On 28 October, despite international opposition, Israeli lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to approve two bills that essentially ban the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East from operating in Israel and severely restrict its activities in Gaza and the West Bank, due to certain staff members’ direct ties to Hamas and other terrorist groups.
‘According to Dutch intelligence, Iran has used Moroccan Dutch gangsters to eliminate two “enemies of the state” abroad, but it also actively protects clan leaders. Between 2019 and 2021, during the time of the trial of a Moroccan clan chief, a key witness’ brother was killed, followed by his lawyer and finally a crime reporter who was covering the case. And what about antisemitism? Dutch Jews have been sounding the alarm for years.’
‘The question of what a Harris administration’s foreign policy would be is rather like asking a cat its views on quantum mechanics: you’re unlikely to get much clarity. There’s been a rather large absence of any discernible worldview to distinguish her from her boss, Joe Biden. Indeed, one might say her foreign policy is as elusive as the Hungarian summer—everyone has vague expectations, but no one is quite sure what it’ll look like when it finally arrives.’
‘Armenia, according to the hagiographical account of the monk Agathangelos, is considered to be the first Christian nation when in the year 301 A.D. the Armenian King Trdat III was baptized by St. Gregory the Illuminator. Yet, if one is to accept legend as history in that Armenia was the first nation to officially accept Christianity, then Ethiopia, based on what is written on the 8th chapter in the Acts of the Apostles, has a better claim to that title.’
While the prospect of North Korean soldiers arriving at the front lines is alarming, there are already many foreign mercenaries fighting on the Russian side in Ukraine. Moscow has trained mercenaries near Aleppo, with at least 100 Syrians believed to have joined the Russian army. A couple of months ago, the government of Nepal has demanded the Kremlin stop recruiting Nepalese into its military. Since the Crocus City Hall terror attack in Moscow, the Kremlin has also been recruiting Central Asian migrants, presenting them with the option of either serving in Ukraine or being deported back to their countries.
The events of 7 October will forever be etched in Israel’s history as a day of immense tragedy and resilience. That day was a moment when the nation confronted the depths of brutality, but also discovered a strength it never knew it needed. Amid the profound loss and an escalating fight for the right to exist free from terror and fear, one message reverberates louder than ever: Israel will endure, and its people will not be broken.
‘A new study finds that 80 per cent of immigrants in the labor force are more likely to become entrepreneurs. Immigrant entrepreneurs have tended to have a more profound impact on overall labor demand by starting companies that hire new workers, creating a positive ripple-effect on the economy. In fact, as reported by Forbes, an estimated 45 per cent of Fortune 500 companies were founded by immigrants or their children, among them America’s top companies.’
‘In Hungary, the welcome and the love that the state of Israel gets are very different. So is the intolerance of the intolerance, which is the most important thing, because you don’t have to agree with everything I say, but the fact is that you are not tolerating intolerance. If you are letting the violent people enjoy their free speech, like it happened in Berkeley, you are preventing the freedom of speech of the people who were not violent…And I think on that issue, Hungary got it right.’
Mongol rule brought not only immense destruction and suffering to the peoples of the conquered territories but also peace, known in modern research as ‘pax Mongolica’. The period of the Mongol Empire (1206–1368) is unique in world history.
This week, Germany, the European Union’s largest economy and one of the founding members of the Schengen area, decided to reintroduce border controls along its entire land border in response to growing pressure caused by illegal migration. Increasingly, more member states are following suit for similar reasons, raising the risk that internal border controls will become standard practice, ultimately threatening the existence of one of the EU’s greatest achievements: the Schengen area.