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Scottish Sun
6 days ago
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Russian warship lurking near Outer Hebrides spying on Britain's missile defences caught by Navy
The Yuri Ivanov, a so-called Russian research ship, was trying to watch a Nato live fire tests on shooting down a missile PUTIN MISSILE SPIES Russian warship lurking near Outer Hebrides spying on Britain's missile defences caught by Navy A RUSSIAN warship was caught by the Navy spying on Britain's missile defences. It was found lurking near the Outer Hebrides during Nato live fire tests on shooting down a Russian-style missile. Advertisement 4 Russian spy ship Yuri Ivanov is tracked by the Navy Credit: Royal Navy 4 HMS Hurworth shadowing warship Stoikiy in the Channel Credit: Royal Navy 4 HMS Hurworth and a helicopter during the alert Credit: Royal Navy The Yuri Ivanov, a so-called Russian research ship, was trying to watch the exercise, known as Formidable Shield. The drills involved HMS Dragon, one of the Navy's most powerful warships, firing a £1million Sea Viper missile at a target designed to simulate Moscow's formidable hypersonic weapons. The Navy hailed the test a 'huge moment' as the Sea Viper obliterated the incoming missile. Moments after the war games finished, HMS Dragon was ordered to hunt down Vladimir Putin's spy ship. Advertisement The Navy said: 'HMS Dragon launched her Merlin helicopter to collect information until the Yuri Ivanov headed north towards its Arctic home.' Separately two Navy minehunters, HMS Ledbury and HMS Hurworth, were scrambled in the Channel to shadow Russian corvette Stoikiy. Lieutenant Commander James Bradshaw, captain of HMS Hurworth, said: 'This was all in a day's work for the ship's company.' 4 The Navy ordered one of its vessels to hunt down Vladimir Putin's spy ship Credit: Alamy Advertisement
Russia Today
17-04-2025
- Politics
- Russia Today
German anti-Russia propaganda is reaching Nazi-era levels
Like people almost everywhere in NATO-EU Europe, Germans are currently being subjected to a relentless barrage of shameless, often astonishingly crude propaganda. That's because their political elites and mainstream media are desperately trying to prepare them for war against Russia. And this time, not by proxy, that is, by way of a devastated Ukraine and dead Ukrainians, but directly. As a former, very evil but in his prime all-too-popular German master of mass manipulation – who also happened to love war with Russia more than was good for him (or Germany) – explained a century ago, effective propaganda keeps the world very, very simple. Or, to add a little detail, propaganda's sometimes literally stunning success is built on two primitive yet powerful – and very old – tricks: the broken-record principle and the litany effect. Their meaning, too, is elementary: In essence, if your image of reality is delusional, you don't have sound arguments, and your case is absurd, do not despair. Instead, ceaselessly drum in a few very basic and bogus ideas until the audience is dizzy with repetition (the broken-record principle), while also eliciting frequent consent from it (the litany effect). In short: Keep shouting the same nonsense at them and make them bleat back 'yes' regularly. You know, like a ritual, really. In the case of the manufacturing of the current iteration of traditional German the-Russians-are-coming hysteria as well, it is easy to identify its handful of specious, daft, and childishly simplistic key motifs: Russia and Russia alone is to blame for the war in Ukraine; Russia intends to attack Europe (if not the world) – and soon; and Russia is incredibly devious and scheming, so you cannot find a reasonable compromise with it. Yet what about the nuts and bolts of this propaganda campaign? Even a simple story needs detail, and, if told and retold almost without letup, that detail at least needs to vary: Same old story but different flavor. That's where things get tricky. For one thing, if you pick the wrong flavor, your propaganda may start looking as silly as it actually is. A current example in Germany – as well as the EU parliament – would be the recent hysteria over the global hit Sigma Boy from Russia. Its brilliantly catchy tune is a piece of art, like it or not. But its lyrics are about as profound as a margarine commercial. Read more The Sumy missile strike: War, propaganda, and hypocrisy Yet that won't stop Germany's radical-Centrist elite from exploring the song's ominous depths as a weapon of nefarious Russian cultural warfare. Because Sigma Boy, one EU parliamentarian from Hamburg has noticed – with a little help from Ukraine – is really ' a viral Russian trope used on social media that communicates patriarchal and pro-Russian worldviews ' as well as 'only one example of Russian infiltration of popular discourse through social media.' Also, you see, Sigma Boy is really just code for – scary sound effect – PUTIN ! Silly? So ridiculous it gives you that cringey feeling you get when someone else is making a total fool of themselves and all you want to do is tell them to shut up already and save whatever maybe left of their credibility? Yes, obviously. Indeed, in the case of the Great Sigma Boy Panic Attack, even Spiegel – a usually reliably Russophobic and NATO-militarist publication now – has mildly demurred. Dedicating a whole podcast to the phenomenon , it had an editor and journalist deliberate on the Sigma Boy case in all earnestness and with proverbial German thoroughness and faces serious enough for Kant and Hegel hashing out the nature of TikTok. The result: Maybe, just maybe, it's really simply a pop song. Now you could say 'Great. At least someone is not completely falling for the mass hysteria.' But that would be too optimistic. In reality, the real question is how could things get so absurd in the first place? What is the Zeitgeist environment in which an EU parliamentarian is not ashamed to display so much provincial paranoia and Germany's major news magazine needs intensive research and a long discussion to find out that, perhaps, she does not have a point? In that regard, another recent propaganda fiasco is instructive. Its essence is simple: Some may know the ZDF, one of Germany's most popular and influential public – that is, de facto state – TV channels most of all as a rock-solid mouthpiece of Israeli propaganda, especially during the ongoing Gaza genocide. But the ZDF also has a substantial line in Russophobia. And for once, it went a little too far in its never-slackening eagerness to stick it to the big bad Russians: In its main news show and a long, sensationalist pseudo-documentary in its Terra X History program – under the title 'Spying, Sabotage, Fake News. Putin's war against us' – the broadcaster claimed, in effect if with some cheap pro forma hedging, that Russia was behind, among other nefarious schemes, an Islamist terror attack in the city of Mannheim in May 2024 . This was, obviously, an extremely serious allegation, in principle as well as in detail: the attack, carried out by a man from Afghanistan who had lived in Germany for ten years, left five victims injured and one, a policeman, dead. Moreover, in the consciousness of the German public, this particular terror attack is only part of a whole series of unrelated yet similar violent assaults that have taken place over the last year, including another one in Magdeburg as well as in the cities of Solingen and Aschaffenburg. Read more Paranoia rebranded: The EU is desperate to sell its people more Ukraine war Hence, pointing a finger at Russia over one of these traumatizing onslaughts inevitably implied that Moscow may have had a hand in the others as well. Et voila! A new and particularly horrifying accusation against Russia had been manufactured: Moscow, so the essence of this wildest of many wild tales, was using migrants to instigate bloody Islamist terror in Germany. And this big fat lie started working quickly: Various major mainstream media in Germany and abroad began to uncritically repeat the story, such as Britain's Telegraph and The Sun , the German Merkur , and the French Sud-Ouest . Yet the 'research' on which ZDF had based this specific propaganda strike against Moscow was so breathtakingly sloppy that, this time, even Germany's BND foreign intelligence service had to object. Shortly after the ZDF had made its splash, the BND publicly contradicted it , pointing out that the method – basically a childish misreading of Google Trend data – used to produce these allegations against Russia is, in essence, ridiculously unreliable. Indeed, it turned out that several German intelligence agencies had warned the ZDF already before the Terra X pseudo-documentary was broadcast. Even Germany's highly conservative Welt newspaper called the ZDF's handiwork – with massive understatement – 'negligent.' So far, so bad. Just another case of propaganda becoming self-defeating by going too far. Let's move on. And that is, of course, what is happening now. While the very worst lie about Russia has been discredited, there are virtually no consequences. Yet, in reality, this is where the whole daft affair is only beginning to get interesting. For one thing, the Terra X feature, almost 45 minutes long, was packed with other, equally unfounded accusations against Russia. Indeed, it consisted of a long sequence of one hearsay after another speculation, all based on profound evidence of the 'Western-intelligence-services-believe' type. At Terra X, have they ever heard of those Iraqi weapons of mass destruction? The babies torn from incubators in Kuwait? Or Gaddafi handing out Viagra to his troops to promote rape? All of them, of course, lies; all, in their time, spread by those famously reliable Western intelligence agencies and mass media functioning as their servile propaganda arms. And all of these lies, these actual cases of 'hybrid warfare' – by Western elites on their own populations – have always had the same purpose: prepare and justify Western military aggression. Read more Team Macron's new pitch: Jihadists are just Russians in disguise Yet, in the Terra X case as well, the fact that the single most egregious anti-Russian allegation of many has been, for once, exposed quickly as at best reckless nonsense if not a deliberate lie, makes no dent in the story as a whole. On the contrary, all that happens is that one scapegoat is singled out and sacrificed: Steven Broschart, the discredited 'data profiler' and self-appointed 'digital behavioral analytic.' It was all him, is the message now. But that is clearly untrue. Long stretches of the Terra X tale consisted of various, often much more prominent talking-heads lending their authority to a long list of equally unsubstantiated allegations of Russian crimes and, in general, helping beat the war drums against Moscow. There was, for instance, an official of Germany's domestic intelligence service – the Verfassungsschutz – who first conveniently confirmed that the internet is a 'treasure chest' of information revealing sabotage and attack plans and then informed viewers that they are already at war with Russia, even if they haven't noticed yet. No biggie in Germany now: at war, not yet at war with Russia… Who cares once we all know where we are supposed to be going anyhow, and so soon, too. To be fair, the man from the Verfassungsschutz had his entertaining side: You don't need tanks to bring down a country, he enlightened us, because you can also strike at its vital infrastructure. Really? You don't say! You mean the way that Germany's 'allies' in Washington and its spongers in Kiev struck at the Nord Stream pipelines? No, just kidding. Of course, he did not mean that. Because that would be reality, and his job clearly is the opposite, propaganda. Quintessential German professor Martin Schulze Wessel added platitudes about Putin, who, we learn, thinks in categories of East and West and antagonism. Wow! Aren't we lucky that no one does so in Garden Value Europe and a Germany that has decided to quite literally define itself, again, via antagonism toward Russia. In addition, the professor confirmed that Russia is a 'direct' threat to Germany – clearly unlike, again, Ukraine and the US, obviously, even if they have actually committed the largest act of infrastructure sabotage in German peacetime history. And the German public must be made aware of that non-fact, the professor lectured. Thank you for summarizing the essence of propaganda so selflessly: making the people aware of what isn't there. And, if we may add, the opposite is also important: that that same public is made unaware of what does, actually, exist, for instance that Nord Stream attack that must go forever unmentioned. My only caveat regarding Schulze Wessel's amusing contribution is that, as a matter of transparency, he could have let viewers know that he is heavily networked with Ukraine and in particular the rather nationalist city of Lviv. Again, no biggie: On the big crusade against bad Russia, minor sins are forgivable. Read more The EU's worst enemies are its own Russophobic leaders The cast of Terra X was rich and not everyone can be mentioned here. But we would be amiss to omit Anton Shekhovtsov. Ironically now based at some 'Center for Democratic Integrity,' he is the commentator who publicly celebrated the Odessa Trade Union House fire , while comparing its victims to vermin, literally. Dehumanizing? A little on the fascist side psychologically, perhaps? Oh, come on! Once again, on the grand campaign against Moscow, a little excess of eagerness is more than welcome. On Terra X his function was unspoken yet clumsily clear: He served as the 'expert' explaining that everything alleged in the show is 'hard to prove.' But, of course, not as in not likely to be true, but as in: absolutely true even without any evidence. Thank you, too, Anton, for demonstrating a basic yet always popular trick of gutter propaganda: 'You can't see them,' as it were, 'but that's only because they are so well hidden. Which proves again how dangerous they are.' The single worst irony about this piece of weaponized 'journalism' from one of Germany's biggest broadcasters is its flatfooted hypocrisy. For, in the context of the Ukraine War, provoked and fought via proxy by the West, there are real sabotage and terrorism, namely by Ukraine and the West: The attack on the Crocus City venue in Moscow, the assassination of General Igor Kirillov , the heinous murder of Darya Dugina , the Ukrainian attacks on the Kerch Bridge and on Nord Stream, of course – and this list could be prolonged – are all clear examples of Ukraine using terrorism. And we have known for years now, from Western mainstream media, that behind these activities, there has been hands-on and proud support from Western intelligence services . Is it possible that, in a conflict where the West and Ukraine have liberally deployed 'hybrid war' tactics, Russia is sometimes paying them back in the same coin? Yes, in principle. You could even make a plausible argument that it has to do so to remain credible. Accusations of promoting Islamist terrorism, from which Russia has suffered greatly, in any case, should be off-limits to anyone with half a brain and some elementary decency. And the West would do very well to mind the beam in its own eye. For Western media that would mean that, even apart from the straightforward lying, against this background, it is not just dishonest but ridiculous to produce 'journalism' that focuses on Russia alone. The very least a serious investigation would have to do is look at all sides and treat information from all sides critically. But then, that would be a piece of practical enlightenment, intellectually and politically empowering viewers and citizens, and it would not be effective war-in-sight propaganda anymore. It might even end up – oh horror! – promoting compromise and peace. As it is now, in Germany and elsewhere in Western Europe, journalists, security service officers, experts, and academics – all are perfectly fine with lending their name to propaganda of the basest form. What a shame.
The Hill
18-03-2025
- Politics
- The Hill
DC Bureau: US Attempts Peace Deals in Two Wars
DC_US Attempts Peace Deals in Two Wars {ANCHOR} {INTRO} {PKG} PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP'S DEAL MAKING SKILLS ARE BEING PUT TO TEST ON THE GLOBAL STAGE. WEEKS AFTER A FIERY SIT DOWN WITH UKRAINE'S PRESIDENT... TUESDAY HE HELD A HIGH-STAKES CALL WITH RUSSIAN PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN... TO PUSH FOR A 30-DAY CEASEFIRE WITH UKRAINE. THE CALL ENDED WITH A PROMISE FROM PUTIN NOT TO TARGET UKRAINE'S ENERGY SECTOR FOR 30 DAYS. " Securing peace through strength" AHEAD OF TALKS... NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE DIRECTOR TULSI GABBARD SAID SHE'S CONFIDENT PRESIDENT TRUMP WILL BRING THE THREE YEAR CONFLICT TO AN END... EVEN AS PUTIN HOLDS OUT ON A BROADER CEASEFIRE. "NAT POP" UKRAINE PRESIDENT VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY IS URGING THE U-S TO STAND STRONG. THE PRESIDENT'S DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY SAYS... "President Trump is well on his way to achieving world peace. He's doing that in Eastern Europe, he's also doing that in the Middle East" BUT OVERNIGHT IN GAZA... "NAT POP" ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES SHATTERED NEARLY TWO MONTHS OF PEACE... "Israel is operating with full force against the Hamas terrorist" THE STRIKES KILLED MORE THAN 400 PALESTINIANS ISRAELI OFFICIALS BLAME HAMAS FOR THE BREAKDOWN "Repeatedly refused proposal to extend ceasefire and to release our hostages." FAMILIES OF HOSTAGES ARE URGING ISRAEL TO RESUME NEGOTIATIONS AND STOP THE BLOODSHED. "Please, we are begging you. The hostages cannot wait any longer" {TAG} {Q: PRIME MINISTER NETANYAHU ALSO WEIGHED IN THIS AFTERNOOON. WHERE DO THINGS GO FROM HERE?}
Gulf Insider
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Gulf Insider
White House Says 'Peace To Begin' As Putin Agrees To Halt Attacks On Ukraine's Energy Facilities For 30 Days
According to the emerging call readouts, Putin and Trump held 'detailed and frank talks on Ukraine'. Both are describing how the call went 'very well'. But much in the readouts. The White House called for the need for peace and a ceasefire in the Ukraine war. Putin agreed to start talks to 'work something out'. But perhaps the most substantial agreement included a Putin pledge not to hit Ukraine's energy infrastructure for a period of 30-days, in an apparent nod to the US-backed interim ceasefire proposal: WHITE HOUSE: THE LEADERS AGREED THAT THE MOVEMENT TO PEACE WILL BEGIN WITH AN ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE CEASEFIRE KREMLIN: PUTIN SUPPORTS IDEA NOT TO HIT ENERGY FACILITIES PUTIN BACKS IDEA NOT TO HIT ENERGY FACILITIES FOR 30 DAYS PUTIN SAYS READY TO CONTINUE SEARCHING FOR WAYS TO PEACE: IFX KREMLIN: PUTIN, TRUMP AGREED TO STAY IN CONTACT – TASS KREMLIN: PUTIN AND TRUMP DISCUSSED UKRAINE, ECONOMIC TIES WHITE HOUSE: THE LEADERS AGREED THAT THE MOVEMENT TO PEACE WILL BEGIN WITH AN ENERGY AND INFRASTRUCTURE CEASEFIRE KREMLIN: PUTIN ORDERS TO PAUSE STRIKES ON ENERGY FACILITIES *WHITE HOUSE: PEACE TO BEGIN W/ ENERGY, INFRASTRUCTURE CEASEFIRE WHITE HOUSE: WILL NEGOTIATE FULL CEASEFIRE AND PERMANENT PEACE RUSSIA, UKRAINE TO SWAP 175 POWS EACH ON WEDNESDAY: KREMLIN But so far the plan to refrain from energy attacks is an 'idea' – suggesting that if Ukraine keeps up its own cross-border attacks on Russia, it will all be moot. Will this really take shape? * * * Update(1235ET): The highly anticipated Trump-Putin call has ended, and given the length (akin to the first one), there was no doubt a lot covered, which included the prioritization of working on 'normalization' of US-Russia ties, as earlier previewed by the White House: PHONE CALL LASTED ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF: MSNBC It was widely reported earlier Tuesday that the US could be ready to extend to Moscow the recognition of sovereignty over the Crimean peninsula, which should be the easiest to grant. The White House has also been floating possible territorial concessions – something which Zelensky and hawkish supporters in the EU have rejected. Click here to read more
