A dual US-German citizen accused of attempting to firebomb a US embassy building in Israel was arrested at New York’s JFK Airport on Sunday. According to the US Department of Justice, 28-year-old Joseph Neumeyer was apprehended by Israeli police, who deported him to the United States and handed him over to FBI agents. 

“As alleged, Neumeyer, armed with potentially lethal devices, sought to cause chaos and destruction at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv,” said U.S. Attorney Joseph Nocella for the Eastern District of New York. “His arrest and prosecution clearly show that my Office and the Department of Justice will not tolerate violence in our homeland or violence targeting U.S. interests abroad.” He faces up to 20 years in prison on charges of using fire or an explosive to destroy US property, and has been denied bail.  

The DOJ says that, without provocation, Neumeyer spat on a US embassy guard in Tel Aviv on May 19. The guard tried to grab him, but Neumeyer squirmed away and fled, leaving behind a backpack that smelled of alcohol. When it was searched, the bag was found to contain three Molotov cocktails. Israeli police tracked him down to the hotel where he was staying. He confirmed his backpack had Molotov cocktails filled with vodka, and he was promptly apprehended. 

Authorities say Neumeyer had made his intention clear earlier that same day with a social media post that said, “Join me as I burn down the embassy in Tel Aviv. Death to America.” Other rants on social media believed to be Neumeyer’s threatened violence against President Trump and Elon Musk. “We are killing Trump and Musk now,” he’s believed to have posted on March 22. Another post that month addressed to the Justice Department said, “The former President has several hours to resign or certain death.” A May 19 entry said “Death to America. Death to the West.” 

According to the criminal complaint, Neumeyer was born in Colorado and lived in the United States all his life. He was registered to vote, but selected no party affiliation. A New York Post review of Neumeyer’s social media posts paints a vague picture of his ideology: 

His politics appear to be an incomprehensible grab-bag…He posted “From the River to the Sea,” a popular anti-Israel rallying cry, along with “long live the Fourth Reich,” but also appeared to support Israel’s Eurovision candidate. He also posted pro-Russian and anti-Ukraine propaganda, along with [support for] overturning British rule of Northern Ireland.

Vodka is a crummy choice for a Molotov cocktail: It typically must be warmed to about 130 degrees before it will ignite. Awarding the raving, harebrained goofball’s half-assed plot far more weight than it deserves, publicity hound, Epstein-file-tease and US Attorney General Pamela Bondi said Neumeyer was “planning a devastating attack targeting our embassy in Israel.” 

While news of Neumeyer’s arrest broke after Wednesday’s double-murder of two Israeli embassy employees in Washington by a gunman who said “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” the incident in Tel Aviv took place two days earlier. He arrived in Israel on April 23, but it’s unclear what he was up to between his arrival and his bizarre spitting attack that vaporized his Molotov cocktail fantasies. His father told the Washington Post that his son has dealt with “deep mental health issues.” 

There’s a lot of that going around. 

Authored by Steve Stivers via RealClearEnergy,

Ohio is experiencing a manufacturing renaissance that’s transforming our economic landscape. Our state ranks third in the nation for manufacturing jobs, with more than 687,000 Ohioans employed in the sector, producing over $134 billion in manufactured goods annually. 

Ohio leaders have successfully attracted transformative industries and propelled the state as a national leader for innovation, economic growth, and high-tech infrastructure. Congress has a clear choice to make if we want to continue building on this success: support the 45X manufacturing tax credits and the jobs, economic and national security benefits that come with it. Here’s why.

The 45X manufacturing tax credit has been a catalyst for this revival. By providing targeted support for domestic production, these incentives make it economically viable for companies to manufacture in America rather than overseas. The result? Family-supporting jobs, stronger communities, and a brighter future for our state.

Illuminate USA in Pataskala is just one example. This solar manufacturing facility, majority owned by U.S.-based company Invenergy, created over 1,500 jobs in less than a year and is on track to produce enough solar panels annually to power 1 million homes. In Fayette County, a joint venture between LG Energy Solution and Honda is investing $3.5 billion to build a lithium-ion battery plant that will create 2,200 jobs. These are just two examples among many in Ohio’s resurgent manufacturing sector.

The economic impact extends throughout our communities. Each manufacturing job supports an entire ecosystem in the local economy—restaurants, retailers, housing, and small businesses all benefit from manufacturing growth. Communities once facing economic uncertainty now see renewed vitality.

As a former federal policy maker and President of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, I’ve seen how smart policy combines with private sector innovation and Ohio’s pro-business tradition to deliver results. Ohio attracts investment because of our skilled workforce, robust infrastructure, diverse energy mix, and business-friendly environment. What’s exciting is that we’re just getting started. As more companies recognize the advantages of producing in America – from reduced supply chain risks to workforce talent – additional investment will flow into Ohio. But while Ohio will remain a good place for business, federal incentives like the 45X tax credits are essential to compete globally.

This momentum, however, depends entirely on policy certainty. Companies making significant capital investments need predictable conditions. The continuation of the 45X manufacturing credit is essential to maintain our competitive edge and establish American energy independence.

The choice is clear: build on this manufacturing renaissance, creating more opportunities and strengthening America’s economic security, or surrender our industrial leadership along with all the jobs and economic benefits that come with it.

Ohio’s example shows what’s possible when we get the policy right. Let’s ensure this growth continues by supporting the tax credits that make it possible.

Steve Stivers is President & CEO of the Ohio Chamber of Commerce, the state’s leading business organization. He previously represented Ohio’s 15th Congressional District.

What makes a company a great place to work? In a competitive labor market, top employers stand out by offering strong compensation, a culture of purpose, and the opportunity for growth.

This graphic, via Visual Capitalist’s Marcus Lu, highlights the 50 best places to work in America, based on Forbes annual employer ranking. For this analysis, only employers with over 5,000 employees were considered.

Data & Discussion

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below.

At an industry level, the most common was Healthcare, which represented 19 of the 50 best places to work in America for 2025.

• Healthcare: 19 employers

• Tech: 9 employers

• Finance & Insurance: 8 employers

• Consumer: 5 employers

• Education: 5 employers

• Government: 2 employers

• Transportation & Industrial: 2 employers

Let’s take a closer look at some of these industries.

🏥 Healthcare

Houston Methodist is the flagship quaternary care hospital of Houston Methodist academic medical center and the highest ranked Healthcare employer for 2025. It recently received a Glassdoor Employees’ Choice Award, ranking #18 overall and highest among healthcare employers, based on positive feedback from current and former employees.

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital also has a strong reputation and has regularly been named a top 100 company to work for by Fortune magazine.

💻 Tech

Nvidia is the highest ranked Tech company and the fourth best employer in America. It stands out for its innovative culture and boasts a 97% approval rating according to Great Place to Work.

We’ve covered Nvidia in a number of other infographics, such as this one comparing the quarterly revenue of chip designers.

🛍️ Consumer

Trader Joe’s is the second best place to work in America according to Forbes, due to its positive atmosphere and engaging work environment. On Glassdoor, the company has a 4.1 star rating and a 80% recommendation rate.

In-N-Out is also highly ranked, claiming third in Glassdoor’s 2025 Best Places to Work ranking. Employees have praised their pay, benefits, and flexibility in positive reviews of the chain.

If you enjoyed today’s post, check out the Top U.S. Corporations by Number of Employees on Voronoi, the new app from Visual Capitalist.

Gun rights groups like Gun Owners of America celebrated late last week after the House narrowly passed President Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill” (BBB) in a 215–214 vote. A key reason for this celebration is the inclusion of the Constitutional Hearing Protection Act (CHPA), which would eliminate the federal registration requirement and the $200 tax stamp on suppressors. As the bill moves to the Senate, speculation is already mounting that demand for suppressors could erupt. 

The prospect of removing suppressors from the Al Capone–era National Firearms Act (NFA), eliminating the $200 tax stamp and lengthy ATF waiting period, has sparked a nationwide surge in interest among gun owners.

Google Search trends show that interest in “buy a suppressor” has reached its highest level in five years. The surge in interest is happening nationwide. This is because if the BBB reaches President Trump’s desk and is signed into law, the removal of suppressors from the NFA would mean these devices—used to muffle the noise of a fired round—would only require a standard FBI background check, known as a NICS check.

Industry insiders, including gun stores in the Mid-Atlantic region, report a noticeable uptick in foot traffic following Thursday’s news that CHPA was included in the BBB. Many customers are already asking to place deposits on suppressors in anticipation of the law’s passage later this year.

Other industry sources anticipate that if CHPA becomes law, a Covid-like buying spike could spark massive backlogs and wait times of 6-9 months, if not longer, to purchase a suppressor. 

We suspect industry leaders like SilencerCo are already ramping up suppressor production in anticipation of CHPA becoming law. This will ultimately mean these devices will become more affordable, and possibly, the era of $1,000 suppressors could be halved in just a few short years. 

Authored by Darren Taylor via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

JOHANNESBURG—President Donald Trump’s decision to allow white Afrikaners to seek asylum in the United States from state-sponsored “racial discrimination,” “hateful rhetoric,” and “disproportionate violence” in South Africa has not gone down well in some quarters.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa described them as “cowards,” according to the BBC.

On May 22, during a meeting with Ramaphosa in the Oval Office, Trump presented what he said was evidence of this.

Showing printouts of news articles and footage of South African extremists calling for white farmers to be killed, Trump repeated the allegation that the South African government is confiscating white-owned land.

When Ramaphosa denied this, Trump maintained: “You do allow them to take land—and then when they take the land, they kill the white farmer, and when they kill the white farmer, nothing happens to them.

“You’re taking people’s land away from them, and those people, in many cases, are being executed. They’re being executed, and they happen to be white.”

Crushing. This is not only painful for the South African President but also for our mainstream media that desperately wants to cover up black-on-white violence in South Africa pic.twitter.com/e5NGJXmOb3

— Dinesh D’Souza (@DineshDSouza) May 21, 2025

The U.S. State Department has said it will continue to welcome Afrikaners who are “victims of unjust racial discrimination” and “able to articulate a past experience of persecution or fear of future persecution.”

South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Ronald Lamola, told The Epoch Times that Trump and his administration are “totally misguided” in offering asylum to Afrikaners.

“Who can provide proof of any persecution of a specific race in South Africa?” he asked. “There’s no proof. There’s no type of persecution or discrimination against any whites in South Africa.”

The Epoch Times has been told by a source connected to the U.S. Embassy in Johannesburg that many of the 8,000 Afrikaner applications for asylum reviewed so far contain “horrific details” of crimes committed against them or their close relatives.

“They believe these crimes happened to them because they are white,” said the source, requesting anonymity because he did not have permission to speak with the media.

“These crimes were documented in cases opened by the South African police, and in many cases the perpetrators have never been found. These people can’t get any information about what’s happened to their cases. It appears there have been no investigations.”

On May 13, the first group of 59 Afrikaners was welcomed in Washington by Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, and Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security, Troy Edgar.

“The deputy secretary and I just spoke to some of the folks who arrived on this flight, and they tell quite harrowing stories of the violence that they’ve faced in South Africa that was not addressed by the authorities, by the unjust application of the law,” Landau said in a statement.

He said “a fair number” of the asylum seekers that had arrived in the United States were farmers who had farmed their land for generations.

“Now, [they] face the threat—not only of expropriation—but also of direct violence … Many of these folks have experience with threatening invasions of their homes—their farms—and a real lack of interest or success of the government in doing anything about this situation,” Landau said.

Hours earlier, Trump told reporters in the Oval Office that there’s a genocide in South Africa, with the victims often white farmers.

“Whether they’re white or black makes no difference to me,” said Trump. “But white farmers are brutally killed and their land is being confiscated in South Africa.”

In January, Ramaphosa signed an Expropriation Bill into law that gives his government the power to seize private property, including farms, without paying owners.

Pretoria says the “nil compensation” clause in the act will only be used when it is “equitable and in the public interest.”

At the moment, “there’s no state-supported confiscation of farms happening,” said Jaco Minnaar, who heads South Africa’s largest agricultural association, AgriSA.

But, he told The Epoch Times, white-owned farms are “frequently” invaded.

“These land invasions are often instigated by local politicians and radical groups. A farmer will wake up and there will be a large group of people occupying a section of his farm,” Minnaar said.

“In many cases the police are slow to act, or they don’t act at all, and the large group turns into a squatter camp, and the farm is rendered worthless.”

According to South African news agency Ground Up, several courts have found that criminal syndicates are perpetrating “land grabs,” with white landowners often the victims.

Bennie van Zyl, who leads the Transvaal Agricultural Union, which represents thousands of Afrikaner farmers, told The Epoch Times the murders of white farmers and their families are often “very brutal, with torture involved, but it can’t yet be defined as a white genocide … and there’s no evidence that the government is involved.”

Lamola said the murders of white farmers are “part of a normal crime trend.”

However, University of Stellenbosch criminologist Guy Lamb said there’s “nothing normal” about crime in South Africa.

“The country has one of the highest murder and rape rates in the world,” he told The Epoch Times. “There’s a sense that South Africans of all races are under siege from criminals, with the state unable to protect them. So the fact that Trump’s Afrikaners are telling the U.S. government horror stories about crime is not shocking at all. Most South Africans have similar stories to tell.”

Isolated in rural areas, white farmers in particular are “easy targets,” Lamb said.

“They’re attacked not because they’re white, but because they’re perceived to have money and firearms,” he said.

Max du Preez, a veteran South African journalist, described South Africa as “a country at war with itself.”

“Look, we aren’t Ukraine where cities are being bombed. But we are a country where a lot of men consider rape to be a sport,” he told The Epoch Times: “We are a country where murder is extremely common and very few are ever solved. Violent crime is everywhere.”

According to the latest government statistics, South Africa recorded 5,727 murders from January to March. In that same period, 10,688 rapes were reported.

The country’s official unemployment rate is almost 33 percent. An expanded definition of unemployment, which includes those who’ve given up looking for work, is more than 43 percent.

Du Preez said, “So we have millions of black people, especially jobless youth, with nothing to do all day. They’re angry. If there’s going to be a race revolution, this is where it’s coming from. It’s a ticking time bomb.”

He said Trump’s executive order and offer of asylum to Afrikaners “is part of a narrative of fear that’s been pervasive in white South Africa, and elsewhere, for generations: The fear of a black uprising that results in the mass killing of whites similar to the Rwandan genocide … The fear that blacks finally take revenge on whites for apartheid.”

Several leftist and extremist groups in South Africa have suggested exactly this.

The Black First Land First movement has repeatedly called for whites to be killed.

Julius Malema, the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), South Africa’s fourth largest political party, often sings a song called “Kill the farmer,” and has said a “revolution” of poor black people is coming to drive whites out of South Africa.

“It’s a war between white supremacy and black consciousness. You must know the two will never meet. We are in a permanent war with white supremacists,” he said, according to South Africa’s Human Rights Commission, a government-funded organization. The agency has, on numerous occasions, found Malema not guilty of hate speech.

Professor Hein Willemse of the Afrikaans Department at the University of Pretoria, said many Afrikaners feel “besieged.”

“Land is very important to the Afrikaner. Most successful commercial farmers are Afrikaners,” he told The Epoch Times.

“Take their land away and take away their rights to mother tongue education—which we also see happening—and their rights to employment, through affirmative action, plus the fact that they’re often victims of crime, and they feel backed into a corner. They feel their culture is being erased.”

According to a government census taken in 2022, there are 4.5 million whites in South Africa, making up just over 7 percent of a population of 63.2 million.

“Must whites in South Africa continuously bend the knee in gratitude that we haven’t been exterminated yet?” asked Kallie Kriel, who leads Afrikaner rights organization AfriForum. “In this context, President Trump’s offer is a tremendous acknowledgement, they feel someone in power, the most powerful political leader on earth, is listening to them and recognizing their fear and suffering.”

He said South Africa is “a mix of privileged whites and privileged blacks.”

“Of course there will be millions more blacks in poverty. I mean, look at the population numbers,” said Kriel.

“These critics can come see for themselves what it’s like to live in so-called ‘white privilege.’ These Afrikaners now in America, I wish them all the best.”

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Never interrupt your enemy when he is committing serial suicide (in reverse American gore-style, when the serial killer always resurrects). In the case of the EU kakistocracy, serial self-destruction is always a given, and always skyrocketing.

So the EUrocrats in Brussels have just adopted their 17th round of sanctions against Russia – the sky is the limit – targeting nearly 200 tankers of the so-called Russian shadow fleet. The package, endorsed by EU member states, includes proverbial scores of asset freezes and visa bans.

The EU + UK combo is also scheming how to tighten the oil price cap on Russia to $50 a barrel, aiming to “hurt” Russia’s energy revenue.

Cue to a monster pipeline of laughter from the whole Global South, especially India and China. As if they would impeach any vessels of the shadow fleet, or if OPEC+ would care about a puny unilateral EUrocrat oil price cap.

To qualify EU actions as self-destructive anti-intellectualism is actually benign. The IQ of people at the top in Brussels is at dismembered worm level, exemplified by the Estonian batshit crazy chick in theory representing the foreign policy of 450 million EU citizens. Brussels has been reduced to a pathetic Estonian propaganda snake pit with a whiff of British accent.

The SVR has noted how there is a groundswell of despair in Brussels for the “mistake” of appointing the imbecile Estonian, universally known for “absolute incompetence” and a cringing “inability to build bridges” with EU leaders. She has already been removed from EU strategic defense policy planning.

Still, the sanctions package dementia will keep rollin’ on – redacted by careerists with fat salaries who only care about their own retirement gold package.

The next, the 18th, is supposed to be the largest sanctions package in History, according to the Brussels rumor mill, not only accusing Russia of multiples stances of Hybrid War and alleged use of chemical weapons (when it’s actually the neo-nazis of country 404 who resort to it) but targeting several Russian defense sector companies plus companies and intermediaries from third countries supplying sanctioned products to Russia.

Add to it the German BlackRock chancellor actively lobbying for an EU ban on the Nord Stream pipeline – blocking any possibility of a U.S.-Russia business cooperation, already signaled by Trump. This ban will be part of the 18th package.

Cue to Grandmaster Sergey Lavrov, who recently felt the need to emphasize that political EUro-trash banning the return of NordStream are “either sick or suicidal.”

Stealing Russia blind: good luck with that

On the Baltic front, there’s more, of course – in a “Pirates of the Baltics” register: that’s the SIGINT-heavy Baltic Sentry mission, which aims to block Russian maritime activity. France is on it – which implies a non-regional NATO member directly involved, unlike, for instance, Norway.

The Russians are unfazed. A strong possibility is that they will escort Russian ships with multi-functional naval and aerial drones fully equipped with reconnaissance and combat gear.

Yet on the Orwellian front, nothing beats the anti-Russian “tribunal” announced on May 9 by EU foreign ministers in Lviv, together with Kiev, to “hold top representatives of the Russian leadership accountable.” That involves 30 partner countries, incuding UK and Australia. The U.S. is out.

The scam was minutely deconstructed by Thomas Roper, who is now viciously demonized and censored by the EU, even though he is a journalist and EU citizen of German nationality. Yes, Brussels now sanctions its own citizens capable of critical thinking, to the point of freezing their assets and forbidding them to visit their home country. And this is just the beginning.

The new EU kangaroo “court” will be set up by the Council of Europe – and will issue judgments even in absentia, via 15 judges elected for 9 years each, the whole thing costing the EUrocracy around 1 billion euros.

Needless to add that this kangaroo “court” has absolutely no basis in international law, as it’s not approved by the UN; instead, it’s a private club of the fragmented West. Follow the money to understand the rationale.

Few people today remember that last year the European Commission (EU) gave a $50 billion loan to Kiev; actually $35 billion by the EU and $15 billion by the G7. The problem is only Brussels is responsible for repaying this joint EU-G7 loan. And the loan is supposed to be paid from the annual revenues generated by Russian assets frozen – i.e. stolen – in the EU, which Brussels refuses to release before the next 45 years.

These are all official EU decisions, enshrined in Regulation 2024/277. Translation: no, I repeat, no European mainstream media has informed taxpaying citizens across the union that the EU has formally decided to be at war with Russia for at least the next 45 years.

Brussels has done everything trying to steal for good the “confiscated” Russian assets. The problem is the EC EUrocrats have not found a mechanism to bypass international law.

Enter the “court”. The EUrocracy will force the kangaroo “tribunal” to blame Russia for everything related to the war and the SMO; sentence Russian government members to long-term prison sentences – in absentia; and then decide that Russia has to pay reparations. Endgame: the kangaroo “court” decides to steal for good the frozen Russian assets.

Once again: under international law, this is a robbery. Key inevitable consequence: no one across the Global South will trust the euro and European financial centers anymore.

This Russian demonization EUro-dementia scenario is in play just as Trump 2.0 still bets on some sort of normalization with Russia via a solution for Ukraine. Yet the key factor here is the cowardly collective fear of the EU kakistocracy: if they don’t rob Russia blind, they have no means to repay that fateful $50 billion loan to the Kiev goons.

That should be the main factor explaining why this collection of political mutts needs, badly, to non-stop escalate what is a de facto Forever War against Russia.

So expect only dementia coming from Brussels in the foreseeable future. Like the brilliant idea of setting up a single military bank to alocate loans for weapons production, a replica of the World Bank with a HQ in London. Since they could not find 120 billion euros to come up with a single European military fund – the German economy, for instance, continues to collapse – their plan B is this bank.

For all that cornucopia of sound and fury, Russia remains, once again, unfazed. Putin top aide and former National Security Adviser Nikolai “Yoda” Patrushev has noted how NATO has been “conducting exercises at our borders at a scale unseen in decades. … They are training for conducting a broad offensive from Vilnius to Odessa, seizing Kaliningrad region, imposing a naval blockade in the Baltic and the Black Seas and executing preventive strikes on the staging locations of Russian nuclear deterrence forces.”

Good luck with that. Good luck with the military bank. And good luck with stealing Russia blind with no blowback.

Authored by RFE/RL via OilPrice.com,

• Donald Trump’s hardline stance on NATO and the war in Ukraine have pushed European nations to significantly increase their defense spending and preparedness.

• Trump’s direct, personalized approach to diplomacy with Russia, particularly with Vladimir Putin, has been a point of contention and may inadvertently play into Putin’s strategic goals.

• The conflict in Ukraine has strategic implications for US efforts to focus on China, and the article suggests that failing to resolve the Ukraine situation effectively could embolden China’s actions.

Successive US administrations have long lobbied European allies to shoulder their fair burden for joint defense, but US President Donald Trump has taken a more bottom-line driven approach to NATO, publicly questioning why the United States should pay for the defense of rich European nations.

And that tough rhetoric has shaken Europe out of its decades-long national security slumber, according to Russian-American scholar Leon Aron. Germany, the second-largest economy in NATO after the United States, in March passed reforms that would allow it to unlock billions in defense funding.

“Trump woke up Europe, whether he intended or not,” Aron told RFE/RL.

“The Europeans don’t like it, but actually, the end result was, I think, salutary.”

RFE/RL spoke with Aron, a senior fellow at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, as part of a series of interviews called America’s Foreign Policy Shifts.

Aron said that Trump alone would not have gotten Europe to scale up on defense. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to launch a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, unleashing the biggest war on the continent in 80 years, was an essential element, Aron argued.

“The combination of Trump and Ukraine, I think, moved them to really seriously contemplate the enormous delinquency in their national defenses,” Aron said in a wide-ranging interview.

If a decade ago, only three European members of NATO spent 2 percent of economic output on defense, the agreed-upon minimum, today only a few don’t. However, Europe’s underinvestment in its own defense in the three decades following the end of the Cold War has left a mark, Aron said.

As Trump seeks to shift some military power from the European theater to the Asia-Pacific region to deter China, allies will struggle to compensate, he said.

“It will take the Europeans years to fill the hole left by the United States,” Aron said. “They’re definitely awakened, but how they can technically arrange this very steep increase in their defense allocations remains to be seen.”

Aron, who was born in Moscow, focuses on US-Russia relations and Russian domestic policy.

From 2014 to 2020, he served on the Broadcasting Board of Governors, which oversaw the operations of US government-funded news outlets, including RFE/RL. He was a Russia advisor to former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney during the latter’s unsuccessful bid as the Republican Party’s 2012 presidential candidate.

Ukraine War

Amid US wars against the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, Romney in 2012 said that Russia — and not international terrorism — was Washington’s “number one geopolitical foe.” Two years later, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the seizure of Crimea, starting a war with Ukraine that expanded with the full-scale invasion eight years later.

Since beginning his second term, Trump has been pushing aggressively for a negotiated end to the war in Ukraine. After a flurry of diplomacy failed to convince Putin to agree to the 30-day cease-fire he was demanding, Trump said on May 16 that he needed to meet the Kremlin leader to end the conflict.

“I don’t believe anything will happen, whether you like it or not, until he and I get together,” Trump told reporters.

Three days later, the US president held a third call with Putin, and it appeared to end with Trump siding with the Russian leader’s position; namely, that a cease-fire can only come after Moscow and Kyiv reach an agreement on territorial control and peacekeepers among other issues.

Russia and Ukraine are so far apart on the issues that it may take months at best for them to agree to a deal. Putin is widely believed to be buying time because his forces have momentum on the battlefield, and he has yet to achieve any major war aims, despite illegally laying claim to five regions of Ukraine.

Trump conceded late last month that Putin might be playing him for time and threatened to further sanction Russia. Nonetheless, he spun the May 19 call as a success even as the Kremlin leader appeared to get his way.

“How far Putin can push Trump is probably the pivotal issue in this whole situation,” Aron said.

Managing Russia

Aron said Trump, like nearly every U.S. president since Franklin D. Roosevelt, is drawn to the idea of managing relations with Moscow.

“There is something almost religious about this,” he said. “Trump is no different in that respect.”

However, unlike his predecessors, Trump doesn’t delegate the Russia portfolio to seasoned diplomats, instead preferring a more personalized approach. Trump tapped his friend, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, who has no government experience, to carry out the talks with Russia. But that hands-on style, Aron said, may be playing into Putin’s strategy.

“Contrary to what Trump thinks, I believe Putin feels he can play him,” Aron said. “All he has to do is periodically massage his ego, periodically wave to him from the Kremlin, and things will go his way. Unfortunately, so far, it’s working.”

Putin’s war aims haven’t narrowed, Aron said. The Kremlin leader still aims to conquer Ukraine even though the costs of continuing the war are staggering. Agreeing to a cease-fire at the current line of conflict holds risks for his popularity, Aron said, even as many Russians want the war to end.

“He has to look at his domestic situation and decide how he’s going to explain to his people the loss of what is now approaching probably close to a million soldiers, injured or killed, for essentially getting what they had to begin with: Donetsk, Luhansk, part of Zaporizhzhya, and a couple of slivers of land.”

Putin would need to further tighten the screws on the Russian people in the event of such a peace agreement. So far, repression has kept a lid on Russian public anger.

“At this point, he feels he has control of the situation,” Aron said. “Moving toward peace contains some very serious risks for him.”

Trump should alter his position and backstop a European-led peacekeeping force to monitor any eventual deal, Aron said. If Putin continues to drag his feet, Trump should ramp up sanctions on Russia’s oil industry, including targeting the country’s oil shipping fleet.

“That’s a very tangible blow to Putin,” he said. “This may move him toward at least contemplating peace seriously.”

China Watching

But the long war in Ukraine has strategic implications beyond Europe, particularly for Trump’s broader goal of focusing US policy on China, he said.

“Precisely because I assume the Trump administration wants to avoid a war with China over Taiwan, it ought to press Putin to settle for something that is not an outright defeat for Ukraine,” Aron said.

He said that rewarding Russian aggression could embolden Beijing — and pointed to China’s role in sustaining the war.

“Without China, there wouldn’t be this war,” Aron said. “China essentially finances at least half of Russian battlefield expenses by purchasing Russian oil. Xi Jinping continues to maintain that lifeline.”

Meanwhile, Trump’s protectionist trade policies could undermine the very alliances needed to confront China, Aron argued. Trump accused allies and adversaries alike of taking advantage of the United States through unfair trade practices and imposed 10 percent tariffs on most countries.

“If the American market is curtailed by tariffs, Europe — especially Germany — may turn back to China,” Aron said. “Germany became richer over the past three decades by sending exports to China, primarily cars, but also other luxury items. They pulled back after seeing Xi’s policies, but they may be forced to go back.”

It is a similar situation in the Global South, where the United States, China, and Russia have been vying for influence. Countries such as Vietnam, Congo, and Zimbabwe could also pivot toward China if they lose access to the US market, he said.

Trump is also seeking to curtail US involvement abroad, slashing US international aid and reportedly planning to cut the diplomatic presence in Africa. While some Trump supporters have dismissed Africa as strategically unimportant, Aron said that retreating from the continent would be a mistake.

It’s not just that Russia and China would rush in to fill the gap, international terrorist groups would too, he added, pointing to Nigeria and Mali, where militant Islamic groups are active.

“Presence itself matters hugely symbolically,” he said.

The Trump administration has defended the policies, saying it is trying to align US aid and investment with its foreign policy goals.

Six months after a stinging nationwide rejection that handed Donald Trump a commanding reelection and fractured their core coalition, the Democratic Party is turning to a new solution: spending $20 million to figure out why young men don’t like them.

The project, codenamed SAM — short for “Speaking with American Men: A Strategic Plan” – is described in a prospectus obtained by the New York Times. It outlines a massive push to decode the language and culture of disaffected young men, particularly in online spaces, and includes a proposal to buy ads inside video games.

“Above all, we must shift from a moralizing tone,” the document urges.

The effort comes amid widespread Democratic soul-searching after a loss that wasn’t just electoral, but cultural. A recent NBC News poll placed the party’s favorability at just 27 percent, its worst showing in the poll’s 34-year history.

Focus groups show the branding problem is dire. One Georgia man recently summed it up succinctly: “A deer in headlights.” According to messaging consultant Anat Shenker-Osorio, Democrats are consistently described in her focus groups as “sloths,” “tortoises,” and now, apparently, roadkill.

“You stand there and you see the car coming,” the man explained. “But you’re going to stand there and get hit with it anyway.”

Democratic leaders are scrambling to reassemble a coalition that used to be rock-solid: young voters, working-class Americans, Latinos, and Black voters all shifted toward Trump in 2024 – and this time, he won the popular vote, too.

“There is fear, there is anxiety, and there are very real questions about the path forward – all of which I share,” said Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO), who is charged with recruiting candidates to help win back the House in 2026. “We are losing support in vast swaths of the country.”

Even the long-standing gender gap, which typically favored Democrats, flipped in key districts as men swung harder to the right. It’s one of the driving reasons behind the $20 million SAM initiative.

Meanwhile, the party is facing open rebellion from within. Progressive activists are outraged at what they see as a lack of fight. Moderate Democrats are openly warning that cultural messaging – on issues like immigration, gender, and economic elitism – is alienating the very voters the party once claimed as its base.

“We’ve pushed, in so many ways, these people away from our party,” Crow said.

Former DNC Chair Jaime Harrison, who stepped down in February, admitted “The party has to find ways to compete in states where it’s not.”

But instead of barnstorming in battleground counties, Democratic donors are reportedly huddling in luxury hotels, commissioning focus groups and digital rebrand efforts that – to some – look more like anthropology than campaigning.

Democratic pollster Zac McCrary said Trump’s declining approval ratings may create openings in 2026, but warned against reading too much into a potential midterm bounce.

“A good 2026 midterm – we should not let that mask a deeper problem,” McCrary said, adding that the party’s brand is ‘repellent’ in so much of the country.’

He blamed a credibility gap: “Democrats have lost credibility by being seen as alien on cultural issues.”

For many in the party’s activist and base circles, the appetite for bold messaging and confrontation remains strong.

“Voters are hungry for people to actually stand up for them – or get caught trying,” said Shenker-Osorio. “The party is doing a lot of navel-gazing and not enough full-belly acting.”

Whether Democrats will rediscover their spine, or waste millions more studying why they don’t have one,  remains to be seen.

Authored by  Ronald Stein via The Epoch Times,

The recently released “Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” isn’t just another documentary that lazily cheerleads the industry, though there is a fair amount of marveling at the technology and underscoring its benefits and potential. It’s an enlightening, educational, and entertaining 90-minute documentary that is a must-view for those who wish to enhance their energy literacy and decide for themselves if EVs are good, bad, or ugly.

It raises serious concerns that policymakers—in wealthy countries only—are setting “green” policies that continue to support human-rights atrocities and environmental degradation in poorer, developing countries where the exotic minerals and metals needed for EVs are mined.

Some challenges remain with wind and solar power, which can only generate occasional electricity and are unreliable. This issue has drawn federal legislative attention, with the U.S. Senate voting to discuss a resolution to roll back California’s EV mandate, citing concerns about energy infrastructure and consumer readiness.

“Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly,” narrated by political commentator and author Larry Elder, who also appears in the film, demonstrates the environmental degradation and human-rights atrocities caused by mining the components needed for EVs, while presenting a thorough analysis of the pros and cons of the vehicles.

Planet Earth’s Resources Are Limited

Elder’s documentary educates viewers about how the critical minerals and metals needed to support the much-touted “energy transition” to EVs, wind turbines, solar panels, and batteries come from unreliable countries such as China, some poorer African nations, and others. Those countries have minimal labor laws and poor environmental controls, so that their production of the critical minerals and metals needed for going “green” results in serious environmental degradation and dire social consequences.

All this, just to support “clean” electricity in wealthier countries.

The extraction rates and R/P (reserves to production) ratio for many of the critical minerals and metals needed for going “green” are alarming, and most of these natural resources are not being replenished. This suggests a worrisome possibility of an unsustainable approach to the current policies of subsidies for “green” energies. Furthermore, even countries with the largest reserve base face important challenges to increasing production growth to meet projected future demand.

• Lithium: In 2024, the world mined about 240,000 tons of lithium, almost three times the amount mined in 2020. The International Energy Agency projects that demand for lithium will increase to 450,000 tons per year by 2030. Despite a significant world resource base, production of those resources remains a major challenge.

• Cobalt: In 2024, the world produced an estimated 280,000 metric tons of cobalt, the highest amount ever recorded. The Democratic Republic of the Congo was the world’s leading producer, accounting for 74 percent of the global total, while the country is known for the major problems with child labor and poor working conditions of its mineral sector.

A typical EV battery for a Tesla sedan requires substantial raw material extraction for the battery’s minerals and metals of lithium, cobalt, nickel, manganese, copper, aluminum, graphite, plus the steel, plastic, and other metals for battery casings.

The documentary raises concerns about these “blood minerals,” which come mostly from developing countries—mined at locations in the world that are never inspected or seen by policymakers and EV buyers.

The mining and refining to support the demands for EV batteries, wind, and solar involve large quantities of raw materials. The estimated total mass of raw materials mined and processed for an EV battery, including overburden and waste rock, can range from 50,000 to 100,000 pounds, depending on battery size, chemistry, and mining efficiency.

Elder’s documentary should be viewed by so-called zero-emission policymakers in the few wealthy countries that have disrupted the delivery of continuous and uninterruptible electricity with strict regulations, preferential subsidies, and cancellation of proven baseload sources like coal, nuclear, and natural gas.

Those who watch “Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” will learn about the shell game some are using to exploit developing countries to support so-called clean and green electric vehicles, and can evaluate for themselves whether global economies and the environment can sustain EVs to meet transportation needs for all, not just for a select few.

“Electric Vehicles: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly” starts streaming May 23 on Ganjing World. It is available for purchase at $12.99, and available for a 72-hour lease for $9.99.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.