Nairobi’s High Court Puts Hold on US-Backed Kenyan Troop Deployment to Haiti
By Kyle Anzalone | The Libertarian Institute | October 9, 2023
Kenya’s High Court put a temporary suspension on a planned troop deployment to Haiti. The Joe Biden administration made a deal with Nairobi to deploy its soldiers to Haiti on a mission approved by the UN Security Council. The US agreed to finance the mission and train the Kenyan soldiers.
On Friday, former presidential candidate, Ekuru Aukot, filed a petition with the high court arguing that sending troops to Haiti violated the Kenyan constitution. The high court granted a temporary block on sending the soldiers. President William Ruto’s administration will have three days to appeal.
The Biden White House has sought a country to lead a mission in Haiti for over a year. After Canada rebuffed the US request, Washington was able to enlist Nairobi into sending 1,000 soldiers to Haiti. The White House inked a new defense agreement with Kenya and agreed to provide $100 million to finance the deployment.
Additionally, US forces will train the Kenyan soldiers. The UN Security Council approved the deployment, but the soldiers will not operate as official UN Peacekeepers. Peacekeepers have a dark legacy in Haiti. During the UN mission to the country from 2004-17 caused a cholera outbreak that killed nearly 10,000 people and engaged in rampant rape of women.
The deal between Washington, Nairobi, and Port-au-Prince has met protests in all three countries. Last week, Kenya’s opposition leader, Raila Odinga, also criticized the plan. In Haiti, protests have gathered against Prime Minister Ariel Henry for supporting the deployment of foreign soldiers to Haiti. With Washington’s backing, Henry rose to power in Port-au-Prince after President Jovenal Moise was assassinated.
Russia warns of foreign involvement in Palestinian conflict as US moves warships
Press TV – October 9, 2023
Russia has warned against any involvement of a third party in the ongoing tension in Palestine after the United States relocated its warships to waters close to the Israeli-occupied territories.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that it would urge all parties involved in the ongoing tension to try to reduce any escalation rather than seek a military solution.
“The risk of third forces becoming involved in this conflict is high … It is very important to find ways as soon as possible to move towards some kind of negotiation process in order to reduce this escalation and move away from a military solution,” Peskov was quoted as saying TASS news agency.
The comments came a day after US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said it will send multiple military ships and aircraft closer to waters controlled by Israel as a show of support for the regime just after it was caught off guard by a massive attack by the Palestinian resistance group Hamas.
In a statement, Hamas has condemned the US decision as “aggression” against Palestinians, saying, “The announcement of the US that it will provide an aircraft carrier to support the occupation [Israel] is actual participation in the aggression against our people.”
Nearly 800 Israelis have been killed and many more have been injured in rocket attacks and ground operations launched by Hamas from the Gaza Strip, where the group in based.
Israel has launched rounds of airstrikes on Gaza since Saturday, killing more than 560 people and injuring thousands more.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the way out of the Palestinian conflict is for the Israeli regime and its backers to recognize Palestine’s right to create an independent state.
Speaking in a press conference in Moscow alongside the visiting head of the Arab League Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Monday, Lavrov said that Russia doubts the West’s policy on the Israeli regime would work at all.
“They say that (fighting) should be stopped immediately, that Israel should destroy the terrorists,” Lavrov said, referring to the way Israel and its backers describe Palestinian fighters.
“But this was done before… and never after the situation calmed down did they come to the fact that the main reason (for the conflict) needs to be eliminated … The Palestinian problem should not be delayed further,” he said.
US to continue using Russian spaceships – NASA official
RT | October 6, 2023
The US space agency has no intention of cutting cooperation with Russia in manned expeditions to the International Space Station (ISS), Sean Fuller, a senior NASA official, has said. Being able to use each other’s spacecraft makes exploration safer for everyone, according to Fuller.
TASS caught up with the veteran space official, who previously headed NASA’s Human Space Flight Program office in Moscow, on the sidelines of this week’s 74th International Astronautical Congress in Baku, Azerbaijan. Fuller said he sees “no reason” for astronauts to stop using Russian Soyuz spaceships.
NASA and its Russian counterpart Roscosmos have an arrangement that allows them to use each other’s capsules. For almost a decade after retiring the Space Shuttle program, the US relied solely on Russian Soyuz flights to rotate ISS crews.
After 2020, when piloted Crew Dragon craft were cleared for manned missions, the two parties returned to a ride-sharing scheme. It was last renewed in July 2022, despite relations between Moscow and Washington having soured over the Ukraine conflict.
Fuller stressed that US-Russian cooperation could become crucial if the ISS were to encounter an emergency requiring swift evacuation. Expedition members can use whichever spacecraft is docked to return home, he explained.
The SpaseX Endurance capsule is currently in orbit, having delivered four passengers, including Russia’s Konstantin Borisov, to the station in late August. It is the third mission for the reusable capsule.
The Soyuz MS-23 was the latest spacecraft to bring back to Earth ISS crew members, including astronaut Loral O’Hara. It landed in late September.
Fuller currently works as NASA’s International Partner Manager for the Gateway Program, the project to build a space station orbiting the Moon to facilitate further missions beyond the immediate neighborhood of the Earth.
Germany Has Thrown Away or Donated 242 Million COVID-19 Vaccine Doses – 50 Million More Than it Has Used!
BY ROBERT KOGON | THE DAILY SCEPTIC | OCTOBER 5, 2023
An interesting article in the German online magazine Multipolar on the many German COVID-19 vaccine ‘profiteers’ (BioNTech of course, but also lipid-suppliers Merck and Evonik, the Strüngmann brothers, the city of Mainz etc.) also contains some interesting observations on Germany’s own COVID-19 vaccine orders.
Author Karsten Montag notes that Germany has ordered some 672 million Covid vaccine doses: 557 million already at the height of the pandemic under then German Health Minister Jens Spahn and another 115 million under his successor Karl Lauterbach. But Germany has only in fact used 192 million doses (as can be seen here at the Ministry of Health’s handy ‘Vaccine Dashboard’).
Montag calculates that at the current relatively paltry vaccination rates in Germany, perhaps another one million doses will be used altogether by the end of this year. But what then about the remaining 479 million doses that have been ordered?
Well, not all of them have in fact been delivered. But Montag notes that in response to a question from the member of the German Bundestag Thomas Dietz, the German Government has now admitted to discarding 114 million COVID-19 vaccine doses which had reached their date of expiration by August 31st and of donating another 128 million to other countries.
This gives a total of 242 million COVID-19 vaccine doses which the German government has either discarded or donated – 50 million more than it has used!
Robert Kogon is the pen name of a widely-published journalist covering European affairs. Subscribe to his Substack and follow him on X.
Unfreezing $13.6Bln of Funding for Hungary Not Connected to EU Budget Changes
Sputnik – 04.10.2023
BUDAPEST – Brussels owes Hungary 13 billion euros ($13.6 billion) from the European Union’s funds and has to unfreeze the funding without taking into account planned changes to the bloc’s budget, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated on Wednesday.
A British newspaper has reported that the European Commission was considering unblocking 13 billion euros for Hungary to receive Budapest’s support for a new increased common budget, which includes support for Ukraine.
“We are entitled to money from EU funds. This fact has nothing to do with changes in the budget. It has nothing to do with whether the EU wants to change the budget now or not. This is a completely different issue and should be discussed according to completely different criteria. The payment of the money we are entitled to does not depend on anything, it should be paid to us,” Szijjarto told a briefing.
This comes days after Gergely Gulyas, the Hungarian prime minister’s chief of staff, hinted that Hungary might veto further EU funding for Ukraine unless Brussels unfreezes budget money it was withholding from Budapest over alleged noncompliance with EU values.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen has proposed topping up the 2024-2027 EU budget with an additional 66 billion euros, most of which will be used to support Ukraine over the next four years.
Zelensky’s newfound hostility toward Warsaw is as short-sighted as it is self-destructive

By Péter G. Fehér | Magyar Hírlap | October 3, 2023
A famous Hungarian proverb warns people against “cutting the branch beneath you.” The proverb is uttered when a person refuses to acknowledge that he is acting against himself.
As things stand now, that is exactly what Zelensky is doing — everything he can to get Ukraine from a bad situation to an even worse one. In practice, the situation in the neighboring country can now be described as catastrophic, and the Ukrainian president — although he did not originally imagine it — has done a lot to make it so.
Zelensky’s most self-harming act was to spectacularly break ties with Poland. Warsaw has spent a huge amount of money on helping Kyiv, about the same as it spends annually on upgrading its own army. In return, it has received nothing, not even a gesture. For example, in July this year, when a joint commemoration was held to mark the 80th anniversary of the Volhynia massacre — the mass murder of Poles by Ukrainian fascists during World War II — Zelensky refused to allow the victims buried in unmarked mass graves to be exhumed and given a proper final resting place.
However, the Ukrainian president has denounced Poland to various international organizations for imposing a ban on the sale of Ukrainian grain on the Polish internal market. Zelensky has not shown the slightest understanding of the Polish government’s position, which is facing elections in mid-October and is opposing the same foreign interference that Hungary faced last April.
But perhaps it is unfair to Zelensky to blame him alone for this ingratitude. According to the latest news, France and Germany have promised the Ukrainian president a facilitated and speedy EU accession if he succeeds in toppling the current conservative national government in Warsaw in the elections that are due to take place.
If Zelensky had any sense, he would realize that he is being led by the nose by the two major European powers. Membership of the EU requires the agreement of all the member states, and Poland, after what has happened, is hardly going to go along with that.
It does not seem that Zelensky understands the situation or is even slightly aware that the West is using him as a tool to interfere in the internal affairs of neighboring countries, or even to provoke them. We have now reached the point where it is safe to say that Ukraine has been pursuing an increasingly extremist policy since 2014, with the result that the country is raging with hatred of Hungarians, which reached its peak, at least so far, under Zelensky’s presidency.
All of this is a textbook example of the self-destructive behavior exemplified by the Hungarian proverb.
Israeli forces injure Palestinian school children in West Bank raid

Press TV | October 2, 2023
The Palestinian Ministry of Education has suspended classes in the village of Burqa due to the injury of a child in a raid by Israeli forces into a school.
Ghassan Daghlas, acting governor of the occupied West Bank city of Nablus, said on Monday the decision to close the school was to maintain the safety of students.
Local media reported that Israeli forces also directly fired stun grenades and tear gas canisters toward the Palestinian students inside the school during the raid a day earlier. Dozens of children also suffered from smoke inhalation.
Israeli forces also denied teachers of 27 schools access to classes in Masafer Yatta area, located south of the city of al-Khalil (Hebron). The regime forces placed barriers to block the roads leading to the education centers.
In recent months, Israeli forces have also demolished a number of schools across the occupied Palestinian territories.
The Palestinian Ministry of Education in an earlier statement said the demolition of schools was “a heinous crime.”
“These practices have become a flagrant violation of students’ right to safe and free education.”
What’s behind the sudden US good will towards Iran?
By Robert Inlakesh | RT | October 2, 2023
In what proved to be a domestically controversial move, the US government approved the release of five prisoners held in Iran in return for releasing five Iranian detainees and billions of previously frozen assets. However, in the aftermath of the agreement between Tehran and Washington, the White House’s primary focus seems to be centered around securing a Saudi-Israeli deal rather than working on reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
As revealed by the anonymous diplomatic sources of The Cradle, in addition to other tidbits released in US media, the US-Iran prisoner swap appears to have been much more than meets the eye. The informal agreement, according to these anonymous sources, encompassed freezing Iranian uranium enrichment at 60% and permitting the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to install cameras at several nuclear sites. On the other hand, the US’ concessions included disregarding Iranian oil sales – in essence, refraining from enforcing sanctions – and allowing all Iranian assets to be released, reportedly amounting to roughly $20 billion. This is well over the widely reported $6 billion touted in the international press.
What makes this agreement so intriguing is that it was non-formal, including no known signed documents, and was contrived over several months and under the auspices of Qatar and Oman as intermediaries. From leaked information, citing unnamed sources, what we can gather – regardless of what claims are true or false – is that the prisoner swap was more than a simple exchange of prisoners and $6 billion in frozen assets. According to a report released in May by Axios, secret indirect talks between the US and Iran had been conducted in Oman, which three sources close to the news outlet claimed Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, Ali Bagheri Kan, was part of. Later, in June, the New York Times released a report claiming that secret negotiations were going on, aimed at concluding an informal agreement to replace the need to revive the 2015 nuclear deal.
To begin with, if we are to assume that the official US narrative on the agreement is correct, despite Iranian officials having contradicted it, then the most apparent objective in mind from Washington’s perspective would be to cause a thaw in America’s relationship with the Islamic Republic. As various analysts have suggested, this could have also signaled hope for a revival of the nuclear deal, which fell apart after the administration of former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in 2018. Hope had largely faded that the administration of President Joe Biden could bring the deal back to life after Biden was revealed to have said that it was officially “dead” in November of 2022.
However, given the information we have at hand, what is most likely here is that this represents a massive de-escalation following ship seizures and the beefing up of America’s troop presence in the Persian Gulf back in August. Why a de-escalation now? Is it to revive nuclear deal talks? This appears highly unlikely. Instead, the prisoner exchange agreement comes simultaneously with, and is somewhat overshadowed by, developments in the ongoing discussions to reach an American-brokered normalization deal between Saudi Arabia and Israel.
The two nations, both powerful partners of the US in the Middle East, have never had formal diplomatic relations with each other. Saudi Arabia does not recognize Israel as a sovereign country and has been at loggerheads with it over its treatment of Arabs in Palestine, which Riyadh ostensibly wants to see as an independent nation. Negotiations to finally normalize diplomatic relations have been ongoing for months now, with the US being a highly invested middleman, given that achieving such a deal would help consolidate its power base in the region. As for Iran, while Israel sees it as an existential enemy, Saudi Arabia has had a complicated relationship with it, only having re-established diplomatic ties earlier this year in a deal brokered by China.
When Biden met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA)’s 78th session, they publicly discussed the high hopes of concluding Saudi-Israeli normalization. This was followed by two Fox News interviews, one with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman and the other with the Israeli PM, during which both said that the deal grows closer by the day. At Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to the UNGA, he spoke at length on Iran; however, there was no mention of the recent US-Iranian prisoner exchange.
In fact, Israel has remained silent on the informal deal. This is especially interesting, considering that Tel Aviv routinely attacks the prospect of any agreement with Iran, let alone one that allows for tens of billions in funds to be transferred back into the hands of Tehran. In June, Netanyahu spoke over the phone with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, during which he discussed Iran at length and proclaimed that he opposes and will not be bound by any agreement struck between Washington and Tehran.
On September 5, Antony Blinken spoke with the Israeli premier again, allegedly discussing Iran as the primary subject of the call. While the precise details of the calls are impossible to apprehend, there had to be a good chance that the prisoner swap agreement was mentioned, as reports had publicly been leaked to the press regarding Iran-US talks. With so much focus placed upon Iran by Israel, it makes no sense that Tel Aviv would remain silent on the prisoner exchange, especially given the release of Iran’s formerly frozen funds.
Not silent on the unfreezing of Tehran’s billions were Republican politicians in the US Congress. If the Biden administration were to have accepted a renewal of the 2015 nuclear deal, one of its major hurdles would have been passing the deal in Congress, including the deeply opposed Republican-led House of Representatives. In fact, any attempt to try and pass a deal, at this point, could reflect negatively on the Biden White House, which matters more now as we head towards the 2024 presidential election.
Therefore, by striking an informal agreement with Tehran, the US de-escalates and addresses some of its worries surrounding Iran’s nuclear program. More importantly, however, the US government could be trying to create a fertile environment for the conclusion of an Israeli-Saudi normalization agreement, both by calming Iran down to de-escalate regional tensions and, possibly, leveraging concessions to ease Tehran’s pushback against the normalization directly. Whether this strategy will work or not is yet to be seen. Still, it is clear that the key foreign policy goal for Joe Biden is securing the normalization agreement, which is why it makes sense that the most powerful nation that opposes it – Iran – should be addressed and taken seriously.
Robert Inlakesh is a political analyst, journalist and documentary filmmaker currently based in London, UK. He has reported from and lived in the Palestinian territories and currently works with Quds News. Director of ‘Steal of the Century: Trump’s Palestine-Israel Catastrophe’.
Georgia Awaits USAID’s Explanations on Funds for Training in Organizing Unrest
Sputnik – 02.10.2023
TBILISI – Georgia is waiting for clarifications from the US Agency for International Development (USAID) regarding information about the funding of training in organizing unrest in the country, Georgian parliamentary speaker Shalva Papuashvili stated on Monday.
Earlier in the day, the State Security Service of Georgia (SSSG) said on social media that three Serbian citizens from the Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), allegedly funded by USAID, arrived at the end of September in Georgia to teach tactics for overthrowing the government to young people and members of influential non-governmental organizations. According to the SSSG, the coup was planned for October-December, just when the European Commission is set to publish its decision on Georgia’s EU membership application.
“It was a dark day in the history of American aid to Georgia… We see that money of the American nation is used for planning revolutionary processes, to deliberately train people to riot and incite violence. That is why it is important to receive a corresponding explanation on behalf of the USAID, which has been involved in such a scandal for the second time already,” Papuashvili told reporters.
Georgia’s former deputy interior minister, Giorgi Lortkipanidze, and the commander of Georgian Legion in Ukraine. Mamuka Mamulashvili, who used to be a bodyguard of Georgia’s jailed ex-President Mikhail Saakashvili, were accused of plotting the coup.
An independent online news platform reported that this is at least the seventh time since the ruling Georgian Dream party came to power in 2012 that officials have accused various entities of plotting a coup against the government.
US bent on creating insecurity for Afghanistan’s neighbors: Iran envoy
Press TV – October 1, 2023
Iran’s ambassador to Afghanistan says the United States’ main policy on Afghanistan is to create insecurity for the country’s neighbors.
Hassan Kazemi Qomi said on Sunday that the US is continuing to make troubles in Afghanistan two years after it was forced to withdraw its troops after the Taliban group took control of the country.
“(The US) is after creating anxiety and disturbance for countries in the region, including for Afghanistan’s neighbors,” Qomi was quoted as saying in an interview with the IRIB News.
The ambassador made the remarks in Kazan, in southwest Russia, where he attended a fifth regional consultation meeting on Afghanistan known as the Moscow Format.
He said the 13 countries attending the meeting were almost unanimous in their position that the security and economic challenges in Afghanistan are mainly the result of 20 years of occupation by the US and allied countries of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
He accused the US of providing indirect support to the so-called Daesh of Khorasan, which is the regional offshoot of the ISIS terrorist group, to create insecurity in Central Asia and to pave the way for setting up a military base in the region with the pretext of fighting terrorism.
“Neighboring countries (of Afghanistan) reached the conclusion that they should change the conditions in Afghanistan through a collective move and a regional initiative and with cooperation with the rulers in Kabul,” said Kazemi Qomi.
The long-serving Iranian diplomat said countries attending the Moscow Format meeting in Kazan also decided to form a regional contact group to coordinate their actions and policies on Afghanistan.
“With the formation of the contact group we can put into operation (the outcomes of) talks on Kabul and the economic and security cooperation around the borders and inside the Afghan territory,” he said.
Ambassador of Israeli Crimes: This is How Gilad Erdan Become a Defender of Women’s Rights in Iran
By Ramzy Baroud | MEMO | October 1, 2023
German mayor calls concerns over child safety ‘unfounded’ amid plans to accommodate 80 asylum seekers at a primary school
BY THOMAS BROOKE | REMIX NEWS | OCTOBER 1, 2023
Outraged parents have condemned the local mayor’s decision to accommodate up to 80 asylum seekers in containers on the grounds of a primary school in the German town of Monheim am Rhein.
Dozens of local residents attended a recent question time of the local council to voice their displeasure over the controversial move proposed by Mayor Daniel Zimmerman’s administration and expressed their concerns for child safety, calling the plans both inappropriate and unacceptable.
Starting next spring, a cohort of migrants will reside in containers located on the school grounds, which are no longer used for educational purposes.
In response to the protestations of locals, the council cited economic factors as a primary reason for the move, insisting that the estimated €150,000 it would cost to convert the containers into housing was substantially lower than the cost of renting private accommodations, where around 80 percent of the migrants recently received by the municipality currently reside.
“We simply can’t keep up with renting anymore,” a city press spokesperson told parents at the meeting.
Concerned parents told the council meeting that the housing of traumatized refugees in the vicinity of young children was wholly irresponsible, and expressed worries of potential conflict between the new arrivals and their children including the danger of rape or abuse.
However, Zimmerman called these fears “unfounded” and insisted that the migrants are “people like you and me” and are not dangerous.
“The safety of our children is the primary goal – I personally guarantee that,” the local mayor assured parents.
He explained that with the municipality receiving significantly more refugees from Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan, private accommodation in Monheim has become saturated and the town is reaching its acceptance limits. The council therefore needs to resort to alternative measures to accommodate further arrivals.
The mayor added that while he was open to discussing the matter further with concerned parents in the next few weeks, for instance at parent meetings, such correspondence will not change the city’s decision to repurpose the containers on the school grounds and considered the matter to be closed.
