Donald Trump can not read. So a literate person in the White House should read this aloud to him. His illegal war with Iran has failed!

Iran and US slide back into dead end of war
Editorial  Echo opinion published in Le Monde

Americans are not reading the updates about the illegal Iran war. We must access foriegn news like Le Monde to find the truth. Merci❗

Both sides remain locked in an escalating standoff with no way out. Tehran cannot withstand a long-term blockade of its ports, and Donald Trump risks further alienating American public opinion four months ahead of midterm elections. Meanwhile, the escalation further undermines the global economy.

After a few weeks of relative calm, the illegal Trump war of choice between the United States and Iran has returned, to the point of calling into question an agreement signed less than a month ago at Versailles. That agreement was meant to replace a ceasefire announced in April, the main goal of which was reopening the Strait of Hormuz (that had been opened and free prior to February 28, 2026). 

From the start of the Israel- and US-led attack, which aimed to force regime change in Tehran, Iran had used the strait as a major deterrence tool by blocking the strategic route for hydrocarbon exports.

What followed was a systemic crisis in global energy markets that made the war even more unpopular in the US, as it broke with President Donald Trump's campaign promises to use force only when American interests were at stake, a claim that seemed doubtful in this case. Disillusionment and his administration's hallmark improvisational style led Donald Trump to accept a poorly structured agreement, which explains much of the current stalemate.

The Iranian regime is using the vague wording of the clause concerning the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz to claim control over the passage, including by force. (Although it had been open and free prior to February 28, 2026).

At the same time, the US has sought to establish maritime routes through Omani waters, on the opposite shore of the strait, to bypass Iran.
Time running out

The current focus on the chokepoint is a short-term victory for the Iranian regime, since its nuclear program, presented as one of the major reasons for the attack on Iran, is no longer being discussed. By announcing his intention to levy a fee on ships passing through the strait under American protection and then quickly backtracking, Trump also lent credibility to Iran's claim to impose a toll there, in disregard of freedom of navigation.

Despite being severely hit by US and Israeli bombings, the Iranian regime, hardened by war and convinced it had won this confrontation simply by surviving, could only be drawn into a deadly spiral of escalation, the consequences of which would fall mainly on its people. As the hawkish wing regains influence in the US, Trump could once again be blinded by his country's overwhelming military superiority, the limits of which were nonetheless exposed during the initial phase of this asymmetric war.

Time is running out for both sides. Despite its bluster, the Iranian regime is unlikely to be able to withstand a prolonged blockade of its ports by the US Navy. Meanwhile, Trump risked further angering public opinion, with midterm elections, traditionally perilous for the party controlling the White House, less than four months away.

The double deadlock has once again exposed the Arab Gulf states to Iranian reprisals and further weakened a significant part of the world economy held hostage by the crisis. It also highlighted the impotence of the US administration, whether it chose to wage war or fall back on diplomacy. A devastating verdict for a president who had promised to make America great again.

Le Monde

Donald Trump and maga Republicans causing a brain drain of students who are academic refugees in Europe

Politico: The first American ‘scientific refugees’ arrive in France: Aix-Marseille University is wooing researchers who feel targeted by the Trump administration.

From afar, American students in France feel the shockwaves of Trump By Audrey Parmentier Published in Le Monde.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/campus/article/2026/03/24/from-afar-american-students-in-france-feel-the-shockwaves-of-trump_6751786_11.html

While academic freedom declines in the US, some young people are choosing France to pursue master's and doctoral degrees. 

Yet, between delayed scholarships, intrusive questions and stereotypes, their experience remains shaken by the latest developments in their country.

Sitting on the banks of the Saône, phone in hand, Luke, age 20, scrolled through the nonstop flow of news. At the University of Oregon, where he is studying for a degree in history and political science, some of his classmates had been arrested. "They were protesting against Donald Trump's immigration policy. I wish I could have been with them." He himself had demonstrated, in 2025, against the war in Gaza.

Since January, the Boston native – who did not give his last name, like all people cited by their first name in this article – has been taking part in an exchange program at Sciences Po Lyon. From afar, he has watched his country tip into turmoil: aggressive raids by immigration police, calls to boycott the media, military strikes in Iran. "I am worried about the new war in the Middle East, it wasn't necessary," he said quietly. These events have only strengthened his desire to one day enter politics in the United States. Until he returns, scheduled for June, he does not miss a single article on the cultural heritage of the European Union in The New York Times, reading between classes.

In 2024-2025, France welcomed 6,381 American students, according to Campus France (the French government agency promoting higher education abroad), representing a 5% drop compared to 2022. Meanwhile, their presence elsewhere in Europe increased by 6.2% over the same period. "Since 2020, the number of Americans at our university has clearly decreased, and French is being taught less and less in American universities," lamented Lucie De Carvalho, coordinator of the International Student Exchange Program (ISEP) in Lille, France.

Pope Leo is articulate speaking in Spanish, he must be an electrifying spirit for desperate Venezuelan's frightened about their future

Pope Leo meets Venezuelan opposition leader. Published in the French newspaper Le Monde:

This image released by Vatican Media shows Pope Leo XIV meeting with Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado of Venezuela, right, inside his private library at the Vatican, Monday, January 12, 2026. VATICAN MEDIA / AP

The Vatican's chief diplomat, Pietro Parolin, a former papal envoy to Venezuela, spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week. The two discussed "efforts to improve the humanitarian situation, particularly in Venezuela," the US Department of State said in a statement.

Le Monde with Maria Corina Machado at the Vatican. Señora Machado, who received the Nobel Peace Prize

in December, 2025, has been sidelined by Washington DC in the wake of the US intervention in Venezuela that toppled and kidnapped President Nicolas Maduro and his wife Celia Flores.

Le Monde with AFP

Pope Leo received Venezuelan opposition leader

Maria Corina Machado at the Vatican on Monday, January 12, the Holy See said. There were no details about the audience, with the Vatican publishing Machado's name in a list of people received by the US born pope on Monday morning.

The papal audience came the same day as Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani announced that two Italians, Alberto Trentini and Mario Burlo, held since November 2024, in Venezuela, had been released and were on their way home.

Machado, who received the Nobel Peace Prize in December, 2025, has been sidelined by Donald Trump in Washington DC, in the wake of the US intervention in Venezuela that toppled President Nicolas Maduro. US President Donald Trump said on Thursday he would meet Machado this week after previously saying she did not have the respect or support within Venezuela to lead.

Pope Leo, 70, called for the protection of Venezuela's sovereignty in a speech to diplomats on Friday. The Chicago-born Pope issued an appeal "to respect the will of the Venezuelan people, and to safeguard the human and civil rights of all" following the suggestion by US Donald Trump that the US could, without any authority, control the South American country for years.

The Vatican's chief diplomat, Pietro Parolin, a former papal envoy to Venezuela, spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week. The two discussed "efforts to improve the humanitarian situation, particularly in Venezuela," the US Department of State said in a statement.

Le Monde with AFP

In my opinion jealousy drove Putin's obsession with Alexei Navalny and motivated the assassination

Echo editorial published in the French newspaper Le Monde:

"Jealous" in Russian: ревнивый  (revnivyy)

Wherever he was, at liberty or in prison, hospitalized or in good health, at home or abroad, Alexei Navalny's existence had become unbearable for Vladimir Putin. The death of Russia's most famous opposition figure at the age of 47 in an Arctic prison, announced on Friday, February 16, by the prison administration, reveals the Kremlin's determination to suppress all forms of opposition, even in their most constrained state.

There should be no illusions about the investigation that will be carried out into the reasons behind Navalny's death, as he suddenly "fell ill" at the end of a walk, according to prison officials. 

The fact that the news was leaked to the Russian media, without his family or lawyers being informed, reflects the message his death is intended to convey, including to Western leaders gathered at the same time in Munich to discuss defense and security. That is that, Putin is the master of his own house and intends to remain so, whatever the icons adopted by his detractors.

Western leaders made no mistake and directly attributed the responsibility for Navalny's death to Putin. Indeed, it was the repressive regime built up over almost a quarter of a century by the former KGB officer-turned-nearly perpetual president that put an end to Navalny's challenge to Russia's authoritarian system. 

The list of influential Russians who have been killed or died in murky circumstances after opposing, criticizing, or crossing Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin, or the state is long. And it just got longer.

By voluntarily returning to his homeland on January 17, 2021, after miraculously surviving the poisoning intended to kill him, Navalny had committed the supreme act of opposition, an act of insane courage. He refused the banishment of exile and continued to exist politically: even behind bars, even as his convictions piled up perpetually lengthening his sentence, and even in the Arctic prison where he had been relegated 2,000 kilometers away from Moscow.

Cynicism and expansionism:  But Putin knows only one way of dealing with those who oppose him, whether they be champions of democracy like Anna Politkovskaya, Boris Nemtsov and Navalny, or mobsters like Wagner militia leader Yevgeny Prigozhin: death. The moral abyss into which Putin is plunging Russia is seen on a much larger scale in Ukraine, the country where he is also sowing death and which he plunged into war two years ago, after beginning his aggression against his neighbor 10 years ago.

Navalny's martyrdom and that of his still-imprisoned friends, including Vladimir Kara-Murza, who also returned voluntarily and was sentenced to 25 years in prison, recalls the democratic struggle of Soviet-era dissidents. At the time, they received the support of Western countries. Challenged once again today, these countries must regain the path of firmness in the face of the Russian regime's cynicism and expansionism.

In 2021, when Navalny was once again imprisoned, US President Joe Biden warned Moscow that his death in custody would have "devastating" consequences. 

Maintenant! Alors! So, here we are. The circumstances of the death of this admirably obstinate opponent of Putin's system, at a time when Moscow is settling into a long-term war in Ukraine and reinforcing its aggression towards its European neighbors, force Western leaders to ask themselves in all lucidity how they are managing a Russia that is, increasingly, openly hostile and provocative. Failure to do so would be truly devastating.

Donald Trump - geography confusion: stress symptom or ignorance?

Reported in Le Monde and Newsweek

Regardless of why Donald Trump made this geographical error (and let's not rule out the possibility that, for some reason, it could have even been intentional!).....the facts continue adding up to support what The Resistance has said. That is, since becoming president, Trump is incompetent to lead.

Madness of Donald Trump graphic published in Rolling Stone

Published in Newsweek: Trump confused the Baltics with the Balkans and accused confused leaders of starting the Yugoslav Wars by Tom Porter.

Donald Trump confused the Baltic states in Europe with the Balkans—and chastised leaders of the former for starting wars in the 1990s that lead to the break-up of Yugoslavia, French daily Le Monde reported.

Trump reportedly made the mistake in a White House meeting with Dalia Grybauskaitė of Lithuania, Kersti Kaljulaid of Estonia and Raimonds Vējonis of Latvia in April.

The leaders were reportedly confused by the president’s accusation, and it took them a minute to realize he had confused the Balkans and the Baltics.

The Baltic states lie in northern Europe, on the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea.

Around 1,000 miles away sits the Balkan region in south-eastern Europe. It comprises states including Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia.

Much of the region was incorporated into the state of Yugoslavia, which became a socialist state after German occupying forces were ousted following World War II.

In the 1990s, Yugoslavia disintegrated and the region was torn apart in a series of civil wars, culminating with the Kosovo war of 1998-1999.

Trump’s mistake is perhaps more surprising given that his wife, Melania, was born in Slovenia, a state that was part of Yugoslavia until 1991.


Trump, according to the Le Monde report, remained “apparently uneducated in the matter by his wife, Melania, originally from the former Yugoslavia”.

The report comes with new tensions emerging this weekend between Trump and the U.S.'s traditional European allies. Donald Trump was in Europe during the November 9th weekend for events marking the centenary of the end of the First World War.

On Friday, Trump attacked French President Emmanuel Macron on Twitter, after the French leader said that Europe needed to take more responsibility for its own security.

The president faced widespread criticism Saturday for canceling a visit to Belleau, where 2,000 U.S. Marines were killed in combat in 1918, because it was raining.

In a speech in Paris on Sunday, Macron criticized nationalism—with self-declared nationalist Trump sitting only meters away.

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism,” said Macron, at the Armistice Day commemoration under the Arc de Triomphe.

“By pursuing our own interests first, with no regard to others’, we erase the very thing that a nation holds most precious, that which gives it life and makes it great: its moral values.”

*This article was corrected on Sunday to state that Yugoslavia became a socialist state after World War II.

MaineWriter postscript: It's evident on a daily basis that the White House is dysfunctional and Donald Trump's behavior becomes more dangerously unpredictable by the hour. When will Republicans take control of him?

Right Wing in France - Editorial from Le Monde: Speaking While Female

French blame "boozy dinners" for the following outburst, while Americans can easily draw parallels with our own discriminatory political quagmires.

In fact, right wing extremism is becoming as infectious as the highly contagious avian flu H1N1. 

Even Socialist France is reporting an outbreak. Le Monde, the French daily newspaper, writes the following editorial reprinted in "Best Columns of Europe", reported in the October 25th The Week and also in MailOnline News:

"Heckled for speaking while female"

From The Week: "Being rude to a colleague on the floor of the (French) National Assembly should bring more than just a slap on the wrist, said Le Monde. Last week, when Veronique Massonneau, a deputy from the Green Party, spoke on a pension reform bill, Philippe Le Ray of the center-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) began heckling her by clucking like a chicken. He refused to stop, even after an irate Massonneau snapped,"I am not a hen!". The president of the National Assembly was forced to suspend the session when other male UMP deputies broke out in laughter at Le Ray's "childish and ridiculous" behavior. Le Ray was clearly motivated by sexism playing on the fact that women in France are sometimes referred to derogatorily as "hens". But "Hen-gate" is more than just an example of misogyny. "It reflects a worrying deterioration in the level of public debate."  These days, the Right and Left "trade trade invective more often than they exchange ideas".  If we want to return civility to our discourse, "Le Ray's infantile and irresponsible squawking" should cost him more than a reprimand and a small fine.  Policymakers must be made to grasp "that when public debate degenerates to schoolyard taunts, the insult is to democracy itself".

Veronique Massonneau of the French National Assembly

MailOnline reports the story: Women...staged a walk out from the French parliament after their 'prehistoric' sexist male counterparts made clucking noises to imply that one was just a 'bird'.

Politicians from the ruling Socialist Party organised the protest yesterday, blaming 'boozy dinners' for the sexist culture in the National Assembly.   The worst culprits are said to be the UMP - the party of former president Nicolas Sarkozy - who will be particularly concerned by the row, as he contemplates a return to political power.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2451705/French-MP-Veronique-Massonneaus-fury-chicken-heckle.html#ixzz2iBzmWT97
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A Votre Sante, Veronique Massonneau!