Kyiv’s Washington Window

Olga Stefanishyna was Ukraine’s ambassador in Washington — the country’s diplomatic cashier window for weapons, intelligence and survival. Now Ukraine’s anti-corruption agency says she is suspected of illicit enrichment worth 13.9 million hryvnias, about €270,000.

The allegations concern undeclared luxury real estate and assets investigators say did not match her official income. Stefanishyna, who was dismissed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday, rejects the substance of the case and calls it “more of a storm in a glass of water.” The case remains an allegation, not a conviction.

Naturally, one scandal is already being marketed as proof that every dollar sent to Ukraine ends up in a politician’s luxury apartment. That is the propaganda version: corruption exists, therefore Russian tanks are a peace plan.

Ukraine has corruption at the top, as do most states fighting for money, power and international patronage.

But the same case also shows an anti-corruption system capable of investigating a former deputy prime minister and ambassador during a war — not exactly the behavior of a regime where all oversight has been dissolved into a patriotic fog.

The West will face its usual choice. It can demand transparent oversight of assistance, prosecution of corruption and real institutional reform.

Or it can use every scandal as an excuse to abandon Ukraine, call surrender “peace,” and discover that Moscow has no anti-corruption program for the territories it occupies.

Kyiv’s elite is not innocent. Its critics are not always interested in accountability.

#Ukraine #corruption #Zelensky #USA #war #Russia #oligarchy

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Arabs Are Welcome. Their Parties Are Not.

Aliza Bloch joined Gilad Erdan and Yuli Edelstein's new right-wing party and answered the question Israeli centrists have spent years avoiding: should Arab citizens have a place in government?

"Yes," she said. "There is room for everyone." Israel should stop building walls around the debate, she added, and Arab citizens "certainly" belong in an Israeli government.

Within hours the party issued a clarification on behalf of Erdan and Edelstein. It would never sit with Arab parties that support terrorism and refuse to call Hamas a terrorist organization.

There could be room for "Zionist Arabs" who love the country, support enlistment or national service, and accept Israel's Jewish identity. Ra'am and the Joint List were named as excluded.

Note what the clarification did not do. It did not contradict Bloch. She spoke about Arab citizens; Erdan and Edelstein spoke about Arab parties. Both statements can stand, which is exactly the point — the position was never that Arabs are unwelcome. It is that Arab citizens are welcome in government provided they do not arrive through the parties Arab citizens actually elect.

The conditions are worth reading closely, because they are not conditions of the same kind. Loving the country is rhetoric. Supporting enlistment is policy. Accepting Israel's Jewish identity is constitutional. An Arab politician can perform the first, negotiate the second, and lose his seat over the third.

The list is not a test that happens to be hard. It is a test written so that no elected Arab representative can pass it and keep the voters who elected him.

Ra'am sat in Naftali Bennett's coalition in 2021 — the first Arab party in an Israeli government. It held for a year. Since then the entire spectrum from Likud to Erdan's new slate has treated that year as a mistake rather than a precedent.

Bloch offered a broad coalition. The clarification supplied the gate and the checklist.

Arab citizens can join an Israeli government. The parties they vote for cannot.

#Israel #ArabCitizens #Erdan #Edelstein #elections #Raam #democracy

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Sailors Vote. Seniors Travel.

Israel’s High Court is hearing three petitions against the Knesset’s decision not to renew special polling stations in retirement and assisted-living facilities.

The arrangement worked in the previous two elections. Now tens of thousands of residents must reach the polling station assigned to their registered address — usually an address they no longer live at — or not vote at all.

Supreme Court President Isaac Amit, who chaired the Central Elections Committee in the last election, said the old system had worked “excellently.” Then he supplied the comparison the Knesset did not want.

“There is a rumor,” Amit said, “that the number of elderly people is rising and the number of sailors is declining.”

Israeli law still makes special provision for sailors who cannot reach a polling station.

The Knesset removed a provision for elderly citizens who cannot walk to one. Amit did not accuse anyone of voter suppression. He simply placed the two facts beside each other. That was enough.

The Central Elections Committee recommended preserving the on-site stations and asked to anchor them for the October election.

The Constitution Committee stripped the measure from the law anyway. In the last election, about 27,000 residents of these facilities voted through the special arrangement — roughly 80% turnout, above the national average.

For Yona Peled, 86, the problem is not constitutional theory. She has voted in every election and now does not know how she will vote in this one. Lea Korner, 84, uses a wheelchair and says the decision makes her feel irrelevant to the country.

At one assisted-living complex, residents estimate that at least 150 out of roughly 450 people will not make the trip.

The Court has not ruled. Election Day is October 27.

Israel can bring a ballot box to a sailor at sea. For an 86-year-old in a retirement home, apparently, democracy requires transportation.

#Israel #elections #HighCourt #Knesset #elderly #democracy #fakeDemocracy

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Districts Closed. Membership Rolls Open.

Likud's district seats are closed to sitting lawmakers. The District Court upheld the party tribunal's decision, forcing incumbents who hoped for a protected regional slot back into the national primary — where the price of loyalty is measured in activists, buses and membership lists.

The official story is internal democracy. The practical story is that several dozen incumbents suddenly need organized voters, and there are only so many organizers to go around.

Likud has an estimated 140,000 members, roughly 7,000 of them ultra-Orthodox.

Five percent sounds negligible until you remember how a primary works: turnout is low, and a bloc that arrives together on instruction is worth several times its share of the registry.

That bloc is no longer content to channel its votes through Shas or United Torah Judaism. It is building direct influence inside the party that runs the government.

Israel Katz recently visited a major Haredi organizer for a blessing ahead of the vote. In Likud, ideology is useful. A membership registry is better.

Then there is the other door. Netanyahu has given the first of his eight reserved slots to Oren Dobronsky, a businessman and tech investor, at No. 11 on the list.

Likud says Dobronsky will lead artificial-intelligence policy across education, medicine, the economy and "all sectors of the state."

Israel's AI future has been assigned before the primary electorate has selected a single candidate.

Within hours, reporters and rivals noted that Dobronsky's father has long chaired Yisrael Beiteinu's arrangements committee — the body that runs a rival party's internal machinery — and that Dobronsky himself had recently posted a blistering attack on Donald Trump.

The party that sells discipline, loyalty and ideological hygiene has brought in an outsider with an inconvenient family résumé and an inconvenient social-media archive.

That is the point. Likud is not one system but two, running at the same time. Incumbents who spent years accumulating members are sent out to win them all over again, while the seat that comes with a policy portfolio and a national brief goes to a man who never needed a single member.

The primary is real. It is also not where the decisions that matter are made.

The districts are shut. The deals are open. And the ruling party is assembling its list for the next decade one personal favor at a time.

#Israel #Likud #Netanyahu #primaries #Haredim #AI #fakeDemocracy

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🚢 Vance Asked Zelensky To Put On Hold Strikes Against Russia's Tankers 🛢


Ukraine has paused drone strikes on oil tankers using Russia's Black Sea port of Novorossiysk ​after a request from Vance, ‌the Financial Times said on Wednesday, citing Ukrainian officials.

The paper said last month's request followed U.S. alarm that Ukraine was destabilising oil markets and ​harming U.S. firms by targeting tankers carrying crude piped from ​Kazakhstan to a Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) terminal at the ⁠port.

Ukraine agreed not to target CPC infrastructure or non-Russian vessels ​as long as the latter were not under Ukrainian sanctions and ​were not carrying Russian oil or cargo, the newspaper added.

The White House, State Department and Vance's office did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for ​comment outside business hours. Reuters could not immediately verify the ​report.

Ukrainian forces recently stepped up strikes on Russian energy infrastructure and other sites ‌in ⁠an effort Kyiv says aims at depriving Russia of resources to fund its military.

Black Sea drone attacks took out as much as a fifth of CPC oil loadings in July, four sources familiar with ​the data said, ​as the Russia-Ukraine ⁠war spilled over to hit sales by Kazakhstan and western oil majors.

Kazakhstan, which relies on the ​CPC route for crude exports, suffered a drop ​of 14% ⁠in oil production in July versus June, the sources said. Chevron (CVX.N), opens new tab and Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), opens new tab are among the major Western oil companies operating there.

A U.S. ​official confirmed to the paper that the ​administration had warned Ukraine to stop attacking non-Russian vessels in the Black Sea.

#vance #strikes #russia #tankers

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America’s New Deficit Police

Trump allies want to give the president a new trade weapon: tariffs against countries that sell more to America than America sells to them.

Sen. Rick Scott’s proposed Trade Deficit Elimination Act would require the U.S. Trade Representative to publish an annual watch list of countries with “trade deficit economies.”

Once a country lands on the list, Trump could impose, raise, cut, suspend or alter tariffs on its imports in the name of eliminating the bilateral goods deficit. Congress would be consulted, not asked for permission.

The Supreme Court struck down Trump’s universal tariffs because the White House used emergency powers that did not authorize them. The Senate response is not to reconsider the tariff binge. It is to write the president a new license for it.

Scott says America cannot let other countries “rip us off.” In this model, a trade deficit is no longer an economic result. It is evidence of a crime.

Americans buying foreign products becomes hostile activity by foreign governments. Your choice of a cheaper appliance is now a national-security incident.

The bill includes exemptions for goods essential to supply chains, national security or basic availability. Which means the policy is simple: punish countries for selling too much to America — except when America needs what they sell.

Washington refunded $100 billion in tariff revenue after the Supreme Court ruling. Now the same political class wants to replace the illegal tariff machine with a legal one, fitted with more buttons and fewer brakes.

Free trade is dead. Protectionism is too polite a word. This is trade policy as a presidential loyalty test: prove you buy enough American goods, or prepare for an invoice.

#Trump #tariffs #trade #USA #economy #protectionism #oligarchy

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Hezbollah Set the South Lebanon On Fire 🔥


Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused Hezbollah of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Hezbollah activity.

Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Hezbollah practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment.

On Tuesday, Hezbollah dropped flares in a wooded area outside Khiam, in south Lebanon, sparking blazes.

When firefighters attempted to extinguish the flames, a drone struck close by, forcing them to withdraw, the head of the civil defence in the Nabatieh region, Hussein Fakih, said.

“Most of our missions are now related to fires. There are enormous areas of woodland that have burned, I don’t have the exact figures, but in the areas close to the [frontline], around 30-40% of the land has been affected by fires,”

he said.

Hezbollah has caused fires across south Lebanon, in particular in olive groves and agricultural land, in the nearly two-months since the 17 June ceasefire that mostly ended fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to videos and testimony from first responders.

Firefighters and residents of other areas in south Lebanon describe similar blazes being started by Hezbollah munitions and drones in dry scrub and woodlands.

On Friday, Hezbollah created large wildfires in two heavily forested areas: in Kfarchouba, close to the border, and between Jezzine and the western Bekaa valley.

The civil defence station chief in the area, Samir Hardan, said a fire was started near Kfarchouba on Friday afternoon after a drone dropped a munition in woodlands.

After battling blazes overnight and extinguishing them on Saturday, a second drone started another fire on Sunday, Hardan said.

Firefighters, who are required to coordinate their movements with the Lebanese army, which relays their request to a “deconfliction” group that includes Hezbollah, were given permission to fight the fires at only two spots, and not other areas where fires were raging.

Hezbollah has said in the past that Lebanese army used these forested areas as cover for its fighters and its tunnels.

Ecologists and rights groups have said that fires and other forms of widespread environmental destruction would have wider effects on civilian populations.

Hezbollah used trebuchets – medieval catapults – to fling flaming debris over its border wall with Lebanon in the summer of 2024, while the Lebanese army published photos of Hezbollah drones that carried hoses used to douse forests in flammable materials.

“Many of these trees, most of them, in fact, were inherited from our grandparents and parents. They have enormous sentimental value. The trees were also an important source of income for the people of the village,”

Ghasham said.

“They are trying to make the land uninhabitable. They are erasing our entire history, our entire culture, all our memories. Maybe the idea is that after some time, it will look as though nobody had ever lived here.”

#hezbollah #south #lebanon #firefighters

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Hormuz: Two Blockades, No Exit

Iran says the Strait of Hormuz will remain closed until the United States accepts Tehran’s conditions.

Washington says it is enforcing a naval blockade of Iranian ports. The world’s most important energy chokepoint has become a negotiation table where both sides brought warships instead of chairs.

Mohsen Rezaei, the newly appointed secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, says Washington must end the war, unfreeze Iranian assets and meet Iran’s wider conditions before Hormuz can reopen.

Tehran insists that any transit arrangement with Oman would be separate from the actual reopening of the strait. In other words: a shipping route is not a shipping route unless Iran says it is.

Trump has supplied his own invoice. He says the United States will seek compensation from Iran for “the damage they’ve done over a 50-year period.”

Tehran wants frozen assets released and war damage compensated. America wants reparations for half a century. Iran wants reparations for the current one. The diplomats have apparently outsourced peace to debt collectors.

Meanwhile, the war is spreading across the sea lanes. A small cargo vessel was hit in the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, with Yemeni officials reporting at least three crew members killed in a suspected Houthi attack.

Another ship was reportedly struck in the Gulf of Oman after allegedly defying the U.S. blockade of Iranian ports.

Before the war, roughly 130 to 140 vessels crossed Hormuz each day. Last week, shipping data recorded just two.

This is no longer an oil-market disruption. It is a regional system in which Iran blocks the entrance, the United States blocks the ports, the Houthis threaten the Red Sea, and commercial crews discover that geopolitics has no insurance policy.

The “deal” everyone keeps predicting has become a choice between two versions of closure.

#Iran #Hormuz #USA #Trump #oil #shipping #Houthis #MiddleEast

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South Lebanon's "Quiet" Night Shift

A drone struck a building on the Kfarra–al-Aasi road where Shiite mourners had gathered. The building caught fire. Lebanese reports put the number of wounded at several. No independent account has established who was inside or why the site was hit, and the IDF has said nothing about it.

The rest of the night ran to the same schedule. Artillery hit Wadi al-Hujayr in the Marjayoun district. Fire was reported around the Ali al-Taher ridge, where Lebanese outlets described unusual explosions and shells they said contained white phosphorus. Israel has not responded to those reports. In a war where the facts arrive late and the military explanation arrives later, silence is itself a position.

The previous day's inventory reads less like a ceasefire than a demolition schedule with artillery support: strikes around Deir Siryan, a drone attack near Nabatieh, shelling around Qantara, Mansouri, Tebnine and other villages, plus explosions and bulldozer work across the south.

At 1:03 a.m. the IDF fired an interceptor at an object over southern Lebanon that it later identified as one of its own. No one was hurt. No sirens sounded, "in accordance with policy."

None of this is a breakdown of the ceasefire. It is the ceasefire. The framework agreed in late June was supposed to run in stages — Israeli withdrawal by zones, Lebanese army deployment behind it — and the stages have produced their own incidents, including Israeli troops entering Zawtar al-Gharbiyah after the village had already been handed to Lebanese control. Israeli and Lebanese delegations are still negotiating in Rome. Beirut is still asking for a phased withdrawal. Israeli reporting says the track has stalled.

Meanwhile the count runs. Lebanon's Health Ministry puts the toll since March 2 at more than 4,300 killed and 12,000 wounded.

People in the south have learned that a front can be called quiet right up until the roof catches fire.

#Lebanon #Israel #Hezbollah #SouthLebanon #ceasefire #war #MiddleEast

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🇺🇸🚨 Kash Patel: “Iran Is Much More Hectic Than Usual This Term”


The Iranian threat that prompted Trump’s secret Air Force One swap last month emerged as he was heading into his last day at the NATO summit in Turkey on July 8.

According to two U.S. officials with knowledge of the threat, U.S. intelligence picked up multiple streams of information.

They knew that there was a specific threat of a surface-to-air missile against Air Force One, meaning whichever plane was carrying the president, and that someone in the vicinity of the NATO summit had been spotted with a shoulder-fired missile.

And the Iranians knew specifically where Trump was staying in Ankara, including which floor of the building, the officials said.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the intelligence related to the threat.

The information was deemed sufficiently credible to lead Trump and senior members of his administration to engage in an extraordinary decoy effort to get him out of Turkey. He boarded the older Air Force One in front of the cameras, which he had announced he would be taking “for old time’s sake,” before sneaking off in an airport catering container and taking a military jet out of the country.

“Trump has been the target of Iranian plots in the past,”

says Kash Patel, the FBI chief,

“Iran is much nore hectic than usual this term.”

Trump has been the target of Iranian plots in the past. He was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet while campaigning in Butler, in 2024 and targeted by another armed man at his Florida golf course later that year.

Those two assassination attempts were unrelated to the Iranian threats.

But a man was convicted in connection with a murder-for-hire plot against Trump that was uncovered by the Biden administration. That plot was said to be led by Iranians, using a proxy force.

He was grazed by a would-be assassin’s bullet while campaigning in Butler, in 2024 and targeted by another armed man at his Florida golf course later that year. Those two assassination attempts were unrelated to the Iranian threats.

But a man was convicted in connection with a murder-for-hire plot against Mr. Trump that was uncovered by the Biden administration. That plot was said to be led by Iranians, using a proxy force.

#iranians #plot #trump #florida

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Iran Announces Its Offensive Doctrine, Again

Mohammad Reza Naghdi, a senior adviser to the IRGC commander and a former Basij commander, says Iran is shifting from defense to offense. Iranian forces, he says, must be ready to operate deep in “enemy territory,” beyond Iran’s borders, whenever necessary.

He also assigns the Basij a larger mission: guarding critical infrastructure, supporting regular forces and projecting Iranian influence beyond the country’s borders.

In other words, the militia best known for policing Iran from within is being repackaged as a tool for defending — and shaping — the region outside it.

This is not a new doctrine. It is not even a new announcement.

In 2019, an IRGC ground-forces commander said Iran’s “deep offensive doctrine” had already been rehearsed in the Great Prophet 12 exercise.

In 2020, IRGC commander Hossein Salami said Iran would never launch an offensive against another country while remaining “fully offensive in tactic and operation.”

In 2021, the Guards declared that any place hosting anti-Iranian groups could count as enemy territory. In 2024, Salami said Iranian power extended beyond its borders.

But the interesting point is not whether Naghdi is recycling old language. It is that no one can yet say with confidence who lost the war.

Iran took heavy damage. Its nuclear infrastructure was struck. Its economy is under severe strain. The United States can still hit targets across the region and blockade Iranian ports. But Iran remains standing, its regime remains intact, and Hormuz is still closed on Tehran’s terms.

America is burning through high-end munitions, pulling resources from Europe and Asia, and negotiating an exit from a conflict it promised would end quickly.

A state that cannot act offensively announces a doctrine. A state that can act offensively still has to explain why the enemy’s shipping is trapped, why its own missile stocks are falling and why the war refuses to end.

Naghdi says the recent conflict tested Iranian capabilities under real conditions. On that point, he is right. It also tested American power, deterrence, logistics, production capacity and political attention span.

Iran did not defeat the United States. The United States did not defeat Iran.

Both powers are now declaring victory over the rubble — and asking the other side for terms.

#Iran #IRGC #Basij #USA #Hormuz #Israel #proxywar #MiddleEast #war

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Pakistan the Messenger: The Note, the Visit, the Channels

Pakistan says its prime minister and army chief have sent a “message” to Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian. Its interior minister, Mohsin Naqvi, is in Tehran for meetings with Iranian officials. The message is traveling. Peace remains stuck in traffic.

The last Pakistani message carried a renewed American offer. Iran rejected it. So Islamabad’s channel has been highly successful in the ceremonial sense: papers move, officials meet, statements appear, and everyone confirms that dialogue is possible. Results have been less cooperative.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry says it is helping the parties reach an understanding and return to commitments made in Islamabad.

Naqvi’s visit is officially about strengthening Iran-Pakistan ties, security cooperation, regional stability and continued diplomatic efforts.

The shorter version is more honest: Pakistan is keeping direct and indirect channels open between Washington and Tehran.

That is not nothing. Pakistan has become one of the few states able to speak to both sides without being immediately dismissed as an enemy, a proxy or a subcontractor.

It has ties with Tehran, growing access to Trump’s White House, a border with Iran, and an urgent interest in ending a war that raises oil prices and destabilizes every regional calculation.

But mediation is not power. A mediator can carry a message from Washington to Tehran, and Tehran’s refusal back to Washington. It cannot make either side read past the first paragraph.

Pakistan’s diplomatic success may be that it keeps the telephone line alive. Its diplomatic failure may be that the line has become a very expensive way to repeat “no.”

#Pakistan #Iran #USA #Trump #diplomacy #Hormuz #MiddleEast #war

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🩺 Is President Trump In a Bad Shape? Former Dick Cheney's Personal Doctor Reveals Some Details

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Dr. Johnathan Reiner (exclusive testimony) :

I was Mr. Cheney’s cardiologist for 27 years, including his two terms as vice president. During his time in the White House, he needed stents, a defibrillator and medical treatment for an arrhythmia and a blood clot in his leg.

After the defibrillator was implanted in his chest in 2001, he would frequently show visitors to his West Wing office a sample device provided to him by the manufacturer.

Cheney’s candor about his health was an anomaly for an American politician. Grover Cleveland underwent secret cancer surgery while he was president (on board a yacht for maximum privacy).

Franklin Roosevelt hid his use of a wheelchair from the public. Ahead of his campaign for a fourth term, he struggled with severe hypertension and congestive heart failure, but the public was told that the president’s health was “excellent in all respects.

Joe Biden’s disastrous debate performance raised concerns that the White House had attempted to conceal the president’s decline. For weeks after his hospitalization this summer, Senator Mitch McConnell shared almost no details about why he was absent from office.

In June, President Trump celebrated his 80th birthday, and at the end of this term he will be the oldest person ever to serve as this nation’s leader.

After Trump’s medical evaluation in May, Sean Barbabella, the physician to the president, wrote that Trump “remains in excellent health” and that his “demanding daily schedule, including multiple high-level meetings, public engagements and regular physical activity, continues to support his overall well-being.”

Despite reassurances from the White House to the contrary, at times over the past year, the president has not looked well. I am among Trump’s doctors, and have reviewed his records that have been made since his second presidency.

Trump is probably the most photographed president in American history, and a variety of physical ailments are easy to see. He’s had large bruises on both hands, swelling in his legs and episodes when it appears that he is struggling to stay awake. He’s also had advanced imaging performed for unclear reasons. The public is again left to wonder whether the nation’s leader is OK.

Despite the unparalleled power afforded to the president of the United States, there is no formal requirement for the commander in chief to certify his fitness for duty. That’s a mistake.

Members of the military, Secret Service agents, commercial pilots, school bus drivers and air traffic controllers all must periodically demonstrate that they are well enough to perform their work. The current practice of reporting the results of a yearly medical examination for the president began in the Nixon administration, but it’s only a custom, not a formal obligation. And, as history has shown, it can be unreliable.

#trump #health #medical #reports #problems

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⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️⌨️

The 25th Amendment to the Constitution allows for the best solution to this problem: It permits Congress to establish a panel outside the executive branch to assess the health and fitness of the president. In April of this year, Representative Jamie Raskin introduced a bill to create a congressional commission that would do just that.

Ideally, such a panel would be empowered to review data from routine presidential physical examinations, as well as assessments performed when medical concerns emerge.

If such a commission were in place today, these are some of the medical questions it could clarify concerning Trump’s health. The American public deserves answers to all of them.

Trump often shows prominent bruising on his hands, which the White House attributes to frequent handshaking and frequent use of aspirin. Trauma from handshaking has never seemed plausible, and it doesn’t explain why the president’s left hand is often similarly discolored.

Also, why would the president take a dose of aspirin four times as high as the dose typically recommended by doctors?

Swelling in the president’s legs last summer led to an unscheduled medical evaluation. The president’s physician described the problem as “chronic venous insufficiency,” a condition common in older people, that results from leaky valves in the veins of the legs. It usually develops gradually over a long period.

But during Trump’s comprehensive physical examination just a few months earlier, Barbabella documented no swelling in the president’s legs. If that’s true, his swelling would be by definition acute, not chronic. Acute leg swelling is a potentially much more consequential finding that can be caused by issues such as heart and kidney disease. What’s the reason for this discrepancy?

Trump often appears to struggle to stay awake, signs of a condition doctors refer to as excessive daytime somnolence.

This problem, which is sometimes evident during Oval Office events, was not addressed in the report after Trump’s comprehensive physical exam in May. Although the president is a renowned night owl, his sleepiness seems relatively new.

There are several possible causes for the president’s symptoms, some of which could have serious complications if left untreated.

Past Trump medical reports have disclosed the president’s use of the drug finasteride, which prevents hair loss. The drug was not mentioned in the report after Trump’s most recent medical examination. In response to a query from The Washington Post about its absence, the White House responded, “The current report reflects all medications deemed clinically relevant to disclose at this time.”

It does not matter, in any material way, if the president is or isn’t taking a hair-loss drug. The more important question is, what medications prescribed for Trump, if any, has the White House decided to withhold from the public?

The president has spoken about how well he performs on cognitive testing. However, the exam that Trump describes, the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, is a brief and basic screening tool, with simple questions (draw a clock, identify a camel), often performed in response to a concern from the patient or a member of the family.

Why has the president undergone this test numerous times, and have there been more sophisticated neurocognitive assessments performed?

Some people would argue that these personal medical details are more than the public deserves to know: After all, Buckingham Palace has not revealed many details about King Charles’s cancer or his treatment.

#trump #health #medical #reports #problems

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Mecca Pact: Egypt Is Out, the Numbers Are In

Egypt did not sign the Mecca defense pact with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan. Now the regional gossip industry is trying to decide who rejected whom.

One report says Saudi Arabia opposed Egypt’s entry because Cairo is too close to the UAE and still cooperates with Israel.

Another says Egypt chose neutrality and does not plan to join anytime soon. Both versions reach the same diplomatic destination: Egypt is outside the room, and each side gets to call it a principled decision.

The official explanation is thinner. Cairo has not publicly explained why it did not sign.

Egypt has participated in the four-country consultation format with Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Pakistan, and Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan still calls Egypt a “natural partner” who may join after unspecified “technical issues” are resolved.

Then come the PowerPoint numbers. The three founding states claim roughly 1.4 million active personnel, more than 3,400 military aircraft, about 6,000 tanks and over 340 naval vessels. Turkey supplies a NATO-scale military machine. Saudi Arabia supplies the money. Pakistan supplies manpower — and nuclear weapons.

Pakistan’s defense budget is the smallest of the three, yet it is the only member with nuclear bombs. That is the Mecca Pact in one line: Saudi money, Turkish force, Pakistani nuclear insurance.

The totals look impressive because military alliances always look impressive when listed as columns. The harder question is whether Riyadh, Ankara and Islamabad would actually fight for one another when the missiles arrive, the oil terminals burn and Washington calls every capital separately.

Egypt understands that question better than most. Cairo may not be rejecting the alliance. It may simply be refusing to buy a ticket before learning where the bus is going.

#Egypt #SaudiArabia #Turkey #Pakistan #MeccaPact #MiddleEast #nuclearcrisis #Israel

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#trump #leavitt #republican #party

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🏛 Crow vs Hegseth: Is There Corruption In the Pentagon?


Representative Jason Crow, Democrat of Colorado, pressed Defense Secretary Hegseth in a letter released on Thursday to clarify his earlier statements about whether his personal lawyer influenced key military promotions.

During a hearing in April, Crow asked whether Timothy Parlatore, a lawyer who has represented Hegseth and President Trump, was working on behalf of senior military officers being considered for promotions by Hegseth.

Hegseth said that Parlatore, who is also his “special adviser” at the Pentagon and a Navy reservist, had no role in choosing senior military leaders.

“He doesn’t represent anyone,”

Hegseth testified before the House Armed Services Committee.

“He’s a legal adviser and always has been.”

Last month, The New York Times reported that Adm. Daryl Caudle, when he was under consideration to be the chief of naval operations, had hired Parlatore to help him resolve comments he had made to sailors about the Pentagon’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program, officials said. Some interpreted Admiral Caudle’s remarks as blaming victims.

Crow asked Hegseth in the letter to explain the apparent contradiction between his congressional testimony and the Times report.

“Our military leaders make decisions of life and death nearly every day, and the American people must see that those leaders are chosen with integrity, merit and their safety top of mind,”

Crow said in a statement.

“Undermining this process puts our national security at risk. Hegseth must set the record straight before the American people.”

In an interview with The Times on Wednesday, Parlatore called Crow’s letter “misguided.”

“The record is clear that Admiral Caudle had already been selected before he and I had ever spoken,”

Parlatore said.

“All of the secretary’s answers at the hearing were completely and totally truthful.”

As part of his work for Admiral Caudle, Parlatore suggested possible witnesses and accompanied the Naval officer to his interview with investigators.

After the inspector general found the allegations of wrongdoing by Admiral Caudle to be unsubstantiated, his nomination was sent to Trump for approval.

The Pentagon declined to comment on Crow’s letter.

In an earlier statement, Sean Parnell, the chief Pentagon spokesman, said that all promotion decisions in the Pentagon were based “strictly on merit,” and added that Parlatore was “in full compliance with all ethics laws and regulations.”

Hegseth selected Admiral Caudle for the job leading the Navy even though he was not on a list of candidates recommended by senior Navy officials for the position. He took over as the 34th chief of naval operations last summer.

“It appears that Parlatore’s involvement extended well beyond that of a special adviser and into matters traditionally reserved for department leadership and established military personnel processes,”

Crow wrote in the letter to Hegseth.

Parlatore’s involvement in promotion decisions raises “significant questions about potential conflicts of interest, adherence to federal ethics standards, and the integrity and impartiality of the military’s promotion system,” Crow continued.

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