American Companies Lost $100 Billion by Exiting Russian Market

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June 23, 2026

The head of the American Chamber of Commerce (AmCham), Robert Agee, considered the sanctions against Russia a poor decision, especially for US companies. According to him, several sanctions imposed by former US President Joe Biden through executive orders “could be lifted tomorrow,” yet despite his enthusiasm, there is little indication that the Trump administration will lift sanctions anytime soon.

“For example, the investment ban imposed by former US President Joe Biden. We believe that decision was entirely wrong, particularly for American business. On the other hand, there are sanctions approved by Congress, and those will be much more difficult to remove,” the head of AmCham said.

According to him, the current US authorities intend, once the Ukrainian conflict ends, to “reduce sanctions pressure to the maximum extent legally possible.”

Agee also noted that American businesses advance the issue of lifting or easing sanctions through the American Chamber of Commerce.

“We are the only organization trying to persuade the US government to lift certain sanctions. Our immediate priority is the removal of the investment ban. We are closely focused on sectors such as cosmetics and civil aviation. We are trying to convince the US government that sanctions in these areas can and should be eased even before the conflict is fully resolved,” he added.

He pointed to Russia’s role in global supply chains and its potential to help address economic challenges.

“Russia has enormous potential to help our companies overcome many of today’s global challenges,” Agee said. “That applies both to high energy prices and to the fertilizer sector. Russia is one of the world’s largest fertilizer producers. These and similar products could easily be exported to the United States.”

He added that numerous American technology and aviation companies were closely monitoring developments.

Russia has repeatedly stated that the country will deal with the sanctions pressure that the West has been exerting for several years and that continues to intensify. Yet, even though Russia has proven it can not only survive under sanctions but even continue to thrive, they are still not lifted, leading to the loss of over $100 billion for US companies.

“We estimate that we lost about $100 billion,” Agee said in a separate interview and in response to a question about what US companies lost when they exited the Russian market.

“This is considered a loss of market share or assets that were sold below their real value,” he added.

Even though US President Donald Trump portrays himself as the defender of business, he still refuses to lift sanctions that would allow American companies to earn billions in profit from trade and investment with Russia.

In the latest example, the US Treasury did not publish an extension of its sanctions waiver on Russian seaborne oil on June 17, after the waiver expired.

During the Iran conflict, Trump’s administration temporarily lifted US sanctions on Russian oil to support vulnerable economies facing an energy crisis. This policy might shift once Washington and Tehran conclude the war, potentially enabling West Asian oil to access global markets.

On June 16, Trump suggested the US could allow the reimposition of the sanctions by ending the waiver.

“Soon we’ll be able to ‌do that, because the oil is now flowing out of ​the Middle East,” he said.

Then, a day later, Trump said he was noncommittal about a US reimposition of sanctions on Russia.

“We are looking at that. We’re ​seeing how far the price ‌of oil comes down. It’s really tumbling,” he told reporters during the G7 summit in France.

Last year, the Trump administration imposed sanctions on Russian oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil to force Russia to cease its Ukraine war by cutting off its oil income. Russia is among the top global oil exporters, alongside the US and Saudi Arabia.

US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who have led US-brokered negotiations to end the war in Ukraine, will visit Russia soon, the Kremlin confirmed.

“Both negotiators — Kushner and Witkoff — will visit Russia in the near future. As I understand it, they are still engaged with Iranian matters and will be present at the start of work on the main agreement. Therefore, the specific dates of the visit to Moscow have not yet been determined,” Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov said.

Ushakov stated that the timing of the visit depends on the negotiators’ continued engagement in talks regarding Iran and the early phases of a wider agreement process.

Although the visit of Kushner and Witkoff to Russia is evidently a positive step, there is little indication that this will result in sanctions against Russia being eased, especially if easing is hinged on the war ending, a war that is only continued by Ukraine’s own volition and European financial and armaments backing.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/american-companies-lost-100-billion-exiting-russian-market/5931026

Israel Brings The War Rhetoric Towards Türkiye

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 Justin K.P.
June 23, 2026

The idea of Israel going to war with Türkiye- a NATO member- potentially triggering World War III seems insane.

And yet Israel is using their war rhetoric towards Türkiye.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry put out a post seemingly laying the groundwork for an Israeli war, claiming that “Hamas terrorists based in Turkey are directing attacks against Israelis, funding terrorism, and recruiting operatives. The network is exposed. The facts are clear.”

This is far from the first time Israel has used war rhetoric towards Türkiye.

Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs Amichai Chikli recently said that Israel “will be at war with Syria sooner or later” in part because he called Syria “a Turkish protectorate”.

He also fabricated a new “radical Sunni axis of evil” which supposedly includes Pakistan, Turkey and Qatar.

Middle East Eye reported:

“What we are witnessing before our eyes is the rise of a new axis,” Chikli told 103FM radio on Wednesday, referring to Turkey, Qatar and Pakistan. He described this so-called alliance as “a radical Sunni axis of evil, more dangerous than anything we have seen before”.

While Chikli mentioned both Qatar and Pakistan in his interviews, he mainly focused on Turkey, branding Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s vision “an extremely dangerous combination for us”.

Other members of the ruling Israeli Likud party have similarly been declaring Türkiye “an enemy state”.

Middle East Eye noted, “Last week, Israeli lawmaker Ariel Kellner, also of Likud, called Turkey an ‘enemy state’, while Culture and Sports Minister Miki Zohar said last month that Israel’“must begin to treat Turkey as an enemy state,’ suggesting that Turkey would suffer heavy blows in a possible conflict with Israel.”

It added that “In February, former prime minister Naftali Bennett indicated that he sees Turkey as an enemy, with the opposition figure stating: ‘Turkey is the new Iran.’”

Perhaps the most concerning development is the fact that the Foundation for The Defence of Democracies (FDD), an Israeli lobby cutout that played a large role in the U.S. war on Iran, has begun publishing articles using similar rhetoric towards Türkiye.

FDD put out an article titled , “Turkey the new Iran? Ankara’s growing challenge to Western interests”.

The article attempted to label Türkiye as the “new Iran”, writing:

As Iran and its proxies take a beating from American and Israeli forces, observers are questioning whether Turkey is waiting in the wings to emerge as the region’s next “bogeyman.” The answer is likely yes, albeit in its own form.

Turkey is not Iran, but depicting Turkey as a nuisance or simply “complicated” only emboldens a maturing adversarial regime with an established track record of undermining its Western allies.

The article attempted to ratchet up hostilities between Türkiye and the United States, writing, “The real question is whether Turkey is actively undermining US, NATO, and regional security interests. There is little doubt that Ankara is doing just that, and doing so more brazenly with the passage of time.”

It also lamented that Türkiye is too supportive of the Palestinian resistance, writing “Hamas, as an Iranian proxy, has served Ankara’s interests in undermining Israel’s security interests, something which Turkey would like to see intact after the end of the current war.”

FDD has similarly put out articles pushing for the U.S. to put sanctions on Türkiye, saying that “Washington should pursue Global Magnitsky sanctions against targets in Turkey” and that “the United States should utilize Global Magnitsky authorities to target Turkish individuals responsible for human rights violations”.

It also called for the U.S. to designate “government officials” in Türkiye as “terrorist organizations” and wrote that “The United States should protect the international financial sector by recommending added scrutiny and screening to transactions involving Turkish financial institutions” and that “Washington should coordinate with the G7 to return Turkey to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) ‘grey list’ until further improvements are seen in combating terrorism financing.”

The Carnegie Endowment for Peace documented that “FDD was the brainchild of a New York Times journalist-turned-Republican operative, Clifford May,” adding that “it arose out of an organization committed to burnishing Israel’s reputation in the United States. On April 24, 2001, three major pro-Israel donors incorporated an organization called EMET (Hebrew for ‘truth’). In an application to the Internal Revenue Service for tax-exempt status, May explained that the group ‘was to provide education to enhance Israel’s image in North America and the public’s understanding of issues affecting Israeli-Arab relations.’ But in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, May broadened the group’s mission and changed its name to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. As he explained in a supplement to the IRS, the group’s board of directors decided to focus on ‘develop[ing] educational materials on the eradication of terrorism everywhere in the world.’”

It added that, “FDD’s chief funders have been drawn almost entirely from American Jews who have a long history of funding pro-Israel organizations. They include Bernard Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, whiskey heirs Samuel and Edgar Bronfman, gambling mogul Sheldon Adelson, heiress Lynn Schusterman, Wall Street speculators Michael Steinhardt and Paul Singer, and Leonard Abramson, founder of U.S. Healthcare.”

Sima Vaknin-Gil, a former Israeli military intelligence officer, in the Al Jazeera documentary The Lobby, admitted that “We have FDD” and that “the foundation is ‘working on’ projects for Israel, including ‘data gathering, information analysis, working on activist organizations, money trail. This is something that only a country, with its resources, can do the best”.

FDD played a huge role in shaping American policy towards Iran at the behest of Israel.

Now, as Israel calls Türkiye an “enemy state”- the FDD has begun pushing Washington to place sanctions on the country and designate government officials as terrorists, laying the groundwork for a new Israeli war.

[…]

Via https://the307.substack.com/p/israel-brings-the-war-rhetoric-towards

This is Why Trump Was Necessary

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Nate Bear

Iran has forced the US into one of the biggest strategic defeats in its short, violent and bloody history.

The memorandum of understanding with Iran, signed (symbolically or not), at Versailles yesterday, signalled, as I wrote earlier this week, that we’re witnessing the collapse of American hard power.

After it was signed, Trump made some extraordinary comments that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the handbook of anti-imperial critique, including that it’s not fair to tell Iran it can’t have missiles if all it’s neighbours have them and that it’s “common sense” that the country should be able to enrich uranium for energy. Trump also admitted oil reserves were running out and the world was approaching a depression, which slays the idea (an idea I never bought), that the US attack was a genius move to control the world’s oil and gas.

Iran has suffered some serious damage to its infrastructure as well as burying over 3,000 civilians, but it has checkmated the US strategically. And Trump has had to accept that. Iran’s ability to hit key regional infrastructure from deeply-buried missile cities, along with its ability to control the Strait, won the day. The US also appears to be reluctantly accepting some other realities. A few hours after the MoU was signed, after it was put to him that Israel wasn’t happy with the tentative deal, JD Vance said that Israel “is a country of nine million people that can’t just kill its way out of every national security problem.”

They read the polls, they see the way the wind is blowing, and they’re moving with it.

Israel of course is still a vital strategic outpost for empire, and it will not be abandoned yet. But there is absolutely a future in which the value of Israel to empire becomes less useful than the economic value empire can gain from a wider peace in the region, even if that peace runs counter to Israeli interests. And if Israel, not Iran or the resistance, comes to be seen as the main obstacle to this future, a position Trump and Vance appear to be moving towards, it is entirely conceivable that Israel, just like South Africa, will be globally ostracised and abandoned.

If this were to happen, the range of outcomes is extremely broad. Tensions between orthodox and secular Jews are already high in Israel, and you could reasonably argue that under conditions of global abandonment, civil war would break out. Before or after such a war, you might get a government run by Ben-Gvir and Jewish end-times fanatics who decide to fight the world and trigger a nuclear holocaust. Or the fanatics might lose, and you get a government which enters into international negotiations towards one state with equal rights for all. A former prime minister of Israel has, after all, just labelled Israeli actions in the West Bank ethnic cleansing.

I think we’re a long way from Israel ever giving up its colonial privileges. Civil war is a lot more likely than the negotiated end of the state, but we’re certainly a big step closer than we’ve ever been to whatever comes next for the genocidal colonial outpost.

Maybe this all seems too optimistic to you. And I hate to blow my own trumpet. But I was among the minority who predicted the start of the war before it started, who said Iran wouldn’t lose, that there’d be no regime change and no US victory via an air war was possible. When the ceasefire was announced I was among even fewer who said it would hold because the US was out of real options, while the consensus anti-imperial opinion said it was a ruse to buy time for a land invasion or other escalation.

And now, despite the calling off of talks in Geneva over the next stage of the process, my prediction, for what it’s worth, is that this won’t mean a return to war, and that in fact it will further the process of US-Israel estrangement, with Trump and Vance likely to see it as further confirmation that Israel, not Iran, is the impediment to peace.

Which is all to say, Trump was a necessary evil.

Of course we’ll never know if a Democrat as president would have launched an attack on Iran, but it would have come eventually. And given that an attack on Iran was inevitable, it was the best case scenario that it happened under Trump, an ideologically drifting narcissist without any real loyalties or attachments. A man motivated to protect his own personal financial interests above anything else (a number of which sit within the range of Iranian missiles). A man who was always going to be outmanoeuvred by a country led, literally, by men and women with PhDs, by philosophers, mystics and engineers. There were reports that in the process of negotiations, Iran drafted in the country’s top psychologists to craft messages to appeal to Trump’s ego and vainglorious personality. It appears to have worked.

From only ever acting retaliatorily, from closing the Strait of Hormuz to striking American bases and the oil and gas infrastructure of US proxies, to employing psychologists to sweet talk a narcissist, Iran bossed the process from day one.

And Israel knows it.

It’s attacks on Lebanon are a final attempt to derail the process and regain some leverage over the negotiations. I don’t think it’ll work. We’re too far down the track. The Strait opens, the oil and gas starts flowing, or, with oil reserves at critical levels, we’re looking at a global depression. And Trump now appears motivated to avoid that, not least to protect his own wealth, above and beyond the objections of Israel. I don’t believe, as many still do, that the MoU, Trump’s comments and Vance’s criticisms of Israel, are all part of some drawn out psy-op before another attack on Iran.

This isn’t to give Trump any credit. It’s just to say empire isn’t omnipotent or strategically untouchable. You can, with the right war strategy, alongside favourable geography and propitious timing, force it to make concessions it doesn’t want to make.

Trump was necessary. Necessary to strip away the niceties and reveal the true face of empire, to reveal its naked impunity, to showcase the war crimes in all their immoral bloodlust. Yes, from Vietnam to Iraq to the so-called War on Terror, what Trump has shown us is nothing new, but through careful stage-management and competent administration, the myth of benign American empire has managed to endure. I’m not sure that myth will survive Trump. He’s also been necessary to reveal the limits of empire, to show it can be beaten, to expose its vulnerabilities, to detail its weaknesses.

Iran should have tied Gaza more closely to the MoU, as it has with Lebanon, but it has delivered a valuable blueprint in how to fight empire.

Trump has also been necessary to expose the plastic progressives, the liberal anti-Trump imperialists who, in their opposition to Trump’s deal with Iran, can only look like warmongering imperial psychopaths. From all those sharing memes on social media about surrender, from the Democrats and CNN talking heads decrying the deal, to Jimmy Fallon dragging Trump for giving Iran back the money the US stole, there is no articulation of an alternative to endlessly bombing Iran. There’s no anger from liberals over dead Iranians, or at the imperial state, at Zionism or the embedded death machinery that made this violence possible. No, they’re just embarrassed for empire. And they don’t want to recognise the limits of that empire.

With Israel still bombing Lebanon and oil reserves at critical thresholds, however, this is all far from over.

Iran has sketched out two futures for the US and it now has a decision to make: stand behind the deal which Trump has loudly proclaimed as necessary to save the world, and force Israel to stand down, or let Israel dictate the process, return to war and drag the world into an economic depression. Anything is still possible, of course, but I judge the latter extremely unlikely.

And Trump, in his egotism, venality and conceited self-interest, might just be the man for the moment.

What I do know is that those Iranian psychologists have some more work to do.

[…]

Via https://www.donotpanic.news/p/this-is-why-trump-was-necessary

Citizens Around the World Demand Israel’s Expulsion From the United Nations

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Telesur

June 23, 2026

On Monday, several Chilean organizations delivered more than 80,000 signatures to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, demanding Israel’s expulsion from the organization for war crimes committed in the Gaza Strip.

The collection was led by the Lawyers for Palestine association and the Sign for Palestine campaign, with collection points in various countries. The signatures were presented at the United Nations headquarters in Santiago, Chile.

“Israel is the country that most intentionally tramples on international law, resolutions, and the international order. Now they are taking that policy to Lebanon, where there are already more than 5,500 victims,” ​​said Nelson Hadad, a member of Lawyers for Palestine.

Since October 7, 2023, when Israel launched its offensive against the Gaza Strip, more than 73,000 Gazans have been killed, including 20,000 children, according to the Gaza-based Health Ministry. Additionally, more than 1,020 deaths have been reported since the ceasefire came into effect in October 2025, due to attacks that violated the truce.

Paula Abugattas, a lawyer for the campaign, stated that “a large majority of countries in the UN General Assembly are aware of these violations against the Palestinian people, and there is widespread support” for Israel’s expulsion. Meanwhile, the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip is worsening due to Israel’s restrictions on the entry of international aid.

Gazans remain in precarious camps for internally displaced persons amid severe shortages of food, medicine, clean water, and sanitation, as well as infectious and chronic diseases, and trauma, which will continue to cause indirect deaths long after the Israeli violence in Gaza ends. The UN has warned that the situation remains critical.

Tom Fletcher, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs, noted that 70% of the population needs shelter and essential services are on the verge of collapse. “UNICEF warns that water is not guaranteed for 1.1 billion children,” he emphasized, demanding an effective ceasefire.

[…]

Via https://www.telesurenglish.net/citizens-around-the-world-demand-israels-expulsion-from-the-united-nations/

Putin: West no longer hiding plans for war with Russia

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West no longer hiding plans for war with Russia – Putin
President Vladimir Putin gestures as he addresses graduates of Russia’s military, security, and law enforcement academies in the Kremlin on June 23, 2026. ©  Sputnik/Yuri Kochetkov
RT

Western nations are no longer hiding their preparations for war with Russia, President Vladimir Putin has said, adding that NATO and EU leaders are using “false claims” about the supposed ‘Russian threat’ to justify rampant militarization.

Putin made the remarks on Tuesday during a ceremony in the Kremlin for graduates of Russia’s military, security, and law enforcement academies, saying NATO’s posture has shifted from supporting Kiev with weapons and funding to outright preparations for war.

“Now, they are openly saying that they are preparing for war with us, increasing military offensive budgets,” Putin said. He argued that Western governments are using the same playbook that has always been used against Russia.

“At first, they create threats for our country, force us to take actions necessary for self-defense, and then immediately accuse us of all mortal sins to justify the continuation of their aggressive policy,” he said, drawing parallels to the attempts by Nazi Germany and other Western countries to label the Soviet Union as the aggressor after Germany launched a surprise invasion in 1941.

Putin’s remarks come as NATO’s European members and Canada raised defense spending by 20% in real terms in 2025, reaching a combined $574 billion, citing the supposed ‘Russian threat’. Moscow has dismissed speculation that it plans to attack NATO countries as “nonsense.”

Turning to Ukraine’s drone campaign against Russian cities, Putin said the strikes on civilian infrastructure are designed “to rock society” rather than achieve military aims. “When the whole West is working for them, with this huge flow of drones, [the aim is] to create doubt in the actions of the Russian Armed Forces,” he said.

Putin noted, however, that European nations are still reluctant to launch strikes on Russia from their own territory because “they understand that there will be retaliation.”

Putin’s comments came as Ukraine continues to carry out long-range strikes deep into Russia, which often lead to civilian casualties. Last week, Kiev launched a drone raid on Moscow – the largest in two years – with Mayor Sergey Sobyanin reporting the destruction of 194 drones. The attack damaged an oil refinery, a shopping center, and several residential buildings, with more than a dozen people injured.

[…]

Via https://www.rt.com/russia/642018-west-gearing-war-russia-putin/

$9 Billion to Jab You: How Your Tax Dollars Fund the World’s Largest Drug Advertising Machine

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By Dr. Peter McCullough
June 18, 2026

From kindergarten classrooms to third-world villages—the federal vaccine cartel spends more selling shots than Big Pharma spends on direct-to-consumer advertising for all drugs combined

The public is bombarded with public health messaging about vaccination, far more than losing weight, exercise, improving diet or even high-cost branded drugs. I wondered how much is spent on vaccine promotion and why?

The Taxpayer Vaccination Leviathan: Annual Federal Spending on Immunization Promotion (2018–2025)

The federal vaccine apparatus is a sprawling, multi-agency enterprise that consumes billions annually—not just purchasing doses, but manufacturing consent through aggressive “promotion” and “education” campaigns that blur the line between public health and propaganda.

HHS: The Primary Engine

CDC dominates vaccine promotion spending. The Immunization and Vaccines for Children program alone runs ~5–6 billion annually. Within this, the CDC’s *National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases* (NCIRD) operates with an annual budget exceeding $800 million, much of it dedicated to “provider education,” public awareness campaigns, and the Orwellian-titled Vaccinate with Confidence initiative targeting “vaccine hesitancy.”

NIH pours roughly $1.5–2 billion annually into vaccine research, including behavioral science grants studying how to manipulate public perception—what they call “vaccine acceptance interventions.” The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) alone commanded over $6 billion in total budget in recent years, with a substantial vaccine component.

HRSA (Health Resources and Services Administration) administers the Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP)—a self-contained admission that vaccines cause harm, yet its ~$250 million annual payout structure is dwarfed by the promotional machinery.

ASPR (Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response) and BARDA (Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority) funnel billions more into vaccine development and stockpiling, with embedded “public communication” components.

Other Departments

USAID historically spent hundreds of millions annually on global immunization programs through Gavi and UNICEF, often functioning as a soft-power vaccine export arm.

Department of Defense runs its own Military Vaccine Agency (MILVAX), with annual budgets in the tens of millions for mandatory troop vaccination and “education.”

Department of Education quietly funds school-based vaccine promotion through grants to state education agencies.

Annual Estimates (Billions)

These figures are conservative. They exclude state-level matching funds, the imputed value of media’s free pro-vaccine coverage, and the incalculable cost of regulatory capture that makes honest safety research unfundable.

The Numbers for HTN, Lipids, and Diabetes

Diabetes Drugs

This is the monster category. In 2023, drugmakers spent over $1 billion on ads for weight loss and diabetes treatments, with diabetes-specific drugs accounting for roughly $790 million of that. The GLP-1 gold rush has sent this into the stratosphere:

  • Ozempic: $208 million (2023)
  • Rybelsus: $199 million (2023)
  • Mounjaro: $139 million (2023)
  • Jardiance: $148 million (2023)
  • Farxiga: $68 million (2023)

By 2025, Novo Nordisk alone was on track to spend nearly $500 million in just the first nine months on Wegovy and Ozempic combined, with Eli Lilly adding another $214 million on Zepbound and Mounjaro. The annualized diabetes/obesity ad spend is now comfortably north of $1.5 billion.

Cholesterol Drugs

This category has collapsed. Lipitor—once the king—commanded a $272 million annual DTC budget in 2010, with total marketing (including physician detailing and samples) exceeding $660 million. But after Lipitor went generic in late 2011, Pfizer pulled the plug. Crestor picked up some slack, but the entire statin class DTC spend today is a shadow of its former self—likely under $150 million annually across all brands.

Blood Pressure Drugs

This is the quietest category. Antihypertensives are overwhelmingly generic, and branded DTC advertising for blood pressure meds is minimal. Even during peak years, top brands like Diovan or Benicar never cracked $100 million in DTC spend. Today, combined branded antihypertensive DTC advertising likely sits below $100 million annually—possibly far below.

Combined Estimate

The Bigger Picture

A few things worth noting:

  • TV dominates. National TV accounts for 88%+ of ad spend on these drugs. The pharma industry knows exactly what it’s doing—blanket the boomer-heavy cable news and daytime TV audiences.
  • A 2023 JAMA study found the drugs with the lowest added clinical benefit spent a higher proportion of their promotional budgets on DTC advertising. The worse the drug works, the harder they sell it to you directly. The overall DTC spend is ~$6 billion, less than what the government spends on vaccine promotion.

For vaccines, the irony is stark: a government that spends north of $9 billion annually pushing a product simultaneously shields its manufacturers from liability and runs a compensation program for those it injures. That’s not public health—that’s a protected cartel with a marketing budget.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/9-billion-jab-tax-dollars-fund-largest-drug-advertising-machine/5930478

Bill Gates mRNA Ebola Vaccine Grant Matches Deadly “Rare and Deadly Virus Strain’ Outbreak in DRC

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By West Africa Weekly
22 May 2026

A new Ebola outbreak in central Africa has ignited a firestorm of criticism against billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates, as the timing of a major vaccine funding grant aligns almost precisely with the emergence of a rare and deadly virus strain.

The controversy has deepened further with news that the FBI is investigating an American scientist accused of smuggling pathogen samples out of the Democratic Republic of Congo, the same region now fighting the epidemic.

The outbreak involves the Bundibugyo Ebola strain, which was confirmed by the DRC’s Ministry of Health on May 15, 2026, in Ituri Province. Two days later, the World Health Organization declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Hundreds of suspected cases and dozens of deaths have been reported in an area already suffering from armed conflict and mass displacement.

Just four months before the WHO declaration, in January 2026, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, or CEPI, awarded 26.7 million dollars to Moderna and Oxford University to develop a multivalent mRNA vaccine against Ebola, specifically including the Bundibugyo strain. CEPI was launched at the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2017, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation was one of its founding donors. Bill Gates has personally championed the coalition since its beginning.

Health researchers on social media have called the timing suspicious, with one widely shared post asking how a vaccine grant for a rare strain could be funded months before that strain caused a global health emergency. Others pointed out that Moderna began developing its mRNA Ebola vaccine using artificial intelligence at the same time the grant was awarded.

The situation took a darker turn when an X account belonging to a public health professional alleged that an NIH virologist named Vincent Munster was caught at a U.S. airport smuggling deadly pathogen samples from the Congo.

The post claimed Munster runs Ebola field sites in the country and regularly conducts gain of function experiments, adding that he is now under FBI investigation. Independent news reports have confirmed that the FBI is indeed investigating Munster over allegations that he smuggled dangerous virus samples, including monkeypox virus, from the Democratic Republic of Congo into the United States.

Supporters of Gates and CEPI argue that the coalition was created specifically to prepare for future epidemics after the catastrophic 2014 to 2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.

They note that the 26.7 million dollar grant was part of a broader effort to develop vaccines against multiple filoviruses, including several Ebola strains and Marburg virus, not just the Bundibugyo strain.

The WHO has also confirmed that no licensed vaccine or specific treatment currently exists for the Bundibugyo virus, meaning the vaccine development is a legitimate public health priority.

Yet the controversy does not exist in isolation.

For years, Bill Gates has faced deep skepticism across Africa over his foundation’s health and agricultural programs. A recent 50 million dollar AI driven health partnership with OpenAI drew sharp criticism, with many Africans accusing Gates of using the continent as a testing ground. Agricultural programs promoted by the Gates Foundation have also been described by some African experts as pushing farmers toward patented seeds and chemical intensive farming, a model they have called a new form of colonization.

As the Ebola outbreak continues to spread and the death count rises, the real world consequences of this distrust are already visible. This week, an angry crowd in the DRC set Ebola hospital tents on fire, demonstrating the dangerous gap between international health efforts and local belief. With the FBI investigation ongoing and the vaccine timeline raising unanswered questions, Bill Gates faces his most difficult challenge yet in Africa.

[…]

Via https://www.globalresearch.ca/bill-gates-ebola-vaccine-grant-congo/5930724

For South Lebanon’s displaced, returning to homes destroyed by Israeli bombs is act of defiance

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By Roqayah Chamseddine

The olive trees of South Lebanon do not merely grow; they endure, rooted in a recurring historical liturgy in which returning to them is an act of defiance – a refusal to be permanently unmoored from a land that decades of wars and invasions have transformed into both a frontline and a sanctuary.

To truly understand the gravity of a native’s return, one must look beyond the dust-choked rubble of the latest war of aggression and trace a deeper, more enduring lineage of defiance.

It is a history etched into the foundational scars of the 1978 and 1982 invasions, tempered through the long and suffocating years of occupation, and vindicated by the hard-won war of liberation in 2000. The act of return is therefore not merely a response to the present war, but the continuation of a collective memory shaped by decades of resistance, sacrifice, and steadfast attachment to the land.

The families now traversing these shell-pocked highways, their vehicles stacked high with mattresses and the remnants of interrupted lives, carry a pragmatic understanding: that safety is never guaranteed by international resolutions or the shifting calculations of imperial diplomacy. It is secured through an unwavering commitment to remain the custodians of their homeland.

They know that to leave these hills empty is to concede precisely what the enemy has long sought – a depopulated buffer zone carved out through displacement, fear, and the slow erosion of belonging.

Passing through the coastal city of Tyre, long a bastion of resistance on Lebanon’s southern shore, one is confronted at every turn by the remnants of Israel’s latest campaign of destruction: pancaked apartment blocks, damaged medical facilities, and the charred facades of shops that once sustained the rhythms of daily life.

The city bears its wounds openly, its streets layered in dust and silence where commerce, conversation, and community once flourished

Amid the chalky haze, a group of children stands before the shattered shell of their apartment building near Hiram Hospital, itself damaged in a particularly devastating Israeli airstrike on May 31. Cradled between them is a small puppy, a living rescue pulled from the wreckage and passed carefully from hand to hand like a fragment of salvaged hope.

“We found him when we came to check on the house,” thirteen-year-old Mustafa told the Press TV website, his eyes drifting across the rubble that was once his neighborhood.

“We’re going to take him to a veterinarian as soon as one opens.”

In a landscape defined by ruin, the gesture feels quietly profound. This small act of mercy reflects one of southern Lebanon’s deepest and most enduring covenants: a fierce commitment to safeguard not only the land itself, but every fragile life it shelters.

For those returning to the south, homecoming is more than an act of reclamation. It is an acceptance of responsibility – for the fields and olive groves, for the houses waiting to be rebuilt, and for every living thing that depends on the land’s capacity to endure and nurture.

An elderly man from the village of Qana, his car plastered with images of his martyred son, beamed with pride as he told us he was heading home, whatever the cost.

“Nothing will keep me from returning,” he said. “I was born in the south, and they will bury me in the south.”

That deeply ingrained liturgy of return was violently shattered by the latest onslaught before Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz. In a single day, Israel unleashed a relentless campaign of more than 100 airstrikes, systematically designed to render south Lebanon and its historic towns utterly uninhabitable.

The skies above the Nabatieh ridge and the Bekaa Valley dissolved into a dense canopy of fire, killing at least 47 people, many of them children, and extinguishing any illusion of calm. The offensive spared neither sanctuary nor shelter.

Residential clusters across Harouf, Haboush, and Dweir were flattened in rapid succession. In Harouf, the killing of an entire family, including three young daughters, laid bare an Israeli tactical doctrine that treats the mere physical presence of a southerner as an existential provocation.

Nowhere was this punitive machinery of forced displacement more concentrated than in my own village of Arab Salim.

Perched on high ground overlooking the Nabatieh lines, Arab Salim endured 15 separate strikes within a single 24-hour window, a calculated wave of terror aimed at breaking the psychological spine of a community that has historically refused to bend.

When I arrived in South early Thursday morning, a quiet stillness hung over the village, but the air was thick with anticipation. Local residents had only just begun to trickle back – hopeful, hesitant, yet visibly excited to return after months of forced displacement.

Near the village center, a small family stood before what remained of the local supermarket. The building had been heavily damaged in a previous Israeli airstrike, its fractured facade a stark reminder of the violence they had fled.

Yet, standing amidst the debris, the family was not mourning the concrete; they were rejoicing simply to be home.

As I walked further up the road toward the local Hussainya, a village elder spotted me. His face wrinkled into a warm, deeply etched smile, and he beamed with a pride that even the surrounding devastation could not strip away. He stepped forward to welcome me back, his voice carrying the weight of everything our community had endured.

“Welcome home, and thank God for your safety!” he said, gesturing toward the surrounding hills. “Is there anything more beautiful than the scent of the village?”

There was a fragile, defiant normalcy in the air. Neighbors checked water tanks and inspected outer walls for shrapnel scars, exchanging stories of where they had spent their months of exile in Beirut.

The village square began to echo with the familiar rhythm of morning greetings and laughter. For a brief, deceptive window, the village felt like itself again, reclaimed by the people who give it meaning, utterly unaware that this quiet reunion was merely the preamble to the most devastating twenty-four hours we would ever witness.

On Friday, as I sat in my family home, I heard every single airstrike tear through residential neighborhoods and scar the surrounding farmland. The walls shook with a violence that sought to turn our intimate history into dust.

One strike in particular directly targeted a local family as they attempted to flee the escalating bombardment, killing three of them and leaving their vehicle burning as a grim testament. While fifteen separate attacks have physically leveled parts of Arab Salim, the siege has failed its primary objective. The destruction of our homes does not sever a Southerner’s tie to this land. On the contrary, the ruins only deepen our resolve.

This systematic violence is part of a century-long logic of environmental and territorial engineering, a calculated campaign to sever the southern native from the soil by rendering the geography itself toxic and unrecognizable.

From the white phosphorus that poisons our agricultural valleys to the deliberate demolition of entire historic quarters, the enemy measures its victories solely through the physical absence of Lebanese life, attempting to reshape the borderlands into a depopulated buffer zone.

Yet this military architecture fundamentally miscalculates the nature of sumud – steadfastness. It fails to realize that the infrastructure of resistance is built not from the permanence of concrete, but from the deep, stubborn roots of a communal identity that grows stronger with every layer of destruction.

To remain under fire, to document the ruins from afar, and to return before the smoke has even cleared are not passive acts of survival. People here see it as a political refusal to allow their landscape to be dictated by an occupying force.

The rubble of Arab Salim does not mark the end of history for these people, but it forms the raw material of an inevitable reconstruction and return. It proves that the bond between the Southerner and this land is an unyielding, non-negotiable sovereignty – one that no amount of Israeli firepower can ever dissolve.

As I reluctantly returned to Beirut before dark to escape the intensifying airstrikes, the familiar cascade of forced displacement unfolded around me as we sped towards Sidon (Saida).

The highway was a bottleneck of survival where cars were topped with mattresses and packed with whatever belongings could fit. Vehicles were running only by the grace of God, and some bore the fresh, jagged scars of Israeli attacks.

I sat inside a packed vehicle alongside fellow southerners, including some from my village and others we had picked up along the way as we fled the Iqlim al-Tuffah region.

Next to me, an elderly woman clutched a small white trash bag filled with the few things she had managed to gather from her home quickly.

Her voice was a steady anchor against the chaos outside as she repeated to herself, almost like a vow: “We will return. The Israelis will never keep us away. We will return.”

[…]

Via https://uprootedpalestinians.wordpress.com/2026/06/22/for-south-lebanons-displaced-returning-to-homes-destroyed-by-israeli-bombs-is-act-of-defiance/

First round of Swiss-hosted Iran-US talks ends with 5 key agreements

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Nathan Howard AP

Al Mayadeen English

Following the conclusion of the first round of the Iran-US talks in Switzerland on Monday, the media committee of the Iranian negotiating delegation issued a statement outlining the main points and understandings reached during the talks.

The Bürgenstock talks outline a phased framework linking security arrangements, financial measures, and sanctions relief to conditional implementation steps.

Key developments include a Lebanon ceasefire monitoring mechanism, structured communication over the Strait of Hormuz, coordinated asset release arrangements, and temporary sanctions relief measures tied to energy exports.

Lebanon ceasefire monitoring mechanism

According to the statement, continued pressure from the Iranian negotiating delegation since Saturday afternoon contributed to maintaining a fragile ceasefire in Lebanon for the time being.

To support stabilization efforts, the parties agreed to establish a monitoring framework titled the “Conflict Control Unit.” Iran is expected to participate in this mechanism, which will oversee developments related to the ceasefire.

The statement further noted that this arrangement would formally integrate the Islamic Republic of Iran into Lebanon’s security-related discussions, despite US efforts in recent months to exclude Iran from Lebanese affairs. It also stated that “Israel” will have no role in this mechanism.

Strait of Hormuz communication channel

Regarding discussions on the Strait of Hormuz, the statement said an understanding was reached to establish a communication channel aimed at addressing potential implementation issues.

Through this channel, relevant parties would be able to directly contact Iran and present concerns related to maritime coordination and regional navigation.

It characterized this arrangement as part of broader discussions on the management and gradual reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.

Conditional launch of nuclear and sanctions working groups

The agreement also includes the formation of three working groups focused on nuclear issues, sanctions, and monitoring mechanisms.

These groups are set to begin their work only after the implementation of Article 13 of the memorandum of understanding, which outlines several key steps, including:

Iran will not enter the final phase of negotiations before these conditions are fulfilled.

Iran–Qatar agreement on frozen assets

During the same round of talks, Iran and Qatar signed a memorandum of understanding concerning the release of Iranian frozen assets. The agreement is presented as part of ongoing financial and diplomatic coordination between the two sides regarding outstanding economic issues.

US OFAC 60-day sanctions suspension

The statement also referenced documents issued by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) during the negotiations.

According to the statement, these documents provide for a 60-day suspension of sanctions targeting oil, petrochemical, and related sectors. This arrangement would allow Iran to resume oil sales to its customers and receive payments through formal mechanisms managed by the Central Bank, the statement explained.

Bilateral and trilateral meetings at Bürgenstock resort

Al Mayadeen’s Geneva Bureau chief reported on Sunday that various bilateral and trilateral meetings have begun at the Bürgenstock resort ahead of the first official session of Iran-US talks. The opening session took place at 2:30 PM al-Quds time.

The first file discussed after the inaugural session was the implementation of the first clause, which relates to ending the war, particularly on Lebanon.

Al Mayadeen’s Geneva bureau chief later reported that the Iranian delegation held talks with the Qatari delegation in Geneva to discuss the ceasefire in Lebanon. He also reported that, following a meeting with the Iranian delegation, the Pakistani Prime Minister and Chief of Army Staff held talks with the US delegation, headed by Vice President JD Vance.

According to an Iranian official, speaking to CNN on Saturday, before departing for Switzerland, Vance said that one of the top concerns included in the talks would be to make progress towards a ceasefire in Lebanon. “I think we’re going to hopefully make progress on the nuclear issue, make progress on the Lebanon ceasefire issue. Those are the two big things that I think we’re going to be focused on,” the US vice president told reporters, noting that he expected to participate in the talks for only “a day or two”.

[…]

Via https://english.almayadeen.net/news/politics/first-round-of-swiss-hosted-iran-us-talks-ends-with-5-key-ag

Israeli troops deployed to Somaliland in covert mission

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(Photo credit: Reuters/Feisal Omar)

The Cradle

JUN 22, 2026

Officials in Tel Aviv acknowledged years of ‘under-the-radar’ operations with Somaliland as strategic military ties move into the open

Israel secretly deployed a small contingent of forces to Somaliland earlier this year following its recognition of the breakaway territory, a senior Somali government official revealed to Middle East Eye (MEE) on 22 June.

“According to our intelligence reports, the Israeli military selected Israeli soldiers of African heritage, especially Ethiopians, so as not to draw attention to themselves and to blend in more easily with the local community,” the senior Somali official stated.

The Somali official said that Israel had deployed a group of 50 soldiers to Somaliland shortly after the recognition and the resumption of the war on Iran in late February.

On 17 June, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz admitted to years of clandestine, “under the radar” security operations with Somaliland.

During a high-level meeting in Tel Aviv with Somaliland’s visiting president, Israeli officials confirmed that Israel is now directly involved in training the breakaway region’s military and police.

“For many years, we cooperated under the radar in a series of operations that will remain classified. Now we are determined to bring our security cooperation to new heights, for the benefit of both peoples and for the benefit of stability in the region,” Katz said.

In early June, CNN reported that the breakaway republic of Somaliland had provided Israel with an additional military position on the Horn of Africa, allowing Israeli aircraft to “potentially stop” on long-range flights to Iran.

Israel’s Channel 12 reported on 2 May that a senior official in Somaliland said the territory is ready to cooperate with Israel to confront what it described as the “threat” from the Yemeni Armed Forces (YAF) to the highly strategic Bab al-Mandab Strait.

The official said that any “disruption of maritime security” would push Somaliland to expand its relations with Israel, including to the level of a security alliance.

The official also noted that Somaliland currently cooperates with partners such as the US and the UAE, which maintain a presence in the territory’s Berbera Port, and said a similar partnership would be possible with Israel.

The UAE operates the Berbera Port, using it as a logistics hub to transfer arms and mercenaries to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which is responsible for committing genocide against non-Arab tribes in Sudan.

Somaliland declared its independence from Somalia in 1991, and in December 2025, Israel became the first and only UN member state to recognize it as an independent and sovereign state. Israel later appointed Michael Lotem as its first ambassador to Hargeisa in April, drawing worldwide condemnation.

[…]

Via https://thecradle.co/articles/israeli-troops-deployed-to-somaliland-in-covert-mission-report