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Debt Rattle June 26 2025

Jun 262025
 
 June 26, 2025  Posted by at 9:00 am Finance Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , ,  53 Responses »


Rembrandt van Rijn Self portrait with Saskia 1636

 

• Trump Pushes Back On Pentagon Intel, Says Iran Nuclear Sites ‘Destroyed’ (ZH)
• Israel, CIA Agree With Trump On ‘Destruction’ Of Iran’s Nuclear Capability (ZH)
• Iran’s Stunning Admission That Proves Trump Was Right (Margolis)
• Trump Hoping for Comprehensive Peace Agreement With Iran: Witkoff (ET)
• NATO Leaders Agree To 5% Hike In Defense Spending (ZH)
• NATO Members’ Leaders Snubbing Zelensky At Key Summit – Orban (RT)
• ‘Ukraine Is Not In NATO, My Job Is To Keep It That Way: Orbán (RMX)
• Trump Denies Discussing Ceasefire With Zelensky (RT)
• ‘Yapping Bitches In Brussels A Direct Threat To Russia’ – Medvedev (RT)
• NATO Boss Calls Trump ‘Daddy’ (RT)
• ‘Ukraine Can Win’ – New NATO Commander (RT)
• Peace Dialogue With Kiev On Hold – Moscow (RT)
• Escape from New York: Democrats Embrace Socialist for New Mayor (Turley)
• Gold: The Only True Asset in A Broken Global System (Piepenburg)

 

 

The 12-day war is over.

NATO

Bannon

Candace

Tel Aviv

 

 

 

 

We have 4 sources that say the Iran nuke sites are ‘heavily destroyed’: CIA, Trump admin, Israel and Iran. But networks like CNN will have none of it. You be the judge.

• Trump Pushes Back On Pentagon Intel, Says Iran Nuclear Sites ‘Destroyed’ (ZH)

There are two apt sayings for this current situation facing the White House in the wake of the Trump-ordered bombings against Iran’s nuclear facilities. First, what’s worse in war-time decision-making than doing the wrong thing? Doing it incompletely. Second, it is always easy to begin a war, but very difficult to stop one. And so here President Trump and his top officials find themselves, defending the ‘limited’ strikes and proclaiming the destruction of Iran’s nuclear program and enrichment capability in the face of a skeptical media. The escalation dialectic – which the mainstream media is so good at – begins… The heat is on an the NATO summit in The Hague, where Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told reporters, “Of course we’re doing a leak investigation with the FBI right now because this information is for internal purposes, battle damage assessments.”

Referencing yesterday’s leaked DIA report which strongly suggests Iran’s nuclear program is “mostly intact” – he continued, “And CNN and others are trying to spin it to make the president look bad when this was an overwhelming success.” And Trump himself said, “They really don’t know.” And in response to the contrary intelligence, “I think Israel is gonna be telling us very soon because [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu] is going to have people Involved in that whole situation.” “This was an unbelievable hit by genius pilots and genius people in the military, and they’re not being given credit for it because we have scum that’s in this room. And not all of you are… CNN is scum. MSDNC is scum. The New York Times is scum. They’re bad people. They’re sick,” Trump said. “And what they’ve done is they’re trying to make this unbelievable victory into something less.”

And here’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, somewhat hedging: “(Iran’s nuclear) program today has been set behind significantly from where it was a week ago. It is in far worse shape today than it was a week ago because of US actions and because some of the actions Israelis took,” Rubio told Politico. “So, the bottom line is they are much further away from a nuclear weapon today than they were before the president took this bold action,” he said, adding that “very significant, substantial damage” was done to a “variety of different components.”

Iran has meanwhile admitted that nuclear sites are ‘badly damaged’ – perhaps in hopes of giving Trump what he wants in terms of PR to ensure the bombing will stop and ceasefire will hold; however, the Iranians have also vowed to pursue their nuclear energy program without interruption and that it remains a matter of national sovereignty. To review of the leaked DIA assessment, one official had told CNN: “So the (DIA) assessment is that the US set them back maybe a few months, tops.” The White House acknowledged the existence of the report marked top secret but said they disagreed with it. Trump, Rubio, and Hegseth are in Europe proclaiming the ‘overwhelming success’ of the strikes:

So this appears yet another case of the White House disagreeing with its own intelligence community (IC) – in an ongoing awkward situation which has Iraq war vibes. However, without doubt the IC is still working on an overall consensus, based likely on several different intel threads, and across agencies. One obvious danger from the perspective of Western decision-makers (and Israel): if Iran was not intent on getting a bomb before, they likely are now – given their very existence is under threat.

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“..was Iran’s core nuclear program really destroyed? If everyone can ‘agree’ – at least publicly for the sake of Trump’s narrative – this might mean Iran can simply continue enriching, but truly in secret this time.”

• Israel, CIA Agree With Trump On ‘Destruction’ Of Iran’s Nuclear Capability (ZH)

Israel’s military chief of staff as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have spoken up following President Trump’s words before Wednesday’s NATO summit which declared Iran’s nuclear program ‘obliterated’.The Israeli military agrees, saying that the program suffered “systemic” damage and was set back years due to both the Israeli warplane attacks, as well as the large-scale US B-2 bomber raids on three main facilities.”According to the assessment of senior officials in the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Intelligence Directorate, the damage to the nuclear program is not a pinpoint strike but a systemic one – the cumulative achievement allows us to determine that Iran’s nuclear project sustained severe, broad, and deep damage and has been set back by years,” the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Chief of Staff Eyal Zamir said Wednesday.

The military further declared that IDF’s goal of the “immediate existential threat” from Iran has been met. Trump too said Wednesday, “Last weekend, the United States successfully carried out a massive precision strike on Iran’s nuclear enrichment facilities and it was very, very successful.” Netanyahu has also offered his agreement – at least on the Fordow site: The US’ strike on the Fordow nuclear facility in Iran has eliminated critically important infrastructure and rendered it inoperable, with attacks by the US and Israel setting back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on behalf of the Israel Atomic Energy Commission (IAEC).

“The devastating US strike on Fordow destroyed the site’s critical infrastructure and rendered the enrichment facility inoperable. We assess that the American strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities, combined with Israeli strikes on other elements of Iran’s military nuclear program, has set back Iran’s ability to develop nuclear weapons by many years,” the statement reads. It noted that this “achievement can continue indefinitely if Iran does not get access to nuclear material.” Interestingly, the Israeli side is also confirming the use of ground commandos that breached Iran during the 12-day conflict. Commando units, along with the Israeli Air Force, carried out “deception” tactics that helped Israel gain control of Iran’s airspace as well as other strategic goals, the IDF’s Zamir revealed further. “These achievements were made possible, among other things, by the integration and deception carried out by air forces and ground commando units, which operated covertly in the enemy’s depth and granted us operational freedom of action,” he said.

Political cover? War theater? or for real? It’s not just Israel confirming it now. CIA Director John Ratcliffe issued a statement about Intelligence on Iran’s Nuclear Program: “CIA can confirm that a body of credible intelligence indicates Iran’s Nuclear Program has been severely damaged by the recent, targeted strikes.” But all of this again begs the question… was Iran’s core nuclear program really destroyed? If everyone can ‘agree’ – at least publicly for the sake of Trump’s narrative – this might mean Iran can simply continue enriching, but truly in secret this time.

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“The Iranian foreign ministry admitted that their nuclear facilities were ‘badly damaged’ by U.S. strikes over the weekend after reports surfaced about a low-confidence U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting otherwise..”

• Iran’s Stunning Admission That Proves Trump Was Right (Margolis)

It’s a telling moment when the world’s leading state sponsor of terror is more honest about American military success than the so-called guardians of truth in our media. Iran’s regime, notorious for its propaganda and defiance, has now publicly conceded that recent U.S. strikes “badly damaged” its nuclear facilities. “The Iranian foreign ministry admitted that their nuclear facilities were ‘badly damaged’ by U.S. strikes over the weekend after reports surfaced about a low-confidence U.S. intelligence assessment suggesting otherwise,” National Review reports. This is no minor admission — this is Tehran waving a white flag, if only for a moment, and acknowledging that American power still matters. Yet the legacy media, so quick to trumpet any narrative that undermines U.S. strength, have bent over backwards to ignore or diminish this reality.

For years, the media have clung to the delusion that Iran’s nuclear ambitions could be tamed through photo-op diplomacy and hollow gestures — or, under Barack Obama and Joe Biden, by handing over pallets of cash and granting Tehran a fast track to the bomb, all while pretending containment was possible. When President Donald Trump flipped the script with a maximum pressure campaign that crippled Iran’s nuclear trajectory, the media called it reckless. And now, after a flawlessly executed U.S. strike that wiped out key nuclear sites and brought an immediate ceasefire, they’re scrambling to downplay the results.

Rather than acknowledge a clear victory, CNN and others rushed to circulate a conveniently “leaked” intelligence report claiming the operation only set Iran back a few months. The report, conveniently classified until it became politically useful, magically appeared in the hands of CNN’s Natasha Bertrand, best known for pushing the phony Hunter Biden laptop “disinformation” narrative. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wasn’t having it. She torched the report as “flat-out wrong” and slammed CNN for laundering a smear campaign on behalf of the swamp, using an “anonymous, low-level loser” in the intel community as cover.

This isn’t journalism. It’s damage control from a media establishment that still can’t stomach a Trump victory, even when it means stopping Iran from getting the bomb. While traveling in Europe with President Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio weighed in on the controversy surrounding the intelligence leak about the Iran airstrikes, calling it one of the most frustrating aspects of Washington. In an interview with Politico, Rubio made it clear that the problem isn’t just the leak itself; it’s how the leaked information gets twisted to serve an agenda.

“Well, I can’t talk to you about intelligence,” Rubio began, but he quickly pointed out how dangerous and misleading these leaks can be. “Intelligence leaks are one of the most frustrating things anywhere,” he said, noting that it’s not just about unauthorized disclosures but the way those disclosures are almost always distorted. “In these leaks, what you typically have is someone who read it and then leaks it to the media, giving it the spin and the angle they want it to have because they’ve got some purpose: embarrass the administration, they were against the action, whatever it may be.”Rubio’s comments reflect growing concerns that the so-called intelligence report CNN ran with wasn’t just a breach; it was a political hit job meant to undercut Trump’s successful strike on Iran’s nuclear program. Iran’s rare admission of damage is a crushing blow to the legacy media, which cares more about downplaying American strength than reporting the truth.

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“..Trump said the war between the U.S. ally and its regional rival “could have gone on for years” and “destroyed the entire Middle East” but that “it didn’t, and never will!”

• Trump Hoping for Comprehensive Peace Agreement With Iran: Witkoff (ET)

Talks between the United States and Iran resumed one day after Iran and Israel reached a Washington-brokered cease-fire agreement, Steve Witkoff, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, said on June 24, describing the discussions as promising. Witkoff made the comments in an interview on Fox News after U.S. President Donald Trump announced on June 23 that a cease-fire deal had been reached to end 12 days of fighting. Trump said on his Truth Social platform that Iran would first stop its attacks for 12 hours, after which Israel would stop its attacks. After 24 hours, there would be an official end to the war, he said. Both Iran and Israel accused each other of violating the truce shortly after it was announced.

Despite those early violations, the cease-fire appeared to be holding as of June 24, and Witkoff told Fox News that the Trump administration is hopeful of a long-term peace deal. “With regard to the Iranians, the president has said unequivocally, that he wants to see and is hopeful for a comprehensive peace agreement that goes beyond even the cease-fire. We are already talking to each other, not just directly but also through interlocutors. I think that the conversations are promising,” Witkoff said. “We are hopeful that we can have a long-term peace agreement that resurrects Iran, that brings it into the league of nations, that creates long-term prosperity for Iran, and most importantly, allows for the [Gulf Cooperation Council] to grow economically,” he said. Iran is not a member of the regional union of countries.

Witkoff said now is the time to sit down with the Iranians and “get to a comprehensive peace agreement,” adding, “I am very confident that we are going to achieve that.” Witkoff’s comments come after Israel launched an air war on June 13, attacking Iranian nuclear facilities and killing top military commanders as part of what it said were efforts to prevent Tehran from developing nuclear weapons. The Iranian government, which has repeatedly said its uranium enrichment program is peaceful, retaliated with barrages of missiles on Israeli military sites and cities. In announcing the cease-fire agreement, Trump said the war between the U.S. ally and its regional rival “could have gone on for years” and “destroyed the entire Middle East” but that “it didn’t, and never will!”

He said both nations had agreed to remain peaceful and respectful during the cease-fire, and that, assuming everything works out as it should, the “12-day war” would come to an end. Witkoff reiterated Trump’s comments to Fox News, declaring the conflict over. “Since this conflict began, we’ve been talking to [Iran] about having some sort of peaceful settlement, and Iran’s one caveat has always been that Israel had to stop its campaign,” Witkoff said. “And once Israel fulfilled its objective, which they did, and once the United States fulfilled its objective, which it did … the president was able to go to both parties and get a cease-fire done. “And by the way, the proof is in the pudding. No one’s shooting at each other. It’s over.”

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For what it’s worth. First, show us the money.

“There is an irreversible path for Ukraine to join NATO—and that remains true today, and will still be true after this summit..”

• NATO Leaders Agree To 5% Hike In Defense Spending (ZH)

As expected, NATO members have agreed to new commitment to significantly boost defense spending, aiming to raise military budgets to 5% of GDP over the next decade—more than double the current 2% benchmark—at the ongoing major annual summit being held in The Hague. The Trump-backed decision is being finalized in Netherlands this week, with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte having hailed the proposal as a “quantum leap’ during a press briefing. Trump declared Tuesday that we’re with NATO “all the way”. And on Wednesday he’s expected to give a big address, as all eyes are focused on the Iran bombing and what’s next. Bloomberg notes, also as fully expected and long ago previewed, that the spending target includes 3.5% via core defense and 1.5% in related investment covering infrastructure and cybersecurity.

Rutte and officials gathered in the Netherlands have stressed that all member states must participate, highlighting that Spain’s hesitation over the steep cost—nearly $90 billion annually—will not exempt it from the pledge. “NATO doesn’t allow for opt-outs or side deals,” he has firmly stated. The increased funding is intended to dramatically scale up NATO’s military production, including building thousands of tanks and multiplying air defense systems by five, at a moment the alliance is staring down Russia amid the Ukraine war, where Moscow forces are establishing a huge buffer zone in the north and east, and actually increasing territory beyond Donetsk’s western border.

WikiLeaks meanwhile says the arms companies will continue to be the only real winners…

Rutte has of course identified Russia as NATO’s “most significant and direct threat” and reiterated full support for Ukraine, despite Washington having named China has America’s ‘top pacing threat’ and long-term main miliary and economic rival. Of course, alliance has already funneled hundreds of billions of dollars into a conflict with Russia that has resulted in hundreds of thousands of lives on both sides, and Ukraine losing about 20% of its territory.NATO leaders as of Wednesday have vowed to keep pursuing Ukraine’s path to membership, with Rutte emphasizing that the question of accession was never ruled out, especially not before the war. “There is an irreversible path for Ukraine to join NATO—and that remains true today, and will still be true after this summit,” he has said.

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“Orban being Orban delivered the response the Europeans did not want to hear. Trump is great. Russia is not scary. The biggest threat to the EU is their continued slide away from competitive economics. As to Zelenskyy, NATO has no business in Ukraine.”

• NATO Members’ Leaders Snubbing Zelensky At Key Summit – Orban (RT)

Several NATO members, including the US, are deliberately avoiding meeting with Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky at the bloc’s key summit in The Hague, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has claimed. Speaking prior to the gathering on Wednesday, Orban noted that Zelensky would only attend the informal dinner and “will not participate in the NATO summit in any official form,” indicating that “a clear sign that the previous chapter is over.” The Hungarian prime minister went on to explain that this is a drastic change compared to previous years, stating that “the Americans, the Turks, the Slovaks, and we have made it clear that we do not want to sit at the same table with Zelensky when it comes to NATO.” He further stressed Hungary’s continued opposition to Ukraine joining NATO or the EU.

Orban has repeatedly warned that Kiev’s membership in any of the blocs would drag the West into a direct conflict with Russia. Meanwhile, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto noted that the 2025 summit would be the first since 2022 where the focus would be not on stepping up support for Ukraine, but on strengthening the bloc’s collective defense. “With Ukraine’s NATO membership off the agenda, direct confrontation with Russia has been avoided. Rationality has prevailed,” he added. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump confirmed that he would “probably” meet with Zelensky on the sidelines of the summit. At the same time, he described the Ukrainian leader as being in a “tough situation,” adding that he “should have never been there.”

In another sign of the simmering tensions between Zelensky and Trump, the Washington Post reported that NATO leaders are “tiptoeing around rifts” during the summit, trying to showcase “a veneer of unity”. The paper reported that “NATO officials are trying to keep [Trump and Zelensky] apart as much as possible in public — a recognition of Trump’s occasionally volcanic disdain for the Ukrainian leader.” In this vein, NATO organizers positioned Zelensky far from Trump during the official summit photo-op, according to footage broadcast by C-SPAN.

orban

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“So, he is the man of common sense, which means that the new wars are getting shorter and the old wars are running out of fuel, which is the consequence of his activity.”

• ‘Ukraine Is Not In NATO, My Job Is To Keep It That Way: Orbán (RMX)

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán voiced skepticism over proposed NATO plans to raise defense spending to 5 percent of member states’ GDP, calling the target unworkable under existing EU budgetary constraints and warning of economic consequences if Brussels doesn’t radically change its fiscal framework. “We are able to do it, it is not easy,” Orbán said at the NATO summit in The Hague on Wednesday. “But the whole calculation of budget regulation of the European Union must be changed. So if we keep the regulations as it is, nobody in the European Union can fulfill 5 percent, whatever they say. We have to recalculate everything in a different method; in that case, we can do it.” Orbán’s comments reflect his broader concern that NATO is drifting into dangerous territory — both financially and geopolitically.

Rather than supporting yet another push toward militarization, the Hungarian leader emphasized that Europe’s real threat is not military in nature but economic. “The real threat is not security-wise, it is economic and losing our competitiveness in global trade,” he said. “That’s our problem.” He also reiterated his long-standing opposition to NATO involvement in Ukraine, restating Hungary’s commitment to keeping the alliance out of the war. “NATO has no business in Ukraine,” Orbán said plainly. “Ukraine is not a member of NATO, nor is Russia. And my job is to keep it as it is.” Orbán has repeatedly argued that escalating military aid and deepening Western involvement risk prolonging the war and damaging European interests. His administration has opposed further sanctions on Russia and has long expressed concern over the possibility of NATO and EU membership for Kyiv in the current climate.

On Tuesday, the Hungarian prime minister hit back at thinly veiled criticism of his administration from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — an honorary guest at the summit in the Netherlands. Zelensky suggested that it is “unfair when a single party blocks the Union’s decision,” referencing Hungarian opposition to further negotiations with Kyiv on EU membership. In response, Orbán wrote on X, “President, with all due respect: the European Union was founded to bring peace and prosperity to its member states. Accepting a country that is at war with Russia would immediately drag the EU into a direct conflict. It is unfair to expect any member state to take this risk.

”In other remarks in The Hague, Orbán further highlighted his alignment with U.S. President Donald Trump, praising what he called Trump’s “common sense” approach to foreign policy and suggesting that a shift in Washington’s leadership is already having a stabilizing effect on global conflicts. “The international order is more based on common sense,” Orbán said. “And the president of the United States is a man of common sense, as you have seen, just recently, to manage the conflict between Iran and Israel. So, he is the man of common sense, which means that the new wars are getting shorter and the old wars are running out of fuel, which is the consequence of his activity.”

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He may deliver some weaponry. But other than that?

• Trump Denies Discussing Ceasefire With Zelensky (RT)

US President Donald Trump has denied discussing a Ukraine ceasefire during his meeting with Vladimir Zelensky on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, directly contradicting the Ukrainian leader’s earlier remarks. Zelensky had described the meeting as “long and substantive,” claiming the two leaders had discussed ways to “achieve a real peace.” Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Trump said the topic was not part of the conversation. “No, no, I just… wanted to know how he’s doing,” he said. Trump added that he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of bringing the conflict to an end, though he did not specify when the conversation might take place.

When pressed on his past claim that he could end the war within 24 hours, Trump said the comment had been “sarcastic.” He acknowledged that resolving the conflict would not be easy, describing Putin as “more difficult” than anticipated and admitting he “had some problems with Zelensky” as well. Asked if the US would contribute to the $5 billion in military aid pledged to Ukraine by other NATO countries, Trump reiterated only that the conflict must end.

In another exchange, a BBC Ukraine journalist asked whether the US would sell Patriot missile systems to Ukraine. Trump replied that the systems were “very hard to get” and that the US also needed them. He noted that Washington was supplying Patriots to Israel but would “see if we can make some available.” Since taking office in January, Trump has repeatedly called for a negotiated settlement to the Ukraine conflict. Earlier this week, he said he hoped to reach a “deal with Russia” to stop the fighting. Moscow has maintained that it is willing to hold talks “without preconditions,” but insists that any lasting agreement must reflect the current battlefield realities and Ukraine’s neutrality.

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“Brussels today is Russia’s true enemy,” he wrote. “Slowly but surely, the EU is transforming into a self-sustaining military bloc that will gradually come to compete with NATO…”

• ‘Yapping Bitches In Brussels A Direct Threat To Russia’ – Medvedev (RT)

The European Union has emerged as a hostile force to Moscow, former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has claimed, accusing the bloc of arming the “neo-Nazi Kiev regime” to attack Russia. In a Telegram post on Wednesday, Medvedev stated that the old EU as an economic union has “essentially ceased to exist,” and in its current “perverted form is no less of a threat” to Russia than NATO. “Brussels today is Russia’s true enemy,” he wrote. “Slowly but surely, the EU is transforming into a self-sustaining military bloc that will gradually come to compete with NATO…” The ex-president accused “Brusselian cockroaches and narrow-minded leaders of EU countries” of advancing their militarization strategy based on an imaginary “Russia threat,” ushering in a new “era of rearmament.”

According to Medvedev, the EU’s goal is to arm the Kiev regime to the point where it becomes invulnerable to Russia, claiming Brussels is ramping up its military-industrial output and building military factories on Ukrainian soil. The EU, he said, is also sending personnel to train Ukrainian militants “so that they can kill our citizens and carry out terrorist attacks.” He also accused Brussels of “brazenly” using profits from Russia’s frozen assets to finance its “vile activities.”

“The EU, stuffed with weapons, rainbow freaks, and yapping bitches in Brussels, constitutes a direct threat to Russia,” Medvedev wrote. “This, of course, should not hinder our bilateral cooperation with individual European states.” Ukraine’s potential EU membership – which Russia had not objected to in the past – would now constitute a “danger” for Moscow. While Kiev’s NATO ambitions were always seen as a red line for Russia, Medvedev indicated the EU had now adopted a similar confrontational posture.

Ukraine made EU and NATO membership official national goals by amending its constitution in 2019. It applied to join the bloc in February 2022 and was granted candidate status later that year. Admission requires unanimous consent from all 27 EU member states. While some members voiced objections, Brussels has backed Kiev’s bid. The European Commission suggested Ukraine could join by 2029 if it made sufficient progress in areas such as political and judicial reforms, as well as in combating organized crime and corruption. In his post, Medvedev proposed two outcomes for Ukraine: “Either the EU itself realizes that it doesn’t need the Kiev quasi-state at all, or, better, there is no state left to join the EU.”

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Rutte has one goal only: war with Russia. He needs Trump for that.

• NATO Boss Calls Trump ‘Daddy’ (RT)

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has rushed to defend US President Donald Trump’s recent expletive-laden rant about Iran and Israel as merely “daddy” using “strong language.” Trump on Tuesday lashed out at both countries for allegedly breaching a Washington-brokered ceasefire, telling reporters before departing for the NATO summit in the Hague that West Jerusalem and Tehran have “been fighting so long and so hard that they do not know what the f**k they are doing.” The outburst came hours after he announced the truce, which was reportedly broken soon after by both Israel and Iran. Asked about the remark during a joint press conference the next day, Trump likened the two nations to “kids (fighting) in a schoolyard.” Rutte, seated beside him, added: “And then daddy has to, sometimes, use strong language.”

When a reporter later brought up the comment, Trump laughed and replied, “Daddy – you’re my daddy,” saying that the NATO chief had meant it “affectionately.” “I think he likes me, if he doesn’t, I’ll come back and hit him hard,” Trump joked. Rutte’s flattery wasn’t limited to the stage. Ahead of the summit, Trump published private text messages in which a fawning Rutte praised the US president’s “decisive action in Iran” as “truly extraordinary” and said it “makes us all safer.” He went on to tell Trump, “You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done,” and boasted that “Europe is going to pay BIG.” A NATO spokesperson later confirmed the authenticity of the exchange.

Rutte also used the summit itself to back Trump’s controversial push for NATO members to more than double their military spending to 5% of GDP. At Wednesday’s press conference, he called Trump “a good friend” and said he “deserves all the praise” for forcing the issue. Asked by a reporter whether such overt admiration made him look weak, Rutte brushed it off: “I don’t think so. I think it’s a bit of a question of taste.”

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New on the job.

• ‘Ukraine Can Win’ – New NATO Commander (RT)

Ukraine can still achieve a military victory over Russia, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe and head of the US European Command, Alexus Grynkewich, said during a US Senate hearing on Tuesday. He was confirmed in his new role with the US-led military bloc earlier this month.v“I believe Ukraine can win,” he responded when asked if Kiev could still prevail despite significant casualties and waning financial support. Grynkewich also noted that Ukrainian forces are displaying a level of tenacity that is hard for outsiders to fully comprehend.vHe did not specify what form a Ukrainian victory might take, nor did he provide further detail regarding battlefield prospects.

Top NATO officials have long insisted that Ukraine should aim to defeat Russia militarily. The bloc continues to supply arms and intelligence to Kiev, even as it loses territory to Russian forces. Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive failed to achieve any meaningful breakthroughs, and a more recent attempted incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region was repelled. Meanwhile, Russian advances have continued along several sectors of the front line, including in the Donetsk and Kharkov regions. Military analysts and Western officials have increasingly questioned the viability of a Ukrainian victory. Last month, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul claimed that the military defeat of nuclear-armed Russia had been impossible “from the very beginning.” US President Donald Trump has also repeatedly expressed doubt that Ukraine could secure a military victory over Russia, instead pushing for a negotiated settlement of the conflict.

He has insisted that “Crimea will stay with Russia,” referred to Ukraine as “demolished,” and cautioned that the country may not be able to survive the conflict, even with US support. Moscow has also repeatedly insisted that its victory is inevitable and has criticized continued Western military aid to Ukraine, arguing that it only prolongs hostilities without affecting their outcome. Russian President Vladimir Putin has stressed that the conflict will end only when its “root causes” are resolved and his country’s security interests are taken into account. He has also accused Kiev’s foreign backers of being uninterested in actually ending the conflict and using Ukraine to achieve their own goals.

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“Peskov noted that the exact date of the next round of talks with Kiev would be decided after all previous pledges are fulfilled, referring to prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of slain soldiers.”

• Peace Dialogue With Kiev On Hold – Moscow (RT)

Moscow and Kiev are currently working to fully implement the humanitarian portion of their previous agreements, and therefore no negotiations are currently underway on their respective peace roadmaps, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. Speaking at a regular press briefing on Wednesday, Peskov noted that the exact date of the next round of talks with Kiev would be decided after all previous pledges are fulfilled, referring to prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of slain soldiers. Russia and Ukraine held direct talks in Türkiye last month, resuming a diplomatic process that was paused by Kiev in 2022 after it chose to seek a battlefield victory with Western assistance. During their latest meeting on June 2, the two sides agreed to exchange prisoners and the remains of deceased troops for humanitarian reasons.

Ukraine and Russia also traded draft memorandums outlining their proposed paths to peace. The return of slain soldiers was completed on Monday last week. Russia transferred 6,060 sets of remains to Ukraine and received 78 in exchange. The Russian military says it has more than 3,000 bodies it is willing to hand over. There were also several prisoner swaps, though neither side gave specific figures, unlike during previous swaps. Negotiators had suggested that Moscow and Kiev would not seek parity in numbers when returning seriously injured soldiers from captivity.

While Kiev did resume dialogue with Moscow as urged by the administration of US President Donald Trump, Ukrainian officials have claimed that Russia is not negotiating in good faith because it declined to agree to an unconditional ceasefire. Moscow said Kiev could use such a pause to regroup its military and outlined conditions for a truce in its draft memorandum. Russia said it would suspend hostilities if Ukraine either pulled troops out of Russian territories that Kiev claims, or suspended its conscription campaign and deliveries of Western arms. Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky is presently set to meet Trump on the sidelines of the ongoing NATO leaders summit in The Hague.

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“Real estate in Florida is about to skyrocket.”

• Escape from New York: Democrats Embrace Socialist for New Mayor (Turley)

The presumptive selection (pending the results of New York’s ranked-voting system) of Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani as the Democratic nominee has sent shockwaves throughout the business and political establishment. For those calling for the party to move more to the center, New Yorkers just responded with a Bronx cheer by choosing a socialist who wants city-run grocery stores, an eleven-percent city corporate tax rate, free child care, free buses, and other far-left wish list items. Real estate in Florida is about to skyrocket. Mamdani has said that he intends to make New York a “model for the Democratic Party” by moving to the far left and embracing socialist policies. Despite being called anti-Israel, Mamdani crushed Andrew Cuomo with young college-educated voters.

He promised to pay for freezing rents, providing free child care, and other programs by “taxing the rich.” It is a return to the “eat the rich” calls of figures from Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) to former mayor Bill de Blasio. Politicians have long turned to the “Eat the rich!” battle cry when things are not working out politically or economically. When struggling in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) pledged a wealth tax, declaring that she was coming after “the diamonds, the yachts, and the Rembrandts too.” Then-New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, another Democratic contender at the time, was barely registering in the polls when he promised that “we will tax the hell out of the wealthy.”

The election also reinforces the opposition of many to the move to restore the state and local tax (SALT) deductions, which forces taxpayers in low-tax states to subsidize residents in high-tax states, such as California and New York. By allowing the deductions, politicians can assure New Yorkers that they will receive some of the money back from the rest of the country through deductions, justifying even higher tax hikes. I have long opposed SALT deductions as a uniquely bad idea. The question is whether wealthy individuals and corporations will accelerate the exit from New York in light of continued support for increasing tax burdens and public subsidies. Eric Adams could still prevail over Mamdani as an independent in the general election. Cuomo has also not ruled out an independent run. However, the results of the election show the increasing hold of socialist politics on many New Yorkers.

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“At these debt levels, no one leader, ideology or policy can resolve the deficit and debt cancers spreading globally..”

• Gold: The Only True Asset in A Broken Global System (Piepenburg)

Matthew Piepenburg, Partner at VON GREYERZ, joins VRIC Media founder, Jay Martin, in a compelling conversation about the revolutionary shifts happening in the global financial system—the ramifications of which all point toward gold’s increasingly central role as THE strategic reserve asset of the present and future. Piepenburg opens with a simple theme. Namely, the risks and wide-ranging ramifications of sickening global debt levels can not be overstated enough. Everything from risk assets, currency destruction, geopolitics and social unrest to the gold price is a derivative of one simple theme: DEBT. We are also seeing revolutionary shifts from globalism to neo-mercantilism/protectionism, but as Piepenburg warns, such shifts are not surrendered easily, and that messiness in the interim is inevitable. Part of this “mess” includes rising social unrest as a direct result of the inflation and currency debasement, which failed monetary policies have directly created.

Looking ahead, as old systems, ideologies, and policies fail and new ideologies and protectionist systems rise, the transition will not be easy or smooth. Piepenburg foresees less international cooperation going forward, which means more messy wars, trade alliances and social fracturing. When asked if recent attempts to cut spending in the USA are a glimmer of hope, Piepenburg bluntly says we are way past easy solutions. At these debt levels, no one leader, ideology or policy can resolve the deficit and debt cancers spreading globally. Martin and Piepenburg also discuss the long-sighted policies of China vs. the short-sighted policies of the US to determine which nation has the most realistic options in the years ahead, while also recognising the severe challenges facing both of these economic powers. Ultimately, more cooperation would favor both nations and the world, but the chances of such policies are slim and getting slimer in this pre-Iran war recording.

In this increasingly splintered global backdrop, the conversation turns toward gold and increasingly obvious central bank demand for the same. Piepenburg certainly enjoys gold’s price action but reminds that gold, which has outperformed the S&P for more than 20 years, is nevertheless far more than a speculation asset or even a volatility hedge. Instead, gold is emerging as THE central global strategic reserve asset, as evidenced by moves taken by even the BIS, the IMF or the COMEX outflows. This is not a fable but a fact. Gold is now clearly a superior store of value than fiat currencies and sovereign IOUs of all stripes.

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