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US ceasefire in Yemen: Retreat masquerading as restraint

The US ends its Red Sea campaign not by victory, but by necessity – under relentless pressure from an underestimated Yemeni resistance

By Mawadda Iskandar | The Cradle | May 8, 2025

In a major recalibration of its year-long Red Sea military campaign, the US has agreed to a ceasefire with Yemen’s Ansarallah-aligned armed forces, brokered by Oman. After months of escalating attacks under the guise of “protecting international shipping,” Washington now finds itself calling time on a conflict it launched – but failed to control.

While Yemen’s leaders stress that operations in support of Gaza will persist, the US pivot signals more than de-escalation: It is a tacit admission that its campaign has collapsed under pressure, unable to achieve even its most basic strategic goals.

With over a thousand airstrikes launched since March 2024, Washington’s failure to contain the Yemeni threat in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, and the Gulf of Aden stands as a stark indictment of its military planning. The war devolved into a costly, high-stakes exercise in attrition – one Yemen emerged from stronger, not weaker.

A flawed campaign from the start

From its inception, the US-led campaign ‘Prosperity Guardian’ lacked clarity. The mission to “protect shipping lanes” quickly became an open-ended confrontation with no political roadmap. American officials misread both the battlefield and Yemen’s resilience.

Despite the might of its airpower, Washington failed to dent Sanaa’s capacity or will to fight. Instead, the bombardment accelerated Yemen’s military innovation, forcing Washington into a deterrence game it could not win.

Yemen’s unconventional warfare style, grounded in its topography and culture, posed immense challenges. Leaders operated from mountainous terrain fortified by tunnel systems, well beyond the reach of satellite surveillance.

The US had little intelligence penetration into Yemen’s military hierarchy and no functioning target bank. Sanaa’s leadership, experienced from years of prior war against the Saudi and UAE-led coalition and its proxies, held the advantage.

Speaking to The Cradle, Colonel Rashad al-Wutayri lists five key reasons for the campaign’s failure. First, Yemen’s use of low-cost, high-impact weapons – ballistic missiles and drones – pierced even US carrier strike groups.

Second, the campaign failed to protect Israeli or allied shipping. Third, Ansarallah exposed Israeli-American spy networks and clung to its demands: Namely, an end to the war on Gaza. Fourth, apart from Bahrain, Washington’s Arab allies declined to join the US-led coalition. Fifth, the financial cost spiraled, with the US spending millions on interceptors to counter drones built for mere thousands.

No coalition, no ground game

Washington’s diplomatic push to build a regional anti-Yemen coalition fell flat. Persian Gulf states, still stung from their own failures in Yemen, wisely kept their distance. Saudi Arabia refused to be drawn back into a war it has been trying to exit since 2022. The UAE, meanwhile, limited its support to logistics. Egypt stayed silent, unwilling to be sucked into another regional escalation.

This reticence was not without reason. Ansarallah leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi issued direct warnings to neighboring countries: Any cooperation with the US – via bases or troops – would bring immediate retaliation.

The threat worked. When Washington explored the idea of a ground assault using US special forces and Persian Gulf-backed militias, the plan quickly collapsed. Yemen’s terrain, its entrenched resistance, and the bitter legacy of previous Saudi-Emirati attempts made such a venture untenable.

Political analyst Abdulaziz Abu Talib tells The Cradle that Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have internalized the cost of further escalation. While both continue to bankroll proxy militias, they are steering clear of overt military entanglement. Yemen’s ability to withstand this trilateral aggression – and to land blows on US and Israeli interests – further eroded faith in Washington’s protective umbrella.

Bombs, billions, and blunders

Between March 2024 and April 2025, the US launched over 1,000 airstrikes on Yemen. Yet, rather than break its adversary, the campaign emboldened it. In retaliation, Yemen escalated steadily – from targeting Israeli vessels in November 2023, to US and UK ships by January, the Indian Ocean by March, and the Mediterranean by May.

By July, Ansarallah struck Tel Aviv with hypersonic missiles. A direct hit on Ben Gurion Airport followed, redrawing the region’s military balance.

The costs piled up. In the first three weeks alone, the US burned through $1 billion. Weapons like Tomahawk and JASSM missiles – costing millions apiece – were deployed against drones worth a few thousand dollars. Yemen’s own achievements mounted: 17 MQ-9 Reaper drones shot down, a $60 million F-18 fighter jet destroyed, and a declared aerial blockade of Israel.

Wutayri highlights that Yemen developed its arsenal domestically, without foreign technical assistance. That included the hypersonic missiles that bypassed Israeli and US air defenses, and drones capable of striking both military and commercial ships. Even as Washington intensified its bombardment, Yemen’s operational tempo and range only grew.

Erosion from within

Back in Washington, the cracks were showing. The Pentagon quietly expanded military commanders’ autonomy to strike targets without White House clearance – an effort to shield the administration from political fallout. But the costs, both financial and reputational, were impossible to ignore.

US media outlets began questioning the purpose and direction of the campaign. Public patience waned. There were calls for countries benefiting from Red Sea trade – namely Persian Gulf monarchies – to shoulder the burden of maritime security.

Wutayri says the US suffered further humiliation: a destroyer and three supply ships were sunk, and both the USS Abraham Lincoln and Harry S. Truman aircraft carriers were targeted. Despite spending another $500 million on interceptors, the results were negligible. The image of US warplanes crashing into the sea, and of exhausted troops – some 7,000 deployed – unable to break Yemen’s resolve, dented American prestige.

More than just a response to Red Sea attacks, the campaign was part of Washington’s broader effort to counter China’s regional influence, particularly Yemen’s emerging Belt and Road links. But the military track backfired, hardening local resistance and undermining US credibility.

Abu Talib notes that even stealth aircraft and strategic bombers failed to achieve deterrence. The Trump administration faced two options: retreat under the weight of defeat, or engage in talks under Ansarallah’s terms – chief among them an end to the Gaza war.

A war without an aim

From the outset, Washington struggled to manufacture a narrative of victory. The Pentagon released videos of jets launching from carriers – empty spectacle, absent substance. There were no “shock and awe” moments, no milestones to sell as success.

Yemen, meanwhile, delivered iconic images; among them, a father shielding his child during a bombing raid – a powerful symbol of national defiance. As civilian casualties mounted, so did public fury. Scenes of women and children pulled from rubble circulated widely, drawing uncomfortable parallels with past US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

According to Abu Talib, Yemen’s social cohesion and rugged geography undermined every attempt to break its lines. Far from fracturing under pressure, the public rallied behind Ansarallah. The more the US escalated, the more entrenched Yemeni resistance became – both militarily and socially.

Now, the Trump administration is shifting gears, seeking peace without admitting defeat. But Sanaa is not standing still. It promises continued operations, and with them, new strategic equations that could further upend the regional balance of power.

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Ethnic Cleansing, Racism, Zionism, Wars for Israel | , , , , , | Leave a comment

Collapsing Empire: AnsarAllah Defeats US Again

By Kit Klarenberg | Global Delinquents | May 8, 2025

On May 6th, Donald Trump made the shock announcement that the US was abandoning all hostilities against Yemen. A vast, multi-billion dollar naval and air campaign officials in Washington had pledged would last “indefinitely” has abruptly ended, in return for AnsarAllah pledging not to attack American shipping in the Red Sea. While the President has bragged the Resistance group “capitulated” to his administration’s renewed, much-intensified belligerence and “don’t want to fight any more”, the reality is that God’s Partisans have once again defeated the Empire.

As reported by the New York Times, it remains unclear whether the ceasefire will apply to other foreign shipping, “after a costly seven-week bombing campaign.” Meanwhile, AnsarAllah has “stopped short of declaring a full cease-fire, saying that they would continue to fight Israel,” while [portraying] the deal as a major victory for the militia and a failure for Mr. Trump, spreading a social media hashtag that read ‘Yemen defeats America’.” In other words, the Resistance campaign against the Zionist entity will endure, and could intensify.

Reinforcing the Empire’s trouncing, such was Washington’s desperation to extricate herself from the self-initiated conflict, Israeli officials apparently weren’t apprised of the deal, only learning the US was withdrawing from the Red Sea from TV news reports. Yet, the mainstream media has over recent weeks clearly been laying the foundations of the Empire’s surrender to AnsarAllah, for the second time in less than a year. A number of prominent Western news reports have been uncharacteristically critical of US performance in battling God’s Partisans anew.

For example, on April 28th, major media outlets became abuzz with news that the USS Harry S. Truman – which led the Trump administration’s effort to crush AnsarAllah’s anti-genocide Red Sea blockade – lost an F-18 fighter jet and tow tractor, while executing a hard turn to evade fire from the Resistance group. While a US Navy press release on the incident made no reference to Yemen’s assault, nameless American officials briefed several mainstream journalists that God’s Partisans were responsible.

Reporting on the disaster by dependably servile CIA and Pentagon propaganda megaphone CNN was extraordinarily candid. “US Navy loses $60 million jet at sea after it fell overboard from aircraft carrier”, its headline read. The outlet explicitly acknowledged this resulted from an AnsarAllah “drone and missile attack” on USS Harry S. Truman. CNN went on to note the aircraft carrier has “repeatedly been targeted in attacks” by Yemen, while suffering a series of shameful blunders since its deployment to the Red Sea in September 2024.

In December that year, a US fighter jet posted to USS Harry S. Truman was shot down while conducting a refueling mission over the Red Sea in a friendly fire incident. The USS Gettysburg, which was escorting the aircraft carrier, blasted the jet with a missile for reasons unclear. This gross misadventure remains subject to official investigation. Then, on February 12th this year, USS Harry S. Truman was extensively damaged after colliding with a commercial vessel near Egypt’s Port Said, at the Suez Canal’s northern end.

The aircraft carrier returned to service after a period spent in Greece’s Souda Bay for repairs. The US Navy refused to release details about the cost of these repairs, or the total damage USS Harry S. Truman sustained in the collision. Whether further repairs were required was also not clarified. However, the accident was apparently considered so catastrophic within the Pentagon, the carrier’s chief Dave Snowden was fired from his post on February 20th, “due to a loss of confidence in his ability to command”.

These humiliating developments were completely ignored by the media. Concurrently however, mainstream outlets were engaged in a concerted effort to rehabilitate Operation Prosperity Guardian, the embarrassingly failed Biden administration attempt to smash God’s Partisans and end the Resistance group’s righteous Red Sea blockade. Launched with much hype following the Gaza genocide’s eruption, a vast US flotilla led by USS Eisenhower spent nine months getting battered by a relentless barrage of AnsarAllah drones and missiles to no avail, before scurrying back home.

‘Defensive Systems’

Throughout Operation Prosperity Guardian, current and former US military and intelligence officials expressed disquiet at the enormous “cost offset” involved in battling God’s Partisans in the Red Sea. The US Navy squandered countless difficult-to-replace missiles costing hundreds of thousands of dollars – if not millions – daily to shoot down the Resistance group’s drones. As Mick Mulroy, a former DOD official and CIA officer, bitterly told Politico:

“[This] quickly becomes a problem because the most benefit, even if we do shoot down their incoming missiles and drones, is in [AnsarAllah’s] favor… We, the US, need to start looking at systems that can defeat these that are more in line with the costs they are expending to attack us.”

There were no indications of this “cost offset” having been remediated by the time Operation Prosperity Guardian fizzled out in July 2024. Official US Navy figures on the “unprecedented” engagement suggest the USS Eisenhower-led carrier group fired a total of 155 standard missiles and 135 Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles, while accompanying fighter jets and helicopters “expended nearly 60 air-to-air missiles and released 420 air-to-surface weapons” – 770 munitions in total – over the nine-month-long conflict.

Independent analysis suggests these figures are likely to be even higher. Moreover, the US Navy did not provide a breakdown of the costs involved in Operation Prosperity Guardian. Still, even if one accepts the official totals, a single Tomahawk alone costs around $1.89 million, meaning firing 135 cost a staggering $255,150,000. There is also the enduring question of whether this astonishingly expensive arsenal failed to protect USS Eisenhower from direct AnsarAllah attack.

In February 2024, a cruise missile fired from Yemen penetrated so many layers of the aircraft carrier’s defences it was seconds from impact, forcing USS Eisenhower to employ the Phalanx Close-In Weapon System – its “last line of defense”. It marked the System’s first ever recorded use in battle. Then in June that year, the USS Eisenhower inexplicably withdrew from its sphere of operations in the Red Sea at maximum speed, immediately after God’s Partisans announced they had successfully struck the carrier. The media was silent on this incident.

Still, as this journalist recorded at the time, multiple news reports painted a dire picture of Operation Prosperity Guardian in its aftermath. Associated Press revealed participating sailors and pilots had found the experience “traumatizing”, as they “weren’t used to being fired on.” Many had repeatedly come within seconds of being struck by “Houthi-launched missiles”, before they were destroyed “by their ship’s defensive systems.” The Pentagon was thus considering providing “counseling and treatment” to thousands of US Navy employees suffering from “post-traumatic stress”, and their families.

‘Supplemental Funds’

Fast forward to February 2025, and Business Insider published a curious article, claiming based on documents exclusively obtained by the outlet that in fact, the US Navy had successfully “fended off” AnsarAllah’s Red Sea blitzkrieg throughout Operation Prosperity Guardian, “without firing a shot”. Instead, “undefined” and “unspecified” methods and weapons of a “non-kinetic” variety were “successfully” employed to protect “Navy and coalition warships and commercial vessels.” This was of course at total odds with literally everything the mainstream media had hitherto reported on the debacle.

With hindsight though, the report’s propaganda utility seems clear. It served to rehabilitate the US Navy’s performance in its war on Yemen, at a time the Trump administration was preparing to kickstart hostilities against God’s Partisans again. So it was on March 15th, US airstrikes began raining down on Sanaa anew, while the USS Harry S. Truman-led carrier force thrust stridently into the Red Sea. US officials talked a big game about the fresh assault continuing “indefinitely”, while Trump bragged that AnsarAllah was being “decimated”.

The April 28th loss of an F-18 fighter jet due to Yemeni attacks amply demonstrated these boasts to be bogus. The anonymous briefings furthermore strongly suggest Pentagon apparatchiks wanted it publicly known AnsarAllah was responsible. In the meantime, on April 4th, the New York Times reported Pentagon officials were “privately” briefing Trump’s belligerence was failing to graze God’s Partisans, while costing in excess of $1 billion to date. This not only meant “supplemental funds” needed to be mustered from Congress, but doubts about continued ammunition availability gravely abounded:

“So many precision munitions are being used, especially advanced long-range ones, that some Pentagon contingency planners are growing concerned about overall Navy stocks and implications for any situation in which the United States would have to ward off an attempted invasion of Taiwan by China.”

We can surmise this report, and the subsequent flurry of critical mainstream reporting on the USS Harry S. Truman’s troubles, were indicative of the Pentagon’s determination to end Washington’s renewed malevolence against Yemen before AnsarAllah inflicted yet another historic defeat on the US Empire. In a larger than life, farcical full stop to this debacle, on the same day Trump announced the Empire had been crushed again in the Red Sea, the USS Harry S. Truman lost another F/A-18. You couldn’t make it up.

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Wars for Israel | , , , , | Leave a comment

Iran categorically rejects involvement in alleged plot to attack Israeli embassy in UK

Press TV – May 8, 2025

Tehran has categorically rejected Western media reports about Iranian nationals being involved in an alleged plot to target the Israeli embassy in London.

In a post on his X account on Thursday, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Tehran has not been informed of any allegations via “proper diplomatic channels”.

“Iran stands ready to engage to shed light on what has truly transpired, and we reiterate that UK authorities should afford our citizens due process,” he wrote.

The United Kingdom has arrested eight men, including seven Iranian nationals, as part of two investigations regarding alleged threats to national security.

London’s Metropolitan Police confirmed the arrests on Sunday, saying five men, including four of the Iranian nationals, were detained on suspicion of “preparation of a terrorist act” while the other three were being held under national security legislation introduced in 2023 to counter the actions of hostile states.

They were arrested as part of a “pre-planned” investigation into an alleged plot to “target specific premises,” the Metropolitan Police said, adding that the “affected site” was made aware and is being supported by police.

As part of a separate investigation led by the Met, three other Iranian men were arrested in London on Saturday.

The Met said three men — aged 39, 44 and 55 — were arrested under section 27 the National Security Act at separate addresses in north-west and west London, and had been taken into custody while searches continued.

In his post, Araghchi pointed to the stories in the media about the alleged involvement of Iranian nationals in a supposed plot to target the Israeli embassy in London and urged the UK to engage so that Tehran may assist any probe into credible allegations.

The top Iranian diplomat warned that third parties are resorting to desperate measures, including false flag operations, to derail diplomacy and provoke escalation.

“Timing and lack of engagement suggest that something is amiss,” he said.

In a post on his X social media account on Tuesday, the Iranian foreign minister called on the UK to respect the rights of Iranians arrested in Britain, underscoring Tehran’s readiness to assist investigations in the incident.

“Disturbed to learn that Iranian citizens have reportedly been arrested by UK security services,” Araghchi wrote.

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Deception, False Flag Terrorism | , , , | Leave a comment

Pakistan army downs 25 Israeli-made drones launched from India

Al Mayadeen | May 8, 2025

Pakistan’s armed forces announced that they successfully neutralized 25 Indian drones, including Israeli-made Harop loitering munitions, which targeted several cities across the country in what the military described as a serious and unprovoked act of aggression.

The Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) confirmed the drones were intercepted using both “soft kill” techniques, which involve electronic disruption, and “hard kill” methods such as anti-aircraft fire. Additionally, debris from the drones has been recovered in Lahore, Rawalpindi, Attock, Chakwal, Gujranwala, Bahawalpur, Sangla Hill, Chhor, Miano, and Karachi.

Speaking at a press conference in Rawalpindi, ISPR Director General Lt-General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry condemned the drone strikes as a “cowardly and provocative escalation” that reflects “India’s frustration and panic” following heavy military losses inflicted during overnight engagements on May 6 and 7.

The ISPR chief said that the Indian army had suffered the destruction of five aircrafts (updated from 3 previously reported) and significant casualties, and was now resorting to drone attacks in an attempt to regain initiative and project strength.

Civilian killed, soldiers injured in Pakistan drone defense

The drone aggression led to the martyrdom of one civilian in Miano, Sindh, and injured four Pakistan army soldiers near Lahore after one of the drones partially hit a military target.

Lieutenant General Ahmad Sharif Chaudhry confirmed that twelve Indian drones were intercepted overnight between Wednesday and Thursday, with more neutralized as operations progressed.

At Lahore’s Walton Airport, three were downed by anti-aircraft fire, while another was intercepted over Karachi’s Gulshan-e-Hadid area, injuring one civilian.

In a press conference, the army spokesman stated that on May 7 and 8, Indian drones attempted to infiltrate various parts of the country, arguing that “Last night, India carried out another blatant military action against Pakistan by sending Harab drones to multiple locations.”

The military used a combination of electronic warfare and kinetic weaponry to neutralize the drones mid-flight. The army released images showing the downed drone wreckage and stated that the continued drone attacks represent “naked aggression,” vowing to remain on high alert.

Pakistan warns of grave regional consequences

Lt. General Chaudhry reiterated that India’s latest actions are further destabilizing a region already at risk, stressing that targeting places of worship and civilian infrastructure, where casualties included women, children, and the elderly, reveals the recklessness of India’s approach.

“Rather than choosing a path of rationality, India is escalating military aggression,” he said, warning that the international community must take note of the serious threat posed to regional and broader global stability.

The armed forces of Pakistan remain fully vigilant and prepared to respond to any form of aggression, said the ISPR, with further updates to be provided as the situation unfolds.

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , | Leave a comment

‘Scandal!’ – Hungary’s Orbán reacts to von der Leyen’s call to fast-track Ukraine membership in the EU

Remix News | May 8, 2025

According to EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine should be given more money and its accession to the EU should be accelerated. In response, Orbán called her policies a “scandal.”

“Ukraine gets money and weapons, and European taxpayers foot the bill,” said Orbán, who responded to von der Leyen’s speech on X.

EU support for Ukraine was discussed at the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday.

In her speech, von der Leyen highlighted three critical points, saying Ukraine needs more weapons, that energy dependence on Russia needs to be ended, and that Ukraine’s ascension process into the EU should be accelerated.

Orbán is making a full-court press against von der Leyen’s speech, highlighting the threat Ukraine also poses to EU agriculture. He notes that Ukraine controls 40 percent of the arable land in Europe, which would result in the EU market being flooded with cheap crops.

Europe has already flooded Ukraine with tens of billions in taxpayer money, yet the EU wants to continue sending billions to the country, even as inflation has eaten into citizens’ pocketbooks.

Hungarian MEP András László wrote in a response that the most obvious reason for keeping Ukraine out of the EU is that a war is still raging between the country and Russia. However, rebuilding Ukraine will cost tens of billions, with some estimates going as high as hundreds of billions. With many EU nations already facing massive debt burdens, allowing Ukraine to enter the EU would perhaps be the greatest financial folly the bloc has ever partaken in.

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Economics | , | Leave a comment

EU Disburses Another $1.1Bln for Ukraine as Part of G7 Loan Secured by Russian Assets

Sputnik – 08.05.2025

MOSCOW – The European Commission on Thursday disbursed the fourth tranche of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine worth 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) as part of the G7 loan meant to be repaid with proceeds from frozen Russian assets.

“Today, the European Commission disbursed the fourth tranche of its exceptional macro-financial assistance (MFA) loan to Ukraine, worth €1 billion,” the Commission said.

This is part of the EU’s 18.1 billion euro share of collective contributions within the G7’s 45 billion euro package for Ukraine. It comes on top of the 6 billion euros disbursed by the EU across the first three tranches, the statement read.

“These loans are to be repaid with proceeds from immobilised Russian State assets in the EU,” the Commission added.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov calls the freezing of assets “theft” and warns it’s not just private funds, but state assets targeted.

Vladimir Putin earlier warned that “stealing other people’s assets has never brought anyone good.”

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Militarism | , | Leave a comment

EMFs from mobiles and sleep

True story from a few weeks ago

Awkward Git | May 8, 2025

While off on my jollies in the sun we spent time chatting to one of the barmen who came from a place we knew and he used to work in our favourite hotel in the World so we had a few good chats over the weeks as we were one of the few couples not glued to our mobile phones or tablets and actually tried to speak to people.

We found a few others like us and also got a few to put their mobiles down now and again at times.

Anyway a waiter from one of the restaurants came out to the bar for drinks. We had had a few chats with him in the restaurant he worked in when it was quiet so knew him a bit better than the other passengers did I think.

He was sniffing a bit and said he thinks he was coming down with something so we told him to get some cheap tea tree oil at the next port and sprinkle it over the carpet in his cabin and/or put some on cotton wool and put in the A/C vent topping it up every few days. It kills the bacteria and viruses that breed in the A/C ducts plus smells nice in the room. Taught this trick by an old Australian paramedic at work for keeping A/C borne outbreaks of the cold at bay.

Anyway he didn’t know what it was so as no supervisors were around he whipped out his mobile and we spelt it out for him so he knew what to buy. The barman also gets his mobile out to have a look at what we were on about.

They finish and both put their mobiles in their front pockets.

I must have shuddered or flinched or something as they said “What”?”

Conversation then went something like this:

Me: don’t you want kids?

Them: what do you mean?

Me: haven’t you heard about the big drop in sperm counts in men over the past 10 years?

Them: yes, we have that problem in xxxx and xxxx (both countries on different continents)

Me: think it has anything to do with having a mobile phone or a laptop computer next to your balls emitting EMFs that affect and kill sperm by any chance?

Them: really? EMFs do that?

I nod.

Me: if you must have them leave them under the bar is best but if you must carry them put in a back pocket or even better do what I do and put it in a pocket down your leg with a RFID protection wallet between it and your leg

Both move the mobiles to different pockets and restaurant waiter leaves with the drinks order.

Me: you look tired, sleeping OK?

Barman: not sleeping at all well

Me: do you sleep with your mobile next to the bed and turned on?

Barman: Yes

Me: is it at least 7 ft away from you when you sleep?

Barman: No, it’s next to me as cabin is less than 7 ft wide

Me: turn it off or if you need it for an alarm clock put it on airplane mode

Barman goes off to serve someone else.

Next day the barman says he turned his mobile off and it was the best night’s sleep he had had in years.

I said “you thought I was crazy when I told you didn’t you?” and he said he did but getting a good nights sleep was worth listening to a crazy person if it worked.

3 or 4 days later he said that his sleep was still improving and thank you.

One person at a time.

May 8, 2025 Posted by | Timeless or most popular | Leave a comment

Who’s the ‘Real’ Peter Marks?

New Website Exposes Failure of Former FDA Vaccine Czar to Protect Americans From COVID Vaccine Dangers

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 6, 2025

A former top U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) vaccine official ignored evidence that COVID-19 vaccines caused serious injuries, and dismissed the pleas of people injured by the vaccines, all while reassuring the public the shots were safe, documents published today on TheRealPeterMarks.com website reveal.

The website hosts public statements by Peter Marks, M.D., Ph.D., recordings of his calls with vaccine-injured individuals, transcripts and previously unreleased FDA records.

Informed Consent Action Network (ICAN), React19 and Follow the Silenced — organizations that advocate for the vaccine-injured — obtained the documents through Freedom of Information Act requests and other legal work.

Dr. Danice Hertz, a retired gastroenterologist injured by the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, said she hopes the website reveals the side of Marks that the media ignores. Hertz said:

“We want to set the record straight about Marks. The media is misinformed about him and has falsely represented him as a hero. In my opinion, he is far from a hero. He is a dishonest, corrupt man whose allegiance has been to the vaccine manufacturers and not to the safety of the people.”

Website contradicts claims Marks makes in latest media blitz

On March 28, Marks resigned as director of the FDA’s Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) under pressure from his new boss, U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

He has since made several appearances on mainstream media, defending his record and attacking Kennedy.

React19 co-chair Dr. Joel Wallskog, a Wisconsin orthopedic surgeon injured by the COVID-19 vaccines, accused Marks of lying during media interviews.

“He is a liar and fearful of the truth getting out,” Wallskog said. “The best defense is a good offense.”

Wallskog and Brianne Dressen, a vaccine-injury victim and co-chair of React19, said the media failed to ask the former FDA executive key questions.

Wallskog said he wants to know why Marks “refused” to give Kennedy the vaccine injury data he requested. Dressen said she wants to ask Marks “about the countless lives negatively impacted by the COVID vaccines.”

“We brought the truth front and center to Marks, and he refused to see it,” Dressen said. “His decisions not to disclose highly reported injuries had devastating impacts on the medical community’s ability to recognize and treat injuries.” As a result, she said, “countless lives” were lost and people were “permanently harmed.”

Dressen said Marks’ “real tagline is ‘profits over people.’”

In an April 13 interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Marks told host Margaret Brennan, “You’re talking to the person who came up with Operation Warp Speed.”

Operation Warp Speed was the government’s public-private partnership responsible for facilitating and accelerating the development, manufacture and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.

As the person responsible for that operation, Marks would have been privy to warning signs on the possible dangers of the new COVID-19 vaccine.

Documents on TheRealPeterMarks.com site reveal that Marks knew about adverse events following vaccinations as early as October 2020 — less than two months before the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines received emergency use authorization (EUA).

Dressen said she was “astonished” that Marks ignored those warning signs and instead promoted the government’s “safe and effective” narrative.

“He knew very well that there were serious problems with the COVID vaccines,” Dressen said. “What astonished me was how he can say it with such resolve.”

Marks approved COVID vaccines, boosters for kids despite knowledge of risks

The documents posted on TheRealPeterMarks.com show that Marks ignored reports and studies on COVID-19 vaccine injuries sustained by children, and that he claimed such reports were “sensationalized.”

For example:

Dressen called out Marks for his handling of a prominent case of childhood vaccine injury involving Maddie de Garay, a 16-year-old who was seriously injured by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in January 2021.

In June 2021, Marks accepted Pfizer’s finding that de Garay’s injuries were unrelated to the vaccine.

Marks received further updates about de Garay’s condition over the next few months, including statements by de Garay’s mother at an October 2021 meeting of the FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee.

But in March 2022, Marks said de Garay’s injuries were not vaccine-related and he denied her parents’ request for a meeting. “They took Pfizer’s word for it, then internally gaslit her,” Dressen said.

‘Marks was continually moving the goalpost’ on vaccine risks

Transcripts of Marks’ meetings with vaccine-injury victims showed that he repeatedly rejected safety concerns, or safety signals, related to the COVID-19 shots.

“Marks was continually moving the goalpost — it didn’t matter how we communicated the data, didn’t matter how many hoops we jumped through,” Dressen said.

For example, Marks was repeatedly informed about the prevalence of neurological injuries post-vaccination, including in emails and reports he received in February, March, April and August of 2021.

Marks claimed in a September 2021 email to Dressen that there were no safety signals for neurological injuries. He did not take action in response to several reports in late 2021 and early 2022 on the prevalence of such injuries.

“We spoon-fed their own data to them, showing exactly where the problem is, and still, Marks insisted they couldn’t see it,” Dressen said.

“We know through our work at React19 that neurological adverse events are the most common,” Wallskog said.

Other examples highlighted in the documents include:

  • During a call in late 2022, Dr. Narayan Nair, then-director of CBER’s Division of Pharmacovigilance, acknowledged a safety signal for neuropathy in young women. But in the same call, Marks said this signal has “not been possible to tease out.”
  • In April 2021, a peer-reviewed paper described the case of a vaccinated person who experienced small fiber neuropathy following COVID-19 vaccination. It identified a successful treatment.
  • An August 2021 analysis of VAERS data showed that compared to the annual average of other vaccinations, there were 17 times more reports of serious injuries and 42 times more deaths reported after COVID-19 vaccines.

Marks also repeatedly denied the existence of safety signals for multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS). In an email from September 2022, Dressen told Marks that MIS occurs at a higher rate than thrombotic thrombocytopenia syndrome, which was associated with the Johnson & Johnson (Janssen) COVID-19 vaccine and led to a pause in its administration.

However, in a call three days later, Marks said there was not enough data to “make a clear association” between MIS and the COVID-19 vaccines.

‘Stone-cold’ demeanor: Marks appeared indifferent to people injured by vaccines

In several instances, Marks expressed confusion as to why the vaccine-injured were having difficulty receiving medical care for their conditions. Yet he also reportedly appeared indifferent to the victims’ plights.

Dressen and Wallskog pointed to several instances when Marks appeared to act disrespectfully toward vaccine injury victims, notably blowing off an August 2021 meeting with vaccine-injured people and doctors.

Dressen said the meeting, scheduled three weeks in advance, was held the same day the Pfizer Comirnaty COVID-19 vaccine received full FDA approval. “He was busy approving Comirnaty,” Dressen said.

Marks said in an email at the time he missed the meeting due to “urgent matters related to the ongoing pandemic.”

Marks later skipped a Nov. 2, 2021, COVID-19 vaccine injury roundtable hosted by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), even though Johnson invited the FDA to attend. Marks did not respond to other emails from vaccine injury victims and attorneys in 2021.

According to Dressen and Wallskog, during other meetings and calls, Marks appeared unmoved by the stories recounted by the vaccine-injured. Wallskog said he acted “cold and calculated.” Dressen claimed Marks had a “stone-cold” demeanor and he was visibly performing other work while the injured shared their stories.

Related articles in The Defender

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

May 7, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Deception, Science and Pseudo-Science | , | Leave a comment

UK keeps sending arms to Israel despite ban: Report

Press TV – May 7, 2025

A new report says Britain keeps exporting arms and equipment, including F-35 fighter jet parts, to Israel despite a government suspension in September 2024.

The report released by three campaign groups says parts for the jet, which has been critical for Israel’s brutal military campaign in Gaza, appear to have arrived in Israel as recently as March.

Investigation using Israeli customs data says 8,630 munitions items were sent from the UK to Israel since the suspensions.

The munitions fall under a category of import labelled “bombs, grenades, torpedoes, mines, missiles, and similar munitions of war and parts thereof.”

Most of the shipments cited in the report happened after the government’s arms suspension.

Britain had said it suspended its direct exports over concerns they might be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law.

Soon after the suspensions, Foreign Secretary David Lammy told parliament that “much of what we send is defensive in nature. It is not what we describe routinely as arms.”

“On the basis of the evidence in this report, it appears that Lammy has misled parliament and the public about arms shipments to Israel,” according to the report.

Nearly two dozen MPs have written to Lammy, calling on him to come before parliament to respond to the allegations.

They said that the public “deserves to know the full scale of the UK’s complicity in crimes against humanity.”

“We urge the government to disclose the details of all arms exports to Israel since October 2023 and to immediately halt all arms exports to Israel,” they wrote.

“This could not be more urgent given the risk that British-made weapons could be used to enact Netanyahu’s plan to annex Gaza and ethnically cleanse the Palestinian people.”

Former Labor shadow chancellor and MP John McDonnell and MP Zarah said the findings showed the government “has been lying to us about the arms it is supplying to Israel while it wages genocide in Gaza.”

“Far from ‘helmets and goggles’, the government has been sending thousands of arms and ammunition goods and [is] even still supplying components of the world’s most lethal fighter jets,” she said.

Emily Apple, media coordinator for the UK-based Campaign Against Arms Trade, said the report had shattered the claim that the UK arms export regime is transparent.

“Our arms export regime is not fit for purpose and this government is complicit in Israel’s horrific war crimes. Time and again, it has either refused to act or manufactured loopholes to prioritize arms trade profits over Palestinian lives. This has to stop,” Apple said.

May 7, 2025 Posted by | Deception, War Crimes | , , , | Leave a comment

Trump bans federal funding of “dangerous” gain-of-function research

The executive order targets high-risk bioengineering, calling time on a scientific gamble that is likely to have sparked a global catastrophe.

By Maryanne Demasi, PhD | May 5, 2025

In a major policy shift, President Donald Trump has signed an executive order halting federal funding for “dangerous” gain-of-function (GoF) research.

The order defines such work as “scientific research on an infectious agent or toxin with the potential to cause disease by enhancing its pathogenicity or increasing its transmissibility.”

Sitting behind the Resolute desk, flanked by key health officials, Trump signed the order with his trademark black Sharpie.

“It’s a big deal,” he said in a subdued tone. “Could have been that we wouldn’t have had the problems we had… if we had this done earlier.”

The directive compels federal agencies to suspend funding for any project “reasonably determined to be dangerous.” It applies not only to domestic institutions, but also to research conducted in “countries of concern” such as China and Iran.

A reckoning led by dissenters

The announcement marked not only a change in policy, but a striking reversal in scientific leadership.

Standing beside Trump were three officials once ridiculed as outliers during the pandemic – Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., NIH Director Jay Bhattacharya, and FDA Commissioner Marty Makary.

Now elevated to senior roles, each has been outspoken in challenging the dominant narrative around Covid-19, including the origins of the virus and the ethics of risky research.

“It’s unbelievable to think the entire nightmare of Covid was totally preventable,” said Makary, referring to the mounting evidence of a lab origin and the suppression of early warnings.

“It’s crazy to think this entire nightmare was probably the result of some scientists messing with mother nature—with technology exported from the United States—that is, inserting a furin cleavage site,” said Makary. “So I hope this does some good in the world.”

Kennedy, long critical of gain-of-function research, was more blunt. “In all of the history of gain-of-function research, we cannot point to a single good thing that has come of it,” he said.

Speaking to reporters, Kennedy added, “We can’t allow this reckless experimentation to continue, especially when it’s been linked to catastrophic outcomes with no discernible benefit.”

For Kennedy, the NIH’s support of EcoHealth Alliance’s work at the Wuhan Institute of Virology wasn’t an isolated failure—it reflected a broader pattern of merging national security interests with poorly regulated academic ambition, which he wrote about in his latest book, The Wuhan Cover-Up.

Bhattacharya called the order a long-overdue correction.

“This is a historic day,” he said. “The conduct of this research does not protect us against pandemics, as some people might say. It doesn’t protect us against other nations.”

Bhattacharya warned that even well-intentioned experiments carry immense risk.

“There’s always a danger that in doing this research, it might leak out, just by accident even, and cause a pandemic. Any nation that engages in this research endangers their own population, as well as the world,” he warned.

Bhattacharya emphasised that most scientific work would continue unaffected. “The vast majority of science will go on under this as normal,” he explained, “but the fraction of this research that has the risk of causing a pandemic… we’re going to put in place a framework to make sure that the public has a say.”

“I’m really proud to be here with President Trump, who signed this order ending this research and for the first time, putting in place a real regulatory framework to make it go away forever,” Bhattacharya added.

Suppression of lab-leak evidence

The executive order also represents a deeper reckoning with how early concerns about a lab origin were dismissed.

Early in the pandemic, Trump publicly raised the possibility that Covid-19 may have leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, reportedly based on intelligence assessments.

But his suggestion was swiftly undermined—particularly by those within his own administration. Dr Anthony Fauci, then director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was quietly working to promote the natural origin theory.

Fauci held enormous influence over public health messaging, the media, and scientific institutions. His behind-the-scenes efforts to discredit the lab-leak hypothesis and favour a zoonotic explanation triggered a near-immediate shift in the White House’s public stance.

The campaign to suppress alternative explanations also became visible in leading scientific journals.

In February 2020, The Lancet published a letter organised by Fauci-linked researchers, which labelled lab-origin theories as “conspiracy.” The intent was not to encourage scientific debate, but to squash it.

Weeks later, Nature Medicine released the now-infamous “Proximal Origin” paper, which declared the virus was “not a laboratory construct.” Private emails later revealed that the authors actually had serious doubts and suspected the virus looked engineered.

Together, the two papers helped shut down legitimate scrutiny and created a scientific firewall protecting US-funded research.

Fauci retired in 2022 and, in early 2025, was granted a sweeping pardon by President Biden.

In April this year, the Trump administration launched an official White House website.

It states rather unequivocally: “COVID-19 came from a lab in Wuhan, China. The Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), a lab controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), likely leaked the virus that caused the deadliest pandemic in human history.”

The site also alleges that top scientists and government officials in the US helped cover it up.

A turning point

This executive order signals a broader shift in how Trump’s government intends to confront the scientific and political failures of the pandemic era.

For years, unelected bureaucrats silenced dissent, buried contradictory evidence, and steered decisions behind closed doors. Questions about the virus’ origins were dismissed as conspiracy.

Whistleblowers were marginalised and dangerous research continued, shielded from oversight.

Now, with this order, the Trump administration is drawing a line.

By cutting off federal funding for high-risk virus manipulation and imposing new oversight, the order delivers what’s been missing from pandemic policy – that is, the political will to confront uncomfortable truths and a serious effort to prevent a future man-made pandemic.

May 7, 2025 Posted by | Militarism | , , | Leave a comment

War in Washington

By Karen Kwiatkowski | Lew Rockwell | May 3, 2025

The President values loyalty above all, and the war on leakers and whistleblowers is weapons hot, torpedo tubes flooded. The targets seem to be the “less loyal” among the current tribe of administration appointees and selected leftovers and hangers-on from the Biden regime. The shuffling of leaker-by accident NatSec Advisor Waltz over to the UN and the firing of his deputy Mr. Wong is what Trump voters wanted. Israel, maybe not so much.

This compelling Tucker Carlson interview with Dan Caldwell – one of three accused leakers in the administration let go a few weeks ago – reveals some things we ought to think about.  Caldwell, and others in the administration and the vast majority of Americans, don’t want stupid wars for even stupider reasons. Certain of Trump’s appointees, and a significant proportion of his loyal supporters, are realists on foreign policy, and this doesn’t sit well with the pro-war crowd infesting DC and inside the administration.

The recent jury trial of the federally prosecuted Uhuru activists sets the stage for understanding the long executive war against freedom of speech and association. Over 20 years ago under Bush 43  – advertised as non-interventionist at home and abroad – we saw “free speech zones” popularized and made par for the course. The charges against the Uhuru group were made up by the Biden administration and testify to not only elite requirements for our obedience in all things, but a direct contempt for an earlier Democratic Party that actually fought for freedom of speech and dissented against war.

The state demands loyalty. The loyalty construct is modeled by both major parties, all the way down to local Republican and Democratic committees, who operate in generally polite Bolshevik-mode. It is this very construct that we saw used under the Biden administration – where swearing that mostly peaceful cities burning is a national good, and under Trump – where criticizing a genocide conducted by an “ally” fueled and funded by the American taxpayer is verboten hate speech, illegal.

A Texas town is considering a non-binding resolution stating, among other things, that it no longer wishes for its State of Texas tax haul of $4.4 million being sent to Israel.  Read it for yourself, nothing in the resolution is false, and it represents – we may know for sure after the May 6th Town Council meeting – the wishes of the people of San Marcos.  Governor Abbott is beside himself.

DoJ’s charges against the Uhuru group had dwindled before the trial to only two: Failure to register as an agent of a foreign country, and conspiracy to fail to register as an agent of a foreign country.  AIPAC did not file an amicus brief, but they sure should have. There is a long history of AIPAC being accused of advocating for a foreign government in Washington, and in all 50 states.

The sheer reactivity of the pro-Israel lobby – and their paid for, bribed up, and reputation-blackmailed politicians – to the slightest whiff of disfavor about a small, corrupt, thoroughly militarized state of 9 million people is breathtaking.  This is becoming far more obvious, to far more people, far sooner than ever before. It’s starting to look frantic, desperate even. More than that, if “Princess and the Pea” is a strategy, it’s a bad one, very different than years of the behind the scenes maneuvering, cultivating and quietly placing key people in key positions in order to promote Zionist interests in Washington and to shape and leverage a sector of American Christian evangelicalism. Has the Israel lobby miscalculated what is happening in the US? Has Israel itself miscalculated what it needs to do to survive as a country?

Trump’s personality, a lingering Western recession, the common-man’s dawning recognition that DOGE has barely scratched the surface of tax-funded waste and idiocy, and emergent anti-war patriotism – none of this helps Netanyahu, or his successor.

Israel’s apologists in Washington and elsewhere are acting like addicts being nudged towards a rehab facility.  The Zionist lobby here and in Israel is not just exhibiting narcissism and denial, but a growing tone-deafness.

Matt Walsh has some useful observations on America today.  He told Tucker:

I don’t understand why, how do we get to a point where the dominant conversation in this country is about what’s happening in other countries…. My sense is… When I go on Twitter, go on X, and no matter what the topic is, it seems, it’s like, you know, it used to be six degrees of Kevin Bacon or whatever. Yeah. Uh, now it’s two degrees of Israel. I was like, no matter the topic, it always comes back for a lot of people to Israel one way or another. And, um, that’s not how I see it. I don’t see Israel as the centerpiece of any of these debates.

I think Matt is articulating what many Americans wonder about.  And the reaction to this national “wondering” is revealing the depth of the dependency, and the real fear Zionists in Israel and in America have that the Zionist project is going to be returned to them alone, no longer an experiment of interest to the United States, no longer a maximal or even existent line item on the foreign affairs and Pentagon budget. Matt suggests that if a country cannot organically survive, without significant aid and assistance from another country, maybe it isn’t a legitimate country. Maybe it doesn’t deserve the help – maybe it should demonstrate how it would manage its affairs on its own earnings, its own identity and value system. He observed,

… when I say that a country that can’t survive without us shouldn’t exist or doesn’t exist. That’s not any kind of like moral judgment. It’s just, this the way of human civilization. You have to be able to you have to be able to stand on your own two feet to be, to even qualify as a country. Right. And I think the American taxpayers have been saddled for many years now with propping up country after country after country.

Rational people, and rational Americans can’t argue with that. In fact, this kind of thinking is fundamental to the so-called “American dream.” It is how we think, and incidentally, it is also antithetical to both socialism and progressivism.

It’s time to cut the apron strings of foreign and military aid. We can’t afford it and it doesn’t work as advertised. Trump is looking to cut overseas enterprises that are obviously corrupt, deceitful, immoral and have no cards left to play. He has stated this publicly, about Ukraine.

Trump’s thinking on this topic may evolve to give Israel the same liberation. Trump’s over-the-top support for Israel allows him to safely chide Netanyahu, surprise him with direct talks with Iran, slow roll tariff relief, and tell him that he needs to allow food and water into Gaza. Without a doubt, Trump has staffed the most pro-Israel government since Lyndon Baines Johnson. I am ready for a new and inverted Nixon to China meme, where only uber pro-Zionist Trump can set Israel free.

The people advising Trump are important to him, but they are even more important to Israel. Moving Waltz out to the hinterland of UN talking points is a skirmish in a larger battle being waged in DC over personnel and policies. The last time we had this intensity of Zionists battling for power over a US President and his foreign policy, we got a violent regime change.

May 7, 2025 Posted by | Corruption, Wars for Israel | , , | Leave a comment

‘Absolute insanity’ – Hungary slams EU plan to halt Russian energy imports

RT | May 7, 2025

The European Commission’s plan to completely phase out Russian fuel imports violates the sovereignty of EU member states by depriving them of the right to choose their energy sources, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.

Brussels has outlined plans to end the bloc’s energy reliance on Moscow by completely eliminating imports of oil, gas, and nuclear fuel in the coming years.

Hungary obtains over 80% of its gas from Russia via pipeline, with LNG playing a supplementary role. Budapest has continued to strengthen its energy ties with Moscow despite the sanctions introduced by the EU in the wake of the Ukraine conflict.

“The forced, artificially ideological-based exclusion of natural gas, crude oil, and nuclear fuel originating from Russia will lead to severe price increases in Europe, seriously harming the sovereignty of European countries, and cause major difficulties for European companies,” Szijjarto said in a video he shared on his Facebook page on Tuesday, adding that “what was announced is absolute insanity.”

“Everyone in Brussels has lost their common sense,” the foreign minister exclaimed, emphasizing that Budapest would not allow the European Commission (EC) to violate Hungary’s sovereignty and would “uphold the right to source energy from where it reliably arrives and where it arrives at a low cost.”

Earlier in the day, the EC published a “roadmap” outlining its ambitious strategy to end reliance on Russian energy by the end of 2027. The bloc’s executive branch said it would propose legislation in June requiring all member states to draft “national plans” to terminate their imports of Russian gas, nuclear fuel, and oil.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico also criticized the plan, calling the proposal “economic suicide.” He added that Slovakia would push for changes in the legislative process.

Brussels announced its intention to wean EU members off Russian energy shortly after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Supplies of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) have since replaced much of the cheaper pipeline gas previously delivered by Russia.

Although Russian pipeline gas supplies to the EU have plummeted, the bloc has been increasing its imports of LNG from the sanction-hit nation. Last year, Russia still accounted for around 19% of the EU’s total gas and LNG supply, according to the EC.

May 7, 2025 Posted by | Economics, Russophobia | , , | Leave a comment

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