Donald Trump is in the wrong country in his dangerous attempt to stifle a free press.
The banishment of CNN, Politico and MSNOW from the White House has unleashed a firestorm.
The most transparent response came today when five networks who share a “pool” to report on Trump pulled the plug. No longer will Trump be able to enjoy unfettered media coverage. The video and audio have been disconnected.
The media organizations have gone into Federal Court seeking a Temporary Restraining Order to block Trump’s childish and petulant action. The hearing is Wednesday.
This is a moment when the American media on all sides of the political spectrum need to stand up and fight and uphold the First Amendment of The Constitution.
PBS News Hour with Committee to Protect Journalists Jodie Ginsberg – 9.21.2026
News outlets Trump banned from White House seek Restraining Order
POLITICO, CNN and MS NOW are seeking a restraining order to restore reporters’ access – 9.21.2026
Three news organizations whose journalists were banned from the White House last week are suing President Donald Trump and three top advisers, calling the abrupt lockout a “direct assault on the First Amendment.”
The organizations filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Washington, which assigned the case to Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee. The news outlets are asking Kelly to quickly rule Trump’s ban unconstitutional and prevent his aides from enforcing it.
“This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the news organizations said. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.”
Die Linke is on its way to securing the Mayoralty in one of the world’s largest cities. Berlin. Its candidate, Elif Eralp was born in Germany. Her parents emigrated from Turkey following persecution from its government, The result of their political activities.
Eralp, a 45 year old attorney, is being compared to New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.
Eralp and her The Left party which gained 25.6% of the vote will now have to resolve outstanding issues and negotiate a power sharing agreement with The Greens (14.3%) and the Socialists (12.1%).
One of outstanding issue will be to placate Berlin’s Jewish community which feels threatened by The Left Party’s criticism of Israel and its three year onslaught in Gaza. (See Below)
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.20.2026
With the socialist Left Party securing the largest share of the state parliamentary vote in Berlin, the party’s mayoral candidate Elif Eralp celebrated the victory of “love and justice over hate.”
“Starting today, we are changing Berlin together and make it a better place,” said Eralp, who hopes to become the first female mayor of Berlin with immigration background.
Eralp was born in Munich in 1981 to a family of Turkish refugees. While her victory speech was mostly in German, she also shouted out “We wrote history, friends” in Turkish during her address.
The Left Party has big plans for Berlin, including tackling its housing crisis by expropriating real estate own by large corporations. In order for Eralp to become the mayor of Berlin and the head of its state government, however, her party would need to form a coalition, with the center-left SPD and the environmentally friendly Green Party being the most likely contenders for a power-sharing deal.
“We are fighting in Berlin to turn the city red,” read the lead motion presented to the delegates at the Left Party‘s federal party convention. Red is the color of the Left Party, but also of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD). According to latest polls, a three-way coalition of both alongside the Greens could secure a majority in the September election for the city state’s parliament.
Berlin has been “red” in the past. From 2016 to 2023 it was governed by such a three-way coalition — under the leadership of successive SPD mayors. This time, the Left Party is dreaming of winning the election and taking over the mayoralty itself with its candidate Elif Eralp. The 45-year-old has a remarkable background: Her parents were active in politics and trade unions in Turkey before fleeing to Germany in 1980 as asylum-seekers following a military coup, just weeks before Eralp’s birth.
Excerpted from The Times of Israel 9.18.2026
First they take Manhattan? Looking to mimic Mamdani, far left’s Elif Eralp eyes Berlin City Hall
Jewish community wary as Die Linke party’s mayoral candidate vows to fight antisemitism ahead of September 20 election; critics claim she can’t even control it within her own party
Participants display placards of Germany’s Die Linke (The Left) party reading ‘Freedom for Palestine – End the Occupation and Genocide’ during a demonstration under the motto ‘Draw the red line with us: Together for Gaza!’ in Berlin on September 27, 2025. (RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP)
BERLIN — Last November, Germany’s far-left Die Linke party sent a delegation to New York City to study Zohran Mamdani’s successful mayoral campaign. Inspired by his approach, Die Linke launched a Berlin street campaign focused heavily on housing and affordability
With charismatic 45-year-old Elif Eralp as its lead candidate, Die Linke has a strong chance of winning Berlin City Hall. But that would not be the only parallel to Mamdani: Just as in New York, the relationship between the political left and Berlin’s Jewish population — the largest in Germany, with an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 Jews — is deeply strained.
Elif Eralp, mayoral candidate for Die Linke in the upcoming regional elections, addresses supporters during a campaign stop in Berlin, August 29, 2026. (Ralf Hirschberger/AFP)
Tensions worsened sharply in late August following a controversial performance by rapper Dahabflex at a Die Linke rally in the Berlin district of Neukölln. His song “Stop the Genocide” included lyrics such as “Yalla, yalla intifada,” “Death to the IDF,” and “Intifada like the PFLP,” a reference to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a designated terrorist organization.
In the ensuing debate over antisemitism within Die Linke, Eralp sought to contain the fallout. She condemned the rapper’s performance, saying she stood “clearly for the protection of Jewish life and against any form of antisemitism.” She also placed responsibility on the party’s Neukölln district branch, which had invited the musician.
. Sometimes to an outsider the modern day feels likeBabylon Berlin – Wikipedia. The series is set in Berlin during the latter years of the Weimar Republic, beginning in 1929. It follows Gereon Rath, a police inspector on assignment from Cologne, who is on a secret mission to dismantle an extortion ring, and police clerk Charlotte Ritter, who aspires to become a police inspector.
Then civilian Trump leaves a New York City Courthouse after being charged with multiple felonies. He was convicted of 34 felonies for falsifying records on May 30, 2023
Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump have a lot in common. One continuous thread in their insidious relationship is their loathing of a free press.
Donald Trump is certainly constrained by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution – Wikipedia. But this has not stopped Trump from his ongoing threats and assaults on the American media. The latest being the banishment of established news organizations from the White House: CNN, Politico and MSNOW.
The American media has always been aggressive in protecting its rights to broadcast and publish. This is no exception and wannabe dictator Trump’s latest outrage will fail.
Trump will be long banished to the history books and the American free press will carry on.
Excerpted from The New York Times 9.19.2026
“He (Donald Trump) thinks that he can bully anyone or any entity into doing whatever he wants and he’s seen it work out for himself with the entire Republican Party bending the knee to him,” said Sarah Matthews, a deputy press secretary in Mr. Trump’s first term. “He is facing pushback from the courts, the Fed, people in his own party, and he’s lashing out.”
The White House on Saturday moved ahead with Mr. Trump’s surprise announcement banning journalists from CNN, MS NOW and Politico from the White House, an escalation in Mr. Trump’s long battle with the press.
But it also fits a pattern for Mr. Trump when he faces a political quagmire, according to former government officials and civil rights organizations: He seeks to change the narrative by mobilizing the government to crack down on those willing to question his power.
Excerpted from Committee to Protect Journalists 2.17.2026
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, its media has experienced an unprecedented crackdown. Hundreds of journalists have been forced into exile, where they continue to face transnational legal persecution, and their families have been harassed back home. Meanwhile, reporting from inside Russia has become increasingly difficult, with journalists and media outlets often silenced by laws criminalizing independent coverage.
Evan is a Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained in Russia on March 29, 2023, while doing his job as a journalist. He was freed Aug. 1, 2024, as part of the largest and most complex East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War. He is the American-born son of Soviet-era emigres to the U.S. Evan learned Russian from his parents and built a career as a journalist focused on the region. He joined the Journal in January 2022 and before that reported from Moscow for Agence France Press and the Moscow Times.
Since February 24, 2022, CPJ has documented:
27 journalists imprisoned on criminal charges: 15 Russian, 10 Ukrainian, and 2 American. Of these, 4 released, 2exiled, and 1 killed.
Charges against those jailed: 9 for “fake” news; 14 for terrorism, extremism, and other anti-state crimes; 4 were undisclosed.
President Nixon tried to stop publication of the Pentagon Papers, the history of the Vietnam War. The Supreme Court said NO in a historic validation of the First Amendment. Cartoon by Herblock in The Washington Post. June 1971
Where is the outrage??!! How can the American public sit idly by while Trump sends the most destructive weaponry in the arsenal to Israel knowing these messengers of death will continue to slaughter the peoples of Gaza, Palestine and Lebanon?
A war crimes level slaughter which has been ongoing for nearly three years with no end in sight.
Excerpted from Al Jazeera 9.16.2026
US set to approve 60,000 heavy bombs for Israel: What that means
The US taxpayer-funded package of 2,000-pound bombs comes amid Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza and its occupation of southern Lebanon.
United States President Donald Trump’s administration is preparing to sell 60,000 highly destructive, 2,000-pound (907kg) bombs to Israel in a multibillion-dollar package which will be funded by American taxpayers.
US media has reported that the Trump administration has approved the sale, which features some of the most destructive munitions in Western arsenals, and has informally notified Congress.
This is one of the biggest US munition packages to Israel and comes after nearly three years of genocidal war on Gaza, ongoing pogroms by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank and a mighty assault on southern Lebanon – which together have killed tens of thousands and displaced millions in the region.
The three types of bomb are:
MK-84: The largest among the Mark 80 series of bombs, this unguided, 2,000-pound (907kg) general-purpose bomb is designed primarily for maximum blast and fragmentation against buildings and moderately protected targets. It can destroy buildings and kill or injure people hundreds of metres from the bomb site.
BLU-117: A 2,000-pound (907kg) general-purpose bomb which looks very similar to the MK-84 but has a different explosive filler and can also be fitted with precision-guidance kits. It also has a thermal protective coating, designed for safer storage, particularly by the US Navy.
I-2000 Penetrator: Also referred to as a “bunker buster”, this roughly 2,000-pound-class, hard-target penetrator is designed to punch through hardened structures before detonating; its casing is substantially thicker and harder than an MK-84.
The Washington Post described the MK-84 as “among the most destructive munitions in Western military arsenals,” noting that the munition can penetrate through metal and thick concrete.
Israel has faced criticism for using the MK-84 in its efforts to combat terrorist organizations, such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
When probed on the potential humanitarian concerns that could result from the sale and use of the munition, a senior Trump administration official told the Washington Post that “all foreign arms sales are moving through the appropriate process,” adding that they would not elaborate on any pending arms sales.
Excerpted from Jewish Telegraphic Agency 9.16.2026
U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee, is obstructing a Trump administration proposal for a $2.8 billion bomb sale to Israel.
Meeks, a longtime supporter of Israel from New York, said he would not clear the transaction due to concerns that these 2,000-pound munitions would not be used in accordance with U.S. and international law.
Despite his concerns, Meeks said in a statement that he remains “firmly committed to Israel’s security and its ability to defend itself against serious regional threats.”
The 15-term congressman, known for his pragmatic and moderate stances, voiced concern about the potential sale of 40,000 of these bombs, which he described as “some of the most destructive munitions in our arsenal.”
It’s fair to say that Americans are ignorant about the geopolitics of the Middle East.
The blogger is belatedly following the Houthis though my attention was there when Trump launched his air campaign in 2025. Now the problem is more serious and the MSM is paying attention.
It should be evident that the average American news consumer is out to lunch when it comes to matters outside the USA. Trump’s war of choice against Iran only got attention because of prices at the pump. Perhaps now the Houthis taking over Bab-al Mandeb through which 11 percent of global oil passes will be another Strait of Hormuz in the American body politic.
Trump’s war of choice against Iran nearing the seven month mark has woken up the geopolitically clueless American public. If only because prices at the pump have skyrocketedsince February 28th 2026.
In the past couple of days another Middle East hot spot has bubbled to the surface which is further inflaming the cauldron and willescalate energy pricesas the following Al Jazeera report illustrates.
The group known as the Houthis, well known in the Middle East, have captured the country of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline. Giving them effective control of 11 percent of the World’s global oil trade. This comes on top of the Iranian control of the Strait of Hormuz with control of 27 percent of the global oil trade. A combined 38 percent total. A lot of barrels of oil.
The Houthis and the Iranians have a deep ideological bond, one that their soldiers willingly die for. And the Houthis do not need to win every battle. As long as they can sink an occasional oil tanker, they will hold a whip hand over their Saudi neighbors, and over the rest of the world too.The Atlantic – Robert Worth9.11.2026
Excerpted from Al Jazeera 9.11.2026
Houthi forces Houthi-controlled Yemen – Wikipedia have captured the whole of Yemen’s Red Sea coastline, reaching all the way to the critically important Bab al-Mandeb shipping gateway, as the group’s rapid offensive continued on Friday.
On Thursday, the Houthis seized the port city of Mocha, Mokha – Wikipedia dealing a heavy blow to the Yemeni government backed by neighbouring Saudi Arabia.
Mokha (Arabic: المَخا, romanized: al-Maḵā), also spelled Mocha or Mukha,[1] is a port city on the Red Sea coast of Yemen. Until Aden and al Hudaydah eclipsed it in the 19th century, Mokha was the principal port for Yemen’s capital, Sanaa. Long known for its coffee trade, the city gave its name to Mocha coffee.[2]
Analysts are calling the Iran-backed Houthi group’s victories the most significant regional development since the US and Israel declared war on Iran in February.
The offensives could be particularly damaging for Saudi Arabia and its oil exports. The Houthis, who declared a blockade of Saudi-flagged ships in the Red Sea earlier in the year, now have a much firmer control of the Bab al-Mandeb waterway, which Riyadh increasingly relies on for oil exports following blockades of the the Strait of Hormuz at the entrance to the Gulf, experts say.
But can the Houthis control the Red Sea?
Here’s what we know:
In July, amidst the US-Israel war on Iran, the Houthis announced a complete maritime blockade on Saudi Arabia and began launching attacks on Saudi-linked ships passing through the important Bab al-Mandeb Strait.
The narrow strait is one of the world’s most important shipping lanes connecting the Suez Canal and Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Roughly 12 percent of global trade passes through daily.
Even more vessels have used it since Iran’s closure of the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies used to transit annually before the war began in February.
Shiite Houthi rebels chant slogans after taking over a government military compound in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in September. The group forced the country’s president to resign on Thursday, plunging Yemen into uncertainty.
It’s scary to think that Benjamin Netanyahu condoned and is criminally liable for the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on his own people so he could unleash the Israeli Defense Forces fury on GazaPalestinians. Something to consider, eh?
Trump and Netanyahu are kindred souls in at least one respect. When they don’t like the news, what do they do? Go out and make some of their own.Go to Court and try to beat down the individual, organization or media outlet which has exposed their lies and illegal activities.
The Haaretz report Trumps anything that the American President has gone to Court for seeking relief. Netanyahu is responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people; his own Israeli citizens included.
What the Israeli newspaper Haaretz is claiming goes right to the gut of Benjamin Netanyahu’s three year assault on the Peoples of Gaza following the Hama attack on Israel October 7, 2023.Had Netanyahu been paying attention and taken the “threat seriously” the calamity of October 7 and the past three years may have been avoided.
Revealed: Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs – published in Haaretz
Benjamin Netanyahu says he will sue over claims he ignored an advance warning about October 7 attack – published in The Daily Mail
Jerusalem Post 9.8.2026
In September ’23, UAE President bin Zayed called Netanyahu to deliver a harsh warning. Netanyahu did nothing. An extensive investigation, conducted for a new book, reveals the PM’s failures surrounding Oct. 7. Netanyahu: ‘This is an absolute lie’
UAE President Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan (MBZ) warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that Hamas was planning a major operation against Israel days before the October 7 massacre, a Haaretz investigation published Tuesday said.
Netanyahu reportedly dismissed the warning despite MBZ urging him to take the threat seriously, the report said, citing three senior foreign sources familiar with the contents of the conversation.
During a 45-minute conversation held 10 days before the massacre, MBZ reportedly warned Netanyahu that then-Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar was planning a major operation against Israel. The United Arab Emirates leader expressed concern that an attack could lead to significant bloodshed, destabilize the region, and undermine the Abraham Accords, according to the report.
Excerpted from The New Yorker 9.8.2026
An Israeli news article on Tuesday morning managed to roil even a war-weary and jaded public. Published in Haaretz, its headline read: “Netanyahu Received an Explicit Warning Days Before Oct. 7. He Didn’t Brief Israel’s Security Chiefs.”
No event has shaped recent Israeli history more than the October 7th attacks and their aftermath. Netanyahu has refused to take responsibility or issue an apology for the failures in intelligence and policy that led to the worst attacks to ever take place on Israeli soil.
But his government, for all of its equivocating, cannot deny that it was in power when they occurred. Ynet, a popular news site, echoed the Haaretz report on its home page on Tuesday—an unusual tribute to a rival newspaper;
Channel 12 opened its evening-news edition with the story, calling it “jaw dropping.”
The article, drawn from a new book by the journalists Shlomi Eldar and Ruth Yuval, reveals that, a week and a half before Hamas led the October 7th attacks on Israel, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, the President of the United Arab Emirates, called Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, with a specific warning. During a forty-five-minute conversation, according to the report, bin Zayed cautioned that Yahya Sinwar, Hamas’s leader in Gaza, was “preparing a major event” in the near future. Sinwar was quoted in the article as telling an official from the rival Fatah faction that he was planning a “zilzal”—an “earthquake.”
Netanyahu seemed untroubled, a close adviser to the Emirati ruler told the journalists.
He didn’t update the heads of Israel’s security establishment about the conversation. Instead, he assured bin Zayed that Israel was “prepared for any scenario.” If anything, he said, the “volatile” area was not Gaza but the West Bank. Bin Zayed was so startled that Netanyahu was making light of the situation that he expressed concerns to the C.I.A. director, William J. Burns.When the article appeared, Netanyahu denied that such a conversation had ever taken place. But the U.A.E.’s foreign ministry appeared to confirm Eldar and Yuval’s reporting, saying in a statement reported by Haaretz that the two countries maintain “open and direct communication,” exchanging intelligence “when necessary.”
Eldar told Israel’s Channel 12 that he and Yuval had based their story on talks with three independent sources and on “a recording and documents” of the conversation between Netanyahu and bin Zayed.Newsbreaks in Haaretz, a liberal paper with strong investigative reporting, are often met with silence by much of the country, or brushed off as leftist propaganda by Netanyahu and his mouthpieces in the media. This story seemed to land differently.
Rupert Murdoch’s New York Post – 9.10.2026. Did you expect anything else?😵💫
The Wall Street Journal editorial writers have gone into rhetorical excesswith its “Israel can do no wrong, ever” hot air bloviation.
The blogger performed some historical research and quickly learned that the Israelis have historically utilized one way to deal with their foes as the comment I posted on the WSJ editorial page shows.
At least in this instance the Israelis cannot resort to actual physical violence.
The WSJ editorial writers need to stop pandering to The State of Israel. It’s way past the time when Israel is allowed to act with impunity in its destruction of the Palestinian state. The Brits deserve praise for finally standing up to Israel and condemning its criminal behavior.
I think the fatal bombing of the King David Hotel bombing – Wikipedia in Jerusalem killing 91 people in July 1946 by The Irgun (arguably a Jewish terrorist group) led by future Prime Minister Menachem Begin had a lot to do with the British antipathy directed towards creation of the State of Israel. It’s safe to say that nearly 80 years after the creation of Israel the Israelis have only one way way to deal with their foes, real and imagined. Violence by any means necessary.
Aftermath of the Irgun bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem – 7.22.1946
Europe Joins the Boycott Israel Crowd
Europe has a talent for dressing up domestic political pandering as righteousness on the world stage. The latest is a British ban on imports of Israeli goods from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights, plus sanctions on anyone facilitating new construction. France and Canada plan similar measures. “We will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution,” said U.K. Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband.
European Nations Impose Trade Bans on Israel Over West Bank Settlements
The U.K., France, Canada and nine other countries said they would impose new trade restrictions on Israel, escalating a dispute over the expansion of Israeli settlements in the West Bank.
Tuesday’s announcement prompted a swift retaliation from Israel against the U.K., which was the first to announce it would halt trade with settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Israel said it would close the British consulate in East Jerusalem, which deals largely with Palestinian affairs, and expel British representatives from the U.S.-led coordination center for postwar Gaza.
Not enough to take over political power of this state with 2.3M people in the former East Germany – Wikipedia. But definitely sending a grim dispiriting message to the rest of the World. This extreme Right MAGA like surge is not going to end anytime soon. I remember visiting Germany in 2017 and seeing a STOPPT AFD poster. I took a photo and have used it countless times in my blog.
STOPPT DIE AFD – Lubeck, Germany May 2017 – Photo Lee Heidhues
It’s incredible to know that 93 years after the Nazis took power in January 1933 this type of extreme reactionary, racist, anti-immigration party is now so powerful.
I watch the coverage on Deutsche Welle and the correspondents make only brief mention of the political transformation of the Saxony-Anhalt population. A now older generation raised in the totalitarian intolerant Russian governed East Germany. A subjugated population in a police state which was probably, actually, definitely not exposed to multi-culturalism and an influx of immigration and people from different countries. So, when the Wall fell in late 1989 and the open society of the West began to impact the now former East Germany there was a lot of resentment and fear.
That’s what our host Stefan, who owned the Tiergarten Hotel in Berlin, told us in 2017. He is from East Berlin and encouraged Liz and me to visit the former East Berlin and tour the Stasi Museum. Stasi – Wikipedia Stefan told us East Berlin in 2017 looked nearly the same as it did when it was part of East Germany. Old, boring architecture and quiet streets.
Liz walking to the Stasi Museum –Photo Lee Heidhues
I wonder what Marion thinks of all this. I’m sure she is shocked. After all Marion is definitely the leftist German native who was the reason we went to Germany in in 2017. Then returned in 2018 and 2023. I will always remember our night with Marion at the Women’s Center in Hamburg. The women were East German born. They told us the East German regime guaranteed education, housing, health care and jobs. But there was a price to pay.
Living in a totalitarian Stasi run state. When the Wall came down in 1989 and the West German ways took over the country the resentment surfaced. Here we are 37 years later and the AfD has been spawned and is now on the precipice of power. It is incredible. I am just totally transfixed and appalled by all of this. The surge of right wing populism continues to grow. I’m sure Trump loves all of it as his MAGA movement continues to steamroll its way forward!!!
Art of Catastrophe – Charlotte Salomon (16 April 1917 – 10 October 1943) was a German-Jewish artist born in Berlin. She is primarily remembered as the creator of an autobiographical series of paintings Leben? oder Theater?: Ein Singspiel (Life? or Theater?: A Song-play), the largest known artwork made by a Jewish person who died in the Holocaust,[1] consisting of 769 individual works painted between 1941 and 1943 in the south of France, while Salomon was in hiding from the Nazis. In October 1943 Salomon, 5 months pregnant at that time, was captured and deported to Auschwitz, where she was murdered by the Nazis soon after her arrival.[2][3][4][5] In 2015, a 35-page confession by Salomon to the fatal poisoning of her grandfather, kept secret for decades, was released by a Parisian publisher.[6]Charlotte Salomon – Wikipedia
Breakdown of vote nationwide for German national election – February 2025
Donald Trump’s six years long insane ranting that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and stolen from him unsupported by a shred of reality has now reached Germany.
In Sunday’s German election the ultra right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is projected to win to close to a majority in at least one of three State elections.
It’s no secret that Trump is infatuated with the AfD. In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD which ended up winning 152 seats in the German Bundestag.
In Saxony-Anhalt, the AfD’s lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund has called for postal voting to be restricted to justified exceptional cases.
During the 2020 US presidential election, President Donald Trump repeatedly claimed that expanded mail-in voting would lead to widespread fraud. Fact-checkers documented and debunked repeated false and exaggerated claims about the security of mail ballots.
Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, the Trump administration is again seeking to impose new restrictions on mail-in ballots, measures that have faced repeated legal challenges.
In the 2025 national election Trump’s cohort Elon Musk actively supported the AfD
Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 9.5.2026
As Germany heads into three elections in September, rumors are circulating on social media claiming that postal voting is not secure — claims that have also been made about other elections. Here’s why they’re wrong.
Stakes are high in Germany’s three September state elections. In Saxony-Anhalt, where voters go to the ballot boxes on Sunday, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) could make history in by winning an outright majority.
Mail-in voting, or “Briefwahl,” has become an increasingly common feature of German elections. But the rise in mail-in ballots has been followed by a renewed wave of speculation and claims questioning the security and integrity of postal vote.
DW Fact check examined a sample of claims circulating online and assessed what the available evidence shows.
Does postal voting manipulate election results?
Claim: Cases of fraud involving postal ballots prove that postal voting is unreliable.
DW Fact check: Misleading. Individual cases of fraud, errors or violations do not demonstrate that the entire postal voting system is unreliable or that it has affected the outcome of an election.
Postal voting easy to manipulate?
Claim: Postal votes are easily manipulated during counting.
DW Fact check: False. Germany has detailed procedures governing the handling and counting of postal ballots. Postal votes are transported, stored and opened according to established rules, and their counting takes place publicly.
“Leaders of an extremist, far-right party in Germany have quietly borrowed pages from President Trump’s playbook to cast doubt on the integrity of absentee voting — alleging without evidence that residents of nursing homes have had their ballots manipulated and calling for an end to postal voting,” the Los Angeles Times reports.
“The attack on mail ballots comes as Germany approaches a potentially historic state election that could shatter one of the taboos of its postwar political order by opening the door to a far-right government.”
“Politicians across the ideological spectrum, mindful that polls show Trump to be widely unpopular, don’t invoke his name. But the specter of the American president nevertheless hangs over the election that could have reverberations across Europe if the Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party — tacitly echoing Trump’s attacks on migrants, the media and the integrity of elections — pulls off an unprecedented political shock in postwar Germany.”
Norway certainly is ready, willing and able to assert its territorial rights and is willing to enforce an international Court order even if the defendant is the mighty Russian power at its border.
Excerpted from The New York Times 9.3.2026
Norway Seizes Russian Ship, Testing Moscow in the High Arctic
Empowered by an international court order, Norway captured the vessel as part of a global effort to seize Russian assets. The Russians called it “piracy.”
For the past several days, Norwegian security services had been tracking a Russian research ship.
Armed with a court order that is part of a global effort to recover Russian assets, Norwegian police officers boarded the ship while it was docked in Barentsburg, a tiny Russian outpost in Svalbard. The officers confronted the captain of the ship, a somewhat clunky, 200-foot-long oceanographic vessel, and announced that they were “arresting” it.
The seized ship was part of a broader effort to enforce an international court judgment ordering Russia to pay a Ukrainian energy company, Naftogaz, more than $4 billion for expropriating that company’s assets in Crimea. The ship, owned by the Russian government and called Professor Molchanov, after a famous Russian scientist, is now prohibited from leaving Barentsburg until Norwegian courts decide what to do next.
“We have only acted as a messenger,” said Lars Fause, the governor of Svalbard.
The Governor of Svalbard has today, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, seized the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov” which is docked in Barentsburg. The seizure was implemented after the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship.
In a ruling on August 31, 2026, the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov”, which is now docked in Barentsburg on Svalbard.
The legal process and ruling are part of the company’s fight to recover funds that were expropriated by Russia in 2014.
The Governor of Svalbard is the bailiff and, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, has seized the ship on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.
The ship has been ordered by the District Court to berth at a location determined by the Governor and it has been decided that the vessel will berth at Barentsburg until the Governor or the Nord-Troms District Court decides otherwise.
The governor will take care of the crew and passengers on board the vessel in collaboration with Trust Arcticugol.
Occupied (Norwegian: Okkupert) is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015.[2] Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg.[3] Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2017.[4] The third and final season started airing in Scandinavia on 5 December 2019,[5] and was released in many countries via Netflix on 31 December 2019.Occupied – Wikipedia
