Tag: perpetual war

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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European Leaders Call For Protection Of Ukraine As Trump-Putin Summit Looms

A coalition of European leaders released a joint statement on Aug. 9 welcoming the news of President Donald Trump’s upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, and stressing the need to ensure that European and Ukrainian interests are protected as the two leaders talk about ending the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Trump and Putin are scheduled to meet in Alaska on Aug. 15.

The joint statement included French, Italian, German, Polish, British, and Finnish leaders, as well as the president of the European Commission.

“We share the conviction that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests,” the leaders said, adding that they “agree that these vital interests include the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity.”

They also expressed support for the principle that “international borders must not be changed by force.”

“The current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations,” the statement said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a statement on Aug. 9 that “the Ukrainian people deserve peace.”

“But all partners must understand what a dignified peace is,” he said, adding that Ukraine “will not reward Russia for what it has perpetrated.”

Trump has said a deal could involve “some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” parties.

After speaking with Zelenskyy, as well as German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron took to X.

“Ukraine’s future cannot be decided without the Ukrainians, who have been fighting for their freedom and security for over three years now,” he wrote.

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The Verdict of History: How Political Calculations Betrayed Gaza

The Israeli human rights organization B’Tselem released a comprehensive report on July 27 describing the Israeli war on Gaza as genocide. However, the delay in publishing such an indictment is troubling and adds to an existing problem of politically motivated decision-making processes that have, in their own right, prolonged the ongoing Israeli war crimes.

The report accused Israel of committing genocide, a conclusion reached after a detailed analysis of the military campaign’s intent, the systematic destruction of civilian life, and the government-engineered famine. This finding is significant because it adds to the massive body of legal and testimonial evidence affirming the Palestinian position that Israel’s actions in Gaza constitute a genocide.

Moreover, the fact that B’Tselem is an Israeli organization is doubly important. It represents an insider’s indictment of the horrific massacres and the government-engineered famine in the Strip, directly challenging the baseless argument that accusing Israel of genocide is an act of antisemitism.

Western media were particularly interested in this report, despite the fact that numerous first-hand Palestinian reports and investigations are often ignored or downplayed. This double standard continues to feed into a chronic media problem in its perception of Palestine and Israel.

Claims by Palestinians of Israeli war crimes have historically been ignored by mainstream media or academia. Whether the Zionist militia’s massacre of Tantura in 1948, the actual number of Palestinians and Lebanese killed in the massacres of Sabra and Shatila in Lebanon in 1982, or the events resulting in the Jenin massacre in the West Bank in 2002, the media has frequently ignored the Palestinian account. It often gains a degree of validation only if it is backed by Israeli or Western voices.

The latest B’Tselem report is no exception. But another question must be asked: why did it take nearly two years for B’Tselem to reach such an obvious conclusion? Israeli rights groups, in particular, have far greater access to the conduct of the Israeli army, the statements of politicians, and Hebrew media coverage than any other entity. Such a conclusion, therefore, should have been reached in a matter of two months, not two years.

This kind of intentional delay has so far defined the position of many international institutions, organizations, and individuals whose moral authority would have helped Palestinians establish the facts of the genocide globally much earlier.

For example, despite the ICJ’s historic ruling on January 26, 2024, that determined that there are plausible grounds for South Africa’s accusation of Israel of committing genocide, the court is still unable, or unwilling, to produce a conclusive ruling. A definitive ruling would have been a significant pressure card on Israel to end its mass killing in Gaza. 

Instead, for now, the ICJ expects Israel to investigate itself, a most unrealistic expectation at a time when Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promises his extremist ministers that Israel will encourage the ethnic cleansing of Gaza.

The same indictment of intentional and politicized delays can be attributed to the International Criminal Court. While it issued arrest warrants for Netanyahu and his former defense minister on November 21, 2024, no concrete action has been taken. Instead, it is the Chief Prosecutor of the court, Karim Khan, who finds himself attacked by the US government and media for having the courage to follow through on the investigation.

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DARPA’s Theory of Mind Warfare

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has an initiative called the Theory of Mind program. This effort is designed to give national security decision-makers the ability to model, simulate, and ultimately anticipate the intentions and behaviors of adversaries using a combination of advanced algorithms and human expertise.

At its core, the program aims to:

  • Build algorithmic models that “decompose” adversary strategies into elemental behaviors.
  • Use massive data—signals intelligence, open-source information, even social media—to create high-fidelity “avatars” of enemy decision-makers.
  • Simulate possible responses to a range of U.S. and allied actions, exploring which ones best deter, incentivize, or nudge adversaries toward preferred outcomes.
  • Integrate insights from psychological profiling and machine learning to continually update these models as real-world conditions shift.

The promise is profound: a system that doesn’t just predict what an adversary might do, but actively guides policymakers toward courses of action that shape the adversary’s decision calculus—minimizing escalation and maximizing U.S. strategic advantage.

DARPA’s Theory of Mind program fundamentally changes how conflicts are managed. Decision-makers can run gaming scenarios at unprecedented detail and speed, customizing incentives or deterrents tailored to both cultural and individual psychologies. Risks of unintended escalation might be sharply reduced, while opportunities to “push the line” without crossing it become clearer.

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