Monthly Archives: August 2025

Russia-linked alt news sources promote pro-Russian narratives about Ukraine and NATO

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Medium.com expose of websites that promote Russian propaganda in support of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine – first published April 22, 2021

Alternative news sites, some with connections to Russian intelligence, amplified pro-Kremlin disinfo about the Ukraine conflict. by Nika Aleksejeva

Fringe news websites hosted in Russia or registered by Russian organizations published stories suggesting that Ukraine, along with NATO member states, the United States, and Turkey, are provoking the military buildup that is taking place near the Russian-Ukrainian border. These stories were later amplified by websites previously caught in spreading disinformation. Many of the sources participating in this alternative news ecosystem, such as News Front and South Front, have been previously identified as having connections to Russian intelligence by U.S. officials, including in the U.S. Treasury’s recent announcement detailing sanctions on several Russia-linked disinformation outlets. The DFRLab has also reported on Russian-state media promoting similar narratives.

The content spread by these English-language alternative news websites coincides with the recent disinformation campaign that Russia’s state TV channels launched for its domestic audience. This campaign blames Ukraine, the U.S. and NATO in military buildup and conflict escalation on Russian-Ukrainian border.

The narrative that Ukraine is responsible for the escalation of military tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border ignores the Russian military buildup of the past few months. According to The Insider, an independent Russian media outlet, the first confirmed report about Russian military equipment deployed to Crimea dates back to early February 2021. The equipment was likely deployed as part of the Russian Airborne and Naval military exercises in Crimea. Ukrainian analysts assessed the exercise to be rehearsal for an offense, and Ukraine started enhancing its military positions in the region in early March 2021.

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine started in 2013 with pro-Western protests in Ukraine that resulted in the ousting of the pro-Russian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and the coming to power of a pro-Western interim government, followed by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Complete post, listing several “news” sources, with Whois data on owners of the sites @https://medium.com/dfrlab/russia-linked-alt-news-sources-promote-pro-russian-narratives-about-ukraine-and-nato-f1a3aba9d6ea

The Human Rights Crisis in ICE Detention Centers

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By C.J. Ciaramella

Reports of human rights abuses are piling up as the number of people in immigrant detention reaches all-time highs.

masked ICE agent | ANGELINA KATSANIS/UPI/Newscom

In early August, the number of people in immigration detention in the U.S. surged to an all-time high of more than 60,000. Behind that number is an incipient human rights crisis.

While the Trump administration waited for massive new detention centers to open, it turned to federal prisons and jails, hastily constructed state facilities, and temporary holding cells that were never meant to house people for any extended amount of time.

The overcrowding, combined with negligence and malevolence, has led to inevitable abuses that are too large to ignore or deny.

On August 12, a federal judge ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to drastically improve conditions in migrant holding cells in its New York City offices, where detainees were kept in overcrowded, squalid cells for days and even weeks at a time.

U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan ordered officials to provide more spacious cells, bedding for each detainee, adequate hygiene supplies, three meals a day and water on request, and access to calls with lawyers. The order was in response to a lawsuit filed by an ICE detainee, who alleged he and other detainees were not given access to medical care or showers and were kept in cells so crowded that they didn’t have space to lie down.

Full Post by C.J. Ciaramella @ Reason Magazine https://reason.com/2025/08/15/the-human-rights-crisis-in-ice-detention-centers/