For the last eight years, a group of publicly unknown activists in Ukraine have been compiling lists of 'enemies of the people' with impunity. Hundreds of thousands have been declared criminals without trial.

Among them are not only Russian citizens, but also Ukrainian opposition figures and bloggers, European politicians, and US citizens. At the very least, being added to this list is a stigma that makes life difficult in Ukraine, but it can also serve as justification for imprisonment or, in some cases, even being killed. This is exactly what happened last weekend to Daria Dugina, daughter of world-famous Russian philosopher Alexander Dugin, who's name also can be found on that list.

RT explains what is behind the Mirotvorets, or 'Peacemaker', website, whose creators seek to bring 'peace' to their country with the help of extrajudicial killings, and why the Ukrainian authorities have done nothing about this despite condemnation from the international community.

The Department of Homeland Security said Wednesday that it has shut down a disinformation working group that generated controversy this year when Republicans denounced it as an effort to curb free speech.

In a statement, DHS said Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas decided to terminate the Disinformation Governance Board following a recommendation from the Homeland Security Advisory Council, which provides the DHS secretary with independent advice. The department's statement said:

DHS will "continue to address threat streams that undermine the security of our country consistent with the law, while upholding the privacy, civil rights, and civil liberties of the American people and promoting transparency in our work."

Ukraine's latest proposal to condemn Russia has attracted the backing of just 58 out of 193 UN member states, a far cry from the number that symbolically supported Kiev in the General Assembly in March.

Kiev's envoy to the UN Sergey Kislitsa heralded the proposed resolution on Wednesday, following the Security Council meeting convened on Ukraine's independence day. The session featured a video address by President Vladimir Zelensky, for which the council had to override protocol requiring in-person appearances, and a series of statements by Western governments denouncing Russia.

Moscow's envoy Vassily Nebenzia provided the counterpoint by introducing evidence of Ukrainian atrocities into the record and even naming Kiev's western backers as accomplices in specific instances.

Although formal European rule in Africa ended in 1977 when Djibouti was given independence from France, Western companies have continued to extract the continent's resources unabated - and when a nationalist leader does get in the way, Western governments happily oblige to remove the obstacle. Thus, a continent rich in resources remains poor.

Parts of Africa have long been controlled by rulers from far away, especially the territories that border the Mediterranean and Red seas, but it was only in the late 19th century that European empires raced to gobble up every last square inch of land on the continent. By 1900, only Ethiopia stood independent, having beaten Italian invaders at their own game.

The land and its people were brutally exploited by their new rulers as mines and cash crop plantations proliferated and African bodies were broken on them to extract their valuable products and export them to Europe and North America. The victorious socialist revolutions in Russia, China and Yugoslavia helped inspire resistance to colonial rule, and after World War II, protest movements and guerrilla wars seeking independence swept across Africa, ending colonial rule less than three decades later.

The US will not be able to replace Russian uranium in the event of an import ban, Assistant Secretary of Energy Kathryn Huff has warned, saying Washington must develop enrichment capabilities domestically.

"Worldwide, there's not enough capacity to replace that gap from trusted sources," Huff told the Washington Examiner on Wednesday, adding that it was the US's responsibility to "encourage and incentivize that enrichment and conversion capability" on American soil.

Huff told the Examiner that US reliance on Russian-sourced uranium posed unique energy security and national security risks, and noted that Russia still provides about 20% of the low enriched uranium at existing US reactors.

The pontiff incurred Kiev's wrath once again, for calling a Russian journalist killed in a terrorist attack 'innocent'.

After mentioning the death of Darya Dugina, a young Russian journalist and political activist, Pope Francis has faced the anger of Kiev, which apparently thinks it has the monopoly on "innocence."

For the past six months, Kiev has lashed out at various government leaders and international organizations, like Amnesty International, for example, which reported on Ukraine's violations of international law on the battlefield. So it was just a matter of time before the Catholic Church got an earful, too. And that's what happened this week when Pope Francis, addressing a congregation in the Vatican, mentionegd the death of Darya Dugina, whose life was cut tragically short by a car bombing.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is facing dissent within his own party ranks from those who want Berlin to stop providing Kiev with weapons, Der Spiegel has claimed. The outlet suggests the left wing of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has also called on Scholz to engage in dialogue with Russia.

In its article published on Friday, Der Spiegel said the chancellor's decision to beef up the German military, sever ties with Russia, and ship heavy weaponry to Ukraine earlier this year was hard to swallow for many in a political party that had for decades stood for disarmament and a policy of detente.

According to the outlet, a group of SPD members representing the party's left wing have penned a letter to Scholz, titled "The weapons must fall silent!" In it, they advocate a diplomatic offensive as a means of ending the Ukraine conflict.

Dmitry Medvedev, relishing his unplugged self, has laid down the law on the Special Military Operation (SMO). Bluntly, he affirmed there is a "one and a half" scenario: either to go all the way, or a military coup d'etat in Ukraine followed by admitting the inevitable. No tertium applies.

That's as stark as it gets: the leadership in Moscow is making it very clear, to internal and international audiences, the new deal consists in slow cooking the Kiev racket inside a massive cauldron while polishing its status of financial black hole for the collective West. Until we reach boiling point - which will be a revolution or a putsch.

In parallel, The Lords of (Proxy) War will continue with their own strategy, which is to pillage an enfeebled, fearful, Europe, then dressing it up as a perfumed colony to be ruthlessly exploited ad nauseam by the imperial oligarchy.

Europe is now a runaway TGV - minus the requisite Hollywood production values. Assuming it does not veer off track - a dicey proposition - it may eventually arrive at a railway station called Agenda 2030, The Great Narrative, or some other NATO/Davos denomination du jour.

As it stands, what's remarkable is how the "marginal" Russian economy hardly broke a sweat to "end the abundance" of the wealthiest region on the planet.

Moscow does not even entertain the notion of negotiating with Brussels because there's nothing to negotiate - considering puny Eurocrats will only be hurled away from their zombified state when the dire socio-economic consequences of "the end of abundance" will finally translate into peasants with pitchforks roaming the continent.

It may be eons away, but inevitably the average Italian, German or Frenchman will connect the dots and realize it is their own "leaders" - national nullities and mostly unelected Eurocrats - who are paving their road to poverty.

You will be poor. And you will like it. Because we are all supporting freedom for Ukrainian neo-nazis. That brings the concept of "multicultural Europe" to a whole new level.

The runaway train, of course, may veer off track and plunge into an Alpine abyss. In this case something might be saved from the wreckage - and "reconstruction" might be on the cards. But reconstruct what?

Europe could always reconstruct a new Reich (collapsed with a bang in 1945); a soft Reich (erected at the end of WWII); or break with its past failures, sing "I'm Free" - and connect with Eurasia. Don't bet on it.

...what they want are uneducated, unhealthy, unhappy, fearful people who are made compliant by their circumstances....'

RT has visited the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, seeing first-hand the aftermath of the shelling of the facility by Kiev's forces.

The largest nuclear power plant in Europe was seized by Russian troops in late February. Since then, National Guard and Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Troops have been defending the facility as the plant continues to operate with local staff.

Kiev's troops have been firing at the plant and the nearby city of Energodar from the opposite site of the large Kakhovka water reservoir, the Russian Defense Ministry has consistently claimed. The falling shells damaged the facades of some buildings, while missile parts are still stuck in the ground. One of the water pumping stations was hit, but continues to operate as most of the equipment is hidden underground.