The share of global web traffic generated by humans is shrinking, while bot activity is on the rise.
According to Imperva Bad Bot Reports, in 2018, humans still accounted for 62 percent of web traffic, with malicious bots at 20 percent and benign bots at 18 percent.
But over the past seven years, the balance of web traffic has shifted dramatically.
As Statista’s Tristan Gaudiat shows in the chart below, humans now represent less than half of all traffic (49 percent in 2024), while malicious bots have surged to 37 percent, accounting for well over twice the traffic of benign bots (14 percent).
How Europe’s Economic ‘Center Of Gravity’ Has Shifted Since 1950
Europe’s economic balance point has been slowly drifting east for decades.
This map traces the continent’s GDP-weighted “center of gravity” from 1950 to 2022, showing how Europe’s economic core has shifted from near Cologne toward Munich over time.
The visualization, via Visual Capitalist, created by The European Correspondent using data from the Maddison Project Database, reveals how decades of growth in Central and Eastern Europe have gradually reshaped the continent’s economic geography.
What Is an Economic “Center of Gravity”?
The economic center of gravity is a geographic point calculated by averaging countries’ locations weighted by their GDP. In simple terms, it marks the location where Europe’s economic activity would balance if GDP were distributed like weight on a map.
As economies grow or shrink relative to each other, the center moves accordingly. When western economies dominate, the center shifts west; when eastern or southern regions grow faster, the point moves in their direction.
This method provides a simple but powerful way to visualize long-term changes in regional economic influence.
Postwar Europe: Western Dominance
In the decades following World War II, Europe’s economic core sat firmly in the northwest. Industrial powerhouses like Germany, France, the UK, and the Benelux countries drove most of the continent’s output.
This concentration kept the center of gravity near Cologne in the mid-20th century. Western Europe’s rapid reconstruction and integration—through institutions like the European Economic Community—reinforced this geographic economic core.
Germany in particular has long played an outsized role in Europe’s economy. In fact, the country’s output rivals that of dozens of its neighbors combined.
The Rise of the East
Since the end of the Cold War, the center has gradually shifted eastward.
The collapse of the Soviet bloc opened Central and Eastern European economies to global trade and investment. Countries like Poland, Czechia, and Hungary integrated into EU supply chains and saw rapid economic expansion.
More recently, fast-growing economies in Southeastern Europe and Türkiye have added additional pull. Together, these changes nudged Europe’s economic center toward Bavaria, landing near Munich by 2022.
Germany Still Anchors Europe’s Economy
Despite this eastward movement, the center remains firmly inside Germany.
This reflects Germany’s continued role as Europe’s industrial engine. Its manufacturing sector, export strength, and central location keep it at the heart of the continent’s economic geography.
In other words, while Eastern Europe is rising, Germany’s gravitational pull still holds the balance point nearby, at least for now.
See where workers in Europe generate the most GDP per hour on the Voronoi app.
The European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs voted on Monday to adopt a harder line on asylum returns.
The committee voted 41 to 32, with one abstention, in favor of implementing a single framework for handling third-country nationals staying illegally in European Union member states.
The majority was formed by the European People’s Party (EPP) together with right-wing groups, including the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR), Patriots for Europe (PfE), and the Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) group.
Lawmakers from the Socialists and Democrats, Renew Europe, the Greens, and the Left opposed the measure.
The proposed regulation would introduce EU-wide recognition of return decisions, meaning migrants ordered to leave one member state could be deported by another. It would also expand the use of detention while deportations are organized, allowing detention periods of up to 24 months.
Furthermore, the text opens the possibility for deportation centers in third countries under agreements with EU states and introduces stricter entry bans and enforcement measures.
L’UE reprend enfin sa politique migratoire en main.
Le mois dernier, nous votions le durcissement de la politique d’asile de l’Union. Aujourd’hui, le Parlement européen vient de voter en commission des libertés civiles sa position sur le règlement retour, qui facilitera… pic.twitter.com/UFdoDANTVJ
French MEP Marion Maréchal welcomed the vote, saying, “The EU is finally taking back control of its migration policy. Today, the European Parliament has just voted in the Committee on Civil Liberties on its position on the return regulation, which will considerably facilitate the detention and expulsion of illegal immigrants or rejected asylum seekers.”
Maréchal added that the vote showed a new right-wing coalition was decisive in shaping EU migration policy.
“Once again, the right-wing coalition, including our ECR group, is the pivotal force, which also includes the EPP, the Patriots, and the Sovereignists, and has prevailed over the left.”
Europe is waking up: Those who do not have a right to stay will be deported.
Tonight’s vote in the European Parliament solidifies a historic deal among right wing groups.
Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers said the vote could lead to stronger enforcement of deportation decisions.
“Soon, more deportations of those who do not belong in Europe will become a reality,” he said.
In an ECR press release following the vote, Weimers cited figures from the European Commission that revealed only 20 percent of failed asylum seekers, “who receive a return decision, are actually returned.”
“For too long, the European debate has focused on ineffective procedures rather than achieving results. A return system that works in practice is essential for maintaining public trust in Europe’s asylum system,” he added.
Taka radość po przegłosowaniu na komisji PE przepisów pozwalających skuteczniej odsyłać nielegalnych imigrantów z UE! 😊
Zaraz potem rozpoczął się jazgot skrajnej lewicy, która nie mogła się z tym pogodzić. Słychać wycie? Znakomicie 😎
— Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik (@EwaZajaczkowska) March 9, 2026
Polish MEP Ewa Zajączkowska-Hernik also celebrated the result. “Such joy after the European Parliament committee voted in favor of regulations allowing for more effective return of illegal immigrants from the EU,” she said.
“The ‘Regulation establishing a common system for the return of third-country nationals staying illegally in the EU’ is another victory for the right wing in the European Parliament. Citizen safety is paramount,” she added.
The measure will now move toward a vote in the full European Parliament before negotiations can begin with the European Council.
On Tuesday afternoon, reports that a U.S. warship had escorted an oil tanker through the critical chokepoint helped push Brent crude futures down toward $81/bbl, reinforcing the view that paralysis on the waterway has, for now, begun to ease.
But even with signs that the critical maritime chokepoint is seeing a modest pickup in activity, this does not imply that normalcy will return this week. In fact, Bloomberg cites ship-tracking data showing uncertainty remains high, with at least 25 tankers diverted toward Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea export hub at Yanbu.
Saudi Aramco is maxing out its east-west pipeline to Yanbu, which can carry 7 million barrels per day. CEO Amin Nasser said flows should reach capacity within days as tankers divert to the energy export hub in the Red Sea. The UAE is implementing a similar workaround in Fujairah, where exports have jumped to about 1.6 million bpd this month from a recent average of about 1.1 million bpd.
“We should reach capacity in a couple of days,” Nasser said. “It’s all building on the repositioning of tankers from the east to the west.”
Bloomberg notes the conflict has already knocked about 6% off global oil output as traditional Hormuz transits remain disrupted.
Earlier, Ali Larijani, the secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, warned that the Hormuz chokepoint will “either be a strait of peace and prosperity for all” or a “strait of defeat and suffering for warmongers” as President Trump threatens retaliation against Tehran for disrupting the flow of oil.
European Taxpayers Warn Against Eurobonds: A Looming Fiscal Trap
Submitted by Thomas Kolbe
In public debate, the introduction of joint European bonds, Eurobonds, has so far often been dismissed as a fantasy. That the European Taxpayers’ Association has now issued a clear warning against joint debt issuance should give critics of the Commission pause. Are the plans for standardized EU bond issuances possibly more advanced than we have realized?
The TAE is the umbrella organization of national European taxpayers’ associations, a private law foundation, independent, market-liberal, and a critical observer of the fiscal power plays of the Brussels central authority. When it speaks out decisively on fiscal issues, it does so for a reason.
The seemingly advanced plans of the EU Commission have apparently convinced the TAE to dedicate a campaign to the issue of European financing. Under the program title Stop EU Taxes. Stop EU Debt, it presents a fiscal policy agenda that would be welcome in party politics among economically liberal parties.
The TAE fundamentally warns against the European Commission’s lack of democratic mandate and sees the danger of Brussels’ powerful central body arrogating ever more tax powers to itself, thus, one could paraphrase, growing into a kind of state above the states. From this, the advocates of European taxpayers derive their demand: There must be no joint debt issuance within the EU.
No matter how the budgetary situation in the European member states develops: That the EU’s two main pillars, Germany and France, will record budget deficits of at least five percent this year is a national problem. And it must be resolved there, in the national capitals. It is unacceptable to distribute money to the public with one hand while taking it from European taxpayers with the other through higher taxes or future debt indirectly via inflation.
With these demands, the TAE firmly stands on the subsidiarity principle consistently advocated by its largest member organization, the German Taxpayers’ Association. Budgetary policy is a national matter. Excessive centralization of political power leads to inefficiencies, opacity, corruption, and systematic mismanagement by an increasingly powerful central apparatus that ultimately cannot even control the flow of its own funds.
The warning of the taxpayers’ association may, however, come too late. The European Commission operates under the motto: “Never let a crisis go to waste.” Following this spirit, the first true joint European bond was issued during the lockdown five years ago. Under the program nameNextGenerationEU, the European Commission raised approximately €800 billion on the capital markets, backed by Germany as the main rating anchor, which with a national debt of 65 percent continues to stabilize European capital markets.
On an EU level, a whole arsenal of crisis financing instruments has been established. The European Stability Mechanism (ESM) intervenes in acute crises, issuing bonds itself, and would be applied in a looming sovereign debt crisis just like the so-called SURE bonds set up to mitigate regional unemployment.
We are facing a slow, erosive process in which the EU is increasingly penetrating the capital markets, always with the guarantee of major economies and European taxpayers behind it. EU Green Bonds are a particularly vivid example: Here, the ideology of the green transformation merges with the practical implementation of joint debt issuance. Capital is directed into channels of a green crony economy that has already heavily damaged the overall economic structure.
And it came to pass as expected: The warning from taxpayer representatives was more than justified. Large parts of the borrowed debt were immediately funneled into the public budgets of Italy and Spain to mitigate precarious national fiscal conditions. Spain provides the clearest example: President Pedro Sánchez’s socialist government finances large portions of its state budget through these programs, enabling massive public sector employment growth. Much like in Germany, Spain’s labor market is shifting from the struggling private sector to the public sector, which acts as a final safety net for a gradually eroding middle class.
As if European statism were not already the costliest and economically most disastrous project of our time: productive forces are further stifled by this debt program, and the capital market is virtually drained by the public sector. Moreover, access to credit for small and medium-sized businesses becomes increasingly difficult when fewer funds are available.
This phenomenon can be observed across nearly all levels of European economic policy. What has unfolded under the program name Green Deal as a green transformation within a massive redistribution mechanism unfortunately establishes incentives that also attract productive private capital. Who would not prefer a government- or institution-guaranteed minimum return that exceeds market rates and is risk-free, as in the case of renewable energy investments?
The TAE does not state it explicitly, but if the EU Commission under Ursula von der Leyen continues to expand its fiscal powers, this path could accelerate Europe into economic third-class status.
Every major past crisis offered Brussels the opportunity to expand and consolidate its fiscal power. Whether the Dotcom bubble 25 years ago or the sovereign debt crisis fifteen years ago, which was quasi drowned by former ECB President Mario Draghi in fiat credit – all these events eventually culminated in the first European joint bond, the so-calledNextGenerationEU.
It was the great original sin. A political bastard of the lockdown era. What else could this period have produced but further problems? We must assume, with Europeans’ response patterns in mind, that the looming EU sovereign debt crisis will inevitably feed into the Eurobond project.
It will spawn additional political bastards, such as the digital euro, designed as a capital flow control to prevent flight. A digital identity for monitoring public discourse is likely to be implemented. A minimum tax regime is also planned to finally eliminate tax competition in the EU. Welcome to Brussels, welcome to the hyperstate that will produce nothing but debt, behavioral control, and inflation.
* * *
About the author: Thomas Kolbe, a German graduate economist, has worked for over 25 years as a journalist and media producer for clients from various industries and business associations. As a publicist, he focuses on economic processes and observes geopolitical events from the perspective of the capital markets. His publications follow a philosophy that focuses on the individual and their right to self-determination.
The second week of March is Civic Learning Week. It’s an annual observance marked by civics advocates with webinars, social media campaigns, and a big conference known as the National Forum, organized by the nonprofit iCivics. This year’s National Forum will take place in Philadelphia, as more than 600 civics leaders, educators, and students will gather to consider the theme of “Liberty and Learning: Civic Education at 250.”
Indeed, this year’s Civic Learning Week is an even bigger deal than usual, as we celebrate the nation’s quarter-millennium anniversary. Civics should be the top item on our national agenda.
Civic education should matter to every American. It is more than a set of facts that eighth graders should know for the National Assessment of Educational Progress (only 22 percent of eighth graders were proficient in civics, and 13 percent were proficient in history in the most recent scoring). Rather, civic education is best understood as a lifelong commitment to the study and practice of America’s distinctive political tradition of self-government.
For all that should give us reason for worry in our country, the good news is that momentum is quickly growing in the movement for what the Princeton-based Institute for Citizens and Scholars calls “civic preparedness.” At all levels of education, institutions and philanthropists are partnering to support a renewed focus on civics.
In the fall, the U.S. Department of Education awarded more than $153 million to university-based and nonprofit initiatives to design and implement civics literacy programs in K-12 classrooms and to hold seminars for the nation’s teaching force on “primary documents, constitutional study, historical field experiences, civil discourse, and American achievement.” This represents a welcome federal commitment to civic education in the run-up to the 250th celebration. Among the grantees are ambitious new civics programs at public universities like Arizona State University, Florida State University, and Utah Valley University, along with civic-focused private universities like Pepperdine University and American University. The National Endowment for the Humanities has similarly prioritized investments in public and educational programs for the nation’s 250th birthday.
In addition, major foundations and other philanthropic funders are stepping up to invest in civics. The Chronicle of Philanthropy recently reported on $56 million in philanthropic commitments to civics from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, Stand Together, and the Bezos Family Foundation. Stand Together is supporting the Civic Star Challenge, a collaboration between iCivics and the Bill of Rights Institute to encourage student projects emphasizing themes from the Declaration of Independence. The Carnegie Corporation is supporting the Teaching America250 Teaching Awards at the Jack Miller Center, where I serve as president, to provide $5,000 awards for teacher-led projects focused on the Declaration of Independence in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
This is one among several projects we are tackling for the 250th at the Jack Miller Center, where we have been building a network of university professors who are focused on teaching America’s founding principles and history for two decades.
For America’s 250th, we are providing direct support to scholars in the Jack Miller Center network to help them organize campus conversations about the Declaration of Independence. These will include lecture series, reading groups, and debates— aimed at fitting the unique needs of campus communities. So far, we have committed to campus programs in 33 states and DC. We are partnering, for example, on a weeklong series of events at Arizona State University on the values of the Founding, a year-long undergraduate reading group on key primary sources of American political thought and their relation to the Declaration at Purdue University Fort Wayne, and an academic panel on the Declaration at the University of Georgia, at which students will question scholars regarding the Declaration while playing various historical figures. We look forward to building more partnerships with campuses and scholars in the months to come.
We’re also doing what we can to bring the civics movement together as we get ready to convene hundreds of leaders and educators for the National Summit on Civic Education, May 18-19, as we consider “The Words that Changed the World” on Philadelphia’s Independence Mall. We’ll talk about the enduring impact of the Declaration and its importance for the future of American education.
As we celebrate America’s 250th, let’s all do our part to educate ourselves and the young people in our lives about the ideas that animate our country and fill our lives with opportunity. Let’s make civics the cause of the year.
$330 Million In U.S. Reaper Drones Suffer Grim Fate In Operation Epic Fury
CBS News sources confirmed that over the eleven-day course of Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. lost eleven General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones. At roughly $30 million apiece, the losses likely cost taxpayers more than $330 million.
The report is based on information from two U.S. officials, who said that losses of the drones, which are designed for long-endurance surveillance and precision strike missions, have reached eleven so far.
There has been OSINT coverage on X of these MQ-9s in action over Iran, as well as alleged footage of crashes.
A U.S. MQ-9 Reaper was reportedly shot down by IRGC Aerospace forces today Over Hormozgan Province, Iran. pic.twitter.com/g0ER9J19R7
Footage from on the ground near the Southern Iranian city of Shiraz captured an MQ-9 Reaper with the U.S. Air Force firing an AGM-114 “Hellfire” Air-to-Surface Missile against a ballistic missile launcher that had revealed itself and was preparing to launch against Israel or… pic.twitter.com/RocAHQSD9F
MQ-9s have a flight endurance of 27 hours and can operate at altitudes of 50,000 feet with an airspeed of 240 knots. Payload capacity is 3,850 pounds, including external storage pods for weapons and sensors.
The best available figure for how many of these drones U.S. forces operate comes from the Air Force’s FY2026 budget documents, which show there are 424 in total. The loss of eleven drones would represent about 2.6% of the overall inventory.
At the start of the week, U.S. CENTCOM revealed that U.S. forces struck around 5,000 IRGC targets, including 50 naval ships. CENTCOM stated that it targeted the Iranian military’s command-and-control centers and other hubs, integrated air defense systems, ballistic missile sites, warships and submarines, anti-ship missiles, military communications facilities, and plants for ballistic missile and drone manufacturing.
It wasn’t until Heather Rodden began homeschooling him in fifth grade that she realized what years of frustrated teachers couldn’t put their fingers on—what looked like a liability in one setting can flourish in another.
Like Rodden, other parents, researchers, and professionals are moving away from treating ADHD purely as a disorder that 1 in 10 kids have.
The word “deficit” in ADHD, they argue, obscures strengths—such as creativity, hyperfocus, and cognitive flexibility—that often accompany the condition.
“‘Different wiring’ isn’t automatically bad,” Dr. Daniel G. Amen, a psychiatrist and founder of Amen Clinics, brain-body clinics that use imaging instead of checklists for mental health issues, told The Epoch Times in an email. “Sometimes it’s simply diversity in how people think and create. ADHD isn’t a character flaw—it’s a brain pattern.”
At the heart of the matter is finding where and how people with ADHD will thrive.
An ADHD Brain
One frustration for people with ADHD is that it’s rarely lack of knowledge that holds them back. It is that their brains don’t consistently concentrate.
Focus requires a coordinated effort between the brain’s frontal control system, which helps you stay organized and resist distractions, the basal ganglia, which regulates motivation by using the reward chemical dopamine, and the cerebellum, which coordinates timing and attention. In ADHD brains, that coordination is inconsistent—not absent—but unreliable under demand.
“That helps explain inconsistent performance,” Amen said. “It’s called a disorder because it can disrupt performance at school, work, and home.”
While most research focuses on the deficits of ADHD, some studies suggest that many who have symptoms also have specific strengths.
Those with ADHD outperformed others in divergent thinking, particularly in fluency (generating many ideas quickly) and flexibility (combining concepts in unexpected ways), according to findings reported in Frontiers in Psychiatry.
A study published in Comprehensive Psychiatry found small to moderate positive correlations among ADHD traits of hyperfocus, sensory processing sensitivity, and cognitive flexibility (the ability to rapidly switch tasks, behaviors, or perspectives).
Hyperfocus is becoming absorbed in a task, sometimes to the point of losing track of time and surroundings—called flow in someone who doesn’t have ADHD, Claire Sira, a neuropsychologist who specializes in coaching adults with ADHD, told The Epoch Times.
Sensory processing sensitivity is typically thought of as a low sensory threshold—being overwhelmed by stimuli such as light, sound, and smell. However, in the study, sensory processing sensitivity was defined differently—a sensory appreciation for aesthetics, nature, or architecture, for example.
Another study of adults with ADHD published in Frontiers in Psychiatry noted that impulsivity and hyperactivity are seen as positive by some people with an ADHD diagnosis.
In an analysis published in BMJ Open, adults with ADHD reported dual benefits in weakness traits. A 30-year-old woman noted that being overly active allows her to do more than her peers in less time: “Then I get to experience more.” Another woman reported that her inattention has led to overhearing “amusing conversations.”
Traits such as impulsivity and hyperactivity can become strengths, rather than liabilities, by focusing on neuroplasticity—the brain’s ability to form new neural connections—possibly even after injury and later in life, Amen noted. Meditation, breathing exercises, physical activity, and learning new skills are all associated with improved neuroplasticity.
“Focusing only on deficits misses the point,” he added. “The real goal is to help people build a better brain so they can access their strengths consistently—especially when life demands concentration and follow-through.”
A Classroom Problem
Life’s demands, however, may partially explain the prevalence of ADHD, which some argue may be more of an environmental problem than a brain disorder.
An article published in BJPsych Advances noted that children of generations past were not expected to sit rigidly and concentrate on academics for several hours a day.
“My feeling has been for a long time that we make ADHD into a disease state or abnormality that really runs along a continuum in different directions,” retired pediatric neurologist Dr. Andrew Zimmerman told The Epoch Times.
“And we tend to see it as abnormal because we want to see children sit still in class and do their schoolwork.”
Adjusting schools and workplaces will not only lift the stigma and shame of ADHD but also benefit everyone by making space for the skills and talents those with ADHD bring, according to psychiatrist and researcher Annie Swanepoel. “We need to recognize that variations are the spice of life,” she wrote in an article published in Clinical Neuropsychiatry.
Everyone would likely benefit from school and workplace adjustments aimed at improving focus, Sira said. Yet there’s no one-size-fits-all solution, she added.
For some, working in an open, busy office environment can offer accountability and motivation. For others, the visual distractions and noise can make work too challenging. They may need to work from home or behind an office door, Sira said.
“It would be way better if we could match the environment to the person.”
Zimmerman noted that children suspected of ADHD deserve a thorough evaluation, because in some cases, inattention and hyperactivity have underlying causes such as fetal alcohol syndrome, fragile X syndrome, and premature birth that are not always identified in schools.
However, in most cases, he said, ADHD is overdiagnosed and overtreated, when the real solution could be a different style of schooling altogether.
“If I had a child in that situation nowadays, I would certainly look for [an alternative school] where they could express themselves,” he said. “So much of what is important is relationships—it’s social development, to have kids learn fairness, and how to get along—all maybe more important than calculus.”
Are We Overdiagnosing?
In less than two decades, the prevalence of ADHD diagnoses among children increased from 6.1 to 10.2 percent. Today, it’s 11.4 percent of children aged 3 to 17. Adult ADHD diagnoses—though they represent about 1 percent of the population—nearly doubled from 2007 to 2016.
Zimmerman has reviewed studies recently that show overlap of symptoms between clearly defined ADHD patients and typical children. He added that even children with typical brain patterns have shown to have improved focus and less hyperactivity on medication.
Such overlap blurs the line of certainty when it comes to who has ADHD and who doesn’t, he said. “It’s a question of: Are we unfairly treating the kids? Are we penalizing them, in a sense, by making them take medication? It makes the kids look better, but it doesn’t necessarily make them perform better or certainly not feel better.”
One reason for the uptick in ADHD, Sira said, is simply the expansive demands on attention in the modern world, including screen usage, larger classrooms, and physical and emotional distractions that make it harder to stay focused.
The key is to teach the brain to shift into focus mode when needed, Amen said. “The problem comes when the focus-and-follow-through network—especially the prefrontal cortex and its partners—doesn’t reliably come online when it’s needed.”
The brain can be supported with a healthy diet, good sleep, and regular exercise, Sira said. “If you wanted to actively build your ability to regulate your own attention, meditation practices do this because that’s literally what meditation is—learning to recognize when your attention has wandered and bring it back—whatever is happening with sensory awareness and mindful movement.”
For children, martial arts and dance can teach discipline with mindful movement and improve attention. Adults can also grow those skills and should, she said, as neuroplasticity should be a lifelong goal.
Trump Willing To Kill New Ayatollah If He Doesn’t Cede To US Demands
It remains increasingly difficult to interpret President Trump, or to take his words at face value, especially when it comes to back-and-forth with reporters on the Iran war and future aims and plans.
For example, on Monday, the president was asked at a news briefing in Florida whether Iran’s new leader was a target, to which Trump replied: “The new leader, you mean the son?… I was disappointed to see their choice,” before adding, “I don’t want to say whether he has (a target on his back).”
When later pressed in a follow-up question, he reiterated his broader frustration and then conceded that the Iranian people are “an amazing people but the system they have only leads to failure.” This slightly softened or tempered rhetoric in terms of war aims is a far cry from the “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!” demand of merely a few days ago.
Already, the White House seems to have completely backed off listing “regime change” as an official objective of Operation Epic Fury, perhaps belatedly realizing the severe limitations of a purely aerial campaign. On Tuesday, Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff is in front of cameras saying Trump is always willing to talk, even to the Iranians, however “the question is whether or not it is worth it.“
As for the potential for another regime ‘decapitation strike’ – it’s ironic (and a tad confusing) that on the very day Trump refrained from saying he would take out the new Ayatollah, The Wall Street Journal issued a headline and quotes suggesting the opposite: Trump Open to Khamenei Being Killed if He Doesn’t Cede to U.S. Demands. It said:
President Trump has told aides he would back the killing of new Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei if he proves unwilling to cede to U.S. demands, such as ending Iran’s nuclear development, current and former U.S. officials said.
The White House declined to comment, but Trump on Monday told the New York Post he was “not happy” that Khamenei was selected to lead Iran after previously calling him “unacceptable.” Trump last week on social media said he wanted a say in picking a “great and acceptable” ruler for Iran following its “unconditional surrender.”
“I’m not going through this to end up with another Khamenei,” Trump told Time magazine last week.
But the same report reveals a consensus among Israeli officials that Israel would like precisely to go ahead and take out the younger Khamenei too – and perhaps even any replacement after that.
“The younger Khamenei is viewed in Washington as a hard-line successor to his father who was hand-picked by Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the current and former U.S. officials said,” WSJ said. “The officials said they don’t expect Khamenei is likely to give up Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons or negotiate an end to the conflict on terms favorable to the U.S.”
It took the US 20 years to replace the Taliban with the Taliban, but only 9 days to replace Khamenei with Khamenei
This obviously sets up for an escalation trap dilemma: pursue full regime change which would likely require boots on the ground to dismantle and secure Iran’s nuclear program (while risking ‘endless’ quagmire)?
Or keep the regime/system in place, which avoids a ground quagmire, but then risks a future nuclear-armed Islamic Republic. The more days and weeks which pass in the conflict, the more acute this dilemma will become.
The Strait of Hormuz is closed to shipping. Qatar’s energy minister — who, not surprisingly, appears to be lobbying on the side of Iran — is warning that the conflict to prevent it from gaining nuclear weapons could “bring down the economies of the world” and that Gulf nations might shut down their production of oil and gas. Meanwhile, intelligence sources say that Russia, perhaps trying to lure the US into a larger war, is providing Iran with the means to target American military forces in the region. Kudos to President Trump for refusing to take the bait.
If ever there was a case to be made for America’s pursuit of unlimited energy through fusion power, it is this war and its global implications.
China is investing literally billions of dollars to master this technology. Fortunately, the Trump administration recognizes the enormous threat of being an “also ran” and appears committed to pursuing a breakthrough in this sector.
Additional progress came this past week as the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published a draft rule regarding guidelines to handle the byproducts of fusion. It is the type of roadmap the American nuclear industry needs as they continue to put resources, time, and talent into unlocking this pollution-free energy source.
The enormous potential of nuclear fusion has the president’s attention, and he is placing his Trump Media & Technology Group solidly into the fusion business with the announcement of a $6 billion merger with TAE Technologies, an energy research firm. Not surprisingly, that company counts Google among its major investors and partners: clearly, this corporate powerhouse appreciates the technology’s importance.
The NRC has been a key player in this field. Last year it voted to place nuclear fusion devices under a less stringent framework than the more commonly used nuclear fission reactors, because fusion, unlike fission, does not create radioactive nuclear waste. If approvals and research continue on track, fusion researchers believe they can be generating commercial electric power for our nation within the next decade.
Lawrence Kadish serves on the Board of Governors of Gatestone Institute.
