Leo Hohmann
LeoHohman.com

After first denying Ukraine's request for long-range Tomahawk missiles, President Trump now concedes he has 'sort of' changed his mind, with only a few details on targets left to be worked out.

President Trump said Monday he has “sort of made a decision” on sending long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine for use against Russia.

Tomahawks can strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow. As you can see from the above graphic, the Tomahawk missile has a range more than five times that of the previously most lethal U.S. weapon sent to Ukraine, the ATACMS. Going from ATACMS to Tomahawks is no small step in the escalation of this war.

Trump was asked about it by a reporter Monday and you can watch his response here. He said...

What Trump seems to be saying here is that he’s approved the transfer of Tomahawks to Ukraine, but he’s just working out the details about targets the Ukrainians will be allowed to hit with these low-flying cruise missiles.

It’s absolutely chilling that a president can so casually and nonchalantly announce such a major step toward war with a rival nuclear-armed superpower like Russia and nobody in Congress or the media even questions him about the potential ramifications of such a decision.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The Czech elections are important because they represent the spread of the “Orban model” further across Central Europe, which provides the domestic basis for gradually reviving the Visegrad Group

Populist-nationalist politician Andrej Babis is poised to return to the premiership after his party’s victory in the latest elections. They lack a majority but are expected to build a coalition with some of the smaller parties that share their worldview.

This is a major development since Czechia has been under liberal-globalist control since Babis lost re-election in 2021, and although former high-level NATO official Petr Pavel is still president, the prime minister has more power. Here’s why his return is so important:

1. Czechia Might Soon Move To The Right On Socio-Cultural Issues

The coalition that he’s expected to build with smaller like-minded parties could push him closer to the right on socio-cultural issues due to their more hardline views. One of Reuters’ media platforms is very concerned about this scenario and warned that “Czech vote puts same-sex marriage, LGBTQ+ rights in the balance”. According to their assessment, he might seek to draft his own version of Hungary’s anti-LGBT propaganda bill and/or enshrine two genders in the constitution like neighboring Slovakia just did.

2. It’ll Also Likely Implement A More Pragmatic Policy Towards Ukraine

The era of Czechia providing maximum political-military support for Ukraine might soon be over if Babis’ post-election comments are anything to go by. He declared that it’s not ready to join the EU and strongly suggested cutting off military-technical aid too. The latter could see Czechia disband the Western initiative that it leads for scouring the world for ammo for Ukraine or transferring control of it to NATO, either of which could lead to supply disruptions that weaken the front, according to the New York Times.

3. The “Orban Model” Could Therefore Prove Its Applicability In the Region

If Babis behaves as expected on the domestic and foreign policy fronts, then this would prove the applicability of the so-called “Orban model” in Central Europe. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s return to office in October 2023 saw him promptly following in his Hungarian counterpart’s footsteps, but some observers questioned whether this was really the start of a trend. All doubts would be dispelled if Babis did the same, which would confirm the relevance of this model to the region.

Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin
President of Russia (en.kremlin.ru)

Vladimir Putin took part in the plenary session of the 22nd annual meeting of the Valdai International Discussion Club.

Research Director of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai International Discussion Club Fyodor Lukyanov: Ladies and gentlemen, guests of the Valdai Club!

We are beginning the plenary session of the 22nd annual forum of the Valdai International Discussion Club. It is a great honour for me to invite President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin to this stage.

Mr President, thank you very much for once again finding time to join us. The Valdai Club enjoys this great privilege of meeting with you for 23 consecutive years to discuss the most topical issues. I believe that no one else is that lucky.

The 22nd meeting of the Valdai Club, which took place over the past three days, was titled “The Polycentric World: Instructions for Use.” We are attempting to move from merely understanding and describing this new world to practical matters: that is, comprehending how to live in it, since it is not yet entirely clear.

We may consider ourselves advanced users, but we are still only users of this world. You, however, are at least a mechanic and perhaps even an engineer of this very polycentric world order, so we eagerly await some guidelines for use from you.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

It’s highly suspicious that Zelensky just claimed without any evidence that they were launched by Russian tankers and subsequently demanded that Europe close the straits to its shipping in response.

Unknown drones recently flew in close proximity to Danish and Norwegian airports, prompting speculation among some that they were Russia’s delayed hybrid retaliation against NATO for backing Ukraine’s drone flights in proximity to Russia’s own airports over the past few years. No evidence has emerged in support of that hypothesis, but Zelensky still dishonestly passed off such claims as fact during his speech at the latest Warsaw Security Forum.

According to him, “there is growing evidence that Russia may have used tankers in the Baltic Sea to launch drones – the drones that caused major disruption in Northern Europe. If tankers used by Russia are serving as drone platforms, then such tankers should not be free to operate in the Baltic. This is de facto Russia’s military activity against European countries, so Europe has the right to close straits and sea routes to protect itself.”

His proposal for NATO to close the Danish Staits to Russian shipping on this pretext, which would amount to an illegal blockade that could thus legitimize offensive action by Russia in self-defense, was predictable given Ukraine’s and some of its patrons’ interest in escalating the bloc’s tensions with Russia. In fact, it might even be the case that this was the false flag that Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service twice warned could soon be staged by the UK and Ukraine, albeit ultimately taking a different form.

They assessed that those two might orchestrate potentially forthcoming provocations in the Baltic that would then be blamed on Russia in order to justify cracking down on its sanctioned energy trade that the West dramatically describes as being conducted by a “shadow fleet” transiting through that sea. While no US ship was targeted with Ukrainian-transferred Soviet/Russian torpedoes nor were such mines fished out of the Baltic, Scandinavia’s Russian drone scare still arguably fulfills the same role.

Harold Turner
Hal Turner Show

Russia on Trump "Authorizing" Ukraine to Make Deep Strikes into Russia: "This isn't escalation; it's ignition"

Reports are flooding the media claiming that President Donald Trump has "Authorized" Ukraine to engage in long-range missile and drone strikes, deep inside Russia.

The Constitution for the United States does not empower the US Federal Government to "authorize" any other government to attack a third country - so where this power stems from, to "authorize" Ukraine to do . . . anything . . . to a third country . . . is a mystery. The US Constitution also does not authorize the US Government to wage a "proxy war" using a second country (Ukraine) to attack a third country (Russia). But that is precisely what they've been doing for more than three years.

Ukraine's non-President, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term of Office EXPIRED last May, is also asking President Trump to authorize the sale of US "Tomahawk" Cruise Missiles, for Ukraine to use against targets deep inside Russia. Conflicting reports say either Trump refused the request or, say he is "considering" the request.

Both the launching of "Deep" strikes into Russia, and providing long-range missiles, guided by US Military Satellites, to carry-out such long-range strikes, are "Red Lines" for the Russians. Crossing those Red Lines would LIKELY see Russia declare the US as a "Party to the conflict" thereby opening the door for Russia to begins striking targets here, inside the USA.

Dmitry Medvedev (Дмитрий Медведев)
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council
TASS

[There are] historical parallels in the behavior of the current leaders of Finland and their predecessors from almost a century ago and recalls the aftermath of their aggressive attacks on Russia

Last week I made a fact-finding trip to the Russian-Finnish border in the Leningrad Region to have a word with local officials and our border guards. Cross-border traffic is frozen, while just recently the checkpoints bustled with activity. At Helsinki’s initiative, normal and mutually beneficial relations that had taken decades to build have been ruined. Suomi’s ordinary people are the hardest-hit. They used to enjoy hefty benefits from thriving bilateral trading and economic relations, and quite naturally these days many do not hesitate to express their anger about the stupid policies that the Finnish authorities are pursuing to the detriment of their interests.

I would like to say a few words about the root causes of this situation. Regrettably, it is not accidental. The whirlwinds of turbulent geopolitical processes merely strip naked old-time problems, exposing their true essence. This is precisely what happened in Finland’s case.

Any trip to our northwestern regions at the beginning of the autumn season invariably serves as a good occasion to recall the most tragic date in the history of the great Russian city on the Neva River – the Nazi blockade during World War II, which began on September 8, 1941. However, it seems that today we are the only ones whose memories of those dark days are still fresh. The direct culprits of those events have been trying to painstakingly erase the traces of their atrocities from historical memory. Or at least to ensure there should be no "undesirable" parallels with their current policies. I am referring not only to Germany, which even at the official level blasphemously refuses to recognize the blockade of Leningrad as a crime against humanity.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Even worse, it would be all because of Zelensky’s lust for money and power, not any legitimate reason.

Trump’s flip-flop on Ukraine was explained here as being partially due to him responding to the whispers of warmongers like Zelensky, who boasted afterwards that...

💬 “Gradually, (Trump) realized that Putin was simply sharing some information that was far from the truth on the battlefield. Now he trusts me much more because the information that my intelligence has, that we share with our partners.”

This is leading to Trump being manipulated by Zelensky into a disaster of epic proportions if he doesn’t soon wise up.

The American leader likely took at face value his Ukrainian counterpart’s claim of reconquering 360 square kilometers in recent weeks even though the latter’s own top general earlier assessed the amount to be less than half of that at only 160 square kilometers. This might have convinced him that his new policy of selling new arms to NATO at full price for subsequent transfer to Ukraine is paying off. Zelensky was probably also responsible for Trump writing in his post that the Russian economy is in deep trouble.

These false beliefs, which are based on lies laundered by Zelensky as “intelligence”, arguably emboldened Trump to declare his support for NATO shooting down Russian jets on the pretext of them violating the bloc’s airspace after the latest dubious claim to that effect from Estonia. He also threatened “a very strong round of powerful tariffs” against Russia in his UN speech, presumably against China and India who he described as “the primary funders of the ongoing war”, so long as the EU follows suit.

This evolving policy towards the Ukrainian Conflict – which includes military (more arms sales to NATO and supporting the bloc shooting down Russian jets) and economic (primary and secondary sanctions) components – is also largely driven by Zelensky’s other lie that Trump fell for.

Raphael Machado
Strategic Culture Foundation

In the hearts of the people of that small but important region, there remains hope for a freer and safer future, in short, a better future.

On the internet, the ancient philosophy of “Stoicism” (the one that recalls names like the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius and the philosopher Seneca) has become a sort of “meme” or “lifestyle” for young men who feel alienated from the dominant culture. The cultivation of this Stoicism (taken up in its exclusively ethical dimension, without reference to its materialist ontology) is tied to the identity crisis of youthful masculinity in Western countries.

In the stoic attitude towards life, many young men believe they find a formula that prepares them for setbacks and adversities, as well as a “school of virility” in a cultural context where there is a strong feminizing atmosphere that, by associating the masculine with concepts like “violence,” “abuse,” and “oppression,” gradually seeks to stigmatize typical aspects of masculinity, even healthy masculinity.

In a more specific sense, Stoicism, in its ethical dimension, shapes a mental framework intended to be prepared to deal with the inevitability of death and the certainty of defeat and misfortune throughout life. It is assumed that the common man will be constantly affected and paralyzed by the threat of death and the accidents suffered throughout life, the unwanted changes of plans, the resounding failures. Stoicism aims to immunize man against these inner fluctuations, insofar as they are understood to enslave him.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The US decided that India’s rise as a Great Power must be derailed and it’ll pursue this by all possible means.

Trump finally went through with February’s threat to rescind his first term’s sanctions waiver for Iran’s Chabahar Port that was promulgated to help India aid Afghanistan’s reconstruction. That facility is partially run by India, which relies on it as the North-South Transport Corridor’s point of entry for connecting with the Central Asian Republics (CARs) and Russia. The US was hitherto pleased with India’s thrust into the CARs, however, since it was considered a gentle means of balancing Chinese influence.

Those calculations have since changed as a result of Trump’s fury at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s refusal to emulate the EU’s lopsided trade deal with the US by removing all or at least most tariffs on American imports. Revoking this waiver is meant to put India in a strategic dilemma. It can either defy the US’ anti-Iranian sanctions at the cost of secondary sanctions on top of the 50% tariffs he already imposed or comply with them at the expense of ceding influence in the CARs to China.

Constantin von Hoffmeister
Eurosiberia

The Doctrine of Doublethink

It is a peculiar feature of the age that the most intelligent people are often the most incapable of seeing the contradictions that govern their lives.

The European citizen of 2025 does not live under tyranny in the traditional sense. He possesses bank accounts, passports, and broadband access. He may travel freely, vote regularly, and express opinions within established limits. Yet it is precisely within these limits that the condition of his unfreedom is revealed. For he believes that he is free, even as every mechanism of his civilization is designed to condition his behavior, narrow his vocabulary, and discourage his thought.

This is the triumph of doublethink.

Doublethink, properly understood, is not mere hypocrisy. It is not the act of lying, nor even the act of knowing one lies. It is the cultivated ability to believe two contradictory things simultaneously, and to believe both with equal conviction. It is to say, “I support free speech,” and to mean, “I support the regulation of speech I consider harmful.” It is to assert, “There are no forbidden ideas,” and to follow that statement with, “except those ideas which challenge the moral consensus.” The function of doublethink is not to deceive but to stabilize. In an unstable world, the lie that is believed by all becomes more comforting than the truth that shatters the narrative.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

These are being advanced through a combination of information warfare and support for anti-government (Brussels-organized) “NGOs” (BONGOs).

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto warned in a Facebook post last month after talks with his Slovak and Serbian counterparts that Brussels is plotting regime change against them. This comes after Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) reported that the EU and Ukraine are backing the Hungarian opposition ahead of next spring’s parliamentary elections. The larger context is that they’ve all defied EU pressure to cut ties with Russia and are considering the creation of a new regional integration platform.

From the EU’s hegemonic perspective, those three’s current governments do indeed pose “an increasingly serious obstacle to a ‘united Europe’” as SVR described Hungary as being vis-à-vis Brussels, with that country being the main one followed by Slovakia and then Serbia to a much lesser extent. Long-serving Prime Minister Viktor Orban is a populist-nationalist icon on the continent, while his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico only recently returned to office but immediately followed in Orban’s footsteps.

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

Trump’s Proposal For NATO To Stop Buying Russian Oil & Start Tariffing China Is Unrealistic. – The EU would plunge into a full-blown recession if it complied, but that might be what Trump wants so as to bankrupt its companies and thus give US ones a greater edge in the newly tariff-free EU market.

Trump proposed in a social media post over the weekend that NATO stop buying Russian oil and start tariffing China 50-100% as part of his plan for swiftly ending the Ukrainian Conflict. He promised to impose “major sanctions on Russia” if all NATO members at least do the first-mentioned.

This proposal is unrealistic though since the whole reason why some NATO members continued buying Russian oil (including indirectly via India) was to manage global prices and thus prevent a full-blown recession.

Likewise, imposing 50-100% tariffs on China would lead to price spikes all across the board that would compound with dumping Russian oil to deal a heavy blow to the EU, though that might be what Trump wants in order to bankrupt EU companies and thus give US ones a greater edge.

Hoda Yaq
Press TV

On March 3, 2025, Mahdieh Esfandiari, a 39-year-old Iranian academic living in Lyon, a city in east-central France, was arrested by French security officers after a surprise raid at her home.

Her family characterized the situation as kidnapping or hostage-taking, stating that officers arrived without prior notice, placed her into a van, and held her without formal charges or access to legal counsel for several months.

For more than 50 days, she was not permitted to use the phone, was kept in solitary confinement, and was unable to contact family or friends. This continued until mid-April.

According to Mahdieh’s communication with her family, her interrogation in French police custody involved repeated psychological pressure. Officers removed her hijab (Islamic head covering), as her sister also stated in a recent interview with Press TV.

She had no choice but to use her bedsheet to cover her head each time she offered her daily prayers, and she was also subjected to a full strip search by French male officers.

Despite spending months in solitary confinement without seeing the sky or sunlight, the authorities in France refused to return her hijab, denying her even a few minutes under the sun’s rays.

Kersasp D. Shekhdar
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Thoughts, Musings, Perspectives, Prognostications (Or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the [AIs]”)

Andrew Korybko
Andrew Korybko's Newsletter

The emerging “Global West” concept isn’t just a “collection of democracies” like it’s been portrayed by some, but a collection of US military partners that can be relied upon for helping to contain its Eurasian rivals.

Australia agreed during last month’s NATO Summit to deploy an E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft and up to 100 troops to Europe till November at the bloc and Poland’s request in support of Ukraine. This will be carried out under “Operation Kudu”, which “is the Australian Defence Force commitment to the training of Armed Forces of Ukraine personnel in the United Kingdom.” It follows a prior such deployment to Ramstein Air Base so the latest one isn’t really all that newsworthy.

That doesn’t mean that it’s insignificant, however, since it’s important for observers to understand why Australia is continuing to militarily involve itself in a conflict on the opposite side of the planet. The reason is that Australia is doing so as a quid pro quo for Anglo-American support in containing China through AUKUS. Regardless of whether one agrees with it, the Australia government nowadays considers China to be an adversary – largely due to Anglo-American influence – and formulates policy accordingly.

Sending arms to Ukraine, training its troops in the UK, and once again carrying out a temporary military deployment to Europe isn’t just a way to pay back its AUKUS allies, but also a means for obtaining experience in the event that China gets involved in a regional conflict. Whether it’s against Taiwan, the Philippines, Japan, and/or the US, Australia expects to involve itself in a similar way as with Russia-Ukraine via the aforesaid means of arms shipments, training, and early warning and control missions.

Moreover, by showing solidarity with NATO in its proxy war on Russia through Ukraine as explained above, Australia hopes that the bloc’s European members will repay the favor if it involves itself in a future AUKUS+ (AUKUS, Taiwan, Japan, and the Philippines) proxy war on China. Even though they’d probably do this at their American “daddy’s” behest, albeit as a quid pro quo for “defending Europe from Russia” in this case (as they sincerely but wrongly believe), it’s a suitable pretext for the public.

Sergey Latyshev
tsargrad.tv

Putin is good, tolerant, and patient, but does not forgive betrayals.

Why is Azerbaijan breaking into a conflict with Russia? There are at least three reasons for this. And they all dance from one basic – instead of refusing to open against Russia to help Ukraine, the West attracted Azerbaijan to do so. The calculation is made that Baku will be able to frighten Moscow with the prospect of escalation in Transcaucasia, rebel the Azerbaijani diaspora in Russia and thereby save the Ukraine pressed against the wall in conditions when the United States is losing interest in the war in order to prepare for another – with China. The leadership of Azerbaijan, which was probably not only threatened but also tried to seduce him in every possible way (!), got into the games of the great powers against Russia. Baku actually has a weak position, which is an invitation to the role of a "buried coin", when the big participants of the game are played. Putin is good, tolerant, and patient, but does not forgive betrayals.

Gavin O’Reilly
Strategic Culture Foundation

Starvation is being used to ethnically cleanse the Gaza Strip in line with the Greater Israel project.

On the 12th of August, media outlet Axios revealed that the United States and Israel were in discussions to establish a land corridor between the occupied Golan Heights and the southern Syrian city of Suwayda, ostensibly to protect the country’s Druze minority. The following Saturday, protests broke out in Suwayda calling for Druze self-determination, with many in attendance waving Israeli flags.

Last December, following a lightning offensive by insurgents based in the northwestern city of Idlib, the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad collapsed in dramatic fashion. This marked the culmination of a thirteen-year effort by various powers to impose regime-change on the Arab Republic. One such power was Israel, who had provided arms to Salafist militants opposed to Assad’s secular rule. Syria, having acted as a conduit between Iran and Hezbollah, had long been in Tel Aviv’s crosshairs.

Within hours of Assad’s fall, Israel launched a ground invasion of southern Syria. Tel Aviv declared that this was in order to establish a buffer zone between Israel and Syria’s new Islamist government, in spite of the fact Damascus’ new rulers had effectively acted in Israel’s interests over the past decade. Israel also later stated that it intended to defend Syria’s Druze minority.

Sergey Savchuk
РИА Новости

China was avoiding the second act of the trade war. Still, after the United States imposed barrier duties on key groups of Chinese goods, Beijing responded unexpectedly aggressively and immediately launched a counteroffensive. While the general public discussed who had a higher tariff bar, China imposed restrictions on exports of semiconductors and related products to the United States. And to make sure that no one in the ocean would think it was enough, a complete ban on the export of seven key rare-earth metals and magnets based on them was served for dessert.

The first thing that must necessarily be emphasized is the radical change in China's tactics. Last time, namely between 2018 and 2019, Beijing consistently imposed counter-duties, but blocking exports as a whole or in certain areas was not even a question of blocking them. When Washington started fending off tariff fences, Chinese goods in a very short time flowed through alternative channels - through Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and, strangely enough, Japan. Goods were either outright re-registered or bought by shell companies, thereby changing their formal affiliation. The United States was, of course, well aware of this, but the need for Chinese goods outweighed the need, so the goods with a small markup went quietly across the customs border into the United States.

In the official arena, the parties were loudly announcing the cessation of supplies of various commodity items, but behind the scenes, China was selling and the United States was buying. To a certain extent, this also worked in the opposite direction. For example, the ban on imports of U.S. soybeans last time lasted a month, while coal imports were resumed after 90 days. In 2025, the scenarios have changed dramatically. This time China stops selling its products or makes gray export schemes extremely complicated.

Alastair Crooke
Strategic Culture Foundation

The silence of the bears will soon be ended and we will know more about Russian resolve.

Russia’s leadership is in ‘conclave’ determining its riposte.

Trump has been silent for two days. Unprecedented. In the last days, Ukraine and its facilitators attempted a massive attack on Russia’s strategic nuclear bomber-force; succeeded in collapsing two bridges onto civilian trains heading to Moscow; attacking the Kerch Bridge; and assassinating a Russian general via explosive body bomb.

As Clausewitz noted two centuries ago, the point of military force is to compel an outcome: i.e. that an adversary finally does what is wanted of him. Thus, in respect to military adventures there is need for clarity of thought from the outset. It must have a realisable political objective that has a prospect to be implemented.

What then, was the objective behind these Ukrainian ‘irregular’ attacks? One certainly was demonstrative – PR exercises to say that Ukraine and allied services are still capable of mounting special forces style, innovative operations. And are therefore worthy of continued support. As Colonel Doug Macgregor cautions:

💬 “For the most part it was a PR stunt to try and convey the impression that Ukraine is capable of carrying on the war. Anything you hear from the Western outlets … are probably untrue or at least grossly exaggerated … We damaged ourselves and our relationship – what there is left of it – with Moscow … that’s the real fallout from this”.

Leonid Savin
Oriental Review

The signing of the peace deal between Armenia and Azerbaijan, which took place in Washington on August 8, 2025 in the presence of US President Donald Trump, marks the victory of the globalist forces in Eurasia. Despite the moderately positive tone of statements from the Russian leadership about the importance of the agreement, which had been expected for many years, it should be noted that Moscow had previously imagined a completely different scenario.

Firstly, there was the OSCE Minsk Group, which was a mediator and observer of the settlement between the Caucasian republics. Secondly, there was Lavrov’s Plan, which provided for the return of a number of settlements to Azerbaijan, after which a peace treaty was to be signed and borders were to be demarcated. Baku was ready for this option, while Soros’s henchman Nikola Pashinyan sabotaged this process.

As a result, Ilham Aliyev, taking into account Russia’s Special Military Operation in Ukraine, as well as Russia’s military involvement in Syria, decided to carry out a military campaign against Nagorno-Karabakh and Armenia, which turned out a success. Russian peacekeepers were withdrawn from the region (having previously suffered losses as a result of fire from the Azerbaijani military).