Donors exceed funding target at Berlin conference but prospects for ceasefire remain distant

More than £1bn (€1.15bn) has been pledged for war-ravaged Sudan at a conference in Berlin, eclipsing the funding target organisers had set to help mitigate the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.

The financial commitments made on Wednesday will also help offset a chronic humanitarian funding shortfall in a country devastated by three years of conflict, where two-thirds of its population – 34m people – require assistance.

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Keir Starmer can’t be blamed for the crisis in the Middle East, but he has to reassure people that he is prepared for its long-term consequences

Public reassurance is one of the first duties of the government in difficult times. The early months of the Covid pandemic offer a case study in how to get this wrong. Boris Johnson was paralysed by indecision and denial of the severity of what was unfolding. Panic-buying cleared supermarket shelves of essential goods.

Sir Keir Starmer is unlike Mr Johnson in temperament and work ethic, but he too is struggling to get ahead of events in a global crisis. It isn’t easy when the origin of turbulence is a superpower gone rogue. Donald Trump’s impulsive actions can’t be anticipated with epidemiological precision like a virus.

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Science rarely produces identical outcomes. Mistaking this for failure turns caution into an excuse for inaction

A new set of studies out this month suggests that as many as half of all results published in reputable journals in the social sciences can’t be replicated by independent analysis. This is part of a long-running problem across many research fields – most visibly in the social sciences and psychology, though concerns have also been raised in areas of biomedical research.

The latest work is a seven-year project called Systematizing Confidence in Open Research and Evidence (Score), which has now published three studies looking at 3,900 social science papers. It found that newer papers, and those published in journals requiring extensive sharing of underlying data, were more likely to be reproduced. Separately, medical research faces its own constraints: differing patient caseloads and limited sample sizes mean that, in practice, it can resemble the social sciences more than laboratory physics. Clearly, policymakers should be cautious of any claims that don’t have a wide and robust base of evidence.

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

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⚽ Champions League news; 8pm BST kick-off (first leg: 1-0)
⚽ Bayern v Real Madrid – updates | Live scores | Mail Simon

Hello world! This is Arsenal’s 12th Champions League game of the season, and they’ve won 10 and drawn one of the previous 11. Europe is their happy place, and this the only competition in which they’ve played and not lost over the last month, in which time they’ve been dumped out of the FA Cup by Southampton, lost a League Cup final to Manchester City, been turned over at home by Bournemouth and generally allowed the wheels to come very much and emphatically off. Tonight, nursing a 1-0 lead from the first leg, they can and indeed need to give themselves a much-needed morale boost ahead of Sunday’s Premier League enormoclash at the Etihad.

A few happy omens for Arsenal:

The record of English clubs in two-legged Champions League ties against Portuguese opponents is jolly good – 10 wins on the spin since Benfica upset Liverpool in 2005-06.

The record of English clubs in Champions League or European Cup quarter-finals against Portuguese opponents is even better: played nine, won nine.

Sporting haven’t won a competitive match in England in 10 attempts since they beat Middlesbrough 3-2 in the 2004-05 Uefa Cup.

Thinking about football these days.

There was a dramatic pause when Mikel Arteta was asked what he wants from the Arsenal supporters against Sporting on Wednesday evening in the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final.

After his attempts to rouse them before the early kick-off against Bournemouth at the weekend by telling them to “bring your lunch” backfired spectacularly with a costly home defeat that ended with some fans booing the Premier League leaders off the pitch, this time the message was more considered.

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⚽ Champions League news; 8pm BST kick-off (first leg: 2-1)
⚽ Arsenal v Sporting – updates | Live scores | Mail Michael

It doesn’t get a lot bigger or better than this. The outright favourites this season (Bayern) against the most successful European side of all time (Real). A mouthwatering quarter-final between two gigantic behemoths to see who will face the reigning champions (PSG) in the semi-final. Double woof.

The quarter-finals might just be the best part of the Champions League – close enough to the final to get excited of glory but far enough from the tournament climax to still have any number of unknowns and permutations, the games come thick and fast (you can also follow Arsenal v Sporting tonight right here) and there is just a solitary goal separating Bayern and Real Madrid in this tie, with the Germans earning a 2-1 first-leg victory last week at the Bernabéu. Yes, it was a stunning result for Vincent Kompany’s side but Bayern might be frustrated their advantage is not bigger. One thing is for sure, you never, ever count out Real Madrid in this competition.

It seems like they’re going to win the Bundesliga, which obviously hurts me considering my brother is at Dortmund, and I was a player there,” Bellingham replied. “Again, it depends on what he does with England, and hopefully, we can try and stop them from winning the Champions League tomorrow, which will obviously have a big effect.

He’s a sensational player. It’s a pleasure to play with him with the national team. I think he’s amazing. He’s showing everyone the last two or three years he’s reached a level where he’s almost perfected his craft in terms of what he can do as a striker.”

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‘Palestine’s Mandela’ suffers three recent attacks including assault where prison guards set a dog on him, lawyer says

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti is at immediate risk in Israeli jails, where he has been attacked three times in as many weeks, including in one assault last month where prison guards set a dog on the 66-year-old, his lawyer has said.

Barghouti is often called Palestine’s Nelson Mandela. He is respected across otherwise feuding Palestinian factions, has broad popular support across occupied Palestine, repeatedly engaged with Israeli officials before his detention and long backed a two-state solution.

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KEULEN (ANP/AFP) - Autoriteiten in Duitsland en Nederland hebben woensdag een reeks huiszoekingen gedaan in een groot onderzoek naar dividendstrippen. Ook zijn invallen gedaan bij belastingadviesbureaus, heeft het Openbaar Ministerie in Keulen laten weten.

Dit zogenoemde CumEx-schandaal, dat jaren terug aan het licht kwam, betreft belastingfraude waarbij beleggers aandelen razendsnel uitwisselen rond de datum waarop dividenden worden uitgekeerd. Die truc maakte het mogelijk dat dezelfde dividendbelasting onterecht door meerdere partijen werd teruggevraagd.

Woensdag zijn de werkplekken en woningen van zeker vijftien personen doorzocht in onder meer Amsterdam, de provincie Utrecht en Frankfurt. Daarbij werd gezocht naar e-mails en andere correspondentie. Volgens de Duitse krant Handelsblatt is een van de onderzochte personen Frank Vogel, een Nederlandse beurshandelaar die al langer wordt verdacht van miljoenenfraude met dividendbelasting.

Het functioneel parket van het Openbaar Ministerie in Nederland kon woensdagavond geen commentaar geven.

YAOUNDÉ (ANP/AFP/RTR) - Paus Leo XIV is aangekomen in Kameroen, waar duizenden mensen hem feestelijk hebben onthaald. Het is na Algerije het tweede land dat de paus aandoet tijdens een reis naar het Afrikaanse continent.

De paus is vier dagen in het land. Woensdag ontmoette hij president Paul Biya, met 93 jaar het oudste staatshoofd ter wereld. Dat kwam de paus vooraf op kritiek te staan van sommige geestelijken, omdat Biya een halfjaar geleden nog protesten tegen zijn herverkiezing had neergeslagen. Op beelden bij lokale media zijn Biya en de paus zij aan zij te zien nabij het presidentiële Eenheidspaleis in hoofdstad Yaoundé.

In een toespraak in diezelfde stad riep de paus toehoorders, onder wie Biya en enkele andere hoogwaardigheidsbekleders, op "de mensenrechten te respecteren". "Veiligheid heeft prioriteit, maar moet altijd worden gewaarborgd met respect voor de mensenrechten", aldus de religieus leider.

Conflictgebied

Ook verzocht hij 's lands autoriteiten bij zichzelf te rade te gaan en "de grillen van de rijken en machtigen" te weerstaan. Paus Leo: "Om vrede en rechtvaardigheid te doen zegevieren, moeten de ketenen van corruptie - die leiderschap verminken en ontdoen van haar geloofwaardigheid - worden verbroken."

Paus Leo brengt later onder meer een bezoek aan een weeshuis. Donderdag gaat hij ook naar een conflictgebied waar separatisten vechten met het leger. De separatisten hebben een driedaags bestand aangekondigd om dat mogelijk te maken. In de stad Bamenda houdt de paus een toespraak. "Het bezoek zal de harten van de extremisten verzachten, zodat we op zoek kunnen naar gedeelde belangen", zei aartsbisschop Andrew Nkea. Hij hoopt op vrede.

Ongeveer een derde van de 30 miljoen inwoners van Kameroen is katholiek.

PEGEIA (ANP) - Schaker Anish Giri is als tweede geëindigd op het Kandidatentoernooi op Cyprus. De 31-jarige Nederlandse grootmeester versloeg in de veertiende en laatste ronde in Pegeia de Duitser Matthias Blübaum.

Giri kwam daarmee uit op 8,5 punten. De Oezbeek Javokhir Sindarov, die dinsdag de eindzege al veiligstelde, kwam na remise tegen de Chinees Wei Yi uit op 10 punten.

Het was voor Giri zijn derde deelname aan het Kandidatentoernooi. Acht schakers maakten de voorbije weken uit wie het in de strijd om de wereldtitel mag opnemen tegen regerend wereldkampioen Dommaraju Gukesh uit India. De precieze data en plaats van de tweestrijd tussen Sindarov en Gukesh moeten nog worden bekendgemaakt.

De opmars van AI zorgt bij veel werknemers voor groeiende onzekerheid, vooral in functies die relatief eenvoudig te automatiseren zijn. Wat jarenlang werd gezien als een toekomstscenario, wordt nu zichtbaar in de praktijk: technologie verandert in rap tempo de werkvloer.

Vooral bij banken, verzekeraars en in de reclamewereld is die impact merkbaar. Bedrijven werken efficiënter met minder mensen, waardoor functies verdwijnen. Vakbonden luiden de noodklok en wijzen op het tempo waarin deze veranderingen plaatsvinden.

Bij reclamebureau Ambassadors is die ontwikkeling al duidelijk zichtbaar. "Een paar jaar terug hadden we zo’n 120 mensen in dienst, dat zijn er nu nog 65″, zegt Diederik Veelo, Chief Innovation Officer. Volgens hem komt dat deels door veranderingen in de markt, maar speelt AI ook een belangrijke rol.

Die trend beperkt zich niet tot de creatieve sector. Ook in de financiële dienstverlening verdwijnen banen. Vakbondsbestuurder Erik Maas ziet hoe banken en verzekeraars grootschalig reorganiseren. Instellingen als ABN AMRO, ING en Achmea schrappen duizenden functies.

Uit een enquête onder werknemers blijkt dat de zorgen groot zijn: meer dan 60 procent vreest voor de toekomst van hun baan. "Een kwart verwacht over drie jaar helemaal niet meer te werken in de financiële dienstverlening in Nederland. Dat zijn best heftige cijfers.”

Met name beroepen waarin taal centraal staat, lopen een verhoogd risico. Denk aan vertalers, klantenservicemedewerkers, schrijvers en telefonisten. AI-systemen kunnen steeds beter communiceren, analyseren en produceren, waardoor deze functies onder druk staan.

Investeren in AI-geletterdheid

Toch ligt volgens Maas de oplossing niet in het tegenhouden van technologie, maar in voorbereiding. "Daarom roep ik werkgevers op om te investeren in AI-geletterdheid bij werknemers. Ga met ons als vakbond in overleg en kijk samen met ons en de werknemers naar wat er nodig is aan opleidingen.” Hij benadrukt dat bedrijven tijdig moeten handelen: "Ga niet pas met ons in gesprek over een sociaal plan bij een ontslagronde als het bijna te laat is.”

AI-ondernemer Jim Stolze deelt die zorg. Hij ziet hoe snel ontwikkelingen gaan en verwijst naar internationale onderzoeken. "Daar wordt gewaarschuwd voor 11 procent werkloosheid. Die mensen zullen niet mee kunnen in de vernieuwing.”

Toch blijft hij optimistisch over de lange termijn. "Ik denk dat AI een productiviteitsboost en daarmee ook een welvaartsboost tot gevolg gaat hebben. Werk zal niet verdwijnen, maar je rol gaat veranderen.” Zo verwacht hij dat een accountant minder tijd kwijt is aan invoerwerk en zich juist meer kan richten op advies.

Bron: Metro

I love these oversized prints of vintage Pan-Am luggage tags from artist Ella Freire. The typography and colors are just perfect. (via daringfireball)

Tags: art · design · Ella Freire · travel

De AfD bereidt zich voor op een „cultuurpolitieke omwenteling” in de Duitse deelstaat Saksen-Anhalt na de komende verkiezingen in september. Dan moet het volgens de partij afgelopen zijn met de „verering” van de moderne architectuur van Bauhaus.

Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy praised robots as the future of war in a Defense Industry Worker Day address on Monday. “For the first time in the history of this war, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned platforms—ground systems and drones. The occupiers surrendered, and the operation was carried out without infantry and without losses on our side,” Zelenskyy said.

Zelenskyy didn’t specify which ground operation he was referring to, but Ukraine’s 13th National Guard Brigade Khartiya conducted an operation north of Kharkiv in December last year that fits the bill. The Wall Street Journal reported on the operation which it said involved 50 aerial drones and an unspecified number of land drones.

The Journal watched footage of the assault provided by Ukraine. “The robot wars began,”  it said. “Russian FPV drones appeared, launching themselves at the land vehicles, according to the footage. One came close to destroying a land drone, which fired back at the Russian line with a mounted machine gun.”

Ukraine won the fight and took the position, but the Journal didn’t report that any Russians surrendered. A spokesperson for the 13th National Guard Brigade Khartiya told the Journal that they found Russian corpses when they sent humans into the position to secure it.

According to Zelenskyy’s Defense Industry Worker Day speech, ground based robots have conducted 22,000 missions on the frontlines of the war in Ukraine in the past three months. “In other words, lives were saved more than 22,000 times when a robot went into the most dangerous areas instead of a warrior. This is about high technology protecting the highest value—human life,” Zelenskyy said.

It’s unclear which of the 22,000 missions included the surrender. It may seem like a stretch to imagine a soldier surrendering to an unmanned ground vehicle with an assault rifle and a camera strapped to it, but similar things have happened over the past four years of war. The conflict has become defined by the use of drones on both sides and there’s lots of footage of Russian soldiers surrendering to flying drones.

One of the most famous incidents occurred in 2022 but it became so common that Ukraine established a program called “I Want to Live” that used drones to facilitate surrenders. Ukraine’s armed forces released video instructions about how to surrender to a drone. Russian soldiers could text ahead of time, make an appointment to flee the frontline, wait for a Ukrainian drone, and follow it out of combat with their hands in the air. It’s possible the world will see similar footage in the future, but the drones will be on the ground instead.

The War in Ukraine has ground on for years now and become a war of attrition and inches. The loss of life on both sides is devastating and the proliferation of flying drones has created vast no-man’s lands between Russian and Ukrainian positions. Despite Zelenskyy’s praise of Ukraine’s robotics industry, it’s unclear if embracing UGV as a replacement for infantry will change that reality.

But the world is watching and taking notes. The Pentagon is working on its own ground drones, some of them controlled by AI systems. The U.S. Army is testing one system, called the ULTRA, in Vaziani, Georgia near the country’s border with Russia. Ukraine also helped the US soldiers counter Shahed drones during the recent war with Iran.

On stage, Zelenskyy’s Defense Industry Worker Day speech stressed the importance of Ukraine to Europe and the rest of the world. “We are not building new cooperation with partners on weapons the way it was done in the 1990s or early 2000s, when Ukrainian weapons and strength were sold off like a Black Friday sale,” he said. “We are not making fairs of our weapons, nor are we emptying our stockpiles. We are offering security partnerships.”

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Reigning F1 ACADEMY champion Doriane Pin tells F1.com about how she is finding her new role as a Mercedes Development Driver and what the year ahead holds as she continues to work towards her dream of reaching Formula 1.

A 63-year-old man in Norway appears to be cured of HIV after receiving a stem cell transplant from his brother, who turned out to have a rare mutation that makes immune cells resistant to HIV. "Four years after the transplant, and two years after the man stopped antiretroviral therapy, he still appears to be free of the infection," reports Gizmodo. From the report: According to the report, the man was first diagnosed with myelodysplastic syndrome, a type of cancer that weakens blood cell production from bone marrow, in 2018. Though he seemed to initially respond to treatment, the cancer returned after two years, and doctors decided to perform a stem cell transplant. Because the man also had HIV (diagnosed in 2006), the doctors were hoping to treat both conditions at once, though they knew their chances were low. Most of these cases have involved the use of stem cells taken from people with two copies of a particular mutation in their CCR5 gene, which regulates the CC5R receptor on white blood cells. This mutation, named CCR5-delta 32, makes immune cells naturally resistant to infection from strains of HIV-1 (the most common type of the virus). However, only about 1% of the population carries two copies of the mutation.

After initial screening failed to find someone who both possessed the mutation and had compatible bone marrow, the doctors decided to move ahead with the man's brother, who was already known to have compatible bone marrow. But to everyone's surprise, testing on the day of the transplant showed that the brother also had the mutation. Though the man did experience some complications from the procedure, his body successfully started to produce new blood cells with the mutation. The doctors decided to take him off antiretroviral medication two years after the transplant. And in the two years since then, regular follow-up tests have failed to show any signs of the virus in his system. [...] According to AFP, there have only been roughly 10 cases worldwide involving an HIV cure through stem cell transplantation. This is the first to involve a family donor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Weer voor Rotterdam ☁️ - 15-04-2026 19:15 CEST

In één oogopslag:
• 15.6°C · Bewolkt ☁️ | Min 9.9°C / Max 20.2°C | Kans op neerslag 6%

Verwachting voor vandaag:
• Min 9.9°C, Max 20.2°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.5 mm, Kans op neerslag 6%, 🧭 1018.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 19.8 km/u (5.5 m/s), richting: ↑ 192°

Uurlijkse voorspelling voor de komende 12 uur:

• 20:00: 15.0°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 24%, 🧭 1017.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 15.5 km/u (4.3 m/s), richting: ↗ 230°
• 21:00: 14.4°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.3 mm, Kans op neerslag 22%, 🧭 1018.0 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 14.8 km/u (4.1 m/s), richting: ↑ 198°
• 22:00: 14.3°C (Helder) 🌕, Kans op neerslag 17%, 🧭 1018.2 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 11.9 km/u (3.3 m/s), richting: ↑ 171°
• 23:00: 14.2°C (Helder) 🌕, Kans op neerslag 14%, 🧭 1018.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 12.6 km/u (3.5 m/s), richting: ↑ 175°
• 00:00: 14.6°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 17%, 🧭 1018.4 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 19.8 km/u (5.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 211°
• 01:00: 13.1°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.1 mm, Kans op neerslag 23%, 🧭 1018.4 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 225°
• 02:00: 13.1°C (Helder) 🌕, Kans op neerslag 25%, 🧭 1018.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 15.8 km/u (4.4 m/s), richting: ↗ 241°
• 03:00: 12.5°C (Helder) 🌕, Kans op neerslag 18%, 🧭 1018.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 239°
• 04:00: 11.7°C (Helder) 🌕, Kans op neerslag 8%, 🧭 1018.5 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 17.3 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 231°
• 05:00: 11.2°C (Licht bewolkt) 🌕, 🧭 1019.0 hPa ↗️ +0.5 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 16.2 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↗ 235°
• 06:00: 10.9°C (Licht bewolkt) 🌕, 🧭 1019.1 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 15.1 km/u (4.2 m/s), richting: ↗ 238°
• 07:00: 10.6°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, 🧭 1019.3 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/1h, Windsnelheid: 13.3 km/u (3.7 m/s), richting: ↗ 236°

Voorspelling voor de komende dagen:

• donderdag 16 april: Min 10.6°C, Max 17.8°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 3%, 🧭 1020.3 hPa ↗️ +2.2 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 17.3 km/u (4.8 m/s), richting: ↗ 246°
• vrijdag 17 april: Min 13.4°C, Max 19.5°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 2%, 🧭 1021.4 hPa ↗️ +1.1 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 15.5 km/u (4.3 m/s), richting: ↑ 191°
• zaterdag 18 april: Min 8.8°C, Max 16.3°C (Bewolkt) ☁️, Kans op neerslag 13%, 🧭 1021.4 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 11.6 km/u (3.2 m/s), richting: → 271°
• zondag 19 april: Min 7.2°C, Max 13.3°C (Zonnig) ☀️, Kans op neerslag 13%, 🧭 1024.0 hPa ↗️ +2.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 17.0 km/u (4.7 m/s), richting: ↓ 338°
• maandag 20 april: Min 6.1°C, Max 11.3°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 1.2 mm, Kans op neerslag 22%, 🧭 1025.3 hPa ↗️ +1.3 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 20.8 km/u (5.8 m/s), richting: ↓ 351°
• dinsdag 21 april: Min 6.1°C, Max 11.6°C (Lichte motregen) 🌦️, Neerslag 0.6 mm, Kans op neerslag 8%, 🧭 1023.7 hPa ↘️ -1.6 hPa/24h, Windsnelheid: 16.1 km/u (4.5 m/s), richting: ↓ 16°

Details:
• 🌡️ Huidige temperatuur (om 19:15): 15.6°C (Bewolkt)
• 🤚 Gevoelstemperatuur: 12.8°C (-2.8°C)
• 💨 Windsnelheid: 17.6 km/u (4.9 m/s), richting: → 251°
• 🌬️ Windstoten: 34.6 km/h (9.6 m/s)
• 💧 Luchtvochtigheid: 73%
• 🧭 Luchtdruk: 1017.9 hPa ➡️ 0.0 hPa/3h
• 👁️ Zichtbaarheid: 18.3 km
• ☀️ UV-index: 0.1
• 🌅 Zonsopgang: 06:45 · 🌇 Zonsondergang: 20:39

Luchtkwaliteit:
• AQI: 63 🟡 (Matig)
• PM2.5: 8.5 μg/m³
• PM10: 12.3 μg/m³

Gegevens geleverd door Open-Meteo

#Rotterdam #Meteo #MeteoBot #MeteoNetherlands #OpenMeteo #FediMeteo

Het Openbaar Ministerie (OM) wil Amin Abou R. voor jaren achter de tralies voor het financieren van Hamas. Onzin, zeggen zijn advocaten in een lang pleidooi. Deze hele strafzaak is politiek gekleurd: pro-Israël, pro-VS en anti-islam.