Connexion
Europe’s choice is to surrender or die.
By Rotislav Ishchenko at ukraine.ru.
(machine translation)
Alastair Crook, a retired British diplomat, has stated that the European Union is preparing a provocation on a scale comparable to Pearl Harbor, with the aim of drawing the United States into a war with Russia.
In principle, this is not news. We have been writing for two years that the British, realizing that Ukraine has failed and will be buried, have placed their bets on a pan-European war (under the auspices of the United States) against Russia. While Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. was trying to figure out who he was and how he got here, the mechanism for expanding the war was clear: a provocation in the Baltic Sea (less likely in the Black Sea or on the Belarusian border), which would leave Russia with no chance of resolving the crisis without shooting, and an outcry about the “attack” to the country of the EU and NATO, a statement of military support (sending troops and equipment, but without a formal declaration of war against Russia) by the leaders of the EU. In the last act, the United States and Britain enter the scene, demanding that Russia cease fire and threatening to provide all possible support to their allies.
I would like to point out that the mechanism of provocation assumed that in all cases, Russia would initiate military action against a specific country. Moscow, on the other hand, was only faced with the choice of whether to attack the Baltic states, which had blocked Kaliningrad, or to hope for a miracle, sink the transports carrying French and German troops and equipment bound for the Baltic ports, or to express protests, attack the territories of the United States and the United Kingdom in response to their ultimatum, or to agree to a ceasefire and negotiations mediated by them. In the end, acquiescence inevitably led to capitulation (since as soon as one set of demands was met, the West would immediately set forth another), and escalation inevitably led to a global nuclear war.
It is no coincidence that Trump claimed that Biden was leading the country towards a nuclear armageddon. Whether Biden was aware of his actions or was being manipulated by his entourage, the decision-makers in the United States (as well as the majority of the British establishment and the European bureaucracy) believed that Russia would not engage in a nuclear conflict and would retreat. However, there were other politicians in the West who had no doubt that if Russia was pushed to the wall, nuclear mushrooms would grow all over the West – no one would leave without a share. These people came to power in the United States with Trump, and their supporters are gradually pushing back against the European left-liberal supporters of war.
As a result, the United States fell out of the scheme, and Trump openly stated that if Europe wanted to go to war with Russia, it could do so on its own, without the United States. It’s not that the Europeans were particularly eager to go to war, but rather that they couldn’t help but go to war with Russia, as acknowledging defeat in the Ukrainian crisis would completely undermine the left-liberal European elites. To understand why this is significant, it would have political, economic, and social implications on a scale similar to those that shook Russia after the October Revolution and before the outbreak of World War II. The Europe we know will disappear, and a new Europe will be born in agony, compared to which the 1990s in Russia were like a light rain during a summer picnic.
But the Europeans also can’t go to war with Russia. They don’t have the armies, the warehouses, or the ability to quickly deploy the necessary military production. Without the United States, the EU is a paper tiger. Although no, a paper tiger is scarier than the EU without the United States. This is why Alastair Crook emphasizes that the provocation must be so severe and widespread that neither Trump nor other American and European politicians who support de-escalation can avoid going to war with Russia.
By the way, as a loyal subject of His Majesty, Alastair Crook does not mention Britain’s leading role in developing this plan and preparing the provocation. The blame lies with the EU, which intends to drag the United States into a war with Russia, while the United Kingdom simply passed by.
It’s understandable. Most likely, the provocation is unavoidable. The British and the European bureaucracy can’t help but try to seize their last chance. I once wrote that nothing would stop them. They might even detonate a nuclear device in Kyiv to blame Russia. However, the Ukrainian government is not fully in control of the situation. The internal opposition to Zelensky, unable to oust him yet, is attempting to preserve at least some form of Ukraine by pushing Zelensky overboard.
In such a situation, the preparation of a large-scale nuclear provocation, which requires deep secrecy, is extremely difficult, as hundreds of people must be involved in its organization (transportation, storage of the relevant munition, its transfer across the border, security, and other activities cannot be carried out without the involvement of a large number of people). Even if you simply replace the customs officers and border guards at the border with trusted individuals, it will immediately become widely known that something large and secret is being transported.
However, recently, the Ukrainians and the British have started practicing a naval provocation, attacking tankers from any country carrying Russian oil. Russia has already begun responding to the Odessa port and the ships arriving there. In principle, the British Navy and its Ukrainian counterparts can organize a “Lusitania” (with influential Americans on board). However, it is more difficult to prove Russia’s “guilt.” As Poland’s experience shows, it is no longer enough to simply claim that Russia wanted to blow up railway tracks and cause a major disaster; convincing evidence is also required.
Actually, this is the catch: how to organize a provocation in such a way as to shake the imagination of “all people of good will”, and provide “convincing evidence” of Russian “guilt”, and not inherit anywhere, and leave the United States no choice? The task is difficult, but, as experience shows, it is solvable. If British diplomats (even retired ones) start issuing warnings and distancing themselves, it means that the preparations for some large-scale atrocity have entered the final stage or are basically complete, and the London warmongers only need to give the command to launch the operation.
In principle, the supporters of escalation don’t have much time. By March, even if the Armed Forces of Ukraine don’t completely disintegrate and Zelensky still controls some part of Ukrainian territory, Trump should withdraw the United States from the Ukrainian crisis and reorient towards the Indo-Pacific region and Latin America. Moreover, he has announced the beginning of a military operation against Maduro in Venezuela in the near future. If the British and European bureaucrats let the United States out of the Ukrainian crisis and allow it to get involved in others, it will be impossible to bring it back. Washington cannot afford to run around the world like a mad rabbit, and it cannot handle two or three major crises in different parts of the world, either organizationally, resource-wise, logistically, or financially.
In the West, they like to coincide political actions with traditional holiday dates. This way, they are better remembered and evoke more emotions. We are just entering a period of holidays: Catholic Christmas, New Year, Orthodox Christmas, and Epiphany. In general, from mid-December to the end of January, almost any day is suitable for the organizers of provocations. All they need to do is manage and dare.
After February, although the danger will not disappear (it will not disappear until a final global settlement is reached), it will significantly decrease, and the further into 2026, the lower it will be.
(For Nicholás Maduro)
These efforts began shortly after Castro’s 1959 revolution and persisted under US presidents from Dwight Eisenhower to Richard Nixon (who oversaw 184 attempts), often involving Cuban exiles with CIA support.
Key failed plots include:
Exploding cigars and toxins: A cigar rigged to explode during Castro’s UN visit in New York; another contaminated with botulinum toxin (never delivered; Castro quit smoking in 1985).
Poison via a lover: A former girlfriend recruited by the CIA hid poison pills in her cold-cream jar, but they melted. Castro, suspecting her, offered his own pistol, but she couldn’t proceed.
Underwater traps: Explosive-filled Caribbean molluscs painted brightly to lure Castro while scuba diving (abandoned); a diving suit infected with a fungus to cause debilitating skin disease (also scrapped).
Other gadgets and poisons: Bacterial agents in tea or coffee; a toxic fountain-pen; botulin-laced chocolate milkshake at the Havana Hilton; an LSD aerosol to spray near Castro during a broadcast for public humiliation.
High-profile timings: On the day of John F. Kennedy’s 1963 assassination, a CIA agent was sent with a poison pen-syringe to kill Castro.
Later plots: In 2000, 200lb of explosives planted under a podium in Panama (foiled by Castro’s security; plotters, including CIA operative Luis Posada, jailed but pardoned; Posada denied involvement in a 1976 Cuban airliner bombing that killed 78).
Additional attempts: A sniper caught at the University of Havana; a grenade at a baseball game; mafia outsourcing (angered by lost Cuban casinos); the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion aimed to kill Castro, Raúl Castro, and Che Guevara.
The obsession rivaled the hunt for Osama bin Laden, with former US diplomat Wayne Smith likening Cuba’s effect on American administrations to a full moon on werewolves.
Castro’s security measures doubled, constant movement, gift scrutiny thwarted them all. He famously wore a “moral vest” instead of bullet-proof gear and joked about declining a Galápagos turtle gift, noting pets die after attachment, alluding to his own endurance.
Fabian Escalante, retired head of Cuba’s secret service, documented these in his book Executive Action: 634 Ways to Kill Castro. https://www.amazon.com/Executive-Action-Fidel-Castro-Secret/dp/1920888721
After several unsuccessful attempts, US eventually shifted to a trade embargo to oust him
The end of this year seems to be the end of the world for some. The number of videos, commentaries, and outright sorrow about Europe, for one, is unbelievable. I’ll do a Trumper – We’ve never seen anything like this before. We are overwhelmed by commentary, sometimes just because all the talking heads nowadays believe their words are indispensable to the public domain. These folks (I’m talking alt media or free media mainly) are now convinced that most of the rest of us cannot survive without their specific style of truthtelling. Then we have some that are just so good!
A dark, unhealthy competition is also evident, particularly on Substack, where self-promotion can be deceitful. It may be a result of economic constraints and a desperate grasp for the last little bit of money that supporters can be squeezed for. In our sphere, most work historically was open source and could be used. Serious work now is to be paid for, at rates that I last saw when I was a highly paid consultant. YouTube stardom is going to people’s heads. On Telegram, the friendly notes of ‘see the content of our friends on their channel’ are pure advertising.
At sovereignista.com, we’re somehow still making it and are fully open source. How long this can last, I don’t know, as I know we are gifted with donations from people who are already feeling the pinch. Each time I look at our donations, gratitude lights up, and it overwhelms everything else.
On freewheeling Hearty Salon, we are gifted with content, context, and sharp, clever commentary from people who have been around watching for years. According to our statistics, everybody reads the Daily Chronicles. We hope we can keep this all on a donation basis, but for the new year, a merchandise store is in the planning stages, and some work has already been done. If the end of the year is kind, and the noise subsides somewhat. I believe that I can squeeze out some time to work on this.
Today is our Jewel’s birthday. I am genuinely still so content, and even if we have nothing to do, just the fact that he stands behind us allows me to relax on the technical side. How lucky could we be to find Jewel, or did he find us? Or was it a plan of the universe to make two streams come together?
Sovereignista is growing. I just checked the statistics, and we’re easily reaching over a million readers per month now. Not bad for a little site that was supposed to be commentary on BRICS and SCO and a new dispensation in our world. Soon, we were drawn into the desperate, hegemonic fight to maintain relevance and had to show our roots as committed to resistance. Only yesterday I had a request from readers out of .. mmm, don’t want to mention the country .. one of the civilizational countries, to help out with a small technical problem. There are no more countries in the world that do not feature in the statistics. They are all there. Thanks go to the commentators!
These are only a few thoughts, and it was planned as a quick run-around-the-world. It became a runaround on our site, and everyone who reads it. We received a lovely compliment just a few hours ago from someone I deeply respect, saying, “You’re kickin’ ass.”
Our person of the year will be out soon. Last year, it was Francesca Albanese, and she is a tower of resistance. If you have a recommendation, please add it to the comments. This is not an end-of-the-year post. It just kinda turned this way, as gratefulness is my personal bulwark against the noise. But wait, my requests for end-of-the-year or Christmas gifts are coming.
By Will Schryver at his substack, imetatronink
One of the most common claims about the Trump 45 administration is that “He didn’t start any new wars.”
This is demonstrably FALSE.
During his first term, Trump became the ultimate causal agent for every one of the current conflicts with Russia, China, Iran, and Venezuela.
He not only maintained the trajectory of these conflicts as established by previous US administrations, but he dramatically raised the stakes and quickened the pace of the march to war.
In Ukraine, between 2017 and 2021, the already commenced preparations of #TheMotherOfAllProxyArmies were expanded and accelerated to an unprecedented degree.
Almost two-dozen covert US intelligence bases were established throughout eastern Ukraine. Large numbers of Ukrainian armed forces personnel were rotated through US/NATO training programs. Ukrainian officers were instructed in the use of US/NATO communications and intelligence / surveillance / reconnaissance (ISR) data. A chain of command was established from Kiev to US/NATO headquarters at Ramstein Air Base in Germany. US heavy weaponry was pre-staged in Poland, and preliminary deals were made with former Warsaw Pact countries (many of them now NATO members) to provide legacy Soviet artillery, armor, ammunition, and fighter aircraft to Ukraine.
Ukrainian troops were introduced to the use of Javelin Anti-Tank Guided Missiles, M-777 155mm howitzers, and HIMARS Multiple-Launch Rocket Systems.
Some of the legacy Soviet aircraft types in the Ukrainian Air Force were modified to carry and launch US/NATO missiles.
The massive fortification complex in the Donbass region was extended and strengthened.
A few thousand US/NATO “contractors” were integrated into the Ukrainian military – with preference given to the hard-core neo-Nazi brigades, who were considered to be the “elite” units in the AFU.
The strategic focus during the entire Trump 45 administration was to complete the preparation of the Ukrainian military to attack and crush the Russia-leaning separatists in the Donbass, and to then retake Crimea, which the Russians had seized in the aftermath of the 2014 American-led coup d’état in Kiev – and which was formally reassimilated into the Russian Federation as a result of an overwhelming popular referendum vote.
Trump has even bragged about the fact that he was the one who began to arm the Ukrainians to a far greater extent than Obama had ever done.
“I was the one that gave the Javelins. Remember the famous Javelins? That was me. It wasn’t Obama. It wasn’t Biden. It wasn’t anybody else. It was me. And they wiped out a lot of tanks with those Javelins. The expression was, ‘Obama gave sheets’. And I gave Javelins. That was a big deal at the time. That was at the beginning, when people said, ‘Wow, that’s something!’ Well, that was American equipment. Without American equipment, this war would have been over very quickly.”
President Donald J. Trump, Oval Office News Conference, February 26, 2025
This is the irrefutable fact: the Trump 45 administration both hastened and made inevitable the war whose final fuse was lit in early February 2022 when the Ukrainians commenced a broad-front artillery escalation against what they claimed to be Donbass militia positions, but which were indistinguishable from random civilian targets.
All of these factors combined compelled the Russians to move decisively (and sooner than they wanted) to extend their strategic depth in the region.
All those who claim Trump has no culpability for the war in Ukraine are either ignorant of the abundant objective facts, or in denial thereof.
Several prominent geopolitical voices were raising the alarm about war in Ukraine even before Victoria Nuland, John McCain, Lindsey Graham et al. goose-stepped through the streets of conquered Kiev in 2014.
And all during the civil war that then ensued, until the Russians intervened in late February 2022, US/NATO intelligence and special forces operatives were active in Ukraine, in support of the Kiev government’s military movements in the Donbass.
The crisis became increasingly acute over the course of the first Trump administration, even as the twin objectives of subduing the Donbass and retaking Crimea became increasingly apparent.
As I posted on Twitter in April of 2021:
Ukraine has two options: accept its role as a buffer state, or be dismembered. If the US goads them into an attempt to subjugate the Donbass, Russia will slice away eastern Ukraine and assimilate it — and there is *nothing* the US can do to prevent it.
Fact is, the big geostrategic nation-state wars are always decades in the making. So it was in the case of the war in Ukraine.
But the unavoidable trajectory of war was set in stone during Donald Trump’s FIRST rodeo in the White House. Trump owns the Ukraine War more than Joe Biden’s Autopen. At least Trump laid claim to a modest degree of cogency in his first term.
The apparition of Joe Biden, dazed and confused, simply watched dumbfounded as long-fated events flashed before his empty eyes.
One of Trump’s first actions after he was inaugurated in 2017 was to announce a sale to Taiwan of Harpoon anti-ship missiles, SM-2 and SM-3 naval air defense missiles, MK-48 torpedoes, and advanced radar systems.
In 2019, to much fanfare, Trump announced the sale to Taiwan of 66 F-16V fighters.
In 2020, Trump announced the sale of even more Harpoon ASMs, HIMARS systems, and MQ-9B drones.
Trump also, over the course of his first term, sent a total of about 300 US Army and Marine special forces operators to Taiwan. Since Trump’s second term began, that number has been increased to over 500 – including substantial contingents on Penghu and Kinmen Island, which is just six miles from the Chinese coast.
This permanent basing of a full battalion of US troops in Taiwan was unprecedented prior to Trump’s first term. And, understandably, it is regarded by China as an unprecedented provocation. Consequently, Chinese preparations for a possible war in and around its home seas have greatly accelerated.
And, in what is arguably his most strategically ill-advised move of all, Trump 45 started the trade and rhetoric war with China that continues to the present day.
There are now even widespread rumors that the US Department of War is preparing a naval blockade of energy imports into China — an act of utter madness.
Trump, in concert with the Israelis, started the major war with Iran that continues to this day — albeit currently in one of its typical intermissions.
In what I consider to have been the most brazen act of war in his first administration, Trump ordered the assassination of Iranian General Qasem Soleimani, on January 3, 2020, at the Baghdad airport.
Soleimani was on a diplomatic mission to Baghdad at the invitation of Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi, who had been acting as the intermediary between the Saudis and the Iranians, who were working to de-escalate drone and missile attacks by Iraqi militias against American bases in Iraq, and the Green Zone in Baghdad.
Soleimani was traveling to deliver Iran’s official response to a Saudi Arabian mediation proposal.
On December 31, 2019, ostensibly in support of these Saudi-Iranian moves to defuse the situation in Iraq, President Trump made a personal call to Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul-Mahdi. The Iraqi leader then called Soleimani to arrange a meeting in the Green Zone in Baghdad, scheduled for the morning of January 3, 2020.
Soleimani and his small entourage traveled openly on a commercial flight, and were met at the airport by Iraqi militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis and a few other Iraqis. As Soleimani, al-Muhandis, and eight others were traveling from the airport to the Green Zone in two vehicles, an American MQ-9 Reaper drone fired Hellfire missiles and blew them all to smithereens.
President Trump directly ordered the attack, and afterwards publicly gloried in his perfidy.
Soleimani was considered a national hero in Iran, and was arguably the second-most powerful and influential political figure in Iran at the time, behind only the Ayatollah Khamenei.
The Iranians were justifiably outraged.
On January 8, 2020, Iran launched a ballistic missile attack against the American Ayn al-Asad airbase in Iraq. About 15 Iranian ballistic missiles targeted the base with shockingly impressive accuracy, although it was clear the strike was mostly demonstrative in nature, and the Iranians deliberately avoided killing US troops.
Even so, the potency of the strike clearly astounded both the Americans and the Israelis, and resulted in a diminution of both US and Israeli strikes against Iranian targets until April 1, 2024, when the Israelis killed seven Iranian Revolutionary Guard officers in a missile strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.
Two weeks later (April 13-14, 2024), the Iranians launched a massive and unprecedented missile strike against Israel. This then led directly to the series of exchanges between Israel and Iran which took place over the course of the ensuing months, culminating in the so-called 12-Day War between the US/Israel and Iran from June 13-24, 2025.
Of course, it must be understood that this war between the US/Israel and Iran is NOT over yet. It is just on a brief hiatus, and there are indications in recent days that Israel is planning new strikes against Iran.
But make no mistake, the catalyzing event for this greatly escalated war with Iran was Trump’s treacherous murder of Qasem Soleimani on January 3, 2020.
Trump began publicly expressing his desire to go to war against Venezuela, and to seize its oil, no later than July 2017. It became a recurring theme for him, ultimately resulting in the failed 2019 coup d’état against Nicolas Maduró, when the US attempted to install clown puppet Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s leader.
Trump is quoted as saying:
“I don’t understand why we’re not looking at Venezuela. Why are we not at war with Venezuela?”
“That’s the country we should be going to war with. They have all that oil and they’re right on our back door.”
Trump’s bellicose language towards Venezuela continued all through his first term, and as a result, Venezuela’s longstanding friends Russia, China, and Iran began to more aggressively strengthen Venezuela’s military capabilities in anticipation of an eventual US attack and potential invasion of the South American country that holds the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
Now, as I write here on Thanksgiving Day 2025, the United States has positioned a massive naval fleet and Marine landing force off the coast of Venezuela, and it appears almost certain that military operations against the Maduro regime will commence imminently, with the overt aim of installing a new puppet government whose putative leader, CIA-groomed Nobel Peace Prize winner María Corina Machado, has explicitly called for an American invasion of the Bolivarian Republic, and pledged to permit the US to take control of Venezuela’s oil, gold, and other mineral wealth.
SOUTHCOM has even provided a slick promotional video for the upcoming war against Venezuela:
Trump, consumed by his own lust to become a celebrated recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has been claiming for months now to have ended no fewer than eight imaginary wars.
In reality, President Donald J. Trump has exhibited one of the most itchy trigger fingers of any US president in my lifetime (Eisenhower was still president when I was born).
Incredibly, he has chosen to pick fights with the most powerful adversaries the US has faced since the Second World War: Russia, China, and Iran. And, worst of all, he has catalyzed the formation of an unbeatable military and economic alliance between those three ascendant civilizational powers, even as American military power has eroded to its post-WW2 nadir.
Of course, most Americans possess a knowledge and understanding of war and US military might as it has been portrayed for decades in Hollywood movies and video games. And therefore, when Trump waxes grandiloquent about the United States being the greatest military force in human history, American vanity is easily persuaded that there is no nation on earth the US cannot trample underfoot with one hand tied behind its back.
Neither Donald Trump nor many Americans realize there are no easy wars left to fight. But that sobering truth will be laid bare for all to see between now and the end of the final term of The Imaginary Peace President.
Otherwise known as the National Security Strategy
With thanks to Karl Sanchez at karlof1’s Geopolitical Gymnasium
Maria Zakharova today was asked a few questions by Russian media about the Trump Gang’s newly revealed imperial plans. The Q&A session was actually rather short given the overall vastness of the topic. IMO, it’s essential to compare her answers and POV with those of other analysts. A selection of comments by other Russian officials as reported by Russian media follows.
Question: On December 4, the US President Donald Trump’s administration unveiled yet another and at the same time largely new US National Security Strategy. This time, it seems that the “Strategy” is moving away from the stereotypes and attitudes of previous similar American documents. The first and main question in this regard is: how will its provisions affect U.S. relations with Russia?
Maria Zakharova: In the new version of the US National Security Strategy, we note a number of provisions that indicate a serious rethinking of US foreign policy doctrine, which is especially noticeable in contrast to its previous version in 2022. First of all, attention is drawn to the revision of Washington’s previous bet on hegemony—the document directly states that earlier “the American elites made grave miscalculations” by making “a very erroneous and destructive bet on globalism.” Of course, time will show to what extent the Trump administration will be able to take into account this difficult statement for the United States. Nevertheless, as it seems, at the moment the very recognition of the bankruptcy of the globalist model is indicative.
As we understand it, this basic ideology also defines another key tenet of the Strategy: the call to “put an end to the perception of NATO as an ever-expanding alliance,” together with the task of “preventing such a reality.” In other words, for the first time, the United States is recording, if not a commitment not to expand the alliance, then at least officially questioning its eternally aggressively expansionist dynamics.
It is also important that Russia is mentioned in the document in the context of pan-European security, and there are no calls for systemic containment of our state and increasing economic pressure on us. Nevertheless, without naming Moscow directly, in the new version of the “Strategy”, Washington loudly outlined plans to achieve “energy dominance” by “reducing the influence of adversaries.” Behind these words, one can clearly see the desire to continue ousting Russia from global energy markets by any available means.
Question: What does the Russian Foreign Ministry think about the military-political aspect of the new Strategy and, in particular, the stated goal of achieving strategic stability in relations with us?
Maria Zakharova: Despite the general pragmatic approach to the topic, we are witnessing a number of contradictory points. For example, we did not see any elements in the document that would allow us to understand the American vision of the “post-New START Treaty.” We are referring to the determination of parity in the central quantitative limits of nuclear weapons.
We also consider the provisions on the US Golden Dome global missile defence system to be streamlined. We are still waiting for specifics from the American side regarding the interdependence of strategic offensive and strategic defensive potentials.
Despite the strict upholding of US interests in the strategy, the document makes it possible to search for joint “common ground” with us. True, the likelihood of a change of course in the US national strategy under the next administrations also remains.
Question: It is impossible not to pay attention to the harsh criticism in the document of the liberal elites ruling in Europe for suppressing “undesirable” political forces. The migration policy of Brussels is even characterized as a threat of the civilizational disappearance of Europe. Does this indicate a split in the so-called “collective West”?
Maria Zakharova: As in the case of globalism, it is more about acknowledging the deepening contradictions between the United States and the EU, which culminated in Brussels’ openly sabotage policy with regard to Donald Trump’s peacemaking aspirations on the Ukrainian issue. There is an objective coincidence of Russia’s traditional views and the sensible assessments of the new US leadership on the truly alarming processes taking place in the Old World. In this regard, it remains to be hoped that the new American “Strategy” will have the same sobering effect on the European “party of war” as the recent statements by President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin about the absurdity of the European “motivations” for preparing for some kind of “war with Russia.”
At the same time, it is worth emphasizing that certain provisions of the document regarding the Ukrainian crisis lay the foundation for continuing our joint constructive efforts with the Americans to find ways to peacefully resolve the conflict.
Question: How can you assess the thesis about the “revision” of the need for a US military presence in those regions “whose relative importance for American national security has decreased in recent years and decades”?
Maria Zakharova: The thesis reflects the concept of “America First,” but it should hardly be regarded as the United States’ refusal to maintain its military presence abroad, which, in turn, corresponds to another American idea, the so-called “peace by force.” For example, in the passages of the document on the Asia-Pacific region, the presence of conflict language towards the PRC is alarming, as well as calls for all major regional partners to provide the Pentagon with greater access to their ports and “other facilities.”
Question: The Strategy shows a shift in the focus of US foreign policy to the Western Hemisphere. This is stipulated as a “Trump amendment” to the notorious “Monroe Doctrine”. Doesn’t that sound threatening?
Maria Zakharova: The relevant passages sound more like a direct reference to the so-called Roosevelt Amendment, the doctrine of the 26th US President Theodore Roosevelt, who at one time proclaimed Washington’s right to invade Latin America under the pretext of “stabilising the domestic economic situation” of a particular country in the region. This is particularly alarming against the backdrop of the current tensions that the Pentagon is deliberately escalating around Venezuela. We hope that the White House will still be able to refrain from further sliding into a full-scale conflict that threatens to turn into unpredictable consequences for the entire Western Hemisphere. [My Emphasis]
A large amount of optimism was expressed along with a balancing degree of pessimism. The expression “New wine in Old bottles” seems to fit rather well. Overall, the new Imperial plan shows the continuing disdain to obey international law and thus perpetuate its label as the Outlaw US Empire. Recent actions by the Trump Gang show a lack of seriousness when it comes to genuinely negotiating an end to the war the Empire started and has lost in Ukraine—neither Witkoff or Kushner have the legal capabilities to negotiate on behalf of the Empire as they are merely personal emissaries of Donald Trump. That’s why the picture of the meeting’s participants told the real story. Alastair Crooke explained that well today during his chat with Judge Nap.
Russian concern over the escalation in the Empire’s plans toward China are well placed. Russia’s recent message by Ryabkov as reported by TASS to the Trump Gang not to FAFO with Venezuela:
“We express our solidarity with Venezuela, with whom we recently signed a strategic partnership and cooperation agreement,” the deputy foreign minister noted. “We support Venezuela, as it supports us, in many areas. In this hour of trial, we stand shoulder to shoulder with Caracas and the Venezuelan leadership. We hope that the Trump administration will refrain from further escalating the situation toward a full-scale conflict. We urge it to do so,” Ryabkov emphasized.
TASS also reported what Dmitry Medvedev wrote about the Empire’s new stance:
The updated US National Security Strategy signals a readiness to discuss security architecture, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said.
“This is not a friendly embrace, but a fairly clear signal: the US is ready to discuss security architecture rather than impose endless and meaningless sanctions (although the new restrictions on Russian oil mean a continuation of the previous course),” he wrote on his Max page. [Max is a new social media platform similar in organization to Telegram.]
The security official noted that for the first time in many years, the US document refers to Russia not as a “threat” but as a participant in the dialogue on stability. Medvedev also pointed out that the updated strategy includes a clause on halting NATO expansion and that Ukraine is not mentioned in this context.
“The strategy unexpectedly echoes what we have been saying for over a year: security must be shared and sovereignty respected,” Medvedev emphasized, recalling Russia’s longstanding proposal for negotiations. “Now, a window of opportunity for dialogue has been opened,” he concluded. [My Emphasis]
It appears the two Russians share similar assessments as the plan relates to Russia and that this view is also shared by the Kremlin as revealed by this RT report:
Trump’s policies are “a pretty big turnaround compared to what we had with the previous administrations,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told VGTRK journalist Pavel Zarubin in an interview which aired on Sunday. Peskov warned that the American “deep state” could attempt to undermine Trump’s approach, which is why Russia would “carefully monitor the implementation” of the strategy.
He went on to add that a lot of the changes “actually line up with our own vision.”
“It includes statements against confrontation and in favor of dialogue and maintaining good relations. This is also what Russian President Vladimir Putin is saying,” Peskov said.
He noted that the new NSS offers hope for “constructive work toward a peaceful resolution for Ukraine.” [Italics Original]
I’d call the new plan incremental change mostly towards Russia, not a “big turnaround” because the plan is global, nt just aimed at Russia. It remains hegemonic and not at all in the interests of Humanity. And as some have noted, it’s incomplete as it omits mention of other regions, Africa in particular. Not included in the report’s body was the admission made in the sub-headline:
The American “deep state” could attempt to undermine Trump’s approach, Dmitry Peskov has warned.
TASS’s report on Peskov’s statement noted this:
The Kremlin is going to review the updated US national security strategy in more detail and to analyze its provisions, the press secretary of the Russian President stressed. “Certainly, it should be considered, analyzed in more detail,” Peskov noted.
I’ve yet to read any comprehensive analysis or reply from China to the Empire’s new plot aside from a very short, two-paragraph blurb about trade that can be read here. The region most affected by the altered direction of US Imperialism is the Western Hemisphere where I’ve yet to look for reactions, although we already know what general line will be taken by nations with longstanding histories of resistance to the Outlaw’s actions.
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Reply (http://kremlin.ru/events/president/news/78524)by President Vladimir Putin to a question during the working session with the permanent members of Russia’s Security Council (November 21, 2025)
Question: Donald Trump’s 28-point peace plan on the Ukrainian crisis is now being actively discussed worldwide. May I ask to share your opinion on this plan and explain how it relates to your recent talks with President Trump in Alaska?
President Putin: It’s no secret: President Trump’s peace plan for Ukrainian crisis resolution was discussed even before the meeting in Alaska, and during that preliminary exchange the US Side asked us to make certain compromises – to show what they called “flexibility”.
The main point of the Alaska summit, its main purpose, was that during the talks in Anchorage we confirmed that, despite some difficult issues and complexities, we nevertheless agreed with these proposals and were prepared to demonstrate the requested flexibility.
We provided detailed information to all our friends and partners in the Global South on these matters – including China, India, the DPRK, South Africa, Brazil, many other countries, and, of course, the CSTO states. All our friends and partners, and I want to emphasise this – without exception – supported these potential arrangements.
However, after the negotiations in Alaska, we have seen a certain pause on the part of the US, and we know this is due to Ukraine’s de facto refusal to accept the peace plan proposed by President Trump. I believe this is precisely why a new version has emerged – essentially an updated plan consisting of 28 points.
We have the text. We received it through our existing channels of communication with the US Administration. I believe it too could form the basis of a final peace settlement, but this text is not being discussed with us in substance. And I can suggest why.
The reason, I believe, remains the same: the US Administration still cannot secure Ukraine’s consent – Ukraine rejects it.
Evidently, Ukraine and its European allies remain under illusions and still dream of inflicting a strategic defeat on Russia on the battlefield. I think this position is rooted not so much in a lack of competence – I will leave this topic aside for now – but rather in the absence of objective information about the real situation on the ground.
And, all things considered, neither Ukraine nor Europe grasp the consequences of this path. Just one very recent example – Kupyansk. Not long ago, on 4 November – just two weeks ago – officials in Kiev publicly stated that no more than 60 Russian servicemen were present in the city, and that within the next few days, as they claimed, Ukrainian forces would fully unblock it.
But I would like to inform you that already at that moment, on 4 November, the city of Kupyansk was practically entirely secured by the Russian Armed Forces. Our guys were, as they say, simply finishing the job – clearing the remaining streets and neighbourhoods. The fate of the city had already been fully determined.
What does this tell us? Either the Kiev leaders do not have objective information about the situation at the front, or, having it, they are simply unable to assess it objectively.
If Kiev does not want to discuss President Trump’s proposals and rejects them, then they – and their European war-instigators – must understand that the situation in Kupyansk will inevitably be repeated on other key sectors of the front.
Perhaps not as quickly as we would like, but the outcome will be inevitably repeated .
And, on the whole, this is acceptable to us, as it leads to achieving the objectives of the special military operation by military means. But, as I have said many times before, we are also ready for peace negotiations and for resolving problems by peaceful means. However, this requires a substantive discussion of all details of the proposed plan. We are ready for that.
This video is huge. Present was Maria Zakharova and General Apti Aluadinov, together with Larry Johnson, Pepe Escobar, Judge Napolitano, George Galloway, and Alexander Kazakhov. Later on we see Rachel Blevins and Danny Haiphong.
Please go to Larry’s site to obtain the video. The soundtrack is not optimal and I had to adjust the sound balance to reduce Maria’s voice in Russian in order to hear the translator in English.
https://sonar21.com/the-alleged-28-point-ukrainian-and-russian-peace-plan/
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/78487
In the Kremlin’s St Catherine Hall, Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the heads of delegation attending the SCO Council of Heads of Government meeting.
Russia’s chairmanship of the SCO Council of Heads of Government ends in 2025. The Council met earlier today in Moscow under the chairmanship of Russia’s Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin.
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President of Russia Vladimir Putin: Colleagues, friends,
It is a great pleasure to welcome you all to Moscow.
Today, you have successfully concluded a regular meeting of the SCO Council of Heads of Government, outlining plans for our future joint work. This builds upon the foundations laid by the Tianjin Declaration and the SCO Development Strategy to 2035, which was adopted at September’s SCO Summit in China.
We are united by a common objective: to strengthen the authority and influence of the SCO as one of the leading regional associations, both across the Eurasian continent and globally. In this endeavour, our governments have a vital role to play. Governments always have a special role when it comes to practical work. It is, after all, our governments – the teams under your leadership – who translate our shared ambitions into concrete, practical cooperation and who drive the expansion of the Organisation’s multifaceted partnerships.
Throughout Russia’s chairmanship of the Council this year, we have hosted a substantial programme of events. Nearly 30 ministerial and expert meetings, as well as forums involving business, public, and youth representatives, have been held in Moscow, St Petersburg, and other major Russian cities, and a wide range of mutually beneficial projects and cooperation programmes have been agreed.
Governments traditionally prioritise issues of economic cooperation, promotion and diversification of trade and investment. Coordinated efforts in these areas are already yielding tangible results.
For example, Russia’s trade with SCO member states reached US$409 billion in 2024 and continues to grow. Of course, the largest share of this turnover is accounted for by our cooperation with the People’s Republic of China, however, trade with other SCO member states is also growing.
It is important to note that the share of national currencies in commercial transactions between the Organisation’s members is consistently increasing. For example, in our country’s trade with SCO partners, this figure already exceeds 97 percent.
Stable and uninterrupted payment channels are becoming increasingly vital, particularly in the current volatile economic environment, marked by turbulence in the global markets, unilateral sanctions, tariff restrictions and wars.
At the Russian side’s initiative, and with the support of its partners within the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, steps are being taken to expand payment, settlement, and depository infrastructure. The agenda also includes consultations on the creation of a future SCO Development Bank, as well as on the mutual recognition of credit ratings and goods indicator systems.
Other Russian proposals on the establishment of a database of industrial investment projects within the SCO are also being implemented. The creation of such an instrument will expand cooperation in the industrial sector, facilitate joint development of production capacity, support import substitution, and promote the introduction of new technologies and digital innovations, including artificial intelligence. Ultimately, these efforts will contribute to strengthening the technological sovereignty of our countries in the core sectors of the economy.
It would be appropriate to continue our joint efforts to build an extensive and competitive network of logistics routes across the vast expanse of the SCO and Eurasia as a whole.
Russia, situated at the very heart of the continent and at the intersection of key trans-Eurasian transport corridors, is allocating significant funds to modernise its transport infrastructure. The volume of road, rail, and multimodal traffic passing through Russian territory is growing noticeably, with due consideration given to the utilisation of new promising corridors such as North–South and the Northern Sea Route. Today, incidentally, another nuclear-powered icebreaker has just been laid down.
Our country is also making a substantial contribution to maintaining stability in global energy markets. We are doing everything to ensure reliable supplies of energy resources to consumers, despite attempts from outside to negatively influence supply chains, and we count on closer coordination among all SCO partners in the energy sector, in line with the relevant roadmap adopted in Tianjin.
It is evident that the Shanghai Organisation could play a more significant role not only in deepening sectoral cooperation but also, more broadly, in fostering a favourable atmosphere on our shared continent for stable, progressive growth and multifaceted economic interaction. In practical terms, it could also facilitate the alignment of the numerous integration projects being implemented across Eurasia. This is precisely the aim of the Greater Eurasian Partnership concept proposed by Russia. The idea is to harmoniously combine integration processes within the Eurasian Economic Union, the Belt and Road Initiative put forward by our Chinese friends, and numerous similar projects involving the countries of the Shanghai Organisation.
Naturally, cooperation within the SCO framework is by no means limited to the economy, though this is undoubtedly the primary focus. Our organisation also actively contributes to strengthening peace and stability across Eurasia, countering a wide range of challenges and threats, and shaping a new balanced security architecture in Eurasia.
An equally important component of the SCO’s activities is the development of humanitarian contacts and exchanges in the fields of culture, science, education, healthcare, environmental protection, and, of course, youth policy and sport. As I have said on numerous occasions, Russia is sincerely committed to the closest possible partnership with the SCO member states. I am confident that by acting in a coordinated and united manner, helping one another, we are capable of achieving truly impressive results in developing multifaceted cooperation among our countries.
Thank you for your attention.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov: The Anglo-Saxons resisted their creation. They wanted summary mass executions, not justice nor exploration of root causes.
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The fundamental root cause of conflict between the Anglo-American led West and the Rest of Humanity, especially the civilizational-states, is the hypocritical bifurcation in International Law, due to recent precedence of “rules-based order” imposed by the West. This was never agreed to by the others.
It was within artificially created spaces in international law (“one law for thee, one law for me”) that a singular supremacist civilization worked to rule all the others.
“Quod licet Iovi, non licet bovi” the Latin for “What is permissible for Jupiter is not permissible for a cow” is the fundamentally unjust hierarchy of the law of the jungle, intolerable to the civilized. It largely worked until recently as they used to hold the incontestible combination of a monopoly on war of scale and economies and wealth accumulation and set the standards and management criteria on which supranational organizations function. But we are at a moment when these fundamental accumulated imbalances are being corrected. A key mechanism involves the return to the letter and spirit of universally agreed tenets of International Law by all.
Of note, Russia led similar efforts at the fair universal application of one law on all. Just prior to WW1, Russian Tsar Nicholas II was instrumental in the creation of the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907, establishing the first formal statements of the laws of war and war crimes in the body of secular international law. And it is not a coincidence, as just before 1914, that under the pressure of being coerced into comity and equal relations with Others, that yet again the western realm currently flees forward into more War in order to maintain their predatory way of life.
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Video description & excerpts:
Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said the Soviet Union was the driving force behind establishing the Nuremberg Tribunal, arguing that Western powers initially resisted the idea. He claimed the United States and Britain feared a full investigation would expose their pre-war dealings with Nazi Germany. Lavrov also said some Allied leaders preferred mass executions over legal trials, while Moscow pushed for a formal judicial process. He added that core Nuremberg principles remain under pressure in today’s geopolitical climate.
“Question: What do you consider the historical significance of the Nuremberg trials in the post-war years and how did they influence changes in the global order?
Answer: The Nuremberg Tribunal’s founding principles were first formulated during those trials and have become the foundation of modern international law.
They also largely take into account the achievements of Nuremberg in their work. The particular significance of the Nuremberg judgment lies in its establishment of no statute of limitations for crimes against humanity, genocide and war crimes.
And to our great regret, this decree states that there is no statute of limitations for these crimes and that Nazi ideology, the Nazi party and Nazi structures such as the SS, SD, and others are forever banned. Regrettably, these parts of the decree are currently being seriously tested and are often simply violated.”
Sergei Karaganov & Pavel Malyutin
We have not fully defined our identity. In the concept of foreign policy, we finally called the obvious a long-standing: we are a state-civilization.[1] However, a significant part of society can not part with the long-standing retrograde desire to be Europeans. Meanwhile, since the time of Alexander Nevsky, the founder of the national strategic culture, it has become clear that it is dangerous and disastrous to make an unambiguous civilizational choice for the West for us.[2][2]
In these circumstances, it should be repeated that our roots are in the North-East, and the present and the future are on the vast Eurasian and Pacific space, in a multipolar world.
The search and popularization of this idea, its synthesis[3] from the rich intellectual, philosophical and cultural heritage of compatriots, as well as many ideas expressed later, including one of the members of the author’s collective, is the main purpose of this article. Several tasks were identified to achieve it. Among them are a brief historical review of the experience of symbiotic cohabitation of ethnic groups in the vast space occupied today by Russia, the search for points of cultural contact of indigenous peoples inhabiting the territory of Russia, the retrospective of the ideological concepts of the Russian state at different stages of its historical evolution, as well as the discussion about the introduction of an up-to-date version of the ideological concept in modern Russian society.
The study is based on an expanded research method toolkit. The achievement of a rich and causal filling of the text is based on historical-genetic and problem-chronological methods. To perform specific tasks, the authors use qualitative methods of cross-temporal, cross-cultural and (to a lesser extent) intercountry comparison, as well as the method of professional discussion within the framework of situational analysis[4]. The latter method made it possible to obtain a squeeze of the ideas that enriched the presented text, as well as the basis of the project of the ideological platform, made in the field of public discussion by the authors and members of the above project SWOP.
The idea of Russia, the dream of Russia can not be Western, especially if we take into account the current Europe with its decomposing comprador elite and the United States with their latest post-human moral and ideological postulates (from which, however, part of the elite and society that has followed Trump, is trying to move away).
Such an idea and such a dream should not be anti-Western, because it would mean the continuation of the movement in the Western paradigm, but with a minus sign. They must be developed on their own. If a country does not have its own ideological core, the space of its ideas and spirit is liberated for others.
It is masked by statements that the national idea should be born from below, from society. And yet the ideas that moved peoples and countries are generated by sovereigns, leaders, elites.
Among other reasons is the unwillingness to abandon the illusions of the 1980-1990s, with reference to the prohibition of ideology 13 in Article 13 of the Constitution. The authors do not call for the mandatory reversal of this article, although it is used as an indulgence for the above fear and indecision. It can be easily “overdeared”, if we talk about not the state ideology, but about the “living dream of Russia”, and its summary may become the “Code of Russians”. To believe in the dream, to follow it, to strive to create a country and a world in which we would like to live, much more effectively than to pass exams in scientific communism, without believing in it. The wording “idea-dream” is rather vague and allows you to recommend following the Russian Code to at least those who want to enter the manager’s class to move the country forward.
There is another reason before the open, now hidden resistance of a certain part of the ruling elite to the nomination and promotion of Russia’s idea-dream. The governing stratum of the country is still dominated by technocrats and “political technologists”. They are useful for current governance, do a lot of things, but they cannot lead the country and the people to new horizons, to ensure the deep, ideological unity of the people and the government in the difficult fateful struggle into which the country and peace have entered.
The nutrient environment of one or another ideology, its orientation, its emotional basis are nurtured (or, as artists would say, soiled) by art. First there is a mood, gravitation, desire, and only then the formulations come, which (it is necessary to realize yourself in this) is much less important in real matters than sincere experiences. We still do not have a more or less clearly defined cultural policy. It is true that it is gratifying, her sprouts are made from below the military everyday life, from everyday heroism.
One of the main reasons for the hesitation about whether we need or not need an ideology is to underdetermine our political system. Having adopted the intellectual and political paradigm that came from the West on the ruins of the communist project-Superpower, we had long believed that we should be a democratic republic, with its inherent traditional connotations that are used in the Western world. At the same time, we have forgotten that democracy can exist only with a favorable external environment, the absence of external challenges and powerful rivals.[5] In addition, it, contrary to popular belief, does not provide real people’s power.
Both we, China and others were imposed on democracy precisely because they wanted to buy up the political class, and through it to weaken the country, submitting it to the now international, albeit led from the United States, oligarchy. Only the United States in the coming superturbute world can remain a democracy in the Western sense of the word, born as an aristocratic directly ruled by the then oligarchy and Masons.[6] There is no one to buy the deep state of America, except for the deepest state, and no matter how complex and contradictory the processes of purchase and sale are – they still occur only inside the country. The democratic form of government is in the national character of Americans, and by losing it, this country is likely not to survive. In addition, the United States is a state separated by the oceans from its main rivals and competitors.
This does not mean a complete denial of the importance of democratic mechanisms for Russia. A society devoid of feedback channels cannot exist. But the fact is that in the current so-called Western democracies, feedback has ceased to work, only the illusion of its functioning remains.[7][7] We must ensure its real operation in our society, preventing the rupture of the connecting threads between society and the government. But such action can be ensured only with a fair share of authoritarianism in the government of the country that holds the oligarchy, which inevitably develops under capitalism.
Russia, if it wants to exist as a gigantic sovereign state-civilization within its natural borders, cannot be a democracy in the Western sense of the term. It is history and destiny. We can and should have strong democratic elements in the system of governance, especially at the grassroots, municipal, regional, “zemstvo” level – where democracy is direct and where it is clearly lacking. It is there that responsible citizens of the country are born and educated.
The spiritual and moral component of the foundation of the Russian state also requires reflection. We have not yet proclaimed the protection of human human beings in man by our credo, the goal of national policy. We almost instinctively defend ourselves against attempts to shake and undermine our society. But even this resistance is rageous, is one of the important causes of the war of annihilation that the West has unleashed against us.
The defensive strategy in the medium term is not effective either on the battlefield or in the ideological struggle. It is necessary not just to defend themselves, but to strengthen the protection of this idea by an active offensive – through the promotion of normal human biological and social values, because they are understandable to the World Majority and will definitely find a response among those people in the West who are disciplined to what for them and their children make a choice in favor of the unnatural. The offensive defense of humanity should be part of Russia’s living idea and for the world.
A full-fledged citizen of our country should serve the society, his family, the country, the state.[8] If he seeks to serve only himself (which no one can take away his rights), he embarks on the path of self-isolation, cannot and should not count on social recognition. And the living idea-dream of Russia should directly lead to new conciliarity both inside the country and in a world where without joint work it is not to solve the problems facing humanity.
Finally, another one, perhaps, the most important and immanently inherent feature of us – the world (“openness” according to Dostoevsky). It is in a demand for the future of the increasingly diverse and multicultural world, a world of resurgent cultures and civilizations, the liberation of which we have contributed to a considerable, if not keyly. This quality is brought up by our history of expansion through the integration of the annexed peoples, intertwining with them with the closest ties of neighborhood, joint work and following similar moral principles.[9[9]]
We are a grandiose example of the unity of cultures and civilizations by the whole world – a unique Russian through the heart of the ally of Asian spirituality and dreaminess and European rationalism. Unlike our western neighbors, we, having entered the era of the knowing mind, managed to preserve the potential of the “culture of the soul”, which was replaced by the progress of the epochs of the New and Modern Times [10]. This distinguishes us from those who, cultivating only a rational desire to maximize profits, tried to force the world to a single standard.
Finally, history has an important part of our identity: the protection of sovereignty at all costs. This is a powerful source of the attractiveness of the country and the people for the world, which, after the era of colonialism and neocolonialism, called in recent decades of “liberal globalism”, entered the phase of sovereignty, the revival of the national in its very different manifestations.
An old system of globalist governance was showered, resting on the dream of the world government itself, for the sake of which the countries of the World Majority had to limit their foreign policy maneuverability. Faced with the international consequences of the Western hybrid war against Russia, non-Western societies see no other tool for solving global and national problems, except for the strengthening of the nation-state and the development of international relations on the principles of equal sovereignty.[11] And here Russia, with its unparalleled desire for independence and sovereignty, is on the “trend” of the coming decades. State-owned statehood, a traditional bet for Russia on the strengthening of the state, raises it to the level of one of the moral leaders of the future world. And this strategy should be presented to the world as an important part of our dream idea.
This component of Russia’s idea and the policy of respecting and supporting sovereignty and identity is one of the reasons for the hatred that the liberal-globalist elites feel for our country, not without reason the bastion of resistance to the model of the world that they tried to impose on humanity.
Another reason for this hatred is our resistance to imposing anti-human values. In Europe, these are anti-European values, if we assume that the main values of historical Europe were Christianity, humanism, and state nationalism. The current “Europe” and the state position of the majority of Russian citizens, who are well aware that only the state can protect a person and a citizen in a dangerous world.
However, perhaps the Russian lively idea-dream for the future for itself and the world should include its future consolidation to combat common challenges on more just and peaceful foundations, excluding inequality and cultural level. But this is not a task for the next few years. Russia, with its worldwide openness, with an emphasis on the preservation of Man in man, is designed to bring this future closer to its own and common benefits.
The Russians did not lose their sense of unity with nature, which they always understood as expanse, will, a source of food, requiring saving and recompense due. This unity must be preserved and developed. “We have not just preserved nature, we continue to protect and develop it and ourselves in unity with it, recognizing that nature can exist without a person, but man without nature is not.”[12][12] And the theory of the noosphere – the active unity of man and nature – was born in Russia (remember the theory of V.I. Vernadsky.[13] Summing up, we note that the best, perhaps, thought of our man about nature was expressed by M.M. Prishvin: “To love nature is to love the Motherland.”
Russia cannot and should not continue to develop without leading forward, inspiring great ideas, without a formulated understanding of its purpose. At one time, through the efforts of our ancestors, a grandiose Trans-Siberian Railway was laid – a plan that was embodied under the slogan of workers, officers, engineers, “meetings of the Sun” that mastered Siberia. He was replaced by large Soviet construction projects: first of all, again, a new development of Siberia, the Northern Sea Route [14]. There was a war with her slogan “Everything for the front, all the Victories!”. It was accustomed millions of space exploration. Then the ideas dried up, but we finally begin to return to the big projects that renew our country and society. Slogans are already ready for them: “Go to the Great Ocean!”, “Forward to the side of the sunrise” and, most importantly, “Go to your origins, forward to oneself!”
These slogans, and the great tasks that will be made under them, should serve not only our self-improvement, but, through it, the firm suppression of the attempts of the West to force us to accept the norms that are unprofitable for us and the World Greatest Rule of Playing in World Politics.
We have no right to drop the Victory out of hands, in the achievement of which the slogans also play an important role. Victory is our suffered and well-deserved chance of self-improvement, restarting the passion of the people to the indicators on which it was during the development of immense Siberian spaces, during the Victory of the forty-fifth year.
To the west of us lies the once influential France, now serving as a clear example of what happens when there is no national idea, and its place is occupied by a total decade and permissiveness, generated by three great defeats for almost a hundred and fifty years from 1812 to 1940.
Closer to the East lies the state formation, where the state ideology (albeit harmful and counterproductive) was introduced. The slogan of this ideology is “Ukraine is not Russia” or “anti-Russia”. This ideology is one of the reasons for the fierce resistance of the frantic resistance of the frantic on the other side of the front and the illustration, of course, of the effectiveness of the current state ideology.
As mentioned above, we believe it is correct to talk not about the state ideology, but about the modern living idea of Russia. And its short version, embodying the spirit of Russians – Russians, Tatars, Chechens, Buryat, Nenets, Tuvans, and other indigenous peoples of Russia – their “Codecom”.
The goal is to set a course for the development of the best in a person: physical, intellectual, absolutely important – spiritual, moral. It is necessary to root a person in himself and in Russia, and for this purpose – to pursue a state policy that requires a citizen, but also encourages him to take care of not only themselves; self-improvement is important, but by the moment it turns into hedonism, if not spiritualized by the care of others next to them: about the family, community, society, country, state.
At the same time, it is important to maintain and develop in our person his attraction to the spiritual, triumphant over the material, the desire for more, over-horizon, for the amazing explosive energy of creation in the name of the Fatherland and the highest goals. We want to recreate and develop the best in ourselves to go forward together and win – in politics, technology, spirit, creating the most comfortable (spiritually and physically) country.
Unlike the Western thinkers and their heirs, who raised a man too high before the Creator, through the legalization of rationalism and now became his captives, our learned men chose the other way. Relying on the wisdom of the Eastern co-religionists, they had much earlier to realize the unattainability of this path, the obstacle on which is the Fall itself.[15] Therefore, the only thing that remains for us is to aspire our gaze, thoughts and, if you wish, prayer (if you believe) to heaven, to improve through tireless spiritual work and creative work.
Equally important and uncontested goal for Russia is the full strengthening of the Russian state. Only for historical reasons and geostrategic realities can provide conditions for the development and survival of a Russian citizen. Historically, the geographical and political circumstances of the era of centralization of the Russian state determined its most important function to save the population, while the pursuit of its security was attributed to the second, but not the last plan.
The struggle for a strong state is especially important in the context of the current globalizing world, the old and the emergence of new global threats.
Only a strong state, in cooperation with others, can protect against climate change, the emergence and spread of epidemics, famines, unresolved so far, but the inevitable powerful migratory flows and, finally, to prevent a viscous slide to the Third and the latter for the current human civilization of world war. And only such a state, based on a strong society and supported by it, can save a person from the corrupting influence of the negative trends of modern civilization, leading to the loss of man by many functions that make him Man.
Finally, the strengthening of the state, including through the national idea, is necessary to counteract the course of liberal imperialist globalist elites seeking to weaken it in order to seize and assert their domination.[16] Their dream is a world government in alliance with transnational corporations and long-awaited international NGOs that would lead “democratic”, and, therefore, subordinated to international oligarchies by weak nation-states. These ideas underpinned the theory of globalization, laid down in the 1970-1980s.[17][17] The scheme, thank God, now fails, but it is not abandoned, puts it forward again and again.
Some “chards” to citizens may seem to be a violation of their rights and restrictions on the freedom of personal choice. However, the essence of fatherly love is not to forbid everything, but to reasonably allow, to show your child what is good and what is bad, to give edifying examples and at any cost to protect from danger. Just as the child needs paternity, and citizens need moral and patriotic reference points: if not mandatory, then recommendatory, if not in general, then designed for a managerial reserve.
But we must not forget about the filial duty. The state (in the context of historical continuity) that brought us up was defenseless in the face of negligent sons who did not stand before the temptations of Western individualism and aggressive capitalism (there is a considerable part of the dogmas of Soviet education was wrong – this should not be hidden). It is gratifying that the state is gradually recovering, but now it, like a parent in years, especially needs us. And our task is to help him so that the process of paternity education and protection of citizens continues to be reproduced in new generations.
The ideal structure of the political system is a strong leadership democracy. Naturally, this state should not be the devouring of all the Leviathan. It should serve a person, protect him, and for this, we repeat, strong democratic elements are needed, first of all – on the ground. It should also be governed by a strong and patriotic meritocratic elite led by a powerful leader. The idea-dream should also be a code of honor for the service elite. We have a lot of things in our country to create such a meritocratic elite. Presidential Reserves, First Movement, Yunarmiya, etc. But in this work, especially in cooperation with the younger generation, there is not or almost do not have the necessary powerful ideological core [18]. This leads to the fact that young people themselves should find the answer to the question of why serving society and the Fatherland should be above all. As a result, such a reference point is still only in third place in terms of importance among Russian youth [19].
Again, ideology should not be taken and harmful in the entrenched negative connotation of the anti-democratic attribute. The term “democracy” due to the long-term dominance of the West in the information and ideological sphere has a positive interpretation, “ideology” and “authoritarianism” – negative. Hence, we have the need to resolve what, according to the conceivable need of the liberal globalists, it became a contradiction.
We want to live in a free world, a free country and a society, with moral guidelines, a living idea-dream. However, in the current situation, the state can ensure the maximum possible degree of our freedom at the moment only by resorting to a certain element of authoritarianism. The circumstances of the present and future peace require us to become as effective as possible, but responsible to the people and God autocracy, or leadership democracy. As always, we must pass through the blade of this sharpest razor.
For the effectiveness of leadership democracy, in particular, it is necessary to preserve Russian freedom – will, especially freedom of thought. Our “all” – Pushkin[20], Lermontov, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Lomonosov, Pavlov, Kurchatov, Landau, Korolev – often disagreed with the authorities and criticized the authorities. But – served the country, its culture, science. And this is the main criterion of compliance with the “Code of the Russian”.
The conclusion is simple. Intellectual, spiritual freedom – a firm condition for the country’s prosperity – must be an integral part of Russia’s living idea. Formulating more mundanely: intellectuals should serve the Fatherland, but also supported by it. The combination of intellectual freedom, freedom of thought and some degree of political authoritarianism is a difficult path. But Russian history gives examples of such a connection.
Once again, it’s time to end the harmful debate about who is a Russian. An ethnos? At the place of birth? By religion or lack of religion? A Russian is a Russian speaking person, rooted or even striving to take root in its culture, who knows the history of Russia. And, of course, separating the basic ethical values of its multinational people.
Russians, being a state-forming ethnos in Russia, Orthodox. Orthodoxy saved Russia in difficult times. But no less important for the Fatherland are other beliefs – Islam, Buddhism, Judaism. The main thing for all believers and even unbelievers or not recognized in their faith is the readiness to serve the high: the Motherland, the family, to develop culture and protect the Fatherland. And, if there is such a readiness, you are Russian, you are a Russian.
Of course, Russian by birth, a Russian, can consider himself a citizen of the world, this is his right as long as he pays taxes, does not harm his country and does not serve the interests of other states. Cultural openness, even cultural cosmopolitanism, worldism is a strong feature that makes up many educated Russians. Their best incarnation is Pushkin. But after all, those who are at war with Nazism, defending Russia, and are in fact the best citizens of the world, its defenders and saviors.
There were many such people among the Bolshevik leaders of the first revolutionary years. When they slipped into power because of the war, tearing the old elites, the weak tsar, they caused gigant damage to the country, almost led it to the final collapse, consciously killing her soul – Orthodoxy and other religions. Their spiritual heirs were many and among the people who preached opposite political and economic views – “under-formers” of the 1980-1990s, who, the collapse of the disastrous communist system, almost brought down after him and the country, destroyed many of the achievements accumulated over the previous decades. More gently than the Bolsheviks, they, without mass murder, but, alas, with mass mortality from provoked by stupid and evil reforms as if natural causes, de facto either destroyed or expelled from the country a significant part of the accumulated meritocratic elite: engineers, scientists, military, managers, skilled workers.
This damage is just beginning to be recovered.
Russia is still fulfilling a special mission, opposing Western ambitions and providing the world with an alternative – a multinational, multicultural community based on the wrong-called “conservative”, but really – truly human values.
Together with them, an important component of the idea-dream of Russia should be movement towards itself, to the origins of our power as a great power – to Siberia, a new, second Eastern turn, “Siberation of Russia”. Moving to the Urals and Siberia, we will go for the better in ourselves, at the same time, looking at Eurasia and the great world, to follow the trends of future peacebuilding, call others.
The basis of this movement should be the values that are already largely present in the public consciousness of the Russians. But they should be clearly presented as what we want to see ourselves and our country. Now, during the world turning point, a new spiritual awareness of oneself is especially needed. The discovery of science, the received relative well-being and new challenges require a lot from a person, but also give him the opportunity to become a “Man with a capital letter” – a Man of service, love, compassion, mercy and affliction.
So, we are uniting Greater Eurasia and, perhaps, the northern Eurasian political ethnic people that can once unite the entire world. We are open to all, but respect and our identity, political and spiritual sovereignty. The main thing for us is intellectual and physical development in order to serve the good. We are for humanity, true humanism, for the preservation of Man in man, the divine principle in him. The goal of our common conciliar and state policy is to preserve and increase the multinational people of Russia and the best international and, most importantly, internal justice.
We are open to all religions if they serve a high in a person and call to serve a family, the Motherland and the state. We are internationalists, we are alien to racism. We are for cultural, spiritual diversity and multi-color.
We are a people of warriors and victors. The world-bearer and the liberator from all who tried to become a hegemon, encroaching on the freedom of others to choose their economic, cultural, political, religious, spiritual path.
We are for normal human values: for the love of women and men, the love of parents for children, for respect for the elderly, for compassion, for their love for their land.
We are a people who have not lost touch with our own nature. We will keep it and protect it.
We are a people of feminine and very strong women who have saved the Motherland more than once in a dashing year, and we are a people of strong and courageous men who are ready to protect the weak.
Our heroes are a warrior, a scientist, a doctor, an engineer, a teacher, a selfless official, a businessman-charity, a peasant and a worker who create with their own hands the country prosperity and strive to protect it.
The state that we want to build is a leadership, with a successive, reaffirmed by the choice of the people as a leader and strong democracy, the earth on the ground. Economically, we build national capitalism, where property is inviolable, but indicative consumption is shameful, where the goal of business is to serve the well-being of all, to increase the power of the state, the new Russian ideology with its emphasis on the development of Man in his service to the Motherland.
The article is published in the journal Polis (Political Studies). Issue No. 4, 2025.
Sergey Karaganov
Doctor of Historical Sciences, Honored Professor, Scientific Director of the Faculty of World Economy and World Politics of HSE, Honorary Chairman of the Presidium of the Council on Foreign and Defense Policy.
Pavel Malyutin
Researcher at the Institute of World War Economics and Strategy, Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the Higher School of Economics.
Permanent X link to Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur – the Occupied Territories.
A previous thread contains Netanyahu’s ‘spiritual needs’.
Previous thread: https://sovereignista.com/2025/09/27/the-war-genocide-thread-9/
Oct 26
Genocide Light
We are entering the 3rd week of the PEACE, Ceasefire, or whatever the Trump Plan is called. Demented Donald shouts peace: “We have a very strong PEACE in the Middle East”, while Netanyahu is testing his limits. It is my opinion that zionist-israel is now been taken somewhat formally as US proxy, as a colony. The Israeli hardliners hope Trump ‘flips again’ as this is now openly discussed in the zionist circles and media. “A senior IDF officer on assertions that the IDF is subordinate to the American headquarters in Kiryat Gat regarding operations in Gaza:
“This is not true. Obviously, the situation is sensitive and they want to move forward. But we are not subordinate to them in any way. There is coordination and cooperation, but they do not have a veto, and we have no obligation to report or request approval.”
Yet, in Trump’s salami slicing methods, American troops are now patrolling within Gaza, despite the assurances that they will not be deployed inside Gaza.
This is not a ceasefire: Zionist warplanes launched twin strikes on eastern Khan Younis in southern Gaza at dawn.
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) October 27, 2025
The mundane steps for pretending that this is a ceasefire, continues.
The decision was made during a meeting in Cairo with Egyptian intelligence, according to The Jerusalem Post, which cited KAN News.
Shawa’s official appointment still depends on approval from the US. https://t.co/9IWj2HFnaG pic.twitter.com/bWaEHyob8k
— Sputnik (@SputnikInt) October 27, 2025
Only now, after having been prohibited from entering, an Egyptian team enters Gaza to recover dead hostages. (Enemy media)
In a critical mission approved personally by PM Netanyahu, an Egyptian technical team has entered Gaza, Channel 12 reported. Their sole objective: locate and recover the bodies of the remaining 13 slain hostages. Both Israel and Hamas have provided intelligence on the bodies’ locations. Footage from social media show 4 heavy engineering vehicles entering Gaza through the Kerem Abu Salem crossing.
Some 12 or so corpses have not been found for handover to the zionists.
Some 9,000 Palestinians are still in prisons and jails in zionist-israel. One cannot help but think that there must be committed torturers in the zionist population to torture such a large number of people continuously.
West Bank
It is here that we see the zionist settlers are designated as a civilian quasi-military force. They beat Palestinians, raid villages and towns, hold people for arrest by the formal forces, steal the olive harvest, send their animals in to graze on Palestinian lands, and after stealing the olive harvest, chop down the trees. Closer to Gaza, they stop aid trucks from entering by blocking, with their babies and children, in front of the trucks.
Zionist-israel is bombing Lebanon at will.
333 days have passed since the so-called ceasefire agreement was signed between Israel and Lebanon.
During this period (2024–2025), 344 Hezbollah members were martyred (if including uninvolved individuals, over 400 were killed).
In the year between October 2023 and September 2024 (before the start of the Hezbollah–Israel war), about 500 Hezbollah members were martyred.
The difference between the two periods is that in ’23/’24 Hezbollah responded to every killing; so far, not a single response has been recorded, neither to the massacre, nor to the raids, nor to the repeated bombings of its bases and facilities.
An average of 1.03 members per day were martyred over the past 333 days.
The question now is: how long will Hezbollah stay as members of the government first, and as a resistance second?
The pressure to start a new war with Iran is a little less, yet Iran is on a readiness and war footing. Note Pepe Escobar’s comment with information that was released after his visit to Iran was cancelled because Iran is on a war footing:
Pepe Escobar
@RealPepeEscobar
·
Oct 24
Meet Esmaeil Khatib. A very serious character. He is Iran’s Minister of Intelligence.
Khatib released a bombshell when he publicly stated that 50 – I repeat, FIFTY – foreign intel agencies helped that death cult in West Asia during the 12-day war on Iran.
Khatib detailed how they unleashed a full-scale Hybrid War to try to balkanize Iran and provoke regime change.
FIFTY. That includes the whole of NATO and a lot of Arabs.
And two crucial players: Turjiye and Azerbaijan.
That explains why Iran had to stop: after all they were hammering the death cult big time, even in downtown Tel Aviv.
Tehran realized it could not fight in so many fronts at the same time.
We don’t have time to follow the African wars on the war thread. The major instigator is the UAE (the Emirates). and zionist-israel. Sudan looks as bad as Gaza. The African Global South is failing its own. African countries are more interested in walking the modelling runway for photo ops during the Russian SMO than in dealing with their own problems. It is fashionable to ‘solve Russian problems’ and sounds oh so Statesmanlike. It calls the press to solve zionist problems, so let’s start an ICC case that cannot really go anywhere, and let’s get Iran to pay for it. It is, of course, the easy way to blame colonialism for all, but not to set out and solve the rabid neo-colonialism, but in the majority of cases, enthusiastically take part. In my opinion, only the Sahel States, collectively, are solving the problems. The rest? What else are they doing besides making comments to the press?
The LAC is politically, ideologically and strategically much more prepared and much further down the road to sovereinty. With the imminent threat to Venezuela, we see the LAC drawing together and taking ownership, considering it a region-wide threat.
Femi Akomolafe talks about Kenya:
It galls the soul to see that what the British Empire failed to conquer with its Maxim machine guns, the Kenyan elite willingly surrendered with handshakes and smiles.
It seems independence meant merely swapping the governor’s mansion for the State House—different flag, same servitude.
https://www.ukcolumn.org/video/sudan-another-forgotten-war
Total Respects!
A time travel across History – the Ancient Silk Roads as well as Xinjiang may well be the ultimate crossroads of civilizations. Along Central Asia, they are the (beating) heart of the Heartland…
By Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.
ON THE SOUTHERN SILK ROAD – Silk is the stuff of legend. Literally. At first manufactured only in China, silk historically was not only a luxury product but a monetary unit: a key element of trade and export revenues.
In 105 B.C., a first-ever Chinese diplomatic mission landed in Persia, then dominated by the Parthians, who also occupied Bactria, Assyria, Babylon and parts of India. Under the four-century long Arsacid dynasty – contemporary of the Han in China – the Parthians at the time were the essential middlemen of transcontinental trade. Chinese and Parthians sat down to discuss – what else – business.
The Roman Empire faced some serious trouble with the Parthians – between the massive defeat of Crassus in Carrhae in 53 B.C. and the victory of Septimus Severus in the year 202. In between, silk hit Rome. Big time.
The first time Roman soldiers saw silk was in the battle of Carrhae. Legend rules that the silk banners deployed by the Parthian army, their scintillating appeal making serious noise under the fierce winds, frightened the Roman cavalry: talk about the first instance of silk contributing to accelerate the decline of the Roman Empire.
Well, what matters is that silk perpetrated nothing less than an economic revolution. The Roman Republic and then Empire had to export gold like there’s no tomorrow to get their silken ways.
Parthian rule was followed by Sassanid Persia. They reigned until the mid 7th century – their empire stretching from Central Asia to Mesopotamia. For quite a while the Sassanids incarnated the role of great power between China and Europe – up to the conquests of Islam.
(L): Silk Road, the ancient Chinese way: from Xian to Alexandria, not Rome ; (R): The stone tower: Tashkurgan Fort, the landmark between China and the rest of Eurasia
So imagine, at the start of the Christian era, bolts of silk moving overland all along across the Silk Road spectrum. What’s fascinating is that Rome and China never (italics mine) entered in direct contact – for all the vast cast of characters (merchants, adventurers, fake “ambassadors”) that tried.
In parallel, a Maritime Road was also in play – already in effect during the times of Alexander The Great; it later became the Spice Route. That was how Chinese, Persians and Arabs reached India.
Since the Han dynasty, the Chinese reached not only India but also Vietnam, Malaysia and Sumatra. Sumatra soon developed as a key maritime entrepot, with Arab vessels arriving non-stop. In a more long-distance vein, it was the discovery of the rules of the monsoon – in the first century B.C. – that allowed the Romans to also reach the western shores of India.
So silk arrived in Rome by land and sea, via loads of different middlemen. And yet Rome never knew anything about the origin of silk, nor went further than the Greeks in their wobbly knowledge of the distant, mysterious land of Seres.
The twists and turns of the Panlong Ancient Road, in Pamir lands
I went down to the (Pamir) crossroads
After the mid-1st century, the Kushan empire, actually Indo-Scythian, gets a protagonist role in southern Central Asia, in what was known then as Eastern Turkestan. The Kushan, rivals of the Parthians in the role of messengers of international trade, not only facilitated the spread of Buddhism but also Gandhara – Greco-Buddhist – art (some originals are still to be found today, at exorbitant prices, in art galleries in Hong Kong and Bangkok).
And yet, further on down the road, the rules of the game never substantially changed: two great Silk Road poles – Sassanid Persia and Byzantium – involved in a real, cutthroat industrial war with silk right in the middle. The secret of silk manufacturing had already been leaked to South Asia.
This trade war got even more complicated with the onslaught of Turk tribes across Central Asia, and the emergence of a trade kingdom in Sogdiana (with Samarkand at the center).
By the mid-7th century, the Tang dynasty recovered control over parts of the Silk Road ruled by Tarim basin kingdoms. That was an absolute must for business to go on – because caravan routes traversing these kingdoms encircled, and bypassed, by north and south, the fear-inducing Taklamakan desert, as they still do today.
Tang China wanted absolute control all the way at least up to the Pamir mountains where, in the legendary stone tower relentlessly described by adventurers but never really located with 100% certainty, Scythian, Parthian and Persian caravans met Chinese caravans to trade that precious silk plus several other commodities.
The stone tower mentioned by top geographers such as Ptolemy is actually Tashkurgan Fort in the Pamir mountains: ultra- strategic, straddling the Silk Road, and nowadays a top tourist attraction very close to the Karakoram highway.
The stone tower is the symbolic landmark between the Chinese world and the rest of Eurasia: to the west is the Indo-Iranian world.
I traveled the Pamir Highway in Tajikistan back-to-back before Covid interrupted everything. This time our mini-caravan crossed Pamir lands along and around the Karakoram highway on the way to the China-Pakistan border: that is now prime China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) territory, a key plank of BRI.
It’s the Pamirs that in Ancient Silk Road times allowed reaching the oasis of Kashgar. The Pamirs tie a gigantic mountainous knot between the western limits of the Himalayas, the Hindu Kush and the southern slopes of the Tian Shan.
This has always been the key crossroads between the triangular trade uniting northern India, eastern Central Asia – with China nearby – and western Central Asia, with the steppes not so far away.
China meets Islam: a great, historical “what if?”
Silk, bearing serious value as a unit of capitalization and trade, had a much larger role than its usage. In Byzantium, silk was the object of an imperial monopoly. Everything was strictly regulated: professions, state ateliers where women worked, and customs. The state protected its monopoly via a fierce bureaucracy.
Meanwhile, the Maritime Road was booming. A Buddhist and maritime power, Srivijaya, controlled the ever-crucial Malacca strait out of the island of Sumatra. It’s under this configuration that Islam enters the Big Picture.
As much as History ruled that Rome and China would never meet directly along the Silk Road, it also ruled a stark separation between Islam and China. Or try to imagine if China, in the mid 8th century, had become a land of Islam.
The battle of Talas, in 751 – in what is today’s Kyrgyzstan – pitted China against the Arabs. And its result ended for good any Chinese whim of conquering Central Asia. Today, with the New Silk Roads/BRI, is another story – about Chinese trade/investment power projection all across the Heartland, and beyond.
(L): Culture interpenetration: Bukhara meets Kashgar ; (R): Samarkand. Opening the doors to another dimension.
Back in the early 8th century, the key player was Umayyad dynasty General Qutayba ibn Muslim. He first conquered Bukhara and Samarkand; crossed the Ferghana valley; the Tian Shan mountains; and nearly reached Kashgar. The Chinese governor at the time, sensing that Qutayba might be about to take over Chinese lands, sent him a bag full of earth’s soil, a few coins and four princes as hostages. He calculated that’s how the Arab conqueror might not lose face, and leave the Middle Kingdom alone.
As incredible as it might seem, this arrangement lasted for half a century. Until the battle of Talas. Now compare it with Poitiers in 732 – one century after the death of Prophet Muhammad. We can certainly interpret Talas and Poitiers, together, as the two key landmarks of how Islam was on the verge of extending itself all cross Eurasia (including its European peninsula), creating a political-military empire from Rome to Chang’an (today’s Xian).
Well, it did not happen. Still, that’s one of the most extraordinary “what ifs” in History.
The importance of the battle of Talas – virtually ignored in the West, except in rarefied scholarly circles – is really larger than life. Among other issues, it imposed a new circulation of techniques. The Arabs took away with them artisans, sericulture experts but also paper makers. Ateliers at first were set up in Samarkand. Later on, in Baghdad and all across the Caliphate.
So alongside the Silk Road, we saw the birth of a very busy Paper Road.
An extraordinary Silk Road exhibition currently at the Gansu museum in Lanzhou
Deserts, mountains, oases – and no “slave labor”
Rolling down the highways across Xinjiang shooting a documentary after retracing the initial Ancient Silk Road from Xian to the Gansu corridor is an incomparable, historical time travel – as we may retrace in detail centuries of Central Asian turmoil all the way to the decline of some local pre-Islamic cultures by the 9th century. It’s a thrill to reconnect with the main actors: Uyghurs, Han Chinese, Sogdians, Indians, nomads, Arabs, Tibetans, Tajiks, Kyrgyz – and Mongolians.
The nomad groups thar proclaimed themselves heirs to the fierce Xiongnu came from the northwest of Mongolia and the Altai mountains. They incorporated several ancient nomads of western Central Asia during the 4th century, sharply remodeling the political and ethnic landscape.
The Xiongnu, on and off, pillaged parts of northern China – and were occasionally enticed into serious trade, offered tribute, or simply bribed to stay away. Actually the Xiongnu had a branch established in China and separated for at least two centuries from the previous ones: they ended up taking Samarkand in the year 350. Later on, it’s the Turks that once again came from Mongolia (don’t tell Erdogan about it; he wouldn’t know), unifying the steppe in the 6th century, way before the arrival of Islam.
Arguably the key Silk Road imperative is the desert and oasis contrast/dichotomy.
(L): The stark beauty of the fierce Taklamakan ; (R): Good pasture in Pamir lands
Deserts such as the Taklamakan and the Gobi, and several others, as well as arid steppes and mountains are among the most forbidding on the planet: these are the essential features of what amounts to roughly 6 million km2.
What is very rare in Central Asia is cultivated land (yet we can see a succession of cotton fields) or good pasture (we can see it in the Gansu corridor, and even in Pamir lands near the mighty Muztagh Ata). Still, deserts and mountains are at the heart of everything.
Some oases are of course more equal than others. Khotan is the most important oasis of the Southern Silk Road – not far from the immense, deserted Tibetan plateau. That’s fabulous for agriculture but most of all, courtesy of an alluvial cone, for precious stones, especially jade, supplied for over 2,000 years to every Chinese dynasty. Khotan spoke an Iranian language – close to those of ancient nomads Saka and Scythian, masters of the steppes.
The kingdom of Khotan was a fierce rival of the oases further west, Yarkand and Kashgar. It was only intermittently under Chinese control. And may have been conquered by the Kushans in the 2nd century. Indian influence is omnipresent – as we still see in dress patterns and food in the Night Market. In the 3rd century Buddhism was already a major influence – featuring the most ancient testimonials in the Tarim basin.
The Silk Road, actually Roads, is of course The Buddhist Road. In Dunhuang, in the Gansu corridor, Buddhism was also popular since the 3rd century: a famous local monk, Dharmaraksa, was the pupil of an Indian master. The Dunhuang Buddhist crowds were a mix of Chinese, Indian and Central Asian – once more testifying to the non-stop interpenetration of cultures.
(L): The Chinese character for “silk” inscribed in jade in front of a factory in Khotan ; (R): Playing the Uyghur blues
The Shakespearean “all the world is a stage” metaphor totally applies to the history of the Silk Road: all those actors from all corners of the Heartland historically were playing several roles, sometimes all in one go – an apotheosis of the favourite Xi Jinping-coined “people to people’s exchanges”. That’s the spirit of the Ancient and the New Silk Roads.
We were fortunate enough to be on the road smack in the middle of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
Among so many accomplishments by socialism with Chinese characteristics in Xinjiang in terms of sustainable development, the taming of the Taklamakan – or “sea of death” – is in a world class of its own.
We crossed the Taklamakan from the Northern Silk Road in Aksu to the Southern, near Keriya: and we experienced everthing from the impeccable highway bordered by the reeds composing the “China magic cube” – to keep the sands away – to some of the 3,046 km-long sand-blocking green belt, featuring plants such as the desert poplar and the red willow.
The Taklamakan has always been Sandstorm Central – a major threat to the succession of oases. The terrain all around the oases is hardcore: deserts, barren mountains, Gobi wasteland, poor soil, sparse vegetation, low rainfall, high evaporation, dry air.
Well, what we see today started even before the Go West campaign launched in 1999: since 1997, an array of central and state agencies, central state-owned enterprises, and 14 Chinese provinces and municipalities have sent a massive amount of funds and personnel to properly develop Xinjiang.
Now compare all that with original research shared at an academic conference on Xinjiang recently organized by the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology and Hong Kong University – my neighbors when I lived in the Fragrant Harbor. The research showed how British MI6 since the 1990s was instrumentalizing a minority of Uyghurs side by side with a massive global P.R. campaign with the explicit target of breaking China into three parts.
That evolved into the CIA-concocted “genocide” accusations of the past few years and of course “forced labor” masses barely surviving in concentration/re-education camps. In our extensive travels, guided by Uyghurs, we were dead set on finding slave labor in cotton fields along the Northern Silk Road or in the middle of the Taklamakan. Well, sorry: they don’t exist.
The propaganda though was essential to regiment loads of Uyghurs into ISIS, including their sizable contingent in Idlibistan now roaming free between Syria and the Turkish border. They wouldn’t dare coming back to Xinjiang and face Chinese intel.
Forget about barbarian propaganda. What really matters, historically, is that the Ancient Silk Roads as well as Xinjiang may well be the ultimate crossroads of civilizations. Along Central Asia, they are the (beating) heart of the Heartland. And now, once again, they are back as protagonists in the heart of History.
Permanent X link to Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur – the Occupied Territories.
A previous thread contains Netanyahu’s ‘spiritual needs’.
Previous thread: https://sovereignista.com/2025/09/27/the-war-genocide-thread-9/
Oct 20
Netanyahu announced with pride that they bombed Gaza with 153 tons of explosives. But he says nothing about how many non-combatants women, children they bombed, and he said nothing that Hamas is still in charge. How do we know? They are negotiating with Hamas!
We witnessed yesterday that Trump acted, for once. Zionist-israel attacked Gaza again and stopped aid flowing in. The US intervened and Netanyahu had to step back, cease the attacks and withdraw his order to stop all aid. Today we will see if aid is properly restored.
This is generally called a cynical attempt of Trump to keep on with the peace myth that he is peddling. It may be so, but also may not be so. We don’t have a trend after his big Peace Plan.
Witkoff and Kushner visited Gaza but refused to acknowledge the genocide, saying that it is a war. They know full well that this is genocide but the attempt to save Bibi’s neck and zionist reputation continues. Kushner: ‘Ingenuity, innovation, compassion’ will reestablish Israel’s reputation. ‘They don’t have to explain themselves — the war has taken a toll’.
Of course these two have to act for the cease fire, for consistency of their message and the long term plan to wrest profit from the atrocity. This is a message that will not fly as the reaction against Israel and Israelis continue worldwide and will do so for years into the future. People innately and intuitively understand that this is the moral issue of our time.
This is from Thailand and there are many more
There are many restaurants in the world now with signs – No Israel! Countries are routinely beginning to stop Israelis visiting for rest and relaxation. The Hind Rajab foundation is growing from strength to strength and they seek out IDF and former IDF soldiers similarly to how Nazis were hunted out earlier in our history. The zionist population is fleeing and flailing knowing full well that they are equated to Nazis now. The real status of the country is very questionable as trade is drying up with dockworkers in Europe refusing to pass cargo and AnsarAllah in Yemen still holding their ban on shipping. Netanyahu is a hated man internal to the zionist state. People like Marjory Tailor-Green in the US are staying on message – no more money, no more unregistered AIPAC. To refuse AIPAC bribes is now becoming a point of pride and an election campaign issue for people standing for congress and is now seen as a good thing. The ultra-Orthodox is still protesting and refusing to serve, so the IDF is critically short of fighters as call-ups of reservists also fail. This horse, this reputational horse, has left the stable and will not be put into its stable again, despite the work of Trump, Kushner and Witkoff and despite the new efforts to craft TikTok into a tool of covering up empire’s bloodlust.
Here is one reason why the message will not fly worldwide and Zionist-Israel will remain rejected by the good people of our world. I wonder if these Witkoff and Kushner types understand that the power of social media goes both ways and that it cannot be stopped at the borders? We know what happens when the zionists are forced to stop killing Palestinians in Gaza. They intensify the campaign to occupy the West Bank for one, and start killing Palestinians in the West Bank. Yesterday, Palestinians were lured into settler ambushes. This is being fully recorded by mainly US journalists and activists who go there to support. Prisoners that are released on Gaza side, are made up for in numbers with new arrests on the West Bank’s side. So the numbers of detained Palestinians in the hellholes of zionist jails remain high. Over the past two years, we’ve seen it over and over again.
Violent settlers mobs are tearing up the countryside, beating up Palestinians harvesting olives and caring for livestock, they are stealing and occupying land and take houses as they like, they use their children as human shields to stop aid trucks and they act as a terrorist force, with nothing to distinguish these mobs from ISIS type activities. News sources report that Zionist occupiers have seized 70,000 square meters of Palestinian lands in Nablus. The occupiers continue to violate and annex the West Bank.
So, when the Gaza ceasefire settled somewhat (for the moment ignoring the latest zionist atrocities of the past day), the West Bank came under major assault. There has been a ‘soft’ assault ongoing, but yesterday was major. The Israeli occupation forces continued their wide-scale campaign across the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem, conducting violent raids, arrests, and assaults on civilians throughout the night and early morning hours.
Occupation forces stormed multiple towns and villages. The city of Nablus and its surrounding areas—Kafr Qalil, Rafidia, Beit Wazan, and An-Naqura—witnessed heavy military incursions, with reports of house raids, arrests, and widespread intimidation. Forces also entered Al-Mughayyir (northeast of Ramallah), arresting several residents, including Nadi Nasan and Alaa Raqi Nasar Abu Aliya. There are more. It was an overwhelming flooding attack.
The coordinated nature of these raids underscores the continued Israeli campaign to suppress resistance and terrorize the Palestinian population throughout the occupied West Bank. This is the softening of the West Bank to become our next Gaza.
Additionally, looking forward, there is this school of thought:
The plan is not for the IDF to re-occupy Gaza. There has been a massing of settler armies on the border. It is THEY who will go in and claim the land, looking in particular to carve out the seashore for themselves.
Netanyahu will say that he has not violated the agreement. It’s not an “official” attack. It’s just the settlers doing to Gaza what they’ve been doing on the West Bank.
The aggression never has been limited to Netanyahu; it’s the younger settler-state population as a whole.
If Netanyahu and his fellow insane murderers will ever see the inside of a world court of law is a question. Perhaps the justice will be meted out on the ground and the ultimate removal may be by fair means or foul. Historically, and in my opinion, foul means may be considered as the zionist way.
There is little hope for a better immediate future on the short timeline. But do remember, this is in fact a very small part of our world. The similarity of actions with the threatening assault on Venezuela tells us that the brains behind these atrocities, are the same brains as those behind shooting little boats to smithereens into the blue in the Caribbean. Might makes right will not prevail for too much longer. This is why we must stand as resistance. The infestations internal to the combined west may have their own faction fights, but the virus in this cesspit is the same. In the US currently the principle of starving poor people is continuing in a psychological horror show. I’m talking about Food Stamps being threatened for the poorer population. For the Palestinians the sheer level of physical and psychological trauma will continue for many years into the future. If this population can ever be saved in reality is a huge question. This is why the attack on the Palestinian humanity physically and psychologically will remain the moral issue of our time and into the future.
Lebanon gets attacked each time the zionists have a little extra time. The nature of Syria is somewhat different as we have terrorists trained by the Brits to appear human, in charge. The dark rumble of a threatening war on Iran continues. If we can believe what our eyes see, Iran is bristling with the required weaponry now, provided by their fellow civilizational states. The JPCOA is toast forever, having run out of time. Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) says it is fully prepared to deepen strategic cooperation with the Yemeni armed forces in the battle against global arrogance and international Zionism. If this happens, and I think it will happen de facto at a minimum, it will be a huge boon for the resistance.
It’s horrifying how much brutality can be crammed into just 41 sec.
Avner Avraham, a former Mossad agent who also dabbles in art & journalism when he’s not daydreaming about wiping out Gaza, openly admits that Israel plants agents in Gaza to launch rockets at Israel just to… pic.twitter.com/RgHZdffMcp
— Abier (@abierkhatib) October 18, 2025
Oct 19
Widely reported:
According to Drop Site’s Ryan Grim: US officials quickly determined the Rafah explosion was caused by an Israeli bulldozer detonating unexploded ordnance, not a Hamas tunnel attack as claimed by Netanyahu.
Despite knowing this, Netanyahu blamed Hamas, halted aid, and resumed airstrikes, only reversing course after Washington confronted Israel with the facts.
Just in. It is mid-day local time. While I was writing this: Israel resumes strikes on Gaza — Times of Israel
The Israeli military launched an attack on Gaza, as Israel continued to trade blame with Palestinian militant group Hamas over violations of the ceasefire, aiming to end the war in the enclave, the Times of Israel reports.
So far, the IOF is now carrying out a new wave of airstrikes east of Khan Younis, in continued violation of the ceasefire agreement. Over 20 locations have been bombed in recent hours across the entire Gaza Strip. Happy Peace!
– I warned yesterday and below you will see the pretext cooked up by US State. Trump owns this.
Peace Plan. It is neither a plan nor implementable in its current form and Trump owns it. The trajectory is similar to Lebanon where the last number that I saw, was over 4,000 violations of a similar ‘peace plan’.
In Gaza, violations are piling up. The plan does not allow for the necessary action. So, Israel is again acting with impunity, and what is new? The death toll in Gaza is slowly increasing by the day. Netanyahu has just declared that the Rafah crossing will remain closed until Hamas delivers the corpses of the dead Israeli war criminals in their possession. But, zionist-israel also refuses to allow in specialists with the required machinery to look for the bones under the rubble. Unconscionable, as the supposed plan has no deadline, and it was discussed that this process will take time.
Food and provisioning trucks are still being held up.
Settler militias are raging, taking land, beating Palestians, stealing olive harvests and then cutting down any tree that remains and with their children in strollers as human shields physically blocking trucks from moving.
Israeli intelligence expert Avner Avraham declared, “We are going to erase Gaza.” He admits that Israel plans to fabricate an attack from Gaza to justify a full-scale assault with international backing. I repeat, Trump owns this as he owns the hunger of the Gazan’s with his food provision militia.
The Government Media Office in Gaza:
Since the ceasefire was declared, 38 Palestinians have been killed and 143 others injured due to ongoing violations by the Israeli occupation.
The Israeli occupation has committed 47 documented violations since the start of the ceasefire.
Violations were recorded in all governorates of the Gaza Strip without exception, confirming that the Israeli occupation is not committed to ending war and continues its policy of killing and terror.
The media whitewash of Netanyahu is continuing. Indi says: I Can’t Watch Anything Anymore (Zionists Everywhere)
The West Bank is literally under siege.
Lebanon is being bombed by zionist-israel at will.
“The Chinese have spoken softly against the genocide, and because of that I am deeply disappointed in the Chinese, and the Russians. They should have been screaming from the rooftops that this [US-backed] genocide should stop”
John Mearsheimer
Hamas is fighting back.
Reports of Hamas fighters attempting to capture an IDF soldier.
One soldier was killed and three others injured in an incident involving the Israeli army in the Rafah area.
Reports of a second security incident in the Gaza Strip this morning, a sniper fired at IDF soldiers – 2 killed 4 injured
A third security incident has occurred in Gaza. Remember a security incident is code for some IDF soldiers coming under fire. The reporting is streaming in now.
Hebrew media reports that the security situation in Gaza is difficult. This is code for IDF soldiers running away. Next, and I can bet on it, the security and non-publication ban will be slammed down.
A different narrative is starting to hit the mainstream pic.twitter.com/hVT3fN7kQb
— Ounka (@OunkaOnX) October 17, 2025
[Note: We’ve been waiting for this research for a while now. To our knowledge (and sources) President Putin requested this. The easiest way to explain what the Dream-Idea of Russia, the Code of the Russian Citizen is all about, is to compare it with the Chinese terminology. China is socialist with Chinese characteristics. There is no such short and concise way to explain Russia, which, of course, is multi-cultural, multi-confessional, multi-ethnic, with more than 100 different ethnic groupings. Professor Karaganov set about to find this Dream-Idea, the Code of the Russian Citizen.]
National Research University–Higher School of Economics, Moscow, Russia
Faculty of World Economy and International Affairs
Distinguished Professor, Academic Supervisor;
Council on Foreign and Defense Policy
Honorary Chairman
This article is based inter alia on the results of a series of studies and a situation analysis conducted in April of this year. I am grateful to my colleagues whose thoughts and assessments are widely used herein. But I bear sole responsibility for the text and conclusions.
First, about the good things. For more than two years, working together with a rapidly growing group of associates – scientists, businessmen, journalists, and cultural figures – I have been closely involved in the project “Eastern Turn 2.0, or Siberization of Russia.” Siberians are its main driving force, but its center is in Moscow, partly to avoid the accusations of parochialism and separatism that are often thrown at the Trans Urals development initiatives. But such suspicions are sometimes disingenuous. Some of the elites in our old capitals refuse to admit the obvious: Russia’s more-than-300-year European journey is over. It should have been completed more than a century ago; in this case we might have avoided the huge losses our country and people suffered in the 20th century. This journey has given us quite a lot in terms of technical development and military affairs. The European injection into the stem of traditional Russian culture produced amazing results: great music, theater, and cinema, and the world’s greatest literature. And, of course, we must and will preserve and cherish the legacy of Aristotle, Dante, Raphael, Bach, Vivaldi, Shakespeare, Chopin, Fellini, Schopenhauer, and even Marx, etc.
The first round of Russia’s eastward turn was conceived in the late 1990s and especially 2000s, and launched in the early 2010s. It was motivated mainly by economic considerations, such as Russia’s competitive advantages in the Asian markets. There were also concerns about the danger of continuing Russia’s lopsided alignment with Europe, which was becoming economically stagnant and politically hostile.
This attempt’s success was limited by bureaucratic inertia and an unwillingness to sharply turn from the West. Initially, the turn encompassed only the Far East, with the Northern Sea Route added later. Most people living in the Far East were not involved. For many, the turn (rightly) seemed to be a project of Moscow. Most importantly, it did not involve the Siberian regions with the strongest economic, scientific, human, resource, and industrial potential: Eastern and Western Siberia, and the Urals. In economic, political, human, and historical terms, Russian Siberia begins in the Perm region and the Urals.
Yet the first turn’s limited results were still positive: the economic development of the Russian Pacific intensified, and trade with Asia increased markedly, which later softened the impact of economic severance from Europe. Over the last year or two, demographic outflow from the region has stopped.
We are working with our colleagues from Siberian and Urals intellectual centers to draft a comprehensive roadmap for the country’s second turn to the East, its “Siberization.” In many ways, this is a “return home,”[1] to the origins of Russia’s greatness: its unique cultural openness, vastness, spirit, fortitude, discipline, and collectivism (sobornost).
Without the development of Siberia, Old Russia would likely not have survived on the Central Russian Plain, under constant attack from the south and west, and would not have become a great empire (even before it was formally proclaimed one by Peter the Great). It would not have cultivated the best and strongest features of the Russian national character, the “Siberian brew”:[2] daring, perseverance, sobornost, cultural and religious openness, and a striving beyond the horizon “to meet the Sun.”
Now that Europe is sinking into moral and political degradation, we must commence Siberization as soon as possible.
In order to fully set the new course of the country’s development, “Siberize” it, turn to the East, focus on our own spiritual, human, technological, and economic development, and ensure that we do not get stuck on the unpromising and now harmful European trajectory, we must win the war in the near future, ideally without the use of extreme measures. Defeat Europe, as in 1812–1814 and 1941–1945, but this time politically solve the “European problem” of Russia and the world once and for all. It is obvious, but often denied, that Europe is the concentration of all the main evils of humanity, two world wars, countless genocides, colonialism, racism, and many other detestable “isms,” including recently the liberal totalitarianism that is based on transhumanism, LGBTism, denial of history, and essentially anti-humanism.
First, about the prospects for our relations with Europe (the EU and NATO), then about what is to be done.
Our relations with Europe are the worst they have been in history. The level of Russophobia and anti-Russian sentiment is unprecedented not only among European elites but also among a growing share of the masses, stupefied by all-encompassing wartime propaganda. Europe has not yet openly declared war, but participates indirectly by arming enthralled and Nazism-indoctrinated Ukrainians to fight against Russia. They are its mercenaries, like many others gathered from around the world, especially the poor countries of Southern and Eastern Europe.
The Americans have achieved some of the goals that they pursued when unleashing this war together with their European servants: to undermine the competitiveness of their rival-allies, who had grown rich under U.S. protection, by breaking their gas ties with Russia. But the United States has realized the danger of nuclear escalation and begun to crawl out of the war with Russia. However, if there was any expectation that they would pull Europe out, too, it did not come to pass. Europe is openly preparing for a large-scale war in five to seven years.
European elites are increasingly unhinged and hostile. This is driven by centuries-old Russophobia and by hope of revanche for defeats by Russia: the Battle of Poltava; Napoleon’s almost pan-European invasion; the Great Patriotic War, when the vast majority of Europeans marched under Hitler’s banner or worked for his army. For too long have we shown short-sighted magnanimity, emphasizing small anti-fascist partisan groups (mostly communists), while turning a blind eye to the much greater number of Europeans who followed Hitler.
European rage also stems from resentment for lost profits. Having sucked Eastern Europe dry and having lost hope of continuing to live at Russia’s expense, the Western Europeans (especially Germans) counted on exploiting Ukraine’s rich lands, resources, and hardworking people. Those hopes are now vanishing (though several million new migrant workers – refugees – have been cast into Europe’s declining economy).
And yet the unprecedented hostility’s main reason lies deeper: the multi-spectral failure of the European elites and the impasse of the European project. Its problems began as early as the 1970s–1980s, but were temporarily obscured by the unexpected, internally triggered collapse of the USSR and socialist camp, which freed up several hundred million cheap workers and hungry consumers. China’s markets opened at the same time. But Europe’s external injection of economic and moral adrenaline began to wear off in the late 2000s. And now the bill has come due for the greedy European bourgeoisie’s admission of millions of migrants, since the 1960s, in order to lower the cost of labor and weaken trade unions. The result is a mounting and so far irresolvable migration crisis.
As pleasant as it is (given Europe’s hostility) to list the numerous signs of the comprehensive crisis faced by Europe and the European project, I will leave their enumeration at that.
There is nothing to rejoice at. Crumbling within, the European elites, as much as 15 years ago, began creating the image of Russia as a deadly enemy. Then they eagerly sought to strategically defeat it using Ukraine. And now they are openly preparing for war and whipping up militaristic hysteria. The situation is aggravated by European elites’ and populations’ strategic parasitism, eroding their self-preservation instinct and fear of (even nuclear) war.
Three quarters of a century under U.S. (and Soviet) protection, which stabilized Europe and suppressed Europeans’ eternal mutual hostility, have destroyed Europeans’ capacity for strategic thought and intellectually crippled their elites. The few Europeans who understand what is happening are mostly silenced by the danger of speaking out. Moreover, many Europeans subconsciously sense that Soviet/Russian elimination of their military superiority – the foundation of their 500-year-long domination – means that they can no longer grow fat through the (neo)colonial exploitation of the rest of the world. This rent was the most important source of their economic, scientific, and cultural success, and its loss is a key reason for their rabid hatred of Russia. America, by focusing on itself and its surroundings, can prosper, but Europeans cannot. They would need to work hard again, and they are not used to that.
We ourselves facilitated Europe’s degradation into malicious aggression by appeasing, pacifying, and hoping that things would work out themselves. Many Russians’ Europhilia, which long ago began degenerating, also had negative consequences. I myself fell for it until, more than three decades ago, I began professionally studying European politics and life.
This, of course, does not mean that all Europeans are moral degenerates and Russophobes; there are many decent people there as well. I personally know many, and lament the forced break of relations with them. But reasonable people, committed to traditional European culture and values, are being marginalized and politically neutralized by comprehensive propaganda.
Few European countries dare to pursue a more or less independent policy towards Russia, but they are under pressure. Their number may grow slightly in the future, and we should make use of this. But the prevailing policy of hostility is only intensifying.
Europe has embarked on remilitarization. While there is currently no cause to fear Europe’s militaries, they may be much stronger and bolder in five to ten years, in which case we will again be in a risky position. This cannot be allowed to happen.
The U.S. will be happy to help still-wealthy Europe to rearm itself by maintaining tension on the subcontinent and restoring the U.S. military-industrial complex, which has stagnated over the past 35 years. This is beneficial to the U.S., so long as the conflict does not escalate to the nuclear level and threaten to spread to U.S. territory.
The Americans have realized that their military superiority—and thus ability to impose their will and interests by force – is waning, and thus their hegemony is becoming unsustainable, unprofitable, and liable to drag the U.S. into a world war. They have accordingly begun to partially withdraw. This was visible even before Trump’s second term, especially after the failure to quickly destroy Russia through the war in Ukraine (thereby eliminating it as China’s main de facto ally, and the rising World Majority’s strategic core). And after Washington began receiving Russian signals about possible nuclear escalation. The Americans may vacillate, perhaps quite dangerously, but their course is quite clear: reducing direct military involvement, but destabilizing the withdrawn-from regions so that their competitors gain nothing. Again, the Americans have somewhere to which they can retreat: a strong and dynamic economy, which can be modernized through the attraction of financial and industrial capital, with large markets nearby.
European elites have no such opportunity. Besides, they have intellectually castrated themselves.
The EU has become a major tool for suppressing internal dissent. This, rather than confrontation with the USSR, has been NATO’s main function in the late 1940s. In the mid-1950s, NATO turned from a political alliance (with a defense component) into a military one, which demanded continued confrontation. Now the EU is following in its footsteps (but with a weak military component so far), and thus needs escalation at least as much as NATO does.
For the foreseeable future, Europe’s elite will use escalation and war-preparation to justify the continuation of its rule.
Since I have no complete or reliable information about our military or financial capabilities, or the situation on the front lines, or negotiations, I will not try to advise our brave soldiers and highly professional diplomats, but will confine myself to general political remarks. The Europeans are interested in continuing the war, and the Americans are not interested in this only insofar as the war threatens to ‘go nuclear,’ spread to U.S. territory, or repeat the Afghan debacle.
We will not be able to ensure our borders’ security or a lasting peace (one that excludes the possibility of war restarting) through slow advances or even a narrow demilitarized zone. Security and peace can be attained only by establishing a demilitarized zone throughout the entire territory of Ukraine, overthrowing the current compradorial-Nazi regime in Kiev, and (most importantly) breaking the European elite’s will to continue the confrontation and hope of winning it.
Our army should continue its offensive. A truce, as everyone understands perfectly well, is no salvation, but only a respite for the enemy to regain its strength and further brainwash and militarize its population.
The main adversary is, of course, not Kiev (it is time to admit this) but a united Europe. With wavering U.S. support, it wants to continue this war indefinitely. Behind the smokescreen of rhetoric about ceasefires and peace, the U.S. and Europe are redistributing their roles. The U.S. is playing the good cop, offering the carrot of agreements, while London and company are escalating and dragging things out. When the Ukrainian cannon fodder finally ends, and that is still a distant perspective, the ranks of mercenaries will be replenished with landsknechts from the poor countries of Eastern and Southern Europe. They are already being recruited and trained at scale. Our indecisiveness, our unwillingness to strongly respond to attacks on our cities and strategic forces, are unambiguously interpreted as weakness, strengthening the adversary’s aggression and sense of impunity. Our caution plays into the hands of an enemy that wishes to drag us into a lengthy war and eventually exhaust us, divide our elites, and undermine popular support for the government.
We are winning tactically, albeit at a considerable cost, but strategically we could start losing. The enemy crosses one red line after another. Mirror responses are a purely defensive tactic, and even they demand that the series of attacks on our cities, strategic assets, and now strategic (i.e., nuclear) forces, be answered with strikes against the strategic forces of Britain or even France. After announcing, of course, that any ‘response’ will prompt nuclear retaliation. And if, in response to that, even one nuclear warhead flies in our direction, let alone reaches our territory, we will strike their cities.
A world war – albeit not yet a total thermonuclear one – has already been unleashed. The attack on Iran leaves no doubt. But we are the main target. By hesitating to respond strongly, we appear weak, indulging the enemy and giving him a feeling of impunity. The brutal attack by the U.S. and Israel on Iran removes all political, legal, and moral restrictions on potential preemptive/retaliatory strikes. Moreover, by leaving unpunished this blatant aggression we demonstrate unforgivable weakness and pave the way for global thermonuclear war.
We must correct our strategic goals in this war, which was imposed on us and in which we involved ourselves only belatedly. The complete demilitarization and denazification of the Kiev regime, and the liberation of natively Russian lands, can be achieved only by defeating – hopefully just politically, without using extreme measures – Europe in its present form. And that form is worse than it was in 1941–1945. At that time Britain, the most vicious of our enemies today, was forced to be an ally of the USSR.
Naturally, we should again warn London and Paris that any troops sent to Ukraine will be viewed as direct participants in the conflict, and Russia will be forced to begin striking their assets and bases (at first, with conventional weapons and outside of British/French territory). Berlin must know that if it tries to obtain nuclear weapons and continues the de facto war against Russia, there will be no mercy, and Germany will finally answer for its historical guilt before humanity, which it is trying to forget: for two world wars, the Holocaust (the worst of the many genocides committed by Europeans), and the genocide of the Soviet peoples. The magnanimity of the Soviet leadership, which opposed the demolition of Germany, proved counterproductive. We must not allow Germany to once again become a threat to the world and our country.
Again, if anyone had any doubts about the threat with which we are dealing, the June attack on Iran, carried out by the entire West (which used Israel just like it uses Ukraine), should sober us up. Before that, they destroyed Libya, Iraq (which blocked the way to hegemony in the Middle East), Yugoslavia. The aggression must be stopped before it is too late.
Our military doctrine should be amended to state that war with a demographically and economically more powerful aggressor will necessitate Russia’s use of nuclear weapons. We must finally abandon, at least at the expert level, the Gorbachev-Reaganite delusion that “a nuclear war cannot have winners and must not be started.” Needless to say, all measures should be taken to prevent a large-scale war. But this delusion contradicts logic and Russia’s nuclear weapon doctrine and, moreover, enables the conventional aggression that indeed we now face. Any provocations on the borders with NATO in the Baltic must be met with a disproportionate response. After the attacks on our cities and strategic forces, our policy must be altered.
We must urgently start analyzing the lessons of the SMO. In Soviet times, it was assumed that a war in Europe could involve both large armies and tactical nuclear weapons, so the arms race in both areas overstrained our country. Then the new Russia decided that it needed compact mobile general-purpose forces, supported by a reliable ability to use nuclear weapons. Now we have moved on to technologically advanced trench warfare. The courage and perseverance of our soldiers is admirable, but is this how we intend to keep fighting in Europe and possibly elsewhere? We are not making use of nuclear deterrence to avoid wars or conventional arms races (the threat of nuclear retaliation makes such races senseless).[3]
At present, we risk exhausting ourselves in an endless war in Europe, whose elites desire precisely that. We must quickly stop the approach of a global thermonuclear war. And for that, we must first of all stop Europe―the main force that is objectively and subjectively pushing it.
We must take a series of steps, as soon as possible, to dramatically increase the credibility of our nuclear deterrence. Having finally changed our nuclear doctrine, we have convinced the Americans of the reality of escalation—but not yet the Europeans. Moreover, by starting negotiations with the U.S., we have eased the nuclear pressure. Some in Europe are again saying that Russia would never use nuclear weapons. A perception of Russia as weak, and unwilling to take decisive action, is spreading. Our restraint and caution play into the hands of the European forces of aggression and militarism; we are beginning to repeat past mistakes, appeasing the aggressors. We must move on to direct threats of (initially conventional) preemptive strikes if absolutely necessary.
There is a deadly threat to Russia and the world. Under these circumstances, indecision and hopes of agreement are dangerous. We should state that the U.S.’s imposition of 500 percent tariffs on customers of Russian oil would be treated as an act of war, prompting nuclear escalation and (inter alia, military) attacks on overseas U.S. assets, which outnumber Russia’s more than one thousand to one.
Now for the most unpleasant but substantively necessary part. After all warnings have been given – nuclear warheads are deployed in the European theater on medium and shorter-range carriers, including airplanes; the strategic forces conduct exercises that practice disarming and decapitating the UK, France, and Germany; etc. – if nothing helps, then we will probably have to move to the next level and begin striking logistics centers and military bases in countries that support the aggression against Russia. We cannot wait long. We should also warn them that any response will trigger nuclear retaliation against these and other targets. Naturally, we must forewarn the U.S. not only about our firm intentions, but also about our desire to avoid intercontinental escalation. If it ever does become necessary, God forbid, to disarm and decapitate the UK and even France, we will have to activate the missile and civil defense systems and warn that if even one warhead reaches our country or Belarus, the attacker will be wiped off the face of the earth. For that purpose, Poseidon systems might be readied in the English Channel. Decapitating strikes should target not only decision-making centers, but also the places where the European elite gathers and lives, so that it has no hope of sitting things out in its bunkers.
I am well aware that the use (even limited) of nuclear weapons is not just dangerous, but (more importantly) is an immense sin. Innocent people, including children, will die en masse. I can only guess as to the excruciating thoughts of our Supreme Commander-in-Chief.
I know that the described scenario makes one’s blood curdle, and once again I will draw fire to myself. But this seems the only possible alternative to being drawn into an endless if intermittent war with the loss of tens or hundreds of thousands of our best men – and then sliding all the same towards nuclear Armageddon and/or the country’s collapse. We must shake the Europeans from their madness, break their will to continue confrontation, and stop the slide towards the Third World War (towards which the Europeans are dragging the world, having apparently forgotten about their past sins, for which they were never properly punished). We should also give the Americans a good shake. Trump probably wants peace, but on his own terms: keeping most of Ukraine as a beachhead with which to pressure Russia. But even if we take his love of peace at face value, his position is extremely unstable. Nuclear pressure should not be reduced. By doing so during the ceasefire talks, we weakened our position and dragged out the war.
I still hope to avoid, by tough but relatively peaceful means, a large-scale war in Europe. I am counting on our decisiveness and victory without resorting to nuclear strikes. But what should our policy be under these relatively “peaceful” circumstances?
Enmity will long endure, as it, again, has deep roots. For the near future it will not be worth focusing on the European direction: harsh deterrence and maximal disengagement are what is called for. Naturally, we should not reject the European injection into our culture. Nor should we mimic the adversary by breaking contacts; they should be maintained and even restored in the future, but without illusions.
But then several difficult questions arise – ideological, geopolitical, and practical – related to our economy, education, ideological self-determination, and personal and national goal-setting. The latter we call the Dream-Idea of Russia, the Code of the Russian Citizen.[4]
We should recognize at last not only our identity but also the fact that the most important external influences and sources of our civilization came from the South and the East. From the South – including Palestine, Judea, and Greece – we received not only Eastern Christianity – Orthodoxy – but also Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. From the South and the East, from brilliant Byzantium and the powerful Mongol Empire, we acquired vertical governance, without which we would not have become a colossus or even survived in a vast territory that is unprotected by mountains or seas. We must constantly remind ourselves that Russia’s path to becoming a great power lay through constant confrontation with Europe and movement towards Asia. Russian Prince Alexander Nevsky’s appeal to the Mongols to help against the Teutons, Yermak’s journey beyond “the Rock” to lay the foundation of the Russian Empire, the idea of the “Third Rome,” the victory of our people led by Minin and Pozharsky over the Poles, the victory of Peter the Great over the Swedes, the victory of Kutuzov, Barclay, and Alexander I over Napoleon’s pan-European army, and the victory of Zhukov, Rokossovsky, Stalin, and the entire Soviet people over Hitler’s pan-European army. These are our main historical and spiritual milestones.
In information and educational policy, it is important to reasonably reduce the amount of information, in textbooks and broadcasting hours, describing and analyzing European history and events, while increasing the share of Asia and the World Majority. Eastern studies need a powerful boost. But most importantly, we must return the development of Siberia to the center of Russia’s worldview. We also need to start training a new generation of Europe experts. The old generation of dreamers is passing away, and most of the middle-aged generation was, unfortunately, trained with EU and other European grants and is simply unable to understand and assess the state into which the Old World has driven itself.
Finally, we should recognize that much of our intellectual baggage, our socio-economic and even foreign policy theories, are outdated or outright false and subservient to foreign interests. They should not be jettisoned entirely but taken with a grain of salt. (As dean, I insisted that all theories, Western and Russian, be studied critically). We should know and use the European intellectual heritage, but with the understanding that it is not for us.
The most important way of parting with present-day Europe is shifting the center of Russia’s spiritual, economic, and political development to the Urals and Siberia – the Siberization of Russia, as described at the beginning of the article. We should attract people from the liberated territories and war-affected regions to move across the Urals. Several major projects are needed. Plans are being fleshed out. It is time to overcome the myth of cold and uncomfortable Siberia. It is not a hard-labor camp. With sound public policy, life there can be comfortable, and global warming is moderating its climate. We need a narrative of Siberia as a promised land of new, unlimited opportunities.
To do this, we need to start building low-rise wooden houses in Siberia’s labor-deficient small and medium-sized cities. Life in Siberia should become more comfortable than in the European part of Russia. This is one of the best ways to overcome the country’s shortage of children. People are reluctant to have children and raise large families in human anthills.
Siberians, who are less influenced by the West, and SMO veterans should be recruited into national governance. The capital’s functions should be partly transferred to Siberian cities. Many residents of the old capitals have succumbed to the most corrupt and now harmful influence of Europe and the West in general. We will have to partly rebuild the liberated territories’ cities, but under no circumstances should this be done at the expense of core Russia and Siberia (as was the case after the Great Patriotic War).
Our head of state and opinion leaders should constantly speak of the need to end our more than 300-year-long European journey, which has brought us many benefits but also a lot of harm – constant wars, including two world wars, and various “isms.” We have taken everything we needed from Europe, and more. Now we must focus on the development of our own civilization-state and not look to external players, be they in the South, West, or East. It is important to use the confrontation that has been imposed on us for the radical reorientation of foreign and domestic policy, of our internal human and technological development, to promising markets in the South and East. If and when Brussels suddenly decides to “normalize” relations with us, we should not immediately agree. But we should develop relations with individual countries in Southern and Central Europe, for economic reasons and to pull apart the EU, which is undesirable for us in its present form. In the long run, such countries are likely to join the Greater Eurasian Partnership. While reorienting ourselves to domestic markets, to the South and East, we should also preserve the best of Europe’s heritage. But present-day Europe is useless and even harmful.
Most of our neighbors in Eurasia’s western subcontinent are morally and politically declining, again embarking on a path of hostility and war. But history does not end unless we ourselves end it with a global thermonuclear war. After its Greco-Roman flowering, Europe fell into the gloom of the Middle Ages for seven to eight centuries. So, let’s wait. Perhaps it will be reborn, and become a beneficial and desirable partner. With the right policy, we can not only protect our own interests and stop the slide towards the Third World War, but also facilitate the revival of what is best in our neighbors on the subcontinent.
Inside China Business – Kevin Walmsly
Top VC’s from Western firms and investment banks recently toured Chinese companies in the clean energy industry. After just days, they concluded that China’s advances across the sector make competition impossible, and are pulling funds from Western startups. They hope to focus now on partnership opportunities with Chinese firms who already dominate the technology and manufacturing, and enjoy access to China’s deep supply chains and logistics. But that model will also also prove difficult, as China’s entire economic system is designed to destroy rent-seeking profits.
Judge Nap catches our roving eye nomad—pilgrim between flights to review the incendiary moment
Rock’n Roll Geopolitics:
RYABKOV UNPLUGGED
“We have a certain building of relations, which has cracked, which is collapsing – the Americans are to blame for this. Now the cracks have reached the foundation. I think it’s easier to destroy than to build. We are ready to build, but we don’t see any reciprocal movement from that side.”
Well, Burning Down the House is the Empire’s trademark.
Gaza (QNN)- Hamas resistance movement announced on Thursday that it has reached an agreement with Israel on the first phase of US President Donald Trump’s plan, aimed at ending the genocide in Gaza and ensuring the full withdrawal of Israeli forces.
In an official statement, Hamas said the agreement was achieved “after responsible and serious negotiations held by the movement and Palestinian resistance factions around President Trump’s proposal in Sharm El-Sheikh.”
The statement added that the deal guarantees “an end to the genocidal war against our Palestinian people, the withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip, the entry of humanitarian aid, and a prisoner exchange.”
Hamas expressed appreciation for the mediation efforts of Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey, and extended thanks to President Trump for his “efforts to end the war and achieve the complete withdrawal of the occupation from Gaza.”
The movement urged Trump, the guarantor countries, and all international parties to ensure that Israel fully abides by the agreement, warning against any attempts by Israel to evade or delay implementation.
Hamas also saluted the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, and the diaspora, praising their “unparalleled courage and sacrifice in confronting the occupation’s fascist schemes.”
“The sacrifices of our people will not go in vain. We remain committed to our national rights until freedom, independence, and self-determination are achieved,” Hamas affirmed.
Trump Confirms Deal on Truth Social
Shortly before Hamas’ statement, US President Trump confirmed the signing of the first phase of his Gaza Plan in a statement on Truth Social.
“I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan,” Trump wrote. “All of the hostages will be released very soon, and Israel will withdraw their troops to an agreed line as the first steps toward a strong, durable, and everlasting peace.”
Trump described the deal as “a great day for the Arab and Muslim world, Israel, all surrounding nations, and the United States of America,” thanking Qatar, Egypt, and Turkey for their mediation.
Details and Implementation
The signing took place in the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El-Sheikh after mediators received positive responses from both delegations.
Majed Al-Ansari, spokesperson for Qatar’s Foreign Ministry, confirmed that all provisions and implementation mechanisms were agreed upon, including the end of the war, the exchange of prisoners, and the entry of humanitarian aid.
Israeli officials said the release of Israeli soldier prisoners could begin as early as this weekend.
The announcement comes as Israel’s genocide in Gaza enters its 734th day, a genocide that has devastated the enclave, killed over 67,000 people, and displaced all of its population.
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At the moment, Gaza is erupting in joy.
A documentary of the missilemen of Iran. “…. the one who finishes a War, is the one claimant of expertise.”
https://x.com/AryJeay/status/1974164482088996971
@Fotros Resistance (Arya – آریا):
Exclusive footages of Iran’s underground missile complexes during the 12-day war.
An IRGC member recalls how they operated inside the deep underground missile tunnels during the 12-day war.
He explains the tunnels were not damaged and everything inside was operational, the only issue was the entrance that sometimes got hit which would delay launches until it’d get dig out.
The tunnels in the footage displays Haj Qassem & Kheybar Shekan missiles.
The IRGC operators says the morale among the IRGC was very high and they did everything to not delay launches.
One of the IRGC members says at one time, an Israeli Hermes drone had hit one of the launchers that caused him to get injured on the spot, but got up and continued working to launch the rest of the missiles.
One of them rejected Israeli ridiculous claims about having bombed Iranian missile capabilities “to dust” and says we’re not even above the ground to bomb us to dust.
The Theme of this year’s Valdai Club annual meeting is: The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use.
Let’s start with Mr Putin’s first instruction, mainly to Europe:
Calm down. Sleep quiet, and try to get to grips with YOUR problems’.
As an analytical framework and contextualization, I extracted and organized all the paragraphs and sub-paragraphs that directly address the concepts of multipolarity, polycentrism, and the end of Western hegemony, but in President Putin’s own words. For this exercise, paragraphs purely about Ukraine or other tangential topics were left out, unless they directly reference the multipolarity theme. The goal is to give us a sharply focused dataset to work with.
The Speech:
• frames the shift to multipolarity as an irreversible, objective historical process.
• contrasts the new era (stable, just, based on sovereignty and equality) with the old one (unstable, dictatorial, based on Western hegemony).
• points to BRICS and the SCO as the concrete, attractive embodiments of this new order.
• issues a prescriptive, but implied, call to action for nations to join this alternative system and adopt its principles.
• uses a dual-toned strategy: rallying and calming for the “Global Majority” while not hiding the reasons for the shift, i.e., western hegemony.
The Irreversible Historical Shift to Multipolarity
The core argument is that the unipolar model is over, and a new, multipolar world is emerging.
The global situation is changing dynamically and is moving towards the formation of a truly multipolar world order. This is an objective process; there is no stopping it, and it means that the world is becoming more stable and secure, of course, provided that all participants in international communication act responsibly.
The formation of a multipolar world order is irreversible. The attempts of the so-called golden billion to retain its dominance and hegemony at any cost are leading to a sharp increase in conflict potential in the world.
The era of the unipolar world order, the era of dictatorship, of one hegemony, is receding into the past. A multipolar world is taking its place. This is an objective, natural process, because the concentration of the entire world politics and economy in the hands of one country, or a group of countries that are close in spirit, is no longer possible.
The formation of a multipolar international order is irreversible. The attempts of the so-called golden billion to retain its dominance and hegemony at any cost are leading to a sharp increase in conflict potential in the world.
The “Golden Billion” and Western Hegemony as the Cause of Instability
Here, Putin defines the old system as one of exploitation and dictatorship by the “golden billion,” which he contrasts with the more just multipolar model.
The so-called golden billion, led by the United States, continues to cling to the dogmas of its exclusivity, provoking chaos, ethnic and religious strife, and suppressing the identity and traditional values of other peoples. This is the real nature of the neo-colonialists.
The outgoing hegemony acts as a dictator and uses the entire range of means – from a forged financial and economic system to brute military force – the so-called hard power. We all see this. We see how they are trying to replace international law and universal norms with some kind of “rules-based order,” which are invented on the go and are used exclusively in the interests of one side, to punish those who are undesirable and to keep the whole world in check.
The outgoing hegemony acts as a dictator and uses the entire range of means – from a forged financial and economic system to brute military force – the so-called hard power.
We see how they are trying to replace international law and universal norms with some kind of “rules-based order,” which are invented on the go and are used exclusively in the interests of one side, to punish those who are undesirable and to keep the whole world in check.
BRICS and the SCO as Pillars of the New Multipolar Order
Putin points to the successful and attractive alternatives to Western-dominated structures.
On BRICS:
The attractiveness of the new global political and economic centres is also evidenced by the expansion of such associations as BRICS and the SCO. They are based on the principles of equality, solidarity, and respect for each other’s interests.
Dozens of states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are ready to work on this constructive agenda. And the growing authority of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other associations, which are now being joined by many countries, is convincing evidence of this.
On the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO):
The attractiveness of the new global political and economic centres is also evidenced by the expansion of such associations as BRICS and the SCO. They are based on the principles of equality, solidarity, and respect for each other’s interests.
Dozens of states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are ready to work on this constructive agenda. And the growing authority of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other associations, which are now being joined by many countries, is convincing evidence of this.
The Role of New Centers of Power and Sovereign Development
This section highlights the rise of new, non-Western centers of power and the importance of national sovereignty in the new multipolar system.
New, much more dynamic and promising centers of power are being formed, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region. The majority of the international community, including the countries of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, are striving to pursue an independent, sovereign, independent policy, based on their own national interests, on their identity, on the traditions and culture of their peoples.
The majority of the international community, including the countries of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, are striving to pursue an independent, sovereign, independent policy, based on their own national interests, on their identity, on the traditions and culture of their peoples.
It is with them, with these countries, with these peoples, that we are building relations – relations of a new type, based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit, respect for each other’s interests, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
Russia as a Sovereign Pole and Partner in the New World
Putin positions Russia as a key sovereign pole in this new world and a reliable partner for other nations seeking independence.
Russia has withstood the pressure of the collective West, has not broken down, and has demonstrated that it is capable of defending its national interests and its sovereignty.
It is with them, with these countries, with these peoples, that we are building relations – relations of a new type, based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit, respect for each other’s interests, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.
We are open to the widest possible cooperation with all states and associations that are ready for joint work. We are convinced that the future of the world order should be based on the principles of justice, on the recognition of the right of every nation and civilization to their own path of development.
We are convinced that the future of the world order should be based on the principles of justice, on the recognition of the right of every nation and civilization to their own path of development.
As you can see, Putin explicitly links the expansion and growing authority of BRICS and the SCO to the attractiveness of the multipolar model, using them as primary evidence that the world is moving in this new direction.
The Positive Aspects of the Shift to a Multipolar World
1. Enhanced Global Stability and Security
“The situation in the world is changing dynamically and is moving towards the formation of a truly multipolar world order. This is an objective process, there is no stopping it, and it means that the world is becoming more stable and secure, of course, provided that all participants in international communication act responsibly.”
2. A More Just and Equitable Foundation for International Relations
“We are convinced that the future of the world order should be based on the principles of justice, on the recognition of the right of every nation and civilization to its own path of development.”
3. The Rise of Dynamic and Promising New Centers of Global Growth
“New, much more dynamic and promising centers of power are being formed, primarily in the Asia-Pacific region.”
4. The Triumph of National Sovereignty and Independent Development
“The majority of the international community, including the countries of Latin America, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, are striving to pursue an independent, sovereign, independent policy, based on their own national interests, on their identity, on the traditions and culture of their peoples.”
5. The Emergence of Relationships Based on Equality and Mutual Respect
“It is with them, with these countries, with these peoples, that we are building relations – relations of a new type, based on the principles of equality, mutual benefit, respect for each other’s interests, and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs.”
6. The Attractiveness of New Associations and Models of Cooperation
“The attractiveness of the new global political and economic centres is also evidenced by the expansion of such associations as BRICS and the SCO. They are based on the principles of equality, solidarity, and respect for each other’s interests.”
“Dozens of states in Asia, Africa, and Latin America are ready to work on this constructive agenda. And the growing authority of BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and other associations… is convincing evidence of this.”
In essence, the speech posits that the multipolar shift is not a neutral event, but a positive one, leading to a world that is more stable, just, dynamic, sovereign, cooperative, and respectful of civilizational diversity.
Lavrov discussed the settlement of the Ukrainian crisis during a meeting with Rubio, with both sides confirming their interest in finding peaceful solutions, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
Lavrov emphasized Moscow’s readiness to adhere to the course on Ukraine established by the leaders of the countries at the Alaska summit, the ministry added.
Lavrov noted the unacceptability of the schemes promoted by Ukraine and some European countries to prolong the conflict.
Lavrov and Rubio “aligned their clocks” on the complex of bilateral relations, including the restoration of socio-political contacts.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held closed-door talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Wednesday.
The meeting lasted for just under an hour and revolved primarily around the Ukraine conflict, according to the tight-lipped statements made after the conversation by the two sides.
“The Secretary reiterated President [Donald] Trump’s call for the killing to stop and the need for Moscow to take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution of the Russia-Ukraine war,” the US Department of State said in a statement.
The Russian Foreign Ministry offered a slightly more detailed readout of the talks, stating that Lavrov and Rubio had agreed to “continue constructive dialogue between the Russian and US foreign ministries” as well as reaffirmed the importance of the “momentum” generated by the Alaska summit for “normalizing bilateral relations.”
The meeting comes on the heels of a sharp change in Trump’s rhetoric on the conflict following a meeting with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky earlier this week. In a Truth Social post on Tuesday, the US president said he believes Kiev is “in a position to fight and win all of Ukraine back,” with enough support from the EU and NATO. He also branded Russia a “paper tiger,” arguing that it had failed to defeat Ukraine and claiming that Moscow was “in big economic trouble.”
Moscow appeared to brush off the hostile rhetoric, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov jokingly suggesting that Russia was a “real bear” rather than a “paper tiger.” While the country’s economy has been facing certain “problems,” it has largely adapted to the ongoing conflict and withstood the unprecedented Western sanctions, Peskov told Russian business daily RBK on Wednesday.
—
It seems as if Lavrov stood like a bear, keeping their feet to the Alaska fire, and told ’em what’s what. The faces were grim on leaving the meeting.
From Sputnik
The Gaza genocide report gives the UN the right to intervene militarily to stop Israel – former UN official
A UN inquiry has concluded that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza.
https://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session60/advance-version/a-hrc-60-crp-3.pdf
Ex-UN rapporteur Dr. Alfred de Zayas explains why that’s hugely important.
Key findings
Israel’s actions (killing, maiming, causing mental harm to Palestinians, deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about their physical destruction, taking measures to prevent births) check four of five of the 1948 Genocide Convention’s criteria for genocide.
Intent proven
Crucially, de Zayas says, the inquiry shows “how the statements of Israeli political & military leaders prove the ‘intent’ (required in Art. II of the Convention) to destroy in whole or part the Palestinian population.”
West’s complicity
“Governments that have provided military, economic, political, diplomatic & propagandistic support” are also accountable, de Zayas says. The US, UK, France & Germany “are all complicit in the genocide under Article III (e) of the Genocide Convention.”
UN’s response options
recognition of Palestinian statehood (which alas, “will not save the lives of Palestinians”)
Israel’s expulsion from the UN pursuant to Article 6 of the UN Charter (improbable given the need for Security Council & hence US approval)
stripping Israeli diplomats of UN accreditation, as was done against South Africa in the 1970s during Apartheid. Crucially, this measure would not require Security Council backing
the UN has the legal framework to intervene using the 2005 ‘Responsibility to Protect’ doctrine
the General Assembly could adopt a ‘Uniting for Peace’ resolution authorizing nations “to take military action” to stop the genocide, bypassing the Security Council veto
UN’s last chance to save its credibility
“If the United Nations fails” to take action, “it will lose the little authority & credibility it still has,” de Zayas warns.
Keep talking about Gaza!
Featured image: This is where words collapse. This is Gaza; where fathers’ tears and mothers’ screams are documenting a history that the world may try to look away from, but will never be able to erase.
Permanent X link to Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur – the Occupied Territories.
A previous thread contains Netanyahu’s ‘spiritual needs’.
Sep 16
Israel is striking Yemen’s Hodeidah port.
“Our air defenses are currently confronting the Israeli aircraft that are launching an aggression on our country,” Ameen Hayyan, the director of the Yemeni Armed Forces Spokesperson’s Office, wrote on X.
Israeli tanks on the ground in Gaza. From Sputnik:
ISRAEL LAUNCHES OFFENSIVE TO OCCUPY GAZA CITY: What is known so far
The Israeli military launched its ground offensive on Monday to occupy Gaza City (Axios, citing unnamed Israeli officials).
The offensive came after US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and backed the operation (Axios).
The start of the operation has been confirmed (Israeli and Palestinian media).
The entry of Israeli tanks followed Gazan reports of heavy aerial assaults and artillery fire on the city and its outskirts on Monday evening (The Jerusalem Post).
The IDF has been gradually expanding airstrikes in and around the city in recent days, flattening high-rise buildings in Gaza City on Friday that it claims are used by Hamas for military purposes (The Jerusalem Post).
The Israeli army, which has been urging everyone in Gaza City to evacuate, says some 300,000 Palestinians have fled Gaza City in recent weeks, but around 700,000 remain.
“Gaza is burning… We will not relent, and we will not go back—until the completion of the mission,” Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz wrote on X on Tuesday morning.
PM Netanyahu pushed the invasion despite opposition from top security chiefs, including IDF Chief Eyal Zamir, who stayed on hoping to soften the blow for hostages, troops, and civilians (The Jerusalem Post).
Reactions so far
Families of captives held in Gaza have launched protests outside Netanyahu’s official residence (Israeli media).
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum blasted the move to escalate fighting in Gaza, warning, “After 710 nights in captivity, this could be the hostages’ last. Netanyahu bears personal responsibility for their fate—and for recovering the dead with dignity.”
Trump alleged on his social media that Hamas is moving hostages above ground “to use them as human shields against Israel’s ground offensive.”
Sep 15
More than 6,000 citizens have become homeless after their homes were targeted today.
More than one million people in Gaza City are threatened with death as a result of current “israeli” policies. Thousands of children in Gaza City are threatened with death due to starvation, lack of basic necessities for living, and the deterioration of humanitarian conditions.
There are new numbers being talked about. I have no source but heard these numbers of George Galloway’s MOATS posted yesterday, both from George and from Chris Hedges and saw some press. But there is no surprise and I can accept these numbers.
31.5% of Gazans have been killed. This is 600,000 human beings. This does not include injuries and people not counted because they are still under rubble. I don’t have a source for those numbers. Israel itself talks about 200,000.
According to The Guardian?, former Israeli occupation army commander, Herzi Halevi, has admitted that more than 200,000 Palestinians have been killed or injured in the war in Gaza, and that “not once” in the course of the war were military operations inhibited by legal advice.
He said that over 10% of Gaza’s 2.2 million residents, more than 200,000 civilians, have been killed or injured since the war began on October 7, 2023, figures close to those reported by Gaza’s health ministry (64,718 killed and 163,859 injured), with thousands more feared trapped under rubble.
Leaked Israeli intelligence suggests over 80% of the dead are civilians.
He also admitted “legal” advisers mainly serve to justify actions internationally, not to constrain military decisions.
The sheer terror continues. Gaza City endured another night of horror, as heavy Israeli bombardment and airstrikes caused multiple casualties and forced hundreds of families to flee.
Marwa Osman is not mincing words:
Draft statement of the Arab and Islamic Summit: “The aggression against Qatar threatens future agreements with Israel.”
Oh, look at the mighty Arab and Islamic Summit finally discovering its voice, but only when Qatar gets a scratch. Suddenly, “future agreements with Israel” are in danger! As if the genocide in Gaza, the massacres in Lebanon, the starvation of Yemen, or the occupation of Palestine and Syria didn’t “threaten” anything. But one hit in Doha? Now the “agreements” are trembling. These rulers don’t represent nations, they represent contracts and their only red line is when their own palaces feel the heat and their only reply is empty laughable statements.
Address by the President of Russia at the SCO Heads of State Council Meeting http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/77891
President of Russia Vladimir Putin: President Xi Jinping, friends,
First of all, I would like to join my colleagues in commending the excellent work carried out by China during its chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.
This year holds special significance for all our nations. On May 9, Moscow hosted celebrations marking the anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War and the defeat of Nazi Germany. The day after tomorrow, large-scale events will take place in Beijing to commemorate the victory over Japanese militarism and the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. The defeat of Nazism and militarism was made possible through the unity of peoples across many countries. Out of the outcome of World War II came the United Nations, which is also celebrating its 80th anniversary this year.
The UN Charter enshrined fundamental principles: the primacy of international law, the right of nations to self-determination, sovereign equality, non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for the independence and national interests of every state. These principles remain valid and unshakable to this day.
The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation is also built on these very principles. It brings together like-minded partners committed to shaping a just, multipolar world order. For this meeting of the Council of Heads of State, a substantial package of documents has been prepared. Chief among them, the Tianjin Declaration reflects the agreed approaches of member states to pressing issues on the global and regional agenda.
I would also highlight the SCO Development Strategy through 2035, which we are adopting today. It defines the main directions of the Organisation’s work in politics, the economy, security and humanitarian issues.
The pace of cooperation within the SCO is truly impressive. For example, last year the average GDP growth of member states exceeded 5 percent, while industrial output rose by 4.6 percent. Mutual trade continues to grow steadily. All these indicators are above the global average. National currencies are being used more and more widely in mutual settlements.
We advocate the issuance of joint bonds by the SCO member states, the establishment of our own payment, settlement and depository infrastructure, and the creation of a bank for joint investment projects. These measures will increase the efficiency of our economic exchanges and protect them from external market fluctuations.
Within the SCO, an extensive and competitive transport infrastructure is steadily taking shape. Road, rail and multimodal cargo traffic is growing. Close customs cooperation has been established, and electronic document flow is being actively introduced.
The energy cooperation strategy until 2030, which we approved last year, is now being implemented in full. The sectoral roadmap we are adopting today builds on that strategy and is aimed at pursuing a coordinated and balanced energy policy across the entire SCO space.
As many colleagues have already noted, links among member states are expanding in science and education, healthcare and environmental protection, as well as in sports and youth exchanges.
The SCO University, which brings together 77 universities from our countries, is operating successfully. Rector forums are held regularly, and dialogue among students, postgraduates and faculty is becoming more active.
Colleagues,
Our Organisation is steadily increasing its influence in addressing pressing international issues. It serves as a powerful driver of global development processes and the establishment of genuine multilateralism.
There is no doubt that the SCO makes a tangible contribution to strengthening an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual trust across the entire Eurasian continent. In doing so, it helps lay the political and socioeconomic foundations for a new system of stability, security and peaceful development in Eurasia – a system that would replace outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, take into account the interests of the widest possible range of countries, and be genuinely balanced, thus preventing attempts by some states to ensure their own security at the expense of others.
The pace of cooperation within the SCO is truly impressive. For example, last year the average GDP growth of member states exceeded 5 percent, while industrial output rose by 4.6 percent. Mutual trade continues to grow steadily. All these indicators are above the global average. National currencies are being used more and more widely in mutual settlements.
We advocate the issuance of joint bonds by the SCO member states, the establishment of our own payment, settlement and depository infrastructure, and the creation of a bank for joint investment projects. These measures will increase the efficiency of our economic exchanges and protect them from external market fluctuations.
Within the SCO, an extensive and competitive transport infrastructure is steadily taking shape. Road, rail and multimodal cargo traffic is growing. Close customs cooperation has been established, and electronic document flow is being actively introduced.
The energy cooperation strategy until 2030, which we approved last year, is now being implemented in full. The sectoral roadmap we are adopting today builds on that strategy and is aimed at pursuing a coordinated and balanced energy policy across the entire SCO space.
As many colleagues have already noted, links among member states are expanding in science and education, healthcare and environmental protection, as well as in sports and youth exchanges.
The SCO University, which brings together 77 universities from our countries, is operating successfully. Rector forums are held regularly, and dialogue among students, postgraduates and faculty is becoming more active.
Colleagues,
Our Organisation is steadily increasing its influence in addressing pressing international issues. It serves as a powerful driver of global development processes and the establishment of genuine multilateralism.
There is no doubt that the SCO makes a tangible contribution to strengthening an atmosphere of cooperation and mutual trust across the entire Eurasian continent. In doing so, it helps lay the political and socioeconomic foundations for a new system of stability, security and peaceful development in Eurasia – a system that would replace outdated Eurocentric and Euro-Atlantic models, take into account the interests of the widest possible range of countries, and be genuinely balanced, thus preventing attempts by some states to ensure their own security at the expense of others.
Taking this opportunity, I would like to say that Russia adheres to the same approaches with regard to the crisis around Ukraine. Let me remind you that this crisis did not arise from Russia attacking Ukraine, but from a coup d’etat in Ukraine, supported and provoked by the West, followed by attempts to use military force to suppress the regions and people of Ukraine who rejected and did not accept that coup.
The second reason for the crisis lies in the West’s constant efforts to draw Ukraine into NATO, which, as we have repeatedly and consistently stressed over many years, represents a direct threat to Russia’s security.
It is worth recalling that as a result of the 2014 coup in Ukraine, the country’s political leadership that opposed NATO membership was removed from power.
In this context, we highly value the efforts and proposals of China, India and other strategic partners aimed at facilitating a settlement of the Ukrainian crisis.
I would note that the understandings reached at the recent Russian-US summit in Alaska, I hope, are also moving in this direction, paving the way towards peace in Ukraine.
During the bilateral meetings scheduled for today and tomorrow, I will, of course, provide colleagues with more detailed information on the results of the talks in Alaska.
In fact, yesterday at the luncheon, our hosts kindly arranged for participants in the SCO meetings, President Xi Jinping and I already discussed this issue. I briefed him in detail on the agreements reached during my talks with the President of the United States.
Naturally, for a Ukrainian settlement to be sustainable and lasting, the root causes of the crisis that I have just mentioned, and have spoken about many times before, must be addressed, and a fair balance in the sphere of security must be restored.
Of course, one of the SCO’s priority tasks is to maintain stability both within member states and along their external borders.
Russia supports the draft programme for countering extremism until 2030 prepared for our meeting, and is ready to contribute to its implementation.
We also attach great importance to the agreements being signed today on establishing a universal SCO centre in Tashkent to respond to the entire range of contemporary challenges and threats, and on opening a dedicated anti-drug centre in Dushanbe. We expect these centres to begin their work in the very near future.
In conclusion, I would like to thank our Chinese friends for hosting such a productive meeting of the SCO heads of state. I am confident that the implementation of the agreements reached here in Tianjin will be thoroughly considered at the SCO Heads of Government Council Meeting, which, as agreed, will take place in November in Moscow. Dear friends, we will be delighted to welcome delegations from all your countries.
Naturally, I wish every success to President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and our Kyrgyz colleagues, who will take over the chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation following this summit.
Thank you for your attention.
Keep talking about Gaza!
Permanent X link to Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur – the Occupied Territories.
A previous thread contains Netanyahu’s ‘spiritual needs’.
Aug 30
Every single child dying of starvation in Gaza had a pre-existing condition, according to the Israeli press.
The Freedom Flotilla is once again setting sail: Dozens of boats from 44 countries are carrying aid, food, medicine, and doctors to Gaza, aiming to break through 18 years of Israeli siege.
Hamas rises spectacularly.
Hebrew sources concede that Hamas fighters are rising from beneath the rubble like ghosts, hitting occupation forces with precision kill-shots, and melting back into the underground before a counterstrike can land.
This is Gaza’s insurgent warfare at full force, pre-set kill zones, tunnel-fed strike teams, and fire patterns calibrated to shred any unit foolish enough to push forward.
Every street is a choke point, every ruin a sniper’s nest, every approach a death corridor. The occupier advances under the illusion of control, only to be cut down and left grasping at an enemy that refuses to be fixed, broken, or erased.
Thomas Keith on X
After roughly four hours of intense combat and successive resistance ambushes in Al-Zaytoun neighborhood, zionist sources report an #IOF withdrawal from the #Gaza City area.
At least one invading soldier is confirmed to have been killed, and at least 11 others wounded. No new information has been published regarding the four zionist soldiers who reportedly went missing in the area. These missing soldiers may have been captured.
Throughout the battle, IOF helicopters took heavy gunfire, and the area witnessed heavy shelling by resistance forces along with close-quarters combat.
Yemen’s Prime Minister and members of his cabinet have attained martyrdom in the recent Israeli attack.
The Presidency of the Republic in Sana’a has announced the martyrdom of Mujahid Prime Minister Ahmed Ghaleb Al-Rahwi, head of the Government of Change and Construction, along with several of his ministerial companions, following last Thursday’s aggression.
The US blocks Palestinian leaders from attending the upcoming United Nations General Assembly, citing American law that prohibits recognition of Palestine’s statehood. This is the meeting where the EU countries and others promised that they would declare Palestine as a State.
RAMALLAH, August 29, 2025 (WAFA) – The Palestinian Presidency expressed deep regret and astonishment at the decision of the U.S. Department of State not to grant visas to the Palestinian delegation scheduled to participate in the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meetings in September.
The Presidency stressed that this decision stands in clear contradiction to international law and the UN Headquarters Agreement, particularly since the State of Palestine is an observer member of the United Nations.
It called on the U.S. administration to reconsider and reverse its decision, reaffirming Palestine’s full commitment to international law, UN resolutions, and obligations toward peace, as conveyed in President Mahmoud Abbas’s letters to world leaders, including U.S. President Donald Trump.
More at The Cradle.
Yesterday morning the Israeli regime has carried out air and artillery strikes targeting multiple locations across the Gaza Strip. These include:
– Omar Al-Mukhtar market in eastern Gaza City
– Al-Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza
– Block 10 in Al-Bureij refugee camp
– Al-Shati refugee camp in western Gaza
– Al-Shuhada Street in Gaza City
– Southern Gaza City
– Northern areas of Khan Yunis
– Coastal zones of Rafah
According to local sources, yesterday’s attacks by the Israeli military resulted in the deaths of at least 76 Palestinians and injured 298 others. This brings the total number of casualties in Gaza to over 62,895 dead and more than 158,927 wounded. The humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Gaza is a direct result of relentless Israeli military aggression and war crimes, which has devastated civilian infrastructure and inflicted unimaginable suffering on the population. With over 62,000 Palestinians killed and nearly 160,000 wounded, the toll is staggering—especially among children, who account for a heartbreaking proportion of the casualties.
The deliberate targeting of homes, markets, refugee camps, and hospitals has not only shattered families but also crippled Gaza’s healthcare system, leaving survivors without access to basic medical care. The UN’s declaration of famine underscores the severity of the crisis, as hundreds of thousands now face starvation due to the blockade and destruction of food systems. Aid workers and humanitarian convoys have been attacked, and even attempts to deliver life-saving supplies are met with violence. These actions, widely condemned by human rights organizations, reflect a systematic disregard for international law and the sanctity of civilian life.
The world must not remain silent in the face of such atrocities—justice demands accountability, and the people of Gaza deserve protection, dignity, and peace.
Targeting of aid workers is still being captured on camera. There is a reduction of news from within Gaza since the killing of five journalists, cameramen and support.
The Israeli regime does not adhere to any international laws or humanitarian principles and continues its acts of terror and commits war crimes against civilians in the Gaza Strip. Is there truly no one in the world to chain this brutal regime?!!!
The zionist attacks do not cease. Over the past 24 hours, they’ve attacked Yemen, continual raids on the West Bank, Southern Syria and Lebanon. Tension is everywhere regarding another attack on Iran and everyone expects that.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced that Turkey is closing its airspace and ports to Israeli aircraft and ships, and severing all economic and trade ties with Israel over its genocidal war on Gaza. (We will of course believe this when we see it.)
Despite the announcement of Turkey cutting its trade relations with Israel, 3 Turkish commercial ships arrived yesterday at the port of Haifa and are still docked inside the harbor.
Let foreign journalists in.
Enough blockade, including on freedom of information! https://t.co/ytsjGqpT0t— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) August 27, 2025
Prof Marandi takes Mario Newfal to school, who was wise enough to be courteous.
Like the US itself, Trump is nothing but his image, so when he looks weak, confused, ridiculous or petty, the world can see exactly how his eviscerated nation is doing
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Image War — Aug 16, 2025.
Since American presidents are now at risk of stumbling headfirst going up or down Air Force One, it’s only logical for them to use stairlifts and evacuation slides. Why chance having the Defender of the Free World crack his denture and skull, just heading to another golfing vacation, or some global summit where he will be mostly ignored, if not mocked? Sliding down, each POTUS should be without pants or Depend. With a splash, he’ll plunge into a kiddie pool as journalists cheer. After being washed, perfumed and sedated by two illegal immigrant nurses of color, he’s ready to hit the red carpet to shake hands with foreign dignitaries.
For transparency’s sake, this entire process will be broadcast live on CNN, Fox News and the BBC, with appropriate color commentaries. “For some reasons, that brown bitch is taking too long to soap the president’s balls. Soon as we find out why, we’ll give you an update. Meanwhile, President Putin of Russia patiently waits, his only sign of exasperation a barely perceptible sigh.”
These patriotic and constructive reflections were triggered by the alarming yet endearing spectacle of Trump zigzagging in Alaska. Was he trying to find Cook Inlet? Since Putin took his time descending, Trump had to wait. When the better man finally appeared, Trump erupted with three bursts of applause. Receiving no equivalent affection, Trump looked positively forlorn when they finally shook hands. With his palm up, Trump was a beggar, and for seconds, his left hand even joined their manual coupling in an unmanly, needy threesome. In our image obsessed world, these spectacles aren’t just significant but emblematic. Like the US itself, Trump is nothing but his image, so when he looks weak, confused, ridiculous or petty, the world can see exactly how his eviscerated nation is doing.
This stinking and stumbling psycho is strapped to thousands of nuclear warheads, however. Without them, the US would just be one vast Skid Row, begging to be divided up by Mexico, Canada, Russia, China and Greenland. Here and there in the Heartland, there may still be MAGA republics, though impoverished, irrelevant and worse off than today’s Lesotho, Eswatini, Tristan da Cunha or Bir Tawil.
Rwanda and Gabon have joined Israel, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Pakistan and Cambodia in nominating Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize. No major European, Oriental or South American countries have done so. Even the most servile US vassals can’t risk embracing a genocidal child rapist.
Demanding peace between Thailand and Cambodia, 2,500 monks marched through Phnom Penh on 8/10/25. Over a dozen hoisted large photos of Trump, with “Thank You! Mr. President.” Though the US likely had a hand in starting that war, these cloistered doofuses credited the Donald with stopping bloodshed.
Right in downtown Tirana is George W. Bush Street. Though short, it passes Mosque of Namazgah, Albania’s largest. Maybe Trump will have at least an alley named after him in Phnom Penh? He’s winning the image war in Cambodia!
In 2020, I was astounded to discover Trump Kids Kindergarten in Lào Cai, a Vietnamese city of 130,000 right on the Chinese border. In an obscure spot high up in the mountains, Trump was idolized by ignorant Communists. This state run school is still there.
(L): 2,500 monks march, Phnom Penh, Cambodia, 8/10/25 ; (R): painting of Bill Clinton in Jeffrey Epstein’s Manhattan mansion
The US as a brand is most seductive to those with no chance of experiencing the Tenderloin, Skid Row, Philadelphia’s Kensington, Camden, Gary, South Bend, Youngstown, Scranton, St Louis, Oakland or all of New Orleans outside the French Quarters. They’re like those middle-aged guys in Amman, Jordan who are mesmerized by one Hollywood movie after another at cozy yet grimy Pop Café, a place no tourist but one has ever entered. They don’t know what it’s like to endure social distancing nearly every waking hour for decades. I’ve never experienced a population more atomized.
Let’s examine one photo of Zelensky’s visit to the White House on 2/28/25. With his arms folded, the Jewish clown is being scolded by two suited idiots, with Trump flaunting his trademark pucker. Like his boss, lapdog Vance is waving his hands in disapproval. Basic manners dictate you don’t bully a guest, even in private, but this was a staged spectacle, performed for Trump’s Budweiser and Miller High Life swilling base. The setting itself is laughable. Behind Trump on the mantel are the tackiest golden urns and figurines, and “TRUMP” is on some booksized block on the coffee table. Trump must always push his brand. Of course, there are no real books within sight. Flags of the US Army and US Marines flank this draft dodger. If only Liberace had become president!
If only we were just talking about taste. Just now, photos of Epstein’s Manhattan mansion have emerged. Though we see the same level of pricey tackiness so beloved by Trump, there are much darker notes. Vigilant Citizen describes a work of art, “Everything about this sculpture is creepy and unsettling, especially considering that young girls were being raped and abused in this very mansion. White gowns worn by brides are meant to represent their purity and virginity. This particular bride is seemingly attempting to escape something awful… like maybe an old pedo trying to abuse her. They like to mock their victims.” Inside this pedo rape paradise are sweet photos of Epstein with Bill Clinton, Trump, Melania, Bill Gates, Mick Jagger and Elon Musk, among others. A long letter from Woody Allen includes this poetic line, “Add to this that Jeffrey lives in a vast house alone, one can picture him sleeping in damp earth.”
There’s a lovely painting of a saucy Bill Clinton in a blue dress and red heels. Draped across a French Empire chair, he’s showing off his cleavage and flashing a pink thigh.
Long before death, they’re hell dwellers, and proud of it. Why not? Indulging in the worst acts imaginable has reaped them the greatest benefits. Most of their victims even consider them gods.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA: (L): 5/26/11 ; (R): 12/18/11
So Far Gone! — Aug 17, 2025.
The mysterious animal living in Mrs. Seven’s house turned out to be a large green frog. Dwelling behind her coolers, it had standing water on the concrete floor to drink, plus mosquitoes and gnats, one must assume, to feast on. Worrying about this beast’s poor diet, she left a hunk of bread by its side. Since it remained untouched days later, she removed it. Content, this solitary exile will stay right where he is, a silent, brooding presence, unmolested by men, dogs or God. That’s a better fate than most men’s. His options beyond this house aren’t great. Escaping, he’d likely be squashed or gently lowered into a boiling pot of rice gruel with mung beans.
At Vietnamese wet markets, you’ll see skinned frogs still alive. I’ve also written a poem about a turban wearing and gum chewing “sadistic climbing perch monger.”
Here’s the killer part, “Keeping these fish in a tin basin, she takes out each one and snips, with a scissors, its tail, anal fin, dorsal fin, pelvic fin, ventral fin, pectoral fin, then, finally, head. If only she would reverse this order, the climbing perch would not thrash about during the entire process.”
All travelers know no two nations do anything the same. Of course, if you only hop from one global enclave to another, you’ll miss most of these stark or subtle differences, but that’s not traveling. Landing in Timbuktu, Nakhchivan or Qaanaaq, they look immediately for a McDonald’s and a Starbucks.
Baltimore, 5/26/11
Recently, Trump cited Oakland and Baltimore as examples of cities “so far gone,” they need federal intervention, as just happened in DC. Since Trump doesn’t drive, much less walk, anywhere dicey, he has no direct experience of Anacostia or Deanwood in DC, much less Baltimore, but that’s true of his critics also. Whether conservative or liberal, most Americans know better than to stray into black ghettos. Here are the five deadliest American cities, Memphis, Oakland, St. Louis, Baltimore and Detroit. Four are majority black, with St. Louis nearly so.
Just pointing out these facts will get me charged as a “racist” by many upstanding Americans, but consider this hateful passage, “In the city of Philadelphia the increasing number of bold and daring crimes committed by Negroes in the last ten years has focused the attention of the city on this subject. There is a widespread feeling that something is wrong with a race that is responsible for so much crime, and that strong remedies are called for.” It was written in 1899 by that famous Nazi, W.E.B. DuBois, when he was best buddies with Adolf Hitler. Growing up in adjacent rowhouses, they’d split even a pretzel. So poor, they had to pool money over months to buy one Tastykake.
When Trump talked about solving urban crimes, his MAGA base plus many others immediately understood it as a resolve, finally, to tackle black crime, so they cheered, though not at work or in polite company. With Trump, though, it’s just another con and misdirection. He’s using black crime to normalize the presence of soldiers on American streets. Having engineered the worst economic collapse, he’s preparing for its attendant chaos and violence.
Baltimore, Maryland, USA: (L): 5/26/11 ; (R): 12/18/11
As a high school kid in Northern Virginia, I’d drive my Mustang II to Baltimore to catch my Mariners play the Orioles at Memorial Stadium. I’d head straight there from my McDonald’s job on Little River Turnpike. In my M’s jersey and waving a pennant, I once screamed so loud while sitting alone in the outfield, a player turned around to stare at the freak. I’d like to say it was Ruppert Jones, but he must have been retired by then.
As an adult in Philly, I’d take a Greyhound to Baltimore to spend another relaxing, near suicidal day. Away from its Inner Harbor, the city looked bombed. Wandering around Charm City, I started to understand why John Water’s Divine thought eating dogshit was so wonderful. With so many murals honoring murder victims, you also feel close to God, as in, “I’ll be there in a second, Jesus.” It’s a spiritual city.
You, too, should drop everything to visit Baltimore at the first opportunity. Its tourism slogan, “You won’t get it till you get here.” A preview, “A 13-year-old boy with 18 prior felony arrests has been apprehended again, this time for a series of armed carjackings and robberies that took place across Baltimore from July 26 to 27, according to the Baltimore Police.” Similar youths are liberally sprinkled across America.
Under Biden, there was a noticeable uptick in anti social behavior, including street takeovers, flash robberies, smash and grabs, dine and dashes, porch piracy and nuisance streaming. Far from going away, these have only increased under Trump, since their root causes, alienation, pathological self absorption, community breakdown, unaffordability of basics and meaningless existence, have only been exacerbated. Plus, Trump is himself a worldclass felon. Crime exudes from all his pores and orifices effortlessly. Trump emanates crime.
In 1992, Camden Yards opened in Baltimore. Now, there are retro ballparks all over. Inside these exclusive environments, the USA is still safe and wholesome. The cheapest seat for a game five days from now goes for $23, with the most expensive at $153. With the added cost of hot dogs, soft drinks, beer and parking, a typical family of four can’t come here. Triple locked inside some ghetto rowhouse or a suburban duplex, they can still enjoy this American mirage, on their bought-on-credit flatscreen. That’s how it will be, then, as their world cracks, crumbles and burns.
New York, 8/4/09
John Rocker, Prophet — Aug 18, 2025.
Twenty five years ago, an Atlanta Braves pitcher, John Rocker, said, “I’m not a very big fan of foreigners. How the hell did they get in this country?” With his team in NYC to play the Mets, Rocker observed, “Imagine having to take the 7 train to the ballpark, looking like you’re riding through Beirut next to some kid with purple hair next to some queer with AIDS right next to some dude who just got out of jail for the fourth time right next to some 20-year-old mom with four kids. It’s depressing.”
It’s clear this 26-year-old had never been to Beirut or anywhere in the Middle East. Even today, you almost never see in Muslim nations purple haired kids, queers with AIDS, obvious felons or 20-year-old moms with four kids. Unlike in the USA, their criminals, degenerates and misfits don’t advertise themselves. Even American nerds pose as gangstas, for their culture glamorizes all crimes, including genocides.
When Rocker was born in Statesboro, GA in 1974, it had roughly 17,000 people. In high school, he lived in Macon (pop. 130,000). Though a city, it’s still in the same state, then he was drafted by the Braves. Nearly his entire minor league career was spent in the South.
There were plenty of Latino players in his organization, however, and the big club’s roster for 2020 included players from Venezuela, Curacao, the Dominican Republic, Panama, Canada and Cuba. Even with so many foreign teammates, Rocker had plenty of white ones to socialize with, however. The appearance of everyone working together towards a common goal disguises the fact that, after the game, most players stick with their own race or at least those who speak their language comfortably. Even on the airplane home, they self-segregate.
New York, USA: (L): 10/8/11 ; (R): 11/3/17
Rocker’s disgust, fear and hatred of NYC is all too common. It’s not just the natural reaction of any bumpkin towards the city, but of every child when forced to enter school, or of any man on his first trip abroad, even if he’s going voluntarily, for pleasure. To be uprooted is always violent, but without this, almost no goals are achievable, especially today. Very few are allowed to be housewives or simply shopkeepers in their hometowns. Thrust into alien, bewildering environments, nearly everyone seeks to reclaim his hickishness by frequenting the same bar, café, cheesesteak joint or Chinese takeout, or he can watch the Braves or Phillies for 200 times a year, including the playoffs and Spring Training. Compulsive, addictive behavior is nearly an inevitable reaction to the terrors of displacement.
Retired, Rocker must be living in some Southern town, so he’s no longer displaced. Most people don’t have that option.
Trump’s decision to send National Guardsmen from Ohio, West Virginia and South Carolina to Washington DC made me think of John Rocker. Unlike the pitcher, they won’t be armed with fastballs and sliders, but M4 carbines and M9 pistols. Nothing will go wrong, I’m sure.
Deployed around Union Station, Georgetown, Chinatown and 14th Street, they’ll make a show of arresting sandwich throwing drunks and public urinators, but their real tasks, make no mistake, is to sow fear and disorder. When American cities go up in flames, American hicks will cheer.
Though the worst kind of New Yorker, Trump, with his red cap, is posing as a John Deere tractor driving peasant. You’d never find him plopped next to a John Rocker, though, at any good ol’ boys tavern. Served a pickled trotter, the Donald would retch.
Before college, I had been to NYC just once. At 15-years-old, I went there with my mother, stepfather and half brother on a day trip, a very long drive from Northern Virginia. That day’s highlight was a visit to the top of the World Trade Center. Applying for college, I was accepted at Pratt and Parson, but visited neither. Wanting to become an oil painter, I knew I’d have to confront NYC at some point.
New York, USA: (L): 10/8/11 ; (R): 11/3/17
From Philly, I’d take two local trains to NYC. At first, it was only to visit its museums. Eventually, I’d get to know many neighborhoods, including those across the Hudson in New Jersey. I gave poetry readings at St. Mark’s Place, the Nuyorican Café and a few other venues I can’t quite remember. I was paid to talk to a class at Yeshiva University, I’m not kidding. I was on a panel at NYU with Susan Sontag and Carolyn Forché, among others. I was a critic-in-residence at Art in General. Many of my college friends moved to NYC. My main publisher was there. On my last visit, I was interviewed by Chris Hedges for Russia Today. I wrote a long poem about Yankee Stadium. Despite all this exposure, I never warmed up to Manhattan. It’s too much about image, with every transplant remaking himself to be more worldly, even freakish. Even their speech changes.
At Philly’s Friendly Lounge, there was a regular, Johnny AC, who made it a point to never visit NYC, and he had been to Japan.
For thousands of years, we lived in villages. Now, 55% of the world’s population dwell in cities, with millions packed into cubicles suspended in smog. Last week, some tattooed asshole in Hanoi was caught on camera beating up a female neighbor by the elevators. He clearly didn’t care who she was, or even where he was. His soulless, arrogant face exudes alienation.
When I was born in November of 1963, Saigon had a population of 1.6 million. Now, it has 14. That’s why I’m living in a drowsy city by the ocean. At 4:06AM, I’m again sitting at a sweetly shabby café in a quiet alley. Mrs. Seven is still living in her childhood home. Through the open door of her bedroom, I can see an elegant pastel portrait of her late father. On her wall is a peeling mural of the Vietnamese countryside. Her two dogs’ one big trip was to the wet market, a quarter mile away. Behind her red cooler, a large green frog contently squats. Like everyone, he has had enough harrowing life experiences to brood over.
Clearly, our species’ existence is unsustainable. Though we know and sense this, there’s nothing we can do. Our elites, though, have firm, definite plans they’re already executing. Meanwhile, there are still baseball games to be stared at on our droning televisions.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks
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Like a much more famous billionaire, this pitiful man is boastful, exaggerates numbers and loves to play with girls. Insane people are lost in their fantasized greatness.
with gratitude to Linh Dinh at Postcards from the End.
Well Prepared for the Worst! — Aug 13, 2025.
Washington DC, 12/6/11
This pre dawn at Coffee Seven, there’s a new half face. The other half is hidden behind a mask. With his mouth muffled, it’s not easy to understand what he’s saying. Plus, he’s speaking very rapidly.
Sơn, “You have a new vehicle!”
“Yes, just bought it, for three billion.”
Since $114,000 doesn’t sound right, I ask him, “Why so expensive? Why not buy a plane?” I tease. “Or a house?”
“My house is a hundred billion! I just bought a cemetery.”
Sơn grins, “A cemetery.”
“Why?” I ask. “You only have one body.”
“To sell lots.”
“How many?”
“A hundred.”
“That’s nothing. You need a plot for a thousand!” Then, “How much is your motorbike, brother Sơn?”
“Three billion.”
I say to Mrs. Seven, “Since all your customers are so rich, you shouldn’t be selling coffee for 10K,” or 38 cents. “Sell it for 100K.”
“He’s so rich, but sometimes he drinks my 10K coffee on credit.”
Already this insane in his early 30’s, he’ll just get worse, for sure, though his agitation will likely decrease with age.
Washington DC: (L): on 3/2/15 ; (R): on 7/28/17
For a nation, too, unchecked madness must increase. Even with violent crime down in DC, Trump has called in the National Guard. Preceding this by days was a photo of Big Balls sitting on the ground with a bloody face and body. Sure looks like he smeared it all over himself for the most dramatic shot. Why was this 19-year-old out, partying, perhaps, at 3AM? More mysterious is his hiring by Elon Musk for DOGE, that personal data harvesting scam that saved no one a dime, but why dredge up ancient history? We’ve so moved on.
Daily Beast on 8/12/25, “White House Wants Big Balls to Get Same Medal as Rosa Parks—The move would appeal to Trump’s MAGA base.” Who can deny Swollen Testicles has done much more than Mother Teresa and Martin Luther King?
Meanwhile in LA, masked goons arrested a handicapped 15-year-old at gunpoint, right outside his high school. This boy was standing next to his grandma’s car, with her inside. In their excitement, ICE agents dropped bullets on the ground. Warriors so professional must be sent immediately to Ukraine, Syria or deadly Washington DC, so they can return to claim a modest lot in a discount cemetery. As with thousands of other cases, this kid was targeted because he was brown. Handcuffed, he was whizzed away as terrified classmates looked on. After an hour, he was released without even an apology. Who are the retards here? With a moronic commander in chief, they’re free to terrorize.
Four decades ago, DC was America’s murder capital. Going there often, I was never mugged, however, because I didn’t wander around drunk at 3AM. I attended Bullets games before the team changed its name to Wizards. I had second row seat for a spectacular performance by George “Ice Man” Gervin. Fourteenth Street right in Northwest was as seedy as NYC’s Broadway. Taxi Driver’s Travis would have been perfectly at home. Since America’s rich and powerful didn’t care to live in shitholes, DC and NYC were much gentrified. I imagine Manhattan below 116th and DC’s Northwest are still fine.
Washington DC: (L): on 11/30/11 ; (R): on 8/28/10
Meanwhile in Gaza, “Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, 28, has been killed along with three of his colleagues in a deliberate Israeli attack on a media tent sheltering journalists outside the main gate of Gaza City’s al-Shifa Hospital.” Al Jazeera also claims, “Israel has killed nearly 270 journalists and media workers since it launched its war on Gaza.” The Jerusalem Post begs to differ, “IDF kills Hamas terrorist doubling as journalist.” Unlike Israel, al-Sharif hasn’t killed one innocent civilian, but he’s the “terrorist,” while the genocidal Jewish state must be defended by the entire West.
After Kevin Barrett interviewed me recently, he posted our 1 ½ hour conversation at Unz with this headline, “Linh Dinh: ‘It’s a very systematic program to destroy opponents of the Jews’—Is the Great Replacement driven by economics—or by Jewish hatred of Esau (Europeans) and Ishmael (Arabs/Muslims)?” Nearly all 72 comments after it concern Barrett’s suggestion Europe would be better off by converting to Islam. Unlike Jews, Kevin isn’t advocating for Middle Eastern and Northern African Muslims to invade Europe, after their own societies are destroyed. That’s a Jewish project, gleefully executed. In any case, neither Kevin nor I have the power to effect anything. As American “influencers,” we’re a thousand tiers below Johnny Somali or Ice Poseidon. Big Balls wouldn’t spit in our direction. So invisible, we can walk through walls.
True to their Angry White Pussy code and calling, none of those enraged Unzians dared to say Jews. Quaking whites proudly wave white flags.
Going to meet Putin in Alaska, Trump said, twice, he was headed to Russia. A man this confused can’t be expected to formulate policies on Cambodia, Armenia or Azerbaijan, so he’s obviously not in control, so who is? Perhaps Big Balls. Just never say Jews. They’re the most misunderstood and discriminated against do gooders in history.
When a woman across the street asks our billionaire to help her lift a heavy pot, he simply says, “I can’t,” so creaky and slightly stooped Mrs. Seven has to do it. I’d have, of course.
Seeing his gaudy watch, I blurt, “That’s nice!”
“It cost eight billion!”
“So expensive! You should use that money to go out with your girlfriend.”
“I’m married.”
“Oh! How many kids?”
“Eight.”
“Eight!”
After he’s gone, Mrs. Seven tells me, “He’s not married. Who would marry him? His parents are rich, so he just rides around.”
He comes to Vung Tau to play with girls, chơi gái, meaning he visits whorehouses. Like a much more famous billionaire, this pitiful man is boastful, exaggerates numbers and loves to play with girls. Insane people are lost in their fantasized greatness.
As your people become increasingly destitute and outraged, you erect tallest flag poles, build the tackiest ballroom, stage a military parade on your birthday and, now, normalize having heavily armed troops on city streets, something unseen in any civilized country not at war. Who can claim, though, the USA is either?
Triggering the worst, Trump is well prepared for the worst, he thinks. Still, that constant stench from his own body is hard to ignore. It’s not just old age. Continentia in Latin means repression. Since this megalomaniac has never known any self-restraint, it’s all flooding out from every orifice as his cowed subjects endure his repression.
still from Jack from Thailand’s Thailand’s Father Day 2020 featuring Tony Cartalucci
Some Holes in Brian Berletic — Aug 13, 2025.
Between 7/26/25 and 7/31/25, I wrote five articles on the latest conflict between Thailand and Cambodia. Before giving you an update, let’s examine some contentions made by Brian Berletic, whose 28 minute video from 7/26/25 I saw just last night.
Though many of Berletic’s observations are astute, there are fundamental flaws in his world view. He keeps insisting Israel is doing America’s bidding, so Jews serve whiteys. More specifically, Israelis and all other bad actors globally are paid off, manipulated or fooled by the American empire. Ethnic or racial interests don’t trigger conflicts. If not for Uncle Sam, all nations and races would get along.
Like me, Berletic points out that many ethnic Cambodians live on the Thai side of the border, so they, too, were on the receiving end of Cambodian rockets. When there’s no war, Thais and Cambodians coexist well enough. This doesn’t mean, as Berletic contends, “There’s no real animosity between these two countries. A lot of people make this out as if it’s some sort of historical issue. People don’t go to war over history, over religion, over ethnicity. These are things people in power use to dupe people into fighting wars.”
(L): King Vajiralongkorn at Munich Airport, Germany, 2016 ; (R): Bangkok, Thailand, 1/3/23
People have always gone to war over ethnicity, race, religion or historical claims, even if these are grossly exaggerated or entirely fictional. Think six million Jews gassed to death in a Final Solution. To stoke Jews for genocide, Netanyahu said on 10/28/23, “You must remember what Amalek has done to you, says our Holy Bible. And we do remember.” There’s no need for Bibi to cite the entire passage. Every self respecting Jew already knows it, “Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.” To a lesser degree, Christians have absorbed this bloodthirsty mindset.
Since Amalek is a long disappeared nation that has nothing to do with contemporary Palestinians, it’s simply a shorthand for any enemy of the Jews. Fueled by racial righteousness and hatred, plus a lust for revenge against an amorphic Amalek, Jews going berserk in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria or Lebanon aren’t Uncle Sam’s proxies. They’re acting out their nationalism, something most leftists insist only the worst whites have, when in fact, nationalism is weakest among those pale folks with blonde, brown or red hair. Blacks, browns and yellows still embrace nationalism without shame.
Berletic acknowledges this himself in a Jack from Thailand’s video, “Thailand Father’s Day 2020 feat. Tony Cartalucci.” Since Berletic is a Slavic name, his adoption of a pen name so Italian was certainly weird. Why the misdirection? Should I call myself Witold Wozniak or Levi Ben-Gurion? Names denote familial, clan or tribal relationship.
In Thailand, love of nation is directly linked with loyalty to king. Though I’d rather not live in such a society, I’m not Thai, it’s their business. My name is not Somchai Ayutthaya. More troubling is their current monarch, Vajiralongkorn. He’s a veritable creep who spends most of his time in Bavaria. Each appearance in Thailand, such as seen in this video, is pure theater. In private, he’s an abuser of women and borderline crossdresser. Since any criticism of the king will land Berletic in prison, he only gushes about Vajiralongkorn here. It is sweet, though, to see thousands of Thais gather to celebrate their heritage. They will survive Vajiralongkorn.
In Bangkok two years ago, I stopped at a high school to observe their lengthy morning ritual to honor Buddha, king and nation. Their national anthem begins, “Thailand unites the flesh and blood of Thais. The land of Thailand belongs to the Thais.” Then, “We will sacrifice every drop of our blood for our nation.” Around that time, I also noticed no photos of kings at one café. This was highly unusual. Talking to the barista, I found out his sister couldn’t stand the royal family. This was her silent protest.
Everywhere, there were photos of Princess Bajrakitiyabha. She had collapsed at age 43 while walking her dogs. During Covid, rich Thais would fly to the USA to get Jewjabbed. Thirty months later, the princess is still in a coma, supposedly. No Thai newspaper or blogger would dare to suggest she’s most likely dead.
Berletic, then, must be extra careful when talking about Thai kings and their policies. His encapsulation of Thailand’s role during the Vietnam War, though, is at best bizarre:
Thailand has had a relationship with the United States over many years. It is complicated. Thailand was in a region the US was bombing. They were bombing Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos. Thailand was next. The US even encouraged a Communist insurgency in Thailand. Had nothing to do with actual Communism. Thailand decided they would host US troops and they would play along. Then as soon as the war was over, US troops went home. That relationship has gradually faded since and it has long since been replaced by a much closer, stronger and more constructive relationship with China.
Thailand: (L): Chanthaburi, 3/23/18 ; (R): Bangkok, 1/4/23
The US had no intention of bombing Thailand. In fact, it used Thailand as a base to bomb Laos and Cambodia, primarily to destroy the Ho Chi Minh Trails. Thailand didn’t just play along but benefited financially from hosting American troops. Those not stationed in Thailand went there for sex vacations. Thailand’s sex industry became the world’s largest during this era. That legacy is on full display today in Bangkok and Pattaya.
Though US troops did go home after the Vietnam War, the Pentagon maintained its influence. One example are the ill fated guerillas headed by a Vietnamese-American, Hoàng Cơ Minh. I should know. He’s my great uncle. In Virginia, he actually asked me if I wanted to go to Thailand. From there, I could follow him back into Vietnam via Laos. Knowing exactly where he was, Hanoi tracked HCM when he crossed into Laos, just north of Pakse, then killed him near Attapeu in 1987. Having spent seven months in Pakse and Ubon Ratchathani, I’m familiar with the region, though not as a guerilla. Only with Pentagon coordination would Thailand tolerate Vietnamese-Americans staging an armed conflict against Vietnam. It was more farcical than the Bay of Pigs.
Berletic’s claim that Thailand’s Communist insurgency was “encouraged” by the USA and “had nothing to do with actual Communism” is also absurd. Its main backers were Vietnam and China. Vietnamese Communists played key roles in growing Communist movements in Laos, Cambodia, Thailand and even Malaysia. That these relationships soured later was only due to each nation’s innate nationalism. Oriental tribalism trumped Jewish gibberish.
From 1975 to 1990, Thailand had to absorb waves of Vietnamese, Cambodians and Laos fleeing Communism, so it responded, often, by allowing its soldiers and citizens to rape, rob and kill them. After all, the land of Thailand belongs to the Thais. During last month’s conflict, ethnic Cambodians in Thailand were attacked, so thousands have fled home. Half a century ago, thousands of refugees were forced to return to Pol Pot ruled Cambodia at gun point. Stepping on mines, many never made it.
Like Berletic, I’m no fan of American imperialism, but unlike him, I also acknowledge the selfish or evil aims that are at least latent in all nations, and in each man, too. To reserve such agency to only white men or nations is to be, simply put, the purest racists, even if you’re completely unaware or mean well.
Today in the Phnom Penh Post, “Fresh claims that Thai soldiers destroyed homes, installed barricades, in Banteay Meanchey.” So it can certainly flare up again. On 8/7/25, Prime Minister Hun Monet nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, so the Donald has five from world leaders. They include the heads of Israel, Pakistan, Armenia and Azerbaijan.
West Point trained Hun Monet’s cozying up to Washington has angered Beijing. In December of 2024, the USS Savannah docked in Sihanoukville, not far from Ream, a naval base upgraded by the Chinese at the cost of billions. On 7/31/25, I wrote “Sam Landing Jab Means Chinese Troops in Southeast Asia.” I still stick with this assessment. Having invested so much into Cambodia, there’s no way China will let the US reap the benefits.
Plus, Hun Monet and his daddy, Hun Sen, are surrounded by powerful Chinese, many of whom have only been granted Cambodian citizenship recently. Counting underworld bosses, Cambodia is dominated by Chinese. Much of the Huns’ wealth comes from the Chinese.
The Cambodian economy depends on exports to the USA, however. That’s why Hun Manet has parked his skinny ass between two chairs. Kissing Trump’s rump, he’s also assuming the Donald will last a while. China, though, will be there until eternity.
Busan, South Korea, 7/15/20
Warring Societies — Aug 15, 2025.
Talking to Kevin Barrett just now, I pointed out the obvious. Language’s primary purpose isn’t to communicate but to prevent outsiders from having access to our thoughts, jokes, abject longings, battle plans, animosities towards outsiders and underhanded plots against them. Through vocabulary and accent, we can already tell who aren’t in our tribe, gang or cohort, and these are people who supposedly speak our language. Their mispronunciation of every word tests the limits of our superhuman forbearance and preternatural capacity for charity. Exiled to Morocco, Barrett must daily improve his Moroccan Arabic to blunt, most pitifully if rather sweetly, a universal irritation or amusement his strained babbling must cause. Knowing abject defeat to be inevitable, most expats cling to each other and more or less sleep in the same bed, night after night, in their own minuscule theme park.
Halfway through that paragraph, I looked out a second floor window at Pato’s Bingsu to see a woman in her early 30’s on a bicycle. Stopped in the middle of an intersection, she was cursing someone down Ba Cu Street, then she turned to a second target on Trưng Trắc. She would look left and right to find more enemies, or just to see if anyone was laughing at her. This went on for more than five minutes. I had to assume some motorist had cut her off. Her “fuck your mother” was distinctively northern. Perhaps wisely, no one tried to calm her down. My effort to do so would have been self-serving. The male fantasy of saving a damsel in distress is universal. It would be sci-fi creepy if manifested in a stinking old fart, with blood oozing from one big toe, no less. Two times in three days, I stubbed it, walking barefoot.
With Coffee House at that corner, I asked its security guard what had happened. Nothing, he said. No one had done anything to her. It’s a pity, we agreed.
“It’s stress,” he added. “From society, the economy.”
“And she has no one,” I speculated.
“No lover.”
“Lover?! She has no dog or cat!”
When there’s less to go around, divisions become accentuated. The more diverse a society, the more conflicts it will suffer. Knowing street fighting will erupt, Trump is prepping his masked goons.
The best allegory of human fragmentation is the 7th essay in Chronicles of Bustos Domecq, cowritten by Jorge Luis Borges and Julio Cortazar. Through the persona of a pompous critic, Borges’ erudition and occasional lapses into a tongue-in-cheek formal language are exaggerated most hilariously. It’s criminal that Norman Thomas di Giovanni’s translation, as published by Dutton in 1976, is out of print. Stuffed in a carton box in South Jersey, my copy is irretrievably lost. Luckily this morning, I was able to locate an online version at archive.org.
Consider its dedication, “To those three forgotten greats—Picasso, Joyce, Le Corbusier.” Penned by Borges, “forgotten” here doesn’t just jar, but is nearly a wish or prediction. These “greats” won’t be so great. Of course, it’s only Bustos Domecq talking.
Podgorica, Montenegro, 7/15/21
In the piece we’ll examine, “The Brotherhood Movement,” there’s also a mention of “Ezra Fishpond,” plus Quo Vadis?, but misattributed. Like Borges, Domecq the fictional critic has a fantastic reading list. Here’s the story’s central contention:
Human kind, he explained away, is made up, despite climatic and political differences, of a multitude of secret societies, or brotherhoods, whose members are not only unknown to each other but who may, at any given moment, change their status. Some of these societies are more enduring than others—for example, the society of individuals sporting Catalan surnames, or surnames that begin with the letter G. Others, inversely, quickly fade—the society of those who, this very moment, in Brazil or Africa, are inhaling the odor of jasmine or, more cultured minded and studious, reading a bus ticket.
Beyond who you are, everything you do, or even think, from moment to moment, aligns you further with a tiny, select “brotherhood” or “society,” while pitting you against the rest of the world. “The most trifling act—striking a match or blowing it out—expels us from one group and lodges us in another […] the person wielding a spoon is the adversary of he who brandishes a fork, but very soon both are at one over the use of the napkin, only to split again over their Postum or Sanka.” With “wielding,” “adversary” and “brandishes,” conflicts are introduced. Just as in real life, there’s no real ceiling. Evil is infinite.
After +30 years, the most enduring image from “The Brotherhood Movement” is of a man getting off a train pulling a switchblade on a boarding passenger. Performing opposites acts, they’re natural enemies. I laughed so hard back then.
Walking to Cóc Cóc, I passed another masked opponent. Now, I’m subjected to a ruthlessly targeted and sustained sonic assault from tattooed enemies wielding video games and TikTok skits. Clutching my bleeding toe, I collapse, my brain damaged and soul soiled. Vastly outnumbered, I must nurse my wounds until one day, perhaps tomorrow, I’ll make them all pay.
With Bustos Domecq’s contention so airtight and unimpeachable, any counter argument deserves to be hissed at, nuked, flushed away or aborted. This feeble example, then, is only dished up for your amusement. Days ago, I passed a puppy tied to a motorbike on Ba Cu. Noticing his entreating eyes, I came over to introduce myself, which sent him into a joyful frenzy.
When his owner appeared seconds later, I asked, “Does he have friends?”
“Who isn’t his friend?” she smiled.
Though what I meant was, “Does he have dog friends?” she and her puppy didn’t make a distinction between men and dogs. Plus, this innocent hadn’t learnt, most bitterly, the meaning of enemy.
About Linh Dinh (@linhdinh):
‘Before being canceled, I was an anthologized poet and fairly prolific author, with my last book Postcards from the End of America. Now, I write about our increasingly sick world for a tiny audience on SubStack. Drifting overly much, I’m in Cambodia.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam in 1963, I lived mostly in the US from 1975 until 2018, but have returned to Vietnam. I’ve also lived in Italy, England and Germany. I’m the author of a non-fiction book, Postcards from the End of America (2017), a novel, Love Like Hate (2010), two books of stories, Fake House (2000) and Blood and Soap (2004), and six collections of poems, with a Collected Poems cancelled by Chax Press from external pressure. I’ve been anthologized in Best American Poetry 2000, 2004, 2007, Great American Prose Poems from Poe to the Present, Postmodern American Poetry: a Norton Anthology (vol. 2) and Flash Fiction International: Very Short Stories From Around the World, etc. I’m also editor of Night, Again: Contemporary Fiction from Vietnam (1996) and The Deluge: New Vietnamese Poetry (2013). My writing has been translated into Japanese, Italian, Spanish, French, Dutch, German, Portuguese, Korean, Arabic, Icelandic, Serbian and Finnish, and I’ve been invited to read in Tokyo, London, Cambridge, Brighton, Paris, Berlin, Leipzig, Halle, Reykjavik, Toronto, Singapore and all over the US. I’ve also published widely in Vietnamese.’
AHH: Please support this wonderful writer on his Substack! Thanks
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Upon his return from the United States, Vladimir Putin held a meeting on the outcomes of the Russia-US talks (https://t.me/news_kremlin_eng/6017)
The President briefed senior officials of the Presidential Executive Office, the Government, the State Duma, ministries and agencies on the outcomes (https://t.me/news_kremlin_eng/6021) of the meeting in Anchorage.
Key statements from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s working meeting in the Kremlin to discuss the results of his meeting with US President Donald Trump in Alaska by Ria Novosti:
The visit to Alaska was “timely and very useful,” and his conversation with Trump “frank and informative.”
All areas of the Russia-US cooperation were discussed during the talks.
There was the opportunity to “calmly and thoroughly” outline Russia’s position on the Ukrainian conflict.
A fair resolution to the Ukrainian crisis was discussed.
Russia wants to see the fighting in Ukraine end and would like to move to resolving all issues with Kiev peacefully.
Moscow respects the Trump administration’s position on the need for an early cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.
Addressing root causes of the Ukrainian crisis should be the foundation of a future peace settlement.
Keep talking about Gaza!
Aug 3
The cry from the perfidious Europe that they will recognize a Palestinian state has been totally non-believable. Now they are trying to close the trap. France (I don’t know who and it does not matter) just announced that they will indeed recognize a Palestinian State, if Hamas gives up its weapons. That is the trap that they are trying to close now.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor:
• israeli forces have destroyed 97% of livestock and working animals in the Gaza Strip through bombing, starvation, and looting.
• The targeting of livestock is part of a deliberate policy aimed at starving the population, depleting food resources, and inflicting severe human and psychological suffering.
• israel’s policies reflect a systematic and continuous pattern of genocide, imposing living conditions under which survival becomes impossible.
• Over 93% of poultry farms in Gaza have been completely destroyed due to israeli aggression, with the remaining few having entirely ceased operation.
• Field teams documented the death of tens of thousands of birds, either from direct bombing or from the lack of feed and water.
• More than 97% of cattle and sheep present in Gaza before the war have perished—either directly from bombing or through starvation.
• Of the estimated 20,000 donkeys and thousands of horses and mules in Gaza before the aggression, 43% had died by August 2024, and as of today, less than 6% remain.
• The death of most donkeys and mules presents a critical crisis, as they were the primary means of transportation amid the near-total fuel shortage and infrastructure collapse.
During Witkoff’s visit to Gaza, GHF announced the distribution of 100 million meals
To 2.2 million people. This means 46 meals per person. And I didn’t receive a single meal. Nor any of my relatives
GHF is a lie, and the numbers are scams. pic.twitter.com/ty8AoOkyIr
— Ahmed Shameya (@ahmedshameya995) August 1, 2025
‘Aid convoys are systematically delayed by Israel, truck routes take 18+ hours’ — UN Humanitarian agency spox to RT. ‘We are given unpassable, dangerous and congested routes,’ Olga Cherevko says. ‘Reality on the ground as grim as it gets’
20 Seconds of Your daily ZioNazis
“Kill them, exterminate them… just like using a lice comb.”
While the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation sites continue to be mass execution sites, here’s the Nazi rhetoric being broadcast to Israelis on a daily basis.
In Syria, the decimation continues. In Lebanon, the decimation continues.
It is now clearer than ever that the americans and israelis are fully orchestrating the game from above, while their puppets on the ground are unable to grasp or navigate the illusion. Both sides are operated by american interests and have direct links to these malignant powers. israeli forces could potentially enter to strike HTS, especially from the Tartous axis, where HTS has been gathering in large numbers. This entire scenario resembles a vile video game one where people devour each other in the name of power, lust, and fanatical beliefs, all under the guidance and blessing of america and its proxy, israel.
Judge Nap interviews our roving eye nomad on taking on the entire BRICS in one fell swoop. “Moneyprinters with nukes: CHARGE!”
what toxic confluence of factors has crystallized into a hot war in the heart of Southeast Asia? It starts with a family feud – involving the Thai Shinawatra and the Cambodian Hun Sen clans
By Pepe Escobar at Sputnik.
Fog of war rules. A crack Thai analyst worries about the intersection of so many vectors not making sense: “There’s something so odd about this war. It feels like someone is pushing both sides to escalate.”
Escalation, so far, also rules. Even with Tariff Temper Tantrum Trump (T4) now repositioned as Peacemaker and touting his own Art of Ceasefire “deal”.
Yet this Monday, it’s actually Malaysia – currently the chair of ASEAN – that de facto mediates, with Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim hosting ceasefire talks in Putrajaya. As previously confirmed by Foreign Minister Mohamed Hasan, “this is an ASEAN matter, and as chair, we should lead.”
Malaysia, in the end, did lead. Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim personally broke a ceasefire between the belligerents.
And that brings us to the inevitable question: what toxic confluence of factors has crystallized into a hot war in the heart of Southeast Asia?
It starts with a family feud – as stated by a top Thai intel source, involving the Thai Shinawatra and the Cambodian Hun Sen clans. Thaksin Shinawatra, from Chiang Mai in the north, billionaire, former prime minister, recently pardoned by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, is the perennial strongman of Thai politics. One of his daughters, Paetongtarn, is the current Thai Prime Minister.
Hun Sen, a former Khmer Rouge soldier — he defected in 1977 — former Prime Minister in two stints (1985-1983 and 1998-2023), currently President of the Senate, is the perennial strongman in Cambodia.
The Shinawatra-Hun Sen clans used to be very close, but they recently had an “irreconcilable” falling out, partly due to Thaksin’s daughter Yingluck’s new husband — by the way, she is also a former Prime Minister — planning to open a large casino in the tourist paradise Phuket, something directly connected to the relaxation of Thai gambling laws.
The new venture will heavily affect Hun Sen’s enormous profits from his casinos located in Poi Pet, along the Thai border.
It gets way more complex when we factor what lies behind the long unresolved border dispute, now flaring up again because of — what else — Pipelineistan: it’s all about oil and gas exploration.
The current Thai-Cambodian border is demarcated mostly along the watershed of the Dangrek mountain range. Hun Sen is eager to gain even tiny pieces of land on the Thai side of the watershed, using ancient Khmer temples as an excuse. The whole area was once part of the mighty Khmer empire.
Hun Sen’s gamble is to set up a legal precedent for the border to be adjusted at the coastline. That of course would affect the maritime borders in the Gulf of Thailand, and who controls how much of the oil and gas fields. Currently multiple Western companies — including Chevron — hold drilling rights on the Thai side of the maritime border, hence the Western ‘support’ for Thailand.
Enter China. Beijing has a very significant trading relationship with Thailand: a $135 billion turnover. Compare it to a mere $12 billion when it comes to China-Cambodia. The Chinese and Thai militaries are very close. In terms of strategic interest, as much as China may be investing a lot in Cambodia modernization, including a mega new business hub outside of Phnom Penh, Beijing will not support Hun Sen’s — now backfiring — gamble.
Now we enter the most sensitive part of the equation. Thaksin was essentially brought back to the Thai political chessboard by the King’s close advisors in order to keep the liberal “menace” at bay. But now the optics are that Thaksin has messed up. And the echoes coming from the monarchy circles is that the King is extremely angry — and has taken the conflict with Cambodia personally.
There are several factions in the Thai military — an extremely complex environment. The commanders currently in control of the situation at the border are known as the ‘King’s men’.
So what next? For quite a while, insiders of the highly volatile Thai political environment have been stressing that the Kingdom has once again played a complex balancing act, in many aspects getting both the US and China on its side.
So there is a strong possibility the Thai military would push deeper into Cambodia, fulfilling irredentist demands coming from deeply nationalist quarters. In parallel, that might turn out to be a priceless opportunity to correct the colonial borders drawn by the France-Siam treaty of 1907.
To make it even more intractable, the moves overlap with powerful comprador elites in Bangkok abhorring — and bribed into blocking — increased Global South cooperation.
Yes, this is also part of the war on BRICS
Now for the Big Picture. Both Thailand and Cambodia, important nodes of the 10-member ASEAN, are deeply China-connected – from geography to geoeconomics. Ergo, imperial divide and rule applies – in spades, and subordinated to the maximum imperative, as in Mackinder and Mahan revisited: burning down the Rimland all around the Heartland.
That’s the current thrust, on steroids, by the Empire of Chaos. We ain’t seen nothin’ yet. And never forget: Thailand is also a BRICS partner. Chaos simultaneously destabilizes both ASEAN and BRICS.
The 6,000 km Pan-Asian Railway, transforming Southeast Asia.
Now for blood on the tracks — literally. A key New Silk Road project is the 6,000 km plus high-speed rail line that will eventually connect Kunming, capital of Yunnan province, to Southeast Asia all the way to Singapore.
Kunming-Vientiane in Laos is already up and running; a roaring success. The Thai extension all the way to Nong Khai – plagued by immense corruption problems – may finally be up and running by 2030. A Vietnam-Cambodia extension will link Ho Chi Minh city and Phnom Penh to Bangkok.
The current war broke out exactly at the Thai-Cambodia border. The Desperation Row playbook is as predictable as ever: blow up ASEAN’s new connectivity corridors from the inside, with a tariff war coupled with a possible regional war.
Globalsouth.co has been providing invaluable analysis, even suggesting a roll call of Highways to Hell promoted by the Empire of Chaos. So here’s a not exhaustive list of divide and rule instances encircling China, Iran and Russia, what I call the revamped “RIC” Primakov triangle.
It all starts with Gaza – and Palestine, on the forefront of the War on the Axis of Resistance.
Then there’s the ongoing disintegration of Syria via rehabilitated Salafi-jihadis; the projected carve up of Lebanon; Sultan Erdogan’s perennial double/triple game; and most of all the Zionist Axis to-be-renewed attack on Iran.
Russia will have to deal non-stop with several new fronts beyond the collapsing proxy war in Ukraine: the new Iron Curtain in the Baltics, and the dream of turning it into a ‘NATO lake’; terror in the Black Sea — the supreme MI6 obsession; instrumentalization of Moldova and the planning of an attack on Transnistria; MI6’s inroads among budding jihadis across Central Asia; and Azerbaijan’s mafioso game spearheaded by Aliyev.
Ali Akbar Velayati, senior adviser to Ayatollah Khamenei, is warning that the proposed US take over of the strategic Zangezur corridor is a geopolitical gamble by “the US, Israel, NATO and pan-Turkist movements” to “weaken the Resistance Axis, sever Iran’s link with the Caucasus, and impose a land blockade on Iran and Russia in the region’s south.”
Moving to South Asia, East Asia and Southeast Asia, we have on-and-off chaos to be imposed on India-Pakistan relations (both SCO members); every possible attempt in the book and off the book to destabilize the South China Sea – all the way to forcing Taiwan into a final provocation against China; renewed shenanigans on China-Japan via the Diaoyutai/Senkaku islands; and attempts at fostering a regional war between Thailand and Cambodia coupled with possible color revolutions — Myanmar all over again.
All of the above does not even feature the Africa front — from Somalia to Nigeria, a BRICs partner, all the way to the Alliance of Sahel States and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). And in South America, the target of choice is of course Brazil, especially after the success of the BRICS summit in Rio; Brasilia, regarded as a BRICS weak link in DC, is now under relentless trade and geo-economic attack by Trump 2.0.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry, unfailingly polite, has at least summarized the pulse of the Global South: “The United States has lost its legitimacy to lead the world in the eyes of nations. It is no longer morally qualified to speak of values or peace while supporting genocide in Gaza.”
That means virtually no takers across all Asian latitudes to become a Ukraine 2.0 subordinated to CIA/MI6/NATO plans to manufacture a war on China. That’s exactly what Malaysia’s rotating presidency of ASEAN will be imparting today on both Bangkok and Phnom Penh. The ASEAN annual summit will take place in Malaysia next November. [01][02]
So what should BRICS do in the short run, as incandescence prevails? Move with discretion and cunning, and take the long view, for instance privileging “ASEAN centrality”. In the end the US may turn out to be the swing state after all, as the core divide and rule power centers of the West remain Tel Aviv and London.
Here, we will not forget GAZA!
Jul 26
Today we bang on our pots: The people of Gaza hear your voices in the streets – and they are calling for more… until the genocide and starvation end. Take to the streets. Bang on your pots. Raise your voices for Gaza. Today, we will see you in cities around the world – for Gaza and its people, for Palestine, and to shatter the global silence surrounding a crime still unfolding.
There are many protests around the world, and the police brutality is incredible to see.
Jul 25
We may hold out a little hope for an internal Israeli breakup. The contradictions are getting too large to hide, and to serious to ignore. We also know now who the lying bastard is: Trump’s envoy and Trump wants his Gaza Riviera.
Thousands of protesters in Tel Aviv clashed with Israeli forces while demanding an end to the war in Gaza and the release of the Israeli captives.
Also see this: Qatar, Egypt Issue Statement Contradicting Witkoff’s Claim That Hamas Rejected Gaza Ceasefire Deal: https://globalsouth.co/2025/07/25/qatar-egypt-issue-statement-contradicting-witkoffs-claim-that-hamas-rejected-gaza-ceasefire-deal/
Jul 23
American soldiers aim their weapons and hurl grenades at starving Palestinian civilians searching for food near US-Israeli-engineered death traps.
The 2 most satanic regimes in human history.#GazaHolocaust #GazaStarving pic.twitter.com/Sy3PszPkmV
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) July 23, 2025
Stop the flow of oil, cut off ties, and halt trade. The children are starving.#GazaGenocide pic.twitter.com/lSWQCNT9Z7
— Seyed Mohammad Marandi (@s_m_marandi) July 23, 2025
Jul 21
Marwa Osman: “I haven’t slept properly for 3 days straight.
The messages, photos and videos of starvation in Gaza are making me sick to my stomach and unable to shut my eyes.
I have been repeating 1 Dua without even thinking about it…
“O Lord, let the Day of Judgment come tomorrow, and may this weary world vanish into oblivion.”
Humanity has failed.
Today I apologise and will take a break from this thread.
People ask what they can do? People want to put themselves into this bodily. For myself, I sometimes just struggle to eat and cannot look at my food, as I want to stretch right across the ocean and give it to Gaza. But we have to remain healthy as we have to continue testifying.
I looked at the statistics for this thread, i.e., how many read it, and find that we get around 10,000 views per month. These are not the regulars but what they call unique visitors. So on the average the rate is that +- 10,000 new sets of eyes look at this thread. It is a big number for us. Looking at the locales, i.e., where the viewers come from, it is quite a surprise. We even have viewers from Burkina Faso – a whole 11 of them, so far this month. You are so welcome!
What we can do, is to continue testifying. I know there are not many comments here, because it breaks one. Some days in my routine work, I put this last because it is so heartbreaking that I cannot continue. But if you can continue commenting, this will encourage all of those +- 10,000 new incoming eyes to not forget about Gaza.
Jul 21
The WHO Offices were just shot up in Gaza.
Dear heavens – one of the very last journalist groups in Gaza.
Jul 19
UNRWA has enough food for the entire population of #Gaza for over three months stockpiled in warehouses–including this one in Al Arish, Egypt–awaiting entry.
The supplies are available. The systems are in place.
Open the gates, lift the siege, allow UNRWA to do its work and… pic.twitter.com/3e1bVbFnGv
— UNRWA (@UNRWA) July 19, 2025
Jul 18
The balkanization of Syria and the big regional picture.
Please listen. You don’t have to be a genius to understand Israel’s strategy in the region. Israeli officials are not geniuses but the people are too distracted. https://t.co/gxSVQpEYNz
— Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) July 18, 2025
They are telling you their intentions in advance but people don’t see beyond their noses. pic.twitter.com/OnzUIVCRkO
— Kevork Almassian (@KevorkAlmassian) July 18, 2025
Special security sources report that prominent Syrian officials, including Julani, left the capital Damascus in recent hours, heading toward Idlib province or Latakia, accompanied by their families and some relatives. The operation was reportedly carried out at the direct request and coordination of the Turkish side. Al Mayadeen confirms that Syrian ‘President’ Ahmed al-Sharaa has left Damascus with his family—just hours after an alleged Israeli assassination operation targeted three top officials in the Transitional Administration, including Defense Minister Marhaf Abu Qasra.
Vanessa Beeley: “Turkey will maintain control in the north through the Syrian National Army but will not be allowed to expand into central Syria. Russia and France will come to a deal on the management of the coast area in cooperation with Israel. The situation is fluid and I will update as more information comes in and I can add any developments to the analysis .
One thing is for sure, the more Israel over-extends, the greater the opportunity for the Resistance.”
Sources expect the pace of the attacks to gradually decline starting tomorrow. The latest is that the head of Turkish Intelligence has made a deal with Israel to de-escalate.
The situation is very fluid. Bear in mind the Druze consists of different tribes with different allegiances. It is not one cohesive group that can be protected by Israel .. Israel with US support says it is protecting the Druze. If you believe that, then there is a bridge in Brooklyn that you may buy for cheap! It really is an insult to all the rest of the world that have been watching these long +- 20 months and all the previous Gaza ‘haircuts’.
Basically the whole world condemned Israel yesterday in the UN and the UNSC for their attacks but this is simply part of building the Greater Israel. Israel acts with complete impunity.
Predictably Syria is disintegrating and US intelligence agencies are very pleased to see the fruits of their “work” come to fruition.
Every morning in Gaza, people begin their day with faint hope and empty stomachs, going out in search of a loaf of bread to ease their hunger… but no one finds anything.
All roads lead to the siege, and all doors are closed in the face of the hungry.
Gaza wakes up each day to the pain of hunger, and bread remains a distant dream in a homeland wilting under the fire of occupation and starvation.
Yesterday, 12 countries announced their commitment to a full arms embargo on the Israeli government. The resolution comes out of an emergency summit in Bogota where members of the Hague Group gathered to coordinate legal and diplomatic action to counter the “climate of impunity” for Israeli war crimes that is enabled by the US and other countries.
I watched this video yesterday and today it has disappeared:
Israeli draftees in Tel Aviv march against the IDF, burn their draft cards and explain why no one should serve in Israel’s genocidal army!
Watch!#TikTok https://t.co/4F59itCdYq
— Jeffrey Kaye (@jeff_kaye) July 18, 2025
Exploring the dystopian technofeudalism at heart of the western A.I. race
The unnamed book EMPIRE OF AI is mine, based on 300+ interviews, 7 yrs covering AI, & my time as the first reporter who got extensive access to OpenAI. I sought OpenAI’s perspective throughout. For months they said it was coming. It never did. Pre-order: https://t.co/i5rNJ45fNo. https://t.co/Drr8Gzv7vW pic.twitter.com/0aJpF9P26U
— Karen Hao (@_KarenHao) April 4, 2025
The A.I. Religious Cult: “Just like empires of the past were competing against one another, so are these tech giants. There was this aggressive race of we, the French Empire, are better than the British Empire. We, the British Empire, are better than the Dutch Empire.
And we need to continue to relentlessly race and be number one because we’re the ones that have the right civilizing mission to bring modernity and progress to all of humanity.
And where their missions might have once been about scientific exploration and transparency, they are now about profit, which has resulted in a landscape where they are just scaling at all costs.”
this is about controlling “the civilizational transformation” of the “one global village.” “Our collective attention is their Manifest Destiny.” From Maggie’s “there is no society” to now, “Culture is just what is Next on your phone — and that is A.I.”
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
What’s emerging in America is not a retreat from hegemony, but a reformatting of it.
By Artyom Lukin on Russia in Global Affairs.
[Ed.: this is a machine translation]
For half a thousand years, the West has been the dominant civilization in the world. Recently, this dominance has weakened, but has not completely disappeared. The West – and above all the United States of America as its core – is still the most powerful subject in world politics and economy. The colossal power of the West can be both a creative force and a source of existential threats to the rest of the world.
Today, in the West, primarily in the United States, a new ideology is being built, under certain circumstances no less dangerous than fascism and Nazism a hundred years ago. The second term of President Donald Trump could be a turning point when America will be under the control of ambiguous people and ideas.
The emerging ideology of the “new America” is still heterogeneous and represented by at least four key groups. The first is Trump himself and those his entourage, who professes views borrowed from the era of classical great-power imperialism and economic nationalism of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The second is politicians and media figures, which can be attributed to right-wing populists. The third is Silicon Valley, committed to libertarian hypercapitalism and the cult of technology. Fourth, intellectuals who generate and promote the ideas of the “dark Enlightenment.”
If the views of the first two groups are not new to the American political landscape, then the last two are the phenomenon of the 21st century.
[1] Good old imperialism?
Trump’s ideology is in many ways a classic inconclusive imperialism on the “right of the strong.” Already in his inaugural speech, he openly declared the desire for territorial acquisitions: “The United States will again become a growing nation – increasing its wealth, expanding its territory, building its cities…”[1] Here, Trump speaks of America as an “exceptional nation” and “the greatest civilization in the history of mankind.” America’s geopolitical ambitions and exclusivity will be backed up by “the most powerful military force ever seen by the world.”
Claims to exclusivity, the desire for territorial expansion, military-force domination are essential signs of imperialism.
It is no coincidence that in the same inaugural speech, Trump approvingly mentions William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, presidents who have introduced the United States to the club of imperialist powers.
[2] Right-Populist Conservatism
This ideological faction includes figures such as Vice-President JD Vance, political strategist Steve Bannon and journalist Tucker Carlson. Their main slogan is America First. They act from the standpoint of the cultural and value traditionalism of the deep American people and the hostility to the liberal-cosmopolitan elite, which concentrates on the east and west coasts, position themselves as defenders of the working class, advocate tough economic protectionism for the revival of American industry, and in the sphere of foreign policy gravitate towards isolationism.
[3] Libertarian Techno-Capitalism
This trend of the new American ideology is represented by technillionaires – mainly immigrants from Silicon Valley. The most famous, of course, is Elon Musk, who from January to May 2025 served as head of the Department of Efficiency of the Government [DOGE] in the Trump administration. However, the level of publicity does not always correspond to the degree of political influence. The notorious venture capitalist Marc Andreessen (the creator of the first mass Internet browser Netscape) may have had an influence on the White House initially, being an unofficial adviser and helping Trump recruit to key posts. [2] Until recently, Andreessen was a supporter of the Democratic Party, but in 2024 he supported Trump – in part because Andreessen did not arrange the Biden administration’s course of tighter regulation of the crypto industry and artificial intelligence.
Andreessen, like Musk, advocates maximum freedom of business activity and minimize state interference in private business.
In 2023. Andreessen has published the Techno-optimistic Manifesto. The main idea is simple: scientific and technological progress is the greatest benefit and the key to solving the problems of mankind, but only free markets, coupled with the elimination of burdensome restrictions and barriers, will ensure the development of a high-tech economy. Andreessen advocates for “accelerationism” – the spurring of technological development, which should accelerate progress to unprecedented speeds. This is the literal way of the word “undisper” acceleration will be achieved through the synthesis of technological innovation and the capitalist economy (techno – capital machine), the term that Andreessen borrowed from the British philosopher Nick Land. Artificial Intelligence: “We believe that artificial intelligence is our alchemy, our Philosopher’s Stone… We believe that artificial intelligence should be approached as a universal solution to problems. [3]
However, in the optimistic picture drawn by Andreessen there are semantic nuances. With a clear reference to Frederick Nietzsche, whose name is mentioned in the manifesto in the list of the most respected Andreessen thinkers, the techno-billionaire sings the upcoming “technological supermen”: “We are not victims, we are the conquerors… We are the strongest predator on top of the food chain (apex predator).”
When Andreessen, talking about “technological superhumans”, uses a predator metaphor, is it not a typical Freud clause? At the top of the food chain, by definition, there can be only a few, the strongest predators, while the rest of the creatures have a different role. The Andreessen Manifesto contains a response to who is supposed to be the main predator: “We believe that America and its allies should be strong, not weak. We believe that the national power of liberal democracies is derived from their economic power (financial force), cultural power (soft power) and military power (hard force). Economic, cultural and military power stem from technological. Technologically powerful America is the power of good in a dangerous world. Technologically powerful liberal democracies guarantee freedom and peace. Technologically, weak liberal democracies are losing to their authoritarian rivals.
In the extensive list of “sacraments-patrons of techno-optimism” and Andreessen are Filippo Marinetti, the founder of futurism and one of the ideologues of Italian fascism. The last act of Marinetti was a voyage as part of the Italian expeditionary corps to the Eastern Front, where he was wounded near Stalingrad.
The most politically influential techno-billionaire is apparently the founder of Paypal Peter Thiel. It is probably not a mistake to call it the second most important ideologist of the “new America” after Trump himself. Although Thiel has never held official political posts, he is the key figure that unites Silicon Valley, intellectual right conservatism and Trump populism.
Thiel became the first of the most authoritative figures of Silicon Valley who openly supported Trump and became a donor to his presidential campaign back in 2016. However, Thiel’s most successful political investment was not Trump, but the current vice president (and, quite likely, the future president) J. D. Vance, for whom Thiel became a mentor and employer (Vance was at one time an employee of the Thiel Mithril Capital Investment Fund). Subsequently, Thiel donated $15 million to Vance’s election campaign in the U.S. Senate from Ohio and presented a young promising politician to Trump.
As befits a businessman, Thiel diversifies political investment. Simultaneously with Vance, he sponsored another young and promising politician (also his student and former employee) – Blake Masters, who was given $20 million for the Senate elections from Arizona (unlike Vance, Masters lost the election).
Thiel calls himself a Christian and often quotes the Bible, although he is an open homosexual (in 2017 he married in Vienna with his partner Matt Dunzesen, an investment banker). The techno-billionaire is known as a philosopher and thinker, being very widely read and himself being a prolific author of books and essays. Unlike Musk and Andreessen, who give away the expositions and memes designed for the public, Thiel’s target audience is an educated elite. He categorically quotes such difficult political philosophers as Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, is a fan of the ideas of anthropologist René Girard. Thiel positions himself as a libertarian, but does not hide that he has long believed in liberal democracy, as well as in democracy at all: “I no longer think that freedom is compatible with democracy”. [4]
It is significant that Thiel compares today’s America with Germany on the eve of Hitler’s arrival:
“There are undoubted parallels between the United States of the 2020’s and Germany of the 1920’s in the sense that liberalism has exhausted itself. It can be argued that democracy … has exhausted itself and we will have to ask ourselves a number of questions that go very far beyond the window of Overton. [5]
Thiel’s Libertarianism did not prevent him from founding Palantir Technologies, which is engaged in developments in the field of artificial intelligence in the interests of the Pentagon and intelligence services. He also acts as a major investor in young billionaire Palmer Lucky Anduril Industries, who creates drones and other autonomous weapons systems.
Thiel believes that in recent decades, America has plunged into the abyss of degradation and stagnation. We need a leap to new heights and great goals. Like his billionaire counterparts from the valley, Thiel is convinced that the formulation and achievement of ambitious scientific and technological goals should be the main priority of society and the state. His personal favorite is transhumanism technologies associated with the improvement of the human body, the prolongation of life and, potentially, the achievement of immortality. One of Thiel’s current projects is the organization of the alternative “Enhanced Games”, where doping control will be weakened and athletes will allow the use of biohacking methods. One of the co-organizers of Enhanced Games is the son of President Donald Trump Jr.
Of all the billionaire libertarians close to the current government, it is Thiel who has the most articulated views on foreign policy. Its geopolitical concept is quite simple and boils down to the fact that the main external threat to the United States is China.
Unlike a friend and former business partner Elon Musk, who is considered a Pro-Chinese figure, Thiel is a supporter on Beijing’s firm deterrence policy, including by forming a broad anti-Chinese coalition led by Washington. The US should go for an economic divorce from China and put pressure on other countries so that they also minimize ties with Beijing. Thiel believes that the Trump supertariffs on Chinese goods are a step in the right direction. Back in November 2022, he declared: “I believe in free trade, I am not a supporter of tariffs, but I would make an exception for our major geopolitical and ideological rival.”[8] Thiel is one of the most synophobic figures in the highest echelon of the current ruling elite. He calls China “semi-fascist, semi-communist gerontocracy,” accusing Beijing of “nationalism,” “racism,” and “xenophobia. [9]
Thiel treats Russia without sympathy, but much more calmly – he does not see it as dangerous as China as a geopolitical adversary, but perhaps also because Russia is racially and culturally much closer to the West. Thiel believes that the West should not push Moscow into Beijing’s embrace.
Thiel has repeatedly spoken out in support of Israel, and Palantir Technologies supplies AI technology to the Israeli military. Chance or not, the Trump administration’s foreign policy is still almost identical with Thiel’s views.
[4] Theorists of the “Dark Enlightenment”
Finally, the fourth group of representatives of the new American ideology is the intellectual provocateurs that create narratives of the Dark Enlightenment. Also called the “neo-reactionary movement” (NRx), it is an intellectual and philosophical current that denies many ideals of classical Enlightenment, was formed in the late 2000’s – early 2010’s, mainly in the countries of the Anglosphere.
One of the fathers of the “dark Enlightenment” and the author of the term itself is the British philosopher and writer Nick Land, now living in Shanghai, mentioned in Andreessen. At the beginning of the academic career in the 1990s, Land, who then taught at the University of Warwick, held leftist views, but then swung sharply to the right. [10] Land believes in the onset of a singularity – a moment when artificial intelligence and other technologies will surpass a person and get out of control, which will mark the beginning of a “post-human” era. Land draws inspiration from the aesthetics of cyberpunk, predicting the arrival of hyper-capitalist techno-authoritarian systems that are controlled by technology and markets, not traditional politics. Such systems, in his view, are much more effective than classical liberalism and democracy. In the spirit of Techno-Social Darwinism, Land predicts the emergence of post-human beings, which, thanks to the merger with super-technologies, will dominate the new world.
Land rejects anthropocentrism, arguing that human values and morality are insignificant in the face of much larger and impersonal forces such as capital and technology. In his philosophy, humanity is nothing more than a temporary stage in a more significant evolutionary process that is driven by machine and economic systems.
Another intellectual father of the Dark Enlightenment is the American programmer and blogger Curtis Yarvin, also known under the pseudonym Mencius Moldbug. Unlike Land, Yarvin is directly involved in the political process. He is friends with Thiel and is well acquainted with a number of politicians and officials from the Trump entourage. Yarvin is in favor of replacing a more effective political system in the form of an autocratic monarchy or a business corporation where the sole governing body has absolute powers. One idea is the creation of a system of numerous corporate-controlled sovereign entities (Patchwork), within which it will be possible to freely experiment with laws, rules and technologies.
Like most of the ideologues of the “new America”, in the sphere of foreign policy, Yarvin advocated the dismantling of the “liberal international order” that developed after 1945, where the United States played the role of a world police officer and a guarantor of security. Yarvin advocates the withdrawal of the United States even from Europe, although it is stipulated that Great Britain, being an Anglo-Saxon country, should remain under the protection of America.[11] Yarvin will have nothing against if, for example, Turkey and Greece begin to fight each other. This is exclusively their business, not America’s problem. Unlike his billionaire friend Thiel, Yarvin calmly and even with restrained admiration speaks of modern China.
Yarvin, whose Jewish ancestors emigrated from Odessa during the Russian Empire, holds an unorthodox view of World War II. In his opinion, Hitler did not thirst for world domination. He wanted “only” to recognize his domination in continental Europe by using European Jews as hostages for negotiations with the US and Britain. If Roosevelt had agreed to a deal with Hitler, the World War and the Holocaust, it might have been possible to avoid. [12]
Land, Yarvin and other “dark Enlightenment” intellectuals can, at first glance, seem much less significant figures compared to billionaires Musk and Thiel. But one of the main capitalists of Germany, Gustav Krupp, who supported Hitler, or the brilliant political philosopher and subsequently the chief lawyer of the Third Reich, Karl Schmitt (by the way, like to quote Yarvin and Thiel), who developed the theory of the “exceptional case” and later, by the way, by which in 1933 the Reichstag was adopted?
American hegemony – end or reformatting?
The emerging ideology of the “new America” is heterogeneous and it has different scenarios. It is not necessary that it materializes into something malignant, reminiscent of the Third Reich or the “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere”. But in the ideas and meanings circulating today in America and other countries of the English sphere, there are many things that can not but alarm.
This is the desire for the cultivation of either “technological superhumans”, or “super-predators”, or “post-human beings” and rationalization proposals to delegate absolute power to the “single executive body”.
Although the ideologues of the “new America” are contemptuous of the liberal international order “rules” that for many years has been considered the sacred cow’s global hegemony of United States, this does not mean that they want to see America only one of the sovereign subjects of the multipolar world. American legions can be withdrawn from Europe, the Middle East or South Korea, but there will be more sophisticated and “technological” ways to control and dominate the bodies and souls. The main concept permeating the writings of Curtis Yarvin is “power”. Peter Thiel’s favorite book, a man who wants to live forever, is The Lord of the Rings.
Author: Artem Lukin, Professor of the Department of International Relations of the Eastern Institute of the Far Eastern Federal University.
[this is the RT (A.I.-abbreviated) version]
The superhumans are coming – and so is the danger
By Artyom Lukin, an associate professor of international relations at Far Eastern Federal University in Vladivostok, Russia
For the past 500 years, the West has reigned as the world’s dominant civilization. Though its grip has loosened in recent years, the West – especially the United States – remains the most powerful force in global politics and the international economy. This power, while capable of building plenty, also carries the potential to destroy a lot.
Today, a new ideology is taking shape in the West, particularly in the US. Under the right conditions, it could prove as dangerous to humanity as fascism and Nazism were in the last century. The reelection of Donald Trump may mark a decisive turning point, transferring power to people and ideas that are, at best, deeply ambiguous.
This ‘New America’ is not driven by a single worldview, but rather by a convergence of four ideological factions.
[1] The Imperial Restorationists
At the center stands Trump himself and his allies – throwbacks to the era of great-power imperialism. Trump’s inaugural speech to launch his second term left little doubt: He called for territorial expansion, industrial growth, and a resurgent military. America, he declared, is “the greatest civilization in the history of mankind.” He spoke approvingly of President William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt, both architects of American imperialism.
The vision is unmistakable: American exceptionalism, enforced by military might and driven by the logic of conquest. It is the language of empire.
[2] The Nationalist Conservatives
Then there are the right-wing populists – figures like Vice President J.D. Vance, strategist Steve Bannon, and journalist Tucker Carlson. Their rallying cry is ‘America First’. They champion traditional values, claim to speak for the working class, and disdain the liberal elite concentrated in coastal cities.
They oppose globalism, support trade protectionism, and promote isolationism in foreign policy. This faction is not particularly new in American politics, but its influence has deepened, especially under Trump’s patronage.
Vice President JD Vance visits Los Angeles after unrest over ICE raids © Getty Images / Getty Images
[3-A] The Techno-Libertarian Billionaires
A newer – and perhaps more unsettling – element of America’s emerging ideology is represented by Silicon Valley billionaires. Elon Musk is the most visible figure, briefly heading Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency in early 2025. But the more influential actor may be Marc Andreessen, the venture capitalist and early internet pioneer who became an informal adviser to Trump.
Andreessen’s political turn followed his frustration with Biden-era regulations on crypto and artificial intelligence. In 2023, he published a manifesto called ‘The Techno-Optimist’, a document that preaches unrestrained technological acceleration. In his view, scientific innovation and free markets can solve all of humanity’s problems – if only government gets out of the way.
Andreessen quotes Nietzsche and invokes the image of the ‘apex predator’ – a new breed of technological superman who sits atop the food chain. He writes, “We are not victims, we are conquerors… the strongest predator at the top of the food chain.”
Such language might seem metaphorical, but it is revealing. Andreessen’s list of intellectual inspirations includes Filippo Marinetti, the Futurist who helped lay the aesthetic groundwork for Italian fascism and died fighting the Red Army at Stalingrad.
Marc Andreessen © Getty Images / Getty Images
[3-B] The Philosopher-Kingmaker
The most intellectually developed thinker of the techno-libertarian camp is Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and the data surveillance firm Palantir Technologies. Thiel is no longer a marginal figure – he is now arguably the second most important ideologue of the New America, after Trump himself.
Thiel is also a master strategist. He personally mentored and funded Vance, now vice president and possibly Trump’s heir apparent. At the same time, he backed Blake Masters in Arizona, although that bet didn’t pay off. Thiel reads the Bible, quotes Carl Schmitt and Leo Strauss, and speaks openly about the limits of democracy. “Freedom is no longer compatible with democracy,” he has said.
He has compared modern America to Weimar Germany, arguing that liberalism is exhausted, and a new system must rise. Despite his libertarian leanings, Thiel’s companies develop AI tools for the Pentagon and fund next-generation weapons systems through firms like Anduril.
Thiel believes that America has entered a long decline – and that radical technological leaps are needed to reverse it. One of his pet projects is the ‘Enhanced Games’, a competition where doping and biohacking are allowed. Co-organized with Donald Trump Jr., the event reflects Thiel’s obsession with transhumanism and human enhancement.
In foreign policy, Thiel views China as America’s primary enemy. He has called it a “semi-fascist, semi-communist gerontocracy” and pushed for complete economic decoupling. Interestingly, Thiel is far less hostile to Russia, which he sees as culturally closer to the West. In his view, pushing Moscow into Beijing’s arms is a strategic mistake.
Peter Thiel © Getty Images / Getty Images
[4] The Dark Enlightenment
The final group behind the New America are the theorists of the ‘Dark Enlightenment’, or neo-reactionary movement. These intellectual provocateurs reject the Enlightenment values that once defined the West.
Nick Land, a British philosopher living in Shanghai, is among the founding thinkers of this school. He predicts the end of humanity as we know it and the rise of posthuman, techno-authoritarian systems governed by capital and machines. For Land, morality is irrelevant; what matters is efficiency, evolution, and raw power.
Curtis Yarvin (aka Mencius Moldbug), an American programmer, is another central figure. A friend of Thiel and an insider in Trump’s intellectual circle, Yarvin advocates replacing democracy with a corporate-style monarchy. He imagines a future of sovereign city-states run like companies, where experimentation with laws and technologies is unrestricted.
Yarvin is clear in his rejection of American global leadership. He believes the US should withdraw from Europe and let regional powers settle their own disputes. He speaks warmly of China, and his views on World War II are unorthodox to say the least – suggesting Hitler was motivated by strategic calculation rather than genocidal ambition.
Curtis Yarvin
What comes next?
Many of these ideas may seem fringe. But fringe ideas have power – especially when they echo through the corridors of political and technological influence. Carl Schmitt’s legal theories enabled Hitler to seize dictatorial powers in 1933. Today, the intellectual allies of Trump and Thiel are crafting their own narratives of ‘emergency’, ‘decadence’, and ‘reawakening’.
What’s emerging in America is not a retreat from hegemony, but a reformatting of it. The liberal international order is no longer seen as sacred – even by the country that built it. The new American elite may be withdrawing troops from Europe, the Middle East, and Korea, but their ambitions have not shrunk. They are turning instead to subtler methods of control: AI, cyber dominance, ideological warfare, and technological superiority.
Their goal is not a multipolar world, but a redesigned unipolar one – run not by diplomats and treaties, but by algorithms, monopolies, and machines.
The threat to the world is not just political anymore. It is civilizational. The superhumans are on the march.
This article was first published by Russia in Global Affairs, translated and edited by the RT team
The whole Circus Ringmaster shtick, with each plot twist draped in several layers of hubris and empty bluster, only accelerates the BRICS/Global South high-speed train…
By Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.
All of you Vietnam vets and draft resisters will recognize where this column’s headline is coming from. Oh yes, this ain’t the late 1960s anymore, so it’s time to revamp it – no AI needed – and expand it: from now on, be assured everyone in the wild, wild West will be forced to fight and/or endure three overlapping NATO wars.
War number 1
It’s Europe v. Russia, of course. Not proxy anymore: hot ‘n nasty, direct. Considering the advanced rottenness of the whole Ukrainian front, new fronts are already proliferating: the South Caucasus; clandestine ops in the Baltic Sea; MI6 recruiting frenzy across Central Asia; fresh terrorism ahead in the Black Sea, especially Crimea.
Col. Lawrence Wilkerson succinctly nailed it: we are already on WWIII. Actually we are already deep in the extended preamble to WWIII. Circus Ringmaster in D.C. and the billionaires/donor class behind him are of course clueless. Re-reading Keynes – The Economic Consequences of the Peace – is an absolute must like never before. History does (italics mine) repeat itself.
Yet this ain’t 1914 or 1935; now nuclear weapons may come into play.
The Kremlin and Russia’s Security Council are very much aware of the high stakes. In his recent interview to Kommersant, Sergei Shoigu even rolled out some key NATO numbers to stress the threat Russia faces: over 50,000 tanks and armored vehicles; over 7,000 combat aircraft; over 750 warships; 350 military and civilian satellites; an immense offense (italics mine) budget.
Well, what sly Shoigu did not say is that when push comes to shove, it only takes Mr. Khinzal, Mr. Sarmat, Mr. Zircon and Mr. Oreshnik to deliver a few strategic business cards to paralyze the whole NATO machinery in a matter of minutes.
War number 2
It’s the Empire of Chaos v. Iran in West Asia, with Eretz Israel as much as proxy as a lead actor.
The Circus Ringmaster – whose only “strategy” is to concoct shady deals to enrich himself and shysters in his close circle – dreams of an Israeli-centric West Asia, a toxic crossover of the Abraham Accords 2.0 with the IMEC corridor, creating, as Alastair Crooke defined it, “a business-led West Asia, centered on Tel Aviv (with Trump as its de facto ‘President’), and via this business connectivity corridor, be able “to strike further beyond – with the Gulf States penetrating into BRICS’ south Asian heartland to disrupt BRICS connectivity and corridors.”
Using the Arabs against BRICS won’t cut it even with MbZ in the UAE and MbS in Saudi Arabia, who have both realized the business scam will only work if there is real peace in Gaza; some sort of humanitarian solution for the Palestinians; and rebuilding the Gaza strip.
The death cult in Tel Aviv will never allow any of the above: their plan is to kill them all, steal all their land, and eradicate their culture. And as the genocide goes on – totally legitimized by the NATO sphere – the death cult keeps bombing anything in sight, perpetrating the balkanization of Syria, and expanding Eretz Israel.
War number 3
It’s NATO against China. Already decided in the latest summit in The Hague, side by side with the continuing war on Russia.
Yet actually the scam is much bigger: it’s NATO’s war on BRICS.
That was announced, casually, by that unspeakable Dutch mediocrity that makes former slab of Norwegian wood Stoltenberg sound like a quantum physics star. NATO’s Secretary-General Rutti Frutti actually threatened India, China and Brazil directly, and ordered them to “call Putin” to prevent “Daddy” Trump from unleashing his next Tariff Temper Tantrum (TTT).
Beijing is hardly breaking a sweat. China humiliated the Circus Ringmaster by not backing down one inch in their trade/tariff war. Russia humiliated the Circus Ringmaster by not being coerced into a pathetic “ceasefire” – as in allowing NATO to re-arm. Iran humiliated the Circus Ringmaster by not signing an unconditional surrender. The Houthis humiliated the U.S. Navy – now that’s one for the military annals – by forcing the Circus Ringmaster into a ceasefire after $1billion in failed bombing.
Lula in Brazil is about to humiliate the Circus Ringmaster by affirming Brazilian sovereignty in the face of an all-out trade and financial war (Trump even threatened to tax the popular Brazilian digital payment system, PIX). If slapped with 50% tariffs, Lula said Brasilia will slap the Empire of Chaos back under a reciprocity law.
The whole Circus Ringmaster shtick, with each plot twist draped in several layers of hubris and empty bluster, only accelerates the BRICS/Global South high-speed train, now increasingly being shaped as a geoeconomic, geopolitical and geo-strategic alliance of trans-continental proportions, reaffirmed at the Rio summit.
All that led, of course, by what I have been describing as the new Primakov triangle: the new RIC, Russia, Iran and China, complete with their interlocking strategic partnerships. Quite a few top Chinese academics not by accident are also starting to conceptualize the emerging, “post-West” environment with two new “I”s in BRICS: Iran and Indonesia, not India, should be at the heart of BRIICS.
Meanwhile, in Europe, Tricontinental analysis has noted how the – warmongering – German BlackRock chancellor has pledged “€650 billion over the next five years toward military spending in order to reach the [NATO] 5% target by 2035”. That means Berlin being forced to raise “about €144 billion per year”, via, what else, austerity and debt, translated into massive extra taxes on German consumers.
That, in a nutshell, is the “program” for the whole, fragmented, collective West in the near future: austerity for everyone (except the 0.01%); and NATO Wars, not Diamonds, Forever.
Leader of Ansar Allah, Abdul-Malik Badreddin al-Houthi, on the developments of the Israeli aggression on Gaza and the latest regional and international updates – 22 Muharram 1447 AH, July 17, 2025:
The Israeli enemy continues the genocide against the Palestinian people and seeks to accumulate its criminal record.
The Israeli enemy is using American bombs intensively, perhaps even more than firing bullets, and the Americans supply them in continuous shipments.
The aggression against the Palestinian people in Gaza is almost an American aggression before it is Israeli, with the Israeli role being that of execution.
The Americans endorse everything the Israeli enemy does and support and share it because they both operate based on the belief in the Zionist agenda.
The view towards the Americans should be based on insight and awareness grounded in the Holy Quran and clear, established facts.
The prevailing attitude among Arab and Islamic regimes, as well as in most media outlets, is to present the Americans in a different light, as if there is still hope for them to change their position.
The Israelis and Americans have no regard for human life, which, in their view, is permissible for the sake of desire or interest.
The Israeli enemy targets Gaza’s inhabitants by depriving them of water and turns the issue of obtaining drinking water into an adventure.
The policy of pushing towards loyalty to the American side and relying on it leads to significant distortions in orientations, morals, and values at the expense of the principles of Islam.
Many of the people of our Islamic Ummah, more than other nations, behave as if they are deaf, dumb, and blind to what is happening in the Gaza Strip.
The UN rapporteur says the US, by enabling Israel’s campaign through weapons, technology, and political cover, shares responsibility for the atrocities unfolding in Gaza
[Note: I would like to make a change here. The Cradle reports on the US, but there are many organizations and many countries clearly profiting from genocide, involved and Franscesca ultimately says their States bear the reponsibility. It is a complex document and I have not fully integrated the information, but so far, I did not find reporting on Russia, or on Iran]
UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories Francesca Albanese, on 3 July, urged states to sever all financial and trade ties with Israel and impose a full arms embargo.
She described the situation in Gaza as “apocalyptic,” accusing Tel Aviv of carrying out “one of the cruellest genocides in modern history.”
Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Albanese said, “What I expose is not a list, it is a system, and that is to be addressed.” She went on to present her latest report, which names over 60 companies accused of facilitating Israeli settlements and military activity in Gaza.
The recommendations were met with applause inside the chamber. Israel’s delegate was not present, in line with Tel Aviv’s stated policy of disengagement from the council, which it accuses of antisemitism.
Albanese urged UN member states to halt all arms transfers, suspend trade agreements with Israel, and prosecute companies complicit in war crimes. “We must reverse the tide.” She warned that the continued complicity of states and corporations sustains the conditions for genocide in Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
Israel’s diplomatic mission in Geneva dismissed the report as “legally groundless, defamatory and a flagrant abuse of her office” earlier this week, before the session.
During the session itself, no Israeli response was issued. The mission also did not reply to Reuters’s request for comment on the rapporteur’s remarks.
Israel continues to reject all accusations of genocide in Gaza, citing its response to the 7 October 2023 attack.
Albanese is one of dozens of independent UN-mandated experts who monitor and report on rights abuses around the world.
Soldiers’ testimonies and a comprehensive report by AP confirm long-standing accusations that the GHF has militarized food aid under US-Israeli oversight.
Eyewitness accounts and video evidence show contractors using live ammunition, tear gas, and stun grenades against crowds of civilians collecting aid.
Internal documents detail dozens of injuries during each distribution, while Palestinian families say they are shot at from towers and dirt mounds as they flee.
Despite denials, AP’s findings show GHF guards operating with impunity in what one contractor described as “a war zone, not a relief mission.”
This work covers the economic aspects of a genocide and calls it by name. These are legal responsibilities, clearly delineated in law. They are called ‘obligations’.
Everything that I said about those countries supporting Israel over a long period will now be exposed. We will see some red faces. Yes, China is there. So is South Korea and a raft of others, even Mexico. We have 39 pages of organisations, state owned enterprises and others that are in the eyes of the law guilty to perpetrating this genocide and ignoring their own obligations under the law. It is worse than that. They are profiting from it.
Although she talks about Corporate Entities, the definition is: Corporate entities” in the present report refers to business enterprises, multinational corporations, for-profit and not-for-profit entities, whether private, public or State-owned. Corporate responsibility applies regardless of the size, sector, operational context, ownership and structure of the entity.
This is not business as usual.
My new UN report, From Economy of Occupation to Economy of Genocide, is out today.
It shows how corporations have fueled and legitimised the destruction of Palestine.
Genocide, it would seem, is profitable. This cannot continue, accountability must… pic.twitter.com/Ei3atw0TQ1— Francesca Albanese, UN Special Rapporteur oPt (@FranceskAlbs) July 1, 2025
On 3 July, she will have a press conference after releasing her new work. I’m putting the prepaged page right here for all who want to take a listen at the time.
https://webtv.un.org/en/asset/k1a/k1a90qctnz
UN expert identifies over 60 companies directly aiding Israel
——
Francesca Albanese, an Italian human rights lawyer and the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories, has identified more than 60 companies, including major arms producers and tech firms, in a… pic.twitter.com/3AA2Z5vfVU— The Cradle (@TheCradleMedia) July 1, 2025
This post will be updated after Francesca’s press conference.
The Global South now seems to have a crystal clear perspective of the new contours of the catastrophe laid at the feet of the Angel of History .. now they have met an immovable symbol of Resistance.
By Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.
It’s one of the most mesmerizing passages in the history of knowledge. In the 9th of his Theses on the Philosophy of History, Walter Benjamin – Jewish, tragic figure, solitary genius – dissects Paul Klee’s haunting painting Angelus Novus and graphically explains to posterity the drama facing the Angel of History:
“His face is turned toward the past. Where we perceive a chain of events: he sees one single catastrophe which keeps piling wreckage and hurls it in front of his feet. The angel would like to stay, awaken the dead, and make whole what has been smashed. But a storm is blowing in from Paradise; it has got caught in its wings with such violence that the angel can no longer close them. The storm propels him into a future to which his back is turned – whilst the pile of debris before him goes even higher. This storm is what has been called progress.”
The time has come to go beyond what may be read as a very apocalyptic Christian parallel between divinity and violent retribution. As Alastair Crooke detailed in his astonishingly perceptive 2010 book, Resistance: The Essence of the Islamist Revolution, it was the need to restrain the furies of “divinely inspired” violence that led Hobbes to conceptualize Leviathan, where he called for a social contract between the individual and a necessarily strong, implacable government.
Moreover, it was the Hobbesian version of a social contract that laid the basis for John Locke to assert a dubious “natural goodness” of humanity, complete with a – very private – “pursuit of happiness” and the general welfare gleefully coalescing via the work of an invisible hand.
This fallacy/fairy tale shaped Western thought for over the next 300 years.
Now it’s a completely different ball game. We have been prisoners of Hobbes and Locke for too long:
such a seductive pole dancing of legitimacy around which the Western-conceived nation-states grouped to protect and legitimize themselves and their plunder of the rest of the world.
Lately, the contemporary specter of “divine violence” was marketed to everyone from Africa to Asia as armed Islamist resistance. But now this mask has also fallen. The “new” Syria shows to everyone how al-Qaeda R Us – and always was.
Paul Klee — Angelus Novus. 1920
Shelter from the – ultimate – storm
The time has also come to re-evaluate the plight of the Angel of History. No, he is not transfixed by “divine” rage; that’s actually quite man-made. Meanwhile, what continues to propel him forward – even as he casts his eyes to the past (“the backward half-look, over the shoulder, toward the primitive terror”, in T. S. Eliot’s striking image) is the wind of secular, Darwinian, tech “progress” – a single, unified catastrophe much more that a chain of historical events.
Yes, he continues to contemplate the tragedy; he badly wants to awaken humanity to the extent of the disaster; but the rush of now tech “progress”, AI-tinged, inevitably sweeps him away.
The Global South now seems to have a crystal clear perspective of the new contours of the catastrophe laid at the feet of the Angel of History.
The top two contemporary agents of the catastrophe have been fully identified: a psycho-pathological, genocidal death cult composed by elements of a self-appointed chosen tribe; and the post-historical elites of a dwindling empire. A deadly embrace – if there ever was one.
Yet now they have met an immovable symbol of Resistance. And they had to back off. To the astonishment of the Angel of History himself.
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei laid it all out in a few sentences:
“The key point I wish to emphasize in my speech is that in one of his remarks, the President of the United States declared that Iran must surrender. Surrender! The issue isn’t about enrichment or the nuclear industry anymore. It’s about Iran surrendering.”
This is the voice of an ancient civilization-state – in contrast to post-modern, out of control barbarism: “Our cultural and civilizational wealth is hundred times greater than that of the US and other similar countries (…) The Iranian nation is noble and will remain noble.”
An irrational, and certainly not “divine” storm now aims to totally paralyze the Angel of History – imprinting on the narrative their revamped but equally tawdry notion of “end of History”, applied to the circumscribed space of West Asia.
And that brings us to how the Resistance will have to delve deep into the nitty-gritty, as in the practicalities of deterrence and defense, so the Angel of History may reinvent himself.
Cut to the Yemeni Armed Forces – this bastion of rectitude, a military organization guided by spiritual power:
“The US and Zionist entity’s ceasefire agreement with Iran highlights that military force is the only language they understand.”
Add to it the number one lesson from the 12-day war: whoever controls the skies eventually will control the lands.
Iran’s leadership, as the fulcrum of Resistance, has some serious decisions to make. The most important, on the “language” issue as framed by the Houthis, is to trust Russia to help it set up a comprehensive, multi-layered offense/defense system, complete with hardware, combat and control centers, long-range radar stations, electronic warfare equipment, and badass jet fighters.
As Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov made it quite clear ahead of the meeting one week ago between President Putin and Iranian FM Abbas Araghchi:” It all depends on what Iran needs right now.”
They need serious backup. The Majlis – Iran’s Parliament – delayed for over a month the ratification of the comprehensive strategic partnership signed with Russia after the Duma approved it in late May. That includes weapons sales, military inter-connection and deep intel exchange – even if it does not imply a full military alliance.
Previous Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi clearly saw The Big Picture. He went full “Look East” – as in Eurasia integration. The current, meek Pezeshkian presidency attempted a “Look West” – naively trusting that the Empire of Chaos would actually practice diplomacy. They were in for a rude awakening.
The unforgiving war will be long and bloody. This is just the beginning – current pause included. Yet the Angel of History seems to have caught a second wind. Looks like his warnings about the catastrophe were finally understood by the overwhelming majority of the Global South. As we sift through the accumulated debris, Resistance is at hand – sheltering us from the ultimate storm.
‘It’s a Killing Field’: IDF Soldiers Ordered to Shoot Deliberately at Unarmed Gazans Waiting for Humanitarian Aid
This is an article written by Haaretz and quickly saved in the Internet Archive. Haaretz keeps their work under a paywall and is probably the most effective Israeli opposition. However, there may be a copyright problem if we post the full work. https://help.archive.org/help/rights/
This is a subset but please go to the Internet archive at the link given, for the full article.
IDF officers and soldiers told Haaretz they were ordered to fire at unarmed crowds near food distribution sites in Gaza, even when no threat was present. Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed, prompting the military prosecution to call for a review into possible war crimes ■ Netanyahu, Katz reject claims, call them ‘blood libels’.
Blood libels from the Israeli side is a word to indicate that they are innocent of all and everything. They consider this a false accusation against Jews. They consider this anti-semitic and and say that from the time of antiquity it is an accusation that falsely accuses Jews of murdering Christians in order to use their blood in the performance of religious rituals. From this article, this has nothing to do with blood libels.
Haarets states: “Conversations with officers and soldiers reveal that commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds to drive them away or disperse them, even though it was clear they posed no threat. ”
One soldier described the situation as a total breakdown of the Israel Defense Forces’ ethical codes in Gaza.
According to the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza, 549 people have been killed near aid centers and in areas where residents were waiting for UN food trucks since May 27. Over 4,000 have been wounded, but the exact number of those killed or injured by IDF fire remains unclear.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) aid centers began operating in the Strip at the end of May. The circumstances of the foundation’s establishment and its funding are murky: it is known to have been set up by Israel in coordination with U.S. evangelicals and private security contractors. Its current CEO is an evangelical leader close to U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Haaretz has counted 19 shooting incidents near them. While the shooters’ identities are not always clear, the IDF does not permit armed individuals in these humanitarian zones without its knowledge.
The distribution centers typically open for just one hour each morning. According to officers and soldiers who served in their areas, the IDF fires at people who arrive before opening hours to prevent them from approaching, or again after the centers close, to disperse them. Since some of the shooting incidents occurred at night – ahead of the opening – it’s possible that some civilians couldn’t see the boundaries of the designated area.
“It’s a killing field,” one soldier said. “Where I was stationed, between one and five people were killed every day. They’re treated like a hostile force – no crowd-control measures, no tear gas – just live fire with everything imaginable: heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, mortars. Then, once the center opens, the shooting stops, and they know they can approach. Our form of communication is gunfire.”
The soldier added, “We open fire early in the morning if someone tries to get in line from a few hundred meters away, and sometimes we just charge at them from close range. But there’s no danger to the forces.” According to him, “I’m not aware of a single instance of return fire. There’s no enemy, no weapons.” He also said the activity in his area of service is referred to as Operation Salted Fish – the name of the Israeli version of the children’s game “Red light, green light”.
IDF officers told Haaretz that the army does not allow the public in Israel or abroad to see footage of what takes place around the food distribution sites. According to them, the army is satisfied that the GHF’s operations have prevented a total collapse of international legitimacy for continuing the war. They believe the IDF has managed to turn Gaza into a “backyard,” especially since the war with Iran began.
The security on the sites is organized into several tiers. Inside the distribution centers and the “corridor” leading to them are American workers, and the IDF is not permitted to operate in that space. A more external layer is made up of Palestinian supervisors, some of them armed and affiliated with the Abu Shabab militia.
In one incident, the soldier was instructed to fire a shell toward a crowd gathered near the coastline. “Technically, it’s supposed to be warning fire – either to push people back or stop them from advancing,” he said. “But lately, firing shells has just become standard practice. Every time we fire, there are casualties and deaths, and when someone asks why a shell is necessary, there’s never a good answer. Sometimes, merely asking the question annoys the commanders.”
In that case, some people began to flee after the shell was fired, and according to the soldier, other forces subsequently opened fire on them. “If it’s meant to be a warning shot, and we see them running back to Gaza, why shoot at them?” he asked. “Sometimes we’re told they’re still hiding, and we need to fire in their direction because they haven’t left. But it’s obvious they can’t leave if the moment they get up and run, we open fire.”
“They talk about using artillery on a junction full of civilians as if it’s normal. An entire conversation about whether it’s right or wrong to use artillery, without even asking why that weapon was needed in the first place. What concerns everyone is whether it’ll hurt our legitimacy to keep operating in Gaza. The moral aspect is practically nonexistent. No one stops to ask why dozens of civilians looking for food are being killed every day.”
This is consistent with what we see in Gaza every day. So any excuse of blood libel or it was just a mistake or oops, we should not have shot this time is purely a bunch of lies.
Do read the full article at the Internet Archive: https://archive.is/MyLFb
There is a further issue being reported widely now. The flour and sugar delivered as part of the US and Israeli aid program, is salted with drugs. The footage shows various tablets in the flour and people arrive at barely functioning hospitals out of their minds, having had some sugar.
Trump is still bellowing that he is responsible for bringing aid into Gaza. That is a lie. The aid system handled by the UN via various organizations skilled in distributing aid (without shooting aid seekers and without drugging aid seekers) was functioning properly. It is Israel that closed the entry points and Egypt obeyed and hundred of aid trucks had to throw out the aid waiting to enter Gaza. There is also footage of aid that arrives completely rotten.
Never forget that this is a genocide uglier even than the one Pol Pot ran in Cambodia. https://www.britannica.com/event/Cambodian-Genocide. It is more brutal than the genocide in Rwanda. https://www.un.org/en/preventgenocide/rwanda/historical-background.shtml
Call it a genocide. It is not a war. It is a mass killing of Palestinian human beings. All the excuses that the US took over aid delivery to stop Hamas is so much bunkum. We hear now that Trump talks about a ceasefire in a week or two. This is part of the plan set out as the Abahams Shield reported here. “30 Pieces of Silver” – New Gaza and Middle East Plan
This is what the ‘Gaza Humanitarian Foundation’ are doing every day: it’s a hunting party, a firing squad — Vamp’s lair | via @s_m_marandi pic.twitter.com/xm08VR05RX
— Sarah Wilkinson (@swilkinsonbc) June 29, 2025
The British government is more upset with a chant instead of actual genocide. Let that sink in folks. https://t.co/BrKg6xas8J
— Sabby Sabs (@SabbySabs2) June 28, 2025
May I remind you of another chant in Israel: “May your village burn!”
US & Israel just blocked a UN move to shut down Gaza’s Deadliest “Aid” Scam
The United States and Israel are actively resisting UN plan to shut down the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) — US and Israeli-backed aid mechanism launched in February 2025 to deliver food and essentials in Gaza, a project that’s been killing more than it feeds.
The UN, Red Cross, and major aid groups have all refused to work with GHF, calling it unsafe, inhumane, and a violation of humanitarian principles.
Despite this, the US just pumped $30 million into the project — prioritizing political control over saving lives.
Rights groups say GHF’s close ties with the Israeli military may make it complicit in war crimes.
The message is clear: This isn’t aid — it’s humiliation, control, and death, dressed up in fake charity. They starve the Palestinians, then shoot them when they reach for bread. Shut it down. Stop playing God with Palestinian lives!!!
Chris Hedges wrote as well and if you can stand more, here he is, comparing with Hunger Games in genocides that he covered as a reporter: https://chrishedges.substack.com/p/gazas-hunger-games?publication_id=778851&post_id=167107645&isFreemail=true&r=1rgaoj&triedRedirect=true&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
“… on June 22 Trump struck and a terrible beauty was born.”
By Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar at the Indian Punchline.
The former President and Deputy Chairman of Russia’s Security Council Dmitry Medvedev who is one of the most authoritative voices in the Kremlin, wrote on the Telegram channel on June 23 a critique on the Middle East crisis following the US attack on Iran’s three key nuclear sites of Fordow, Natanz and Isfahan.
Medvedev listed ten points, which, taken together, messaged that Russia’s stance on the developing situation around Iran has markedly shifted to one of proactive mode marked by profound scepticism and deep concern about President Donald Trump’s intentions.
As recently as on June 4, Trump had sought Putin’s help to advance the US-Iran negotiations on the nuclear issue and Putin, in good faith, agreed to help. Indeed, the Iranian government spokesperson had disclosed on June 12 that preparations were under way for a visit by Putin to Tehran.
But on June 22, Trump ordered the air strike on Iran’s three nuclear sites without taking Putin into confidence. Such surreptitious behaviour may be nothing new to Washington in inter-state relationships but it caused embarrassment to the Kremlin. Medvedev’s comments show it when he ridicules Trump’s triumphalism about the air strike.
Medvedev listed ten points under the heading What did the Americans achieve with their night strike on three points in Iran? They underscore that Russia’s stance on the developing situation around Iran has shifted to one of unequivocally distancing itself from the US approach going forward. The 10 points are:
Quote.
Unquote.
On the whole, Medvedev’s assessment is in sync with the swathe of opinion among neutral observers, including Western analysts, about the state of play. However, Points 2 and 3 stand out as particularly noteworthy in their prognosis that inexorably, Iran has now been pushed into a path of making the nuclear bomb and, more importantly, Tehran can expect help in this direction from “a number of countries (who) are ready to directly supply Iran with their nuclear weapons.”
This is the first time that Russia has explicitly spoken about Iran’s likely ‘nuclearisation’. That in itself is a paradigm shift. Medvedev has approvingly presented it in a marked departure from Russia’s stated affirmations in the past that Iran’s nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes. Russia has been historically a cornerstone of the nuclear non-proliferation regime.
Three things have changed. First, the US itself has become a proliferator. In Europe, the US’s allies freely fly its planes fitted with nuclear bombs during exercises. German pilots have familiarised themselves with such planes. In Asia-Pacific, AUKUS alliance actually involves transfer of nuclear weapon technology to Australia, which is technically an NPT member.
Second, when it comes to Iran, a key ally of Russia, the US aggression has crossed Iran’s “big red line” — to borrow the words of foreign minister Abbas Araghchi — which leaves Tehran with no alternative but to act in self-defence. Besides, in the ‘rules-based order’ imposed by the US on Iran, its own ally Israel, a non-NPT member country, has a fully-developed clandestine nuclear weapon programme and is estimated to have a stockpile of some 200 nuclear missiles but all that Trump blithely ignores.
Third, things have come to such a pass today that smaller countries must nuclearise in the quickest way possible, which is their only iron-clad guarantee to preserve their sovereignty and territorial integrity from the US attacks in the chaotic international situation today. North Korea’s success in pushing back US pressure is due to its nuclear deterrent capability. What is absolutely galling is that Trump has not even cared to seek a mandate from the UN Security Council and has gone to war with Iran without getting Congressional approval.
Evidently, Medvedev’s commentary pooh-poohs the pious hopes in Washington and Tel Aviv about forcing a ‘regime change’ in Iran. Medvedev assertively proclaims that not only has Iran’s political system become stronger but “people are consolidating around the spiritual leadership” including elements that “did not sympathise with him” previously.
Russia shares the prevailing opinion in the world community that by embracing on a military confrontation with Iran, Trump has added to the US’ growing isolation in the world community.
An intriguing point here is that in Medvedev’s prognosis, the US is being drawn into a new conflict abroad “with the prospect of a ground operation.” He didn’t explain how this may happen. Iran, which is almost the size of Europe, is a big country and has approximately 610,000 active duty personnel plus 350,000 reserve and trained personnel that can be mobilised when needed. Then, there is the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) which has approximately 125,000 personnel and a voluntary militia, Basj, under it with a further approximately 90,000 active personnel.
Even a limited US commando operation is fraught with high risk. The Operation Eagle Crew — undertaken in April 1980 in an attempt to rescue the US hostages — ended tragically. Of eight helicopters sent into Iran, two became disabled and a third was blown into a C-130 cargo plane in a fierce desert sandstorm, killing eight American servicemen whose bodies, left behind, were later paraded before Iranian television cameras. The Carter administration, humiliated by the failed mission and loss of life, expended great energy to have the bodies returned to the US. Trump is unlikely to risk such escapades.
In geopolitical terms, the seismic shift in the Kremlin thinking can be a game changer for Iran which must be regretting that it declined a Russian offer to include a provision for mutual security assistance in times of war in the two countries’ recently concluded treaty of strategic partnership, similar to what Russia has with DPRK. Also, Putin disclosed last week that Russia had offered to develop an integrated air defence system jointly with Iran (that could access Russian satellite data) but Iran showed no interest. Curiously, he revealed that Tehran was yet to ask for any help, either!
That was on June 19. But on June 22 Trump struck and a terrible beauty was born. It appears that Khamenei ordered Araghchi who was busy parleying with Europeans to go East and meet Putin.
Anyway, at a meeting with Araghchi in the Kremlin today, Putin used exceptionally strong words to condemn the US attack on Iran which he called a “completely unprovoked act of aggression against Iran … without foundation or justification.”
Putin added, “Russia has long-standing, strong, and trustworthy relations with Iran, and we are committed to supporting the Iranian people through our continued efforts… Your visit provides us with an important opportunity to discuss these sensitive issues in depth and to explore ways we might work together to navigate the current situation.” (The Kremlin readout is here.)
Will Russia’s entry deter Trump on his warpath? That is the million dollar question in the coming days. If Trump persists with such belligerence in cahoots with Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, a protracted war of attrition will ensue that will most certainly bring in China at some point with which Iran has a strong mil-to-mil relationship.
Those whose calculus of a US/Iran war assumes overwhelming American air superiority will abruptly find the parameters of their equations altered.
By William Schryver at imetatronink.
How soon people have forgotten that, earlier this year, the US dispatched two carrier strike groups and a half-dozen B-2s (and other USAF assets) to disarm the Yemeni and open the selectively blockaded Red Sea.
They failed. Abysmally. For the second time!
First of all, in 2024, the USS Brave Sir Robin (CVN-69), USS Teddy Bear (CVN-71), and USS Fraidy Abe (CVN-72) gave it a try, only to eventually run away with their tail between their legs. The Brave Sir Robin left behind an F/A-18 at the bottom of the sea.
They were followed up by the USS Trembling Puppy (CVN-75) and the USS Timid Vinny (CVN-70). But they fared no better, with the Trembling Puppy losing two additional F/A-18 fighters over the course of its traumatic tour of the northern Red Sea.
And, not only did the Yemeni increase their score of MQ-9 Reaper drones to 23, they also targeted and credibly threatened both F-35s and B-2s, such that both platforms were summarily withdrawn from the fight for fear of one getting shot down.
Remember, Yemen is absolutely the bottom rung on the escalatory ladder of formidable adversaries.
Anyone who seriously believes the US Navy can operate in Iranian waters is just plain delusional.
Even if no ships got damaged or sunk, they’d still run out of munitions in a couple weeks or less — and they sure as hell won’t be able to reload in Bahrain.
As for an air campaign … well, I have yet to see any persuasive evidence that US/Israeli aircraft penetrated Iranian airspace to any appreciable extent in Act I of this war. Consequently, I am dubious that Iranian medium- and long-range air defenses were even used.
There is also zero credible evidence of top-shelf Iranian air defenses being destroyed.
From all indications, the Iranians were shooting down Israel’s big strike drones with short-range AD. And they shot down several.
The Israeli long-range air-launched ballistic missiles were apparently effective, but they simply don’t have very many of them, and as the war progressed into its second week, we saw fewer and fewer of them with each passing day.
In any case, when Act II of this war gets started (and it won’t be long), it will almost certainly entail penetration of Iranian airspace. And we will see not only the emergence of Iranian long-range AD, but I strongly suspect Russian and/or Chinese mobile air defense systems will suddenly appear on the battlefield.
Those whose calculus of a US/Iran war assumes overwhelming American air superiority will abruptly find the parameters of their equations altered.
The Russians and Chinese are not going to stand idly by and watch the US smash up their important southwest Asia ally in the rapidly emerging multipolar world.
And keep in mind: the US simply cannot logistically sustain a high-intensity air campaign for more than 2-3 weeks. And if even a dozen or so manned US aircraft are shot down, and a couple ships severely damaged … well, that will cause such overwhelming consternation in Washington that it might even result in a coup d’état, or something closely approximating one.
Tags de l’article
I’d like to say that here in Minsk, we have a few hundred small, medium, and large-sized Russian enterprises, those who are directly involved in developing integration and economic ties with the countries of the Eurasian Economic Union. They understand firsthand how much this integration does for them and how much needs to be done to improve them even further.
The EAEU has been a successful integration association, and the volume of trade turnover of the EAEU is comparable to the world’s leading economic powers, Russian President Vladimir Putin says at the Eurasian Economic Forum.
Statements published by Ria Novosti:
The EAEU is making a real contribution to creating a space for partnership and economic growth;
Russia will take into account all the useful ideas and recommendations made at the Eurasian Economic Forum in Minsk in its work to strengthen the EAEU;
The EAEU has grown stronger in 10 years since its creation, the economic potential of the five countries has strengthened;
The EAEU is open for cooperation with all interested partners;
The unemployment rate in the EAEU is 2.8%;
The unemployment rate in Russia is now 2.3%, which is one of the best indicators in the world today;
BRICS is working to create a digital investment platform, and similar initiatives can be implemented in the EAEU;
The EAEU countries are jointly making efforts to integrate financial infrastructure;
The situation in the Middle East is calming down;
The stop of the Iran-Israel conflict allows the world to count on the development of relations with the countries of the Middle East, including with Iran;
The freezing of Russian gold and foreign exchange assets is a robbery by the West;
The movement towards regional financial institutions in the world will only accelerate if frozen Russian assets are confiscated;
Russia is seeking to reduce the dependence on Western financial institutions;
Russia’s dialogue with the World Bank is now difficult due to the bias of Western financial institutions.
The myth of genocidal invincibility has been shattered forever .. that death cult in West Asia can indeed be mortally wounded .. TACO announced a one-sided ceasefire and fled .. There will be blood – over and over again.
By Pepe Escobar at the Strategic Culture Foundation.
In the end, predictably, the Circus Ringmaster went TACO (“Trump Always Chickens Out”).
He was terrified by three crucial reality-based developments.
The chain of events leading to the ceasefire remains murky.
A key accelerating factor was Putin’s personal meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Araghchi at the Kremlin on Monday.
Speaking on behalf of Ayatollah Khamenei, Araghchi may have asked for a solid supply of weapons and most of all defense systems; but these will take time, especially considering that the strategic partnership recently approved by both the Duma and the Majlis in Tehran is not – officially – a military alliance.
Yet according to sources in Moscow who were informed about the meeting, Putin did position Russia at the center of a possible resolution, thus displacing Washington. Team Trump 2.0 was incensed. Trump boasted that both Iran and Israel had called him almost simultaneously to arrange a ceasefire. Nonsense: only Tel Aviv did. As Putin made it clear, once again, that Russia would back Iran, he indirectly offered Trump an off-ramp.
True to character, the Circus Ringmaster jumped on it, marketing his own, branded ceasefire, reality show-style. And this only two days after gloating that the Iranian nuclear program was “obliterated” (he insists on it even as U.S. intel admits the program may have been set back for only a matter of months).
A supreme taboo has been broken
Iran has learned a few important lessons the hardest way, paying a horrendous price. Tehran was way too transparent and reasonable dealing with a bunch of gangsters: from allowing IAEA nuclear monitoring that turned out to be a process of amassing precious intel for Israeli targeting; and believing in diplomacy and honoring agreements that were unceremoniously ditched.
There’s no diplomacy when it comes to dealing with the imperial Leviathan/Behemoth – especially as it contemplates, in horror, its footprint being reduced all across the Global South.
Domestically though, Iran is going to the next level. There are at least three factions in confrontation: Ayatollah Khamenei and his close circle plus the IRGC; the reformists, embodied by the meek Pezeshkian presidency; and what could be construed as secular nationalists, who want a strong Iran but not as a theo-democracy.
The IRGC now has all the power. Defending the homeland against the deadly Zionist axis, Empire included, crystalized a widespread sentiment of national unity and pride.
All sectors of the Iranian population – 90 million, someone tell pathetic Marco Rubio – rallied around the flag.
Conceptually, the ceasefire – nobody knows how long it will last – is adverse to Iran, because its increasing deterrence capacity is now lost. Israel will have its air defenses feverishly replenished while Iran, alone, will need months and even years to rebuild.
The imperial modus operandi remains the same. The Circus Ringmaster saw that a monster humiliation was at hand –something like Israel’s Vietnam: so he announced a one-sided ceasefire and fled.
Yet the configuration for the next battles has changed. If Washington decides to escalate again, or resorts to the certified practice of using terror proxies, Iran as the de facto leader of the Resistance will resolutely counter-attack. The myth of genocidal invincibility has been shattered forever. The whole Global South has seen it, and now takes it in serious consideration.
It remains open to serious discussion whether Tehran will finally opt to follow a DPRK model to counteract the – failed, so far – imposition of a Libya and/or Syria model. Uranium enrichment will continue. With an added film noir plot twist: nobody knows where the uranium is.
The Empire of Chaos, predictably, will never stop. Only when the whole Global South unites with an iron will and force it to stop. The conditions are not in place – yet.
As it stands, the real ceasefire would be between the U.S. and the Global South, led institutionally by Russia-China, BRICS and several other multipolar organizations. The chance of the U.S. ruling classes honoring such a long-lasting ceasefire, if it ever happens, are less than zero.
As for the Iran-Israel ceasefire, that’s not the end of the war. On the contrary; it’s the – dubious – end of just the first hot battle. The dogs and hyenas of war will be back, sooner or later. There will be blood – over and over again. Yet at least a supreme taboo has been broken: that death cult in West Asia can indeed be mortally wounded.
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Iran, the West, and the Illusion of Choice. The war launched by the United States and Israel inflicted not only physical damage, but ideological clarity; Tehran is turning to a posture of permanent resistance.
By Elijah J. Magnier on Twitter (X).
Iran appears unwavering in its resolve to retaliate in the face of the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war. Following American strikes on its nuclear infrastructure, Iran’s Army Chief, General Abdolrahim Mousavi, delivered a stark warning: “Every time the United States has committed a crime against Iran, it has faced a decisive retaliation—and this time will be no different. We will fight with all our means to defend our independence, our unity, and the integrity of our ruling system. We are not fighting for survival — we are fighting for victory.”
More than twenty-four hours after the U.S. assault, Israel was struck by a missile targeting Haifa — an attack that slipped past its air defense systems without triggering a single siren or interceptor. The breach exposed a serious vulnerability in Israel’s defensive shield and underscored the gravity of the unfolding conflict. It also sent a clear message:
Tehran is not backing down.
Far from deterred, Iran appears ready to escalate with precision and intent. The Haifa strike was not an isolated incident; it was followed by a series of additional missile attacks. The Iranian missiles are forbidding the Israelis from returning to a normal life until it is satisfied to say the last word in this war, signalling Iran’s willingness to shape the terms of any future ceasefire on its own terms.
Meanwhile, Israel’s calls for de-escalation appear driven less by diplomacy than by tactical self-interest. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, far from bowing to pressure, is wary of deeper and potentially uncontrollable damage within Israel’s borders. With the U.S. having already targeted Iran’s nuclear sites and Iran proving its capacity to strike back — inflicting significant harm on Israeli cities — Netanyahu now seeks to freeze the conflict while claiming strategic victory. His aim is to end the war on his terms, with another party brokering a ceasefire, allowing him to retain political capital while keeping Israel’s military posture intact for future contingencies.
President Donald Trump played a central role in shaping this dynamic. His decision to bomb Iranian nuclear facilities ensured a quiet night for Israelis—an action widely celebrated across Israel, and particularly by Netanyahu. At the Knesset, American flags flew beside Israeli ones in a show of unity, while digital billboards in Tel Aviv thanked Trump for defending Israel. These public displays reflected not just gratitude but the deep strategic synchronization between the two leaders — Netanyahu and Trump — waging a war defined by deception, calculated surprise, and tightly coordinated military operations.
Further underscoring its defiance, Tehran has declared its intention to continue enriching uranium — directly challenging U.S. and Israeli claims that the Iranian nuclear program has been dismantled. The move signals not only resilience but a calculated rejection of the narrative that Iran’s strategic capabilities have been neutralized.
Moreover, any Iranian retaliation at this stage threatens to shatter Israel’s carefully crafted narrative of having reestablished deterrence against Tehran. Netanyahu now seeks to conclude his war on favourable terms, having claimed that his actions have fundamentally reshaped the Middle East—weakening Iran, isolating its allies, and advancing normalization with moderate Arab states.
His broader ambition appears to be the imposition of a new regional order in which Israel serves as the undisputed security arbiter — a self-appointed policeman with the authority to strike pre-emptively at any actor perceived as a threat. Netanyahu believes he has inflicted serious damage on the so-called “Shia Crescent”— the axis of resistance stretching from Tehran through Yemen, Baghdad, and Beirut — which has grown more formidable over the past two decades. He now seems equally determined to prevent the emergence of a rival Sunni coalition, potentially led by Turkey, a country he has repeatedly criticized for its growing influence in Syria. In Netanyahu’s vision, no regional force — Shia or Sunni — should be allowed to patrol, shape, or challenge the strategic architecture of the Middle East. That role, he believes, belongs solely to Israel.
Meanwhile, the U.S. bombing of Iran’s peaceful nuclear facilities — combined with what Tehran sees as unlawful declarations of war by both Washington and Tel Aviv — has only deepened Iran’s determination to build a more formidable deterrent.
Iran is now expected to accelerate development of its missile capabilities and may reconsider its participation in the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), potentially restricting international inspections conducted under United Nations oversight.
Beyond bolstering its internal defense, Tehran may also double down on its support for regional allies such as Yemen’s Ansar Allah and Lebanon’s Hezbollah, viewing them as vital pillars of strategic depth in the face of a hostile alliance.
Yet, Iran now faces a critical and immediate challenge: the reconstruction of its damaged nuclear and military infrastructure. To address this, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei may tap into off-budget institutions like Setad or draw from sovereign reserves such as the National Development Fund of Iran — estimated to hold tens of billions of dollars — to support rapid recovery. Though the exact sums remain unclear, these financial mechanisms offer Tehran flexibility in responding to wartime damage and rebuilding key strategic assets.
At the same time, Tehran is expected to deepen military and technological cooperation with key partners such as China and North Korea, accelerating efforts to rebuild and modernize its defense capabilities.
Meanwhile, Iran’s trust in the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has been deeply shaken — if not entirely eroded — by the silence of its Director, Rafael Grossi, following the U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.
Under the IAEA’s mandate, any attack on safeguarded sites should be unequivocally condemned, regardless of the political context.
Yet no such condemnation was issued. For Tehran, this omission signals not neutrality, but complicity. The agency’s failure to defend the integrity of civilian nuclear infrastructure has led Iranian officials to increasingly view the IAEA not as an impartial international body, but as an extension of U.S. and Israeli intelligence interests. In this context, continued cooperation with an institution perceived as politically compromised appears untenable.
The war has also exposed the alarming effectiveness of multiple espionage networks operating within Iran —many believed to have directly supported U.S. and Israeli military operations. These spy rings, some reportedly embedded in critical infrastructure and government institutions, played a decisive role in enabling the precision and coordination of the attacks. In response, Iran’s security and intelligence services are expected to launch a sweeping and uncompromising crackdown to dismantle these networks and seal internal vulnerabilities.
However, this intensified focus on counterintelligence is likely to come at a domestic cost: tighter surveillance, increased repression, and a contraction of civil liberties. In this wartime atmosphere, the balance between national security and personal freedom is already shifting decisively toward the former.
Sanctions, once framed as a tool of last resort, have become a default mechanism of Western policy toward Iran— regardless of who holds power in Tehran. They are no longer reactive but structural. Iran is sanctioned not for what it does, but for what it represents: an independent, resource-rich nation capable of projecting power beyond its borders, outside the Western sphere of influence.
In this context, sanctions serve a dual purpose. First, they aim to economically weaken Iran, constraining its ability to invest in domestic growth or regional influence. Second, they are designed to sow internal discontent —fueling protests, shortages, and public dissatisfaction. The strategy is simple: if Iran cannot be coerced into compliance, it can be pressured until it collapses or capitulates.
This approach reflects a broader regional logic — one that seeks to enforce a strategic imbalance across the Middle East.
The Israeli Exception
Nowhere is this imbalance more visible than in the contrasting treatment of Israel and other regional powers. Israel maintains a sophisticated military, a known (though undeclared) nuclear arsenal, and a history of extraterritorial operations that would provoke global condemnation if undertaken by any other state. Yet it faces little to no accountability. Its dominance is not only accepted — it is protected.
When Iran develops defensive capabilities, asserts deterrence, or supports regional allies, these actions are labelled as aggression. When Israel carries out assassinations, sabotage, or airstrikes in neighboring countries, these acts are broadly justified as self-defense. This double standard is not born of legal nuance — it stems from strategic favoritism.
Seen from this perspective, the conflict is not about behavior, but about status. Iran is not punished for its actions, but for what it dares to become: a counterweight. And no counterweight to Israeli hegemony is tolerable under the current U.S.-backed regional order.
The core issue is the West’s refusal to accept strategic parity in the Middle East. For decades, the United States and its allies have worked to ensure that only one power — Israel — enjoys overwhelming superiority in military, intelligence, and technological domains. Any actor that seeks to challenge that monopoly, whether Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Syria under the Assads, or even Turkey when asserting independent policy, is treated as a threat.
Iran is the most resilient of these challengers. It has survived a revolution, a devastating war with Iraq, decades of sanctions, cyberattacks, and assassinations. Despite this, it remains a regional actor with influence extending from the Gulf to the Mediterranean. For the existing power structure, that persistence is unacceptable. Thus, parity is not just denied — it is criminalized and bombed.
The consequences for Iran are profound. Sovereignty can no longer be assumed; it must be actively defended. And that defense is no longer limited to military doctrine — it is now a principle that governs economics, foreign relations, technology policy, and even cultural identity. In Tehran’s view, the rules are selectively applied and strategically weaponized.
While the global narrative often casts Iran as a disruptor, Tehran sees itself operating within a system that punishes moderation and rewards submission. If peace can only be purchased at the cost of strategic paralysis, then for many Iranian leaders, peace itself becomes a trap.
Sovereignty as Resistance
The war launched by the United States and Israel has inflicted not only physical damage, but ideological clarity. It has stripped away the last illusions that diplomacy or moderation could earn Iran a place of respect within the Western-dominated order. The belief that strategic restraint would be rewarded has collapsed under airstrikes, sanctions, and the silence of institutions tasked with upholding international law.
The lesson for Iran is unambiguous: sovereignty is not granted — it must be asserted, relentlessly. Denied parity and recognition, Tehran is turning to a posture of permanent resistance. Its future will be shaped not by appeals to the West, but by the pursuit of autonomy, strategic alliances, and hardened deterrence.
What Israel and its allies call deterrence; Iran now sees as provocation. What the West labels aggression, Iran views as survival. And in this asymmetrical war of narratives, one truth remains: as long as sovereignty is punished and power is monopolized, peace will not prevail — only a shifting and dangerous balance of confrontation.
A living Revelation anticipates the astonishing tableau which confronts us today: the violent and calamitous end to the Old Order heralded by the aggression of the Anglo-Zionists on Iran.
Chapter 105 of the Qur’an: Surah Al Fiil (The Elephant) — for interpretation & context see (here)
Divine Revelation, as Sheikh Imran Hosein and serious scholars note, is neither static nor dead. The same verses in subsequent generations, according to need of the flock, reveal gems, and guidance for navigation. For the same words or phrases can differ in meaning, or emphasis, according to context and circumstances of the times.
Symbol of the Republican Party of the United States
Yesterday, eschatologist Omar Baloch linked the unfolding Iranian-American Murder-Suicide in the Qur’anic chapter named Al Fiil (The Elephant). The incredible pressures, tensions, and mind-blowing geopolitical rearrangements and shattering of the old templates underway force contemplation. These astonishing and hair raising developments were previewed approximately 1,500 years ago.
The Republican Party (GOP) of the United States of America has the distinction of using the elephant as its symbol; the Democratic Party uses the donkey.
The messianic GOP will have the distinction of burying the Last Satanic Empire.
It has to do with one of the shortest and sweetest chapters of all – called The Elephant.
Rubio appears on live TV with the ash cross on forehead, discussing the Ukrainian and Middle East crises. 3.6.2025 (3×6=666).
Methodology of interpreting the Qur’an: if a non-Arab word is used in the Arabic Qur’an, it points to the land it came from. The Arabic language, as all languages, adopted various terms and phrases from other languages and cultures with which Arabs formed contact and relations.
Elephants were unknown to the peninsular arabs to which were revealed the Qur’an. At the time, during the 7th century, elephants were associated with Persia. The very word, “Fiil”, was arabicized Farsi, the Persian language.
India and Africa are also associated with elephants, but Persians are closer to the Arabs by direct land route. And for several millennia, Persians ruled the Arabs, whose culture and norms and language were of intimate familiarity, being one of the traditional two superpowers of the millennia preceding the revelation of the Qur’an. Historically, all parts of Arabia were at one point or the other dominated by Persia.
June 18, 2025: for the first time, Iran launches the 2-stage Sejjil MRBM on Zion. In verse four of the Chapter of the Elephant, Sejjil are the clay stones baked in the Hellfire launched by the flock of birds on the army of the People of the Elephant.
The Chapter of the Elephant is remarkable worldwide for two seminal events in history, being an extremely important year, both for Arabs and Islam.
First, it was the year in which was born the Islamic Prophet, PBUH.
Second, this year marked the first serious attempt to destroy the Kaaba, the House of God, in Makkah (Mecca). An invasion was mounted by a Christian Abyssinian army to destroy this House in Makkah, spiritual symbol of all the Arabs.
The Abyssinian powers of that time had come to Yemen to expunge the Jewish tyrant king that genocided their Christian brethren, recounted in the Chapter of the People of the Trench. They then overstayed to conquer Yemen, displeasing Yemenis. When the Abyssinian warlord built a grand cathedral, one night an ignorant pagan Arab entered and defecated inside it, leading to his vowing to as desecrate in retaliation the Arabs’ holiest sanctuary in Makkah.
This warlord Abraha marched to Makkah to destroy the Kaaba, then controlled by pagan Arabs, but nevertheless symbolically the central house of worship of all Arabs. His army included novel war elephants in its procession, unknown to Arabs and hence the symbol of that striking year, memorialized in the parable and the name of this scriptural chapter.
Forty years later, the young herder of those elephants, then an old blind man, was alive at the time of the investiture of the Islamic Prophet, having escaped the fate of the army by fleeing up a mountain when he saw the Elephant refuse to continue on the suicide mission by kneeling just before entering the Haram (holy borders) of Makkah, the forbidden sanctuary. The men who continued onward did not survive.
Iran unveils Hesa Ababil 3 unmanned combat aerial vehicle. In verse three of the Chapter of the Elephant, Ababil are the flock of birds which attack the army of the People of the Elephant. (see Iran’s Ababil drones family)
Now follow reinterpretation of this historical chapter, known by heart to perhaps billions since it is so very short, sweet and singsong, and striking, and as Scripture is not static but constantly unfolding:
The Eschatologist noted several things – note the promise of the Lord to annihilate this arrogantly aggressive and presumptuous army, “the People of the Elephants.” Their plans will go awry in terrible ways. Their forces (in the region) will be obliterated, scattered like dead chewed straw (being helpless without adequate AD, and at point blank ranges).
Extrapolating the nature of MAGA behind the current GOP incumbent, are they not a cult? Even so, the MAGA base is openly disintegrating right now, with most against this suicide in motion. They’re disillusioned with endless unwinnable foreign adventures, as their nation fractures and quality of life disintegrates and irreversible poverty sets in. Even those mind-washed for generations can connect the dots – if all the money is spent on guns, used abroad fruitlessly at behest of others, there will be no butter at home. And this they see.
Yet the American elite are under compulsion of the Anglo-Zionists, and will march on into the breach. It is decreed, to complete the Humiliation, and conclude the Babylonian System. The Tragedy of the End Times. So much waste for such the abominable project of Pax Judaica.
The Americans will at the same time deal terrible blows to Persia, unprecedented in human history. The Islamic Prophet said “one blow” in one narration, “two blows” in another narration.
I assume after Persia defeats their conventional attack, and annihilates their regional forces, they will use ICBMs?? This is beyond my competence. But it is a given that the Exceptionalists whose last place of hegemony is at total risk, and having been humiliated, will escalate to becoming permanent Black Hats, the unconscionable Pariahs within the larger human family. With the coming Deeds, they shall carve their own tomb-stones in Persia, and attribution for all subsequent horrors that follow.
According to further explication of subsequent events, after the satanic wasting of Persia, the Zionists and India (Hind) will join to annihilate Pakistan (Sind), with Zionazis having taken baton from the defeated Anglos. “Hind will defeat Sind”. So dramatic reversals will appear for a Pakistan which just stymied India last month.. But he then added, “China will defeat Hind”/India. China will not sit out. She appears to keep her powder dry for the coming moment, hence the agony of India now knowing its total exposure if she serves the suicidal Anglo-Zionist aims, effecting her own Murder-Suicide. For all now know that Pakistan and China come as a package…
After nuking Iran, the same treatment will be meted to the Arabs — i assume the GCC, even more than former Resistance (Yemen, Iraq, Hezbollah, etc) since the PetroSheikhs will be then be ghost, consumed in the Persian Gulf conflagration as most of their citadels and oil/gas assets, located in the eastern peninsular half adjacent to Persia, will be no more, and at that point, Pax Judaica can absolutely not trust ANY arab whatsoever.
Pax Judaica will rise on a sea of skulls like Pol Pot, or rubble like Gaza. Such terrible wars of extermination lie ahead. As Yahya Sarae, spokesman of the Yemeni Armed Forces, warned the comatose compradore Arabs:
“To the rest of the Arab and Islamic countries and peoples, we say:
Jihad is one of the gates of Paradise, opened by Allah for His distinctive servants.
Take the initiative to stop the Israeli crimes against your people in Gaza, for what befalls them today will befall you tomorrow.” (June 15, 2025)
This is the Pandora’s chest willfully opened by Donald J Trump, the Last American President, and Joker of our End Times.
I suspect Iran will initially win, yet lose in the interim, before the ultimate Victory, due to the Murder-Suicide. The other side will fight dirty to “win” at all costs (when did empires fight “fair”?), condemning itself in the process, through cascading nuclear exchanges. So the real order of events may be Suicide (of the annihilation of regional western force presence) then mass Murder of the Iranian civilians by the Antagonists of All.
Californian Rabbi Shmuley Boteach. His father Yoav Botach was an Iranian Jew who left Isfahan. [01][02]
The overriding imperative remains of 70,000 true semitic Jews to emerge from Isfahan, under leadership of the AntiChrist making his entrance in human guise. This completes the ascension of the “Moshiach” of messianic Jewry, ruling a leveled world from Jerusalem.
Isfahan has the oldest continuously settled Jewish community on earth, nearly 3,000 years old. Today only some 20,000 Jews remain, with most having relocated to Zion, and USA. Arguably the most famous US rabbi is a Californian with direct ancestry in Isfahan. His father migrated from Isfahan to Zion in the last century, then onward to the USA. He peppers his speeches and presentations with exhortation to liberate Iran, so that they may return to Isfahan. So with much of Iran erased, they would be able to reverse migrate to Isfahan…
My father Yoav Ben Eshrat Botach passed away tonight after Sabbath on Rosh Chodesh Sivan. He was 87 yrs old. He fought for months & we believed he was healing. This was last time I put tefillin on with him. This is a devastating time. May my father’s memory be an eternal blessing pic.twitter.com/xzIDucLRk8
— Rabbi Shmuley (@RabbiShmuley) May 24, 2020
IMO, most of Iran (and Yemen’s) fighting men may be in underground cities inside mountains and deserts and other secret areas. Plenty of places to hide. Impossible for even nukes to materially affect them. I heard about a million Iranians are currently under arms.
But what civilization can hold on without women, children, elderly, and the non-martial trades? When these are Gaza’ed… it will take time to reconstitute, being dispersed autonomous cells and forces over a huge land of over 1.5 million km² in Iran.
The Persian, and others, especially Pakistanis, will essentially return as guerrillas, having been decapitated, stateless, fighting totalen krieg every inch, like in Gaza. And when they put the last zionazi and westerner to the sword, they’ll weep rather than celebrate, having had their hearts and hearths torn out.
Such horrors beckon as the living will envy those in their graves. What we see today in Gaza will seem a beach holiday. The Mad Orange Emperor warned the Palestinians in January to surrender or the same bestial Hell we currently see would be unleashed; last week he warned “Leave Tehran” …
Sorry for the terrible previews. There is scant good news for any side in the End Times. This is the Islamic version of the Book of Revelations, and it gives the same unvarnished terror, trials and tribulations. As Imran Hosein said, around the time corona began in 2020, now’s a good time to die, given what comes.
Why would the Persians commit to the Murder-Suicide, knowing the terrible outcome for their people at the hands of unrepentant resolved devils?
Their ultimate victory would be pyrrhic, spent mourning for generations, given holocausts experienced.
Clues lie in words of the Islamic Prophet recounted by Omar Baloch, Imran Hosein, and many — he said none would be as knowledgeable in his flock as the Persians, who would seek knowledge and wisdom in the very heights of the stars if needed. So they know everything described herein in this short article, and foretold of their unusually bitter role in the End Times.
“We are the nation of Imam Hussein, peace be upon him” a declaration of identity, emphasising allegiance to an Imam revered for his martyrdom at Karbala in 680 CE., symbolising resistance, sacrifice, justice and ready to face the enemy with courage.https://t.co/U5xCe8xnv6
— Elijah J. Magnier
I will leave you this tweet by Magnier and Prof. Marandi, which highlight the ethos and determination of Karbala, where the grandson of the Islamic Prophet marched to his certain annihilation at the hands of the tyrant of the time. This is the lodestone of the Shia realm; the fount of their devotion to sacrifice, and struggle against impossible odds. It is of the same strand of the Sunni Palestinians who say, ‘ …verily, it is a Jihad, until Victory or Martyrdom.’
We will find, as Hamas refuses to lay down its arms and surrender even as 100-200 of their precious children and women and elders are massacred every single daily for over 600 days, the Iranian nation will prove to be as resolute in dealing as catastrophic commensurate annihilation to the Anglo-Zionists. It remains a Murder-Suicide, come what may.
The Chapter of the Elephant of the Qur’an appears to foretell that during the initial phase, Iran will be given unusual tools that will militarily erase the fallen West from the face of West Asia.
What part will your country play in World War III?
By Larry Romanoff at Blue Moon of Shanghai.
The true origins of the two World Wars have been deleted from all our history books and replaced with mythology. Neither War was started (or desired) by Germany, but both at the instigation of a group of European Zionist Jews with the stated intent of the total destruction of Germany. The documentation is overwhelming and the evidence undeniable. (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7) (8) (9) (10) (11)
That history is being repeated today in a mass grooming of the Western world’s people (especially Americans) in preparation for World War III – which I believe is now imminent. It is evident that War Clouds are gathering. The signs are everywhere, with media coverage and open talk of war in many countries. The RAND Corporation have for years been preparing military scenarios for World War III, and NATO is reported to be currently doing so. Vast movements of NATO troops and equipment are either in preparation or process to surround Russia. The US is surrounding China with military bases including the world’s largest in Guam. Both China and Russia are surrounded with nearly 400 US biological weapons labs. Iran is entirely vulnerable from the American military build-up in the Middle East.
Through their control of the mass media, the Jews’ Anger Campaign against China (12) (see note 13) is unrelenting, and successful, for at least the past two years filling the pages and airwaves with false atrocity tales against China, barrages of these lies occurring almost daily. These follow the same template used by the same people against Germany to stoke hatred and prepare the populations for World Wars I and II. It is the same – and based on the same kinds of lies – as those used to prepare for the invasions of Iraq, Libya and Syria. These people are utilising every manner of provocation against China, including increasingly outrageous and reckless military challenges in the South China Sea and near Taiwan. The entire world is being taught to hate China, Russia, and Iran. Attempts to convert India to China’s enemy are becoming increasingly desperate.
World War III will consist of the combined forces of the US, NATO and Israel (who considers itself a world military power) provoking a conflict aimed at the final destruction of China, Russia, and Iran, the three countries that must be destroyed to satisfy the dream of building Satan’s Third Temple in Jerusalem and initiating our New World Order. That is the plan. Your belief in it is not material to its execution.
We cannot count on anything from the Americans because they are too stupid; arrogantly and blindly willing to function as the Bankers’ Private Army one more time, having sworn fealty to the same persons who hold ultimate control of both the CIA and Mossad. England served that purpose for a century or more, but was readily sacrificed when the bankers transferred their flag to the US. A World War will leave the US physically and financially in ruins, much as the first two wars destroyed the British Empire and left England bankrupt. These people are ruthless beyond measure; to get what they want, they will fight to the last American. But as Benjamin Netanyahu famously said, “Once we squeeze everything we want from the US, it can dry up and blow away.” And it will. But no matter because the Bankers are already transferring their flag to NATO – a supra-national military that reports to no one and that will be our official oppressor in our Brave New World. And we cannot count on the masses of Western people because they are simply pawns in these geo-political contests, few understanding the tragic pit into which they so willingly leap.
The British Royal Family is 100% onside. If you doubt this, ask Queen Elizabeth for a public statement that England will refuse any part in another world war. She will ignore you, as would Boris Johnson and the UK’s parliamentary cabal, since they are in the forefront of the plans. Ask Canada’s cowardly Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to resolutely state that Canada will refuse to follow the Americans into another world war. He will refuse. We cannot count on Germany; that country today is an American/Jewish colony lacking a will of its own. Much of Eastern Europe, like Australia, has been twisted and turned, stupidly believing they will be held harmless by the power of NATO when in reality they will be among the first sacrificial lambs in this Third War. Italy, France, and Spain will almost certainly be bullied into participation; the remainder of Europe is largely irrelevant. Japan, also being an American/Jewish colony with no will of its own, plus being a major US military-operations base, will have no choice but to sacrifice itself.
There is no way to avoid the conclusion that history is indeed repeating itself, demonising yet another nation, deliberately engendering sufficient hatred and anger to justify another world war. Even confirmed Western ideologues will admit that what I have written here is true. What will be the position of your country’s government when the charge for the war cannon is finally ignited? Are you able to explain why you believe a Third World War is a good idea? If you are a European, haven’t you seen enough of war? If you are an American, hasn’t your government already killed enough innocent people? If you are a Jew, why don’t you speak out against this cabal of 300 or 400 before it’s too late?
Given the source of the push for a Third World War and the planned destruction of China, one is left to consider what, if anything, can be done to prevent a third worldwide holocaust. Even knowing the sources, it is hardly practical to declare war on at most a few thousand individuals scattered among perhaps ten nations.
I know of only one way to prevent the World War Three that is now imminent: make Israel pay for it. If in the final position of authority of one of the targeted nations, I would call in the Israeli ambassador and inform him that if my nation were forced into a war with the US, I would of course respond. However, my first retaliation would be not against the US but against Israel, that I would apply a necessary portion of my arsenal to ensure that Israel would remain uninhabitable for 500 years and that Satan’s Third Temple would never be built. It is my thesis that Israel is too important to these people to be sacrificed, and that faced with such a threat deemed credible, they would back off. With everything I know, I do not believe a third world war can be otherwise prevented.
I will of course be accused of anti-Semitism, but this is not about me; it is about a small handful of Jewish European bankers and industrialists who want a third world war to destroy the old order before the new can be installed. These people must be named and their objectives exposed. In any case, in a judicial debate of offending a few hundred people or starting a third world war, which is the greater crime?
Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 34 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chap. 2 — Dealing with Demons).
His full archive can be seen at https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/
He can be contacted at: 2186604556@qq.com
NOTES
(1) https://hofs.online/david-irving-churchills-war/
(2) https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2020/01/13/germanys-war-chapter-4-the-allied-conspiracy-to-instigate-prolong-wwii/
(3) https://thegreateststorynevertold.tv/the-war-criminal-churchill/
(4) https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/schul05.htm
(5) “Germany is getting too strong. We’ve got to smash her.” – Winston Churchill speaking during a private lunch in 1936. Reminiscenses in 1961 of General Robert E. Wood. World War II. By Carl J. Schneider, Dorothy Schneider. Page 15.
Free Downlod of this book: https://pt1lib.org/book/728795/c85219?id=728795&secret=c85219
(6) “We will force this war upon Hitler, if he wants it or not.” – Winston Churchill (1936 broadcast). “This war is an English war and its goal is the destruction of Germany.” – Winston Churchill (Autumn 1939 broadcast)
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p1da79e/Following-the-Treaty-of-Versailles-Germany-was-ordered-to-pay-the-war-costs-of/
(7) “You must understand that this war is not against Hitler or National Socialism, but against the strength of the German people, which is to be smashed once and for all, regardless of whether it is in the hands of Hitler of a Jesuit priest.” – Winston Churchill [1940]; Emrys Hughes, Winston Churchill, His Career in War and Peace p. 45); This book was published in Great Britain in 1950 under the title “Winston Churchill in war and peace.” The American version titled “Winston Churchill: British bulldog” https://www.amazon.com/Winston-Churchill-British-bulldog-career/dp/B0006ATSO8
(8) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/10/jewish-responsibility-for-both-world.html
(9) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/10/zionism-hidden-tiranny-by-benjamin-h.html
(10) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/10/the-jewish-declaration-of-war-on.html
(11) https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/10/the-jewish-betrayal-of-germany-and.html
(12) The Anger Campaign against China; https://www.moonofshanghai.com/2020/08/blog-post_49.html
(13) The International Jews have some reason to resent China, which was to be dismembered and turned into a perpetual cash cow, a plan frustrated by Mao and his revolution. It was not “the British” but the International Jewish banking families, the Rothschilds, Sassoons, Kadoories, Hardoons and others that were entirely responsible for China’s 150 years-long opium travesty. Immediately after World War Two, one of Mao’s first acts was to expel all the Jews from China and confiscate all their opium assets – including all of the city of Shanghai and the Mainland Branches of the HSBC. They haven’t forgotten, and they want their money back.
George Galloway interviews Pepe Escobar in the capital of the Last Rome
“weak leaderships bring calamities on nations”
Amb. Bhadrakumar explores the deeper psycho-geopolitical questions we all ponder. The western assessment is that “Putin shies away from taking tough decisions.” Russia was bearded in their own den, shown by the perpetrators of the strategic bomber bases attack to be perhaps riding a paper tiger, and are now under Judgment.
This aggression on a central pillar of their national security would neither have been tolerated by the old soviet cadre, nor dared by their enemies.
Commensurate hell would already have visited the US strategic bases, at minimum. What is going on? There cannot be business as usual when the very survival, much less credibility of Russia is on the line. How did events get sliced incrementally to this point, after so many red lines were cheekily breached by the West?
He also notes Orange has been dissembling. A leopard does not change spots. His lack of heart in Gaza demonstrates the emptiness of the clutch of words over “saving lives” in 404. All this is not new to us, nor surprising in the amoral imperial core. And no Emperor wants to be the one left holding the stinky bag when the music stops in 404.
But this is really about Russia, and the putative “US-Russia relationship”, the lunge for an elusive mirage which risks snatching defeat from the jaws of Victory, if more unbelievable red line after red line are breached without consequence for the ultimate puppet-masters.
“There is something very wrong with the way Russia is governed today” to have allowed events to escalate to this prior unimaginable threshold. Mere tit-for-tat retaliation cannot now suffice; a rethink and deeper engagement with the opposing US authorities is required. Otherwise Russia will be bled white, and inside her walls, with impunity.
Featured Image: Ilya Repin’s painting “Barge Haulers on the Volga” (1870-73)
We know from other sources that Russia has been seeking for a deep representation of what they are. There is a new search for an identity that is expressed in a shorter slogan. The best way to explain it is to point to the Chinese slogan – socialism with Chinese characteristics or perhaps, a community of common destiny for mankind, or community with a shared future. We will soon see an article on the Russian search for a similar depiction of themselves.
It is not strange then that some in Russia seeks this in older communism. What is lost in that translation is that socialism is not static. It is not a destination but a journey. I for one cannot look forward to a revival of the Bolscheviks.
This is from Joti Brar.
The USSR can only be restored by reviving socialism
Today, the Russian presidential adviser Anton Kobyakov made a very remarkable statement. He noted that the procedure for dissolving the USSR in 1991 was violated, so the Soviet Union legally continues to exist.
Kobyakov said:
– If the Congress of People’s Deputies, also known as the Congress of Soviets, created the USSR in 1922, then it should have been dissolved by a decision of the Congress of these same deputies. And if the legal procedure was violated, then it turns out that the USSR legally exists, as constitutional law experts say.
We, communists, have long formulated this position. The USSR was created by the decision of the First All-Union Congress of Soviets, which brought together more than 2,000 delegates representing about 150 million people living not only in the RSFSR, Ukraine and Belarus, but also in Transcaucasia and Central Asia. Therefore, the decision to “dissolve the USSR”, made in Belovezhskaya Pushcha on December 8, 1991 by three not entirely sober subjects, is legal nonsense.
This is precisely why, having received powerful representation in the State Duma in the December 1995 elections, the CPRF achieved the denunciation of the Belovezh Accords in March 1996.
Of course, we welcome the fact that now a representative of the Russian executive power has supported the position of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation on the illegality of the destruction of the USSR.
But there is a very important point. In 1922, the USSR was created by representatives of the Soviet republics who decided to build a new, just society together – a socialist one. This was the great common cause that united hundreds of peoples in the area from the Baltic to Chukotka, from Taimyr to Pamir.
In order to bring these nations together again today, we must once again offer them the great idea of social justice. There are no other options. Therefore, if you really want the revival of the USSR, it is not enough to recognize its dissolution as legally null and void. We must begin with the restoration of socialism in Russia.
Translated from an original post by Yuri Afonin
June 1
Direct shooting into the crowd assembling for aid distribution. The attack occurred as massive crowds were waiting for aid outside a U.S. aid distribution center after being told to go there to receive aid. At least 31 Palestinians killed and 200 injured by Israeli fire near US-backed aid distribution site.
The attack came shortly after US rejected Hamas’s ‘totally unacceptable’ response to a ceasefire proposal.
Doctors report that every victim brought to the hospital had a single bullet wound to the head or chest, clear evidence of deliberate, targeted killing.
The lying Israeli Media frames it like this: “Gazans line up this morning at an aid distribution point near Rafah in southern Gaza. The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation distribution points have in their first week of operation provided millions of meals to tens of thousands of Gaza families.”
May 31
The “Israeli” enemy has waged a war of genocide in Gaza for 20 months (more than 600 days); the Palestinian tragedy itself spans 77 years. The most recent is that in the past 12 hours, the Zionist occupation bombed more than 60 buildings in Gaza.
At times, it is impossible to update this thread, and one has to step away. Yesterday was such a day. Today, there is a wide range of themes to choose from. Everything is now at a maximum crisis level. What do we choose?
-The 100% famine and people being starved to death? People having to run through a hail of bullets to get to aid distribution, which the investigative journalists tell us that Israel entirely financially owns the aid? The daily reports of aid stations refusing to hand out aid, and then, after claiming a station is open, people arrive and find it closed?
-Or do we choose as a theme children and families being burnt in their tents, having been shot at with incendiary ammunition to create fire to burn and char them to death
-Or is the better theme for the day the legal issues via Francesca Albanese and the UN Security Council? Francesca is in extreme danger. The Israeli smearing mob has tried. They cannot delegitimize her with sexual scandal. Financial scandal, they’ve tried and failed, and all that is left is a threat to her life.
-Or do we talk about the internal decay in Israel and all they have left, which is binary? Stop or continue the carnage. Continuing is all they have left. European countries now, only now, express that this human carnage must end? Of course, they see the writing on the wall and want to be seen as being on the right side. We will take what we get, but this effort by no means indicates an actual change of heart. Posturing is all they know how to do.
-Or could the theme be the constant bombing of anything still standing?
-Or the medical disaster, where doctors and medical staff are burning out and crying that they cannot stand the children in pain while having no medical supplies to use?
-Then, there is always Prof. Marandi, who, daily, at least three times, speaks out.
-There is always the Trump administration to talk about, which is now considering sanctions on Chile only because Chile withdrew its diplomatic staff from Israel?
-We can choose a theme for today, the ceasefire or peace negotiations, which are a sham, and there only to provide a theater in order to continue the butchery. The latest press is that Hamas accepts Witkoff’s proposal on Gaza, but with reservations — Al Arabiya reports
Insists on releasing hostages in small groups over 60 days, instead of 2
Demands ‘real guarantees’ from US that Israel will comply with agreement
-The world is out in the streets, and the new commitment is that the people will not leave the streets. They will stay and continue protesting until the genocide is stopped. Activists in the streets are also brutally attacked.
-We can also discuss our diverse group of video and show makers, who have stopped discussing genocide. Better to ignore those!
-There is also Netanyahu, who has blocked a visit by Middle East ministers to the West Bank, saying, ‘Israel will NOT cooperate’. Saudi, UAE, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, Turkey FMs planned talks on ‘establishment of Palestinian state’. There is another reason for this block, and it is that Netanyahu wants to hide the horror of his handiwork. (Remember, they shot at a previous visiting delegation). Don’t you touch our genocide!
-There is also the Al-Qassam fighters, who are within their ability, again fighting the Israeli Defense Force soldiers, and making them cry.
-Yemen has indicated that it will now target Israel’s warplanes.
-The US is reportedly sifting through the social media of possible visitors and students to make sure they don’t say a bad word about good Israel. The announcement also states that they will pursue international organizations.
Gaza! When grown men cry.
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