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Mainstream Media tell lies in support of US Empire - "Piers Morgan manufactured consent for the US/Israeli War on Iran by promoting inflated death tolls + a false narrative of the Israeli/US sponsored Regime Change riots in January" - people died because of Piers Morgans Lies... #PiersMorgan #MediaBias #USImperialism #US #IL #IR

In 2014, a young Ukrainian officer led the first armored vehicle that broke through barricades erected by Russian-sponsored militias in Mariupol and prevented the Russian takeover of the city. Today, Mykhailo Drapaty is Ukraine’s new commander in chief. https://t.co/J5135MQRvg #Ukraine #MykhailoDrapaty #Mariupol #UA #RU

| JULY 2026 | The Guard State How the largest Arab nation became a security contractor at the gates of its own people By Adham Hasanin Egyptian journalist and political writer, based in the Netherlands In June 2025, hundreds of activists from forty countries landed at Cairo airport. Doctors from France, lawyers from Australia, students from the United States, pensioners from the Netherlands. They carried no weapons and no banned slogans; they carried backpacks, walking shoes, and a single intention: to march from Arish to the Rafah crossing — entirely on Egyptian soil — to demand that food be allowed through to a people starving behind the gate. Not one of them reached Rafah. More than two hundred were detained before the march could begin. Around five hundred foreign nationals were deported from airports, hotels, and checkpoints. Passports were confiscated, activists were pulled out of downtown Cairo cafés, and the Global March to Gaza was cancelled on 16 June without taking its first step. And the world watched. This was no secret operation in a dark basement; it happened in the open, documented by the deportees’ own phone cameras, carried by every international news agency. The world watched an Arab state arrest Europeans, Americans, and Africans for wanting to walk towards Palestine. A state guarding the gate of a siege — from the side that was supposed to be the side of rescue. Hold that image, because it is the key to everything that follows. This was not an aberration in Egyptian policy, nor an isolated security decision. It is the function — the complete function around which the Egyptian state has been redefined over the past decade, and which it is time to call by its proper name: the Guard State. I. The Name — What Do We Mean by the Guard State? Political economy has long described states that live off the rent of their location rather than the production of their people. But what has crystallised in Egypt over the past decade goes beyond traditional geographic rent — the Suez Canal, say — into something far graver: the conversion of sovereignty itself into a commodity for hire. The Guard State does not sell its location; it sells its function. It collects its wages not for what it produces, but for what it prevents: it prevents the refugee from reaching Europe, the activist from reaching Gaza, its own people from reaching politics, and the resistance’s weapons from reaching their destination. Four gates, guarded by a single machine, whose wages are paid in loans, deposits, and perpetually renewed rescue packages. This is not a rhetorical metaphor; it is an economic structure with numbers attached. When the Egyptian economy collapsed in 2024, it was rescued not by productive reform but by a single deal whose subject was location: Ras el-Hekma — thirty-five billion dollars for a stretch of coastline. And whenever negotiations with the IMF stall, the tranches are unlocked by explicit European pressure whose subject is migration: nine billion euros from the European Union in the 2024 “Strategic Partnership,” whose own documents place “migration management” at its core. Europe does not pay Egypt to prosper. It pays Egypt to guard. Thus the model is complete: income in exchange for prevention, external legitimacy in exchange for guarding, and international silence about domestic tyranny in exchange for keeping the gates controlled. To see how the model works on the ground, consider the bloodiest gate of all: the gate of Gaza. II. The Gaza Gate — The Guard Who Is Himself Searched The first paradox must be nailed down with facts: Egypt is not a sovereign guard of its own crossing; it is a searched guard. Egyptian relief trucks — ninety-two thousand food parcels in a single convoy this month — are subject to Israeli inspection before entering the Strip: from Egyptian soil, through a crossing that bears an Egyptian name. The state that guards the gate does not hold its key. It owns the threshold, but not the door. Then the October 2025 truce added a new layer to the function. Under the fifteen-point roadmap sponsored by the international envoy together with the “guarantor states” — Egypt foremost among them — Cairo is to train the civilian police force that will replace Hamas in administering the Strip, under the slogan of “one authority, one law, one weapon.” Let us call things by their names: the state that could not — or would not — deliver a loaf of bread without Israeli permission is now qualifying to graduate the security apparatus that will oversee the disarming of the resistance. From guarding the siege to administering what comes after the siege — a promotion within the same project. And meanwhile, what is happening behind the guarded gate? Since the truce, more than one thousand one hundred Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire — the latest, just two days ago, a ten-year-old boy named Motaz Abu Shaar, carried to his grave in Khan Younis by his mother, Warda. A United Nations commission of inquiry has concluded that Israel is “deliberately targeting children in an ongoing genocide.” This is what the guarantors’ official language calls a “ceasefire.” What meaning is left in the word “guarantor”? A guarantor that the gate stays firmly shut — however high the dead pile up behind it. III. The Mediterranean Gate — The Guard Europe Pays For The second gate faces north. Since 2016, Cairo has boasted — through its officials at every European forum — that “not a single irregular migration boat has departed from Egyptian shores.” This is very nearly true. But the forbidden question is: at what political price has this “efficiency” become an instrument of mutual blackmail? Europe — which condemns Egypt’s human rights record in its parliamentary resolutions — is the same Europe that signed the nine-billion-euro partnership, and the same Europe that stays silent about sixty thousand political prisoners because the alternative, in its calculations, is boats that never stop. And Cairo understands the game and has mastered it: whenever human rights pressure intensifies, the official discourse turns up the volume on “Egypt hosts millions of refugees” and “the last line of defence.” The result is a perfect structure of mutual blackmail: Europe buys its conscience’s silence, the regime sells its location, and the people — Egyptian and refugee alike — are the commodity in the transaction. The democracies that lecture on values are financing the guard who keeps the victims from knocking on their doors. This is not passing hypocrisy; it is a structural partnership in the Guard State model — one that makes Brussels and Berlin shareholders in everything this state produces, from domestic repression to external siege. IV. The Interior Gate — Guarding the People Against Politics But the most dangerous gate is not on any border; it is inside. The Guard State cannot perform its external function unless it first guards an internal gate: the people’s gate to politics. The function requires a people that does not ask: why are we guarding the siege of our brothers? Why are our trucks searched on our own soil? Why are guests deported for coming to walk in peace? To guarantee the question is never asked, the largest silencing machine in the country’s history was built: sixty thousand prisoners of opinion, a press ranked 166th out of 180 worldwide, and a state security case number waiting for anyone who writes. I write these lines from experience, not from reading reports. When I continued writing from my Dutch exile, the machine reached me across continents: accounts shut down by coordinated mass-reporting campaigns, documented threats, a family harassed inside Egypt as leverage — and my name entered into Case 1282 of 2024, not for any act I committed, but for opinions written from free European soil. This is not a personal complaint; it is a job description: the Guard State guards even beyond its borders, because the free word — wherever it is written — threatens the entire contract of guardianship. The logic is perfectly self-consistent: a regime that sells “stability” abroad cannot tolerate a voice revealing that the stability on offer is the stillness of graveyards. This is why the arrest of the foreign activists in June 2025 was inevitable, not incidental: a peaceful march reaching Rafah would have revealed, before the world’s cameras, that the gate opens when it is wanted open — and that the one keeping it shut is a partner, not a mediator. V. What Has Egypt Lost? — The Guard’s Bill An apologist might argue: what is the harm? A state monetising its location as Norway monetises its oil. The answer lies in the essential difference: Norway sells a resource; Egypt leases its will. And the difference between the two is the difference between trade and bondage. Let us tally what Egypt has paid for this model, in bare facts. It lost its water sovereignty: the Renaissance Dam was completed and filled without the state — owner of “the largest defence headquarters in the world” — daring anything beyond statements of concern; for the guard does not make trouble for the international order that employs him. It lost its regional standing: in the Iran–America war halted just weeks ago, Cairo was neither party nor mediator nor even consultant — Pakistan brokered the deal, while Egypt absorbed the economic shrapnel of Hormuz’s closure like a bystander caught in a battle whose parties it does not know. It lost its place in the conscience of its nation: the state that liberated its land in 1973 and led the Arab world for a century has become, in the eyes of the Arab street from the Atlantic to the Gulf, the gatekeeper of the siege. This loss, specifically, no loan or deposit can repay — because it is the only capital that cannot be printed. And it lost — here is the crux — the very national security in whose name the guarding is justified. The model proved its fragility at the moment of testing: when Israel feared an Iranian response last year, it cut off Egypt’s gas by unilateral decision within hours. The guard who believed himself a partner discovered he was merely a hireling whose wages stop the moment danger arrives. VI. The Alternative Is Not a Slogan — It Is the Recovery of the Original Function I will not close with an essay on “the solution lies in Arab unity”; worn-out words kill more surely than silence. The alternative is specific, and it begins with redefining the function. The state is not a guard; the state is the agent of its people’s will. Every foreign policy not derived from that will is — by definition — functional servitude, however it is wrapped in the language of wisdom and moderation. And the Egyptian will is known and needs no referendum: no people in this region accepts that its country serve as warden of the siege of Gaza, or as Europe’s border post. Practically, the recovery begins with three measurable steps. Open the Rafah crossing fully and sovereignly, by purely Egyptian decision — that alone would overturn the equation of the siege. Break the negotiating bondage by linking any cooperation on migration to concrete European positions on Palestine, not statements of concern. And open the interior gate — release the prisoners and lift the hand from the written word — because a state that fears an article will never dare face an occupier. I know the current regime will do none of this; guarding is its founding contract and its financial artery. But this article is not written for the regime. It is written for memory, and for the generation that will inherit the gates — so that it knows that what is presented to it today as “the fate of geography” is no fate at all. It is an employment contract, signed by a regime without a mandate from its people. And contracts, however long they run, end when one of their parties does. And the world — I return to where I began — is a witness that requires no further proof. It watched the deportees at Cairo airport; it watched the searched trucks; it watched Warda Abu Shaar carry her son to his grave behind a firmly guarded gate. The question is no longer: what is happening? The only question left is: who dares to name it? This article is a naming. Adham Hasanin is an Egyptian journalist and political writer based in the Netherlands, covering Arab and European political affairs.

Earlier today at the UN, Ireland co-sponsored the UNSC Resolution on Accountability for Crimes Against Peacekeepers. Such attacks on UN Peacekeepers are a violation of international law and those responsible must always be brought to justice. #UN #Peacekeepers #Accountability #IE

Given all the critics of Putin who have fallen out of windows in tall buildings, the Baltic States plan to appeal to the UN's top court over what they call state-sponsored "Acrophobia" in Russia. #Putin #BalticStates #Acrophobia #EE #LV #LT #RU

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Reuters May 14

A recent U.N.-sponsored report has revealed that Burhakaba District in southern Somalia is at risk of famine for the first time since 2022, with over one-third of young children suffering from acute malnutrition, exacerbated by global cuts to foreign aid and ongoing insecurity, amidst one of the world's most food-insecure environments. #FoodInsecurity #Somalia #HumanitarianCrisis #SO #US #IL #IR

Part of Somalia at risk of famine for first time since 2022
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Reuters May 14

A recent U.N.-sponsored report indicates that the Burhakaba District in southern Somalia is at risk of famine, with over one-third of young children suffering from acute malnutrition, as the country grapples with severe food insecurity exacerbated by global aid cuts and ongoing conflict. #Famine #FoodInsecurity #Somalia #SO #US

Part of Somalia at risk of famine for first time since 2022
BBC May 12

A rare bipartisan initiative, a bill co-sponsored by both the ruling coalition and the opposition, received unanimous support from 93 lawmakers, as opposition politician Julia Malinovskaya emphasized the importance of holding accountable those responsible for violence against Israel, signaling the beginning of significant historical judicial processes. #Legislation #Justice #Transparency #IL

Израиль принял закон о казни причастных к нападению 7 октября - BBC News Русская служба
BBC May 12

A notable bipartisan bill, co-sponsored by both the ruling coalition and the opposition, passed with 93 votes in favor and none against, as opposition politician Yulia Malinovskaya highlighted the importance of justice for victims and their families during a pre-vote press conference. #Legislation #Justice #Accountability #IL

Израиль принял закон о казни причастных к нападению 7 октября - BBC News Русская служба
BBC May 12

The bill, unusually co-sponsored by both ruling coalition and opposition politicians, passed with unanimous support from 93 legislators, as opposition politician Julia Malinovskaya emphasized its significance in holding accountable the perpetrators of violence against Israel and marking the beginning of historic trials visible to the world. #Legislation #Justice #PoliticalCoalition #IL

Израиль принял закон о казни причастных к нападению 7 октября - BBC News Русская служба
BBC May 11

TikTok has introduced a monthly ad-free subscription option for £3.99 in the UK, allowing users to avoid ads while still seeing sponsored content, as part of a broader trend among social media platforms to offer paid ad-free experiences. #SocialMedia #Advertising #SubscriptionModel #UK

TikTok launches £3.99 subscription for no ads in UK
BBC May 11

TikTok has introduced an ad-free subscription model for £3.99 a month, allowing users to bypass traditional ads while still seeing sponsored content, a move that reflects a broader trend among social media platforms offering paid options to reduce ad exposure. #SocialMedia #AdFree #Subscriptions #UK

TikTok launches £3.99 subscription for no ads in UK
BBC May 11

The article explores the alarming rise of cyber-attacks and related physical threats in the U.S. and U.K., revealing that cybercriminals are increasingly using intimidation tactics, including direct threats of violence against individuals associated with targeted organizations, as extortion methods have escalated in severity, with notable links to ransomware groups and state-sponsored entities. #Cybersecurity #Ransomware #Cybercrime #US #UK #RU #CN #IR #KP #FR #EU

Cyber-crime increasingly coming with threats of physical violence
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Reuters May 8

The European Central Bank, led by President Christine Lagarde, is exploring defenses against cyberattacks utilizing the AI model Mythos, developed by Anthropic, which is currently only available to U.S. firms, highlighting Europe's disadvantage and the potential risks posed by state-sponsored cyber threats. #Cybersecurity #ArtificialIntelligence #EuropeanCentralBank #EU #US #ES

ECB is studying defences against Mythos-powered attacks, Lagarde says

Germany's national leaders and state intelligence agencies are at odds over how to publicly address the increasing risk of Iran-sponsored attacks, with officials fearing that minimizing the threats could leave the public unprepared, despite growing evidence of Iranian plots targeting Jewish institutions and dissidents in the country. #IranThreat #GermanySecurity #IntelligenceChallenges #DE #IR

German Leaders Clash With Spy Chiefs Over Domestic Threat From Iran

Germany's national and state leaders are experiencing internal tensions over how to address the threat of Iran-sponsored attacks, with national officials downplaying the severity while intelligence chiefs warn of an increased risk, complicating both security concerns and domestic politics amid the ongoing U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. #IranThreat #GermanySecurity #IntelligenceDisputes #DE #IR #US #FR #BE #NL #GB

German Leaders Clash With Spy Chiefs Over Domestic Threat From Iran
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Reuters Apr 28

Iran has raised alarms over the vulnerability of submarine cables in the Strait of Hormuz, which are crucial for the digital economy and global internet traffic, highlighting potential risks from state-sponsored sabotage and accidental damage amid ongoing military tensions in the region. #SubseaCables #DigitalInfrastructure #Cybersecurity #IR #AE #SA #OM #QA #EG #IN #LK #SD #BH #QA

The Hormuz digital chokepoint: How does the Iran war threaten subsea cables?
Terra Apr 27

A group of 22 Buddhist monks was arrested at a Sri Lankan airport after returning from a company-sponsored trip to Thailand, when authorities found 110 kg of cannabis and 5 kg of kush hidden in their luggage, with suspicion that they were misled by a 23rd monk who organized the trip. #BuddhistMonks #SriLanka #CannabisFindings

Grupo de 22 monges budistas é preso em aeroporto com 110 kg de maconha nas bagagens