The coup in Caracas was not just a raid. On 3 January 2026, U.S. forces took Maduro out of the capital. Explosions lit up the night. Then he appeared in handcuffs in New York. That same week, Delcy Rodríguez was already in place. Months later she was standing next to Trump, smiling, talking oil, mining and “cooperation.” What followed was not a transition. It was a clean-out. The old defence minister was moved aside. The high command was replaced. More than a hundred generals and admirals were retired. Then the assets started to move. That purge was not an accident. A revolution in Venezuela only works if parts of the army join it. They know that. Chávez was not a top general when he moved. He was a lieutenant colonel. That is why this story is not finished. The Chavista forces are probably regrouping. The next chapter is not another photo with Washington. It is whether enough men with guns still remember who the country was sold to. Read the full article:
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The Quad is back. In Manila. Rubio confirmed it on Indian TV: the first Quad leaders' summit in more than two years, on the sidelines of the ASEAN meetings in Manila, 15 to 17 November. "We don't have the specific date yet, but that's going to happen, and we're very enthusiastic about it." US, Japan, India, Australia. Hosted by Marcos, whose coast guard runs into China's almost every week. Now look at the calendar. Days after Manila, Trump is expected in Shenzhen to meet Xi. So Washington lines up its club in China's neighbourhood first, then sits down with Beijing. They call it leverage. My take: India won't play the part written for it in Washington. It just hosted the BRICS summit in New Delhi. And Rubio's three-day India trip skipped New Delhi altogether. The Quad has been "revived" so many times. Watch what it actually delivers.

Fyodor Lukyanov, programme director of the Valdai Discussion Club, on East Meets West, on how Putin started: In the early 2000s the line was: "we are not very happy about how it looks like in the world now. But we understand the situation, we are realists." Russia was "ready to adapt itself", but "on certain conditions." And that was the problem > > "Russia was denied the right to formulate any conditions" > "Either you join us, western community, free world, open society, whatever" > "or sorry, it's our club, you cannot" His verdict: Putin was "maybe the most pro-western leader of Russia" in its history, "at the first stage." He "really tried hard" to shape Europe and the world "together." "But it was never accepted. Russia has never been accepted as an equal partner." Multipolarity is what happens when the club refuses to seat anyone as an equal. Be informed. Not entertained.

China billionaires NOT A SINGLE ONE IS ALLOWED INTO POLITICS. It is a "dictatorship" of the 99.99% meaning > Yes in China the people rule, no oligarchs. It is not a pro-China post, it is a post that should shame Western self proclaimed democracies

Ray Dalio, founder of Bridgewater, to Charlie Rose in June 2022, on whether the world order is changing: "In 1945, we started the new world order." After a war, "the winners set the rules." What America had > > "80% of the world's money, gold was money at the time" > "half the world's GDP" > "a monopoly on military power" "That's why the United Nations is in New York. Washington, D.C. has the IMF and the World Bank." And the dollar became the reserve currency. What is changing > > debt so large that "they eventually print money" > internal conflict and populism > "the rise of a great power to challenge the existing great power" "Now it's not as dominant. It is not dominant." His sequence of wars: trade, technology, geopolitical influence, then "capital and economic warfare, which we are now with sanctions." Then military. Four years on, tick the boxes yourself. Be informed. Not entertained.

Counter-intuitive > - Pakistan might be closer to Washington despite having a strong military cooperation with China. - India is not such a close US ally. Pakistan > Imran Khan was ousted by the Pakistan military with the help/backing of the US. Pakistan might join a war against Yemen, benefiting the US and Israel. India > India is facing a US backed colour revolution. Bcoz. Too close to BRICS and especially Russia. Modi has been kicking out from India 1000s of Western NGOs and objecting any alignment with NATO/EU against Russia. Navigating in grey areas…. Be informed, not entertained.

"Right now we have to freeze, and I think this is the real way to end this war." Zelensky on Fox and Friends, asked about freezing the front where it stands. Remember spring 2022 ? Istanbul. A draft deal weeks after the invasion. Boris Johnson flew to Kyiv. The talks died, and the slogan became "as long as it takes". Four and a half years later: > more than 17,500 civilians confirmed killed, says the UN, and the real toll is likely much higher > Russia demands all of Donetsk > Kyiv complaining of cuts to US intelligence warnings and Starshield Same day, Putin agreed "in principle" to three-way talks, possibly in Abu Dhabi in November. Zelensky: "don't speak about us without us, please." Every month of "until victory" bought less land and more funerals. The freeze Zelensky asks for now was available, on better terms, in 2022. Somebody in London and Washington should answer for that.

INDIA Not a single video showing police real violence. Not a single person injured. I have seen only protesters hitting policemen and looking for a reaction so the cameras can capture “police violence” for Western media. It is all “Acting” by those protesters. Even one of their leaders is Neha Bora…is literally a Phd student in…. THEATER and performance, you cannot make that up. WTF. What happens these days in India is a colour revolution attempt, India is being targeted by the west. The usual actors > NGOS, Soros, influencers, Media amplifying the BS These days > The real police violence is in France, in Europe, in USA Not in Beijing, not in Moscow, not in Delhi. And NO, i am not a fan of Indian Nationalists or Modi. I just wish India to be independent, a sovereign state > WITHOUT FOREIGN INTERFERENCE

INDIA. THE NATIONALISTS ARE FIGHTING THE WRONG ENEMY. The colour revolution in India has an address. And it isn't Beijing. Look at who's actually behind it. Who trained them? Oslo Freedom Forum. Human Rights Foundation. Who amplifies them? BBC, Western NGOs, the "democracy" press. Who flies the influencers to London? Not China. Who's in Mumbai and Jamnagar while the protests escalate? Marco Rubio. Fund. Train. Amplify. Pick the leaders. That's the US playbook. Ukraine 2014. Bangladesh 2024. Nepal 2025. — NOW WATCH THE INDIAN NATIONALISTS. They see the protests and shout: "Communists!" "Leftists!" "China!" "Pakistan!" "Muslims!" And the US? Barely a word. They'll go after a JNU student for an hour. Then post a selfie with the US flag and a "Howdy Modi" throwback. — THE PRO-US BIAS. For years they've been sold a story. America is India's natural partner. China is the eternal enemy. The Quad. The "democracy partnership." Silicon Valley jobs. The H1B dream. So when the regime change machine shows up, they can't see it. Because it's wearing the flag of their "best friend." Easier to blame the communists. Easier to blame Beijing. Comfortable. Familiar. Wrong. — PAKISTAN AND THE MUSLIM TRAP. Is there a Pakistani hand? Possibly. Islamabad has meddled in India before. Some faces at the London rallies raise fair questions. Pakistan-linked accounts pile onto every Indian protest. How much of it is organised, and how much is opportunism? Hard to measure. Watch it. Investigate it. Expose it with evidence. But Pakistan is not 200 million Indian Muslims. Yet every protest, every riot, every viral clip, and the reflex is the same. Blame the Muslims. They don't realise that's the plan. A colour revolution doesn't need everyone on the streets. It needs a country at war with itself. Hindu against Muslim. North against South. Young against old. Everyone against the state. Divide. Polarise. Confuse. Exhaust. That's how you break a country of 1.4 billion. Not with tanks. With hashtags and hatred. Yugoslavia. Iraq. Syria. Libya. Every time, Washington found the fault line and pushed. India's fault line is religion. Any outside player, Western or Pakistani, wins the moment Indians turn on each other. Every nationalist who turns on his Muslim neighbour is doing their job for free. — WHO ACTUALLY GAINS? China gains nothing from chaos in India. A stable neighbour trading with it suits Beijing fine. Indian Muslims gain nothing from chaos. They're the first to pay for it. Even if Pakistan plays a part, it's a side player riding a wave someone else built. And the left? Most Indian leftists are noise. No money, no global media machine. But there is a fringe. Soros-funded. NGO-trained. On the Oslo Freedom Forum circuit. They're not the brain. They're the hired hands. Foot soldiers in someone else's playbook. Follow the money and it doesn't lead to Beijing or Moscow. It leads West. The US gains a lot. An India that stops buying Russian oil. An India that drops non-alignment. An India too divided to say no. That's the point of the pressure. Not "democracy." Obedience. — THE MISTAKE. By blaming China, Muslims and the entire left, the nationalists do Washington's work for them. They shield the real organiser. They deepen the very divisions the playbook feeds on. And they make sure no one asks the right question. A united India can't be broken. A divided one can be steered. Sovereignty means seeing threats clearly. Even when they come from your "friend." India is not Bangladesh. Yet. Be informed, not entertained. 🙃

MANILA CLOWNSHOW 2/2 Meanwhile at home Marcos is running his own show. Impeachment, court cases, pressure from every side, all aimed at Sara Duterte before 2028. Hard not to see why. When the Dutertes were in charge, Manila talked to Beijing, things calmed down, and the fishermen went back out. That's awkward for the current story, so now it gets painted as treason. Same goes for anyone who questions the whole thing. Point out that the numbers don't add up and you're a traitor. One holy document, one enemy, and you get thrown out for asking questions. Call it what you want, I call it a cult. This week it got properly silly. Rep. Terry Ridon wants Chinese diplomats deported if Ambassador Jing Quan isn't. Sen. Kiko Pangilinan wants Marcos to send home the "arrogant, insulting" envoy. The Chinese embassy answered with one line: "Why don't you suggest closing the entire embassy? 😊" Honestly, that was the most grown up thing anyone said all week. The way out has been on the table the whole time. Sit down with Beijing directly. Sort out fishing access, a hotline for when things go wrong, some basic rules for coast guards at sea, maybe joint research or even joint development. Nothing glamorous. Doesn't make good video. Which is probably why no one in Manila wants it. So the ruling stays in its drawer, the cameras keep rolling, the ships stay put, and the WPS crowd keeps yelling traitor at anyone who notices. Be informed, not entertained.

THE MANILA CLOWNSHOW 1/2 July 2016. A tribunal in The Hague hands Manila its ruling on the South China Sea. Champagne, press conferences, lots of talk about international law finally winning. Fast forward ten years. Same reefs, same Chinese ships, same arguments. What changed is the volume. First the bit nobody in Manila likes to mention. China never accepted that arbitration. It didn't show up, didn't argue, and called the award null and void the day it came out. Beijing had already opted out of compulsory arbitration on maritime boundaries back in 2006, which UNCLOS Article 298 allows. And the real fight is about who owns which reef, which UNCLOS doesn't even rule on. On top of that there's the 2002 declaration China signed with ASEAN, where everyone agreed to sort these things out by talking directly. Manila went to court anyway. Fine, that's their right. But then you can't act surprised when the other side says it was never part of it. So what's the ruling actually for? Ask the WPS crowd online and they'll tell you "leverage". I've never understood that one. Leverage means you push a little and something big moves. In ten years nothing has moved. Not a ship, not a reef, nothing. The other line is that allies will come running. Why would they? Pick a fight with your biggest trading partner over someone else's reef, and get a thank you note from Washington in return. Nobody has signed up for that. Funny enough, neither has Manila. No sanctions on China, no trade cuts, nothing. China is still the Philippines' number one trading partner and every government there has quietly kept it that way. They did the maths. The ruling went in a drawer. And yet the same crowd wants Japan, Australia and the US to pay a price Manila itself won't touch. Now, if the paper does nothing, why does it all look so dramatic on your phone? Because a lot of it is staged for the camera. The pattern is always the same. A Philippine Coast Guard boat heads for Second Thomas Shoal or Scarborough. The Chinese coast guard shows up. Somebody's already filming, and by lunchtime the clip is everywhere with the usual caption about Chinese bullying. A lot of that footage goes through SeaLight, run by Ray Powell, an ex US Air Force colonel who did attaché time in the region. And no, that's not a Chinese talking point. The Manila Standard, a Filipino paper, put his name on it back in February 2024. The idea came out of a 2023 piece in a US naval journal called "Lighting Up the Gray Zone". Basically, feed journalists a ready made story so the government doesn't have to file a protest every week. It connects to Stanford's Gordian Knot Center and got pitched in Manila through Stratbase. Then you have Atin Ito, "This Is Ours", the so called civilian missions. Volunteers, flags, buoys, food, fuel, and of course a boat full of invited media sailing out to Scarborough. Civil society, they say. Looks more like a film crew to me. And then there's the Sierra Madre. The old navy ship the Philippines ran aground on Ayungin back in 1999 and left there to rust. It's been the marker ever since. Every resupply trip turns into a standoff, every standoff turns into a headline. Same shoal, same script, every few months. It's getting busy out there too. The Pentagon has confirmed US troops are deployed in support roles, Task Force Ayungin. Not much, but enough to drag the 1951 defence treaty into an argument over a rusty hull. Japan wants in as well. At its Self Defense Forces anniversary event, Mitsubishi Electric and Toshiba were showing Manila their Type 03, Type 11 and Type 91 air defence systems, plus a Japanese satellite setup to watch Scarborough. Japan. The country that occupied the Philippines. You couldn't make it up. Pull out a map and it starts to make sense. Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines. The first island chain. This was never really about fishermen. Manila is just the stage for someone else's plan.

India. Colour revolutions are very sophisticated. the US pours billions of dollars into this, every year.

"Notwithstanding our one China policy." That's Felipe Carino III, Manila's deputy chief of mission in Washington, explaining why the Philippines is "exploring deeper cooperation with our friends in Taiwan" on undersea cables. Where did he say it ? Not in Manila. At the Center for a New American Security, in Washington. Taiwan's deputy representative spoke at the same seminar. On the table: knowledge sharing, capacity building, "addressing the grey-zone issues". Joint patrols ? He had no details, but said some of it "may be actually coming to fruition." The focus is the Bashi Channel, the strip of sea between Luzon and Taiwan. This month the Philippine coast guard already sent its largest ship and a plane to shadow a Chinese research vessel off Batanes. One China policy on paper. Taipei as partner in practice. Announced at a US think tank. Same playbook, new chapter.

Taiwan just turned away a TV actor. Zhang Linghe, star of the Chinese hit drama Pursuit of Jade, applied to come to Taiwan for a fan meeting. The Mainland Affairs Council said no. Their reasons: > he posted comments "denigrating" Taiwan's sovereignty > he was a guest speaker at the Straits Forum in Xiamen > the reason for his visit wasn't "sufficiently clear" A fan meeting. Not clear enough. The MAC says it welcomes Chinese entertainers, as long as they're not "complicit" in Beijing's campaign. So, entertainers who agree with the DPP. Beijing's Taiwan Affairs Office told Taipei to drop the "political maneuverings and unreasonable restrictions" on cross-strait exchanges. The DPP sells itself abroad as the free, open side of the Strait. Free to visit, unless young Taiwanese actually want to see you.

"Why don't you suggest closing the entire embassy ? 😊" That's China's embassy in Manila, answering Rep. Terry Ridon. He wants lower-ranking Chinese diplomats deported if Ambassador Jing Quan isn't. Then Sen. Kiko Pangilinan asked Marcos to send home "this arrogant, insulting, crude and insolent alien". The embassy called it "thuggish, hooligan-style language" and asked if that's the calibre of a Philippine senator. Now ten House members, De Lima and Diokno among them, have filed a resolution to get Jing recalled. The Palace says Marcos won't block it. The DFA's line: "It is not the place of a foreign mission to publicly criticize or taunt Philippine officials." So a senator can call an ambassador an "alien". The embassy answers back on Facebook. And the embassy is the one being told to mind its manners.

Putin, February 2008, annual Kremlin press conference, three days before Kosovo declared independence from Serbia: Supporting Kosovo's unilateral declaration "is amoral and against the law." Then the double standard, laid out > > Northern Cyprus has been de facto independent "for 40 years now. Why don't you recognise it ?" > "Are you Europeans not ashamed to apply double standards in settling one and the same issue in different parts of the world ?" > "We are always being told that Kosovo is a special case. This is all lies." > Spain, Northern Ireland: "Why should we encourage separatism ?" "There have to be common standards." Eighteen years later Serbia still does not recognise Kosovo. Neither do five EU members. The "special case" became the template. Everyone learned the lesson Washington taught in Belgrade. Be informed. Not entertained.

Nigeria's Vice President Kashim Shettima, on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in New Delhi, asked whether Nigeria wants full membership: "BRICS reflects the reality of our age and times. The architecture of 1945 is different from the architecture of 2026." His numbers > > BRICS members: "3.9 billion people", half of humanity, about 60% with the partners > "a combined nominal GDP of 32 trillion" > "40% of the global oil production" > "90% of rare earth minerals refining" On membership, no applause line: "For now, our status as a partner member is substantive enough." In "the fullness of time", "taking into consideration our own national interest", Nigeria "may decide" to go higher. Africa's most populous country: partner first, national interest always. Not a bloc of obedience. A menu of options. Be informed. Not entertained.