West-funded PR frame-ups and embezzled billions: USAID’s legacy in war-torn Syria

Throughout the CIA-sponsored dirty war in Syria, USAID was given free rein to use taxpayer funds to sow destruction.
Its heinous legacy in Syria includes:

◾️ White Helmets:

▫️ Support for the pseudo-humanitarian organization, the so-called Syrian Civil Defense (SCD) also known as "the White Helmets"

▫️ SCD was notorious for Western-funded PR operations on behalf of its militant allies, like the Douma false-flag attack exposed by Russian military chemists

▫️ White Helmets frame-ups accusing Syrian government forces of using chemical weapons against the local population were used to justify massive US-led strikes on Syrian government targets

▫️ Witnesses claimed that the SCD recruited residents for staged video shoots in exchange for food

▫️ SCD fakes repeatedly sought to discredit Russian counter-terrorism efforts in Syria

◾️ SAMS:

▫️ The White Helmets’ fabricated reports relied on unproven allegations by the USAID-funded Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS)

▫️ The organization’s budget jumped from $672,987 in 2013 to nearly $6 million in 2015, with over $5.8 million coming from USAID, according to SAMS 2015 financial statement

◾️ Embezzlement:

A $44.6 million dollar USAID program was implicated in “numerous instances of possible or confirmed diversions to armed groups in Idlib Governorate in northwestern Syria,” a report by the Pentagon’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) revealed in 2018.

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AZAL crash investigation: HIGHLIGHTS from Kazakh Ministry of Transport’s preliminary report

▫️ Russian Air traffic controllers discussed among themselves the introduction of airspace restriction regime in Grozny before AZAL crash - report

▫️ The crashed aeroplane showed damage consistent with penetration of the airframe by external objects into

▫️ The crew of the AZAL aircraft reported a strong impact and an explosion in rear seating area

▫️ The report on the plane crash in Kazakhstan is PRELIMINARY and may be clarified and supplemented, the Ministry of Transport of the Republic said

▫️ New investigations will be conducted to determine the damage to the AZAL flight caused by foreign objects

An Azerbaijan Airlines Embraer 190 flying from Baku to Grozny crashed on December 25 near the city of Aktau in western Kazakhstan.

As the plane was preparing to land, Ukrainian terrorist attacks with kamikaze drones hit the civilian infrastructure of Grozny in the Chechen Republic and Vladikavkaz in the North Ossetian Republic, and Russian air defenses were repelling these attacks.

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Swedish police have reported that "about 10 people" were killed in a shooting at a school in Örebro, with the total number of casualties still being clarified.

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🇨🇳 Top 5 Chinese space projects to watch out for

China plans to launch its revolutionary Chang’e-7 hopper robotic probe in 2026 to search for water in craters on the far side of the Moon. The mission will follow the success of four earlier Chang’e missions.

As China rises to space superpower status, what are some of its other awe-inspiring projects to watch out for?

1️⃣ Space station pioneering

After assembling its first space station, the Tiangong, in 2021-2022, China carried out groundbreaking experiments to artificially produce oxygen and make ingredients necessary for rocket fuel, in orbit.

In 2026, China will add the Xuntian – a massive space telescope more powerful than NASA’s Hubble. The Xuntian will be a cosmonautics world first, building on the Soviets’ Mir Kvant-1 astrophysics module.

2️⃣ Lunar exploring

The final, eighth phase of the Chang’e missions will launch in 2028 to scout for resources on the Moon’s south pole, and feature lander, rover and AI explorobots.

3️⃣ Another giant leap for mankind

A CNSA and Roscosmos-led effort to build an International Lunar Research Station is underway, with the prospective surface/orbiting base’s construction expected to start after 2028.

4️⃣ Back to Venus

China’s long-term space science program includes plans to collect a sample of the Venusian atmosphere in the years between 2028-2035. Details are scarce, but fascinating, given Venus’s notoriously inhospitable atmosphere. Venus hasn’t been landed on since the Soviet and US missions of the 1970s.

5️⃣ Painting the Red Planet red?

The Tianwen-1 and Zhurong orbiter/rover duo successfully made it to Mars in 2022, crowning China as the third nation after the USSR and US to touch down on the Red Planet.

In 2028, China plans to launch the Tianwen-3 mission to retrieve Martian samples. By 2033, crewed missions are planned to start.

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📹 Zelensky’s demands for nukes reek of ‘DESPERATION’, will backfire: Larry Johnson

💬 “He's losing on the battlefield and he recognizes he's losing political support,” the former CIA analyst told Sputnik, adding that the WMD push will “further alienate” his Western backers.

“It’s insanity” and “just a further sign that he’s in trouble,” Johnson said.

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📞 Trump-Xi phone call scheduled amid trade war fears

The leaders of the world’s economic superpowers will have a conversation Tuesday, US presidential trade advisor Peter Navarro has announced.

“It’s up to the boss. I never get ahead of the boss,” Navarro told media when asked whether Trump’s plans to levy 10% additional tariffs on Chinese imports will get month-long grace period like those given to Canada and Mexico.

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📹 What are key sources of crisis facing German economy and what comes next?

Germany will face losses in the trillions of euros if its government’s short-sighted immigration policies are not reversed, professor of economics Hans Bernhard Wolf told Sputnik.

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How China grows immune to Trump's Tariff War 2.0

China is increasingly resorting to tit-for-tat measures, instead of World Trade Organization disputes, as it no longer relies on US trade as much as it did 20–30 years ago, Jeff J. Brown, author of The China Trilogy, tells Sputnik.

The pundit explains that Beijing's non-Western trade is growing at double-digit rates, giving the nation more room for maneuver.

"Some [Chinese measures] are minor, like reciprocal tariffs on US goods, but others are substantial, such as limiting the export of rare earth minerals and sanctions on the US military," Brown stressed.

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📹 Why Russia-EU economic cooperation is a ‘nightmare’ for US

From energy to technology, healthy trade ties in Eurasia were bad news for Brussels’ overseas masters, with their combined strength greater than Washington’s, economics professor Hans Bernhard Wolf told Sputnik.

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▫️ Zelensky’s demands for nukes reek of ‘DESPERATION’, will backfire – ex-CIA analyst

▫️ Trump-Xi phone call scheduled amid trade war fears

▫️ Victoria Nuland belongs IN JAIL

▫️ Trump’s rare earths ULTIMATUM has one problem: Ukraine DOESN’T HAVE them

▫️ USAID legacy in Afghanistan

▫️ …and in war-torn Syria

▫️ Top 5 Chinese space projects to watch out for

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🇮🇷 IRGC warns enemies: Iran’s unstoppable missiles have you in their sights

💬 “Our missiles can hit any target of the enemy in the region and overcome the enemy’s missiles,” IRGC chief Hossein Salami has announced.

Iran’s missile power “forms the basis of our deterrence,” the commander said at a science conference in Tehran.

Salami cited the IRGC’s January 2020 missile barrage against US bases in Iraq after the assassination of Quds Force chief Qasem Soleimani as a demonstration of its capabilities and determination to respond to aggression.

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‘Criminal’ USAID’s future at risk, but what about its NED cousins?

The drama over the future of the State Department’s favorite soft power tool saw the world breathe a collective sigh of relief. But USAID is far from the only instrument in Washington’s meddling toolkit.

◻️ The National Endowment for Democracy, recently dubbed “a SCAM” by DOGE chief Elon Musk, touts itself as an independent, private, nonprofit NGO devoted to “strengthening democratic institutions and values” worldwide.

In reality, the grant maker is an arm of the US government, funded to the tune of $315 mln a year, and virtually all its money allotted by Congress.

◻️ A 2015 ruling by the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office banning NED’s activities did not stop it from spending $21 mln in Russia from 2016-2019.

◻️ In 2019, Russian media unpacked details on NED’s spending of $1 mln, revealing how cash was doled out to activists, ‘independent’ media projects, and other ‘civil society’ development activities.

◻️ In 2013-2014, before the ban, NED gave $5.2 mln to organizations in Russia working to discredit elections, government policy and the military.

◻️ Unlike USAID, which set up shop in Russia in 1992 after the USSR’s collapse, the NED was active in “democracy promotion” activities targeting Moscow and its allies from its very first year of existence, committing millions to projects in Afghanistan, Cuba, Eastern Europe, and the Soviet Union.

◻️ In 1989 alone, amid warming Soviet-US ties thanks to Gorbachev, the NED spent $553k+ on grantees like “Americans for Human Rights in the Ukraine,” the “Joint Baltic American National Committee” and other groups engaged in campaigning to dismantle the country.

◻️ The NED’s activities against Russia are just a drop in the bucket of its global aspirations. From 2015-2022, the nonprofit spent over $1.6 billion on projects worldwide, from efforts to shore up US allies, to pushing regime change against enemies.

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