Military Madness > Zelensky may be gone soon - Seymour Hersh

 

Last week I asked if America was setting the table for Zelenskyy's replacement when Yulia Svyrydenko was named Prime Minister. It appears Seymour Hersh asked himself the same question.

Zelensky may not last much longer

Seymour Hersh

Former General Valery Zaluzhny could step in amid declining support for the Ukrainian leader, according to the journalist

Ukraine's Vladimir Zelensky at the Ukraine Recovery Conference, Rome, Italy, July 10, 2025 © Global Look Press / Angelo Carconi

The political future of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky appears increasingly uncertain, according to officials in Washington cited by legendary journalist Seymour Hersh. The prospect of the politician being replaced by former armed forces commander Valery Zaluzhny is reportedly growing amid waning domestic support and mounting frustration in Washington.

Zelensky suspended national elections under martial law and opted not to step down after his presidential term officially ended in 2024. His former top military commander, who was dismissed earlier this year and later appointed ambassador to the UK, has reportedly long been considered a potential successor.

“Zelensky is on a short list for exile, if [US] President Donald Trump decides to make the call,” the veteran reporter wrote on Friday.

One US official familiar with internal discussions suggested that if Zelensky refuses to step down — which they believe is the most likely scenario — he may ultimately be removed by force.

Zaluzhny is currently seen as the most credible successor to Ukraine’s leader, according to “knowledgeable” officials in Washington cited by Hersh, who added that the “job could be his within a few months.”

READ MORE: Zelensky would lose Ukrainian election – survey

Zelensky’s popularity, which soared to 90% in the early months after the Ukraine conflict escalated in February 2022, has steadily declined due to battlefield setbacks and ongoing economic difficulties. The latest polls suggest that only 52% of Ukrainians still trust him, while around 60% would prefer he not seek another term.

I don't believe those numbers are good enough to justify a coup. However, if you suddenly see a flurry of stories criticizing Zelenskyy, look out, it's coming.

Western media outlets have recently shifted their tone, with some portraying Zelensky as increasingly authoritarian. Others have reported that officials in Washington believe “it’s time for an election and new leadership.”

Russian officials have also raised concerns about Zelensky’s legitimacy, arguing that any international agreements signed under his leadership could be legally challenged. While Moscow has expressed a willingness to negotiate with Zelensky, it remains skeptical of his authority to finalize any lasting deal.

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Corruption is Everywhere > But Gabon is trying to rise above it; Lukashenko tells Belarusian politicians to support their own mistresses

 

Gabon votes in first presidential election since coup ended 

55-year Bongo dynasty

Africa

Gabon voted on Saturday for its first elected leader since a 2023 coup overthrew the Bongo dynasty, which had ruled Gabon for more than 55 years. The Bongo family has been accused of looting the wealth of a nation where a third of its 2.3 million people live in poverty despite the nation's vast oil resources.

Issued on: 12/04/2025 - 07:19Modified: 12/04/2025 - 22:33

2 min

By:

FRANCE 24

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FRANCE 24

Video by:

FRANCE 24

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FRANCE 24

Voters in Gabon headed to polling stations on Saturday in the first presidential election since a 2023 military coup ended a political dynasty that lasted for more than 50 years.

Some 920,000 voters, including over 28,000 overseas, were registered to participate across more than 3,000 polling stations. After voting ended at 6:00 pm (1700 GMT), the interior ministry said turnout had run to 87.12 percent.

It is a crucial election for the country’s 2.3 million people, a third of whom live in poverty despite its vast oil wealth.

The interim president, General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema, toppled President Ali Bongo Ondimba two years ago. He hopes to consolidate his grip on power for a new seven-year term in office, renewable once.

Nineteen months after overthrowing president Bongo, whose family ruled Gabon for more 55 years, Nguema has pitched himself as a change agent cracking down on the corrupt old guard.

Nguema, 50, has criss-crossed Gabon in a baseball cap with the slogan, "We Build Together" during the campaign.

‘Votes delayed due to some logistical problems’

FRANCE 24's Marcel Amoko reports on Gabon's presidential election © FRANCE 24

He has been leading in opinion polls.

Polling stations opened at 7am (0600 GMT) and closed at 6pm (1700 GMT), with the result due on Sunday.

His main challenger is Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, who was serving as prime minister under Bongo before the August 2023 coup, the eighth in West and Central Africa since 2020.

A new constitution approved in November cleared the way for Nguema's candidacy.

Analysts say his status as the frontrunner comes from a sense that people were broadly happy with the coup and him being the most visible candidate during the campaign.

Nze's close ties to the old government – which was accused by critics of vote-rigging – also undermine his warning that Nguema poses a threat to Gabonese democracy, said Florence Bernault, a historian of Central Africa at Sciences Po.

"He doesn't seem to be very well placed to criticise," Bernault said.

 France 24

Power cuts

Gabon's economy grew by 2.9% in 2024, up from 2.4% in 2023, driven in part by infrastructure projects and increased production of commodities such as oil, manganese and timber, according to the World Bank.

But many voters told Reuters they were mostly concerned about basic services, citing power cuts that plague the capital.

"We talk about it every day. So this is a primary urgency because we don't want to have this anymore, these daily power cuts," said 40-year-old electrician Herve Regis Ossouami.

"I don't know a Gabonese person who would say they don't want water and electricity."

Lukashenko tells Belarus officials to

self-fund ‘mistresses’

State money allocated to support athletics must be spent properly, the country’s president has declared

President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko. ©  Sputnik/Gavriil Grigorov

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has called for the exclusion of personal expenses from state funds earmarked for promoting sports. Instead, he has urged top government officials to fund their “mistresses” with their own money.

Speaking on Friday at a meeting focused on support for physical culture and sports organizations, the Belarusian leader told officials to report on various issues, including oversight of state funds allocated to national sports clubs and federations.

“I want to warn you, guys, it’s not hard these days to track how this money is being spent – and we will track it,” Lukashenko cautioned.

“But I want to say, man to man, that you should support your family, loved ones, mistresses, or anyone else with your own money. That will be the right thing to do – both humanely and manfully,” the president added, noting that officials can earn money wherever they want.

Lukashenko expressed hope that his comments would prompt officials to draw the right conclusions.

READ MORE: Half the world dreams of Belarus-style ‘dictatorship’ – Lukashenko

“The real question is: how fairly – and more importantly, how responsibly – are clubs managing these funds? Or are they just blindly using them? What exactly are the finances being spent on?” he asked.

Combating corruption was one a key theme of Lukashenko’s presidential campaign ahead of an election held in January. In early February, the Central Election Commission declared the 70-year-old politician the winner with 86.82% of the vote. None of the other candidates received more than 5%.

In December, upon appointing Ruslan Chernetsky as Minister of Culture, the Belarusian leader expressed dissatisfaction with the state of the country’s film industry.

“I just want to say man-to-man, Ruslan – you have no other choice: either die, or bring order to the sector,” Lukashenko said at the time.

Military Madness > Trump blames Biden for Ukraine war, but he's only partially correct

 

Trump blames Biden for Ukraine war

Washington should never have claimed that Kiev could join NATO, the US president-elect said on Tuesday

FILE PHOTO: US President-elect Donald Trump ©  Global Look Press / Allison Robbert

US President Joe Biden’s inept handling of the tensions between Russia, Ukraine and NATO has led to the conflict between Moscow and Kiev, President-elect Donald Trump told a press conference on Tuesday.

Had Washington not offered Ukraine the prospect of joining the US-led military bloc, war could have been avoided, Trump believes.

Washington’s desire to see Ukraine in NATO, despite Moscow’s legitimate concerns, is what has triggered the conflict, the president-elect told journalists, adding that he believes that Biden “broke” a deal that America had with Russia on how far the US-led military bloc could expand.

“Moscow has repeatedly stated even before President Vladimir Putin came to power that it does not want to see NATO in Ukraine,” Trump stated, adding that it “has been written in stone.” Biden nonetheless insisted that “they should be able to join NATO,” he added.

The president-elect also said he “could understand” how Russia was “feeling about” having a foreign military bloc “right on their doorstep.” “There were a lot of mistakes made” in negotiations between Moscow and Washington during the period preceding Russia’s military campaign against Kiev, he said.

Read more

 Putin reveals secret Biden Ukraine-NATO offer

“When I heard the way that Biden was negotiating, I said: ‘you’re going to end up in a war,’ and it turned out to be a very bad war,” Trump said, adding that the ongoing conflict could still escalate even further and become “much worse than it is now.”

The president-elect referred to the ongoing conflict as a “disaster” that “should have never happened” and called it “Biden’s fiasco.” He also vowed to “straighten up” the situation, while still admitting it will be “a tough one.” According to Trump, it would have been much easier to prevent the conflict from breaking out back in 2022 than to settle it now.

Trump is absolutely correct, although the real trigger was pulled in 2014 when Obama decided to overthrow the elected government of Ukraine and replace it with a more western-friendly president. 

It was then that Moscow had to protect its Black Sea Naval Base at Sevastopol in the Crimea. NATO has been using that as proof of Putin's empire building and an excuse to sell trillions of dollars of weapons to Europe.

NATO is the storefront for the Western war industries.

Answering one of the journalists’ questions, Trump said that he might need up to six months after taking office to help Moscow and Kiev reach a deal. Previously, he had repeatedly vowed to end the conflict in 24 hours. He still expressed his hope that it could be done “long before six months.”

In late December, Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that Biden offered him to delay Ukraine’s membership in NATO at the organization’s 2021 summit in Geneva. For Moscow, Kiev’s accession to the US-led bloc was unacceptable “whether it’s in one year or ten years,” the Russian leader said at that time.

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Syria - What's Next? > Muslims open fire on Orthodox Archdiocese in Homs; Islamists torch Christmas Tree in Syria

 

Regardless of what the new leader of Syria is saying, he doesn't have control over the many Muslim jihad factions operating in the country, whether he is telling the truth or not. Which is a little unlikely.

Syria: Muslims open fire on front door of

Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama

headquarters, break nearby crosses

Dec 19, 2024 11:30 am By Robert Spencer

The cross is an affront to Islam. The Qur’an claims that Jesus was not crucified, although in somewhat equivocal language for what is supposed to be the perfect word of an omniscient god:

“And their saying, ‘Indeed, we have killed the Messiah, Jesus, the son of Mary, the messenger of Allah.’ And they did not kill him, nor did they crucify him; but another was made to resemble him to them. And indeed, those who differ over it are in doubt about it. They have no knowledge of it except the following of assumption. And they did not kill him, for certain.” (4:157)

And a hadith depicts Muhammad saying: “The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary (i.e. Jesus) descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the Jizya tax. Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts).” (Bukhari 46.37.2476)

This means he will destroy Christianity (break the cross), force the Christians to obey the Islamic food laws (kill the pigs) and end the second-class dhimmi status (abolish the jizya) that Islamic law specifies for Christians, such that they will either have to convert to Islam or be killed.

SYRIA: Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama targeted 

in gun attack, graves vandalised

by Paul Antonopoulos, Greek City Times, December 19, 2024:

…The Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama in west-central Syria was targeted in an attack, with gunfire damaging its façade and crosses on nearby graves vandalised and removed, Greco-Levantines World Wide reported….

Although several pro-Islamist news pages claim that the photos of the attack were from 2011, as Greco-Levantines World Wide pointed out, a closer examination reveals that one of the graves belonged to a person who died in 2021.

Islam has no regard for the truth. 

“We firmly reaffirm that the attack occurred today and that the graves were desecrated today,” the volunteer initiative added.

The attack on the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Hama follows on from the vandalism of Hagia Sophia Greek Orthodox Church of Suqaylabiyah (Seleucia, Greek: Σελεύκεια) by Turkish-backed Islamist terrorists on December 12.

Not THE Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. 

Near Hama, the Greek Orthodox church is a small replica of the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. It was constructed in 2020 following Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision to convert the Hagia Sophia into a mosque.

On the same day as the vandalism of the Hagia Sophia Church, two Greek Orthodox Christians, Samaan Satme and Helena Khashouf, were murdered in the village of al-Jamasliyye in Syria’s Homs province.

Although the murder was initially reported as a burglary gone wrong, it later emerged that Samaan was beheaded and Helena shot, indicating that there were other motives….

Christmas tree burning ignites protests in Syria

The country’s Christians fear persecution following

the fall of Bashar Assad’s government

A man sits next to a Christmas tree at Saint Matilda Catholic church in Aleppo, Syria, December 15, 2024 ©  Getty Images / Burak Kara

Christians have held protests on the streets of Suqaylabiyah, Syria, after a group of Islamist fighters torched a Christmas tree in the town earlier this week. The incident has stirred anger among local residents, who view the act as a deliberate attack on their community and religious identity.

Islamist authorities in Damascus have attributed the arson to foreign jihadist elements operating within the region, and have pledged to investigate and bring the perpetrators to justice.

Video posted online on Monday showed a group of masked men starting a fire at the base of the tree, which towered above a roundabout in the majority-Christian town. Unconfirmed reports claim that the men prevented locals from extinguishing the blaze.

Within hours, another video circulated showing an unidentified rebel standing with a Christian priest next to the tree, promising that it would be “completely restored” by Christmas Eve. The rebel claimed that eight foreign fighters were behind the burning, and that they had been arrested.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights – a UK-based organization aligned with the rebels – reported that the men were foreigners from the Ansar al Tawhid Islamist group.

Despite the unidentified rebel pledging to restore the tree, hundreds of Christians protested in Suqaylabiyah and Damascus on Monday and Tuesday. “If we’re not allowed to live our Christian faith in our country, as we used to, then we don’t belong here anymore,” one demonstrator told AFP.

“Syria is free, non-Syrians should leave,” a group chanted in Damascus, referring to the foreign jihadists who swelled the ranks of the rebels during their successful assault on the capital earlier this month.

Hayat Tahrir-al-Sham (HTS) jihadists launched a surprise offensive in the northern Syrian provinces of Idlib and Aleppo late last month. After the city of Aleppo fell within days, the group advanced south on Damascus, capturing the towns of Suqaylabiyah, Hama, and Homs along the way before they were joined by US-armed Free Syrian Army (FSA) militants for a final push on the capital.

As his military stood down and rebel forces entered the city’s suburbs, former Syrian President Bashar Assad left for Russia, where he has been granted asylum.

Under Assad, Christians and other religious minorities were allowed to openly practice their faith. With HTS in charge, many now fear that they will face persecution.

HTS was formed in 2017 with the merger of Jhabat al-Nusra – a Syrian offshoot of Al-Qaeda – and other Islamist groups. Despite his history of violent Islamism, HTS leader Abu Mohammed al-Jolani has promised to respect the rights of Syria’s minorities. However, al-Jolani has stopped short of pledging to specifically safeguard Christians.

”[HTS] have not announced anything on stopping our celebrations… but there are Christians who don’t want to go out to celebrate because they fear that they might get attacked from rogue armed individuals,” a protester in Damascus told AFP.