Germany to Station 5,000 Troops in Lithuania as Latest Escalation Against ‘Russian Threat’

POWDER KEG EUROPE: In First Foreign Deployment Since WW2, Germany to Station 5,000 Troops in Lithuania as Latest Escalation Against ‘Russian Threat’

Paul Serran

Unifier of Germany and its first Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck once famously said: “The great questions of our time will not be settled by resolutions and by majority votes […] but by blood and iron.”

Ever since the days of the ‘Iron Chancellor’, and especially after World War 2, German militarism has become a scary thought to many across Europe.

Now, eighty years after the end of the Nazi nightmare, the Teutonic leaders are ready for their first international military adventure.

Today (1), Germany officially launched a permanent foreign troop deployment – a 5,000-strong armored brigade in Lithuania.

Berlin’s move is seen as a maneuver ‘to bolster NATO’s eastern flank’ in response to the Old Continent’s new bogeyman: Putin’s Russia.

“According to the German military’s lobbying group, the newly created 45th Armored Brigade was formally activated during a ceremony outside Vilnius. A temporary headquarters was established, with the brigade’s crest unveiled and the unit now officially under the command of Brigadier General Christoph Huber.

‘We have a clear mission: to ensure the protection, freedom and security of our Lithuanian allies on NATO’s eastern flank’, Huber told dpa, the German press agency. ‘In doing so, we also protect NATO territory — and Germany itself’.”

This long-term deployment was promised in 2023, and is set to be fully operational by 2027.

“The plan includes not just frontline forces but also support units — such as a medical center, signal company and command support teams — across multiple locations.”

Currently, 150 German troops are stationed in Lithuania. That number is expected to reach 500 by year’s end.

“For NATO, the deployment represents a critical part of the alliance’s shift to deterrence by forward defense. For Germany, it’s a major step in shedding its reputation as a reluctant military power.”

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Ukraine's Last-Ditch “Scorched Earth” Plan?

Ukraine Has Secret Nuclear Doomsday Plan, According To Former Zelensky Advisor

Remix News,

Ukraine has a secret last-ditch “scorched earth” plan to render its entire territory uninhabitable in the event of a Russian victory in the war – and perhaps the rest of Europe with it.

This is according to Oleksiy Arestovych, a former adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky

In an interview with a Ukrainian journalist that he gave last month, Arestovych claimed that Ukraine’s current head of military intelligence, Kirill Budanov, has floated a plan to blow up all of Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, and possibly some of Russia’s as well, if all other defensive measures fail.

Ukraine currently operates four nuclear power plants with a total of 15 reactors. One of them, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station, is the largest plant in Europe and has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Russia, for its part, has 37 reactors divided among 11 power plants.

If all or even some of these reactors were attacked and destroyed simultaneously, the destructive impact would be beyond calculation. The Chernobyl nuclear accident that occurred in Ukraine in 1986, and which remains the worst disaster involving nuclear energy in history, killed dozens and led to long-term health problems for thousands of others. It also led to the evacuation of tens of thousands of people and rendered the surrounding area permanently uninhabitable, spreading radioactivity over a large area and even into Western Europe.

Moreover, the Chernobyl disaster required the combined resources of the Soviet Union, as well as the assistance it received from other countries, to contain it. In a scenario where several nuclear plants were destroyed simultaneously, it would likely exceed the ability of any nation to bring it under control. The resulting casualties and damage to the environment would therefore be many times worse than what happened in 1986.

Nor would this catastrophe be limited to Ukraine and Russia: Harmful radioactivity would undoubtedly be carried by the atmosphere and spread over the rest of Europe as well.

Arestovych raised the alleged plan in the context of U.S. President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Ukraine’s nuclear reactors should be brought under American control. The White House reported that the president had proposed the idea to Zelensky in a phone call they had last month, arguing that this would offer the “best protection” for the country’s nuclear energy infrastructure.

While some accused the American president of wanting to seize control of Ukraine’s energy resources for his own country’s benefit, Arestovych asserted that the real reason was that Washington knows about Budanov’s apocalyptic plan. He said that the Trump administration sees the Ukrainian government as “apes with a grenade” and wants to “take these dangerous toys out of our control.”

“They know about our plans to blow up all the nuclear power plants if Ukraine starts losing,” Arestovych said. “Budanov was running around with this [idea] a year and a half ago. Blow up everything, the Russian plants we can reach as well as our own, so that nobody gets them.”

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WHO Cuts Budget by 20% – A Kick to the Great Reset

WHO Cuts Budget by 20% – A Kick to the Great Reset

Martin Armstrong

The World Health Organization admitted that it has “no choice” but to cut its budget substantially. America’s exodus from the organization left the WHO with a budget gap of $600 million for FY2025, and it plans to cut expenditures by 20%.

The United States provided 16.3% of all funding from FY2022-2023, amounting to $1.3 billion of the organization’s $7.89 billion. Trump believes the WHO partnered with China to hide the origins of COVID-19, and he is particularly disgruntled that the US was paying 10X more into the organization compared to China at a cost of $500 million annually. “The World Health Organization has become nothing more than a corrupt Globalist scam…paid for by the United States, but owned and controlled by China,” Trump stated in November 2024. “I will not allow public health to be used as a pretext to advance the march of global government,” Trump stated before vowing to leave the organization.

“Dramatic cuts to official development assistance by the United States of America and others are causing massive disruption to countries, non-governmental organisations and United Nations agencies, including WHO,” WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in his e-mail to staffers. “While we have achieved substantial cost savings, the prevailing economic and geopolitical conditions have made resource mobilisation particularly difficult.”

Tedros is the first person in the 75-year history of the WHO who is not a medical doctor. Klaus Schwab supported him for that post, just as he recommended Lagarde for the IMF and then for the European Central Bank. He has also put in the head of the IMF from his board of the WEF as well. Schwab has the WHO in his back pocket. To put someone who is not a medical doctor at the head of the World Health Organization would be like putting Jeffrey Epstein as the head of a monastery.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was the second-largest donor to the WHO, and Gates used the organization to push the pandemic response, urging nations to use the very vacations he helped to fund. That man had ties to every globalist health organization. Still, Gates has come forward in recent weeks saying his organization simply can’t make up for the budget gap caused by the US withdrawing—

The Pandemic Treaty would have allowed the WHO to bypass national laws and impose its will on the people. There has never been a more massive power grab than what we witnessed under the guise of the pandemic. The WHO attempted to force nations to sign a Pandemic Treaty in 2022 to ensure it could remain in control:

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Large Overnight Israeli Airstrike On Beirut Kills Hezbollah Official

Large Overnight Israeli Airstrike On Beirut Kills Hezbollah Official & Bystanders

TYLER DURDEN

Just before 4am local time, while much of the city was sleeping, Beirut was pounded by another large-scale Israeli airstrike, reportedly targeting a Hezbollah official who was among four killed in the attack. A woman was slain in the attack too, according to Lebanese health authorities.

Top floors of a multi-story building were decimated in the strikes on a southern suburb of Beirut. It reportedly killed the following, identified in AFP:

A source close to Hezbollah, requesting anonymity as they were not authorized to brief the media, told AFP the strike killed Hassan Bdair, Hezbollah's "deputy head for the Palestinian file" who was "at home with his family."

While Al Mayadeen has described Bdair as a rank and file Hezbollah member, other regional sources have indicated he was a member of Hezbollah's Unit 3900 as well as the Quds Force of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).

The Israeli army subsequently said Tuesday that fighter jets "attacked a Hezbollah terrorist in the Dahiye area of ​​Beirut who had recently been directing Hamas operatives and had assisted them in attempting to carry out a serious attack against Israeli civilians in the immediate future."

"We couldn't see each other because of all the dust," one eyewitness who lives across the street from the destroyed building told AFP, describing "a very big explosion," followed by another.

"Not just one person is targeted — everyone in the country, from young to old has become the target," another nearby Lebanese resident said.

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has warned that war is returning to Lebanon and called on Israel to stop these attacks, which he said suggests Israel is seeking escalation.

"The Israeli raid on the southern suburb is a serious warning about the intentions lurking against Lebanon. Israel’s persistence in its aggression requires us to exert more effort to address Lebanon’s friends and rally them in support of our right to full sovereignty over our land … to prevent violations from abroad or infiltrators from within, who provide additional pretext for aggression," Aoun said. 

Lebanese as well as regional journalists and the populace are outraged given the large airstrikes happened without warning, in the middle of the night and in a highly populated residential area...

What's more is that it happened on the Eid al-Fitr Muslim holiday marking the end of the Ramadan fasting period. Days ago rockets were launched on northern Israel from south Lebanon, which resulted in Israeli reprisal strikes. Hezbollah denied it was behind the launches, and the Lebanese government announced arrests of the culprits, in an apparent effort to stave off war.

 

IDF Launches Airstrikes On Targets In Southern Gaza, Pentagon Announces Deployment Of 2nd U.S. Aircraft Carrier To Mideast

IDF said to launch airstrikes on targets in southern Gaza’s Rafah and Khan Younis

Times of Israel is liveblogging Wednesday

Israeli aircraft are carrying out airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, including in the southern cities of Khan Younis and Rafah, according to Palestinian media reports.

There is no immediate statement from the Israel Defense Forces.

Pentagon announces deployment of second US aircraft carrier to Mideast

The United States is increasing the number of aircraft carriers deployed in the Middle East to two, keeping one that is already there and sending another from the Indo-Pacific, the Pentagon says.

The Harry S. Truman will be joined by the Carl Vinson “to continue promoting regional stability, deter aggression, and protect the free flow of commerce in the region,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell says in a statement.