Rumors Of War: Is Europe Working Toward Peace or a Wider War?

Is Europe Working Toward Peace or a Wider War?

Paul Dragu

There’s a flurry of activity in Europe. Some of it appears to be attempts at peace in Ukraine. But there are also signs suggesting something else is going on. What is really happening?

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov told ABC News on Monday that he was “very much confident” that the two warring nations were “on the precipice” of a peace deal. This aligns with other reports that say the two sides are “90 percent” of the way to an agreement.

This is not the first time we’ve heard upbeat rhetoric like this. A litany of meetings and “productive” talks since President Donald Trump’s second inauguration have ginned up similar optimistic talk and hopes of peace, only to come to naught and be followed by intense fighting.  

In this case, Ryabkov is talking about the latest version of the Trump administration’s peace agreement, which has been revised several times since news of its draft broke in late November. The plan, which originally included 28 points, has been whittled down considerably, and it’s been bounced back and forth between Washington, D.C., Moscow, and a small coalition of highly influential Western European leaders. The latest meetings have been held in Berlin.

Ryabkov said the chance of peace depends on whether the decision-makers on the other side “recognize the inevitable outcome of our success.” There has been no sign this has happened. Ukraine and the Europeans are behaving as if Kiev is not losing the war; as if it has leverage to make demands that it has been unable to defend on the battlefield. Trump is irked about this. He told POLITICO last week that Zelensky had to start “accepting things.” He also criticized European leaders, who have been whispering into Zelensky’s ear to keep fighting “until they drop.”

NATO and Territory

There are two core issues at the center of peace negotiations: Ukraine’s ambitions to join NATO and land concessions. Regarding the former, Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday before his meeting in Berlin that he was ready “to drop his country’s bid to join NATO in exchange for Western security guarantees,” according to reports. But only if the West offers “a set of [security] guarantees similar to those offered to the alliance members.” This is a loaded condition, and reports suggest the United States is working on fulfilling this demand. The Americans are reportedly tweaking the plan to include U.S.-backed protections; measures that would require Senate backing, according to a Wall Street Journal report of the deal.

As for territorial concessions, Zelensky, as he has before, “rejected the U.S. push for ceding territory to Russia.”

The Kremlin wants the entire Donbas region and most of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russia controls most, but not all, of those areas. Ukraine refuses to officially cede any territory, and does not seem open to the Trump administration’s idea of turning those areas, or part of them, into demilitarized buffer zones. “I do not consider this fair, because who will manage this economic zone?” Zelensky recently said.

The Europeans, unlike the Americans, have consistently urged Ukraine not to budge on territory. Ryabkov was asked about this. Why is Russia asking for more territory than it’s been able to take control of?

Ryabkov said that all these regions held referendums in which the people voted to join the Russian federation. This is verifiably true. Yet the Western version of this narrative is that those results cannot be trusted, because the process was overseen by the Russians. It would be more surprising if this part of the world ever hosted any fair elections. Nevertheless, it’s not implausible that a region filled with Russian-speaking Ukrainians, many of whom consider themselves Russians, would want to leave a country that has become openly hostile to Russia and the Russian language and culture.

Escalation Escalator

Meanwhile, there’s been a deluge of mainstream reports over the last few days that smell like pre-programming for escalation.

Last week, NATO chief Mark Rutte told allies to prepare for another world war. He said Russia would target Europe next, within approximately five years. He said the Kremlin was seeking to rebuild the Soviet empire.

On Sunday, CBS’s 60 Minutes published a report on how Germany is preparing for war with Russia after the media company was invited by the German military to do so. “The war in Ukraine has shaken Germany’s sense of security,” a voiceover says. Germany has had a 23-percent increase in military enlistments. 60 Minutes shows footage of German soldiers running drills to develop skills they would need “to defend their position against an enemy assault.” The major in charge provides comments to 60 Minutes making clear that the war in Ukraine is spurring this activity.

The report also features the biggest arms contractor in Germany, Rheinmetall, which is also the fastest growing defense company in Europe, according to its CEO. Rheinmetall is a “pillar of NATO rearmament,” the report says. The company is building or expanding 13 weapons factories across Europe.

And on Tuesday, the U.K.’s Independent published a report in which British chief of defense Sir Richard Knighton said that “Russia is a growing threat to the UK and the nation’s ‘sons and daughters’ must be ready to fight in the event of an attack.” The report also cites the new head of MI6, Blaise Metreweli, who said that Russia has “aggressive, expansionist and revisionist” ambitions.

The message from the Europeans is clear: Once it’s done with Ukraine, Russia is going to roll through Europe.

Putin, for what it’s worth, has said Russia has no such ambitions. And given that it’s taken the Russians nearly four years to grind out a fifth of Ukraine, it makes little sense for the Europeans to believe Putin foolish enough to go any further west.

More....

Lagarde: Europe Faces “Existential Crisis”

Lagarde: Europe Faces “Existential Crisis”

Martin Armstrong 

Christine Lagarde is now warning that Europe faces an “existential crisis” unless urgent reforms are enacted. What she is really admitting is that Europe has reached the end of the centralized model. These are 28 independent nations that were never intended to operate as a single homogeneous culture or economy.

Europe’s problem is not monetary policy. Central banks do not create growth. They merely move liquidity around the system. Growth comes from capital formation, innovation, and confidence. Europe has systematically destroyed all three by punishing success, attacking private enterprise, excessive taxation and regulations. “Would rock-bottom interest rates or QE change the barriers I was talking about? No,” she admitted after years of failed policy.

Lagarde claims that internal trade barriers are now strangling Europe, which is astonishing only because those barriers were intentionally created. Every new regulation raised costs and reduced flexibility. Environmental mandates, tax harmonization, and bureaucratic oversight did not make Europe competitive.

“There will be pushback from multiple corners… from people who say: ‘We’re very happy in our corner of Europe, leave us alone,’” she said. The mass socialized project of ensuring the health of all 28 member states is a failure. Nations do not want to curb their economic growth to build up the economy of another nation. These nations also do not necessarily want to invest billions into a war when Europe is not technically at war. “We did so for COVID because it was a matter of survival,” Lagarde said in response to collective defense funding. “Defence is equally a matter of survival and emergency,” she said, calling it “a perfect case in point” for common issuance.

Capital has been fleeing Europe for years, not because of interest rates, but because confidence has collapsed. When governments constantly change the rules and treat capital as an enemy, long-term investment disappears. Europe has borrowed to maintain living standards rather than to increase productivity. That is the classic path of decline. History shows repeatedly that when debt rises faster than output, systems break. What Lagarde calls an “existential crisis” is simply the moment when that reality can no longer be ignored.

This is not a problem that can be solved with reforms from Brussels. The euro was destined to fail from the outset. The computer has been warning since the dawn of the euro and eurozone that the day WILL come when Europe fragments and nations once again choose sovereignty over centralized control.

Global space agencies conduct largest planetary defense drill: A Test Run For Apophis?

Global space agencies conduct largest planetary defense drill as mysterious interstellar object 3I/ATLAS approaches Earth

Kevin Hughes

As the enigmatic interstellar object 3I/ATLAS hurtles toward its closest approach to Earth this December, space agencies worldwide have launched the largest planetary defense drill in history, treating the event as a critical test run for future cosmic threats.

Scheduled to pass within 170 million miles of Earth—roughly twice the distance between our planet and the Sun—the object poses no collision risk, according to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). However, its unpredictable trajectory and unusual characteristics have prompted an unprecedented global effort to refine asteroid-tracking capabilities.

The International Asteroid Warning Network (IAWN), comprising NASA, ESA and over 23 nations, initiated the drill on Nov. 27, with simulations running through January 2026. The exercise leverages 3I/ATLAS' passage to sharpen detection methods for near-Earth objects (NEOs) that could one day threaten civilization.

According to the Enoch AI engine at BrightU.AI: Near-Earth objects (NEOs) are asteroids, comets and other celestial bodies that orbit the Sun and periodically approach Earth's vicinity. NEOs are defined as small, Solar System bodies whose orbits bring them close to Earth's orbit. They are typically classified based on their size and distance from Earth as asteroids, comets, near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and potentially hazardous asteroids (PHAs).

"This is an excellent opportunity for observers around the world to practice tracking where a comet is in the sky, should a hazardous comet to Earth ever be found," NASA representatives told the New York Post.

ESA's Meerkat and Aegis systems—two critical planetary defense tools—are undergoing rigorous testing. Meerkat, an automated early-warning system, scans for imminent threats within 30 days, while Aegis calculates long-term collision risks over the next century.

A test run for Apophis—and beyond

The drill serves as a critical warm-up for asteroid Apophis, which will pass dangerously close to Earth in 2029—visible to the naked eye in Europe.

"The entire world will be watching when the Apophis asteroid passes by very, very close to Earth in 2029," ESA stated. "Public interest in planetary defense capabilities will be immense."

Several space agency officials have stressed that developing asteroid deflection technology is now essential rather than science fiction.

While NASA maintains that 3I/ATLAS is a comet, its unexplained behavior has forced agencies to rethink planetary defense strategies. Whether natural or artificial, the object has already achieved one thing: uniting rival space powers in preparation for future threats.

As ESA warns, "It is no longer sci-fi—it is a skill we must hone before it is needed."

For now, the world watches—and prepares.

More...

Trump orders blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, escalating pressure on Maduro regime

Trump orders blockade on Venezuelan oil tankers, escalating pressure on Maduro regime

 JULIA VARNIER 

President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has ordered a blockade preventing all “sanctioned oil tankers” from entering Venezuela, escalating pressure on the country’s authoritarian leader, Nicolás Maduro.

The announcement follows the U.S. seizure of an oil tanker off Venezuela’s coast last week, an unusual intervention that came amid a stepped-up U.S. military presence in the region. In a statement posted to his social media platform Tuesday night, Trump accused Venezuela of using oil revenue to fund drug trafficking and other criminal networks, and he signaled that additional military deployments are underway.

“Venezuela is completely surrounded by the largest armada ever assembled in the history of South America,” Trump wrote. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the oil, land, and other assets that they previously stole from us.”

The military buildup has coincided with a series of U.S. strikes on small vessels operating in international waters in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific. At least 95 people have been killed in 25 documented strikes, a campaign that has prompted bipartisan concern in Congress about the scope and legality of the operations.

Administration officials have defended the effort as a key tool for reducing drug shipments to the United States and rejected suggestions that the campaign oversteps legal boundaries.

While the White House has repeatedly framed the operations as counter-narcotics missions, Trump’s chief of staff, Susie Wiles, appeared to link them directly to efforts to pressure Maduro. In an interview with Vanity Fair published Tuesday, Wiles said Trump “wants to keep on blowing boats up until Maduro cries uncle.”

Why Nicaragua Is Afraid Of The Bible

Welcome To Socialism: Why Nicaragua Is Afraid Of The Bible

PNW STAFF

When a government begins treating Bibles like weapons, the danger is no longer theoretical--it is fully realized.

That is the reality now unfolding in Nicaragua, where tourists traveling into the country are reportedly being barred from bringing Bibles across the border. At bus terminals operated by Tica Bus--one of the main transit routes from Costa Rica to Managua--Bibles now appear on an official list of prohibited items. They sit alongside drones, cameras, knives, magazines, newspapers, and other materials the regime considers threats.

Let that sink in: the Word of God is being treated as contraband.

Multiple representatives from Tica Bus across Central America have confirmed the ban, noting that it has been in effect for over six months under the rule of Nicaragua's co-presidents, Daniel Ortega and his wife Rosario Murillo--leaders of the socialist Sandinista National Liberation Front. What may sound shocking to Americans unfamiliar with life under socialist regimes is, in fact, a familiar pattern to anyone who has studied history.

Socialism does not merely seek to govern economies. It seeks to govern truth.

This latest restriction is not an isolated incident--it is part of a long and accelerating campaign against Christianity in Nicaragua. Since 2018, more than 1,300 religious organizations have had their legal status revoked. Public religious processions have been banned unless they are organized or approved by government-aligned groups. Pastors are surveilled, interrogated, detained, and in some cases exiled.

In 2024 alone, Christian watchdog groups documented 222 cases of religious persecution, including forced event cancellations, police monitoring of churches, and mandatory weekly check-ins for religious leaders. Forty-six pastors were detained that year. In 2025, the situation worsened: 73 Christians were detained, and over 300 churches and Christian buildings were closed, vandalized, or attacked.

Missionary Britt Hancock, speaking after the arrest of 13 pastors, described the situation plainly: "The freedom of the Gospel doesn't mix well with totalitarian regime ideology." She is right--and history proves it.

Why Socialism Fears the Bible

The Bible presents a fundamental problem for socialist and communist systems: it recognizes a higher authority than the state.

From Genesis to Revelation, Scripture affirms that human dignity, moral law, and ultimate allegiance come from God--not from government. Socialism, especially in its authoritarian forms, cannot tolerate that idea. It demands total loyalty. It requires ideological conformity. And it relies on centralized power to define truth, morality, and justice.

The Bible undermines all of that.

Scripture teaches that rulers are accountable. It affirms individual conscience. It empowers ordinary people with moral clarity that does not require government permission. It teaches that oppression is sin, that truth is objective, and that salvation does not come through political systems--but through Christ alone.

That is why socialist regimes consistently move to restrict Bibles, churches, and pastors. It happened in the Soviet Union. It happened in Maoist China. It happened in Castro's Cuba. It is happening today in Venezuela, North Korea, and now--openly--in Nicaragua.

Socialism does not merely compete with Christianity. It seeks to replace it.

From Control to Silence

When Nicaragua's government lumps Bibles in with knives and drones, the message is unmistakable: the regime sees faith as a destabilizing force. And that is precisely because faith gives people courage--courage to question, to resist, to endure suffering without surrendering their soul.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide's advocacy director Anna Lee Stangl called the Bible ban "highly concerning," especially given the broader climate of repression. She is being diplomatic. What is happening is not just concerning--it is a warning.

In February, Nicaragua withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council entirely after a report exposed the regime's systematic suppression of democracy, free expression, and religious freedom. Rather than correct course, the government chose isolation--another hallmark of authoritarian socialism.

The lesson here is not only about Nicaragua. It is about the nature of socialism itself. Wherever the state demands ultimate authority, the Bible becomes a threat. Wherever government seeks to redefine morality, Scripture must be silenced. Wherever power is centralized, faith must be controlled--or crushed.

More...

Has Orwell’s 1984 Become Reality?

Has Orwell’s 1984 Become Reality?

Bert Olivier

To some readers it may seem like a rhetorical question to ask whether the narrative of George Orwell’s dystopian novel, Nineteen Eighty-Four (or 1984), first published in Britain in 1949, has somehow left its pages and settled, like an ominous miasma, over the contours of social reality. Yet, closer inspection – which means avoiding compromised mainstream news outlets – discloses a disquieting state of affairs.

Everywhere we look in Western countries, from the United Kingdom, through Europe to America (and even India, whose ‘Orwellian digital ID system’ was lavishly praised by British prime minister Keir Starmer recently), what meets the eye is a set of social conditions exhibiting varying stages of precisely the no-longer-fictional totalitarian state depicted by Orwell in 1984. Needless to stress, this constitutes a warning against totalitarianism with its unapologetic manipulation of information and mass surveillance.

I am by no means the first person to perceive the ominous contours of Orwell’s nightmarish vision taking shape before our very eyes. Back in 2023 Jack Watson did, too, when he wrote (among other things):

Thoughtcrime is another of Orwell’s conjectures that has come true. When I first read 1984, I would never have thought that this made up word would be taken seriously; nobody should have the right to ask what you are thinking. Obviously, nobody can read your mind and surely you could not be arrested simply for thinking? However, I was dead wrong. A woman was arrested recently for silently praying in her head and, extraordinarily, prosecutors were asked to provide evidence of her ‘thoughtcrime.’ Needless to say, they did not have any. But knowing that we can now be accused of, essentially, thinking the wrong thoughts is a worrying development. Freedom of speech is already under threat, but this goes beyond free speech. This is about free thought. Everybody should have a right to think what they want, and they should not feel obliged or forced to express certain beliefs or only think certain thoughts.

Most people would know that totalitarianism is not a desirable social or political set of circumstances. Even the word sounds ominous, but that is probably only to those who already know what it denotes. I have written on it before, in different contexts, but it is now more relevant than ever. We should remind ourselves what Orwell wrote in that uncannily premonitory novel.

Considering the rapidly expanding and intensifying, electronically mediated strategies of surveillance being implemented globally – no doubt aimed at inculcating in citizens a subliminal awareness that privacy is fast becoming but a distant memory – the following excerpt from Orwell’s text strikes one as disturbingly prophetic, considering the time it was written (1984, Free Planet e-book, p.5):

‘Digital identity [is] not so your life is easier. It’s so government has total control over you.’

‘Digital currency [is] the crème de la crème of all control mechanisms…What do you think is going to happen the next time you refuse to take an mRNA shot? With the flip of a switch, they just cancel your account. You cannot buy food anymore. You cannot do anything anymore.’

Given these warnings, a case in point concerns well-known globalist Tony Blair’s recent attempt to assuage people’s fears about digital ID-systems. Needless to point out, his commendation of the system (because of its ‘amazing benefits’), in conjunction with AI and facial recognition capacity, is disingenuous in the extreme, as is palpably evident from his words (quoted from Wide Awake Media on X):

More....

The Surveillance State

The Surveillance State

John W. Whitehead

The Surveillance State is making a naughty list, and we’re all on it.

Long before Santa’s elves start loading his sleigh with toys for good girls and boys, the government’s surveillance apparatus is already at work—logging your movements, monitoring your messages, tracking your purchases, scanning your face, recording your license plate, and feeding it all into algorithmic systems designed to determine whether you belong on a government watchlist.

Unlike Santa’s naughty list, however, the consequences of landing on the government’s “naughty list” are far more severe than a stocking full of coal. They can include heightened surveillance, loss of privacy, travel restrictions, financial scrutiny, police encounters, or being flagged as a potential threat—often without notice, explanation, or recourse.

This is not fiction. This is not paranoia.

This is the modern surveillance state operating exactly as designed.

Santa Claus has long been the benign symbol of omniscient surveillance, a figure who watches, judges, and rewards. His oversight is fleeting, imaginary, and ultimately harmless.

The government’s surveillance is none of those things—and never was.

What was once dismissed as a joke—“Santa is watching”—has morphed into a chilling reality. Instead of elves, the watchers are data brokers, intelligence agencies, predictive algorithms, and fusion centers. Instead of a naughty-or-nice list, Americans are sorted into databases, risk profiles, and threat assessments—lists that never disappear.

The shift is subtle but profound.

Innocence is no longer presumed.

Everyone is watched. Everyone is scored. Everyone is a potential suspect.

This is the surveillance state in action.

Today’s surveillance state doesn’t require suspicion, a warrant, or probable cause. It is omnipresent, omniscient, and inescapable.

Your smartphone tracks your location. Your car records your movements. License plate readers log when and where you drive. Retail purchases create detailed consumer profiles. Smart speakers listen to everything you say. Home security cameras observe not just your property, but your neighbors, delivery drivers, and anyone who passes by.

The government’s appetite for data is insatiable.

In a dramatic expansion of surveillance reach, the Transportation Security Administration now shares airline passenger lists with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, enabling ICE to identify and arrest travelers at airports based on immigration status.

In one incident, ICE arrested and immediately deported a college student with no criminal record who was flying home to spend Thanksgiving with her family.

What was once routine aviation security data has been transformed into an enforcement tool—merging civilian travel records with the machinery of deportation and demonstrating how ordinary movements can be weaponized by the state.

Even the most personal acts—like Christmas shopping—are now tracked in real time. Every item you buy, where you buy it, how you pay, and who you buy it for becomes part of a permanent digital record. That data does not stay confined to retailers. It is shared, sold, aggregated, and folded into sprawling surveillance ecosystems that blur the line between corporate data collection and government intelligence.

Companies like Palantir specialize in fusing these data streams into comprehensive behavioral profiles, linking financial activity, social media behavior, geolocation data, and government records into a single, searchable identity map.

More...

UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff: Brits must be ready to sacrifice ‘sons and daughters’

Brits must be ready to sacrifice ‘sons and daughters’ – defence chief

RT

The UK’s Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton, has claimed that the chances of a direct confrontation with Russian forces on UK soil are not “zero” – a speculation dismissed by Moscow as “nonsense.”

Russia has consistently rejected claims that it plans to attack European NATO countries, describing them as warmongering tactics used by Western politicians to justify inflated military budgets. Moscow insists it is defending its citizens in the Ukraine conflict and accuses NATO of provoking hostilities and derailing the US-backed peace efforts.

During a lecture at the Royal United Services Institute on Monday, Knighton acknowledged that the probability of a direct conflict with Russia is “remote” but claimed that “does not mean the chances are zero.”

“More people being ready to fight for their country” is essential, Knighton said, adding that the response to modern threats “must go beyond simply strengthening our armed forces” and involve every part of British society.

Knighton’s remarks echoed those made last month by his “good friend” Fabien Mandon, the French chief of defence, who also warned that citizens must be prepared to “lose children” in a potential war with Russia.

The speech comes as a handful of European NATO states once again floated the controversial idea to send a multinational force into Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire.

Moscow has strongly rejected any such deployment, warning that the presence of NATO troops on Ukrainian territory would be treated as direct participation in the conflict. Russian officials have described the idea as a reckless escalation that undermines peace efforts and risks drawing the entire bloc into open confrontation.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier this year that Western European leaders were “trying to prepare Europe for war – not some hybrid war, but a real war against Russia.” He accused the EU of sliding into what he described as a “Fourth Reich,” marked by a surge in Russophobia and aggressive militarization.

Orban: EU needs Russian cash to avoid collapse

EU needs Russian cash to avoid collapse – Orban

RT

The EU nations’ leaders, who have spent more than €100 billion (over $118 billion) on Ukraine, now hope to confiscate frozen Russian assets in order to prevent the collapse of their governments, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.

Last week, the EU temporarily immobilized roughly $230 billion in Russian central bank assets by invoking Article 122, an emergency treaty clause that allows approval by a qualified majority rather than unanimity. Moscow has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds “theft,” after European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen proposed using the money to back a loan to Ukraine.

Speaking to the Patriota YouTube channel on Tuesday, Orban said EU leaders were “chasing their money” after spending heavily on the conflict and having previously assured voters it “won’t cost them a single penny”because support for Ukraine would be financed from Russian assets rather than taxpayers.

Orban said that if taxpayers end up footing the bill after all those promises, it could trigger an “explosive realization in Western Europe”and the “immediate fall of several governments.”

He argued that EU leaders are now trying to secure financing “outside taxpayers’ pockets,” pointing to frozen Russian assets as the target and warning of political trouble if Brussels fails to obtain them.

Orban has previously accused EU officials of “raping European law in broad daylight,” by invoking Article 122 to bypass his country’s potential veto, and said Budapest would take the matter to the bloc’s top court. He also noted that Washington opposes the confiscation and wants the issue handled as part of a broader settlement with Moscow.

Russia’s central bank has filed a lawsuit against Belgium-based depositary Euroclear, which holds most of its assets. The EU insists that freezing the funds complies with international law, however, Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has warned that using the money to back a loan to Kiev raises legal risks for the country.

UK plotting to undermine Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts

UK plotting to undermine Trump’s Ukraine peace efforts – Russian intelligence

RT

The UK is reportedly trying to convince the European Union to take control of frozen Russian assets, aiming to undermine US President Donald Trump’s efforts to advance peace initiatives that could end the Ukraine conflict, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR).

After the launch of Russia’s Special Military Operation in February of 2022, Kiev’s Western backers froze approximately $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets, of which $246 billion has been immobilized by EU member states.

Discussions concerning the frozen Russian assets intensified within the bloc in recent weeks after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen proposed using the funds to back a “reparations loan” to Ukraine.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the SVR claimed that the UK’s leadership was “desperately pushing for Brussels’ decision to seize Russian assets.” Aside from the clear goal of providing financial support to Kiev, London is also seeking to diminish US interest in facilitating any peace mediation between Ukraine and Russia, according to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service.

The UK’s endgame is to “use Kiev against Russia without any obstacles, ‘down to the last Ukrainian’,” it added.

Last week, EU member states voted to keep the Russian sovereign funds temporarily frozen. To push through the controversial agenda, the bloc’s leadership had to invoke emergency powers to bypass the unanimity requirement. Several member states, including Hungary, Slovakia, and Belgium, have raised objections. The latter is the seat of the Euroclear depositary, which holds the bulk of the frozen Russian assets. Brussels has expressed concern that it would be left in the lurch by the bloc in the face of Russian lawsuits.

Moscow has characterized any use of its immobilized funds as “theft.” On Friday, the Bank of Russia announced that it was filing a lawsuit seeking compensation from Euroclear for damages stemming from its “inability to manage” the assets.

Accelerating Global Rise In Terror Attacks Across Western Countries,

Israeli intel official says your 'jaw would drop' at terror plots prevented worldwide

Efrat Lachter

Senior Israeli intelligence officials say warnings delivered to Australia ahead of a deadly attack at a Hanukkah celebration on Sydney’s Bondi Beach were part of a much broader alert: an accelerating global rise in attempts to execute terror attacks across Western countries, increasingly aimed not only at Jewish targets, but also at Christians and large gatherings especially during religious holidays.

According to a senior Israeli intelligence official, Israel’s foreign intelligence service has been tracking a sharp increase in attempted attacks worldwide, many of them low-tech, quickly mobilized and designed to exploit open societies and crowded public events.

"We stopped a few ticking bombs, the target was on people’s heads," the senior official told Fox News Digital.

Israeli intelligence officials say Australia is not an outlier. From their perspective, recent months have revealed a pattern of attempted and disrupted plots across Europe, North America and beyond, pointing to a sustained global threat rather than sporadic violence.

"If you knew how many terror attacks we exposed and prevented," the senior official said, "your jaw would drop."

Israeli intelligence officials say the rise in attempted attacks is driven in part by how extremist and state-linked networks build terror infrastructure globally while deliberately masking their origins.

Officials say the networks frequently rely on non-Iranian nationals to carry out different roles along the operational chain, including logistics, intelligence gathering, financing and execution, in order to blur any connection to Tehran. In some cases, operatives are recruited from migrant or refugee backgrounds, while in others criminal elements or hired proxies are used to carry out acts of violence.

To avoid detection, officials say the networks rely on encrypted communications and clandestine in-person meetings, sometimes conducted outside the country where an attack is planned. In other cases, instructions are delivered remotely through secure channels that bypass standard telecommunications monitoring.

According to Israeli assessments, extremist networks are increasingly overlapping: jihadist ideology, lone-actor violence and state-linked activity now exist in the same ecosystem, fueled by online radicalization and geopolitical instability. Many plots, officials say, are unsophisticated, making them harder to detect early while still capable of causing mass casualties.

Israeli intelligence officials and foreign diplomatic sources warn that the threat is not limited to Jewish targets and is global. "We exposed terror cells in Germany, Greece, Austria — but not only Europe — also in South America, India and Thailand." The senior official said he cannot elaborate further.

A senior foreign diplomatic source said the current environment is being shaped by what they described as a global contagion effect, in which attacks are amplified online, celebrated across extremist networks and rapidly imitated elsewhere.

According to the source, attacks are increasingly attractive to extremists because they are relatively easy to carry out while producing outsized psychological and political impact.

The source cautioned that Christian communities and broader civilian gatherings are also vulnerable, particularly during religious holidays and symbolic events that attract large crowds.

More....

John Mearsheimer: Why Diplomacy Is Going Nowhere & Ukraine Is Doomed

John Mearsheimer: Why Diplomacy Is Going Nowhere & Ukraine Is Doomed

TYLER DURDEN

With Zelensky having much-belatedly dropped aspirations for Ukraine's NATO membership, European officials are now openly admitting what pretty much everyone knew but was afraid to say.

EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas has newly acknowledged in fresh remarks that Ukraine's membership in the military alliance is now obviously "out of the question" - but that the European Union now needs to provide concrete security guarantees.

"Now if this [Ukraine’s NATO membership] is not in question, or this is out of the question, then we need to see what are the security guarantees that are tangible. They can’t be papers, or promises, they have to be real troops, real capabilities," she told reporters ahead of an EU Foreign Ministers meeting.

Kallas asserted that "in the last 100 years, Russia has attacked at least 19 countries," and so this means "the security guarantees are needed for all other members" in the EU.

Europe is likely still going to propose some scheme not acceptable to Moscow, such as "Article 5-style" security guarantees, falling just short of NATO membership. But Russian leaders are just going to see keep viewing this as but a recipe for future conflict. 

This is precisely what Zelensky is now demanding in place of dropping the NATO bid. "We are talking about bilateral security guarantees between Ukraine and the United States — namely, Article 5-like guarantees ... as well as security guarantees for us from our European partners and from other countries such as Canada, Japan and others," he recently told Financial Times.

While rejecting the US deal which hinges on significant territorial concessions, Zelensky is hailing his new stance as some kind of grand compromise.

"These security guarantees are an opportunity to prevent another wave of Russian aggression," he had said over the weekend. "And this is already a compromise on our part." But this should have been taken off the table all the way back in February of 2022, on the eve of the Russian invasion, or even well before. Of course, he's much too late 'offering' this 'concession'. 

As we pointed out earlier, the open secret has for years been that the Washington and EU establishments know full well that it was historic and recent constant NATO expansion which led to this horrific, grinding war. This reality is so well understood that in their private, non-official commentary even former top Biden officials fully admit the fact.

All of the above developments suggest that diplomacy is still going nowhere, also as Kiev has still not been induced to offer anything 'real' (from Moscow's perspective) that would be enough to permanently end the war and achieve lasting peace.

According to a recent podcast appearance by geopolitical analyst and University of Chicago professor John Mearsheimer, "there is virtually no reason to think that a peace agreement can be struck to end the war, despite all the diplomatic maneuvering that has been taking place in recent months."

Diplomacy will only become relevant when there is a major development on the battlefield that tells both sides that it is time to negotiate an armistice, turning the hot war into a frozen conflict." Watch the full interview below:

Britain's New Spy Chief Warns Of 'Aggressive, Expansionist, And Revisionist' Russia

Britain's New Spy Chief Warns Of 'Aggressive, Expansionist, And Revisionist' Russia

Tom Ozimek

Britain’s new intelligence chief warned on Dec. 15 that the UK is operating in an era when “the front line is everywhere,” as she set out an assessment of global threats and described Russia as an “aggressive, expansionist, and revisionist” power determined to export instability across Europe and beyond.

Blaise Metreweli, who recently became head of the Secret Intelligence Service—commonly known as MI6—said that Russia’s campaign against Ukraine and its wider hybrid operations pose an acute and enduring danger to Britain and its allies, according to a preview of her first public speech released by the British government.

“The export of chaos is a feature, not a bug in the Russian approach to international engagement, and we should be ready for this to continue until Putin is forced to change his calculus,” Metreweli said.

‘The Front Line Is Everywhere’

Speaking from MI6 headquarters in London, Metreweli said that as Russia and other hostile actors rewrite the rules of conflict through cyber operations, information warfare, and covert sabotage, the global threat environment is becoming increasingly complex and interconnected.

“The front line is everywhere,” she said, warning that the UK faces a new “age of uncertainty.”

Metreweli said Britain’s support for Ukraine will remain firm and that pressure on Moscow will be sustained despite the length and cost of the war.

“Putin should be in no doubt, our support is enduring,” she said. “The pressure we apply on Ukraine’s behalf will be sustained.”

Her remarks come as European leaders have issued increasingly blunt warnings about Russia’s intentions beyond Ukraine.

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said last week that allied countries could become “Russia’s next target,” saying that Moscow’s willingness to absorb massive losses in Ukraine demonstrated a readiness to confront the wider alliance.

“We need to be crystal clear about the threat,” Rutte said. “We are Russia’s next target, and we are already in harm’s way.”

More....

BRITAIN ESCALATES: First Female MI6 Intel Chief Blaise Metreweli Warns of Russia’s ‘Aggressive’ Threat in First Speech

Paul Serran

Granddaughter of a Ukrainian Nazi, Metreweli is going after Russia – coincidence?

The United Kingdom is hell-bent on the confrontation against Russia.

For many, it’s a clever way to distract from the real problems of mass migration, two-tier policing, censorship, stagnant economy, skyrocketing taxes… the list goes on.

But for some, like the new MI6 Intel chief, it’s reportedly a multi-generational conflict – it’s personal.

Let’s call back a BBC News quote back from June:

“Blaise Metreweli was announced as the incoming head of the Secret Intelligence Service earlier this month. She will be its first female ‘C’ in its 116-year history.

With little known about her wider backstory, several newspapers reported on Friday that her grandfather was Constantine Dobrowolski, who defected from Soviet Russia’s Red Army to become the Nazis’ chief informant in Chernihiv, Ukraine.”

Yes, you read it right: she is the granddaughter of the man they called ‘The Butcher’.

Having a Nazi ancestor is no longer a negative in the West. Nazi descendants are being placed in leadership positions. UK’s new MI6 chief is Ukrainian Blaise Metreweli. Her grandfather was Nazi collaborator "the butcher" Constantine Dobrowolski, who has a file in the “hundreds of pages” in the German Military Archive.

Now we can add Metreweli to a growing list that includes, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, former German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, member of the House of Commons and new Canadian envoy to #Ukraine Chrystia Freeland, and former President of Georgia, Salome Zurabishvili. What some took for Russia’s exploitative 'sloganeering’ around Nazism at the heart of the Ukrainian conflict is slowly being proven true. Apparently, in its existential drive to rub out #Russia and steal its vast resources, the West is revising Nazism, which they believe is needed to complete the task.

More....