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EU Split Over How Ukraine Should Spend €140 Billion From Frozen Russian Assets

Sputnik – 23.10.2025

A number of EU countries advocate that Ukraine use the potential 140 billion euros ($162 billion) loan from frozen Russian assets exclusively to purchase European weapons, while other member states support giving Kiev full freedom in spending the funds, including on arms from the United States, an American newspaper reported.

France, along with Germany and Italy, is pushing to channel the funds into the EU’s own defense industry rather than toward US arms suppliers, the report said. At the same time, countries such as the Netherlands and the Nordic and Baltic states argue that Ukraine should be free to decide how to spend the loan, even on US-made weapons.

Despite this, pressure from France and Germany has led summit drafts to emphasize strengthening Europe’s defense industry, while critics argue that this stance is hypocritical, the newspaper reported.

“If the aim is to keep Ukraine in the fight, you need to keep the criteria open,” an unnamed senior EU diplomat was quoted as saying.

On Thursday, EU leaders are expected to instruct the European Commission at their meeting in Brussels to present a legal proposal outlining the loan.

On September 25, the Financial Times newspaper reported that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had proposed that the EU provide Ukraine with an interest-free loan of around 140 billion euros drawn from frozen Russian assets. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever criticized Merz’s proposal on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, saying that an attempt to seize state assets would set a dangerous precedent not only for Belgium but for the EU as a whole.

After the start of Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine in 2022, the European Union and the G7 froze almost half of Russian foreign currency reserves, totaling some 300 billion euros. About 200 billion euros are held in European accounts, mainly by Belgium’s Euroclear, one of the world’s largest clearing houses.

The Russian Foreign Ministry has repeatedly condemned the freezing of Russia’s central bank money in Europe as theft. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow could respond by withholding assets held in Russia by Western countries.

October 23, 2025 Posted by | Corruption | , | Leave a comment

Ukraine conflict now belongs to Trump – ex-Russian president

RT | October 23, 2025

The Ukraine conflict has effectively become US President Donald Trump’s war now that he has positioned himself as an adversary of Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

Medvedev, who currently serves as deputy chairman of Russia’s Security Council, made the comment after Trump scrapped plans for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin and imposed new sanctions on Russian oil companies – measures the US leader described as a means to pressure Moscow into concessions.

Writing on social media on Thursday, Medvedev suggested that Trump’s next move would likely involve approving the delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to Kiev, claiming the US president is “now firmly on the warpath against Russia” and “completely aligned with mad Europe” in that regard.

He argued that Trump had likely been pressured by both domestic and international hawks into taking a hardline stance, rather than acting out of ideological conviction as was the case with his predecessor, Joe Biden. “But now it’s his conflict,” Medvedev concluded, adding that Russia must focus on achieving its objectives militarily rather than through negotiations.

Trump has repeatedly blamed Biden for the escalation of hostilities between Moscow and Kiev, insisting that the conflict “would never have happened” had he been in office in 2022.

The US president has a record of abrupt foreign policy reversals, including in his handling of the Ukraine crisis. Hungary, where Trump and Putin had agreed to meet for a new summit, has said that preparations for the meeting remain on track despite the recent tensions.

October 23, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , , | Leave a comment

The Weaponisation of Science

By Maryanne Demasi, PhD | October 22, 2025

Yesterday, I took part in a panel discussion in Washington, D.C., on the weaponisation of science — specifically, how conflicts of interest, industry influence, and scientific deception have reshaped modern medicine.

It was an important conversation about how the scientific process has been hollowed out by financial incentives, regulatory capture, and institutional cowardice.

For me, this is not an abstract debate. I’ve spent much of my career investigating how science becomes distorted — not by a few rogue actors, but through an entire system built on commercial dependence.

Once you start pulling the threads of how evidence is produced, who funds it, who controls the data, and who polices the outcomes, you quickly realise that the corruption of science is structural and systemic.

The Statin Wars: a case study in deception

I first saw this clearly while investigating cholesterol-lowering drugs. My 2013 Catalyst documentary questioned whether statins were being overprescribed, and it unleashed a media firestorm.

The episode was pulled after industry outrage, and I was publicly attacked. None of the critics engaged with the evidence — they simply sought to silence it.

In 2018, I published a narrative review, “Statin wars: have we been misled by the evidence?”

The piece revealed that the raw data underpinning statin trials were held exclusively by the Oxford-based Cholesterol Treatment Trialists (CTT) Collaboration and had never been released.

The CTT group had signed confidentiality agreements with pharmaceutical sponsors, blocking independent access to the raw data and preventing verification.

Yet those same meta-analyses have shaped prescribing guidelines around the world — produced by a group that sits under Oxford’s Clinical Trial Service Unit, which receives millions in funding from statin manufacturers.

In my public talks, I’ve described the statin story as a case study in bias and censorship. The trials used well-worn techniques to amplify benefits and minimise harms.

For example, they use ‘run-in’ periods before the trial to weed out people who couldn’t tolerate the drug, thereby artificially lowering the adverse events detected during the trial.

Often the outcomes were reported in relative, not absolute, terms — effectively exaggerating benefits that were, in reality, minuscule to the individual patient.

The vast majority of statin trials are funded by the manufacturers, and almost all show benefit — except for one publicly funded study that showed the opposite.

So, who funds the trial matters. The system is captured, plain and simple.

Regulatory capture and the illusion of oversight

The same dynamics pervade drug regulation. In a 2022 BMJ investigation, I showed how drug regulators rely heavily on funding from the very industries they oversee.

In Australia, the Therapeutic Goods Administration derives 96% of its operating budget from industry fees.

In the U.S., the same conflict exists through the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), which allows the FDA to collect billions from drug companies.

Those “user fees” now fund roughly two-thirds of the agency’s drug-review budget — a structural conflict of interest described by one scholar as “institutional corruption.”

And it’s true.

Industry money drives the demand for faster approvals through “expedited pathways,” which often means weaker evidence, shorter trials, and looser post‑marketing obligations.

Regulators defend this as “innovation,” yet the drugs approved under these pathways are far more likely to later receive black-box warnings or be withdrawn from the market due to safety issues.

The result is a system that rewards speed and sales over safety and substance.

The illusion of effective drugs has become even clearer thanks to a landmark investigation this year by Jeanne Lenzer and Shannon Brownlee.

They reviewed more than 400 FDA drug approvals between 2013 and 2022, and found that 73% of the drugs failed to meet four basic scientific criteria for demonstrating effectiveness.

Cancer drugs were especially problematic: only 3 out of 123 met all scientific standards, most approved on surrogate endpoints with no evidence they improved survival.

It’s the perfect illustration of regulatory capture — an agency funded by industry fees and pressured by politics, approving drugs of uncertain benefit while calling itself the “gold standard.”

Antidepressant deception

The same playbook has unfolded in psychiatry — beginning with how clinical trials are designed and reported.

Study 329 is one of the best-known examples. It claimed that paroxetine (Paxil) was safe and effective for adolescents aged 12 to 18.

But when researchers reanalysed the original regulatory documents, they found that suicides and suicide attempts had been coded under misleading terms such as “emotional lability” or “worsening depression,” effectively erasing them from view.

A similar pattern emerged when regulatory documents for two fluoxetine (Prozac) trials in children and adolescents were re-examined. Suicide attempts were omitted or misclassified, making the drug appear safer than it was.

Both reanalyses were carried out under the Restoring Invisible and Abandoned Trials (RIAT) initiative, a project dedicated to “restoring” abandoned or misreported trials by publishing accurate versions of the data submitted to regulators.

Selective publication compounds the problem.

The FDA only requires two trials demonstrating a drug is better than placebo before it is approved – meaning multiple failed trials get buried.

Psychologist Irving Kirsch, using Freedom of Information requests, uncovered dozens of unpublished SSRI trials that had been withheld from the medical literature.

When those missing studies were included, the apparent benefit of antidepressants over placebo almost vanished — an average gain of less than two points on the Hamilton Depression Scale, far below the threshold for meaningful clinical benefit.

In other words, much of what appears to be a “drug effect” is, in reality, placebo.

For years, patients have also been sold the marketing myth that depression stems from a “chemical imbalance” in the brain — a debunked theory but an extraordinarily effective sales campaign.

In 2020, we analysed popular health websites across ten countries and found that about 74% falsely claimed depression was caused by a chemical imbalance and implied that antidepressants could correct it.

It may sound like harmless messaging, but its influence is profound.

An Australian study showed that 83% of people who were told they had a chemical imbalance were more likely to take an antidepressant, believing it would “fix” their brain chemistry.

A more recent review in Molecular Psychiatry synthesised the best available evidence and found no consistent link between depression and low serotonin levels or activity.

Together, these findings reveal how psychiatry’s modern narrative was constructed — through distorted trials and deceptive marketing — turning uncertainty into certainty, and speculation into “science.”

Fraud by omission

Recently, I reported on how journals can weaponise science.

The BMJ’s Peter Doshi raised serious concerns about the pivotal PLATO trial for the anti-clotting drug ticagrelor — including data irregularities and unexplained deaths. But the journal Circulation that published the trial, has refused to investigate.

This selective vigilance is telling. Journals will retract small hypothesis papers that challenge orthodoxy, but billion‑dollar drugs with questionable data remain untouchable.

We’ve seen an even more aggressive form of suppression in the vaccine arena.

The recent Covaxin case exposed the extent to which manufacturers will go to suppress inconvenient findings.

After Indian researchers published a peer‑reviewed post‑marketing study suggesting serious adverse events “might not be uncommon,” Bharat Biotech — the vaccine’s manufacturer — filed a defamation lawsuit against the 11 authors and the journal’s editor, demanding retraction and millions in damages.

Within weeks, the journal caved, announcing its intention to retract despite finding no scientific fraud or fabrication. The only “offence” was to suggest that further safety research was warranted.

It’s a chilling example of how corporate and political power now overrides the normal mechanisms of scientific debate — a new form of censorship disguised as quality control.

Punishing scientists

The weaponisation of science isn’t only about suppressing inconvenient ideas or studies—it extends to the scientists themselves.

During the Vioxx scandal, Merck was caught keeping an actual “hit list” of doctors and academics who criticised the drug’s cardiovascular risks.

Internal emails revealed executives discussing plans to “seek them out and destroy them where they live.” That’s how far industry will go to silence dissent.

Executives are no longer stupid enough to put such threats in writing, but the behaviour persists — now outsourced to lobby groups and front organisations that quietly destroy reputations.

I experienced a version of this myself after my ABC documentaries on statins and sugar.

Like Merck, the Australian Breakfast Cereal Manufacturers Forum – an industry front group – drew up an “active defence” plan to neutralise me for challenging the industry narrative.

And we’ve seen it again recently with the leaked BIO memo detailing a coordinated plan to undermine Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — by co-opting media influencers, partnering with think tanks, and shaping public perception.

Different industries, same playbook: when billions are at stake, dissent is dangerous, and science becomes a weapon.

Weaponised fact-checkers

Look at the rise of fact-checking as a weapon.

In 2024, for example, a peer‑reviewed Japanese study published in the journal Cureus that reported a statistical rise in certain cancers following the Covid‑19 mRNA vaccine rollout was retracted after a Reuters “fact check.”

The authors, led by Dr Miki Gibo, made no claim of causation and had explicitly called for further investigation, yet the journal retracted the paper after the media controversy, citing concerns about the scrutiny of fact checkers.

When journals begin outsourcing editorial judgment to media organisations with commercial or institutional conflicts, peer review itself collapses under the weight of narrative control.

This is what I mean by the weaponisation of science.

Fraud today isn’t only about fabricating data — it’s about what institutions choose to suppress. It’s selective enforcement designed to protect profits under the guise of integrity.

Can we restore scientific honesty?

I’m not going to pretend I have all the answers. Whether it’s cholesterol or serotonin, the science too often bends toward profit rather than truth.

Regulators, journals, and academic institutions have become so financially entangled with industry that truly independent science is now the exception, not the rule.

Retractions, fact-checks, and editorial bans are deployed selectively — not to correct fraud, but to erase debate under the banner of “scientific consensus.”

We’ve tried to fix this with transparency measures like open-data policies and the Sunshine Act, which expose payments from pharmaceutical companies to doctors.

But disclosure has become a box-ticking exercise and raw data is still hard to get. Meanwhile, the machinery of influence keeps turning.

The deeper problem is the absence of accountability. Without accountability, there can be no trust.

When Merck’s painkiller Vioxx was withdrawn after being linked to tens of thousands of deaths, not one executive went to jail. The company paid fines, issued statements, and carried on.

Lives were lost, and no one was held personally responsible. That isn’t justice — it’s the “cost of doing business,” and worse, the people who preside over these disasters are often rewarded for them.

Bonuses are paid, stock options soar, and departing CEOs collect multimillion-dollar severance packages — all while families are left to bury their dead.

If we’re serious about restoring trust, that has to change. CEOs and senior executives who knowingly conceal data or market dangerous drugs should face criminal penalties, not corporate settlements.

A few jail sentences at the top would do more to restore trust in medicine than a thousand press releases about a renewed commitment to safety.

Accountability must also extend to government.

The FDA and other regulators are structurally dependent on industry money. It’s baked into the system, and the only real solution is to rebuild — fund these agencies publicly, remove user fees, and make them independent again.

The barrier isn’t money — it’s political will, compromised by the same corporate lobbying and campaign donations that distort science.

True reform requires the courage to confront the pharmaceutical industry’s financial grip on both major parties, to end the political donations that buy silence, and to legislate for genuine independence in science and medicine.

Perhaps Secretary Kennedy is now best placed to begin dismantling industry’s hold on science. Systemic corruption didn’t happen overnight, and it won’t be undone overnight either.

Commercial conflicts of interest have become normalised — woven through our institutions, universities, journals, and political culture. Until that’s confronted directly, nothing will change.

Disclosure is necessary, but it is not sufficient. The antidote is open debate, public funding, and real accountability.

Science should never be about consensus; it should be about contestability. If we can’t test claims, challenge data, or ask uncomfortable questions without fear of retribution, then we no longer have science — we have marketing.

The weaponisation of science ends only when truth becomes more valuable than profit.

October 23, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science, Timeless or most popular | | Leave a comment

The Constitutional Fight Over New Jersey’s Baby DNA Stockpile

By Cindy Harper – Reclaim The Net – October 22, 2025

A constitutional battle in New Jersey over the state’s newborn screening program has intensified, as parents now cite the government’s own words to argue that officials pierce newborns’ skin to “seize their blood, analyze the information contained within it, and keep that blood and information for potential later use and sharing with third parties, all without parents’ consent or a warrant.”

The amended class action complaint, filed October 6 in federal court, challenges what it calls “nonconsensual and warrantless blood collection, screening, and retention practices,” claiming that state officials continue to “puncture the skin of every child born in New Jersey to seize blood for testing without parental consent” despite recent policy revisions.

We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.

According to the filing, the issue is not the screening itself, which checks newborns for dozens of serious genetic and metabolic conditions, but what happens afterward.

“Despite getting test results within two weeks, New Jersey kept the remaining portion of each baby’s blood for 23 years—or at least it did until Plaintiffs sued,” the complaint says.

“Before Plaintiffs sued, New Jersey did not ask parents if the state could seize or analyze their newborn’s blood, nor did New Jersey inform parents that it would keep any remaining blood after initial testing.”

The plaintiffs, represented by the Institute for Justice, say their demands are straightforward: “Just ask parents for consent.” They even proposed a template consent form to the Department of Health, but say the agency refused to implement it.

“Defendants cannot sidestep the Constitution just because they think some parents will make, as Defendants see it, the ‘wrong’ choice,” the complaint states.

One mother, Rev. Hannah Lovaglio, said she was “appalled” to discover the practice, noting that “New Jersey punctured the skin of both of [her] boys and physically manipulated their heels to collect their blood” without ever asking permission. The lawsuit adds that she “worries that New Jersey is abusing its nonconsensual, continued possession of her children’s remaining blood.” Another parent, Erica Jedynak, described the state’s storage system as “a creepy database,” calling the collection of baby blood “immoral.”

The complaint alleges that “New Jersey does not just keep children’s remaining blood for itself,” but has “been caught giving that blood to third parties,” including law enforcement.

Citing public records, it notes that state police obtained samples on at least five occasions “without a warrant,” and that officials have “given or sold blood from its baby blood stockpile to other third parties, including, but not limited to, researchers, companies, and other government agencies.”

While the state in 2024 shortened the storage period to two years for healthy infants and ten years for those with positive test results, parents say this “voluntary and non-binding” policy change is missing the one thing that matters: consent.”

The filing adds, “Nothing prevents Defendants, or the Attorney General, from rescinding, amending, or changing their policy changes tomorrow.”

The parents argue that both the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments are being violated.

The Fourth, they write, protects the “right to be secure in their persons,” which includes “the right to be free from intrusion into, and removal of material from, the human body.”

The complaint continues, “People’s property and privacy interests in their blood and associated genetic material do not dissipate when that blood is taken physically from inside their bodies by state action.”

The Fourteenth Amendment claim centers on parental autonomy. “Parents, on behalf of their children—not New Jersey—control whether and how the state may intrude into their children’s bodies for medical testing,” the document states.

“A simple and less-restrictive alternative exists: Simply obtain voluntary consent from parents to keep their baby’s remaining blood for specific disclosed purposes prior to its storage, use, and potential sharing with third parties.”

If granted class-action status, the suit could cover more than 100,000 families each year. The plaintiffs seek a court order requiring the state to “either obtain parental consent to retain their children’s blood for purposes other than testing, or return or destroy the blood spots and all associated data.”

The case is a test of how governments handle genetic information in the age of AI and predictive DNA analysis.

The families’ attorneys argue that, as “artificial intelligence has begun transforming the interpretation of genetic data,” there is “a particularly heightened need to maintain privacy and control over blood and the genetic information contained within.”

The outcome could reverberate far beyond New Jersey, reshaping how states manage newborn blood repositories that now contain samples from hundreds of millions of Americans.

The New Jersey blood spot case exposes a growing privacy crisis rooted in genetic data and AI.

Every drop of blood collected from a newborn carries the entire code of that person’s identity, a permanent signature that cannot be altered or replaced.

If those samples or their digital genetic profiles were ever leaked, copied, or shared without consent, the damage would be irreversible. DNA cannot be revoked or reset. Once it escapes state custody, control over it is gone forever.

In the age of artificial intelligence, the risk compounds. Modern AI systems can take raw genetic data and predict traits ranging from disease risk to ancestry and physical appearance. They can draw links between relatives, reconstruct family trees, and even identify individuals from what was once thought to be anonymous genetic material.

A database of newborn DNA, if accessed by the wrong entity or merged with commercial or law enforcement records, could enable surveillance on a scale never before possible. It would turn what began as a health initiative into a lifelong system of biological tracking.

The concern is not only that data could be stolen or misused but that it could be quietly repurposed. A genetic profile kept for testing today could be mined tomorrow for research, insurance assessments, or law enforcement searches.

The New Jersey lawsuit warns that “people’s property and privacy interests in their blood and associated genetic material do not dissipate when that blood is taken physically from inside their bodies by state action.”

That principle matters now more than ever, because once a government or third party gains access to DNA, the line between health protection and population monitoring begins to blur.

October 23, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Timeless or most popular | , | Leave a comment

Window of Opportunity for Peace is Closing

John Mearsheimer, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen
Glenn Diesen | October 22, 2025

I had the great pleasure of discussing this with John Mearsheimer and Alexander Mercouris on The Duran, how the window of opportunity for a peaceful settlement is closing fast. Zelensky cannot accept the high demands from Russia. The Europeans will oppose any real diplomacy out of fear that peace would be accompanied by European divisions and the departure of the US. Meanwhile, Russia is growing increasingly pessimistic about any possible peace. As the Ukrainian frontlines collapse and Moscow has no trust in NATO, it will likely take all strategic territory that would make Ukraine a threatening frontline state. The successful efforts to sabotage the Budapest meeting may leave us with two options: a strategic defeat for NATO with the collapse in Ukraine, or escalating to a direct NATO-Russia War.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Militarism, Video | , , , | Leave a comment

Russia Open for Diplomatic Solutions in Field of Arms Control – Deputy Foreign Minister

Sputnik – 22.10.2025

MOSCOW – Russia is leaving the door open for political and diplomatic solutions in the area of ​​arms control, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.

“The most relevant example is our rejection of the moratorium on the deployment of intermediate-range and shorter-range ground-based missiles in light of plans and practical steps to deploy similar weapons of American and other Western production in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. Nevertheless, for the future, we leave the door open for political and diplomatic solutions,” Ryabkov said at a meeting on fundamentals of Russia’s nuclear nonproliferation policy.

If the United States rejects Russia’s proposal on the START Treaty, there will be a total vacuum and an increase in nuclear risks, Ryabkov said, adding that he sees no opportunity for dialogue between Moscow and Washington on nuclear nonproliferation issues right now or resumption of information exchange with the US under the treaty.

Russia will handle everything, even if the US does not accept Russia’s proposal on the START Treaty, and Russia’s security will be guaranteed, Ryabkov said.

Russia must be convinced of the sustainability of the US administration’s rejection of a hostile course towards Moscow.

He further noted that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s idea on the START Treaty is a limited offer for the United States, designed for a limited time.

“If nothing happens during the year of the moratorium, then we will be able to take a closer look at what to do next. That is all. This is a limited offer designed for a limited amount of time. We hope that it will be accepted,” Ryabkov said at a meeting on fundamentals of Russia’s nuclear non-proliferation policy.

Russia has capabilities and resources to ensure its security, Ryabkov said, adding that Moscow will not allow itself to be drawn into an arms race with the US.

Preparations for Russia-US Summit Continue

Russia continues preparations for a possible summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, Ryabkov said.

“We are saying that preparations for the summit are ongoing. These could take various forms,” ​​he told reporters.

Russia is focused on substantive aspects of preparations for the summit, the Russian deputy foreign minister added.

“I do not see any significant obstacles [for Putin-Trump meeting]. The question is that the parameters defined by the presidents in Anchorage, those frameworks, should be filled with concrete details. It is a difficult process, admittedly. But that is what diplomats are for,” Ryabkov said.

At the same time, there are no agreements yet on the meeting between Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Ryabkov added.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Ukraine adopts record war budget

RT | October 22, 2025

Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has signed a bill boosting the country’s military spending by $7.8 billion, with most of the funds expected to be covered by revenues from frozen Russian assets. The increase comes as Kiev continues to face a record budget deficit and relies on Western funding to sustain operations.

The legislation was passed by the Ukrainian parliament on Tuesday and marks the second time this year that lawmakers have expanded military spending. In July, the Rada increased defense allocations by about $9.9 billion. The latest amendment brings the total expenditures for 2025 to roughly $70.7 billion, up from $52.7 billion initially approved in the budget adopted earlier this year.

Ukrainian lawmakers have said that most of the latest increase is expected to be financed by proceeds linked to frozen Russian funds.

On Wednesday, the Rada also voted in favor of the country’s draft budget for 2026, which includes a deficit of over 40%, projecting it will spend about $114 billion while taking in just $68 billion. It notes that all of Kiev’s tax revenue will only be spent on the military, with all other state costs to be covered by financial aid from foreign backers.

Spanish newspaper El Pais has reported that Ukraine currently has enough funds to operate only until April 2026, prompting the EU to consider a €140 billion ($163 billion) “reparations loan” backed by Russian assets held abroad. About €200 billion of Moscow’s frozen reserves are currently held in Belgium.

However, a number of Western officials have opposed the EU-led initiative. Bloomberg has reported that Washington has refused to join the plan, citing market-stability risks, while European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde has warned that confiscating Russian state funds could violate international law and undermine trust in the euro.

Moscow has repeatedly denounced any use of its sovereign assets as “theft,” warning of retaliation. Russian officials have also maintained that continued Western military and financial assistance to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict, resulting in further casualties without changing the eventual outcome.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

Palestinian activist vows to keep fighting Trump administration’s bid to re-detain him

MEMO | October 22, 2025

Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil accused the Trump administration of seeking to silence pro-Palestine voices by trying to re-detain him, after his attorneys appeared Tuesday before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia to challenge the legality of his detention, Anadolu reports.

“We just finished a long hearing,” Khalil told reporters outside the court. “I feel confident, of course. The Trump administration is still trying to re-detain me. They’re trying to stop the federal court from looking at my case because they know they don’t have a case against me.”

Khalil, 30, a Palestinian activist and Columbia University graduate, is a lawful permanent resident married to a US citizen. He was detained in March without a warrant by immigration officers in New York City and transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana, where he was held for months.

The Trump administration claimed his presence threatened US foreign policy without providing evidence, but a lower court ordered his release on bail in June and barred the government from detaining or deporting him.

“This case is not about Mahmoud Khalil,” he said. “This case is about every single person in this country, whether they are citizens or not — this case is about their freedom of speech and their ability to dissent, and their ability to speak up, especially about Palestine and the genocide that’s happening in Gaza.”

“They want to break me because they want to deport me to be out as soon as possible, so that others would fear speaking out. That’s why I’m continuing to fight,” he added.

Khalil’s legal team appeared before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, asking judges to uphold lower court rulings that found the government’s actions likely unconstitutional and ordered his release on bail.

His attorney, Ramzi Kassem, co-director of the CLEAR project, said the court heard oral arguments on the government’s appeal challenging both Khalil’s release and the lower court’s decision striking down the administration’s deportation order.

“We’re continuing to press forth — in this court behind me, in the district court in New Jersey, and in immigration court in Louisiana — to vindicate Mahmoud’s constitutional rights and his right to remain here with his family as a lawful permanent resident,” Kassem said.

“What’s at stake is not just his right to speak up in defense of Palestinian human rights and his ability to stay here in this country with his US citizen wife and child, but everyone’s First Amendment rights and due process rights.”

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , | Leave a comment

UK police arrest NHS doctor for denouncing Israel, supporting Palestine

Press TV – October 21, 2025

A British-Palestinian National Health Service (NHS) doctor has been arrested in the United Kingdom for denouncing Israel’s atrocities in Gaza and expressing support for Palestine.

Rahmeh Aladwan was taken into custody on Tuesday following her recent post on X, in which she criticized the Israeli occupation and voiced support for Palestine at a rally.

“The arrests relate to an ongoing investigation, led by the Met’s Public Order Crime Team, into allegations that comments made at a protest and online in recent months were grossly offensive and antisemitic in nature,” the Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.

During the demonstration held in Whitehall on July 21, Dr. Aladwan articulated the “Palestinian principles of liberation,” emphasizing the right to resistance, the right to self-determination, Al-Quds as the capital of Palestine, and the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and lands in what is now the occupied territories.

She also described Israel as “a terrorist entity that sits on top of Palestine,” and committing genocide against the oppressed residents of Gaza.

In her X post, Dr. Aladwan stated, “October 7. The day Israel was humiliated. Their supremacy [was] shattered at the hands of the children they forced out of their homes … The children who watched [Zionists] execute their loved ones, rape their land, and live on their stolen soil.”

Before her arrest, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI), a pro-Israel advocacy group, had accused Dr. Rahmeh Aladwan of anti-Semitism, claiming her social media posts and public appearances made her “unfit to practice medicine.”

However, on September 25, the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) ruled that Dr. Aladwan is fit to practice, rejecting the anti-Semitism allegations.

Despite this, the UK General Medical Council (GMC) has referred her to another interim orders tribunal scheduled for Thursday, October 23, as it continues its investigation into the claims made by UKLFI.

The Al-Aqsa Flood operation, launched by Palestinian resistance groups on October 7, 2023, was a response to decades of oppression of the Palestinians by the Israeli regime.

Following the operation, Israel launched a genocidal war on Gaza, killing at least 68,229 people and wounding 170,369.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Civil Liberties, Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Full Spectrum Dominance | , , , , | Leave a comment

From Syria to Gaza: Israel’s proxy playbook returns

By Robert Inlakesh | The Cradle | October 21, 2025

With the already violated ceasefire in place, and Israeli occupation forces implementing a phased withdrawal, Gaza remains under siege, this time through Tel Aviv’s use of armed collaborator militias.

Drawing on tactics refined in Syria, these death squads have been unleashed to assassinate resistance figures, sow chaos, and undermine what remains of the Hamas-led administration.

Three proxy groups backed by Tel Aviv have since escalated their military campaigns against Gaza’s security forces and society. These militias of collaborator death squads have been used to stir chaos on direct orders of the Israeli army, seeking to establish bases of control in the portions of the territory that Israel has yet to withdraw from.

Upon the cessation of hostilities between the Israeli military and Palestinian resistance factions, at least 7,000 security personnel affiliated with the Hamas-led civil administration took to the streets of Gaza to establish law and order. Yet, almost immediately, they were confronted with ambushes, and armed clashes broke out in a number of areas of the territory.

In particular, the armed clashes in northern Gaza have received the most attention in the media, with Israeli and a handful of Palestinian Authority (PA) aligned personalities attempting to sell the situation as a “civil war.”

Collaborator militias exploit the Gaza ceasefire

Amid the chaos, the son of senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim was shot in the head by proxy forces. Mohammed Imad Aqel, son of a prominent Qassam Brigades commander, was murdered by members of the Doghmush clan. And Saleh al-Jaafarawi, a prominent journalist, was kidnapped, tortured, and shot dead at point-blank range.

At the beginning of October, in Khan Yunis, the Majayda family reportedly collaborated with Hossam al-Astal under Israeli air cover, launching attacks on security positions – a key example of Tel Aviv’s use of clan structures to advance its proxy war strategy.

Israeli researcher Or Fialkov noted:

“The Majaydeh clan from Khan Yunis – which fought Hamas a week ago – announces it has disarmed. The clan, which received assistance from the Israeli army in airstrikes against Hamas members, said it has handed over its weapons to Hamas. Hamas is settling scores across the strip and showing everyone who is in charge.”

To counter the threat posed by these armed collaborators, Hamas formed two new specialized units. The first, Sahm (Arrow) Forces, is comprised of officers from the civil security services. The second, the Resistance Security Force (Amn al-Muqawamah), includes fighters from Hamas’s military wing, as well as those from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Fatah al-Intifada, and other factions.

A senior security source in northern Gaza tells The Cradle that a document containing a hit list was discovered during a raid on a collaborator’s hideout. Although the document itself could not be shared, the source claims it noted that Israel’s “goal is to create chaos, to carry out assassinations, allow for lawlessness, and to fight the resistance through its collaborators.”

This account was reinforced in a KAN News interview, in which the leader of one collaborator militia confirmed that the Israeli army is providing his forces with security support and authorization to operate beyond the so-called Yellow Line. Roughly 54–58 percent of Gaza is still under the occupation army’s control.

US advisors recently informed Axios that Washington is working on an Israeli-backed plan to create pathways for Palestinians opposed to Hamas to live outside of Israel’s Yellow Line. To this effect, the Israeli military is currently marking this line by installing cement blocks and security equipment to demarcate its boundaries.

According to Israel Hayom, the American-Israeli plan seeks to use Gaza reconstruction funds to begin rebuilding hospitals, schools, and homes inside the territory that is jointly controlled by the Israeli army and its ISIS-linked proxy groups.

Under this scheme, Palestinians will be presented with the choice to live under Hamas along the coast or inside the newly constructed areas. It appears as if a proposed multinational military force will also be used to help implement such a model.

Despite this, the collaborator groups currently operating there do not enjoy popular support, and Israel is continuing to demolish the remaining civilian infrastructure located there. Meanwhile, all the major families, segments of whom began fighting Gaza’s security forces, have issued statements aligning themselves with Hamas and against any collaborators in their midst.

The Ramallah-based PA has also expressed its interest in vying for power in the Gaza Strip, yet Israel has at least publicly rejected this idea over fears that this will put it in a stronger position to demand a Palestinian State. Nevertheless, the PA has been part of a propaganda campaign designed to delegitimize Hamas as a political entity in Gaza and accuses it of indiscriminately targeting its opponents.

Tel Aviv retools death squads as ‘Popular Forces’

Throughout the two-year Israeli war on Gaza, humanitarian aid convoys were routinely looted in the southern enclave, triggering food shortages and creating a booming black market. The looting initially involved armed clans and petty criminals who charged extortionate bribes for aid access. But following the 6 May invasion of Rafah, the phenomenon transformed into a more coordinated enterprise.

That evolution gave rise to the Abu Shabab militia, a gang led by convicted drug trafficker Yasser Abu Shabab, who has long-standing links to ISIS affiliates in Sinai. His fighters, many from the Bedouin Tarabin clan, have ties stretching from Israeli-occupied Bir al-Saba (Beersheba) to Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula.

A Hamas official familiar with the file on drug trafficking tells The Cradle:

“These individuals were known to routinely cross into the Sinai and maintained close ties to extremists. These criminal elements were also tied to the Ansar Bait al-Maqdis group [ISIS in the Sinai] and later Wilayat Sinai that came after it. These people do not have a coherent ideology and will shift over time, they are criminals, which is why they are also involved in activities like drug smuggling, and their connections come through familial ties.”

Following the surface of footage of these militants driving around in SUVs bearing Sharjah license plates registered in the UAE, sources belonging to Al-Akhbar claimed that Emirati intelligence has been cooperating with these militia forces.

A month prior to the introduction of the Abu Shabab aid looting gang to the scene, Israel’s top human rights group B’Tselem had issued a report accusing Tel Aviv of “manufacturing famine” in the enclave. A later investigation conducted by Sky News revealed that while most Palestinians were suffering a severe food shortage, the Abu Shabab gangs were living a life of luxury, with an abundance of stolen aid, along with vehicles and weapons supplied by Israel.

This group, despite becoming infamous throughout Gaza for stealing aid from humanitarian organizations, demanding a $4,000 bribe fee for each truck, was soon to be destined for a task much more pernicious.

In November 2024, the Israelis saw that it was time to give their aid looting cadres a facelift, as the Washington Post interviewed Yasser Abu Shabab himself, who is portrayed as a criminal by necessity and claims that “Hamas has left us with nothing.”

Amid the January ceasefire, the gang resurfaced as the “Popular Forces,” now dressed in Israeli tactical gear and openly operating with occupation military backing.

The Wall Street Journal even published an op-ed supposedly authored by Abu Shabab titled “Gazans are finished with Hamas.” Local sources confirm to The Cradle that the militia leader is illiterate and could not have authored a piece in Arabic, let alone English.

By June, former Israeli minister Avigdor Lieberman publicly accused Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of backing ISIS-linked militias in Gaza. Netanyahu not only confirmed the collaboration – but defended it. Then, in September, Haaretz reported that Popular Forces militias were receiving direct orders from the Israeli army and Shin Bet.

Israel’s proxy model expands across Gaza’s clans

As the Israeli military was experiencing a manpower crisis, recently struggling to recruit 60,000 soldiers for operation “Gideon’s Chariots 2” to occupy Gaza City, it made the decision to expand this proxy militia strategy.

In August, Israel worked alongside Hossam al-Astal, a former member of the PA’s Preventive Security Forces (PSF), to form the “Counterterrorism Strike Force” (CSF) that would run operations in the Khan Yunis area of Gaza. Astal, according to two security sources speaking to The Cradle, had long been suspected of holding ties with the Israeli Shin Bet.

Alongside the CSF, new groups like the “People’s Army Northern Forces” (PANF) have emerged in Jabalia and Beit Lahia. Led by Ashraf Mansi, who had been openly praised by Abu Shabab. The PANF consists of drug dealers and ex-Jaish al-Islam fighters, some linked to ISIS. The group even held an armed parade after the ceasefire, before engaging in clashes with Gaza’s Radaa security unit, which captured several of its fighters.

In Gaza City, the Doghmush clan launched a violent campaign to assert control over parts of the north. It raided civilian homes, looted properties, and allegedly murdered prominent figures. After the killing of journalist Saleh al-Jaafarawi, Hamas cracked down, arresting dozens and killing up to 40 armed members of the clan.

The family has long developed a negative image throughout Gaza, due to actions committed by certain elements within it, dating back decades to before the Intifada, when individuals from the Doghmush family would steal cars from Israeli-held territory. The Mukhtar of the clan was assassinated by Israel back in 2023, and according to local reports, groups of men within the family have been arming themselves throughout the war.

Soon after tensions escalated, especially surrounding the murder of Jaafarawi and the clashes that ensued on Sunday, the Doghmush family released a statement disavowing collaborators and “transgressors,” reminding the public of how many members of the clan were killed by Israel. It is still unclear whether the militants from the Doghmush family were working alongside the PANF militia or were operating as a solo force motivated by control of territory.

However, the Doghmush clan represents a more complex case. While certain elements have openly collaborated with Israeli intelligence, others have refused such alliances. The clan is divided, with some fighting Hamas for over two decades, and others remaining within resistance ranks.

Reports have also linked segments of the clan to Dahlan networks and Emirati funding, alongside Salafi militant ties.

Salafist group Jaish al-Islam, once led by Mumtaz Doghmush, was responsible for the 2006 kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Initially allied with Hamas, the group later turned against it, pledging allegiance to Al-Qaeda and even kidnapping two Fox News journalists.

Hamas has long battled Salafist militants inside Gaza, including Jund Allah and the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade. In 2009, it crushed Jund Allah in Rafah after the group attempted to declare an “Islamic emirate.” By 2015, the Omar Hadid Brigade was dismantled. In 2018, ISIS formally declared war on Hamas.

Today, Israel’s proxy fighters recycle the same Salafi justifications. Popular Forces fighter Ghassan Duhine, for instance, cited ISIS fatwas branding Hamas as apostates who deserve death.

But despite Israeli efforts to fragment Gaza’s internal cohesion, many families and clans have pushed back. The Majayda family has denounced collaborators, as have key members of the Tarabin clan.

“Israel hoped to install these agents to run concentration camps for Palestinians, like they planned in Rafah with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation,” a senior Hamas official tells The Cradle. “But our people can see through all of these conspiracies.”

While Tel Aviv pretends its military campaign is on pause, the facts on the ground reveal otherwise. Israel has outsourced the next phase of its war to collaborators, criminals, and extremists – executing its war objectives through mercenaries while claiming plausible deniability. It is a page taken straight from its playbook in Syria, now recycled in Gaza with deadly effect.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Excessive US demands prevent return to negotiations: Iran FM

Press TV – October 22, 2025

Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi says Iran will not return to negotiations with the United States so long as Washington continues its policy of excessive demands.

“Until the Americans abandon their excessive and maximalist policy and stop making unreasonable demands of us, we will not return to the negotiating table,” Araghchi told reporters upon arrival at Mashhad’s Hasheminejad Airport on Wednesday, where he was attending a provincial diplomacy conference.

The foreign minister said the previous talks collapsed precisely due to Washington’s overreach.

“The negotiations that were previously underway with the Americans, as well as the New York talks, were stopped and did not progress due to the excessive demands of the American side,” he said, referring to five rounds of nuclear talks before the US-Israeli aggression against Iran in June.

Araghchi said the two sides could also reach a “reasonable, mutually beneficial solution” during the recent annual UN General Assembly meeting in New York, but that opportunity was also lost due to a similar reason.

Araghchi said Iran has consistently demonstrated its commitment to peace and diplomacy, even while facing an adversary unwilling to honor such principles.

“We have shown we are always committed to diplomatic solutions, but this does not mean giving up the rights of the Iranian people.”

“Wherever the interests of the Iranian people and the higher interests of the country can be secured through diplomacy, we have acted. But we are dealing with those who have never adhered to diplomacy,” Araghchi said.

He said Iran recently exchanged messages and contacts with US negotiator Steve Witkoff through intermediaries, but he made it clear that Iran will not re-enter talks unless the US fundamentally changes its approach.

“As long as this spirit exists in negotiations with the Americans, naturally, there is no possibility of returning to negotiations, unless the American approach changes and they accept that negotiations must be based on mutual respect and from equal positions.”

The Iranian minister said Washington’s failed strategies will yield no results. “They have tried other paths and have not succeeded, and if they continue on this path again, they will once more achieve nothing.”

For the first time, Israel and the United States launched large-scale strikes on Iran in June, hitting nuclear and military facilities.

Iran retaliated with missile and drone attacks on the Israeli-occupied territories and a major US military base in Qatar.

US President Donald Trump claimed afterward that Iran was close to producing nuclear bombs, but without providing any proof for his claim. Iran says it does not seek nuclear weapons.

In the previous nuclear talks, the Trump administration repeatedly asked Iran to dismantle its nuclear and missile development infrastructure altogether, a demand Tehran rejects.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , | Leave a comment

Nearly half of attacks in occupied al-Quds target Armenian Christians: Watchdog

Press TV – October 22, 2025

An Israeli organization documenting anti-Christian attacks has revealed that nearly half of the attacks in the Israeli-occupied Old City of al-Quds target Armenian Christians, amid an alarming spike in hate crimes in the Armenian quarter of the city.

The Religious Freedom Data Center (RFDC), in its new quarterly report titled Incidents Against Christians in Israel, published on Tuesday, recorded 31 anti-Christian hate crimes across the occupied territories.

According to the report, which covers July to September 2025, 43% of all incidents in the Old City of al-Quds targeted Armenian Christians, with the Armenian Patriarchate once again emerging as the most frequently targeted site.

The incidents included spitting, verbal harassment, trespassing, vandalism, defacement, online provocation, and the desecration of sacred sites, predominantly focused in and around the Old City of al-Quds.

Among the 31 recorded attacks, 9 incidents (29%) were characterized by spitting, 8 (26%) involved verbal abuse, 7 (23%) were related to online incitement, 3 (10%) pertained to vandalism of signage, 3 (10%) reflected disrespect towards a holy site, 2 (7%) were instances of defacement, and there was at least one case of trespassing.

Within the Old City, a total of 13 incidents (42%) were documented, with 43% (6) occurring at the Armenian Patriarchate, 23% (3) along the Via Dolorosa, 17% (2) in proximity to Jaffa Gate (known as Bab al-Khalil in Arabic), and David Street, and an additional 17% (2) in the Jewish Quarter.

Incidents were reported outside the Old City in West al-Quds (16%), Mount Zion (6%), and other regions beyond al-Quds (36%), such as Migdal HaEmek, Latrun, the Sea of Galilee, Capernaum, and Mary’s Spring located in Ein Kerem.

In numerous instances, police forces were purportedly on the scene but did not take action.

Official complaints were submitted, however, the RFDC observes that subsequent follow-up is still minimal.

The report highlights a distinct difference in enforcement actions: at the Polish Monastery, law enforcement responded promptly to halt harassment, whereas at Mary’s Spring in Ein Kerem, it appears that no authority is willing to assume responsibility, resulting in the site’s signage being consistently vandalized without any investigation.

As stated by RFDC director Yisca Harani, the official statistics probably reflect merely a small portion of the actual situation, pointing to extensive underreporting stemming from fear, resignation, and a deficiency in accountability.

The report cautions that “reports are filed, convictions are non-existent,” illustrating a trend of impunity that has rendered Christian communities more susceptible.

October 22, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism | , , , | Leave a comment

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