₦airaland Forum

You throw your language away and choose to type in English, slave masters language, how worse can it get??

Freshandfitpod:
everyone is entitled to his or her own thoughts it's doesn't affect me in anyway but you pray and do everything in Arabic while you throw your own identity to the floor how worst can it get.

The latest release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has resurfaced a 2017 interview with former Dutch banker Ronald Bernard, in which he alleged that ritualistic child sacrifices were practiced among the upper echelons of the financial world.

In a 2017 interview with Netherlands-based DVM TV, Bernard said that individuals from the upper levels of the financial world with whom he acknowledged having contact largely adhered to what he described as “Luciferian” beliefs.

"You can say, religion is a fairy tale, God doesn't exist, none of that is real. Well, for these people it is truth and reality, and they served something immaterial, what they called Lucifer," he explained.

Bernard noted that he went to places called "Churches of Satan," where they do Holy Mass with "naked women and liquor," underlining that he was "far from convinced if any of this was real."

"But then at some point, I was invited, which is why I'm telling you all this, to participate in sacrifices abroad. That was the breaking point. Children," he said.

When questioned whether he was asked to sacrifice children, he confirmed and added that he couldn't do it.

"Unfortunately the truth is, that worldwide they have been doing this for thousands of years," Bernard further said.

The latest batch of Epstein-related documents released by the US Justice Department last week mentions several high-profile figures.

Epstein was found dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. He pleaded guilty in a court in the state of Florida and was convicted of procuring a minor for prostitution in 2008, but critics call the relatively minor conviction a “sweetheart deal.”

His victims have alleged that he operated a sprawling sex trafficking network that was used by members of the wealthy and political elite.

But ran to Israel when USA declared him wanted in 2008 right??

emperorz:
That's not true i saw the files where he said he doesn't work for mossad

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has warned that Egypt's military capabilities are growing and must be closely monitored, while also saying he is unsure what final decision US President Donald Trump will take regarding Iran, according to Israeli media.

The daily Israel Hayom reported that Netanyahu raised concerns about Egypt's expanding military strength during a closed-door meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee on Thursday.

"The Egyptian army is building its strength, and this needs to be monitored," Netanyahu was quoted as saying.

"We have relations with Egypt, but we must prevent an excessive buildup of military power."

The comments were made during discussions on the sensitivity of relations between Israel and Egypt, according to sources cited by the newspaper.

Despite the warning, Israel and Egypt signed a major gas agreement in December valued at about $35 billion.

Netanyahu announced at the time that his government had approved the deal, describing it as the largest in Israel's history.

https://www.trtworld.com/article/53cee6f8a585

More about Epstein connection to Israeli intelligence services (Mossad)

Demonstrators hold a sign reading: Release the Jeffrey Epstein files now
Protesters in Washington, DC, a day before US President Donald Trump ordered his attorney general Pam Bondi to release transcripts of Jeffrey Epstein’s grand jury testimony. Sue DorfmanZUMA Press Wire
Noticeably absent from US news coverage of US President Donald Trump’s waffling over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files is any mention of the child sex predator’s apparent ties to Israeli intelligence.

A 13 July Nexis search of US news outlets found that, of the 383 stories unleashed by Trump’s broken promise to reveal everything Epstein, only a single article broached ties between Epstein and Israel’s intelligence agency, the Mossad – and then tried to undercut it.

The single story that did mention Mossad links, on 10 July in Atlantic Online, the online edition of The Atlantic Monthly, merely dismissed those making a case for Epstein’s ties to Mossad as “a claim often expressed with anti-Semitic rhetoric.”

Such omission, however, didn’t stop former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on 14 July from rejecting any Epstein-Mossad links as “categorically and totally false.”

There is plenty of good evidence, however, to suggest otherwise. The Epstein-Israeli intelligence connection was covered extensively in a 2019-2021 series of in-depth articles by MintPress News.

MintPress investigative reporter Whitney Webb summarized an interview by former CBS News executive producer and Narativ investigative journalist Zev Shalev with former senior executive for Israel’s Directorate of Military Intelligence Ari Ben-Menashe. There, Webb summed up, Ben-Menashe claimed “not only to have met Jeffrey Epstein and his alleged madam, Ghislaine Maxwell, back in the 1980s, but that both Epstein and Maxwell were already working with Israeli intelligence during that time period.”

Ben-Menashe also told Shalev he saw Jeffrey Epstein in the office of Mossad asset Robert Maxwell, Ghislaine Maxwell’s father, several times in the 1980s.

MintPress further reported that one of Epstein’s chief financial backers, Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner, was part of The Mega Group – a secretive group of billionaires formed in 1991 by Wexner and Seagram’s heir Charles Bronfman focused on “philanthropy and Jewishness,” its mission described by one member as faith in and devotion to the state of Israel.

Wexner became Epstein’s biggest financial client in 1989, handing over the financial management of his $1.4 billion business and his charitable foundation to a young man virtually unknown on Wall Street. By also granting him power of attorney, Epstein was authorized to cash Wexner’s checks and give away his money.

Among more mainstream journalists, Miami Herald investigative reporter Julie K. Brown, whose vigilance reopened the Epstein case after it was buried by federal prosecutors in 2008, also suspects that Epstein had connections with Israeli intelligence.

“It’s not beyond the realm of possibility that Epstein had connections to the [Israeli intelligence community],” Brown said in a July 2021 interview with The Times of Israel to promote her book, Perversion of Justice: The Jeffrey Epstein Story. “Robert Maxwell certainly had those kinds of connections, and Epstein had a close relationship with Robert Maxwell.”

Unlikely story
Maxwell is the British media mogul who had secretly worked for Mossad before drowning under mysterious circumstances in 1991. A 2022 BBC documentary series, House of Maxwell, revealed how Epstein helped Maxwell hide millions of his assets in offshore accounts after the newspaper tycoon was accused of plundering his employees’ pension funds.

Ultimately, more than a billion dollars was found missing from the Maxwell firms.

Epstein and associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the youngest of Robert Maxwell’s nine children and reportedly his favorite, recruited and trafficked underage girls who were sexually abused by Epstein and, it is contended, at least by some of the many powerful individuals he made a point of meeting and catering to.

In 2019, while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, Epstein, 66, was found hanged in his cell in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan. His death was ruled a suicide, a finding that is now backed by the Trump administration to the outrage of Trump’s MAGA base.

But those close to the case, including Brown and Epstein’s brother Mark, believe he was murdered. Mark Epstein has pointed to a mark embedded in Epstein’s neck as evidence of strangulation.

He also hired a private pathologist, Michael Baden, to conduct his own autopsy of his brother. Baden found broken bones in Epstein’s neck that occur “much more commonly in homicidal strangulation.”

Suspicious, too, is that the two prison guards keeping suicide watch over Epstein happened to fall asleep during their scheduled checks that night while, at the same time, the two cameras outside Epstein’s cell were not functioning, according to a 2023 report from the Justice Department’s Office of the Inspector General.

The report cited “a combination of negligence, misconduct and outright job performance failures … contributed to an environment in which arguably one of the most notorious inmates … was left unmonitored and alone in his cell.”

To back up the official argument for Epstein’s suicide, US Attorney General Pam Bondi earlier in July released footage from cameras covering the common areas, stairwells and elevator bay leading to Epstein’s cell tier. Federal investigators say the footage is proof no one entered or left Epstein’s tier overnight.

An analysis by WIRED and independent experts, however, found the “raw” footage had been modified with a professional editing tool prior to its release. The experts also discovered nearly three minutes of missing footage from the recordings before midnight on the night of Epstein’s death.

A Who’s Who
Even if there is no missing footage, Mark Epstein points out that the cell doors could have been left unlocked inside the tier so that another inmate could have left his cell, killed Epstein and returned undetected.

“There are two possibilities: one, somebody killed him before they locked up the tier. Or two, someone already on the tier went into his cell,” Epstein’s brother told WPBF News, a TV station in West Palm Beach, Florida. “Nobody coming in from outside doesn’t mean he wasn’t murdered.”

In her interview with The Times of Israel, Brown questioned Epstein’s suicide by asking the question many in the US media have ignored: “Why would Epstein give up before he even got to court?”

Indeed, Epstein had no trouble skirting a tough sentence the first time he was charged with child sex trafficking in 2005. In a plea agreement that avoided federal prosecution, Epstein served just 13 months in a work-release program on a single state charge of solicitation for prostitution.

The architect of that deal was then US Attorney Alexander Acosta, who was later named Labor Secretary in Trump’s first term.

Acosta reportedly told White House interviewers prior to his selection that he cut the deal with an Epstein attorney because “I was told Epstein ‘belonged to intelligence’ and to leave it alone.” The source of the quote was a former White House staffer cited in a 2019 Daily Beast article by Vanity Fair journalist Vicky Ward.

As Epstein’s accomplice, socialite and heiress Ghislaine Maxwell is understood to have lured most of the girls for Epstein’s abuse with promises of easy money, modeling careers and educational assistance. She was nabbed after a year of eluding federal authorities and convicted in 2022 of recruiting, grooming and sex trafficking underage girls for Epstein between 1994 and 2004.

Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence in a low-security federal prison in Florida and won’t be eligible for release until July 2037. According to Trump biographer Michael Wolff, Trump considered a pardon for Maxwell near the end of his first term.

Hundreds of Epstein-related court documents released in 2024 don’t accuse anyone of sexual misconduct but list the names, dates and places of many of those who met with Epstein.

The list reads like a “Who’s Who” of America’s top politicians, businessmen, scientists, academics and assorted celebrities. It includes Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Bill Gates, David Copperfield, retail magnate Les Wexner, hedge fund billionaire Leon Black, celebrity lawyer Alan Dershowitz, Nobel prize-winning physicist Stephen Hawking, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson and Bard College President Leon Botstein, along with Britain’s Prince Andrew and many others.

Intelligence ties
As is often noted, Trump and Epstein were a jet-setting playboy duo for more than a decade until they had a “falling out” in 2004, just a year before the FBI began to investigate Epstein for child sex trafficking. As late as 2002, Trump told New York Magazine, “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

Epstein later claimed in an interview with Wolff that Trump first had sex with now-wife Melania on Epstein’s private jet, dubbed the “Lolita Express,” one of seven documented flights Trump took on the infamous private jet.

Epstein’s lavish lifestyle and his ties to suspected Mossad asset Robert Maxwell and at least one high Israeli official – former Israeli general, defense and prime minister Ehud Barak – have raised questions as to whether he was working for Israeli intelligence, including the military arm, Aman.

Epstein met with Barak on nearly a monthly basis – 36 times between 2013 and 2017. After one particular visit to Epstein’s luxury Manhattan apartment in 2017, Barak was spotted leaving the complex with his face covered to dodge surveillance cameras.

According to his former employees, his victims and a lawyer for the victims, Epstein had 24-hour security cameras in every room of his residences.

Epstein also knew former CIA director William Burns, when Burns was US Deputy Secretary of State under former US President Barack Obama. Epstein met with Burns three times in 2014. Burns was named CIA director in 2021.

The sex trafficker’s political influence goes back at least to the Clinton administration, says MintPress investigative reporter Whitney Webb in her recent book, One Nation Under Blackmail.

“White House visitor logs show that Epstein visited the Clinton White House 17 times, accompanied on most of these visits by a different, attractive young woman. Reporting on those visitor logs was largely done by a single media outlet, Britain’s The Daily Mail, with hardly any American mainstream media outlets bothering to investigate these revelations about Epstein and a former US president.”

Israel’s leverage
Flight logs show Bill Clinton traveled at least 17 times on the “Lolita Express.” There are also numerous reports that he visited Epstein’s private island in the Virgin Islands, Little Saint James. That’s where lawyers for Epstein’s victims say many of the worst crimes against underage girls were committed.

In a 2011 deposition for her attorneys, Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who at age 16 became one of Epstein’s sex trafficking victims, testified that he told her he had “compromising” information on Bill Clinton and that the former president “owes me a favor.”

An earlier story for MintPress News illustrated Israel’s leverage over Clinton by citing his last-minute presidential pardon of Marc Rich, the commodities trader and hedge fund manager charged in 1983 for violating the US embargo on Iranian oil while dealing on Israel’s behalf.

According to the Israeli daily Haaretz, Rich was friendly with prominent Israel politicians, including Barak, and often volunteered his services for Israeli intelligence.

In his presidential campaigns, Trump has repeatedly brought up Clinton’s association with Epstein, but only to suggest that Bill and Hillary were involved in Epstein’s death.

Miami Herald reporter Julie K. Brown deserves the credit for not letting the Epstein story die. After his plea deal in Florida on much-reduced charges in 2008 that otherwise could have put him in jail for up to 45 years, Epstein’s case would have been forgotten after his having served little more than a year in a cozy work-release program if Brown hadn’t pursued the story further.

In a three-part series of investigative articles in 2018, she exposed the manipulation and corruption of law enforcement officials resulting in Epstein’s secret plea on state rather than federal charges for a much softer prison sentence.

In her Times of Israel interview, Brown said there was a striking similarity between Epstein’s death in August 2019 and Robert Maxwell’s death in November 1991.

The 68-year-old media magnate was alleged to have drowned after falling from his yacht, the Lady Ghislaine, near the Canary Islands. Spanish police insisted no foul play was suspected in Maxwell’s death, but rumors persist to this day.

Maxwell to Bondi
Suicide is one possible theory. Another is that Maxwell was assassinated.

Maxwell was mired in debt at the time and may have been trying to blackmail the agency to bail himself out, according to political and investigative journalist Gordon Thomas, author of Robert Maxwell, Israel’s Superspy: The Life and Murder of a Media Mogul.

After Maxwell’s death, Epstein ingratiated himself with members of the Maxwell family who had been left bankrupt and riddled with debt, Brown said in her Times of Israel interview. Epstein may have offered financial assistance to Robert Maxwell’s widow Elisabeth.

Ghislaine was likely aware of the many secrets her father took to the grave related to his life in politics, finance and espionage, Brown said.

Following his death, Maxwell was honored with a burial on Jerusalem’s Mount of Olives – formally occupied territory – where members of the Israeli intelligence community as well as then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir attended his funeral.

“Shamir eulogized the British tycoon for the political connections he brought to Israel during the 1980s and for the money he invested in it,” reported The Times of Israel.

Brown believes the Epstein case is far from closed.

“[Epstein] did not do this alone,” she told The Times of Israel. “There were plenty of people that either knew about what Epstein was doing, or even participated in what he was doing. This was an international sex trafficking organization that was similar to an organized crime family – so it shouldn’t just end just with the prosecution of [Ghislaine Maxwell].”

But before Trump ordered her to release the transcript of Epstein’s grand jury testimony on 18 July – after his support base had started a petition demanding her resignation – US Attorney General Pam Bondi said there was nothing further to investigate in the Epstein case.

She was at least consistent. This was something she failed to do while she was attorney general in Florida two decades ago.

As Brown noted on her X account in February: “It’s interesting to note that Pam Bondi was Florida’s attorney general 2011-2019 – a period of time when Jeffrey Epstein’s plane records became public, victims’ lawsuits were filed and a lot of new evidence against Epstein surfaced. So, questions should be asked about why she didn’t take up the case – or launch a probe – when she was attorney general in Florida.”

Jim DeBrosse, Ph.D., a veteran reporter and a retired assistant professor of journalism, is the author of See No Evil: The JFK Assassination and the US Media.

Since the 1970s, at least 28 women have accused Donald Trump of various acts of sexual misconduct,[1] including rape, kissing and groping without consent, looking under women's skirts, and walking in on naked teenage pageant contestants. Trump has denied most of the allegations, but admitted some, in the 2005 Access Hollywood tape and toward Howard Stern[2]. He has a history of insulting and belittling women when speaking to the media and on social media,[3][4] and has made lewd comments about women, disparaged their physical appearance, and referred to them using derogatory epithets.[4][5][6]

In October 2016, two days before the second presidential debate with Hillary Clinton, a 2005 "hot mic" recording surfaced in which Trump was heard saying that "when you're a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. ... Grab 'em by the pussy."[7] The incident's widespread media exposure led to Trump's first public apology during the campaign,[8] and caused outrage across the political spectrum.[9]

In 2025, Trump's past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein received significant media attention following his administration's refusal to release files relating to Epstein, despite Trump's 2024 election campaign promises to do so.[10]

Overview
Donald Trump has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and sexual harassment, including non-consensual kissing or groping, by at least 25 women since the 1970s.[a]

In June 2019, writer E. Jean Carroll alleged in New York magazine that Trump raped her in a department store dressing room in 1995 or 1996. Two friends of Carroll stated that Carroll had previously confided in them about the incident. In November 2019, Carroll filed a defamation lawsuit against Trump.[16] Trump called the allegation fiction and denied ever meeting Carroll, despite a photo showing them together at a party in 1987 being published by the magazine.[17][18][19]

In November 2022, Carroll filed a suit against Trump for battery under the Adult Survivors Act. On May 9, 2023, a New York jury in a civil case found Trump liable for sexual abuse and defamation against Carroll, but found him not liable for rape. They awarded Carroll US $5 million in damages.[20] In July 2023, Judge Kaplan stated that the jury had found that Trump had raped Carroll according to the common definition of the word as they had ruled that Trump had forcibly and nonconsensually penetrated Carroll's vagina with his fingers.[21] New York state's definition at the time defined rape as solely nonconsensual penetration of the vagina by a penis.[22] A September 2023 partial summary judgment again found Trump liable for defaming Carroll. On January 26, 2024, Trump was ordered to pay Carroll an additional $83.3 million in damages.[23]

Other litigation includes his then-wife Ivana's rape claim during their 1990 divorce (she later recanted);[24] businesswoman Jill Harth's 1997 lawsuit alleging breach of contract and sexual harassment (she settled the former claim and forfeited the latter); and former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos's claim of sexual misconduct, followed by a 2017 defamation lawsuit after Trump accused her of lying[25] (she withdrew her defamation case in 2021).[26]

The allegations by Ivana Trump and Jill Harth became public before Trump's presidential candidacy with the rest going public after the 2005 Access Hollywood tape was leaked during the 2016 presidential campaign in which Trump was recorded bragging that a celebrity like himself "can do anything" to women, including "just start kissing them ... I don't even wait" and "grab 'em by the pussy". Trump denied behaving that way toward women and apologized for the crude language. Many of his accusers stated that Trump's denials provoked them into going public.

Several former Miss USA and Miss Teen USA contestants accused Trump of entering the dressing rooms of beauty pageant contestants while contestants were in various stages of UnCloth. Trump had already referred to this practice during a 2005 interview on The Howard Stern Show, saying he could "get away with things like that" because he owned the Miss Universe franchise. In October 2019, the book All the President's Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator[b] contained 43 additional allegations of sexual misconduct against Trump.[27][28]

Trump has denied all the allegations against him, saying he has been the victim of media bias, conspiracies, and a political smear campaign.[c] In October 2016, Trump publicly vowed to sue all the women who have made allegations of sexual misconduct against him, as well as The New York Times for publishing the allegations.[33][34]

disclosed the alleged sexual assault by Trump in June and said Trump's reaction had directly harmed her career and reputation.[16] Carroll said she was filing this lawsuit on behalf of each woman who has faced harassment, assault, or belittlement.[66] Trump stated that her allegation was a promotion strategy for her book titled What Do We Need Men For? A Modest Proposal, where she discloses details about the alleged assault. The White House Press Secretary responded to the lawsuit claiming it was "frivolous" and that the story was fake, "just like the author".[67]

In September 2020, the Justice Department argued that Trump had acted "within the scope" of the presidency when he called Carroll a liar, moved the case from a state court (which had recently denied Trump's motion to delay the case) to federal court, and sought to take over his defense. During the discovery phase, Trump could have been required to testify and to provide a DNA sample. Attorney general Bill Barr cited the Westfall Act as allowing the Justice Department to defend federal employees against civil liability for acts conducted in the normal course of their duties. Barr stated the White House had requested the Justice Department action and noted that taxpayers would pay any judgment should Carroll win the case.[68][69][70][71][72] Since government employees largely enjoy immunity from defamation suits, the Justice Department argued that Trump had spoken in his official capacity as president.[73] On October 27, federal judge Lewis Kaplan rejected that argument and allowed the suit to proceed and consider Trump's actions to be by a private citizen[74]—not an officer of a federal agency (as the Justice Department said), as Trump was occupying an office defined in the Constitution, which was a separate category.[75] On November 20, Kaplan ordered Trump's prior private attorneys to resume representing him in the case.[76] On November 25, the Department of Justice appealed Judge Kaplan's ruling in the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.[77]

In June 2021, the Justice Department argued in a court brief that it should substitute itself as the defendant in the case because Trump had acted as a federal employee.[78]

Carroll filed a second lawsuit against Trump in November 2022 that renewed her claim of defamation due to additional statements Trump made and expanded her claim to battery under the Adult Survivors Act, a New York law that allows sexual-assault victims to file civil suits beyond expired statutes of limitations.[79] The trial for E. Jean Carroll v. Donald J. Trump began on April 25, 2023, in federal court at the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.[80][81] On May 9, after deliberating for less than three hours, a jury of six men and three women in Manhattan federal court unanimously found Trump liable for sexually abusing Carroll and defaming her by calling her a liar, rejecting his denial of the allegations, though they did not find Trump liable for rape. The jury awarded Carroll $5 million in compensatory and punitive damages.[82]

A September 2023 partial summary judgment found Trump liable for defaming Carroll through his statements he made in 2019. A trial held January 16–26, 2024 awarded an additional $83.3 million in damages to Carroll.[83]

Trump filed a countersuit against Carroll, but the judge dismissed the case and wrote that Carroll's accusation of "rape" is "substantially true".[84]

The $5 million judgement against Trump "for defamation and sexual abuse" was upheld on appeal by the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on December 30, 2024,[85][86] and again on June 13, 2025.[87] The $83.3 million judgment was also upheld by the Second Circuit on September 8, 2025, after Trump's lawyers attempted to argue on grounds of presidential immunity relating to Trump v. United States (2024).[88][89] Interest is also due on the outstanding amount.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Trump_sexual_misconduct_allegations

A new controversy has emerged around former US President Donald Trump, after biographer Michael Wolff claimed that Jeffrey Epstein may have introduced Melania to Trump. The claim quickly spread across US media but clashes with Melania's own version of events.

Wolff alleged that Melania was part of Epstein's social circle through modeling industry ties and was introduced to Trump by a model agent connected to both men.

However, Melania has consistently maintained that she met Trump in 1998 at a Fashion Week party hosted by agent Paolo Zampolli, who, along with Melania, has publicly denied Epstein had any involvement. She also dismissed the claim in her book.

#DonaldTrump #Melania Trump #TrumpAdministration #MichaelWolff

The central premise of the "honey trap" theory is that Jeffrey Epstein’s criminal enterprise was not an end in itself, but a sophisticated mechanism for gathering kompromat on behalf of foreign intelligence, specifically the Mossad. This narrative suggests that Epstein’s luxurious properties in Manhattan, Palm Beach, and his private island, Little Saint James, were meticulously "wired for sound and video" to record high-profile guests in compromising situations. According to proponents of this theory, these recordings served as a form of "currency" or "insurance," ensuring that Epstein remained protected by powerful figures who could not afford to have their secrets exposed.

The intelligence connection is frequently traced back to the lineage of Ghislaine Maxwell. Her father, the late media mogul Robert Maxwell, was widely reported to have had long-standing ties to the Mossad and other intelligence agencies. Investigative reports, including claims from former Israeli intelligence official Ari Ben-Menashe, suggest that Epstein was recruited into this world in the 1980s through the Maxwell family. Ben-Menashe has alleged that Epstein and Maxwell operated as a "honey trap" duo, specifically targeting Western political and business elites to secure pro-Israel influence and strategic leverage.

Beyond these allegations, the theory is often bolstered by Epstein’s documented, high-level interactions with Israeli leadership. He maintained an exceptionally close relationship with former Prime Minister Ehud Barak, meeting him dozens of times and even providing him with a New York apartment. Recent investigative leaks from 2025 and 2026 reveal that Epstein functioned as a "hyper-fixer" at an elite level, brokering sensitive security agreements between Israel and countries like Mongolia and serving as a backchannel to Russia during the Syrian civil war. These roles have led some to believe that Epstein’s primary utility was his ability to navigate the intersection of global finance and state-level espionage.

However, it is critical to balance these claims with the official stance of the governments involved. The Israeli government has categorically denied any formal association with Epstein, with former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett dismissing the Mossad links as "totally false." Furthermore, a 2025 U.S. Justice Department review concluded that while Epstein certainly leveraged his connections for influence, there was no concrete evidence found in his personal archives of a coordinated foreign blackmail ring. Critics of the honey trap theory argue that Epstein’s "protection" was more likely a byproduct of his immense wealth and a legal system that favored elite defendants, rather than a secret intelligence handler.

This is Aisha Gaddafi, living in exile in Oman, the daughter of Colonel Gaddafi.

She has sent a message to the people of Iran that is worth reading: “O steadfast and freedom-loving people of Iran!

I speak to you from a heart full of destruction, pain, and betrayal. I am the voice of a woman who witnessed the devastation of her country — not at the hands of open enemies, but after being trapped by the deceptive smiles of the West and its false promises.

I warn you not to fall for the deceitful words and slogans of Western imperialists. They once told my father, Colonel Gaddafi, ‘If you abandon your nuclear and missile programs, the doors of the world will open for you.’

My father, with good intentions and trust in dialogue, chose the path of concessions. But in the end, we saw how NATO’s bombs turned our land into rubble. Libya was drowned in blood, and its people were trapped in poverty, exile, and destruction.

My Iranian sisters and brothers, your courage, dignity, and resilience in the face of sanctions, informants, and economic warfare are proof of your nation’s honor and true freedom. Giving concessions to the enemy brings nothing but destruction, division, and suffering.

Negotiating with a wolf will not save the sheep or bring lasting peace — it only sets the date for the next meal!

History has proven that those who stood firm — from Cuba, Venezuela, and North Korea to Palestine — remain alive in the hearts of the world’s heroes and became immortal in history with honor. And those who surrendered were reduced to ashes, their names forgotten.

Salute to the brave people of Iran!

Salute to Iranian resistance!

Salute to global solidarity with the Palestinian people!

With love and compassion, Aisha Gaddafi."

A Hindutva mob chanting “Jai Shree Ram” vandalised a Muslim shrine and nearby graves in the Indian city of Hyderabad after midnight on January 14, allegedly in the presence of police.

Tensions escalated when local Muslim youths protested the desecration and were attacked, leaving several people injured, before police resorted to a stick and baton charge to disperse the crowd.

Heavy security remains deployed as authorities say the situation is under close watch.

Was USA the only country that has investment before sending them all. Away?? And let's assume that's to be true, kidnapping the president is the best way to go about that??

dederocs:
Venezuelan Chavez, the ex Venezuelan leader that died before Maduro came in, seized American oil company assets and investments in Venezuela, this investment are up to tens of billions of dollars...they use these assets to process their oil sector, Trump is getting their money back.

The Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado has presented her Nobel Prize medal to Donald Trump - declaring it was a “personal symbol of gratitude “.

Mr Trump has not endorsed Ms Machado as the new leader of Venezuela - whose party claimed to have won contested elections in 2024.

The Nobel Committee said the title itself could not “change owners”.

#Machado #Venezuela #Trump #News #Channel4News

Two weeks after United States special forces abducted Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro, opposition leader Maria Corina Machado visited the White House for her first in-person meeting with US President Donald Trump.

With Venezuela’s future uncertain, and Trump seemingly in a position of authority to determine who might lead the South American country, Machado placed her recently won Nobel Peace Prize in the hands of a man who has coveted the award for years.

The two posed for a photo in front of the Declaration of Independence in the Oval Office, and Trump smiled big as he clasped onto a large golden frame encasing the medal.

But does the prize now belong to Trump, and could it change the US president’s course of action when it comes to Venezuela?

Did Trump accept the Nobel Peace Prize?
ABC News later quoted an unnamed White House official confirming that Trump had agreed to keep the award.

“It was my Great Honor to meet Maria Corina Machado, of Venezuela, today. She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much,” Trump wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform on Thursday.

“Maria presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done. Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you Maria!”

Why did Machado win the Prize?
Machado, 58, is the leader of the Venezuelan opposition party, Vente Venezuela. She is also one of Maduro’s staunchest critics.

In 2023, she won the Venezuelan opposition’s presidential primary, placing her in a prime position to challenge longtime leader Maduro in the 2024 presidential elections.

However, Venezuela’s top court, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, upheld a ban stopping Machado from running for office. The court backed government claims that she supported US sanctions, was linked to a weapons plot through her party and had helped cause losses to Venezuelan assets like the US-based oil refiner Citgo and chemicals company Monomeros, which operates in Colombia

Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, a diplomat, replaced her as presidential candidate for the opposition bloc. Machado campaigned for him.

However, Maduro won the election, continuing to hold onto his presidential seat, which he has held since 2013. The election was disputed and earned widespread accusations of fraud from within and outside Venezuela, including from a panel of United Nations experts. Nine Latin American countries demanded a review of the election results in the presence of independent observers.

After spending more than a year in hiding and defying a decade-long travel ban imposed by Venezuelan authorities, Machado secretly left Venezuela in December to travel to Oslo to collect her prize.

While announcing her win, the Nobel Committee said Machado was “receiving the Nobel Peace Prize for her tireless work promoting democratic rights for the people of Venezuela and for her struggle to achieve a just and peaceful transition from dictatorship to democracy”.

Why did Machado give Trump the Nobel Prize?
Trump’s longstanding desire to win the Nobel Peace Prize is well known. Before the prize for 2025 was announced, Trump repeatedly suggested that he deserved to win it and claimed it would be a “big insult” to the US if he did not.

Speaking at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York in September 2025, Trump said, “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize.”

Trump added, “I ended seven wars. No president or prime minister has ever done anything close to that.” The wars he claimed to have ended include conflicts between Cambodia and Thailand; Kosovo and Serbia; the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda; Pakistan and India; Israel and Iran; Egypt and Ethiopia; and Armenia and Azerbaijan. Subsequently, Trump also oversaw the signing of the Gaza ceasefire deal.

In reality, analysts have pointed out, several of these conflicts are still alive – Thailand and Cambodia have fired at each other since their truce; Israel has killed more than 450 Palestinians in Gaza since the ceasefire came into effect on October 10; and tensions remain high between India and Pakistan.

Trump has openly expressed his frustration with not winning the Nobel Peace Prize. “I single-handedly ENDED 8 WARS, and Norway, a NATO Member, foolishly chose not to give me the Nobel Peace Prize,” Trump wrote in a Truth Social post on January 7.

pendent from the government of Norway.

The White House posted a picture of Trump and Machado with the framed prize. The text on the frame read: “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people, in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action in pursuit of a free Venezuela.”

After her meeting with Trump, Machado told reporters it was “excellent” and that she presented Trump with the medal as “a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom”.

Does that mean the Nobel Prize is Trump’s now?
Under the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, a Nobel Prize cannot be revoked, reallocated, or transferred to another person. Once a prize has been awarded, the decision is final and permanent.

The statutes of the Nobel Foundation are the formal rules that govern how the Nobel system works in practice.

While Trump can hold the physical prize, it has still been awarded to Machado, which is a decision that will continue to stand.

The Nobel Peace Center account on X, the official account of the museum about the Nobel Peace Prize, reiterated this in an X post on Wednesday.

“A medal can change owners, but the title of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate cannot,” the post says.

There are hundreds of civilian death in each of these, not even Israel agrees with this your rhetoric

Baxilexi:
Let’s try this approach…

Israel vs Iran;
IRGC killed, civilian deaths (none)

Israel vs Houthi;
Houthi rebels killed, civilian deaths (N/A)

Israel vs Qatar;
Hamas leader killed, civilian deaths (N/A)

Israel vs Hezbollah;
Hezbollah fighters killed, civilian deaths (N/A)

I could go on and on but the patterns show that what’s happening in Gaza with women and children is unintentional and collateral damage.
Hamas is the most cowardly group ever, other rebels fight head on, they hide and launch attacks, draw a damn battle line and go toe to toe, death would be the definite outcome but at least you guys would go down as martyrs in the unholy book of jihadists.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said her country faces a “decisive moment” over the future of Greenland after United States President Donald Trump renewed his threats to seize the Arctic territory by force.

Speaking ahead of meetings in Washington, DC, from Monday on the global scramble for key raw materials, Frederiksen said that “there is a conflict over Greenland”.

“This is a decisive moment”, with stakes that go beyond the immediate issue of Greenland’s future, Frederiksen said in a debate with other Danish political leaders.

She added in a post on Facebook that Denmark was ” ready to defend our values – wherever it is necessary – also in the Arctic”. “We believe in international law and in peoples’ right to self-determination,” she said.

Germany and Sweden backed Denmark against Trump’s latest claims to the self-governing Danish territory.

Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson condemned the US’s “threatening rhetoric” after Trump repeated that Washington was “going to do something on Greenland, whether they like it or not”.

“Sweden, the Nordic countries, the Baltic states, and several major European countries stand together with our Danish friends,” Kristersson told a defence conference in Salen, in which the US general in charge of NATO took part.

Kristersson said a US takeover of mineral-rich Greenland would be “a violation of international law, and risks encouraging other countries to act in exactly the same way”.

Germany reiterated its support for Denmark and Greenland ahead of the Washington discussions.

Before meeting his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, on Monday, German Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadehpul held talks in Iceland to address the “strategic challenges of the Far North”, according to a Foreign Ministry statement.

“Security in the Arctic is becoming more and more important”, and “is part of our common interest in NATO”, he said at a joint news conference with Icelandic Minister for Foreign Affairs Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir.

The United Kingdom’s Telegraph newspaper reported on Saturday that military chiefs from the UK and other European countries were drawing up plans for a possible NATO mission in Greenland.

The newspaper said that UK officials had begun early-stage talks with Germany, France and others on plans that could involve deploying UK troops, warships and aircraft to protect Greenland from Russia and China.

UK Secretary of State for Transport Heidi Alexander told Sky News that talks on how to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Arctic were “business as usual”.

“It’s becoming an increasingly contested geopolitical region, with Russia and China… you would expect us to be talking to all our allies in NATO about what we can do to deter Russian aggression in the Arctic Circle,” Alexander said.

In an interview with the Reuters news agency, Belgian Minister of Defence Theo Francken said that NATO should launch an operation in the Arctic to address US security concerns.

“We have to collaborate, work together and show strength and unity,” Francken said, adding that there is a need for “a NATO operation in the high north”.

Francken suggested NATO’s Baltic Sentry and Eastern Sentry operations, which combine forces from different countries with drones, sensors and other technology to monitor land and sea, as possible models for an “Arctic Sentry”.

Trump claims that controlling Greenland is crucial for US national security because of the rising Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

Polls indicate that Greenland’s population strongly oppose a US takeover.

“Happy New Year to every Iranian in the streets. Also to every Mossad agent walking beside them."

The unusual remarks came days after a Mossad-linked social media account posted in Farsi, encouraging Iranians to take part in protests and claiming the spy agency would join demonstrators “in the field”.

Iranian security agencies have repeatedly accused foreign actors of stoking unrest, describing the protests as externally driven attempts to destabilise the country.

In June, Mossad had hundreds of agents involved in Israel’s 12-day war, which set back Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missiles programmes, damaged its air defence systems and killed dozens of Tehran's top military and intelligence officials.

For many in Iran, the broader Middle East and beyond, the scale of the breach was shocking. Years of Mossad infiltration enabled internal sabotage with smuggled drones used to strike air-defence radars, missile systems and launchers from inside Iran.

On Friday, US President Donald Trump threatened intervention if Iranian authorities violently suppressed protesters. “If Iran shoots and violently kills peaceful protesters, which is their custom, the United States of America will come to their rescue,” he wrote on social media.

Senator Lindsay Graham later said that "a weakened Iran - a nation run by religious nazis - is due to President Trump’s efforts to isolate Iran economically and to use military force wisely".

"It is time to Make Iran Great Again," he wrote on X.

An Israeli TV host who reports for channel 14 has asked audience to guess who is behind the riots and killings in Iran as the Iranian government buries hundreds of police officers on Wednesday, 14th of January 2026, this raises questions on why truly is doing the killing

What are we saying, what are you saying? We're saying it's wrong to steal a country resources and brag on selling it, you're saying izlam is this how your brain work?

Nwaikpe:
So are you saying we should not be safe from izlam?

I thought America went there to give them Democracy.

resident Donald Trump said Sunday the United States would take Greenland "one way or the other," warning that Russia and China would "take over" if Washington didn't act.

Trump says controlling the mineral-rich Danish territory is crucial for U.S. national security, given increased Russian and Chinese military activity in the Arctic.

"If we don't take Greenland, Russia or China will, and I'm not letting that happen," Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One, despite neither country laying claim to the vast island.

Trump said he would be open to making a deal with the Danish self-governing territory, "but one way or the other, we're going to have Greenland."

Denmark and other European allies have voiced shock at Trump's threats over the island, which plays a strategic role between North America and the Arctic, and where the United States has had a military base since World War II.

A Danish colony until 1953, Greenland gained home rule 26 years later and is contemplating eventually loosening its ties with Denmark.

The vast majority of its population and political parties have said they do not want to be under U.S. control and insist Greenlanders must decide their own future – a viewpoint continuously challenged by Trump.

"Greenland should make the deal, because Greenland does not want to see Russia or China take over," Trump warned, as he mocked its defenses.

"You know what their defense is, two dog sleds," he said, while Russia and China have "destroyers and submarines all over the place."

Denmark's prime minister warned last week that any U.S. move to take Greenland by force would destroy 80 years of transatlantic security links.

Trump waved off the comment, saying: "If it affects NATO, it affects NATO. But you know, (Greenland) need us much more than we need them."

Can you read English??

peleson1:
No

It will be sent to Venezuela

Can you read English?

LadyExcellency:
No, it will be used in running Venezuela and expanding exploration and revamping old oil wells. Venezuelans are expecting diversification and expansion of investment in the country.

Sanctions will be lifted. Socialism is dead in Venezuela. Prosperity at last.

LadyExcellency:
At least Venezuela Vice President is coming to USA for budget presentation and approval. The Venezuelans are going to see investment boom in oil and gas as never before.

Freedom at last.

While the money earned is going to USA, I hope you're aware?

The US has officially started selling Venezuelan oil

The United States has completed its first sale of Venezuelan oil, valued at $500 million, according to an administration official.

Additional sales of oil are expected in the coming days and weeks, the official added.

In the days since the United States attacked Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolás Maduro, earlier this month, President Donald Trump has made it clear that he plans to tap into the country’s vast oil reserves.

Trump said on Friday that the oil industry would invest at least $100 billion to rebuild Venezuela’s battered energy sector — though it’s not clear where that number came from.

The administration’s plans to capitalize on Venezuela’s oil were met with skepticism by US energy executives at the White House on Friday.

“It’s uninvestible,” ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods told officials when discussing the obstacles to doing business in Venezuela. “There are a number of legal and commercial frameworks that would have to be established to even understand what kind of returns we would get on the investment.”

Several other executives also expressed reluctance with doing business in the embattled Latin American country. After a lengthy White House meeting on Friday, Trump and his top aides had emerged without any major commitments from companies to invest billions of dollars in the nation.

The details about the first oil sale were unclear on Wednesday, but in a statement, White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers said that “President Trump’s team is facilitating positive, ongoing discussions with oil companies that are ready and willing to make unprecedented investments to restore Venezuela’s oil infrastructure.”

On Wednesday, Reuters reported that Venezuelan crude oil was being offered at a discount to traders compared to competing oil from other countries, such as Canada.

https://edition.cnn.com/2026/01/14/business/venezuelan-oil-us-sell-trump?Date=20260115&Profile=CNN,CNN+International&utm_content=1768445049&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawPVoUBleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR4gY9vPjzOCwAroA7tLyTPmVo-VPq__fT-h0rCeD3kZp_CAsbcLES_SUuqXTQ_aem_pS7_IVXXEeYqrLFt7p7irA

Updated on Jan. 13 with new reports into Starlink restrictions and users being hunted down by the Iranian authorities, as well as Musk’s offer of free connectivity.

We have not seen this before. Iran’s digital blackout has now deployed military jammers, reportedly supplied by Russia, to shut down access to Starlink Internet. This is a game-changer for the Plan-B connectivity frequently used by protesters and anti-regime activists when ordinary access to the internet is stopped..

“Despite reports that tens of thousands of Starlink units are operating inside Iran,” says Iran Wire, “the blackout has also reached satellite connections.” It is reported that about 30 per cent of Starlink’s uplink and downlink traffic was (initially) disrupted," quickly rising “to more than 80 per cent” within hours.

The Times of Israel says “the deployment of (Starlink) receivers is now far greater in Iran” than during previous blackouts. “That’s despite the government never authorizing Starlink to function, making the service illegal to possess and use.”

But Starlink receivers use GPS to locate and enable connections to satellites. “Since its 12-day war with Israel last June," The Times says, “Iran has been disrupting GPS signals.” That means shutdowns are localized, and has resulted in a patchwork quilt of Starlink connectivity, including near blackouts in some high-profile areas.

The localized Starlink Internet block has been confirmed by NetBlocks. Speaking to The Times on Monday, the monitoring group’s Alp Toker confirmed that access is being jammed, albeit coverage could still be found in some areas. “It is patchy, but still there.”

While it’s not clear how Starlink’s service was being disrupted in Iran,” The Times says, “some specialists say it could be the result of jamming of Starlink terminals that would overpower their ability to receive signals from the satellites.”

Some commentators on social media have suggested a settings change may overcome some of the restrictions. Per Open Source Intel on X, “if you are in contact with anyone in Iran using Starlink, ask them to try enabling the ‘use Starlink positioning exclusively’ option under Advanced and then Debug Data in the Starlink app."

Multiple posts on social media also suggest Russian military technology imported into Iran over recent months may be responsible for jamming GPS and other bearers. Channel 4 News describes Russia’s activities as a “technological race with Starlink,” which it says “is known to deploy trucks which deploy radio noise to disrupt satellite signals.” As yet there is no confirmation as to which technologies are deployed.

They say you cut off the internet to hide the death toll from the unrest in Iran over the past 14 days. Yet, in the meantime, an American media outlet reported today that 2,000 people have been killed in Iran, another Israeli outlet announced 12,000, and just hours ago, an American tabloid broke all previous records by claiming 20,000!

Now the question is: If the internet is cut off in Iran, on what information did you base these figures? Did you personally count the bodies in the streets one by one?

It seems that with this ridiculous volume of lies from American and Israeli media, the hypothetical death toll in Iran will soon reach 1 million!!!

The serious question is: Since you are so fond of numbers, why don't you publish statistics on the women and children of Gaza!?

Israel's embassy in Poland claimed that an Israeli children's judo team was attacked verbally and physically during a competition in Bielsko-Biała, Poland, on Saturday.

Israel's embassy in Poland said it was "deeply concerned by the violent incident" and that "there is no place for violence or antisemitic slurs of any kind, particularly in sport, which should promote respect, fairness, and cooperation among nations."



The embassy called on the Polish authorities to act promptly, investigate the incident, and ensure the team's safety.

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The Israeli team comprised around 90 athletes aged 7 to 16 from three clubs in Israel. According to some Polish media reports, antisemitic slurs such as “Free Palestine” and “Look, the Jews are coming” were chanted at the team and their coaches throughout the day.

It was shocking: The children, some very young, were trying to concentrate on their matches, but the insults and jeers were relentless," said one witness to 247 Sports.

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Two of the Israeli team's coaches approached the referees to ask for intervention, at which point the situation reportedly deteriorated. A group of about 12 Polish men allegedly approached the coaches, raised their hands, and physically assaulted them in front of the young athletes and other participants.

Instead of punishing the attackers, the tournament's organizers decided to expel the entire Israeli delegation.

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The Israeli delegation had to retreat to the hotel and remain there due to safety concerns.

Polish reports contradict, claim Israel's coach was aggressive
However, other Polish reports were contradictory. Bielsko-Biała's website said Israel's coach was aggressive with the referee because he was dissatisfied with the referee's decision. The coach allegedly shouted insults, broke into the ring, and "violated the physical integrity of the referee."

This report said organizers were forced to call the police, who officially disqualified the team.

Tomasz Chmielniak, president of the Janosik club in Bielsko, told TVN24 that "young Israeli players were certainly not attacked."

"If someone was attacked, it was the person refereeing (...) by a coach from Israel," he said.

The Bielsko police spokesman, Lt. Cmdr. Sławomir Kocur, told Polish media that the Israeli coach made physical contact.

"We asked the parties (...) and informed them about the possibility of filing a report. None of them did. (…) The parties calmed down, and no one had any complaints against anyone," he said.

A video of ultra-Orthodox Jews spitting on the ground beside a procession of foreign Christian worshippers carrying a wooden cross in the holy city of Jerusalem has ignited intense outrage and a flurry of condemnation in the Holy Land.

The spitting incident, which the city’s minority Christian community lamented as the latest in an alarming surge of religiously motivated attacks, drew rare outrage on Tuesday from the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and other senior figures.

Since Israel’s most conservative government in history came to power late last year, concerns have mounted among religious leaders – including the influential Vatican-appointed Latin Patriarch – over the increasing harassment of the region’s 2,000-year-old Christian community.

Many say the government, with its powerful ultranationalist members, such as the finance minister, Bezalel Smotrich, and the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has emboldened Jewish extremists and created a sense of impunity.

“What happened with rightwing religious nationalism is that Jewish identity has been growing around anti-Christianity,” said Yisca Harani, a Christianity expert and founder of an Israeli hotline for anti-Christian assaults. “Even if the government doesn’t encourage it, they hint that there will be no sanctions.”

Those worries over rising intolerance seem to violate Israel’s stated commitment to freedom of worship and sacred trust over holy places, enshrined in the declaration that marked its founding 75 years ago. Israel captured East Jerusalem in a 1967 war and later annexed it in a move not internationally recognised.

There are roughly 15,000 Christians in Jerusalem today, the majority of them Palestinians who consider themselves living under occupation.

Netanyahu’s office insisted on Tuesday that Israel “is totally committed to safeguard the sacred right of worship and pilgrimage to the holy sites of all faiths”.

“I strongly condemn any attempt to intimidate worshippers, and I am committed to taking immediate and decisive action against it,” he said.

and at churches was an “ancient Jewish custom”.

“Perhaps under the influence of western culture we have somewhat forgotten what Christianity is,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “I think millions of Jews who suffered in exile from the Crusades … will never forget.”

Yered, suspected of involvement in the killing of a 19-year-old Palestinian, remains under house arrest.

While the video, and Yered’s comment, spread like wildfire on social media, the chorus of condemnation grew. Israel’s foreign minister, Eli Cohen, said spitting at Christians “does not represent Jewish values”.

The country’s minister of religious affairs, Michael Malkieli, a member of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, argued such spitting was “not the way of the Torah”. One of Israel’s chief rabbis insisted spitting had nothing to do with Jewish law.

Activists who have been documenting daily attacks against Christians in the Holy Land were taken aback by the sudden wave of government attention.

“Attacks against Christians have 100% increased this year, and not just spitting, but throwing stones and vandalising signs,” said Harani. “Excuse me,” she added, addressing Israeli authorities. “But where were you?”

Video: https://youtube.com/shorts/7TwEQX6zwUI?si=J52PKL-zO1ebbDnG

The president of Lebanon, Joseph Aaron is a Christian

sreamsense:
Maybe is real thought Islamic terrorists hide something inside. Christians are not the target. Christians there can speak out if they are the target. Islamic terrorists are always the problem.

However, did christians send you as their mouth piece? Christians are well organized and educated to speak out if Truely it affects them. Isreal knows her enemies if she sees one, christianity is not one of them that tries to eliminate isreal

The Israeli army demolished the statue of Saint George in southern Lebanon as Christians were celebrating Palm Sunday, Lebanese media said.

The state news agency NNA said Sunday that the statue was razed in the border town of Yaroun, in the latest violation of the November ceasefire agreement.

"A video showed an Israeli military bulldozer bringing down the statue,” the broadcaster said.

Former Lebanese Labor Minister Moustafa Bayram shared on X a video documenting the moment of demolishing the statue of Saint George by Israeli forces. The exact date of the demolition, however, was not specified.

The Israeli army "shamelessly documented the act, reaffirming its hostility to anything other than itself, and that it is a foreign, occupying entity that has no place among the peoples and communities of this region," he said.

There was no comment from the Israeli army on the report.

Christians worldwide consider Palm Sunday significant as it commemorates Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem, where he was hailed as a king, according to Christian beliefs.

A fragile ceasefire has been in place in Lebanon since November 2024, ending months of cross-border warfare between Israel and the Lebanese group Hezbollah, which escalated into a full-scale conflict in September.

Lebanese authorities have reported over 1,440 Israeli violations of the truce, including the deaths of at least 125 victims and injuries to more than 371.

Under the ceasefire deal, Israel was supposed to fully withdraw from southern Lebanon by Jan. 26, but the deadline was extended to Feb. 18 after Israel refused to comply. It still maintains a military presence at five border outposts.

New footage is uncovered from today's settler attack on the northern West Bank Palestinian village of Deir Sharaf, showing one suspect repeatedly striking one of the victims with a club before others kick him in the face and back.

Three men were injured in the attack, and three arrests were made, though footage shows well over a dozen settlers took part in the raid.

United States President Donald Trump has called on oil executives to rush back into Venezuela as the White House looks to quickly secure $100bn in investments to revive the country’s ability to fully tap into its expansive reserves of petroleum.

Trump, as he opened the meeting with oil industry executives on Friday, sought to assure them that they need not be sceptical of quickly investing in and, in some cases, returning to the South American country with a history of state asset seizures as well as ongoing US sanctions and the current political uncertainty.

ecutives. “You’re dealing with us directly and not dealing with Venezuela at all. We don’t want you to deal with Venezuela.”

Trump added: “Our giant oil companies will be spending at least $100bn of their money, not the government’s money. They don’t need government money. But they need government protection.”

Trump welcomed the oil executives to the White House after US forces earlier on Friday seized their fifth tanker over the past month that has been linked to Venezuelan oil. The action reflected the determination of the US to fully control the exporting, refining and production of Venezuelan petroleum, a sign of the Trump administration’s plans for ongoing involvement in the sector as it seeks commitments from private companies.

“At least 100 Billion Dollars will be invested by BIG OIL, all of whom I will be meeting with today at The White House,” Trump said on Friday in a predawn social media post.

tives from 17 companies, including Chevron, which still operates in Venezuela, as well as ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips, which both had oil projects in the country that were lost as part of a 2007 nationalisation of private businesses under former President Nicolas Maduro’s predecessor, Hugo Chavez.

“If we look at the commercial constructs and frameworks in place today in Venezuela, today it’s un-investable,” said Darren Woods, ExxonMobil CEO. “And so significant changes have to be made to those commercial frameworks, the legal system, there has to be durable investment protections and there has to be change to the hydrocarbon laws in the country.”

Benjamin Radd, a senior fellow at the UCLA Burkle Center for International Relations, told Al Jazeera that he had “noted the hesitation and less-than-full-throated enthusiasm for re-entering the Venezuelan market”, citing Woods, who told the gathering that the company had its assets there seized twice already.

“The bottom line is that until Trump can outline and provide assurances of a plan towards political stability, it will continue to be a risky endeavour for these oil companies to re-engage Venezuela. And what is there is a regime change in Iran in the days or weeks or months to come, and all of a sudden that re-emerges as a place where Western oil companies can do business? Even though the reserves don’t equal what Venezuela has, the risk is far less, and the infrastructure is more sound,” Radd said.

Other companies invited included Halliburton, Valero, Marathon, Shell, Singapore-based Trafigura, Italy-based Eni and Spain-based Repsol, as well as a vast swath of domestic and international companies with interests ranging from construction to the commodity markets.

Wait and see
Large US oil companies have so far largely refrained from affirming investments in Venezuela, as contracts and guarantees need to be in place. Trump has suggested that the US would help to backstop any investments.

Venezuela’s oil production has slumped below one million barrels per day (bpd). Part of Trump’s challenge to turn that around will be to convince oil companies that his administration has a stable relationship with Venezuela’s interim President Delcy Rodriguez, as well as protections for companies entering the market.

While Rodriguez has publicly denounced Trump and the abduction and ouster of Maduro, the US president has said that to date, Venezuela’s interim leader has been cooperating behind the scenes with his administration.

ally help, said Rachel Ziemba, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security.

Those like Chevron that are already in there are in a better position to increase investments as they “already have sunk costs”, Ziemba pointed out.

Ziemba said she expects a partial ramp-up in the first half of this year as the volumes that were going to China – Venezuelan oil’s largest buyer – are redirected and sold via the US. “But long-term investments will be slow,” she said as companies wait to find out about US commitments and Venezuelan terms.

Tyson Slocum, director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen’s energy programme, criticised the gathering and called the US military’s removal of Maduro “violent imperialism”. Slocum added that Trump’s goal appears to be to “hand billionaires control over Venezuela’s oil”.

So far, the US government has not said how the revenue from the sale of Venezuelan oil will be shared and what percentage of the sales would be given to Caracas.

Ziemba said she was worried that “if funds do not go to Venezuela for basic goods, among other local needs, there will be instability that will deepen the country’s economic crisis“.

In the news conference on Friday, Trump said the US had a formula for distributing payments. UCLA’s Radd said that “if the US can or will guarantee security and stability, it makes sense for it to expect a return on investment in that sense. But then this makes it sound more like a mafia-style ‘racket’ than a government-led operation”, he told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, the US and Venezuelan governments said on Friday they were exploring the possibility of restoring diplomatic relations between the two countries, and a delegation from the Trump administration arrived in the South American nation on Friday.