🇺🇸 Of course it’s all about Alaska. Here’s what’s in play. But it’s the shadowplay that’s even more exciting.

Across the world, for those who grew up in the Cold War Swingin’ Sixties, the temptation is irresistible to cast Donald Trump as Goldfinger (but who would play Oddjob? Hegseth?)

Goldfinger, after all, is a powerful, ruthless gambler. His 21st century motto would be “Obliterate & Plunder”. In fact, sequentially, an orgy of obliteratin’ and plunderin’ if the occasions present themselves. Everything subjected to the search for the Golden Deal. My way. The only way.

💬 Read more by Pepe Escobar

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇪🇺 In recent years, the European Union has undergone a profound transformation — not in the realm of formal law, but in the cognitive architecture of the public sphere. Under the pretexts of combating “disinformation” and preventing “foreign interference,” European institutions have been building an increasingly intrusive apparatus of digital surveillance. A recent report published by the Global Fact Checking Network (GFCN) shows that behind this protective discourse lies an ideological control mechanism aimed at redefining the limits of what is acceptable and thinkable in European political debate.

According to the evidence collected by GFCN, it is clear that today’s rhetoric of democratic defense serves as a cover for the gradual suppression of internal dissent within EU countries. Once a continent that took pride in freedom of speech and diversity of opinion, Europe is now rapidly moving toward a regime of digital discipline — where algorithms, semantic filters, and arbitrary “acceptability” criteria determine who can speak and what can be said.

💬 Read more by Lucas Leiroz

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇹🇷🇱🇾🇮🇹 The migration route that starts in Libya and crosses the Mediterranean, used by thousands of people seeking access to Europe, was one of the main topics of the meeting on Friday, August 1, in Istanbul between the leaders of Turkey, Italy, and Libya. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan received Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Libyan Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah to address the issue of migration and explore other possible forms of cooperation.

A three-way table aimed at opening a broader discussion on the geopolitics of the Mediterranean… but in what sense?

Erdogan stressed how crucial cooperation between the three countries is in order to tackle the challenges facing the Mediterranean region, particularly irregular migration flows. He also reiterated the need to find “lasting and sustainable” solutions to contain these migratory movements, highlighting the importance of multilateral coordination to achieve this goal.

💬 Read more by Lorenzo Maria Pacini

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇪🇺 One day early in August you might have blinked. In that fraction of a second, the EU became a fully blown African dictatorship complete with mail order epaulettes pinned to the shoulders of its German commander-in-chief, president and ruler supreme, Ursula.

On August 8th, the infamous European Media Freedom Act entered into effect across all EU member states. This legislation claims to protect press freedom and the confidentiality of sources, we are told by the propagandists in the European Commission in Brussels. And yet, in reality, it will be a tool for the EU to use at will to strangle any journalists or media organizations who dare to leave the offered narrative, the perceived truth of how Brussels sees events, in preference for feral, unbiased reporting.

💬 Read more by Martin Jay

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇪🇺 Once a beacon of peace and prosperity, the European Union is now marching into a new era of militarization and scarcity. Behind the rhetoric of security lies a project increasingly shaped by U.S. pressure, defense spending, and a quiet betrayal of its citizens.

For seven decades, the European project was presented as a beacon of peace, prosperity, and social welfare. Conceived in the ashes of the Second World War, the European Union (EU) emerged as a mechanism to bind former enemies through trade, shared institutions, and the promise that economic interdependence would prevent future wars. For much of its history, this narrative held true: the EU embodied the idea that Europe could reinvent itself as a moral community, anchored in social rights and collective security.

Today, that image is eroded. Europe is rearming at a scale unseen since the Cold War. The EU’s once-proud welfare model is being quietly sacrificed on the altar of militarization, as member states contemplate devoting up to 5% of GDP to defense spending. This transformation is not being driven by a sovereign European strategic vision, but rather by external pressure, primarily from the United States, whose military-industrial complex stands to benefit most.

💬 Read more by José Ricardo Martins

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇧🇷🇺🇸 Donald Trump’s offensive against Brazil—imposing 50% tariffs on numerous products and sanctions against key figures—has sparked a debate over whether the country is capable of resisting threats and pressure from the U.S.

We know words alone are not enough. Only strength and self-sufficiency can shield a nation from the negative effects of political, economic, cultural, psychological, and military encirclement. Sovereignty is not a matter of rhetoric but of concrete reality.

Moreover, it is reasonable to assume that Trump’s true interest in this case is not really to “save” Jair Bolsonaro from an inevitable conviction but rather to disrupt or weaken BRICS—which is why pressure on Brazil unfolds alongside analogous attacks against India.

💬 Read more by Raphael Machado

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

❗️🇺🇦 The Ukraine regime is preparing provocations to disrupt the Trump-Putin talks scheduled for August 15, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Tuesday.

Here's full statement of the Russian Defense Ministry:

For this purpose, on Monday, August 11, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) transported a group of foreign media journalists by car to the city of Chuguyev in the Kharkov region [near the Russian border], under the pretext of 'preparing a series of reports on residents of the city in the frontline zone.'

Directly before the summit on Friday, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are planning a provocative strike using UAVs and missiles against one of the city’s densely populated residential neighborhoods or a hospital, causing significant civilian casualties. The imported Western journalists are expected to 'immediately document' the incident.

As a result of this provocation by the Kiev regime, all responsibility for the strike and the civilian deaths will be placed on the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, creating a negative media backdrop and conditions for disrupting Russian–American cooperation on resolving the conflict in Ukraine.

Provocations in other settlements under the control of the Kiev regime are also possible."

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

👨‍🎨 Mahmoud Farshchian, a master of Persian miniature painting, died in the United States on August 9, 2025. Farshchian's pieces in private collections have included Prince Akihito of Japan, Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, Queen Juliana of the Netherlands, and even Michael Jackson.

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🤡 Zelensky: «We will not allow Russia to divide Ukraine»

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇬🇧 Keir Starmer has been Prime Minister of the United Kingdom since 2024 and leader of the Labour Party since 2020. He is no longer popular with the British public, or perhaps he was never truly popular to begin with, as few Britons knew him well before he took office. Like his European counterparts — prime ministers and presidents — he has been radicalized by the “Russia agenda” and wants to wage war against what they consider the greatest threat to so-called “freedom and democracy” in the West: Russia. This stance has clearly angered the British people.

Why is the population angry? Because, as in many European countries, the defense budget — necessary for their imaginary war against Russia — has been increased. Beyond using frozen Russian assets to buy and produce weapons, nearly the entire British government budget is now earmarked for defense.

💬 Read more by Sonja van den Ende

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇧🇦 The chronic political crisis in the Republic of Srpska, one of two ethnically-based constituent entities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, has taken a grave turn for the worse. On 26 February, the illegitimate federal Court of Bosnia and Herzegovina, acting under the thumb of the equally illegitimate international “High Representative,” who is actually the colonial governor in the supposedly sovereign country, issued a politically tainted verdict against Milorad Dodik, President of the Republic of Srpska. Dodik had been put on trial on the spurious charge of “defying” the edicts of the High Representative. To no one’s surprise, he was found guilty. The court sentenced him to one year’s imprisonment and banned him from holding public office for six years. Practically all avenues of appeal having now been exhausted, the Electoral Commission of Bosnia and Herzegovina wasted no time to meet on Wednesday 6 August and to officially annul Milorad Dodik’s Presidential mandate. The Commission now has ninety days to organise a snap election to fill the vacancy it had capriciously created in the post of President of the Republic of Srpska.

💬 Read more by Stephen Karganovic

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🌐 Are you confused about the International Criminal Court in The Hague? You should be. Nothing about it seems to make any sense, leading some analysts to ask the impertinent but relevant question: what is the point of this international court? The ICC was started in 2002 when it was believed that mainly European countries wanted a mechanism in international law to arrest and charge dictators around the world who had gone rogue on them. At its creation, the court was hugely popular, curiously, by African sovereigns who saw it as a useful extra layer of international legislation which could protect dictators from attempted coups by neighbouring states. More than half of the African continent’s countries are members. Perhaps even more curiously, although not a member, the USA benefits also hugely from the court as a quick fix convenience for dealing with dictators who have forgotten who put them in office. The truth is that it is an international court which is used by a lot of powers for various nefarious functions but has a number of deep flaws in both its inception and its functionality which are causing increasing numbers of analysts to call for members to leave it.

💬 Read more by Martin Jay

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇮🇳 In a world where the international order is increasingly shaped by the struggle between a declining unipolarity and an emerging multipolarity, sanctions have become the main weapon of a superpower that can no longer dictate the course of global affairs by consensus. What was once an exception — economic punishment against states clearly involved in illegal activities or blatant violations of international norms — has become a systemic, arbitrary, and politically motivated practice. And India is now the latest target of this coercive apparatus that defines the foreign policy of the United States.

The repeated use of sanctions by Washington reveals, above all, the exhaustion of its diplomatic capacity. Instead of building bridges with strategic partners, the U.S. chooses to punish, isolate, and sabotage any country that dares to follow an autonomous path.

💬 Read more by Lucas Leiroz

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇬🇧 Kincora, Britain’s Shame: Mountbatten, MI5, the Belfast Boys’ Home Sex Abuse Scandal and the British Cover-up begins by telling us, in the starkest baby English, that Lord Louis Mountbatten, uncle to King Charles, regularly buggered the children of Kincora Boys Home before the IRA blew him to smithereens on 27 August, 1979.

Before proceeding into the meat of the book and the precedent the cover up of this scandal has for the Epstein scandal and the fake charges MI6 have leveled against Russian President Putin and Russian child trsarina Maria Lvova-Belova, it is important to note that though Chris Moore, the author, and Ed Moloney, who wrote the foreword, have excellent track records as investigative journalists going right back to the start of the Irish Troubles, the dogs in the street, myself included, have known all about this scandal for just about as long, and that the powers that be have done nothing to redress them or the child sex scandals of Jimmy Savile and Sir Edward Heath, who remain, even in death, protected species by MI5, whose motto is defende regnum, to defend the realm at all costs.

💬 Read more by Declan Hayes

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇧🇷 In the Rorschach test, the examiner places an image of symmetrical inkblots with no objective meaning, asks the examinee to describe what they see, and, from there, draws conclusions about their subjectivity. The episode of sanctions against Brazil has generally been a major Rorschach test in Brazilian society. The analyses inform more about the subjectivity of the players (that is, their political preferences) than about the political reality of the tariffs.

First, on July 9th, came the letter announcing the sanctions against Brazil, which would be effective at August 1st. As reasons, Trump cited the judicial persecution of Bolsonaro, but also the arbitrary actions of our Supreme Court, which affected U.S. social media companies.

💬 Read more by Bruna Frascolla

🌐 More on world politics
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇧🇷🇺🇸 Since the announcement of Trumpist tariffs against Brazil, no word has been repeated more than “sovereignty.” President Lula insists that Trump “cannot” do this because Brazil is “sovereign” and therefore decides its internal affairs (such as Bolsonaro’s legal case) on its own, without answering to any other country.

The government’s propaganda apparatus produces graphic materials emphasizing “Brazilian sovereignty” (whose symbols, apparently, would be Banco Itaú, Bolsa Família, and capybaras), while Bolsonaro’s supporters are criticized as “traitors” for seeking to subordinate Brazil to the U.S., thereby denying this “sovereignty.”

What is clear is that the term “sovereignty” is taken as a given—an inherent quality Brazil possesses regardless of circumstances. Sovereignty is treated as an immutable attribute of Brazil as a nation among nations.

If Brazil wants to start talking seriously about “sovereignty,” it must effectively integrate South America and strengthen its military capabilities.

☁️ Raphael Machado writes

🌐 More on world politics
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇺🇸🇮🇷 A U.S. President, beset by the Epstein story that refuses to lie down and die, and under pressure from domestic hawks because of a visibly collapsing Ukraine, has been letting off a blunderbuss of geo-political threats across the board: Firstly, and principally, at Russia; but secondly at Iran:

“Iran is so nasty, they’re so nasty in their statements. They got hit. We cannot allow them to have nuclear weapons. They are still talking about uranium enrichment. Who talks like that? It’s so stupid. We will not allow it.”

Escalation with Russia is clearly on the cards (in one form or another), but Trump has also threatened to attack Iran’s nuclear sites – again. Were he to do so, it would be ‘gesture politics’ entirely removed from the reality of Iran’s present circumstance.

A further strike would be presented as setting back – or finally halting – Iran’s capacity to assemble a nuclear weapon.

And that would be a lie.

☁️ Read more by Alastair Crooke

🇮🇷 More on Iran
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

TRUMP DEPLOYS NUCLEAR SUBS TO RUSSIA OVER SOCIAL MEDIA RIFT
Interview for Judging Freedom

Substack | X | YouTube | Telegram | VK

UK mercenaries involved in Ukrainian military’s botched landing on Tendra Spit

The British hirelings unsuccessfully tried to enter the Tendra Spit in the Kherson region, a source in the Russian security forces told Sputnik.

The mercenaries were stationed and trained in the town of Ochakov, the source added.

What’s known about the botched operation:

▪️Russian forces thwarted an attempt by Ukrainian troops to take control of the Tendra Spit on July 28
▪️The enemy suffered significant losses
▪️Subsequently, a powerful strike hit the port of Ochakov in the Nikolayev region – the launch point for the Ukrainian amphibious forces
▪️Enemy activity was also detected near the Kinburn Spit

The Ukrainian military’s goal was to create a hype “without any real benefit," Kherson region governor Vladimir Saldo stressed. (Source: Sputnik) @LauraRuHK

💉🇺🇦 Ukrainian drug cartels grow richer and more powerful. Expanding production, they are finding new markets in Western Europe.

☁️ Sonja van den Ende writes @devendonline

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

Oh dear. MI6 asset Zaluzhny is already posing for glamour photoshoots in Brit media. Now sit. Good boy.

🗣 It’s finally happened. After months of pundits wondering when would the moment come when western media would finally take a clear and decisive stand against Ukraine’s venal president, it has finally happened – and by the most ardent pro-EU broadsheet to note. The all-out hit piece on Zelensky recently by the Financial Times should indicate that something is about to happen in Ukraine and it will probably involve the president either having his own Ceausescu moment or simply fleeing the country. How long has he got?

☁️ Read more by Martin Jay

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇷🇺🇧🇾 The approval of a new federal law in Russia, granting Belarusian citizens residing in the country full local electoral and political rights, marks a decisive step in the consolidation of the Union State between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. In reciprocity, a similar law will soon be adopted in Minsk, granting Russian citizens the same ability to participate in Belarusian political life. This is not mere integrative rhetoric: the measure represents a break with the modern Western logic of the nation-state and signals the explicit revival of a suprastatal form of political organization in the Eurasian space.

What we are witnessing is the strengthening of an organic union between two sovereign states, which now share not only economic and military structures but also a common political citizenship. This model goes far beyond any form of integration ever seen in blocs such as the European Union, where there is a deep gap between the discourse of unity and the reality of fragmented sovereignty. In the Russia-Belarus Union, integration is not an attempt to standardize systems under a centralizing bureaucratic apparatus, but rather a historical and organic process of reconstructing the Russkiy Mir — the “Russian World.”

Political-electoral integration between Russia and Belarus makes clear the emergence of a multipolar world order.

☁️ Lucas Leiroz writes @lucasleiroz

🌐 More analysis
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

In The Grand Chessboard, Zbigniew Brzezinski, a major influence on U.S. foreign policy, referred to Azerbaijan as “the vitally important 'cork' in the bottle containing the riches of the Caspian Sea basin and Central Asia.” His metaphor, laden with imperialist undertones, vividly captures Azerbaijan’s strategic value as a gateway to vast energy and mineral resources. At the time of the book’s publication in 1997, Azerbaijan’s potential as a major gas and oil producer was already well-known (the Baku oil boom started in the 1870s, when the country was part of the Tsarist empire). Its importance as an energy corridor and critical node in global trade emerged later, but it was already clear that the West would seek to leverage Azerbaijan’s position not only to gain an edge in energy and trade, but also to extend its reach in the region in an attempt to undermine Russian security and interests. 👉 Read more in my latest article https://lauraruggeri.substack.com/p/azerbaijan-a-pawn-on-the-wests-chessboard 👉https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/07/28/azerbaijan-a-pawn-on-the-wests-chessboard/

🇦🇷 On the morning of July 18, 1994, a bomb exploded at the headquarters of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) in downtown Buenos Aires, leveling the building and killing 85 people, with over 300 injured.

The attack occurred two years after the bombing of the Israeli embassy in Argentina, which left 22 dead and 242 wounded. Both attacks took place during the presidency of Carlos Menem, a government that was pivotal for Argentina as it marked a transition to neoliberalism, featuring mass privatizations and a partial dollarization of the economy.

But on the geopolitical front, the Menem administration is more remembered for the apparent “secret war” that unfolded within the country, involving intelligence agencies and subversive groups from various nations.

The case remains relevant today because it is being leveraged by Javier Milei’s government to justify closer ties with Israel.

☁️ Read more by Raphael Machado @camaradamachado

🌐 More on world politics
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇺🇸🇮🇷 Trump’s bunker buster attacks were a sham as the diplomatic community wakes up to a new reality: Iran has the upper hand now with Israel. The only faint hope now to rescue the Donald is that diplomacy saves his credibility.

☁️ Read more by Martin Jay

🇮🇷 More on Iran
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇺🇦 Previously, any observer who had pointed out the rampant corruption that is endemic in the Kiev regime was automatically denounced by Western governments and media as a peddler of Russian disinformation.

Hilariously, though, this week, the Kiev kleptocracy burst open in such a spectacular way that even the American and European apologists for the regime could no longer maintain the worst-kept secret of their charade.

The fiasco exploded after the self-appointed President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, passed a law that stripped two anti-corruption agencies of their independent powers.

The sewer gates are opening as the endgame approaches. It’s not just the Kiev cabal that will be swept away.

☁️ Read more in this week’s Editorial

🔔 Read more Editorials
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

Zelensky's strategic defeat

The president has introduced a bill that effectively nullifies all changes to the laws on anti-corruption agencies which were adopted by the Rada on Tuesday and signed by Zelensky himself.

SAPO and NABU are once again becoming independent from the Prosecutor General (i.e. from the government)

By the way, NABU has already approved the bill.

In general, Zelensky has completely "backed down." And this is his heaviest strategic, and political defeat since taking office as president.

First, he signed amendments to the law, then he himself canceled them after pressure from the street and the West.

Zelensky was under very strong pressure from the Europeans, they even threatened to cut off funding (Zelensky's main calculation was a soft reaction from Europe. He was wrong). Plus, the authorities were scared by the protests, even though they were not massive.

Therefore, the president decided to back down.

Such a rollback could actually mean Zelensky's gradual loss of control over the power vertical. Especially if he fires Yermak, making him a "scapegoat" (which many are already pushing the president to do).

(Source: News Front/ukroSMI) @LauraRuHK

Full orchestrated campaign to - finally - throw sweaty sweatshirt under the (double-decker) bus.

MI6 man Zalushny is locked and loaded and ready to go.

🇷🇺 Statement by Vladimir Medinsky on the results of the third round of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations held in Istanbul. Key points:

— The second unprecedentedly large prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine has been completed.

— Russia proposed that Ukraine form three working groups to operate online, addressing political, humanitarian, and military issues.

— We agreed to exchange at least 1,200 military personnel from each side. Additionally, we proposed transferring the bodies of 3,000 deceased Ukrainian soldiers. If they find our soldiers, the number of transfers will be higher.

— Once Ukraine is technically ready to receive them, the bodies will be handed over with the assistance of the Red Cross.

— Kiev must clarify the status of detained civilians from the Kursk region in Ukraine. 101 agreements were not fully implemented—not all residents of the region have returned home.

— A meeting between Putin and Zelensky is possible after all details are worked out. It makes sense only if the presidents meet to finalize an agreement.

Additionally, the head of the Ukrainian delegation, Rustem Umerov, stated that Ukraine is ready for a ceasefire. They propose arranging a meeting between the countries' leaders by the end of August.

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

💢 The demonstrable indifference of the collective West’s moral authorities to the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza gives the lie to their moralistic posturing and tells us all that we need to know about the sincerity of their simulated concern over Srebrenica.

Destruction and death in regions far away from Bosnia and unrelated to it have been Srebrenica’s bitter legacy.

☁️ Read more by Stephen Karganovic

🌐 More analysis
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

What else is new: Circus Ringmaster will bomb Iran again.

https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/07/18/and-its-one-two-three-what-are-we-fighting-for-natos-wars/

"And it's one, two, three
Open up the pearly gates
Ain't got time
to wonder why
Whopeee!
We're all gonna die"

Keep on truckin', singin' and resistin'.

🇪🇺🇺🇸 Which European country does your state resemble? A U.S.-to-Europe HDI comparison

When it comes to health, education, and wealth, some U.S. states outrank Europe’s strongest economies – while others lag behind. Using the UN’s Human Development Index (HDI), we matched each state to its closest European counterpart, revealing unexpected parallels. See where your state lands in this transatlantic comparison.

🔗 Follow this link to find the full infographic.

© You are free to repost, reproduce and print this infographic.

#sc_infographic #EU #UnitedStates

🔔 Click for more infographics
🚀 Follow Us
🌐 Join Us on VK

🇪🇺 The European Union – which is something different from Europe – is dismantling the last vestiges of sovereign power and freedom.

☁️ Lorenzo Maria Pacini writes

🔔 More on world politics
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🌀 Gates is financially backing the development of sun-dimming technology that is aimed at reflecting sunlight out of Earth’s atmosphere, triggering a global cooling effect.

☁️ Robert Bridge writes

🌐 More analysis
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇧🇷 Imperialism wants a regime change in Brazil and will carry it out before the 2026 elections.

☁️ Read more by Eduardo Vasco

🔔 Stay tuned
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK

🇺🇸 One year after he undertook to end the Ukraine war in one day, and just past six months into his Presidency, Donald Trump has kicked the peace can down the road by fifty days. The ultimatum to President Putin to make peace or face sanctions has practically no chance to changing Russian aims in Ukraine. Backed into a corner, Trump may finally be forced to address Russia’s underlying concerns.

He now has fifty days to reach agreement on Ukrainian neutrality 🌀

☁️ Read more by Ian Proud

🔔 More analysis
🚀 Subscribe
🌐 Join us on VK