Israel a "brutal colonial power" became an apartheid regime

Gaza: thousands may have perished under the rubble

Dr. Alaa al-Najjar left her 10 children at home on Friday when she went to work in the emergency room at the Nasser Medical Complex in southern Gaza.

 A British surgeon working in Nasser Hospital said he had operated on the doctor's surviving 11-year-old.

"Ahmad al-Farra, a doctor at the Nasser Medical Complex, told CNN that Dr. Najjar continued to work despite losing her children, while periodically checking on the condition of her husband and Adam."

BBC- Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead verified by UN are women and children.

"Israel has said it will establish 22 new settlements in the occupied West Bank, including the legalisation of outposts already built without government authorisation, after a security cabinet vote held in secret last week."

More than 50,000 killed in Gaza since Israel offensive began, Hamas-run ministry says.

The UN's humanitarian chief has said people in Gaza are being subjected to forced starvation by Israel. In an interview with the BBC, Tom Fletcher said he believed this had led to a change in the international response to Gaza.

Gaza subjected to forced starvation, top UN official tells BBC.

A small minority says Isreal is a Apartheid regime

"The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls (Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip) in effect an apartheid regime."

One organizing principle lies at the base of a wide array of Israeli policies: advancing and perpetuating the supremacy of one group – Jews – over another – Palestinians.

B’Tselem rejects the perception of Israel as a democracy (inside the Green Line) that simultaneously upholds a temporary military occupation (beyond it).

B’Tselem reached a conclusion that the bar for defining the Israeli regime as an apartheid regime has been met after considering the accumulation of policies and laws that Israel devised to entrench its control over Palestinians.

Britianna: Genocide, the deliberate and systematic destruction of a group of people because of their ethnicity, nationality, religion, or race. 

The term, derived from the Greek genus (“race,” “tribe,” or “nation”) and the Latin cide (“killing”), was coined by Raphael Lemkin, a Polish-born jurist who served as an adviser to the US Department of War during World War II.

B'Tsellem: Statistics

The State of Israel in 1948 demolition began of houses of Palestinians and their land

2023: Germany slams Israeli demolition of school in West Bank: 

"'When schools are demolished, the right to education is hindered. We are fundamentally concerned about this," says Foreign Ministry spokesman.

Ninety years before a negotiated 'transfer' led more than 50,000 German Jews to Palestine.

The August 1933 agreement was between the Jewish Agency and the Nazi regime.

Palestine had approximately 235,000 Jews and 900,000 Arabs at that time.

High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell speaks to the press as he arrives for a meeting of EU Defence Ministers in Brussels on November 19, 2024. (NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP)

According to the Guardian newspaper, the former European diplomat accused Israel of violating all the rules of conflict and of using the starvation of Gaza’s civilian population as a “weapon of war.”

 “Three times more explosive power has been dropped on Gaza than was used in the Hiroshima bomb,” he said.

 “And for months now, nothing has been getting into Gaza. Nothing: no water, no food, no electricity, no fuel, no medical services.

That’s what [Benjamin] Netanyau’s ministers have said and it’s what they’ve done.”

He added: “We all know what’s going on there, and we’ve all heard the objectives stated by Netanyau’s ministers, which are clear declarations of genocidal intent.

"Seldom have I heard the leader of a state so clearly outline a plan that fits the legal definition of Genocide."

Jopep Borrell went on to take Europe to task for shirking its moral and humanitarian responsibilities over Gaza.

The number of demolitions since 1948  has been about 130,000.

Israel is a "brutal colonial power"; local rights group calls it "apartheid"

2)

Israel is the West's last settler colony

Israel has operated a machine of death and this week (May a strike killed dozens sheltering in Gaza school, officials say. 

The local journalists were killed while international journalists are not allowed in.

Israel's PM says Hamas's Gaza chief Mohammed Sinwar has been killed. 

"The UN's Palestinian refugee agency Unrwa says its best estimate is that Israel has razed at least 260 buildings containing around 800 apartments during "Operation Iron Wall", focusing on three refugee camps in the north of the West Bank: Jenin, Tulkarem and Nur Shams. 

Unrwa estimates that 42,000 Palestinians have been displaced from the camps since January."

BBC- Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead verified by UN are women and children

"The UN's Human Rights Office has condemned the high number of civilians killed in the war in Gaza, saying its analysis shows close to 70% of verified victims over a six-month period were women and children."

Apple from 1980: US and tax of American firms in Ireland

Martina Lyons was watched by Minister Gene Fitzgerald and Steve Jobs at the Apple facility at Hollyhill in 1980. Picture: Irish Examiner

In 1984, the Ford Motor Company's car assembly plant in Cork, Ireland, closed due to the lifting of import restrictions and increased international competition. This decision resulted in the loss of 800 jobs and the end of Ford's production in Ireland, which had begun in 1917.

Apple established its first international operations in Ireland in 1980, and a manufacturing plant in Cork, in the second city in the Republic of Ireland.

Apple in Ireland began in 1980 with a single manufacturing facility and 60 employees. Now the Irish payroll is about 6,000.

This move marked the company's first international manufacturing facility and played a significant role in Apple's global expansion.

Apple, first began operations at Hollyhill on the north side of the city in October 1980, just four years after the company was founded in California.

From 1956 to 1980, Ireland offered a zero tax rate to attract foreign companies, and eligible companies arriving in 1980 received tax holidays until 1990.

Eligible companies arriving in 1980 were given "tax holidays" until 1990. "Any multinational attracted into Ireland that was focusing on the export market paid 0 per cent corporation tax," said Barry O'Leary, a former chief executive of IDA Ireland (Industrial Development Authority).

Three US firms account for most Irish tax windfalls - Apple, Alphabet (Google), Microsoft

Dublin at night

The Irish economy expanded by a stunning 26.3% in 2015, compared to an expected rate of 7.8%. 

Foreign companies that switched their base to Ireland were included in the value of its corporate sector, pushing up the value of the state’s balance sheet.

There are about 970 US companies in Ireland, employing around 210,000 people.

Total employment was 2.78 million in December 2024.

These companies also contribute significantly to the Irish economy, spending over €41bn annually.

Many major US tech companies have a strong presence in Ireland, with some firms establishing their European headquarters there.  -

This month Apple announced that it planned to manufacture all the iPhones for the US market in India.

According to the International Data Corporation, the US accounted for about 28% of Apple’s 232.1mn global iPhone shipments in 2024.

In 2023 (published in mid-2024) the Irish Enterprise agency reported that €34.60 billion (Euros), in indigenous exports. There were no net data.

What is Ireland's exposure to the US economy and Trump's plans?

In 2023, Ireland's corporation tax receipts were highly concentrated, with three firms estimated to account for 38% of total receipts. These firms were Alphabet (Google), Apple, and Microsoft.

DUBLIN, April 30 2025 (Reuters) - Foreign multinationals paid a record 88% of all Irish corporate tax last year, with the largest 10 firms accounting for 57% of surging receipts, according to data on Wednesday that highlighted the country's vulnerability to U.S. policy changes.

A jump in corporate tax revenue from €4.6 billion ($5.24 billion) in 2014 to €28 billion last year, or 29% of all tax collected - even before an extra 11 billion euros of back taxes from Apple (AAPL.O), opens new tab is included - has transformed Ireland's public finances into the healthiest in Europe.

They are highly concentrated, with just three firms estimated to account for 38% of receipts in 2023.

Dublin expects a record budget surplus in 2024 thanks to a cash deluge from tech giants. In this episode of The Big View podcast, Pascal Saint-Amans, the architect of a landmark 2021 tax treaty, explains how the US’s failure to ratify the deal allows havens to rake in billions.

Reuters: "Ireland's goods trade surplus with the United States reached a record €50 billion ($52 billion) in 2024, according to Irish data, driven by a surge in drug exports to the U.S. 

The goods trade surplus for the whole of the EU totalled €156 billion in 2023. While Ireland had a much larger deficit in services with the US of €134 billion euros in 2023 - mainly due to U.S. companies importing valuable intellectual property and royalties - the focus of Trump's trade wars has been on closing U.S. goods deficits through the imposition of tariffs."

Fiscal Assessment Report December 2024

"These high receipts, often exceeding forecasts, are primarily driven by multinational corporations, particularly in the tech and pharmaceutical sectors. 

This influx of revenue has allowed for increased government spending and has been a key factor in the country's positive fiscal situation.

Phenomenal levels of excess corporation tax receipts, nearly €16bin every year, are keeping Ireland in surplus. Injecting these receipts into a strong economy is risky.

These receipts may well increase, but they remain high risk. Just three companies account for most of the windfalls."

"The year-end exchequer returns, published by the Department of Finance on January 2025, showed total corporation tax receipts soared 64 per cent to €39.1 billion in 2024. 

This was driven by €11 billion for Ireland from Apple, covering most of the money owed as a result of a high-profile European court ruling last September. 

The amount of money transferred to Apple was almost €3 billion higher than what the government had projected when it unveiled its budget in October.

Stripping this out, underlying corporate tax rose by €18bn about 28.1 million. While much of this was unlikely be paid every year, it came in some €1.4bn below forecast.

Tim Cook of Apple has been reported as enlisting the help of Tromph.  

Ireland's "bounty," a significant budget surplus, is largely attributed to substantial corporation tax receipts, especially from multinational companies. This has led to a situation where Ireland's public finances are heavily reliant on a relatively small number of large corporations."

Apple's shift of IP assets in 2015 is widely believed to have been responsible for a wild swing in the country's GDP that year. Finance journalist Thomas Hubert has analysed company filings to work out how much tax Apple has paid in Ireland since that IP move.

"Just three companies accounted for a third of all corporation tax collected in the Republic of Ireland between 2017 and 2021, new research suggests.

The Irish Fiscal Advisory Council (IFAC) said that amounted to €5.2bn (£4.46bn) in 2021 alone and probably increased last year.

Corporation tax is the tax that companies pay on their profits.

Ireland has been reaping a corporation tax bonanza as reforms to global rules mean major US companies are choosing to pay tax on their international profits in the country.

The Government said it will “respect the findings,” but added: “The Irish position has always been that Ireland does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies or taxpayers.”The Government said it will “respect the findings”, but added: “The Irish position has always been that Ireland does not give preferential tax treatment to any companies or taxpayers.”

"Goods for processing; Other conceptual adjustments and Merchanting (net export)"

"The IMF calculated in 2018 that a quarter of Ireland’s GDP growth could be attributed to global sales of iPhones, with other Apple units paying the Irish unit to use its IP."

It was a fiction that Apple was shipping iPhones from Ireland to China.

Apple pays Irish taxes but Apple does not book the transactions in Ireland.

To produce Modified GNI (GNI*), the GNI (Gross National Income) is adjusted for factor income of Redomiciled Companies; depreciation on R&D; Service Imports and Trade in Intellectual Property (IP) depreciation on Aircraft Leasing.

Each year from 2012/2023, an 8bn were called 'imports.'

From 510bn, the GNI* amount fell to 291bn.

€115bn came from overseas; in 2023 the per capita was Є30,000.

"Top 10 industrial firms account for half of the sector's sales "- CSO.

US reliant on China for essential goods - Plutocrats "running" government

The Policy Circle, which is based in India, says the US reliance on Chinese inputs spans 532 key product categories, including essential pharmaceuticals, consumer electronics, and rare earth elements — materials indispensable to defence, green tech, and digital innovation. 

"Beijing knows this, and has already weaponised its control over rare earths by placing American defence and tech firms on its export control list.

When a nation controls 72% of your rare earth imports, you do not pick tariff fights unless you are ready for economic masochism.

Nor is the impact of these tariffs confined to urban industries. Farmers in Trump’s heartland — soybean growers in the Midwest, poultry producers in the South — are once again collateral damage.

These are the very people who powered Trump’s rise in 2016. And they are hurting. American soybean exports to China have never recovered from the first wave of trade wars. Chinese buyers have moved to Brazil, where the grain is cheaper and the diplomacy less abrasive."

Why Trump Could Lose His Trade War With China

Opinion1| Why Trump Could Lose His Trade War With China.

The Times Opinion columnist discusses what he thinks Trump — and American policymakers  — misunderstand about China in the escalating trade war. "Credit Credit..."

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/04/15/opinion/ezra-klein-podcast-thomas-friedman.html

The New York Times in a pice by Ezra Klein in a discussion Tom Friedman: "Thinks. We’re Getting China Dangerously Wrong".

 The Times Opinion columnist discusses what he thinks Trump — and American policymakers — misunderstand about China in the escalating trade war.

Peterson Institute: "The Trump admin is embarking on an economic equivalent of the Vietnam War — war of choice that will soon result in a quagmire, undermining faith at home & abroad in trustworthiness & competence of the US — & we all know how that turned out."

"Farmers in Trump’s heartland — soybean growers in the Midwest, poultry producers in the South — are once again collateral damage. These are the very people who powered Trump’s rise in 2016. And they are hurting. American soybean exports to China have never recovered from the first wave of trade wars. Chinese buyers have moved to Brazil, where the grain is cheaper and the diplomacy less abrasive."

Adam S. Posen ["When a country (USA) is losing many billions of dollars on trade with virtually every country it does business with,” U.S. President Donald Trump famously tweeted in 2018, “trade wars are good, and easy to win.”

This week, when the Trump administration imposed tariffs of more than 100 percent on U.S. imports from China, setting off a new and even more dangerous trade war, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent offered a similar justification: 

“I think it was a big mistake, this Chinese escalation, because they’re playing with a pair of twos. What do we lose by the Chinese raising tariffs on us? We export one-fifth to them of what they export to us, so that is a losing hand for them.”

Writing in Foreign Affairs, Posen said Bessent, a billionaire and former hedge fund manager, had wrongly likened the dispute with Beijing to a game of poker in which the US held all the best cards.

Li Chenggang has been appointed China’s top international trade negotiator at the Ministry of Commerce in Beijing.

Find more statistics at Statista

Alan Beattiet of the FT: "Its not EU protectionism that hurts American carmakers abroad. The European Commission has long had an open offer to the US to cut all industrial goods tariffs including cars to nil, which the US has failed to take up. Still the sense of victimhood persists."

The Plutocrats "running" the US government

The current government is rule by the top 0.0001% (read as the top one ten thousandth per cent).

In January sixteen of Trump’s 25 wealthiest appointees and nominees were members of the 0.0001%, meaning they are among the 813 billionaires in the United States, where some 341 million of the rest of us make up the 99.9999% (earning an average yearly income of about $61,000).

Trump had a chequered business career, and some of his 0.0001% cabinet picks are incompetent.  

"Elon Musk’s outrageous wealth places him in a category all his own, as the world’s richest person. 

By contrast, cabinet members who are mere members of the top 1% – members such as J.D. Vance, Kristi Noem, and Marco Rubio – appear almost working class, even if the wealth of each is more than triple the median income Americans earn over their entire lives ($1.7 million)."

Democrat senators also get into the 1%.

Most of the 50% poorest population live in a different world to Trump and his wealthy friends.

More than 38 million Americans live in poverty. Someone is defined as “poor” when they can't afford life's necessities, like food and shelter.

 In 2022, the U.S. government set the poverty line in America at an annual income of $13,590 for a single person and $27,750 for a family of four.

According to the National Health Institute, the uber-rich don’t just have a more comfortable life, they have a longer one.

 Their research showed that, on average, the wealthiest 1% of women live 10.1 years longer than the poorest 1%. For men, the difference was even greater, with the top 1% living 14.6 years longer than the poorest 1%.

Related

The countries that lend to America

America is the sick man of the advanced world

America's 1% control 31% of wealth- 50% control 6%

Milton Friedman (1912-2006) was a Nobel laureate in economics and senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and served on President Ronald Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board. Margaret Thatcher was also a fan.

Leonard Read (1898-1983), founder of the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE), is best known for his essay "I, Pencil," which Milton Friedman used to illustrate the power of free markets and the invisible hand of the economy.

"Once, on a visit to China, a deputy minister asked, "Who in the America is in charge of materials distribution?" The question took me aback, yet it was natural. For it was almost inconceivable that a citizen from a command economy could understand how markets distribute materials among millions of people for thousands of uses untouched by political hands."

The countries that lend to America

Major foreign holders of United States treasury securities as of December 2024 (in billion U.S. dollars)

The Federal Reserve and U.S. Department of the Treasury say foreign countries held a total of 8.5 trillion U.S. dollars in U.S. treasury securities as of December 2024.

Of the total held by foreign countries, Japan has $1,059.8  and China held the greatest portions, with China holding 759 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities.

The Irish $336.2 in billion, may be related to American firms that are domiciled in Ireland.

The federal deficit

The federal deficit in 2024 was $1.8 trillion, equal to 6.4% of gross domestic product.

America is the sick man of the advanced world

U.S. healthcare spending per capita is almost twice the average of other wealthy countries

The average life expectancy in Western Europe is 83 years, while in the US it's 77 years.

Trump's America doesn't like foreigners

Europe highlights gender rules and entry risks and Finland's advisory, updated Tuesday, advises applicants to put their gender at birth. "If the applicant's recorded gender differs from their birth sex, US authorities may deny entry."

Several European countries, including Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway, have updated their travel advisories for the US, highlighting potential entry risks for transgender individuals and those with gender identity discrepancies, due to stricter US immigration measures.

'A hostile state': Why some travellers are avoiding the US

Trump signed an order on April 2, 2025, announcing global tariffs minus Russia 

Adrian Wooldridge of Bloomberg has written "If health means wealth, as the adage has it, then America’s economic future looks grim.

Traditionally, the U.S. has enjoyed a health premium. In the colonial era, American men were on average two to three inches taller than Europeans, according to military records, a fact that fascinates historical demographers because height is correlated with longevity, cognitive development and work capacity.

Today, a premium is turning into a deficit. American men are shorter on average than Northern European men, and the gap is getting bigger. Six in 10 Americans suffer from at least one chronic condition and 4 in 10 suffer from two."

"America is a sick society,” says William Galston in the Wall Street Journal. "Literally.”

Healthcare spending per capita is substantially higher in the US compared to Europe, yet the US lags behind on metrics like life expectancy and infant mortality.

Survival in the wealthiest U.S. quartile appeared to be similar to that in the poorest quartile in northern and western Europe.

The US is the sick man of the developed world.

Americans' living standards aren't nearly as good as they like to think they are.

Health expenditures per person in the U.S. were $12,555 in 2022, which was over $4,000 more than any other high-income nation. The average amount spent on health per person in comparable countries ($6,651) is about half of what the U.S. spends per person."

US personal savings are close to rock bottom

Personal Saving Rate - in 2024, the US was at 4.6%; 15.3% in the 20-country Euro Area, and 44.3% in China.

GDP per capita April 2025: Ireland at $107.24 but is fake and Є30 thousands is correct

IMF April 2025 GDP per capita, current prices: US dollars per capita

Switzerland 111. 72; Ireland 107 .24; Singapore 93. 96; Norway 90. 35; US 89. 68; Denmark 71. 97; Netherlands 70.61. 61; Australia 67. 98; Austria 61. 08; Sweden 59. 51; Germany 57. 91. Canada 55. 89; UK 54. 28; New Zeland 48. 23; Italy 41. 71; Spain 37: 36; Russia 15. 08 and others.

In 2023 (published in mid-2024) the Irish Enterprise agency reported that €34.60 billion (Euros), in indigenous exports. There were no net data.

In 2023, the European Union (population of 449 million) and the UK (population of 68 million) bought just about €10 million from indigenous firms in Ireland.

European Union at the start of 2024: "The highest relative share of foreign-born individuals within the total population was in Luxembourg (51.0% of the resident population), followed by Malta (30.8%), Cyprus (26.9%), Ireland (22.6%), Austria (22.1%), Sweden (20.6%) and Germany (20.2%). By contrast, foreign-born individuals represented less than 5% of the population in Poland (2.6% of its resident population on 1 January 2024), Romania (3.1%), Bulgaria (3.3%) and Slovakia (3.9%)."

The Irish population was at 5.4 million in April 2024.

Mainly American firms give the impression that Ireland's per capita GDP is the second highest in the world.

It is in line with Portugal's.

Amazon's Jeff Bezos gift of $40 million to Melania Trump; Donald Trump's crypto project netted at least $350 million

Canadian prime minister Justin Trudeau slammed the US president for launching a trade war against "their closest partner and ally, their closest friend," favoring “talking about working positively with Russia, appeasing Vladimir Putin, aligning with a murderous dictator.”

Trudeau says Trump’s "dumb" tariff trade war is designed to collapse the Canadian economy.

Trudeau also rejected Trump’s repeated taunts that Canada should cede its sovereignty and join the US: “That is never going to happen. We will never be the 51st state.”

The Financial Times says "Trump’s crypto project made at least $350mn from the launch of his memecoin, a windfall that is likely to fuel concerns over conflicts of interest arising from the token. 

Digital wallets owned by the entities running the scheme earned the money from sales of $TRUMP in the three weeks after it was launched in January, according to a Financial Times analysis of blockchain data."

New York CNN — "President Donald Trump established a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and a stockpile of other digital assets through an executive order on Thursday, shortly before hosting a crypto summit at the White House."

The Treasury Department will set up an office to administer the reserve, which will be capitalized with Bitcoin (BTC) confiscated by the government as part of criminal or civil asset forfeiture proceedings, according to the order. “Bitcoin is the original cryptocurrency,” the order said. “Because there is a fixed supply of BTC, there is a strategic advantage to being among the first nations to create a strategic bitcoin reserve.”

Zelensky for 2025 Nobel Peace Prize? as Trump takes his guide from Moscow

President Volodymyr Zelensky leaving the White House after a heated meeting with President Trump, 28 February, 2025

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded in Norway by a five-member committee appointed by the Norwegian Storting (parliament). The first Nobel Peace Prize was awarded in 1901.

The Nobel Peace Prize is awarded on December 10th in Oslo, Norway.

Chemist, engineer, inventor, businessman, and philanthropist Alfred Nobel (1833–1896) built a fortune selling explosives and ammunition and investing in petroleum companies. Even though he sold weapons, he hoped that his inventions would eventually remove the need for wars entirely.

In his will Alfred Nobel laid out who he wanted to be responsible for the selection of the Nobel Prize laureates. The prizes were to be awarded by Swedish institutions – apart from the peace prize, whose award was to be decided by a committee of five persons elected by the Norwegian Parliament.

Norway's national assembly (Storting) declared an end to the union with Sweden on June 7, 1905.

The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 142 Nobel Prize laureates between 1901 and 2024, 111 individuals and 31 organisations. Since the International Committee of the Red Cross has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize three times (in 1917, 1944 and 1963), and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize two times (in 1954 and 1981), there are 28 individual organisations which have been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Click on the links to get more information.

Trump's appeasement is worse than Neville Chamberlain in 1938

1% of Americans get almost 33% of the wealth while 53 million (44% of all workers) have a median annual wage of only $24,000 The U.S. resembles an emerging market.

Neville Chamberlain, the British Prime Minister (1937-1940), holds up a copy of the Munich Agreement in September 1938, which he signed with Adolf Hitler.

The Munich Agreement was agreed in Munich on 30 September 1938, by Nazi Germany, the United Kingdom, the French Republic, and Fascist Italy.

At Munich, Chamberlain got an international agreement that Hitler should have the Sudetenland (Sudetenland was a region in Czechoslovakia that was predominantly German-inhabited. It was located in northern and western Bohemia and northern Moravia. In exchange for Germany making no further demands for land in Europe.)

Chamberlain said on his return home from the pact with Hitler, it was: "Peace with honour, Peace for our time."

Hitler said he had "No more territorial demands to make in Europe."

America's 1% control 31% of wealth- 50% control 6%

Elon Musk in the Oval Office, Feb. 11, about cost-cutting in the federal government.

The world’s richest man and government official Elon Musk has accused federal workers of unfairly getting rich off the taxpayers, citing, without evidence, “quite a few” with a net worth of tens of millions of dollars.

Musk’s own companies have accepted over $20bn+ in taxpayer funds in the form of contracts, tax breaks, and other subsidies.

Upgraded to $38bn according to The Washington Post on 28 February, 2025. 

“We find it sort of rather odd that there are quite a few people in the bureaucracy who have ostensibly a salary of a few hundred thousand dollars but somehow manage to accrue tens of millions of dollars in net worth while they are in that position,” Musk said.

“I think the reality is they’re getting wealthy at taxpayer expense,” he added.

The Fortune magazine said "Neither Musk nor President Trump offered any evidence of corruption or improper enrichment that might explain federal employees allegedly getting rich off their government roles, and DOGE (Department of Government Efficiency) did not respond to Fortune’s request for examples.

Irish poor voters as US improve and Nordic stars

The 2024 Irish general election to elect the 34th Dáil (Parliament) took place on Friday, 29 November 2024.

National voter turnout at 59.71% was down 3.19% on the general election in February 2020 when it was 62.9%.

The International Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance (International IDEA) based in Stockholm, has a database of the Voting Age Population (VAP), as well as the number of Registered Voters (REG) as indicators of political participation.

The VAP figure includes an estimated number of all those citizens over the legal voting age, while the registration rate comprises the actual number of people on the voters’ roll.

The VAP Turnout for Ireland on 29 November 2024 was 54.86% and 85.17% in 1977.

Country data are found here.

Ireland's VAP Turnout rate was only 56.65% in the general election of 2020; 58.04% in 2016 and 63.78% in 2011.

In Age of Conflict only 7.8% of World Population in Full Democracies

Europe and Britain struggle in changing markets in 2025

In Europe 2024, the STOXX 600 ended the 52 weeks with a gain of 6%, according to Reuters. The STOXX and the American S&P 500 tracked each other from the early 1990s but from about 2012, the 500 never looked back.

The Financial Times at the year-end reported that Germany has an answer to US “magnificent seven” (Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Meta Platforms, Microsoft, NVIDIA, and Tesla).

Wiltons still going strong as one of London's oldests restaaurants

Wiltons is most known for its oysters which one would expect as George William Wilton first opened his shellfish mongers close to Haymarket in 1742.

"It is located in Jermyn Street in the heart of London’s St James’s, is one of London’s oldest restaurants and is steeped in elegance and tradition. 

EU house prices up by 48% in less than 10 years

In less than 10 years, between 2015 and 2023, house prices in the European Union (EU) on average rose by 48%.

The biggest increase is marked in Hungary, where prices rose 173%, and the lowest in Finland, with just 5%.

Juho Keskinen, a Finish economist, has said that the capital region of Helsinki rose to levels that are unattainable for many low and middle-income earners.”

The situation is a consequence of both wage growth and house price decreases, according to Keskinen.

"In regions where house prices have risen only modestly for an extended period of time – namely, regions outside the largest population centres – the main determining factor has been wage growth.

In Helsinki, Tampere and Turku, for example, house prices have seen more dramatic increases, as well as decreases, in recent decades."

Europe imports 80% of digital tech; trade-to-GDP ratio above 50% and German debt brake

In September 2024 Mario Draghi, the former president of the European Central Bank (ECB) presented a report on Europe to Ursula von der Leyen, head of the European Commission:

The Future of European Competitiveness – A Competitiveness Strategy for Europe.

On 26 July 2012, then ECB President Mario Draghi gave the so-called “whatever it takes” speech, which now is widely considered as the turnaround point in the European sovereign debt crisis.

Shortly after, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced the details of its outright monetary transactions programme (OMT) tool.

Germany again the sick man of Europe

Czar Nicholas I of Russia in 1853 is said to have described the Ottoman Empire as the "Sick man of Europe." 

The phrase "the sick man of Europe" appeared in The New York Times in 1860.

The empire's decline was very long and after the Second World War, France, Britain and Italy earned the label "the sick man of Europe."

In 1967 the British government devalued the pound sterling against other currencies.

Harold Wilson, the prime minister said “From now on, the pound abroad is worth 14% or so less in terms of other currencies. That doesn’t mean, of course, that the pound here in Britain, in your pocket or purse or in your bank, has been devalued.” 

In 1971 President Nixon ended the postwar system where currencies were fixed to the dollar.

In 1976 the UK government called on the International Monetary (IMF) for a bailout.

Germany

Etihad Airways needs to address its failings

An Etihad Airways aircraft at Dublin Airport

Not too long ago, the American market dominated intercontinental flights serving Dublin, Ireland. Now, almost 50 airlines in total, are in the market. From the Middle East, Etihad Airways, Emirates and Qatar Airways service Dublin.

Etihad is the national airline of Abu Dhabi, which is part of the 7-country United Arab Emirates. Abu Dhabi is the largest Emirate in the UAE, occupying 84% of the nation's land. It has 200 islands and a 700-km-long coastline. The total area is 67,340 square kilometres, and Abu Dhabi City is the federal capital of the UAE.

Emirates is based at Dubai International Airport (DXB) in Garhoud, Duba. The airline operates out of Terminal 3, where flights arrive and depart from gates A, B, or C. Emirates says its the largest airline in the Middle East, with a fleet of almost 250 aircraft. It flies to more than 150 cities in 80 countries across six continents.

On October 15, 2024, at 6:00 a.m., I took a taxi from my hotel in Dublin. I had taken a flight to Dublin from Kuala Lumpur on October 1, 2024, using Etihad.

The scheduled 9:00 am flight from Dublin to Abu Dhabi on October 15 and a connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur were delayed until after 10:00 am.

About 20 minutes before arrival in Abu Dhabi a British staffer said people planning to go to Kuala Lumpur may be OK but if not the ground staff would help.

The Abu Dhabi airport has almost 100 gates. So it's a large place

I got a small piece of paper for instructions and that was it. (see the detail below).

Even the piece of paper missed that I had to go through two different screenings.

I went to LEVEL 3 but it was about 9:00 pm and relevant staff were not at their desks.

After about 40 minutes in a car, I arrived at Abi Dhabi's Marriott Bonvoy hotel. The staff was pleasant and I had 8 minutes in the restaurant before closure at 10:00 but it was poor.

I would give the hotel a 2-star.

I was in Business Class, which didn't matter.

On the 16th at 5 am I was picked up for a trip to the airport.

Ethid needs to improve its services and even on some of the long-haul aircraft, there is no onboard entertainment. 

__________________________________________________________ 

      Please go to ARRIVALS - LEVEL 0 and clear UAE Immigration

       After you have cleared Immigration, please proceed

      To Departures Area (LEVEL 3), Guest Services Desk (in front of

      Row C) for the transportation.           

 __________________________________________________________                  

World’s Top 100 Airlines 2024

Last Updated June 2024 - The Passenger's Choice Awards

This ranking of the top 100 airlines has been in operation for a quarter century.

"Qatar Airways has been voted the World’s Best Airline at the 2024 World Airline Awards, the eighth time that the airline has scooped the Airline of the Year title in the 25-year history of the awards"

Misinformation and amnesia from the American super rich

A large-scale Bloomberg analysis reveals that Elon Musk has been spreading debunked theories of undocumented voters swaying the US election, and growing his influence in the process — making him the biggest promoter of anti-immigrant conspiracies on X, the social media platform he owns. Bloomberg's Sarah Frier joined Caroline Hyde and Ed Ludlow on "Bloomberg Technology."

If Trump loses, he and Mussk will say that hordes of migrants aided the Democrats.

"My colleagues and I recently did a major data analysis of Elon Musk’s posts about immigration and voter fraud. He frames migration to the US as something chaotic, unchecked and scary — and a tool that could be weaponized by the Democrats to rig the election in November. Musk owns X, and has more than 200 million followers. Immigration and voter fraud has become his most popular policy topic online, our analysis found."

Washington Post says Musk was an illegal alien

The Washington Post said Elon Musk denied in a late-night post having worked illegally in the United States, following the report that said Musk lacked the legal status to build the start-up that made him a millionaire in the 1990s.

“I was in fact allowed to work in the US,” Musk wrote on X, the platform he bought in 2022.

The Post says Musk has become a vociferous critic of the administration’s handling of immigration, decrying what he calls “open borders” and warning of the perils of illegal immigration. On his X feed he often laments the flood of “illegals” and baselessly alleges that it is part of a massive voter importation scheme.

President Biden on 26 October: “That wealthiest man in the world turned out to be [an] illegal worker here when he was here,” he said in Pittsburgh.

Biden added “I’m serious. He was supposed to be in school when he came on a student visa. He wasn’t in school. He was violating the law. He’s talking about all these illegals coming our way?”

In a 2005 email obtained by The Post, Musk wrote about his arrival in the United States in 1995.

He had applied to a Stanford University graduate program, which he did not end up attending, so he could stay in the country.

“I had no money for a lab and no legal right to stay in the country, so that seemed like a good way to solve both issues,” Musk wrote.

According to federal immigration regulations that were in effect in the mid-1990s, foreign students with a J-1 visa were allowed to work only in limited circumstances if they were in “good academic standing” and pursuing a “full course of study.”

Musk has previously said: “I was legally there, but I was meant to be doing student work. I was allowed to do work sort of supporting whatever."

Like many Irish students, I had a J-1 visa, but it was not for permanent residence. 

Musk, a South African native, did not attend Stanford classes when he arrived in Palo Alto in late 1995; instead, he worked to build a company.

This means that he was in the US as an illegal alien.