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On Holocaust Remembrance Day, warning signs of our contemporary society crumbling
The fatal shooting of Alex Pretti, a 37-year-old ICU nurse and beloved member of the community in Minneapolis, is not an isolated event.
It is an illustration of how our society risks drifting into patterns of dehumanization — patterns that have paved the way, historically, for some of the worst horrors human beings have ever inflicted on one another.
Over the weekend, I, like millions of others, was shocked by the footage of Pretti’s killing. In a video verified by major news outlets, Pretti is seen holding a phone and standing with protestors before being pinned to the ground and shot multiple times by Border Patrol agents.
He had been legally armed, with his weapon holstered, and had initially gone to help a woman who had been injured by pepper spray. For this, he was accused of “domestic terrorism” by some of our leaders.
And I was shocked, too, by a New York Times report about how researchers with a history of racist thinking obtained the protected genetic data of more than 20,000 American children, and used it to produce studies asserting correlations between race and intelligence. Mainstream scientists have roundly rejected these claims as biased and unsound, but they are spreading anyway: Grok, the Elon Musk-developed AI known for engaging in bouts of antisemitism on X, has cited the pseudoscientific research close to 30 times just this month.
Yes, these two stories — one about an awful killing in Minneapolis, and one about theories of biological racial hierarchies repackaged as science — appear to have little in common. But together, they raise a terrifying and essential question: Are we ignoring the early signs of a far deeper moral unraveling in our society?
Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day. It’s a day to remember how, to paraphrase a quote often misattributed to Mark Twain — actual provenance unknown — that while history never repeats itself, it rhymes.
In the leadup to the Holocaust, an influential set of intellectuals and scientists in Germany and elsewhere — including the United States — believed that heredity could explain such so-called “social ills” as criminality, disability and poverty. They believed that society should use biology to control who reproduces and who should not.
They advocated for compulsory sterilization laws, immigration restrictions and other policies that targeted people deemed in some way unfit. In the U.S. alone, tens of thousands of people — disproportionately poor, disabled and people of color — were sterilized under these laws.
From there, it was the express lane to the notion that some lives matter more than others. In Germany, that notion led to the murders of millions.
A society’s moral fabric does not degrade all at once. It does so as a kind of cumulative effect, as the language of hierarchy and worthlessness creeps back into our national conversation; as agencies of state power operate without the restraint of transparent accountability; as deaths are treated as less than tragic, because the people who died were seen as less than fully human.
So, when a study today suggests that mental ability is tied to race, we should tremble. So too when we see an innocent civilian violently killed in the streets, and officials leaping to defend his killers and mock his memory.
We are in a crisis of national conscience. And the risks are great.
Pretti’s killing, like that earlier this month of Renee Nicole Good, has sparked widespread protests because something profound is at stake: the belief that every human life is precious, and that it is our society’s responsibility to care for all lives — not degrade them or treat them as more or less worthwhile.
It is not inevitable that we will repeat the worst chapters of history. But we will — if we fail to hear the alarm when it first sounds. Remembering the past gives us a moral imperative to recognize the early signs and refuse to quietly follow the course.
We must speak clearly: not this, not again, not on our watch.
The post On Holocaust Remembrance Day, warning signs of our contemporary society crumbling appeared first on The Forward.
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Some Tankers Cross Strait of Hormuz Before Shots Fired, Ship-Tracking Data Shows
A satellite image shows the ship movement at the Strait of Hormuz on April 17, 2026, in Space. EUROPEAN UNION/COPERNICUS SENTINEL-2/Handout via REUTERS
More than a dozen tankers, including three sanctioned vessels, passed through the Strait of Hormuz after a 50-day blockade was lifted on Friday, shipping data showed, before Iran reimposed restrictions on Saturday and fired at some vessels.
Reopening the strait is key for Gulf producers to resume full oil and gas supplies to the world, and end what the International Energy Agency has called the worst-ever supply disruption.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday Iran had agreed to open the strait, while Iranian officials said they wanted the US to fully lift its blockade of Iranian tankers.
Western shipping companies cautiously welcomed the announcements but said more clarity was needed, including on the presence of sea mines, before their vessels could transit.
IRAN RESUMES RESTRICTIONS
The ships that passed through the strait on Friday and Saturday via Iranian waters south of Larak island were mainly older, non-Western-owned vessels and included four sanctioned ships, according to ship-tracking data.
Iran arranged passage for a limited number of oil tankers and commercial ships following prior agreements in negotiations, a spokesperson for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said.
Other ships have been seen approaching the strait and turning back as Iran said it would maintain strict controls as long as the US continues its blockade of Iranian ports.
The UK Navy reported on Saturday that Iranian gunboats fired at some ships attempting to cross the strait.
Some merchant vessels received radio messages from Iran’s navy saying the strait was shut again and that no ships were allowed to pass, shipping sources said on Saturday.
Ship-tracking data showed five vessels loaded with liquefied natural gas from Ras Laffan in Qatar approaching the strait on Saturday morning.
No LNG cargoes have transited the waterway since the US-Israeli war with Iran began on February 28.
Hundreds of ships have been stuck in the Gulf since the conflict started and Tehran closed the strait, forcing Gulf oil and gas producers to sharply cut production.
Top producers such as Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Iraq and Kuwait say they need steady tanker flows and unrestricted passage through the strait to resume normal export operations.
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Trump Greenlights Russian Oil to Ease Strain on Global Markets After War with Iran
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in Washington, DC, US, March 27, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst
i24 News – The Trump administration has authorized a 30-day emergency waiver allowing the maritime purchase of Russian oil, reversing a hardline stance in an effort to stabilize skyrocketing global energy prices.
The Treasury Department announced Friday that the license for crude and petroleum products will remain in effect until May 16, 2026, responding to intense pressure from international partners struggling with the fallout of the war with Iran.
This policy pivot comes as a surprise after Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested earlier this week that no further exemptions would be granted:
“As negotiations with Iran accelerate, the administration seeks to ensure oil availability for those who need it most. We must prevent a total price collapse for consumers while the geopolitical situation remains volatile.”
Ensuring global oil availability is paramount for the US as over 80 energy facilities in the Middle East have been damaged by recent war with Iran. With the November midterm elections approaching, record-high fuel prices at the pump remain a primary vulnerability for the Republican party. By allowing Russian oil back into the maritime flow, the administration hopes to neutralize “pain at the pump” before voters head to the polls.
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UK: Islamist Group Claims to Attack Israeli Embassy with ‘Drones Carrying Radioactive, Carcinogenic Materials’
A UK man has been arrested for allegedly threatening a group of Jews while wielding an ax on Rosh Hashanah. Photo: Tony Webster / Wikimedia Commons.
i24 News – British police officers in protective clothing were seen investigating a “security incident” near the Israeli embassy in London on Friday, after a jihadist group put out a video showing it launching two drones allegedly carrying radioactive and carcinogenic materials toward the embassy.
“There is an increased police presence in Kensington Gardens and officers are assessing a number of discarded items. As a precaution, some of the officers who have been deployed are wearing protective clothing. We recognize this may concern local residents and the wider public,” police said in a statement.
“Counter Terrorism Policing London are aware of a video shared online overnight in which a group claims to have targeted the nearby embassy of Israel with drones carrying dangerous substances,” the statement further read. “While we can confirm that the embassy has not been attacked, we are carrying out urgent inquiries to determine the authenticity of the video and to identify any potential link between it and the items discarded in Kensington Gardens.”
The incident comes amid a steep hike in antisemitic attacks in Britain targeting Jewish and Israeli individuals and institutions.
The group that released the video was identified as Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, a shadowy entity with suspected ties to Iran. It has already claimed seven attacks against Jewish institutions, including an arson attack in London where four ambulances owned by the Hatzolah charity were torched.