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Sep 10, 2025 - World

President Donald Trump issued a brief statement about the suddenly tense standoff between Poland and Russia.Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned the NATO member's parliament that Russia had crossed a line by sending drones into its airspace during an early Wednesday attack against Ukraine, saying "this situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War II," and the U.S. president briefly commented on social media."What’s with Russia violating Poland’s airspace with drones?" Trump posted on Truth Social at 11:09a.m. EST. "Here we go!"European leaders condemned the incident as an escalation by the Kremlin, which has continued its attacks on Ukraine despite Trump's efforts to push Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy into peace talks.Polish military officials called the incursion “act of aggression" and said all of the drones were shot down with help from NATO allies, and Tusk said he has activated Article 4 of NATO’s treaty, which allows member nations to demand consultations with their allies.That's only the eighth time since NATO was established in 1949 that Article 4, which does not trigger a military reaction, has been invoked by a member.

Sep 10, 2025 - World

The Uniform Code of Military Justice prohibits military troops from committing unlawful killings, defined at 10 USC et. seq. Troops can kill enemy combatants on sight, but only when engaged in armed conflict, or when there is an imminent threat. Even when we are at war, it is a war crime for troops to deliberately kill civilians unless it’s an act of self-defense in response to imminent danger.On September 2, in international waters, on suspicion that a small boat off the coast of Venezuela was carrying drugs to Trinidad, President Donald Trump ordered a strike. The boat was carrying 11 people, all of whom were killed.There were no efforts to speak to, arrest or interdict the traffickers. There was no sharing of intelligence, no imminent threat, and no diplomacy. Instead, Trump, unencumbered by constraints of law, ordered the boat blown out of the water. The next day, the New York Times reported that “Pentagon officials were still working… on what legal authority they would tell the public was used to back up the extraordinary strike in international waters.”Reckless violenceAfter the strike, Trump posted, “Earlier this morning, on My Orders, U.S. Military Forces conducted a kinetic strike against positively identified Tren de Aragua Narcoterrorists in the SOUTHCOM area of responsibility. Please let this serve as notice to anybody even thinking about bringing drugs into the United States of America. BEWARE!” Pete Hegseth, the U.S. “Secretary of War,” took his own victory lap with, “We're going to go on the offense, not just on defense. Maximum lethality, not tepid legality.” His Neanderthalic bleating tracks similar talk from ICE and DHS as theyglorify militarism and violence to recruit new agents, for whom a criminal background is not an automatic disqualification.Hegseth, a former Fox News host, has consistently defended war criminals, dismissing military law as an inconvenient intrusion onto combat authority. If his disdain for “tepid legality” in favor of maximum “lethality” in killing 11 people was not an admission of guilt — meaning he knew the order was illegal but didn’t care — nothing is. Equally chilling, when Brian Krassenstein, a social influencer, noted online that “killing citizens of another nation who are civilians, without any due process, is called a war crime,” Vice President JD Vance wrote back, “I don’t give a s--- what you call it.”Extrajudicial killingsWhen testosterone highs from the strike finally dissipated, military analysts began questioning the maneuver. They questioned, in particular, its legality.Administration officials explained that narcotics on the boat posed an “imminent national security threat.” But that claim doesn’t hold up, given that the boat was headed for Trinidad, even if drugs were on board. Worse, unlike typical drug interdictions by the U.S. Coast Guard, this strike was carried out without warning shots. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said simply that, “Instead of interdicting it, on the president’s orders they blew it up,” and promised more violence in the near future.Whether drugs were on the ship or not, drug runners are criminal civilians, not enemy combatants. The closest thing I’ve seen to a law-adjacent defense is the administration’s bootstrapping claim that Trump could order a strike on Tren de Aragua because Trump has designated it a terrorist organization. But that’s like claiming the right to kill civilians by association. Experts appear to agree:Frank Kendall, former secretary of the Air Force, said the kill targets, “weren’t engaged in anything like a direct attack on the United States” and weren’t afforded a trial to determine their guilt. He added: “Frankly, I can’t see how this can be considered anything other than a nonjudicial killing outside the boundaries of domestic and international law.”Geoffrey Corn, a retired lieutenant colonel and former Army senior adviser on the law of war, said, “I don’t think there is any way to legitimately characterize a drug ship heading from Venezuela, arguably to Trinidad, as an actual or imminent armed attack against the United States, justifying this military response.”Brian Finucane, a former State Department lawyer, agreed that even the designation of drug cartels as terrorist groups doesn’t translate into authority to use military force against them. Such designation enables the U.S. to levy sanctions and pursue criminal prosecutions, not to just open fire and kill them.American lives at riskThe Venezuelan government is now legitimately accusing the U.S. of extrajudicial murder, and preparing for escalating violence. In response to Trump’s attack, President Nicolás Maduro ordered the deployment of 25,000 soldiers to Venezuela’s coastal regions, more than doubling the country’s military presence in those areas.Maduro has said that he suspects Trump is really threatening regime change with the strike and the buildup of U.S. naval forces in the area, because Venezuela holds the world's largest proven oil reserves. Others believe Trump’s escalating use of military force is an attempt to divert public attention away from the Epstein files, corruption and tanking economy. Still others say Trump is dangerously unhinged, projecting imagery of power to mask his administration’s widespread ineptitude. While these motivations are not mutually exclusive, Venezuela’s long term allies, China and Russia, are watching closely.Whatever his true reason, if Trump has the authority to unilaterally redefine civilian suspects as “combatants” even though they pose no imminent threat, he can redefine any group as a terrorist organization, and order them killed.That may present a tidy solution to Trump’s stubborn due process problem, but it is the stuff of Nazis. Even though today’s victims are brown and Black, trapped in poverty, and therefore disposable to men like Trump, killing them extrajudicially is murder. I don’t give a s--- what the administration calls it.Sabrina Haake is a columnist and 25+ year federal trial attorney specializing in 1st and 14th A defense. Her Substack, The Haake Take, is free.

Sep 10, 2025 - World

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that several Russian drones were shot down Wednesday that had flown over the NATO country’s airspace, igniting a firestorm of criticism against President Donald Trump for his handling of Russian aggression.“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin embarrassed Trump 3 weeks ago in Alaska,” wrote X user “Maine,” a self-described Democratic strategist with more than 88,000 followers. “Putin bombed an American factory two weeks ago; Putin [is] now expanding war into Poland and Moldova. Putin has played Trump for a fool.”According to Tusk, the incursion was the first time in history that Russian drones had been shot down over NATO country territory, NATO being the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the intergovernmental military alliance of western nations. Putin has frequently named NATO as the impetus for his country’s aggression amid long-running talks to accept Ukraine as a NATO-member state.Ron Filipkowski, a former prosecutor, ridiculed the Trump administration for its handling of Russian aggression by mocking Defense Department Secretary Pete Hegseth, criticizing what he characterized as the administration’s weak and performative responses to past instances of Russian aggression.“Hegseth is working on a very energetic workout video to respond to Putin’s aggressive military violation of Poland’s airspace,” Filipkowski wrote in a social media post on X Wednesday.The incursion was called the “most serious European airspace violation by Russia since the war began” by Kaja Kallas, the European Union foreign affairs chief, who went on to note that the incursion appeared “intentional,” and “not accidental.”It’s unclear exactly how many Russian drones had invaded Poland’s airspace, though the Ukrainian Air Force estimated it to be at least eight, according to the New York Times. On Polish television, Tusk said there had been as many as 19 Russian drones that flew into Polish airspace.“Putin never would have launched drones into Poland if Donald Trump was President,” X user Maine wrote in another social media post, poking fun at Trump’s past claims that Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine “would have never happened” were he president at the time. Trump has also said at least 53 times that he would end the Ukraine war within 24 hours of taking office for his second term, a pledge that clearly did not come to fruition.CNN's Natasha Bertrand said, "Russia’s drone incursion into Poland marked the first time in its history that NATO planes have engaged potential threats in allied airspace, per Col. Martin L. O’Donnell, the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe spokesperson. Fellow CNN personality Aaron Blake also called the move "unprecedented."Putin embarrassed Trump 3 weeks ago in Alaska. Putin bombed an American factory 2 weeks ago. Putin now expanding war into Poland and Moldova. Putin has played Trump for a fool https://t.co/ePfltZXaem— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) September 9, 2025

Sep 9, 2025 - World

President Donald Trump revealed that the U.S. military discovered Israel's plan to strike Hamas officials in Qatar after it was "too late to stop the attack."In a Tuesday post on Truth Social, Trump suggested he had no control over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's decision to target a Hamas negotiating delegation in Qatar."This morning, the Trump Administration was notified by the United States Military that Israel was attacking Hamas which, very unfortunately, was located in a section of Doha, the Capital of Qatar," the U.S. president explained. "This was a decision made by Prime Minister Netanyahu, it was not a decision made by me.""I immediately directed Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to inform the Qataris of the impending attack, which he did, however, unfortunately, too late to stop the attack," he continued. "I view Qatar as a strong Ally and friend of the U.S., and feel very badly about the location of the attack."Trump said he believed Netanyahu wanted peace despite the attack."I also spoke to the Emir and Prime Minister of Qatar, and thanked them for their support and friendship to our Country," he added. "I assured them that such a thing will not happen again on their soil."

Sep 9, 2025 - World

Before a law enforcement crackdown hobbled it in 2021, the Base established itself as one of the most active neo-Nazi accelerationist groups — a term for groups that seek to hasten societal collapse by violent means.Now the Base has rebuilt, to the extent that last year it earned a spot on the European Union list of sanctioned terrorist groups. A sudden burst of activity in Ukraine has renewed suspicions that the Base and its leader, Rinaldo Nazzaro, are linked to Russian intelligence and security services. “The Base’s activities in Ukraine suggest that there is more to this group than meets the eye,” said Steven Rai, author of a report released on Tuesday by the Institute for Strategic Dialogue (ISD). “While there is no smoking gun that proves state sponsorship of the Base, there are numerous indicators that should at least raise questions as to whether they are being covertly supported by Russia.”Suspicions of Russian influence have persisted since the group’s founding in 2018 due to the fact that Nazzaro, a former FBI intelligence analyst and onetime U.S. civilian analyst supporting military operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, now lives in St. Petersburg. According to the ISD, Nazzaro has continued “to fundraise and provide strategic direction to the group from Russia.” Rai said the Base’s use of Russian communications applications such as VKontakte, RuTube, Mail.Ru and the social network Odnoklassniki, along with its use of inauthentic accounts, or bots, to spread its message, raise suspicions about potential Russian state support. The ISD report also flags the Base’s offer to pay recruits in cryptocurrency to carry out acts of sabotage and violence, “which implies a level of financing that is unusual for neo-Nazi accelerationist groups and raises questions about where the funding originates.”'Hate camp'The Base first captured U.S. headlines from 2019 to 2021, as Nazzaro purchased a remote property in eastern Washington state while organizing online recruits to meet for a “hate camp.” They hoped to practice guerilla warfare, with the long-term goal of establishing a white ethnostate in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. The group’s decline began in early 2020 with the arrest of U.S. members for harboring an AWOL Canadian service member, building a machine gun to carry out an attack at a pro-gun rally, and plotting to murder an antifascist couple.News reports and research point to the Base having been active in 18 countries, including the U.S., U.K, Russia, Ukraine, Italy and Sweden.Rai says Nazzaro’s “profile alone raises questions about whether the Russian government would seek to exploit his access and capabilities by recruiting him as an intelligence asset.”As reported by The Guardian, in March the Base began posting propaganda on social media announcing a campaign in Ukraine, signaling that the group has shifted its target for a white ethnostate from the Pacific Northwest to the Carpathian mountains near the Hungarian border. According to The Guardian, the Base made posts on the social media platform Telegram offering to pay volunteers to carry out attacks on “electrical power stations, military and police vehicles, military and police personnel, government buildings, politicians.” In May, the Base created a new Telegram channel announcing the launch of "Project White Phoenix," described as an effort "to create a white ethnostate in the Carpathian Mountains of Ukraine.” Appealing to Ukrainians, the post announcing the project called for capturing territory "for the future of the all whites in the brewing chaos. Mountains and borders in the region are a force multiplier making guerilla warfare possible and inevitable."Such efforts in Ukraine align with Russian objectives, Rai notes.“At a minimum, the Base’s activities may divert Ukraine’s attention away from countering Russian aggression,” the ISD report says. “More nefariously, the Base could be part of Russia’s hybrid warfare tactics, which employ a mixture of conventional military forces, clandestine operatives and unwitting agents to sow chaos.”Emails from Raw Story to two addresses associated with the Base went unreturned.Nazzaro has consistently denied that he is an agent of the Russian state."This accusation is a lie," Nazzaro said on Telegram in May. "I have never had contact with Russian security services." Nazzaro also said financing for the Ukraine campaign "comes from crowdfunding donations not from me personally."Zakarpattia Oblast has previously been targeted by a Russian influence campaign. In 2018, three members of the pro-Russian neo-Nazi group Falanga were arrested and charged in connection with an arson attack on a Hungarian cultural center in the city of Uzhorod. Polish prosecutors ultimately claimed that the attack constituted an act of terrorism intended to “publicly incite hatred between Ukrainians and Hungarians” and cause “disruption of the political system.”Witnesses implicated Manuel Ochsenreiter, a pro-Russia member of the far-right Alternative for Germany party. Ochsenreiter fled to Moscow, where he died of a heart attack in 2021, aged 45.Looking for a U.S. leaderWhile Ukraine appears to be the Base’s current focus, the group has shown a resurgence in the U.S. and Western Europe.The ISD reports that Europol coordinated arrests of five Base members in six European countries in November 2023, followed by arrests in the Netherlands and Italy in 2024, and in the U.K. earlier this year.Last summer, Nazzaro posted on his personal Telegram account that he was looking for a U.S leader at a salary of up to $1,200 a month, The Guardian reported. During the 2024 U.S. presidential election, the Base posted a video on Telegram celebrating an arson attack on a ballot box. Earlier this year, the Base made an appeal for financial support to pay for a paramilitary training exercise in the U.S. Since the beginning of the year, the group has posted photos of members in the U.S. carrying firearms and wearing tactical gear. It is unclear if the training exercise took place or if the Base appointed a U.S. leader.