Aletho News

ΑΛΗΘΩΣ

They Are Lying About Charlie Kirk – Candace

Candace Owens | September 15, 2025

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Video, War Crimes | , , | 1 Comment

Billionaire Bill Ackman convened stormy Israel ‘intervention’ with Charlie Kirk, sources say

By Max Blumenthal | The Grayzone | September 15, 2025

A month before Charlie Kirk’s killing, billionaire pro-Israel moneyman Bill Ackman arranged an intervention in the Hamptons during which sources say he and others “hammered” Kirk for the conservative leader’s growing criticism of Israeli influence in Washington. Kirk came away fretting about Israeli “blackmail,” sources say, as he contemplated a Catholic conversion.

On September 11, one day after the assassination of Charlie Kirk, billionaire pro-Israel moneyman Bill Ackman took to Twitter/X to trumpet his relationship with the late conservative operative. “I feel incredibly privileged to have spent a day and shared a meal with @charliekirk11 this summer. He was a giant of a man.”

The Grayzone has spoken to five people with intimate knowledge of Kirk’s meeting with Ackman, which was held in early August under the guise of a summertime Hamptons lunch. According to one source, Kirk was left upset after the gathering turned into an “intervention” where he was “hammered” for his increasingly skeptical views on the US special relationship with Israel, and for platforming prominent conservative critics of Israel at his TPUSA events.

When his hosts presented him with a detailed list of every offense he supposedly committed against Israel, Kirk was “horrified,” said one person. At one point, according to another source, Ackman angrily chastised Kirk for his disobedience. The Zionist billionaire also allegedly demanded Kirk rescind his invitation for Tucker Carlson to speak at his upcoming America Fest 2025 in December.

The Grayzone reported on September 12, citing an associate of Kirk, that Netanyahu had offered to organize a massive infusion of pro-Israel money into TPUSA, and that Kirk refused. Another longtime friend of Kirk has told The Grayzone that the conservative activist also rejected an offer Netanyahu delivered two weeks before his death to meet with him in Jerusalem.

Kirk, according to one person with inside knowledge of the meeting with Ackman, said he left feeling as though he’d been subjected to “blackmail.”

In a series of text messages with The Grayzone, Ackman described these accounts of his meeting with Kirk as “totally false.” He pledged to release a public statement providing his own account of the event, but refused The Grayzone’s request for clarification or further details. He would not accept phone calls from this reporter.

“I think I can easily put this to bed,” Ackman promised, “I have receipts as they say.” He did not abide when asked to provide the so-called “receipts.”

In an apparent bid to reinforce the pro-Israel tone at the Hamptons meeting, Ackman hosted a coterie of pro-Israel operatives and conservative influencers at the off-the-record engagement. One was Instagram influencer Xaviaer DuRousseau of Prager U.

Reached by phone by The Grayzone, DuRousseau sounded flustered when asked about his presence at the meeting. He repeatedly demanded to know how this reporter obtained his number, and eventually hung up, refusing to answer questions about the event.

Several Instagram posts by DuRousseau show him and his friend, conservative influencer Emily Wilson, in the Hamptons on August 8 outside Topping Rose House, a posh hotel and restaurant in Bridgehampton, New York.

Two weeks after the meeting, DeRousseau was reportedly junketed on an all-expenses-paid trip by the Israeli government to visit a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “aid” hub guarded by the IDF on the Gaza frontier. There, he recorded an Instagram video denying that the population of the besieged Gaza Strip was experiencing a famine.

The Grayzone received a similarly agitated response from Wilson, known online as Emily Saves America. Following a phone call and exchange of text messages in which this reporter asked her numerous times about her attendance of the meeting in the Hamptons, Wilson refused to comment. Instagram photos place her in the Hamptons at the same time as DuRousseau.

CJ Pearson, a leading youth coordinator for the Republican National Committee, immediately referred The Grayzone to his communications director when asked if he attended the Hamptons gathering.

The strong-arm tactics of the pro-Israel billionaires who helped fuel the growth of TPUSA were said to have contributed to Kirk’s alienation with evangelical Christianity, which emphasizes uncritical support for Israel as a bedrock principle. Several sources with access to Kirk said he had begun attending Catholic mass with his wife, Erika, and was considering a conversion before his death.

Bree Solsdadt, a Catholic Twitter/X influencer, has publicly corroborated this account of Kirk’s religious realignment. Kirk’s friend, the podcaster and former TPUSA personality Candace Owens, also alluded to the shift when she reflected that he was undergoing a “spiritual transformation” before his death.

Israel-centric influencer summit in the Hamptons

The Grayzone has obtained a partial list of attendees alleged to have been in attendance at the Bridgehampton meeting convened by Ackman this August. They include:

Seth Dillon – Dillion is the CEO of Babylon Bee, the conservative answer to the liberal The Onion satire outlet. Dillon and his crew have derisively mocked famine-stricken Palestinians and their supporters in the West, since Israel’s slash-and-burn campaign began in the besieged Gaza Strip. An evangelical Christian with Jewish heritage, he has claimed, “I did not cease having Ashkenazi blood when I put my faith in Jesus Christ (also a Jew).” Dillon did not answer calls from The Grayzone.

Xaviaer DuRousseau – DuRousseau is employed by Prager U, the premier right-wing “edu-tainment” hub targeting the minds of American youth. His boss, Marissa Streit, is a veteran of the Israeli army’s Unit 8200 cyber-spying division. A Black self-described former progressive, DuRousseau now appears firmly in the pocket of right-wing Zionist forces. During his Israeli government-funded visit to a Gaza Humanitarian Foundation “aid” hub inside Gaza, DuRousseau falsely claimed the United Nations and Hamas were to blame for the hunger sweeping the local population. “If I were Israel, I wouldn’t even provide matching socks to Gaza, but here’s all the aid that y’all claim doesn’t exist,” he said in an Instagram video filmed in front of boxes of aid blocked from entering Gaza. “Instead of Hamas distributing the ramen noodles,” DuRousseau continued, “their leaders are eating it all and that’s why they’re on Ozempic.”

DuRousseau vigorously defended his close friend, podcaster Emily Wilson, after she stated that “if everyone in the state [of Alabama]” wanted the return of chattel slavery, “go ahead, why do I give a shit?”

Emily Wilson aka Emily Saves America – Wilson is a Los Angeles-based self-described libertarian podcaster and social media influencer with over 500,000 followers on Instagram. On September 9, she recalled on Twitter/X how “a HUGE black guy” robbed her when she was 13. “I hate to say it but things like that just change the way you see certain people. After that I always thought, ‘oh, you guys just hate me,’” she reflected. This month, she and DuRousseau recorded a podcast in which they framed pro-Palestine activist Greta Thunberg’s hairstyle as evidence of her being “slow and short bus.”

“I don’t hang out with anyone really less attractive than me,” Wilson stated in a separate appearance.

Arynne Wexler – A former Goldman Sachs trader seeking cachet in the world of online influencers, Wexler is a vociferously Zionist, self-described “non-lib girl in a crazylib world.” In an interview with pro-Israel podcaster Dave Rubin, Wexler argued that “we need to bring bullying back” to enforce social norms, crack down on conspiracy theories, and stop the rise of antisemitism. Wexler has praised Ackman’s pro-Israel activism on multiple occasions. She did not answer calls from The Grayzone.

Nate Friedman – Friedman is a young ultra-Zionist influencer best known for New York City man-on-the-street confrontations with Palestine solidarity activists, whom he’s accused of being paid protesters.

Ory Rinat – Rinat was the former Special Media Advisor to Jared Kushner, the Trump son-in-law and advisor, before moving on to serve as White House chief digital officer during Trump’s first term. A Jewish pro-Israel operative said to have close ties to Netanyahu’s government, Rinat now serves as CEO of Urban Legend, a PR firm which commands “an army of 700 social media influencers who command varying degrees of allegiance from audiences that collectively number in the tens of millions,” according to Wired.

CJ Pearson – The chair of the Republican National Committee’s Youth Advisory Council, Pearson appeared in photos in the Hamptons alongside Wilson and DeRousseau. The Grayzone is awaiting further information from Pearson’s communications director.

CJ Pearson (left) with Emily Wilson, Xavaier DeRousseau, and an unknown person in the Hamptons

Bill Ackman’s war

As The Grayzone reported on September 12, Kirk was besieged with angry calls and messages from pro-Israel donors to his organization following TPUSA’s Student Action Summit this July in Tampa, Florida. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had also phoned him, according to a longtime friend of Kirk, and offered to orchestrate a massive infusion of pro-Israel money into his organization.

A longtime friend of Kirk told The Grayzone the mounting pressure had left him “angry” and “frightened.”

Kirk vented about the pro-Israel intimidation campaign in an August 6 discussion with Megyn Kelly, a former Fox News host who was also growing more critical of Israeli influence in Washington.

“It’s all of the sudden, ‘Oh, Charlie: he’s no longer with us.’ Wait a second—what does ‘with us’ mean, exactly? I’m an American, okay? I represent this country,” Kirk complained.

“The more that you guys privately and publicly call our character into question—which is not isolated, it would be one thing if it were just one text, or two texts; it is dozens of texts—then we start to say, ‘whoa, hold the boat here,’” Kirk continued. “To be fair, some really good Jewish friends say, ‘that’s not all of us’… But these are leaders here. These are stakeholders.”

He went on: “I have less ability… to criticize the Israeli government than actual Israelis do. And that’s really, really weird.”

Kirk delivered his comments around the same time as the tumultuous meeting in the Hamptons with Ackman and the crew of pro-Israel influencers.

A month earlier, Kirk had opened the stage at his TPUSA Student Action Summit for a cathartic outpouring of frustration and rage about Israel’s political hammerlock on the Trump administration. At the conference, speakers from Carlson and Kelly to the anti-Zionist Jewish comedian Dave Smith slammed Israel’s blood-soaked assault on the besieged Gaza Strip, branded Jeffrey Epstein as an Israeli intelligence asset, and openly taunted Zionist billionaires like Ackman for “getting away with scams” despite having “no actual skills.”

The mockery by Carlson was particularly galling for Ackman. One day after TPUSA’s conference, Ackman staged a 4,000 word Twitter/X meltdown defending his financial acumen, while insisting that he earned his vast fortune because, “I inherited good genes.”

In fact, the 59-year-old manager of the Pershing Square Capital hedge fund had presided over a precipitous decline in his own personal fortune through a series of bad bets. Between 2015 and 2018, amid a bull market, Ackman’s fund tallied embarrassingly negative returns that cost him an eye-popping $12 billion in losses. His “holy war” to short the multi-level marketing company Herbalife backfired, resulting in a devastating squeeze that cost him heavily. Ackman’s financial mishaps forced him to slash one fifth of his staff in 2018.

The billionaire also took issue with Carlson’s contention that he had been part of convicted sex offender and late Zionist financier Jeffrey Epstein’s “constellation of people.” Yet Carlson’s remarks were grounded in fact. Indeed, Ackman’s wife, the celebrity Israeli designer Neri Oxman, had gifted an artistic orb to Epstein after he plowed $125,000 in donations into her Media Lab at MIT. She was invited to lunch with Epstein on several occasions, according to the Boston Globe, and complied with MIT’s requirement to keep her gift to Epstein confidential.

Ackman has significantly elevated his public profile by leading fellow Zionist billionaires in a ruthless crackdown on post-October 7 Palestine solidarity activism in the US. By leveraging his fortune, Ackman helped dislodge the political scientist Claudine Gay as president of Harvard University, his alma mater, accusing her of adopting an insufficiently draconian policy toward students protesting Israel’s assault on Gaza.

After weeks of pummeling from Ackman, GOP members of Congress, and pro-Israel media, Gay finally quit when conservative activists produced evidence that she had plagiarized in her academic writing. While Ackman claimed victory, he howled with indignation when Business Insider returned the favor with a detailed article which documented multiple cases of plagiarism by his own wife, the designer Oxman. According to the outlet, Oxman “stole sentences and whole paragraphs from Wikipedia, other scholars and technical documents in her academic writing.”

Ackman responded by announcing that he would fund a plagiarism review of every MIT faculty member. He also delivered a 77-page lawsuit threat to Axel Springer, the publisher of Business Insider, accusing them of publishing claims “designed to cause her harm, principally because the reporters do not like me, my support for Israel, and my advocacy.” He quickly dropped the lawsuit, however, claiming he did so because Springer is “an important advocate against antisemitism.”

In May 2024, the Washington Post revealed Ackman as a leading member of a Whatsapp group of 50 ultra-wealthy Zionists coordinating counterinsurgency-style actions against student anti-genocide protesters at Columbia University.

According to the report, the millionaire cabal sought to buy off Black celebrities as propaganda puppets and dangled bribes before New York City Mayor Eric Adams to deploy the NYPD against student protesters. “Some members also offered to pay for private investigators to assist New York police in handling the protests, the chat log shows — an offer a member of the group reported in the chat that Adams accepted,” the Post reported.

This June 14, as Israel reeled at the Iranian response to its unprovoked assault days earlier, Ackman launched his next campaign: “@Israel needs our help to destroy Iran’s nuclear threat to the world…” the hedge funder declared on Twitter. “Israel does not have the equipment and armaments to complete the job. We do, and it does not require boots on the ground.”

Multiple sources including a Trump administration official have revealed to The Grayzone that Kirk personally visited Trump inside the White House to lobby him against attacking Iran. Trump “roared” at Kirk, one said, and shut down the conversation.

A month later, Kirk allowed the simmering rage within the conservative grassroots over Israel’s stranglehold on Washington to pour out at his TPUSA summit. Soon after, he was summoned to the Hamptons for a face-to-face with one of Netanyahu’s most influential allies in the US. Before Ackman and a cast of avaricious young influencers under Israel’s sway, he defied the billionaire power broker, then returned home to prepare for what would be his final speaking tour.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Weizmann Institute reels from rising boycotts linked to Gaza genocide

Al Mayadeen | September 15, 2025

The head of the Scientific Council at “Israel’s” Weizmann Institute, Nir Davidzon, revealed that the research center suffered heavy destruction during Iran’s recent retaliation and is now facing mounting isolation from the international academic community.

In an interview with “Israel’s” Channel 12, Davidzon said the institute was struck directly by two Iranian missiles, causing “enormous damage to capital, materials, and experimental results that cannot be reproduced.” He confirmed that 50 laboratories were completely destroyed, leaving many students and researchers without equipment or results to continue their work.

Davidzon stressed that the Weizmann Institute, long considered one of “Israel’s” most internationally connected scientific institutions, is now being increasingly boycotted by universities and research centers abroad. “Everything that was built over decades is collapsing because of the war in Gaza,” he said. “Even good friends are telling us they can no longer work with us.”

His concerns reflect a broader trend. In recent months, prestigious institutions in Europe have cut ties with Israeli academia in response to the war in Gaza. Belgium’s Ghent University terminated partnerships with three Israeli research bodies, citing violations of its human-rights policy. In the Netherlands, Radboud University ended cooperation with Tel Aviv University and Hebrew University, while Utrecht University suspended new collaborations. Erasmus University Rotterdam also froze ties with several Israeli institutions. These decisions are part of a growing wave of academic and cultural boycotts, signaling “Israel’s” deepening isolation in global higher education.

Davidzon added that despite attempts to reassure the scientific community that some Israeli voices share international ethical standards, such efforts have become increasingly difficult, particularly “when the world hears Israeli ministers speaking about burning Gaza.”

Weizmann Institute’s Deep Links to Israeli Arms Industry

The Weizmann Institute of Science has well-established ties to the Israeli military sector, with several of its research initiatives overlapping with military applications.

In 2024, the institute signed a cooperation agreement with Elbit Systems, the Israeli occupation largest private arms manufacturer, to develop bio-inspired materials explicitly marketed for defense uses. Independent analyses have also highlighted how Weizmann’s cutting-edge work in areas like artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and drone technologies can be directly leveraged in military R&D, illustrating the dual-use nature of its scientific output.

Beyond direct collaboration, the institute has been part of broader regime-backed initiatives designed to channel academic expertise into weapons development.

Programs such as the Katzir Fellowship recruit young scientists into defense-related research pipelines, underscoring how Israeli academic institutions serve both civilian and military agendas. Analysts note that this blurring of lines has made the Weizmann Institute a legitimate target in the context of regional conflict, as its research contributes not only to scientific advancement but also to Israel’s military and war efforts.

Beyond academia

Davidzon warned that the consequences extend beyond research, noting that many Israeli industries  rely on knowledge and expertise that flow through international partnerships. “We are the first to see the results of this boycott,” he said, cautioning about the long-term impact on science and industry alike.

The comments follow Iran’s Operation True Promise 3 in June, a retaliatory strike for Israeli attacks on Iranian territory that killed civilians, including women and children. The Iranian missile barrage caused widespread damage in Tel Aviv and central “Israel,” striking sensitive targets in Haifa, Beer Sabe’, and the Naqab.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , | Leave a comment

Euro-Med rights group accuses Israel of erasing Gaza’s historical and cultural heritage

MEMO | September 15, 2025

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has accused Israel of pursuing a systematic policy aimed at erasing Gaza’s historical and cultural identity. The group warned that the ongoing Israeli military assault on Gaza City—marked by repeated bombings of historic neighbourhoods, places of worship, libraries, museums, archives, cemeteries, centuries-old homes, and traditional markets—threatens to wipe out the Strip’s remaining archaeological landmarks and its tangible and intangible heritage.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the organization described the destruction as a direct assault on cultural property protected under international humanitarian law and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property. It called for urgent intervention by UNESCO and States Parties to the Convention to halt the devastation, document the damage, secure restoration efforts, and ensure accountability.

The group stressed that Israel’s actions extend beyond the mass killing of civilians and the destruction of homes. It accused Israeli forces of deliberately targeting historical, archaeological, religious, and cultural sites in Gaza—particularly in Gaza City—as part of a broader colonial-settler strategy aimed at erasing the physical and spiritual symbols of the Palestinian people. Such destruction, it said, represents an irreparable blow to a centuries-old collective memory that lies at the core of Palestinian identity.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, War Crimes | , , , , | Leave a comment

The myth of Israel’s isolation: the reality of Arab collaboration with Zionism

By Lucas Leiroz | Strategic Culture Foundation | September 15, 2025

The narrative construction of Zionism fundamentally depends on two premises: historical victimization and alleged regional isolation. Both are rhetorical weapons designed to justify Israel’s systematic brutality against Palestinians and other native populations of the Middle East. But neither of these narratives holds up under even a minimally honest analysis of the region’s current geopolitical reality. The myth of the “tiny State of Israel surrounded by enemies” is one of the greatest fabrications of contemporary Western propaganda.

The idea that Israel is a solitary bastion in a sea of Arab hostility is, today, completely baseless. With few exceptions, countries in the region not only tolerate Israel but actively collaborate with the Zionist regime — including militarily and diplomatically. The supposed regional resistance has evaporated in recent decades, giving way to a policy of normalization and, in many cases, direct submission to Israeli interests.

The most emblematic case is Syria. The fall of Assad became an obsession for the West, enabled by Islamist militias with logistical and military support from the West, Israel, and the Gulf petro-monarchies. After Al-Qaeda’s victory, the terrorist regime almost immediately engaged in negotiations with Israel, despite ongoing Zionist bombings of Syrian territory. Today, the so-called “Free Syria” is functionally an ally of Israel. Fragmented and destabilized, the country has lost its national capacity for resistance.

In Lebanon, the scenario is equally ambiguous. Despite Hezbollah’s firmly anti-Israeli stance, the Lebanese government follows a path of conciliation with Tel Aviv. The recent ceasefire agreement, signed without Hezbollah’s consent, makes it clear that the Lebanese elites prioritize accommodation with Israel over national sovereignty. Government pressure for Hezbollah’s disarmament is another indicator of veiled collaboration.

Even the Palestinian Authority — supposedly the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in the West Bank — has acted as a silent partner of the Zionist regime. Its role is increasingly that of a submissive mediator, suppressing popular resistance and ensuring the stability of illegal Israeli settlements. Local authorities in the West Bank seem entirely incapable of challenging the colonial status quo, abandoning any real project of liberation.

Jordan, with its puppet monarchy, is another blatant example of collaboration. While official rhetoric often speaks of “justice for Palestinians,” in practice Amman functions as a key piece in the architecture of regional containment, facilitating Israeli intelligence and surveillance operations. The Jordanian monarchy is essentially an extension of Anglo-American policy in the region and, by extension, an objective ally of Tel Aviv.

In the Gulf, the situation is even more obvious. The United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar maintain close relations with Israel, both economically and militarily — even if many of them do not formally recognize the Zionist entity. As Brazilian analyst Rodolfo Laterza correctly observed, the effectiveness of Israel’s air defense is not due solely to systems like the Iron Dome, but to a regionally integrated infrastructure supported by Gulf monarchies. These countries not only allow American military presence and overflights but also share intelligence and threat tracking — giving Israel a significant strategic advantage.

Israel’s recent bombing of Qatar reignited talk of a possible “Arab awakening,” but until concrete developments occur, such “Arab solidarity” remains fiction and empty rhetoric. The Gulf regimes — utterly dependent on Western military support and fearful of internal destabilization — are among Zionism’s most useful agents in the Middle East. This is combined with the region’s typical strategic ambiguity, where governments believe they can maintain multiple alignments simultaneously without paying the price.

In the end, the only full-fledged state actor opposing Israel is Iran — which, ironically, is not even Arab. Isolated, blockaded, demonized, Iran continues to take a confrontational stance toward Israeli apartheid and remains the main supporter of resistance movements like Hezbollah and Hamas. Alongside war-torn and divided Yemen, it is the only state actor on the board that openly challenges Israel’s expansionist agenda.

Tel Aviv’s propaganda, amplified by the Western media, insists on portraying Israel as a victim. But the truth is that Zionism has co-opted and bought off nearly all its neighbors. The so-called “Israeli isolation” is a fiction — a lie repeated endlessly to justify the unjustifiable: the continuation of a colonial, supremacist, and genocidal project.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Influence operation? The EU paid off €600,000 to friendly media outlets right after European elections

Remix News – September 15, 2025

While the European Union likes to throw out terms like “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “influence campaigns,” the reality is that the EU is pumping millions into influencing public opinion itself. The difference is just that when Brussels does it, it is not supposed to be propaganda.

One European politician, MEP Petr Bystron, has revealed that the EU commission has provided financial support to the American investigative network Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) right after the 2024 EU elections. Major German news outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung belong to the group, which is the world’s largest network of investigative media.

These outlets are known for their hit pieces on conservative and right-wing parties, often at opportune times. Notably, Spiegel and Süddeutsche Zeitung’s reporting in 2019 on the Ibiza Affair scandal — which involved an undercover video of the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) party’s leader — led to the toppling of the Austrian government at the time, which included the FPÖ. Many critics believed that due to the sophistication of the operation, which included an undercover actress, intelligence services may have played a role.

The OCCRP group was founded in 2006 and is most well known for publishing the “Panama Papers” and the “Azerbaijan Laundromat” evasion scandals.

After a massive flow of U.S. money was cut off to key European establishment outlets and NGOs, Brussels is stepping in to fill the gap. Namely, the Trump administration ended the massive levels of funding headed towards foreign organizations, particularly from USAID, which allowed them to pump out pro-EU and left-wing content to wide swathes of the population across Europe.

The OCCRP group has received an extraordinary amount of money from U.S. taxpayers and other U.S. sources. According to French outlet Mediapart, the group received nearly $50 million from U.S. sources, but these funders were not just generous donors. They also could dictate editorial agendas and veto staff appointments.

Two journalists from NDR, a German state media network, questioned just how independent the OCCRP is in a 2024 report. The two determined that a significant portion of the money was coming from American funds, particularly from USAID. OCCRP was funneling content and material to German media outlets like Spiegel, Zeit, and Süddeutsche Zeitung.

Since the revelations, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MEP Petr Bystron has officially requested the EU Commission to provide information about whether it also provides financial support to OCCRP. The response revealed that the organization has received €600,000 since November 2024 as part of an EU project to “strengthen” journalism.

Known as the NEXT-U project, it aims to support European journalists and media organizations with training and tools for investigative journalism. The commission defends the grants, stating that the taxpayer money is transparently distributed and adheres to journalistic standards.

Bystron argues that the ample amount of money amounts to an influence operation.

“OCCRP media outlets like Der Spiegel received over 600,000 euros from the EU directly after the EU elections. These very media outlets manipulated the last EU elections through massive campaigns,” he said in an interview with Berliner Zeitung, which published the exclusive story first.

The AfD MEP stated that the aim was to discredit conservative, right-wing politicians who are critical of the EU.

As Remix News previously reported, Bystron is the focus of an investigation that has seen his house and properties raided 22 times. He is accused of receiving funds from the news platform Voice of Europe, which was accused of being tied to wealthy pro-Russian backers.

Czech intelligence reports were leaked to the press, claiming that Bystron was handing out bribes to right-wing politicians in exchange for interviews; however, Bystron has personally requested that the recordings be released to the public. So far, no such recording has emerged. Bystron has said these allegations are “paid propaganda.”

“Every single one of these 22 searches was illegal. Each one marks a step away from a democratic constitutional state and toward an authoritarian regime that seeks to silence dissent by any means necessary,” Bystron told the Gateway Pundit earlier this year.

Notably, the allegations emerged right before the European Parliament elections, leading to calls that the timing of the allegations was politically motivated and designed to hamper the AfD’s popularity at a pivotal time.

“We will not allow our election campaign to be dictated by manipulative accusations from foreign secret services,” said Bystron about the alleged recordings when the story first broke.

In an interview with Brussels Signal at the time, AfD MEP Maximilian Krah, the lead candidate for the AfD in the EU parliament elections, stated that if Bystron truly took money from Russia, that would constitute a crime, and the authorities should simply arrest him. He notes that it is interesting that Bystron is not being charged and also called for the alleged audio recording to be released.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Full Spectrum Dominance, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment

Parliamentary elections begin in Syria with citizens barred from voting

The Cradle | September 15, 2025

Syria is set to hold parliamentary elections on 15 September, its first since the fall of former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad’s government to extremist forces late last year.

The process will continue until Saturday, with the possibility of extension if deemed necessary.

Regional electoral committees will select 140 seats out of Syria’s 210-seat parliament, rather than citizens directly voting for members of parliament. The committees have been appointed by the Supreme Election Committee.

The other 70 MPs are set to be selected personally by Syria’s interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, the former Al-Qaeda chief known previously as Abu Mohammad al-Julani.

The Syrian government recently announced that the elections will not include Suwayda Governorate, where thousands of Druze civilians were massacred by government forces during heavy fighting in the area in July.

It also said the Kurdish-controlled governorates of Hasakah and Raqqa will not be included, stressing that this was for “security concerns.” Kurdish authorities have denounced the decision.

Tensions have escalated recently between Damascus and the US-backed Kurdish militia, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is closely linked to the de facto autonomous administration that governs parts of north and east Syria.

The SDF had signed an agreement in March to integrate its forces into Syria’s extremist-dominated military. However, it has demanded that it remain under Kurdish command and enter the army as a bloc, rather than dissolve and be conscripted regularly.

No SDF members were included when Damascus announced the formation of the Syrian government in March.

Monday’s election process has reinforced concerns about the lack of inclusivity in post-Assad Syria.

Khaled Jabr, a lawyer and legal expert from Hasakah, told North Press Agency on 11 September that the elections “do not reflect the people’s will” and instead represent “another form of dictatorship under a different guise.”

“The Damascus government monopolizes decision-making, excluding the people from every process – whether drafting a transitional constitution, forming transitional justice bodies, or even appointing the president. All these measures constitute clear violations of the law,” he added.

Jabr went on to say that people in north and east Syria “are not at all concerned with this electoral mechanism imposed by Damascus, as there is ongoing pressure to exclude them from participation.”

“Essentially, the government seeks to reinforce authoritarianism, far removed from democracy and human rights.”

Months before the massacres of the Druze in July, Syrian government troops killed thousands of Alawite civilians during a brutal and indiscriminate military operation on the country’s coast.

Syria has enjoyed sanctions relief from Europe, and will also soon be relieved of US Caesar Act sanctions despite failing to form an inclusive government and persecuting minorities.

Political corruption has also emerged as a concern in the current Syrian government. A Reuters investigation from July revealed that Syrian leadership has quietly taken control of over $1.6 billion in assets formerly held by businessmen linked to the Assad government.

The asset takeover, conducted outside public view, is part of an economic overhaul directed by Hazem al-Sharaa, the older brother of the self-appointed interim president. Sources told Reuters the committee has negotiated directly with sanctioned and unsanctioned tycoons, demanding that they hand over substantial parts of their wealth in exchange for immunity and permission to resume operations.

Syria’s president formerly led Al-Qaeda’s Nusra Front and was personally involved in war crimes against civilians in Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. The Nusra Front was later rebranded as Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).

Alongside a long list of other crimes, HTS would steal humanitarian aid bound for civilians during the Syrian war and resell it for exorbitant prices on the black market.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties | | Leave a comment

Finnish PM admits Russia sanctions hurting economy

RT | September 15, 2025

Finland’s economic growth has suffered due to sanctions on Russia linked to the Ukraine conflict, Prime Minister Petteri Orpo has admitted. He noted that Finland has lost nearly all trade with Russia and billions in investments since it closed the border with its neighbor.

Finland, which shares a 1,300km (800-mile) border with Russia, has imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow in line with EU policy since 2022. It has also tightened entry rules for Russian citizens and shut all but one border checkpoint with its neighbor. The moves saw trade between the two countries drop to $1.5 billion in 2024, compared with $11 billion in pre-conflict 2021.

In an interview with Yle Areena on Saturday, Orpo acknowledged that sanctions have hit Finland harder than most EU members due to its traditionally close trade ties with Russia.

“The fact that the border is closed means, for example, 10 million cubic meters of Russian timber for our industry is not coming in. Finnish companies have lost billions in investments in Russia. Nearly all border traffic and trade have stopped,” Orpo said. “That brings uncertainty. All this has led to the fact that the growth of the Finnish economy has not been as desired.”

Despite this, Orpo echoed other NATO members in claiming Russia remains a “permanent threat” to Finland and the EU, vowing to increase defense spending and militarization to counter it. Finland joined NATO in 2023, a step Moscow – which views the bloc’s expansion as a trigger of the Ukraine conflict – called a “historic mistake.”

Russia has repeatedly rejected claims it poses a threat, accusing the West of fueling Russophobia to justify military buildups and divert attention from domestic problems. It has condemned Western sanctions as illegal and warned they would backfire.

The Finnish economy slipped into recession in both 2023 and 2024. According to Eurostat, its growth projections for 2025 are the lowest in the EU.

September 15, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , | Leave a comment