……….This does not mean, however, that Russia is in any imminent danger of losing Crimea, let alone of losing the war that it has illegally fought against Ukraine both overtly and covertly for a decade now. The importance of Crimea in this war was established long before the beginning of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022
In the shadows of two controversial elections and the worst European war since the defeat of Nazi Germany, one truth has emerged with brutal clarity: Donald Trump was never an agent of peace.
He was the delivery mechanism for Vladimir Putin’s blueprint to dismantle Ukraine, and along the way, the democratic alliances that once defined American strength.
traces back to Andrii Derkach — a U.S.-sanctioned Ukrainian ex–minister, wanted for treason, now sitting comfortably as a senator in Russia. This is the same Derkach who, in 2018–2019, was pushing Russian disinformation against the Bidens with Rudy Giuliani — the very man I warned Rudy not to touch. My sources are telling me that this so-called corruption evidence was essentially carried straight into that October Miami meeting by Kirill Dmitriev, pre-packaged out of the Kremlin, and dropped on the table as justification to go after Yermak and dismantle Zelensky’s inner circle — all under the banner of “reform,” but in reality as part of a pressure campaign for regime change.
Now Yermak is gone. A new configuration, led by Rustem Umerov, is put in charge of negotiating. They are flown across the ocean, to a billionaire’s private resort owned by the very man who helped shape the original deal with Putin’s money men.
Andriy Derkach was recruited by Russian forces in 2016, according to a testimony
Derkach set up several firms tasked with helping Russians enter Ukrainian cities
Derkach was also accused of attempting to help Russian forces take over Kyiv
Authorities in Ukraine said they have uncovered a Russian spy network that involved the participation of a Ukrainian lawmaker who was previously accused by the United States of being a Russian agent.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) said Friday that Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach was responsible for setting up a network of private security firms tasked with helping Russian units enter Ukrainian cities during the Feb. 24 invasion, according to a testimony from Ihor Kolesnikov, Derkach’s parliamentary aide.
And the ‘peace plan’ for Ukraine? Lev Parnas says:
And hovering over all of it: hundreds of billions in frozen Russian assets and the promise of reconstruction contracts that would turn Ukraine’s ruins into somebody else’s profit center.
Then Dean Blundell, on Substack points out:
According to a new bombshell Wall Street Journal report, Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner aren’t just in Moscow talking ceasefires and borders. They’re negotiating business deals – lining up U.S. companies (and Trump‑world donors) to cash in on Russia’s comeback and Ukraine’s reconstruction once the shooting slows down.
That’s not a peace plan. That’s a hostile takeover with air support.
Back to Lev Parnas:
Trump’s inner circle wants to trap Zelensky between two doors.
And robbing Ukraine of her future:
Russia sent abducted Ukrainian children to North Korea, officials say
Satellite images locate Ukrainian kids abducted by Russia: Laboratory
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People hold a banner reading “No peace treaty without the return of Ukrainian deported children”, during a demonstration in Paris, France, in August 2025.
PHOTO: AFP
Follow topic:UkraineSummary
Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab (HRL) used satellite imagery to locate Ukrainian children abducted by Russia.
HRL found 210 re-education/military camps after Russians posted selfies with geolocation data, revealing camp locations.
The lab estimates 36,000 children have been abducted; data was shared with Ukraine and Europol due to funding cuts.
Lukoil gas station in Slovakia.Jozef Kotulič (CC BY-SA 4.0)
The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday extended authorization for Lukoil-branded gas stations outside Russia to continue operating, suspending some sanctions on the Russian energy giant
And Ukraine continues to hit the shadow fleet, even when they are sailing by Senegal:
Ukraine Hit Russian Shadow Fleet Tankers, Undermining Moscow’s Sanctions-Evasion Fleet
ByDavid Kirichenko,Contributor. David Kirichenko is a journalist focusing on war and technology.Follow Author
Nov 30, 2025, 09:57pm ESTNov 30, 2025, 11:58pm ESTShareSaveComment
Ukrainian Sea Baby naval drones struck two Russian oil tankers operating in international waters off Turkey’s Black Sea coast on November 28, marking a significant expansion of Kyiv’s maritime drone campaign targeting the Kremlin’s oil revenue.
The attacks targeted the Kairos and Virat, both vessels flagged under Gambian registry but identified by Western authorities as part of Russia’s shadow fleet designed to evade international sanctions. A source from Ukraine’s Security Service told the Kyiv Independent that the domestically produced drones disabled vessels capable of transporting nearly $70 million worth of oil.
Turkish maritime authorities continue firefighting and stabilization operations on two sanctioned tankers struck by Ukrainian naval drones in the Black Sea, while a separate incident involving another alleged shadow fleet vessel off Senegal’s coast has raised fresh concerns over Russia’s shadow fleet operations.
Turkey’s Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure confirmed that the fire aboard the tanker Kairos has been completely extinguished, with discussions now underway regarding towing arrangements. The 274-meter vessel, which was en route from Egypt to Russia’s Novorossiysk port when it suffered an explosion and fire approximately 28 nautical miles offshore, had all 25 crew members safely evacuated by Turkish coastal safety units
It is fascinating to read this piece about Paganism in the Medieval era. This is an extract:
As the twelfth century wore on, fewer and fewer European pagans remained. Some persisted in remote, scattered groups of nomadic shamanic peoples such as the Sami in northern Scandinavia. Some were Asiatic intruders, such as the Kumans who threatened eastern Hungary. However, by 1200, just one region of Europe, on the southern and eastern coast of the Baltic Sea, was populated by large groups of indigenous pagans. They included Estonians and Livonians, both shamanistic Finnic peoples. And, to their south, occupying most of modern Latvia, Lithuania and northern Poland were the Balts. This is the story of how their ancient way of life finally came to an end.
Here is a map from this article, related to the Medieval time:
In 1200, the Balt peoples occupied lands bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Riga. These were the same homelands their ancestors had occupied ever since the bronze age.
By the C13th, the political situation was further confused by the increasing interference of neighbouring powers with different agendas. These included the Catholic Poles whose stated desire to fend off pagan raiders masked a not so hidden agenda of territorial expansion. To the east there were the Orthodox Russians, whose animosity to paganism was exceeded only by their hatred of Catholics. In the sea to the west were Gotlanders, more concerned to curb Baltic pirates than convert pagans.
The Balts themselves were an ancient people. Various migrations and invasions gradually reduced their range. However, around the Baltic coast, they continued to maintain much the same way of life as they had since pre-Roman times. They never fell under Rome’s influence, the Huns passed them by, Slavic migration failed to dislodge them, and they had weathered the storm of Viking raids.
Note here how the Orthodox Russians aversion to paganism and Catholicism.
The History of the Russian Orthodox Church began in the late 10th century. In 988 AD, Prince Vladimir of Kiev converted to Christianity, marking the start of Orthodox Christianity in Russia. This pivotal event laid the foundation for the church’s growth and influence in the region.
By adopting Christianity, Vladimir not only changed the religious landscape but also set the stage for the integration of Orthodox traditions into Russian culture. This conversion was instrumental in shaping the spiritual and cultural identity of the Russian people.
The Byzantine Influence
The early Russian Orthodox Church was heavily influenced by Byzantine practices. The church adopted the Byzantine liturgy, ecclesiastical structure, and artistic styles. This period saw the establishment of key church institutions and the development of a distinctive Russian Orthodox identity.
During this time, Russian monks and missionaries traveled to Constantinople to study and bring back religious and cultural practices. These influences helped mold the church’s rituals, art, and architecture, creating a blend of local and Byzantine traditions.
The Russian Orthodox Church traces its origins to the time of Kievan Rus’, the first forerunner of the modern Russian state. In A.D. 988 Prince Vladimir made the Byzantine variant of Christianity the state religion of Russia. The Russian church was subordinate to the patriarch of Constantinople (present-day Istanbul), seat of the Byzantine Empire. The original seat of the metropolitan, as the head of the church was known, was Kiev. As power moved from Kiev to Moscow in the fourteenth century, the seat moved as well, establishing the tradition that the metropolitan of Moscow is the head of the church. In the Middle Ages, the church placed strong emphasis on asceticism, which evolved into a widespread monastic tradition. Large numbers of monasteries were founded in obscure locations across all of the medieval state of Muscovy. Such small settlements expanded into larger population centers, making the monastic movement one of the bases of social and economic as well as spiritual life.[Source: Library of Congress, July 1996 *]
After the fall of the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the Russian Orthodox Church evolved into a semi-independent (autocephalous) branch of Eastern Christianity. In 1589 the metropolitan of Moscow received the title of patriarch. Nevertheless, the Russian church retained the Byzantine tradition of authorizing the head of state and the government bureaucracy to participate actively in the church’s administrative affairs. Separation of church and state thus would be almost unknown in Russia. *
As Western Europe was emerging from the Middle Ages into the Renaissance and the Reformation, Russia remained isolated from the West, and Russian Orthodoxy was virtually untouched by the changes in intellectual and spiritual life being felt elsewhere. In the seventeenth century, the introduction by Ukrainian clergy of Western doctrinal and liturgical reforms prompted a strong reaction among traditionalist Orthodox believers, resulting in a schism in the church.
While the pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych was in power, the Moscow Patriarchate illegally built a church next to the site of one of Kyiv’s earliest churches – Desyatynna, or the Tithe Church. The State Museum of History is nearby and has responsibility for the surrounding area, which is protected as a historical site.
See book, Three Years on Fire, Andrey Kurkov
The Tithe Church:
According to the chronicles, the beginning of construction of the Tithe Church dates back to 989. It was built by Russian and Greek architects for 6 years as a cathedral not far from the prince’s tower – a stone north-eastern palace building, the excavated part of which is located at a distance of 60 meters from the foundations of the Church of the Tithes. Nearby, archaeologists found the remains of a building considered to be the house of the church clergy, built at the same time as the church (the so-called Olga’s tower).
Viktor Yanukovych (born July 9, 1950, Yenakiyeve, Ukraine, U.S.S.R. [now in Ukraine]) is a Ukrainian politician who served as prime minister (2002–05, 2006–07) and president (2010–14) of Ukraine. Yanukovych’s political base disintegrated in February 2014 after Ukrainian security forces opened fire on protesters in Kyiv, killing scores and wounding hundreds. On February 22, 2014, he was impeached by Ukraine’s parliament and fled to Russia ahead of a raft of criminal charges.
St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, Kyiv, Ukraine. It is the mother church and headquarters of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine.
Kirill I (born November 20, 1946, Leningrad [now St. Petersburg], Russia) is the Russian Orthodox Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia from 2009.
,………..
Upon assuming the partriarchate, he expressed his long-standing desire for increased dialogue to end the church’s millennium-old rift with the Roman Catholic Church. In February 2016 he and Pope Francis I held the first-ever meeting between the leaders of the Russian Orthodox and Roman Catholic churches.
St. Basil the Blessed Cathedral of St. Basil the Blessed in Moscow. K. Scholz/H. Armstrong Roberts
Membership of the Soviet spy agency was a requirement for any religious figure who travelled abroad, according to a paper called The Mikhailov Files: Patriarch Kirill and the KGB, by historian and human rights activist Felix Corley.
After ascending to the rank of archbishop in 1976, Kirill spent the next 20 years developing a uniquely modern, but deeply conservative style of worship.
,………..
How Putin helped shore up Kirill’s power and wealth
Mystery surrounds the first meeting between patriarch and president, but both men ascended to the height of their powers shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian Orthodox Church emerged from the Soviet era with a mission to regain its status as Russia’s most powerful ideological institution and ultimate moral authority.
Those at the top set about rebuilding the congregation and their places of worship, after decades of persecution and the destruction of thousands of churches.
But some of the ways they used their new-found privileges stoked controversy.
The church was alleged to have been among the largest suppliers of foreign cigarettes in Russia at the time of the duty-free import scandal. (MF/WS via Reuters)
The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy became not only an educational institution but also a cultural symbol of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. It demonstrated a commitment to independence and integration with the European educational space, distinguishing the Ukrainian Church from the Moscow Church, which was more isolated and focused on internal consolidation.
The educational system established by Petro Mohyla and his successors laid the foundation for the distinctiveness of Ukrainian Orthodoxy. The Latin influence and adherence to high educational standards remain key factors that differentiate the Ukrainian Church from the Russian Church to this day.
Just in time for the holidays, a legion of priests and other representatives of the Russian Orthodox Church descended on Capitol Hill last week. These bearded visitors might evoke old Saint Nick, but there was nothing jolly about their appearance in the middle of the Christmas season.
American lawmakers need to recognize: These unholy men were in Washington on Kremlin business.
Predictably, the Muscovite delegation told anyone who would listen that Ukraine persecutes Christians.
It is propaganda that is as well-worn as it is false.
The crux of the Kremlin allegations is that Kyiv has cracked down on the Russian Orthodox Church. Russian dictator Vladimir Putin summed up the claim earlier this month, saying that “The Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine is practically banned.”
Ukraine is actually one of the most religious countries to come out of the former Soviet Union. More Ukrainians than Russians identify as Orthodox Christians.
This is a work in progress as more emails are released by the House Oversight Committee and Epstein’s 1953 Estate.
9/19/2014 1:21 AM – 9:35 PM
JE: You need to talk to boss
KR: Agreed, but I need to be prepared to say yes before I talk to him.
JE: understood. it comes down to high risk / reward / low risk / reward. professional , emotional. and financial
KR: Most girls do not have to worry about this crap.
JE: “girls?” ,, careful I will renew an old habit, . this week, thiel, summers, bill burns, Gordon brown, Jagland, ( council of Europe and noble chairman ). mongolia pres , hardeep puree ( india), boris ( gates). jabor ( qatar ). sultan ( dubai, ), kosslyn ( Harvard), leon black, woody. you are welcome guest at any….. also if you think there are interesting people in town, everyone here for climate summit , clinton ,security council, holy shit im on [REDACTED] for next 30 minutes.
KR: Doesn’t look like you are prioritizing your schedule very effectively…..how are you going to manage all of that? this is unga week [United Nations General Assembly] so the boss [Obama] will be in town too…..I’ll be here all week — you may get sick of me….just sat down on a train so can’t talk freely.
And we check, and find:
Link between Barrack Obama and Jeffrey Epstein Detailed in Court Filing
‘In 2014, Epstein called Ms. Ruemmler within weeks of her leaving the Obama White House…’
According to the court filing, Epstein had a business relationship with Kathryn Ruemmler, who was Obama’s White House counsel from 2011 to 2014 and now works at Goldman Sachs.
Mere months before Epstein’s arrest and death, he set up a meeting with a JP Morgan executive and Ruemmler in February 2019, the court filing said. Epstein scheduled the meeting because Ruemmler wanted to open an account with JPMorgan and Epstein thought she “would bond” with the JP Morgan exec, the filing said.
Jeffrey Epstein’s estate fights to shield over 250 emails with top Goldman Sachs lawyer
Follow Jacob Shamsian
Kathryn Ruemmler, now the top lawyer at Goldman Sachs, maintained a correspondence with Jeffrey Epstein after leaving the Obama White House.Getty Images; Getty Images
Dec 3, 2025, 9:44 PM GMT
Jeffrey Epstein’s estate asserted attorney-client privilege for 277 emails with Kathryn Ruemmler.
A court document says Ruemmler communicated with Epstein about lawsuits involving Epstein’s victims.
The estate says it shouldn’t have to turn over the emails in a lawsuit.
Those emails aren’t the entirety of the communications between her and Epstein.
Epstein’s estate is keeping secret 277 additional emails between him and Ruemmler, saying they are protected by attorney-client confidentiality. Many of those emails contain discussions of lawsuits by women who accused Epstein of sexual assault, according to a court filing made public this week.
US President Donald Trump, has been slapped with a $310 million lawsuit for a trafficking venture which is almost identical to the sex-trafficking venture of Jeffrey Epstein. The lawsuit filed on November 24, in Palm Beach County, has named Tesla CEO Elon Musk, and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Notably, Trump’s Mar-a-Lago residence is in Palm Beach.
Elon Musk, a South African white man, may or may not have realised the power he wielded when he discarded the USAID budget in order to fund tax cuts for billionaries like him.
Nearly 15,000 will have died already because of Trump and Musk’s cuts to USAID, advocacy program claims
The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief has saved more than 25 million lives since it began in 2003
And now we can look at the facts on an hourly death rate basis, from a website using the much acclaimed AI ability to search a wealth of data – although check their disclaimer!
Executive summary
Multiple peer-reviewed forecasts and real-time trackers estimate that USAID funding cuts could already have caused hundreds of thousands of deaths in 2025 and will cause many millions more by 2030 if not reversed. A Lancet modelling paper projects roughly 1.78 million excess all-age deaths in 2025 from per‑capita funding reductions and more than 14 million cumulative excess deaths through 2030 under complete defunding; independent real‑time trackers and commentators put current, already‑occurred deaths in the hundreds of thousands range [1][2][3][4].
And at a 6 month anniversary since the cuts, this is what Africa experienced:
In dollar terms, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Ethiopia have seen the greatest cuts. However, their large populations and economic heft may obscure the true impact of the cuts, which may appear more visible in smaller and less diversified economies such as Mozambique and Mali, where USAID funding accounted for a greater proportion of Gross National Income (GNI).
Fig 2
Reframing the data to examine those countries most affected in terms of USAID funding as a proportion of GNI shows that the impact is most acute in smaller and less diversified economies. This includes Liberia, Somalia – as well as Malawi and Mozambique, highlighted in the first chart.
Take Liberia for example, founded by American slaves, and yet has had a cursed existence, now continuing in its sorrowful path since tariffs and cutting of USAID:
MONROVIA, Liberia — Why is Liberia poor? The answer is long and nuanced, the multifaceted causes are deeply ingrained in the system of governance and socioeconomic ecosystem. However, one of the most widely spread root causes for nation-wide poverty is violent conflict. This is certainly the case for Liberia, the West-African nation originally founded in 1821 by former American slaves under the American Colonization Society.
Founded on pillars of liberty and freedom, its recent history is marred by a coup in the 1980s, which followed with years of civil war, a repressive government under Charles Taylor until 2003 and then a serious outbreak of Ebola in 2014. It is only now that Liberia can begin its road to recovery.
The U.S. is trying to facilitate a total financial support package of up to $40 billion for Argentina, but only $20 billion comes from U.S. government funds.
The deal includes a $20 billion currency swap between the U.S. Treasury and Argentina’s central bank. That was authorized in October and was heavily criticized in both countries, especially after President Donald Trump initially tied support to President Javier Milei’s performance in the October election in Argentina. Critics argue that using financial assistance to influence foreign elections sets a dangerous precedent.
The remaining $20 billion was originally expected to come from private banks and sovereign wealth funds, coordinated by the Treasury Department to invest in Argentine debt. But in November 2025, a group of banks backed out of a plan for the matching $20 billion package, instead opting to explore a smaller, short-term loan deal, according to reports.
The September 2 2025 killing by drone strike of 2 survivors, clinging to debris after their boat was destroyed by a US military strike in the Caribbean, has caused distress, outrage and a massive response in the media.
Hegseth gives chilling reply amid report of ‘kill them all’ order during first Caribbean boat strike: ‘Just begun to…’
Story by Shuvrajit Das Biswas
• 8h
U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth reportedly issued an order to ‘kill everyone’ during the first US boat strike in the Caribbean.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth issued a chilling one-liner after a Washington Post report claimed he’d given a directive for everyone to be killed during the first Caribbean boat strike.
Hegseth, on X, said “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”
And Jack Goldsmith has written an analysis of the legal position.
I am a Harvard Law School professor, a non-resident senior fellow @AEI, and former head of the Office of Legal Counsel. I teach and write about, among other things, the presidency. My work can be found at jackgoldsmith.org.
He wrote a piece on Substack today, here is an extract:
One can imagine stretching Article II of the Constitution to authorize the U.S. drug boat campaign. The wildly overbroad Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) precedents, as I have written before, provide “no meaningful legal check on the president.” And there are dim historical precedents one could cite. Arthur Schlesinger Jr. noted in The Imperial Presidency that in the 19th century presidents unilaterally engaged in “[m]ilitary action against Indians—stateless and lawless by American definition—pirates, slave traders, smugglers, cattle rustlers, frontier ruffians [and] foreign brigands.”
One might also, possibly, stretch the laws of war to say that attacks on the drug boats are part of a “non-international armed conflict,” as OLC has reportedly concluded. This line of argument likely draws on a super-broad conception of the threat posed by the alleged drug runners as well as the expansive U.S. post-9/11 practice of treating as targetable (i) dangerous non-state actor terrorists off the battlefield; (ii) those who merely “substantially support” the groups with whom one is in an armed conflict; and (iii) activities that provide economic support to the war effort, such as Taliban drug labs or ISIS oil trucks. I don’t think this argument comes close to working without deferential reliance on a bad faith finding by the president about the non-international armed conflict and much greater stretches of precedent than the United States previously indulged after 9/11. Still, the unconvincing argument is conceivable.
But there can be no conceivable legal justification for what the Washington Post reported earlier today: That U.S. Special Operations Forces killed the survivors of a first strike on a drug boat off the coast of Trinidad who, in the Post’s words, “were clinging to the smoldering wreck.”
Prohibition Against Declaring That No Quarter Be Given. It is forbidden to declare that no quarter will be given. This means that it is prohibited to order that legitimate offers of surrender will be refused or that detainees, such as unprivileged belligerents, will be summarily executed. Moreover, it is also prohibited to conduct hostilities on the basis that there shall be no survivors, or to threaten the adversary with the denial of quarter. This rule is based on both humanitarian and military considerations. This rule also applies during non-international armed conflict.
This is an old principle of the laws of war. The Hague Regulations of 1907 state that “it is especially forbidden . . . [t]o declare that no quarter will be given.” The 1863 Lieber Code—the famous U.S. government rules governing military conduct during the Civil War—provides: “Whoever intentionally inflicts additional wounds on an enemy already wholly disabled, or kills such an enemy, or who orders or encourages soldiers to do so, shall suffer death, if duly convicted, whether he belongs to the Army of the United States, or is an enemy captured after having committed his misdeed.” And the currently governing DOD Manual in Section 5.9 states clearly that persons “placed hors de combat may not be made the object of attack.” The Manual defines “hors de combat” to include “persons . . . otherwise incapacitated by . . . shipwreck.”
In short, if the Post’s facts are correct, it appears that Special Operations Forces committed murder when the “two men were blown apart in the water,” as the Post put it.
…………….
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth gave a spoken directive,according to two people with direct knowledge of the operation. “The order was to kill everybody,” one of them said.
The Post then reports that after then-Joint Special Operations Command chief U.S. Navy Admiral Frank “Mitch” Bradley became aware of the survivors, he “ordered the second strike to fulfill Hegseth’s directive that everyone must be killed.” This makes it seem like Hegseth—even if his initial “order” was (as it seems) a command to take no quarter—might not have been in the loop between the first and second strikes.
I do not believe, based on the facts in the Post story, that Bradley could have relied on Hegseth’s order—even if Hegseth formally ordered the second strike. The prohibition on targeting a disabled combatant is so clear that Bradley had a duty, in the words of 18.22.4 of the Manual, “to refuse to comply with clearly illegal orders to commit violations of the law of war.”
According to the Post, Bradley at some point argued that “the survivors were still legitimate targets because they could theoretically call other traffickers to retrieve them and their cargo.” That is wrong. The theoretical possibility of calling other traffickers for help is not the test. The incapacitated survivors simply may not be targeted unless, as Section 5.9 of the Manual says, they affirmatively committed a “hostile act” or “attempt[ed] to escape.” If the Post’s facts are in the vicinity of the truth, that could not have happened. (The Intercept, which reported the kernel of this event in September, said that the survivors were “killed shortly after in a follow-up attack.”)
I wrote a few weeks ago about the possibility of an OLC golden shield as a defense to illegal conduct in connection with the boat strikes. OLC is forbidden to “advance an interpretation of the law as the position of the United States that contravenes the President or the Attorney General’s opinion on a matter of law” and is exercising power delegated from an Attorney General unflinchingly beholden to the President. But I do not believe that even the Bondi OLC could legally justify the events the Post reported. In an opinion last summer upholding the general legality of the drug boat campaign, OLC apparently stated (or at least assumed) that the law of armed conflict governed the strikes. In this light, it is hard to see how OLC could bless these strikes, much less do so ex post. Which leaves the pardon power as the option that can, and no doubt will, eventually immunize what happened.
Hegseth has emphasized that he wants to restore the “warrior ethos” in the U.S. military. In the hours after the story, he signaled generic support for the boat strike campaign and chest-thumped that “We have only just begun to kill narco-terrorists.”
Yet the warrior ethos has always demanded honorable conduct in warfare. The Navy Seals, for example, describe themselves as “a special breed of warrior” but the Seal Ethos thrice emphasizes the importance of honor, including “on . . . the battlefield.” And surely the warrior ethos, whatever else it means, doesn’t require killing helpless men clinging to the burning wreckage of a blown-up boat. The DOD Manual is clear because the law here is clear: “Persons who have been incapacitated by . . . shipwreck are in a helpless state, and it would be dishonorable and inhumane to make them the object of attack.”
Dec 1st, 2025
White House, protecting Pete Hegseth, now appear to throw Admiral Bradley ‘under the bus’ for having ordered the ‘double tap’ killing of survivors clinging to previously struck boat.
Who is Admiral Bradley?
Adm. Frank M. Bradley is a U.S. Navy SEAL Officer. Originally from Eldorado, Texas, ADM Bradley is a 1991 graduate of the United States Naval Academy, where he studied physics and was a varsity gymnast. He began his career as a SEAL after completing Basic Underwater Demolition school (BUDs/SEAL) Class 179 in 1992.
He has commanded at all levels of special operations, including Joint Special Operations Command, Special Operations Command Central, and Naval Special Warfare Development Group. He has multiple tours in command of joint task forces and was among the first to deploy into Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11, 2001. Additionally, he has served with SEAL Team FOUR, SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team TWO, and the Italian Incursori (Italian SEALs) as an international exchange officer.
Adm. Bradley earned a Masters in Physics from Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where he received a provisional patent for his research in 2006.
His staff duty has included service as the Assistant Commander, Joint Special Operations Command as well as the J-3 Technical Operations Division Chief and the Deputy J-3; the Vice Deputy Director for Global Operations for the Joint Staff J-3; the Executive Officer for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph F. Dunford, Jr.; and the Deputy Director for CT Strategy for the Joint Staff J-5.
Intelligence on U.S. Military’s Boat Strikes Is Limited
What Happened: A New York Times investigation found the U.S. has killed over 80 people in Trump’s Caribbean/Pacific boat-strike campaign despite having little idea who was being targeted. The Pentagon concedes it only has vague confidence the boats carried drugs, meaning many victims may have been fishermen, couriers, or civilians.
Why It Matters: The U.S. is carrying out lethal operations with almost no intelligence, normalizing extrajudicial killing, and risking massive blowback. Lawmakers warn the strikes mirror discredited “signature strikes,” erasing oversight and creating long-term security risks.
Trump says the U.S. will ‘very soon’ take action on land to stop alleged Venezuelan drug traffickers
What Happened: Trump said the U.S. could “very soon” begin land strikes in Venezuela, escalating a months-long military campaign that has already killed at least 83 people in maritime operations. His comments come as he massed major naval assets in the Caribbean, designates a pro-Maduro faction as a foreign terrorist organization, and weighs a broader military intervention.
Why It Matters: Threatening ground operations pushes the U.S. to the brink of an unauthorized war driven by politicized claims about drug trafficking that experts say have little basis. Trump is using a narcotics pretext to justify regime-change and an oil grab, raising the risk of regional conflict and catastrophic miscalculation.
TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — Former Honduras President Juan Orlando Hernández, sentenced last year to 45 years in prison for his role in helping drug traffickers move hundreds of tons of cocaine to the United States, was released from prison following a pardon from President Donald Trump, his wife announced Tuesday.
How did this happen? Well, thanks to Ed Martin, the ‘pardon’ lust producer, also was the lawyer for Jan 6th insurrectionists, and Roger Stone’s letter:
Roger Stone claims Trump announced pardon for Juan Orlando Hernández “three hours after” he sent Trump a letter from the former Honduran president
Ana García de Hernández to Stone: “We also want to express our helpful gratitude for the support that you had given … to my husband and the father of my daughters. Since you start speaking about this case, you made such a huge difference.”
The latest strike came the same day Navy Adm. Frank Bradley was in Congress to brief lawmakers on the U.S. military’s Sept. 2 strike against an alleged drug-smuggling boat in the Caribbean, where 11 people were killed.
During the briefings, which were held in both chambers, Bradley, the commander of Joint Special Operations Command, denied reports that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth issued an order to “kill everybody” aboard before the Sept. 2 operation.
The briefing from Bradley came as lawmakers in both parties were asking the Trump administration for more information regarding the Sept. 2 mission, where the U.S. military conducted four strikes, two to kill those on board and two others to sink the vessel.
Since early September, the U.S. military has conducted more than 20 strikes against purported drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, killing at least 87 people, according to the Trump administration.
Thursday’s strike in the eastern Pacific represents the first U.S. strike against an alleged drug-smuggling vessel since mid-November, when the U.S. military blew up a purported drug-smuggling boat and killed three “narco-terrorists.”
Summary of Trump pardons (to Dec 10, 2025) for criminals who can afford to buy a pardon:
Trump pardons major drug traffickers despite his anti-drug rhetoric
What Happened: Trump has granted clemency to more than 100 people convicted of drug crimes, including Silk Road founder Ross Ulbricht, gang leader Larry Hoover, Baltimore drug boss Garnett Gilbert Smith, and Honduran ex-president Juan Orlando Hernández, tied to 400 tons of cocaine entering the U.S. The pardons come even as Trump orders lethal strikes on suspected boats under the guise of countering drugs.
Why It Matters: Trump is freeing some of the world’s most notorious traffickers, exposing clemency as a tool of loyalty and influence rather than public safety. The contradiction undercuts his drug-war theatrics and shows how violent offenders walk free while militarized operations serve political showmanship.
How the rich and powerful jockey for pardons from Trump
What Happened: Trump has issued nearly 1,600 pardons this year, an unprecedented wave that bypasses the Justice Department and turns clemency into a political weapon. Wealthy allies, lobbyists, and insiders now compete for influence as Trump overrides prosecutors and hands out pardons to figures like a Honduran ex-president convicted of drug trafficking, Rep. Henry Cuellar, and even an executive charged by his own DOJ.
Why It Matters: Trump has turned clemency into a loyalty marketplace, rewarding allies while clearing corruption cases and delegitimizing Biden-era prosecutions. By collapsing the formal pardon system, he’s turned justice into a patronage network where money, access, and allegiance decide who walks free.
UK poised to approve massive Chinese embassy in London
China angrily warned of “consequences” if the embassy was not granted planning permission.
A flag flies atop a pole on the roof of the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in the United Kingdom, on Portland Place in London on November 18, 2025. | Justin Tallis/AFP via Getty Images
LONDON — Keir Starmer is set to approve a new Chinese “super-embassy” in central London despite a string of security concerns which were raised through the planning process.
The Times reported Friday that intelligence services MI5 and MI6 are now satisfied that the project — long a source of controversy in the U.K. — should go ahead, with some “mitigations” to protect national security.
In a plot twist straight out of a techno-thriller — if techno-thrillers starred incompetent billionaires and corrupt presidents — Elon Musk just got busted sneaking 2,000 TONS of Chinese electrical transformers straight into the heart of America’s top-secret AI supercomputer—the Pentagon’s own xAI “Colossus”.
And here from the Daily Beast:
Musk’s AI Fortress Hides a Secret That Trump Will Hate
Trump Planning New Superclub With India? All About Buzz On New Core-5 Grouping
The idea is to create a new body of major powers, one that isn’t hemmed in by the G7’s requirements that the countries be both wealthy and democratically governed.
US President Donald Trump is reportedly exploring a new elite ‘C5’, or ‘Core Five’, forum of world powers that would bring together America, Russia, China, India and Japan, sidelining the existing Europe-dominated G7 and other traditional democracy and wealth based groupings.
While so far there has been no official word on the matter, American publication Politico reported that the idea for the new hard-power group came up in a longer, unpublished version of the National Security Strategy that the White House published last week.
The publication said it could not confirm the existence of the longer plan, but it was reported by Defense One.
The idea is reportedly to create a new body of major powers, one that isn’t hemmed in by the G7’s requirements that the countries be both wealthy and democratically governed.
“The strategy proposes a ‘Core Five,’ or C5, consisting of the United States, China, Russia, India, and Japan – several countries with populations over 100 million. It would meet regularly, like the G7, at summits on specific topics. The first on the proposed C5 agenda: security in the Middle East, specifically the normalisation of relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia,” the report said.
A “Trumpian Idea”?
According to Politico, the White House has denied the existence of this document, with press secretary Hannah Kelly insisting that “no alternative, private, or secret version” of the 33-page official plan exists.
However, national security experts believe the idea has a “Trumpian” ring to it, and the creation of the C5 could be appropriate for the current White House.
“This is consistent with how we believe President Trump views the world, which is non-ideological, through a sympathy for strong players, and through a tendency to cooperate with other great powers that maintain spheres of influence in their region,” Torrey Taussig, who served as director for European affairs on the US National Security Council during the Biden administration, told the publication.
She noted that Europe does not feature in the theoretical C5, “which, I guess, would make Europeans believe that this administration views Russia as a leading power capable of exercising its sphere of influence in Europe.”
Michael Sobolik, an aide to US Republican Senator Ted Cruz during the first Trump administration, noted that the creation of C5 would be a departure from Trump’s China policy in his first term as president.
“The first Trump administration adhered to the concept of great power competition, and that’s how we framed and discussed relations with China… This is just a huge departure from that,” he said.
Allies’ Concerns
The report comes at a time when Washington is already debating how much the second Trump administration intends to upend the world order. The idea casts existing forums like the G7 and G20 as inadequate for a multipolar world, prioritising deal‑making among major population and military‑economic powers.
US allies view the move as legitimisation of “strongmen” by elevating Russia over Europe and potentially weakening Western unity and NATO cohesion.
And poor Memphis population:
Aug 13, 2025 1:00 PM GMT
‘We Are the Last of the Forgotten:’ Inside the Memphis Community Battling Elon Musk’s xAI
Five days after Elon Musk’s Grok 4 became one of the most powerful large language models in the world, Alexis Humphreys had her first severe asthma attack in 15 years. She laid down in her house in Boxtown, Memphis in the humid, sticky summer, struggling to breathe, inhaling a smell of gas that had started wafting into her neighborhood about a year before. “It felt like my chest was caving in,” Humphreys, 28, says on her front porch a couple of days later.
The countries involved in the 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes, and 14 Eyes alliances and their partners
Five Eyes countries: United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand
Nine Eyes countries: The Five Eyes plus Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and France
Fourteen Eyes countries: The Nine Eyes plus Italy, Germany, Belgium, Sweden, and Spain
Partners of the Fourteen Eyes: Israel, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, British Overseas Territories
It’s worth noting that although all countries in the Fourteen Eyes share information within their group, the Nine Eyes and Five Eyes are both more secretive.
While the Five Eyes are privy to the information collected by the Nine Eyes, Fourteen Eyes, and the partners, not all the information collected by the Five Eyes is available to the others. The same is true of the Nine Eyes. The partners, while they do share information they collect with the other alliances, do not have any access to the information collected by the alliances on alliance countries.
As the want for increased surveillance grows, more countries apparently align themselves with this global surveillance system. This system of alliances seems to have a hierarchy of secrets.
Trump’s intel chief freezes out Five Eyes allies on Ukraine
The intelligence alliance of the U.K., Canada, Australia and New Zealand as well as the U.S. is one of the closest in the world.
The move by Gabbard is the second major curb on intelligence-sharing by President Donald Trump’s administration this year. | POOL photo by Eric Lee/EPA
U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard is blocking America’s closest intelligence allies from receiving updates on Russia-Ukraine peace talks in a shock move that upends decades of tight cooperation.
That effectively cuts America’s Five Eyes partners — the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — out of the loop, stunning the intelligence community that has relied on the network since the end of World War II.
December 6, 20255:58 PM GMTUpdated December 6, 2025
Summary
US could withdraw from some NATO planning mechanisms if unsatisfied with progress
Unclear how US would measure progress
Trump rhetoric towards alliance runs hot and cold
WASHINGTON, Dec 5 (Reuters) – The United States wants Europe to take over the majority of NATO’s conventional defense capabilities, from intelligence to missiles, by 2027, Pentagon officials told diplomats in Washington this week, a tight deadline that struck some European officials as unrealistic.
The message, recounted by five sources familiar with the discussion, including a U.S. official, was conveyed at a meeting in Washington this week of Pentagon staff overseeing NATO policy and several European delegations.
Howard Lutnick was a neighbor of Jeffrey Epstein from 1998, when he purchased the property next to Epstein’s townhouse, until Epstein’s death in 2019, making it approximately 21 years. Newsweek Go.com
So some emails between Steve Bannon and Jeffrey Epstein, recently released show Trump visited Howard Lutnick in 2019:
5/13/2019 1:07 PM – 1:22 PM
The homes of Jeffrey Epstein and Howard Lutnick, #9 and #11 E. 71st St., NYC
JE: i won’t be home otherwise i could have come out an waved.
SB: Ha! I love it
Howard Lutnick
The economy is not stopping. It just doesn’t feel that way to me,” said Lutnick, who became CEO of Cantor in 1991 and chairman as well in 1996.
Lutnick joined Cantor in 1983. He is known for rebuilding Cantor after the Sept. 11, 2001, World Trade Center terrorist attacks. The company lost more than two-thirds of its then 960 New York-based employees, including Lutnick’s brother. Cantor and its affiliates now have more than 10,000 employees globally.
President Donald Trump said last month his tariffs on Chinese goods are causing companies to move production out of China and into places such as Vietnam.
Once those supply chains move, China won’t be able to get them back, argued Lutnick, also chairman and CEO of BGC Partners, a brokerage that was spun off from Cantor in 2004.
“I think each 6 months [of the trade war] will cost China 1% of GDP,” Lutnick told CNBC’s Bob Pisani. Therefore, “they’ll try to make a deal with the [Trump] administration before” the 2020 presidential election, he added.
‘Total disregard’ for the law: Inside Howard Lutnick’s sports betting gambit
Cantor Gaming was years ahead of the mobile sports betting craze. But it repeatedly ran afoul of state and federal regulators.
Cantor Gaming, a company founded by Donald Trump’s Commerce secretary pick, Howard Lutnick, repeatedly violated state and federal laws, authorities said. | Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
There were 46 donors who contributed to the transition effort, according to a copy of the list published by The New York Times, which reports the transition raised slightly more than $14 million and spent $13.7 million.
Among the biggest names on the list are billionaires Howard Lutnick and Linda McMahon, who co-chaired the transition effort and went on to be named Commerce Secretary and Secretary of Education, respectively.
And Lev Parnas comments after becoming tired of press conferences where Trump has degraded and insulted female reporters when they ask a question based on facts:
For me, this is where I draw the line: if Donald Trump cannot treat women journalists like human beings, then no respectable outlet should be in that room. Major networks and newspapers need to stop pretending this is business as usual. Journalists’ organizations and unions should be demanding better — not just for their members, but for every woman who’s watching this and learning what men in power can get away with. Editors and executives have a decision to make: are you journalists, or are you producers for Trump’s abuse show?
We cannot keep rewarding this behavior with ratings and ad dollars. We cannot keep sending women into a room where their job description now includes being humiliated on live TV by a man who ran with Epstein and sees women as disposable
The Justice Department just released over 3 million pages of Jeffrey Epstein files. Buried in the dump: documentary proof that the two men who funded Trump’s return to power – Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and Elon Musk – both lied about their relationships with the convicted sex trafficker.
Lutnick brought his wife and four children to Epstein’s Island for Christmas 2012.
Musk asked about “the wildest party on your island.”
Lutnick now controls the most sensitive portfolios in American foreign policy: Ukraine. Israel. China. Russia. Musk was Trump’s key donor and ran voter manipulation campaigns to help elect Trump.
And both are closely connected to Vladimir Putin.
THE PUBLIC RECORD: LUTNICK’S OCTOBER 2025 STATEMENT
The Story Lutnick Told
October 2025. Howard Lutnick is fighting for Senate confirmation as Commerce Secretary.
He goes on the New York Post podcast. Tells a story about his former neighbor Jeffrey Epstein.
The year was 2005. Lutnick and his wife had just moved next door to Epstein’s East 71st Street townhouse. Epstein invited them over. Showed them around.
Then the massage room.
“How often do you get a massage?” Lutnick asked.
“Every day,” Epstein said. Then got close. “The right kind of massage.”
Lutnick says he and his wife walked out. Took “six to eight steps” back to their own house. Made a decision right there.
“I will never be in a room with that disgusting person ever again.”
He called Epstein “gross.” Called him “the greatest blackmailer ever.” Said he assumed everything in that massage room was being filmed.
The relationship ended in 2005. Done. Over. Never again.
The Senate believed him. Confirmed him as Commerce Secretary three months ago.
What The Documents Show
The DOJ had the files during Lutnick’s confirmation hearing. They didn’t release them until today.
December 23, 2012 – seven years after “never again”:
Lutnick’s wife Allison emails Epstein’s assistant Lesley Groff. The Lutnicks are heading to Little St. James from St. Thomas. They need to know where to anchor the yacht.
They’re bringing their four children. Another family. Coming for lunch with Jeffrey Epstein.
December 24, 2012:
Email to Lutnick from someone writing for Epstein: “Nice seeing you.”
The visit happened.
October 3, 2013:
Epstein emails his accountant Richard Kahn. Attaches “the resume of Lutnick nanny.” Says he’s “trying to arrange a time via Peter for you to meet her.”
Why is Epstein’s accountant interviewing the Lutnick family’s childcare provider?
November 2015:
Lutnick invites Epstein to a Hillary Clinton fundraiser. At Cantor Fitzgerald. Lutnick’s own company.
Ten years after the massage room. Three years after Epstein’s conviction.
2017:
Emails between Lutnick and Epstein about construction on a building across the street from both their townhouses. Still neighbors. Still talking.
2018:
Epstein contributes to a philanthropic dinner honoring Howard Lutnick.
Thirteen years after “never again.”
When He Got Caught
The New York Times called Lutnick this afternoon. Asked about the documents.
“I spent zero time with him,” Lutnick said. Then hung up.
The Commerce Department released a statement: Lutnick had “limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife.”
The documents show his wife emailing about bringing their children to the island. Show thirteen years of contact. Show business arrangements. Show a relationship that never ended.
Lutnick lied under oath during confirmation. The DOJ had proof. They held the files for three months.
Feb 17 2026
Feb 17 Trump-Epstein Map: $10 mansion, Cantor Fitzgerald money laundering and the Duchess of Grift
Howard Lutnick – Lutnick “was a neighbor of JEFFREY EPSTEIN in the adjoining property at 11 E 71st Street.” Lutnick “bought the property for $10 through a trust.” “LES WEXNER and EPSTEIN owned the building.” – Narativ
Sarah Ferguson – Lutnick gave Sarah Ferguson, the Duchess of York office space above Cantor Fitzgerald for a charity called Children in Crisis. Ghislaine Maxwell and Ferguson attended events called Dolce Vita Parties.
Relationship maps help connect the dots in the Republicans coverup of the Epstein files to protect Trump. Click on any face for details, search by name (top left), or click on Category (bottom left) on the map.Explore the Feb 17 Trump – Epstein relationship map
Epstein Files – Public Document Archives
Search 293,936 declassified documents from the Jeffrey Epstein case. All documents from U.S. Department of Justice, FBI vault, and federal court filings. We index public records — we don’t host or modify them. Independent, non-commercial project for journalists, researchers, and the public. 100% free, open source, no ads, no tracking.
The FBI 302 That Should Have Stopped a Cabinet Pick
An FBI whistleblower’s 302, published in the latest Epstein file release, accuses Lutnick of money laundering with the Russian mafia through Cantor Fitzgerald, fraud, and facilitating charity theft alongside Ghislaine Maxwell. The whistleblower, a 30-year securities industry veteran who worked on Cantor’s desk, gave the FBI this information in 2021. A search of FBI databases returned 34 hits on Lutnick including three suspicious activity reports. When the FBI vetted him for Commerce Secretary, those red flags were either minimized or withheld entirely. “They were just brushed away,” Zev reported.
And
Ellie Leonard uncovered a previously unreported email in the Epstein files from Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, attaching the resume of Howard Lutnick’s nanny and arranging a meeting with Epstein. “Epstein doesn’t have children. Epstein doesn’t need a nanny,” Leonard noted. The email surfaced months after Lutnick’s documented December 2012 visit to Epstein’s island — a trip he swore under oath never happened until confronted with his wife’s own emails describing the boat ride there. Lutnick bought the Manhattan townhouse next door to Epstein’s from a trust Epstein controlled, reportedly for as little as $10
And Daily Beast reported in Jan 2026:
Trump Goon Who Denied Epstein Ties Begged for Island Visit
Updated Jan. 31 2026 4:06AM EST Published Jan. 30 2026 5:02PM EST
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has tried to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein, but the latest release of documents by the Justice Department revealed the top Trump official once planned a trip to the convicted sex offender’s private island.
Lutnick was Epstein’s next-door neighbor when both lived in townhouses on the swanky Upper East Side of Manhattan.
Amid the fallout over the slow release of Epstein files last October, Lutnick described the late disgraced financier as “gross” and a “blackmailer.”
But documents released on Friday showed the billionaire businessman also once planned a trip to Epstein’s private island in 2012.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and his wife Allison Lutnick attend the premiere of “Melania” on Jan. 29, 2026. On Friday, the latest batch of Epstein documents released showed Lutnick planned to visit Epstein’s island in 2012.Taylor Hill/WireImage
The documents from that December showed that Lutnick sent Epstein an email letting him know that a group of people, including his wife, children, and another family, would be visiting the Caribbean. Lutnick asked where Epstein was located and if they could come over for dinner.
Lesley Groff, Epstein’s assistant, replied to Lutnick on her boss’s behalf and invited them over for lunch at his private island, Little St. James. They confirmed the lunch for Sunday, Dec. 23, 2012.
Another email suggested the gathering did take place. One day after the scheduled lunch, Epstein’s assistant forwarded Lutnick a message from her boss that read: “Nice seeing you.”Late convicted sex-offender Jeffrey Epstein, pictured in 2005, lived next-door to Lutnick on the Upper East Side.Patrick McMullan/Patrick McMullan via Getty Image
The New York Times reported that they reached Lutnick on Friday by phone to ask him about the island visit, but Lutnick said he could not comment because he hadn’t seen the latest batch of documents.
“I spent zero time with him,” Lutnick said before hanging up.
In a separate email, dated Oct. 3, 2013, Epstein sent an email to his accountant, Richard Kahn, attaching “the résumé of Lutnick nanny,” noting that he was trying to “arrange a time via Peter for you to meet her.”Email from Jeffrey Epstein regarding “Lutnick nanny.”Department of Justice/Department of Justice
Meanwhile, another email released as part of Friday’s document dump showed that Lutnick also invited Epstein to a Hillary Clinton fundraiser in November 2015.
Lutnick sent the invitation to the event being hosted at the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, where he previously served as chairman and CEO, to Epstein’s assistant.
Groff then forwarded it on to Epstein. It’s not clear whether Epstein attended the event.Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick speaks as President Donald Trump during a Cabinet meeting on January 29, 2026.Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
But both the island visit and fundraiser invite raise further questions about the commerce secretary’s interactions with Epstein after he insisted he had almost nothing to do with his one-time neighbor.
“This is nothing more than a failing attempt by the legacy media to distract from the administration’s accomplishments including securing Trillions [sic] of dollars in investment, delivering historic trade deals, and fighting for the American worker,” a Commerce Department spokesperson told the Daily Beast in a statement.
Howard Lutnick and Tether, by Narativ, Mar 24 2026
Oil reserves that remain have a calculation attached which tells producers how many years remain that they could expect wealth from this fossil fuel.
Present regimes of United States, Russia and Saudi Arabia might not like Venezuela holding the highest oil reserves, as they know their own leadership in producing the highest amount currently merely emphasises they will drill to the last drop in decades from now.
Just read this about the present situation around Steve Witkoff’s deal making, by Susan Zakin, Journal of Plague Years, Substack:
Steve Witkoff, the real estate developer who is the point man for Trump’s foreign policy, along with Kushner, is also suspected of mixing the personal with the political, engaging in private tete a tetes not only with Vladimir Putin but also with Kirill Dmitriev, Russia’s top economic negotiator and, as the Kyiv Independent put it in a Nov. 22 article, “an operator in Moscow’s efforts to influence Washington.”
Witkoff, as reported earlier by the Journal, has significant financial ties to Leonard Blavatnik, the richest, and arguably, the most urbane of the Russian businessmen who became billionaires in the so-called “aluminum wars,” of the 1990s, a resource grab that followed the breakup of the Soviet Union. While Blavatnik denies that he has ongoing contact with Putin, he is regarded as a prime purveyor of Russia’s soft power, making massive contributions to universities, think tanks, and cultural institutions. A few years ago, he became involved in multi-billion real estate deals with Witkoff. Real estate had not been Blavatnik’s business, but it seems likely that the relatively obscure real estate developer caught the oligarch’s attention because of Witkoff’s long friendship with Trump.
Whatever his motives, according to the Independent, Witkoff has successfully sidelined the foreign policy professionals that remained in the Trump White House. Most prominent among them is Keith Kellogg, the career diplomat and special envoy to Ukraine, who announced recently that he will be leaving his post.
The result of Witkoff’s private meetings was a proposal that has been roundly criticized as a Russian template – one that includes ceding territory that Russia does not currently control, giving up the hope of NATO membership, slashing the Ukrainian military, and dividing Ukraine into Russian and Ukrainian-controlled territory with a high-security, 21st century Berlin Wall.
“Witkoff has spent the past month quietly shaping the framework, working directly with Dmitriev, a source familiar with the matter said,” according to the Independent.
“Multiple sources noted that European allies were excluded from drafting the plan — and Ukraine was cut out as well.”
The proposal appears to be dead in the water already.
And this latest plan for Ukraine’s surrender which Trump is pressuring them to accept? The international view was that this was drawn up by Americans, but it seems the wording was drawn up by Russians:
Marco Rubio told US senators that Ukraine peace plan was not America’s — but a ‘leaked’ Russian ‘wish list’
Donald Trump is pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept a controversial 28-point peace plan that includes significant concessions from Ukraine, such as ceding territory and reducing its military size. Zelensky has warned that Ukraine faces one of its most difficult moments in history due to this pressure and the potential loss of U.S. support. BBC chathamhouse.org
And sadness prolongued for Ukraine, written by Viktor Kravchuk on Substack:
I lived there for several months when I had nowhere to go after the invasion.
A moment in our nation when the war scattered millions of us and forced us to find new places to just carry on with life.
I had never visited this city before. No friends, no contacts there. My father used to say that our peasant roots came from that part of Ukraine generations ago, but nothing concrete.
Still, Ternopil opened its doors to me when I was lost.
I cooked, delivered food, baked bread. I worked any job I could find just to stay afloat.
I walked those streets late at night trying to rebuild a life that had collapsed in my hands.
In streets I did not know, trying to convince myself that life had not ended yet.
Ternopil held me up so softly, that is why I felt the attack this week like a knife reaching my soul.
When I knew that the missile hit the eastern side of the city, I checked the map.
It was only some blocks from where I used to stay.
I knew those windows. I knew those balconies where people used to keep bicycles and flower pots.
Above, the residential building after the attack. Below, the image of the same building from 2015 in Google Maps, you can check it here
Russia struck a place where people trusted the distance.
I do not know exactly, it must be one thousand or so kilometers or miles from the nearest frontline.
A place closer to Berlin than to Moscow, where parents sent their children to feel safer.
Putin sent missiles that hit two apartment buildings.
They created poison in the air.
Chlorine levels six times above normal.
And there are still those in the world who believe this nightmare can be settled with a handshake with that demon in the Kremlin.
You would understand the truth if you ever walked through that city.
Humble workers. Mothers at the market selling berries.
Families who keep the Ukrainian flag in their windows even after losing sons at the front.
People who believe in this country with strength even though they have no idea where it comes from.
They deserved a morning that stayed whole. A night that did not collapse on them.
I tried to write about this attack several times.
Three or four full drafts, all in trash now.
None of them worked. Nothing felt worthy of the people who died.
Nothing really seemed to carry their faces, their streets, their kindness.
To see them hit is more than unbearable.
The horror is so strong that it knocks the words out of us, but I cannot stay silent.
Not when a city that once gave me shelter is now digging the bodies of children out of its ruins.
And on the same day, at the same moment of that insanity, many voices outside Ukraine were speaking about peace at any cost.
Land concessions, reduced armies.
Surrender wrapped in polite language.
And yet here we are, burying families in a city located one hour’s drive from the border with that bastion of civilization called the European Union.
This other building above, below in a Google Maps photo from 2015. Russians are so mad that I would not be surprised if the graffiti “Slava Ukraini” was behind their decision to attack these innocent places (even though the ink probably did not survive the weather for so long, but still…)
I keep thinking about how I used to walk those sidewalks while trying to rebuild my own life.
I never felt like a stranger there.
Ternopil made room for me in a moment when I needed it. And suddenly the streets I walked were full of smoke and broken glass.
But I will not let Ternopil vanish into a headline of a past week.
This city once held me up when I had nothing, now it is my part to carry some words for her.
For some significant time I really thought that Ternopil would be the last stop of my life.
It would be much more justice if I would be in those apartments than those families and children there.
But I learned not to question the decisions that destiny makes beyond our control.
I can only mourn. To feel. To cry.
To write.
To carry this city in my heart.
Forever.
And today at least, you are carrying Ternopil with me.
—Viktor
🇺🇦
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From left, Donald Trump, Aras Agalarov and Emin Agalarov walk the red carpet at the Miss Universe pageant competition in Moscow in November 2013. (Victor Boyko/Getty Images)
Now, like an anxious schoolboy dying to ask out a girl to the prom, Trump reached out to Putin again. He couldn’t keep his feelings to himself. So on June 18, 2013, just as the planning for the pageant was getting underway, Trump tweeted: “Do you think Putin will be going to The Miss Universe Pageant in November in Moscow — if so, will he become my new best friend?”
It was not until June 26, 2013, more than a week after his tweet, that Trump finally mustered the courage to write Putin, inviting him to be “guest of honor” at the upcoming pageant in November. Dropping Aras Agalarov’s name, as if to show that he was in bed with one of the Russian’s president’s favored oligarchs, Trump noted that “we turned down many other competing countries in favor of Russia.”
At the bottom of the typewritten letter, he added, in his own familiar penmanship, “The World’s Most Beautiful Women!”
See Chris Ungar, Substack: 34. From Las Vegas to Moscow: The Miss Universe Pageant and Trump’s Russian Ties (2013)
1990s, the ‘aluminium wars’ when gangsters and billionaires flourished in Russia:
Millions of files in the Football Leaks dataset relate to the business of a Kazakh-Turkish family called the Arifs. For the past 25 years they have operated almost unnoticed, but built an empire which has cultivated relationships with Russian mobsters, post-soviet plunderers, wealthy Turks and even presidents.
The source of the Arifs’ wealth is a polluting chrome foundry in Kazakhstan. Since the 1990s, the Arifs have been in business with the ‘Kazakh trio’, controversial businessmen close to Kazakhstan president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. It is these relationships that the family has spent over two decades trying to protect
Oleg Deripaska has a colourful history, much of which has come under scrutiny in the courtroom. Despite clearing his name several times, there’s another high-profile case on the cards
Oleg Deripaska and the Russian aluminium wars
Oleg Deripaska has a colourful history, much of which has come under scrutiny in the courtroom. Despite clearing his name several times, there’s another high-profile case on the cards
The story contains colour, adventure, allegations of criminality and accolades for public service. Much of it, for legal reasons, remains unprintable. The sole owner and chief executive of diversified investment group, Basic Element, Deripaska has been in several courts of law in several countries attacking and defending his countrymen over manoeuvres to control lucrative corporate interests. Estimates of his net worth have seen his position in the Forbes list of billionaires swing from ninth to 164th place in the space of one year (2008-2009), but by 2010 he was back up to number 57. This is certainly a man to watch.
Born in 1968 in a region east of Moscow, Deripaska grew up in a poor rural area to the south of the country, not far from the Black Sea. He studied theoretical physics at the Moscow State University, and later earned an economics degree from the Plekhanov Russian Academy of Economics. During the breakup of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s he claims to have been close to starvation, working on building sites to earn money for food and the continuation of his studies. As with so many other modern-day Russian oligarchs, he is then vague about his wealth accumulation, obtaining a 20 percent holding in a Siberian aluminium factory during the period 1993-96.
The wild wild East This was the start of what is now referred to as the Russian ‘aluminium wars’, a bloody period in the country’s post-communist asset grab from which a few dozen oligarchs emerged – and several potential oligarchs lost their lives. At the beginning of the period, Russian aluminium production was in disarray. Alumina, the main raw material, was in short supply domestically, and the foreign holders of refining plants were engaging in a lucrative practice called ‘tolling’. In this complex form of tax evasion, offshore companies took advantage of duty exemptions on the purchase of raw materials which they sold on to their refining facilities at market prices, booking the profits in the low-tax jurisdictions of their offshore havens. The government, allegedly, looked the other way.
As the state began to sell off its resource assets, the size and value of the global market for aluminium, along with the potential for moving money around the globe, attracted such fierce competition that it is estimated 100 people were killed. In the words of Roman Abramovich, who testified recently in his suit over events of that period, “Every three days, someone was being murdered.”
Deripaska rose to the top of the pile with a controlling interest in Sibirsky Aluminium Investment Industrial Group, having somehow managed to survive the influence of the local Russian mafia and other threats to his life. With allegations of organised crime and multiple murders apparently dogging his every move, his wealth grew over the next ten years into one of the largest fortunes in Russia.
No 1: Larry Summers whose ‘wingman’, he said in an email, was Epstein. (2013 to 2019).
Larry Summers had a connection with Jeffrey Epstein that spanned several years, including meetings and communications even after Epstein’s 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Summers served as president of Harvard University from 2001 to 2006, during which Epstein donated millions to the university, and their interactions continued until Epstein’s arrest in 2019. The Harvard Crimson Wikipedia
The Zionist link cannot be ignored.
Summers joked about ‘intelligence’ of females with Epstein.
Ex-Harvard president Larry Summers joked about ‘women being less intelligent than men’ in emails to Epstein
Larry Summers, as president of Harvard from 2001 to 2006, continued to engage with Epstein after the financier’s first arrest and plea deal. Summers’ administration accepted substantial Epstein donations, including funds channeled into the Program for Evolutionary Dynamics. Summers and his wife dined at Epstein’s Manhattan home. After leaving Harvard, Summers stayed in touch with Epstein even as the financier’s abuses became increasingly public. Summers used the same revolving door that has long connected elite universities, Wall Street, and presidential administrations—moving freely and comfortably across all three.
Alan Dershowitz, former Harvard Law Professor and Epstein’s close associate and legal strategist, exemplifies another pillar of this system: elite legal protection. Dershowitz defended Epstein vigorously, attacked survivors publicly, and remains embroiled in litigation connected to the case. Whether one believes Dershowitz’s claims of innocence is secondary to the structural fact: elite institutions reliably shield their own
Published date: 9 February 2021 11:54 GMT|Last update: 4 years 9 months ago
Lawyer Alan Dershowitz helped craft a proposal for the release of convicted paedophile and businessman George Nader from prison so he could be sent to the United Arab Emirates to help in diplomatic talks, according to a report by the New York Times.
According to the report, Dershowitz told Nader’s representatives that he had reached out to officials in the US and Israeli governments to see if they would support the commuting of his 10-year sentence for possessing child pornography and sex trafficking a minor if he would help negotiate what would become the Israeli-UAE normalisation deal.
Nader, 61, previously served as a key point of contact between members of former US President Donald Trump’s inner circle and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed, to whom he had served as a senior political adviser.
George Nader: How a convicted paedophile became key to an Emirati hook-up with Trump
Exclusive: Jeffrey Epstein’s investment in an Israeli start-up reveals a myriad of links to Donald Trump and Israeli spies.
What we found:
Jeffrey Epstein is an Israeli spy. He is an investor in a start-up with ties to Israeli Intelligence. Two Putin-linked oligarchs are his partners. The start-up poses a privacy risk. + Ties to Erik Prince, Michael Cohen, Ge…
The publicly available material paints a remarkably consistent picture. Epstein helped facilitate a security cooperation agreement between Israel and Mongolia on behalf of former prime minister Ehud Barak. He took part in discussions about a possible diplomatic pathway in Syria that would involve Russian participation, an effort that—had it succeeded—would have been profoundly consequential for Israeli strategic interests during the height of the civil war. He inserted himself into talks concerning a surveillance infrastructure package in Côte d’Ivoire, a project tied to Israel’s intelligence-industrial ecosystem. Taken together, these emails place Epstein in the middle of conversations that resemble private-statecraft more than social networking………
………American administrations have used unofficial intermediaries from Henry Kissinger to Erik Prince to Jared Kushner. Israel operates parallel networks of former intelligence officials and private contractors who move between government and commercial projects across the world. The pattern documented in the Epstein emails fits that existing model. If anything, Epstein’s wealth, discretion, and international reach made him unusually suited to operate in this murky space where private power intersects with state strategy.
How Jeffrey Epstein Helped Israel Establish A Police State In This Country
Story by Edited by NDTV News Desk
When a West African nation teetered on the edge of chaos, two unlikely figures moved behind the scenes to shape its future. One was Jeffrey Epstein, infamous financier and convicted sex offender. The other, Ehud Barak, former Israeli prime minister and defence minister. Together, they turned Cote d’Ivoire’s political unrest into a business opportunity using secret emails, private meetings, and behind-the-scenes diplomacy.
In the 1980s, Wall Street’s trading floors were dominated by open‑outcry systems. Brokers shouted orders across crowded rooms, using hand signals and verbal commands to complete trades. This method had been the backbone of exchanges for decades, but it was limited by human speed and physical presence.
The shift to electronic trading in the 1990s and 2000s transformed how markets operated. Orders could be executed in milliseconds, and investors no longer needed to rely on floor brokers. According to Market Daily, this transition marked one of the most significant changes in modern finance, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.
Someone who was born in Kyiv, Ukrane in 1975, went on to graduate at Stanford, then worked at Goldman Sachs and earned an MBA at Harvard, whose life has been travelling to key locations like Saudi Arabia and Ukraine, and who is now a key negotiator for Putin, trying to force the surrender of Ukraine at Nov 21, 2025:
Putin’s Man From Stanford
Who is Kirill Dmitriev, the key Russian negotiator with the U.S.?Доступно на русском
Date
18 Feb 2025
Kirill Dmitriev at the negotiations in Riyadh, February 18. Photo: REUTERS / Hamad I Mohammed / SCANPIX / LET
Negotiations between the U.S. and Russia on the terms of ending the war in Ukraine have begun in Saudi Arabia. One of the main figures on the Russian side is Kirill Dmitriev, a Stanford graduate, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), and a person close to Vladimir Putin. Bloomberg has named him, along with Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov and Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) chief Sergei Naryshkin, as part of the team of “heavyweights” in the negotiations. Dmitriev arrived in Saudi Arabia with Ushakov and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
IStories has gathered the main points about Dmitriev.
Kyiv native at Stanford and Harvard
Kirill Dmitriev was born in 1975 in Kyiv, Ukraine. He studied at a physics and mathematics school and wanted to continue his education in the U.S. In the early 1990s, he met an American family who had come to Kyiv through a “citizen diplomacy” program. They told him what a foreign applicant needed in the U.S. First, Dmitriev studied for two years at Foothill College in California, and then entered Stanford University. “I had no relatives there, I was one of the few foreign students who received a full scholarship for the entire duration of their studies,” he said.
After graduating from Stanford with honors, Dmitriev worked at Goldman Sachs and McKinsey, then received an MBA from Harvard Business School.
In 2000, he moved to Russia, taking the position of Deputy General Director at IBS. Two years later, Dmitriev became Investment Director at Delta Private Equity, a division of the U.S. Russia Investment Fund, which was created under Bill Clinton. The fund was later transformed into the U.S. Russia Foundation. In 2015, Russian authorities designated it an “undesirable organization.” Dmitriev worked at Delta Private Equity until 2007, overseeing several major deals, including the sale of the TV-3 television channel to the Profmedia holding for $530 million.
In 2007, he returned to Ukraine, heading the Icon Private Equity fund with a capital of about $1 billion. The fund was owned by Viktor Pinchuk, the son-in-law of former Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma. Returning to Russia several years later, Dmitriev spoke about Ukraine: “There were so-called democratic changes as a result of the Orange Revolution, which led to a three- to fourfold increase in corruption, to a wild battle between these democratic clans, which were only united at the beginning of the struggle, and after coming to power, began to devour others and each other, and as a result, they lost. Accordingly, the democratic idea in Ukraine has been largely discredited precisely because of the Orange Revolution.”
Fixer close to Putin
An important event in Dmitriev’s life was meeting and then marrying Natalya Popova. She is a friend of Katerina Tikhonova, Vladimir Putin’s younger daughter. They studied together at Moscow State University. Popova is now Tikhonova’s deputy at the Innopraktika Foundation. According to Popova, Putin’s daughter “called her into service.” Dmitriev is on the board of trustees of Innopraktika. It was Popova’s friendship with Tikhonova that made Dmitriev a “powerful figure in the Kremlin,” the Financial Timeswrote.
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