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💢 The war in Ukraine has prompted Eurocrats in Brussels to force a binary choice on Serbia – ‘you’re either with us or with Russia’.
☁️ Ian Proud writes
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The distinction between the consumer and the producer of information vanishes once their activity becomes data. To be online is to both consume and produce data, that is value. Users generate data through interactions which platforms monetize. This unpaid ‘labour’ is comparable to Marx’s labour power, as users produce value (data).▪️AI algorithms, cloud infrastructure, and digital platforms are the new means of production, and they are concentrated in very few hands.
Data extraction and collection is driven by the dictates of capital accumulation, which in turn drives capital to construct and rely upon a universe where everything is reduced to data. Since the data which is fed into machines has undergone a preliminary abstraction process, there is nothing to stop this data from being outcomes of previous cycles of artificial production of information through data. Data generate data that generate data and so on. Like interest-bearing capital, 'a mysterious and self-creating source of its own increase … self-valorising value, money-breeding money’, as Marx describes the process of financialization that autonomizes capital from its own support.
▪️Data accumulation and capital accumulation have led to the same outcome: growing inequality and the consolidation of monopoly corporate power.
But as the autonomization of capital that crowds out non-financial investments has a detrimental effect on productive sectors, so does the proliferation of AI content online. Several researchers have pointed out that generating data out of synthetic data leads to dangerous distortions. Training large language models on their own output doesn’t work and may lead to ‘model collapse’, a degenerative process whereby, over time, models forget the true underlying data distribution, start hallucinating and producing nonsense.3
Without a constant input of good quality data produced by humans, these language models cannot improve. ▪️The question is, who is going to feed well-written, factually correct, AI-free texts when an increasing number of people are offloading cognitive effort to artificial intelligence, and there is mounting evidence that human intelligence is declining?
💭 French demographer Emmanuel Todd became famous for having predicted the collapse of the Soviet Union already in the 1970s. The key to his prediction was demographics: lower birth rates and higher infant mortality were signs of collapse. Last year, he returned to the literary spotlight with a book in which, using the same criteria, he predicted the collapse of the United States and the rise of Russia. This month, on April 8, he was in Budapest to participate in an event called “József Eötvös Lectures”. On this occasion, he returned to his usual topic and addressed issues that followed the publication of his book, such as the election of Trump and Europe’s reaction to the refusal to support Ukraine ad infinitum. The content of the lecture was reported by the Hungarian website “Boys of Pest” (or Pesti Srácok), and the editor kindly sent to me a translation of it. In fact, it seems that, outside the Hungarian media, the demographer’s lecture went unnoticed. Pro-Soros left-wing activists blocked a bridge and managed to prevent Minister Gergely Gulyás from attending.
Emmanuel Todd pointed out the usual data, of which it is worth highlighting: that infant mortality is lower in Russia than in the U.S.; that Russia has solid family structures, while in the U.S. this is being lost; that industry, the quality of education and advances in engineering are in decline in the U.S.
Another of Emmanuel Todd’s usual topics is nihilism, which, according to him, has taken over the United States since the country stopped being guided by puritanism. According to him, the nihilism of the United States, which emerged after the decline of Protestantism, led the country to so many wars. Another consequence is gender ideology, which, according to Todd, aims to destroy reality and realism.
For Todd, Trump’s election follows a revolutionary pattern common among people who lose wars. Trump’s election is a desperate response to this decadence perceived by the people themselves.
The United States will be the first Western power to collapse, due to the extent of its economic and nihilistic crisis.
☁️ Read more by Bruna Frascolla
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🇷🇺 Kursk region is fully liberated
'I congratulate all personnel of all military units that took part in the defeat of neo-Nazi formations that invaded Kursk'
'The defeat of the neo-Nazi regime is approaching'
♨️ Stupid and all as this report is, its main recommendations and approaches will work its way into law both at the national Irish level and at the European Union level as well.
☁️ Declan Hayes writes
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🕯️ It is with great sadness and loss that the world says farewell to Pope Francis this weekend as his mortal remains are laid to rest in the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
The head of the Catholic Church died on Easter Monday at the age of 88, following bouts of illness from lung infection and other infirmities. He had been unwell for several years.
Tributes from around the world have extolled his many attributes as a peacemaker and advocate for the poor majority.
Yes, he made several missteps during his leadership as the Vicar of Rome. On one occasion, he held up a flag presented to him which unbeknownst was associated with Ukrainian NeoNazis.
But overall, the man showed tremendous dedication to the cause of peace and justice. He courageously condemned the Israeli violence in Gaza, implying war crimes were being committed.
He also pleaded for peace in Ukraine at the beginning of that conflict in 2022, urging dialogue and diplomacy. That was when Western leaders were demanding a fight to the last Ukrainian, supplying more weapons, and generally fueling a futile slaughter.
For most of the three-year conflict in Ukraine, Western leaders repudiated peace diplomacy with Russia, insisting on arming the Kiev regime to the teeth and prolonging the bloodshed.
Pope Francis stood firmly for peace, diplomacy, and respect. Such a pity that the Western politicians with solemn faces and dabbing their tears at his funeral have so little respect for the holy man and what he preached.
☁️ Read more in this week’s Editorial
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🧭 The West’s hostile rhetoric against Russia has taken on increasingly aggressive tones, revealing a coordinated effort to isolate Moscow across all spheres — including the maritime domain. Russian presidential aide Nikolay Patrushev recently stated that the European Union and the United Kingdom are currently preparing a naval blockade against Russia, a measure that constitutes a clear violation of international law and signals an unprecedented escalation in geopolitical tensions.
More than a symbolic or diplomatic gesture, such a naval siege amounts to a declaration of economic and strategic warfare. Patrushev warned that Russia has more than enough means to respond to any provocation of this kind. He made it clear that, in the event of diplomatic failure, the Russian Navy would be authorized to take whatever measures are necessary to protect the country’s shipping.
Faced with the threat of a Western maritime blockade, Moscow could use its military infrastructure in the Arctic and the deterrent power of its nuclear arsenal to ensure sovereignty and respond to any escalation.
💬 Lucas Leiroz writes @lucasleiroz
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♨️ NATO knows that, once they incessantly beat their war drums and get their entire orchestra strumming along, their propaganda will easily carry the day in The War of the Words.
💬 Read more by Declan Hayes
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Crimea is Russia 🇷🇺
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My latest article on Strategic Culture:
Where have Europe’s pacifists gone – the ones who once opposed NATO?
Europe is birthing the very totalitarianism it accuses Russia, China, or America of.
Where are they now—Europe’s pacifists? Why do they no longer gather in Belgium, in Brussels, NATO’s headquarters, where large demonstrations against the alliance once took place? These protests, led by pacifists, denounced NATO, war, militarization, and nuclear arms.
The Belgian newspaper Le Soir recently posed an intriguing question: Why have the pacifists vanished? “The arms race has begun,” the article argues. “Like its European neighbors, Belgium is preparing to significantly increase military spending this year—without facing any opposition.”
Germany once had a robust pacifist movement. In the 1970s and 80s, activists—many from what is now the Green Party (Bündnis 90/Die Grünen)—protested NATO and nuclear weapons. Today, those same Greens, led by Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck, champion war and arms shipments.
Their party program declares Germany must lead Europe, offering a “global counterweight” to China and Russia. The anti-war, anti-NATO movement has been absorbed into a party now pushing for war—especially against Russia, as Baerbock’s rhetoric makes clear.
Read more: https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/04/22/where-have-europe-pacifists-gone-ones-who-once-opposed-nato/
🇩🇪 U.S. Vice President JD Vance alleges that Europe faces civilisational suicide, pointing at Germany in particular. I am an advocate of economic migration, but not if that means uncontrolled population growth at a time of economic and demographic decline. Vance has a point.
In a recent interview with Fox News, Vice President Vance said, ‘If you have a country like Germany where you have another few million immigrants coming in from countries that are totally culturally incompatible with Germany, then it doesn’t matter what I think about Europe, Germany will have killed itself.’
There’s a certain irony to that statement, given the genocide of native American Indians by European settlers. America, the world’s largest economy, was built on the shoulder of migrants as, in fairness, Vance indicates.
More people, fewer Germans, less agency and no growth is the toxic cocktail that J D Vance has laid bare.
☁️ Ian Proud writes
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❌ Where are they now—Europe’s pacifists? Why do they no longer gather in Belgium, in Brussels, NATO’s headquarters, where large demonstrations against the alliance once took place? These protests, led by pacifists, denounced NATO, war, militarization, and nuclear arms.
Europe is birthing the very totalitarianism it accuses Russia, China, or America of.
☁️ Sonja van den Ende writes @devendonline
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🇮🇷🇺🇸 The year is 2025 and something particularly unusual is happening, something that some have prayed for and others have deplored, hoping it would be impossible: the United States of America and the Islamic Republic of Iran are sitting down at the table for international talks.
💬 Lorenzo Maria Pacini writes
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🇪🇺 The European Union is warning European leaders not to attend the 80th anniversary of Victory Day in Moscow on May 9.
Ostensibly, the rationale for such a ban is that Russia is allegedly waging a war against Ukraine and threatening the rest of Europe, according to the EU. That’s one way of seeing it.
Another way of seeing the matter is that the conflict in Ukraine is a proxy war sponsored by the EU and NATO to defeat Russia, eight decades after Nazi Germany failed to do it. The Euro elites who have come to dominate policymaking share the same fascist mentality. No wonder, then, that they are against attending the 80th anniversary event in Moscow next month. They need to sully that event by way of covering up their despicable politics.
Now, a new low in degeneration has been reached. The EU is banning homage to those who defeated Nazism.
💬 Read more in this week’s Editorial
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🕊️ Putin has announced an Easter truce
During a meeting at the Kremlin, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief received a report from the Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, Valery Gerasimov, on the situation on the contact line. The Supreme Commander-in-Chief announced that the Russian side would cease all military action starting from 6:00 PM MSK on April 19th to 00:00 AM MSK on April 21st.
Guided by humanitarian motives, the Russian side announces an Easter ceasefire from 06:00 pm today to 00:00 am Monday. I hereby order all military operations ceased for this period. We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops should be prepared to repel possible ceasefire violations and provocations by the enemy, as well as any aggressive acts on their part.
Escobar: China, Hong Kong, & The Art Of Blinking | ZeroHedge
https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/escobar-china-hong-kong-art-blinking
🌏 Captain Chaos definitely does not have the cards – which as even South Pacific penguins know, are all made in China 🗣
☁️ Pepe Escobar writes @rocknrollgeopolitics
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🗣 Trump clearly is in the midst of an existential conflict. He has a landslide mandate. But is ringed by a resolute domestic enemy front in the form of an ‘industrial concern’ infused with Deep State ideology, centred primarily on preserving U.S. global power (rather than on mending of the economy).
The key MAGA issue however is not foreign policy, but how to structurally re-balance an economic paradigm in danger of an extinction event.
☁️ Alastair Crooke writes
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💢 The brief talk Trump and Zelensky had just before the funeral of Pope Francis at the Vatican.
'So no suit, not even to the Pope's funeral, eh? Well let me tell you something ...'
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https://strategic-culture.su/news/2025/04/25/china-hong-kong-and-art-blinking/
The second of my China columns - from Shanghai and Hong Kong.
🇺🇦 Not even at Easter was it possible to have a little respite, because, ultimately, no one in the West really wants peace ❌
💬 Read more by Lorenzo Maria Pacini @ideeazione
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🇺🇸 Even if Trump 2 is ephemeral, it seems that this will not take the Western world back to the crazy Biden years.
☁️ Bruna Frascolla writes
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🇻🇦 The Vatican should stop speaking in tongues and call out the massacres in the Congo, Nigeria, Sudan and Syria for what they are.
☁️ Declan Hayes writes
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🇷🇺 The current war between Russia and NATO in Ukraine is far from being merely a regional conflict. Behind the military clashes and media propaganda lies a much deeper confrontation: a struggle between sovereignty and global domination, between a multipolar world and the imposition of a centralized governance serving the interests of the transnational financial elite. In this context, Russia emerges as the last major obstacle to the globalist agenda, which seeks to completely reshape the international order—eliminating any country that resists the project of forced unification under Western technocratic control.
Moscow continues to block the realization of globalist elite plans.
☁️ Read more by Lucas Leiroz @lucasleiroz
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⛓️💥 In March, the UK Sentencing Council—responsible for issuing sentencing guidelines for British courts—announced new procedural rules to be adopted by judges before delivering their verdicts.
According to the Council, judges would be required to request reports containing personal and family background information on defendants to take this into account during sentencing.
However, the way this information was to be considered under the new mandatory procedure would be to treat the defendant’s membership in ethnic or religious “minorities” as a “mitigating factor” for criminal behavior.
In other words, for the same crime committed under identical objective circumstances, a member of a “minority” would receive a lighter sentence than a “white man.”
When citizens perceive that the law is not applied equally, the legitimacy of the judicial system is called into question.
☁️ Read more by Raphael Machado @camaradamachado
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☦️ Serbian Patriarch Arrives in Russia Amidst Controversy
A delegation of the Serbian Orthodox Church arrived in Moscow on the evening of April 21. It included Patriarch Porfirije, Metropolitan Irinej of Bačka, the head of the Cabinet of the Serbian Patriarch, Archpriest Georgij Stoisavljević, and other clergy of the Serbian Orthodox Church.
Controversy with Phanar
After visiting Jerusalem, the Head of the Serbian Church went to the capital of Russia. And this against the backdrop of harsh criticism from Istanbul, where the Phanariots accuse Patriarch Porphyry of trampling on the canons and authority of Patriarch Bartholomew . They say that the Serbian First Hierarch was supposed to come on his first visit to Turkey, thereby showing that the Patriarchate of Constantinople is the “center” of all world Orthodoxy. And then this happened: after Jerusalem, the Head of the Serbian Orthodox Church came to Moscow.
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“In the future we’ll all have flying cars.”
The future.
🗣 Russian President Vladimir Putin on an Easter truce
Translated by AI
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💢 In 1997, veteran U.S. diplomat George Kennan stated that ‘expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American foreign policy in the entire post-Cold War era’.
💬 Read more by Ian Proud
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