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Independent researcher/writer based in Hong Kong since 1997. Reformed academic. My long-form, analytical articles are collected here https://laura-ruggeri.medium.com/ email: lauraru852@yandex.ru
Where were Trump and Rubio when USAID and NED funded a colour revolution in Hong Kong? In office! And just three years ago, Rubio was urging the Biden administration to prioritize USAID’s funding as a key tool to “counter the Chinese Communist Party’s expanding global influence.” If you believe he changed his mind, you need to get yours checked. The only USAID programs they are scrapping are those that do not align with U.S. national interests and the ideological preferences of the new administration. @LauraRuHK https://web.archive.org/web/20220325171523/https:/www.rubio.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Press-Releases&id=BC12230A-0BFB-4119-A05B-881C02BAE487
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Europe is not a safe place for journalists. Richard Medhurst's ordeal in Austria is part of the ongoing crackdown on journalists who don't toe the line. It also points to close coordination and cooperation between the British and Austrian security services. Last year Medhurst, a freelance journalist, was arrested upon arrival at London Heathrow Airport on 15 August, detained under the Terrorism Act 2000 for "supporting Hamas." His phone and recording devices – essential journalistic equipment – were seized. Medhurst, who now lives in Austria, said he could face up to 14 years of prison in Britain, plus 2-5 years if he doesn’t give them the passwords to his devices and perhaps 10 years in Austria. https://x.com/richimedhurst/status/1887632785378021455
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Donald Trump's plan to resolve the Ukrainian conflict will not be presented at the Munich Security Conference next week. This was stated on Fox News by Special Representative Keith Kellogg.
Kellogg denied Bloomberg's information that he was preparing to present the plan in Munich. According to him, he will discuss this topic, but the plan will be presented later by Trump himself. ▪️Keep in mind that Trump has not spoken with either Putin or Xi. If he wants to, he has to make the first move. China and Russia are in no hurry. ▪️ Yesterday Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister, clearly explained that Russia is in no hurry to negotiate – everything is going according to plan for us, but for you, apparently, not so much.
Russia proceeds from the fact that if Trump does not publicly disavow the goal of the previous administration to inflict a "strategic defeat" on Russia, then this goal is just as relevant for the new administration, which can affect the conduct of negotiations in principle.
The ball is in Trump's court, because we, for our part, have taken every conceivable and imaginable step and explained everything to everyone. We will not explain, prove or offer anything else to anyone else. The first step towards the normalization of bilateral relations, meaning negotiations based on the principles of mutual respect and equality, should be made by the United States. @LauraRuHK
Oleg Yanovsky has recently drawn my attention to a strange coincidence. The current dismantling of USAID was preceded by the liquidation of Crown Agents in the UK. An agency with a storied history of 191 years, Crown agents was quietly dissolved last August due to funding cuts. Originally established to manage the colonial assets of the British Empire, Crown Agents became an instrument of "state" policy in gray areas, performing key functions for the monarchy, ranging from financial management to logistics, bribery of colonial elites, and military operations.
From printing colonial money and controlling customs to managing the private accounts of colonial officials and providing military infrastructure, Crown Agents handled a variety of tasks.
However, its role expanded markedly in the 1970s, when the organization experienced a series of financial scandals and was reformed by its chairman, Sir John Cuckney, who could as well have served as inspiration for more than one of John Le Carre's characters. MI5 agent and City man who sat on the board of banks, insurance companies, pharmaceutical giants like Glaxo, etc. he turned the branch of Crown Agents selling British guns, tanks and jet fighters into a separate company called International Military Services, and was appointed its chairman. This "private company" was 100% controlled by the British Ministry of Defense and concentrated on arms exports, becoming a key player in the British arms trade.
Crown Agents and IMS demonstrate a model of "monarchy-public-private partnership", where the organization looked like a commercial firm, but in fact remained under the full control of the Crown, interacted with the highest echelons of power in various jurisdictions, and served as intermediary between official and clandestine networks and stakeholders.
Crown Agents, formally separated from government agencies, in practice continued to perform key defense, financial and political functions for London, acting as an "emanation of the Crown" outside of direct government control. Crown Agents can be considered an older, more resource-efficient predecessor of USAID. As a matter of fact, Crown Agents featured in the list of USAID contractors. @LauraRuHK
A useful summary. Waiting for the next instalment about Google-Pentagon cooperation. /channel/geopolitics_live/42906
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Elon Musk's grandfather, Joshua N. Haldeman was involved in Canadian politics, backing the Technocracy movement. As an avowed anti-communist, Haldeman objected to Technocracy Incorporated's declaration of support for the Soviet Union following the German invasion, left the movement and joined the Social Credit Party of Canada serving as party leader in Saskatchewan. Haldeman's son-in-law Errol Musk claimed in 2024 that Haldeman sympathized with Nazi Germany during World War II. He moved to South Africa in 1950 and was a vocal supporter of apartheid. I am not suggesting that Elon Musk should be held accountable for his grandfather's opinions and deeds, what I find remarkable is that the vision of a “North American Union” promoted by the Trump administration can be traced back to a map created by Technocracy Incorporated in 1930. It Includes Canada, Greenland, the Panama Canal and, by the way, Cuba. @LauraRuHK
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Imagine being Mette Frederiksen, the PM of a country that has significantly increased defense spending, lost more troops per capita in Afghanistan than any other country, contributed more to Ukraine’s defense as a percentage of GDP than all but one other country... and has zero bargaining power. ▪️After the informal UK-EU-NATO meeting on Feb. 3 in Brussels, she flew to London to continue her conversation with Keir Starmer.
"I totally agree with the Americans that the High North, that the Arctic region is becoming more and more important when we are talking about defense and security and deterrence. It is possible to find a way to ensure stronger footprints in Greenland. The U.S. are already there, and they can have more possibilities. And at the same time, we are willing to scale up. And I think NATO is the same. So if this is about securing our part of the world, we can find a way forward."
Move on. Nothing to see. That's just Israel and the US carrying out demolition work for the new "Riviera of the Middle East." @LauraRuHK
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Donald Trump: The US may continue to provide aid to Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian rare earth metals. 🤔 🥁There are no deposits of rare earth metals in Ukraine. Vladimir Polevanov, Vice President of Russia's National Fund for Strategic Resources, told Sputnik :
There are no deposits of rare earth metals in the territory of Ukraine. They don't have anything that good at all. They have a bit of Lithium, 500,000 tons, which is not much when you compare it to deposits in other countries, Bolivia - 21 million tons, Chile - 14 million tons, Argentina - about 10 million tons.
News from EUnuchsland - On Monday EU leaders gathered in Brussels to discuss the future of European defense. They were joined by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte and UK PM Keir Starmer. Speaking at a joint press conference, Starmer told the European Union to “step up” support for Ukraine and proposed a new post-Brexit security pact with the EU.
“Peace will come through strength, and we must do all that we can to support Ukraine's defense. That means stabilizing the front line, providing the kit and training that they need. And that's why this year, the U.K. will give more military support to Ukraine than ever before. We need to see all allies stepping up, particularly in Europe.”
Spelling out his vision for a closer relationship on defense, Starmer said he wanted EU-U.K. cooperation to cover “military technology and R&D, improving the mobility of forces across Europe, protecting our critical infrastructure and deepening our industrial collaboration to increase defense production.” ▪️EU governments are exploring ways to include the UK and Norway in a “coalition of the willing” dedicated to expanding the continent’s defences, while circumventing four EU neutral states that are not members of NATO — Austria, Cyprus, Ireland and Malta — and the leaders of Hungary and Slovakia who oppose a confrontational stance toward Russia. ▪️While Paris and Athens insist that European taxpayer money should be spent on military systems designed and made in Europe,
other EU countries including Germany and Italy, want to buy more American weapons fearing that the exclusion of U.S. arms-makers from EU subsidies would enrage U.S. President Donald Trump and expose them to more tariffs. (Source: Politico, FT) @LauraRuHK
"Did you know that USAID, using YOUR tax dollars, funded bioweapon research, including COVID-19, that killed millions of people?" Musk wrote.
Musk did not elaborate on the allegations, but the post he was responding to said, "the CIA's deception regarding COVID-19 origins becomes much clearer when considering USAID's long history of serving as a CIA front organization."
"USAID is a criminal organization," Musk wrote in another post, replying to a video about alleged USAID involvement in internet censorship and "rogue CIA work."
Well, we "conspiracy theorists" have been saying it for years. Since the very start of the Covid operation. Why did Elon Musk wait till the preemptive pardon of Dr. Fauci to denounce USAID involvement in the development of bioweapons? Will the US government be held accountable? Fat chance. Musk is just grinding his ax and positioning himself as a "saviour of humanity." @LauraRuHK
After a brief pause, the US has resumed arming Ukraine.
Reuters reports that the White House abandoned its initial promise of halting all assistance to Ukraine. According to one of Reuters' sources, there are factions within the Trump administration that disagree on the extent to which the US should continue providing military aid to Kiev from American stockpiles.
Today US President Donald Trump stated that his country may continue to provide aid to Ukraine in exchange for Ukrainian rare earth metals. @LauraRuHK
The new "lean and mean" US administration is not dismantling the Aid Industrial Complex. It simply wants more bang for buck and is settling scores with the Dems and their globalist supporters (Soros in primis) who profited from USAID and its massive budget. USAID has spurred a mind-boggling network of contractors and sub-contractors, NGOs, lobbyists, academics and logistics personnel that is virtually impossible to audit, let alone hold accountable. Nonprofit and for-profit firms have overlapping staff and contracts, and most of them already work for other government departments, including DoD. By absorbing USAID into the State Department, the US will free up resources. The woke ideology pushed by Soros' foundations has proven to be a liability in the Global South and is no longer in keeping with the more muscular approach favoured by the current administration. @LauraRuHK /channel/Slavyangrad/118720
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Panama has decided to withdraw from China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in response to US ultimatum over the Panama Canal US Secretary of State Marco Rubio presented the president of Panama Jose Mulino with a Mafia-style ultimatum: If Panama doesn't immediately take steps to address US concerns over "Chinese influence", the US will take the necessary measures "to protect its rights under the Panama Canal Treaty."
As a result of this threat, Panama decided not to renew the memorandum of understanding on the "Silk Road" signed with China.
▪️China initiated BRI in 2013 primarily as a project linking Eurasia through physical infrastructure, but it has since expanded into other sectors and regions. By late 2017, Beijing had formalized Latin America and the Caribbean as a “natural extension of the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road.” In November 2017, Panama became the first Latin American country to officially endorse BRI, five months after switching diplomatic ties from Taiwan to Beijing. ▪️Donald Trump's claim that China controls the canal is baseless. Since 2000 the canal has been operated by the Panama Canal Authority, whose administrator, deputy administrator and 11-member board are selected by Panama’s government. Panama Ports – part of a subsidiary of the Hong Kong-based conglomerate CK Hutchison Holdings – operates terminals on the Atlantic and Pacific sides of the canal. So do other companies. Hutchinson was first granted the concession over the two ports in 1997 when Panama and the US jointly administered the canal. Hutchinson Ports is one of the world’s largest port operators, overseeing 53 ports in 24 countries, including the UK, Australia and Canada.
Crucially, Hutchison does not control access to the Panama Canal, its workers only load and unload containers onto ships and supply them with fuel. @LauraRuHK
Cost-cutting by the Trump administration is purely a way to improve efficiency and shift the financial burden of propping up US soft power onto US allies and supporters. Here is just one example. Even if USAID is folded into the US State Department and stops bankrolling BBC Media Action, the latter can continue to train and fund media actors in target countries thanks to its institutional and non-institutional donors. @LauraRuHK
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Karen Pierce, the current British ambassador to the United States, is set to take on a new diplomatic role as the UK’s special envoy to the Western Balkans. She is a "heavy" and am not referring to her ample body. In a interview published a few days ago by the Washington Post, David Ignatius asked Pierce what worried her about the future. She replied: “I worry that the West has lost it ‘ruthlessness edge.’" Apparently the killing fields of Ukraine haven't satiated her lust for blood. @LauraRuHK https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/02/03/karen-pierce-britain-ambassador-ruthlessness/
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"The criteria for exemptions will be whether or not a program furthers U.S. national interests and is aligned with them. And those that do not will not continue," Rubio said.
"At State Department ... we got a really good insight, and that's why, every single day, we are issuing waivers on the State Department programs," Rubio added. He did not detail what those waivers are but it doesn't take a genius to guess which USAID "programs" align with US foreign policy goals and will therefore receive even more funding than before. In case you missed it 👉 The new "lean and mean" US administration is downsizing the Aid Industrial Complex to get more bang for buck. 👉/channel/LauraRuHK/9671
ASPI, that infamous US-Australian Sinophobic think tank funded by defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Northrop Grumman, Thales Group and Raytheon Technologies, is concerned about the impact of Trump's decision to freeze foreign funding and USAID programs. ASPI openly admits what many of us have repeatedly denounced - the entire ecosystem of scrappy NGOs in Hong Kong, Taiwan, and the United States that churn out anti-China narratives rely on US money and will be forced to shut down unless other countries pick up the bill. US allies will have to step in to save the circus. @LauraRuHK https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/with-us-funding-freeze-china-nonprofits-are-facing-extinction-they-need-emergency-assistance/
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🎙 Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s remarks at the embassy roundtable discussion "The Ukraine crisis: Failed cancel culture" (Moscow, February 5, 2025)
Key points:
💬 The attempt to cancel international law is particularly evident in how the West, the United States, and their allies treat the UN Charter.
👉 Whenever they need, they pick the principle of self-determination of peoples, as they did in the case of Kosovo. When they need to support their underlings and accomplices such as the Nazi regime in Ukraine, they hang on to the principle of territorial integrity and ignore everything that the residents of Crimea, Novorossiya, and Donbass did when they refused to recognise the outcomes of the bloody unconstitutional coup and chose not to live under its rule, which aimed to eradicate everything Russian.
• Unfortunately, the UN Secretariat, including the Secretary-General, is strongly supporting the West in its Ukrainian policies. <...> Antonio Guterres and his top-ranking deputies representing the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and other NATO countries in the UN Secretariat, are saying things that the West needs them to say.
• The root cause of this conflict is that the West has purposefully sought for years – not just sought, but made effective steps – to create direct military threats to the Russian Federation right on our borders, on the territory of Ukraine, drawing the country into NATO.
• As the West had done before, they dismissed our reminders about their earlier political commitments under the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to ensure indivisible security, a principle saying that no one is to strengthen their security at the expense of others, and no organisation in the Euro-Atlantic region is to claim dominance, saying that those were mere political commitments.
• I have no doubt that cancelling journalism and information is another tactic worthy of our Western colleagues’ modern playbook, not to mention that the Russian media outlets are being cancelled, too, just for expressing an alternative point of view. The West has long been fighting dissent.
• We observe an overt desire to cancel our country outright, much as was the case in 1945, when the Second World War had not yet concluded. The summits in Yalta and Potsdam took place then, and the Allies celebrated Victory. Now documents have been published which reveal that the West was preparing plans for an attack on the USSR and its partitioning even before the war in the Pacific had ended. And these plans have now come back to life.
• The head of [UNESCO], Audrey Azoulay, a French citizen, promotes the efforts to make Ukraine the number one item on the agenda, politicising this organisation and refusing to discharge her direct duties, including the protection of journalists’ rights. She remains indifferent to the numerous killings of Russian journalists in the special military operation zone, or to the demolition of historical monuments in Ukraine, including in Odessa.
• A mass campaign is underway to undermine my country’s reputation and whitewash Nazis. We will not allow this to happen. This year in Russia and the CIS is dedicated to Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Victory over Nazism. A large number of events are planned to be held, and we will make sure to keep you informed about them so that you can partake. May 9 is the main date, when Victory Parade will take place. Many invited guests, including our friends, neighbours, and allies from the CIS and many other countries, confirmed their attendance.
Read in full
Lu Shaye, the former Chinese ambassador to France known for a direct style that earned him the label of 'wolf warrior', has been appointed as Beijing’s special representative for European affairs.
European Union authorities were recently notified of Lu’s appointment.
He famously argued that China is now a major player on the world stage and can no longer follow former paramount leader Deng Xiaoping's approach of hiding its capacities and biding its time.
"When we were relatively poor and backward, Western countries looked down upon us in dealing with us. Now, they basically look at us as equals, and in some cases even look up to us.
"A big country should act like a big country, it cannot hide its capacities and bide its time as it had in the past ... If you have grown as big as an elephant, you can no longer hide behind trees."
The real story isn’t USAID’s closure—it’s its continuity. https://substack.com/home/post/p-156507901?source=queue
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FROM USAID TO US AI. On Monday Palantir co-founder and CEO Alex Karp trumpeted the work Elon Musk is doing to overhaul the federal government, saying it will ultimately benefit his company. On Tuesday shares of Palantir skyrocketed, gaining 22.8%, but were up as much as 27.7% during the day.
Asked about DOGE—Musk’s “department” of government efficiency, which has spent the last week unilaterally axing federal agencies—Karp said he welcomed the “disruption.”
“We love disruption, and whatever’s good for America will be good for Americans and very good for Palantir,” Karp, who is worth an estimated $8 billion, said.
“There will be ups and downs. There’s a revolution. Some people are going to get their heads cut off. We’re expecting to see really unexpected things and to win,” he boasted.
Musk and his team are asserting control over much of the federal bureaucracy and sensitive government computer systems, have the keys to the government’s entire payment system, including Social Security checks, tax refunds and Medicare benefits. They have also seized control at the Office of Personnel Management and the General Services Administration, key institutions that function as the central nervous system of the U.S. government. The word for it is state capture.
Palantir, which provides AI-driven intelligence to corporate and government clients, including the Pentagon, was founded by Peter Thiel, Stephen Cohen, Joe Lonsdale, and Alex Karp in 2003...with a little help from the CIA's venture capital arm In-Q-Tel. No wonder USAID has become redundant. AI will take care of many of its functions once it's absorbed into the State Department. @LauraRuHK
🔺Real estate developer waxes lyrical about ethnic cleansing🔺 Trump said he wants to remove all Palestinians from Gaza and send them to Egypt, Jordan, or other countries. He explained that the US will assume control over the Gaza Strip, “level” the Palestinian enclave, rebuild it and turn it into the “Riviera of the Middle East”. @LauraRuHK
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😅 Can you smell Ursula's new fragrance, Desperation No.5? @LauraRuHK
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China hits back after Trump imposed additional 10% tariff across all Chinese imports into the U.S.
Within minutes after US tariffs came into effect at 12:01 a.m., China's Finance Ministry said it would impose levies of 15% for U.S. coal and LNG and 10% for crude oil, farm equipment, trucks as well as big-engine sedans shipped to China from the United States.
China also said it was starting an anti-monopoly investigation into Google, while including both PVH Corp the holding company for brands including Calvin Klein, and U.S. biotechnology company Illumina on a list for potential sanctions in China. Separately, China's Commerce Ministry and its Customs Administration said it is imposing export controls on some metals that are critical for electronics, military equipment and solar panels.
A 10%-duty China announced on electric trucks imported from the United States could apply to future sales for Elon Musk's Cybertruck, a niche offering Tesla has been promoting in China. (Source: Reuters) @LauraRuHK
Here is my previous, matter of fact, post /channel/LauraRuHK/9673 Here is that text after i prompted Microsoft Copilot to rewrite it in a sarcastic, indignant tone.
The White House has shamelessly ditched its initial commitment to stop all forms of assistance to Ukraine. What happened to standing by one's word? Now, there are factions within the Trump administration that can't even agree on how deep into American stockpiles they should dig to keep sending military aid to Kiev. Because, you know, why not keep the indecision lively?
To top it all off, today US President Donald Trump announced that his country might keep providing aid to Ukraine in return for—wait for it—Ukrainian rare earth metals. Because nothing says international diplomacy like a good old-fashioned trade deal, right?
From US-AID to US-AI - Data-driven intelligence and digital statecraft will become more prominent than the on-the-ground NGOs.
/channel/DDGeopolitics/137832
Yet another terror attack in Moscow
An explosive device went off in the Alye Parusa residential complex in northwest Moscow, killing two people and injuring four.
The target of this attack was Armen Sarkisyan, the founder of the ArBat battalion and head of the Boxing Federation of the Donetsk People's Republic. He and his bodyguard were killed in the explosion.
▪️Armen Sarkisyan, also known as Armen Gorlovsky, was born in Gorlovka (according to other sources - in Armenia) in 1978. In 2014, after the coup, the SBU and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine labelled him a member of the inner circle of ex-President Viktor Yanukovich and put him on their wanted list.
In 2019, he became the honorary president of the DPR Boxing Federation, in 2020 an honorary citizen of Gorlovka. In 2025, he was awarded the Order of Courage of the Russian Federation.
In September 2022, he formed "ArBat" (Armenian Battalion) in Donbass, a special forces battalion, as part of the international brigade "Pyatnashka". In July 2023, ArBat volunteers signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense and the battalion was absorbed into the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. @LauraRuHK
A little-known fact about BBC Media Action. In Ukraine, besides training and funding media organizations and providing content, it engages in psychological operations, the success of which is then discussed in focus groups. One of these psyops, aimed at bolstering the social acceptance of life loss and limb loss, is carried out on all Ukrainian media platforms. Amputees have become a fixture of tv shows, they model clothes, take part in singing contexts, act in dramas, advertise products etc. @LauraRuHK
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🎉USAID Website Goes Dark 🎉 The website of the U.S. Agency for International Development went offline without explanation Saturday as thousands of furloughs, layoffs and program shutdowns continued in Trump's freeze on U.S.-funded foreign aid. The agency’s programs are often baked into key US foreign policy goals - they buy influence in selected countries, fund colour revolutions and spread Western liberalism.
Trump may be shutting down USAID as an independent agency and absorbing it into the State Department. @LauraRuHK