Kiev does not have the resources to launch another counteroffensive anytime soon, officials in Berlin reportedly believe.

Germany has no more military hardware to offer Ukraine beyond what has already been pledged, even as Kiev remains hard-pressed by Russia on the front line, Bild reported on Saturday.

According to the outlet, the German Defense Ministry does not believe that Ukraine will be capable of launching "an offensive to liberate its own territory" in the near future.

The report also said, citing an internal document, that Berlin would no longer send "heavy weapons" to Ukraine, and that deliveries of this type of aid have been "completed." The term applies to tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, armored personnel carriers, self-propelled howitzers and similar hardware.

In addition, according to Bild, a supposedly new €1.4 billion ($1.53 billion) military aid package German Chancellor Olaf Scholz recently pledged in fact refers to commitments promised and paid for last year.

Israel now has its greatest opportunity in 50 years, to change the face of the Middle East. We must act now to destroy Iran's nuclear program, its central energy facilities, and to fatally cripple this terrorist regime. We have the justification. We have the tools. Now that Hezbollah and Hamas are paralyzed, Iran stands exposed. Naftali Bennett, former Israeli Prime Minister

For Israel to achieve its regional ambitions, it must lure the US into a war with Iran. In order to accomplish that feat, Israel must strike Iran with enough force to provoke a violent and destructive retaliation. As soon as it looks like Israel is in trouble, the US will ride to the rescue with "guns blazing". But, first, Israel must initiate a provocation big enough to ensure the outcome that it seeks. In short, Israel's real target is the US because it is the US that must be hoodwinked into fighting Israel's war. Regrettably, duping America is what Israel does best.

The idea of discussing nuclear stability with the US is ridiculous, given that Washington is essentially waging a war against Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has said.

In a statement on Sunday, US President Joe Biden argued that the world must continue making progress towards a complete nuclear disarmament. "The United States stands ready to engage in talks with Russia, China, and North Korea without preconditions to reduce the nuclear threat," he stressed. Biden also claimed there is no reason to forestall progress on reducing nuclear arsenals.

Medvedev, who now serves as deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, dismissed the offer out of hand, suggesting that Biden "blurted out" the statement due to a desire "to help his brainless protégé," apparently referring to Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

Russia made the right decision to amend its nuclear doctrine because it prevented a further escalation of the Ukraine conflict by Kiev's Western backers, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has said.

In late September, Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that the country's nuclear strategy should be changed to also consider aggression against Russia and its closest ally Belarus "by any non-nuclear state, but with the participation or support of a nuclear state," as a "joint attack" that could trigger a nuclear response. The Kremlin announced a few days later that the new version of the doctrine had been finalized and is now going through the necessary procedures to become law.

"This doctrine should have been updated long ago," Lukashenko said in an interview with Russia 2 channel correspondent Pavel Zarubin on Sunday.

According to the Belarusian leader, he and Putin had discussed such a possibility as long as five years ago. "Therefore, for me, this is not new," he added.

American forces will be sent to operate a missile defense battery ahead of a likely Israeli attack on Iran.

The US has ordered the deployment of a THAAD air defense system to Israel, along with a crew of American service members to operate it, Pentagon Press Secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder announced on Sunday. The move marks the first deployment of US combat troops on Israeli soil since the Israel-Hamas war began last year.

According to Ryder, the THAAD battery "and associated crew of US military personnel" will be stationed in Israel "to help bolster Israel's air defenses following Iran's unprecedented attacks against Israel on April 13 and again on October 1."

US President Joe Biden, who the White House previously said had "no plans or intentions to put US boots on the ground in combat," ordered the deployment, Ryder stated.

The THAAD, or Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, is a mobile anti-ballistic missile system designed to detect and intercept ballistic missiles during their descent stage. It fires a non-explosive projectile at eight times the speed of sound, relying on kinetic energy to destroy incoming missiles.

A THAAD battery consists of 95 soldiers and six truck-mounted launchers capable of firing a total of 48 interceptors.

Do you want to live in a society where you are required to have your face scanned wherever you go? If not, you may want to speak up now while you still can. As you will see below, the U.S. government is aggressively expanding the use of facial recognition technology for identification verification purposes. For now, the use of facial recognition technology will be optional. But as we have seen before, once a voluntary option is adopted by enough people our leaders have a way of making it mandatory. Of course it isn't just our government that is pushing facial recognition technology. It is popping up throughout our society, and given enough time it would literally be everywhere.

Login.gov is billed as "a single sign-on solution for US government websites", and now users of Login.gov will be given the option to use facial recognition technology to verify their identities...

An online hub for Americans to access benefits and services across the federal government is giving its users a new option to sign on.

The General Services Administration will begin offering facial recognition technology as an option for users of Login.gov, a one-stop for government-provided public services, to verify their identities.

GSA's Technology Transformation Services announced Wednesday it will allow Login.gov users to verify their identity online through facial technology that meets standards set by the National Institute of Standards and Technology's 800-63-3 Identity Assurance Level 2 (IAL2) guidelines.

We are being told that this will help reduce identity theft and fraud, and I don't know anyone that likes identity theft and fraud. But do we really want to live in a dystopian world where our faces are constantly being scanned all the time? I certainly don't.

In the contemporary West, there's an obsessive focus on psychology, childhood trauma, and breaking cycles. The emphasis is squarely on the self, with the belief that if individuals can break generational patterns by consciously exploring the rabbit hole of their inner wholeness, they'll evolve into better, more enlightened humans — and society, as a whole, will "level up." Western society is beholden to this theory without noticing the glaring holes within it. If we're all to become more whole, then our institutions must also reflect wholeness and decency, rather than glorifying greed and power. Instead, we see systems rewarding the most morally bankrupt among us, legitimising their continued unholy existence. "Breaking trauma cycles" is the phrase du jour, yet there's almost no focus on breaking societal cycles. In fact, most history curricula fail to teach the cyclical nature of history or the Hegelian dialectic that explains cause and consequence over time.

Polybius, one of the earliest historians to write about the cyclical nature of politics and history, once stated, "Since the masses of the people are inconstant, full of unruly desires, passionate, and reckless of consequences, they must be filled with fears to keep them in order. The ancients did well, therefore, to invent gods and the belief in punishment after death." Just look at the modern news cycle for proof of how this tactic persists today. The relevance of Polybius' insight becomes even more pertinent when you consider that he wrote it during the decline of the Hellenistic empire — just as it was collapsing into the black hole of history — and holy sh*t that's eerily applicable as we watch the fall of U.S. hegemony in real time. Western society's fixation on the self and the use of scare tactics by institutions to maintain control inevitably leads to deceptions surrounding the conspiratorial and collaborative causes of events designed to induce fear. The narrative often attributes the cause of disruptive events to a "disturbed" individual, to wholly deflect from the all-encompassing truth, which, on the whole, is often far more disturbing.

Take, for example, the first assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump. The official narrative of Crooks, a lone teenage gunman — disturbed, of course — crumbles under scrutiny. The behaviour of the security detail that day, the delayed response after the threat was identified, and the gunman's ability to get into position, firearm and ladder in hand, are all deeply suspicious. That he appeared in a Blackrock promo video only raises further questions. We'll get to the role of "banksters" soon enough, but citizen journalists have uncovered links between the gunman and phone calls to an FBI office, both months and days before Trump's Pennsylvania rally. Only a conspiracy nut could conjure such nonsense that the security state may have been involved because, of course, it's highly regular for most teenagers to be involved in some capacity with Blackrock and the FBI, and only a wholly rabbitholed kook could see the cyclical pattern of this narrative.

The Israeli government is now saying that the United States is preparing to deploy THAAD anti-ballistic missile systems in Israel, a major development which will possibly put troops in the directly in harm's way amid the tense showdown with Iran.

Times of Israel writes that "according to reports by Channel 12 news and Army Radio that describe the move as part of preparations for the expected Israeli response to Iran's recent missile attack." Importantly, "Channel 12 news says the advanced missile defense system will be operated by American troops on Israeli soil," TOI continues. However, there have been some initial contradictory reports.

The THAAD is an anti-ballistic missile defense system capable of shooting down short, medium, and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in their terminal phase. There has been no formal US vote or Congressional authorization for this, but it marks yet another escalation in the Biden White House's ongoing multi-billion dollar military aid program for Israel - a high risk one at that.

Any potential new exchange of ballistic missiles with the Islamic Republic is likely to involve direct attempts to target anti-air batteries positioned in Israel.

David Burke's book is relevant to all those interested in how MI6 have instigated terrorism in arenas as diverse as Russia, Armenia, Iraq and Syria.

Because David Burke's The Puppet Masters: how MI6 masterminded Ireland's deepest state crisis surveys how MI6's network of agents instigated the 1969-1998 Irish Troubles, his book is relevant not only to students of Ireland, but to those interested in how MI6 have more recently instigated terrorism in arenas as diverse as Russia, Armenia, Iraq and Syria.

Just as with our earlier review of Caroline Elkins' Legacy of Violence: A History of the British Empire, so do we find the same cast of cut-throats making their way to Ireland, which they subjected to more than 30 years of wanton violence.

Chief of these Colonel Blimp criminals is the notorious SAS General Frank Kitson, whose Low Intensity Operations classic is quoted on page 153, to remind us that "in the historical context it may be of interest to recall that when the regular [British] army was first raised in the 17^th century, 'Suppression of the Irish' was coupled with 'Defence of the Protestant Religion' as one of the two main reasons for its existence" and, by extension why both of those institutions must be destroyed root and branch.

As the world waits to see if Israel and Iran become ground zero for World War Three, I've been asking myself how any nation, let alone a tiny sliver of bleached rock, sand, and palm trees, can pretend it's all-powerful and immune.
Sure, Israel and America share a kind of proxy operation worldwide, but the wider world is a lot bigger.

The lead of a story by Gideon Levy on Middle East Eye answered the question for me this morning. The famous Israeli journalist and author wrote:

"A society cannot go far with its head buried in the sand, and will certainly be unable to cope with the real challenges confronting it."

Israel's Core Fanaticism

Levy also says, "There is not a single Israeli, not one, who knows where his country is headed." The grandson of Jews murdered in the Holocaust, Levy was for a time a typical mainstream Israeli, a full-fledged proponent of what he termed the "nationalist religious orgy." Today, the fears that pushed extreme nationalism to the forefront in Israel seem an inevitability. Like so many, the question whether or not Israel will exist in 20 years or so is preeminent. And, there is no talk of the long-term future and peace. The learned author reveals that his country is suffering from repression, denial, and self-delusion propagated by the same people eradicating Palestinians like insects.

Israelis probably still fear another holocaust is right around the corner. Given Bibi Netanyahu's fatalistic fanaticism of late and the multipolar world growing imminently disgusted with the American hegemony (and friends), it's not difficult to visualize. And it seems every Israeli is desperate to establish an escape route once Humpty Dumpty finally does fall off the Wailing Wall. To be clear, many of us criticizing Israel and the Zionists are concerned not simply for the state of Israel but for the Jewish community worldwide. Most writers and analysts are afraid to even hint at what could become a "Jew hunt" a thousand times worse than the Nazis perpetrated. We cannot be, however. Most Jewish people have had this on their minds since before Israel was reformed in Palestine.

Like anyone with Jewish friends or even good Baptists taught about the Israelites, I shudder to think about this unthinkable event in human history. Turning back to Levy's analysis of the current situation, we find the indisputable truth right before our eyes. A man who identifies as a "Patriotic Israeli" consolidates what has to happen to avert a horror humanity could never live down:

"Equality. Equal rights from the river to the sea. One person, one vote. So basic and yet so revolutionary. This path requires a parting of the ways with Zionism and the rejection of Jewish supremacy, and letting go of the entire self-definition of both peoples - but it represents the only ray of hope."