Latest news with #WesternCivilization
New York Times
3 days ago
- Health
- New York Times
You Don't Have to Be a Doctor to Understand This
I don't know exactly when I was infected with Ebola. As a doctor in a treatment center in Guinea in 2014, I faced hundreds of potential exposures during the outbreak there. If I had to guess, the virus probably breached my protective gear while my colleagues and I cared for a young woman in the final moments of her battle with the disease. Each time she vomited or soiled herself, we changed her linens, gently laying her listless body back onto clean, burgundy floral sheets. I knew this ritual wouldn't save her life. I also knew it carried substantial personal risk. But I refused to let her die without dignity. I know there are many who would do the same. You may never find yourself in a treatment center halfway across the world, but when suffering is close enough to touch, most of us feel the same human instinct to offer a helping hand, to not turn away. America's leaders are increasingly casting aside empathy and compassionate care as dangerous liabilities. Elon Musk has called empathy 'the fundamental weakness of Western civilization,' and the Trump administration governs as if that is a guiding principle. The growing philosophical backlash against empathy overlooks a deeper truth: America's strength has never come from isolation or indifference, but from an instinct to care beyond our borders. If we allow the Trump administration's assault on empathy to define our global health agenda, or ourselves, we won't just be turning away from the world — we'll be turning away from who we are. The belief that we have a responsibility to others isn't shortsighted sentimentalism; it's the moral foundation of a meaningful life. Historically, the United States has strongly supported — strategically, financially and philosophically — the individuals and organizations carrying out this kind of care. I've worked alongside health care providers responding to crises abroad because they recognize it's where their skills are most meaningful and others who do it because of a spiritual duty to serve the suffering and uphold human dignity. Collectively, we were driven by the conviction that it was the morally right thing to do. The United States government, and perhaps many Americans, no longer view global health in the same way. This is despite the fact that American involvement has helped eradicate smallpox, halved malaria deaths in many countries and prevented an estimated 26 million deaths through the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR. All told, U.S. global health support saves 3.3 million lives a year — or at least did, before its recent and rapid dismantling. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
The Guardian
26-06-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Trump news at a glance: ‘Daddy' Trump showered with praise on triumphant lap through Nato summit
On the back of hailing US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities as a 'victory for everybody', president Trump has claimed success at the Nato summit in The Hague, praising the commitment by Nato allies to boost defence spending to 5% of GDP. The US president described the summit as 'a very historic milestone'. It was, he said, 'something that no one really thought possible. And they said: 'You did it, sir, you did it'. Well, I don't know if I did it … but I think I did.' The US president also received sycophantic praise from Nato secretary general Mark Rutte who, referring to Trump's foul mouthed outburst about Iran and Israel a day earlier, said rather remarkably: 'Daddy sometimes has to use strong language'. Here are the key stories at a glance: A relaxed Donald Trump said Nato's decision to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP was a 'big win' for western civilisation in a digressive press conference at a summit in The Hague where he reaffirmed the US's commitment to the military alliance. Read the full story Donald Trump and the US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, have admitted to some doubt over the scale of the damage inflicted on Iran's nuclear sites by the US bombing at the weekend, after a leaked Pentagon assessment said the Iranian programme had been set back by only a few months. Read the full story Voice of America (VOA) may have been used to broadcast Donald Trump's message to Iranians in Farsi during weekend military strikes, the president's senior adviser told Congress on Wednesday, revealing how the crumbling, traditionally independent news service is possibly functioning as a conduit for presidential messaging. Read the full story The attorney general, Pam Bondi, professed ignorance of reports of immigration officials hiding their faces with masks during round-ups of undocumented people, despite widespread video evidence and reports that they are instilling pervasive fear and panic. Read the full story A court in Costa Rica has ordered authorities to release foreign migrants who were locked up in a shelter after being deported by the US. About 200 people from Afghanistan, Iran, Russia as well as from Africa and some other Asian countries, including 80 children, were brought to the Central American nation in February under an agreement with the US administration of Donald Trump, a move criticized by human rights organizations. Read the full story Plans to open a massive federal immigration processing center in a California desert community has sparked outrage among advocacy groups who argue it will come at a 'long-term cost' and 'fuel harm'. Read the full story The first meeting of a critical federal vaccine panel was a high-profile display of how the US health secretary and vaccine skeptic Robert F Kennedy Jr has injected chaos into vaccine policy infrastructure. Read the full story Donald Trump and CBS could settle their legal battle over a contested interview with Kamala Harris for $20m as the dispute continues to shadow a major media merger. The New Jersey Democratic representative who is facing felony charges after a recent incident during a visit to an Ice detention facility pleaded not guilty in federal court. The vice-mayor of a small California city is under fire after appearing to call on street gangs to organize in the face of immigration sweeps by federal agents in Los Angeles. Catching up? Here's what happened on 24 June 2025.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
GOP pundit says he knows why Trump must attack Iran, but ‘MAGA idiots' will never understand
President Donald Trump's insistence on preventing Iran from getting nukes is "not only critical for peace in the region but for the preservation of Western Civilization‚" according to a veteran GOP pundit who's freshly returned from the Middle East. And voices on the right agitating against a U.S. intervention couldn't be more wrong, Scott Jennings, a former aide to both President George W. Bush and former U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., wrote for The Daily Mail. Those arguments against U.S. action, which Trump is reportedly now mulling, "range from pure isolationism to some bizarre sympathy for Iran and hate for Israel. Many have exposed their ignorance by asking: 'What has Iran ever done to us?' proving that there is such a thing as a stupid question," he wrote. In a post to Truth Social last week, Trump exhorted the Iranian government to come to the negotiating table as the nation traded missile attacks with Israel. 'I gave Iran chance after chance to make a deal. I told them, in the strongest of words, to 'just do it,' but no matter how hard they tried, no matter how close they got, they just couldn't get it done,' Trump wrote. 'I told them it would be much worse than anything they know, anticipated, or were told, that the United States makes the best and most lethal military equipment anywhere in the World, BY FAR, and that Israel has a lot of it, with much more to come - And they know how to use it.' Jennings wrote that he watched as Iranian missiles rained down on Israel and 'with every Iranian missile I saw, I thought: 'Boy, I'm glad that thing doesn't have a nuclear warhead on it.' 'In those observations lie the great question for President Trump: Should the United States allow a radical dictatorship that seeks to kill innocents, fund terrorism and lead its followers in chants of 'Death to America' possess a nuclear weapon?' he continued. 'The answer is quite obviously 'Hell no!'' he concluded. The hostilities continued unabated on Friday, even as Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi arrived in Switzerland for meetings with the European Union's top diplomat and counterparts from the United Kingdom, France and Germany, The Associated Press reported. Writing for The Daily Mail, Jennings insisted that Trump, not his critics, knew the best path forward for the country for dealing with Iran. 'Trump, and Trump alone, decides what it means to be 'America First.' And the vast majority of the MAGA movement will support the president if he decides to move against Iran, which does not have to include putting 'boots on the ground' in Iran,' he wrote. 'Trump is not an isolationist, despite some of his supporters trying to impute this idea to him in desperate social media posts. The president has always been for smart engagement, but that doesn't mean no engagement,' Jennings continued. Read the original article on MassLive.
The Independent
23-06-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
This is a good moment for Israel to be magnanimous and stop the war with Iran
There is only one overriding policy decision that Israel can and needs to make at this point: take the win and stop the war with Iran. A day after three underground nuclear sites were effectively put out of use by US air strikes, Israel seemed keen to escalate its own bombardment, launching a new attack on "access routes" to one of the obliterated uranium enrichment facilities. Such a pointless act of attrition cannot conceivably benefit Israel. A continuation of the war under the guise of 'there are more quality targets to hit' only solidifies a pattern of behaviour. Crucially, a protracted war leads to a more complicated proposition: that Israel is flirting with effecting 'regime change' in Iran. However appealing the idea may sound to the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, from a geo-strategic point of view and from his historical perspective of himself as the saviour of western civilisation, it is delusional in its unfeasibility, reckless in the consequences it would generate, and exudes unwise triumphalism from a country of 10 million towards a country of 90 million. Euphoria is a fickle and misleading state of mind on which to base major policy. Those preaching 'regime change' sound very sanctimonious to themselves but conveniently forget Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Vietnam or Cambodia. The only successful examples in modern history of externally imposed regime change were Germany and Japan in 1945, and it took a world war and years of de facto occupation to complete the task. The major question in the next 72 hours is whether or not Iran will attack US forces in a retaliatory strike – its so-called 'decisive response' – or target Arab Gulf oil facilities, or mine or block the Strait of Hormuz, through which 25 per cent of the world's oil and 20 per cent of liquefied natural gas flows. But what if Iran makes a more rational strategic choice and refrains from any such retaliation at all? Then it is Israel that is left with the decision to stop or continue with what risks becoming a 'forever war'. When Israel began its military strikes on June 13 – which were phenomenally successful – it achieved three formidable goals: first, it further weakened Iran's geopolitical position, already diminished in 2024 with the debilitating loss of regional proxies. Second, it established overwhelming and dominant Israeli air superiority in the region for the foreseeable future. Third, it appears to have critically set back Iran's military nuclear programme and caused major damage to nuclear facilities. The mission was accomplished, even if not by 100 per cent. Now would be a good time to be smart and know when to leave the table. How might this be done? Following the massive US bombardment of Iranian nuclear sites in Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan, I can imagine the following scenario: Israel declares victory, announces a unilateral and immediate cessation of hostilities with Tehran, albeit conditional on an Iranian reciprocal move, which need not necessarily be announced, just executed. Israel then explicitly states that any Iranian transgressions, or any credible intelligence indicating an attempt to revive the nuclear programme, will have grave consequences. If the ostensible objective of Israel's war was to neutralise, set back and destroy Iran's military nuclear project as much as possible – and if, as the US and Israel both believe, despite the lack of a conclusive BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment), that this has been achieved – then there is no compelling reason for further military activity. There is a case to be made that, under these circumstances, given the dominant Israeli techno-military achievement, there may not even be an urgent reason to conduct tedious negotiations on a new nuclear deal. What for? Instead, a series of understandings and principles will be formulated to govern the new reality. In due time, sanctions on Iran could be lifted, since there is now no military nuclear programme. In the 5th-century BCE, the Chinese strategist-philosopher Sun Tzu wrote a military-political treatise, The Art of War, a 13-chapter compilation of thoughts on military strategies. One proposed concept was what he called a Golden Bridge: 'Build your opponent a Golden Bridge to retreat across.' The idea may be counterintuitive to the natural ambition to win a war decisively. In contemporary jargon, it is called an 'off-ramp' – a way to avoid cornering the enemy and forcing him to desperately keep on fighting by offering a dignified, face-saving formula to effectively end the conflict. The Iranian regime may not deserve a golden bridge. But a ceasefire would, nonetheless, be the smart and realist thing to do.
Al Jazeera
23-06-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Iranian ambassador condemns US strikes after IAEA meeting
Iranian ambassador condemns US strikes after IAEA meeting NewsFeed A senior Iranian diplomat condemned the US strikes on its nuclear sites, after attending an emergency meeting of nuclear watchdog the IAEA. Reza Najafi said the attacks marked a 'collapse' of the principles underpinning Western civilisation. Video Duration 01 minutes 02 seconds 01:02 Video Duration 01 minutes 10 seconds 01:10 Video Duration 01 minutes 42 seconds 01:42 Video Duration 00 minutes 23 seconds 00:23 Video Duration 00 minutes 21 seconds 00:21 Video Duration 00 minutes 55 seconds 00:55 Video Duration 01 minutes 04 seconds 01:04
