https://www.sott.net/category/16-Puppet-Masters Signs of the Times: The World for People who Think. Featuring independent, unbiased, alternative news and commentary on world events. en-us Original content Copyright 2026 by Signs of the Times/Sott.net. For other content, see our Fair Use Policy at www.sott.net. Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:52:13 +0000 https://www.sott.net/images/sottlogo_rss.jpg SOTT.net https://www.sott.net https://www.sott.net/article/507637-The-Ukrainian-conflicts-southern-front-is-heating-up The heightened stakes associated with this latest phase of the conflict suggest that an even greater escalation might be inevitable, but it's still possible that this could be delayed, if not outright averted. The most recent phase of the Ukrainian Conflict has been characterized by the "war of attrition" that the US has been waging against Russia through Ukraine after Trump decided to "escalate to de-escalate". This has thus far taken the form of drone strikes against energy infrastructure, online retailers, and maritime shipping in the Black, Azov, and now even the Caspian Seas. It's this last-mentioned aspect that forms the basis of the present analysis following Ukraine's weekend strikes on targets in the Caspian. According to Ukrainian sources, their forces struck an offshore oil extraction platform, a cargo ship and cargo vessel that were sanctioned for their alleged role in the Russian-Iranian arms trade, and a missile boat. If confirmed, then this represents the most... https://www.sott.net/article/507637-The-Ukrainian-conflicts-southern-front-is-heating-up Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:49:27 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507635-Fauci-Files-A-megalomaniacal-egomaniac-milking-Covid-for-everything-its-worth Anthony Fauci's personal diary reveals an obsession for soliciting awards, squelching dissent, & and circumventing independent agencies On May 28, 2021, Anthony Fauci learned that the Department of Health and Human Services would refer EcoHealth Alliance — the New York nonprofit that had routed NIAID money to the Wuhan Institute of Virology — to its inspector general. That night he wrote in his diary: "I am certain that there will be some deficiencies that the IG will find as is always the case with IG audits. Certainly, whatever they find it will be misconstrued by those who want to make a case for our involvement in the outbreak. I am starting to feel that it is important for me to write an editorial or an opinion piece giving our side of the story." (p. 753) Our involvement in the outbreak. Followed closely by a plan to get out in front of it. That instinct — get ahead of it, control the story, decide what the public needs to believe and then saturate every channel with it —... https://www.sott.net/article/507635-Fauci-Files-A-megalomaniacal-egomaniac-milking-Covid-for-everything-its-worth Tue, 28 Jul 2026 20:08:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507634-The-farce-of-Trumps-nuclear-deal-with-Saudi-Arabia The White House announced an agreement to supply nuclear material to Saudi Arabia, and then killed its own deal by linking it to normalization with Israel under Israeli pressure. But even if the deal fails, it will significantly impact Gulf politics. On July 22, the Trump Administration and Saudi Arabia signed an agreement for the U.S. to provide the Saudis with nuclear material and equipment for a civilian nuclear program. In announcing the signing, U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said: "Rest assured, these agreements uphold the highest standards of nuclear safety and nonproliferation, while relying on the world's best nuclear technology and scientists, designed right here in the United States." That is a blatant lie. The agreement, as signed, was dangerously light on oversight, did not include restrictions that have been used with similar allies in the recent past, and gave the United States, rather than the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the ultimate... https://www.sott.net/article/507634-The-farce-of-Trumps-nuclear-deal-with-Saudi-Arabia Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:21:45 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507633-Americas-strategic-petroleum-reserve-more-fragile-than-headlines-suggest America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) is more fragile than headlines suggest: aging salt-cavern infrastructure, questionable actual deliverability versus reported inventories, and a growing gap between official figures and physical reality. Let's cut through the noise and examine the policy decisions across administrations — missed opportunities to replenish during low-price periods and large releases for short-term relief — and parallels to longstanding doubts about physical gold holdings at Fort Knox — and place the U.S. experience within a broader global shift. More Fragile Than Headlines Suggest Why the sudden fuss over the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve? Amid escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East, threats to the Strait of Hormuz, and volatile oil markets, the SPR has returned to centre stage. Yet public debate remains fixated on political optics, gasoline prices, and election cycles, while fundamental questions receive scant attention. The renewed... https://www.sott.net/article/507633-Americas-strategic-petroleum-reserve-more-fragile-than-headlines-suggest Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:21:10 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507632-The-White-House-discovers-more-commies-and-terrorists In Donald Trump's America it is always possible to wake up in the morning and peruse online the overnight headlines to discover something new and exciting. Over the past week it has been a medley of going to war (again) with Iran coupled with a complicated performance on other issues as President Trump apparently takes aim at his enemies in the US and elsewhere. America's Secretary of War Pete Hegseth is fully on board with a surge in worldwide mayhem. He is looking forward to an increase in US initiated violence, ordering that male soldiers, airmen, sailors and marines be tested for their testosterone levels. "Hegseth argues the effort, to become part of the military's periodic health assessment for troops over 30, will ensure the optimal performance and long-term health of warfighters.... the move plays into Hegseth's focus on appearances and masculinity, which one Democrat said this week borders on 'homoeroticism'." Those who fail to have sufficient of the "male characteristics"... https://www.sott.net/article/507632-The-White-House-discovers-more-commies-and-terrorists Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:20:41 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507631-Will-the-Fat-Lady-finally-sing "The Fauci diary is amazing. He monologues like a Scooby Doo villain." - - El Gato Malo on "X" Remember Covid-19? Seems like long ago in a world that time forgot. Well, you get to revisit the whole sketchy business on Wednesday, July, 29, when Dr. Anthony Fauci is called to testify about it to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee chaired by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY). Though half the USA is still psychotic and unable to process reality, the other half of the country understands that Dr. Fauci has some 'splainin' to do. Dr. Fauci was initially invited but declined to appear (didn't feel like it), so the committee issued a subpoena compelling him (under penalty of up to a year in jail for failure to show). Because Dr. Fauci was given a peremptory pardon by "Joe Biden," he cannot legally invoke the Fifth Amendment against self-incrimination. He will have to answer the questions. Of course, Dr. Fauci has demonstrated in previous appearances that he is a world... https://www.sott.net/article/507631-Will-the-Fat-Lady-finally-sing Tue, 28 Jul 2026 19:20:03 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507630-Putin-admits-escalation-Enemies-unable-to-defeat-Russia-on-battlefield-resort-to-open-terrorism This month has witnessed a string of major Wildberries warehouses and logistics hubs go up in flames due to wave after wave of Ukrainian drones strikes. The Russian online retailer, which is by far the largest and widely deemed the 'Russian Amazon' - is bracing for likely more attacks to come. Ukraine's long-range drones strikes have very clearly moved beyond just oil and defense industrial sites, and have even included an attack on a holiday camp in Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia over the weekend, which killed at least twelve civilians. The Kremlin called it a terror attack, given it was a direct assault on a resort area. Fresh Monday comments from President Vladimir Putin have highlighted this shift in Ukraine's strategy. Putin says that its forces are unable to advance the battlefield, and so are increasingly moving to outright terrorism tactics. https://www.sott.net/article/507630-Putin-admits-escalation-Enemies-unable-to-defeat-Russia-on-battlefield-resort-to-open-terrorism Tue, 28 Jul 2026 15:32:26 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507629-RFK-Jr-vindicated-Fauci-funded-technique-to-HIDE-evidence-of-virus-genetic-engineering Four years ago, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made an accusation that got him shadowbanned, "fact-checked," and dismissed as a crank: that Anthony Fauci's NIAID had bankrolled the development of a laboratory technique whose primary utility was erasing the fingerprints of human engineering from a manipulated virus - and that the technique was then handed to the Wuhan Institute of Virology. With Fauci's personal diaries now public, Tulsi Gabbard's last-day document dump on the record, Ralph Baric stripped of his NIH grants and placed on leave by UNC, and Fauci himself scheduled to appear under subpoena before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee this Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., Kennedy's remarks are worth revisiting. https://www.sott.net/article/507629-RFK-Jr-vindicated-Fauci-funded-technique-to-HIDE-evidence-of-virus-genetic-engineering Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:53:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507628-Money-woes-paranoia-and-a-hurled-phone-Damning-reports-detail-Ken-Martins-collapsing-DNC The Democratic National Committee is running on fumes, and chairman Ken Martin is headed for a full-blown mental breakdown, according to a pair of blistering reports. A New York Times report published Sunday revealed that the committee is $2 million in the hole and begging vendors to sit on their invoices until after the midterms. The DNC quietly put the Southeast Washington building up as collateral last year to land a $15 million line of credit and bankroll off-year races, according to DC deed records not previously reported, according to NOTUS. The party has pawned the property, which it only partially owns, in past cycles. But going back to the well ahead of 2026 for the biggest off-year loan in committee history set off alarms among members who saw it as one more flashing red light. https://www.sott.net/article/507628-Money-woes-paranoia-and-a-hurled-phone-Damning-reports-detail-Ken-Martins-collapsing-DNC Mon, 27 Jul 2026 20:15:55 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507626-Bankrupt-and-fraudulent-EU-sanctions-Russia-while-silent-on-US-Israeli-genocide People of Europe and around the world can see what the EU has become: an elitist warmongering project that is sacrificing its own citizens. European Union leaders imposed yet another raft of sanctions on the Russian Federation this week. This is the 21st package of political and economic strictures that the 27-nation bloc has deployed against Russia over the past four years. The EU sanctimoniously claims that the measures are a demonstration of rebuke for Russia's alleged unprovoked aggression and invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. This pretense of European principle is farcical. Anyone who has objectively studied the Ukraine conflict knows that the United States and its European NATO partners incited the war by orchestrating the violent coup in Kiev in 2014, followed by the deliberate weaponizing of the NeoNazi regime that the Western imperialists covertly directed for a geopolitical confrontation with Russia. That many people aren't aware of that history is largely due to the... https://www.sott.net/article/507626-Bankrupt-and-fraudulent-EU-sanctions-Russia-while-silent-on-US-Israeli-genocide Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:02:15 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507625-Could-Zelensky-Suffer-Diems-Fate U.S. and NATO leaders have waged a multi-year propaganda campaign to convince Western publics that Ukraine is a splendid democracy and that President Volodymyr Zelensky is an extremely popular elected leader who epitomizes those values. Multiple aspects of that carefully crafted image are untrue. Ukraine is a corrupt, autocratic state that maintains strict censorship and brutally represses political opponents. When Zelensky's term ended in 2024, he and his obedient followers in parliament simply postponed elections indefinitely. Even absent adverse election result, though, there are ample signs that NATO's much-lauded hero has alienated Ukraine's public. The systematic campaign to present Zelensky as a hero is crucial to NATO's overall portrayal of the ongoing Ukraine-Russia war as nothing less than an existential struggle between freedom and dictatorship - a conflict with truly global implications. New York Times columnist David French contends: "For the first time in my adult... https://www.sott.net/article/507625-Could-Zelensky-Suffer-Diems-Fate Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:01:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507623-Smithsonian-smackdown-Trump-orders-signs-outside-American-History-Museum-warning-of-woke-exhibits President Donald Trump escalated his battle against wokeness at the Smithsonian Institution on Friday, ordering his administration to place signs outside the National Museum of American History to warn visitors that some of its exhibits have been made "inaccurate." The signs would even redirect potential visitors to places where American history is more accurately presented, according to the order, though the order did not give examples of what those locations and resources would be. The order reads: "Because the museum has failed to appropriately honor the 56 signers of the Declaration of Independence during this 250th anniversary year of the founding of our country, government agencies shall install temporary exhibits or signage on N.P.S.-maintained sidewalks, walkways, and land used by the public that corrects inaccurate information presented in the museum." The order comes after the White House Domestic Policy Council released a 162-page report on the museum, accusing its... https://www.sott.net/article/507623-Smithsonian-smackdown-Trump-orders-signs-outside-American-History-Museum-warning-of-woke-exhibits Mon, 27 Jul 2026 19:00:21 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507612-The-surveillance-state-safety-pimps-and-their-fundamental-contempt-for-human-liberty "The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and [nanny-state techno-twinks]." - Thomas Jefferson I reported recently on the ongoing drama surrounding the erection of 100,000+ Flock cameras across America and the valiant, if ultimately futile, Whack-A-Mole efforts by patriot vigilantes to fell them one by one like rotten, dying trees. What often goes unremarked upon, which I noted in passing in the last report, is that Flock's full company name is actually "Flock Safety," and that the provision of "public safety" is the primary elevator pitch the purveyors of this product have used to pimp their wares — to the extent they've felt compelled at all to convince the public of their merit. (Their preferred method is simply to game the approval process in local government and skip the whole pesky "public debate" farce. Like defense contractors, their client, after all, is the state and not the general public — a niche market that only necessitates... https://www.sott.net/article/507612-The-surveillance-state-safety-pimps-and-their-fundamental-contempt-for-human-liberty Sun, 26 Jul 2026 20:12:29 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507611-NewsReal-Global-Economic-Collapse-Coming Between the oil, gas, fertilizers, and other feedstocks not making it past a Strait of Hormuz now effectively closed for 5 months, along with the oil, gas, fertilizers and grain not making it out of both Russia and Ukraine's ports and into global markets, is a global economic crash headed our way? Does the West's leadership class understand how close this is? More to the point, do they care? Running Time: 01:37:09 Download: MP3 — 89 MB https://www.sott.net/article/507611-NewsReal-Global-Economic-Collapse-Coming Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:43:48 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507610-Congress-just-moved-to-take-the-Epstein-files-away-from-the-Justice-Department The new bill deletes the "classified" excuse, hands the unredacted record to victims and all fifty state attorneys general, and puts the Attorney General's own name in the criminal penalties. EFTA II is being covered as a lawsuit bill. Read the amendment language at the bottom of the text: it strikes the national-security classification exemption, dismantles the Department of Justice's procedural shield-wall piece by piece, and attaches criminal liability to every redaction the government signs from here forward. On the morning of July 15, Todd Blanche — the Acting Attorney General of the United States, serving since President Trump's ouster of Pam Bondi in April and formally nominated in June — sat before the Senate Judiciary Committee for his confirmation hearing. He told the committee that "mistakes were made" in the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, but that the disclosure was an exercise in unprecedented transparency. The same day, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) introduced the... https://www.sott.net/article/507610-Congress-just-moved-to-take-the-Epstein-files-away-from-the-Justice-Department Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:34:51 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507609-The-impact-of-the-Iranian-factor-on-the-stability-and-development-prospects-of-BRICS It is not only the Iranian factor which determines the prospects of BRICS; however, the current situation surrounding the Islamic Republic of Iran can, without exaggeration, be regarded as a genuine stress test for this format of cooperation. Iran as a Strategic Asset of the Association Iran's accession to BRICS in January 2024 did not mean merely a formal enlargement of the club, but rather the acquisition of a significant asset for the emerging architecture of the Global South. The country occupies a unique position at the crossroads of Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Middle East, and the Indian Ocean basin, controlling strategic maritime routes, above all the Strait of Hormuz. According to data from the International Energy Agency, approximately 20% of global seaborne crude oil exports pass through this waterway, and roughly 20% of global trade in liquefied natural gas is conducted via the same route. Furthermore, the Islamic Republic of Iran plays a considerable role within the... https://www.sott.net/article/507609-The-impact-of-the-Iranian-factor-on-the-stability-and-development-prospects-of-BRICS Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:34:03 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507608-Trumps-war-on-far-left-terrorism-goes-global A landmark meeting in Washington put far-left extremism at the center of international counterterrorism efforts. For years, liberal elites across the West dismissed warnings about far-left extremism as relics of the Cold War or right-wing paranoia. Today, the evidence is undeniable. A recent US-led global initiative has the ambition to finally confront this resurgence of political terrorism with the seriousness it demands. This is not a partisan crusade but a defense of civilization against those who would burn it down in the name of utopia. The West in flames Europe is bleeding from a thousand cuts inflicted by far-left networks. Railways have been repeatedly sabotaged, power grids targeted, and commercial enterprises struck, inflicting billions in cumulative losses while paralyzing supply chains and public services. Police officers have been assaulted, elected officials threatened, and communities shaken - echoing the days of the 1970s Red Brigades and Baader-Meinhof. In Germany,... https://www.sott.net/article/507608-Trumps-war-on-far-left-terrorism-goes-global Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:33:05 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507607-Financial-Repression-How-the-US-government-will-quietly-confiscate-your-wealth When I first heard the term "financial repression," I thought it had to be a joke. Why would governments and central banks use a term with such a negative connotation? Even people who are financially illiterate can understand that financial repression is a bad thing. Simply put, financial repression is a strategy governments use to reduce their debt burden by manipulating interest rates below inflation. It allows them to borrow in dollars and repay in dimes. Here's how the IMF describes it: "Financial repression includes directed lending to government by captive domestic audiences (such as pension funds), explicit or implicit caps on interest rates, regulations of cross-border capital movements, and (generally) a tighter connection between government and banks." "High public debt often produces the drama of default and restructuring. But debt is also reduced through financial repression, a tax on bondholders and savers via negative or below-market real interest rates. After WWII,... https://www.sott.net/article/507607-Financial-Repression-How-the-US-government-will-quietly-confiscate-your-wealth Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:32:40 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507606-Meet-Britains-new-cabinet-of-fakers-fraudsters-and-hangers-on From Andy Burnham down, Britain's highest ministers do not have sufficient mandate, qualifications, or trust to stay in their jobs. Ordinary Britons will suffer most. Britons are struggling to characterize their new Cabinet, following the arrival of a new Prime Minister on Monday. It's not as northern or female as Andy Burnham signaled. Most members have certainly changed. Most are not loyalists to Keir Starmer, even less so to Tony Blair. Like Burnham, many hark back to a mythical golden age of socialism in the 1970s. Like him, most are alarmingly deficient in popular mandate, external qualifications, and even political trust for their new responsibilities. Let's start with Burnham himself. A man born in Liverpool who pretended to be Mancunian in order to win the Mayoralty of Manchester. He claims to represent the north, but has not lived north or east of Manchester. At best he represents a narrow part of the West-Central England, just north of the Midlands. Burnham has always... https://www.sott.net/article/507606-Meet-Britains-new-cabinet-of-fakers-fraudsters-and-hangers-on Sun, 26 Jul 2026 18:32:00 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507602-The-Houthis-are-testing-Riyadh-Another-oil-artery-under-threat Radio warnings in the Red Sea may still be bluster, but Yanbu and the East-West pipeline now sit inside a dangerous new standoff The Ansar Allah movement of Yemen (the Houthis) has announced what it calls a "maritime embargo" against Saudi Arabia. The group's military spokesman, Yahya Saree, framed the move as retaliation for what he described as 12 years of Saudi-led blockade by sea and air against Yemen. The wording itself is worth pausing on, because it is unusually vague for a movement that is normally precise in its threats. The Houthis do not trade with the Saudis in any meaningful volume, so an "embargo" in the classical economic sense makes little sense. What it more likely means is a readiness to strike vessels entering or leaving Saudi ports, something the group has both the geography and the missile reach to attempt along the western coast of the Arabian Peninsula. https://www.sott.net/article/507602-The-Houthis-are-testing-Riyadh-Another-oil-artery-under-threat Sat, 25 Jul 2026 20:43:49 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507601-The-Authentication-Layer Why digital ID is the hill to die on A friend and I got into it recently. He's smart, freedom-minded, and totally gets the danger of Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC). Expiring money, programmable control, carbon budgets - he sees most of the expanding tyranny clearly. And yet he dismisses Digital ID as a distraction. When I try to make the case that digital ID is the gateway to the gulag in the metaverse, he demands I name ONE thing Digital ID gives the government that they can't already do. My answer: it enables CBDC. Of course, governments have already encroached on our privacy and freedoms in ways our forefathers couldn't have imagined. But even with the creeping surveillance state, the government can't fully implement programmable currency without authenticated identity on every transaction. They're components of the same beast. Digital ID is the authentication layer while CBDC is the currency that runs on top of it. Stop Digital ID and you prevent CBDC from being built... https://www.sott.net/article/507601-The-Authentication-Layer Sat, 25 Jul 2026 18:16:52 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507598-Europes-Atlantic-mediocracy-Why-its-establishment-is-afraid-of-realism The symbolic departure of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer did not end in political rupture or dramatic collapse, but in a quiet administrative disappearance of authority. That detail is not incidental — it is diagnostic. It reflects a deeper condition of European politics: the slow exhaustion of a governing class that reached maturity in the post-Cold War order and became structurally dependent on it. What is unfolding is not a series of isolated failures. It is the systemic end of a political model that consolidated after 1991, stabilized after 2014, and became fully rigid after 2022. The Atlantic-oriented European establishment is no longer adapting to events — it is being shaped and constrained by them. Starmer's Fall as a Structural Signal Keir Starmer did not collapse due to an individual miscalculation. He represents a consolidated type of European leadership: procedurally competent, ideologically standardized, and fully integrated into the Atlantic policy consensus, yet... https://www.sott.net/article/507598-Europes-Atlantic-mediocracy-Why-its-establishment-is-afraid-of-realism Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:30:18 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507597-Pentagon-asked-for-gain-of-function-research-proposals-years-before-COVID-19-pandemic-top-virologist-tells-Congress A War Department program requested proposals for so-called "gain of function" experiments that could make viruses more infectious nearly two full years before the COVID-19 pandemic began, a top US virologist told Congress earlier this year. Dr. Ralph Baric, a prominent coronavirus researcher, told the Senate Homeland Security Committee in a closed-door interview April 10 that the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) had solicited proposals in January 2018 to understand "what drives cross-species jumping" in viruses. Baric told committee staffers, according to an interview transcript obtained by The Post: "Now, if you want to know, down to the nucleotide level, what drives a cross-species jumping event, you are talking gain-of-function experiments." Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rand Paul (R-Paul.) is making Baric's full testimony available at a Reading Room webpage that is dedicated to providing Americans full transparency about the decisions surrounding... https://www.sott.net/article/507597-Pentagon-asked-for-gain-of-function-research-proposals-years-before-COVID-19-pandemic-top-virologist-tells-Congress Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:29:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507596-Middle-East-set-for-massive-escalation-a-bridge-too-far Unless things change dramatically, the Middle East seems set for massive escalation. President Trump yesterday warned every missile, rocket, or drone Iran fires at ships in Hormuz will be met with the destruction of an Iranian bridge or power plant. This morning, the IRGC says a tanker is on fire after an explosion in the strait and Kuwait is under drone attack. Moreover, the Houthis claimed attacks on two Saudi tankers in the Red Sea, raising the risks of a new global energy chokepoint besides Hormuz. Reports say the US is surging military forces to the region, heavy bombers are being prepared, and Mossad is coordinating with the CIA. Equally, Iran's Ghalibaf has stated there will be no safety if Iran's security is not guaranteed, read as more or less a declaration of war against the entire region's infrastructure and energy should its own be hit. https://www.sott.net/article/507596-Middle-East-set-for-massive-escalation-a-bridge-too-far Sat, 25 Jul 2026 16:25:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507589-Political-motives-are-driving-Ukraines-bombing-campaign-against-Russias-Amazon The goal is to create a growing class of malcontents by inflicting major harm to small business owners who might then shift the electoral odds against the ruling party ahead of September's next elections and later possibly form the core of a future protest movement that could be exploited from abroad. Ukraine's US-assisted long-range drone campaign against Russia has recently begun targetingthe country's online retailer Wildberries, which is essentially the "Russian Amazon", with recent strikes either totally destroying or greatly damaging several of its logistics centers. The Financial Times cited Russia's edition of Forbes to report that these attacks might have already destroyed 150-275 billion rubles' worth of inventory thus far, equivalent to around $2-3.5 billion, or more than Wildberries' net profit last year. They also importantly cited Alexander Kolyandr, a director at Eurasia Group, who told them that "The loss of the goods will put thousands of traders out of business,... https://www.sott.net/article/507589-Political-motives-are-driving-Ukraines-bombing-campaign-against-Russias-Amazon Sat, 25 Jul 2026 15:20:16 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507582-Ukraine-peace-Europes-militarization-Iran-war-and-nuclear-proliferation-Lavrovs-ASEAN-briefing Russia's foreign minister discussed US-backed Ukraine peace efforts, Western participation in the conflict, and the wider fallout from the war in the Middle East. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed the Ukraine conflict, tensions with the US and Europe, the war on Iran, nuclear proliferation, and security in Asia at a press conference following meetings of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) on Wednesday. He also outlined plans to expand Russia's economic and political cooperation with the Southeast Asian bloc. Here are the key takeaways: Ukraine and the Anchorage understandings Moscow continues to believe that Washington has not abandoned the understandings reached by Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump in Anchorage last year, Lavrov said. According to him, the talks produced agreement on key issues of a possible settlement, with both sides favoring a lasting peace deal over a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine. Russia therefore... https://www.sott.net/article/507582-Ukraine-peace-Europes-militarization-Iran-war-and-nuclear-proliferation-Lavrovs-ASEAN-briefing Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:45:47 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507581-Congressional-ratification-of-President-Trumps-corporatism Despite regularly denouncing the rising socialist menace, President Trump has been pursuing a policy arguably just as, if not more, dangerous to liberty and prosperity as anything proposed by Zohran Mamdani or Bernie Sanders: using government funds to purchase partial ownership of private companies. The Trump administration has obtained ownership interests of approximately 27 billion dollars in 30 companies since January of 2025. While President Trump and his defenders claim making these "investments" will benefit the American people, the truth is this policy will harm most Americans. The policy distorts the capital markets by incentivizing investors to support these companies because the investors believe government's ownership interest creates a de facto government guarantee of a stock's value. For example, after the government announced it would acquire ten percent ownership in chip manufacture Intel, the company's stock price had a big increase. When investors allocate their... https://www.sott.net/article/507581-Congressional-ratification-of-President-Trumps-corporatism Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:45:20 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507580-House-passes-spending-bill-that-critics-say-will-integrate-the-US-and-Israeli-militaries The House of Representatives has passed a $1 trillion bill that includes a provision critics say amounts to integrating the U.S. and Israeli militaries. Human rights groups and lawmakers are sounding the alarm as the bill now advances to the Senate. On July 22, the House of Representatives approved the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), H.R. 8800, for fiscal year 2027, which includes a provision expanding defense cooperation and integration between the United States and Israel. The vote was 216-212, largely along party lines, but six Democrats joined the Republican majority: Reps. Henry Cuellar D-TX), Don Davis (D-NC), Jared Golden (D-ME), Vicente Gonzalez (D-TX), Adam Gray (D-CA), and Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (D-WA). The bill included a provision titled Section 219 which would "expand and enhance intelligence sharing" with Israel, establish joint ventures for the co-production of weapons, promote joint military exercises, and integrate Israeli weapons into existing U.S.... https://www.sott.net/article/507580-House-passes-spending-bill-that-critics-say-will-integrate-the-US-and-Israeli-militaries Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:43:34 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507579-US-withholding-400-million-in-Ukraine-military-aid The funds will not be available "until a new president is in office!" The White House is withholding $400 million in military aid for Kiev approved by Congress. The funding, allocated by lawmakers in January, will not be available until at least 2029, US Senator Dick Durbin said during a hearing on Wednesday. The money is part of the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), a Pentagon-led program in which Ukraine receives training, equipment, and advisory assistance from the US. According to Durbin, the package has yet to reach Kiev and has so far "bounced back and forth." On Wednesday, he said the administration of President Donald Trump "informed us that the money will not be available in many aspects until the next president is in office." "The payment plan tells us to be prepared to spend that money in fiscal year 2029," he said while questioning Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine. Caine replied that he was unaware of the delay and told the senator to... https://www.sott.net/article/507579-US-withholding-400-million-in-Ukraine-military-aid Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:42:12 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507578-Ukraine-bafflingly-battles-warehouse-chain-as-Russia-pulls-plug-on-Port-Odessa The crisis in Ukraine has come and gone, with Zelensky appointing Mykhailo Drapatyi as new Commander-in-Chief of the AFU after ousting Oleksandr Syrsky. However, the issue over Minister of Defense Fedorov remains unresolved. After being offered several lesser positions by Zelensky, Fedorov himself declared that he will not accept anything lower than Defense Minister owing to his belief that no other role provides the ability of shaping the future of the armed forces. "Today there are only three positions in the country that, alongside the troops on the battlefield, actually shape the course of the war: the President of Ukraine, the Minister of Defense, and the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine," Fedorov said. "That is why I will not accept any position other than Minister of Defense. No other role carries the actual authority to combat procurement corruption, complete the army's transformation, plan and execute asymmetric operations against the enemy, root out a... https://www.sott.net/article/507578-Ukraine-bafflingly-battles-warehouse-chain-as-Russia-pulls-plug-on-Port-Odessa Fri, 24 Jul 2026 16:15:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507573-Soft-targets-Ukraine-cravenly-attacks-four-civilian-Wildberries-e-commerce-warehouses Wildberries, which is widely referenced as 'Russia's Amazon', has seen four of its top ten distribution hubs attacked by Ukrainian long-range drones in only a matter of days, potentially putting their business operations in doubt. Stunning footage is widely circulating Wednesday of some of the latest attacks, which came overnight. A large fire broke out in the outskirts of Krasnodar in southern Russia at a sprawling Wildberries warehouse. Regional media has cited several separate fires in the area, before which witnesses reported hearing some 20 to 30 explosions across the city and its outskirts. Another key logistics hub for Wildberries, which is far and away the country's biggest online retailer, was also hit in the Stavropol region overnight, resulting in the urgent evacuation of employees. https://www.sott.net/article/507573-Soft-targets-Ukraine-cravenly-attacks-four-civilian-Wildberries-e-commerce-warehouses Thu, 23 Jul 2026 22:07:04 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507571-Israels-bloody-carnival-Netanyahu-is-pushing-the-world-to-the-precipice-to-save-himself Netanyahu is a political corpse. His time has come and gone, but he's clinging to power with desperate fury — by igniting the most dangerous conflict of our era. They talk about "strategic windows." They whisper about "regime change." In Washington's back offices, they paint rosy pictures of the Iranian people rising up beneath a hail of American and Israeli bombs. But any Palestinian — anyone who's ever stared down the barrel of an Israeli soldier's rifle at point-blank range — knows this playbook by heart. This isn't strategy. This is justification. This is bloody madness wrapped in patriotic rhetoric that the West swallows with the same eagerness it once gulped down promises of "freedom" in Iraq and "democracy" in Libya. This isn't about Israel's security. It never was. When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sets his sights on assassinating Iran's supreme leader — as his own defense minister revealed back in March — he isn't thinking about the fate of Israeli children. He's... https://www.sott.net/article/507571-Israels-bloody-carnival-Netanyahu-is-pushing-the-world-to-the-precipice-to-save-himself Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:13:53 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507570-US-and-Saudi-Arabia-sign-nuclear-agreement-that-could-lead-to-Saudi-uranium-enrichment The US and Saudi Arabia signed a nuclear agreement on Wednesday under which Washington will help Riyadh establish a nuclear program that could lead to uranium enrichment on Saudi soil. The Energy Department said that US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and his Saudi counterpart, Abdulaziz bin Salman Al Saud, signed a deal known as a 123 Agreement, named after Section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act of 1954. The deal lays out terms for the transfer of US nuclear technology to Saudi Arabia. According to The New York Times, the deal includes a provision that, after a joint study with Saudi Arabia on the economics of producing nuclear fuel, the Saudis may be allowed to enrich uranium or reprocess plutonium on their soil. The agreement is notably different than the 123 Agreement the US signed with the UAE in 2009, which didn't allow uranium enrichment. https://www.sott.net/article/507570-US-and-Saudi-Arabia-sign-nuclear-agreement-that-could-lead-to-Saudi-uranium-enrichment Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:12:58 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507569-IMF-approves-new-Ukraine-cash-tranche-despite-anti-corruption-slippage The agency has released $690 million while acknowledging that Kiev hasn't met structural reform benchmarks. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has approved another tranche of its loan to Ukraine despite acknowledging that Kiev isn't on schedule implementing reforms aimed at tackling corruption. In a statement issued on Monday, the IMF said its Executive Board had completed the first review of Ukraine's 48-month Extended Fund Facility (EFF), approving the release of a $690 million tranche. The latest payment brings total IMF disbursements under the $8.1 billion loan program to approximately $2.2 billion, according to the fund. The IMF said the program's performance has been "broadly satisfactory," but noted that reform implementation had slowed. It cited "slippage" in structural reforms, including governance and anti-corruption measures. "Several structural benchmarks [were] completed with a delay or missed," it said, adding that revised timelines for key reforms had been agreed... https://www.sott.net/article/507569-IMF-approves-new-Ukraine-cash-tranche-despite-anti-corruption-slippage Thu, 23 Jul 2026 20:12:06 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507554-America-as-Zionist-muscle-Minister-Smotrich-says-its-best-for-us-if-US-fights-Iran-while-Israel-sits-out-latest-round-of-war-it-started As four more American families grieve the deaths of soldiers killed in the war on Iran, one of the top-ranking ministers in Israel's cabinet told an Israeli audience that having America do all the fighting and dying is "the best for us." Israel had intensely lobbied President Trump to launch a joint war on Iran on Feb 22, and traded blows with Iran up until early June. Since Trump restarted intense, daily bombardment of Iran 11 days ago, however, Israel has sat out the action, sparing Israelis from lethal Iranian retaliation. "The State of Israel has no interest in joining the contained confrontation between Iran and the United States," far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich said in a session at the Katif Conference for National Responsibility, which endorses Jewish settlement in Palestinian territories. "The current situation is the best one for us." https://www.sott.net/article/507554-America-as-Zionist-muscle-Minister-Smotrich-says-its-best-for-us-if-US-fights-Iran-while-Israel-sits-out-latest-round-of-war-it-started Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:39:36 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507553-Democrats-dismiss-our-constitutional-traditions-as-nostalgia Below is my column in The Hill on the latest spin from the left to convince Americans to abandon core constitutional institutions and values as part of a radical agenda in the upcoming elections. Those who defend our traditions, on the 250th anniversary of our Republic, are now being accused of being "nostalgic" rather than progressive. It is a nostalgia that will take on a truly tragic element if professors, pundits and politicians are successful in this effort. Here is the column: It appears that the Madisonian democracy has joined shackets and combat boots as embarrassingly outdated for many on the left. In calling for radical changes to our constitutional system, leading Democrats are now calling the lingering loyalty to our traditions as mere "nostalgia." To be nostalgic in today's parlance is to be a dupe of the oligarchs and an enemy to reform. "Nostalgia" has become the new coded term for reactionaries among Democratic figures, who are trying to convince Americans to accept... https://www.sott.net/article/507553-Democrats-dismiss-our-constitutional-traditions-as-nostalgia Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:36:09 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507552-Narrative-control-the-collapsing-authority-of-the-state The populist surge has become an existential threat to the establishment - and their response is ever-more authoritarian measures to govern what we can read, see and say. Perhaps the central battleground of contemporary politics is the need of our political elites to control the narrative. Primarily, the role of establishment politicians is not to deliver changes and reforms, not to fix problems identified by people in their everyday lives, and not to change circumstances such that they can attract votes, but to maintain narrative hegemony. Crucially, this differs from previous attempts to maintain ideological hegemony - that is, to win the societal 'battle of ideas' - because ideological warfare was always related to the real world. For example, Stalinism's ideological success was demonstrated in defeating the Nazi industrial machine at its own game, capitalism defeated communism by offering unparalleled standards of living, social democracy was ideologically effective to the... https://www.sott.net/article/507552-Narrative-control-the-collapsing-authority-of-the-state Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:35:37 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507548-Fed-officers-flagged-Peter-Daszak-as-an-extremely-high-person-of-interest-the-FBI-told-them-to-stand-down Customs officers spent three days building a border examination for the man at the center of the COVID origins fight - until Biden's FBI put a stop to it with a single email. On February 2, 2021, a national targeting security specialist at U.S. Customs and Border Protection's National Targeting Center circulated a referral to colleagues across the agency. The subject was Peter Daszak, president of EcoHealth Alliance, scheduled to land at John F. Kennedy International Airport three days later aboard Qatar Airways flight 701 from Doha, arriving 2:25 p.m. He was returning from the World Health Organization's mission to Wuhan investigating the origins of SARS-CoV-2. The referral asked that Daszak be considered for a Tactical Terrorism Response Team examination - a secondary inspection that can include questioning and a review of electronic devices. Which, now we know, never happened. https://www.sott.net/article/507548-Fed-officers-flagged-Peter-Daszak-as-an-extremely-high-person-of-interest-the-FBI-told-them-to-stand-down Wed, 22 Jul 2026 20:09:54 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507547-Ukraine-has-a-new-butcher-in-chief-all-the-better-to-feed-Ukrainians-to-the-grinder Syrsky is gone, but his replacement is a sign that Zelensky as committed as ever to prolonging a losing war at terrible human cost. The rule of Vladimir Zelensky has been a catastrophe for Ukraine, and that is how it will be remembered once the dust of relentless info war campaigns in his favor - and against his critics - settles. While the corruption of the Zelensky regime is stupendous, that fact - sad as it is - is not what makes him special, however. Because exorbitant, shameless embezzlement, kickbacks, and fraud have been the Ukrainian establishment's perverse normal since independence. Zelensky and his cronies are certain to have cashed in like no one before because the West has pumped in money as never before while turning two blind eyes to what happens to it. But in principle, Zelensky has merely done what they all do. Not that that makes it any better. https://www.sott.net/article/507547-Ukraine-has-a-new-butcher-in-chief-all-the-better-to-feed-Ukrainians-to-the-grinder Wed, 22 Jul 2026 19:24:01 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507545-RNC-files-lawsuits-to-stop-non-residents-from-voting-in-six-states While it seems like common sense that living in a state should be a prerequisite to voting there, the Republican National Committee is suing six states to stop them from doing so. Fresh off a court win in North Carolina, the RNC has filed lawsuits against Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, New Jersey, Virginia, and Nebraska, each targeting a version of the same loophole. In these states, a person who has never set foot as a resident within their borders can still cast an absentee ballot there, often because a parent or legal guardian once lived in the state decades ago. "If you've never lived in a state, you shouldn't be voting in its elections," RNC Chairman Joe Gruters told the Daily Signal. "The RNC already put a stop to this unconstitutional loophole in North Carolina, and we're taking Nebraska, Colorado, Nevada, and New Jersey to court to do the same," Gruters added, "We'll keep fighting to ensure elections are only decided by legal residents." https://www.sott.net/article/507545-RNC-files-lawsuits-to-stop-non-residents-from-voting-in-six-states Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:54:06 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507543-Exclusive-Iran-Pakistan-what-is-really-happening-in-the-diplomatic-front Earlier this week, Iranian Interior Minister Eskandar Momeni arrived in Islamabad leading a substantial delegation. By Tuesday, he had met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Field Marshal Asim Munir and his Pakistani counterpart, Mohsin Naqvi. This was far from a routine border/security visit involving two neighbors. The key take away was the presence of the head of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC): that means that energy - as in the possible construction, finally, of the Iran-Pakistan (IP) gas pipeline - sanctions and cross-border trade were crucial items in the menu. Now for the clincher. Momeni carried a special message from the Iranian leadership about the war. The Pakistanis went out of their way to say publicly that the Iranian delegation had arrived with "good news." The question is how these "good news" were presented. Before Momeni landed in Islamabad, Pakistan's leadership - civilian and military - was informed that he was hand carrying a letter from Leader Mojtaba... https://www.sott.net/article/507543-Exclusive-Iran-Pakistan-what-is-really-happening-in-the-diplomatic-front Wed, 22 Jul 2026 18:27:32 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507540-The-wear-and-tear-of-conflict-Ukraine-Europe-and-the-twilight-of-a-great-deception It Didn't Turn Out the Way They Said It Would They had promised it would be over soon. They had promised there would be an epoch-making victory, defeating the "Kremlin dictator." They had said they would join NATO and the European Union. They had said it would be a great success. But it didn't. None of this has come to pass. Nothing that Volodymyr Zelensky's government promised has happened. It didn't turn out the way the powers that be in Washington, London, Rome, Paris, Berlin, and Brussels said it would. It didn't go well at all. And today, four and a half years after the conflict began, the real losers aren't the politicians, but the Ukrainian people. Things unfolded in a truly unique way: not through a sudden collapse, but through a slow yet visible erosion on both the Ukrainian and European sides. The narrative of the years 2022-2023, with its charge of civic heroism and collective resistance, held up as long as the war seemed to have a predictable horizon. That horizon has... https://www.sott.net/article/507540-The-wear-and-tear-of-conflict-Ukraine-Europe-and-the-twilight-of-a-great-deception Tue, 21 Jul 2026 22:02:59 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507539-The-fall-of-Israels-longest-serving-leader-Is-this-the-end-for-Netanyahu Israel may be witnessing the twilight of Netanyahu's era as security failures, war fatigue, and the rise of the Yashar party erode his aura of indispensability. In geopolitics, leaders who build their legacy on security often fall when that very promise collapses. In the world of geopolitics, even the strongest of leaders can be dethroned by just one crisis. For almost two decades, PM Netanyahu has held on as the leader of the Israelis. Considered to be the longest-serving prime minister of Israel, Netanyahu's foreign policy revolves around security and regional monopoly. However, now in 2026, he is facing serious political backlash. It seems like his policies are now backfiring, and the situation is getting out of hand. From domestic political circles to the international ones, hatred against Netanyahu has been increasing at an alarming rate. Whether it's the October 7 attack or the recent war with Iran, Israel has been caught in a protracted conflict where it has become too... https://www.sott.net/article/507539-The-fall-of-Israels-longest-serving-leader-Is-this-the-end-for-Netanyahu Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:00:49 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507538-NewsReal-From-EuroMaidan-to-Regime-Change-in-Iran-The-Genesis-of-Todays-Global-Energy-War Barely 3 weeks old, the 'Memorandum of Understanding' between the US and Iran appears to have come to an end. The US military is targeting Iranian military and civilian sites daily, while Iran is attacking US bases and other assets across the Middle East. That this is occurring at the same time that Russia's energy exports suffer significantly due to 'Ukrainian' drone waves means the immediate, short-term winner is... American energy companies. Trump wants this of course, and is mindful of not going too far and sparking 'bedlam' in the global energy market by pinching it too tight. But is it his 'power' to wield? Could this run away from him? Running Time: 01:50:22 Download: MP3 — 101 MB https://www.sott.net/article/507538-NewsReal-From-EuroMaidan-to-Regime-Change-in-Iran-The-Genesis-of-Todays-Global-Energy-War Tue, 21 Jul 2026 21:00:30 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507537-Germany-to-join-French-nuclear-exercise-deepening-Counter-Russia-deterrence In the latest development related to what some analysts have called the 'new Cold War' and nuclear saber-rattling between Russia and the West, Germany and France are planning a major nuclear exercise later this year. The atomic drills were announced Friday, after a joint top-level meeting of the French and German governments near Cologne. "Alongside this work on a shared doctrine, German conventional forces will this year take part in a nuclear exercise of the French military," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz unveiled. He detailed while at a press event alongside French President Emmanuel Macron that a "strategic steering group" established by the leading European allies would continue looking at deterrence in the future, with an eye on Russia. "This is complementary to our nuclear participation and deterrence within NATO, which we still hold to," he added. He also previewed "a maneuver in the autumn held on the initiative of France" - while speaking of the Ukraine war. "We will... https://www.sott.net/article/507537-Germany-to-join-French-nuclear-exercise-deepening-Counter-Russia-deterrence Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:59:23 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507533-Debasification-Iranian-Air-War-Strategy Over the past few days, the US/Israeli/GCC ("US Axis" from here on) war against Iran has reached a pace not seen since the opening hours of the conflict. Waves of Iranian missiles and drones have been striking targets across the region, with an apparent shift in target selection concentrating unprecedented amounts of Iranian firepower against Kuwait and Jordan. The war between the US Axis and Iran can be arbitrarily divided into several theaters. There's the war for control over the Strait of Hormuz, countervalue strikes against infrastructure, Iran's campaign against Kurdish proxies staging for ground operations on its western flank, and so on. Today we'll be focusing on a narrow slice of the conflict: the air war, with IRGC missile and drone forces (IRGCASF) on one side and the USAF, IAF, and GCC air forces on the other. As we'll see, this theater of the war has profound implications that cut across all other areas of the conflict. https://www.sott.net/article/507533-Debasification-Iranian-Air-War-Strategy Tue, 21 Jul 2026 20:40:53 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507532-Schrodingers-McConnell-Kentucky-governor-says-he-had-2-calls-from-agencies-saying-senator-had-passed Beshear revealed the calls in an interview, though he did not specify which agencies contacted him Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said this week that he received two calls from agencies suggesting Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., died while he was in the hospital. In an interview with Katie Couric uploaded to YouTube on Thursday, Beshear, a Democrat, did not specify which agencies called him with the news or when the calls were made. "In fact, I'd gotten two calls from different agencies, not state agencies, suggesting he'd passed," said Beshear, who has served as governor since December 2019. Fox News Digital reached out to Beshear and McConnell's offices for comment. https://www.sott.net/article/507532-Schrodingers-McConnell-Kentucky-governor-says-he-had-2-calls-from-agencies-saying-senator-had-passed Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:50:08 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507531-Democrats-coffers-emptier-than-they-re-letting-on The Democratic Party's money problems have been an open secret for months. Federal Election Commission filings from around six months ago showed the Democratic National Committee entering the final stretch of last year with barely $12 million in its campaign account and nearly $16 million in debt, most of it stemming from a loan the committee took out the previous month. Donations had slumped just as the party needed them most. Since then, the political environment has arguably been extremely beneficial for Democrats, with President Donald Trump's low approval ratings, the war with Iran, and high gas prices. Any one of those should have been enough to give the party the momentum necessary to get them out of their financial slump. Now, instead of turning the financial picture around, the DNC appears to be doing something stranger: hiding it. https://www.sott.net/article/507531-Democrats-coffers-emptier-than-they-re-letting-on Tue, 21 Jul 2026 17:35:24 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507523-Ceasefire-is-over-Why-America-still-cannot-secure-the-Strait-of-Hormuz The US's tactical military successes in the Strait of Hormuz do not solve the strategic problem, as Iran uses asymmetric tactics, turning US military dominance into an endless and costly conflict with no clear political outcome. Every American strike around the Strait of Hormuz appears militarily successful. Precision weapons hit their targets. U.S. airstrikes on Iranian targets destroyed radar installations, missile batteries and drone facilities. The Pentagon declares another degradation of Iran's capabilities. Yet every successful strike leaves the underlying strategic problem untouched. Iran still threatens the Strait. It still retains the ability to escalate at relatively low cost. And the United States still finds itself launching another round of strikes, without a clear endgame. The latest escalation, which began on July 6 and intensified throughout the week, followed a familiar pattern. After Iranian forces were accused of attacking commercial vessels near the Strait,... https://www.sott.net/article/507523-Ceasefire-is-over-Why-America-still-cannot-secure-the-Strait-of-Hormuz Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:15:15 +0000 https://www.sott.net/article/507522-Von-der-Leyen-paints-target-signs-on-Europe-with-Ukraine-drone-pact This is not sleepwalking into war. The European elites' eyes are wide open and crazed. The European Union has officially joined the war effort against Russia. This week, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed a "historic pact" with Ukraine to integrate the production of combat drones to strike Russia. According to Euronews reporting, the pact also envisages the joint production of ballistic missiles. This scaled-up war effort will be funded by the €90 billion loan that the EU is releasing to Ukraine. A bill that will be paid for by generations of European taxpayers. Von der Leyen was greeted in Kiev by Ukraine's unelected martial-law president, Vladimir Zelensky. That makes two people who do not have a democratic mandate making decisions that are driving Europe to all-out war with Russia. Von der Leyen is a political appointee. She is not elected by popular ballot. Formerly, she was Germany's Minister of Defense, and not a particularly bright one either. Dogged... https://www.sott.net/article/507522-Von-der-Leyen-paints-target-signs-on-Europe-with-Ukraine-drone-pact Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:14:46 +0000