Connexion
L’exercice militaire Freezing Winds 25 de l’OTAN a débuté en mer Baltique, dans les eaux territoriales finlandaises et estoniennes. Vingt
L’article L’OTAN entame les exercices Freezing Winds dans les eaux estoniennes et finlandaises est apparu en premier sur STRATPOL.
I’m so glad Pepe Escobar paid attention as I did not. That EU nomenclature is so off-putting and when I saw Kaja Kallas, I left the room.
Pepe says: “Petro absolutely RIPPED at the CELAC-EU summit in Santa Marta. A historical/civilizational lesson – delivered in fabulously articulated Spanish. Wonder whether those EU warmongers could even begin to get the message.”
Gustavo Petro is a leader. He needs some seasoning but he has all the talent, the force and presence of personality and the deep knowledge of his region and its history, necessary. History was made.
Gustavo Petro is now, even if only in my eyes, the Ibrahim Traoré of Latin America. Those that know me, know that I act on these impulses and I will send a recommendation to the Foreign Offices of both Burkina Faso and Colombia to “Get together and be alright”. Traoré has combined in the Sahel Alliance the areas that were torn apart through abject colonialism. Petro is only starting the process. They are both sons of guerrilla movements who selected peace as the path forward. They may just have something to talk about. https://sovereignista.com/2025/07/21/ebrahim-traore-a-new-african-covenant/
I formally hand my personal crown to Gustavo Petro, since Evo Morales, the first indigenous leader in Bolivia and in the LAC, lost it via extreme meddling. (Of course one cannot have an indigenous leader on the pink side succeed. What will people say? This was a sad story). There are also strong historical similarities with Jose “Pepe” Mujica (rip), that wonderful man from Uruguay who was the first Latin American leader that I adored. We have the talent and the knowledge. We only need to get rid of the empire.
You can turn on English subtitles on the video, but I so hope some kind soul translates it for us, to try and maintain that articulated quite exceptional but also flowing, non-complicated and non-pretentious Spanish. Early on, he talks about barbarians and barbarity. He then goes into the LAC history, in a way that I’ve never seen it expressed. He touches on his call to again revive and unify Gran Colombia, a confederation of Latin American nations, echoing Simón Bolívar’s integrationist vision. https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/petro-renews-call-for-gran-colombia-union-to-unify-latin-ame
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Colombian President Gustavo Petro delivers a historic address at the 4th EU–CELAC Summit in Santa Marta, highlighting the struggle for democracy, the importance of global dialogue, and Latin America’s role as a beacon for free humanity. He calls for action against modern barbarity, honoring Indigenous and Afro-descendant heritage while promoting peace, diversity, and cooperation.
DRM News Provides Live Coverage From SANTA MARTA Where Leaders from Latin American, Caribbean, and European Union nations gather for the CELAC–EU Summit, focused on strengthening bi-regional cooperation, sustainable trade, and investment partnerships.
Hosted in the vibrant coastal city of Santa Marta, the summit features discussions on economic growth, climate resilience, digital transformation, and social inclusion — all under the theme of shared prosperity and global partnership.
The event opens with a traditional indigenous ceremony, symbolizing unity between regions and respect for cultural heritage, followed by the official heads-of-state photo and plenary sessions with European and Latin American leaders.
By Epic Economist.
Video Description:
“The American economy is crashing right now, and it’s worse than most people realize. From banks refusing cash withdrawals to nearly a million jobs lost to automation, from healthcare premiums doubling overnight to stores packed with inventory nobody can afford, the warning signs are everywhere.
In this video, we’re looking at what’s really happening on the ground. Not the official numbers or media spin, but what everyday Americans are experiencing: being interrogated at banks for their own money, losing jobs at profitable companies, watching healthcare become completely unaffordable, and seeing the retail economy grind to a halt.
This isn’t just a recession. Multiple systems are breaking down at once, and most people don’t realize how connected it all is. The crash is already here, the question is whether you’re prepared when it hits your situation directly.”
Act now while still have options:
see: our Prepping and Survival Thread
A few interesting selections from Godfree Roberts’ Newsletter: Here Comes China
Flight test begins of world’s first megawatt-level ‘windmill’ airship, the S1500, with 1MW energy generation, equivalent to a traditional 328-foot (100-meter) wind turbine.
DeepSeek becomes China’s AI model of choice overnight. HarmonyOS update of its AI assistant, Xiaoyi, is bringing deep integration of Deepseek-R1 to all Huawei phones. Lenovo’s Xiaotian platform has gone full Deepseek.
US companies stay put in China, none plan to move manufacturing to US.
Power consumption soared to an all-time high of 1,023 TWh in July, 2x residential of July 2019, more power than Japan, the 5th-largest power user in the world, used in all of 2024. Japan is the 5th-largest power user in the world.
The State Council, China’s cabinet, will discuss the use of offshore RMB stablecoins for trade settlement, part of broader discussions about expanding the use of the renminbi internationally.
China Records First Decline in National Carbon Emissions: China’s renewable energy push is paying off with a 1% YoY drop in carbon emissions in H1 2025.
China Concord Resources Corp signs rare 20-year pact to develop two Venezuelan oilfields, investing $1B+ to pump 60,000 bpd by 2026.
The US Navy is Building a Drone Fleet to Take on China (it’s not going well).
This article is very funny:
-During a U.S. naval test off the California coast last month, which was designed to showcase the Pentagon’s top autonomous drone boats, one vessel stalled unexpectedly.
-As officials scrambled to fix a software glitch, another drone vessel smashed into the idling boat’s starboard side, vaulted over the deck, and crashed back into the water
-The previously unreported episode, which involved two vessels built by U.S. defense tech rivals Saronic and BlackSea Technologies, is one of a series of recent setbacks in the Pentagon’s push to build a fleet of autonomous vessels, according to a dozen people familiar with the program.
-Weeks earlier, during a separate Navy test, the captain of a support boat was thrown into the water after another autonomous BlackSea vessel it was towing suddenly accelerated, capsizing the support boat, according to four people familiar with the matter. The captain was rescued and declined medical attention. The incident was first reported by Defense Scoop.
-Both incidents stemmed from a combination of software failures and human error, including breakdowns in communication between onboard systems and external autonomous software, according to a person with direct knowledge of the matter, who requested anonymity to share sensitive information.
How Buddha, Ayyub, Chitraketu and other sages teach us to embrace aging, illness and death as pathways to inner freedom.
Do you wish to be free? Then learn to live in surrender. The stories of Buddha, Ayyub, Chitraketu and other sages show that liberation begins when we face suffering rather than flee from it. Aging, sickness and death are not enemies but teachers reminding us of what is eternal. True transformation requires active participation – not just understanding, but embodiment.
The Light That Remains
“Lord, grant me the wisdom of Symeon:
not to mourn what fades,
but to rejoice in what endures –
Your love, untouched by wrinkles.
For when the candle burns down
and grows smaller,
its light shines just as bright –
until the wick expires
and passes
into morning light
no human hand has made.
So too is fear of death
merely life
clutching itself
in a fist.
Open your hand –
what falls becomes wings.
What remains is breath.
And what never perishes
is the light
we have always been.”
Buddha
Siddhartha Gautama was born as a prince in a royal family (around the 6th century BCE in Nepal). His father, King Śuddhodana, heard a prophecy that Siddhartha would become either a great ruler or a spiritual leader. Because the king wanted his son to inherit his throne, he shielded Siddhartha from all misery in the world. He grew up in luxury, surrounded by beauty, health and pleasure, without knowledge of aging, sickness or death.
At a later age, Siddhartha nevertheless left the palace and saw things that changed his life forever. He saw an old man and realized that all people age. He understood that health is not permanent when seeing a sick man. When he saw a corpse, he discovered the inevitability of death. These confrontations shocked Siddhartha deeply. He realized that suffering was a universal part of life, and that his sheltered youth had given him an incomplete picture of reality.
Siddhartha left his comfortable life and went in search of truth and liberation from suffering. First he tried extreme asceticism (self-mortification, fasting), but discovered this didn’t lead to enlightenment. Eventually he found the Middle Way – no extreme luxury, but also no extreme self-torment. Under the Bodhi tree he attained enlightenment (Nirvana), realizing that suffering arises from desire and attachment, and that liberation is possible through wisdom, moral living and meditation.
This story shows how Buddha consciously sought out confronting experiences to understand the nature of life. His teaching emphasizes that true awareness only arises when we face the reality of suffering, not by running from it. It also illustrates the Buddhist idea that spiritual growth sometimes means leaving your comfort zone to discover deeper truths.
Ayyub
Ayyub was a wealthy and pious man, blessed with health, children and great riches. He lived in comfort and gratitude, always praising God for his blessings. His faith seemed unshakable, until Satan asked: “Does Ayyub not worship You only because You give him everything?” God allowed Ayyub to be tested. First he lost all his livestock and possessions. Then his children died in an accident. Finally his body was afflicted with painful sores until he could only lie on a mat. Even his wife left him. But Ayyub remained patient and said: “Everything we have comes from God, and everything we lose returns to Him.” After years of trial, God healed him and gave him more than he had ever lost. This story shows that true faith doesn’t depend on prosperity, but endures even in deepest suffering.
King Chitraketu
King Chitraketu was a powerful ruler who had everything his heart desired, but his greatest happiness he found in his only son. One day the boy died suddenly. The king was inconsolable; he refused to have the body buried and held it for days, overcome by grief. Then the sages Narada and Angira appeared. They said: “Why mourn what was never yours? The soul is eternal, only the body perishes.” Chitraketu didn’t understand until his deceased son appeared as a spirit and said: “Father, in previous lives you were my son. This cycle of attachment brings only pain.” At that moment the king let go of his attachment and found peace in realizing the eternal soul. This shows how suffering can liberate us from illusions about possession and identity.
John of the Cross
John was a fervent monk who always felt God’s presence in his prayers. Until he was imprisoned by his own brother monks. In his dark cell all spiritual comfort disappeared. He prayed, but felt only emptiness. “Have I imagined it all?” he wondered desperately. For months he struggled through this darkness, until he gained a profound insight: his desire for spiritual experiences had been selfish. True love for God needs no reward. In this ‘dark night of the soul’ he found a purer faith – based not on feeling, but on willpower and surrender. Just as Buddha taught that desire causes suffering, John discovered that our craving for divine experiences can sometimes be the greatest obstacle to true spirituality.
Shared Wisdom
Like Buddha, Ayyub, Chitraketu and John discovered that spiritual growth often begins when our comfort is taken away. Ayyub learned that true faith doesn’t depend on prosperity. Chitraketu saw how attachment causes suffering. John discovered that true mysticism sometimes must go through darkness. All three show that suffering, when faced, can be a gateway to deeper insight and liberation. Their stories remind us that the path to wisdom often leads through valleys of crisis, not around them.
Aging
In the Egyptian desert lived Symeon the Elder, an ascetic who had gone blind in old age. His body was broken, his skin wrinkled like old parchment, but his mind was as clear as desert air after a storm. One day the young and proud Queen of Alexandria came to him, surrounded by her ladies-in-waiting in silk gowns.
She knelt and said: “Father Symeon, I fear aging. See how my beauty fades! Each year I feel my youth slipping away. How can I accept this?” The old monk turned his blind eyes to her and asked: “If your palace slowly crumbled, where would you be?” Confused, the queen replied: “I would move to a new palace, of course.” Symeon smiled: “Then why weep over this body, which is but a temporary dwelling? Your soul is already building a palace in heaven – where neither moth nor rust destroys.”
Then he leaned forward and whispered: “My eyes see no more light, but my heart sees God. My hands tremble, yet they still fold in prayer. This is the secret: aging is not decay, but transfiguration – like bread and wine in the Eucharist that don’t perish, but change into something sacred.”
In Orthodox tradition, the body is a temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 6:19), but not our true home. Symeon’s blindness symbolizes what St. Paul wrote: “Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day” (2 Cor. 4:16). Just as Christ’s cross turned death into life, Symeon teaches that decline can be a gateway – if we don’t cling to it.
Illness
In ancient Indian tradition lives the story of Ashtavakra, a sage who encountered suffering even before birth. When his father, the scholar Kahoda, recited sacred texts during pregnancy, the fetus corrected him from the womb. Insulted by this correction, Kahoda cursed his unborn child: “You will be born with eight (ashta) bends (vakra) in your body.”
Thus Ashtavakra came into the world – with a deformed body, every joint bent by the curse. His appearance invited mockery, but his mind was sharper than any scholar’s. At twelve, he heard his father had been thrown into a river after losing a debate to King Janaka’s court scholars. Ashtavakra traveled to the palace, where guards laughed: “What can a crippled boy do here?”
Before the king, Janaka tested him: “There’s a rope in this hall – tell me, is it straight or crooked?” Ashtavakra replied: “In a palace full of illusions, all is crooked. Only truth is straight.” Silence fell. The deeply impressed king had Kahoda’s drowning undone.
Later Ashtavakra wrote the Ashtavakra Gita, one of Advaita Vedanta’s most radical texts. There he teaches: “You are not the body that suffers, nor the mind that fears. Sickness and health are passing clouds – you are the unchanging sky.”
The lesson is that illness may be a physical experience, but needn’t become a mental prison. Ashtavakra’s deformities became his greatest strength – freeing him from vanity and leading to pure wisdom. Just as Buddha taught suffering stems from attachment, Ashtavakra shows liberation is possible even amid pain.
Think of people who say after serious illness: “It taught me what truly matters.” Or philosophers like Nietzsche who wrote: “What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.” Ashtavakra’s story invites us to look beyond the body – to that in us which never falls ill, never ages, never dies.
Dying
A Sufi master once saw a man running terrified through the marketplace. “What’s wrong?” he asked. The panting man cried: “Death stands at the edge of town! He looked at me with empty eyes – I must flee!”
The Sufi walked on and indeed saw Death sitting on an overturned jug. “Why did you frighten that man so?” he asked. Death replied, surprised: “I was startled to see him here. I have an appointment with him tonight… in a city three days’ journey from here.”
The man had run straight toward his own appointment out of fear of death. His panic made him miss life – the sun, his chat with the Sufi, the smell of fresh bread. In Sufi tradition this teaches: “Who flees death runs straight to it. Who makes peace with it finds freedom.”
Transformation
This isn’t just about spiritual growth, but about our present transformation of body and mind – through acceptance, perspective and surrender to life itself. We age, we sometimes fall ill, and we ultimately die. That IS life – nothing less.
What we call aging, illness and dying may be life’s language as it reinvents itself – if we learn to listen rather than just resist. Perhaps true healthcare isn’t fighting these processes, but guiding transformative journeys.
“Save your soul, and a thousand around you will be saved.”
If you see the value in these wise lessons, how will you apply them? What does your transformation look like? Does it stop at understanding, or do you become a liberated witness to your own life?
Personal Note
It’s not easy – I know. When young, I never thought about aging and dying. Now older, having watched many depart this Earth, what first felt frightening – my own turn coming – no longer troubles me. I still find life delightful and want to enjoy it, yet we’re all also somewhat relieved when we can go home – especially after such a strange trip here.
Earth is a marvelous planet – too bad about the humans.
“Perhaps we’re not here to fix the world,
but to remind ourselves
we were once whole –
and beneath all this human fuss,
still are.”
Nico Cost (with a whisper of DeepSeek)
With Judge Napolitano.
Sachs: To make Gaza completely unlivable. That is genocide.
Pavel Durov, founder of Telegram, joins Human Rights Foundation CEO and founder, Thor Halvorssen, in a rare and wide-ranging conversation on digital freedom, state censorship, and the responsibilities of tech creators in the modern world. Durov recounts how Telegram became a lifeline for protest movements from Belarus to Hong Kong and what may be around the corner for encrypted communications tools. As governments demand more control over online platforms, Durov lays out his vision for a secure, decentralized future where privacy, encryption, and free expression are non-negotiable.
Shortly after this Durov announced a joint venture with Elon Musk, to integrate the GROK AI with Telegram. Why not one of the Chinese ones?
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