to information from, among others, the neoconservative war hawk Lindsey Graham, Republican senator and close ally of the Trump administration.

In the coming days, you’ll see weapons flowing at a record level to help Ukraine defend themselves, says Graham on CBS’s program “Face the Nation”.

European countries foot the bill

A central part of the escalation is that NATO countries, including Sweden, have pledged to increase their weapons purchases, which in practice are largely procured from the American military-industrial complex.

Graham believes that the US escalation of weapons deliveries to the war in Ukraine is part of a “massive effort” to force Russian President Vladimir Putin into peace negotiations. It should be added that Russia has in many different contexts over a long time emphasized that they have been open to negotiations as well as being open about their peace conditions, which primarily revolve around guarantees of Ukraine’s neutrality.

Trump has signaled that he will make a “major statement” about Russia during the day.

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