Instruction: Write an article about: New cold war neocolonialism: West threatens Solomon Islands over China alliance. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Australia, China, Cold War Two, new cold war, Solomon Islands, Taiwan

Output:
The Solomon Islands, a sovereign country in the Pacific, broke ties with Taiwan and allied with China. So the US backed a failed violent coup attempt. Australia now calls the area its “backyard,” and media moguls demand an invasion to prevent the nation from signing a security pact with Beijing.

The Solomon Islands is a sovereign nation in the Pacific, near Papua New Guinea and Australia, with a population of nearly 700,000 people (making it larger than EU/NATO member Luxembourg, NATO members Iceland and Montenegro, and EU member Malta).
As Western powers heat up their new cold war on China, they are increasingly treating the Solomon Islands as a colony, sponsoring a violent coup attempt and threatening the country for seeking to sign a security agreement with Beijing.
Top Australian government officials have referred to the sovereign nation as part of their “backyard,” and a media mogul has publicly called for the Australian military to invade and overthrow its government.
For decades, Washington used its economic leverage over the Solomon Islands to pressure the country to recognize Taiwan as an independent state.
Taiwan is part of the People’s Republic of China, a fact recognized by 93% of UN member states. Just a dozen small countries still claim it is a separate nation.
The Solomon Islands was one of them until 2019, when its democratically elected prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, stood up to US pressure, ended diplomatic recognition of Taiwan, and formed an alliance with China.
The United States and Australia responded aggressively, seeking to sow chaos internally, and even backing a violent coup attempt in 2021.
[Thread] A dangerous situation is afoot in the Solomon Islands. A coup is on, with the government of @ManassehSogava1 is threatened with overthrow by a revolt in Malaita (pushed by the United States and Australia). Not much is being remarked about these developments. pic.twitter.com/yqMHOo4b8Q
— Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) November 26, 2021

When the central government of the Solomon Islands recognized China in 2019, the US pressured the local government in Malaita, the country’s most populous island, to reject federal policy and to maintain its ties with Taiwan.
Washington essentially bribed Malaita to continue recognizing Taiwan, pledging the province $25 million in US government aid.
Then in November 2021, violent rioters attempted to overthrow the democratically elected central government, attacking the parliament and setting fire to police stations, while also burning down Chinese businesses and assaulting ethnic Chinese.
Australia took advantage of the violence to send troops to the Solomon Islands.
Journalist Vijay Prashad noted that Washington “built a coalition of anti-communists and pro-Zionist Christians” to try to overthrow the pro-Chinese government. The flag of apartheid Israel could be seen in photos of the violent protests.
When Sogavare's government shifted his country's link to China, the US – driven by @marcorubio and other violators of international sovereignty – built a coalition of anti-communists and pro-Zionist Christians. See the Israeli flag held by those making the coup. pic.twitter.com/Czpwkuug60
— Vijay Prashad (@vijayprashad) November 26, 2021

The putsch failed. But the Western efforts to destabilize the Pacific nation have continued.
This March 25, an Australian media mogul published an article openly calling on his nation’s military to invade the Solomon Islands, “capture” its islands, and “engineer regime change,” while also using “soft power” to advance Western interests.
The author, David Llewellyn-Smith, is the founding publisher and editor of the website MacroBusiness, and the founding publisher and global economy editor of the prominent political magazine The Diplomat.
Llewellyn-Smith used neocolonial rhetoric, referring to the Solomon Islands as part of Australia’s “backyard,” warning that “the CCP [Communist Party of China] occupies our backyard.”
Australia must ready Solomon Islands invasion https://t.co/wfC12VoUbz
— Macro Business (@macro_business) March 24, 2022

Western governments and media pundits have ironically claimed that China is trying to turn the Solomon Islands into a puppet, while they back violent coup attempts and threaten a military invasion.
In reality, the Solomon Islands was historically colonized by the British, Germans, and Japanese, and it deeply values its hard-earned independence.
Faced with these Western threats, the Solomon Islands decided to draft a security agreement with China.
This enraged Australia, whose Prime Minister Scott Morrison said “there is great concern across the Pacific family.”
Australia’s home affairs minister, Karen Andrews, resorted to familiar neocolonial rhetoric, fuming, “That is our backyard, this is our neighbourhood, and we are very concerned of any activity that is taking place in the Pacific Islands.”
Australian Foreign Minister Marise Payne implied the alliance would “undermine the stability and security of our region.”
The government of New Zealand made similar comments, claiming it could “destabilise the current institutions and arrangements that have long underpinned the Pacific region’s security.”
Many Western media outlets echoed this neocolonial rhetoric.
British state media giant the BBC warned, “China gains a foothold in Australia’s backyard.”
CNN said the region is “regarded by Canberra as its backyard.”
German state media DW wrote that “Australia and New Zealand have for decades seen the Pacific islands as their ‘backyard.’”
China gains a foothold in Australia's backyard https://t.co/j72YSrpAqJ
— BBC News (World) (@BBCWorld) March 29, 2022

In a speech this March 29, Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare criticized Western governments for this neocolonial attitude and for meddling in his nation’s internal affairs.
Sogavare called it “insulting” to “be branded as unfit to manage our sovereign affairs or have other motives in pursuing our national interests.”
He also revealed that the Solomon Islands security deal with China was “ready for signing.”
Opposition politicians in the Solomon Islands had conspired with the Australian government to leak a copy of this proposed security agreement. Prime Minister Sogavare blasted them as “agents of foreign interference.”
For its part, the Chinese government, which has helped lift 800 million citizens out of poverty since its 1949 revolution, said it “is ready to share its experience in poverty reduction and deepen development cooperation with Solomon Islands and other Pacific island countries, so as to help them find a path of poverty reduction and development that suits their national conditions, better cope with major public health events and natural disasters, and enhance their capacity to cope with climate change.”


Instruction: Write an article about: US-backed Saudi bombing kills 38 Yemeni civilians a day, creating humanitarian disaster, feeding extremism. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Al-Qaeda, AQAP, Saudi Arabia, Yemen

Output:
US-backed Saudi bombing is killing 38 Yemeni civilians a day, unleashing a humanitarian disaster, while fueling extremist groups like Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP).

US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the New York Times that the “disorder” in Yemen, greatly inflamed by the US-backed Saudi bombing campaign, has strengthened Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), allowing it to take more territory.
The US-backed Saudi-led bombing in Yemen has killed at least 648 civilians since its air strikes began on 25 March, according to the UN. Saudi air strikes have rained down on bombed hospitals, schools, neighborhoods, and a refugee camp.
Between 25 March and 12 April, an average of 38 Yemeni civilians were killed every single day from the Saudi-led bombing campaign.
When ISIS beheads civilians, the world goes berserk. Yet when the US helps Saudi Arabia blow 648 Yemeni civilians to bits with bombs, the world is remarkably silent.
This military intervention has created a humanitarian disaster in Yemen—the poorest nation in the Middle East, and one of the most impoverished in the world. Residents of Sana’a, the country’s largest city, told the BBC that they desperately need medical supplies, fuel, and food.
“You have to remember that 40% of the population was food insecure way before the conflict. Now the situation is much more exacerbated by the attacks,” a Yemeni man told BBC. “Now there are long queues for food and for fuel as well. It’s a very dire situation.”
In 2013, long before the violence broke out, over half (54%) of Yemenis lived in poverty—roughly 13.5 million people. Moreover, 40% of the population, and over 60% of the youth, was unemployed.
As of 6 April, the World Health Organization estimated that almost 16 million people had already been affected in just the first few weeks of the military conflict, with over 334,000 Yemenis displaced and more than 254,000 refugees.
Yemeni-Americans say they have also been abandoned by their own government, which is now facilitating the bombing of their country of origin. Businessman Mokhtar Alkhanshali described being trapped in the besieged nation. The civilian airport had been bombed, a no-fly zone had been imposed, and boats had ceased operation. He called US embassies in Yemen’s neighboring countries and was told “We are not evacuating any U.S. citizens at the moment. What we can do, though, is relay your messages to your loved ones.”
“It looked like Armageddon. All hell had broken loose,” Alkhanshali told NPR. “I really didn’t know if I was going to live to see the morning. It was very frightening.”
Alkhanshali was forced to make a risky and dangerous escape. He and a friend crossed the Red Sea in a small boat, without any navigation equipment. They landed in Djibouti, where they were detained for a few days, before flying back to the US.
11 days into the Saudi-led bombing campaign, on 5 April, a senior member of the Houthi rebel fighters told Reuters that they were willing to sit down for peace talks if the air strikes stopped. The bombs continued to fall.
Safa Al-Ahmad, a Saudi journalist, filmmaker, and specialist on Yemen who has been one of the tiny handful of reporters to spend time with the Houthi rebels, indicates that the group’s ideology changes in response to political developments, but says “if I must describe the Houthis in one line, it would be the revivalist Zaydis with strong anti-imperialist agenda.”
Al-Ahmad does not doubt that Iran is aiding the Houthis, but feels that the support is “vastly overblown” in the media. “There is very little good journalism that has been done to prove the extent of the relationship between the Houthis in Iran,” she explained.
The party that is meddling the most in Yemen, Al-Ahmad points out, is in fact not Iran, but rather Saudi Arabia.
The Houthis have a local agenda, they have local grievances, and local power. The rise of the Houthis themselves had nothing to do with the Iranians. … Saudi Arabia has deeper connections with Yemen. They have a large border with Yemen, and the Saudis have funded, sent money directly and arms to different groups inside Yemen. So I would argue between the two, Saudi Arabia has the much bigger influence and the upper hand in Yemen.
US Secretary of State John Kerry condemned Iran for allegedly arming Houthi rebels in Yemen. He asserted that the US would not tolerate countries that “engage in overt warfare across lines, international boundaries and other countries.”
Just one day before Kerry made these comments, the US announced it was expediting weapons shipments to help Saudi Arabia bomb Yemen.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a longtime resistance force in the region, expressed solidarity with the people of Yemen. “The US strategy today is for Arab regimes to conduct the fighting themselves – but using the same F-16s, missiles, drones and technology, produced and supplied by the US, to exert their destructive force against the people of the region,” remarked spokesperson Khaled Barakat.
“The Saudi regime is the most brutal, reactionary, theocratic Arab regime that aims to strip Saudis of their humanity, crush the residents of the eastern part of the country, relentlessly repress migrant laborers, not to mention the systematic oppression of Saudi women. Saudi Arabia is the type of state that the U.S. values in the region and sees as a key ally,” Barakat added. “Yemen is economically the poorest Arab country, but its people have a long and proud history of resistance to colonialism, imperialism – and Saudi domination.”
US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the New York Times that the “disorder” in Yemen, greatly inflamed by the US-backed Saudi bombing campaign, has strengthened Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), allowing it to take more territory.
Yemeni journalist Walid Al-Saqaf explained that the US drone program in Yemen “led to the growth of Al-Qaeda.” “The problem with the US is that they have a very short-term vision,” he said. They do not take “into consideration the long-reaching impact of having the drones or having purely anti-terrorist agenda in Yemen.”
Al-Saqaf also warns against sectarian interpretations of the conflict. “I would very – be suspicious and cautious in claiming that this is a sectarian conflict. … [T]here are many elements within the region that are Sunni, and there are also elements that are supportive of the Houthis in various parts of the country that are also Sunni. So it’s really not purely a conflict driven by ethnic divide, or sectarian divide.”
Regardless of the intentions of Saudi Arabia in bombing the indigent Yemeni population, what is clear is that its military intervention is indirectly helping AQAP. “Extremism flourishes when people don’t really have a choice,” Al-Saqaf explains. “Oftentimes you have cases where people are attracted to join radical groups because of the daily pay, or the, some sort of food supplies, or other protection that they get.”
Baraa Shiban, Yemen project coordinator for the international human rights NGO Reprieve, lambasted the US for its continued military operations in the impoverished country. “You can’t bomb a country into existence, however much America seems determined to try,” he wrote in the Guardian.
This is not the beginning of US intervention in Yemen, Shiban indicates. He recalls:
Investigating US drone strikes on my country, I have seen the aftermath of aerial bombardment time and time again. The weeping father; the young girl unable to walk from shrapnel wounds; the mother, mute from shock. I try to record what has taken place; most of them just ask in return what my questions will do to bring back their loved ones. The few that find words express powerlessness and confusion as to why the might of a distant US military has been visited on their simple lives.
For years, analysts, scholars, journalists, and civilians living under drones have cautioned that the US drone campaign in Yemen and elsewhere have made extremist groups even stronger. “Drone strikes are causing more and more Yemenis to hate America and join radical militants; they are not driven by ideology but rather by a sense of revenge and despair” wrote Ibrahim Mothanajune, in a 2012 op-ed in the New York Times titled “How Drones Help Al Qaeda.”
US drones have regularly killed civilians, including young children, in Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and more. In an October 2013 meeting in the Oval Office, Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Prize laureate in history, told Obama that US drone strikes are “fueling terrorism.”
In December 2012, a US drone strike killed 12 Yemeni civilians at a wedding. Amnesty International has said that the killing of civilians by drone strikes may amount to war crimes, and has called for the US be held accountable.
For many years, life for the average Yemeni has been full of great hardship—extreme poverty, the rise of militant Salafi groups, and the threat of drone attacks. US support for Saudi Arabia’s bombing campaign is plunging the country into further chaos. The living conditions for myriad Yemeni civilians has become nothing short of catastrophic. And not only is this policy fundamentally inhumane, it only serves to further feed extremism in the region.


Instruction: Write an article about: EU admits new cold war is not ‘democracy vs. autocracy’: ‘On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes’. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: China, Cold War Two, EU, European Union, imperialism, Josep Borrell, media, Mexico, new cold war, Russia

Output:
The European Union’s top foreign-policy official Josep Borrell admitted the West’s new cold war on China and Russia is not a conflict of “democracies vs. authoritarians,” conceding, “On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes.”

(Se puede leer este informe en español aquí.)
The European Union’s top foreign-policy official, Josep Borrell, admitted that the new cold war that the West is waging on China and Russia is not a conflict of “democracies vs. authoritarians.”
“On our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes,” the EU’s de facto foreign minister conceded.
Borrell’s comments directly contradicted those of US President Joe Biden, who claimed in his first State of the Union address in March that the new cold war is a “battle between democracy and autocracies.”

The top EU diplomat instead recognized that the new cold war is a struggle in which economic “systems are in rivalry,” and that most of the Global South “do not want to be forced to take sides in this geopolitical competition,” because “they feel that the global system does not deliver,” and “because they blame us.”
Borrell said the international political order is in a period of “messy multipolarity,” describing it as “a world of radical uncertainty,” where the “speed and scope of change is exceptional.”
EU foreign-policy chief Josep Borrell says the “US-China competition” (ie, new cold war) is the “most important structuring force” and “will restructure the world”
He admits “it is not true” that this is a conflict of “democracies vs authoritarians” (which is what Biden claimed) pic.twitter.com/MZl4MFSmwv
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 29, 2022

He made these remarks in a speech on October 10, opening the 2022 Ambassadors Conference in Brussels. Borrell explained:
There are many crises around the world, which are the trends that move this world.
First, a messy multipolarity. There is the US-China competition. This is the most important “structuring force”. The world is being structured around this competition – like it or not. The two big powers – big, big, big, very big – are competing and this competition will restructure the world.
And this will coexist with a broader “democracies vs. authoritarians”, a big divide. I would not insist a lot on it because on our side, there are a lot of authoritarian regimes. We cannot say “we are the democracies”, and the ones which follow us are also democracies – that is not true. That is not true.
Yes, there is a fight between the democratic systems and the authoritarian systems. But authoritarianism is, unhappily, developing a lot. Not just China, not just Russia. There is an authoritarian trend. Sometimes, they are still wearing the democracy suit, but they are no longer democracies. There are some who are not democracies at all – they do not even take the pity to look like democracies.
So, this competition is a structuring force. The fight between democracies and authoritarians is there. But it is much more than that.
In this same speech, Borrell confessed, “Our prosperity was based on China and Russia.” He acknowledged that the West’s neoliberal economic model was “based on cheap energy coming from Russia,” “access to the big China market,” and low-paid Chinese workers.

This world of “messy multipolarity” is “not purely bipolar,” Borrell explained. He said there are “middle powers” and “swing states” that don’t take a firm side in the new cold war:
The world is not purely bipolar. We have multiple players and poles, each one looking for their interest and values. Look at Turkey, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia. They are middle powers.
They are swing states – they vote on one side or the other according to their interests, not only their theoretical values.
But these people – I mention them again: Turkey, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia – are players and poles. This creates this messy multipolarity.
These people – and there are a lot of people inside – are there, and not always following us.
As an example of an independent leader of a “swing state,” Borrell said, “Look at Mexico’s President [Andrés Manuel López Obrador]’s recent speech.”
“You heard what the Mexican President said about us recently,” the top EU diplomat said with a touch of anger.
Borrell was referencing a letter in March in which López Obrador condemned the European Parliament as “flunkies of the reactionary and coup-plotting strategy of the corrupt” right-wing oligarchs in Mexico.
López Obrador told the EU to “evolve, leave behind your obsessive meddling disguised as good intentions,” emphasizing, “Don’t forget that we are no longer a colony of anyone. Mexico is a free, independent, and sovereign country.”
EU foreign-policy chief Borrell says: “The world is not purely bipolar.” It’s “messy multipolarity”
Turkey, India, Brazil, South Africa, Mexico, Indonesia, etc “are swing states; they vote on one side or the other according to their interests”
They are “not always following us” pic.twitter.com/SlZd0HFdWT
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 29, 2022

In his speech, Borrell went on to admit that much of the Global South is neutral in this new cold war between the US and EU on one side and China and Russia on the other:
And in the middle of that, we have the Global South. These people do not want to be forced to take sides in this geopolitical competition.
More [importantly], they feel that the global system does not deliver, and they are not receiving their part. They are not receiving enough recognition. They do not have the role they should have according to their population and their economic weight.
And when facing these multiple crises – these multipolar crises – financial, food and energy crises – it is clear that they are not there following us because they blame us, rightly or not.
Two prominent former US diplomats made similar observations in September, noting that the countries representing 87% of the world’s population have refused to join the West’s new cold war.
Borrell complains the Global South does not support the imperialist West in its new cold war:
They “do not want to be forced to take sides in this geopolitical competition”
“They feel the global system does not deliver… they are not there following us because they blame us” pic.twitter.com/gK6euZ01Od
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 29, 2022

The EU’s top foreign-policy official went on to clarify that the West’s conflict with China is a clash of opposing economic systems.
Even while he referred to China as “our systemic rival,” Borrell acknowledged that average people’s lives have materially improved in China, and that is why Beijing has popular support.
Borrell insisted that Europe must defend its model as the world’s “best combination” of “political freedom, economic prosperity, and social cohesion.”
This foreshadowed explicitly neocolonialist remarks Borrell would make three days later on October 13, claiming “the world needs Europe” as a “beacon” and beautiful “garden” to civilize the barbarous “jungle” in “most of the rest of the world.”
Borrell concluded his October 10 speech imploring diplomats at the EU Ambassadors Conference to adopt a darker “Hobbesian” philosophy and to “bring the voice of Europe” to the rest of the world, in order to show their model’s supposed superiority over China’s:
When we say that China is our rival, systemic rival, systemic rival means that our systems are in rivalry. And the Chinese are trying to explain to the world that their system is much better.
Because, well, maybe you are not going to choose your head of government, but you will have food, and heat, and social services, you will improve your living conditions.
Many people in the world, yes, they go and vote and choose their government, but their material conditions are not being improved. And in the end, people want to live a better life.
We have to explain what are the links between political freedom and a better life. We, Europeans, we have this extraordinary chance. We live in the world, in this part of the world, where political freedom, economic prosperity and social cohesion are the best, the best combination of all of that. But the rest of the world is not like this.
Our fight is to try to explain that democracy, freedom, political freedom is not something that can be exchanged by economic prosperity or social cohesion. Both things have to go together. Otherwise, our model will perish, will not be able to survive in this world.
We are too much Kantians and not enough Hobbesians, as the philosopher says. Let’s try to understand the world the way it is and bring the voice of Europe.
The EU says socialist China is the capitalist West’s “systemic rival”: “our systems are in rivalry”
Borrell admits China greatly improved living conditions, which is why it’s increasingly popular
He repeats his racist claim Europe is superior, and calls to be more “Hobbesian” pic.twitter.com/QLPjdC4Bhw
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 29, 2022

In order to try to convince the world that Europe’s economic model is superior, the top EU foreign-policy official stressed that information warfare is imperative, in a international “battle of narratives.”
Borrell described a “competitive world where everything is being weaponised. Everything is a weapon: energy, investments, information, migration flows, data, etc. There is a global fight about access to some strategic domains: cyber, maritime, or outer space.”
He told the EU diplomats, “I need you to be much more engaged in this battle of narratives. It is not something secondary. It is not just winning the wars by sending tanks, missiles, and troops. It is a big battle: who is going to win the spirits and the souls of people?”
“I need my delegations to step up on social media, on TV, in debates. Retweet our messages, our [European] External Action Service materials,” Borrell stressed.
Borrell stresses information warfare is key in the new cold war
He tells EU diplomats: “I need you to be much more engaged in this battle of narratives”
“It is not just winning the wars by sending tanks, missiles, and troops”
He calls for more propaganda, “in local languages” pic.twitter.com/zYBybdCj85
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 29, 2022


Instruction: Write an article about: Bots are flooding social media with pro-US propaganda demonizing China, Russia & Iran, studies show. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: China, disinformation, Facebook, Graphika, Instagram, Iran, Meta, propaganda, Russia, social media, Stanford Internet Observatory, Twitter, Ukraine, University of Adelaide, YouTube

Output:
Scientific studies show huge numbers of bots are spreading pro-Western disinformation on social media, demonizing China, Russia, and Iran. 90% of bots posting about the proxy war in Ukraine push pro-NATO propaganda.

(Se puede leer este informe en español aquí.)
Two studies published this August expose how large numbers of fake accounts are spreading pro-Western and pro-NATO propaganda on social media, while demonizing US geopolitical adversaries like China, Russia, and Iran.
An investigation by scholars in Australia found that more than 90% of bots posting on Twitter about the proxy war in Ukraine were promoting pro-Ukraine propaganda, whereas just 7% were promoting pro-Russia propaganda.
A separate report co-authored by researchers at California’s Stanford University and a notorious US government contractor called Graphika revealed a large propaganda network on social media “that used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia.”
The study detailed a “series of covert campaigns” on social media, which spread disinformation and fake news in a way that “consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran.”
These two investigations are part of a growing body of evidence showing how Western governments and their allies have weaponized social media platforms and turned them into weapons in a new cold war.
A scientific study published by researchers from Australia’s University of Adelaide found that, of the bots on Twitter posting about the proxy war in Ukraine, 90.16% spread pro-Ukraine propaganda, while only 6.8% spread pro-Russia propaganda. (3.04% of the bots showed what they called “mixed behaviour,” publishing both pro-Ukrainian and pro-Russian messages.)
The scholars, from the university’s School of Mathematical Sciences, cannot in any way be considered pro-Russian. In fact, two of the co-authors disclosed that their work is funded by the Australian government through the Australian Research Council’s Discovery Projects.
But the academics set out to investigate how “Both sides in the Ukrainian conflict use the online information environment to influence geopolitical dynamics and sway public opinion,” and they let the facts speak for themselves.
The researchers analyzed more than 5.2 million tweets, retweets, quote tweets, and replies between February 23 and March 8 that used the hashtags #(I)StandWithUkraine, #(I)StandWithRussia, #(I)StandWithZelenskyy, #(I)StandWithPutin, #(I)SupportUkraine, or #(I)SupportRussia. (The scholars used both the versions #StandWithUkraine and #IStandWithUkraine, with and without the “I.”)

They found that the vast majority of bots tweeted pro-Ukraine propaganda, specifically the hashtag #StandWithUkraine.
Their study noted that the proxy war in Ukraine “emphasises the role social media plays in modern-day warfare, with conflict occurring in both the physical and information environments.”
“Social media is a critical tool in information warfare,” the academics wrote.
They cited another investigation that found that 19% of overall interactions on Twitter are directed from bots to real accounts, the vast majority in the form of retweets (74%) and mentions (25%).
A separate study also published in August offered further insight into how social media is weaponized to spread pro-Western propaganda.
Titled “Unheard Voice: Evaluating five years of pro-Western covert influence operations,” the report was co-authored by the Stanford Internet Observatory and an infamous intelligence company called Graphika.
Graphika is notorious for working closely with the US government, contracting with the Pentagon, DARPA, and the Senate Intelligence Committee.
Given its links to US intelligence agencies, Graphika’s role in this study could be seen as an example of a “limited hangout” – it provides a small glimpse into US information warfare activities, while covering up the vast majority of its operations.
Although it is very limited in scope and has clear biases, the document does show how pro-Western propaganda networks on social media accuse China, Russia, and Iran of being “imperialist” while praising the US government.
The pro-Western disinformation operations primarily used Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp (which are owned by Meta), as well as YouTube, Twitter, and Telegram.
Some of the fake accounts involved in the coordinated propaganda campaign posed as “independent news outlets,” “political analysts,” or “teachers.”
The Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika succiently described the operation as “Fake News, Fake Faces, Fake Followers.”
They wrote in the executive summary of their report (emphasis added):
Our joint investigation found an interconnected web of accounts on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, and five other social media platforms that used deceptive tactics to promote pro-Western narratives in the Middle East and Central Asia. The platforms’ datasets appear to cover a series of covert campaigns over a period of almost five years rather than one homogeneous operation.
These campaigns consistently advanced narratives promoting the interests of the United States and its allies while opposing countries including Russia, China, and Iran. The accounts heavily criticized Russia in particular for the deaths of innocent civilians and other atrocities its soldiers committed in pursuit of the Kremlin’s “imperial ambitions” following its invasion of Ukraine in February this year. To promote this and other narratives, the accounts sometimes shared news articles from U.S. government-funded media outlets, such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, and links to websites sponsored by the U.S. military.
The document explained that the propaganda accounts “created fake personas with GAN-generated faces, posed as independent media outlets, leveraged memes and short-form videos, attempted to start hashtag campaigns, and launched online petitions.”
The Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika described their investigation as “the most extensive case of covert pro-Western IO [influence operations] on social media to be reviewed and analyzed by open-source researchers to date.”
The firms acknowledged that, “With few exceptions, the study of modern IO has overwhelmingly focused on activity linked to” Western adversaries “in countries such as Russia, China, and Iran.”
Some of the language used in the report reflects the blatant bias of the firms, which referred to China, Russia, and Iran disparagingly as “authoritarian regimes.”
Despite the many limitations of the study, however, the fact that it was co-published by an elite university and a notorious intelligence-linked US government contractor makes it impossible to deny that Western government are using social media platforms to spread disinformation and wage information warfare against their geopolitical adversaries.
The Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika investigation analyzed the pro-Western disinformation campaign by dividing its work into three regions: Central Asia (primarily in the Russian language), Iran (in Persian), and the Middle East (in Arabic).
Although these pro-Western propaganda operations were conducted in different languages, many of their talking points and tactics overlapped.
The Central Asia-themed disinformation was mostly in Russian, although some accounts posted in regional languages like Kazakh and Kyrgyz.
In addition to using Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, YouTube, Twitter, and Telegram, the Central Asia propaganda also employed the Russian social media apps VKontakte (VK) and Odnoklassniki.

The report found that the disinformation operation involved creating a “sham media outlet” focused on Central Asia called Intergazeta. It “repeatedly copied news material with and without credit from reputable Western and pro-Western sources in Russian, such as Meduza.io and the BBC Russian Service.”
Other accounts in the propaganda network “copied or translated content from U.S.-funded entities, such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the independent Kazakh news outlet informburo.kz.”
They also created petitions using the US-based website Avaaz. One demanded that Kazakhstan should leave the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) and Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a military alliance with Russia.
Another petition called on Kyrgyzstan to minimize Chinese influence. And two more insisted that Kazakhstan should ban Russian TV channels.

The Central Asia disinformation network accused Russia and China of “imperialism,” while constantly spreading pro-US propaganda.
The fake accounts demonized Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, its military intervention in Syria, and its security partnership with several African nations.
The Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika report noted that the disinformation operation also “concentrated on China and the treatment of Chinese Muslim minorities, particularly the Uighurs in Xinjiang province.”
The fake accounts accused China of “genocide” against its Uyghur minority, and spread fake news stories alleging that Beijing harvest the organs of Muslims.

The report identified another network of propaganda focused on Afghanistan. These fake accounts attacked Iran and accused it of having too much influence in the neighboring country. To do so, they posted disinformation from websites supported by the US military.
This propaganda included outlandish fake news, alleging for instance that Iran is trafficking the organs of Afghan refugees, or claiming that Tehran is supposedly forcing Afghan refugees to fight in militias in Syria and Yemen.

Like the Central Asia-focused disinformation operation, this anti-Iran network included “accounts claiming to be independent media outlets, [which] shared U.S.-funded Persian-language media,” from US state propaganda outlets like Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Radio Farda and VOA Farsi.
The fake accounts also shared “content from sources linked to the U.S. military,” such as websites sponsored by U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM).
And they reposted material from Iran International, an anti-Iranian propaganda outlet based in Britain and funded by the Saudi monarchy.
The Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika wrote that this propaganda campaign was “critical of the Iranian government and often used a sarcastic tone to mock Iranian state media and other parts of the state apparatus.”
Some of the fake accounts engaged with actual Iranians on Twitter, trying to get real people involved in the operation.
They emphasized attacks on Tehran’s foreign policy. The report noted, “Anti-government accounts criticized Iran’s domestic and international policies and highlighted how the government’s costly international interventions undermined its ability to care for its citizens.”
The fake accounts excoriated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), demonized resistance groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and condemned Iran for its political alliance with Russia.

Another disinformation network identified in the Stanford Internet Observatory and Graphika report focused on spreading Arabic-language propaganda related to Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen.
These fake accounts claimed Iran had too much influence in the region. They demonized Yemen’s revolutionary group Ansarallah (also known as the Houthi movement), and attacked Russia’s foreign policy.
The report noted that some “accounts on Twitter posed as Iraqi activists in order to accuse Iran of threatening Iraq’s water security and flooding the country with crystal meth.”
“Other assets highlighted Houthi-planted landmines killing civilians and promoted allegations that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine would lead to a global food crisis,” it added.

Some of the accounts falsely posed as Iraqis, and compared Iran to a “disease” destroying Iraq.
At the same time, they demonized Iraqi Shia militias and portrayed them as puppets of Tehran.
The propaganda campaign accused Iran of an “imperialist project in the Middle East.”
The report noted that this disinformation operation also “amplified the narrative that Russian President Vladimir Putin planned to induce a global food crisis that would hit less economically developed countries the hardest.”
At the same time, the fake accounts praised the United States, and particularly its soft-power arm USAID.
Part of the disinformation network even spread propaganda heroizing the US soldiers who are illegally occupying Syrian territory.


Instruction: Write an article about: US gov’t blatantly lies about NATO expansion to militarily encircle Russia. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Antony Blinken, NATO, Russia, Ukraine

Output:
Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed the US-led military alliance “NATO never promised not to admit new members.” This is a lie contradicted by multiple Western government documents.

The US government is trying to rewrite the past, acting as though no one else on the planet knows history.
The Joe Biden administration has rejected Russia’s demand to stop expanding the NATO military alliance, which Washington leads.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken falsely claimed that “NATO never promised not to admit new members” – a lie clearly contradicted by Washington’s own internal documents.
Declassified records from the US, Soviet/Russian, German, British, and French governments show that Blinken’s predecessor, Secretary of State James Baker, promised the USSR back in 1990 that NATO would not expand “one inch eastward” after German reunification.
This is an undeniable fact, a matter of public record, revealed in these documents published by the National Security Archive at George Washington University in Washington, DC.
The National Security Archive noted that Secretary of State Baker reassured Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev “not once, but three times” that NATO would expand “not one inch eastward,” in a February 9, 1990 meeting.
Baker told the final Soviet leader that Washington agreed that, “not only for the Soviet Union but for other European countries as well it is important to have guarantees that if the United States keeps its presence in Germany within the framework of NATO, not an inch of NATO’s present military jurisdiction will spread in an eastern direction.”

But, ignoring this documented fact, the Biden administration has tried to erase history, while repurposing woke Tumblr rhetoric to push its “intersectional” imperialist agenda.
Blinken accused Moscow of “gaslighting” about NATO’s intentions – while the US and its Western allies support neo-Nazis in Ukraine to try to militarily encircle Russia.
In reality, Washington is the one gaslighting the world, falsely claiming that NATO never pledged not to expand, when everyone knows it did.


Instruction: Write an article about: Yemen faces ‘world’s largest humanitarian crisis’ amid US/Saudi war, UN warns again and again. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Saudi Arabia, United Nations, Yemen

Output:
“Yemen is experiencing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis”, the UN warned, while the US helps Saudi Arabia bomb the impoverished country.

The United Nations keeps warning again and again and again, “Yemen is experiencing the world’s largest humanitarian crisis.”
In a previous article, I compiled UN statements and reports detailing how US-backed war in Yemen has created the “largest humanitarian crisis in the world.”
This assessment was echoed by the UN humanitarian coordinator for Yemen, under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, Food and Agriculture Organization, and Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, along with a leading famine monitor created by the US government and the international NGO Save the Children.
Yet, while the UN program to provide humanitarian assistance to prevent famine and mass starvation in Yemen is grossly underfunded, the US is instead ramping up its two-year-long war there, through its proxy Saudi Arabia — effectively exacerbating the catastrophe, not making it better.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reiterated this for the umpteenth time on April 24, writing:
Close to 19 million people—two thirds of the population—need humanitarian assistance and protection. These people include more than 10 million extremely vulnerable Yeminis who require immediate assistance. A child under age 5 now dies every 10 minutes of preventable causes.
The crisis in Yemen is entirely man-made. The country has been grappling with the disastrous effects of a conflict that has forced millions of people to flee their homes, exacerbated chronic humanitarian needs, and killed or injured thousands.
The OCHA report on Yemen warned of the following horrific consequences if the “entirely man-made” catastrophe, fueled by US/Saudi war, does not end:
1. Around 7 million people will face starvation.
2. More than 8 million people will lack access to drinking water and sanitation.
3. The health system will completely decline.
4. Nearly 1.2 million malnourished children could die.
5. Millions of people will face grave threats to their basic rights.
6. Landmines and other explosives will threaten lives and delay assistance.


Instruction: Write an article about: Pakistan coup regime bans Imran Khan, dissidents killed, as US eyes China ties, Israel normalization. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: China, Imran Khan, Israel, Junaid S. Ahmad, Pakistan, Russia, Ukraine

Output:
Following a US-backed coup, Pakistan’s military-dominated regime banned popular former Prime Minister Imran Khan from office, while army chief Bajwa visited Washington to discuss weakening ties with China, arming Ukraine, even recognizing apartheid Israel.

After Prime Minister Imran Khan was overthrown in a US-backed soft coup, Pakistan’s unelected “imported government” has banned the country’s most popular politician from office, sparking huge protests.
Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad spoke with Multipolarista editor Ben Norton about the army chief’s friendly trip to Washington and US efforts to pressure Pakistan to weaken ties with China, arm Ukraine in its war with Russia, and recognize apartheid Israel.

Ahmad also addressed the growing political violence and assassination of dissident journalist Arshad Sharif, a prominent critic of the coup regime who had been reporting on its corruption. Fearing for his life, Sharif fled to Kenya, where he was shot in the head on October 23.
Ahmad said Pakistan is “caught” in the middle of Washington’s new cold war on China.
“But Pakistan is in a very weak position,” Ahmad cautioned. “The United States is now going after Pakistan because it sees Pakistan as the weakest link in all of this Eurasian integration project, and to try to get Pakistan to either remove itself or distance itself from that Eurasian project.”
After a US-backed coup against Pakistan's PM Imran Khan, army chief Bajwa visited the US to discuss weakening ties with China, arming Ukraine, even recognizing apartheid Israel
I discussed the scandal with Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad
Full video: https://t.co/1X6rG0SMBL pic.twitter.com/lCsgB2TX3O
— Ben Norton (@BenjaminNorton) October 26, 2022

The leader of Pakistan’s powerful military travelled to the United States and Britain in October. Visiting Washington for an entire week, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa held a series of meetings with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and other top US officials.
US government propaganda organ Voice of America (VOA) acknowledged that the Pakistani army chief’s trip was a “bid to redefine ties.”
VOA reported that, “since the conclusion of the Afghan war, relations between Washington and Islamabad will largely be determined by ‘the geopolitical competition, global competition, between U.S. and China.'”
This year marks the 75th anniversary of relations between the U.S. and ?? Pakistan. It was my pleasure to host Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, to the Pentagon where we discussed our long-standing defense partnership and areas of mutual interest. pic.twitter.com/ptiZDiqc8I
— Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III (@SecDef) October 5, 2022

Japan’s news publication Nikkei Asia cited anonymous “sources with firsthand knowledge of the general’s recent meetings” who said that it shows Pakistan’s unelected coup regime is “seeking nothing less than a new arrangement with the U.S.”
Nikkei reported:
According to one official familiar with the proceedings, Bajwa presented a vision for a bilateral relationship “much like the Americans’ understanding with South Korea.”
“He told them that we’d like to be a strategic partner of the U.S. not in name, but in action,” said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The report likewise made it clear that the United States wants Pakistan to soften its relations with China and recognize apartheid Israel – something that Imran Khan had adamantly refused to do. Nikkei wrote:
In Washington, sources said that Bajwa, in addition to laying out a new vision for the relationship, explained Pakistan’s positions on a wide range of regional issues, even the prospect of opening up relations with Israel.
Regarding China, sources said U.S. officials cautioned Bajwa about Islamabad’s proximity to Beijing.
???? “In Washington, sources said that Bajwa, in addition to laying out a new vision for the relationship, explained Pakistan's positions on a wide range of regional issues, even the prospect of opening up relations with Israel.”https://t.co/f0X3caw5f7
— Derek J. Grossman (@DerekJGrossman) October 24, 2022

As prime minister, Khan had maintained neutrality over the NATO-Russia proxy war in Ukraine. The Pakistani leader had in fact visited Moscow and signed economic agreements with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Since the judicial coup, however, Islamabad has done a 180. Independent researchers have shown that Pakistan is providing Ukraine with ammunition and military equipment, allegedly sending artillery shells with the help of the British air force.
English version: showing Pakistan army chief at Sandhurst and dates on shells with type of fuze. pic.twitter.com/bKpzsbODpH
— ST (@aviation07101) September 2, 2022

At the same time, the Joe Biden administration has pledged $450 million worth of parts for the Pakistani military to modernize its F-16 fighter aircraft.
This US-Pakistan arms deal comes at a time of economic crisis, rampant inflation, and growing poverty and hunger in the South Asian nation, further exacerbated by floods that killed nearly 2,000 Pakistanis and adversely impacted millions more.
With the mounting instability in the country, Pakistan’s US-sponsored coup regime has cracked down hard, threatening dissidents with seven years in prison if they criticize the military on social media.
BEWARE FOLKS: FIA will now have powers to take action on tweets, vlogs etc available on social media that attempt to harm army, navy or air force–OR anything on social media that is likely to cause mutiny. The offender will get seven years imprisonment.pic.twitter.com/99fYi5IhF3
— Riazul Haq (@Riazhaq) October 26, 2022

You can watch or listen to Multipolarista’s previous discussion with Pakistani scholar Junaid S. Ahmad here: “Pakistan’s Western-backed coup regime hits PM Imran Khan with ‘terrorism’ charges to silence dissent.”
Pakistan’s Western-backed coup regime hits PM Imran Khan with ‘terrorism’ charges to silence dissent


Instruction: Write an article about: CIA and NATO are waging sabotage attacks inside Russia. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: CIA, Jack Murphy, JSOC, NATO, Russia, special operations, Ukraine

Output:
The CIA is using the intelligence agencies of a European NATO ally to launch sabotage attacks inside Russian territory, according to a report by journalist Jack Murphy.

(Se puede leer esta nota en español aquí.)
The CIA is using the spy agencies of a European NATO ally in order to launch sabotage attacks in Russian territory, according to journalist Jack Murphy.
Murphy is a former US special operations officer who has extensive contacts inside the military and intelligence services.
Citing multiple US government sources, Murphy reported that the CIA and the European state spent years developing “sleeper cells that the allied spy service has activated to hinder Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine by waging a secret war behind Russian lines.”

Infrastructure that has been sabotaged in Russia includes railways, bridges, fuel depots, military facilities, power lines, and electrical plants.
The NATO ally began sending sleeper cells into Russia in 2016, and with the help of “‘an extensive network’ of front companies,” the CIA and the European state smuggled in explosives, weapons, and other equipment.
The US military has also been involved, Murphy reported. Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) “has supported the sabotage operations with targeting information from intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms, such as drones, that can see and hear deep into Russia.”
The White House allegedly signed off on the sabotage operation. Murphy said, “Using an allied intelligence service to give the CIA an added layer of plausible deniability was an essential factor in U.S. President Joe Biden’s decision to approve the strikes.”
I spent months working on this deep dive about the CIA working with a NATO intelligence ally to conduct sabotage strikes inside Russia. Merry Christmas.https://t.co/XGWLjkH5N0
— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) December 24, 2022

President Barack Obama set the stage for this sabotage. The Washington Post revealed back in 2017 that, before Obama left office, he approved a “covert measure that authorized planting cyber weapons in Russia’s infrastructure, the digital equivalent of bombs that could be detonated if the United States found itself in an escalating exchange with Moscow.”
And it is not just Russia whose territory has been attacked.
In April 2022, the Washington Post reported that “a clandestine network of railway workers, hackers and dissident security forces went into action to disable or disrupt the railway links connecting Russia to Ukraine through Belarus, wreaking havoc on Russian supply lines.”
According to Murphy, this sabotage operation inside Belarus was overseen by the CIA and its NATO ally.
He did not name the European country whose spies are on the ground in Russia carrying out the attacks, but it has been speculated that it may be a Baltic state or perhaps Poland.
While the CIA has officially denied involvement, Murphy pointed out, “Under Title 50 of the U.S. Code which authorizes covert actions, the CIA can lawfully deny the existence of these operations to everyone except the so-called ‘Gang of Eight'” – a reference to top level US officials.
I hear that no fewer than three major national publications killed this deeply reported and well sourced story by @JackMurphyRGR under pressure from the CIA  https://t.co/7xZWCmgA4W
— Seth Harp (@sethharpesq) December 24, 2022

Journalist Seth Harp, who is also a US military veteran, tweeted the article and added, “I hear that no fewer than three major national publications killed this deeply reported and well sourced story by [Jack Murphy] under pressure from the CIA.”
Murphy hinted at this in an editor’s note published with his report, disclosing that, “while working with editors at mainstream publications I was asked to do things that were illegal and unethical in one instance, and in another instance I felt that a senior CIA official was able to edit my article by making off the record statements, before he leaked a story to the New York Times to undermine this piece.”
Murphy has published at numerous mainstream media outlets, and he is by no means pro-Russian. He has repeatedly condemned the Russian government and said President Vladimir “Putin is a wimp and a cry baby.” Murphy has likewise insisted that Moscow should withdraw its troops from Ukraine and criticized calls for a peaceful diplomatic solution to the conflict.
Murphy’s report adds to a growing body of evidence documenting the CIA’s role in the proxy war in Ukraine.
In January 2022, weeks before Russia invaded Ukraine, Yahoo News revealed that, since 2015, the CIA had been “overseeing a secret intensive training program in the U.S. for elite Ukrainian special operations forces and other intelligence personnel.”
This CIA program was started by the Obama administration and subsequently expanded by the Donald Trump and Joe Biden White Houses.
Yahoo News wrote: “By 2015, as part of this expanded anti-Russia effort, CIA Ground Branch paramilitaries also started traveling to the front in eastern Ukraine to advise their counterparts there.”
Later in March 2022, Yahoo News followed up with another report admitting that, since 2014, Washington had a “covert CIA training program run from Ukraine’s eastern frontlines,” where US spies were supporting Ukrainians in the early stages of the proxy war against Russia.
“We tried to really focus on op planning, then really hard mil skills like long-range marksmanship—not just the capacity to do it, but to know how to do it on a battlefield, to really deplete the leadership on the other side,” said the former official.https://t.co/IlSxf4wAIW
— Zach Dorfman (@zachsdorfman) March 19, 2022

In June 2022, the New York Times acknowledged that the CIA and special operations forces from numerous European countries are physically in Ukraine overseeing the proxy war, providing weapons, intelligence, and training.
The Times reported: “Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the [US] Army’s 10th Special Forces Group, which before the war had been training Ukrainian commandos at a base in the country’s west, quietly established a coalition planning cell in Germany to coordinate military assistance to Ukrainian commandos and other Ukrainian troops. The cell has now grown to 20 nations.”
A stealthy network of allied commandos and CIA agents is coordinating weapons and information on the ground in Ukraine, hinting at the scale of covert support efforts. https://t.co/24xlFpYQE0
— The New York Times (@nytimes) June 26, 2022

Murphy drew parallels between the CIA sabotage operations targeting Russia today and the “stay-behind” networks that the US spy agency and NATO created during the first cold war, known popularly as Operation Gladio.
These Western stay-behind networks included notorious fascist war criminals, Nazi collaborators, and organized crime elements.
Murphy noted that, while it has long been claimed that these Gladio networks were dismantled in 1994, many in fact continued.
The stay behinds are controversial for many reasons, mostly because of the Italian network referred to as GLADIO. To this day, we still don't know what the actual NATO program name is/was. Stay behind is known as the 4th infiltration method in Special Operations.
— Jack Murphy (@JackMurphyRGR) December 28, 2022

Jack Murphy concluded his report warning of the potential of the proxy war in Ukraine escalating into a direct conventional war between the United States and Russia.
In December 2022, the leader of the NATO military alliance acknowledged that this is a serious risk.
“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia,” said NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg. He subsequently reiterated that “there is no doubt that a full-fledged war is a possibility.”
Similarly, in November 2022, the commander of Stratcom, the US military command that oversees nuclear weapons, warned, “This Ukraine crisis that we’re in right now, this is just the warmup.”
“The big one is coming,” said Navy Admiral Charles A. Richard. “And it isn’t going to be very long before we’re going to get tested in ways that we haven’t been tested a long time.”
The dangers of NATO expansion and provocations in Ukraine had been known for decades.
President Biden himself conceded in 1997 that the Baltic states joining NATO would cause “the greatest consternation,” which could “tip the balance” and result in a “vigorous and hostile reaction” by Russia.
Former US Ambassador to Russia William J. Burns, who is now CIA director, warned in a classified 2008 State Department cable that NATO expansion to Ukraine would cross Moscow’s security “redlines” and “could potentially split the country in two, leading to violence or even, some claim, civil war, which would force Russia to decide whether to intervene.”


Instruction: Write an article about: NATO is arming and training Nazis in Ukraine, as US floods Russia’s neighbor with weapons. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: Azov, Centuria, fascism, Israel, NATO, Nazis, racism, Russia, Ukraine

Output:
NATO is sending weapons and trainers to help neo-Nazis in Ukraine’s white-supremacist Azov movement fight Russia. This follows numerous reports of Western government support for Ukrainian far-right extremists.

(Se puede leer este artículo en español aquí.)
The US-led NATO military alliance is sending weapons to neo-Nazi extremists in Ukraine as they battle Russian soldiers.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, the US government has flooded the country with arms, authorizing sending $350 million worth of military equipment to Kiev.
In less than a week in late February and early March, the United States and other NATO member states transported more than 17,000 anti-tank weapons, including Javelin missiles, over the borders of Poland and Romania into Ukraine, the New York Times reported.
Washington has also sent Kiev 2,000 stinger anti-aircraft missiles. And the Joe Biden administration gave the “green light” to NATO countries to send fighter jets to Ukraine.
Western governments have invited hardened right-wing militants from around the world to travel to Ukraine to join the fight against Russia – just as they did in Afghanistan in the 1980s, in a strategy that gave birth to al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Meanwhile, as NATO creates an insurgency in Ukraine, some of the fighters receiving these arms are white-supremacist fascists.
The anti-Russian activist media platform NEXTA tweeted on March 8 that NATO countries had shipped Next Generation Light Anti-tank Weapon (NLAW) guided missiles and sent instructors to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv.
“The Azov regiment was the first to learn about new weaponry,” admitted NEXTA, a Western-backed Belarusian opposition outlet.
Azov is an explicitly neo-Nazi extremist group.
A shipment of NLAW grenade launchers and instructors from #NATO countries arrived in #Kharkiv. The Azov regiment was the first to learn about new weaponry pic.twitter.com/CCzjN40rW7
— NEXTA (@nexta_tv) March 8, 2022

The Azov movement was founded as a fascist gang that served as the muscle behind a violent US-sponsored coup in Ukraine in 2014, overthrowing a democratically elected government that had maintained political neutrality, and instead installing a pro-Western and viciously anti-Russian regime.
After the 2014 putsch, the Azov Battalion was officially incorporated into Ukraine’s National Guard. It is now known as the Azov Detachment or Azov Regiment, and helps oversee special operations.
Azov preaches a white-supremacist ideology that portrays Russians as “Asiatic” and Ukrainians and “pure” white people. It uses numerous neo-Nazi symbols, including the German wolfsangel and black sun.
The Nazi symbols used by Ukraine’s Azov Battalion
Given Azov’s links to white-supremacist fascist groups in the United States, there was actually a short-lived campaign to get the Ukrainian neo-Nazi militia listed as a terrorist organization.
In 2019, Democratic New York Representative Max Rose and 39 more congressmembers wrote a letter to the State Department asking it to label Azov as a terrorist organization.
That designation never came. Instead, Washington and NATO have armed Azov to wage a proxy war on Russia.
The photos tweeted by NEXTA are far from the only piece of evidence showing that Western governments have supported Nazis in Ukraine.
In 2017, US and Canadian military officers met with Azov Nazis in Ukraine and advised them on how to battle Russian-speaking Ukrainian independence fighters in the eastern Donbas region.
Azov published photos of the meeting on its official website.
In the back of this photo, you can also see a Canadian officer, alongside US military officers, meeting with Ukraine's neo-Nazi Azov Battalion, which uses Nazi-era symbols.https://t.co/8tOZ9A7YGK pic.twitter.com/dAZBeFaHdU
— Benjamin Norton (@BenjaminNorton) January 16, 2018

The Canadian military officials who met with these Ukrainian Nazis later feared being exposed by the media.
The Ottawa Citizen newspaper reported that the exposure of Canadian training for Azov fascists led to an official military review.
Azov Nazis have also received weapons from Israel.
In 2018, mainstream news outlet Haaretz reported that a group of prominent human rights activists filed a petition with Israel’s High Court of Justice demanding that the country stop exporting weapons to Ukraine, after Azov posted a video on its official YouTube channel showing a far-right fighter using Israeli Tavor rifles.
Rights groups demand Israel stop arming neo-Nazis in the Ukraine https://t.co/mTH9yibe5L
— Haaretz.com (@haaretzcom) July 8, 2018

A 2021 study published by George Washington University in Washington, DC showed how Western governments supported another neo-Nazi group in Ukraine, called Centuria.
Centuria is closely linked to Azov, and its extremist members have been photographed or filmed praising Nazi Germany and giving Hitler salutes.
These avowed neo-Nazis are now officers in the Ukrainian military, and were trained by the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Poland, and Canada.
My latest article…Far-right extremists in Ukraine brag they have received training from the Canadian Forces: report https://t.co/0WmLNrIpft
— David Pugliese (@davidpugliese) October 4, 2021

The George Washington University study on this neo-Nazi gang, titled “Far-Right Group Made Its Home in Ukraine’s Major Western Military Training Hub,” stated:
As recently as April 2021, the group claimed that since its launch, members have participated in joint military exercises with France, the UK, Canada, the US, Germany, and Poland.
…
Meanwhile, several Western governments involved in training and arming Ukrainian troops stated, in response to the author’s request, that Ukraine is responsible for vetting Ukrainian soldiers trained by the West. None of the Western governments contacted—the US, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Germany—vet Ukrainian training recipients for extremist views and ties.
In 2017, NATO published a highly produced propaganda film honoring Baltic Nazi collaborators, known as the Forest Brothers.
The US-led military alliance depicted the fascist extremists as brave anti-Russian heroes for fighting the former Soviet Union, while curiously overlooking their alliance with Adolf Hitler.
This is the story of the Forest Brothers who fought the Soviet army for their homelands after WWII pic.twitter.com/4JcfuJPmeO
— NATO (@NATO) July 11, 2017


Instruction: Write an article about: Apartheid Israel requires Palestinians to report romantic relationships to regime. Use the themes and topics represented by the tags provided as guidance for the content. It's not necessary to include the exact tag words in the article, but the article should reflect the essence and context of these tags.

Input: apartheid, colonialism, Israel, Palestine, Palestinians, podcast, racism, West Bank

Output:
While Palestinians are forced off buses for being Arab, apartheid Israel now requires foreigners to notify the regime if they fall in love with a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank. If they marry, they must leave Palestine for a 6-month “cooling-off period.”

The Israeli apartheid regime is cracking down even harder on the approximately 3 million Palestinians who live in the West Bank, which has been illegally militarily occupied by Israel since 1967.
The BBC reported this September: “Foreigners must tell the Israeli defence ministry if they fall in love with a Palestinian in the occupied West Bank, according to new rules.”
“If they marry, they will be required to leave after 27 months for a cooling-off period of at least half a year,” the BBC wrote.
The report added that “foreigners [must] inform the Israeli authorities within 30 days of starting a relationship with a Palestinian ID holder.”

Just a few weeks before, in August, the liberal Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported that “about 50 Palestinian workers were made to get off the bus in the city of Bnei Brak area in order to accommodate three Jewish passengers who refused to ride with them and demanded the driver to force them off.”
A Palestinian passenger recalled to the outlet, “After a few buses went by and didn’t stop – because Bus 288 is reserved for Jews only – one that was empty of Jews stopped for us and we got on.” Then, “Three Jews boarded in Bnei Brak and demanded that all the Arabs be taken off.”
“The driver told us to ‘get off and figure it out’ who then drove off with the settlers,” the Palestinian said.

On September 3, journalist Asa Winstanley reported that the Israeli apartheid regime sentenced a Palestinian aid worker to 12 years in prison “based on a sham conviction in a kangaroo court which relied on entirely fictional charges.”
Mohammed El Halabi, the former director in Gaza of the international Christian charity World Vision, was convicted, but the Israeli court refused to made its ruling public, designating the 254-page document “classified.”
In May, a mob of Israeli far-right extremists threatened Palestinians at Tel Aviv University, waving flags and chanting “death to the Arabs.”
Zionist extremists went around @TelAvivUni, including dorms were some Arab Palestinian citizens were, shouting “death to the Arabs” among other hateful incitement. Neither the Israeli police nor the university did anything to protect the threatened students #Apartheid (1/4). pic.twitter.com/qyZnC9Lu1j
— Sami Abou Shahadeh (@ShahadehAbou) May 17, 2022