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Via America First Legal,

On Thursday, America First Legal (AFL) released explosive new documents obtained through ongoing litigation against the U.S. Department of State’s Global Engagement Center (GEC), exposing a vast, government-backed censorship operation to silence Americans under the guise of “misinformation,” “disinformation,” and “malinformation.” The documents reveal a disturbing alliance between the GEC, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Foreign, Commonwealth, Development Office (FCDO), and media censorship organizations, all working in lock-step to manipulate public discourse, control media narratives, and suppress free speech.

The GEC, which was forced to shut down in December 2024, was designed to “combat foreign disinformation abroad.” However, through Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests, AFL uncovered that the GEC engaged in state-sponsored propaganda, repeatedly using willing participants from private media organizations. Further, AFL’s lawsuit against the GEC revealed that USAID had created an internal “Disinformation Primer” that explicitly praised private sector censorship strategies and recommended further censorship tactics.

The new documents released by AFL show: 

• The GEC and USAID coordinated efforts to censor “COVID-19 misinformation” and counter “COVID-19 propaganda.” 
• The GEC collaborated with officials in the British Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office on disinformation efforts.
• The GEC coordinated with private media censorship firms, including Poynter and NewsGuard, which provided samples of its Misinformation Fingerprints artificial intelligence (AI) tool, designed to identify and rate websites based on their perceived “misinformation.”

I. The GEC and USAID coordinated to counter “COVID-19 Propaganda and Disinformation”

In a widely distributed email to USAID, the GEC’s “Liaison Planner to USAID” stated that GEC would like to “sustain dialogue and connectivity during these unprecedented times” to help counter “misinformation” surrounding COVID-19 despite USAID’s self-described mission being “to extend assistance to countries recovering from disaster, trying to escape poverty, and engaging in democratic reforms.” 

The documents show that GEC communicated with multiple branches of USAID, including “TF 2020-COVID 19,” “Digital Development,” “Asia Bureau ES Taskers,” “Asia Outreach,” “Conflict Prevention and Stabilization (CPS) Policy,” and “CPS Africa.” 

Additionally, GEC and USAID worked together on “counter-propaganda” and “Disinformation and COVID-19 related products,” ranging from a “KHARON” (risk analysis program) demo to monitoring “disinformation” narratives surrounding the 2020 Presidential Elections in Moldova.

II. Coordination with Internet Censors NewsGuard and Poynter

Two days after the 2020 U.S. Presidential election, NewsGuard Technologies’ General Manager, Matt Skibinski, started an email chain to pitch NewsGuard services. Included in this email chain were:  

• Park Advisors’ then-Director Christina Nemr is an Obama Administration State Department alum. According to her LinkedIn, Park Advisors “Designed and led multi-million public-private initiatives addressing security threats in the information environment, bridging gaps between emerging technologies and real-world operational needs. Built and managed a global platform that evaluated and connected tools with mission-critical challenges, supporting government adoption.”
  • The House Small Business Committee found that Park Advisors received a GEC cooperative agreement award of more than $6 million. Park Advisors then distributed subawards to several companies, including NewsGuard, the Atlantic Council, and the Global Disinformation Index, a project funded by George Soros that generated lists of conservative websites it urged advertising companies to boycott. Together, these groups, not subject to international restrictions like GEC was, tested disinformation products, which led to the creation of the “Disinfo Cloud,” an unclassified platform used by the U.S. federal government, the European Union, the U.K. government, the Australian government, and the Estonian government “to counter adversarial propaganda and disinformation.” 

• Government employees from the Department of State, the National Security Agency (NSA), and Department of Defense components, including the National Security Innovation Network (NSIN), U.S. Cyber Command, and the U.S. Army European Command. 

Skibinski showed samples of the new GEC/U.S Cybercommand Testbed Pilot (Misinformation Fingerprints). This program utilized artificial intelligence and machine learning to monitor “misinformation.” The House Small Business Committee report details that “there was no firewall in place to ensure that Federal resources were not being used to develop and promote technologies that would have domestic impacts.” 

While NewsGuard claims to be a fair arbiter of truthfulness, research by the Foundation For Freedom Online reveals how NewsGuard operates the enforcement arm of the censorship industry that rates websites based on how much “misinformation” each site publishes.

Additionally, on February 4, 2021, Vonda Wolcott, Senior Program Manager at the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, connected GEC’s Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E) “expert” with Baybars Orsek from Poynter. AFL has shown how Poynter funds a global false-flag operation of international “fact-checkers” that claim to be independent but are, in reality, a tightly woven network funded by Poynter and the GEC. 

This email shows just how closely GEC and Poynter worked with GEC’s expert offering to “walk [Poynter] through GEC’s new M&E workbook.” 

III. U.S. Department of State Officials Shared Information to a Foreign Government

An email from January 8, 2021, shows the distribution of alleged “malinformation” from U.S. Department of State emails to official UK government officials in the British FCDO. AFL previously exposed coordination between other pro-censorship organizations and the U.S. and U.K. governments to censor American citizens’ speech.

These documents further show the now-defunct GEC’s widespread efforts to suppress so-called “misinformation,” often through collaborating with government agencies, foreign governments, NGOs, and the media to silence dissenting voices.

America First Legal will continue fighting to expose government censorship and will always defend the First Amendment.

Statement from Andrew Block, America First Legal Senior Counsel:

“The partnership between USAID and the Global Engagement Center is bad news for the American people. Add in the fact that they were coordinating with internet censorship enforcers at NewsGuard and Poynter, and you can start to see just how dangerous this unholy alliance is for free speech and free expression. Thankfully, the GEC is shuttered and USAID is being exposed — but lawmakers should take note of this example as they consider legislation to ensure the federal government actually serves American principles and interests,” said Andrew Block.

Read the documents here.

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Harvard: where the U.S. sends it’s best, it’s brightest and…it’s remedial math students?

That seems to be the case as social media has been abuzz in recent days over the university’s choice to offer a new Math course, called MA5, heading into the new year. The Harvard Crimson first wrote about the introduction of the new course back in September of last year, but discussion over the course has caught fire on X in recent days.

The course is called Math MA5, and it is an introductory course addressing gaps in students’ algebra skills, according to Brendan A. Kelly, Director of Introductory Math.

Which begs the question: why are students getting into Harvard incapable of doing algebra, which generally starts in junior high or high school?

Running alongside Math MA and MB, MA5 will have a five-day schedule, with students meeting “one of two instructors all five days” for “a variety of different activities” on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the Crimson wrote last year. 

Kelly cited the Covid-19 pandemic as a factor in students’ struggles, saying, “The last two years, we saw students who were in Math MA and faced a challenge that was unreasonable given the supports we had in the course.” The goal is to “create a course that really helps students step up to their aspirations.” 

While structured differently, MA5 will align with Math M. “Math MA5 is actually embedded in Math M,” Kelly said. “They’ll have the same psets, they’ll have the same office hours, they’ll have MQC, they’ll take the same exams… So if you’re in MA5, you will experience Math M.”

The Crimson says that freshmen placing into Math MA or 1A had to take an additional skills check to guide enrollment recommendations.

Kelly said the department “investigated a number of different strategies” before deciding to enhance Math M rather than add a prerequisite. “What we thought was the best thing to do… was to add more time and support into MA for students who would need it.”

The goal is to help students overcome early challenges. “If the first one doesn’t go well, it can really make these lasting waves in their pathways,” Kelly said. “We want to make sure that students are on a path to success starting from their first day.”

He acknowledged the challenge of MA5’s schedule but defended its benefits. “Five days a week does make it hard for some students’ schedules… but we do really think that five days a week is — in the trade-off — it’s gonna be worth it.”

God forbid students should take a couple days a week to learn…basic algebra…at Harvard.

Harvard had previously abolished SAT scores for admission during Covid, but reinstated the measures for the Class of 2030. 

Authored by Matthew Horwood via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A group of 14 energy CEOs have written a letter to all major federal parties urging them to declare an “energy crisis” in Canada and use emergency powers to relax regulations within the industry and increase production levels.

The CEOs, who represent the 10 largest oil and gas companies and four largest pipeline companies in Canada, suggest several measures to support oil and natural gas investment and “remove the barriers we have imposed on ourselves over time.”

“By declaring a Canadian energy crisis and key projects in the ‘national interest’ the federal government will be able to use all its available emergency powers to ensure that the dramatic regulatory restructuring required to expand the oil and natural gas sector is rapidly achieved,” they said in the March 19 letter.

The letter was addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh, and Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet.

The CEOs are calling for regulatory simplification by revising or abolishing the Impact Assessment Act and oil tanker ban on B.C.’s north coast, which they said are “impeding development.” They are also requesting a reduction in regulatory timelines to allow approval of major projects within six months of application, as well as the provision of loan guarantees for indigenous communities to ensure they benefit from the development.

The letter also calls for Ottawa’s emissions cap for the sector to be eliminated. The Liberal government announced a cap-and-trade scheme in 2023 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, which the Alberta government has opposed.

Additionally, the letter calls for the carbon tax to be repealed to allow provincial governments to “set more suitable carbon regulations.”

Carney announced on March 15 the consumer carbon tax had been reduced to zero, and has planned to replace it with a system rewarding Canadians for making greener choices while making “big polluters” in industry pay for the system.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre has said his government would remove the carbon tax for both consumers and industrial emitters, including the federal backstop that requires provinces to impose industrial taxes.

The CEOs said in the letter there is “increasing public support” for building new energy infrastructure such as oil and natural gas pipelines and liquid natural gas terminals, amid U.S. tariff threats.

Tariffs imposed by the United States have prompted initiatives in Canada to seek alternatives to lessen its reliance on the United States, which includes boosting interprovincial trade and expanding its trade relationships with countries in Asia and Europe. Energy has emerged as a concern because 97 percent of the country’s crude oil exports are transported to the U.S., where a 10 percent tariff has been levied on Canadian exports.

With losses stacking up — including the sudden forfeiture of 500 square miles of territory once held in Russia’s Kursk region — Ukraine’s military leadership announced on Tuesday that it’s deploying machine-gun-equipped robots to the front lines. “The main task of ground robots is to reinforce our units and replace soldiers in the most dangerous areas,” said the ministry.

News of the deployment of an unspecified number of these weapon platforms comes as Ukraine continues to struggle with recruiting and conscription. In February, Ukraine launched a new effort aimed at recruiting 18- to 24-year-olds. While it strikes Americans as odd, Ukraine does not draft those who are under age 25. The new recruiting campaign features bonuses roughly equivalent to $24,000, along with mortgage subsidies and free college education. Recruits also win the privilege of traveling abroad — something that’s currently denied to Ukrainian men between 18 and 60. Against the backdrop of the Ukrainian military’s ongoing manpower crisis, robots are understandably appealing. 

The Ukraine defense ministry touted the Lyut’s versatility. “It is designed to perform a wide range of tasks in difficult conditions. In particular, to conduct surveillance and fire support of the actions of our units,” the ministry said in its announcement, adding that the official adoption of the equipment comes after testing in “real combat conditions.” Specifically, the ministry said the testing took place in Kursk. With Ukraine’s diversionary gambit there having now evolved into a full-on failure, that isn’t exactly confidence-inspiring. 

Called the Lyut — the Ukrainian word for “fury” — the compact wheeled robot can fit in the bed of a military pickup truck, and is equipped with a single 7.62mm PKT machine gun and, reportedly, Class 4 armor.  It doesn’t have tires, but rather steel rims with rubber stretched over them. 

Lyut is powered by a “silent” electric motor. The ministry didn’t specify the battery life, only offering a vague boast that “the battery capacity is enough for a fairly long operating time.” The Ukrainian military-news website Militarnyi, however, was more forthcoming with specifications: “The drone has a battery life of up to 72 hours, a range of up to 20 kilometers, and a driving time of up to 3 hours. The gross weight… is 330 kilograms.” 

The bots are not autonomous — rather, a soldier operates it via remote control, with line-of-sight communication stretching up two 2 kilometers. A single operator can simultaneously maneuver the vehicle and fire its machine gun. 

Don’t expect this to turn the tide for the beleaguered Ukrainian military. 

Authored by Kit Klarenberg via The GrayZone

After fervently denying that they relied on financial support from the US government, the supposedly “independent” Russian language paper Meduza has been thrown into existential crisis following the Trump administration’s pause on foreign development assistance.

Alexey Kovalev, a self-described “Russian journalist currently living in exile for fear of persecution back home,” had spent much of his career at Meduza, the leading opposition media outlet in Russia. Since leaving the paper under mysterious circumstances in the summer of 2023 and relocating to London, Kovalev has split time writing commentaries for Foreign Policy and attacking reporters at The Grayzone, whom he has falsely painted as Russian assets, while calling for their imprisonment.

“The Grayzone is Russia’s US-based disinformation laundromat,” Kovalev ranted in a July 2024 blog post. “This conspiracy blog’s founders, Aaron Mate and Max Blumenthal, help the Kremlin disseminate its false narratives in exchange for favors from a senior Russian government official Dmitry Polyansky, the country’s deputy ambassador to the UN. They act as unregistered foreign agents and should be investigated by the Department of Justice for possible FARA violations.”

Nearly every word Kovalev wrote was false; The Grayzone has no financial or political relationship with the Russian government, and none of its reporters have received favors from Polyansky or any other Russian official. 

Now that the self-exiled troll’s former employers at Meduza have been plunged into a financial crisis by the Trump administration’s pause on foreign development assistance, Kovalev’s smears of The Grayzone have been exposed as an exceedingly embarrassing exercise in projection.  

As The New York Times reported this February 26, grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) reportedly accounted for 15% of the outlet’s budget. So while The Grayzone accepts no foreign state support, it turns out that Meduza can not survive for a day without a constant cash infusion from its government sponsors in Washington. 

Meduza’s covert US funding was revealed in a New York Times article lamenting the Trump administration’s dramatic cuts in funding for various US-financed destabilization and regime change programs across the world. According to the Times, the cuts to USAID could potentially damage Meduza’s operations more than “cyberattacks, legal threats and even poisonings of its reporters.”

The outlet went on to note that while a handful of other Western countries like Germany and Norway “contribute to independent media,” their share is “tiny in comparison with American funding.” Simultaneously, “many traditional media supporters” – including the CIA-connected Ford Foundation, and George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, a “giant grant maker” – have “abandoned much of [their] media funding.” A Columbia University lecturer complained the Trump administration’s aid pause was “really a blood bath.”

While a 2021 investigation by The Grayzone’s Max Blumenthal revealed several grants and pledges of assistance from NATO states to Meduza, the outlet’s leadership fervently denied any suggestion of foreign sponsorship. The new revelations by the Times reveal Russia’s top opposition outlet as anything but the “independent” paper they marketed to the public.

Leaked UK files suggest Meduza’s role as NATO state-backed project

Rumors about Meduza’s Western funding have swirled since its creation in October 2014, after its founder, Galina Timchenko, was fired from one of Russia’s most popular news portals for publishing an interview with the leader of Western-backed Ukrainian fascist paramilitary group, Right Sector. That same month, Meduza cofounder Ivan Kolpakov flatly refused to reveal the outlet’s funding sources in discussions with Western media:

“I can’t tell you whether those financing the Meduza Project are Russian or foreign. There’s a huge discussion about our investors among Russian journalists, with some saying we have to tell people who they are. Yes, in a fairer world we probably should, but not in Russia in 2014. We have to protect our product and we have to protect our investors.”

A leak of sensitive British Foreign Office files obtained by The Grayzone in early 2021 contained clear indications that the outlet was funded by Western governments. The documents named Meduza as one of the “specific outlets” whose “viability… as long term partners” was being assessed as part of a broader clandestine effort by London to “weaken the Russian state’s influence.” Several veteran-run contractors charged with achieving this goal named the publication as an ideal conduit for anti-Kremlin propaganda.

Chief among these shady groups was a psyop specialist firm called the Zinc Network. In confidential submissions to the British government, Zinc noted that it was “delivering audience segmentation and targeting support” to both Meduza and MediaZona, another supposedly independent outlet launched by US-funded anti-Putin provocateurs Pussy Riot. Zinc stated, “the outlets lack the expertise and tools to understand their audience profiles or consumption habits, and to therefore promote content effectively to new audiences.”

A separate submission stated Zinc Network was “supporting Russian language media outlets across Eastern Europe by developing audience growth strategies,” under the auspices of a “pioneering media development programme for USAID,” strongly indicating its cloak-and-dagger collaboration with Meduza was financed by Washington. Elsewhere, the contractor committed to providing intensely intimate assistance to all its Russian assets, including “counselling and mental health support.” This was inspired by the politically motivated June 2019 arrest of Meduza reporter Ivan Golunov, for which law enforcement officials involved were fired.

The same document also contained a pledge to “increase search ranking and visibility” of media platforms like Meduza, by teaching them search engine optimization techniques, as well as “paid search activity for priority phrases” training in order to direct people searching for the phrase “news in Russian” away from RT. Fittingly, in a dig at the Russian state broadcaster, Meduza adopted the slogan “The Real Russia, Today,” sarcastically tweaking RT’s former name.

At the time, this journalist submitted questions to Kolpakov, as well as then-Meduza investigations editor Alexey Kovalev, about the documents suggesting NATO state support for their outlet. In one email correspondence, Kovalev alleged Meduza was financed purely by online advertising revenue from “high profile clients,” supposedly even including the Kremlin itself. 

Albany expressed particular interest in Meduza’s online games, which “encourage participation through social media and mobile platforms” and “embrace political themes (e.g. “Putin Bingo,” “help Putin get to his meeting with the Pope on time” and “help the Orthodox priest get to his church without succumbing to earthly pleasures”).

The contractor hoped to assist the outlet in creating more online games, “the aim [being] to create content which is good enough to have a pull effect amongst Russian-speaking youth” in Moscow’s near abroad. Ultimately, the aim was to create “satirical games” which would demonstrate the superiority of Western European culture over Russia’s, or as (they put it) that “the offer of a fairer, respectful, and caring society is better than that of an arrogant, nationalistic regime.”

It is uncertain if this British-financed sponsorship materialized. However, these disclosures led to Meduza being labelled a “foreign agent” by Russian authorities. The outlet complained that on top of being compelled to report all the website’s income and expenses to Moscow’s Justice Ministry, the classification also had the potential to damage Meduza’s advertising revenue. The label was slammed as a gross attack on independent media by Western press rights groups, and the European Union. 

These days, Meduza apparently needs all the overseas financial help it can get. As the NY Times noted, Meduza was just one “of hundreds of newsrooms in dozens of countries” collectively raking in $180 million annually in funding from USAID, the State Department, and the National Endowment for Democracy to “support journalism and media development.” 

“Kill all the bad people”: diaries of a madman

With its financial pipeline to Washington severed by the Trump administration, mass layoffs at Meduza seem inevitable. Meanwhile, after spending months falsely accusing Grayzone reporters of serving as Russian assets, the former Meduza reporter Kovalev has gradually descended into a state of apparent madness.

In a widely ridiculed Telegram post on February 13, 2025, Kovalev declared that one of his goals for 2025 was to “kill all the bad people… and oppress our enemies,” declaring, “I will need the help of the community.”

The “bad people,” he explained, were not just the Russian nationalists who follow Putin, but those among his liberal opponents who had grown weary of the Ukraine proxy war, and begun calling for a settlement to end the killing. “These are worse than the [Russian nationalists]… But it is good that it is becoming crystal clear. All the whores felt they could no longer hide, and are exposing themselves. But we will not forget and will not forgive. Stay tuned.”

Weeks later, as the lights flickered off at Meduza, Kovalev locked his Twitter/X account and continued his increasingly ravings within the confines of his digital “community.” Foreign Policy has not yet responded to a request for comment on its contributor’s call to “kill all the bad people.”

Subscribe to and support The Grayzone here.

Union Bank of… Dubai?

That’s a very real possibility for the largest Swiss bank, one which after it was handed Credit Suisse on a silver platter is now several orders of magnitude bigger than its host nation, Switzerland. And the reason is that said host nation is starting to make UBS nervous with its capital demands, so it’s time UBS – or soon to be UBD – shows who’s boss.

According to Bloomberg, UBS Group is examining the potential relocation of its headquarters if Switzerland sticks to its demand that the bank hold an extra $25 billion in capital. 

Based on internal calculations showing that the bank’s key capital ratio – which got billions in taxpayer funds during the whole Credit Suisse bailout because Switzerland was smart enough to realize that giving UBS a few billion as M&A kicker would be much cheaper than sifting through the fallout from a Credit Suisse liquidation – would rise to around about 20% in the harshest scenario from around 14% now, executives believe that remaining in Switzerland would make the group uncompetitive relative to global rivals.

Which to the bank which is far, far bigger thanks to the generous taxpayers of its (perhaps soon former) host nation, is unacceptable.

Meanwhile, the Swiss government and regulators are pushing for the nation’s largest bank to fully deduct the value of its foreign subsidiaries from the capital of the parent bank, a step officials see as necessary to prevent a repeat of the 2023 collapse of Credit Suisse, a collapse which only happened because Switzerland allowed its two largest banks to become about 10x larger than its GDP. 

And while Switzerland wants to avoid the financial devastation that would ensue from UBS ever failing (as an aside, if UBS ever failed, it would take down not just Switzerland but all of Europe) the bank sees the plan as an unfair overreaction after it stepped in to rescue its former rival two years ago.

Meanwhile, realizing it has all the leverage in any showdown with a host nation that is entirely dependant on the bank’s goodwill, UBS now views the proposal as so detrimental that it would have no choice but to relocate its headquarters, with a Bloomberg source stressing that “a potential departure was not a threat but rather a reflection of the commercial impossibility of operating at such a high capital level.” Another person said the bank would face pressure from shareholders if it accepted a much higher capital requirement than normal in other regions. 

That said, before buying up property in Dubai in expectations of flipping it to Swiss high net worth managers in a few years, maybe wait a little first: Bloomberg reported that first the bank will step up lobbying efforts as the proposal begins its passage through the Swiss parliament. A draft is due to go before lawmakers in May, although any change would likely not be implemented before 2028. As such, UBS’s heightened, if largely performative, “concern” may not translate into any action, and the long timeframe for the discussion gives ample time for compromise to be reached.

“We will make our case until the last minute in making sure people understand not only the risk we may pose, but also the benefits we create for the country,” he said. Ermotti said that moving away was “not a topic” for him at that stage.

In recent days however the regulator Finma and the Swiss National Bank have reiterated their insistence that UBS should fully back its foreign units. Finma head Stefan Walter said in an interview with Bloomberg this week that he’d be open to allowing UBS to make the changes over a number of years.

That suggestion has been received at UBS with little enthusiasm, according to the BBG report. A phase-in would be only marginally helpful since investors tend to price in regulatory changes as soon as they are announced, even if they are not introduced for some time, two of the people said.

Moving its headquarters abroad would be a massive rupture for UBS, whose more-than-160-year history has been inextricably linked to the fortunes of the country, not to mention laundering money for countless criminal oligarchs, pardon “numbered accounts”, over the years and would likely face many obstacles. 

The lender’s brand heavily relies on Switzerland’s appeal as a haven for the money from the ultra rich. Then again, with Dubai enjoying an even greater appeal as such a haven, the odds of the bank moving to this particular Emirate are certainly non-zero.

Bloomberg’s sources declined to say what UBS’s alternative base would be. Its businesses include a Swiss domestic bank, firmly anchored in its home market, and a global wealth-management unit that has long benefited from its Swiss identity. UBS also operates an investment bank and an asset management division. 

The pushback by UBS against the state comes 16 years after the bank was bailed out by the Swiss government during the 2008 financial crisis. It appears to have forgotten that.

The Swiss government is now seeking to make their one remaining global bank both bulletproof and able to be wound down safely in the event of another Credit Suisse-like crisis. Earlier this week Finance Minister Karin Keller-Sutter said that the government would not allow itself to be swayed by UBS’ efforts to push back.

Authored by Mike Fredenburg via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

The Ukraine-Russia war and its innovative use of drones has significantly changed warfare. And while the use of drones as spotters for artillery and bombs is arguably their biggest contribution to death and destruction, Telegram is full of chilling FPV footage of kamikaze drones blowing up soldiers and equipment. Among the many measures being used to protect men and equipment from drone attacks is the shotgun, which along with being used by individual soldiers, is also being mounted on both ground and aerial platforms to provide defense against drones.

The drones these shotguns are being used to defend against are most often cheap and fragile. Sure, even cheap quadcopter-style drones are faster than a foot soldier and faster than most military ground vehicles, but at 30 to 46 mph they fly at the same speed, or slower than many game birds. A good example of a widely used commercial drone that is regularly weaponized is the $3,000 DJI Mavic 3. It weighs just under two pounds and has a no-load (no weapon) max level flight speed of 46 mph with a max flight time of 41 minutes. That means it is slower than a duck, a pigeon, quail, pheasant, or even a turkey. And when weighed down with an explosive device it is even slower, and its endurance and range greatly reduced.

Still, just as it is well-nigh impossible to shoot game birds flying at 50 to 70 mph with a rifle, so it is extremely difficult to hit a drone with an assault rifle that is flying at you to blow you up. That is why an increasing number of soldiers have taken to carrying shotguns with them to be used as a last-ditch defense to shoot down incoming kamikaze drones as well as FPV drones, positioning themselves over the soldiers to drop grenades on them.

With this in mind, Ukraine bought 4,000 BTS-12 bullpup mag-fed shotguns to provide some of its soldiers with last-ditch line of defense against drones. Beyond the BTS-12, Ukrainian soldiers have been using the Safari HG-105M and the Benelli M4 A.I. Drone Guardian, whose design gives it more range and more penetration. Russia is also equipping its troops with a variety of shotguns, including the 20-round AK-style VEPR-12, and the MR-155, a more traditional semi-auto shotgun that can hold eight rounds.

Furthermore, shotgun rounds optimized to destroy drones have also been developed. An example of these rounds are two rounds developed by Rostec. In brief, these shotgun shells are loaded with pellets whose size is optimized for destroying drones. And because drones are made of metal and hard plastics, the pellets themselves are harder than those used against game birds. One of the rounds has chemicals that allow it to act as a tracer. Such tracer rounds can be very effective in guiding follow-on rounds into an attacking drone.

Russian soldiers desperately dealing with the onslaught of drones have developed mini shotgun shells for their AK-74 assault rifles. Using this modification, each AK-74 round fired delivers seven 0.177-inch BB-sized steel bearings downrange. This means a seven-round burst puts just under 50 steel pellets downrange with muzzle velocities much greater than that of a shotgun. While some Western writers have dismissed this innovation as being irrelevant, such dismissals are not supported with evidence. Another Ak-74 modification is to enable under-barrel grenade launchers to fire a single 12-gauge shotgun round. While this is hardly the ultimate drone defense, it is better than firing rifle rounds and is yet another example of shotgun type devices being used to defend against drones.

But the use of shotguns goes well beyond the weapons individual soldiers can carry into battle. Both Ukraine and Russia have developed drones carrying shotguns to shoot down other drones. In a recent case, a larger Ukrainian drone mounting shotguns was videoed shooting down three Russian UAVs. Russian defense contractor Almaz-Antey has developed a unique and inexpensive drone that features a 10-round, fully automatic, VEPR-12 shotgun in a stabilized mount designed to shoot down drones.

Russia is also mounting shotguns on some of its vehicles. This includes deploying anti-drone guns with 24 shotgun barrels on a single mount on its tactical buggies. Such a setup can put a very large and dense cloud of hundreds of damaging pellets into the path of oncoming drones.

However, while shotguns have the potential to be at least somewhat effective against drones, they will not have any chance to be effective unless soldiers know the drone is targeting them, can spot the drone, accurately target it, and do all of this in a matter of seconds. And it also requires the right kind of tactics.

Here is a very brief example pulled from a Ukrainian Special Forces Command report analyzing Russia’s efforts to adapt modern-day drone warfare. In brief, Russian troops will be equipped with a passive detector using acoustic and electromagnetic detection that can detect and track drones to 1,000 meters off. Once aware of the threatening drone(s), Russian soldiers can orient themselves to be ready to engage the drone(s) with their various types of shotgun type weapons as well and any other drone countermeasures they have available. Russian command is also recommending placing a dedicated shooter with a shotgun at the back of every military vehicle near the front lines in case electronic warfare systems fail to disable the flying explosives.

Though the above example involves Russian troops, it does lay out some very basic aspects of what effective drone defense must embody. Ultimately, shotguns are only one of many ways warfighters can defend themselves against drones, but given enough warning of a pending drone attack, they provide a last-ditch defense well worth employing.

And yes, your father’s double barreled 12-gauge shotgun in the hands of a skilled soldier who sees the drone coming absolutely, positively has a good chance to take it out.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times.

Authored by James Gorrie via The Epoch Times,

Today, a significant part of China’s geopolitical calculus rests on its allegiance with Russia, a critical but by no means unbreakable ally. The war in Ukraine, now grinding through its third year, has exposed vulnerabilities in this partnership, as has the potential peace deal being brokered by the Trump administration.

A Global Strategy

In fact, the United States “playing the Russian card” should be viewed not just as an effort to stop the bloodshed in Ukraine but as a global strategy to undermine Beijing’s influence with Moscow and other countries worldwide. This bold move flips the script on the Nixon-era triangulation. Beginning in the early 1970s, the United States countered the Russian-led Soviet Union’s global influence by engaging China diplomatically and economically, which served to counterbalance the United States’ top global adversary.

The idea has merit. Russia’s economy is battered, its military stretched thin, and its global isolation is growing. Western sanctions have choked its access to technology and markets, leaving it desperate for a lifeline.

Furthermore, Moscow is now the weaker partner in its relations with Beijing, reliant on China for trade and diplomatic cover. If the United States flips Russia, China loses a counterweight to Western pressure, leaving it more isolated against a unified NATO and its Indo–Pacific allies.

Making Beijing Even More Vulnerable

As for China, it finds itself in a vulnerable position as well. Its dependence on Russia runs deep, especially for resources. For example, Russia supplies more than 15 percent of China’s crude oil imports and vast amounts of natural gas via pipelines like Power of Siberia. China also sees Russia’s freshwater reserves—Lake Baikal alone holds 20 percent of the world’s unfrozen freshwater—as a hedge against its own water scarcity.

Losing or even reducing access to Russia’s resources, including its arable land and timber, would put huge pressure on China to find alternatives at a much higher cost. But that could well be the outcome of a U.S.–Russia rapprochement.

A One-Sided Relationship

What’s more, trade with China—$240 billion in 2023—keeps Moscow afloat, but it’s a one-sided relationship. China buys cheap Russian energy while selling finished goods, leaving Russia a junior partner. Moscow is not comfortable and even resents playing second fiddle to Beijing.

On the other hand, the United States could offer a sweeter deal: access to global markets, investment in infrastructure, and a tech lifeline. For Russian President Vladimir Putin, who thrives on pragmatism, the allure of rebuilding Russia’s economy might outweigh ideological loyalty to Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The potential for such a development is more than hypothetical. A negotiated settlement in Ukraine where Russia retains some territorial gains but withdraws from most of Ukraine could be framed as a “win” for domestic consumption. In return, the United States could push NATO to pull back from its easternmost footprint—perhaps even reverting to pre-1997 boundaries, as Russia has long demanded, or a planned return to prior agreed-upon limits along with an enforced neutrality for non-NATO nations bordering Russia, like Ukraine.

A New US–Russia Détente?

Such an arrangement wouldn’t dismantle NATO but could ease Moscow’s paranoia about encirclement, making a pivot away from China palatable. It’s a low-cost concession for the United States: NATO’s core remains intact, and Russia’s ties to China diminish.

Of course, it’s not yet a reality. Putin and Russia’s elite are wary of U.S./NATO promises. Plus, China could counter with sweeter deals—more loans, more weapons tech. But that remains to be seen.

The Ukraine leadership is also a wild card. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is proving himself to be less predictable and more capricious than the Trump administration anticipated. What’s more, Western European NATO members are all less inclined to seek a peace settlement with Putin.

Therefore, part of the Trump administration’s effort is to force Ukraine to the peace table, which is happening as I write this, and convince NATO members such as the United Kingdom, France, and Germany to accept a peace deal. The United States must also find a way to meet Russia’s conditions while not losing Ukraine’s agreement to a cease-fire. Both should be achievable, but time will tell.

The US Has Better Cards Than China

However, as far as Moscow is concerned, Washington has better cards to play than Beijing in terms of market size, technological edge, and the relief of a powerful NATO backing off Russia’s border countries—all of those appeal to Moscow.

At the same time, such a deal would add salt to the wound of the Chinese regime, which already finds itself in the Trump administration’s crosshairs concerning the Panama Canal, rising trade tariffs, and the accelerating American economic decoupling from China.

At the moment, Trump is showing both a carrot and a stick to Putin. At the same time, China’s shrinking economy and growing diplomatic isolation from U.S. actions become a greater negative going forward.

This isn’t just a hypothetical for the Chinese regime—it’s a nightmare scenario that threatens its strategic depth, resource security, and regional dominance.

The stakes are high, and China has plenty to lose.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Epoch Times or ZeroHedge.

Authored by Pepe Escobar,

Let’s start with that phone call. The Kremlin readout is quite sober – but it does reveal a few nuggets. There is no comprehensive deal – yet – between Moscow and Washington. Far from it: we are just in the initial tentative stage of talking and talking about several interconnected dossiers.

President Putin gave absolutely nothing away. The agreed-upon pause on attacks on energy infrastructure – not energy and (italics mine) infrastructure – spells out as Putin imposing a stop on dangerous Ukrainian hits on the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.

That may be lost among all the Western hysteria; but there are two absolute conditions expressed by Moscow for anything in this riddle to start complying with objective reality – and not muddle along as a reality show narrative trainwreck:

1.“The settlement in Ukraine must take into account the unconditional need to eliminate the root causes of the crisis, Russia’s legitimate security interests.”

2.“The key condition for preventing the escalation of the conflict should be a complete cessation of foreign military aid and the provision of intelligence information to Kiev.”

US special envoy Witkoff is spinning that ceasefire “details” will be ironed out on Sunday in Saudi Arabia. No matter the amount of shrieking, Kiev will have to accept it.

Putin-Trump did not spend over 2 hours just talking hockey, hazy Black Sea navigation prospects and a quite limited energy infrastructure missile strike one-month pause.

In this incandescent juncture, what matters is off the record. And that might as well have been Iran. And the prospect of serious Hard Rain fallin’.

I’ve stepped in the middle of seven sad forests
I’ve been out in front of a dozen dead oceans
I’ve been ten thousand miles in the mouth of a graveyard

A certain psychopathological entity in West Asia is obsessed to ram all its opponents through the mouth of a graveyard. Putin must have had the chance to explain to Trump that Russia respects the UN Charter and abides by international law. Russia and Iran – top BRICS members – signed a comprehensive strategic partnership last January in Moscow. Russia provides detailed ISR/air defense/EW intel to Tehran.

A proverbially hysterical narrative now imprints the notion that Tel Aviv – courting Trump 2.0 backing – is ready to inflict airstrikes on Iran to “prevent it from going nuclear”. Tehran, as detailed by Ayatollah Khamenei, has no interest whatsoever in building a nuclear weapon.

There’s no way Russia will allow Israel – with crucial American backing – to wreak havoc on Iran. Even as Tehran is already capable to react to any attack, with devastating consequences. Without nuclear weapons – and even without Russian direct help.

Operation True Promise 2 – True Promise 3 is still on hold – had already demonstrated that Israel is absolutely defenseless against wave after wave of sophisticated Iranian missiles. Were the US under Trump 2.0 to be involved in a direct attack, all US military bases in West Asia would be incinerated, plus severe punishment to vassals hosting these bases. End result: oil prices skyrocketing, massive global economic crisis.

I saw a newborn baby with wild wolves all around it
I saw a room full of men with their hammers a-bleedin’
I saw ten thousand talkers whose tongues were all broken

While the self-proclaimed peacemaker was on the phone polishing the newest iteration of his Art of the Deal, genocidal psychopathological Zionists with hammers a-bleedin’ were unleashing wild wolves on displaced newborn babies – huddling in tents ablaze in Khan Yunis.

And ten thousand EUrotrash talkers with their tongues all broken were mute on genocide but ready to erupt in shrieking delight pledging loyalty – and billions in funds – to the envoy of the former self-proclaimed Emir of Al-Nusra, a moderate head-chopper turned Hugo Boss-clad President.

All yelled a Eurovision-tinged Sieg Heil to the protégé’s mercenary “army”, duly backed by Qatari, British and European masters: ISIS-clad Salafi-jihadis, al-Qaeda remnants, assorted takfiris, Chechens, Uzbeks, Uighurs, a movable Terror Inc. on tour slashing Alawites, Christians, Shi’ites and even moderate Sunnis, facilitating the evisceration of Syria and the “donation” of large swathes of Syrian sovereign territory to Tel Aviv.

The Zionist SS Brussels Medusa von den Lugen gleefully showered the moderate head-chopper gangs – al-Qaeda R Us – with 2.5 billion euros. It was Qatar that pressured the European Commission (EC) to invite Jolani’s henchman turned Foreign Minister, Asaad al-Shaibani to the 9th Brussels Conference for Donors on Syria – even as at least 7,000 Alawites and Christians were being “slaughtered” by his goons, according to a Greek Member of the European Parliament, Nikolas Farantouris, who visited Damascus on March 8-9 and met, among others, with the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch and the Near East.

In parallel the Exceptionalist “peace through strength” circus ringmaster – dubbed across vast swathes of the Arab street as “The Marmalade Moron” – brutally started bombing Ansarallah in Yemen, to force unbowed warriors to ditch their unwavering support for Palestine and wallow in submission.

Additionally, “Bomb, bomb, bomb – bomb bomb Iran” was back as the crypto-Beach Boys theme song, because in the end Tehran must by all means be turned into Syria, Jordan, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia, South Yemen: a pitiful Quisling Zionist regime.

The destabilized but not broken Axis of Resistance is fighting titanic, simultaneous battles against the Axis of Genocidal Zion on several fronts: the psycho-killers in Tel Aviv; the Jolani mercenary army in Syria, de facto ground troops of Israel, simultaneously supported, ideologically, by Zionist Arab regimes and assorted Salafi/takfiri Islamic outfits blessing the massacre against Palestinians; the Eurotrash liberal totalitarians, who are financing Jolani; and Washington/Pentagon-bombed Ansarallah in Yemen.

Abdul-Malik al-Houthi, leader of Ansarallah, made it all very clear in his March 16 speech:

“Our decision to support the Palestinian people, including our move to block Israeli maritime navigation, that clearly targets the Israeli enemy and no one else, is aimed solely at pressuring Israel to open the crossings, allow the entry of humanitarian aid, and put an end to the starvation of Gaza.”

So Ansarallah will not be broken – whatever the Empire of Chaos throws against them:

“The US is the one turning the sea into a battlefield, thereby directly impacting maritime navigation and global trade. Our decision was only targeting Israeli ships, and will now extend to US ships, but they are the ones who turn the sea into a battlefield and threaten maritime navigation. It is essential that all nations recognize who truly threatens international waters and the movement of ships.”

Compared to Yemeni courage, EUrotrash cowards might yearn, in their wildest dreams, to sound like thunder but are more likely to drown under a massive wave of irrelevance – to the sound of drummers whose hands are a-blazin’, bangin’ the Syria jihadi song. They shouldn’t even bother to whisper – because nobody is listenin’.

I heard the sound of a thunder, it roared out a warnin’
Heard the roar of a wave that could drown the whole world
Heard one hundred drummers whose hands were a-blazin’
Heard ten thousand whisperin’ and nobody listenin’

The batshit crazy Estonian chick with the IQ of an undernourished worm, masquerading as EU foreign policy chief, wants no less that 40 billion euros for “military aid” to country 404. Hungary, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal emitted a resounding “No”: after all none have even a sliver of that kind of money.

Even Germany hasn’t signed off on its own €3 billion pledge – although the accumulated dementia never stops: the future BlackRock chancellor is convinced that “Putin has declared war on all of Europe.”

No one on Trump 2.0 even bothers to address a word to the Estonian worm: yes, “nobody is listenin’.” Batshit crazy – and irrelevant.

For Trump 2.0, the whole EUro trash Cage aux Folles spectacle is irrelevant: from the €800 billion ReArm Europe military scam to the Macron-Starmer Dumb and Dumber politico double down, both clowns so eager to deploy 30,000 unsuspecting cannon-fodder items to country 404 when their “security” simply will not be guaranteed by Mama Pentagon.

The message is as stark as Hard Rain: you may not even qualify as a convenient tool for us anymore. At best you may be repositioned as a – rotten – basket of resources. You’re on the menu. Like the former Global South in the previous century. Now it’s your turn.

The imperial projections of a bunch of Hollow Men

The possibility remains that bombastic “peace through strength” Trump is trying to weave a web of deceit facing chess-master Putin while the EUrotrash set up a Syrian-style buffer – with European troops securing Ukraine’s most sensitive zones. All that would be masking the Zio-con axis, once again, revamping their obsession on “eliminating” Iran from the new Primakov triangle in BRICS (Russia-Iran-China instead of Russia-India-China).

According to this purely wishful thinking script, profiting from a “weak” Iran the Empire of Chaos would once again be reigning supreme in West Asia, manipulating energy prices to undermine Russia’s economy while compromising China’s energy security.

The key spanner in these proverbially childish works – a mere imperial projection – is that Putin is not trying to be part of the imperial club. Putin and several of the Security Council members in Moscow have accumulated piles of doctorates on Western deceit, coups, outright lies, blatant betrayals and hardcore geoeconomic sabotage.

Putin, Medvedev, Patrushev, Naryshkin, Lavrov, they all know that this war the current, breathless circus ringmaster is trying to end was always about breaking Russia, as well as containing China, and designed mostly as a Hail Mary pass to salvage the fast-declining Empire of Chaos.

And all that brings us to Spengler, as re-examined in this superb analysis, and to where Hard Rain is mostly gonna fall with no mercy.

When it comes to Europe, we are now dealing with Faustian men that don’t even qualify as T. S. Eliot’s hollow men, as “Europe has forgotten how to breed conquerors.” The Spenglerian metaphor for “the suffocation of a young civilization by the corpse of an old one” does apply. Yet Russian was never Faustian: more like Tolstoyan.

All of us who have been spending quality time in Russia after the start of the SMO do carry the feeling that it’s as if “the Third Rome was always waiting, biding its time, watching as Europe gutted itself on the altar of its own hubris.”

Now Russia seems to have shed “its Western skin”, turning to “its own roots – Eurasian, Orthodox, steppe-born.” I was personally overcome by this cultural/spiritual illumination not only in white nights in Moscow, Kazan or Vladivostok, but mostly while traveling in the black soil of Novorossiya – where the “rules-based international order” came to die.

The fragmented West is indeed trapped in a Baudrillard-style total simulation of its own making – while Russia is operating full tilt in objective reality. And indeed “this is why the West cannot win in Ukraine. It fights as a bureaucratic entity, not as a people. And Russia, for all its flaws, fights as a people.”

The current Hollow Men masquerading as Europe’s political “leaders” tough should not be underestimated. They will get their revenge – over their own European fellow citizens.

Cue to Christine “Vuitton” Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank (ECB): “The digital euro is more crucial than ever.”

Translation: all European bank accounts will eventually be transferred to the ECB. Now couple that with the proclamation by the Toxic Medusa in Brussels: “This month [March 2025] the European Commission will present the Savings and Investment Union. We will turn private savings (italics mine) into much-needed investments.”

Extra translation: it’s the private savings of European citizens that will be stolen and invested in 800 billion warmongering euros for Europe’s “defense” against the perennial “Russian threat”. Hard Rain – on each and every European citizen.

You may be asking why a beat poem structured as a psalm, composed on a typewriter in Greenwich Village in New York City in 1962, slightly before the Cuban missile crisis, by a 21-year old recently arrived from an industrial belt in Minnesota is telling our big story today of hubris and deceit. That’s the unconquerable power of Art.

I’m a-goin’ back out ’fore the rain starts a-fallin’
I’ll walk to the depths of the deepest black forest
Where the people are many and their hands are all empty
Where the pellets of poison are flooding their waters
Where the home in the valley meets the damp dirty prison
Where the executioner’s face is always well hidden
Where hunger is ugly, where souls are forgotten
Where black is the color, where none is the number

Pellets of poison will be flooding the waters; souls may be forgotten – especially those of the Hollow Men; some – across the Global Majority – may be even resourceful enough to emerge from the depths of the deepest black forest; but most of all, as the executioner’s face remains quite well hidden, many will finally be able to see who he really is.

Views expressed in this article are opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of ZeroHedge.

A study by Summit Defense Criminal Lawyers ranks U.S. states by arrest likelihood, based on police presence and arrest rates.

Using law enforcement data normalized per 100K people, it calculates a Crime Arrest Risk Score by summing police personnel and comparing it to arrest rates. Higher scores indicate a greater chance of arrest in criminal cases.

Among the key findings, the study found South Dakota ranks first among states with the highest likelihood of arrest, reporting 5,878 arrests, the highest rate nationwide. Louisiana follows in second place, boasting the largest police presence at 350 officers, increasing the chances of lawbreakers being caught.

It also found, incredibly, that New York takes third place, with 10,450 first-line supervisors of police and detectives, the highest in the country, making arrests more likely for criminals, the study says. 

Wyoming ranks fourth, with an arrest rate of 3,681 per 100K and 271 officers per 100K residents, giving it a score of 81. North Dakota takes fifth place, recording 4,033 arrests per 100K, the second-highest among top-ranking states, with a score of 77. Illinois follows in sixth, featuring a strong police presence of 288 officers per 100K and a total of 36,190 officers statewide, achieving a score of 71.

Florida ranks seventh, with a large police force of 55,310 officers, including 8,310 first-line supervisors, and an arrest rate near 3,700 per 100K.

New Hampshire takes eighth place with 252 officers per 100K residents and an arrest rate of 3,385 per 100K, earning a score of 68.

Tennessee follows in ninth place, reporting 245 officers per 100K and an arrest rate of 3,523 per 100K. Finally, Alabama rounds out the top ten with 269 officers per 100K, 12,600 patrol officers, and a Crime Arrest Risk Score of 67.

“The criminal justice system can vary significantly from state to state, leading to differing approaches in handling crimes. Arrest rate variations across states may stem from differences in state laws, sentencing guidelines, and enforcement priorities, all of which impact how offenses are handled. In such a complex legal environment, having experienced legal counsel is crucial for ensuring fair treatment and safeguarding one’s rights,” a spokesperson from Summit Defense Criminal Lawyers concluded. 

You can view the whole study here.