Barack Obama versus Donald Trump. It is the presidential election that never happened but has come to define an era of US politics.
Obama is back on the campaign trail for the midterms, still electrifying crowds, earning shouts of “We love you!” and skewering his successor. “What’s up with the gold?” he asked a crowd in Detroit. “I mean, he’s got the White House looking like Saddam Hussein opened a Cheesecake Factory.” This has, predictably, set off a mini culture war involving questions of elitism and the tastefulness of chain restaurants.
US health secretary falsely claims at Mike Rogers rally that Arabs have never won major prizes in science or literature
Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, faced backlash on Wednesday for a “wildly racist tirade” during a campaign stop in Michigan in which he falsely asserted that Arabs never won major awards in science or literature.
Kennedy was speaking at the Monday night event in Grand Rapids in support of Mike Rogers, the Republican US Senate candidate who is trailing his Democratic midterms opponent Abdul El-Sayed, a Muslim, in polling.
The attack in Trappes and La Verrière calls first for compassion towards the victims and their families. It also requires democratic restraint. While justice must establish individual responsibility, public debate must resist collective blame. Free expression remains essential, but citizens, media and political leaders share responsibility for distinguishing facts from fear and people from stereotypes. Education and critical judgment are indispensable safeguards against hatred, division and the exploitation of human suffering. This responsibility concerns public institutions and every citizen alike.
Minister Nuñez said the shootings happened at three separate locations in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, near Paris, and that they took less than 15 minutes in total.
Minister Nuñez said the shootings happened at three separate locations in the towns of Trappes and La Verrière, near Paris, and that they took less than 15 minutes in total.
Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei says the United States’ negotiating behavior, marked by coercion and one-sided demands, rather than Iran’s religious beliefs, makes rational negotiations impossible.
In a post on his X account on Thursday, Baghaei questioned the relevance of Iranians’ “religious beliefs” to Washington’s failure to honor its diplomatic commitments and its addiction to force and pressure.
He said faith does not preclude rationality, noting that genuine diplomacy requires more than imposing terms on the other side.
“Faith does not preclude ‘rationality’, just as secularism does not guarantee wisdom,” he wrote, adding that Washington’s negotiating behavior amounted to “one-sided dictation rather than genuine diplomacy.”
He said Iran’s “religious beliefs” are not an obstacle to “rational negotiations”; rather, Washington’s reliance on “one-sided dictation” instead of genuine dialogue is what makes such talks impossible.
Baghaei emphasized that the United States cannot expect a lasting agreement while demanding concessions without reciprocity, dictating terms and disregarding the other side’s legitimate interests.
The spokesperson urged the US to stop making ideologically driven assumptions about Iranians’ religious beliefs and instead understand Iran’s strategic interests and legitimate security concerns.
“And above all, instead of accusing others, address your own record of broken promises,” he pointed out.
Baghaei’s remarks come as tensions between the United States and Iran have remained unresolved through negotiations and dialogue over the past several months.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that it is extremely difficult to reach an agreement with Iran, claiming that Iranian leaders do not know how to negotiate and are controlled by “radical Shia clerics”, who would be driven by their theology.
Reports that the US military has drawn up plans for renewed strikes against Iran, potentially targeting the country’s energy infrastructure and peaceful nuclear sites with the GBU-43/B Massive Ordnance Air Blast (MOAB), dubbed the “Mother of All Bombs,” underscore the threat of further US aggression against the Islamic Republic.
The latest threats come amid Washington’s repeated violations of the Islamabad Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), reached after 40 days of US-Israeli aggression against Iran.
The war began on February 28, 2026, while Tehran and Washington were engaged in negotiations over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
The attacks were launched after three rounds of indirect negotiations in Muscat, Oman, and Geneva, Switzerland, with technical talks scheduled to begin in Vienna, Austria.
Iran swiftly retaliated with barrages of missiles and drones targeting the Israeli-occupied territories, as well as US bases and interests across the region.
After David Ellison acquired CBS to make it Israel friendly, he hired Bari Weiss, an equally devoted Israel partisan, to do the job. She pushed staff to smear anti-genocide candidates, meddled in a report that exposed Israeli settlers, and her handpicked foreign editor threatened to fire staff who didn't go along
The Virgin Mary "wore a hijab", showing Islam's attitude to women does not conflict with Western values, council staff who handle anti-terror work have been told in a talk about Islamophobia.
Police officers were lectured about Nigel Farage in a publicly funded talk about Islamophobia, with the Reform leader's doubts about Muslims' ability to adhere to British values compared to a racially aggravated offence.
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