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David Gibbs: The “Good War” Illusion – A History of Proxy Warfare

Glenn Diesen | July 9, 2025

David N. Gibbs is a professor of history at the University of Arizona. Prof. Gibbs outlines how the US fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan and then the Yugoslav Wars laid the foundation for the illusion of the good war.

US Provoked the 1979 Russian Invasion of Afghanistan: Parallel to the Ukraine War?: https://original.antiwar.com/david-gi…

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July 9, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Timeless or most popular, Video | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Western strategists launch a new war doctrine against Eurasian powers

By Lucas Leiroz | VT Uncensored Foreign Policy | July 7, 2025

In recent months, a wave of publications by Western think tanks and military-affiliated media has revealed a significant shift in how the West views conflict with global powers like Russia and China.

Institutions such as the RAND Corporation, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and Military Review have laid out what they consider the foundations of future warfare.

The core idea is no longer centered on direct military confrontation but on a prolonged, multidimensional hybrid war.

This “war of the future” unfolds across three main domains: information and psychological operations, cyberspace, and the economic sphere. Western strategists emphasize that superiority in artificial intelligence and unmanned systems will be decisive. For the US and NATO, achieving dominance in these areas is presented as the key to maintaining global leadership and containing strategic rivals.

This form of warfare is not expected to deliver fast results. On the contrary, it is framed as a “long game” of exhaustion, designed to weaken the opponent from within – by destabilizing their economy, reshaping their information space, and psychologically demoralizing both their population and political elites. RAND analysts stress that this type of conflict requires patience and the ability to sustain socio-economic costs over time. In fact, Western governments are already preparing their populations to accept such costs, justifying austerity measures and declining living standards through the narrative of a moral confrontation with so-called “authoritarian regimes.”

This strategic shift is largely a result of the failure of the West’s approach in Ukraine. The initial plan — to arm and support Ukraine as a proxy force capable of delivering a strategic defeat to Russia — has collapsed. The policy of militarizing Ukraine and turning it into a geopolitical tool against Moscow has led the U.S. and its allies into a dead end. Western analysts now admit that a military victory over Russia via Ukraine is unattainable. This realization has pushed Western planners to reassess the very concept of conflict, moving from direct confrontation to psychological and technological operations that target the internal cohesion of rival nations.

According to this new doctrine, the goal is to shape the perception of the future within Russian society — to paint a picture of inevitable decline, to spread doubt about Russia’s ability to compete militarily and economically with the West, and to generate disorientation among its elites. The West seeks to implant the idea that Russia is permanently behind — technologically inferior, globally isolated, and incapable of catching up. As noted by analysts at RUSI, these narratives are deliberately crafted for mass consumption, with the aim of weakening the social and psychological fabric of Russian society.

Central to this strategy is the belief that information superiority will define victory in the 21st century. Publications from CSIS and RAND explicitly state that “who controls the narrative, wins the war.” Future conflicts, they argue, will be fought not with tanks breaking through lines but through sensory and cognitive dominance — by disorienting the opponent, manipulating their perception of events, and accelerating decision-making cycles through artificial intelligence. This is not just about warfare; it is about psychological supremacy.

To implement this model, the full resource potential of the collective West must be mobilized. Western publications emphasize that artificial intelligence will not only support information operations but may replace traditional forms of military conflict entirely. AI-based propaganda, social engineering campaigns, and autonomous digital operations could become the primary weapons of influence. RAND’s vision also includes a technological race with China, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, where AI superiority is expected to define the balance of power.

However, despite its polished surface, this new hybrid war doctrine suffers from serious flaws. It neglects historical experience and cultural realities. Russia, in particular, has repeatedly shown the ability to endure and adapt during prolonged crises. Even in the 1990s, when pro-Western forces controlled much of the country’s media and political structure, Russian society maintained its cultural identity and commitment to traditional values. Western analysts seem to overlook this fundamental resilience. The failure of Western sanctions is a clear example. Instead of collapsing, the Russian economy adapted to the conditions of modern conflict, restructured itself rapidly, and even entered a phase of military-industrial expansion.

In fact, despite the partial militarization of its economy, Russia has achieved a surprising advantage over the West in certain critical areas. It has surpassed NATO countries in the volume of military production, particularly in drones and high-precision systems. Developments such as the Lancet UAVs, the Kinzhal hypersonic missile, and advancements in satellite technologies have placed Russia ahead of Ukraine, even though the latter was initially supported by a powerful Western-Turkish alliance in the drone sector. Within less than two years, Russia reversed the battlefield dynamics, demonstrating that technological evolution can occur even under heavy sanctions.

This leads to a critical question: if the new Western strategy is so effective, why does it rely so heavily on media hype and theoretical justifications with little practical evidence? Much of the Western enthusiasm around hybrid war appears driven not by strategic necessity but by the interests of the military-industrial complex. Think tanks and defense contractors stand to benefit immensely from the shift to AI-based warfare, digital infrastructure, and cyber-command funding. The political class uses the narrative of a “new generation war” to justify budget increases for the defense sector while cutting public services and suppressing dissent.

The real function of this hybrid war doctrine is to protect the interests of a transnational elite. Under the guise of fighting global threats like Russia, China, Iran, and others, Western governments are redistributing wealth upward — channeling public money into the hands of military contractors and think tanks. Ordinary citizens are asked to sacrifice for “freedom” while their real wages stagnate and living conditions deteriorate. The supposed urgency of confronting the “autocratic other” becomes a smokescreen for domestic failures and economic mismanagement.

The media’s role in this operation is essential. Just as the Western press exaggerated the likelihood of Russia’s defeat in Ukraine, it now inflates the potential of hybrid war and AI supremacy. But the track record of these predictions is poor. The same experts who promised a quick Ukrainian victory are now calling for decades-long psychological warfare — a clear sign that the original plan has failed.

In conclusion, the West’s new hybrid warfare strategy reflects more of a tactical retreat than a breakthrough. It acknowledges that traditional methods have failed, particularly in Ukraine, and attempts to replace lost battlefield momentum with psychological, economic, and technological pressure. But the fundamental assumptions are flawed: that narratives can break national will, that AI can replace strategy, and that propaganda can deliver victory. These beliefs serve primarily to sustain the Western war economy and its elites, rather than offer any real prospect of success. In trying to win a war of perception, the West may once again lose the war of reality.

Lucas Leiroz is a member of the BRICS Journalists Association, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, military expert. You can follow Lucas on X (formerly Twitter) and Telegram.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Russophobia | , , , , | Leave a comment

Net Zero: The Mystery of the Falling Fertility

By Tomas Furst | Brownstone Institute | July 8, 2025

In January 2022, the number of children born in the Czech Republic suddenly decreased by about 10%. By the end of 2022, it had become clear that this was a signal: All the monthly numbers of newborns were mysteriously low.

In April 2023, I wrote a piece for a Czech investigative platform InFakta and suggested that this unexpected phenomenon might be connected to the aggressive vaccination campaign that had started approximately 9 months before the drop in natality. Denik N – a Czech equivalent of the New York Times – immediately came forward with a “devastating takedown” of my article, labeled me a liar and claimed that the pattern can be explained by demographics: There were fewer women in the population and they were getting older.

To compare fertility across countries (and time), the so-called Total Fertility Rate (TFR) is used. Roughly speaking, it is the average number of children that are born to a woman over her lifetime. TFR is independent of the number of women and of their age structure. Figure 1 below shows the evolution of TFR in several European countries between 2001 and 2023. I selected countries that experienced a similar drop in TFR in 2022 as the Czech Republic.

Figure 1. The evolution of Total Fertility Rate in selected European countries between 2000 and 2023. The data corresponding to a particular year are plotted at the end of the column representing that year.

So, by the end of 2023, the following two points were clear:

  1. The drop in natality in the Czech Republic in 2022 could not be explained by demographic factors. Total fertility rate – which is independent of the number of women and their age structure – dropped sharply in 2022 and has been decreasing ever since. The data for 2024 show that the Czech TFR has decreased further to 1.37.
  1. Many other European countries experienced the same dramatic and unexpected decrease in fertility that started at the beginning of 2022. I have selected some of them for Figure 1 but there are more: The Netherlands, Norway, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Sweden. On the other hand, there are some countries that do not show a sudden drop in TFR, but rather a steady decline over a longer period (e.g. Belgium, France, UK, Greece, or Italy). Notable exceptions are Bulgaria, Spain, and Portugal where fertility has increased (albeit from very low numbers). The Human Fertility Project database has all the numbers.

This data pattern is so amazing and unexpected that even the mainstream media in Europe cannot avoid the problem completely. From time to time, talking heads with many academic titles appear and push one of the politically correct narratives: It’s Putin! (Spoiler alert: The war started in February 2022; however, children not born in 2022 were not conceived in 2021). It’s the inflation caused by Putin! (Sorry, that was even later). It’s the demographics! (Nope, see above, TFR is independent of the demographics).

Thus, the “v” word keeps creeping back into people’s minds and the Web’s Wild West is ripe with speculation. We decided not to speculate but to wrestle some more data from the Czech government. For many months, we were trying to acquire the number of newborns in each month, broken down by age and vaccination status of the mother. The post-socialist health-care system of our country is a double-edged sword: On one hand, the state collects much more data about citizens than an American would believe. On the other hand, we have an equivalent of the FOIA, and we are not afraid to use it. After many months of fruitless correspondence with the authorities, we turned to Jitka Chalankova – a Czech Ron Johnson in skirts – who finally managed to obtain an invaluable data sheet.

To my knowledge, the datasheet (now publicly available with an English translation here) is the only officially released dataset containing a breakdown of newborns by the Covid-19 vaccination status of the mother. We requested much more detailed data, but this is all we got. The data contains the number of births per month between January 2021 and December 2023 given by women (aged 18-39) who were vaccinated, i.e., had received at least one Covid vaccine dose by the date of delivery, and by women who were unvaccinated, i.e., had not received any dose of any Covid vaccine by the date of delivery.

Furthermore, the numbers of births per month by women vaccinated by one or more doses during pregnancy were provided. This enabled us to estimate the number of women who were vaccinated before conception. Then, we used open data on the Czech population structure by age, and open data on Covid vaccination by day, sex, and age.

Combining these three datasets, we were able to estimate the rates of successful conceptions (i.e., conceptions that led to births nine months later) by preconception vaccination status of the mother. Those interested in the technical details of the procedure may read Methods in the newly released paper. It is worth mentioning that the paper had been rejected without review in six high-ranking scientific journals. In Figure 2, we reprint the main finding of our analysis.

Figure 2A. Histogram showing the percentage of women in the Czech Republic aged 18–39 years who were vaccinated with at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of the respective month. Figure 2B. Estimates of the number of successful conceptions (SCs) per 1,000 women aged 18–39 years according to their pre-conception Covid vaccination status. The blue-shaded areas in Figure 1B show the intervals between the lower and upper estimates of the true SC rates for women vaccinated (dark blue) and unvaccinated (light blue) before conception.

Figure 2 reveals several interesting patterns that I list here in order of importance:

  1. Vaccinated women conceived about a third fewer children than would be expected from their share of the population. Unvaccinated women conceived at about the same rate as all women before the pandemic. Thus, a strong association between Covid vaccination status and successful conceptions has been established.
  2. In the second half of 2021, there was a peak in the rate of conceptions of the unvaccinated (and a corresponding trough in the vaccinated). This points to rather intelligent behavior of Czech women, who – contrary to the official advice – probably avoided vaccination if they wanted to get pregnant. This concentrated the pregnancies in the unvaccinated group and produced the peak.
  3. In the first half of 2021, there was significant uncertainty in the estimates of the conception rates. The lower estimate of the conception rate in the vaccinated was produced by assuming that all women vaccinated (by at least one dose) during pregnancy were unvaccinated before conception. This was almost certainly true in the first half of 2021 because the vaccines were not available prior to 2021. The upper estimate was produced by assuming that all women vaccinated (by at least one dose) during pregnancy also received at least one dose before conception. This was probably closer to the truth in the second part of 2021. Thus, we think that the true conception rates for the vaccinated start close to the lower bound in early 2021 and end close to the upper bound in early 2022. Once again, we would like to be much more precise, but we have to work with what we have got.

Now that the association between Covid-19 vaccination and lower rates of conception has been established, the one important question looms: Is this association causal? In other words, did the Covid-19 vaccines really prevent women from getting pregnant?

The guardians of the official narrative brush off our findings and say that the difference is easily explained by confounding: The vaccinated tend to be older, more educated, city-dwelling, more climate change aware…you name it. That all may well be true, but in early 2022, the TFR of the whole population dropped sharply and has been decreasing ever since.

So, something must have happened in the spring of 2021. Had the population of women just spontaneously separated into two groups – rednecks who wanted kids and didn’t want the jab, and city slickers who didn’t want kids and wanted the jab – the fertility rate of the unvaccinated would indeed be much higher than that of the vaccinated. In that respect, such a selection bias could explain the observed pattern. However, had this been true, the total TFR of the whole population would have remained constant.

But this is not what happened. For some reason, the TFR of the whole population jumped down in January 2022 and has been decreasing ever since. And we have just shown that, for some reason, this decrease in fertility affected only the vaccinated. So, if you want to argue that a mysterious factor X is responsible for the drop in fertility, you will have to explain (1) why the factor affected only the vaccinated, and (2) why it started affecting them at about the time of vaccination. That is a tall order. Mr. Occam and I both think that X = the vaccine is the simplest explanation.

What really puzzles me is the continuation of the trend. If the vaccines really prevented conception, shouldn’t the effect have been transient? It’s been more than three years since the mass vaccination event, but fertility rates still keep falling. If this trend continues for another five years, we may as well stop arguing about pensions, defense spending, healthcare reform, and education – because we are done.

We are in the middle of what may be the biggest fertility crisis in the history of mankind. The reason for the collapse in fertility is not known. The governments of many European countries have the data that would unlock the mystery. Yet, it seems that no one wants to know.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Science and Pseudo-Science, War Crimes | | Leave a comment

Israeli Settlers Attack One of the Oldest Christian Churches in Palestine

By James Rushmore | The Libertarian Institute | July 9, 2025

Israeli settlers attacked the West Bank town of Taybeh on Monday, causing extensive damage to a fifth-century church and a cemetery. The vandals started a series of fires near the ancient Church of Saint George, one of the oldest Christian churches in Palestine. Local residents were able to extinguish the fires. The attack marks the latest effort by Israeli settlers to intimidate the Palestinian inhabitants of Taybeh, which is the only remaining village in the territory with an exclusively Christian population.

The attack prompted three local priests to issue a statement. Fathers Daoud Khoury, Jack-Noble Abed, and Bashar Fawadleh called upon “local and international actors” to launch an investigation into the settler attacks, put pressure on Israeli authorities, and send delegations directly to Taybeh. They also urged people to provide the villagers with economic and legal assistance. Munther Isaac, a Palestinian pastor who was interviewed by Tucker Carlson in April 2024, shared the priests’ appeal on X. He also criticized U.S. Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, a Christian Zionist, for pursuing policies that enable settler violence in the West Bank.

Huckabee toured the West Bank last week. During his visit, he expressed his support for the settler movement and referred to the territory as “Judea and Samaria,” saying that it would be “a historical injustice and a denial of the Bible” to use any other terminology. He also said that the settlers “represent God’s presence and His choice of this land.”

Huckabee’s trip came days after every Likud minister in the Israeli government sent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a letter urging him to annex the West Bank before the end of the Knesset’s summer session on July 27. The letter argues that the “strategic partnership, backing, and support of the U.S. and President Donald Trump have made it a propitious time to move forward with [the annexation] now, and ensure Israel’s security for generations.” It also said that a Palestinian state would represent an “existential danger to Israel.”

The attacks mark the latest assault on Taybeh. In June, settlers built an outpost on the eastern edge of the village, atop a key agricultural zone that’s home to thousands of Palestinian olive trees. Local farmers were denied access to the area, and settlers attacked residents who tried to enter the zone. The Israeli settlers have also been allowing their livestock to graze on Palestinian farmlands as part of an effort to push the villagers out.

At least 1,000 Palestinians, including over 200 children, have been killed in the West Bank since Israel began its genocide in the Gaza Strip. In addition to raiding refugee camps and displacing thousands of native civilians, IDF forces have provided settlers with semi-automatic weapons. In 2024, Israel seized control of more Palestinian land in the West Bank than in the previous 20 years combined.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

France names ‘red line’ in Ukraine conflict

RT | July 9, 2025

Demilitarizing Ukraine and leaving it without NATO membership, as Russia demands, is a red line for Europe, French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu told weekly magazine Valeurs Actuelles.

Moscow insists that any resolution to the conflict must comprehensively address its security concerns. Russian officials want Ukraine to acknowledge the new territorial realities on the ground, agree to neutral status, guarantee that its Russian-speaking population is not discriminated against, and undergo demilitarization and denazification. As of now, all of these demands have been rejected by Kiev.

In an interview, published on Wednesday, Lecornu argued that Europe cannot allow Ukraine to be left without a functioning army while denying it NATO membership.

“Our absolute red line is the demilitarization of Ukraine,” the minister said. “We must be coherent. One cannot refuse Ukraine entry into NATO and at the same time accept that it no longer has an army,” he added.

Ukraine formally applied for fast-track NATO membership in September of 2022, months after the conflict with Russia escalated. While Western nations initially supported Kiev’s bid, no timeline for accession has been set. Meanwhile, support for Kiev’s bid has been eroded by mounting military setbacks and shifting US policy.

Pentagon Inspector General Robert Storch reported last November that “corruption continues to complicate” Ukraine’s efforts to join NATO, citing multiple scandals in its Defense Ministry. US President Donald Trump, who is pushing for a peace deal with Moscow, has ruled out NATO membership for Kiev.

Russia views NATO’s eastward expansion as a direct threat to national security and has indicated that Ukraine’s ambition to join the US-led military bloc was one of the key issues that triggered the current conflict. President Vladimir Putin stressed last month that Moscow’s concerns had consistently been ignored.

Putin also said that Ukraine had agreed to military limitations during the 2022 Istanbul talks, including troop numbers and weapons restrictions, but later withdrew from the deal to seek military victory with Western backing. He added that now, instead of a “peaceful settlement to this issue,” Moscow has been forced to resolve the task – namely, demilitarization – by military means.

Speaking ahead of this week’s meeting of the Western-led ‘coalition of the willing’ – a UK-French initiative to deploy troops in Ukraine after a truce is reached with Russia – Lecornu said the group will urge Kiev to “rethink” the future shape of its army, noting “opportunities” for the French defense industry.

Moscow has accused the West of encouraging Kiev to fight “to the last Ukrainian” and maintains that no amount of military aid will reverse Kiev’s fortunes on the battlefield. It has also repeatedly warned that any foreign forces fighting alongside Ukrainian troops will be treated as legitimate targets, while warning this could escalate the conflict.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

France, Italy, Greece must explain allowing ‘safe passage’ to ICC-wanted Netanyahu to US: UN expert

Press TV – July 9, 2025

UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese says Rome Statute member states—France, Italy, and Greece—must explain why they provided “safe passage” to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu en route to the United States.

Netanyahu is an internationally wanted suspect under an arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes and crimes against humanity committed in Gaza.

In a post on X, Albanese said the three European countries — all signatories to the Rome Statute, which established the International Criminal Court (ICC) in 2002 — violated the international legal order by allowing Netanyahu to transit through their airspace despite an active ICC arrest warrant.

As ICC members, she said, they were theoretically “obligated to arrest” Netanyahu.

“Italian, French, and Greek citizens deserve to know that every political action violating the international legal order weakens and endangers all of them. And all of us,” she wrote.

Albanese was responding to a post by human rights lawyer Craig Mokhiber, who said the countries had “breached their legal obligations under the treaty [Rome Statute], have declared their disdain for the victims of genocide, and have demonstrated their contempt for the rule of law.”

Netanyahu is currently on his third US visit since President Donald Trump took office on January 20.

During a previous trip in February, his plane was forced to take a detour to avoid flying over countries that might enforce the ICC arrest warrant. The United States is not a party to the Rome Statute and therefore not bound by its provisions.

In June, Trump’s administration imposed sanctions on four judges at the International Criminal Court over the war tribunal’s issuance of an arrest warrant for Netanyahu.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , , | Leave a comment

EU could hand another €100bn to Ukraine – Bloomberg

RT | July 9, 2025

European Union officials are weighing a proposal to provide Ukraine with another €100 billion ($117 billion) in grants and low-interest loans, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing sources familiar with the matter.

The plan involves establishing a dedicated fund within the bloc’s upcoming seven-year budget framework, the unnamed insiders told the outlet. Disbursement would begin in 2028 if the proposal is approved.

The move would further shift the financial burden onto Western European taxpayers of what Moscow has condemned as a US-triggered NATO proxy war. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in April that officials in Brussels “view possible suspension of Ukraine assistance as confirmation of the EU’s strategic inviability” and are pushing for continued funding to protect their reputation.

Ukraine’s military and defense institutions have faced a string of corruption scandals during the conflict with Russia, including overpayments for rations and shady arms procurement contracts. This week, Ukrainian outlets reported that anti-corruption investigators searched a property belonging to former Defense Minister Aleksey Reznikov. Reznikov resigned in 2023 following allegations of financial misconduct in his department.

The proposed fund is reportedly one of several avenues under consideration, with a final decision expected by July 16 or possibly later, according to Bloomberg. The report added that last month, the European Commission briefed EU finance ministers on Kiev’s intention to increase this year’s defense spending by $8.4 billion using domestic sources.

Ukrainian Prime Minister Denis Shmigal said in June that defense expenditures had risen 34% year-on-year during the first five months of 2025. Meanwhile, Finance Minister Sergey Marchenko warned in May that Kiev’s national debt is nearing $171 billion, approximately equivalent to the country’s gross domestic product.

Ukraine continues to rely heavily on external financial aid to sustain its national budget. Earlier this year, the government failed to restructure a portion of its sovereign debt issued in 2015 and declined to honor a $665 million repayment to private investors in early June.

The country’s economy is also feeling the strain of a labor shortage, as millions have fled to Western nations offering them protection and social benefits. Many men of military age who remain in Ukraine have evaded conscription, which usually means avoiding formal employment and by extension, income taxes.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Court Orders Bank Freezing Records in Freedom Convoy Case

By Cindy Harper | Reclaim The Net | July 9, 2025

A Canadian court has ordered the release of documents that could shed light on how federal authorities and law enforcement worked together to freeze the bank accounts of a protester involved in the Freedom Convoy.

Both the RCMP and TD Bank are now required to provide records related to Evan Blackman, who took part in the 2022 demonstrations and had his accounts frozen despite not being convicted of any crime at the time.

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) announced the Ontario Court of Justice ruling. The organization is representing Blackman, whose legal team argues that the actions taken against him amounted to a serious abuse of power.

“The freezing of Mr. Blackman’s bank accounts was an extreme overreach on the part of the police and the federal government,” said his lawyer, Chris Fleury. “These records will hopefully reveal exactly how and why Mr. Blackman’s accounts [were] frozen.”

Blackman was arrested during the mass protests in Ottawa, which drew thousands of Canadians opposed to vaccine mandates and other pandemic-era restrictions.

Although he faced charges of mischief and obstructing police, those charges were dismissed in October due to a lack of evidence. Despite this, prosecutors have appealed, and a trial is set to begin on August 14.

At the height of the protests, TD Bank froze three of Blackman’s accounts following government orders issued under the Emergencies Act. Then-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had invoked the act to grant his government broad powers to disrupt the protest movement, including the unprecedented use of financial institutions to penalize individuals for their support or participation.

In 2024, a Federal Court Justice ruled that Trudeau’s decision to invoke the act had not been justified.

Blackman’s legal team plans to use the newly released records to demonstrate the extent of government intrusion into personal freedoms. According to the JCCF, this case may be the first in Canada where a criminal trial includes a Charter challenge over the freezing of personal bank accounts under emergency legislation.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , | Leave a comment

Russia declares Yale University ‘undesirable’

RT | July 9, 2025

Russia has banned Yale University from operating within its territory, accusing the Connecticut-based institution of meddling in domestic affairs and attempting to destabilize its economy.

The Prosecutor General’s Office added Yale to the list of “undesirable” organizations on Tuesday. “The university’s activities are aimed at violating the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, enforcing an international blockade, undermining its economy, and destabilizing the country’s socio-economic and political situation,” the office said in a statement.

Prosecutors claim that the Maurice R. Greenberg World Fellows Program at the Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs has been used to “train opposition leaders from foreign countries.” Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny and his close associate Leonid Volkov participated in the program in 2010 and 2018, respectively.

Navalny died in prison in February 2024 while serving a lengthy sentence on extremism charges. In 2021, a Russian court banned Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK) under extremism laws. Last month, Volkov, who lives outside Russia, was sentenced in absentia to 18 years in prison for his activities as an FBK leader.

Prosecutors alleged that FBK used “the knowledge and techniques” acquired at Yale to “escalate protest activities in Russia.” Prosecutors also claimed that Yale has worked to create a “legal framework” for using frozen Russian assets to fund the Ukrainian army. Moscow regards the freezing and seizure of its assets related to the Ukraine conflict as illegal and tantamount to theft.

Since 2022, Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a professor at the Yale School of Management, and his team have campaigned to pressure foreign companies to cut ties with Moscow and advocated for tougher sanctions on Russia. In a 2024 Fortune article, Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian, research director of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, credited themselves with helping the US Treasury design sanctions targeting Russia’s oil trade.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

3 killed in ‘barbaric’ Ukrainian drone strike on public beach – governor

RT | July 8, 2025

A Ukrainian drone struck a public beach in the city of Kursk in western Russia on Tuesday, killing three people and injuring seven others, regional governor Aleksandr Khinshtein said.

The victims, including two women and a five-year-old boy, were hospitalized with burns and shrapnel wounds, Khinshtein wrote on Telegram. At least one is in critical condition.

Ukrainian troops deliberately targeted civilians in a “barbaric” attack as people gathered on the beach to mark the Day of Family, Love and Fidelity, a holiday celebrated on July 8, the governor said.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemned the strike, criticizing the countries providing military aid to Ukraine. “Those supplying weapons to the Kiev regime should understand that they are being used to kill children,” she wrote on Telegram.

The Kursk region, which borders Ukraine, has frequently come under drone and missile attacks since the conflict erupted in 2022. Earlier on Tuesday, a drone struck a house in the village of Karyzh, injuring one person.

Khinshtein added early Wednesday morning that two more people were injured in the city of Rylsk, where Ukrainian drones damaged an infectious disease center and an EMS station, and caused a fire at an office building of a farming complex.

In August 2024, Ukraine carried out a large-scale incursion into the region, capturing dozens of villages and the border town of Sudzha. Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky said the offensive aimed to gain leverage during negotiations with Moscow. However, the Ukrainian gamble ultimately failed, as Russian forces had fully liberated the entire Kursk region by April.

July 9, 2025 Posted by | War Crimes | , | Leave a comment