Yemen gives Israel four-day ultimatum to stop blocking Gaza aid
The Cradle | March 8, 2025
The leader of Yemen’s Ansarallah resistance movement, Abdul Malik al-Houthi, announced on 7 March a four-day grace period for Israel to resume ceasefire talks and lift its blockade on humanitarian aid for Gaza, threatening to resume Sanaa’s naval operations against Israeli-linked ships.
“We meet the siege with a siege,” Houthi emphasized, adding that Yemen “cannot stand by and watch the Israeli enemy’s aggressive approach in starving the Palestinian people in Gaza.”
“We do not just issue statements, but we can support the Palestinians in several areas,” the Ansarallah leader said, pointing out that “in the course of implementing the ceasefire in Gaza, it was clear that the Israeli enemy was procrastinating in fulfilling its obligations, especially those related to the humanitarian file.
The Ansarallah-led Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) ceased military operations in support of Palestine following the start of a US-sponsored ceasefire in Gaza earlier this year. Since November 2023, the YAF repeatedly targeted US, UK, and Israeli-linked commercial ships and western warships in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and the Mediterranean Sea.
Sanaa’s efforts to stop the US-Israeli genocide in Gaza prompted an illegal war initiated by Washington and London, resulting in hundreds of airstrikes in the Arab world’s poorest nation.
Despite the western onslaught, the YAF were undeterred in their military campaign and forced several US aircraft carriers and European warships out of the Red Sea. The country has also downed 15 US MQ-9 Reaper drones and recently fired its air defenses on a US F-16 jet.
A year ago, the former US Special Envoy for Yemen, Timothy Lenderking, admitted that “there is no military solution” for Yemen.
“I don’t think people really understand just kind of how deadly serious it is what we’re doing and how under threat the ships continue to be,” Commander Eric Blomberg with the USS Laboon told US media last year.
Houthi’s warning comes almost a week after Israel reimposed a total blockade on humanitarian aid shipments for Gaza after obstructing the ceasefire agreement from moving forward by demanding an extension of the first phase.
Hamas has rejected any extension of phase one and is demanding strict adherence to the agreement and international pressure on Israel.
“The resumption of war on Gaza will be met with the entire [Israeli] enemy entity coming under fire … If the war returns to Gaza, we will intervene with support through various military means,” Houthi warned on Sunday.
Trump cuts $400 million to Columbia Uni. over pro-Palestine protests
Al Mayadeen | March 8, 2025
US Federal Authorities announced on Friday a cut in grants and contracts with Columbia University in New York, citing pro-Palestine protests, which the Trump administration labels as “anti-semitic”.
The US Departments of Justice, Health and Human Services, Education, and the General Services Administration— all part of the Trump Administration’s Joint Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism— announced the cuts in a statement, citing Columbia’s ongoing failure to stop pro-Palestine protests.
The statement adds that the cuts are the “first round of action” against the Ivy League university, emphasizing that more cancellations are anticipated as Columbia has more than $5 billion in federal grant commitments.
The agencies stated that they would issue stop-work orders for the grants and contracts, which will immediately freeze Columbia’s access to the funding without divulging details about the specific programs that will be affected.
Columbia under fire for alleged ‘anti-semitism’
Columbia University has been the battleground for threats and measures targeting pro-Palestine students who organized and shared in protests against “Israel’s” genocide in Gaza, which “Israel” supporters have labelled as anti-semitic.
The US House Committee on Education and the Workforce demanded in February that Columbia University submit disciplinary records by the end of this month for students involved in anti-“Israel” protests between April and January 2024, criticizing the Ivy League institution’s handling of the matter.
The House panel sent a six-page letter to Columbia University’s leadership on February 13, stating that the institution had failed to fulfill its promise to students, faculty, and Congress to address “anti-Semitism,” asserting that “Columbia’s ongoing failure to confront the widespread anti-Semitism on campus is unacceptable, especially given the university receives billions in federal funding.”
The university’s newly established Office of Institutional Equity launched multiple investigations to track down students who voiced their opposition to “Israel”, according to the Associated Press.
Columbia sent notices to dozens of students for activities ranging from sharing pro-Palestinian social media posts to taking part in protests that the school considers “unauthorized,” while the creation of the “disciplinary office” sparked concerns among students, faculty members, and free speech advocates who said Columbia caved in to Trump’s pressure.
BP in crisis — The oil industry’s biggest loser on renewable energy
The iconic 120 year old company shares fall as rumors of a takeover spread
By Jo Nova | February 25, 2025
BP has lost a quarter of its share value in the last two weeks. The fall started when company profits turned out to be just $9 billion, down from $14b a year ago and $28b in 2022. As The Telegraph reports, “BP’s shareholders had realized that the green spending they supported in 2020 had halved their dividends.” But Shell, Chevron, and Exxon — the other oil giants — they were all doing much better.
Twenty years ago BP changed its branding to “Beyond Petroleum”. By 2020 the company was hellbent on getting there. Suicidally, the oil company pledged to reduce their own oil production by 40% by 2030, (which did nothing except help all their competitors) and promised to pivot into renewable power. BP set itself a target to increase renewables generation by a factor of twenty this decade. The media gushed — “BP Shuns Fossil Fuels“, said Politico. BP supposedly shone a light on “stranded oil and gas”!
Thus and verily, in mid 2020, with exquisite timing, BP management leapt headlong in the magical energy pit. They were sure that after the pandemic the world would ‘build back better’ with renewables “so their economies would be more resilient”... CEO Bernard Looney actually said that (probably while reading from the WEF handbook of “What to Wear for Billionaires”).
So BP flagged a write-down of $18 billion dollars in fossil fuel assets and talked of “accelerating” it’s green investments. Then everything went wrong. Just after BP bet the house on renewables, the Ukraine war broke out and everyone needed oil and gas and no one needed another wind farm. There was a bonanza selling fossil fuels as prices lifted off (seen in the BP income in 2022) but suddenly no one could afford to buy real energy to make solar panels and turbines, and no one had much cash left to buy randomly-failing generators either. It’s been all downhill in renewables ever since.
Prior to this, BP operated Australia’s largest oil refinery for 66 years in Kwinana, Western Australia until it closed in 2021. Until a few weeks ago, BP was planning to launch a $600 million biofuel project on the same site, and the Australian government was thinking of tossing $1 billion dollars at a hydrogen project there too. They were supposed to turn cooking oil into av-gas and renewable diesel, and be a hub for hydrogen. It’s sadly pathetic and unravelling at warp speed.
The Telegraph has all the sordid details as British Petroleum fights for life.
BP faces ‘existential crisis’ after ruinous attempt to go green
The energy giant has vowed a ‘fundamental reset’ after its costly foray into net zero
Johnathon Leake and Ben Marlow, The Telegraph
Five years on from that speech in February 2020, the company is beleaguered by a ruthless activist investor, under pressure to boost its flatlining share price and considering a return to the oil and gas exploration that made it so successful to begin with.
The abrupt turn follows decades of crisis at one of Britain’s most venerable institutions. Today, its future is more uncertain than ever.
To win round doubters, he is expected to announce a major break with the last five years – shifting away from net zero and back towards its oil and gas heritage.
Pushed by analysts, Auchincloss, Looney’s replacement, confirmed a halt to all investment in wind and solar. “We have completely decapitalised renewables,” he said.
We can blame management, who had been on the fruity green path since 1997, and screwed up majorly, but oddly, 88% of BP shareholders also voted in favor of cutting oil and growing renewables which doesn’t make much sense. Not unless the rank and file votes were unknowingly cast-by-proxy through their hedge funds and pension accounts. Were 88% of British Petroleum investors really fooled into thinking oil was “bad” — or was BP quietly undermined by the big banker blob cartel who may have bossed all the pension funds into voting for Hari Kari? Larry Fink, head of BlackRock, pumped up the whole renewables bubble in 2020, and the bankers were known to boss around whole countries with threats of high interest rates if they didn’t behave.
Hypothetically if the Big Bankers were heavily invested in renewable stocks (which they were), then during a bubble, it would work out well for them if one of the largest oil and gas companies performed a large public flip to renewables. And as a bonus, if BP shareholders were stiffed in the process, the wreckage of a great company could be picked up cheaply a few years later…
So management were crazy, but they probably had help from The Blob Bankers and the Blob Media to really screw things up.
New Mexico Health Officials Mum on Whether Adult Died From — or With — Measles
By Brenda Baletti, Ph.D. | The Defender | March 7, 2025
An adult who died in Lea County, New Mexico, tested positive for measles, state health officials said on Thursday, but officials did not confirm that measles caused the death.
David Morgan, public information officer for the New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH), told The Defender today that the state’s medical examiner is still investigating the official cause of death.
However, given the presence of the measles virus, the health department was counting the death as a “measles-related death,” Morgan said.
He said no additional information about the patient would be released, including comorbidities or other information about the patient’s health status.
The NMDOH said in a press release that a laboratory confirmed the presence of the measles virus and that the person was unvaccinated. The health department also said the person did not seek medical attention before dying, suggesting the measles test was performed post-mortem.
New Mexico health authorities said people should get vaccinated. “We don’t want to see New Mexicans getting sick or dying from measles,” said Dr. Chad Smelser, NMDOH deputy state epidemiologist. “The measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine is the best protection against this serious disease.”
The health department scheduled two free MMR vaccination clinics for next week.
The New Mexico Office of the Medical Examiner and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) did not respond to The Defender’s request for comment.
The NMDOH announcement followed news last week that a hospitalized 6-year-old child in Texas who died also reportedly tested positive for measles — it was the first measles-related death reported in the U.S. in 10 years. Texas health authorities did not release additional information about the child’s health.
‘Why do they keep so much information hidden?’
Internist Dr. Meryl Nass, who has been covering the measles outbreaks on her Substack, said, “The big question in my mind is, why do they keep so much information hidden?”
Karl Jablonowski, Ph.D., senior research scientist for Children’s Health Defense (CHD), voiced a similar concern. “This is the second death reported from a state health department where the minimum amount of information was released.” He accused health authorities of inciting fear and promoting vaccination as the “solution to that fear.”
In an email to The Defender, Jablonowski wrote:
“Lea County [New Mexico]: adult, unvaccinated, measles, dead. Lubbock [Texas]: school-aged child, unvaccinated, measles, dead. Without cause of death, comorbidities, circumstances, or any other details, it is akin to screaming fire in a crowded theater.”
CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker said the adult who died was not tested for measles until after death — presumably an autopsy — showing that the person “most likely died with the measles but not necessarily from the measles.”
Hooker added:
“This is similar to the death of a young adult woman in 2015 in Washington state whose autopsy testing revealed she died with the measles virus. The woman had multiple comorbidities, including pneumonia, which was the cause of death.
“To tell the reader that they died from the measles is quite a quantum leap for a deceased person who wasn’t tested for measles until their autopsy, which yielded a positive test.
“Also, was it a RT-PCR test? Do we know the reliability of the test? There are so many questions that need to be answered rather than ‘rubber stamping’ this a ‘measles death.’
“It seems all too convenient for the narrative of ‘vaccinate, vaccinate, vaccinate.’”
Mainstream media were quick to report that the adult death in New Mexico was from measles, even though the NMDOH did not confirm that:
- “Second measles death reported as outbreak grows in Southwest” — The Hill
- “Second death reported in growing measles outbreak — The Washington Post
- “Unvaccinated New Mexico Resident Dies of Suspected Measles — The New York Times
Public health strategy: ‘increase vaccination rates at all costs’
Six adults and four children have tested positive for measles in Lea County, which borders West Texas, where a larger outbreak is ongoing. However, health authorities have not confirmed a link between the two outbreaks.
The outbreak in West Texas — particularly in Gaines County — garnered mainstream media attention after the Texas Department of State Health Services last week reported what it called “the first death from measles in the ongoing outbreak in the South Plains and Panhandle regions.”
Media reports highlighted the fact that many of the cases were among a Mennonite community.
Many members of that community said they feel “frustrated” and “targeted” by mainstream media coverage of the outbreak, said Mennonite community member Tina Siemens in an interview with The Defender.
“The media is portraying the unvaccinated as uneducated” and reporting that because they decline the vaccine, “they are the ones that are carrying all of the measles outbreak,” Siemens said.
Jablonowski said this type of coverage is part of a public health strategy:
“If you are over 12 months old and unvaccinated, you are unvaccinated for a reason. And there are many good reasons: religious convictions, personal philosophy, a different view of medicine, a different interpretation of the science, a different balance of risk, the beneficial effects of actually getting wild-type measles, and — frankly — distrust in the widely and wildly conflicted zealots.
“The posturing of so-called public health is to increase vaccination rates at all costs. It is a value-free enterprise, meaning it doesn’t matter what your values are — they still want you to vaccinate. When we accept achieving a goal as value-free is when we lose our humanity, let alone our freedoms.”
41 deaths reported to VAERS following MMR or MMRV vaccines in past 10 years
Evidence exists of serious health risks associated with the MMR vaccine. Researchers in 2004 found that boys vaccinated with their first MMR vaccine on time were 67% more likely to get diagnosed with autism compared to boys who got their first vaccine after their 3rd birthday.
The CDC recommends that children receive their first dose of the MMR vaccine between 12 and 15 months old.
Research also shows that the MMR vaccine causes febrile seizures, anaphylaxis, meningitis, encephalitis, thrombocytopenia, arthralgia and vasculitis.
Over the past 10 years, there have been 41 deaths following MMR or MMRV vaccination reported in the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS).
There is also evidence that contracting measles provides more comprehensive and long-term immunity to the illness, although the illness can also be serious.
“There are risks from measles and risks from the vaccine,” Nass wrote. “There are apparent benefits from both. … And everyone should have the right to balance their own risks and benefits and make this decision for themselves.”
Mainstream media smears treatments
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last week recommended vaccination against measles. However, he also endorsed treatments for the disease — which mainstream media used to discredit Kennedy and the treatments he recommended.
The Times wrote:
“This outbreak has been a trial by fire of the new secretary of health and human services, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a prominent vaccine skeptic. His equivocal response has drawn harsh criticism from scientists, who say he has offered muted support for vaccination and has emphasized untested treatments for measles like cod liver oil.”
However, according to doctors who treat patients with measles, the treatments Kennedy recommended — cod liver oil (a food-based source of vitamin A and vitamin D), budesonide (a steroid used to relieve inflammation affecting the airways), and clarithromycin (an antibiotic) — can be effective.
Nass noted that the World Health Organization also recommends vitamin A supplements to treat measles.
Dr. Ben Edwards, an integrative medicine family practitioner in Lubbock who has been treating measles patients there, told The Defender earlier this week that he was having a lot of success with what the Times called “untested treatments” for measles.
He also said that the hospital treating the child who died refused to give the child “breathing treatments,” as the family requested.
Reports also indicate that children exposed to the measles in Texas are being given the MMR vaccine, which is contraindicated for anyone who is pregnant, immunocompromised or sick with a fever — a common measles symptom — according to its package insert.
This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.
HHS is Opposing Experimental Bird Flu ‘Vaccines’ for Poultry. USDA Seems Supportive.
By Adam Dick | Peace and Prosperity Blog | March 8, 2025
Last week, I wrote about experimental “vaccines” that the United States government has been working with pharmaceutical companies to develop — different ones for poultry and people. I asked if Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Brooke Rollins, both new to their jobs in February, would stand up against this and other aspects of “the US government’s bird flu scheme ramped up during the previous presidential administration.” Here is an update.
In a new interview at Fox Nation, Kennedy indicated that HHS opposes giving chickens the bird flu “vaccine.” Kennedy stated: “There’s no indication that those vaccines actually provide sterilizing immunity, and all three of my health agencies at NIH, CDC, and FDA — the acting heads of those agencies — have all recommended against the use of the bird flu vaccine.” This conclusion is supported, Kennedy stated, by the fact that “the vaccine could actually promote antigenic shift, which means your turning those birds into mutant factories, and that could actually accelerate the jump [of the bird flu] to human beings.”
The catch, though, is that the authority over this in regard to poultry raised in America largely resides in the USDA. Therefore, it is important what Rollins decides. So far, she seems to be “on the vaccine train” as was her predecessor in the Joe Biden administration. On February 26, Rollin released the USDA’s Five-Pronged Approach to Address Avian Flu that includes substantial boosting of giving a bird flu “vaccine” to poultry in its fourth of five sections. Here is that section:
Explore Pathways toward Vaccines, Therapeutics, and Other Strategies for Protecting Egg Laying Chickens to Reduce Instances of Depopulation
- USDA will be hyper-focused on a targeted and thoughtful strategy for potential new generation vaccines, therapeutics, and other innovative solutions to minimize depopulation of egg laying chickens along with increased bio-surveillance and other innovative solutions targeted at egg laying chickens in and around outbreaks. Up to a $100 million investment will be available for innovation in this area.
- Importantly, USDA will work with trading partners to limit impacts to export trade markets from potential vaccination. Additionally, USDA will work alongside the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to ensure the public health and safety of any such approaches include considerations of tradeoffs between public health and infectious disease strategy.
- USDA will solicit public input on solutions, and will involve Governors, State Departments of Agriculture, state veterinarians, and poultry and dairy farmers on vaccine and therapeutics strategy, logistics, and surveillance. USDA will immediately begin holding biweekly discussions on this and will also brief the public on its progress biweekly until further notice.
Will President Donald Trump step in to settle any disagreement between HHS and USDA on the matter?
Notably, the USDA report also indicated that USDA will continue to back the mass slaughter of poultry in the name of countering bird flu, stating that the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service “will continue to indemnify producers whose flocks must be depopulated to control the further spread of HPAI.” HPAI is short for highly pathogenic avian influenza — bird flu.
As I wrote last week, Kennedy has in his early actions provided reason to expect that he would support ending US involvement in developing and promoting bird flu shots for people, something under the control of his department. He has yet to implement such a change.
White House COVID Task Force Coordinator Deborah Birx Came Directly from USAID
By Debbie Lerman | February 12, 2025
This article adds to the evidence presented in the COVID Dossier to support the following claim:
COVID was not a public health event, although it was presented as such to the world’s population. It was a global operation, coordinated through public-private intelligence and military alliances and invoking laws designed for CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) weapons attacks.
USAID-COVID CONNECTION
Deborah Birx, who became the White House Coronavirus Task Force Coordinator on February 27, 2020, came directly from USAID – the department everyone now knows to be a front for CIA propaganda and regime change operations. [ref]
She served as U.S. Special Representative for Global Health Diplomacy, a joint USAID and State Department office that had ” developed a strategic approach to accomplish their shared mission that focuses on robust diplomacy and development as central to solving global problems.” [ref]
Almost exactly five years ago, the public was told that Deborah Birx was appointed by Vice President Mike Pence who, on February 26, 2020, took over coordination of the U.S. government’s response to the novel coronavirus. [ref]
The announcement said:
Ambassador Birx is a world-renowned global health official and physician. She will be detailed to the Office of the Vice President and will report to Vice President Mike Pence. She will also join the Task Force led by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar. She will be supported by the National Security Council staff. [ref]
This announcement contains hints that Birx was not chosen by public health agencies or officials. Rather, she appears to be coming from the national security apparatus, and “will be supported by the National Security Council staff.”
Further supporting this supposition, on March 11, 2020, at a Heritage Foundation Talk, Trump’s National Security Advisor, Robert O’Brien, when discussing what the White House and NSC were doing about the virus, said:
We brought into the White House Debi Birx, a fantastic physician and ambassador from the State Department. We appreciate Secretary Pompeo immediately moving her over to the White House at our, well at the President’s, request. [min. 21:43 – 21:56]
In other words, Birx was “moved over to the White House” by the Secretary of State, at the request of the National Security Council.
The National Security Council Was in Charge of the U.S. Government’s Covid Response
These facts about Deborah Birx’s appointment to the Task Force are consistent with the government pandemic planning documents that show the NSC – not the HHS, CDC, NIAID, or any other public health agency – was in charge of the U.S. government’s Covid response policy.
Investigating Deborah Birx’s Role in the Covid Response
In August 2022 I published a series of articles investigating how Deborah Birx got the job on the Task Force, the bogus science she promoted, and her relationship with the public health officials on the Task Force.
Here are excerpts from, and links to, those articles:
How Did Deborah Birx Get the Job?
Deborah Birx, an immunologist and Army Colonel who worked for the Department of Defense and US Military on AIDS research, served as Directory of the CDC’s Division of Global HIV/AIDS and as the US Global AIDS Coordinator [ref], was appointed White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator on February 27th, 2020.
She had no training or experience in epidemiology, novel pathogen pandemic response, or airborne respiratory viruses like the coronavirus.
She was offered the position by Matt Pottinger, Deputy National Security Advisor for China, who told Birx that if she did not take the job American lives could be lost.
In her “excruciating story” of the pandemic, Silent Invasion, Deborah Birx does not even try to make coherent scientific or public health policy arguments in favor of the Chinese-style totalitarian measures she advocated. Instead, she provides self-contradictory assertions – some downright false and others long disproven in the scientific literature.
We know Birx was not working with President Trump, although she was on a task force ostensibly representing the White House. Trump did not appoint her, nor did the leaders of the Task Force, as Scott Atlas recounts in his revelatory book on White House pandemic activity, A Plague Upon Our House. When Atlas asked Task Force members how Birx was appointed, he was surprised to find that “no one seemed to know.” (Atlas, p. 82)
Yet, somehow, Deborah Birx – a former military AIDS researcher and government AIDS ambassador with no training, experience, or publications in epidemiology or public health policy – found herself leading a White House Task Force on which she had the power to literally subvert the policy prescriptions of the President of the United States.
It is my (as yet unproven) theory that the lab-leak cabal, for which Birx was a primary agent in the US government, wanted to impose strict lockdowns all over the world.
Whatever their motives, the goal seems very clear: Get as many countries as possible to lock down for as long as possible, at least until vaccines become available.
But locking down entire countries full of healthy populations was never an accepted or ethically/medically/scientifically supported pandemic response, and people might object to such draconian measures. So Birx+cabal had to create enough panic to make it happen.
Given this connection between the U.S. government’s Covid response, the CIA-adjacent USAID, and the National Security Council, maybe those who say they are interested in full transparency can answer the questions presented here:
Hey, Jim Jordan: Ask Fauci Who His Bosses Were!
And the crucial questions raised by the Covid Dossier.
A new American empire: Trump, Russia, and the end of globalism
The US is resetting, but not how the world expected
By Vasily Kashin | Profile | March 5, 2025
Donald Trump’s return to the White House is shaping up to be nothing short of a political revolution. The new administration is rapidly dismantling the old order, purging the ruling elite, reshaping both domestic and foreign policy, and cementing changes that will be difficult to reverse – even if his opponents regain power in future elections.
For Trump, as for all revolutionaries, the priority is to break the existing system and consolidate radical transformations. Many of the principles that guided US policy for decades – sometimes for over a century – are being deliberately discarded. Washington’s global strategy, long built on expansive military, diplomatic, and financial influence, is being rewritten to serve Trump’s domestic political needs.
The end of the American liberal empire
For the past 100 years, the US has functioned as a global empire. Unlike traditional empires built on territorial expansion, the American empire extended its reach through financial dominance, military alliances, and ideological influence. This model, however, has become increasingly unsustainable. Since the late 1990s, the costs of maintaining global hegemony have exceeded the benefits, fueling discontent both at home and abroad.
Trump and his allies seek to end this ‘liberal empire’ and return America to a more self-reliant, mercantilist model – one reminiscent of the late 19th and early 20th centuries under President William McKinley. Trump has openly praised this era, viewing it as the golden age of US prosperity, before the country took on the burdens of global leadership.
Under this vision, America will reduce unproductive foreign expenditures and refocus on its natural advantages: Vast resources, an advanced industrial base, and the world’s most valuable consumer market. Rather than policing the world, Washington will wield its economic power more aggressively to secure trade advantages. However, the transition to this model carries significant risks, particularly in a highly globalized economy.
A shift in global strategy
Trump’s policies are driven by domestic concerns but will have major implications abroad. His administration is systematically dismantling key institutions of the old order, including those that irritated Moscow. For instance, USAID – a major vehicle for American influence in the post-Soviet space – has been gutted. Ironically, Trump had more motivation to destroy USAID than even Russian President Vladimir Putin, given that its resources had been repurposed for domestic political use by Trump’s rivals.
If the US abandons its liberal empire model, many sources of tension with Russia will disappear. Historically, Moscow and Washington had relatively stable relations throughout the 19th century. If Trump’s America reverts to a more isolationist approach, Russia will no longer be a primary target of US interference. The main friction point will likely be the Arctic, where both nations have strategic interests.
China, however, remains Trump’s top adversary. Beijing’s state-led economic expansion is fundamentally at odds with Trump’s mercantilist vision. Unlike Biden, who sought to counter China through alliances, Trump is willing to go it alone – potentially weakening Western unity in the process. His administration is expected to escalate economic and technological warfare against Beijing, even if it means alienating European allies.
Europe’s strategic uncertainty
One of Trump’s most disruptive moves has been his open hostility toward the EU. His vice president, J.D. Vance, recently delivered a speech in Munich that amounted to direct interference in European politics, signaling support for right-wing nationalist movements that challenge the EU’s authority.
This shift is forcing Europe into an uncomfortable position. For years, China has viewed Western Europe as an ‘alternative West’ with which it could engage economically without the same level of confrontation it faces with the US. Trump’s approach could accelerate EU-Chinese ties, especially if Western European leaders feel abandoned by Washington.
There are already signs that European policymakers may loosen restrictions on Chinese investments, particularly in critical industries such as semiconductors. At the same time, the ambitions of some Europeans for NATO expansion into the Indo-Pacific may falter, as the bloc struggles to define its new role in a post-globalist US strategy.
Russia and China: A changing relationship
For years, Washington fantasized about splitting Russia and China apart. But Trump’s new approach is unlikely to achieve this goal. The Russia-China partnership is built on strong fundamentals: A massive shared border, complementary economies, and a shared interest in countering Western dominance.
If anything, the shifting geopolitical landscape could push Russia into a position similar to that of China in the early 2000s – focusing on economic development while maintaining strategic flexibility. Moscow may reduce its efforts to actively undermine the US and instead concentrate on strengthening its economic and security ties with Beijing.
China, meanwhile, will bear the brunt of Trump’s new American empire. The US will no longer rely on alliances to contain Beijing but will use direct economic and military pressure. While this may make life more difficult for China, it does not necessarily mean the US will succeed. China has been preparing for economic decoupling for years, and Beijing may find opportunities in a more divided Western world.
The road ahead
Trump’s return marks a fundamental shift in global power dynamics. The US is moving away from being a liberal empire and toward a more transactional, power-based foreign policy. For Russia, this means fewer ideological conflicts with Washington but continued competition in key areas like the Arctic.
For China, Trump’s policies present a direct challenge. The question is whether Beijing can adapt to a world where the US is no longer just containing it but actively trying to roll back its economic influence.
For Western Europe, the picture is bleak. The EU is losing its privileged status as America’s primary partner and is being forced to fend for itself. Whether it can navigate this new reality remains to be seen.
One thing is certain: The world is entering a period of profound transformation, and the old rules no longer apply. Trump’s America is rewriting the playbook, and the rest of the world will have to adjust accordingly.
Vasily Kashin, Political Science PhD, Director of the Centre for Comprehensive European and International Studies, HSE
This article was translated and edited by the RT team.
U.S. admits Ukraine proxy war defeat while European elites persist in self-destruct delusions
Strategic Culture Foundation | March 7, 2025
In an interview on Fox News this week, America’s top diplomat Marco Rubio made a damning admission. He called the conflict in Ukraine a proxy war between the United States, its NATO allies and Russia.
Stop the press. In one fell swoop, the narrative justifying the NATO-backed war for the past three years was exposed as a naked lie. It is not about “defending Ukraine” from alleged Russian unprovoked aggression. It is a proxy war. That means it has deeper causes and responsibilities.
This is what Moscow and many other international observers have been saying all along. To recognize the conflict as a proxy war is to begin admitting wider culpability for it and to start addressing the root causes for a genuine peaceful settlement.
Secretary of State Rubio went on to emphatically call for an end to the war to spare lives. He claimed the conflict was in a stalemate, not quite bringing himself to utter the word, “defeat”. But defeat is what this debacle is.
Rubio decried how the previous Biden administration and Congress (including himself as a Senator) had fueled the conflict along with other NATO members in a futile campaign. It is now time to bring the conflict to an end, he said.
Appropriately, the U.S. foreign minister appeared on television with a prominent Lenten cross of ash marked on his forehead. Christians around the world begin preparations for Easter by donning ashes as a sign of repentance. Rubio’s “confession” of a failed U.S. policy of proxy war against Russia in Ukraine may be seen as a belated recognition in Washington that it needs to cease, desist and make amends for peace.
Not so the European leaders, however, who this week persisted in their lies about a noble purpose in Ukraine.
Following the humiliating rebuke of Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky by U.S. President Donald Trump in the Oval Office last week, the European politicians have been rallying their support for the Kiev regime.
Trump aides ejected Zelensky from the White House last Friday because he testily refused to comply with a U.S. initiative for peace in Ukraine. This week, the chastened Zelensky wrote a letter to Trump appealing for forgiveness – and more U.S. military aid. It’s not clear if the Ukrainian redundant president has convinced the Trump administration that he is ready to sign a peace deal.
In the meantime, the White House has now cut off military aid and intelligence sharing with the Kiev regime. Again, proving the reality of a proxy war.
That move has thrown the European allies into a quandary and existential crisis. It is a crisis of their own making.
An emergency EU leaders’ summit was convened to drum up more military support for Ukraine. The EU 27 could not agree on a package because Hungary vetoed it. Another summit is to be called on March 20, when it is intended to bypass Hungarian objection to funding the war in Ukraine.
European leaders are desperate. The about-turn in U.S. policy to walk away from the failed proxy war in Ukraine has left them holding a dead-end hand of cards. Rather than folding, they are doubling down on their worthless chips.
Trump upbraided Zelensky in the Oval Office by telling him, “You don’t have the cards” to keep this war going.
The same advice can be leveled at the European governments, including the British, who strangely have wormed their way back into calling shots in Europe despite exiting the bloc five years ago.
This war has been lost with appalling losses. Three years of the biggest war in Europe since World War Two has resulted in over one million deaths – mainly on the Ukrainian military side – and hundreds of billions of dollars and euros wasted, which the American and European public will pay over generations through debts.
This war is an abominable crime perpetrated by Washington and its European allies. All the more so because it could have been avoided if Russian diplomatic efforts in late 2021 had been reciprocated to deal with Moscow’s legitimate security concerns over NATO’s expansion. But no, the Western imperialists wanted to strategically defeat Russia and they used a NeoNazi regime in Ukraine as their pawn following the CIA-backed coup in Kiev in 2014 against an elected president.
Western leaders must be held to account for their nefarious machinations and the colossal damage in Ukraine and Russia. Russian civilians have been killed by NATO weapons and over $300 billion in Russian assets have been confiscated. Russia has the right to seek massive war reparations.
At least, to their credit, the Trump administration has realized that the evil of this fraudulent war must stop.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Keith Kellogg, Trump’s envoy on Ukraine, also this week referred to the war as a proxy war that needs to end.
The Americans are calling on the Europeans to stop funding the war with military aid. This is an amazing turn around. Since WWII, the Americans have been the diehard warmonger with the European lackeys following suit. Now it’s the other way around. The European elites want the war in Ukraine to continue – albeit with the lie that they are seeking “lasting peace.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin has consistently said that if the Western powers stopped funneling weapons into Ukraine, the conflict would quickly stop. And then diplomacy could begin for dealing with the root causes and establishing mutual, sustainable peace.
Vice President Vance rightly pointed out that the Europeans by puffing up Zelensky as a hero “freedom fighter” are prolonging the slaughter and destruction of Ukraine as well as provoking the risk of a wider war.
The problem is that whereas the Americans have adopted realism and common sense (at last), the Europeans are continuing to persist in the lies and delusions about the proxy war against Russia.
This week, French President Emmanuel Macron echoed other European political figures by calling Russia a threat to Europe. The French, British and others are insisting on fueling the dead-end war by racking up astronomical debts and proposing to send “peacekeeper” troops to Ukraine. Moscow has warned that such a move would mean direct war.
So desperate is Macron that he is engaging in nuclear saber-rattling, offering to deploy French nuclear weapons to “defend” Europe. Why don’t Macron and other European elites simply engage in diplomacy like the Americans?
The insane recklessness of the Europeans stems from multiple sources: their incorrigible Russophobia, ties to the military industrial complex, chagrin over their American patron dumping the Ukraine war mess on them, and in their existential need to keep lying about the war as some noble cause instead of it being a sordid proxy war against Russia.
The Europeans are so full of lies, duplicity, guilt, and ultimately impotence that they will likely persist in their delusions of grandeur. To repent would be politically fatal. Thus persisting in their lies, the European Union and its military arm NATO are being destroyed.
Napoleon, Hitler, and now the elitist European leaders have all fallen into oblivion from miscalculations over Russia.
Polish PM plans to double size of army
RT | March 8, 2025
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has unveiled plans to more than double the size of the country’s military to 500,000. Speaking in the Polish Parliament on Friday, Tusk said Poland must be prepared for future conflicts and strengthen its defenses.
Tusk reiterated his earlier claims that Russia poses a threat to Europe, saying Moscow could launch a “full-scale operation” against a “larger” target than Ukraine within three to four years – which Russia has repeatedly dismissed as unfounded. He argued that Poland must serve as a “bastion” to protect NATO’s eastern flank and should expand its military capabilities.
“We’re talking about the need to have an army of half-a-million in Poland, including the reservists,” he stated, noting that Poland’s current armed forces number around 200,000, which he compared to Russia’s estimated 1.3 million troops. Tusk said his government is drafting legislation that would require every adult male in Poland to undergo “large-scale military training” to prepare for a potential conflict with Russia.
“We will try to have a model ready by the end of this year so that every adult male in Poland is trained in the event of war, so that this reserve is comparable and adequate to the potential threats,” he said. He added that Polish women may also be required to undergo military training, though “war is still to a greater extent the domain of men.”
Tusk’s remarks came a day after EU leaders approved a major military spending plan to unlock billions of euros to build up defense capabilities. The initiative – ReArm Europe – which was adopted following an emergency summit in Brussels, hikes defense spending by up to €800 billion ($840 billion) – twice the total EU defense expenditures in 2024. The Kremlin condemned the bloc’s “militarization” plan, calling it a path towards confrontation that hinders peace efforts with Ukraine.
In addition to a larger army, Tusk said Poland must enhance its military capabilities, including through the acquisition of nuclear and “modern unconventional weapons.” Tusk’s speech followed his recent accusations that Moscow is fueling a new arms race, and calls for fellow EU nations to ramp up defense spending.
The Kremlin has criticized Tusk’s rhetoric as confrontational and militaristic. Moscow has rejected accusations that it poses a military threat to Europe, with President Vladimir Putin dismissing the claims as “nonsense” designed to justify increased military budgets.
Recycling ‘Russiagate’ in Romania
By Drago Bosnic | March 8, 2025
Romania has been going through unprecedented instability in the last several months, with the Brussels-run neoliberal dictatorship effectively taking over the country. It could even be described as a “soft coup” orchestrated to nullify the will of the Romanian people. The unelected bureaucrats are determined to ensure that Bucharest remains firmly in the EU/NATO orbit, particularly now that their war in Ukraine is not exactly going as planned, to put it mildly.
To that end, last year’s election was effectively stolen after the second round was canceled based on blatant lies. In the meantime, the EU bureaucratic dictatorship even bragged about “doing it in Romania” while threatening to “do it in Germany”. You’d think millions across the “old continent” would be outraged by such undisguised tyranny. However, things only got worse from then on.
On February 26, Romanian sovereigntist Calin Georgescu was arrested on trumped-up charges that boil down to him supposedly being a “Kremlin puppet”. It’s so obvious what’s the goal of all this that even the new US administration condemned such moves. Trump and his team certainly understand what Georgescu is going through, as he’s exposed to nearly identical persecution.
With the election less than two months away, the EU bureaucratic dictatorship is looking to ensure that Georgescu is eliminated before the race begins. The latest events demonstrate that the Deep State is now trying to recycle the so-called “Russiagate” hoax and use it to make sure Romania stays under NATO occupation. Namely, on March 6, six people were arrested and charged with “treason for colluding with Russia to undermine the country”.
If you think this is ridiculous, just wait until you hear the names of the “evil pro-Russian group” and one of its “masterminds”. Namely, according to the Financial Times, they were “named ‘Vlad the Impaler Command’ after Romania’s medieval ruler who served as inspiration for Bram Stoker’s Dracula”, with one of the members being a 101-year-old retired General Radu Theodoru.
The subliminal messaging is so evident that it’s questionable whether we can even call it that. There’s the mandatory “evil Vlad” (you’re probably “wondering” who it reminds you of) who also “served as the inspiration” for Lord Dracula, a vampire. The word “command” can be interpreted as indicating both a “military structure” and a “team” (команда in Russian). In other words, you have a “paramilitary team working for Vlad the Vampire“.
Considering the endless funding the Deep State-run institutions get, you’d think they would come up with something a bit more original and less obvious. And yet, it gets worse, because the accusations are all copy-pasted from the “Russiagate” hoax. According to SRI (NATO-run domestic intelligence agency), the “pro-Putin conspirators” were supposedly “seeking Russian help for a plot to overthrow the government in Bucharest” and “repeatedly contacted agents of a foreign power, located both on the territory of Romania and the Russian Federation”.
The EU-controlled regime in NATO-occupied Romania (ab)used the fake “plot” as an excuse to expel several high-ranking Russian diplomats from Moscow’s embassy in Romania, including a military attaché and his deputy who were accused by the SRI of “being in contact with the plotters”.
“The two Russian diplomats carried out intelligence gathering actions in areas of strategic interest and took actions to support the group’s anti-constitutional actions,” the SRI report claims.
FT says that the arrests and expulsions “come as authorities in Bucharest step up efforts aimed at curtailing Moscow’s attempts to meddle in its domestic politics after the unprecedented move in December to cancel a presidential vote because of Russian influence”. This is yet another indicator that the mainstream propaganda machine is laser-focused on beating a dead horse (although they’d never admit that the “Russiagate” hoax is precisely that).
The Kremlin pointed out that this is essentially an attempt to shift focus from the actual undermining of Romanian sovereignty by the EU/NATO. Obviously, this is also an attempt to justify the persecution of Georgescu who is accused of supposed “links to fascist groups and attempting to subvert the constitutional order”. If sentenced, Georgescu is faced with a decade in prison.
He still hasn’t been accused of having anything to do with the alleged “plot” by the aforementioned “Vlad the Impaler Command” group. However, this could easily be the next step in the smear campaign targeting Georgescu, who has been criticizing NATO’s crawling aggression in Europe for years.
The “evil Vlad” group is accused of similar “crimes”, including supposedly “discussing Romania’s withdrawal from NATO with Russian spies, the removal of the current constitution and the constitutional order, the dissolution of political parties, as well as the removal of all employees from state institutions … the change of the country’s name, flag, and anthem.” If this sort of “connection” is fabricated, it would likely happen just ahead of the presidential election, either for new indictments or another smear campaign.
The Romanian people are furious that the most popular candidate is being subjected to persecution and that their sovereignty is being infringed upon by the unelected bureaucratic dictatorship in Brussels. Numerous mass protests have been held in Bucharest and elsewhere in NATO-occupied Romania. The country’s strategic importance only grew with the advent of the political West’s crawling “Barbarossa 2.0” and the Romanian people could be the next in line to be used as cannon fodder against Russia.
They understand that the EU/NATO wants them to play this extremely unflattering role and, as anyone remotely sane would do, they effectively told NATO to go pound sand (as evidenced by last year’s election results). However, the world’s most vile racketeering cartel won’t give up that easily, so we’re likely to see more instability in Romania.
Drago Bosnic is an independent geopolitical and military analyst.
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The lies about the 1967 war are still more powerful than the truth
By Alan Hart | June 4, 2012
In retrospect it can be seen that the 1967 war, the Six Days War, was the turning point in the relationship between the Zionist state of Israel and the Jews of the world (the majority of Jews who prefer to live not in Israel but as citizens of many other nations). Until the 1967 war, and with the exception of a minority of who were politically active, most non-Israeli Jews did not have – how can I put it? – a great empathy with Zionism’s child. Israel was there and, in the sub-consciousness, a refuge of last resort; but the Jewish nationalism it represented had not generated the overtly enthusiastic support of the Jews of the world. The Jews of Israel were in their chosen place and the Jews of the world were in their chosen places. There was not, so to speak, a great feeling of togetherness. At a point David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s founding father and first prime minister, was so disillusioned by the indifference of world Jewry that he went public with his criticism – not enough Jews were coming to live in Israel.
So how and why did the 1967 war transform the relationship between the Jews of the world and Israel? … continue
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