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Europe

How Vucic's Will Was Tested and Will Belgrade Resist a Color Revolution

2025-06-30

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Text taken from a news article posted in vfokuse.mail.ru
Why was the holiday of June 28 chosen to launch the color revolution in Belgrade

Taking advantage of the fact that the events surrounding the short-lived Iran-Israel war distracted the world community's attention from Belgrade and the torcida

…the internet says that’s a formal association of soccer fans. I had no idea there was such a thing…

unleashed against the country's leader Aleksandar Vucic, the anti-government forces in Serbia came into motion. The "assembly point" of the new architecture of the coup d'etat was the national Serbian holiday Vidovdan - the day of remembrance of all the holy martyrs of Serbia and the day of remembrance of the Battle of Kosovo.

On this day, all of Serbia comes into motion; the masses are seized by festive excitement, people are possessed by emotions that can easily be turned both in a positive and negative direction (directed against the current government and its specific representatives). Emotions "warm up" the masses, creating a basis for any revolutionary and especially pseudo-revolutionary actions.

In this regard, the holiday works in the same way as elections. The election issue wedged itself into the emotional upsurge of the Serbs along with the color revolution activists who appeared on the streets: the activists who emerged from the crowd of Serbs celebrating the holiday began to demand that the authorities set a date for early parliamentary elections and dismantle the tent camp of Vucic's supporters near the parliament building. Thus, the day of remembrance and sorrow became politicized. The hidden rebellion once again gave its "metastasis".

The organizers of the rebellion announced that the ultimatum expires at 21:00 local time (22:00 Moscow time), after which, if the demands are ignored, they will be ready to resort to measures of "civil disobedience" (that is, violence in the form of mass riots). Vucic himself confirmed this, stating that violence will happen: "they can no longer refuse it... But we are ready."

This showed that Vucic, unlike Yanukovych and Assad, is ready to fight for power and will not hesitate to use counter-violence (like Alexander Lukashenko in 2020).

Vucic also appealed to the protest organizers not to disturb public order: “In the evening, you will see angry people who will eventually resort to violence because they have no other choice. I again ask them in a fatherly way not to do this. It is always better to retreat than to do something stupid that you will regret for the rest of your life. I have absolutely no doubt about the final result. I just want people to be saved, especially the youth.” In the practice of information operations, this technique is known and is called “Information vaccination.” Vucic used it wisely.

But will this save the "father of Serbian democracy"? I doubt it very much. Color revolutions are not a joke, they are an extremely dangerous tool for dismantling power, and student protests on the streets of Belgrade are just the tip of the iceberg. The enemies of Serbia and Vucic are active, they act quickly and have full operational initiative, imposing their "flash mobs" on the authorities at the time and place that are beneficial to them. Imposing their rules of the game on the current authorities. And even mocking them, throwing a huge number of round badges with images of flowers and the inscription "color revolution" for some reason in Russian on the markets of Belgrade.

Vucic behaves passively. This is either infantilism mixed with the same childish naivety and irrational belief in miracles. Or the hope that at the very last moment he will still be saved - perhaps by those who prompted him to create his own public movement in support of himself, his beloved - a kind of "People's Vucic Front", and, at the same time, to pitch a tent camp of his supporters on the central square - so that no one else could pitch their tents there: the place is already occupied. But the "good people" may not make it in time this time. Because they themselves are not working for the result, but for the sake of "checking the box".

A TOOL FOR ORGANIZING COUPS D'ETAT
Modern color revolutions are technologies for organizing coups d'etat, passed off by their organizers as a "spontaneous uprising of the masses" directed against the current government. The driving force of a color revolution is a mass youth protest movement, organized by specially trained activists; the main instrument of pressure on the government is an aggressive "political" crowd formed on the "Maidan" (a permanent camp in the center of the capital's metropolis, also called the "island" (or territory) of "freedom"), into which new streams of protesters pour.

The main method of pressure on the government is blackmail, combined with the presentation of increasingly radical ultimatums. This model of a color revolution first took shape in Serbia, during the events of 2000, when the regime of Slobodan Milosevic was overthrown in Belgrade (the so-called bulldozer revolution). From that moment on, it was the "bulldozer revolution" that became the classic example and template for imitation - the organization of color revolutions in other countries. It is according to this scenario that events are developing in Serbia now, in the organization of the mass protest movement all the signs of a classic color revolution are clearly visible.

EVOLUTION OF COLOR REVOLUTION TECHNOLOGIES
In 2018, 2019 and 2020, the technologies of color revolutions underwent a change, or hybridization: their ideologists and organizers again began to give preference to faster, cruder and, at first glance, more effective tools of "hard power" - direct forceful coercion: thus, the end of the color revolution in Bolivia in 2019 was put by an ultimatum from the army command, which demanded that President Morales immediately leave his post.

In the same year, the United States attempted to overthrow the Maduro regime in Venezuela, amid mass protests, almost agreeing on the "neutralization" of Maduro with some people from his inner circle; in 2020, the United States made the same attempt when organizing a color revolution in Belarus (the physical elimination of Lukashenko was also planned there, and mass protests and riots served as a factor distracting the attention of the Belarusian leadership from the actions of the "conspirators" from President Lukashenko's inner circle); In Kazakhstan in 2022, the color revolution immediately transitioned into an armed rebellion. In principle, such a threat can also await Serbia in 2025: mass protests, transforming into mass riots, can pave the way for crime and radical nationalists, who will become the driving force of a classic armed rebellion.

But the most dangerous thing about the hybrid color revolution that unfolded in Belarus in 2020 was that Minsk became the "assembly point" for the organizers of color revolutions of the so-called best practices (for the most dangerous methods and technologies) of organizing color revolutions.

The general scheme for organizing a color revolution in Belarus is an exact copy of the Kiev Maidan of 2013-2014. (but without the Maidan itself, a permanent camp), the technologies of communication and coordination of protest groups are taken from Hong Kong 2019-2020, the technologies of conflict mobilization under a non-political agenda are borrowed from the Yerevan "electro-Maidan" of 2015.

The general scheme of the coup d'etat is an exact copy of the "Venezuelan precedent" - the technology of organizing a coup d'etat in Venezuela in 2019. There is little that is actually Belarusian in the Minsk protests: their own authentic symbols, the actual absence of a Maidan (which could be blocked, covered and dispersed) - it is now mobile, like a gypsy camp, and moves with crowds of protesters, and the widespread use of a new means of protest communication - Telegram channels.

This is being repeated in Serbia, where classic techniques of color revolutions are already being used - in particular, the "march on Rome" (when protests flare up on the outskirts, surround the capital with a "ring of fire" and this ring begins to quickly shrink as columns of protesters move from the outskirts to the center of the country, absorbing more and more crowds of people dissatisfied with the current government).

In recent times, we have seen many Western specialists in organizing color revolutions in action, and in various corners of the globe: they were underfoot in the Sahel, extremely keenly interested in how, on the basis of our methodology for training information special forces (the “Information and Hybrid Wars” program of the APN) and the experience of our leading practitioners of the Alter Academy of Political Sciences, the countries of the Sahel Defense Alliance are preparing the best information operations specialists on the African continent from ordinary peasants (especially when these specialists began to operate in the combat formations of operational-combat groups of classic special forces, making them “hybrid”).

We saw them in Tehran and some other places, where they, having been “left to settle”, slowly and painfully “woke up” in the expectation that they would now be given the go-ahead (after air strikes) to strike the Iranian regime from within (their meeting with us did not pass without a trace for them). We saw across the Strait (and even closer) how the same CIA "specialists" are preparing Taiwan to become "Anti-China" - and according to the same patterns by which the "Collective West" made Ukraine "Anti-Russia" in 20 years. They are not children. And they should be treated accordingly.

VUCIC'S REACTION
The current protests began to spoil Vucic's blood not yesterday and not "six months ago" (as you can hear from the lips of some talking heads): attempts to undermine the government began more than two years ago. In December 2023, the same thing happened as in November-December 2024 - it is somehow not customary to talk about this. That is, Vucic has been tested for strength by various forms of "student", "patriotic" and "anti-corruption" protests for a long time. And for most of this time, the government behaved passively.

The first signs of active actions began suddenly and at the very moment when Vucic, unexpectedly for everyone, officially accused the West of preparing a "color revolution" and announced the creation of a nationwide movement called "For the People and the State". At a rally organized on April 15, 2025 by supporters of the government in front of the parliament building in Belgrade, a triumphant Vucic declared: "The color revolution is over. They can walk around as much as they want, but nothing will come of it," Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told crowds of his supporters organized in support of the government.

The demonstration, organized under the slogan "We will not give up Serbia", began on Friday and lasted until Sunday. At the rally, everyone was invited to join the new movement. A 200-meter Serbian flag was unfurled near the parliament and ceremoniously carried through the streets of the city. Thousands of people from various Serbian cities, as well as Montenegro and the Republic of Srpska, came to the demonstration.

The "delegates" from Kosovo and Metohija arrived - allegedly "on foot" having slipped through the cordons of Albanian nationalists. Their speech was especially vivid and carried a colossal emotional charge. Then the "protesters in support of Vucic", in the best traditions of their ideological opponents and antagonists, occupied the main square and pitched their "Maidan" there - a permanent camp, occupying the entire city space so that future Maidanites would have nowhere to even spread a blanket.

Vucic demanded that the authorities "restore order" (probably forgetting at the moment that he himself is the authority), and also declared that it was necessary to find the "instigators of unrest" and not let them "paralyze the life of the country." And he calmed down on that. As the events of the last few days have shown - very much in vain. In general, the advice dictated to Vučić by the imported specialists who came to help was correct, although noticeably outdated: in the 2000s and even in the 2010s, it would have partially solved the problem, temporarily disrupting the rebels' plans. But not now.

In the years since the mutiny in Belarus in 2020, everyone has become smarter (the opponents first and foremost), except for the so-called Russian political strategists (or, more precisely, the people who consider themselves to be them). They just want to put on a show, and then let the grass not grow. How could they not have thought of organizing a bicycle-auto-motorcycle-bike rally in Serbia, under the slogan "Vučić's bees - against the honey of color revolutions." Like in "Radio Day." In the end, Vucic was not protected by his “Poles”: the movement in defense of the president with a new round of aggressive protests has disappeared somewhere, the tent camp of supporters is silent, the aggressive crowd has to be dispersed by means of extreme forms of “persuasion” - tear gas and flash-bang grenades. The question is, what were they fighting for?

In these conditions, Vucic is required to be constantly active: he is now like an elderly wrestler in the ring, at whom everyone is throwing themselves “from around the corner”. But instead, he did his number and left. Color revolutions today do not forgive such things.

CONCLUSION
The events in Serbia that have been taking place over the past two years (2024 and 2025) completely fit the description of modern color revolutions - technologies for organizing coups d'état, disguised as mass protests of citizens. If the government does not fight for itself and the preservation of the country, these technologies will inevitably lead to its overthrow.

Only well-trained specialists who have the trust of the country's leadership and broad powers can organize an effective fight against the organizers and executors of the color revolution, but it is unlikely that they exist in Serbia today.

(c) Andrey Manoylo

More from regnum.ru
48 police officers injured in Belgrade riots

As a result of the riots at the demonstrations in Belgrade, 48 police officers and 22 protesters were injured. This was reported on June 29 by the head of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs Dragan Vasiljevic.

He specified that more than 20 people sought medical help after the night protests. Two of the victims received serious injuries.

In total, the police detained 77 participants in the protest, 38 of whom were arrested.

As reported by the Regnum news agency, mass protests by students and the opposition began in the Serbian capital on the evening of June 28. Their participants took to the streets demanding that the country's parliament be dissolved and a date for early elections be set. At some point, clashes between protesters and the police began. The protesters began throwing cans, firecrackers and other objects at the security forces, and the law enforcement officers had to use force.

As the head of the Serbian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ivica Dacic, emphasized, those who attacked law enforcement officers during the protests in Belgrade will be identified, detained and brought to justice.

Link

Fifth Column

Asra Nomani: How Socialist Muslims pulled off a 20-year takeover of the Democratic Party

2025-06-30

Long, information dense, lots of names to remember and correlate. Here’s a taste:

[FoxNews] The rise of Zohran Mamdani is the product of a strategy partly funded by the House of Soros, uniting socialism (red), political Islam (green), and the Democratic Party (blue)

Many people are wondering how Zohran Mamdani, a 33-year-old socialist Muslim who wants to defund the police, globalize the intifada, and destroy capitalism, has emerged as the Democratic Party's nominee for New York City mayor, with leaders like former President Bill Clinton fawning over him.

To understand Mamdani’s political ascent, you have to trace the red-green-blue spider’s web that brought him here. This isn’t a complete map — I've written a book, "Woke Army: The Red-Green Alliance That Is Undermining America’s Freedom," to document that story — but it is a snapshot of key turning points over two decades of strategy, narrative manipulation, and activist training.

A critical moment traces back to a Friday night in 2008, according to investigative reporting I’ve done at the Pearl Project, a nonprofit journalism initiative. It reveals how socialists (red) and Muslims (green) seized the Democratic Party (blue) over a long 20-year campaign. At 9:28 p.m. on Dec. 12, 2008, former ACLU civil rights lawyer Ann Beeson sent an email to former Clinton administration senior advisor John Podesta.

Beeson was executive director of U.S. Programs at George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, where she said she oversaw $150 million in annual grants to "promote human rights, social justice and accountability nationwide."

In her email, publicly discussed here for the first time, Beeson wrote, "I’m writing to follow up on one topic we discussed — what the incoming Administration could do to address domestic national security policies and practices that unfairly target Muslim, South Asian, and Arab communities in America."

She attached a memo from Farhana Khera, then executive director of Muslim Advocates, a group based in San Francisco, and Aziz Huq, then the director of the "liberty and national security project" at the William J. Brennan Center for Justice, both Open Society "grantees."

As a former Wall Street Journal reporter who has investigated the convergence of radical leftist politics and Muslim political activism for decades, I have followed a paper trail of tax returns, grant lists and confidential memos, and this email represented the culmination of a decades-long ideological drive that began with Muslim international students arriving in the U.S. in the 1960s, not just to study, as my father did at Rutgers University, but to lay the institutional groundwork for political Islam, or Islamism, in the United States. By the 1980s, they had established a strategic base at 500 Grove Street in Herndon, Va., later investigated by the FBI for alleged ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, both groups seeking to destroy Israel and America and build a global caliphate.

The transformation accelerated after December 2005, when Muslim governments convened at an "Extraordinary Islamic Summit" of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. There, they launched a campaign to weaponize the term "Islamophobia" to silence critics of extremist Islam. American Muslim leaders seized the moment to re-engineer the national security narrative, using American philanthropic networks, like the House of Soros, as a Trojan horse to racialize Islam, frame Muslims as the "oppressed" and embed illiberal ideologies within America’s liberal institutions, including the Democratic Party.

By January 2008, with Soros pumping money into Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, his philanthropy staff launched a "National Security and Human Rights Campaign" with D.C.-based Atlantic Philanthropies, committing at least $20 million to "dismantle" Bush-era counterterrorism policies. One grantee, the Proteus Fund, based in Waltham, Mass., ballooned in revenue from $9.5 million in 2008 to $73 million in 2023. Soros dollars flowed to groups including Muslim Advocates, the Brennan Center, the ACLU and many others who set their sights on targets, including the New York Police Department. Today, Mamdani says he wants to "defund the police."

A Pearl Project analysis of 38 documents detailing the operations and funding of the National Security and Human Rights Campaign revealed the coordinated efforts of progressive and Islamist activists to reframe post-9/11 narratives. The aim: clear the path for red-green candidates like Mamdani.

Muslim Advocates grew nearly 10-fold, from $76,331.03 in annual revenues in 2005 to $992,892 in 2023. The Brennan Center’s revenue exploded from $6.6 million to $57.9 million during the same period.

Soros soon funded a new "Security and Rights Collaborative" at Proteus Fund to "restore civil liberties and human rights lost in the name of the ‘war on terror.’" Headquartered in a one‑story building off Research Drive in Amherst, Mass., the new "collaborative" was run by Shireen Zaman, a Muslim activist previously at the Institute for Social Policy and Understanding, a Washington, D.C., group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. Their focus: America’s "Muslim, Arab and South Asian community," called "MASA." Zaman now works at the Ford Foundation.

Their strategy went beyond policy to narrative warfare.

Starting in late 2008, Soros pumped some $20 million into a "fieldwide communications hub" to arm Muslim groups and leftist media allies with messaging tools. The recipient: ReThink Media, a nonprofit in Berkeley, Calif., co-founded by "progressive" political operatives Peter Ferenbach and Lynn Fahselt, then a consultant to Democratic donors, including Open Society, Proteus Fund, Ploughshares Fund, Carnegie Corporation, Piper Fund, Atlantic Philanthropies, and others "progressive" donors that have since pumped money into ReThink Media.

ReThink Media became the loudspeaker for the red and the green. Last year, Proteus Fund paid ReThink Media $643,000 as a "communications consultant." Soros also backed Media Matters, run by ex-conservative-turned-Democrat David Brock, to shape media narratives about Muslims attacked by Republicans.

Over the years, ReThink Media has hired and trained alumni of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, including staffers Zainab Chaudary and Corey Saylor, to promote an "echo chamber" for liberal groups. One narrative: Muslims were under attack in the West, and the Democratic Party would defend Muslims.

This storyline took hold in the post-Obama political landscape.

In late 2010, Open Society staffers in Beeson’s U.S. Programs division distributed an internal memo, "Extreme Polarization and Breakdown in Civic Discourse," announcing they were giving Podesta’s Center for American Progress $200,000 for a new "Examining Anti-Muslim Bigotry Project" that would "document structures underlying the Islamophobia movement."

The memo detailed plans to do "opposition research" on groups like the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Middle East Forum, which track Islamic extremism.

The project description noted that "progressives were caught off guard" earlier that year when New York City residents opposed the building of a "Ground Zero mosque" near the site of the former World Trade Center.

"Progressives" were in "urgent need of high-quality opposition research so that they can switch from playing defense to develop a proactive strategic plan to counter anti-Muslim xenophobia and to promote tolerance," protecting "progressive counter-terrorism policies," they wrote.

Related by Daniel Greenfield:

Only 5% of New Yorkers Voted for Mamdani

Who are those 5%? They aren’t New Yorkers because polls showed us Mamdani performing poorly with anyone over 50, with African-American, Latino and working class white voters. What’s left? White hipsters and Muslim immigrants.

Link

Bangladesh

Bangladesh probe commission on Hasina-era abuses warns 'impunity'' remains

2025-06-24

[GEO.TV] A Bangladesh government-appointed commission investigating hundreds of disappearances by the security forces under ousted premier ~~the loathesome~~ Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and now exiled former Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She was President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia showed such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums. That is probably because Khaleda's late husband was the Pak tool who had Mujib assassinated...
on Monday warned that the same "culture of impunity" continues.

The Commission of Inquiry into Enforced Disappearances is probing abuses during the rule of Hasina, whose government was accused of widespread human rights
When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much...
abuses.

That includes the extrajudicial killing of hundreds of political opponents and the unlawful abduction and disappearance of hundreds more.

The commission was established by interim leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, 84, who is facing intense political pressure as parties jostle for power ahead of elections expected early next year.

Bangladesh has a long history of military coups and the army retains a powerful role.

"Enforced disappearances in Bangladesh were not isolated acts of wrongdoing, but the result of a politicised institutional machinery that condoned, normalised, and often rewarded such crimes," the commission said, in a section of a report released by the interim government on Monday.

"Alarmingly, this culture of impunity continues even after the regime change on August 5, 2024".

Link

Government Corruption

Five Eyes Accused of Surveillance on Trump's 2016 Campaign Under Obama

2025-06-22

[Self Reliance Center] The Five Eyes intelligence alliance, comprising the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, is a cooperative network focused on sharing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and other forms ofintelligence to address global security threats. Allegations have surfaced, particularly from sources aligned with former President Donald Trump, that the Obama administration leveraged this alliance to conduct surveillance on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign to hinder his electoral success

BACKGROUND AND ALLEGATIONS
The allegations center on the idea that the Obama administration, particularly through the CIA under Director John Brennan, initiated or encouraged surveillance of Trump’s campaign associates as part of an effort to link them to Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. This narrative, often referred to as "Obamagate" or part of the "Russia Collusion Hoax" by its proponents, suggests that the Five Eyes alliance was used to bypass U.S. legal restrictions on domestic surveillance, allowing foreign intelligence agencies to collect and share information about Trump’s team with U.S. authorities.

REPORTED FIVE EYES INVOLVEMENT
1. CIA’s Alleged Coordination with Five Eyes:

According to reports from investigative journalists Michael Shellenberger, Matt Taibbi, and Alex Gutentag, published in early 2024, sources claim that the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC), specifically the CIA under John Brennan, "illegally mobilized foreign intelligence agencies" within the Five Eyes alliance to target Trump advisors before the official start of the FBI’s Crossfire Hurricane investigation in July 2016. These sources allege that Brennan identified 26 Trump associates for Five Eyes agencies to "bump" (make contact with) or manipulate to gather intelligence or create suspicious interactions that could justify further investigation.

The operation reportedly began as early as 2015, predating the FBI’s formal probe, and involved foreign intelligence services from the UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. The goal was to collect intelligence on Trump’s team and share it with U.S. agencies, allegedly to circumvent U.S. laws prohibiting domestic spying without proper authorization.

2. GCHQ’s Role and Early Intelligence Sharing:

A 2017 report by The Guardian noted that the UK’s Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), a key Five Eyes member, was among the first to detect contacts between Trump’s inner circle and Russian figures in 2015. GCHQ reportedly picked up these interactions as part of routine surveillance of Russian intelligence assets, not as a targeted operation against Trump. Over the next six months, GCHQ shared this electronic intelligence (SIGINT) with U.S. agencies, including the CIA. Other Five Eyes nations, such as Australia, also relayed material, with Australia’s role tied to a tip from diplomat Alexander Downer about Trump aide George Papadopoulos’s comments on Russian-held material damaging to Hillary Clinton.
Sources cited in the 2024 reports claim this sharing was part of a deliberate effort orchestrated by the Obama administration to build a case against Trump’s campaign, though The Guardian emphasized that GCHQ’s actions were incidental and not specifically aimed at Trump.

3. Australia’s Contribution via Papadopoulos:

In May 2016, Australian diplomat Alexander Downer met with Trump campaign aide George Papadopoulos in London. Papadopoulos reportedly mentioned that Russia had damaging information on Hillary Clinton. Downer relayed this to Australian intelligence, which shared it with U.S. authorities, contributing to the FBI’s decision to open Crossfire Hurricane. Proponents of the spying narrative argue this was a setup, with Five Eyes allies like Australia acting on U.S. prompting to entrap Papadopoulos and justify surveillance.

4. Bypassing U.S. Legal Constraints:

The allegations suggest that the Obama administration used Five Eyes to conduct surveillance that would be illegal for U.S. agencies to perform without court approval, such as a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant. By having foreign allies collect and share intelligence, the CIA and other U.S. agencies could access information on U.S. citizens (Trump’s associates) without violating domestic laws. This is described as "reverse targeting," where foreign surveillance indirectly collects data on Americans.

A 2024 WorldNetDaily article cites sources claiming that this operation was a "grave threat to our nation’s sovereignty" and involved "unprecedented collusion" to influence the 2016 election.

5. The "Binder" of Declassified Intelligence:

Sources referenced in the 2024 reports claim that a 10-inch binder of raw intelligence, ordered declassified by Trump at the end of his first term, contains details about the FBI’s investigation and the broader IC’s surveillance of his campaign, including Five Eyes activities. This binder allegedly holds proof of illegal actions by U.S. and foreign intelligence services. The significance of this binder is highlighted by claims that the FBI’s 2022 Mar-a-Lago raid may have aimed to recover it to protect implicated agencies, both American and foreign.

Link

Europe

Su-24 buzzes NATO warship, releasing heat flares during flyby

2025-06-20

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Russian Su-24MR fighter caused panic on board a NATO warship by firing heat flares while flying around the vessel. The corresponding footage appeared online on Thursday, June 19.
The 'MR' designation means it is a maritime reconnaissance aircraft.

The North Atlantic Alliance ship, which presumably belongs to the US Navy, was in the Baltic Sea at the time of the incident. Suddenly, a Russian military aircraft flew over the ship at low altitude. The footage shows the emotions that the Russian fighter jet caused in English-speaking sailors.

Russian idiots. In these fraught times, they would not enjoy the result if the Americans responded in anger.

According to the Telegram channel "Two Majors", the Russian Aerospace Forces are protecting the fleet, which supplies oil to foreign markets. However, it is not specified when exactly the video was filmed.

Link

-Great Cultural Revolution

Teachers union President Randi Weingarten RESIGNS from the DNC after serving for over 2 decades

2025-06-16

[PUBLISH.TWITTER]Oh thank goodness — finally we can begin to miss her.

BREAKING: Teachers union President Randi Weingarten RESIGNS from the DNC after serving for over 2 decades pic.twitter.com/glo7ge8yJY
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) June 16, 2025

MORE DNC NEWS: Lee Saunders, the president of AFSCME,

…American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees…
is also out at the DNC.

This amounts to the exit of two of the highest-profile union leaders aligned with the Democratic Party.

The Times reported Randi Weingarten's exit earlier.

W/ @reidepstein https://t.co/pH7w9SxlND https://t.co/RjlnHVNA3a
— Shane Goldmacher (@ShaneGoldmacher) June 16, 2025

Link

-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-

Putin raises the stakes on ‘ghost fleet' security, as NATO launches war games in the Baltic Sea

2025-06-09

[FoxNews] 'There's a growing importance of the shadow fleet to Russia's wartime economy, and a growing awareness that NATO needs to stop it,' expert says.

NATO navies are putting on a display of maritime might in the Baltic Sea this month, as thousands of personnel from 17 countries aboard 50 vessels take part in war games led by the U.S. Navy's 6th Fleet.

Of the nine countries that share a Baltic Sea coastline, only Russia is not a NATO member, and June's BALTOPS exercise aims to ensure those other countries can work together to defend the area, at a time when Moscow is turning up the heat.

"This year’s BALTOPS is more than just an exercise," said U.S. Vice Admiral J.T. Anderson in a press release this week. "It’s a visible demonstration of our Alliance’s resolve, adaptability and maritime strength."

Over the last year there's been growing disquiet about Russia's malign influence in the Baltic Sea region, with several incidents of severed undersea cables. Suspicion has fallen on Russia's fleet of so-called "ghost" or "shadow" ships: hundreds of aging vessels, mostly oil tankers flying under foreign flags that are used to circumvent Western sanctions or trade in military hardware.

There are also well-founded concerns that some of these ships are used for covert intelligence gathering, communication intercepts or to sabotage undersea infrastructure like internet cables or gas and electricity pipelines. Three crew members from a Cook Islands-registered vessel, believed to be part of Russia’s ghost fleet, are currently facing charges in Finland over damage to an undersea cable that prosecutors say happened when the ship dragged its anchor for 60 miles along the floor of the Baltic Sea.

"There's a growing importance of the shadow fleet to Russia's wartime economy, and a growing awareness that NATO needs to stop it," Tony Lawrence, a naval expert and researcher at the International Centre for Defence and Security in Estonia, told Fox News Digital.

But after a number of NATO navies adopted a tougher stance against the ghost ships through stop-and-search tactics, the Russians announced they would use their own navy to escort the fleet through the Baltic Sea.

"The Russian military presence in the region has always been visible, this is not a new feature. However, what is new is that Russia is protecting its shadow fleet tankers in the narrow pass of the Gulf of Finland," Finnish Defense Minister Antti Häkkänen said in a recent television interview with Finland's YLE TV.

NATO governments are keeping a close eye on the latest Baltic Sea developments and preparing for any possible increase in tensions. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen spoke at a meeting of NATO's Nordic and Baltic members this week, and described the Russian threat as real and serious. "We see a more aggressive Russian approach in the Baltic Sea region," she told reporters.

The Baltic Sea has relatively narrow waterways, where international maritime boundaries extend 12 miles from the coast, and Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) incorporate valuable fishing grounds or offshore wind farms. Add to this some of the busiest ferry routes in the world, commercial shipping traffic, military warships and civilian craft, and it raises the possibility that a more robust Russian naval posture in the area could increase the possibility of conflict.

"This is the risk of having more warships floating around the Baltic Sea, there is a potential for miscalculations that could escalate, and risk-reduction mechanisms that used to exist don't work any more because the [NATO and Russian] navies aren't talking to each other anymore," Lawrence told Fox News Digital.

Does the Russian navy even have the capacity to escort every single ghost fleet ship in the Baltic? That seems unlikely, according to some.

"It's an escalation, of course, of Russian misbehavior in the Baltic Sea. But in practical terms I'm not sure it's going to make that much difference," Lawrence said.

"Russia's Baltic Sea fleet has always been the junior cousin of the Russian navy, and it's never been particularly well-equipped or enlarged, but it's still the biggest national navy operating in the Baltic, and they have ships that are attuned to the Baltic Sea, which is shallow, and its salinity is such that you need special kinds of sensors. And they know how to hide ships in the archipelagos of Sweden or Finland, so in that regard, they have a certain amount of specialist capability," Lawrence explained.

The Baltic Sea war games this month – with the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer USS Paul Ignatius and the Blue Ridge-class command and control ship USS Mount Whitney taking part – serve to remind the Russians of the power of NATO's combined naval assets in the region.

Link

Home Front: Politix

Mayor orders New York City to use IHRA definition of antisemitism

2025-06-09

[IsraelTimes] New York City Mayor Eric Adams announces an executive order to recognize the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism.

The order directs city agencies to use the IHRA definition to identify and address incidents of antisemitism, the mayor’s office says.

Adams’s office also says he is introducing legislation to the city council, calling on the council to codify the IHRA definition.

The IHRA definition of antisemitism has been adopted by groups and governments worldwide, but is contested because it covers some examples of anti-Israel rhetoric, such as denying the Jewish people the right to self determination.

Last month, Adams announced a new task force under his purview aimed at combating antisemitism, responding to major spikes in antisemitic hate crimes in New York City in recent years. The Office to Combat Antisemitism is the first of its kind in a major US city.

The mayor is seeking re-election in November, and has petitioned to run on an “EndAntisemitism” ballot line.

Israel and Jewish issues are prominent topics in the high-profile race for the city’s Democratic party mayoral primary later this month. Adams is running as an independent.

Link

International-UN-NGOs

Trump Appoints Grinkevich as NATO's New Supreme Allied Commander in Europe

2025-06-06

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] US President Donald Trump has appointed Air Force Lieutenant General Alexus Grinkevich as NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe and head of the US European Command, the Pentagon press service reports.

"Lieutenant General Alexus Grinkevich has been appointed Supreme Allied Commander Europe and Commander of the United States European Command," the statement said.

The Pentagon added that representatives of the member countries of the North Atlantic Alliance supported the appointment of Grinkevich. At the moment, he holds the post of director of operations of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the United States Department of Defense. Grinkevich will replace the current head of the command, General Christopher Cavoli, who is due to retire in early July.

According to media reports, Grinkevich has earned the status of one of the most promising generals in the US at the Pentagon. In the past, he was a pilot of F-16 and F-22 fighters. Grinkevich also served for four years at the Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters, helping to lead the US armed forces in the Middle East.

On May 3, the German magazine Der Spiegel wrote that Trump might not attend the NATO summit scheduled for June if the alliance member states do not increase defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP per year. It was noted that Berlin had long disregarded the words of the new US Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, about the demand by the head of the White House to increase military spending.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

US destroyer with Tomahawk missiles enters Baltic Sea

2025-06-05

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The destroyer Paul Ignatius and the command ship Mount Whitney of the US Navy entered the Baltic Sea. Together with almost 50 ships from different countries, they will take part in the NATO exercise Baltops 25. This was reported on June 4 by the Izvestia newspaper, citing informed sources.

Military expert Dmitry Kornev noted that these ships quite often visit the Baltic Sea and have repeatedly taken part in various exercises of the North Atlantic Alliance.

“The Arleigh Burke-class destroyer is a standard American destroyer with a vertical launch system for up to 56 Tomahawk cruise missiles of various types, which can reach as far as the Urals,” the expert said.

He also recalled that the Mount Whitney ship is designed to manage operations of diverse naval forces.

It is noted that Germany has sent the frigate Bayern to participate in the exercises, and Great Britain will be represented by a group of P2000 patrol ships. Military aviation will also be involved in the maneuvers.

As reported by the Regnum news agency, the annual naval exercises of the North Atlantic Alliance countries, Baltops-2025, began in the Baltic Sea on June 3. They will take place in the southern part of the Baltic Sea – from the Danish Straits and the Jutland Peninsula to the Gulf of Gdansk. NATO has been holding them in the Baltic Sea since 1972.

Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Alexander Grushko said that the military bloc is conducting these maneuvers to prepare for a potential conflict with Russia. He emphasized that the exercises are extremely provocative, they are aimed at fighting a comparable enemy. According to Grushko, this is indicated by the concept of the maneuvers, the deployment structure and quality of military forces, as well as the tasks of the exercises.

On May 27, the Baltic Fleet of the Russian Navy began scheduled exercises to defend bases. The maneuvers involved units of the Northern Fleet with the support of the Aerospace Forces, Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts.

German experts expressed the opinion that the simultaneous maneuvers in the Baltics are fraught with the risk of a more serious escalation and possible provocations. They suggested that Russia is using the exercises for reconnaissance and surveillance of NATO activities, and pointed out that Moscow's actions are legitimate, they demonstrate the strength and ability of the state to act.

On May 22, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that the Baltics could become a place of permanent confrontation between Russia and Western countries.

Link

Caucasus/Russia/Central Asia

Alaudinov about NATO's role in the Ukrainian Armed Forces' invasion of the Kursk region

2025-06-01

Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.

Maj. Gen. Apti Alaudinov is a Chechen ground forces commander
[Regnum] The North Atlantic Alliance has been preparing an operation by Ukrainian forces to invade the Kursk region for six months. This was reported by the commander of the Akhmat special forces and deputy head of the Main Military-Political Directorate of the Russian Defense Ministry, Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov.

"The NATO bloc's headquarters committee was preparing such a super operation, which in essence had to be guaranteed to be effective. They collected all the resources they had, all types of foreign equipment, and trained fighters," RIA Novosti quotes Alaudinov as saying.

He noted that Ukrainian servicemen were trained in Great Britain and other countries of the alliance, and the captured territories were planned to be used by Kyiv as an advantage in negotiations.

Alaudinov emphasized that Russia won a victory by inflicting a decisive defeat on NATO troops on its territory, where the enemy once again tried to demonstrate its strength, but failed.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

South Africa Takes Hard Line; Targets Starlink and Elon Musk

2025-05-29

[Breitbart] South Africa appears to have reversed its position on Elon Musk’s Starlink, targeting the company for alleged unauthorized access by users within the country, after appearing to invite Musk to invest there last week.

As Breitbart News reported in the wake of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House on May 20, South Africa appeared to relax its racial ownership requirements to allow Starlink to invest.

Musk had long said that he could not bring Starlink to South Africa because he is not black. Instead of 30% black ownership, South Africa’s Minister of Communications and Digital Technologies Solly Malatsi announced last Friday that the communications industry would replace black ownership with “equivalents” such as investment in local communities. That appeared to open the industry for Musk and for Starlink.

But Malatsi’s proposal, while welcomed by South African businesses and consumers, was rejected by some South African politicians, for whom so-called “Black Economic Empowerment” has become not just a sacred principle but a path to rent-seeking wealth opportunities.

Everything wrong with South Africa in one sentence — it’s all about the crab bucket.

Notably, Malatsi is a member of the Democratic Alliance, an opposition party that has traditionally opposed the larger African National Congress (ANC).

Though the DA and the ANC now serve together in a Government of National Unity (GNU), they fight frequently over policy — and it appears Malatsi’s outreach to Starlink did not have consensus support.

That is the context in which South Africa’s communications regulator, the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa), said Wednesday that it was investigating Starlink.

News24.com reported:

South Africa’s communications regulator is launching a probe into the illegal usage of Starlink in the country, and has threatened to lodge a complaint against Elon Musk’s SpaceX if it doesn’t like what it finds.
…

The statement comes a day after Communications and Digital Technology Minister Solly Malatsi addressed his department’s parliamentary portfolio committee on the proposed policy direction he issued on the recognition of equity equivalents for communications licence applicants.

The proposed policy direction may have a significant bearing on whether Starlink will meet the BEE licensing criteria needed to acquire a communications licence – a prerequisite for operating legally in South Africa.

Though Icasa’s board is nominally politically independent, it is appointed by the government, which has been dominated by the ANC since 1994. The ANC favors a racial redistribution policy known as “transformation.”

Separately, the government has proposed new minerals legislation that would expand “transformation” as well as injecting government control into more minutiae of management in South Africa’s mining sector.

Ramaphosa appeared eager to “reset” relations with the U.S., but backed the “Kill the Boer” chant earlier this week as a “liberation chant,” days after U.S. President Donald Trump criticized it in their Oval Office meeting.

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