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Massie Proposes to Make COVID Vaccine Makers Liable for Injuries, Opening Door for Thousands of Lawsuits

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | July 16, 2025

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Tuesday introduced legislation to repeal the “sweeping” liability shield that exempts COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers from responsibility for serious injuries or death caused by their products.

The liability protection amounts to “medical malpractice martial law,” Massie said in a press release.

The PREP Repeal Act (H.R.4388) would revoke the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act of 2005, a law that provides legal immunity to “covered persons” who manufacture or administer countermeasures during a public health emergency.

“Covered persons” under the PREP Act include vaccine makers, manufacturers of masks and other personal protective equipment, and physicians, nurses and pharmacists who administer vaccines.

The Biden administration ended the COVID-19 public health emergency in May 2023. However, the public health emergency, declared in January 2020 by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the PREP Act, remains in effect.

In December 2024, HHS extended the liability protections through 2029. It was the 12th extension since 2020.

Massie’s bill would strip away these protections, repealing the PREP Act’s liability shield and restoring civil remedy rights for people harmed by products covered under the act.

“Τhe ability of citizens to seek redress for injury or harm is a fundamental principle of justice and due process,” the bill states, adding that the PREP Act’s liability shield has “undermined public trust and accountability” and “enabled regulatory capture.”

“The 2005 PREP Act prevents people from holding corporations accountable for the pain and suffering they cause during Presidentially declared emergencies. Americans deserve the right to seek justice when injured by government-mandated products. The PREP Repeal Act will restore that right,” Massie said in the press release.

In an interview today on the “Brian Thomas Morning Show,” Massie said the bill would apply to all COVID-19-related countermeasures, not just vaccines.

“If somebody made a mask that had cancer particles on it, and you inhaled those … too bad, they’re covered by the PREP Act,” Massie said. “I don’t like lawsuits, but they do keep corporations sort of in check. There’s this incentive not to harm people if you’re going to have to pay for it, if it becomes unprofitable.”

Attorney Ray Flores, senior outside counsel for Children’s Health Defense and an expert on the PREP Act, said:

“The ‘sweeping liability protections’ extend far beyond manufacturer shields to condone every conceivable medical atrocity. If Massie’s bill passes, the pandemic assembly line would be dismantled. It would be goodbye liability protections, goodbye mandates and goodbye mass-human experimentation.”

According to Flores, repeal of the PREP Act would also end other current public health emergencies, including mpox (monkeypox), pandemic influenza, anthrax and Zika.

Dr. Meryl Nass, founder of Door to Freedom, said the bill “will stop another COVID vaccine fiasco and also stop the widespread use of unproven tests such as the COVID-19 PCR tests, which were also issued under emergency use authorizations (EUA).”

Wayne Rohde, author of “The Vaccine Court: The Dark Truth of America’s Vaccine Injury Compensation Program” and “The Vaccine Court 2.0,” said the bill contains “nonspecific language” and gaps that require attention. Rohde said this includes:

“How to wind down the Act, address all of the amendments added to the Act over the last 4 years, covered persons, how to handle the covered countermeasures such as medical devices, medications, drugs and personal protective equipment, and, of course, the elephant in the room, the vaccines used and their future legal liability.”

Legislation would open the door to thousands of lawsuits previously blocked by PREP Act

Massie’s proposed legislation would apply to all current and future lawsuits challenging the PREP Act, including pending appeals.

Attorney Rick Jaffe said the proposed legislation is retroactive to March 10, 2020, “reopening the courthouse doors to thousands of injured individuals whose claims were previously blocked by PREP’s sweeping liability shield.”

The legislation would allow claimants to sue COVID-19 vaccine makers directly, Jaffe said:

“The bill, if passed, allows people injured by the COVID shots to sue, presumably, the manufacturers as well as those who administered the shots, and that would be a big and much unwanted thing from the perspective of the manufacturers and pharmacy chains which administered the shots.”

Massie told Brian Thomas he believes the PREP Act is unconstitutional, as it preempts state medical malpractice laws.

“Here’s why I call the PREP Act medical malpractice martial law,” Massie said. “It’s a federal law that says none of the state laws apply, and I think it’s a violation of the 10th Amendment. There’s nowhere in the Constitution that lets the federal government say that all state laws dealing with liability are null and void.”

Most, but not all, courts have so far sided against vaccine injury lawsuits challenging the PREP Act’s liability shield.

In March, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court ruling that school medical staff who gave a COVID-19 vaccine to a minor without obtaining parental consent cannot be held liable under the PREP Act.

The Maine ruling came one week after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review a lower court’s ruling in a similar lawsuit in Vermont. In that case, a school administered a COVID-19 vaccine to a 6-year-old boy despite his and his parents’ objections. Last year, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the PREP Act shielded school officials from liability.

At least two recent lawsuits challenging the PREP Act have cleared initial judicial hurdles but remain pending.

In March, the Supreme Court of North Carolina ruled that a lawsuit filed by the mother of a 14-year-old boy given a COVID-19 vaccine at school without consent can proceed. The court ruled the PREP Act does not preempt state law requiring parental consent for vaccination.

In November 2024, a federal court ruled that a lawsuit filed by a woman injured by AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine during a U.S. clinical trial can continue.

According to the complaint, AstraZeneca’s consent form for trial participants promised enrollees medical treatment in the event of illness or injury suffered during the study. The court rejected the drugmaker’s claim that a federal liability shield protects it from breach-of-contract claims.

Bill would end ‘dismal’ PREP Act vaccine injury compensation program

Massie’s proposed bill also rescinds unused federal funds earmarked for injury claims under the PREP Act.

Such claims are heard by the Countermeasures Injury Compensation Program (CICP), a government-run COVID-19 vaccine injury compensation program established under the PREP Act.

CICP has faced criticism for its slow pace of resolving claims and the limited compensation it offers.

Jaffe said:

“The PREP Act created a legal black hole where traditional tort rights and due process protections disappeared, replaced by a virtually unreviewable administrative compensation program — the CICP — that has denied nearly every COVID-related claim. In effect, Americans injured by federally endorsed products were stripped of their constitutional right to seek redress. This bill restores that right.”

According to the most recent CICP data, of the 13,836 claims related to COVID-19 countermeasures filed to date, 75 were found eligible for compensation. As of June 1, 39 of those have been compensated. The overwhelming majority of claims were denied (4,338) or are “pending review or in review” (9,423).

Dr. Joel Wallskog, an orthopedic surgeon injured by COVID-19 vaccines and co-chair of React19, an organization advocating on behalf of vaccine-injury victims, said CICP strips claimants of their constitutional rights to due process and a jury trial.

“The CICP program was intended to be the safety net for those Americans injured by the emergency countermeasures, such as the COVID-19 shots. However, the program is a dismal failure with over a 98% denial rate,” Wallskog said.

If the proposed legislation passes, Flores said, the most likely outcome would be attempting to move COVID-19 injuries into the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), which covers injuries from vaccines routinely administered to children and pregnant women.

However, such a move may face obstacles, including complications regarding how to handle claims pending before the CICP.

Rohde said:

“Money obligated for current operations would not be affected [but] how do you determine the monetary need for pending CICP petitions? How to handle the CICP petitions already received and what about the future claims? Do you move all the CICP vaccine petitions into the VICP? That creates all sorts of new problems.”

In May, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) changed its recommendations on COVID-19 vaccines for healthy children. The CDC now recommends that parents of healthy children consult their pediatricians and together make decide whether to vaccinate against the virus.

According to Flores, “Now that these injections are not on the routine recommended schedule for healthy children and pregnant women, they wouldn’t qualify” for compensation from the VICP.

‘It will probably only pass if Americans get behind it in a big way’

Massie’s proposed legislation is similar to a bill introduced last year that would allow Americans to sue the manufacturers of COVID-19 vaccines for vaccine-related adverse events, including deaths, by removing the vaccine makers’ liability shield.

The Let Injured Americans Be Legally Empowered Act, or the LIABLE Act (H.R.7551), has since languished in the U.S. House of Representatives.

Wallskog said Massie’s bill faces “an uphill battle to make it to the Congressional floor and get to a vote.”

Flores was less optimistic about the bill’s future because it would allow claimants to sue COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers directly.

“The bill, in theory, is just what we need. However, implementing it would cause utter chaos,” Flores said. “Absent a miracle, the prospects [of passage] are slim to none.”

Nass said public awareness and support are crucial for the bill’s success.

“It will probably only pass if Americans get behind it in a big way,” Nass said.

Wallskog said if the legislation is passed, it would be more far-reaching than a declaration by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. removing COVID-19 countermeasures from the PREP Act.

“Executive orders can simply be reversed by the next HHS secretary. Legislative change is much more powerful with more staying power,” Wallskog said.

This has not occurred to date, which Flores said is “the greatest indication of the forces that Kennedy and Rep. Massie are up against.”

Related articles in The Defender

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.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties | , , | Leave a comment

Soft power, hard cash: How the UK secretly buys influencers

By Timur Tarkhanov | RT | July 16, 2025

There is something profoundly grotesque about a government that funds “freedom campaigns” through secret payments to social media stars, complete with non-disclosure agreements forbidding them to reveal who’s really pulling the strings.

Yet that’s precisely what Britain’s Foreign Office has been caught doing. A recent investigation by Declassified UK revealed that the UK government covertly paid dozens of foreign YouTube influencers to promote messages aligned with British foreign policy – under the familiar, pious banners of “democracy support” and “combating disinformation.”

Of course, those slogans sound wholesome enough. Who wouldn’t be in favour of democracy or against lies online? But this framing is the point: it launders raw geopolitical interests into the comforting language of values. In reality, this is simply propaganda. Slick, decentralised, modernised – but propaganda nonetheless.

This covert campaign didn’t happen in a vacuum. It’s merely the latest incarnation of Britain’s longstanding approach to managing inconvenient narratives abroad. During the Cold War, the UK ran the notorious Information Research Department (IRD) from the bowels of the Foreign Office, quietly subsidising global news wires, encouraging friendly academics, even feeding scripts to George Orwell himself. Back then, it was about containing Soviet influence. Today, the rhetorical targets have shifted – “Russian disinformation,” “violent extremism,” “authoritarian propaganda” – but the machinery is strikingly similar.

Only now, it’s all camouflaged beneath glossy behavioural science reports and “evidence-based interventions.” Enter Zinc Network and a clutch of similar contractors. These are the new psy-ops specialists, rebranded for the digital age. Zinc, in particular, has become a darling of the UK Foreign Office, winning multi-million-pound tenders to craft campaigns in Russia’s near abroad, the Balkans, Myanmar and beyond. Their operational blueprint is remarkably consistent: conduct meticulous audience research to understand local grievances, find or build trusted social media voices, funnel them resources and content, and ensure they sign binding agreements not to disclose their British backers.

A few years ago, leaked FCDO documents exposed exactly this approach in the Baltics. There, the British government paid for contractors to develop Russian-language media platforms that would counter Moscow’s narratives – all under the pretext of strengthening independent journalism. They weren’t setting up local BBC World Service equivalents, proudly branded and transparent. They were building subtle, local-looking channels designed to mask their sponsorship. The goal was not to encourage robust pluralistic debate, but to ensure the debate didn’t wander into critiques of NATO or London’s chosen regional allies.

This is the moral sleight-of-hand at the core of such projects: democracy is not the intrinsic end, it’s the vehicle for achieving Western policy objectives. When the UK says it’s “building resilience against disinformation,” it means reinforcing narratives that advance British strategic interests, whether that’s undermining Moscow, insulating Kiev, or keeping critical questions off the table in Tbilisi. Meanwhile, any rival framing is instantly demonised as dangerous foreign meddling – because only some meddling counts, apparently.

It is deeply revealing that the YouTubers enlisted by the Foreign Office were compelled to sign NDAs preventing them from disclosing the ultimate source of their funding. If this were truly about open civic engagement, wouldn’t the UK proudly brand these campaigns? Wouldn’t London stand behind the principles it professes to teach? Instead, it resorts to precisely the covert playbook it decries when wielded by adversaries.

In truth, “disinformation” has become an incredibly convenient term for Western governments. It carries an aura of technical objectivity — as if there’s a universal ledger of truth to consult, rather than a constantly contested arena of competing narratives and interests. Once something is labelled disinformation, it can be suppressed, countered, or ridiculed with minimal scrutiny. It is the modern equivalent of calling ideas subversive or communist in the 1950s.

Likewise, “freedom” in these projects means nothing more than the freedom to align with Britain’s worldview. This is a freedom to be curated, not genuinely chosen. And so local influencers are groomed to shape perceptions, not to foster independent judgment. The fact that these influencers look indigenous to their societies is the whole point – it’s what gives the campaigns a deceptive organic legitimacy. This is why Zinc’s approach hinges on meticulous audience segmentation and iterative testing to find precisely which messages will most effectively shift attitudes. The aim is to secure agreement without debate, to achieve consent without the messy business of authentic local deliberation.

This should worry us. When liberal democracies resort to covert influence, they hollow out their own moral authority. They also undermine public trust at home and abroad. If London can so easily rationalise deception in Tallinn or Tashkent, why not someday in Manchester or Birmingham? Already, parts of the behavioural “nudge” industry that grew out of these foreign adventures have found eager domestic clients in public health and law enforcement.

The biggest casualty in all of this is genuine democratic discourse – the thing that such operations claim to protect. Because what these programmes actually protect is a carefully policed marketplace of ideas, where uncomfortable questions are outflanked by well-funded, astroturfed consensus. And so long as Britain continues to cloak its strategic propaganda efforts in the soft language of freedom and resilience, citizens everywhere will remain less informed, less empowered, and more easily manipulated.

If that’s what modern democracy promotion looks like, maybe we should be honest and call it what it is: camouflage propaganda, draped in the rhetoric of liberty, but designed to ensure populations think exactly what Whitehall wants them to think.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Deception, Progressive Hypocrite | | Leave a comment

RT journalist interrogated by UK police

RT | July 16, 2025

The head of RT’s Lebanon office, Steve Sweeney, has been detained and interrogated by the British police over his work for the Russian state-funded broadcaster, its editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has reported.

In a post on her Telegram channel on Wednesday, she said the British journalist had been apprehended on arrival in his home country. According to Simonyan, the UK authorities told Sweeney they “suspected him of terrorist activities [and] took away all his phones [and] laptop and interrogated at length regarding his work for RT.”

“They asked [the journalist] whether RT management forces him to say what he doesn’t want to say [and] whether instructions are being handed down to him,” RT’s editor-in-chief detailed.

Simonyan also stated that police officers had asked Sweeney whether he has links to the Lebanese Hezbollah Shiite militant group.

She said that after the questioning was finished, British officials let the journalist go, noting that “Steve… plans to continue working for RT.”

Sweeney is a seasoned war-correspondent, who has covered hostilities in Iraq among other conflicts.

Back in February, the Austrian authorities similarly detained independent British journalist Richard Medhurst, known for his pro-Palestinian stance. The apprehension came months after a run-in with the UK police.

Austrian officials told the reporter that he was suspected of “disseminating propaganda [and] encouraging terrorism,” according to Medhurst’s own account of the events. He claimed that the Austrian police might have acted at the behest of their British colleagues.

Last October, the UK police raided the London home of an associate editor of the pro-Palestinian Electronic Intifada website, Asa Winstanley, over “possible offenses” related to his social media posts.

Following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, the UK, the EU and several other Western nations banned RT and prohibited social media platforms from distributing its content, citing the need to combat “misinformation.”

Moscow has argued such actions demonstrate a lack of commitment to free speech and reflect a willingness to suppress narratives that challenge Western viewpoints.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | 1 Comment

Israeli-linked lawyer told ICC chief prosecutor: Drop Gaza case or be ‘destroyed’

MEMO | July 16, 2025

“They will destroy you and they will destroy the court,” an Israeli ICC lawyer connected to Benjamin Netanyahu warned Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan while urging him to drop the war crimes probe against the Israeli Prime Minister and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant.

The warning was delivered during a private meeting in The Hague on 1 May by Nicholas Kaufman, a British-Israeli lawyer who currently defends former Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte at the ICC. According to an internal note seen by Middle East Eye, Kaufman told Khan he had spoken to Netanyahu’s legal adviser and had been “authorised” to propose a confidential solution to help the prosecutor “climb down the tree”, meaning to back away from the case discreetly.

Kaufman advised Khan to reclassify the case files as confidential so that Israel could respond to the allegations in private, rather than through public proceedings. But he also issued a warning: if Khan were to pursue further charges, such as for far-right Israeli ministers, Bezalel Smotrich and Itamar Ben-Gvir, “all options would be off the table.” He then added, “They will destroy you and they will destroy the court.”

Khan and his wife, who was present at the meeting, both understood the words as a direct threat. Kaufman later denied issuing any threat and claimed he was acting on his own initiative, not on behalf of the Israeli government.

The case at the heart of this controversy concerns the ICC’s investigation into war crimes committed during Israel’s ongoing military assault on Gaza. On 20 May 2024, Khan formally applied for arrest warrants against Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged crimes including the starvation of civilians and the targeting of protected populations. Six months later the court issued arrest warrants for the Israeli leaders.

This attempt at intimidation is not an isolated incident. It follows a pattern of pressure, threats and political interference aimed at protecting Israel from international accountability. In February, the US imposed personal sanctions on Khan, revoking his visa and freezing his assets. His family was also barred from entering the US. In June, four ICC judges who approved the arrest warrants were similarly sanctioned.

Shortly after the 1 May meeting with Kaufman, allegations of sexual misconduct were leaked to the media against Khan. While the ICC initially closed its investigation due to the lack of cooperation by the complainant, the allegations re-emerged in the press through anonymous sources, prompting a new probe. Khan has denied all allegations. Although the proximity of events has prompted speculation, there is said to be no evidence to suggest a connection between the allegations against Khan and his meeting with Kaufman.

These efforts mirror tactics used against Khan’s predecessor. Fatou Bensouda, the former ICC chief prosecutor, has publicly revealed that she too faced threats and surveillance when she began investigating Israeli war crimes. In an interview with The Guardian, she described “thug-style tactics” that included hacking, harassment of her family and threats that she would “pay the price” for her work.

Israel’s allies in the West have also played a key role in undermining the court’s independence. Then British Foreign Secretary David Cameron reportedly warned Khan in April 2024 that issuing arrest warrants against Israeli officials would be “like dropping a hydrogen bomb.” Around the same time, US Senator Lindsey Graham threatened ICC staff with further sanctions if they moved forward.

The ICC is not the only international body under fire. Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on the occupied Palestinian territories, has also been targeted. In July, the US imposed sanctions against her, citing her “direct engagement” with the ICC’s investigation into Israeli war crimes.

Albanese has faced sustained smear campaigns and death threats—part of what observers describe as a broader effort to silence those demanding accountability for Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Rights groups and UN experts have condemned the sanctions as an attack on the independence of international human rights mechanisms and a chilling warning to other officials who might support the ICC’s work.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | 1 Comment

Yemen’s naval blockade forces closure of Israel’s only Red Sea port

Press TV – July 16, 2025

Israel says its only Red Sea port in Eilat will shut down next week, as a deepening debt crisis—triggered by a months-long naval blockade by Yemen’s Ansarullah movement—brings the strategic facility to a standstill.

The regime’s Ports and Shipping Authority said in a statement Wednesday that the port will permanently close on July 20.

Authorities acknowledged that the crippling blockade by Yemeni forces has effectively paralyzed operations at Eilat, once a key hub for maritime trade.

“Due to the shutdown of the Port of Eilat and its deteriorating financial situation amid the ongoing crisis, the Eilat Municipality has notified port management of the seizure of all bank accounts over unpaid debts,” Israel’s National Emergency Authority said in a memo.

“As a result, the Shipping and Ports Authority announced that the port will cease all operations starting this Sunday.”

Local media described the move as “a dramatic step” that could severely undermine Israel’s maritime logistics in the Red Sea.

Situated at Israel’s southernmost tip, the Port of Eilat has long functioned as a vital alternative to the Suez Canal. But since late last year, after Yemen’s Ansarullah resistance movement imposed a naval blockade in response to Israel’s war on Gaza, commercial activity at the port has come to a halt.

Shortly after the Gaza war began in November 2023, Ansarullah enforced a blockade on key maritime routes—the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and Arabian Sea—aimed at disrupting military shipments to Israel.

Yemeni forces have since stepped up drone and missile attacks on Israeli and commercial vessels, vowing that operations will not stop until Israel ends its devastating war on Gaza.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Solidarity and Activism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Cairo rejects Rafah plan, says it violates peace treaty

MEMO | July 16, 2025

Egypt has officially informed the United States and Israel of its firm rejection of a proposed plan to establish humanitarian camps in the border city of Rafah, according to Egyptian diplomatic sources quoted by the the Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar on Tuesday.

The sources said Cairo warned that the plan could violate terms of the peace treaty’s security agreement with Israel, which prohibits any breach of agreed security arrangements in the border areas.

The report, titled “Rafah Ghetto concerns Cairo”, said Egypt may reconsider several regional arrangements, stressing that “all scenarios are on the table, including those beyond the diplomatic level.”

Meanwhile, Israeli Channel 13 reported that Egypt views the proposed “tent city” as a “ticking human time bomb” near the Egypt-Gaza border, warning that the relocation of hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians to the area poses a serious threat, according to RT Arabic

In addition, Israeli Channel 7 reported that Egypt’s security delegation, currently involved in mediation efforts, strongly opposed Israel’s latest military deployment map, arguing that such plans threaten Egypt’s national security, as reported by Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper website.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Deal or sanctions: West threaten Iran ahead of August deadline

Al Mayadeen | July 16, 2025

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, along with the foreign ministers of France, Germany, and the United Kingdom, has agreed to set an end-of-August deadline for reaching a new nuclear agreement with Iran.

The decision, discussed during a joint call on Monday, could trigger a full reimposition of United Nations sanctions if no deal is reached, Axios reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.

If Iran fails to meet the so-called “deadline,” the European trio plans to activate the “snapback” mechanism, an automatic reinstatement of all UN Security Council sanctions that were lifted under the 2015 nuclear agreement. The mechanism is intended to respond to ‘Iranian noncompliance’ and is set to expire in October.

The move is time-sensitive. The snapback process takes 30 days to complete, and European diplomats are keen to initiate it before Russia assumes the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this October. Western officials see the snapback as both a diplomatic pressure tool and a contingency plan if ongoing negotiations collapse, as per the report.

Iran, however, maintains there is no legal basis for the snapback and has warned that triggering it could prompt Tehran to withdraw from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty altogether.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian reiterated on Tuesday his administration’s continued commitment to a peaceful resolution and diplomatic engagement. In a post published Monday night on X, Pezeshkian stated: “To open new horizons, we must take a critical look at the past. What will lead us toward a better future is rebuilding hope, being ready to learn and change, and forging a new path through consensus, empathy, and rational thinking.”

He added that Tehran still believes diplomacy is a viable path forward and is committed to pursuing it seriously.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Wars for Israel | , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Italy won’t buy US arms for Ukraine – media

RT | July 16, 2025

Italy’s budget doesn’t allow it to participate in US President Donald Trump’s plan to supply American arms to Ukraine, the Italian newspaper La Stampa reports, citing anonymous sources.

On Monday, Trump authorized new weapons deliveries to Ukraine, given that European NATO members provide funding, calling it a “very big deal.”

La Stampa said in an article on Wednesday that the strategy of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who has already agreed to purchase several Patriot surface-to-air missile systems for Ukraine, “will not be pursued by Italy.”

According to the paper’s sources, Rome will be opting out of the scheme “not only because our weapon systems already handed over to Kiev have other technological configurations, but above all because – unlike Germany – the budget that Italy can allocate to such an operation is practically non-existent.”

The only arms purchase from the US currently planned by Italy is the delivery of a batch of F35 fighter jets scheduled for the 2030s, the sources added.

Politico reported on Tuesday, citing two French officials, that Paris would not be purchasing US weapons for Kiev as France is looking to invest in its own defense industry to meet European security needs.

The same day, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told Publico outlet that Prague is also currently “not considering” joining the initiative. The country “is focusing on other… ways to help Ukraine,” he explained.

EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas earlier welcomed Trump’s pledge to send more weapons to Ukraine, but urged Washington to “share the burden” in terms of financing the deliveries. Washington, meanwhile, has threatened to impose secondary US tariffs of up to 100% on Russia’s trading partners unless progress toward a peace agreement between Moscow and Kiev is made within 50 days.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , , | Leave a comment

Trump’s New Aid to Ukraine Amounts to ‘Very Little’ Militarily, US Stocks Drawn Down – Expert

Sputnik – 16.07.2025

US President Donald Trump’s latest announcement regarding new military aid to Ukraine is expected to have limited military impact due to constrained US stockpiles, Jennifer Kavanagh, a US military expert who advocates the “America First” foreign policy Trump campaigned for, told Sputnik.

Trump, alongside NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, announced a plan on Monday to provide Ukraine with additional military aid, including Patriot air defense missiles. This initiative involves European allies purchasing billions of dollars’ worth of US military equipment, including Patriots, for transfer to Kiev. Trump stressed that the US would manufacture these weapons, with European nations covering 100% of the cost, aligning with his “America First” policy by avoiding direct US taxpayer funding.

“Although the details are still a bit unclear, it seems like Europe will buy weapons from the United States to send to Ukraine. These weapons will be a mix of materiel from US stocks and from new production. But the benefits for Ukraine and effects on the battlefield will be limited. What can be drawn from US stockpiles will be constrained in quantity because US weapons reserves have been drawn down already. New production, on the other hand, won’t arrive for some time — possibly years,” Kavanagh, a senior fellow and director of military analysis at US think tank Defense Priorities, told Sputnik.

She further elaborated on specific limitations, noting, “Overall, global stockpiles of Patriot interceptors are low. Only about 600 are produced per year. It is hard to say how many more the United States will be willing to provide Ukraine, but the number will be rather small in the near term.”

The expert noted Trump avoided further escalation by not sending offensive systems to Ukraine, observing, “so far the focus appears to be on defensive systems only.”

She added that the new announcement is largely “political theater” for Trump to calm nerves regarding the air defense pressure Ukraine is facing.

“Yes, much of this is political theater. The announcement amounts to very little militarily, in my estimation,” the pundit said.

The United States had committed more than $66.5 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration, including approximately $65.9 billion since the conflict began on February 24, 2022, according to the latest fact sheet from the US Department of Defense.

July 16, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

The Pentagon wants to build millions of drones without Chinese parts. It’s off to a bad start.

Inside China Business | July 15, 2025

Chinese companies produce over 90% of the commercial drones in use today. China also enjoys near-monopolies on the production of components, and deep supply chains. The White House and Pentagon have announced multi-billion dollar initiatives to create a drone manufacturing industry in the United States, particularly for warfighters. At the same time, Chinese officials have banned the exports of key drone materials and components to any company with a dual-use intent. Only a handful of American companies are being considered for the Pentagon effort, and testing is underway. However, major problems are already evident. Closing scene, Phoenix (Fenghuang) Ancient Town, Hunan

Resources and links:

YouTube, Pete Hegseth Unleashes PLAN to Modernize US Military’s War Fighting Effort    • Pete Hegseth Unleashes PLAN to Modernize U…  

The Best Drone Manufacturing Companies in 2022 https://droneii.com/best-drone-manufa…

UNLEASHING AMERICAN DRONE DOMINANCE https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidenti…

Drones Are Key to Winning Wars Now. The U.S. Makes Hardly Any. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/07/13/bu…

Silicon Valley’s Military Drone Companies Have A Serious ‘Made In China’ Problem https://www.defensemirror.com/news/39…

Forbes, Silicon Valley’s Military Drone Companies Have A Serious ‘Made In China’ Problem https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidjea…

X, Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance https://x.com/SecDef/status/194374887…

DJI market share: here’s exactly how rapidly it has grown in just a few years https://www.thedronegirl.com/2018/09/…

Why America fell behind in drones, and how to catch up again https://www.noahpinion.blog/p/why-ame…

NAVIGATING THE SKIES OF REGULATION AND INNOVATION: THE CASE OF CIVIL DRONES https://competitionlab.gwu.edu/sites/…

July 15, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Video | , | Leave a comment

Tucker Carlson at Turning Point USA: Epstein Was a Mossad Agent and IDF Soldiers Should Lose U.S. Citizenship

By Kevin MacDonald | The Occidental Observer | July 15, 2025

Things are looking up for being able to be honest about Jewish issues in mainstream forums. I couldn’t be happier that this is coming out from a mainstream conservative at a major mainstream conservative conference. It’s been a long time coming, and we are still not there. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. Carlson is much hated by the ADL which oddly has not commented on this latest faux pas. But they have lots to say about Turker’s endorsement of the great replacement “conspiracy theory.”

Carlson claimed that Epstein had “connections to a foreign government”:

“It’s extremely obvious to anyone who watches that this guy had direct connections to a foreign government.” “Now no one’s allowed to say that that foreign government is Israel because we have been somehow cowed into thinking that’s naughty.”

Lots of Jewish angst about this — and about Carlson’s statement that Jews who served in the IDF should lose their U.S. citizenship. Common sense, but since when has common sense been relevant to anything related to Jewish power. Any accusation of dual loyalty is considered anti-Semitism according to the official definition of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, so I guess Carlson is now officially an anti-Semite, along with Charlie Kirk and a whole lot of people who attended the conference.

From the Forward:

Tucker Carlson, the former Fox News host and a leader in the Republican Party’s isolationist wing, said that Americans who previously served in the Israeli Defense Forces should have their U.S. citizenship revoked over concerns of dual loyalty. At the same time, he also criticized the Trump administration for trying to deport pro-Palestinian students who engaged in anti-Israel activity on campus.are a lot of Americans who’ve served in the IDF — they should lose their citizenship,” Carlson said in a 45-minute speech on Saturday at the Turning Point USA Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida. “You can’t fight for another country and remain an American, period.”

Carlson, who has promoted antisemitic tropes [simply for saying Zelenskyy is a dictator who has suppressed Christianity] and has been associated with white nationalists [i.e., Darryl Cooper!!], explained that his position is an “obvious recognition of the truth” and applies to all countries. He mocked his critics — “they just write you off as some sort of internet freak, hater, Nazi” — and said it is “fair to demand that the people running my country love it every bit as much as I do.”

The founder of the organization Carlson spoke to is Charlie Kirk, a conservative podcaster who has accused Jews of financing “anti-white causes.” Several Trump cabinet members and Republican officials attended and spoke at the three-day conference.

And of course, Jews in high places deny Epstein had any connections to Mossad.

From the JTA comment on Naftali Bennet’s tweet:

Carlson has long faced allegations of antisemitism, including over his promotion of white supremacist ideas while on Fox News and his hosting of a Holocaust denier on his X stream last year.

More recently, he has been at the vanguard of a different divide within the MAGA movement over foreign policy, centering on Israel. Carlson and others heavily criticized Trump’s decision to join Israel’s military offensive against Iran’s nuclear program, with Carlson accusing Trump of being “complicit” in Israel’s “act of war.”

Carlson sends out a daily email to subscribers. This is from the July 14th email and basically summarizes his points at his talk. Notice he highlights Jewish activist Ben Shapiro as wanting to move on.

It seems likely that Jeffrey Epstein worked on behalf of an intelligence service. Probably not an American one.

So which country was it? The fact that so few reporters have bothered to dig into that question could prove to be this century’s most egregious example of journalistic malpractice. How did the notorious pedophile go from being a high school math teacher with no college degree to having a private island and one of the most luxurious residences in Manhattan? Doesn’t that seem weird? What was the source of his money? Why has nobody ever really looked into it?

To anyone paying attention, the obvious conclusion is that Epstein had direct connections to a foreign government. To the Israeli government. That is true even though saying it out loud is forbidden in mainstream political discourse, but there’s nothing wrong with having the gall to do just that. It doesn’t matter what screeching shills like Mark Levin say. Telling the truth is not hateful, nor is it anti-Semitic or even anti-Israel.

Criticizing the behavior of a government agency, any government agency, does not make you a bigot. It makes you a free person. You are allowed to hold them to account because you’re not a slave; you are a citizen. That means you have the right to expect your government to act in your interest and to demand that foreign governments that suck up your tax dollars do the same. Israel using America’s most famous serial sex criminal as an intelligence asset would not fit that description.

So did it happen? A few people have asked the Israeli government that question, but they’ve received no real answers. That is unacceptable. As long as America keeps cutting generous checks to that foreign power, it should have to report to us. If it refuses, no more payments. The rules are simple.

In the meantime, we can’t help but notice a strange new talking point emerging on the Right.

“The Epstein story doesn’t even matter!” the Ben Shapiros of the world now claim. “So shut up about it already!”

That is obvious nonsense. The truth behind Epstein, his death, his connections, and how he got so rich matters a lot. The pedophile wasn’t killed during a walk down the street or even in his own home. He died in a high-security prison in the heart of America’s largest city. It was supposed to be among the most secure places in the world. That means whatever force is responsible for Epstein’s demise orchestrated the killing in among the most difficult conditions possible, and they did it while hardly breaking a sweat. Whoever pulled that off really runs our country. If they could do it to him, they could definitely do it to you, too.

Why would the Shapiro caucus not want to get to the bottom of that? You know the answer. It’s because they have something to hide

The refrain on the right is that Epstein matters because he is a window into who rules the U.S. And one would be forgiven for thinking that the reason for the cover-up is to hide the involvement of Mossad in an elaborate blackmail scheme. We also deserve to know what the deep state is hiding about the JFK assassination—another phenomenally important event in which there is good reason to think that Israel and the CIA were involved, and another incident where Trump said he would be completely transparent.


Video Link

July 15, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Tucker escalates war with neocons over Iran

By Jack Hunter | Responsible Statecraft | June 6, 2025

Five months into President Donald Trump’s second term, spring is looking like winter for the neoconservatives.

This might be best gauged right now looking at the back and forth war between conservative media giants, Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin.

When Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff said in an interview in May that, “the neocon element believes that war is the only way to solve things,” Levin took offense. The reliably neoconservative talk host blasted Witkoff and added, “By the way, neocon is a pejorative for Jew. Unbelievable.”

Carlson was perplexed by this statement. In an interview with comedian and libertarian activist Dave Smith, Carlson said, “So you have Mark Levin calling Steve Witkoff an anti-Semite. We’ve reached peak crazy, I mean, I think Witkoff is Jewish, right?”

That made Levin even more mad. On Thursday, Carlson shared a lengthy post on X that read, “Mark Levin was at the White House today, lobbying for war with Iran. To be clear, Levin has no plans to fight in this or any other war. He’s demanding that American troops do it. We need to stop Iran from building nuclear weapons, he and likeminded ideologues in Washington are now arguing. They’re just weeks away.”

Carlson reminded his audience what a farce this was.

“If this sounds familiar, it’s because the same people have been making the same claim since at least the 1990s. It’s a lie,” Carlson wrote. “In fact, there is zero credible intelligence that suggests Iran is anywhere near building a bomb, or has plans to. None. Anyone who claims otherwise is ignorant or dishonest.”

A ten paragraph essay followed, dismantling some of the usual arguments neoconservatives make to push for war with Iran, with Carlson using Levin in particular to make his points.

On enrichment, Carlson observed, “[M]any Americans would die during a war with Iran. People like Mark Levin don’t seem to care about this. It’s not relevant to them. Instead they insist that Iran give up all uranium enrichment, regardless of its purpose. They know perfectly well that Iran will never accept that demand. They’ll fight first. And of course that’s the whole point of pushing for it: to box the Trump administration into a regime change war in Iran.”

The Quincy Institute’s Executive Vice President Trita Parsi shared Carlson’s post and echoed the importance of his enrichment comments.

“The most crucial part of Tucker’s tweet is on enrichment,” Parsi noted. “He doesn’t just issue a generic warning against war. He addresses the impasse of the talks: The neocon red line of zero enrichment.”

Parsi added, “At a crucial moment, Tucker wisely advises Trump to drop this deal-killing demand. Huge!”

Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna (Calif.) also shared Carlson’s X post, writing, “No war with Iran. The war in Iraq was the biggest foreign policy blunder of the 21st century. Americans — right and left — do not want more dumb wars.”

Former Republican congressman Matt Gaetz (Fla.) shared Carlson’s post, adding a 100 percent emoji.

Senior Editor of The American Conservative Andrew Day shared and highlighted the dangerousness of having Levin around Trump at this moment. Carlson said from the beginning of his post that he believed Levin was at the White House to agitate for war.

“Mark Levin is the last person who should be whispering in Trump’s ear at this stage of negotiations,” Day wrote. “I hope Vance and Gabbard are actively exerting a counter-influence.”

Vice President JD Vance and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard have been against a U.S. war with Iran.

Carlson finished his post, writing, “The one thing that people like Mark Levin don’t want is a peaceful solution to the problem of Iran, despite the obvious benefits to the United States. They denounce anyone who advocates for a deal as a traitor and a bigot. They tell us with a straight face that Long Island native Steve Witkoff is a secret tool of Islamic monarchies. They’ll say or do whatever it takes. They have no limits”

“These are scary people,” he concluded. “Pray that Donald Trump ignores them.”

I noted in an essay in late May that established neoconservative media voices on the right were beginning to be outshined by new conservative, libertarian and independent influencers, almost all of them antiwar.

Carlson is the largest figure on the American right this side of Donald Trump right now and he has been consistently against America’s involvement in any new wars, the mirror opposite of Levin.

As of this writing, Carlson’s Levin-Iran X post has over 5.4 million views.

Mark Levin has used his large platforms on talk radio and Fox News to promote neoconservative foreign policy for many years. Now Tucker Carlson appears to be using his arguably even larger platform on social media to shut that down.

Good.

July 15, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

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