Month: April 2026

The share of people who consider themselves on the far left or far right of the political spectrum is particularly high in the United States, according to a survey by Statista Consumer Insights.

As Statista’s Tristan Gaudiat details below, among U.S. respondents surveyed between January and December 2025, 12 percent placed themselves on the far left (0 on a 10-point scale) and 20 percent on the far right (10 out of 10).

You will find more infographics at Statista

By comparison, only 7 percent of Germans place themselves at either extreme of the scale.

Identifying as centrist is also more common in Germany, with 24 percent doing so compared with 17 percent in the United States.

In France, centrism is less prevalent, with just 12 percent identifying as such, while 10 percent place themselves on the far left and a notable 19 percent on the far right.

It is also worth noting that 25 percent of surveyed French adults preferred not to answer, compared with 14 to 18 percent in the other countries studied.

While similar shares of French and U.S. respondents identify with the left and right overall, positions at the far ends of the spectrum are slightly more pronounced in the United States.

Attitudes in the United Kingdom broadly mirror those in Germany, though with a more pronounced shift toward the far-right end of the spectrum.

Via The Cradle

Poland has rejected an “unofficial” US request to deploy one of its Patriot air defense systems to West Asia, Polish Defense Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz announced on Tuesday, following reports by Polish daily Rzeczpospolita that Washington had informally approached Warsaw amid rising regional tensions.

“Our Patriot batteries and their armaments are used to protect Polish airspace and NATO’s eastern flank. Nothing is changing in this regard and we are not planning to move them anywhere!” Kosiniak-Kamysz stated.

He added, “Our allies are well aware of and understand how important our tasks are here. Poland’s security is an absolute priority.”

Rzeczpospolita reported that the US approach was informal and did not involve a formal request, adding that Washington sought to temporarily borrow one of Poland’s two Patriot batteries as part of efforts to defend US-linked assets across West Asia from Iranian strikes.

Polish officials have repeatedly argued that such a move would significantly weaken national defenses, effectively slashing their air defense capabilities in half. 

“Polish patriots defend the Polish sky,” officials have previously said, underscoring longstanding resistance to redeployment.

A senior NATO defense official, speaking anonymously, said Poland was not singled out. “This was a question that was sent to all allies,” they said, adding there was “no special pressure on Poland.”

The US is reportedly seeking additional air defense systems both for Ukraine and West Asia as Iran’s missile attacks on US-like positions leave their defenses stretched thin. 

Patriot systems are already deployed across Ukraine, Saudi Arabia, and other areas, while the US and its allies have expended large numbers of interceptors during the conflict. One report noted that over 1,200 Patriot missiles were used in just over two weeks of fighting.

Even Poland’s opposition has pushed back, with former defense minister Mariusz Błaszczak stating that Warsaw “should not grant approval for such matters,” reflecting a rare political consensus.

The strain on air defense systems in West Asia has been felt since the opening days of the US-Israeli war on Iran. In early March, South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Seoul opposed US plans to redeploy Patriot and THAAD systems from the Korean Peninsula.

He added that while Washington could act based on its own “military needs,” Seoul had made clear its position despite having limited ability to block the move. Analysts cited in The Guardian had described the war on Iran as a “salvo competition” that was draining interceptor stockpiles and driving US redeployments.

Israel on Tuesday took the drastic step of announcing that it will halt the acquisition of defense-related goods and services from France, according to an Israeli Defense Ministry announcement.

“The Director General of the Israel Ministry of Defense. Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amir Baram has decided to reduce all defense procurement from France to zero, replacing it with domestic Israeli procurement or purchases from allied countries,” a Defense Ministry spokesperson confirmed.

The move is being done in direct rebuke to France’s decision to not allow flights in its airspace which transport military items to Israel, or also American military flights which are directly connected to Iran war operations. A growing number of NATO and EU countries are doing this, also Italy, Spain, and Switzerland.

The Israeli statement said further, “France has taken a series of actions that have harmed Israel’s security and the operational capabilities of its defense industry.”

“The Israel Ministry of Defense views the French government’s policy with serious concern, as it undermines security cooperation with Israel, a country that is actively operating on the front line against Iran and protecting the security of the Western world,” it added.

Defense ties between France and Israel were already strained going back to the Gaza war:

According to a parliamentary report, France authorized more than 200 dual-use export licences to Israel in 2024 worth €76.5 million — 60 percent less than in 2023 — highlighting how limited and declining defense ties between the two countries already are.

Existing contracts are expected to be honored and private companies may still pursue deals.

Earlier in the day Tuesday, President Trump took France to task for being “very unhelpful” in Iran operations.

“The Country of France wouldn’t let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory,” Trump stated on Truth Social. “France has been VERY UNHELPFUL with respect to the ‘Butcher of Iran,’ who has been successfully eliminated!”

The American president then emphasized, “The U.S.A. will remember!!!” France’s Macron has pledged his forces will “never take part in operations to open or liberate the Strait of Hormuz in the current context.” Other EU leaders have said that essentially this is “not our war”.

These same European leaders have long criticized Israel for the immense civilian death toll after two years of war in Gaza. It stands at over 70,000 killed – a figure which Israel has actually acknowledged, with the caveat that at least some one-third of these casualties were Hamas militants. Some estimates say the death toll could be higher.

Authored by Mary Gilleece via dailysceptic.org,

The recent news that one in eight children are now reported by their parents as being disabled ought to prompt an immediate national inquiry into what on earth is causing a large proportion of the population to sicken.

That millions of children and young people are stricken with disabilities ought to be front page news every day until it is sorted out.

The Telegraph reports:

About 12% of children – or around 1.7 million youngsters – are now living with a long-term illness, disability or impairment, according to fresh figures from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

This has almost doubled since 2015, when roughly 7% of parents said their child had a disability, according to the department’s closely-watched Family Resources Survey (FRS).

It also comes amid a sharp increase in young people being diagnosed with behavioural issues as well as autism and ADHD.

Almost two-thirds of children with a disability had a “social” or “behavioural” impairment – by far the most common issue cited by parents, the FRS found.

The figures involved ought to terrify everyone for they reveal a population that is riven with ill-health and impairment. If accurate, a National Commission into ‘Physical Deterioration’ similar to the one conducted by Fitzroy in 1904 to find out what was causing the ill-health of young people is needed immediately. With such staggering levels of illness, there is no hope at all that our country will ever return to growth. The Telegraph continues:

The number of children with behavioural disorders who are eligible for disability living allowance (DLA) has almost quadrupled to 276,000 since before the pandemic. This total includes 10,000 children under five and 14 children who are less than a year old.

Roughly 16.7 million people – representing a quarter of Britons – now live with a disability. More women than men claim they have an impairment, though disability is more prevalent among boys than girls.

Scottish people are also more likely to say they are disabled than people living in England or Wales.

The figures show roughly 700,000 of children considered disabled are under 10. More people under 20 are also now in this category than Britons aged over 80.

I am appalled that no-one in politics is calling for an immediate inquiry into these dreadful illnesses destroying the health and chances of so many children. Sure Alan Milburn has been asked to look at the benefits system, but who is investigating the children themselves to find out why they are all so poorly?

The Fitzroy Report was commissioned after the Boer War when it had become apparent that large percentages of recruits were rejected from the Army physical reasons. The report sought:

(1) To furnish the Government and the Nation at large with periodical data for an accurate comparative estimate of the health and physique of the people;

(2) to indicate generally the causes of such physical deterioration as does exist in certain classes;

and (3) to point out the means by which it can be most effectually diminished.

It was thorough in its analysis and took a broad approach to finding out why children were failing to thrive. The commissioners examined such things as “cellar-based and back-to-back housing”, “the employment of mothers too soon after childbirth”, “white bread”, “abuse of tea”, “the desire for pleasure”, “hereditary taint”, “the universal preference amongst the women for factory over domestic life”, “the school system”, “incompetent care”, “parental ignorance and neglect” and “juvenile smoking”, for instance. In a foreshadowing of the current Ultra Processed Food debate, it reports:

A striking consensus of opinion was elicited as to the effects of improper or insufficient food in determining physique, and this factor was acknowledged by every witness to be prominent among the causes to which degenerative tendencies might be assigned, though in one or two cases its relative importance was thought liable to exaggeration.

These latest figures about the catastrophic ill-health of our nation’s children surely ought to demand an equivalent commission. After all, what prompted the 1904 Fitzroy Report is not far off what is happening with today’s Army recruits – growing rejection owing to feeble mental and physical health. In 2019-2020, 28.9% of applicants were rejected for medical reasons growing to 39.2% in 2022-3. Of these, 54% of medical rejections between 2020-24 were for mental health or psychiatric reasons.

This is surely terrifying stuff – our mentally enfeebled young are not fit to fight, to be in school or work. What on earth has happened?

Someone surely should be trying to work out what’s to blame. White bread? Juvenile vaping? Out of town housing estates with no public transport? Smartphones? Gaming? Parental ignorance and neglect?  Perhaps others will take up my cry for a national inquiry and calls will grow for someone like Hillary Cass or Louise Casey to get to the bottom of it all.

Or perhaps such an inquiry would discover that actually there’s nothing wrong at all with these children. Instead it will become obvious that millions of healthy children and young adults are being used in an obscene financial grift by private health and education providers, mental health charities and a gullible welfare system.

Terrifying either way.

A new report from researchers at the University of New South Wales in Australia, published in Carcinogenesis, finds that nicotine-based e-cigarettes are likely to cause lung and oral cancers, a finding that may alarm the millions of young people, from high school through college, and into the professional world, who use them heavily. 

Researchers examined human studies, animal experiments, and lab tests. Together, they found signs that vaping can damage DNA, cause inflammation and oxidative stress, and expose users to harmful chemicals considered drivers of cancer. Some rodent studies also found lung tumors after vape exposure.

“Nicotine-based e-cigarettes are likely to be carcinogenic to humans who use them, causing an indeterminate burden of oral cancer and lung cancer,” the researchers wrote in the report.

The researchers still don’t fully understand the long-term risks, given that vaping only entered commercial markets worldwide in the last 20 or so years. However, they say the warning signs are already present and should not be ignored as cigarette risks once were.

“Though smoking was once given the benefit of the doubt, the same should not now be accorded to vaping, given the strength of relevant carcinogenicity data,” wrote study co-authors Freddy Sitas and Bernard Stewart of UNSW in a related commentary.

Vaping in the U.S. emerged in 2007 and was widely touted as a safer way to consume nicotine than traditional methods involving inhaling smoke from burning tobacco leaves. The trend exploded in 2015 with the introduction of Juul.

Millions of Americans started vaping to quit smoking cigarettes. Instead, if the study is correct, they may actually be increasing their health risks.

Vaping is not as harmless as once thought, and the researchers’ point is that e-cigarettes should not receive the same “benefit of the doubt” cigarettes once did, because the cancer warning signs are already present.

Even before the assessment was released, NielsenIQ data showed e-cigarette sales in the U.S. were weak as of March 21 (according to the Goldman report, which can be viewed in full here for Pro subscribers):

Within Tobacco, dollar sales for BAT were up 1.8% over the past four weeks, versus 1.0% last month; sales for IMB were down 3.5% over the past four weeks, versus down 3.4% last month; and sales for MO were down 2.0% over the past four weeks, versus down 3.2% last month.

The question now is whether the study will go viral and alarm consumers enough with cancer fears, and whether those fears will be enough to change spending behavior in a way that shows up in the NielsenIQ data over the coming weeks.