Foreign Office,
November 2nd, 1917.

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet:

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country".

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist 
Federation.

Yours sincerely

Arthur James Balfour

Rothschild, a wealthy Jewish businessman in London, asked Author Balfour, the Foreign Secretary, to help facilitate the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people, even though. 

In December 1916, Balfour became Foreign Secretary in David Lloyd George's coalition.

Lionel Walter Rothschild, 2nd Baron Rothschild (1868-1937) was a wealthy London businessman who had lobbied for a home for Jews.

And then the Jews in Palestine were a tiny minority (merely 6%) in Palestine. In 1916, Jewish ownership of land in Palestine was approximately 6% of the total area. 

In 1922, Jews were 11%.

Rothschild, a wealthy Jewish businessman, who asked Balfour to help facilitate the creation of a homeland for the Jewish people even though they were a tiny minority (merely 6%) in Palestine.

Deeply influenced by the views of Ahad Ha’am and Herzl, Weizmann became involved in Zionist activity, alongside Leo Motzkin, Nahman Syrkin, and Shmaryahu Levin. He felt that Judaism implied not merely religion but peoplehood. 

Possessing their own language, culture, and common historical memory, the Jewish people were entitled to return to their historical land and live there in safety. Weizmann, therefore rejected the idea that Uganda could replace the Land of Israel as a homeland for the Jews. At the same time, he began working as a scientist at the University of Manchester in England, a nation which he viewed as one of legal freedoms, moderation, and political realism.

Understanding that Jews and Arabs would have to live together in the Land of Israel, Weizmann strove to create peaceful coexistence between the two peoples. Thus he met in Aqaba with Emir Faisal, leader of the Arab national movement. Faisal expressed sympathy for the Zionist cause, which he felt was similar to the Arabs’ national
aspirations.
 
In 1919, Weizmann and Faisal signed an agreement of cooperation between the two national movements, Jewish and Arab, for the development of the Land of Israel.
 

Weizmann believed that only peace and neighborly relations could guarantee political and economic vigor. Thus he supported the partition of the Land of Israel into two states: Jewish and Arab. Turning to the Arab population in the land, he stated: “We do not build our national home at the expense of another nation. We wish to build Palestine with you, together.”

“Weizmann’s disdain for Polish Jewry and Eastern European Jewry in general, was first of all a rebellion against the culture from which he himself stemmed,” said Reinharz.

“He adopted the elitism of the upper-class English man,” said Reinharz. “The result was a feeling of contempt toward the Jews in the eastern European villages and cities, their dress, their mode of living and their religious beliefs. He was not willing to live with them, but he was ready to die for them,” he said.

Overshadowed by Theodore Herzl and David Ben-Gurion in the Zionist pantheon, Weizmann is most comparable to Mahatma Gandhi, said Reinharz.

Genocide: Israel, United States and apartheid regime

Pope Leo XIV leads the Angelus prayer in Castel Gandolfo, Italy, July 20, 2025. REUTERS/Yara Nardi

“I appeal to the international community to observe humanitarian law and respect the obligation to protect civilians as well as the prohibition of collective punishment, the indiscriminate use of force, and the forced displacement of populations,” the pope added.

The shelling of the Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza also damaged the church compound, where hundreds of Palestinians have been sheltering from the Israel-Hamas war, now in its 21st month. Israel expressed regret over what it described as an accident and said it was investigating.

An Israeli organisation has said, "The Israeli regime enacts in all the territory it controls, Israeli sovereign territory, East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip, an apartheid regime."

"Apartheid was a system of racial segregation and discrimination enforced in South Africa from 1948 to 1994. It was a legal system that enforced racial segregation and political and economic discrimination against the non-white majority population. 

The system classified people into racial groups (white, black, colored, and Asian) and restricted their rights and opportunities based on their racial classification."

In a Six-Day War in 1967, Israel captured the Golan Heights, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, the West Bank, and gained sole control of Jerusalem.

"How Netanyahu Prolonged the War in Gaza to Stay in Power Secret meetings, altered records, ignored intelligence: the inside story of the prime minister’s political calculations since Oct. 7."

According to The New York Times: "Six months into the war in the Gaza Strip, Benjamin Netanyahu was preparing to bring it to a halt. Negotiations were underway for an extended cease-fire with Hamas, and he was ready to agree to a compromise. 

"He had dispatched an envoy to convey Israel’s new position to the Egyptian mediators. Now, at a meeting at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, he needed to get his cabinet onboard. He had kept the plan off the meeting’s written agenda. The idea was to reveal it suddenly, preventing resistant ministers from coordinating their response."

The Israeli pm during final meeting with Donald Trump in early in July 2025.  He is a convicted felon with his wife. He is hoping that he will win the Israeli national polls in 2026.

"Since its establishment in 1948, the United States has provided Israel with significant financial and military aid, totalling over $300 billion in today's dollars.

Initially, aid focused on economic assistance for resettlement and development, but by the 1970s, it shifted primarily to military aid. This aid has helped Israel develop a strong military, particularly in areas like missile defense, and has fostered a strong security partnership between the two nations. "

https://usafacts.org/articles/how-much-military-aid-does-the-us-give-to-israel/

Israel was the second largest recipient of US aid of any country in 2019 

American politicians have for years criticised Israelis building on Palestinian land, but it is ignored.

This year, Palestinian houses have been bulldozed. It's common.

The United Nations human rights chief said in Geneva the situation "risks spiralling out of control" and he urged Israel to comply with international law.

But an extremist Ben-Gvir called for tougher action. "We must launch a military operation, bring down buildings, eliminate terrorists, not one or two but dozens and hundreds and if necessary thousands," he said.

Israel banned international journals from Geza.

Gaza: one of the most intense bombardments in history?

 

Starvation

Israeli forces have killed over 1,000 aid-seekers of food in Gaza since May with hunger worsening, UN body says:

US-Israeli backed Gaza aid group must be shut down, say 170 charities.

"At least 798 people have been killed while seeking food at distribution points operated by the US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation and other humanitarian convoys since the end of May, the UN human rights office said on Friday."

The GHF, proposed by Israel as an alternative to the UN aid system in Gaza, has been almost universally condemned by rights groups for its violation of principles of humanitarian impartiality and what they have said could be complicity in war crimes.

“Up until 7 July, we’ve recorded now 798 killings, including 615 in the vicinity of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (United States), and 183 presumably on the route of aid convoys,” the UN spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva. "

The Hamas attack on October 7,  2023, was inevitable to bring a huge response in Israel. However, a wasteland, starvation and the deaths of children and women were avoidable.

‘Unimaginable horrors’: more than 50,000 children reportedly killed or injured in the Gaza Strip. Statement by UNICEF Regional Director for the Middle East and North Africa, Edouard Beigbeder

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.