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RTÉ News
5 days ago
- Politics
- RTÉ News
What's at stake for Europe at the Trump-Putin summit on Ukraine?
Analysis: The build-up to the summit highlights European doubts and concerns about Russia's sincerity to halt aggression in Ukraine The end of the Cold War was once greeted in Europe as " the end of history". Both Naziism and communism - extreme ideologies that had caused violent turmoil and oppression during the 20th century – had collapsed. Liberal democracy had persevered and was unrivalled by the 1990s. Western governments viewed liberal political and economic reform as vital to nurture peace and security in post-communist Europe. An enlarged security community covering much of the northern hemisphere " from Vancouver to Vladivostok" was an active political aspiration to reduce risks from violent conflict. Institutionalised through the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), this community aimed to enshrine the principles of the Helsinki Final Act agreed in 1975, most notably exclusive adherence to peaceful conflict resolution and no border changes by military force. All has changed. This vision for a pan-European security order defined by enduring peace has been shattered by Russia's military aggression, first in Georgia in 2008 and subsequently in Ukraine after 2014, with Moscow escalating its offensive in 2022. Ukrainians have suffered the most by far, but this war has also caused many reverberations that weaken wider security in Europe. When campaigning for a second US presidential term in 2024, Donald Trump claimed that he would resolve the war in Ukraine " in one day". But after his second term began in January 2025, Trump's administration has instead grappled with many arduous complications inflicted by Russia's aggression. In recent days, Trump has outlined his exploratory expectations for the US-Russia summit with Russia's president Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week. Describing the summit as a " feel-out meeting", Trump claims that he is seeking a measure on Putin's seriousness for peace in Ukraine. His US administration describes the summit as a " listening exercise". Efforts to assist peace in Ukraine must be welcomed once these efforts are sincere. From RTÉ News' Behind the Story podcast, why meeting Trump in Alaska is 'handing Putin victory' But the build-up to the summit highlights many continuing doubts on Putin's sincerity to halt Russian aggression. In Kyiv, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has raised concerns that Putin is "bluffing"about his intent to make peace. In Brussels, EU leaders fear that Putin will gain a diplomatic advantage over Trump to slowly ease Russia closer to the strategic aims it defined when it escalated its war in Ukraine in 2022. These aims included a forceful overthrow of the Ukrainian government; stifling stronger links between Ukraine and the EU and NATO; and consolidating a sphere of influence to insulate Russia's authoritarianism from the West's liberal democratic influences. Putin is considered to have got the better of Trump at the Helsinki Summit between the two presidents in 2018. After this meeting, Trump appeared to publicly support the Russian president's view that Moscow had not interfered in the 2016 US presidential election, despite contrary information communicated to him by America's own security agencies. Seeking to avoid being out-manoeuvred by Putin again, Trump has threatened "very severe consequences", meaning further sanctions will be proposed, should Russia refuse to take US peace efforts seriously. Missing the military power that converts into diplomatic clout, the EU is forced to watch a summit that will likely impact its future security from the sidelines. Trump has discussed " land swapping" as a means to settle the conflict while insisting that such arrangements can only be confirmed by direct negotiations between Ukraine and Russia. De jure border change is unacceptable for Ukraine. However, Kyiv might still painfully accept some de facto compromises understood as temporary until future political circumstances change to allow Ukraine to restore full functional sovereignty within borders benchmarked from its independence in 1991. From RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, 26 EU leaders say Ukraine should have freedom to decide its future Should Russia retain de facto military control over territories in eastern Ukraine, a large risk remains that Moscow will use this presence to slowly grind away to coerce and undermine Kyiv in its aims to accelerate Ukraine's democratisation and EU integration. The Trump administration has frustrated Ukrainian attempts to gain a clear pathway towards NATO accession. According to US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth, "the United States does not believe that NATO membership for Ukraine is a realistic outcome of a negotiated settlement". The Alaska summit also offers Putin an opportunity to propose limitations on Ukraine's future military strength as a condition for Russia's consent to progress settlement talks. Washington is Ukraine's most important military supplier, handing Trump some leverage to pressure Zelenskyy to accept limits on Ukraine's future defence capabilities. This would undercut Ukraine's potential for independent deterrence but with Russia remaining free to replenish its military power to threaten Ukraine again. Observing developments on Ukraine, EU member states at the bloc's frontline with Russia remain concerned that Putin will skilfully manipulate Trump's peace efforts to instead piecemeal towards the aggressive aims he originally revealed in 2022. Should Russia gain such momentum, EU governments in Finland, the Baltic states and Poland anticipate that Moscow's military aggression will only gain further impetus. From RTÉ Radio 1's This Week, Prof Donnacha Ó Beacháin from DCU on whether Russia is ready to end the war in Ukraine or is simply stalling for time Putin's mistakes directed Russia into an unexpectedly long and attritional military campaign where a staggering one million Russian soldiers have died by 2025. However, a negotiated reprieve in Ukraine matched with Trump's ambivalent commitment to NATO will have retrieved Putin's ambitions to eventually challenge the alliance. If a frozen conflict is the most likely compromise to emerge from current negotiations on Ukraine, tensions simmering at the fault line that Russia has created there will endure to undermine European security. Unpredictable and unstable, this order contrasts starkly with optimistic aspirations of peace "from Vancouver to Vladivostok" expressed after the Cold War. In the sentiments of Finnish president Alexander Stubb, Europe's " holiday from history" is now over.
08-08-2025
- Politics
Neo-Nazi group leader sentenced to 20 years in prison for planned Maryland power grid attack
BALTIMORE -- The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland's power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs. Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize 'sniper attacks' on electrical substations around Baltimore. During a sentencing hearing Thursday afternoon in federal court in Baltimore, U.S. District Judge James Bredar excoriated the defendant for his reprehensible views, saying Russell was clearly the brains behind the operation, which sought to precipitate societal collapse by targeting the energy infrastructure of a majority-Black city. In the aftermath of the planned attacks, Russell and his co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, intended to 'create their own bizarre utopia populated by people who only look and think like they do,' Bredar said. 'Well, that's not how it works,' the judge continued. 'The law doesn't permit that. We don't change course in this country via violent overthrow.' Bredar imposed the maximum sentence allowed for Russell's conviction of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. The judge also ordered a lifetime of supervised release, including close monitoring of Russell's electronic devices. Bredar previously sentenced Clendaniel to 18 years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to her role in the plot. He said Russell should receive a longer sentence because he was more culpable and contributed the 'intellectual horsepower' that propelled the plot closer to fruition. The two were arrested in February 2023 — before their plans were executed. Russell's attorney, Ian Goldstein, has argued that Clendaniel posed a greater threat because she was taking steps to obtain a firearm and shoot up electrical substations. Meanwhile, Russell was living in Florida with absolutely no plans to travel to Maryland, according to his attorney. 'For Mr. Russell, everything was talk,' Goldstein told the court. He also pointed to Russell's supportive family. Court papers filed ahead of sentencing included a letter from his mother, who said she believes he's been trying to fill the void left by a largely absent father. She said some challenges arose with her son after she moved them back to the Bahamas, where she has relatives. 'Brandon Russell is an educated young man who has served this country's military,' his attorney wrote, connecting his descent into Naziism with longstanding mental health challenges. 'His family relationships speak volumes of the person he can be.' The judge wasn't persuaded, but he noted Russell's 'somewhat complicated psycho-social history' and recommended mental health treatment during his time in prison. Russell declined to address the judge directly. He appeared in court wearing maroon prison attire and showed no obvious signs of emotion during the hearing. Several years ago, Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which is German for 'atomic weapon.' This wasn't his first run-in with law enforcement. In 2017, police responded to a 2017 double homicide at a Tampa apartment building and found Russell outside crying, dressed in military fatigues. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said. During a search of the house, police found a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. Russell pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosives.
Winnipeg Free Press
07-08-2025
- Politics
- Winnipeg Free Press
Neo-Nazi group leader sentenced to 20 years in prison for planned Maryland power grid attack
BALTIMORE (AP) — The founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for conspiring with his girlfriend to plan an attack on Maryland's power grid in furtherance of their shared racist beliefs. Brandon Russell, 30, was convicted by a jury earlier this year. Prosecutors presented evidence detailing his longstanding affiliation with white supremacist causes and his recent efforts to organize 'sniper attacks' on electrical substations around Baltimore. During a sentencing hearing Thursday afternoon in federal court in Baltimore, U.S. District Judge James Bredar excoriated the defendant for his reprehensible views, saying Russell was clearly the brains behind the operation, which sought to precipitate societal collapse by targeting the energy infrastructure of a majority-Black city. In the aftermath of the planned attacks, Russell and his co-defendant, Sarah Beth Clendaniel, intended to 'create their own bizarre utopia populated by people who only look and think like they do,' Bredar said. 'Well, that's not how it works,' the judge continued. 'The law doesn't permit that. We don't change course in this country via violent overthrow.' Bredar imposed the maximum sentence allowed for Russell's conviction of conspiracy to damage an energy facility. The judge also ordered a lifetime of supervised release, including close monitoring of Russell's electronic devices. Bredar previously sentenced Clendaniel to 18 years behind bars after she pleaded guilty to her role in the plot. He said Russell should receive a longer sentence because he was more culpable and contributed the 'intellectual horsepower' that propelled the plot closer to fruition. The two were arrested in February 2023 — before their plans were executed. Russell's attorney, Ian Goldstein, has argued that Clendaniel posed a greater threat because she was taking steps to obtain a firearm and shoot up electrical substations. Meanwhile, Russell was living in Florida with absolutely no plans to travel to Maryland, according to his attorney. 'For Mr. Russell, everything was talk,' Goldstein told the court. ' Goldstein also pointed to Russell's supportive family. Court papers filed ahead of sentencing included a letter from his mother, who said she believes he's been trying to fill the void left by a largely absent father. She said some challenges arose with her son after she moved them back to the Bahamas, where she has relatives. 'Brandon Russell is an educated young man who has served this country's military,' his attorney wrote, connecting his descent into Naziism with longstanding mental health challenges. 'His family relationships speak volumes of the person he can be.' The judge wasn't persuaded, but he noted Russell's 'somewhat complicated psycho-social history' and recommended mental health treatment during his time in prison. Russell declined to address the judge directly. He appeared in court wearing maroon prison attire and showed no obvious signs of emotion during the hearing. Several years ago, Russell co-founded the neo-Nazi group Atomwaffen Division, which is German for 'atomic weapon.' This wasn't his first run-in with law enforcement. In 2017, police responded to a 2017 double homicide at a Tampa apartment building and found Russell outside crying, dressed in military fatigues. One of his roommates had killed the other two, officials said. During a search of the house, police found a stash of highly explosive materials and a cache of neo-Nazi signs, posters, books and flags. Russell pleaded guilty to possession of an unregistered destructive device and improper storage of explosives.
Yahoo
23-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Seminary Alumna Awarded Prestigious Fellowship to Study Professional Ethics
CHICAGO, June 23, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- North Park Theological Seminary's (NPTS) Lauren Thurston MDiv '23 has been awarded a clergy-related Fellowship at Auschwitz for the Study of Professional Ethics (FASPE). "As a seminary student, Lauren's attentiveness to the dignity and flourishing of all people was woven throughout all her work," said NPTS Theology Teaching Fellow Armida Belmonte Stephens, who taught Thurston. "As a pastor and leader, she is critically engaging important ethical questions, and her commitment to seeking God's glory and neighbors' good is clear. This fellowship is so very well deserved." As part of the program, participants spend two weeks in Germany and Poland exploring the constructs, current issues, and other factors that raise ethical concerns in contemporary professional work settings. In addition to discussions, students spend time touring sites of historic importance as they relate to the Holocaust. Specifically, FASPE investigates the ethical societal breakdowns that allowed Naziism to flourish in 1930s and 1940s Germany and the implications for today's workplace. "FASPE's distinctive approach is to examine the roles and behavior of individual professionals in Germany and elsewhere between 1933 and 1945 as an initial framework for approaching ethical responsibility in the professions today," according to FASPE's mission statement. The highly competitive fellowships are awarded to those in the fields of law, medicine, journalism, design and technology, and clergy and religious leaders. To qualify, clergy applicants must be enrolled in graduate school or preparing to work as a religious leader. FASPE welcomes applicants from all faith backgrounds. North Park University is city-centered, intercultural, and emerging as the model for Christian higher education in 21st-century America. Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE North Park University Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
19-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
An Anti-Science MAHA Extremist Is Playing a Major Role at the FDA
If there's anything that Dr. Vinay Prasad, the controversial new appointee to lead the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, or CBER, a top office at the Food and Drug Administration, loves to do, it's hurl an insult. Upon first glance, Prasad seems far more qualified than many other Trump appointees. He is a hematologist-oncologist and University of California at San Francisco professor who has amassed an unbelievable number of publications. But a quick visit to his now inactive Twitter/X page or his YouTube channel, which has almost 200,000 followers—quickly disproves that notion. Though he's always been somewhat iconoclastic, since the beginning of the pandemic, Prasad has become a radical Covid contrarian, amassing a following for his rampant tell-it-like-it-isn't views. Like a schoolyard bully, Prasad scuttles around the right-wing libertarian techbro corners of the internet, gleefully spreading misinformation in the basest terms possible, blocking many who disagree. A few examples: On public health leadership: 'These pieces of shit are still lying…. They're still fucking lying.' On the CDC and American Academy of Pediatrics: 'The CDC lied repeatedly, and all the employees at CDC and AAP who told us to cloth mask 2 year olds should be fired for stupidity.' (AAP did not respond to my request for comment on Prasad's appointment to CBER.) On people who wear masks to protect themselves from smoke inhalation during fires: 'Masking without evidence is an untreated mental illness plaguing public health.' On long Covid: He has repeatedly downplayed it and called it 'overblown.' He claimed that Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ed Yong 'did invent long Covid.' On people with long Covid trying to avoid reinfection: 'Haha double long covid. Just like double IPA!' On Covid testing, in June 2022: 'Break every home test…. The testing profiteers are killing us.' On his online critics: 'When you're dead, no one will ever think about you ever again.' On Covid restrictions: He says they are akin to a path to Naziism. And on the FDA, where he will hold a top role, just last year: '[we'd] probably be better off as a result of not having the FDA.' 'I am very disappointed with this appointment,' a prominent physician and researcher, who did not give his name for fear of retribution, told me. 'Prasad demonstrably got it repeatedly wrong during the pandemic. He is known for his contrarian views–which is not a bad thing if he got it right every once in a while; but he has a perfect record of striking out. What also worries me a great deal is his attitude toward patients and vulnerable populations; he has made multiple disparaging remarks toward patients with chronic illness.' Prasad has advocated for more trials and testing of new medical treatments before approval, reversing approval for the pediatric Covid vaccination, and a let-it-rip mentality when it comes to kids getting repeatedly infected. As early as 2021, he advocated that kids knowingly get each other sick and that Covid testing be banned. In 2023, he wrote a post entitled, 'Do not report COVID cases to schools & do not test yourself if you feel ill: Only non-violent resistance can halt irrational public health actors.' He has repeatedly said masks were ineffective, contrary to mountains of evidence. Though our public health institutions and the pharmaceutical industry certainly do deserve criticism, Prasad's way of doing business actually undercuts the efforts of legitimate reformers to bring the industry's bad actors to heel and unwind their worst policies. In this way, people like Prasad actually serve as the brilliant ally of these corporate interests, in that he helps to undermine the credibility of good-faith critics of the industry. More to the point, however, Prasad's behavior reveals a psychopathic lack of empathy, and his conclusions are almost always shockingly wrong. As he wrote in January 2023: It's important to remember that it was likely a lab leak, masks don't work, mandates didn't work, vaccines were not needed in people who had COVID, nor children, closing school was a human rights violation, masking kids didn't work, vaccine mandates were unethical, vaccine passports were useless, boosters don't have good data, paxlovid doesn't have good data, long COVID is overblown, et cetera. These are obvious things to those of us who can read. Many of Prasad's views that were seen as fringe in the earlier years of the pandemic, particularly around reopening schools, were slowly normalized during the Biden administration and have already informed policy, rather than science. Under the MAHA agenda, that will now go to extremes. 'A lot of the anti-vax folks use specious arguments to push disinformation,' said Dr. Michael Hoerger, a PhD researcher and top expert in tracking Covid data. 'That works well on social media, but they are going to be under much more scrutiny in government positions.' The fact that biotech stocks fell five percent within hours of the announcement of his appointment to CBER is telling. As virologist Angela Rasmussen put it in a tweet, he is 'seen as a menace to an entire industry.' Nicole Paulk, a biotech company CEO, elaborated in Citeline, a trade publication: 'Based on [Prasad's] books that he's written and the tweets that he has shared, and podcast that he has been on and all of these various public forums, it would seem to be that his position, kind of broadly regardless of modality is pretty anti-FDA, fairly anti-innovation, fairly anti-accelerated anything.' Case in point: Prasad has come out against the use of experimental treatments like Elevidys, a gene therapy that could help patients with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy, a fatal muscle-wasting disease, despite the fact that patient advocates favor its approval. Prasad's appointment arrives in the context of an unprecedented dismantling of public health and research in this country, under the guise of 'Make America Healthy Again.' With Robert F. Kennedy Jr. at the head of the Department of Health & Human Services, responsible public health policies as we know them are effectively dead. Elon Musk's so-called 'Department of Government Efficiency' has gutted the National Institutes of Health, leaving it unable to carry out even its most basic duties and cutting off critical, life-saving research. Anti-vaccine rhetoric is, of course, central to Kennedy's MAHA agenda, and future vaccine research and availability is already under threat as kids are already dying of measles, completely unnecessarily. Experts have been pushed out of their posts, and a culture of fear is already pervading health institutions. 'It is obvious that many doctors and scientists are self-censoring,' said Dr. Jonathan Howard, a neurologist at NYU Langone and author of the book, We Want Them Infected, which chronicles how certain doctors came to embrace the anti-vaccine movement. 'Given the purges at these agencies and vast canceling of grants, this is no surprise.' Indeed, a number of doctors to whom I reached out about Prasad's appointment to head CBER either declined to comment or wished to remain anonymous. I did not receive responses from major medical associations I contacted, either. Health initiatives related to the distinct outcomes for certain groups caught up in Trump's war against 'woke'—such as women—have been axed. Without research and data on future public health risks, such as bird flu, or current and ongoing ones like Covid-19, more people will get sick and die—and there's only so long that the Trump administration can pretend it isn't happening. That doesn't mean they won't try to hide such outcomes from the public view. Here, Prasad has signaled a willingness to participate in the cover-up: He seems to support the dangerous idea of blacking out critical data on Covid and other diseases. At their core, these policies constitute a basic disregard for human life. The Food and Drug Administration is being dealt a similar fate. Critical programs ensuring food safety, as well as vaccine research, have been unceremoniously cut. Prasad replaces the former head of CBER at the FDA, Peter Marks, who resigned in March due to RFK Jr.'s spreading of 'misinformation and lies.' Prasad, in his signature flippant tone, has compared Marks to 'a bobblehead doll that just stamps approval.' Now, Prasad serves under FDA director Martin Makary, a Trump lackey, while Jay Bhattacharya, another vociferous Covid critic, heads up NIH. All are part of the same contrarian clown show of dangerous anti-vax, anti-health MAGA bros loudly proclaiming their messages to audiences on X and YouTube—and now, the broader American public. Though in his initial remarks to the FDA, Prasad took on a more measured tone, FDA employees are panicking. STAT News reported that staff 'were alarmed by the decision to hire Prasad, who lacks regulatory experience and has more explicitly political views than center directors in the past. 'It's very bad,' one employee said. 'Another completely unqualified person who has no idea what regulation is running an important center.'' Under this leadership, Covid booster availability will likely be restricted, and approval for vaccines tackling future variants could be limited or halted entirely. Though uptake for boosters was already low, hovering around 23 percent for the 2024-2025 vaccine, it is clear that making it less available and discouraging it will only cause harm to the population. 'If boosters are not approved for next year, it's hard to imagine that COVID's impact would not disproportionately affect sick, vulnerable populations,' said Howard. 'Given prior comments downplaying the importance of vaccines, I am concerned about delays in vaccine approval,' added Hoerger. 'Delays in vaccine approvals will cost lives.'
