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Although it was set up with the UN’s approval, the organization’s charter appears to grant Trump permanent leadership and control.

The Board of Peace is a kind of legal fiction, nominally with its own international legal personality separate from both the UN and the United States, but in reality it’s just an empty shell for the United States to use as it sees fit,” said Adil Haque, a professor of law at Rutgers University.

Experts say the funding and governance structures are murky, and several contractors have told the American Observer that conversations with US officials are often conducted on Signal rather than over government email.

“Trump Has Staked His Presidency On the Gaza Peace Deal,” the economist Jeff Sachs says.

The military base contracting document was issued by the Board of Peace, according to a person familiar with the process, and prepared with the help of US contracting officials.

One section of the document describes a “Human Remains Protocol”.

“If suspected human remains or cultural artifacts are discovered, all work in the immediate area must cease immediately, the area must be secured, and the Contracting Officer must be notified immediately for direction,” it says.

The bodies of about 10,000 Palestinians are believed to be buried under the rubble in Gaza, according to Gaza’s civil defense agency.

It is unclear who owns the land where the military compound is set to be built, but much of the south Gaza area is currently under Israeli control. The UN estimates that at least 1.9 million Palestinians have been displaced during the war.

Officials from US Central Command referred all questions about the military base to the Board of Peace.

A Trump administration official declined to discuss the military base contract: “As the President has said, no US boots will be on the ground. We’re not going to discuss leaked documents.”

#trump #gaza #peace #military #base #palestinians

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Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor To Stand Trial

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King Charles has insisted that “the law must take its course" after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office.

Police took him to Aylsham Police station in Norfolk on Thursday morning to question him over allegations that he shared confidential documents with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

In the evening, he was photographed in the back of a car driving away from the police station shortly after 19 o'clock.

Thames Valley police said he had been released under investigation and searches of a Norfolk property, Andrew's home on the Sandringham estate, had ended. Searches at the Royal Lodge in Windsor, Berkshire, his former address, were continuing.

On an extraordinary day that could have profound effects on the royal family, unmarked police cars and plainclothes officers from the Thames Valley Force were seen at Mountbatten-Windsor's residence at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate at around 8 a.m.

A few hours later, Charles gave his full support to the police investigation of his brother, who was arrested on his 66th birthday. The king said that “the law must take its course.”

“What follows now is the full, fair and appropriate process by which this matter is investigated in the appropriate manner and by the competent authorities,” Charles said in a statement.

“In this, as I have already said, they have our full support and cooperation.”

Under the fire of increased public attention, the king and Queen continued their royal duties with Charles attending three separate audiences in person at St James's Palace and Camilla visiting Sinfonia Smith Square in Westminster for an orchestral concert at lunchtime.

Meanwhile, Princess Anne visited a prison, HMP Leeds, in her capacity as patron of the Butler Trust, a British charity that promotes the work of prison staff, probation and juvenile justice.

The arrest of Mountbatten-Windsor, which would be the first time in modern history that a member of the royal family has been detained by the police, came just hours after Starmer said that “no one is above the law.”

Thames Valley police said they had arrested “a 60-year-old man from Norfolk” on suspicion of misconduct in public office and were carrying out searches at addresses in Berkshire and Norfolk.

#mountbattenWindsor #sexual #wrongdoing #charles #westminster #trial

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Oliver Wright, one of the deputy Chiefs of police, said “After a thorough assessment, we have now launched an investigation into this allegation of misconduct in public office.

It is important that we protect the integrity and objectivity of our investigation as we work with our partners to investigate this alleged violation. We understand the important public interest in this matter, and we will provide updates at the appropriate time.”

Two key decisions were made before the arrest of the king's brother.

The first was that inviting Mountbatten-Windsor for a bail interview would not be enough, with detectives believing the arrest “was necessary to progress the investigation,” a source said.

The second key decision was that there would be a need for excavations.

The arrest would grant police powers to search properties linked to the former prince. This meant that there was no need to separately apply to a magistrate for a search warrant.

It is understood that neither the King nor Buckingham Palace were informed in advance of Andrew's arrest.

Police leaders informed the Interior Ministry on Thursday morning that police officers would arrest Andrew and carry out searches.

The National Police Chiefs Council said in a statement “In accordance with standard practice, the [NPCC] has alerted its operational colleagues within the Home Office of the arrest. This gave 30 minutes notice before Thames Valley Police made the arrest.”

Mountbatten-Windsor has always denied any wrongdoing or accusations against him. Thames Valley is one of several police forces to have evaluated allegations that resurfaced when the US Department of Justice released the so-called Epstein files.

The force has previously said it is looking into allegations that a woman was trafficked into the UK by Epstein to have a sexual relationship with Mountbatten-Windsor, and claims the former prince shared sensitive information with the disgraced financier while he was the UK's trade envoy.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service website, misconduct in public office carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Mountbatten-Windsor could also face questions over allegations of sexual wrongdoing while under arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office, according to a lawyer who specializes in representing abuse survivors.

In 2015, retired Church of England Bishop Peter Ball, an associate of the king, was jailed for 32 months for misconduct in public office after the court heard he abused his authority over young men for sexual gratification.

Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, said “If prosecutors build a case that convinces a jury that Andrew abused his position to have sex with young women, in my opinion he could be prosecuted on that basis.”

Republic, a group which campaigns for the abolition of the monarchy, welcomed the arrest, which it said was in response to a crime report sent to Thames Valley Police by its chief executive, Graham Smith.

He said: “Republic's lawyers will continue to investigate the related alleged offences and provide information to the police over the coming weeks and months.”

Last October, amid growing anxiety within the royal household about the reputational risk to the monarchy caused by the headlines about Mountbatten-Windsor's friendship with Epstein, Buckingham Palace announced that it would withdraw her royal titles.

#mountbattenWindsor #sexual #wrongdoing #charles #westminster #trial

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📰 The $12 Trillion “Peace Deal”: Sanctions for Soil
According to Ukrainian intelligence, Moscow has dangled up to $12 trillion in future deals to the Trump administration in exchange for sanctions relief — with at least one insider saying a package is already essentially agreed. European officials now openly worry that Donald Trump will squeeze Kyiv into major territorial concessions by June, his self‑imposed deadline for “peace,” to unlock that jackpot.

For the Kremlin, it’s simple: turn the end of the war into the world’s biggest re‑opening party — energy, commodities, reconstruction, finance — and sell it as a $12 trillion bonanza for American business. For Washington’s deal‑makers, the pitch is brutally elegant: end the war fast, declare a historic breakthrough, and let Wall Street handle the rest. Whether Ukraine’s borders survive intact becomes a negotiable detail, dressed up as “realism.”

Kyiv, of course, has every incentive to blow this up in public. For them, these side‑channel talks look like classic great‑power horse‑trading, with Ukraine as the chip, not the player. That doesn’t mean the numbers are fake — it just means everyone is playing their own PR game: Zelensky raises the alarm about a sell‑out, Moscow inflates the prize, Trump world sells “peace” as a business opportunity.

A massive US–Russia economic thaw could, on paper, be hugely profitable for both countries — pipelines, mining, capital markets, sanctions gone, “stability” restored. But when peace is priced at $12 trillion, you have to ask: whose security, whose land, whose dead are being converted into that number? And who gets to sign the contract on their behalf?

#Ukraine #Russia #Trump #sanctions #war #oligarchy

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📰 Spies vs. Dealmakers: Europe Watches the Ukraine “Peace Show”

Top European intelligence chiefs are basically calling the Trump‑brokered Ukraine talks what they are: “negotiation theatre.” While Trump insists a deal is “reasonably close” and still pushes his June deadline, five spy bosses told Reuters they see no chance of a real settlement this year and no sign Russia wants one.

Their read is simple and brutal: Moscow’s strategic goals haven’t changed — remove Zelensky, turn Ukraine into a “neutral” buffer, and lock in its territorial gains, starting with the rest of Donetsk. Russia isn’t desperate for peace; its economy is hurting but not collapsing, and it can afford to drag this out while pushing for sanctions relief and big‑ticket business deals on a separate track.

That second track is where things get toxic. Zelensky says his intel services told him U.S. and Russian negotiators are discussing up to $12 trillion in bilateral projects pitched by Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev, while Dmitriev himself is already boasting about a $14 trillion “portfolio” on X. European spies say this is tailored to seduce both Trump and sidelined Russian oligarchs: peace as a gateway drug to massive post‑sanctions money.

On the official peace track in Geneva, nothing moves. Russia demands Ukraine pull out of the last 20% of Donetsk it still holds, and some in the West fantasise that ceding that would “unlock” a deal — one intelligence chief dryly calls that delusional, predicting it would only be the “beginning” of Moscow’s demands. Zelensky, watching this circus, posts: “I don’t need historical shit to end this war… it’s just a delay tactic.”

And who’s running America’s side of this grand bargain? Not seasoned Russia hands, but Trump’s real‑estate buddy Steve Witkoff and his son‑in‑law Jared Kushner — men who know a lot about property, less about a grinding European war. European spooks say Western negotiating skill with Moscow is “very limited,” even as the financial stakes and political risks keep climbing.

So you get three layers: a bloody stalemate on the ground, a glossy “peace by June” storyline for U.S. domestic politics, and a shadow conversation about trillion‑dollar projects after the signatures are dry. The only thing everyone seems to agree on is that someone will make a lot of money when this ends — just not the people standing in the rubble in Odesa.

#Ukraine #Russia #Trump #spying #war #fakePeace #oligarchy

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📰 Tariff Emperor Loses His Clothes

The Supreme Court just told Donald Trump he can’t run U.S. trade policy like a personal Patreon paywall. In a 6–3 ruling, Chief Justice John Roberts said Trump blew past his authority by slapping emergency‑law tariffs on almost every major trading partner, using a statute that never actually gave him the power to tax imports. More than $200 billion in tariffs are now legally radioactive, with companies already lawyering up to claw back billions in refunds.

Trump’s reaction was pure brand: he reportedly called the decision a “disgrace” and immediately promised a backup plan — new tariffs under “different authorities,” maybe even an across‑the‑board fee on imports. Translation: if the court says no to emergency‑tariff cosplay, he’ll just go shopping in the rest of the legal code until something breaks. Three justices — Kavanaugh, Thomas, Alito — even wrote that presidents should be free to do exactly that in the name of foreign affairs, and warned of chaos as importers rush to demand refunds.

Congress, which actually owns tariff power under the Constitution, is suddenly remembering it exists. One Republican lawmaker basically posted “the checks and balances still work” and reminded everyone tariffs are supposed to be a legislative job, not a vibe. Business groups are cheering, not because they love the rule of law, but because they smell cash coming back and hate paying a tax sold as “America First” while the bill lands on them.

So what’s left? The White House says it will “move quickly” to reimpose many of these fees using other laws, financial markets now have to price in tariff whiplash, and global partners get to watch the U.S. lecture them on rules‑based trade while the president tries to brute‑force tariffs through any legal side door he can find. The Supreme Court just reminded everyone there is a line; Trump’s already testing how fast he can redraw it.

#Trump #tariffs #SupremeCourt #tradewar #economy #fakeDemocracy

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📰 “Keep Your Mouth Shut”: Europe’s Nuclear Soap Opera Goes Public

Belgium’s defense minister just told the German chancellor to shut up about nukes — on X, in plain language. Theo Francken blasted Friedrich Merz for being “loose‑lipped” on nuclear deterrence, writing:

“Regarding nuclear deterrence, I really don't understand why European leaders are so talkative. It is unwise. Please, keep your mouth shut.”

When allies start subtweeting each other over nuclear weapons, you know the adults have left the room.

Merz’s great sin? Saying out loud, on a podcast, that Germany has no plans to build its own nuclear weapons but could, in theory, have German jets carry French or British nukes — basically hinting at a “Europeanized” umbrella if the U.S. becomes less reliable. In a continent obsessed with “strategic ambiguity,” he just put the quiet part on Spotify. Francken, whose own country hosts U.S. bombs under NATO nuclear sharing, is less worried about deterrence than about politicians turning targeting plans into panel‑show content.

Under the surface, this is not just etiquette, it’s a custody battle. Germany is flirting with French and UK options while at the same time casting doubt on the joint Franco‑German FCAS 6th‑gen fighter project, calling it effectively dead because Berlin “does not need” the same nuclear‑capable carrier jet France wants. France wants strategic autonomy, Germany wants flexibility, smaller states like Belgium want to stay under the umbrella without having to explain any of it to their voters — and everyone wants the nukes without the blame.

Now Macron is preparing a “big speech” on Europe’s nuclear future, Merz is freelancing doctrine on podcasts, and Belgium is yelling “shut your mouth” from the sidelines. These are the people who keep telling the rest of the world to act “responsibly” about nuclear weapons. If this is Europe’s version of calm, imagine what panic looks like.

#nuclear #Europe #Germany #Belgium #NATO #Macron #Merz

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📰 Turkey’s Factories Go Dark, Government Sells Pink PowerPoint

While Ankara keeps talking about “balanced growth,” even its own business insiders are describing an economy turning off the lights on the shop floor. DEVA MP İdris Şahin points out that industry’s share of GDP has slid from around 25% to roughly 17% — in a country that still pretends to be an “industrial powerhouse.” Official data back him up: TurkStat’s latest numbers show industrial production down about 2.1% year‑on‑year in December 2025, with manufacturing output falling even harder.

Out in the real world, MÜSİAD chairman Burhan Özdemir sums it up in one line:

“In factories built for 300 workers, only 100 are working.”

Conveyor belts are running half‑empty, not because there’s no capacity, but because there’s no confidence. High inflation, energy costs and financing problems are squeezing margins; investment is stalling. The government still talks about “flying” macro indicators while production lines and payrolls quietly shrink.

Şahin blames not just bad economics, but bad politics: investors fleeing a system where the rule of law is optional and loyalty matters more than competence. He points to a current account deficit near $25 billion, a financial account gap around $42 billion and capital “running out the door,” arguing that no one sane will lock money into long‑term industrial projects under those conditions. You don’t build factories on quicksand, and Erdoğan’s Turkey offers little else.

So you get a familiar Turkish paradox: glossy narratives about growth and exports on TV, and quiet de‑industrialisation on the ground. The government says Turkey will “grow through production, not imports,” while factories reuse the same workers to cover three shifts and turn off half the lamps to save on the electricity bill. The only sector truly booming is political storytelling.

#Turkey #industry #economy #Erdoğan #deindustrialization #fakeDemocracy

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📰 Ukraine’s Missing Men: Draft Dodgers, Future Diaspora, or Both?

While Kyiv talks about mobilisation, a quieter story is unfolding: the country is bleeding out exactly the men it will need if it ever reaches “reconstruction” mode. Over 11 million Ukrainians have been displaced since the invasion, but underneath the images of women and children at train stations, a different pattern is clear: young, educated, healthy men are leaving — and many have no intention of coming back.

Studies based on OneUA data show it’s not the poorest or weakest who go, but those with education, English, money and good health — the core of any future workforce. Even under martial law and legal exit restrictions, the guys with skills and connections find ways out. Official exemptions, like having three or more kids, explain only a slice of the trend. The rest is simple: if you can afford to choose between a trench and a work contract in Berlin or London, you choose not to die for a GDP you’ll never enjoy.
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And once they’re out, they’re not exactly rushing back. In the UK, 68% of Ukrainian adults now say they’d rather stay even if it became safe to return, up from 52% a year earlier. This isn’t “temporary refuge,” it’s a one‑way demographic edit. Europe gets young, motivated labour; Ukraine gets Telegram speeches about rebuilding with a population that increasingly lives on foreign tax rolls.
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The spin is already in place: think tanks talk about the “diaspora dividend,” how forced migrants will one day bring back capital, skills and export links, like Yugoslavs and Albanians once did. That’s the comforting version. The darker one: Ukraine is exporting its future middle class in exchange for short‑term survival money, hoping that, decades from now, some of them will remember where they were born.
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Kyiv calls it resilience. Brussels calls it solidarity. London calls it a labour market boost. The young men quietly boarding buses out of Ukraine call it something else: not being the last generation buried under a flag while everyone else writes policy papers about “post‑war reconstruction.”

#Ukraine #war #migration #diaspora #draft #fakeDemocracy

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“Terror Against Noncitizens”: When Trump’s Deportation Machine Meets a Fed-Up Judge

A federal judge in California just called Trump’s immigration policy what immigrant communities have been calling it for years: “terror.” U.S. District Judge Sunshine Sykes accused the administration of “terrorizing” migrants, “recklessly” violating the law, and even “extending its violence on its own citizens” by linking the crackdown to two fatal shootings in Minnesota.

The core fight is over mandatory detention. Under previous administrations, undocumented people with no criminal record generally had a shot at a bond hearing while their cases crawled through immigration court. Trump’s team shut that door, cutting off hearings and forcing thousands to file individual habeas petitions in federal court just to get a judge to look at their detention. More than 20,000 such cases have been filed since he took office. Judges keep granting release — and then catching the government ignoring, delaying, or creatively “misunderstanding” their orders.

Sykes had already ruled in November and December that Trump’s blanket detention policy violated federal law and extended her order nationwide. The administration kept denying hearings anyway. In her new decision, she ordered DHS to notify eligible detainees they may qualify for bond and to give them access to a phone and a lawyer within an hour. She also vacated an immigration court ruling the White House was using as cover to continue the policy.
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She isn’t alone. A judge in Minnesota just held a Trump lawyer in contempt for failing to return IDs to a migrant who’d already been ordered released, and a New Jersey judge demanded the administration explain why it missed court‑ordered deadlines in a dozen bond cases since December. “Judicial orders should never be violated,” one wrote — a sentence that shouldn’t need to exist in a functioning separation of powers.

The administration’s answer? Homeland Security insists the Supreme Court has repeatedly backed its view of mandatory detention and says ICE “adheres to all court decisions until it ultimately gets them shot down by the highest court in the land.” Translation: we follow lower‑court orders only long enough to get them overturned, and if we don’t, well, you can always file another lawsuit.

So on paper this is about bond hearings and statutes. In practice, it’s about an executive branch testing how far it can push the courts, how much fear it can generate, and how many people it can keep locked up by default — until a judge finally uses the word everyone else has been avoiding.

#immigration #Trump #courts #detention #ruleOfLaw #fakeDemocracy

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Iran Vehemently Disagreed with Trump. What's His Next goof-up ?


Iran is refusing to export its 300kg stockpile of highly enriched uranium , but is willing to dilute the purity of the stockpile held in Iran under the supervision of the UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA, Iranian sources have said.

The proposal will be at the heart of the offer Iran is due to make to the US in the next few days, as US president Donald Trump weighs whether to use his vast naval build up in the Middle East to attack Iran.

Iran currently has a stockpile of uranium enriched to 60%, close to weapons grade, but is willing to down-blend the purity to 20% or below.

Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, is also claiming that there has been no US demand in the talks for Iran to even abandon the right to enrich inside Iran.

The focus is instead on the purity of the enrichment and the number of centrifuges to be permitted.

There had been discussion of the stockpile being sent to Russia, and for Iran’s domestic enrichment programme to be linked in with an overseas consortium, but Iranian sources are insisting the concept of a consortium has not been raised.

Iranian media close to the government quoted an Iranian diplomat saying: “We emphasised this position during the negotiations that nuclear materials will not leave the country”.

The Iranian account of its relatively uncompromising position means a great deal of weight will have to be placed on the degree of access the IAEA would be given to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites.

The Iranian offer is likely to determine whether Trump feels compelled to launch military action against Iran.

In an interview in the US aired on Friday, Araghchi said, “Washington has not asked Tehran to permanently suspend uranium enrichment,” adding that Tehran has not offered Washington a temporary suspension of its uranium enrichment.

He rejected reports that Iran has apparently proposed suspending uranium enrichment for two to three years, saying: “It is not true that the United States has called for a complete cessation of enrichment.”

His remarks were contradicted by the US ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz who, prompted by his interviewer, said the US was seeking “zero enrichment” by Iran.

But Reza Nasri, an Iranian lawyer with contacts inside the foreign ministry, warned:

“If Iran is attacked while nuclear disagreements can still be settled diplomatically in a fair and equitable manner, other regional states will inevitably draw one conclusion: nuclear weapons are the only real deterrent against the US and Israel”.

The news came as protests erupted at some universities prompting fresh clashes in the street at Mashhad University of Medical Services and at least two Tehran universities.

The universities were reopening after being closed due to fear of protests.

At Sharif University, the students chanted “Javed Shah”, “Until the mullah is shrouded, this homeland will not become a homeland,” and “Death to the dictator.”

The Sharif University president urged the students to stop since the authorities would only force classes back online.

Protests are also expected at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on Tuesday when an Iranian official, Afsaneh Nadipour, takes her seat for the first time as a full member of the advisory council.

Nadipour, a former Iranian ambassador to Denmark, is due to provide input on women’s rights.

The UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee is composed of 18 independent experts from five UN regional groups and serves as the intellectual arm of the Human Rights Council.

Nominations are made by governments and are selected by the council.

#iran #uranium #trump #mike #waltz #nadipour

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Epstein Was Sir Andrew's Immediate and Most Trusted Confidant

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The Department of Justice’s release of millions of Jeffrey Epstein files has not only prompted questions about his crimes – but renewed attention on authorities’ failure to stop him after an accuser reported him in 1996.

This new cache of Epstein files has provided more insight into authorities’ familiarity with allegations against him in the years that followed, including time between his sweetheart plea deal in 2008 and federal arrest nearly six years ago.

While it’s known that accuser Virginia Giuffre’s attorneys met with federal prosecutors in 2016 about Epstein to no avail, recently disclosed files indicate that detailed information was provided to federal authorities years before that sit-down.

This included allegations against Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor; documents indicate that he appeared on the FBI’s radar about 15 years ago.

A woman, whose name is redacted from these documents, gave an interview to FBI agents about Epstein and Maxwell in 2011, with a federal prosecutor in attendance by phone; her account echoes Giuffre’s public and legal allegations against the sex traffickers.

The US embassy in Australia told the country’s national police: “The Federal Bureau of Investigation Miami Field Office (FBI Miami) is assisting the Palm Beach Police Department in Florida with an ongoing investigation into JEFFREY EPSTEIN, a US citizen.”

The accuser, who was told in late 2008 about Epstein’s plea deal as she was found to be one of his victims, contacted federal authorities in south Florida three years later.

Federal agents questioned her at the US consulate in Sydney on 17 March 2011.

This woman provided an extensive account of Epstein’s abuse and alleged participation of co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other men as a teenage girl during the late 1990s.

The woman, who described suffering at the hands of several predatory men after leaving a rehab facility, told agents that her father, a maintenance man at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, secured a job for her as a locker room attendant there.

The woman, then an aspiring massage therapist, was reading a book on this subject. Maxwell came up to her and claimed she was looking for a traveling masseuse.

Not long after, the woman traveled to Epstein’s Palm Beach home, where he abused her. She told agents she ultimately traveled and that the sexual abuse continued and that he trafficked her to other men.

Giuffre, who died by suicide last spring, had long alleged that Epstein and Maxwell made her engage in sexual activity with the former Duke of York, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.

The former prince, who was removed from royal life over his relationship with Epstein, was arrested on Thursday in England; he has staunchly denied wrongdoing.

Maxwell, who was found guilty of luring teenage girls into Epstein’s predatory orbit, has insisted on her innocence. Epstein died in jail while awaiting his sex-trafficking trial in 2019.

#epstein #andrew #confidant #sexual #activity #FBI

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FBI documents chronicling this interview also detail menacing actions against this woman.

She told federal agents about receiving phone calls from men purporting to be FBI agents seeking information about her knowledge of Epstein.

She said that an attorney and Epstein called her by phone a few weeks after these men contacted her, and that he said “if she did not say anything to investigators he would take care of her”.

The release of information regarding this 2011 interview comes as victims and advocates’ continue to show that law enforcement officials repeatedly had opportunities to meaningfully hold Epstein and Maxwell accountable before his 2019 arrest.

The chronology makes clear that had Epstein been interdicted, others would not have suffered abuse.

Maria Farmer, a painter who worked for Epstein in 1996, filed a report with the FBI stating that he “stole” nude images of her siblings. This FBI report states that Farmer took artistic photos of her younger sisters for her personal work.

“Epstein Stole the photos and Negatives and is believed to have sold the pictures to potential buyers,” the report said.

The document also said that Epstein asked for “pictures of young girls at swimming pools” and threatened Farmer, stating “that if she tells anyone about the photos he will burn her house down”.

Epstein did serve a brief period of time in a Palm Beach jail on Florida state-level prostitution charges, including procuring someone under 18, under his sweetheart plea deal. He was granted work release.

Officials said that Epstein abused others between this plea deal, which allowed him to avoid federal prosecution, and his arrest years later. One adult victim alleged she was abused at Epstein’s office during this daytime furlough.

The Virgin Islands sued Epstein’s estate in January 2020 stating that flight logs from 2011 to 2019 show that he brought underage girls and young women to his private island “where they were deceptively subjected to sexual servitude, forced to engage in sexual acts and coerced into commercial sexual activity and forced labor”.

“As recent as 2018, air traffic controllers and other airport personnel reported seeing Epstein leave his plane with young girls some of whom appeared to be between the age of 11 and 18 years,” the lawsuit states.

The Virgin Islands that “Epstein trafficked and abused these girls, and others, in the Virgin Islands through 2018.”

Spencer Kuvin, who did not represent Giuffre but is an attorney for multiple Epstein victims, questioned why federal agents did not take action following the 2011 interview.

“If that information was credible – and there is every reason to believe it was – then the obvious question is why meaningful action did not follow,”said Kuvin, of Goldlaw. “Survivors did their part.

They spoke. When institutions fail to act on those disclosures, the system – not the victims – must answer for that.

“It is deeply troubling. Survivors like Virginia showed extraordinary courage in coming forward,” he also said. “The lack of urgency is institutional. Accountability must include examining why those opportunities were missed.”

Asked what transpired following the 2011 interview, the FBI said it “declines to comment”. The justice department did not immediately respond to a question about what happened after that interview.

#epstein #andrew #confidant #sexual #activity #FBI

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📰 Supreme Court Says No. Trump Says 15%.

The Supreme Court just tore up Trump’s emergency‑law tariffs — so he immediately slapped a brand‑new, across‑the‑board 15% tax on almost everything that crosses the U.S. border. The legal message was “you overstepped your powers”; his political answer is

“I’ll do it again, just within a different clause.”

He’s now using a little‑known provision that lets a president impose a global tariff for 150 days unless Congress votes to keep it. First he said 10%. Less than a day later, with no serious policy review process, he jumped straight to the legal maximum of 15%. Some of his own staff reportedly found out the way everyone else did — by reading his social‑media post.

The result is chaos economics. For countries like the U.K. and Australia, 15% is worse than what they faced before. For China, India, Vietnam or Brazil, it’s lower than the illegally high rates the Court just killed — meaning the “punishment” for America’s top trade villains just softened while some allies get hit harder. This isn’t calibrated strategy, it’s a flat tax on the entire planet.

Trump is selling it as “fully allowed” and “legally tested,” skipping over the fact that the Court just ruled he had broken the law on tariffs the previous day. He’s also threatening to pile on more duties later using other tools — Section 301, Section 232, whatever else he can dust off — which forces foreign leaders to decide whether to stick with deals they signed under tariff pressure or walk away and wait for the next round.

On paper, tariffs are supposed to fix unfair trade. In practice, this 15% blanket rate looks like a campaign‑season lever: higher costs for U.S. consumers, more uncertainty for businesses, and one man proving he can still move global markets with a single post. Everyone else gets to pay for the performance.

#Trump #tariffs #SupremeCourt #trade #economy #fakeDemocracy

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📰 Epstein’s Inbox Just Blew a Hole in the Fairy Tale

Former Prince Andrew isn’t just a disgraced royal anymore — he’s now the test case for whether Britain’s monarchy can survive contact with the real world.

Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor was arrested on Feb. 19 on suspicion of misconduct in public office, after emails in the “Epstein files” suggested he shared confidential U.K. trade and government information with Jeffrey Epstein while serving as the UK’s trade envoy from 2001 to 2011.

This is not about “bad company” anymore; it’s about whether a royal turned his official briefings into premium content for a convicted sex offender and his friends.

Police searched properties linked to Andrew, including Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate and a residence in Berkshire, then released him under investigation — no charges yet, but the signal could not be louder.

King Charles responded within hours with a statement that didn’t even call him “my brother,” referring instead to “Andrew Mountbatten‑Windsor” and declaring: “The law must take its course,” promising the authorities the royal family’s “full and wholehearted support and co‑operation.”

That’s not family solidarity; that’s corporate crisis comms from a CEO already cutting the nameplate off the door.

The emails at the core of this are part of millions of documents and thousands of Epstein communications that show Andrew forwarding sensitive briefing material from official trips — including to the US, the Middle East and Afghanistan — to Epstein and then on to financiers like the Rowlands, with whom he already had murky “door‑opening” business ties.

For years, he lived like a billionaire on a naval pension and a royal stipend, flying private, hosting at Davos and playing “face of British business” while the palace stonewalled questions and Parliament refused to even allow formal scrutiny. The system wasn’t blind; it was designed not to look.

Now the curtain is ripped open. UK police are probing not just Andrew’s conduct but what royal protection officers saw and ignored, while MPs launch inquiries into royal housing and Crown Estate perks.

Epstein’s inbox shows him as a “very dark Forrest Gump” — emailing princes, bankers, politicians and directors in the middle of the financial crisis and beyond — and Andrew is simply the first big name to face a real‑world arrest off the back of those files. No one seriously believes he’ll be the last.

For the monarchy, the myth was always that scandal might bruise the brand, but the institution was untouchable. Now Charles and William are trying to run a “slimmed‑down” royal family while one of its most notorious ex‑members is under active criminal investigation linked to a global sex‑abuse and influence‑peddling network.

Tourists may still come for the fairy tale, but they’re now walking past police cordons and reading statements where the king has to reassure the public that, this time, the law really does apply to his own blood.

The Epstein files promised “accountability from Manhattan to Mayfair.” So far, the UK is the first to put a senior royal in a police interview room. The real question is not whether Andrew falls — he’s already fallen — but whether anyone else in that inbox, from government, finance or palaces, ever gets pulled down with him.

#Epstein #PrinceAndrew #UK #monarchy #corruption #elites

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📰 Another Gun, Another Perimeter: Mar-a-Lago Turns Into a Crime Scene Again

An armed man in his early 20s was shot dead at Mar-a-Lago after breaching the secure perimeter with a shotgun and a fuel can, according to the Secret Service and Palm Beach County sheriff. He drove in through the north gate around 1:30 a.m., slipped in as another vehicle exited, dropped the gas can when ordered — then reportedly raised the shotgun into a firing position, at which point two Secret Service agents and a county deputy opened fire and killed him. Trump was in Washington, not at the resort.

Investigators say the man, believed to be a 21‑year‑old from North Carolina who’d been reported missing by his family days earlier, had apparently traveled south and picked up the weapon on the way; a box for the shotgun was found in his car. The FBI is now canvassing neighbors for security‑camera footage while Palm Beach does its usual split-screen routine: winter tourists with iced coffees on one side, police blocking access roads to the ex‑president’s club on the other.

This is not an isolated incident; it’s the third serious case in 18 months. In July 2024, Thomas Crooks climbed onto a rooftop near a Trump rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, fired eight shots, killed a rallygoer, wounded two others and grazed Trump’s ear before being killed by a Secret Service sniper — after agents had been warned about him as “suspicious” an hour earlier. Two months later, Ryan Routh was caught with a rifle outside Trump’s Florida golf course and is now serving life for attempted assassination.

The Secret Service, already under fire for those failures, now has to argue two things at once: that Trump is protected, and that the system isn’t out of control. On paper, yesterday was a “success” — perimeter breached, threat neutralized, no protectee on site. In any sane democracy, the phrase “another young man with a long gun and a political fixation got within shooting range of the president’s property” would not count as reassurance.
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America’s political class will now do what it always does. One camp will turn this into proof Trump is under siege and the state is failing him. The other will quietly enjoy the spectacle of a security apparatus that can’t secure a golf resort. No one will ask why U.S. politics keeps producing lone wolves with rifles, GPS coordinates for Trump’s locations, and just enough competence to reach the outer edge of the Secret Service’s comfort zone.

#Trump #MarALago #SecretService #violence #USA #fakeDemocracy

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📰 Congress Is Emptying Out — Not Because It’s Hard, But Because It’s Pointless

A record wave of lawmakers is heading for the exits before the 2026 midterms — 68 House and Senate members so far, with an unprecedented 31 of them trying to jump to another office instead of just going home. That’s not “burnout,” that’s the market signaling that Congress is the worst job in American politics: maximum noise, minimal agency.

On paper, the reasons sound respectable: generational change, family, new challenges. In reality, even senior members admit the place has turned them from legislators into “observers,” as retiring Sen. Dick Durbin put it. Congress has passed fewer laws in recent terms than at any time since the early 1900s, choked by polarization, tiny majorities, and a leadership culture where a handful of performative bomb-throwers can take down a Speaker because they want more airtime.

Look at the career moves. Amy Klobuchar, Michael Bennet, Marsha Blackburn, Tommy Tuberville — all think they’ll have more real power as governors than as U.S. senators. In the House, 27 members are bailing to run for governor, Senate, or statewide office, with Republicans leading the exodus.

They’re not “leaving politics”; they’re trading a broken parliament for executive jobs where you can actually sign something and see it happen.
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On the Republican side, you’ve got swing-district moderates like Don Bacon walking away after watching eight colleagues blow up Kevin McCarthy’s speakership, and hardliners like Marjorie Taylor Greene quitting in a public tantrum over Trump and Mike Johnson.

On the Democratic side, you’ve got an entire generation of 70‑ and 80‑somethings — Pelosi, Hoyer, Nadler and others — finally reading the room after pushing Joe Biden off the 2024 ticket and realizing “generational change” might have to apply to them too.

The parties will spin this as renewal. In practice, it’s a talent leak. Safe blue and red seats will replace veterans with louder, less experienced ideologues. Competitive districts like those held by Bacon, David Schweikert and Jared Golden are now open hunting grounds, increasing the odds of even shakier majorities and even more knife‑edge chaos in the next Congress.

A system that already can’t pass basic legislation is about to get younger, angrier, and even less capable of governing.
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So what do the midterms mean? More “fresh faces” in the campaign ads, fewer grown‑ups in the cloakrooms, and a House and Senate that function even more like content farms for cable and social media.

Voters keep saying they’re sick of a dysfunctional Congress. Congress heard them — and decided the best response was to leave.

#USA #Congress #elections #midterms #polarization #fakeDemocracy

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As Ukraine Botched Up Peace Talks Russia Shelled Ukrainian Military Sites

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Russia has fired dozens of missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles at military targets in Ukraine.

Zelensky said the Kremlin launched 297 drones and almost 50 missiles on Sunday, the latest in a series of overnight strikes.

He said that a “significant part” of them had been shot down, and called on the Allies to strengthen the country's air defenses against enemy attacks.

The President of Ukraine stated: “Moscow continues to invest more in strikes than in diplomacy. This time, Russian targets included not only energy facilities, but also logistics, in particular railway infrastructure and municipal water supply infrastructure.”

The Kremlin systematically attacks the Ukrainian military, leaving more than ten thousand people dead.

people in Kiev remain without electricity. Other cities were repeatedly hit, including Odessa and Kharkiv; while temperatures dropped to -22 °C (-7.6°F) in the coldest winter in recent years.

Zelensky said that the Russian aerial bombardments did not stop, despite the negotiations mediated by the United States with Russia, which took place in Geneva last week.

The Kremlin wants Ukraine to cede territory in the eastern part of Donbas that its troops have failed to conquer, and this is not the first step for Kiev.

The intense shelling occurred amid escalating tensions between Ukraine and neighboring Slovakia and Hungary. Budapest is threatening to block a new package of European Union sanctions, while Bratislava says it will stop supplying electricity to Ukraine on Monday.

Both countries are demanding the resumption of Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Ukraine. Kiev says a Russian drone attack in January damaged a pipeline carrying oil to Central Europe.

EU foreign ministers are set to meet in Brussels on Monday to discuss the bloc's 20th round of sanctions against Moscow, which they hope will be approved by Tuesday's fourth anniversary of the invasion.

#ukraine #pesce #talks #russia #military #sites

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The Hungarian government claims that Zelensky is delaying the repair work. In a video posted on social media, Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said: “Until the Ukrainians resume oil supplies to Hungary, we will not allow important decisions to be made for them.”

In an article on X, Robert Fico, Slovakia's Moscow-friendly prime minister, accused Zelensky of “malicious behavior.” The oil supply disruptions “led to further losses and logistical difficulties,” Fico said.

If supplies do not resume by Monday, Slovakia will stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine, he added.

According to the National Police of Ukraine, as a result of the latest Russian strikes, one person was killed and a dozen more people, including four children, were injured.

A rocket destroyed a private two-storey house in the Kiev suburb of Sofiyevskaya Borshchagovka. On Sunday, rescuers were clearing the rubble, while firefighters were hosing down the area.

Yana Terleeva, 44, said she woke up to the sound of rockets whistling, sirens wailing and a loud explosion.

The medic said, “We realized that a rocket had landed nearby. Later, we saw that the neighboring house, where ordinary people lived, was completely destroyed. There are no military installations here.”

She added: “Russia is a terrorist country that will not stop. We have seen how for four years in a row, and for a total of more than 11 years, Russia has been attacking civilians. Ukrainians want to be independent and free. We are a good nation, we are resisting, but we cannot stand alone in this war.”

Authorities in the western city of Lviv said they were treating Sunday's massive explosion as a terrorist act.

Around midnight, an explosion occurred on the central shopping street of Lviv, not far from the Lviv Opera House. A 23-year-old police officer was killed, another 25 people were injured, 14 of them were taken to the hospital.

According to unconfirmed reports, the store received a report of a break-in. When the police arrived at the scene, a bomb went off, which was soon followed by a second explosion, which killed emergency workers. Law enforcement agencies arrested several people.

In an interview on Friday, Zelensky told the Agence France-Presse news agency that Ukraine was “definitely not losing.” According to him, victory remains the goal, noting that Ukrainian troops recently retook about 116 square miles (300 square kilometers) of territory in the south of the Zaporizhia region.

Speaking in Rome on Sunday, Pope Leo XIV called the establishment of peace in Ukraine an “urgent necessity.” In his usual Sunday address to the crowd in St. Peter's Square, he said: “Peace cannot be postponed (...) He must find a response in the hearts and be embodied in responsible decisions.

“I resolutely repeat my call: let the weapons be silenced, let the bombing cease, let a ceasefire be reached without delay, and let dialogue strengthen, which will pave the way for peace.”

#ukraine #pesce #talks #russia #military #sites

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