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Best of the Web: Putin: Russia-West clash is based on geopolitical strategizing, not ideological differences


RT
Mon, 14 Jul 2025 08:15 UTC
The standoff is only about geopolitical interests, the Russian president has said
geopolitics putin map russia
Western nations' hegemonic aspirations and dismissal of Russia's security concerns have led to the ongoing standoff between Moscow and the West, President Vladimir Putin said in an interview released on Sunday. Ideological differences are only a pretext to advance the West's geopolitical interests, he claimed.

Putin added that he expected the collapse of the USSR to alleviate tensions between Russia and the West.

"It became clear to me that ideology probably has some importance, but at the core of all these contradictions lie geopolitical interests, which is the main, fundamental issue. I also thought that key disagreements [between us] were ideological in nature," he stated. "Yet, when the Soviet Union was gone... the dismissive approach to Russia's strategic interests persisted."

The president went on to say that his attempts to raise Russia's concerns with Western leaders were in vain. "The West decided... they do not need to follow the rules when it comes to Russia, which does not have the same power as the USSR."

Comment: What Putin means is that the continuity of overall Western policy of 'containing' Russia from the Cold War till today means that their beef with communism was never really about communism, it was about maximizing geopolitical advantage to sustain and strengthen US hegemony. This is why policies don't really change from one Western government to the next, and why, to Western leaders, it's never 'personal' - they don't actually believe their own propaganda about Russia, they just want to 'beat' it in 'the great game'.

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Skull

Best of the Web: Latakia's burning coast: Sectarian purge masked as 'wildfire' under Syria's new government

Abdullah Suleiman Ali
The Cradle
Sat, 12 Jul 2025 20:46 UTC
syria wildfire Alawites purge persecution
© The CradleJuly, 2025: Alawites are being driven from their ancestral lands in Syria by a combination of the al Jolanie open war on the group and deliberately set wildfires.
As Syria's new rulers exploit wildfire and war to reshape the coastal region, a campaign of arson and forced displacement threatens to extinguish Alawite presence from their ancestral lands

Less than four months into its rule, Syria's interim government is under mounting pressure, as each crisis — natural or security-related — casts doubt on its ability to govern and maintain control.

The recent wildfires that tore through northern Latakia were no seasonal accident. They broke out as sectarian killings escalated and suspicions of state complicity grew.

Comment:



Another country broken on the West's goal of bringing "freedom and democracy":

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Star of David

Best of the Web: Gazan aid-seekers 'sniped in the head' at GHF distribution center, witnesses say

Tareq S. Hajjaj
Mondoweiss
Sat, 12 Jul 2025 00:00 UTC
Pal food box
© Omar Ashtawy/APA/ImagesPalestinians carring aid boxes from the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation • June 16, 2025
Israeli forces carried out another massacre at an aid center in southern Gaza run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Witnesses described Israeli tanks shooting toward the crowds with machine guns and soldiers sniping aid-seekers in the head.

Samir Shaat, a young man in his thirties, sits in the courtyard of Nasser Medical Complex, recounting what he describes as the worst day of his life.

On Saturday morning, Shaat went to the al-Shakoush aid distribution site in Rafah city run by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF). After the closure of all other GHF sites across Gaza, this was the only one still operational. Shaat and his friend were there to bring back food for their families.

As soon as they arrived at 9:40 a.m., Shaat says, Israeli army tanks appeared on a high hill near the site and began firing with heavy machine guns at the thousands of civilians who were waiting for the U.S.-run company's signal to enter the site.

Instead of returning home carrying food, Shaat returned carrying his friend, who was shot directly in the head. He carried him for more than a kilometer on foot, running in the hope of saving him. By the time he reached the hospital, his friend had already died on his shoulders.
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Penis Pump

Best of the Web: French journalists who claimed Brigitte Macron was born a man are CLEARED of defamation

Peter Allen
Daily Mail, UK
Fri, 11 Jul 2025 16:59 UTC
brigitte macron london
Two women convicted of defaming French first lady Brigitte Macron by saying she was 'born a man' were today sensationally cleared on appeal.

Judges sitting at the Paris Appeal Court on Thursday ruled that Amandine Roy, a 53-year-old clairvoyant, and Natacha Rey, 49 and a blogger, had every legal right to make the sulphurous allegations.

Both had claimed they were subjected to 'intimidation by the authorities' as 'ultra protected' members of the Paris establishment tried to cover up a 'state secret'.

Lawyers for Ms Macron, 72, in turn indicated that she was 'devastated' by the development, and would be taking the case to France's Cassation Court.

Ms Macron is currently returning from a State Visit to Britain with her husband, President Emmanuel Macron, so was not in court to hear today's judgement.

Ms Roy and Ms Rey had had appeared on a four-hour YouTube video in December 2021 in which they claimed that Brigitte was in fact born as a baby boy called Jean-Michel Trogneux in 1953.

This is in fact the name of Brigitte's brother, and Ms Macron was called Brigitte Trogneux before her first marriage.

The defendants also claimed that Brigitte's first husband, André-Louis Auzière, had never actually existed before his reported death in 2020, aged 68.


Comment: He did exist, and is probably the father of the three 'Brigitte' children. So the original investigation by Rey and Roy made some mistakes. These have since been ironed out by another French journalist, Xavier Proussard. The Elysee isn't suing him...


Comment: Candace Owens feels vindicated:



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Tsunami

Best of the Web: 120 dead, at least 173 remain missing in Kerr County, Texas after flash flooding hit - 10 inches of rain in just a few hours - Guadalupe River rises 26 FEET in just 45 minutes (UPDATED)

Hannah Fingerhut
The Detroit News
Fri, 04 Jul 2025 18:54 UTC
Pictured: The flooded Guadalupe River in central Texas this morning
The flooded Guadalupe River in central Texas this morning
Multiple deaths have been reported in Texas after heavy rain caused flash flooding, while search teams used boats to conduct rescues Friday as fast-moving water threatened riverfront communities near wildlife habitats and campgrounds.

As much as 10 inches (25 centimeters) of heavy rain fell in just a few hours overnight in central Kerr County, causing flash flooding of the Guadalupe River.

Judge Rob Kelly, the chief elected official in the county, confirmed fatalities from the flooding and dozens of water rescues so far. He said he was advised not to cite specific numbers and said authorities are still working to identify those whose lives were lost.

"Most of them, we don't know who they are," Kelly said during a news conference. "One of them was completely naked, he didn't have any ID on him at all. We're trying to get the identity of these folks, but we don't have it yet."

Officials conducted dozens of rescues, and the emergency response continued as an unknown number or people remained unaccounted for, Kelly said.


Comment: Update July 5

The BBC reports:
A major search and rescue operation is continuing through the night in Texas after flash floods killed at least 24 people and left many girls missing from a Christian summer camp.

There was little warning as the Guadalupe River rose 26 feet (7.9m) in less than an hour and flooding that followed swept away mobile homes, vehicles and holiday cabins where people were spending the 4 July weekend.

Rescue crews are still searching for up to 25 children who were among the 750 girls attending the Camp Mystic just outside the town of Kerrville 104km (64.0 miles) north-west of San Antonio.

A state of emergency has been declared in several counties where several roads have been washed away and phone lines are down.
Update July 6

Newsweek reports:
[...]

Major flash floods in Texas have already claimed the lives of 51 people, including 15 children, with 27 children still missing from Camp Mystic, a Christian all-girls camp in Kerr County.

Fast-moving floodwaters surged 26 feet (8 meters) along the Guadalupe River in just 45 minutes before dawn on Friday, sweeping away homes and vehicles.

[...]
Update July 7

The Independent reports:
Texans are bracing for more rain and flash flooding as the death toll climbs to at least 82, with dozens still missing.

The National Weather Service warned that parts of Central Texas, known as "Flash Flood Alley," could be doused in as much as 10 inches of rain on Monday. Additional heavy rainfall in the "hardest hit areas of the past few days will lead to rapid runoff and flash flooding," the agency said.

A desperate search continued for 10 girls and their counselor from Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp along the Guadalupe River, which was ravaged by the floods, officials said.



Update July 8

USA TODAY reports:
Search and rescue operations in central Texas entered their fifth day on Tuesday after heavy rainfall overwhelmed the Guadalupe River, sending floodwaters through homes and summer camps and killing over 100 people.

The death toll stood at least 104, including at least 27 children and counselors from the beloved Camp Mystic, a storied Christian girls camp in Kerr County, where flooding hit the hardest beginning on July 4. In Kerr County, at least 56 adults and 28 children were killed. Ten Mystic campers and one counselor remain unaccounted for.
Update July 10

NBC News reports:
What we know

AT LEAST 120 PEOPLE KILLED: Authorities have confirmed at least 120 deaths across six counties, including those of 60 adults and 36 children in Kerr County.

MANY STILL MISSING: There are still 173 people missing, as the hope of locating survivors has dwindled. Search and rescue operations along the Guadalupe River have shifted to a recovery phase.


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Eye 2

Best of the Web: CIA officer George Joannides monitored Oswald before and after JFK assassination, new records reveal

Marc Caputo
Axios
Sat, 05 Jul 2025 07:13 UTC
Lee Harvey Oswald
© Corbis via Getty Images/National ArchivesLee Harvey Oswald distributes "Hands Off Cuba" flyers in New Orleans. This photograph was used in the Kennedy assassination investigation. A newly released CIA document indicates an agent ran an operation that came into contact with Oswald before he was accused of assassinating President Kennedy in 1963.
For the first time since President Kennedy's assassination nearly 62 years ago, the CIA has tacitly admitted that an officer specializing in psychological warfare ran an operation that came into contact with Lee Harvey Oswald before the Dallas killing.

Why it matters: The disclosure Thursday — nestled in a batch of 40 documents concerning officer George Joannides — indicates the CIA lied for decades about his role in the Kennedy case before and after the assassination, according to experts on JFK's slaying.
  • The linchpin document: A Jan. 17, 1963, CIA memo showing Joannides was directed to have an alias and fake driver's license bearing the name "Howard Gebler."
  • Until Thursday, the agency had denied that Joannides was known as "Howard," the case officer name for the CIA contact who worked with activists from an anti-communist group opposed to Cuban dictator Fidel Castro called the Cuban Student Directorate.
  • For decades, the agency also falsely said it had nothing to do with the student group, which was instrumental in having Oswald's pro-Castro stances published soon after the shooting.

Comment: Well, it only took 62 years.

See also:

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Red Flag

Flashback Best of the Web: 'Terror on the Tube: Behind the veil of 7/7'

Antony C. Black
The Unz Review
Mon, 25 Nov 2019 00:00 UTC
To some it may seem that the author has taken slight leave of his senses; that in obsessive pursuance of now obscure events of mere historical relevance he evidences a strange and incurable critical distemper. Certainly, judging by the mass amnesia - even amongst so-called 'progressives' - for these events, such a diagnosis appears well-nigh unassailable. But for those who (to quote 'V') 'see what I see' then the entire slew of major terrorist attacks starting with 9/11 and continuing on through with those in Bali in 2002, Istanbul in 2003, Madrid in 2004,
Book terror on the tube
© Nick Kollerstrom
London in 2005 and Mumbai in 2006...and beyond, can be, indeed must be, viewed in the light of 'false flag' terrorism. By which we mean, of course, state terrorism in the service of supporting both US / NATO imperialism abroad, and oligarchic social control and para-fascism at home.

The thesis, then, (and to make it explicit) animating these extended forays into the obscure bowels of mere history, is that false-flag terrorism, far from being some fevered figment of the paranoid political imagination (as so tendentiously characterized by the establishment), or even just an isolated, irrelevant tactical ploy that simply distracts from more 'substantive', more strategic, political happenings (as portrayed by many leading progressive pundits), is, in truth, systemic in nature. As such, it is a highly effective pillar of elite policy that is deployed with depressing regularity and with depressingly predictable consequences. It is a time honoured, well-honed tool solidly situated in the political kitbag of every imperial and fascist state. What's more, as Kevin Barrett forthrightly opines in his introduction to Terror On The Tube:
'In the end, the reader of this book will understand that the post-Cold War West is being terrorized not by Muslims, but by the Western state apparatus itself. This is hardly surprising, since we know that it was NATO (under command by the Pentagon) that was carrying out the worst "terrorist attacks" against Europeans during the Cold War, which we now remember as 'Gladio'.'
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Target

Best of the Web: UK MPs vote to proscribe Palestine Action as terrorist group

Aletha Adu
The Guardian
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 13:15 UTC
Palestine support crowd
© UnknownCrowd support for Palestine
Minister argues move will not impinge on people's right to protest but critics call it 'grave abuse of state power'.

MPs have voted to proscribe Palestine Action as a terrorist organisation despite concerns that the move could risk criminalising legitimate protest.

The draft order to amend the Terrorism Act 2000 and proscribe the group, laid by the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, passed the Commons on Wednesday by 385 votes to 26. The order also bans two neo-Nazi groups, the Maniacs Murder Cult (MMC) and the Russia Imperial Movement (RIM).

Outlining the government's case to MPs, the Home Office minister Dan Jarvis said:
"By implementing this measure, we will remove Palestine Action's veil of legitimacy, tackle its financial support and degrade its efforts to recruit and radicalise people into committing terrorist activity in its name.

"But we must be under no illusion. Palestine Action is not a legitimate protest group. People engaged in lawful protests don't need weapons. People engaged in lawful protests do not throw smoke bombs and fire pyrotechnics around innocent members of the public. And people engaged in lawful protests do not cause millions of pounds of damage to national security infrastructure, including submarines and defensive equipment for Nato.

"Proscribing Palestine Action will not impinge on people's right to protest. Those who wish to protest or express support for Palestine have always been able to and can continue to do so."
But Jarvis faced a backlash from some MPs who described the move as a "draconian overreach" and likened the group to the Suffragettes. It will become a criminal offence punishable by up to 14 years in prison for anyone to become a member of and support the direct action of Palestine Action.

Comment: Anti-terrorism laws and possible Tehran funding fuel this controversy, though neither may be applicable:
Home Office to bar group under anti-terrorism laws, with officials said to be investigating possible Tehran funding.

A Palestine Action spokesperson's response:
"This is a baseless investigation and ridiculous investigation. We are funded by ordinary people who support us.

"They are doing it because they don't believe that banning an organisation causing damage to weapons factories and companies who enable the production of weapons sits well with a lot of the public, and therefore they're trying to create a smear campaign in order to justify the proscription.

"You would think that politicians would want to vote based on hard facts."
The anonymous Home Office briefing about Iran came two days after the advocacy group We Believe in Israel tweeted:
"Behind Palestine Action's theatre of resistance stands a darker puppeteer: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps ... Palestine Action is the mask. The IRGC is the face."
The only evidence it provided was saying that the IRGC's vocabulary "echoes in Palestine Action's slogans".

The ban would place the group alongside the likes of al-Qaida, Islamic State and National Action, and make it a criminal offence to be a member of the group or show support for it.
Lines are blurred when legalities come a distant second to fear, power and agenda.

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Smoking

Best of the Web: Macron regime bans smoking in most public places in France 'to protect young people'

Ramy Inocencio
CBS
Wed, 02 Jul 2025 19:09 UTC

Comment: Funny how quickly they went from sacrificing the young on the altar of 'protecting the elderly from Covid' to suddenly caring about young people's health again...


smoking ban france beaches
The iconic image of a smoking Parisian is becoming a thing of the past as France has banned smoking in most public areas.

France's new law dictates that tobacco must disappear where there are children, and parents, as well as the majority of the country, agree.


Comment: The above is obviously a mistake on the part of the journalist who wrote it, but if what he was trying to say was that a majority of the country agrees with this draconian measure, he's making sh*t up. Not a single Western country has ever held a referendum on smoking - their regimes just ban it by decree!


Those who choose to smoke in public in areas like the beach or the park could face a fine. The ban also applies to bus shelters, areas near libraries, swimming pools and schools.

Violators could face a fine of 135 euros ($160) up to a maximum of 700 euros ($826), according to French news agency AFP. However, the health ministry is expecting an initial grace period as the new rules go into effect this week.

For decades, lighting up a cigarette was less a vice than a vibe — part of the cultural mise-en-scène. More than 200 people in France die each day of tobacco-related illness, Health Minister Catherine Vautrin said in a statement Saturday. That adds up to 75,000 people dying from smoking each year, and the French government wanted the chapter to fade to black.


Comment: Like Our Dear Leaders care about there being less people around!


The ban aims "to promote what we call denormalization. In people's minds, smoking is normal," Philippe Bergerot, president of the French League Against Cancer, told the Associated Press. "We aren't banning smoking; we are banning smoking in certain places where it could potentially affect people's health and ... young people."


Comment: Protect the young, sure...


Comment: If this is health-related, then the health issue is this: smoking is a potent defense against the mass media lies pushed on the population by the psychopaths in power. By banning smoking, they're trying to psychologically disarm you.

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Snowflake Cold

Best of the Web: Rare 5 cm snowfall and almost all-day frost in Tiksi, Siberia in the middle of the season of sunlight

Marek Kučera
mkweather.com
Sat, 28 Jun 2025 13:06 UTC
mmmmmm
In a remarkable reversal of seasonal expectations, the remote Arctic settlement of Tiksi, located on the northern Siberian coast, experienced rare mid-summer snowfall and frost, with up to 5 centimeters of snow accumulating — an extremely unusual event for late June, with cooldown into -1.8°C on June 26th 2025, only 2.2°C from all-time July record. Maximum temperature reached only +0.5°C on June 27th 2025 and minimum temperature -1.4°C on June 28th 2025.

Snow in the Season of Sunlight

Situated above the Arctic Circle, Tiksi is no stranger to extreme weather. But snowfall during the period of the Midnight Sun, when the sun barely sets, is highly anomalous. This week, residents woke up to frozen white landscapes, a stark contrast to the region's brief but intense summer.
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