Tag: World Economic Forum

  • ‘Colonial Apartheid Regime’: Jeremy Scahill on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ & Plans For Gaza

    ‘Colonial Apartheid Regime’: Jeremy Scahill on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ & Plans For Gaza

    So, the U.S. has plans to build a huge military base there for their international occupation force. The Israelis are in control of nearly 60% of Gaza in the east of the strip. They don’t seem to have any intent of leaving.

    “World Economic Forum Annual Meeting” by World Economic Forum, CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

    ‘Colonial Apartheid Regime’: Jeremy Scahill on Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ & Plans For Gaza  

    By Democracy Now! / ScheerPost / February 21, 2026

    Journalist Jeremy Scahill says the Trump administration’s vision for the Gaza Strip is of a continued “colonial apartheid regime” with Israel and U.S. interests controlling the lives of millions of Palestinians in perpetuity. “Palestinians are being told that they must completely surrender,” says Scahill. President Trump chaired the first meeting of his so-called Board of Peace this week, a body established for Gaza but whose remit has already expanded.

    Transcript

    This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.

    AMY GOODMAN: I want to go back for a moment before we end to the so-called Board of Peace. President Trump speaking at it in Washington, D.C., on Thursday.

    PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: The war in Gaza is over. It’s over. There are little flames. Little flames. Hamas has been—I think they’re going to give up their weapons, which is what they promised. If they don’t, they will be harshly met. Very harshly met. They don’t want that.

    AMY GOODMAN: This was the inaugural meeting of the so-called Board of Peace, Trump’s new initiative to create an alternative to the United Nations. By the way, the Pope has refused to join it, talking about it as a threat to the United Nations. Trump vowed to provide $10 billion in U.S. funds to the board, even though Congress has not approved any such spending, and has named himself the group’s chair for life. Among Trump’s board key proposals is to turn Gaza into an upscale seaside resort with gleaming skyscrapers and entirely new cities. Your final comment on this?

    JEREMY SCAHILL: Let’s skip forward from all of the ridiculous pageantry of the scene at the Board of Peace and talk about what’s really happening here. Palestinians are being told that they must completely surrender not just Kalashnikovs and other weapons that they would use to defend themselves against Israeli occupation, but the very cause of Palestinian liberation or self-determination. What Palestinians in Gaza are being faced with is you either fully bend the knee and accept a colonial apartheid regime as your overseer, that you accept a new reality as dystopian plantation workers on Jared Kushner’s real estate project, or we’re going to kill you. That is what is being said here.

    So, the U.S. has plans to build a huge military base there for their international occupation force. The Israelis are in control of nearly 60% of Gaza in the east of the strip. They don’t seem to have any intent of leaving. You have a reeducation program that Israel’s foreign minister spoke of at this so-called Board of Peace meeting yesterday and said that it begins with disarmament and demilitarization and then deradicalization. So if you are a Palestinian family, what they’re saying to you is your children need to be raised to accept that Zionism is going to dominate their lives now, that colonial apartheid regime is going to dominate your lives now, and if you dare think otherwise we erase you from the earth.

    They still very well may try to mass-remove Palestinians but it does seem that the plan right now is to turn them into the plantation workers for Jared Kushner’s real estate plans moving forward, while you have Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority rewriting the Palestinian constitution alongside France and other Western powers to try to ban any Palestinians that don’t accept the Oslo Accords, don’t accept Israeli colonialism, from ever running for office.

    So what they want to do is put in this Palestinian technocratic committee in Gaza and force them to essentially be like Mahmoud Abbas where you are the mayors of a large prison camp run by the United States and Israel, and the residents of this prison camp are just keeping the land until Israeli settlers can come in and take it over. That’s what this Board of Peace is entirely about.

    AMY GOODMAN: And Israel has just joined the Board of Peace. Jeremy Scahill, I want to thank you for being with us, co-founder of Drop Site News. We will link to your new piece ‘This is Not a Dress Rehearsal’: U.S. Engaged in Massive Military Buildup as Threat To Bomb Iran Grows.

    Democracy Now!

    Democracy Now! produces a daily, global, independent news hour hosted by award-winning journalists Amy Goodman and Juan González. Our reporting includes breaking daily news headlines and in-depth interviews with people on the front lines of the world’s most pressing issues. On Democracy Now!, you’ll hear a diversity of voices speaking for themselves, providing a unique and sometimes provocative perspective on global events.

    Author Site

    In one of the scariest moments in modern history, we’re doing our best at ScheerPost to pierce the fog of lies that conceal it but we need some help to pay our writers and staff. Please consider a tax-deductible donation.

    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    To subscribe: Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media. Donate now to sustain Wings of Change.

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others. 

    Join us on Wings of Change

    We still have much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration. Here in Minnesota we are particularly  targeted by the Trump regime with ICE immigrant law enforcement illegally arresting and deporting our neighbors who are mostly people of color. In spite of promises to withdraw ICE, the arrests continue. Other cities have been targeted as well, and they will try to target more.

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions
    to participate in the process of change.
    Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people,
    can transform the world.”
    — Howard Zinn

  • Eight wars settled and Chinese windfarms: factchecking Trump’s Davos claims, by Joseph Gedeon

    Eight wars settled and Chinese windfarms: factchecking Trump’s Davos claims, by Joseph Gedeon

    Donald Trump’s address at the World Economic Forum in Davos featured a parade of dubious claims about everything from peace deals to windfarms. Several assertions ranged from exaggerated to provably false.

     

    Donald Trump at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Wednesday. Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP

    The president’s address in Switzerland featured a range of dubious assertions, from exaggerated to false.

    By Joseph Gedeon / The Guardian / January 21, 2026

    Wings Editorial Note: Because what is happening in Minnesota since this article was originally published it is a week old. The comments on Greenland and NATO, for example, are out of date because of recent developments. Nonetheless, this article illustrates how Trump lies and manipulates the truth and is well worth reading.  

    Here’s what Trump got wrong.

    ‘I’ve now been working on this war for one year, during which time I settled eight other wars.’

    Trump did not go into detail on which wars he was talking about, but he has repeated the claim enough times in his first year back in office that we can assess those we believe he was describing. His administration played a role in brokering ceasefires between Israel and Iran, India and Pakistan, and Armenia and Azerbaijan, though these were incremental agreements, and some leaders dispute the extent of his involvement. He did secure the Israel-Hamas ceasefire and hostage deal, but it involves multiple stages and remains incomplete – with hundreds in Gaza reported killed since the first phase took effect in October.

    The temporary peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo fell apart, with fighting killing hundreds of civilians since it was signed in June. Cambodia and Thailand are still trading accusations over broken ceasefires and border clashes. The Egypt-Ethiopia dispute is about a dam on the Nile – a diplomatic problem, but not a shooting war. As for Kosovo and Serbia, it’s unclear what brewing conflict Trump believes he prevented.

    ‘We’re leading the world in AI by a lot. We’re leading China by a lot.’

    Key figures in the AI industry have assessed the race differently. Nvidia’s chief executive, Jensen Huang, said in September that China was “nanoseconds” behind the US. The White House AI czar, David Sacks, estimated in June that Chinese models lag by “three to six months”.

    Chinese companies such as DeepSeek have released cheaper models that rival America’s best, despite restrictions on advanced chips. Trump himself called DeepSeek a “wake-up call” for US tech companies.

    ‘China makes almost all of the windmills, and yet I haven’t been able to find any windfarms in China. Did you ever think of that? It’s a good way of looking. You know, they’re smart. China is very smart. They make them. They sell them for a fortune. They sell them to the stupid people that buy them, but they don’t use them themselves.’

    This claim is incorrect. China has more wind capacity than any other country and twice as much capacity under construction as the rest of the world combined.

    China’s wind generation in 2024 equaled 40% of global wind generation, according to the thinktank Ember Energy. The country is building 180 gigawatts of solar projects and 159 gigawatts of wind projects, which together amount to nearly two-thirds of the renewable capacity coming online worldwide, according to Global Energy Monitor. Rather than avoiding wind power domestically, China is the world’s largest generator of wind energy.

    ‘We’re there for Nato 100%. I’m not sure if they’d be there for us.’

    Nato allies have already demonstrated their willingness to support the US, suffering significant casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past two decades.

    In Afghanistan, according to the independent nonprofit tracker icasualties.org, Nato allies sustained 1,144 deaths out of 3,609 total coalition fatalities between 2001 and 2021. The UK lost 455 service members, Canada lost 158, France lost 86, Germany lost 54 and Denmark lost 43. In Iraq, coalition partners sustained 324 deaths out of 4,910 total fatalities, with the UK suffering 182 casualties. These were substantial commitments to American-led military operations.

    ‘They called me Daddy.’

    Nato secretary general Mark Rutte did indeed call Trump “Daddy” at a summit last June. It happened after Trump compared Israel and Iran to “two kids in a schoolyard” fighting, with Rutte quipping that “Daddy has to sometimes use strong language”.

    Trump’s use of the plural “they called me” suggests a pattern of Nato leaders breathlessly addressing him this way, which is for now unsupported. Unless, of course, world leaders are calling him Daddy in soon-to-be-leaked private text messages.

    ‘After the war, we gave Greenland back to Denmark. How stupid were we to do that? But we did it. But we gave it back. But how ungrateful are they now?’

    The US never owned Greenland. In 1916, the secretary of state, Robert Lansing, declared the US “will not object to the Danish government extending their political and economic interests to the whole of Greenland” as part of a deal in which Denmark sold the US Virgin Islands. That’s not ownership.

    When Norway tried to claim part of Greenland in 1931, the international court ruled for Denmark in 1933, citing an 1814 treaty showing Denmark retained Greenland when it ceded Norway to Sweden. US-Denmark agreements in 1941 and 1951 allowing American military bases explicitly stated these were “without prejudice to the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Denmark”. At no point did the United States possess sovereignty over Greenland that it could then return to Denmark.

    ‘If we were able to cut out 50% of the fraud … we would have a balanced budget without having to talk about even growth.’

    The math doesn’t work. The highest estimate of US fraud losses is $521bn, according to the Government Accountability Office. Even eliminating all of it – which would be unprecedented – would cover less than a third of the 2025 deficit of about $1.7tn.

    Cutting fraud in half, as Trump proposed, would yield roughly $260bn if the highest estimate is the target. That’s less than one-sixth of the deficit, leaving the government more than $1.5tn short of balanced.

    Dharna Noor contributed reporting

    Wings of Change is entirely reader supported.
    Wings invites you to subscribe.
    Join us on Wings of Change

    In this critical time hearing voices of truth is all the more important although censorship and attacks on truth-tellers are common. Support WingsofChange.me as we bring you important articles and journalism beyond the mainstream corporate media on the Wings of Change website and Rise Up Times on social media

    Please join me on Wings of Change. It’s only the beginning as we still have so much work to continue to do as many activists and organizations address current threats to our democracy and unjust actions against people of color and activists and make plans for the upcoming years. Wings of Change is pleased and excited to be a part of that work through education, information, and inspiration.

    Access is always free, but if you would like to help:
    A donation of $25 or whatever you can donate will bring you articles and opinions from independent websites, writers, and journalists as well as a blog with the opinions and creative contributions by myself and others. 

    Sue Ann Martinson, Editor Wings of Change

    “We don’t have to engage in grand, heroic actions to participate in the process of change. Small acts, when multiplied by millions of people, can transform the world.”
    — Howard Zinn