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The Duran is a news-media platform that advances a realpolitik position The Duran is not right, left or center. It is a media site that focuses on a pragmatic analysis of stories in the news.
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December 05, 2025
Let's talk about some news - Dec. 5

Spiegel Leak: EU leaders protective of the Green Goblin. Delusion that the Russian frozen assets are a trump card. The big reveal, European elite do not like Witkoff. Shocking stuff :)

Who are the leaders on the leaked call: Macron, Merz, Stubb, Ursula, NATO’s Rutte, Meloni, Tusk, Frederiksen, Norway’s Store, EU’s Costa and Zelensky.

Notably absent… 008 Starmer.

VIA SPIEGEL: “There is a chance that the US will betray Ukraine on territory without clarity on security guarantees,” Macron said according to the English language notes of the call that DER SPIEGEL has obtained. There is, he said, “a big danger” for Zelenskyy. Russia’s demands for territorial concessions are one of the most delicate points in the negotiations.

According to the notes, Merz said Zelenskyy must be “very careful” in the coming days. “They are playing games with both you and us,” Merz apparently said, likely in reference to the two U.S. negotiators Steve Witkoff, a real estate mogul, and Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law.

These and other statements reproduced in the notes of the conversation illustrate the Europeans’ deep distrust of the two Trump confidants. While the Europeans have consistently praised Washington’s new peace initiative, the document shows that in addition to Merz and Macron, other participants in the call also do not trust the two U.S. emissaries.

Merz emphasised that Europe must take the Russian frozen assets, believing that the assets are the strongest lever Europe has over Russia, over Trump. The assets are their ticket to the negotiating table, or so they believe.

Who leaked this call? Maybe US intel. Maybe Russian intel. Maybe UK intel, to push the Zaluzhny narrative onto the Trump administration. Or maybe German intel to discredit Witkoff and Kuschner.

Blackrock Merz is on his way to Brussels to meet with Belgium PM De Wever and Ursula von der Tatters in another effort to get the Russian frozen assets.

The EU panic is off the scales. Two against one meeting to try and pressure De Wever to cave.

EU officials call Ursula’s scheme to take the Russian assets ‘CRAZY’. The EU is obsessed with this latest wonder weapon hail mary effort to salvage something from Project Ukraine, with what will effectively be a loan payback to the G7 of $40 billion, an MIC gift of about $100 billion and the rest of the funds essentially flushed down Zelensky’s golden toilet. If you believe these funds will last Ukraine two years as Ursula claims, well then I have a bridge to sell you.

If Belgium’s De Wever caves, then Belgium is cooked.

The Skripal investigation prepares the way for Russiagate v. 4.0:

Convenient timing of this UK inquiry which puts the blame of the Skripal poisoning onto… big surprise, Putin, whom a UK judge is certain ordered the Skripal poisoning. But Putin, being the worst poisoner in all of history, hired bumbling assassins who carelessly left the Novichok bottle lying around, which led to the unfortunate death of Dawn Sturgess.

Putin is the worst poisoner in all of history, but he is also going to invade Europe, and he suffers from various health issues.

It is clear that the main purpose of the inquiry and its “findings” is to resurrect Russiagate by creating a connection between the Skripal poisoning and Mueller (remember that guy) by naming the assassins as the same guys in Mueller’s failed Russiagate report.

It’s a poorly executed message to Trump: back off on bilateral negotiations with Russia, or else Russiagate 4.0 is coming after US midterms.

VIA THE TELEGRAPH: Russian spies who hacked Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign have been linked to the Salisbury poisonings for the first time.

Boris Antonov, Nikolai Kozachek and Pavel Yershov were previously indicted by the United States for releasing tens of thousands of emails from Mrs Clinton’s 2016 campaign.

They were among 11 Russian military intelligence officers sanctioned by Britain on Thursday in the wake of a public inquiry into the death of Dawn Sturgess, who was exposed to the nerve agent Novichok in 2018.

The Sturgess inquiry concluded the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency, was responsible for the death of the mother of three who came into contact with the chemical weapon following a botched attempt to assassinate double agent Sergei Skripal.

Putin in India. Russian isolation continues:

Putin briefed Modi on the progress of the Ukraine talks with the US.

Putin also revealed a bit about the talks with Witkoff and Kuchner, noting that the US team came with the 28/27 point plan and four accompanying documents that, according to Putin, Russia had to go through point by point in discussions with the US, and that explains the 5-hour length of the meeting.

So it was a discussion of the peace plan and Russia explaining their position on the points presented.

https://x.com/MyLordBebo/status/1996836550844526902

EU’s Mogherini resigns. Kallas under pressure.

Former EU top diplomat Mogherini has resigned from her position as rector of the College of Europe, an academy which prepares young Europeans for a life of service to the EU blob. Completely expected, as Mogherini and two other officials have been charged and are now under investigation by Belgian police.

The timing of it all, as the EU places immense pressure on Belgium to give up the Russian frozen assets. Belgium investigators may be sending a message to the EU and specifically the current power structure, including Kaja Kallas.

Kallas is in damage control mode trying to distance herself from this corruption investigation, which does have overlap with Jungle Josep Borrell’s time as the EU’s top diplomat.

EUROVISION in chaos:

Eurovision deserves the turmoil and chaos… because the hypocrisy is impossible to ignore. It does remind me of the ICC going after Putin (encouraged by the US), only to then be forced to go after Netanyahu, for which the US then went after the ICC.

Ireland, Spain, Slovenia and the Netherlands are threatening to withdraw from next year’s Eurovision Song Contest in protest of Israel’s participation. Keep in mind Russia has been banned from Eurovision. Israel continues to compete, and last year they placed, if I remember correctly, in the top 3? Claims of voter manipulation are also floating around Eurovision.

Clown World:

Liz Truss has a podcast.
Everyone has a podcast. This trainwreck of the lettuce podcast will be entertaining.

Pornhub is interested in buying Likoil.
From Russian energy in Europe to porn energy in Europe. That sounds about right for the EU.

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April 22, 2026
Wednesday´s Live was not quite ... with Alexander Mercouris

My fellow Duranians,
Wednesdays are Alexander´s Day with us, where we look forward to his live stream with us and just ask all sorts of things, concerning from geo- politics to cultural queries.
Sadly, as most of us know, Locals decided to do their thing again and wreck our beloved weekly, BUT
Alexander and I took advantage of the situation and turned the negative into the opposite.

Enjoy this quickly arranged substitute

01:00:52
Alexander Mercouris Live Stream This Week Will Be On Friday 24th April 2026

My friends, as you all know, for technical reasons it proved impossible to do our weekly Live Stream yesterday. Unfortunately the systems failed us again.

Firstly, I would like to thank you all of you for your patience and kindness, even as a promised Live Stream had to be called off.

Secondly, I particularly want to thank Zarael for stepping into the breach, making it possible for us (him and me) to do an excellent programme together for the Duran Community on Locals when the Live Stream should have taken place.

Thirdly, I am going to make a further attempt to do the Live Stream on Friday. Hopefully by then the technical issues will be resolved. I look forward to speaking to you all then.

Live chatted 13 hours ago
Fractured Iran or fractured Trump? w/ Robert Barnes (Live)

Thirty yrs ago, I met an Iranian engineer, who has studied these structures. She explained that they were an ancient way to keep cool in the summer heat. I was trying to find more info about them, and here... a commenter at Andrei's blog wrote the following:

"Around 400 BC, Persian engineers built structures that could maintain sub-zero temperatures in the middle of a desert summer. No electricity. No refrigeration. No modern technology of any kind. Just literally physics, geometry, and an extraordinarily sophisticated understanding of how heat moves.

The yakhchāl, which translates literally from Persian as ice pit, was an ancient refrigeration structure that allowed the Persian court and, eventually, broader Persian society to have access to cold food, cold drinks, and ice year-round in one of the hottest climates on earth. The above-ground structure was a large domed building, typically built from a heat-resistant mud brick mortar called sarooj, made from sand, clay, egg whites, goat ...

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June 17, 2024
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A quick commentary on the "Piss Summit"
I might not be able to upload much more or do lives for a while

My Fellow Duranianss.

Yes, it's happened again. I have been assaulted by a vicious Malware Bot Virus or whatever 911 Socks is and this thing is bad ! 

However I wanted to give you a "peace" of my mind concerning the "Piece" or piss, as Elensky calls it, as this thing fell to pieces before it even happened.

Coincidentally on the very SAME DAY  this crap happened Saudi Arabia DROPPED the US Petrodollar as a buying currency and NO ONE absolutely NO ONE is talking about this fact anywhere !!!

 

Hope to see you all asap.

 

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September 29, 2023
Locals Community Private Telegram Messaging

Locals will be sunsetting the private messaging feature throughout the Locals website. In order to keep our private messaging active we have created a private Telegram messaging group called 'The Duran Locals.'

This is a private channel open only to our Locals subscriber community. In the private Telegram group you can send a message to the group or a private message to Alex or Alexander via a direct Telegram message. 

You can access Telegram for web, desktop or mobile here: https://telegram.org/

The link for this Telegram group is below (can be viewed by community subscribers).

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