Author: nick

In early March, a U.S. submarine torpedoed an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean. The ship, a frigate called the IRIS Dena, had been docked at an Indian port just days earlier – an invited guest at India’s flagship multinational naval exercise. It had participated in a ceremonial parade attended by India’s president, Droupadi Murmu. After the U.S. sank it on the way home, India’s sole public response focused on “humanitarian search-and-rescue.” Days earlier, on Feb. 26, Modi had visited Israel, addressing the Knesset and embracing Prime Minister Netanyahu in a highly publicized state visit. Two days after that, U.S.…

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A blockade of the Strait of Hormuz sounds like a clean, decisive move until you run it through the real world: geography, international law, ship insurance, and the uncomfortable question of what happens when the other side shoots back. We sit down with Lt Col Karen Kwiatkowski to parse Trump’s threat to interdict ships tied to Iranian oil and why “the greatest navy in the world” is not the same thing as a navy that can safely enforce a blockade in a narrow, heavily contested chokepoint. We dig into the operational side of maritime power, from US shipbuilding constraints to costly programs…

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Belgian authorities have refused to name the arms firms that exported the goods amid the opening of a criminal investigation into the matter, John McEvoy reports. Belgium’s Liège Airport in Wallonia. (Vberger at French Wikipedia/Wikimedia Commons/Public Domain) By John McEvoyDeclassified UK Two shipments of military components bound for Israel from the U.K. have been seized in Belgium, it can be revealed. This follows an alert issued to authorities in Brussels by Declassified, Belgian NGO Vredesactie, Irish news outlet The Ditch and the Palestinian Youth Movement. Belgium has strict laws on the transshipment of military items to Israel through its ports and airports,…

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Freddie Ponton21st Century Wire A Trump-branded crypto venture has quietly wandered into the blast radius of one of the ugliest scam-and-trafficking stories on the planet, and now the paper trail is catching up. What the new Guardian Australia and OCCRP investigation reveals, in simple terms, is that people tied to the US president’s family chose to do business with a murky partner whose Timor-Leste showcase project had already drifted into the orbit of an alleged human‑trafficking and cyberfraud empire. The most damning part of the Guardian Australia and OCCRP investigation is not the photo from Singapore, but what followed that meeting: after Donald Trump Jr. and Zach…

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From Doe v. Univ. of S. Ind., decided yesterday by Judge David Hamilton, joined by Chief Judge Michael Brennan and Judge Amy St. Eve:Plaintiff-appellant “John Doe” was a student at the University of Southern Indiana (USI) in the 2020–21 academic year. He was the subject of a Title IX complaint accusing him of sexually assaulting another student. A hearing panel heard testimony from John, from the complaining student (we call her “Jane Doe”), and several other witnesses. The panel wrote that the issue was “whose version of events is more credible, as the details of each are irreconcilable.” The panel…

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The Spanish Defense Minister blasted the US and Israeli war against Iran as “profoundly” illegal and unjust. She explained that Madrid would not allow Washington to use its airspace for operations against Iran.  “We don’t authorise either the use of military bases or the use of airspace for actions related to the war in Iran,” Defense Minister Margarita Robles told reporters on Monday. “I think everyone knows Spain’s position. It’s very clear.” She added that the war was “profoundly illegal and profoundly unjust.” The conflict started with a US and Israeli surprise attack on February 28 that assassinated Iranian Supreme…

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Globally we have entered into an age of unprecedented social engineering and psychological warfare. In this blog we will explore some of the modern history and methodology behind how we got to this point in the human story and what we can do to mentally defend ourselves and intelligently fight back. Understanding Learned Helplessness In 1967 a team of psychologists from the University of Pennsylvania conducted research on dogs to gauge their responses to unpredictable and unavoidable electric shocks. They created three groups: Group A could stop shocks by pressing a panel. Group B Received shocks but had no control or escape.…

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