The historians amongst you will also understand the importance of Kronstadt to a regime that likes to fashion itself as a reborn USSR. It is not just strategically important for the present Russian navy as one of its few vital facilities on the Baltic, it is historically resonant.
The meaning of the attacks was obvious. The Ukrainians were saying to Putin (and the rest of the world) that you cannot protect major facilities of strategic importance in Russia’s second city and that you certainly cannot protect public events.
for Epstein’s China-related business plans and potential partners. He worked with David Stern, a German business associate who was close to Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. Epstein also communicated about China with the veteran UK Labour politician Peter Mandelson; Chinese entrepreneur and author Desmond Shum; banker and Jiang Zemin biographer Robert Kuhn; and senior JPMorgan executives.
Summary of European Lawsuits against Jiang Zemin and his Accomplices from the Chinese Communist Party
By a European practitioner
2005-03-16
Since July, 1999, Jiang Zemin has used the Chinese Communist Party to stage a campaign of genocide against Falun Gong. This unprecedented persecution has lasted for over five years and caused the deaths of at least 1,482 innocent Falun Gong practitioners. In addition, over 100 million practitioners, along with their families and friends, have experienced violations of human rights.
Alvin Jiang:
Star China investor Boyu seeks to navigate Xi Jinping’s tech crackdown Private equity firm whose founders include ex-president Jiang Zemin’s grandson rode sector’s long boom Jack Ma at Alibaba’s New York IPO in 2014. The listing also meant payday for one of his early investors,…
Boyu Capital, which has offices in Shanghai, Beijing and Singapore, is led by cofounder Alvin Jiang, the grandson of former Chinese President Jiang Zemin. The investment aims to boost Starbucks’s expansion deeper into the Chinese market, providing fresh funding and stronger logistical support.
Epstein’s African connections included presidents, heirs and recruiters
The revelations from the Epstein files show that the American businessman’s network reached into Africa, where he forged ties with influential figures to advance his business dealings and consolidate his power.
By Morgane Le CamPublished yesterday at 10:54 am (Paris)
………
From Senegal to Côte d’Ivoire, via Morocco and Rwanda, Jeffrey Epstein’s shadow stretched long across Africa. The three million documents released by the US Department of Justice on January 30 revealed that the American sexual predator and businessman, who died in 2019, used the same practices on the continent as he did elsewhere.
In West Africa in the 2010s, Karim Wade, son of Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade and a major political figure, drew the attention of Epstein…… his name appears 504 times in the published Epstein files.
After their meeting in 2010, Epstein described Wade as”one of the most important players in Africa”in an email to Jes Staley, the former head of Barclays Bank.
The U.S. Senate passed a bill that funds ICE/Border Patrol operations through the end of Trump’s term; Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski was the only Republican to vote no.
What to know about Trump’s immunity deal with the IRS
It’s “a legal absurdity,” said one expert.
June 3, 2026
……………
But acting attorney general Todd Blanche said this week he’s not backing down from giving immunity to the president over his past taxes — despite the questions about why Trump would need immunity and whether a president can do this.
“This is a breathtaking abuse of the tax and legal system,” said Brandon DeBot with the independent Tax Law Center at New York University Law in a statement.
“Presidents don’t have the authority to immunize themselves from personal liability for not paying their taxes,” said Kimberly Wehle, a professor at the University of Baltimore School of Law. “So much of this is sending the message that there is no rule of law anymore, there are no restraints on the president, and the law is whatever Donald Trump says it is. And that’s a legal absurdity.”
Corruption by heads of government is not a new problem. However, it has more serious consequences today when practiced by dictators or authoritarian leaders. The mobility of wealth prevents effective recovery of the assets; the size of the stolen funds has major economic consequences for the country’s economic development. The problems that new governments experience in recovering corruption proceeds involve matters that are sensitive in terms of politics, law, and international relations. Ferdinand Marcos was President of the Republic of the Philippines from November 1965 until his flight in February 1986. Marcos declared martial law and imposed an unjust dictatorship in 1972. Marcos, his wife, and their associates probably looted, diverted, and laundered at least 5 billion dollars in public assets that represented foreign economic and military assistance and kickbacks from public works contracts in the Philippines. Marcos used an extensive and complex system of laundering money through Swiss and offshore banks. Swiss law, practice, and other factors posed major obstacles to recovering the hidden wealth. The Philippine Government identified the Swiss bank accounts from documents left behind by the deposed president. A Filipino banker devised a plan to recover the Marcos fortune. The banks admitted to the accounts’ existence only after awareness of the overwhelming evidence about them. Changes in Swiss law since 1986 should affect the acceptance of dictators’ funds in Switzerland; the laws will be important in all future cases of corruption involving heads of foreign governments
Isabel Kukanova dos Santos is an Angolan businesswoman, the eldest child of Angola’s former President José Eduardo dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979 to 2017. (Picture via Nuno Coimbra, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons)
Darling, grab your champagne flute because this is one royal saga dripping with billions, betrayal, and bikini-clad defiance to make the Chivayo divorce saga look like a picnic.
Isabel dos Santos was once the undisputed princess of Angola, Africa’s richest woman with a fortune that made jaws drop and eyes widen in envy. Forbes once pegged her at a cool US$3.5 billion, a glittering empire built on diamonds, telecoms, banking, and oil.
But oh honey, how the mighty have fallen. Today, stripped of assets worth over US$2 billion across continents, she is fighting her legal battles from a swanky 31st-floor apartment in Dubai Marina, where she treats us to videos of herself dancing poolside like the world is not watching her every move.
Born on 20 April 1973 in Baku, Azerbaijan, to Angola’s long-ruling president José Eduardo dos Santos and his Russian wife Tatiana Kukanova, Isabel entered the world with a silver spoon the size of an oil rig.
Her father ruled Angola with an iron fist for 38 years, from 1979 to 2017, and little Isabel was nicknamed “the princess” back home for good reason. She attended an all-girls boarding school in England before studying electrical engineering at London’s prestigious King’s College.
But this was no ordinary heiress content with trust funds. “I was taught to make my own way in life, and never to depend on any man, be it father, brother, or husband,” she once declared, painting herself as a self-made trailblazer with a fierce independent streak.
Her entry into business was pure glamour. At just 24, she snapped up a stake in Miami Beach, a chic beach bar and restaurant in Luanda overlooking the Atlantic. Picture it: weekends filled with the city’s elite sipping cocktails as waves crashed nearby. It was the perfect launchpad.
She built stakes in diamonds, telecom giant Unitel, Efacec in Portugal, EuroBic bank, and even chaired the state oil company Sonangol. By her forties, she was everywhere, from cement to media. Forbes crowned her Africa’s first female billionaire and the continent’s youngest, with an empire spanning hundreds of companies.
The trivia surrounding Isabel is deliciously extravagant. She married Congolese art collector and businessman Sindika Dokolo in 2002 in a lavish ceremony. For their 10th anniversary, they flew dozens of friends and family to Angola for a three-day blowout that screamed old money meets new power.
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A former assistant for Jeffrey Epstein alleged that she was victimized by three men while working for the late financier, reportedly including a Florida mayor who ran for governor in 2018.
Sarah Kellen, who worked for Epstein for 15 years, reportedly told lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee during a closed-door session Thursday that she had been assaulted by former Miami Beach Mayor Philip Levine and celebrity hairstylist Frédéric Fekkai. She also accused late fashion photographer Patrick Demarchelier of exposing himself to her, the Miami Herald reported, citing sources who heard Kellen’s testimony.
Newsweek‘sattemptsto reach Levine and Fekkai were unsuccessful on Friday. Demarchelier, who died in 2022, previously denied allegations of sexual misconduct detailed by The Boston Globe in 2018
Investigative journalist Tara Palmeri first reported the new allegations late on Thursday. Levine, Fekkai and Demarchelier were known associates of Epstein and appear in the Justice Department’s trove of evidence linked to the late convicted sex offender, Palmeri reported.
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Philip Levine talks to the news media after g…Read More | AP Photo/Lynne Sladky
Sarah Kellen was in the room when Jeffrey Epstein met world leaders and experts, whilst being micro managed as an enslaved person by JE. He became more strict at controlling her and others after his jail stay in 2008 after Ghislaine left :
Leaked Emails Reveal How Jeffrey Epstein and Israeli Officials Built African Surveillance State
Epstein coordinated meetings for Barak with prominent figures and arranged another meeting with Ouattara’s chief of staff…
Jeffrey Epstein / PHOTO: The Palm Beach Post via AP
(José Niño, Headline USA) Newly released documents reveal Jeffrey Epstein played a critical role facilitating Israeli intelligence operations in Côte d’Ivoire, working alongside former Defense Minister Ehud Barak to broker mass surveillance deals with the embattled West African nation, according to a report by Drop Site News.
The revelations come from leaked emails released by the Handala hacking group and documents published by the U.S. House Oversight Committee last month, including Epstein’s personal emails and appointment calendars from 2012 and 2013.
After a disputed 2010 presidential election triggered violence in Côte d’Ivoire, President Alassane Ouattara sought to consolidate power following a French and United Nations military intervention. Just days after Ouattara announced foiling a coup attempt in June 2012, he traveled to Jerusalem to meet Barak and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu about counterterrorism cooperation.
That same day, according to House Oversight documents, Epstein met with Ouattara’s son David Dramane Ouattara in New York City. Three months later, Epstein hosted Ouattara’s niece Nina Keita before going directly to meet Barak at the Regency Hotel. Keita had traveled on Epstein’s plane as a young fashion model in Jean Luc Brunel’s agency.
In October 2012, Epstein traveled to Africa, instructing his assistant to arrange stops in Côte d’Ivoire, Angola, and Senegal. Two weeks after this trip, Ivory Coast’s Interior Minister was in Tel Aviv meeting with Barak about a bilateral security accord.
According to Drop Site News, Epstein wrote to Barak about the opportunities civil unrest created, saying “with civil unrest exploding and the desperation of those in power, isn’t this perfect for you.” Barak replied, “You’re right in a way. But not simple to transform it into a cash flow.”
Sarah Kellen served as Jeffrey Epstein’s primary personal assistant and day-to-day scheduler. She was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 2007 Palm Beach investigation and received immunity under Epstein’s 2008 non-prosecution agreement. A federal judge described her as a “criminally responsible participant” in Epstein’s operation. She has never been criminally charged. In the Africa emails she appears coordinating Epstein’s Africa tour itinerary, messaging Karim Wade on Epstein’s behalf, and obtaining visas for Gabon, Sierra Leone, and Mali. She also used the alias Sarah Kensington professionally. She has stated through a spokesperson that she herself was a victim of Epstein’s abuse.
Trump handed the spy agencies to a man who gives away cash on Twitter. In a Truth Social post Tuesday morning he named Bill Pulte — the 37-year-old homebuilding heir who runs the Federal Housing Finance Agency — acting Director of National Intelligence, over the CIA, the NSA, and sixteen other agencies. Pulte keeps the housing job too, along with the chairmanships of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac he handed himself. He has no intelligence experience. What he has is a year of mining FHFA’s files to manufacture mortgage-fraud referrals against Trump’s enemies — Letitia James, Adam Schiff, Lisa Cook, Eric Swalwell — and a GAO investigation into how he did it. The watchdogs who asked how he pulled Democrats’ private mortgage records were fired. Now the man under investigation for misusing data access runs the surveillance state. Narativ has already placed his father, the developer Mark Pulte, inside Epstein’s own account of the rigged Maison de l’Amitié auction
From Narativ
Bill Pulte, one report:
Bill Pulte Family and Net Worth: All We Know About His Wife and Parents
Bill Pulte, a prominent figure in business and government, is the grandson of renowned homebuilder William J. Pulte, who founded PulteGroup, one of the largest residential construction companies in the U.S. Bill has carved out a distinct identity through his roles in philanthropy, social media, and as director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
President Donald Trump raised eyebrows and fury on Tuesday by announcing his controversial head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, Bill Pulte, as acting director of national intelligence.
Pulte, who has no military or intelligence background, has long been steeped in scandal following his leading the charge to indict some of Trump’s political allies on allegations related to mortgage fraud.
Trump announced Pulte would succeed Tulsi Gabbard as the leader of the country’s intelligence and national security apparatus, saying he “has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America.” As director of national intelligence, Pulte will oversee the CIA, NSA, and various other federal agencies involved in intelligence collection – including the FBI. He will also serve as a principal advisor to Trump and the National Security Council on matters of foreign policy and national security.
Condemnation of the appointment resounded across party lines. Conservative radio host Erick Erickson reacted to the announcement, writing, “Bill Pulte is one of the worst members of the President’s team and has convinced Trump to do more stupid stuff than anyone else in the past year. He’ll be driven to work in a very short bus each day.”
I am reproducing this article by Popular Information, Substack:
Popular Information avoids hot takes and algorithmically-optimized sensationalism. Instead, we investigate, uncover new facts, and reshape the national debate.
Consider two examples from the last two weeks:
On May 18, Popular Information broke the news that Trump had promoted companies at public events on the same day he bought their stock. The story was picked up extensively by national outlets, including the Rachel Maddow show. Within a day, Vice President Vance was confronted with our reporting in the White House briefing room.
On May 27, Popular Information exposed that Lead Left and other purportedly “progressive” super PACs spending millions in Democratic primaries were connected to the House Republican super PAC. Within 24 hours, Speaker Mike Johnson was forced to respond to our reporting. On Monday night, I appeared on CNN to talk about the story.
Popular Information is a three-person newsroom but we can rattle the cages of the most powerful politicians in the world.
Rendering of Kushner’s planned Albanian resort. (Studio Genesis)
Jared Kushner’s efforts to negotiate an end to the Iran War are not going well. But he is only moonlighting as one of the Trump administration’s top diplomats. Kushner is also having problems at his day job as the founder of Affinity Partners, a private equity fund bankrolled by Saudi Arabia and other foreign governments.
Along with his wife Ivanka Trump, the daughter of President Trump, Kushner is developing a multibillion-dollar resort on Sazan Island in Albania and nearby coastline. In an interview with the David Senra podcast published Sunday, Ivanka Trump described the project dreamily:
It’s an unbelievable, beautiful, 1,400-hectare private island in the middle of the Mediterranean. We were on a friend’s boat and we stopped for a swim. Effectively, that’s how we found it. We swam to the island, we went on a hike, barefoot all the way up to the top, and we were just captivated, and it stayed with us ever since. And over the course of many years, we developed the opportunity to help realize its potential and transform it, but with a lot of restraint and care because the land is so beautiful that, really, the architecture has to be fully integrated into it, almost rise from it.
Ivanka Trump said the project is “the culmination of all of my experience in real estate, all of my travel, a lot of reflection on how I want to live, how I think people increasingly want to live.”
But the reality of the massive project, which includes 10,000 hotel rooms and is located in one of Europe’s most environmentally sensitive areas, is a lot messier. In 2024, the Albanian government changed the law to allow the area, which was previously part of a protected national park, to be developed. After Trump’s election in November 2024, the Albanian government granted Atlantic Incubation Partners, an LLC linked to Kushner, “strategic investor“ status, clearing the way for permits.
Kushner’s LLC was granted that status “just weeks before the new US president’s inauguration, even without a business plan or feasibility study for the construction of a luxury resort on an uninhabited island once used by the army for shooting practice.”
An investigative report by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) found that the project involved a “network of shady individuals and companies“ including “a businessman accused of links to the Italian mafia, a former judge who resigned due to the vetting process, the daughter of a lawyer accused of forgery, the company of a murdered businessman and individuals linked to one of Albania’s biggest oligarchs, Shefqet Kastrati.”
In January, 41 environmental organizations from 28 countries wrote to Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama and called for “the immediate suspension of any decisions advancing the project.” The groups said the resort posed “serious risks to the biodiversity and critical habitats of the area,” including “crucial habitats for some of the world’s most endangered marine species.”
Rama, however, has continued to defend the project. “There is not a single chance it will be stopped for as long as I am here,” Rama said at a press conference Tuesday.
“Albania Is Not for Sale”
On Senra’s podcast, Ivanka Trump said she was “just there [in Albania] walking the lands” to “sort of be with it and experience it alongside some of the greatest living architects of our time.” She did not mention that the property has been subject to mass protests.
On April 29, government officials allowed barbed wire fencing to be constructed around the coastal portions of the resort property. This cut off miles of beach from the public. Heavy machinery was brought in to construct access roads.
After the incident, “authorities revoked the licenses of two private security firms involved in the incident, arrested one guard and stripped the local police chief of his duties.” Fifteen protesters were also charged with crimes.
This week, protests expanded to Tirana, Albania’s capital, with thousands chanting “Albania is not for sale” and demanding Rama’s resignation.
In December, Kushner’s plan to build a Trump tower in Belgrade collapsed after the project became enmeshed in a criminal corruption scandal involving Serbian government officials. Prosecutors allege that government officials forged documents to remove cultural protections from the land where the tower was to be constructed.
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Jared Kushner Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks / Wikimedia Commons
Jared Kushner has said that financier Nat Rothschild helped him identify a remote private island in the Mediterranean during a yacht trip, as the Special Envoy for Peace’s expanding overseas property interests face growing political backlash in Albania over a planned luxury resort development on Sazan Island.
The admission comes as Kushner’s investment firm, Affinity Partners, faces criticism over a €1.4bn (£1.2bn) project on Albania’s Adriatic coast. People have been protesting the plan because they worry it could damage the environment and restrict access to land that is currently protected.
the British East India Company owed much of its success to their intelligence operation, right up until the Napoleonic Wars when Nathan Rothschild’s intel operatives got him news of Napoleon’s defeat far ahead of anyone else. Rothschild parlayed this information into owning a controlling share of British war bonds, which he bought up for pennies on the dollar after using his information to leverage panic selling. Rothschild, for all intents and purposes, had control of the British economy and used it to garner an immense amount of political control. His intelligence services evolved into MI-5 and MI-6 and subsequently Mossad — remember Rothschild effectively bought Israel with the Balfour Declaration (1917). WWII brought about OSS, an offshoot of MI-6, that turned into the CIA in 1946… these are all controlled by the Rothschild/Rockefeller diaspora, the CIA through
The Trump administration has hired Elias Irizarry, a convicted participant in the January 6, 2021, Capitol attack, for a position within a Pentagon office that oversees highly classified military operations, according to a report from the Washington Post. Irizarry was 19 at the time of the riot and later publicly expressed regret for his involvement, but his appointment has reportedly raised concerns among some Defense Department officials because of the sensitivity of the role. The story highlights ongoing debate over the administration’s approach to January 6 defendants and their place in government service. Critics view the hiring as troubling given the nature of the Capitol attack, while supporters may point to Irizarry’s completed legal consequences and stated remorse.
Posted by Aaron Parnas
Who Is Elias Irizarry? Convicted 6 January Rioter Hired for Pentagon Terrorism Post Despite a ‘Checkered Background’
Despite conviction, Irizarry apologised to victims’ widows, ran for public office, and secured a presidential pardon
Elias Irizarry, a convicted 6 January rioter pardoned in 2025, has been appointed to a highly sensitive counter-terrorism role within the Pentagon Stephanie Keith
Four people familiar with the situation reveal that the Trump administration has brought a convicted 6 January rioter—who subsequently expressed remorse for participating in the US Capitol insurrection— into a Pentagon office handling highly classified military operations.
Irizarry’s Background and Capitol Conviction
Legal documents reveal that when the Capitol was stormed, Irizarry was a first-year student at The Citadel, a public military academy based in South Carolina, while also participating as a cadet within the Civil Air Patrol.
YouTube Screenshot / Queen City News
Irizarry made his way to Washington with two other individuals, ultimately joining the mass of Donald Trump supporters who overwhelmed police cordons to infiltrate the building just as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory. According to legal briefs, he gained entry through a broken window while armed with a metal pole, but he did not use it to hit anyone.
Following a guilty plea to a misdemeanour charge of entering and remaining on restricted government property, Irizarry received a two-week jail sentence, according to legal records.
According to those legal records, Irizarry had attended Trump’s speech at the Ellipse before winding up at the Capitol entirely by chance, moving quickly afterwards to distance himself from the day’s events.
However, the presiding judge pointed out that Irizarry failed to intervene at pivotal moments during the unrest, notably standing by when one of his travel partners, Grayson Sherrill, used a rod to hit a police officer. Sherrill received a seven-month prison sentence in 2023 following a guilty plea for assaulting federal agents.
Microsoft didn’t cut services to International Criminal Court, its president says
Chief prosecutor’s email issues have spurred fears in Europe that Trump could trigger a “kill switch” through U.S. tech giants abroad.
The company’s President Brad Smith told reporters that Microsoft’s actions “did not in any way involve the cessation of services to the ICC.” | Michael Reynolds/EFE via EPA
Microsoft did not stop or suspend its services to the International Criminal Court, the company’s President Brad Smith said, following reporting that it canceled the email address of the court’s chief prosecutor targeted by American sanctions.
The Associated Press reported in May that Microsoft “cancelled” the email address of Karim Khan, the prosecutor who was directly targeted by a February executive order by United States President Donald Trump that claimed the court had “engaged in illegitimate and baseless actions” against the U.S. and Israel.
Smith told reporters on Tuesday that Microsoft’s actions “did not in any way involve the cessation of services to the ICC.”
A Microsoft spokesperson said that it had been in contact with the court since February “throughout the process that resulted in the disconnection of its sanctioned official from Microsoft services.” The spokesperson added that “at no point did Microsoft cease or suspend its services to the ICC.”
Khan’s email disconnection has sparked Europe’s fears that Trump could flip a “kill switch” to cut digital services through American tech giants, as the continent seeks to become less dependent on U.S. technology. Companies like Microsoft, Google, Amazon and others dominate Europe’s cloud and digital services sectors.
Microsoft declined to comment further in response to questions regarding the exact process that led to Khan’s email disconnection, and exactly what it meant by “disconnection.” The ICC declined to comment.
However, German business magazine WirtschaftsWoche reported Tuesday that Microsoft’s lawyers have now reached the view that it merely provides a technical platform and that its customers decide whether to give their employees access to its services. Microsoft would no longer intervene in scenarios similar to the ICC case, WirtschaftsWoche wrote.
Smith at the end of April said Microsoft would push back on orders to suspend European cloud operations, in an attempt to assuage fears about a Trump-ordered kill switch.
The company announced then that it would add a binding clause to its contracts with European governments and the European Commission, stating that it would keep the option open to go to court in the event other governments ordered it to suspend or cease cloud operations.
“People want to know that there’s more than words that we’re offering, that’s why we’re prepared to back this up with contractual commitments,” Smith said at the time.
Amazon and Google, Microsoft’s two main competitors on cloud services, also offer “sovereign” cloud services that seek to assuage Europeans’ concerns, though they have not publicly committed to challenging orders in the same way as Microsoft.
Khan’s email issue has also prompted calls for a major change of government policy in the Netherlands, where the ICC is based.
Bart Groothuis, a Dutch liberal member of the European Parliament, recently urged the creation of a European cloud, citing the ICC incident and saying “the world has changed.”
And Dutch national lawmakers on Monday petitioned the government to use 30 percent Dutch or European cloud services by 2029, as well as multiple other measures to wean the Dutch government off U.S. services like Microsoft.
It again signals a shift in the Netherlands, which has traditionally been one of the most Atlanticist, free-market and tech-friendly EU member countries.
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