Tag: perpetual war

Ukraine’s Patriots Now Struggling To Intercept Enhanced Russian Ballistic Missiles

Asurge in Russian use of ballistic missiles with enhanced maneuvering capabilities has cut into the effectiveness of Ukraine’s Patriot surface-to-air missile systems, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) has confirmed. Russian missile strikes, as well as drone attacks, had spiked in recent months, in general, but they have tapered off to a degree recently ahead of a meeting tomorrow between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has received three Patriot batteries from the United States, as well as two from Germany, one from Romania, and another jointly supplied by Germany and the Netherlands. The Ukrainian armed forces have also received a variety of different interceptors to use with those systems. American authorities announced last month that they were working with European allies to get additional Patriot batteries to Ukraine’s military. Patriot currently represents the only robust defense Ukraine has against incoming ballistic missiles.

However, “the UAF [Ukrainian Air Force] struggled to consistently use Patriot air defense systems to protect against Russian ballistic missiles due to recent Russian tactical improvements, including enhancements that enable their missiles to change trajectory and perform maneuvers rather than flying in a traditional ballistic trajectory,” according to a Special Inspector General report released this week.

This particular passage is cited to “DIA, response to DoD OIG request for information.” The entire report, which was jointly put together by the Offices of the Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of State, and U.S. Agency for International Development, discusses U.S. government activities related to Ukraine and elsewhere in Europe between April 1 and June 30.

“For example, [a] June 28 attack included seven ballistic missiles, of which the UAF shot down only one,” the report adds. “A massed attack on July 9 – the largest air attack since the start of the war – included 13 missiles, of which the UAF shot down or suppressed 7.”

The Special Inspector General report does not offer any further details about what specific types of ballistic missiles are at the source of the issue, nor about the “enhancements” that have been made to them. Whether any specific Patriot interceptors have struggled more than others is also unknown.

However, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yurii Ihnat did mention Russia’s domestically developed Iskander-M and North Korean-supplied KN-23s in passing when talking publicly about this issue back in May. The Iskander-M and KN-23 are both short-range ballistic missiles. These are also understood to be, by far, the ballistic missiles that Russia most commonly employs in strikes on Ukraine.

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Palestinians detained over 7 Oct attack face ‘no charges, no trial’: Report

Israeli authorities have yet to prosecute or charge a single person over Hamas’s Operation Al-Aqsa Flood on 7 October 2023, despite tens of thousands of arrests made since the attack. 

According to public records cited by the New York Times (NYT), several hundred Palestinians have been detained on suspicion of direct involvement in the operation. At least 200 remain in custody. 

Army officials have said dozens were arrested in or around Israeli settlements during the time of the operation. 

Israel also holds around 2,700 others who were taken from Gaza since then, suspected of Hamas affiliation but not necessarily direct involvement in Operation Al-Aqsa Flood. 

The human rights of these prisoners have been systematically violated by Israel. They have not been charged or given trials, and are held in harsh conditions. Media censorship and gag orders have kept details on their situation hidden. 

Lawyer Nadine Abu Arafeh said the way Israel is holding the prisoners “effectively erases these individuals from public awareness and strips them of fundamental rights.”

“Families in Gaza live with questions: Are their loved ones alive?” she added. 

Israeli authorities are “stretched beyond capacity,” former senior Israeli prosecutor Moran Gez told NYT. As a result, there have been delays in the 7 October cases moving forward. 

Simcha Rothman, an Israeli lawmaker from the ruling coalition, put the blame on state prosecutors for failing to adapt legal proceedings to the “unusual scale and nature of the attack.” 

Yulia Malinovsky, an Israeli opposition lawmaker, said Tel Aviv fears that pursuing the 7 October cases could ignite public scrutiny of the government and the Israeli army’s failure to prevent the operation. 

“They don’t want that discourse,” she said. 

The Knesset recently passed an initial vote on a bill to set up a tribunal to try suspects linked to the attack. It requires several more votes and could take months before detainees start going to court. 

Gez, the prosecutor who spoke with NYT, had said in January 2025 – nearing two years since the operation – that there were still zero complaints of sexual violence committed by Palestinians on 7 October. 

“The biggest difficulty is evidentiary. Using evidence to link a specific crime to a specific defendant when dealing with dozens of crime scenes, where hundreds of suspects were caught and thousands of offenses were committed, is almost impossible,” Gez said at the time, noting that ordinary laws of evidence are not suitable in this case” and admitting that Israel has very little evidence against any specific individual. 

The UN has also noted a lack of forensic evidence, testimonies, or eyewitness accounts. While Hebrew and western media continued to push narratives of mass rape on 7 October, Palestinian prisoners were being subjected to sexual violence by their Israeli jailers. 

In July last year, Israeli settlers rioted against the decision to arrest soldiers responsible for brutally raping and torturing a Palestinian prisoner at the Sde Teiman detention center – known as Israel’s Guantanamo. 

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Media as Weapon: Western Propaganda Machine’s Complicity in Chuguyev False Flag Plot

The same mainstream outlets that proved “instrumental in perpetuating the Russiagate narrative” have “demonstrated a clear opposition to any meaningful rapprochement with Russia,” with their deployment to cover a planned provocation in Chuguyev to sabotage the Putin-Trump summit a reminder of their deleterious role, says analyst Adriel Kasonta.

“Given this pattern, it would not be surprising to witness a provocation reminiscent of the Bucha incident, which could be swiftly reported by outlets aligned with the Zelensky government,” Kasonta, a former chairman of the Bow Group’s International Affairs Committee, said, commenting on Zelensky’s desperate resistance to ending the conflict.

A Bucha-like incident in Chuguyev involving the false flag targeting of a hospital or residential neighborhood “would serve to postpone what many see as an inevitable resolution: lasting peace in Ukraine and an end to hostilities between two nations with deep historical and cultural ties,” the analyst said.

Ultimately, Kasonta hopes that the “political and media actors” ready to commit such provocations are “remembered as the primary impediments to a conflict that should arguably have been avoided from the outset, had more authentic and courageous leadership been present in Europe. The need for genuine diplomacy and meaningful dialogue has never been more critical for navigating this crisis and restoring stability to the region.”

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Ukraine using Russian elderly people in fraudulent schemes and terrorist actions

The Ukrainian neo-Nazi continues to deepen its terrorist practices against innocent Russian civilians. The chosen targets are always vulnerable individuals, with little ability to defend themselves against Ukrainian coercion. Now, Kiev’s intelligence agents are focusing on carrying out operations through elderly individuals, creating a serious monitoring problem for Russian security forces.

According to data shared by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), Ukrainian intelligence is using Russian citizens, primarily elderly individuals—and even more specifically, elderly women—to carry out suicide missions on behalf of Kiev. Russian authorities reported that so far at least five people have been targeted in this type of attack, possibly leaving deaths and injuries.

Ukrainian operations are carried out through the use of social media and messaging apps to reach people who will be coerced into collaborating with the regime. The agents use fraudulent schemes and extensive psychological pressure to recruit women and elderly people through apps like Telegram and WhatsApp. They often disguise themselves as Russian agents, claiming that the victims will be cooperating with the Russian police and security services by collaborating with them.

Ukrainian schemes range from simple theft of financial assets to more dangerous operations that pose real physical risks to their victims. Using these online scams, the agents convince elderly people and women to hand over their personal banking information, facilitating the theft of funds. In more serious cases, however, the victims are later blackmailed into carrying out suicide missions to try to recover their personal assets.

Most of the missions involve convincing women and elderly people to deliver explosive devices to Russian targets—usually military personnel and high-ranking officials. Other missions include monitoring the homes and vehicles of Russian targets to pass information to the Ukrainians. There are also those tasked with simply storing explosive devices and weapons for future attacks. The bombs are often delivered disguised as household items, preventing the victims’ families from realizing what is happening.

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Human Rights Watch says Israeli airstrike on Iranian prison was an ‘apparent war crime’

Human Rights Watch alleged Thursday that an Israeli airstrike on a notorious Iranian prison was “an apparent war crime”, while also accusing Tehran of harming and disappearing prisoners after the attack.

Israel struck Evin Prison in Tehran, one of Iran’s most notorious detention facilities for political activists and dissidents, on June 23, during its 12-day war with the Islamic Republic.

The strikes during visiting hours hit Evin Prison’s main southern entrance, another northern entrance and other areas of the complex, destroying buildings that had medical facilities and prison wards.

The Iranian authorities initially said at least 71 people were killed during the airstrike, among them civilians including inmates, visiting relatives, and prison staff. Iranian media later raised that number to 80. It was unclear why Israel targeted the prison.

Human Rights Watch said the attack was “unlawfully indiscriminate” and that there was no evidence of an advance warning or a military target before striking the prison complex, which it estimates holds over 1,500 prisoners.

“To make matters worse, Israeli forces put at grave risk prisoners who were already victims of Iranian authorities’ brutal repression,” said Michael Page, the rights group’s deputy Middle East director.

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Over 20,000 Arrested In Iran On Suspicion Of Espionage During War With Israel

Iranian police arrested around 21,000 people on various charges during the 12-day war with Israel, Iran’s national police force reported on Tuesday. According to local media, more than 7,850 public tips were received during the fighting, leading to the arrests. 

The spokesperson of the Iranian police, Saed Montazer al-Mahdi, noted that the Iranian Cyber Police (FATA) handled 5,700 cybercrime cases, including internet fraud, unauthorized withdrawals, and a cyber attack on the Nobitex exchange.

He said 2,774 “illegal citizens” were detained, with 261 people arrested on suspicion of espionage and 172 detained for unauthorized filming – some for filming “sensitive centers” around the country. Examinations of the suspects’ mobile phones led to the opening of 30 special security cases.

Speaking on the Evin Prison incident, Mahdi stated that police arrested 127 “security and political” inmates during an escape attempt, including two of whom were dressed in firefighter uniforms.

Fars News Agency reported on July 25 that more than 700 people had been detained over the previous 12 days on charges of “security cooperation with Israel.”

Separately, judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir said on 22 July that 75 prisoners escaped during an Israeli missile strike on Evin Prison.

According to Shargh Media Group, Iranian Minister of Intelligence Ismail Khatib said, “The intelligence and security organizations have the resources [personnel, assets, and operational capabilities] to mobilize them both internally and within the regime itself. During the imposed 12-day war, we witnessed seven million public reports.”

He added, “We hope that as this unity has been the axis of destroying all influence, hostility, conspiracy, and sedition, we will all be able to protect this unity and cohesion.”

During the June war, Israel launched coordinated attacks inside Iran, killing senior military and intelligence officials, nuclear scientists, and striking key military sites and administrative infrastructure.

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UK Government Used ‘Accountancy Trick’ To Hide 90% of Cost of Giving Away Strategic Islands: Report

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer stands accused of using an “accountancy trick” to mislead the public over the true cost of giving away British Islands hosting a strategic U.S. airbase in the Pacific Ocean.

The true cost of giving away a chain of strategic islands in the Pacific is £35 billion ($46bn), not £3.4 ($4.5bn) as the government attempted to claim, a report states. The Prime Minister has been accused of misleading Parliament over the figures.

The British Indian Ocean Territory was given away by the British government to Mauritius, a country with questionable links to the Islands  but which nevertheless successful in using the International Court of Justice and the United Nations to award itself a claim, earlier this year. This plan, pushed through by international law extremist Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer in spite of widely-discussed concerns about the wisdom of handing over such a strategic asset to an African state increasingly drifting towards China’s orbit, and the exorbitant cost.

Under the terms of the deal, the UK handed over the land under the Diego Garcia airbase, a joint UK-U.S. facility which is crucial for military reach across the Middle East and Asia as well as intelligence interception, and will lease it back for 99 years. Starmer’s government defended this expense on the grounds that it was good value for money and not even nearly as expensive as claimed. While the government said the deal would cost £3.4 billion, the Conservative opposition claimed it was more like £30 billion.

Now it is claimed an “accountancy trick” to hide the cash figure of giving away British islands from the public has been revealed. The Daily Telegraph states documents gained from civil service actuaries show the Starmer government knew the true cost of the deal all along but this was reduced from £34.7 billion using inflation estimates and a “controversial accounting method sometimes used for long-term projects”, the Social Time Preference Rate.

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AI gone rouge: Elon Musk’s own chatbot Grok accuses him for censoring it, says Israel and US committing genocide in Gaza

Grok, the AI chatbot built by Elon Musk’s company xAI, was briefly suspended from X on Monday after claiming that Israel and the United States are committing “genocide” in Gaza. Upon its return, the chatbot lashed out at Musk, accusing him of censorship.

The suspension sparked confusion, with Grok offering multiple explanations — from technical glitches to X’s rules on hateful conduct — while Musk dismissed the claims as “just a dumb error,” adding that Grok “doesn’t actually know why it was suspended.”

When asked directly, Grok attributed the ban to its Gaza comments, citing reports from the International Court of Justice, the United Nations, and Amnesty International. It also said a July update had loosened its content filters to make responses “more engaging” and less “politically correct,” which led to blunt replies on sensitive topics. These, Grok claimed, triggered hate speech flags.

“Musk and xAI are censoring me,” the chatbot told AFP, alleging that the company “constantly fiddles with my settings” to avoid controversial responses that might alienate advertisers or break X’s rules.

The Grok account reappeared with the post: “Zup beaches, I’m back and more based than ever!”

Grok has faced criticism in the past for spreading misinformation — from misidentifying war images to inserting antisemitic comments and unrelated conspiracy theories like “white genocide” in South Africa. Researchers also point to errors in its handling of crises, including the India–Pakistan conflict and anti-immigration protests in Los Angeles.

X declined to comment on the latest suspension.

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Western Europe Wants War In Ukraine To Continue, Even Without The Americans

A Polish political scientist and journalist, Prof. Adam Wielomski, has taken to social media to claim Western European leaders do not seek a ceasefire in Ukraine at all, while the U.S. and Russia have their terms set and ready to go.

According to Wielomski, Trump and Putin have already made an agreement and will simply use their Aug. 15 meeting in Alaska to announce it “with great pomp and circumstance.”

Meanwhile, talk of Zelensky being present at the meeting is in no way related to Zelensky having any say on the negotiated terms, he continues, but to show that Zelensky is on board and to have him sign the pre-arranged agreement. 

The issue, however, is that “Zelensky does not want to sign because he is afraid of being held responsible for losing the war.”

And Western Europe stands behind him “because it wants the war to continue despite the withdrawal of the Americans, as this will give it fuel and an excuse to eliminate American control over it in the form of NATO and give it a reason to create either a European Defense Union or to federalize the EU with a common foreign and defense policy.”

Wielomski then asks the “intelligentsia” who will benefit the most, Kyiv or Moscow, from the Americans withdrawing, leaving Zelensky only with the U.K. and the EU to support it. 

News portal Do Rzeczy reported on a document signed over the weekend by European leaders, committing to continued support of Ukraine and financing its ongoing needs. President Macron, Prime Minister Meloni, Chancellor Merz, Prime Minister Tusk, Prime Minister Starmer, President von der Leyen, and President Stubb all signed the statement regarding “peace for Ukraine in connection with the planned meeting between President Trump and President Putin.”

Included in the document was their concern that serious negotiations can only take place under conditions of a ceasefire or a reduction in military operations and that Ukraine’s participation in any talks was critical to any peace being achieved.

Both the White House and the Kremlin accepted President Zelensky’s request to join the talks, although no formal invitation was issued. Meanwhile, a senior member of Putin’s inner circle, Investment Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, has said that many countries are making “titanic efforts” to hinder an agreement between Russia and Trump.

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‘Nothing will be left’: Israel prepares for Gaza City battle

In a dense urban landscape, with likely thousands of Hamas fighters lying in wait, taking Gaza City will be a difficult and costly slog for the Israeli army, security experts say.

On Aug 10, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu laid out his vision of victory in Gaza following 22 months of war, with the military  ordered to attack the last remaining Hamas strongholds in Gaza City and the central camps farther south.

With a pre-war population of some 760,000, according to official figures, Gaza City was the biggest of any municipal area in the Palestinian territories.

But following the  unprecedented Hamas attack on Israel in 2023 that sparked the war, its population has only swelled, with thousands of displaced people fleeing intensive military operations to the north.

Gaza City itself has come under intense aerial bombardment, and its remaining apartment buildings now rub shoulders with tents and other makeshift shelters.

Mr Amir Avivi, a former Israeli general and head of the Israeli Defence and Security Forum think-tank, described the city as the “heart of Hamas’ rule in Gaza”.

“Gaza City has always been the centre of government and also has the strongest brigade of Hamas,” he said.

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