Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News

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"Sound and fury signifying nothing" - a very loud spectacle of minor diplo spat between two friendly "victims of aggression" countries, that was fanned by the usual KGB/FSB Russian disinformation and propaganda ops.

Ukrainian FM spokesman H. Tykhyi stressed that "Ukraine is not targeting Israel and provided proof and data" that this shipment was illegal. Consequently, the importer pulled the order and Panama-flagged Panormitis was turned away from Haifa Bay port. According to this data, since 2022 Russia has looted and profited from more than 1.7 million tons of agricultural products worth over 387M euros.

Ship was part of the Russian "shadow fleet" that helps prop up the Kremlin's war economy by concealing or spoofing their location data, and often engage in ship-to-ship transfers of their cargo while at sea to obscure its origin.

Now that Ukraine and Israel "kissed and made up" over manufactured public "much ado about nothing," Ukraine can turn world's attention to re-flagged "shadow fleet" ships with Ukrainian grain that have been headed for and unloaded in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Turkiye... usually with little to no outcry.

Ukraine's FM Andrii Sybiha welcomed the result: "This is a clear signal to all other vessels, captains, operators, insurers, and governments: do not buy stolen Ukrainian grain. Do not become part of this crime."


|------- The Russian bot network "Matryoshka" has circulated videos falsely claiming that an Orthodox rabbi "cursed" President Volodymyr Zelensky due to the dispute, or that Ukraine may bar Israelis from the Uman pilgrimage.

The falsehoods tried to exploit recent diplomatic spat between Ukraine and Israel over cargoes of looted grain from Russia-occupied Ukrainian territories arriving at Israeli ports.

The group said it had detected nine videos published on X and BlueSky on April 29, the same day Israeli and Ukrainian FMs traded accusations.

The clips falsely use logos of established media outlets such as RFI, Euronews, and AFP, combined with unrelated footage and overlaid text - a technique commonly employed by Matryoshka.
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www.sgdsn.gouv.fr - Matryoshka Network (PDF, 16 pg)

It's been very much in Russia's interest to separate Israel and Ukraine from the US and the West.



In other, real UA and IL news:

* At the request of Mohammed bin Zayed Israel provided Iron Dome and 48 specialists to operate it to UAE in early days of Iran op "Roaring Lion," and IAF took out Iran's southern installations and launchers of short-range missiles that would threaten UAE.

* India is now considering Israel a strategic partner, not just as-needed supplier of radars and other military equipment. Modi reaffirmed continuing cooperation with IMEC and I2U2 on his 2-day visit to Israel and ME, he was the first Indian PM to address the Knesset, as Israel stood by and provided support to India during 2025 operation Sindoor:
rohanvenkat.substack.com - Interview: Why Modi went to Israel, India's coordination with UAE and more - 2026-03-16

indiawrites.org - Modi's Israel journey - 2026-02-24

* Japanese drone maker, in cooperation with Ukrainian partner, has developed a cheaper, lighter interceptor drone, which has already been deployed in active combat.
www.japantimes.co.jp - Japan's Terra Drone expands investment in Ukraine drone sector - 2026-04-29
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As Trump's son-in-law returns to Pakistan for more talks with Iran, major news outlets are largely ignoring an egregious conflict of interest.

One reason why Iranians have told Trump before that they are not going to "negotiate" with non-/quasi-government entities like Witkoff and Kushner - they have no bribes to give them.

So Trump ostensibly decided to send Vance to Islamabad again, then reconsidered, likely given Vance dismal record of fiascos with Orban's election in Hungary and previous meeting with Iranians in Pakistan - the excuse given for change of plans was that he was concerned about Vance's "security"... apparently not realizing that this would look like he was not concerned about security of his son-in-law and partner in crypto crimes, since sons of Steve Witkoff are the co-founders and Zack is CEO of crumbling WLFI crypto empire and its rapidly declining coin price.

Trump family receives 75% of net proceeds when World Liberty Financial sells $WLFI coins, and gets a cut of USD1 stablecoin profits. At the end of 2025, the Trumps had made $1B in proceeds, and holding what was at the time $3B worth in unsold coins.

USD1 is one of the stablecoins integrated into TRON blockchain, which is owned by Justin Sun, a crypto billionaire who bought 3 billion of $WLF coins $45M just before 2024 elections, giving it a boost when World Liberty Financial was just starting and nobody wanted their coins, and in early 2025 he bought or was awarded another 1 billion coins worth at the time $30M, making him a WLFI advisor and largest token owner in what he then described as "excellent project." Sun also heavily invested in tanking $TRUMP memecoin.

It paid off last March when the SEC settled the lawsuit against him for fraud, selling the unregistered "crypto securities" and other "investment instruments" and money laundering for only $10M with no admission of wrongdoing, and several investigations into some of his companies were closed with no criminal or civil charges brought.

www.npr.org - Chinese crypto businessman eats his controversial $6.2 million banana art piece - November 29, 2024

By market cap, $TRON is now 8th largest token project worth $30B, USD1 stablecoin is 22nd at $4.4B, $WLFI token ($0.073) is 37th at $2.3B.

Sun is now suing WLFI in California federal court for secret shenanigans that effectively had frozen his token holdings making them impossible to trade, and earlier this month he alleged that World Liberty had secretly embedded what he described as a "backdoor blacklisting function" in the blockchain-based contracts used for the tokens. That gave World Liberty "unilateral power" to "freeze, restrict, and effectively confiscate the property rights" of token holders without cause or recourse. He also complained that WLFI threatened to "burn" his tokens if he didn't go along with new bylaws.

According to lawsuit, Sun claims that WLFI "refused my requests to unfreeze my tokens and restore my rights as a token holder" and also that in early 2025 WLFI "repeatedly pressured" him to invest additional capital in the venture between April and July 2025, including requests to commit another $200m to acquire their stablecoin and an equity stake in the company.

"Lie down with dogs, get up with flees" - that's the Trumpy way.
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