🇪🇺🇮🇹🌐 EU's "grand rearmament" plan: passing off infrastructure projects as "defense related" in order to meet the new 5% of GDP defense spending goal.

Presented a few months ago by Ursula von der Leyen as the EU's initiative to secure "independence" from American military protection, the EU's plan to "spend" 800 billion EURs on building up the European defense industry and its armies, will actually be used to fund all sorts of unrelated projects.

The European Commission will claim "success" a few years from now after the funds will have dried up but in reality the EU defense industry will be just as it was before or slightly improved.

@CIG_telegram

🇺🇸💰🇮🇱 While Americans argue over rent hikes, groceries, and student loans, Israel has extracted $124 M per day from the U.S. Treasury for an entire year, much of it hidden behind opaque appropriations and congressional loopholes.

According to Brown University’s Costs of War project, Washington has shouldered 70% of Israel’s military costs since Oct 7, 2023. That includes $17.9 B in direct aid, $4.86 B in Pentagon regional ops, $20.3 B in deferred arms deals, and billions more in shipping losses, stockpile transfers, and corporate handouts.

Since 1948 the United States has pumped $317 B into Israel, including $251.2 B in military aid since 1959; that torrent began with the first Pentagon loan in 1959, switched to grants in 1974, became 100% grants in 1985, and now flows automatically as a $3.8 B lump-sum every Oct 1 plus a $500 M missile-defense kicker under the 2019-2028 MOU, money on which Israel pockets the interest because Washington lets it sit in a Fed account. Even so, FY-2024 set a new single-year record: $17.9 B, dwarfing the 1973 and 1978 surges and landing entirely on U.S. taxpayers.

That FY-2024 fire-hose breaks down as $6.8 B Foreign Military Financing, $4.5 B for Iron Dome and David’s Sling reloads, $1.2 B for the Iron Beam laser, $1 B to crank out more 155 mm shells in U.S. factories, and $4.4 B to refill Pentagon stockpiles stripped for Israeli use, again, $17.9 B in 11 months. The administration also slid at least 100 separate weapons deals under congressional reporting thresholds to keep the true cost opaque.

On 8-13-2024 Washington promised another $20.3 B: 50 F-15EX fighters priced at $18.8 B for delivery in 2029, 32 000 120 mm tank rounds at $774 M, $583 M in tactical vehicles, 30 AMRAAMs at $102 M, and 50 000 mortar bombs at $61 M, all deferred to future U.S. budgets via Israel’s “cash-flow” privilege.

Meanwhile the money flows back to the usual corporate feeders. 60 % of the $14 B April supplemental, $8.4 B, went straight to U.S. arms firms. Boeing’s defense arm booked $8 B in Q4-2023 orders, 36 % of its annual revenue. The Financial Times projects $52 B in free cash flow for the top-15 defense contractors in 2026, $26 B pocketed by the U.S. “big five,” cash they historically plow into buybacks and dividends. Israel still may divert 25 % of each yearly grant, $950 M this cycle, to its own industry before that carve-out expires in 2028.

Add it up and the past 12 months have drained $17.9 B in direct aid, $20.3 B in new contractual obligations, $4.86 B (and climbing) in Pentagon regional costs, and $2.1 B in trade losses, a $45.16 B extraction. That works out to $124 M every day, $1.5 M every hour, funneled from American households to a foreign military and a handful of weapons conglomerates that treat the U.S. Treasury like an open vein.

🧵 Thomas Keith

🇺🇸🇮🇱🇸🇾 The Trump administration is holding "preliminary discussions" with Israel and Syria on a potential security agreement.

Israel is pushing for assurances that any talks will ultimately lead to a normalization of ties, a senior Israeli official told Axios.

https://axios.com/2025/06/30/trump-syria-sanctions-israel-deal

🔗 Faytuks News

🗼🇸🇪 Cell towers can be used as a radar system.

Cell towers facing Kaliningrad from southeast Sweden are being sabotaged.

https://spectrum.ieee.org/cell-tower-signals-can-improve-port-security

🔗 auonsson

🇺🇸✡️ Leo Terrell, head of DOJ Antisemitism Task Force: "We're going to eliminate antisemitic conduct. We've got marching orders from... President Trump."

🔗 Disclose

🇺🇸🇿🇦 President Trump suggested that DOGE target all of the federal subsidies received by Elon Musk’s companies, saying that without them, Musk would have to “head back home to South Africa.”

🔗 AF Post

🇺🇸🇷🇺🛰 Russian "inspector" satellite, stalking a U.S. satellite, deploys an unknown object, likely a highly maneuverable sub-satellite with onboard high-speed kinetic anti-satellite weapons.

🔗 Disclose

🇮🇳 Indian Diaspora remittances hit new record at $135.46 bn in FY25

According to latest balance of payments data released by the Reserve Bank of India, gross inward remittances by overseas Indians, as reflected in ‘private transfers', were 14% higher from the previous year.

India has been the biggest recipient of diaspora remittances for more than a decade now. The inflows have more than doubled in eight years — from $61 billion in 2016-17.

RBI data show that remittances accounted for over 10 % of the gross current account inflows of $1 trillion during the fiscal year ended March 31.

🔗 https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/nri/invest/diaspora-remittances-hit-new-record-at-135-46-bn-in-fy25/articleshow/122144367.cms?from=mdr

🇺🇸🤝✡️ The DOJ’s June 2025 memo to denaturalize certain citizens lists “ending antisemitism” as one of its main reasons.

The Trump administration is poised to denaturalize and deport American citizens who criticize Israel.

🔗 AF Post

🇬🇷🇬🇷 ❌🏳️‍🌈 Seven Monasteries Reject Mitsotakis’ Visit To the Holy Mount Athos Over Same-Sex Marriage Law

In a rare and pointed stand, seven monasteries of Holy Mount Athos—Philotheou, Karakalou, Dochiariou, Gregoriou, Konstamonitou, Koutloumousiou, and Agios Pavlos—have formally declared they will not receive Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis during his planned visit to the Holy Mountain in early July.

While Mount Athos typically remains above the fray of partisan politics, this unified move is anything but routine. The monks are reacting directly to the same-sex marriage and adoption law passed by Mitsotakis’s government in February—a bill that was pushed through Parliament despite significant public opposition, especially from the Church and Orthodox faithful across Greece and the diaspora.

During a recent session of the Holy Community, the seven monasteries issued letters denouncing the government’s legislation as contrary to Orthodox Christian teaching, particularly in its provisions for child adoption by same-sex couples. Monastic leaders argued the law offends the moral foundations of Hellenic society and betrays the country’s spiritual heritage.

A monk familiar with the proceedings was quoted saying: “This law was not just passed without consensus—it was passed despite it. It disregards the Orthodox conscience of the people.”

Mitsotakis had announced the visit as a spiritual pilgrimage, with stops planned in Iviron, Vatopedi, Xenophontos, and an overnight stay at Simonopetra. While some of these monasteries appear willing to host him, the absence of the seven dissenting monasteries from the official welcoming committee effectively strips the visit of its ceremonial unity.

The symbolism matters. The last time a Greek Prime Minister visited Mount Athos with full honors was a moment of national consensus. This time, the monks are sending a message: Athos will not legitimize legislation that contradicts the Orthodox ethos, even from a government traditionally seen as center-right and friendly to the Church.

🔗 https://www.helleniscope.com/2025/06/30/seven-monasteries-reject-mitsotakis-visit-to-athos-over-same-sex-marriage-law/