mRNA: GROUND ZERO FOR CANCER CRISIS?
The HighWire with Del Bigtree | August 7, 2025
As HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. pulls the plug on $500 million in mRNA vaccine contracts and U.S. COVID shot uptake plummets to historic lows, a more alarming crisis is taking shape—a potential pandemic of cancer. Could the very technology once hailed as revolutionary now be triggering a silent epidemic? Explore the emerging science uncovering how mRNA vaccines may be reactivating dormant cancer cells and disrupting immune surveillance. This is a wake-up call the world can’t afford to ignore.
Danish Researcher Responds to RFK Jr.’s Call to Retract ‘Deeply Flawed’ Aluminum Study
By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 5, 2025
The lead author of a controversial Danish study on aluminum in vaccines responded this week to a call by U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for the study to be retracted.
In an op-ed published Aug. 1 in Trial Site News, Kennedy outlined at least 10 “fatal deficiencies.” According to the Danish researchers, their study showed no link between aluminum in vaccines and autism — a finding that Kennedy and others rejected.
Kennedy wrote:
“The slavish, pharma-funded mainstream media, ever eager to defend industry orthodoxies, have triumphantly hailed this study as proof of aluminum’s safety without even a cursory examination of the study’s fatal deficiencies or the financial conflicts of its authors.
“But a closer look reveals a study so deeply flawed it functions not as science but as a deceitful propaganda stunt by the pharmaceutical industry.”
Anders Hviid, a professor and department head of epidemiology at the Statens Serum Institut (SSI) and the study’s lead author, responded to Kennedy’s criticism in his own op-ed, also published in Trial Site News.
Hviid included a bullet-point list of the methodological issues Kennedy raised, but without refuting any of them.
“Despite the veneer of professional courtesy,” said James Lyons-Weiler, Ph.D., “Anders Hviid’s response fails to address any of the core methodological flaws … What Hviid offers the public is not a defense, but a performance. The press should not mistake posturing for scientific rebuttal.”
Children’s Health Defense (CHD) Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker agreed. “Hviid offers no scientific arguments whatsoever against Secretary Kennedy’s observations.” Chris Exley, Ph.D., one of the world’s leading experts on the health effects of aluminum exposure, said Hviid’s response had “no science” in it.
Hviid ‘categorically’ denies any deceit
Hviid claimed that “none of the critiques put forward by the Secretary is substantive. … I categorically deny that any deceit is involved as implied by the Secretary.”
But other critics of the study argued that many of Kennedy’s concerns are not only “substantive,” but are also shared by other independent scientists.
For instance, Kennedy pointed out — as did scientists with CHD in a July 28 press release — that data from the corrected version of the study’s supplemental materials showed that children who received a large dose of aluminum from vaccines had a statistically significantly higher risk of being diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder, including autism, compared to those who received a moderate dose of aluminum.
“Yet the authors,” Kennedy wrote, “gloss over these harms to children by claiming they ‘did not find evidence’ for an increased risk.”
On July 17, the Annals of Internal Medicine, which originally published the Danish study on July 15, issued a correction, stating that the journal “included an incorrect version of the Supplementary Material at the time of initial publication.”
The updated materials are available here with the link to the study.
Hviid didn’t explain why he believes the corrected supplemental material data do not contradict the study’s conclusion. Instead, he repeated the claim that the study “does not provide support for the hypothesis that aluminum used as adjuvants in vaccines are associated with increased risks of early childhood health conditions.”
“Just because Dr. Hviid makes a statement about something doesn’t mean that it is true,” Hooker said. “Frankly, his paper shows the exact opposite — a strong, statistically significant relationship between aluminum adjuvant exposure and autism spectrum disorders.”
Hviid also didn’t refute Kennedy’s claim that the study authors had biased the data when they made statistical adjustments for the number of times a child visited the doctor.
According to Kennedy:
“The authors inappropriately treated general practitioner visits before age two as a confounder, without assessing whether these GP visits reflected early aluminum-related illness or were predictive of later diagnoses.
“This introduced ‘collider bias’ — a distortion that can suppress real associations even to the extent of making aluminum appear protective. It’s like studying whether smoking causes lung cancer while adjusting for coughing or for yellowed fingers — symptoms associated with smoking.”
Lyons-Weiler had pointed out the same methodological problem in a lengthy Substack post published July 15.
Both Kennedy and Lyons-Weiler also pointed out that the Danish study lacked a control group of kids unexposed to aluminum.
They also criticized the study authors for excluding children who were diagnosed with certain preexisting conditions by age two, including respiratory conditions, congenital rubella syndrome, primary immune deficiency, and heart or liver failure, and for excluding children who died by age two.
According to Kennedy, “The exclusion included all children who died before age two, those diagnosed early with respiratory conditions, and an astonishing 34,547 children — 2.8% of the study population — whose vaccination records showed the highest aluminum exposure levels.”
In other words, the study “systematically omits the very cases most plausibly linked to early-life neurotoxicity,” Lyons-Weiler said. “You cannot detect harm in infants if you erase harmed infants from the dataset.”
Study not intentionally designed to find no link, author says
Hviid offered no scientific rebuttal to Kennedy’s specific criticisms, but he did push back against Kennedy’s insinuation that the study had been designed to find no link between aluminum in vaccines and negative health conditions, including autism and asthma.
Hviid said he and his co-authors chose their study design in an attempt to replicate a 2023 study led by Dr. Matthew Daley that found a link between aluminum in vaccines and asthma in young children.
Seeking to replicate Daley’s study doesn’t exonerate Hviid and his co-authors from the claim that their study was ill-designed, Exley said.
When Daley’s study first came out, Exley said in a Substack post that it had so many flaws that it wouldn’t have survived “peer review at any reputable journal operating independent peer review.”
Exley wrote:
“Not a single reputable and independent researcher on aluminium toxicity in humans is cited in this paper. If any of the world’s leading researchers on aluminium had been sent this manuscript to review they would have rejected it on multiple standpoints.”
Hviid also criticized Kennedy for calling on the authors to ask the Danish government to let them release the raw data so scientists around the world could replicate their work. He said that as a lawyer, Kennedy should know that’s impossible.
“Accredited Danish researchers and their international collaborators” can access the data, Hviid said.
He also rejected Kennedy’s suggestion that Hviid’s financial ties may have influenced the study. Hviid acknowledged he has received grants from the Novo Nordisk Foundation — which is linked to the pharmaceutical industry — but said the grants were “unrelated” to the aluminum study.
Hviid clarified that SSI, where he and two of his co-authors work, is not a “company,” as Kennedy claimed, but an “institute.” Hviid acknowledged that SSI historically produced vaccines but said it sold its vaccine manufacturing capacities to AJ Vaccines in 2017.
Hooker said:
“The fact that SSI held the vaccine manufacturing capabilities up until 2017 and sold those capabilities shows that it is profiting off of vaccine sales regardless of whether the funds are reinvested in research or used to reward vaccine developers directly. This is a conflict of interest.”
More than a dozen researchers post critical comments
Kennedy is far from alone in voicing concerns about the Danish researchers’ aluminum study.
Over a dozen researchers, including Exley and CHD Senior Research Scientist Karl Jablonowski, have posted comments on the study’s webpage that detail specific methodological flaws they say undermine the study’s conclusions.
The study authors responded to comments posted in the first few days after the study’s publication on July 15, but haven’t responded to comments posted after July 21.
In his op-ed, Hviid said he and his co-authors will respond to the latter comments “in the coming weeks.”
Hviid and his co-authors have already responded to Exley’s comment, which he posted on July 15. But Exley said that, similar to Hviid’s op-ed, the authors’ online response had “little science” in it.
Exley said he tried to post a follow-up comment about the authors’ lack of scientific response and the questions that their response left unanswered. However, he was informed by the Annals of Internal Medicine, which published the study, that the journal does not allow follow-up comments, he said.
Exley shared with The Defender some of the questions he wanted to ask in a follow-up comment, including:
“How many infants are in their database that have never received an aluminium-containing vaccine? Why is this number insufficient for any comparative purpose? What are the confounding factors that make it impossible to compare populations of infants that have not received an aluminium-adjuvanted vaccine with those that have? Are the authors wholly unaware that the data relating to the aluminium content of vaccines are completely unreliable, one might even say random?”
Exley and colleagues in 2021 published a study showing that among 13 aluminum-containing vaccines given to babies, only three contained the amount of aluminum specified by the vaccine manufacturer.
Related articles in The Defender
- ‘Deceitful Propaganda Stunt’: RFK Jr. Breaks Down Danish Study on Autism and Aluminum in Vaccines
- Danish Researchers Remain Mum on Corrected Data Showing Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism
- Calls Grow for Journal to Retract Danish Study After Corrected Data Show Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism
- Study Claiming No Link Between Aluminum in Vaccines and Autism Riddled with Flaws, Critics Say
- 4 Things the New York Times Got Wrong About Aluminum in Vaccines
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.
RFK Jr. Ends Financial Incentives for Hospitals That Report Staff Vaccination Rates
By Suzanne Burdick, Ph.D. | The Defender | August 4, 2025
The federal government will no longer financially reward hospitals for reporting the vaccination rates of their staff, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced on Aug. 1. According to the press release, the incentive system was “coercive and denied informed consent.”
U.S. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said:
“Medical decisions should be made based on one thing: the wellbeing of the person — never on a financial bonus or a government mandate. … Doctors deserve the freedom to use their training, follow the science, and speak the truth — without fear of punishment.”
The move repeals a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) inpatient payment policy created during the Biden administration that tied hospital reimbursement to COVID-19 vaccination reporting.
Under the old policy, hospitals didn’t just collect the data and hold it internally. They published the data on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network — the “nation’s most widely used healthcare-associated infection tracking system,” where it was used “as a tool for public shaming, not public health,” the press release said.
CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz applauded the repeal.
“Doctors and other providers should have the same autonomy to choose what’s right for their own individual health care needs as the patients for whom they care,” Oz said. “Today’s announcement helps put that power back in their hands.”
HHS said the repeal is part of the agency’s broader efforts to “restore medical autonomy in federally funded programs and root out financial and regulatory pressures that incentivize physicians towards pre-scripted medical decisions rather than individualized, evidence-based care.”
CMS estimated that the annual burden of collecting the data across 3,050 hospitals was between $1,378,600 and $1,608,570.
Trial Site News noted that HHS’ press release didn’t cite evidence supporting the allegation that requiring hospitals to report vaccination data had been used to shame them, but said such evidence may exist.
According to Trial Site News :
“This policy rollback is more than bureaucratic housekeeping — it’s a reflection of a national reckoning. The American people grew weary of the top-down, one-size-fits-all vaccination regime advanced by HHS agencies like the FDA and CDC during the COVID-19 era.
“What was framed as public health became, in the eyes of many, a vehicle for coercion, censorship, and loss of personal agency. … The rise of RFK Jr. to lead HHS isn’t a fluke; it’s a clear mandate from the public demanding medical freedom, transparency, and an end to government overreach disguised as science.”
Jon Fleetwood wrote in a Substack post today that the change suggests HHS may be restructuring how it relates to the medical community. The agency “now favors decentralization and professional freedom over command-and-control enforcement,” he said.
Many hospital workers resisted COVID vaccine
The issue of COVID-19 vaccination mandates for hospital staff has been contentious.
Earlier this year, the Court of Appeals of the State of Kansas ruled that Saint Luke’s Health Systems improperly fired an employee when it rejected her request for a religious exemption from the hospital system’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate.
In 2021, over 100 hospital workers in Texas sued their employer for requiring them to get a COVID-19 shot, alleging the mandate forced them to “subject themselves to medical experimentation as a prerequisite to feeding their families.”
The same year, a New Jersey hospital system fired over 100 employees who refused to get a COVID-19 shot.
In 2023, CMS eliminated COVID-19 mandates for healthcare workers. Since then, healthcare worker COVID-19 vaccination rates have dropped.
Last fall, roughly 85% of healthcare workers declined a COVID-19 booster, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Marty Makary.
Will HHS eliminate vaccine incentives for pediatricians?
The HHS policy change didn’t reference an incentive program that rewards pediatricians who follow the CDC childhood immunization schedule. Kennedy raised the issue last month during an interview with Tucker Carlson.
But Polly Tommey, program director for Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) CHD.TV, brought it up during her testimony last month at a U.S. Senate hearing on vaccine injury.
“We need our pediatricians to stop getting bonuses for vaccinating our children,” said Tommey, whose son was injured by a childhood vaccine.
CHD Chief Scientific Officer Brian Hooker, who also has a vaccine-injured son and testified during the Senate hearing, said pediatricians can receive hundreds of dollars for each fully vaccinated child, depending on certain factors.
CHD CEO Mary Holland said in a recent interview with OAN News that vaccine incentives for pediatricians have “completely distorted” pediatric care.
“A pediatrician with a large practice of thousands of children in it can earn hundreds of thousands of dollars, really serious money, by having a 90% or a 95% uptake rate,” Holland said.
AAP tells doctors it’s ok to drop patients if parents refuse to follow vaccine schedule
A recent investigation by The Defender found that high vaccination rates are key to a profitable pediatric practice, according to data from insurance incentive structures and an analysis of a pediatric practice’s income.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), in a 2016 report on “Countering Vaccine Hesitancy,” told pediatricians that it was an “acceptable option” to dismiss families who refused to vaccinate their children.
The AAP receives funding from numerous vaccine makers, including AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly, GSK, Merck, Moderna and Pfizer, according to data compiled by White Rose Intelligence.
Last month, the AAP sued Kennedy and other HHS officials over the decision to no longer recommend COVID-19 vaccines for healthy kids and pregnant women.
On July 28, the AAP issued a policy statement urging states to eliminate all non-medical exemptions to vaccination requirements for school kids, including religious and conscience-based exemptions.
When The Defender asked HHS if it planned to eliminate financial pressure tied to pediatric vaccination reporting, an HHS spokesperson said the agency “continues to evaluate solutions that align with current public health priorities and the best available scientific evidence.”
Related articles in The Defender
- Court Rules Against Hospital That Fired Woman for Refusing COVID Vaccine
- Are Vaccines Big Money-Makers for Pediatricians? RFK Jr. Comment During Interview With Tucker Carlson Sparks New Debate
- ‘We Get Paid to Vaccinate Your Children’: Pediatrician Reveals Details of Big Pharma Payola Scheme
- Pediatricians Get Paid to Push Vaccines — and It’s No Small Amount of Cash
- CHD Funds Lawsuit Against CDC Over Program That Forces Pediatricians to Give COVID Vaccines to Kids on Medicaid
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.
Palestinian prisoners electrocuted, abused in ‘Israel’s’ Gilboa prison
Al Mayadeen | August 8, 2025
Palestinian prisoners are being electrocuted, among more abusive forms of punitive actions, in “Israel’s” Gilboa prison, the Palestinian Commission for Detainees and Ex-Detainees’ Affairs confirmed on Friday.
According to a lawyer from the commission who visited the prison, Israeli occupation authorities have increased the use of torture with electricity.
Special repression units storm prisoner sections under the pretext of inspection, handcuff detainees by their wrists and ankles, and force them into the prison yard. There, prisoners are reportedly beaten, insulted, and subjected to electric shocks. They are then dragged across the concrete floors and forced into the shower area, where their clothes and bodies are soaked with water before being electrocuted again, amplifying pain and physical trauma.
The lawyer described the use of specialized stun guns, which double as blunt-force weapons. These are allegedly made of solid metal and have caused severe head injuries, leading to heavy bleeding among detainees. Prison guards were reported to have mocked and laughed during the abuse, with several prisoners losing consciousness due to the severity of the torture.
Neglect of basic needs and health threats
In addition to the physical abuse, prisoners are reportedly being denied adequate food. The portions provided are minimal, resulting in significant weight loss among detainees. There is also a critical shortage of hygiene supplies and disinfectants, creating a breeding ground for diseases inside overcrowded and poorly ventilated cells.
Detainees are forced to use plastic plates and spoons, each for an entire month, which increases the risk of virus and bacteria transmission with every use. According to the commission, these conditions pose a serious threat to prisoners’ health and survival.
The Palestinian Prisoners’ Media Office recently revealed similarly harrowing conditions in Naqab prison, where detainees live under constant fear due to relentless transfers and degrading treatment.
The office reported that prisoners are frequently subjected to humiliating searches and forced to kneel with their hands bound behind their backs during daily headcounts and inspections. This ongoing repression has created an atmosphere of instability and psychological torment.
As of early July, the number of Palestinians held in Israeli occupation prisons has risen to approximately 10,800, marking the highest figure since the Second Intifada in 2000. This total does not include detainees held in occupation military camps, whose status remains largely unaccounted for.
Only 188 of 800 promised aid trucks entered Gaza: Euractiv
Al Mayadeen | August 7, 2025
A recent report from Euractiv, based on a European Commission document, reveals a significant shortfall in the amount of humanitarian aid the Israelis permitted to enter Gaza, falling well below the levels set in a previous agreement with the European Union.
Under the terms of the deal struck in July, around 160 trucks carrying relief supplies were expected to be allowed into Gaza daily. This would amount to a total of 800 trucks over a five-day period, from July 31 to August 4. However, the actual number of trucks that made it into the enclave was much lower.
“Between 31 July and 4 August, the UN, and our partners report that 188 trucks were offloaded at crossing points to Gaza,” the European Commission document stated.
An unnamed EU official criticized the gap between the agreement and the delivery, noting that “Israel” had allowed “four times fewer” aid trucks than what had been committed to.
Israeli authorities, however, presented a different version of events. According to the same document cited by Euractiv, “Israel” claimed that 737 trucks entered Gaza during that period. This figure reportedly includes shipments from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation as well as commercial supplies, raising concerns about what actually qualifies as humanitarian aid under the agreement.
Aid Bottleneck Persists
Meanwhile, on the ground, the humanitarian situation remains dire. A RIA Novosti journalist at the Rafah border crossing reported long queues of aid trucks waiting for clearance. Several trucks were reportedly turned back after being denied entry by Israeli forces.
Despite these challenges, Egyptian officials claim that aid efforts have intensified. “The flow of humanitarian aid from Egypt to the Gaza Strip had increased in recent days,” Khaled Megawer, governor of Egypt’s North Sinai province, told RIA.
Amal Imam, Executive Director of the Egyptian Red Crescent, shared more specifics at the Rafah crossing, saying that “about 800 trucks carrying 8,000 tonnes of humanitarian aid, including food and medicine, had entered Gaza from Egypt since July 27.”
Nevertheless, Gaza’s needs continue to far exceed the supply. Local authorities estimate that a minimum of 600 aid trucks must enter the enclave each day to ensure access to essential goods, including food, medical supplies, and fuel.
Senior EU official accuses ‘Israel’ of genocide in Gaza
Earlier in the day, a senior member of the European Commission has said the displacement and killing of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip “looks very much like genocide,” becoming the first EU official to publicly diverge from the bloc’s official position on the war.
“If it is not genocide, it looks very much like the definition used to express its meaning,” said Teresa Ribera, the European Commission’s Executive Vice President, in an interview with Politico published Thursday.
Ribera, a Spanish socialist and the Commission’s second-highest-ranking official, does not hold a foreign policy portfolio, instead overseeing climate and anti-trust matters. Nonetheless, her remarks mark a rare and significant breach from the European Commission’s cautious language regarding the war on Gaza.
Kaliningrad Gambit: NATO’s Last Desperate Bluff /Spark for World War III?
By Jeffrey Silverman – New Eastern Outlook – August 8, 2025
With Ukraine’s defences collapsing and Russia gaining the upper hand, NATO’s provocative focus on Kaliningrad risks triggering a nuclear escalation that could end any remaining prospects for diplomacy.
As many foresaw, the situation for Ukraine’s Western-backed proxy regime is unraveling fast. Russian forces are pushing forward with increasing momentum—Chasov Yar has reportedly fallen, and Pokrovsk and Kostiantynivka facing operational encirclement. The Eastern Front may soon collapse entirely.
Kiev appears outgunned and undermanned, the result of Russia’s grinding attritional strategy—high firepower, low casualties—not the reckless assault tactics portrayed in Western media.
In response, Washington is shifting gears—talking nuclear subs and floating threats against Kaliningrad, Russia’s fortified Baltic enclave, a move that may only harden Moscow’s resolve—and shift the conflict into a far more dangerous phase.
Russian military production has far outstripped that of the entire combined West by a factor of roughly four to one. Getting beyond lame Western rhetoric, the Russian Federation is producing weapons that actually work, unlike their NATO rivals, at a price far less than the West is capable of matching. Needless to say, the West claims plans are in progress to “close the gap in 2025” but they have been saying that since 2022, with no result in sight.
They say tactics win battles, but logistics wins wars. The Russians took that to heart—favoring firepower and endurance over flashy maneuvers. The West, still chasing its blitzkrieg fantasies, missed the memo.
With Ukraine’s proxy army buckling, NATO faces a sobering question: what now?
Sanctions fizzled. The so-called “global consensus” crumbled as China, India, and Brazil shrugged off Washington’s threats and kept buying Russian energy. Trump’s bluster over secondary sanctions rings hollow—especially after Beijing humbled him in the last rare earth standoff.
Meanwhile, the West’s wunderwaffen parade—HIMARS, Javelins, Patriots, Leopards, F-16s—may have dazzled in brochures, but has done little to shift the battlefield calculus. Ukraine bleeds, Russia raises battle flags over liberated towns and cities, and NATO grows increasingly desperate.
And now, with few cards left to play, NATO’s gaze turns ominously to Kaliningrad—the heavily armed Russian exclave boxed in by Poland and the Baltics. A target? A bargaining chip? Or the next red line in a war spiraling out of control?
NATO Doctrine
General Christopher Donahue, commander of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, unveiled the new NATO doctrine for Eastern Flank Defence at the inaugural LandEuro conference on Wednesday 30th July, by talking about NATO plans to attack Kaliningrad in the event of open conflict with Russia.
Speaking specifically about Kaliningrad, Donahue said modern allied capabilities could “take that down from the ground” faster than ever before.
“We’ve already planned that and we’ve already developed it,” he said.”
“The mass and momentum problem that Russia poses to us… we’ve developed the capability to make sure that we can stop that mass and momentum problem.”
Sounds a bit too optimistic to me!
Apparently, NATO planners have learned little from the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, even less from the debacle in Afghanistan and Iraq, where offensives into built up areas require long preparation in terms of artillery and missile strikes. Modern satellite and drone observation makes it practically impossible to build up sufficient forces unobserved for “coup-de-main” surprise attacks of the type the western military still dream of, and the sheer level of destruction that modern weapons systems can unleash, such as the TOS-1, and FAB-3000 glide bombs, various cruise and Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, and conventionally armed Oreshnik IRBMs can unleash makes concentration of troops an extremely risky business.
Quite how NATO intends to square this circle is anyone’s guess, as the statements by Donahue are, to put it mildly, light on details.
It seems that NATO might be banking on the supposed reduction of the Kaliningrad garrison, as claimed by the Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski at the NATO summit in the Hague on 24th June 2025, where he said “from what I know, a large part of the troops have been withdrawn from Kaliningrad Oblast.”
Various estimates are that the 20,000 man garrison may have been reduced to 8,000, and there is speculation that most of these are “poorly trained conscripts”, however, it should be noted that the Ukrainian attack on Kursk, made by western trained “elite” units of the UAF was slowed, then stopped, by “poorly trained” Russian conscripts, who managed to hold the line well enough against the Ukrainian incursion until professional forces could be transferred from other fronts.
Again, NATO seems to be completely misreading the nature of modern warfare.
Cutting Edge “military genius”
Perhaps it would be wise to look a little closer at the “military genius” General Christopher Donahue, and his military record. Donahue was heavily involved in the “Great War on Terror” serving in both Iraq and Afghanistan, and was the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division of the US Army during the disastrous retreat from Kabul. Much was made at the time of him being the last US soldier to leave, but subsequently his promotion to 4-star general was delayed by questions about his role in the shambolic evacuation.
Needless to say, his political connections got him off the hook.
He has also been closely involved in the war in Ukraine. As commander of the XVIII Airborne Corps, he was directly responsible for the supply of weapons, intelligence, and training to the UAF, and his statements on Kaliningrad show how deeply emotionally invested he is in supporting Ukraine. Now, as US commander of Europe & Africa, he is the main military officer responsible for military support of the Kiev regime from the US side.
I would venture to say that he has been promoted well above his abilities, if the disaster of Kabul is anything to go by. There are just too many layers, especially in the desperate times faced by the US political establishment, and the need for a convenient and timely distraction from domestic issues.
Then there is the small matter of how Russia would react to any such attack on Kaliningrad, for which it would be wise to look at the Russian nuclear doctrine so recently updated in the light of the war in Ukraine.
Leonid Slutsky, head of the Russian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, warned NATO, “An attack on the Kaliningrad region is tantamount to an attack on Russia,” and the Russian nuclear doctrine clearly states that a conventional attack by a nuclear power on Russia will allow the use of nuclear weapons in response by the Russian state.
Unfortunately, the West has interpreted Russian patience in the face of numerous escalations to be weakness, but Russian patience has its limits, and an attack on Kaliningrad will almost certainly be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Add to this the ravings of the Baltic Republics, Poland, Sweden, and Finland. On one hand they claim Russia is “losing in Ukraine,” and on the other that Russia will attack NATO, the latter something the Russians have repeatedly denied they have any intention of doing. In the case of Finland, initial elation at joining NATO has been replaced by panic at the expansion of Russian forces on their long shared border.
This would amount to half of the land border between NATO and Russia. One can’t really understand why the Finns, who previously had a fairly demilitarized border with Russia, can’t make the link between joining an anti-Russian alliance and a Russian defensive build up on the border, its hardly rocket science. Then again, cause and effect do not seem to be well understood in the West these days.
The Baltic republics continue to yap away and continue instituting more and more racist laws against the ethnic Russian portion of their populations, making people stateless, segregated, and forcibly removing their language rights, as well as monuments to heroes of the USSR, as well as destroying other cultural and historical monuments.
Method in Madness
What Western planners often ignore—or conveniently forget—is that Ukraine’s internal policies toward its Russian-speaking population were a major trigger for the conflict. Now, with the battlefield turning in Russia’s favor, NATO appears to be scrambling for leverage.
Enter Kaliningrad—a high-risk gamble to claw back something, anything, to trade for lost Ukrainian territory. But it’s a gamble with nuclear implications and the lives of millions hanging in the balance.
Behind the scenes, familiar names resurface. Alexander Vershbow, the former NATO Deputy Secretary-General and U.S. Ambassador to Russia, is once again in the mix—this time linked to renewed missile shield discussions. His talk of Ukraine hosting early-warning radars echoes old Cold War tensions, and not without consequence. Lavrov has already called such plans hostile.
Veterans of this geopolitical game may recall how Obama shelved the original missile shield to ease tensions, leading Moscow to hold back on deploying Iskanders in Kaliningrad. Now that agreement is unraveling. Vershbow’s quiet reappearance in Georgia—a country key to both the Iran corridor and NATO’s eastern flank—should raise eyebrows.
Hillary Clinton once made vague promises about not placing missile systems in Georgia. In hindsight, that vagueness looks more like strategy than diplomacy.
When patterns repeat and the same architects return, the outlines of a long game become visible. For those with institutional memory, the pieces are all too familiar—and that’s exactly why some would rather we forget. Using Kaliningrad to poke the bear is just the spark that could set into motion the end of times, whether it is a military incursion, blockade, or a full-fledged attack, and this would be the end of diplomacy and humanity as we knew it.
The US and its NATO partners should never underestimate Russian resolve, as the portrayal of Russia as a defeated, overextended, or crumbling power is a story of another time and reality. Times have changed, and the world has changed, with new realities between East and West.
Jeffrey K. Silverman is a freelance journalist and international development specialist, BSc, MSc, based for 30 years in Georgia and the former Soviet Union.
Yasser Abu Shabab: Israel’s agent of chaos in Gaza
By William Van Wagenen | The Cradle | August 8, 2025
In late July, the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed attributed to Yasser Abu Shabab, a Palestinian warlord with a criminal past, portraying him and his militia as potential saviors of Gaza.
The piece, echoing Israeli talking points, suggested that US and Arab support for Abu Shabab could swiftly “transform” most of the strip “from a war zone into functioning communities,” ostensibly free from Israeli bombardment and flush with humanitarian aid.
But behind this carefully crafted image lies an Israeli proxy – a man embedded in organized crime and political subterfuge, now repurposed to advance Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to starve, displace, and ultimately ethnically cleanse Palestinians in Gaza.
Who is Abu Shabab?
Abu Shabab, 35, hails from Rafah in southern Gaza and belongs to the Bedouin Tarabin tribe, which spans Gaza, Israel’s Naqab, and Egypt’s Sinai. Before Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, he was notorious for his involvement in smuggling weapons, drugs, and contraband through Gaza’s tunnels and border crossings. He was also believed to have ties to extremist groups in Sinai, including the local ISIS affiliate, formerly known as Ansar Beit al-Maqdis.
Hamas authorities had imprisoned him for murder and drug trafficking, but he was released in October 2023 when Israeli air raids forced the movement to open its prisons.
Since then, Abu Shabab has rebranded himself as a “nationalist,” a “humanitarian,” and even a “liberator.”
But these claims are widely rejected by Palestinians, including members of his own tribe. A senior Tarabin elder publicly disowned him, labeling him a “looter and bandit” operating solely for personal gain. Aid officials echoed this assessment. One aid coordinator called him a “criminal, a fugitive … untrustworthy and mentally unstable.”
His own relatives have accused him of collaborating with the occupation military in targeted killings of Palestinians and have called for his “liquidation,” declaring his “blood is forfeit.”
Starving as warfare
After the 7 October resistance operation by Palestinian factions, then-defense minister Yoav Gallant – now a fugitive from international justice – announced a “complete siege” on Gaza, cutting off all access to food, water, fuel, and electricity. “We are fighting animals and are acting accordingly,” Gallant said in Hebrew.
Days later, a detailed proposal to forcibly expel all Palestinians from Gaza, under the pretext of protecting them, was prepared by Israel’s Ministry of Information.
Weeks later, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for both Gallant and Netanyahu on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, including the use of starvation as a method of warfare.
In response to mounting global scrutiny, Tel Aviv pivoted to a more insidious strategy: weaponizing hunger through sabotaging the existing UN aid distribution system.
In January 2024, Israel launched a smear campaign against the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), the main provider of aid to Gaza, falsely claiming it was infiltrated by Hamas operatives who took part in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. The campaign was successful in pressuring western countries to cut the UN refugee agency’s funding.
Simultaneously, Israel slashed the number of aid trucks allowed into Gaza. By February, only 62 trucks entered daily – a fraction of the 500 required to prevent mass hunger.
Israel ensured even this amount of food would not reach those who needed it by carrying out a string of airstrikes against members of Gaza’s Hamas-run civilian police force. The attacks caused officers, who were protecting the convoys, to withdraw from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing.
According to the Washington Post, the amount of aid entering Gaza “collapsed,” as the convoys delivering it were then exposed to widespread looting by criminal gangs.
In May 2024, the occupation state further moved to sabotage the UN aid system by occupying and closing the Rafah crossing with Egypt, the route through which most aid had flowed, and redirecting it through the Kerem Shalom.
Tel Aviv’s looting agent
With the withdrawal of Hamas police, Abu Shabab and his gang established a base in southeast Gaza from which it could freely loot aid trucks entering the strip via Kerem Shalom, all while operating under Israel’s protection and watchful eye.
In October 2024, the UN issued a memo concluding that criminal gangs “may be benefiting from a passive if not active benevolence” or “protection” from the Israeli military. According to the memo, one gang leader established a “military like compound” in an area “restricted, controlled and patrolled by the IDF.”
The memo identified Abu Shabab as “the main and most influential stakeholder behind systematic and massive looting” of aid convoys.
The largest single looting incident occurred in November 2024. On that day, a huge joint convoy of 109 UN trucks carrying food supplies entered Gaza via Kerem Shalom – only to be ambushed and stripped bare by armed looters. According to UN officials, 98 out of the 109 trucks were raided, their food, fuel, and even tires stolen.
It was “the biggest looting of UN aid anywhere, ever,” in the words of an NPR reporter.
Crucially, a UN spokesperson noted the convoy had been rerouted on short notice by the Israeli military onto unfamiliar roads, ensuring it would fall prey to the gangs.
For months, Israel approved the use of only one road passing through a “desolate patch” of southeast Gaza, the Washington Post observed.
“The only route they give us is directly through the looters,” said one aid worker speaking with the newspaper.
Israeli media later reported that Abu Shabab’s group was armed with Kalashnikov rifles provided by “Israeli security bodies,” in a decision approved by Netanyahu, providing a further sign that Israel was behind Abu Shabab’s looting campaign.
Blaming Hamas
While covertly facilitating Abu Shabab’s looting, Israeli officials publicly blamed Hamas for stealing aid, in an effort to further restrict the entry of food to Gaza and deepen the hunger and starvation of its residents.
In the wake of the mass looting incident in November, it was reported that:
“COGAT, the Israeli military’s civilian affairs department for the Palestinian territories, has justified restrictions on the flow of goods by alleging repeatedly that Hamas is stealing aid and preventing it from reaching civilians.”
Israel’s cynical game was confirmed in May 2025 by Jonathan Whittall, the head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in the occupied Palestinian territories. In reference to Abu Shabab, he stated that:
“Israel has publicly claimed that the UN and NGO aid is being diverted by Hamas. But this doesn’t hold up to scrutiny. The real theft of aid since the beginning of the war has been carried out by criminal gangs, under the watch of Israeli forces, and they were allowed to operate in proximity to the Kerem Shalom crossing point into Gaza.”
Whittall’s comments were further validated by a July 2025 USAID report, which also confirmed Hamas had not been involved in stealing aid.
A war of attrition
In March 2025, Israel unilaterally broke a ceasefire reached with Hamas in January. Israeli leaders once again openly imposed a new siege on Gaza, preventing all aid from reaching the strip.
Then, in April, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz issued evacuation orders covering most of Gaza, while launching a new offensive pushing hundreds of thousands of Palestinians into an “ever-shrinking bubble,” CNN reported. Katz’s goal was to “empty” large parts of Gaza while treating anyone who refused to obey evacuation orders as a “combatant.”
While Israel claimed its objective was to defeat Hamas and free Israeli captives held by the group, CNN observed that, “Israel’s strategy may have another purpose; to make life so unbearable for Gazans crammed into an ever-smaller pocket of territory without proper shelter that they begin to head for the exit.”
Katz appeared to make this objective clear, saying amid the offensive and blockade that, “We are working to advance the plan for the voluntary migration of Gaza’s residents.”
According to Israeli Communications Minister Shlomo Karhi, the so-called migration plan would be anything but voluntary:
“The real and lasting answer will come only through the full advancement of the emigration plan – ‘Force him until he says, I want it.’”
Gaza ‘Humanitarian’ Foundation
In parallel, Netanyahu launched the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), an aid mechanism staffed by former US special forces and contractors with opaque funding.
But the GHF, which began operating in May, did not distribute aid across Gaza. It established isolated “hubs” in the south, “designed as death traps.” Nearly 1,000 Palestinians were shot at or killed while seeking food from these hubs. Some were targeted by armed GHF security guards, while others were targeted by Israeli soldiers opening fire on starving crowds with sniper rifles, mortar shells, and even tank fire.
Despite the danger, Palestinians needing aid to prevent their children from starving had no choice but to come to the GHF sites, which meant relocating to tent camps near them.
The GHF was part of Israel’s military operation “Gideon’s Chariots,” with the stated objective of the “concentration and movement of the population.” In June, Tel Aviv admitted its goal: relocating all Gazans to a southern “sterile zone” surrounding the GHF hubs.
The UN and aid groups quickly rejected the GHF aid model, saying Israel was “using food as a tool for forced displacement.”
Concentration camps
As hunger deepened, Abu Shabab posted videos inviting displaced Palestinians to settle in his Israeli-guarded tent city in eastern Rafah.
He claimed to launch a recruitment drive to staff “administrative and community committees,” which would include doctors and nurses, engineers, primary school teachers, and public relations experts.
Abu Shabab claimed that more than 2,000 civilians were already living in his “protected zone,” and that his Popular Forces, allegedly consisting of just 100 armed men, had built schools, health centers, and other civilian infrastructure there.
Speaking with the Washington Post, he asked for support from the US, EU, and Arab states.
“We hope they support our vision and empower us to make all people in the Gaza Strip live like we do, taking control of our own areas in dignity and humanity,” Abu Shabab stated.
However, his attempt to bring “dignity” to Palestinians was soon revealed to be the first stage of an Israeli effort to build a massive concentration camp in Rafah.
On 7 July, Defense Minister Katz announced a plan to build a “humanitarian city” on the ruins of Rafah, in the same area where Israel allowed Abu Shabab’s Popular Forces to establish their base and tent camp.
The plan would begin by moving 600,000 Palestinians, primarily from the tent camps in the Al-Muwasi area, into the new zone after a security screening. The remainder of Gaza’s over 2 million Palestinians would be moved there later.
“Once inside, residents would not be allowed to leave,” Haaretz reported, citing the defense minister.
The planned “humanitarian city,” which no one would be “allowed to leave,” was quickly acknowledged as a concentration camp and the first step toward the complete ethnic cleansing of Gaza, including by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
“It is a concentration camp. I am sorry … this is part of an ethnic cleansing,” Olmert told The Guardian. “It is to deport them, to push them, and to throw them away.”
Manufactured governance, planned chaos
In June, Prime Minister Netanyahu finally acknowledged support for Abu Shabab, saying on social media that Israel had “activated” some Palestinian clans in Gaza, on the advice of “security officials.”
Netanyahu’s comments affirmed previous reports in Israeli media that the operation to arm Abu Shabab and other clan-based gangs was “planned and managed” by the Shin Bet to create “alternative governing structures” that challenge Hamas.
The strategy mirrored the occupation state’s project to create “village leagues” in the occupied West Bank in the 1970s and 80s. The project involved backing local clan leaders with funds, weapons, and privileges to weaken the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and block Palestinian statehood.
“It’s the oldest colonial strategy in the book,” said Rashid Khalidi of Columbia University. By supporting Abu Shabab, Israel had succeeded in “sowing utter chaos,” which Israel wants” because if the Palestinians are unified, then they might have to actually negotiate or deal with them,” Khalidi added.
In addition to helping Israel starve Palestinians and establish a concentration camp for their eventual ethnic cleansing from the Gaza, Abu Shabab has vowed to help in the next stage of the chaos Israel has planned: civil war.
“There is no stopping a civil war against Hamas,” Abu Shabab stated in an interview with Israeli public broadcaster KAN in July, claiming that his Popular Forces “will be the heirs in Gaza” after Hamas is “crushed and defeated.”
Far from empowering Palestinians, Abu Shabab is simply a tool of Israeli strategy – facilitating the starvation, fragmentation, and displacement of his own people to serve the occupation state’s long war on Palestinian liberation.
Gaza Faces Unrelenting Israeli Attacks Amid Global Indifference
Al-Manar | August 8, 2025
As the Israeli war on Gaza Strip stretches into its 672nd day, Israeli forces are intensifying their military campaign, characterized by relentless airstrikes and artillery bombardments that have devastated the region. This grim reality unfolds amid ongoing American political and military support, as well as a troubling silence from the international community and Arab states.
Recent reports from Palestinian sources indicate that multiple citizens have lost their lives due to Israeli army fire since Friday dawn. Eyewitnesses stated that forces targeted individuals awaiting aid along the Netzarim axis in central Gaza, while others suffered injuries from gunfire near the Asdaa area northwest of Khan Yunis.
In further acts of aggression, Israeli artillery shelled areas close to an electricity company north of the Nuseirat refugee camp early Friday. Additionally, Israeli aircraft conducted strikes on a building in the Japanese neighborhood north of Khan Yunis, further escalating the aggression.
With unwavering American support, Israeli occupation forces are waging a genocidal war on the Gaza Strip, which has so far left 61,258 martyrs, 152,045 wounded, and more than 10,000 missing. This is in addition to a famine that has claimed the lives of dozens, while more than two million Palestinians are living in conditions of forced displacement amidst total destruction.
Among the martyrs are 9,752 martyrs and 40,004 wounded, who fell after the occupation reneged on the ceasefire agreement on March 18, 2025.
New Delhi between sanctions and sovereignty
By Lucas Leiroz | Strategic Culture Foundation | August 8, 2025
In a world where the international order is increasingly shaped by the struggle between a declining unipolarity and an emerging multipolarity, sanctions have become the main weapon of a superpower that can no longer dictate the course of global affairs by consensus. What was once an exception — economic punishment against states clearly involved in illegal activities or blatant violations of international norms — has become a systemic, arbitrary, and politically motivated practice. And India is now the latest target of this coercive apparatus that defines the foreign policy of the United States.
The repeated use of sanctions by Washington reveals, above all, the exhaustion of its diplomatic capacity. Instead of building bridges with strategic partners, the U.S. chooses to punish, isolate, and sabotage any country that dares to follow an autonomous path.
Sanctions policy as a mechanism of domination
U.S. unilateral sanctions — almost always imposed outside the UN Security Council and in defiance of international law — have become a systematic policy of intimidation. Iran, Cuba, Syria, North Korea, Venezuela, Russia, and China have been the most well-known targets. But the list keeps growing. And India, previously seen as a potential Western ally in the Indo-Pacific, is now beginning to feel the weight of this punitive system.
The logic is simple: the U.S. identifies an “unacceptable” behavior — such as India’s refusal to join the sanctions against Russia — and from there constructs a narrative to justify pressure measures. It could be the defense of “human rights,” the “fight against terrorism,” or, as is now being done with India, the “war on drugs.” The content of the narrative is secondary; what matters is the effect: to break the sovereignty of the targeted country and force it to align with Washington’s foreign policy.
India: the new frontier of coercion
In recent days, Donald Trump has announced sanction packages of up to 50% against India, citing the “need” to punish trade partners of the Russian Federation. These coercive measures came after months of open threats toward India — some directly referencing the Indo-Russian partnership, others hiding behind the mask of the “fight against fentanyl.”
Although the recently announced sanctions are explicitly directed at Indo-Russian energy trade, there’s no guarantee that the U.S. will abandon the fentanyl rhetoric altogether. The “drug control” excuse may easily be revived at any moment to impose further sanctions on New Delhi, especially considering that this was Washington’s initial justification before Trump finally admitted the real motive: punishing India for its ties with Russia.
It must be emphasized that what brought India into Washington’s sanction crosshairs was not any real connection to fentanyl trafficking, but rather its strategic resilience in the face of Western efforts to isolate Russia. Since 2022, India has maintained firm energy and military cooperation with Moscow, refusing to take part in the U.S. and EU-led anti-Russian crusade. This pragmatic position — based on Indian national interests rather than ideological dogma — deeply irritated the Washington establishment.
In response, the U.S. began floating the idea that chemical exports from India could be diverted for fentanyl production — a claim made without solid evidence, but politically convenient. In a classic move, they attempt to turn a country with no proven role in fentanyl trafficking into part of the “drug problem,” paving the way for tariffs and trade restrictions.
This is Washington’s new modus operandi: transform internal crises — in this case, the collapse of the U.S. healthcare system and the opioid epidemic — into diplomatic weapons to force other nations to serve its strategic interests.
Rapprochement with Russia and China: India’s geopolitical response
In the face of this escalation, India appears to have understood the game — and is beginning to react astutely. Not only has it maintained and expanded its agreements with Russia, but it has also signaled a renewed openness to dialogue with China, having Prime Minister Modi announced a visit to Beijing.
This is a geopolitically significant move. India and China have long had a tense relationship, especially concerning the Himalayan border. But in the face of a common enemy — the global regime of unilateral sanctions that threatens the sovereignty of both — realism is starting to prevail. India already plays an active role in forums such as BRICS, the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), and the G20, but now signals a willingness to deepen its coordination with both Beijing and Moscow.
This marks the emergence of a “new” strategic triangle in the Global South — not based on ideological affinity, but on a shared need to resist the economic coercion promoted by the West. India is not becoming an automatic ally of China, but rather a situational partner in building a multipolar order, where the right to chart one’s own path is no longer subject to Washington’s approval.
Fragmentation of the global system and alternatives to the dollar
This strategic reconfiguration is happening in parallel with the fragmentation of the global financial system. As more countries begin operating outside the SWIFT system, pursue bilateral trade agreements in local currencies, and strengthen alternative development banks, the power of unilateral sanctions is beginning to erode. India has already signed agreements with Russia, Iran, and the UAE to trade in rupees, bypassing the U.S. dollar. BRICS+, with the potential creation of a common currency, is moving in the same direction.
By abusing sanctions as a tool, Washington is accelerating this process. In its attempt to maintain control, it ends up stimulating the formation of new centers of economic and diplomatic power — exactly the opposite of its intended outcome.
The end of the American consensus
The attempt to punish India over a crisis that is, above all, the result of domestic failure in the U.S., is not only an act of hypocrisy but also a major strategic miscalculation. Instead of isolating India, the U.S. is driving it deeper into multilateral frameworks that challenge Western hegemony.
New Delhi has made it clear it will not be turned into a geopolitical vassal. India is a civilizational power with its own interests and will not hesitate to forge partnerships — even with historical rivals — if it means securing strategic autonomy.
Sanctions, once presented as instruments of international justice, have become the primary mechanism for imposing a failed global order — one that seeks to preserve historical privileges at the expense of national sovereignty. The economic attacks on India over its strategic ties with Russia are just one example of this broader reality.
But a new world is taking shape. A world where countries like India, Russia, and China are building bridges over ruins — converging not out of ideological alignment, but from the urgent need to resist the systemic coercion of a declining empire. National sovereignty, more and more, will be asserted not through submission, but through coordinated resistance to the language of sanctions.
India understands this. And by responding with dignity and pragmatism, it shows that the path to strategic independence necessarily involves rejecting the arbitrary use of sanctions as a weapon of economic warfare. The multipolar world is under construction — and there is no room in it for domination disguised as moralism.
AfD files legal challenge after mayoral candidate barred in Ludwigshafen
By Thomas Brooke | Remix News | August 7, 2025
Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Joachim Paul has confirmed he will pursue legal action after being barred from running for mayor of Ludwigshafen.
The city’s electoral committee cited doubts about the state parliament member’s loyalty to the constitution in its decision, which Paul believes to be politically motivated due to the rising popularity of the right-wing anti-immigration party.
Speaking to Junge Freiheit, Paul said, “We no longer live in a democracy. A promising candidate is being eliminated from the race.” He added that “the will of the voters is being trampled on.”
Paul pointed out that the AfD had emerged as the second-strongest party in Ludwigshafen during the last federal election. He emphasized that elections must include genuine choice for voters.
The decision was made by a six-member electoral committee composed of representatives from the SPD, CDU, Free Voters, and FDP. Demonstrations against Paul, including by left-wing extremists, were held in the run-up to the decision.
Sebastian Münzenmaier, deputy leader of the AfD in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, called the ruling “a clear violation of the constitutionally guaranteed equal treatment of parties and thus an attack on democracy.”
“Interior Minister [Michael] Ebling has learned absolutely nothing from his recent slap in the face, when he attempted, unlawfully and unconstitutionally, to prevent AfD members from entering government service,” he added.
Münzenmaier accused Ebling of political interference, stating: “Because the AfD finished ahead of the SPD in the second vote in the federal election in Ludwigshafen, Ebling is now in panic mode, trying to rid himself of a direct and successful competitor by making fabricated and untenable accusations of right-wing extremism.”
He warned that Ebling and those conspiring to exclude the AfD candidate “will pay the price for this transparent maneuver twice: through legal action and on election day.”
This is not the first time AfD candidates have been excluded from elections. Most recently, the electoral committee in Lippe district, North Rhine-Westphalia, denied the AfD a mayoral candidacy at the request of the Green Party, also citing concerns about loyalty to the constitution.
Ironically, it was actually a Social Democrat politician who was most recently “disloyal” to the constitution; Daniel Born, a then-MP in the Baden-Württemberg state parliament, was forced to resign last month for drawing a swastika on a ballot paper next to the AfD candidate.
Action against the AfD is also being taken at a federal level, with constant speculation over a potential wholesale ban of the party. Such a move could edge closer with the possible appointment of Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, a lawyer described as far-left, to the Federal Constitutional Court.
Her appointment would increase the chances that a ban on the AfD party passes through the court.
Bosnian Serb leader stripped of presidential mandate, vows to never surrender
Remix News – August 7, 2025
Last Friday, the Bosnian Court of Appeal upheld the initial verdict against the separatist Milorad Dodik, sentencing the Bosnian Serb, who is president of the Republika Srpska, to one year in prison and banning him from holding public office for six years.
The electoral commission subsequently decided to revoke his presidential mandate, writes Magyar Nemzet, and Dodik has 90 days to appeal the decision.
As Remix News has previously reported, Dodik was jailed for going against orders of an international peace-keeping envoy and suspending rulings by the country’s constitutional court.
Dodik has systematically been pulling out of the federal institutions and legal frameworks of Bosnia and Herzegovina, implementing bans on its judiciary and intelligence agency.
The Bosnian Federal Prosecutor’s Office indicted Dodik in August 2023 under a section of the Criminal Code that provides for a prison sentence of six months to five years and a ban from office for up to ten years for an official who fails to comply with, implement, or obstruct the decisions of the High Representative of the international community.
In response to this most recent ruling, Dodik said: “I am not going anywhere, there’s no surrender,” announcing a referendum to determine whether Bosnian Serbs agree with the electoral commission’s decision and whether they should accept the disregard for the constitution of the Republika Srpska.
Dodik says he will continue his fight in the name of the people he represents, “The will of the people will prevail, no one can break the political will of a people. I will listen to the people, because I received my mandate from the people.”
He noted that, according to the law, the mandate of the Bosnian Serb president only ends with recall or resignation; the electoral commission can only grant or confirm this mandate, it has no right to revoke it.
Dodik has taken several steps in recent months to promote the independence of Republika Srpska. In mid-March, he submitted a draft of the new constitution for the region, as well as a law on the protection of the constitutional order of Republika Srpska.
For nearly three decades, the politician has been calling for Republika Srpska to become independent and believes that Bosnia and Herzegovina is unfit to function as a state. Dodik is known for his ambitions for closer ties to both Russia and Serbia.
Hungary has been a close friend to Dodik, calling for an “end to the witch hunt” against him and also previously pushing for fast-track EU accession of Bosnia-Herzegovina. Dodik has publicly thanked Hungary for €100 million sent to Republika Srpska for the development of agriculture as well.
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All-Out War in Ukraine: NATO’s ‘Final Offensive’
By James Petras :: 11.20.2014
Introduction
There are clear signs that a major war is about to break out in Ukraine: A war actively promoted by the NATO regimes and supported by their allies and clients in Asia (Japan) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia).
The war over Ukraine will essentially run along the lines of a full-scale military offensive against the southeast Donbas region, targeting the breakaway ethnic Ukraine- Russian Peoples Republic of Donetsk and Lugansk, with the intention of deposing the democratically elected government, disarming the popular militias, killing the guerrilla resistance partisans and their mass base, dismantling the popular representative organizations and engaging in ethnic cleansing of millions of bilingual Ukraino-Russian citizens. NATO’s forthcoming military seizure of the Donbas region is a continuation and extension of its original violent putsch in Kiev, which overthrew an elected Ukrainian government in February 2014.
The Kiev junta and its newly ‘elected’ client rulers, and its NATO sponsors are intent on a major purge to consolidate the puppet Poroshenko’s dictatorial rule. The recent NATO-sponsored elections excluded several major political parties that had traditionally supported the country’s large ethnic minority populations, and was boycotted in the Donbas region. This sham election in Kiev set the tone for NATO’s next move toward converting Ukraine into one gigantic US multi-purpose military base aimed at the Russian heartland and into a neo-colony for German capital, supplying Berlin with grain and raw materials while serving as a captive market for German manufactured goods.
An intensifying war fever is sweeping the West; the consequences of this madness appear graver by the hour. … Full article
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