Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship.

8 years ago, Iran tried the same strategy — and failed. It banned Telegram on made-up pretexts, trying to force people onto a state-run alternative.

Despite the ban, most Iranians still use Telegram (bypassing censorship) and prefer it to surveilled apps.

Restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer. Telegram stands for freedom of speech and privacy, no matter the pressure.

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The solution to the global demographic crisis will never be ever larger pronatalist cash handouts, tax incentives, or cheaper housing. The solution is giving those aged 22-35 hope for the future. Childbearing in the developed world today is a vote of confidence in tomorrow.

This helps explain why conservatives in the US have more children than liberals & why South Koreans, Taiwanese,& Thais have so few offspring. If young people don’t see themselves doing well (or at least doing better than their parents) their incentive to have kids diminishes.

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CBO projecting US to see natural decline by 2030. As deaths will probably be around 3.3 million that year they are expecting roughly a 300,000 annual decline in births from 2025-2030. Considering births have averaged ~3.6M since 2020 I’m not entirely convinced of such a drop.

Why? Because the number of U.S. mothers in their 30s will grow massively throughout the 2030s as gigantic 2000-2009 cohort (the largest cohort since the 1950s-1960s in America which saw 4M+ births every year of it) starts hitting age 30. Think it’s an even bet total births can stabilize ⬆️ 3.4M.

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🇸🇩 🇪🇹 🇸🇩 Reuters confirmed Ethiopia is hosting a large Rapid Support Forces base near the Sudanese border.

For the first time, Ethiopia is directly supporting the RSF in the war in Sudan. The base was probably financed by the UAE and his hosting thousands of Ethiopian, South Sudanese and Sudanese fighters.

Those forces that are training in Ethiopia are intended to help the RSF to push into Blue Nile state. "As of early January, 4,300 RSF fighters were undergoing military training at the site and “their logistical and military supplies are being provided by the UAE,” the note by Ethiopia’s security services seen by Reuters read."

The nearby Asosa airport was also reinforced and now has a drone control station, it remains unknown which drone and who is operating it. This is another clear sign that all the regional politics are connected (Ethiopia, South Sudan, Sudan, Somalia...)

📎 Clement_molin

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🇪🇸 Increasingly authoritarian Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez accused Elon Musk and Telegram founder Pavel Durov of spreading lies about Spain, insisting that technology companies will not influence the government’s plans to restrict social media access for minors.

Spain plans to ban social media use for those under 16 and to hold platform executives accountable for hate speech. Durov and Musk publicly criticized the proposal.

Spain joins countries such as the UK, Greece, and France in tightening social media regulation, following Australia’s ban for children under 16.

“Democracy clearly will not be influenced by algorithmic tech oligarchs. Yesterday they addressed millions of people through their platforms to spread lies,” Sánchez said in Madrid.

Durov warned on Telegram that the law would force platforms to collect user data and allow governments to control content. Musk called Sánchez a “tyrant and a traitor to the Spanish people” on X.

The Spanish government said Durov’s message to Telegram users proves the need for stricter regulation to protect citizens from misinformation.

Sánchez has criticized tech platforms since last year, when he proposed ending online anonymity and linking user data to an EU digital identity.

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By the late 2030s & early 2040s South Korea will be in the very depths of their demographic crisis & this is already fully baked in (as you can see clearly in the population pyramid).  By 2037 close to a million South Koreans will enter full retirement annually & less than 250,000 will enter the labor force.  This is not a warning, it is what will happen.
 
The warnings have also been blaring since the 2010s.  Now we have almost an entire South Korean generation (Gen Alpha) which is smaller than that of countries half South Korea’s size (including North Korea).
Entire sectors from care work to services to small business will struggle to function.  The number of young adults will be less than half that of today.  The old‑age dependency ratio (retirees vs workers) will be extreme.

This is not just a possible outcome or worst case scenario.  It is the scenario.  TFR has been below lowest low since 2002 and those chickens are coming home to roost. 

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🇺🇸⚡️- BREAKING: The DOJ has just unredacted the name of the Epstein co-conspirator from Ohio, confirming that it is Jewish billionaire Les Wexner.

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⚠️ Diosdado Cabello justified the new kidnapping of Juan Pablo Guanipa, admitting that he was re-detained after being released from prison, and threatened with more reprisals against those who call for protests. The regime's leader claimed that the measure is a "message" and made it clear that the supposed release of prisoners is conditional on political submission.

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🇻🇪🇺🇸 Foreign Affairs Committee of the Republican majority in the US Senate demands that Delcy Rodríguez release Juan Pablo Guanipa and other political prisoners.

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📢 🇺🇸 🇨🇦 Trump threatens to block opening of new bridge between Ontario and Michigan

President says he won't allow opening until U.S. 'is fully compensated for everything we have given' Canada

"I will not allow this bridge to open until the United States is fully compensated for everything we have given them, and also, importantly, Canada treats the United States with the Fairness and Respect that we deserve," Trump wrote in the post on Monday.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/trump-gordie-howe-bridge-9.7081924

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🇸🇦 🇦🇪 An overview of the Saudi Arabia-United Arab Emirates rivalry in the Middle East and Africa

📎 Clement_molin

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🇺🇸🇨🇴⚡️ — U.S. Department of State INL:

With INL (Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs) support, Colombian security forces executed a joint operation to target this narco-sub.

10 tons of cocaine worth $441M are now destroyed & 4 narco-traffickers arrested.

Strong partnerships deliver strong results.

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🇺🇸⚔️🇮🇷 Diego Garcia, high resolution satellite imagery | February 9th, 2026, Mizarvision.

1 x Nuclear-power Submarine docked
2 x P-8A Poseidon
3 x KC-135R
2 x MC-130J

The submarine captured is likely a Virginia-class submarine, potentially the USS South Dakota (SSN-790) rumoured to be in the region.

This would confirm a previous assessment about the presence of at least two submarines in the Indian Ocean ready to attack Iran.

🔗 MenchOSINT

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🇮🇱🇺🇸🇮🇷 Ynet: Senior Israeli official on U.S. talks with Iran: “There is concern this is heading toward an agreement that is not good for us.

This is not negotiations between Witkoff and Kushner with the Iranians. The Turks are in the picture, as well as Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. There are many players influencing President Trump. We are worried this is moving toward a deal that will not be good for Israel and that is concerning.”

🔗 Osint613

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🇺🇸🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷 Turkish FM Hakan Fidan on Iran:

Right now, there doesn’t seem to be an imminent threat of war.

🔗 Clash Report (@clashreport)

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🇵🇸 🇪🇺 🇮🇱 Muslim countries, EU join condemnations of Israeli moves deepening West Bank control

The security cabinet decision, announced on Sunday by Defense Minister Israel Katz and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, “dramatically” changes land registration and property acquisition procedures in the West Bank, easing Jewish settlement in the territory. It aims to deepen Israeli control over the territory, including at sensitive sites such as Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs. Smotrich said the goal of the new measures was, in part, to “kill the idea of a Palestinian state.”

“The European Union condemns recent decisions by Israel’s security cabinet to expand Israeli control in the West Bank. This move is another step in the wrong direction,” EU spokesman Anouar El Anouni told journalists.

The EU has weighed suspending Israel’s inclusion in agreements with the bloc covering research and free trade in response to Jerusalem’s treatment of the Palestinians, though it has not done so yet. The bloc includes allies of Israel like Germany and Hungary, as well as a number of outspoken critics such as Ireland and Spain. Despite Israeli objections, several EU countries recognized a Palestinian state during the Gaza war sparked by the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, attack.

The UK joined the chorus of condemnations, with a government statement asserting that “any unilateral attempt to alter the geographic or demographic make-up of Palestine is wholly unacceptable and would be inconsistent with international law. We call on Israel to reverse these decisions immediately.”

Middle Eastern countries, meanwhile, have said moves to annex the West Bank would mark an end to Israel’s normalization in the region. The statement was signed by countries with which Israel has relations, such as Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, as well as adversaries including Turkey and Qatar. Other signatories included Pakistan, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia.

On Sunday, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s office called the decision dangerous, saying it considers the moves part of a war by the Israeli government against Palestinians, in a report published by the PA’s WAFA news outlet.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/muslim-countries-eu-join-condemnations-of-israeli-moves-deepening-west-bank-control/

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U.S. labor force participation rate projected to drop from ~63% in 2025 to ~58% by 2030 as Boomers exit workforce.  This structural decline is driven entirely by demographics & employers will need to hire ~240,000 workers per month for the next 5 years just to replace retirees.

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🇻🇪🤝🇮🇱❗️ — Venezuela, now under President Delcy Rodriguez and the Reformist wing of PSUV, will begin exporting oil to the State of Israel.

📝 The first shipment of Venezuelan crude has just left for the Bazán Group, Israel's largest refinery.

➡️ Generally, Israel doesn’t advertise where it gets its crude oil from, and tankers have sometimes disappeared from digital tracking systems once they near the country’s ports.

🛢 When the cargo arrives, it would mark the first shipment of its kind since mid-2020, when Israel took about 470,000 barrels, according to Kpler data. Bazan, also known as Oil Refineries Ltd, declined to comment. Israel’s energy ministry declined to comment on where the country gets its crude from.

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🇬🇧 The Ministry of Justice has ordered the deletion of the UK's largest court reporting archive.

Courtsdesk, a platform launched to improve media access to magistrates' court data has been ordered to delete its archive of records by David Lammy's Ministry of Justice.

According to Courtsdesk, the platform has since been used by more than 1,500 journalists from 39 media organisations and the data provided has highlighted serious failures in the courts system.

It said journalists were given no advance notice of 1.6 million criminal hearings, the number of court cases listed was accurate on just 4.2 per cent of sitting days and half a million weekend cases were heard with no notification to the press.

In November, HM Courts and Tribunal Service issued the company a cessation notice, citing what it called "unauthorised sharing" of court data, on the basis of a test feature, claiming this was a "data protection issue."

Enda Leahy, the Courtsdesk chief executive said: "We built the only system that could tell journalists what was actually happening in the criminal courts.

We wrote 16 times asking for dialogue. Last week we got our answer: delete everything. If the government were interested in open justice, they would engage in a dialogue."

📎 Europa

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Ground zero in demographically disintegrating South Korea is the country’s second largest city of Busan.

Busan in 2035 will be a city of sharp contrasts: booming coastal districts, hollowing inland neighborhoods, a shrinking population, & one of the oldest age profiles of any major city on Earth.

More than 40% of residents will be age 65 or older!

The city will be reliant on immigrants from Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia, & the Philippines.

It will also have 500,000 less inhabitants than today for a total population far below 3,000,000.

Bus routes and other mass transit options will be cut back, young people will continue fleeing to Seoul, & schools will close in large numbers.

All of this will be readily apparent to any visitor.

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🇺🇸⚡️- Thomas Massie, live on CNN, names Les Wexner as an Epstein co-conspirator.

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🛢 🇻🇪 ⚡️ Venezuela's largest refinery out of service after power blackout, sources say

Feb 9 (Reuters) - Venezuela's largest refinery, the 645,000-barrel-per-day Amuay, was taken out of service on Monday following a power blackout, four sources close to the facility's operations said

Electricity outages hitting state oil company PDVSA's facilities are frequent, which leads to refinery operations well below their installed capacity. Amuay was processing some 137,000 bpd before the incident, one of the sources said.

📎 Reuters

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⚠️⚠️🇻🇪 Jorge Rodríguez rules out new elections in Venezuela

https://alertas24.com/jorge-rodriguez-descarta-elecciones-en-el-corto-plazo-en-venezuela/

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🇺🇸❌🚤💊 — NEW: SOUTHCOM announced it carried out a lethal kinetic strike on Monday against a suspected drug-trafficking vessel in the eastern Pacific.

➡️ Two “narco-terrorists” were killed, and one person survived. Following the strike, SOUTHCOM said it immediately notified the United States Coast Guard to initiate search and rescue procedures for the survivor.

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Bret Stephens admits the central thesis of Dr. Kevin MacDonald's work is correct.

All he leaves out is that the Jewish subversion of traditional society through feminism, egalitarianism, racial equity, communism, homosexuality, open borders etc was never for the benefit of the oppressed "minorities," but only to weaken the healthy, strong White majority for the benefit of the Jews.

The termite is complaining that the house he rotted out is now crashing down around him.

/channel/informationliberation/5022

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🇪🇹 🇪🇹 🇪🇷 Tensions are heating up in northern Ethiopia

Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) left multiple positions to the Fano rebellion in Amhara, while sending important reinforcements to Tigray, in the North.

Ethiopia accused Eritrea of sending troops to Tigray which participated in exercices with the Tigray People Liberation Force (TPLF). For few days, we've seen some videos of important ENDF troop deployment to northern Ethiopia.

At the same time, the TPLF, Eritrea and the TPLF Army 70 (which is currently based in Sudan and received new equipements) are preparing for a large scale military confrontation. Once again, Ethiopia could be falling into a full fledge war...

📝 Amatorn: "It is also worth adding that the withdrawal from a large area of ​​Amhara followed the humiliating defeat of the campaign launched by the Ethiopian government on February 3."

📎 Clement_molin

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🇺🇸 🇮🇱 🕵‍♂️ Was Epstein a Mossad agent? New files deepen mystery over Israel links

Messages released by US Department of Justice have renewed speculation that the paedophile financier was a spy

The files include claims from a confidential informant to the FBI that, far from disliking Israel, Epstein was in fact employed by its spy agency, Mossad. An FBI report from the Los Angeles field office written in October 2020 said the bureau’s source had become “convinced that Epstein was a co-opted Mossad agent”.

It said the Wall Street financier had been “trained as a spy” for Mossad, alleging that Epstein had ties to US and allied intelligence operations through his longtime personal lawyer Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor whose orbit included “many students from wealthy families”. It said Jared Kushner, President Trump’s son-in-law and his brother, Josh, a financier, were “both his students”.

Nushbacher, a senior UK national security official and lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, explained the possibility of Epstein’s involvement and the structure of recruitment by the spy agency in Israel.

“And then there are people who are assets. They are just useful. Is it possible that Epstein was an asset to the Mossad? Yes. Do I think he was an agent of any intelligence agency, I think it was unlikely. Was he an officer? No.”

In 2003, Epstein applied for a second passport for his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, in order to “avoid conflicting visa stamps” when travelling. “Ms. Maxwell’s responsibilities … require her to travel extensively throughout the world. She is currently scheduled to travel on March 16. 2003 to Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia,” he wrote.

Maxwell’s father, the disgraced media tycoon Robert Maxwell, was widely suspected of having connections to the Israeli intelligence agency and is known to have pumped millions into the Israeli economy, promising to invest “at least a quarter of a billion dollars” to the then-prime minister Yitzhak Shamir.

https://www.thetimes.com/world/middle-east/article/was-jeffrey-epstein-mossad-agent-spy-israel-w6p35b9v6

📎 The Times

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🇷🇺❌🇺🇸 Lavrov's Rare Rebuke Of Trump: In Reality, Relations No Better Than Under Biden

The Kremlin has lashed out at the Trump administration in a rare moment, revealing its impatience and dissatisfaction with the way trilateral talks focused on ending the Ukraine war are going.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in a fresh interview also accused Washington of sabotaging efforts to improve bilateral relations while undermining negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. The charge is ironic, given it is typically the West which mounts the same accusation at Moscow.

"Despite all the statements by the Trump administration about the need to end the war… it does not challenge all the laws that Joe Biden passed to punish Russia after the start of the special military operation," Lavrov said in an interview with TV BRICS.

"In practice, the opposite is happening: new sanctions are being imposed, a war is being waged against tankers on the high seas, in violation of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea," he said in reference to recent actions involving the US seizing shadow fleet tankers.

The Trump administration also slapped sanctions on the two Russian oil giants Lukoil and Rosneft - in a controversial action last fall.

Moscow is also likely disappointed that President Trump hasn't pressured Zelensky into making serious territorial concessions using the significant leverage Washington has over Kiev.

Lavrov asserted that Trump reneged on certain "understandings" reached directly with President Putin at the Anchorage summit in August.

"Beyond what they claimed to offer on Ukraine … we also see no positive outlook on the economic front," Lavrov said in the interview. "Washington, in our view, is seeking control over global energy supply routes serving major economies across multiple continents."

Russia wants to cooperate with the US toward achieving peace, Lavrov continued, but he went on to say that "the Americans themselves are creating artificial obstacles on this path" - or in essence, sabotaging peace.

This kind of criticism by Russia has typically been reserved only for Europe. EU leaders have remained much more out in the open in terms of imposing extra 'obstacles' and conditions on US-proposed peace measures. So this kind of directly taking aim at Trump is a break from past rhetoric.

On Europe and its newly investing in defense, Lavrov has said, "We have no intention of attacking Europe. There is no reason to do so."

"If Europe acts on its threats to prepare for war against us and initiates an attack on the Russian Federation, it will face a full-fledged military response from our side, with all available military capabilities," the Russian top diplomat added.

🔗 https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/lavrovs-rare-rebuke-trump-reality-relations-no-better-under-biden

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— 🇹🇷/🇺🇸/🇮🇷 Turkish Foreign Minister, Hakan Fidan, confirms Iran was notified in advance about the U.S. bombing of Fordow:

'One day, during the 12-Day War, we got a call from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

He said, 'tell the Iranians that anything could happen in the next few hours', so we did.'

@Middle_East_Spectator

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🇺🇸🇮🇱⚔️🇮🇷 Reporter: Can the regime in Iran be overthrown through air strikes?

Turkish FM Hakan Fidan: No. It wouldn’t collapse.

🔗 Clash Report (@clashreport)

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