1- Trump and Bibi are going to cause a global economic catastrophe. If they didn’t think through what their attack on Iran was going to lead to they should have. Thinking of order out of chaos and the make America great again has me entertaining the idea that chaos was what they were after. They likely assumed Iran would back down like last time and Iran didn’t. Now things are getting out of hand. Trump is all over the place. Contradictory and bizarre claims. Including one of an impended Iranian drone attack on California. Alongside reports of drones stolen in November 2025
Do you all recall some time back there were all these reports about drones in the sky- December 2024- Leading to a bit of a hysteria?
And then no more reports- what was that all about, really?

Keep in mind as mentioned in a previous post- The US reverse engineered an Iranian drone

2- There have been a number of alleged attacks in the area of conflict that originated elsewhere in my opinion. Two in particular strike me as false flags. Azerbaijan and Turkey, were allegedly fired upon by Iran. Iran denies targeting these two nations. I believe them. Iran has been quite open about who their targets are and why. It’s been US military assets in other countries and Israel- Sure, Turkey has NATO bases. And yet, still I do not believe Iran has targeted Turkey. Those two nation have shared common interests and concerns. They have cooperated on many things. Turkey has not allowed the use of their airspace for the US to attack Iran. Same as when the US attacked Iraq. Many Azeris live in Iran- there’s just no reason I can think of for Iran to attack Azerbaijan. Nothing.

Interesting reads..

*Rawstory

The Pentagon has confirmed an Iranian strike on a radar system at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan valued at $300 million, and Iran’s response – called Operation True Promise 4 – has surgically focused on targeting the detection systems that underpin the entire U.S. defensive architecture in West Asia, reported Monthly Review Online.

“The AN-TPY/2 radar is essentially the heart of the THAAD battery, enabling the launch of interceptor missiles and contributing to a networked air defense picture,” munitions specialist N.R. Jenzen-Jones told CNN last week. “It also happens to be an incredibly expensive piece of kit.”

*First week of Usrael attack on Iran has cost the US..

Over 11 billion dollars.

*Iran cannot accept US calls for negotiations while it keeps on committing war crimes

Iran said Thursday it cannot accept US calls for negotiations or ceasefire while “war crimes” are being committed against the country.

“We cannot accept that the enemy sometimes speaks about dialogue and negotiations, while at the same time we face war crimes,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said in statements carried by the state news agency IRNA.

He said Iran had faced a similar situation for the second time in less than a year, adding that Tehran had been engaged in a diplomatic process and negotiated seriously and “in good faith.”

Baghaei said the talks appeared close to producing an agreement, citing the latest round of US-Iran nuclear talks that concluded in Geneva under Omani mediation in late February, where both sides had described the atmosphere as serious and constructive.

“But the US and Israel carried out military attacks while negotiations were underway,” he added.

“We were in the middle of negotiations and they committed this crime,” he said.

The spokesman said Iran cannot ignore such experiences or accept calls for dialogue while attacks continue.

*Iran Lists Three Conditions To End War With US And Israel

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said the conflict could only end if Iran’s rights are recognised, reparations are paid for damages caused during the war, and international guarantees are provided to prevent future aggression against the country.

In a message posted on social media platform X, Pezeshkian said he had reaffirmed Iran’s commitment to peace in the region while speaking with leaders of Russia and Pakistan. However, he maintained that the war—triggered by what he described as actions by the “Zionist regime” and the United States—could only end if the three conditions were met.

“The only way to end this war—ignited by the Zionist regime and the US—is recognizing Iran’s legitimate rights, payment of reparations, and firm international guarantees against future aggression,” Pezeshkian said.

Trump had said the US navy was going to escort ships through the Straits of Hormuz

No.

*US Navy not ready: Team Trump’s U-turn on oil tanker escort through Hormuz

In a U-turn from his earlier claim, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the US Navy is not yet ready to escort commercial oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most sensitive maritime choke points for global energy supplies.

Israel looks to as if it’s being hit hard- Though there seems to be a media blackout on that topic. Clearly they are a-ok with the losses, as it is their war of choice

*Iran is reporting civilian casualties over 1300. I expect this to climb because the US is carpet bombing Tehran/ Iran

*The United States and Israel are bombing Iran’s critical energy and civilian infrastructure, Marks New Escalation In War

More interesting reads

*US-Sanctioned Vessels Shipped $11 Billion of Russian Oil Last Year

*Russia and India see potential in Shanghai cooperation/BRICS to ease tensions

Russia, India see potential Shanghai Cooperation Organization, BRICS roles in easing US-Israel-Iran tensions

*Russia shouldn’t get too excited about Trump’s proposal to reduce sanction

The U.S.-Israel war on Iran has, unsurprisingly, destabilized global energy markets. Oil prices shot up by around 30% to $119 per barrel earlier this week, marking a four-year high that is starkly felt by Washington’s alliance network in Europe and parts of Asia.

The spike in oil prices stems from supply shortages and logistics constraints that, even if the U.S. takes steps to guarantee partial traffic through the blockaded Hormuz Strait, will likely persist throughout the duration of the war.

The White House, in an attempt to ameliorate global energy pressures stemming from the war, has temporarily lifted some sanctions on Russian oil. These steps include a recent decision to approve a 30-day waiver on Indian purchases of Russian oil; additional measures in this vein may be expected following a phone call between President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday.

* The US can’t be trusted to negotiate in good faith- CLEARLY via https://archive.ph/NRc52

Fyodor Lukyanov, a prominent Russian foreign policy analyst who advises the Kremlin and Russian diplomats, told a Russian radio station that the U.S.-Israeli campaign in Iran “marks a transition to a different type of international relations” where “at any moment, you can move from being a person sitting across the table to becoming a victim.”
Lukyanov added, “How can negotiations even be conducted in such a situation, if you know that at any moment the other side may shift to a direct personal attack against you?
Russia, like Iran, has sent officials to meet Witkoff and Kushner in Geneva in recent weeks. And Russia, like Iran, knows that it is viewed as a threat by the United States and NATO allies.

You can read to your hearts content! Thanks for stopping by!

Some excerpts included below;

Russia controls a large swath of Ukrainian territory, and Kyiv has little chance of dislodging it, as Ukraine’s failed counteroffensive in 2023 demonstrated. To be sure, recent Russian gains have come very slowly and at significant cost; over the last three years, Russia has taken a mere one percent of additional Ukrainian territory. But that does not change the reality that Russia now holds almost a fifth of the land within Ukraine’s 1991 borders—or that Russia’s greater resources and population mean that Moscow can fight on for years to come. Overcoming those Russian advantages and clawing back lost land on the battlefield would require time and investment that Ukraine doesn’t have. Current circumstances are therefore pushing Kyiv toward a compromise peace—one that will necessarily include the surrender of Ukrainian territory.

I’m not going to address the casualty counts- because the author understands they are likely not accurate

…. the war is depleting a greater proportion of its manpower. Ukraine’s population today is just under 36 million, which is about 26 percent of Russia’s population of 140 million. Ukraine has just under 9.5 million men between the ages of 25 and 54, and it has lost between one and two percent of that cohort.For Russia, which has a little over 30.2 million men in the same age group, somewhat higher losses account for just 0.5 to 0.7 percent of the total. Ultimately, Russia, with its much larger population, can sustain larger total losses than Ukraine can.Moreover, Russia is fighting mostly with contract soldiers—people who have volunteered—and keeping conscripts away from the front. The result is more motivated Russian soldiers. So far, Moscow is not having much trouble meeting recruitment needs.

Ukraine, in contrast, relies heavily on conscription. Recent recruitment shortfalls and desertions have prompted increasingly draconian efforts to meet conscription a goal of 30,000 men per month. These include “busification,” the practice of grabbing men off the street and taking them in minivans to the local recruitment office. In addition to being unpopular, harsh methods are netting mostly older, less healthy, and clearly unwilling soldiers, many of whom desert at the first opportunity. Those who remain contribute little to the war effort.

When it comes to major weapons systems, Ukraine is outgunned across the board. As of 2025, Russia’s tanks outnumbered Ukraine’s at a ratio of nearly five to one.

Russia had more than three times as many infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers as Ukraine. It had 670 pieces of towed artillery to Ukraine’s 543. It had five times as much mobile artillery, nearly ten times as many multiple launch rocket systems, and nearly five times as many mortars. Russia had 163 combat aircraft; Ukraine had 66. Although Russia’s huge advantage rests, in part, on older, stored equipment, much of the Western equipment sent to Ukraine is also old, coming from partner countries’ stockpiles. But even excluding stored equipment, in most categories, Russia’s stocks are at least double Ukraine’s.

Economic power is foundational to military power, and Russia has an advantage there, too. Russia’s 2024 GDP (measured by purchasing power parity) was almost $7 trillion. Ukraine’s, in contrast, was almost $657 billion, less than ten percent of Russia’s. Nominal measures show the same substantial gap. Spending around seven percent of GDP, Russia can allocate $484 billion to defense. Even if Ukraine spends 30 percent of its GDP, it will be able to muster a defense budget of only $197 billion, less than half of Russia’s.

Admittedly, this figure underestimates Ukraine’s long-term military capacity because it excludes the substantial financial and in-kind assistance the country has received from western Europe and until recently (???) the United States. But Ukraine is more dependent on foreign partners than Russia is. Russia has a large indigenous defense industry and massive military stockpiles, although it, too, has come to rely to some extent on allies, including China and North Korea. Russia may not have all the cards, but it has big battalions and deep pockets.

Rampant corruption has undermined all aspects of Ukraine’s war effort.

Yet there can be little doubt that Russia can achieve more limited aims by force of arms. Roughly 2,866 square miles of Donetsk remain under Kyiv’s control. If Russian forces continue at last year’s rate of advance, they could take it in a year and a half, a reasonable time frame. They may also grab more chunks of Kharkiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia. Doing so would cost Russia additional blood and treasure, to be sure, but it would impose greater relative costs on Ukraine, which Kyiv can ill afford.

The Ukrainians and their allies must now ask themselves what another year of war will achieve and at what price

Much more at the link included.

I saw something about a smeltering facility the DoD (Department of War) purchased with JP Morgan– Financed by JPMorgan, Jointly Owned by US DoD

US Secures Silver Smelter Deal

The project, known as the “U.S. Smelter,” is expected to require approximately $6.6 billion in capital expenditures, with total investment reaching $7.4 billion including financing costs. It is being developed in coordination with the U.S. Department of War and the U.S. Department of Commerce, according to project materials and government statements.

Deputy Secretary of War Steve Feinberg said the investment reflects a strategic shift in U.S. industrial and defense priorities.

“President Trump has directed his Administration to prioritize critical minerals as essential to America’s defense and economic security,” Feinberg said.

And here

US intervention and kidnapping of Venezuela’s leader has changed the rules of resource extraction.

Venezuela possesses extraordinary abundance beneath its soil. What today’s events have underscored is the absence of the above-ground architecture required to translate that abundance into bankable supply.

Give this a listen- it covers a lot!

I’m not alone in understanding the empire is collapsing and is dangerously desperate to cling to power- Venezuela made that point very clear.

Instead of facing trial for their participation in war crimes during WW2, they became top generals in NATO.

Which is why, NATO, like Nazi Germany, is always targeting Russia.

Kyivpost

The move ties economic recovery to wartime governance, as Zelensky reshapes his team around security, technology and Western-backed expertise amid prolonged uncertainty.

President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed former Canadian deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland as an advisor on economic development, adding an internationally experienced figure to his team as Ukraine recalibrates its government to meet the dual pressures of war and long-term recovery.

The appointment was announced by Volodymyr Zelensky on social media, where he framed the move as part of a broader effort to strengthen Ukraine’s internal resilience amid uncertainty over the pace of diplomacy and continued delays in external support.

“Chrystia is highly skilled in these matters and has extensive experience in attracting investment and implementing economic transformations,” Zelensky wrote. He said Ukraine must be prepared both for rapid recovery if negotiations yield results and for prolonged resistance if the war continues.

A high-profile economic appointment

Freeland’s role will focus on economic development at a time when Ukraine faces enormous reconstruction needs alongside the demands of a wartime economy. Zelensky emphasized that the appointment is meant to deepen engagement with international partners and mobilize investment critical to sustaining the state.

After leaving Canada’s cabinet, Freeland was appointed (readied) special representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine, a role that positioned her at the intersection of international finance, diplomacy and postwar planning

– Fortunately it is still accessible @ Global Research

The fact that an open warmonger heads the Nobel Peace Committee has completely discredited what was once the world’s most prestigious Peace Prize. That honor is now just another weapon in the arsenal of the Great Powers mobilizing to reassert their authority over their former colonial domain. The goal of the West is not democracy and human rights; what its leaders really desire is domination and warfare. The intentions are clear. Thus we must each prepare, in our different ways, for the coming bloodshed.

In its most recent selections of peace laureates Barack Obama and Liu Xiaobo, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee has been pushing the strategic agenda of its chairman since 2009. Outside of European policy circles, Thorbjoern Jagland has no celebrity status, yet he is among the most powerful figures influencing the future global order.

The veteran Norwegian Labour Party politician has taken a stance similar to that of Britain’s Tony Blair in support of European Union integration and a strong alliance with Washington to ensure Western leadership in international affairs. He has served as Norway’s prime minister, foreign minister, speaker of the parliament known as the Storting, and current chairman of the Council of Europe, a body that backed the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization during the Cold War.

His political career has been defined by his close relationship with NATO. He sat on the Norwegian government’s standing committee on defense and was a key player in NATO parliamentary conferences.

On his home turf, Labour is the party of choice for the Norwegian officer corps. Despite its relatively small size, Norway is a significant military player due to its strategic location near the former Soviet Arctic Fleet base at Murmansk on the Kola Peninsula. Throughout the Cold War, the Norwegians—every male citizen is a soldier and has a rifle—were the front line on the Russian border.

A Military Mentality

That vanguard role continues today, with Norwegian troops on the ground in Afghanistan, its naval vessels curbing piracy off Somalia, Pentagon anti-ballistic missile systems and anti-satellite technology waging the struggle for outer space, and the world’s most advanced anti-submarine technology. Norway has the highest per-capita troop deployment among NATO’s 28-member states.

The challenge for the West has changed since the collapse of the Soviet Union, with a new potential enemy taking shape in an economic coalition known as the BRICs — Brazil, Russia, India and, most feared of all, China. Jagland, as a public voice for NATO strategists, is calling on an enlarged Western alliance to stand down the resurgence of military powers China and Russia and disrupt their ever-closer relationships with Brazil and India.

At a NATO-sponsored conference of European parliamentarians last year, Jagland spoke tough words: “When we are not able to stop tyranny, war starts. This is why NATO is indispensable. NATO is the only multilateral military organization rooted in international law. It is an organization that the U.N. can use when necessary — to stop tyranny, like we did in the Balkans.” His reference was to the NATO bombing campaign, invasion and occupation of the now-terminated Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia in the late 1990s.

To summarize his message: If, anywhere in the world, tyrants cannot be overthrown by peaceful means, war is inevitable — and NATO will wage that war.

These are chilling words coming from the chairman of the Nobel Peace Committee. Jagland later said on announcing the peace prize for Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo: “We have to speak when others cannot speak. As China is rising, we should have the right to criticize. We want to advance those forces that want China to become more democratic.”

A term like “advance those forces” is eerily similar to the euphemisms in Japanese textbooks that describe “advances” into foreign territory on continental Asia. It reflects a militaristic mindset.

The New Global Order

At the 2009 NATO conference, Jagland dropped a hint of what was to come: “We must build alliances and adapt to new realities. [We must] understand and debate how democratic rights can be upheld in the 21st century. How freedom can be assured. What kind of alliances we need to that end. And we need a New Strategic Concept.”

Among his political foes in Norway, Jagland is called “our own George Bush Jr.” It’s good joke, but not when considering the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, or while Jagland, with this latest Nobel Peace prize, has just precipitated a damaging diplomatic crisis between the West and China. The controversy will only worsen when the Nobel medallions are given out in December.

The Nobel scandal has already scuttled the Norwegian oil firm Statoil’s plans to sell Beijing the Peregrino oil field offshore of Brazil — the first real blow against the BRIC coalition. Politicians and businessmen who are eager about emerging international trade opportunities are simply naive about geopolitics. Once again, the civilians have been outflanked by the military.

NATO’s Asian Allies

Meanwhile, Jagland’s colleagues among the Norwegian defense forces have recently initiated military-technology deals with South Korea and Japan at a time of regional tensions with China. The conservative government of President Lee Myung-bak is pursuing a crash program to build a new generation of Sejong-class KDX-3 destroyers. In the wake of the past summer’s South Korean ship-sinking crisis, Seoul is putting renewed emphasis on anti-submarine warfare.

Norwegian shipbuilders, including the Kongsberg Group, are the world leader in sonar and electronic warfare systems. The Norwegian Nansen-class of anti-submarine destroyers is top of the line. The Royal Navy of Norway has decades of real-life experience at chasing Soviet, now Russian, U-boats. The military ties between Oslo and Seoul go back to the Korean War, when Norway sent a military medical unit as an ally.

Meanwhile in Tokyo, the Japanese defense industry recently hosted a high-level Norwegian military delegation. Among the topics of discussion was the growing naval threat of China and the need for NATO and the US-Japan security alliance to cooperate to defend the new Arctic Sea passage. As global warming melts the polar ice cap, the waters north of Russia can be navigated.

The emerging connections between NATO and America’s East Asian allies are starting to reveal the New Strategic Concept: the coming naval encirclement of China and Russia. With ground troops on bases in Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan, the circle is closing. The world is plunging into the Second Cold War.

The Peace Laureate

How does an obscure dissident sitting in a Chinese prison figure into this grand plan for global conflict? Liu Xiaobo’s personal link with Norway started during his days as a visiting scholar to the University of Oslo in 1988. At that moment, the Soviet Union was in a deep crisis of disintegration. NATO strategists were anxious about the prospect of Moscow being saved in the nick of time by its onetime friend and ally, China. Faxes out of the Chinese Embassy in Moscow were of utmost concern, but were indecipherable, being written in Chinese.

Back in those dark days of the Cold War, there weren’t many Chinese in Scandinavia, so Liu was a rare commodity — a scholar from Beijing who loathed Beijing. Whether Liu became a NATO asset is a matter of top-secret classification. Oslo’s repeated inquiries about him through two decades, the Western media’s patronage, and the Nobel selection over other Chinese dissidents indicate some sort of special bond. Whatever the hidden details of his foreign involvements, Liu’s Peace Prize is serving as the bugle call for NATO’s global crusade against so-called “tyranny.”

The fact that an open warmonger heads the Nobel Peace Committee has completely discredited what was once the world’s most prestigious Peace Prize. That honor is now just another weapon in the arsenal of the Great Powers mobilizing to reassert their authority over their former colonial domain. The goal of the West is not democracy and human rights; what its leaders really desire is domination and warfare. The intentions are clear. Thus we must each prepare, in our different ways, for the coming bloodshed.

Written in 2010

TRT- An American/Turkish outlet

Ukrainian negotiators are set to visit the United States this weekend to discuss Washington’s plan to end the war in Ukraine, a senior official told AFP on Friday.

“The delegation is planning to meet with the American side at the end of this week,” the source said, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter.

The delegation, which includes senior security official Rustem Umerov and First Deputy Foreign Minister Sergiy Kyslytsya, is expected to meet with US special envoy Steve Witkoff and former White House adviser Jared Kushner, according to Bloomberg News.

Talks may take place in Florida, the source added.

Former Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, was initially scheduled to join the discussions but was dismissed on Friday, the official said.

Dismissed? Or Stepped Down?

Russo-Ukrainian war, day 1374: Yermak resigns as Ukraine’s biggest corruption scandal engulfs Presidential Office

Ukraine’s chief of staff stepped down just 24 hours before planned talks with Trump envoys, as leaked US peace plan offers Putin recognition of seized territories

How damaging could the Ukraine corruption scandal be for Zelensky?

Andriy Yermak, the cryptic aide who shadowed Volodymyr Zelensky through every phase of the war, resigned Friday after anti-corruption investigators searched his office and house. Yermak was the center of Zelensky’s wartime team – and the consequences of his resignation could be far reaching.

In an evening address, Zelensky thanked Yermak for representing Ukraine’s negotiating position in recent tense talks with the United States, “as it should be” and stressed that it had “always been patriotic,” while urging Ukrainians to ignore rumors around the resignation. He said he would begin consultations on a new chief of staff immediately. With more talks looming, he underlined that, in wartime, every institution must stay focused on defending the state. Meetings with the American side, he added, are expected in the coming days.

But Yermak rarely acted on his own; he was, in many ways, an extension of Zelensky. He handled the tough, unappealing tasks for the wartime president. He appeared to control the President’s decisions, because the President wanted it so. “Firing him feels like prosecuting his own actions,” an official said. “On a personal level, it feels like a betrayal because half of Yermak’s actions come from the President,” he added.

Since the beginning of Russia’s invasion, Yermak followed Zelensky from bunker meetings to front-line inspections and wielded enormous influence behind closed doors. Over the years, his controlling nature earned him disdain across the board. “He’s a control freak with a psychopathic nature, a maniac for power,” said a senior Ukrainian official. “Letting him go gives a second chance for the President to reset everything.

Midas” vs. Mindich: How Ukraine’s NABU executed the biggest anti-corruption operation in its history — and why the EU is getting involved

Kyiv is facing one of its biggest domestic political challenges since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion. Following the unprecedented “Midas” operation, Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies have accused senior officials in the energy sector of running a large-scale illegal enrichment and money-laundering scheme. The investigation may also implicate Tymur Mindich, a close associate of President Volodymyr Zelensky and co-owner of the comedy studio Kvartal 95. The case marks another attempt by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) to defend its independence and restore international support. Since Donald Trump took office, the United States has lost interest in Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts, leaving the European Union to take the lead.

Content

• NABU takes aim at Zelensky’s associates
• “Midas” and the European Union
• Who is responsible for fighting corruption in Ukraine
• Fighting those who fight corruption
• How the EU stepped in to defend NABU

NABU takes aim at Zelensky’s associates

In November, NABU and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) announced that they had uncovered a large-scale, high-level embezzlement scheme in the country’s energy sector. According to the investigators, it was orchestrated by business executive Timur Mindich, a longtime friend of Zelensky and co-owner of Kvartal 95, the production company Zelensky founded with two other associates in 2003.

Anti-corruption officials allege that Mindich’s trusted associates received illicit payments from counterparties engaged in transactions with Energoatom, Ukraine’s largest producer of electricity and the operator of all functioning nuclear power plants in the country. SAPO believes they siphoned off 10–15% of contract values and funneled the money through an underground financial center allegedly set up by financier Oleksandr Tsukerman, an associate of Mindich’s. Investigators say roughly $100 million passed through this channel. The scheme traces back to the 2000s and is linked to former lawmaker Andriy Derkach, who fled to Russia in 2022.

Mindich’s trusted associates siphoned off 10–15% of contract values and funneled the money through an underground financial center

The above is a lengthy detailed read.

You may recall Mindich fled to Israel??

Very clearly this is about stealing the frozen Russian assets!! This is the US and Ukraine with the EU legitimizing the theft of Russian assets.

Latest from Bloomberg

EU Steps Up Pursuit of Frozen Russian Assets to Aid Ukraine

Today’s foreign ministers’ talks, which included Ukraine’s Andrii Sybiha, took place as EU ambassadors met in Brussels. Top of their agenda is the EU’s plan to use Russian immobilized assets for reparation loans for Ukraine.

In her first detailed comments since the emergence of the US-Russia peace plan, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament this morning that the Commission is ready to present a legal text backing its plan to tap the assets amid a fresh push by the EU’s executive body to get the deal over the line.

Tap the assets. That means steal them.

A suggestion in the original US-Russia plan that Washington could lay claim to some of the money as part of Ukraine’s reconstruction unnerved Europe but appears to have been dropped.

Appearances can be deceiving- The US wants to get their hands on the stolen Russian loot– The monetary boost is needed by the US and the EU

Germany is among countries arguing that the developments of the last few days have made the asset negotiations more urgent.

However, Belgium, and others, want more details from the Commission, including on the other funding options for Ukraine outlined by the EU executive in a letter this month.

For von der Leyen and Kallas, the best option is to use Russian assets to help Ukraine finance itself.

As von der Leyen told lawmakers this morning: “We have to find a way to move forward, to find a way to stop the killing, to help Ukraine rebuild and reconstruct.”

von der Leyen and Kallas want the money to prop up the faltering EU. The US is looking for some cash infusion too. This is, in my opinion, insanity.

Israel’s Kan broadcaster quoted an unnamed Israeli government official as saying the talks were at a dead end. So what went wrong and why? And does Netanyahu’s trip to the occupied Syrian territory signal that he has no intention to make a deal?

The media surely reported endlessly there was a cease fire, and peace talks while ignoring the present day realities

How could a plan be discussed when there isn’t one?

As Marco Rubio said it’s just a list of potential ideas!

Kyivpost-

Peskov: “There are certain ideas coming from the American side, but nothing is being discussed in detail right now,” he said.

“We see some new proposals, but we have not officially received anything, and there has been no substantive discussion of these points.”

BBC

Russia has said it is yet to receive anything official from the US on its peace plan, after Ukraine’s Volodymr Zelensky said he was ready to work with the Trump administration on its “vision” to bring an end to the war.

Very clearly this is about stealing the frozen Russian assets!! This is the US and Ukraine with the EU legitimizing the theft of Russian assets.

We are almost into December… hence the need for a psyop to justify the mass theft of Russian assets

The Trump “peace plan” as leaked through the media. I’ll bold a few interesting points

Here is the 28-point draft agreement in full:

1. Ukraine’s sovereignty will be confirmed. (by who, how)
2. A comprehensive non-aggression agreement will be concluded between Russia, Ukraine and Europe. All ambiguities of the last 30 years will be considered settled. (???)
3. It is expected that Russia will not invade neighbouring countries and NATO will not expand further. (???- noticing the straw man narrative creation wrt Russia)
4. A dialogue will be held between Russia and NATO, mediated by the United States, to resolve all security issues and create conditions for de-escalation in order to ensure global security and increase opportunities for cooperation and future economic development.
5. Ukraine will receive reliable security guarantees.
6. The size of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will be limited to 600,000 personnel.
7. Ukraine agrees to enshrine in its constitution that it will not join NATO, and NATO agrees to include in its statutes a provision that Ukraine will not be admitted in the future.
8. NATO agrees not to station troops in Ukraine.
9. European fighter jets will be stationed in Poland. (why?)
10. The US guarantee:

• The US will receive compensation for the guarantee;
• If Ukraine invades Russia, it will lose the guarantee;
• If Russia invades Ukraine, in addition to a decisive coordinated military response, all global sanctions will be reinstated, recognition of the new territory and all other benefits of this deal will be revoked;
• If Ukraine launches a missile at Moscow or St Petersburg without cause, the security guarantee will be deemed invalid.

1. Ukraine is eligible for EU membership and will receive short-term preferential access to the European market while this issue is being considered.
2. A powerful global package of measures to rebuild Ukraine, including but not limited to:

• The creation of a Ukraine Development Fund to invest in fast-growing industries, including technology, data centres, and artificial intelligence.
• The United States will cooperate with Ukraine to jointly rebuild, develop, modernise, and operate Ukraine’s gas infrastructure, including pipelines and storage facilities.
• Joint efforts to rehabilitate war-affected areas for the restoration, reconstruction and modernisation of cities and residential areas.
• Infrastructure development.
• Extraction of minerals and natural resources.
• The World Bank will develop a special financing package to accelerate these efforts.

1. Russia will be reintegrated into the global economy: (Russia already looks be be integrated into the global economy- BRICs etc.,)

• The lifting of sanctions will be discussed and agreed upon in stages and on a case-by-case basis. (lifting of sanctions to be discussed?)
• The United States will enter into a long-term economic cooperation (with Ukraine) agreement for mutual development in the areas of energy, natural resources, infrastructure, artificial intelligence, data centres, rare earth metal extraction projects in the Arctic, and other mutually beneficial corporate opportunities.
• Russia will be invited to rejoin the G8.

1. Frozen funds will be used as follows:

• $100bn (£76bn) in frozen Russian assets will be invested in US-led efforts to rebuild and invest in Ukraine;
• The US will receive 50% of the profits from this venture. Europe will add $100bn (£76bn) to increase the amount of investment available for Ukraine’s reconstruction. Frozen European funds will be unfrozen. The remainder of the frozen Russian funds will be invested in a separate US-Russian investment vehicle that will implement joint projects in specific areas. This fund will be aimed at strengthening relations and increasing common interests to create a strong incentive not to return to conflict.

1. A joint American-Russian working group on security issues will be established to promote and ensure compliance with all provisions of this agreement.
2. Russia will enshrine in law its policy of non-aggression towards Europe and Ukraine.
3. The United States and Russia will agree to extend the validity of treaties on the non-proliferation and control of nuclear weapons, including the START I Treaty.
4. Ukraine agrees to be a non-nuclear state in accordance with the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons.
5. The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant will be launched under the supervision of the IAEA, and the electricity produced will be distributed equally between Russia and Ukraine – 50:50.
6. Both countries undertake to implement educational programmes in schools and society aimed at promoting understanding and tolerance of different cultures and eliminating racism and prejudice:

• Ukraine will adopt EU rules on religious tolerance and the protection of linguistic minorities.
• Both countries will agree to abolish all discriminatory measures and guarantee the rights of Ukrainian and Russian media and education.
• All Nazi ideology and activities must be rejected and prohibited.

1. Territories:

• Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk will be recognised as de facto Russian, including by the United States.
• Kherson and Zaporizhzhia will be frozen along the line of contact, which will mean de facto recognition along the line of contact.
• Russia will relinquish other agreed territories it controls outside the five regions.
• Ukrainian forces will withdraw from the part of Donetsk Oblast that they currently control, and this withdrawal zone will be considered a neutral demilitarised buffer zone, internationally recognised as territory belonging to the Russian Federation. Russian forces will not enter this demilitarised zone.

1. After agreeing on future territorial arrangements, both the Russian Federation and Ukraine undertake not to change these arrangements by force. Any security guarantees will not apply in the event of a breach of this commitment.
2. Russia will not prevent Ukraine from using the Dnieper [Dnipro] River for commercial activities, and agreements will be reached on the free transport of grain across the Black Sea.
3. A humanitarian committee will be established to resolve outstanding issues:

• All remaining prisoners and bodies will be exchanged on an ‘all for all’ basis.
• All civilian detainees and hostages will be returned, including children.
• A family reunification program will be implemented.
• Measures will be taken to alleviate the suffering of the victims of the conflict.

1. Ukraine will hold elections in 100 days.
2. All parties involved in this conflict will receive full amnesty for their actions during the war and agree not to make any claims or consider any complaints in the future.
3. This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by the Peace Council, headed by President Donald J Trump. Sanctions will be imposed for violations.
4. Once all parties agree to this memorandum, the ceasefire will take effect immediately after both sides retreat to agreed points to begin implementation of the agreement.

So, no peace agreement- An attempt to legitimize the theft of hundreds of billions of Russian dollars, Donald Trump dictates and good bye to Zelensky!

Am listening right now to this interview. Give it a listen if you are so inclined- It’s just under an hour.

Went to check and guess what? It’s behind the paywall now- So via archive.ph

On the first night of a war games exercise meant to help Canada prepare for a possible global conflict, Russia sent drones into Poland, and NATO forces opened fire for the first time since the beginning of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Not in the game: in real life. On the elevator up to the introductory dinner at the Royal Canadian Military Institute for the sequel to the war game from last year involving Canada’s health-care system, one doctor said, “It’s not so hypothetical anymore, is it?”

One year earlier a group of health-care leaders, Canadian Armed Forces officials, and provincial government representatives completed an almost unprecedented Ontario-focused war games exercise based on a wider war in Europe involving Canadian troops. As trauma expert, NATO blood panel leader, and military surgeon Dr. Andrew Beckett put it, “the last time we did something like this was probably 1939.” To the vast majority of Canadians, and even to those in the room at the time, the idea of a society-wide war was hard to even imagine.

This time, the urgency was palpable. As the Russian war in Ukraine continues, the world is sliding into a more militaristic posture. Eastern European nations along Russia’s border — Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia — are engaged in various levels of medical wartime planning. Russia’s drone incursion into Poland in early September was followed by suspected drone incursions across Europe, shutting down major airports or seeming to map territory. Norway’s defence minister says Russia has nuclear weapons in the northern Kola Peninsula, pointed at the U.S., the U.K., and Canada, in case of war with NATO. (???)

Meanwhile, Germany is expecting to treat 1,000 wounded patients daily in the case of a wider European conflict, and is discussing the return of mandatory military service; this summer France’s health ministry directed its hospital system to prepare for potential military casualties by March 2026. 

Canada is further from Ukraine, and further behind in its preparations — for instance, the plan to use public servants as military reservists, as reported by the Ottawa Citizen, which was hastily reconsidered — which is what this war game was trying to solve. It was called Exercise Canada Paratus, and it was bigger than the first edition. There were federal officials in the room, along with a wider range of expertise: burn surgeons, rehab specialists, a flight surgeon, an airport official, emergency preparation officials, and more. It was conducted under Chatham House rule, meaning nobody’s in-game statements could be directly quoted by name; this reporter played the role of the press, pressing decision-makers with difficult questions.

Exercise Canada Paratus Post-​Exercise Report

The war games were a collaboration between the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, the CAF, the Canadian Institute for Military and Veteran Health Research, St. Michael’s Hospital, and other military-focused organizations.

Last year, the moves to relieve pressure on the hospitals mirrored COVID, because that was the only crisis playbook available, and the exercise was confined to Ontario. This time the field widened, which was appropriate: in a war the federal government would be in charge, and the whole federation would have to work together. Canada hasn’t effectively done that in generations, either.

The game presumed an average of 100 casualties per week coming home, with injuries mirroring the data from Ukraine: a huge number of both burns and traumas, a high probability of multi-drug resistant bacteria, significant traumas. There is a shortage of both burn surgeons and skin for grafts in Canada: right now most Canadian skin grafts are sourced from the United States, and as someone noted, skin cannot be donated while you are alive. Later, rehabilitation, physiotherapy, prosthetics and more would be absolutely overwhelmed, in so many ways.

But it’s the societal impact of a stream of those patients, with potentially complex and long-term needs that would impact Canada at a higher level, especially in big cities, with big hospitals. In the game Pearson Airport was knocked offline by a cyberattack, and separately, there was a terrorist attack in Ontario. The wounded had to come home on private planes, reconfigured and under national control — Canada doesn’t have enough military planes to spare. POWs were an added complication: where do you put them?

Read entirely at Archive.ph link