Feds Try To Bankrupt a Moving Company for Hiring Strong, Young Movers

Nobody complained about the company, so federal bureaucrats launched their own crusade. J.D. Tuccille | 7.21.2025 7:00 AM1/2

Is it unfair if a company that specializes in picking up and transporting heavy loads emphasizes hiring younger people over employing senior citizens? That's the federal government's position in the case of Meathead Movers, a California business that bills itself as offering "athlete movers" who are "clean-cut, strong, and professionally-trained." The federalEqual Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has spent years investigating the company for age discriminationandeven filed a rare agency-initiated lawsuit against the company with no individual plaintiff claiming harm. Now, Arizona's Goldwater Institute is suing the EEOC to find out what's behind the federal bureaucracy's anti-meathead jihad.

Why Would You Prefer Strong, Young Movers?

"The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has filed suit against the San Luis Obispo moving company Meathead Movers, Inc., the largest independent moving company in California, for refusing to hire people based on age," the federal bureaucracy boasted in September of 2023. (this was done under the Bidan Admin, why is it still going on.)

"The EEOC's lawsuit charges that since at least 2017, Meathead Movers failed to recruit and hire applicants over 40 into moving, packing and customer service positions. Meathead maintains a pattern or practice of recruiting and hiring young college students, intentionally excluding older workers regardless of their individual abilities."

Founded in 1997 by two then-high school athletes, Aaron and Evan Steed, the company has grown into California's largest independent moving company based on the what the company describes as "the brothers' vision of energetic athletes delivering a unique customer service experience."

A 2017 profile in Inc. magazine described the company's evolution into not just a larger and more successful moving company, but a launch pad for young athletes. Meathead Movers "hires student athletes with ambitious career goals and helps them achieve those goals through coaching, training, and confidence building. When employees start their postgraduation job searches, founder Aaron Steed proactively calls hiring managers to sing their praises." To that end, the profile added, "the business recruits its 350-plus movers–mostly wrestlers, as well as football and baseball players–from colleges in southern and central California."

The approach has fans. This year, Pacific Coast Business Times surveyed 1,400 employees at almost 100 companies and named Meathead Movers among the "2025 Central Coast Best Places to Work."

This means the company's founders built a growing moving business that's popular among its employees (and presumably the customers who have driven that growth) by hiring strong young people to pack, lift, and transport heavy objects while they are in the prime of fitness. It trains them for the larger work world after moving and then launches them. Then it hires more.

Pay Us $15 Million and Shut Up About It

That's kind of a cool business model. But the feds don't like it. They began investigating Meathead Movers roughly a decade ago. Then they slapped the company with a demand for $15 million and changes in its internal practices to settle the EEOC's age-discrimination claims.

"We of course said, 'sorry, we can't afford that' and I'm never going to agree to go out of business," Meathead Movers CEO Aaron Steed objects in a video posted to Facebook. "From there, we had three mediations, all of which failed. I agreed to all the non-monetary demands: changing our training, changing the wording in our slogan, all kinds of things. And still, they wanted an eight-figure settlement which would have bankrupted my company."

The EEOC didn't like Steed going public, so it told the company to shut up. Meathead Movers wouldn't be allowed to share its ordeal or its side of the story with the public.

"The EEOC issued a gag order demanding that Aaron and his company cease all public communication—including social media posts—about the case, under threat of additional legal action," according to the Goldwater Institute, which is now involved in the case. "In other words, the government is now trampling on the First Amendment rights of the company's founder, simply because it doesn't like that the company is sharing the truth about the government's actions in this case."

https://reason.com/2025/07/21/feds-try-to-bankrupt-a-moving-company-for-hiring-strong-young-movers/

>>23358281

2/2

The Only People With a Complaint Are Federal Bureaucrats

Interestingly, the EEOC isn't backing a lawsuit filed by aggrieved current or former employees—it's still trawling for anybody with an axe to grind against Meathead Movers on the agency's website, desperately looking for "individuals aged 40 or older who applied to Meathead and believe they were not hired because of their age." In the absence of somebody with a complaint, the EEOC launched its own lawsuit based on its distaste for the company's philosophy and business practices.

"Within the EEOC, no current or former employee has ever filed an age discrimination claim against Meathead Movers,"noted Dylan Foreman of local NBC affiliate KSBY in a March story about the case."The EEOC has filed only eight lawsuitsbased on its own initiated investigations within the last 10 years across all statutes and in all federal courts across the entire country."

The EEOC admits that even short of lawsuits, "directed investigations" in the absence of complaints by aggrieved individuals are unusual and constitute "far less than 1%" of its volume.

That makes the ongoing crusade against this moving company highly unusual.Federal bureaucrats are going out of their way to torment a business—CEO Aaron Steed says the company has run up $1.5 million in legal costs so far—in the absence of any aggrieved parties other than themselves.

The Tri-County Chamber Alliance, representing chambers of commerce in San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara and Ventura counties, calls the case against Meathead Movers"a shocking government shakedown by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission."

Is the EEOC Waging a Personal Vendetta?

Frankly, it looks like a personal vendetta or a hit job. It's certainly something worth looking into.And that's exactly what the Goldwater Institute is now doing.

Last week, after federal bureaucrats ignored a public records request on behalf of Meathead Movers, Goldwater filed a lawsuit against the EEOC seeking "records pertaining to the total number of complaints against Meathead Movers, publicly-available information about the EEOC's investigation of Meathead Movers, information about other agency-initiated lawsuits, including allegations of age discrimination, and communications about Meathead Movers, including to and from specific EEOC officials."

Maybe with the help of the Goldwater Institute,Meathead Movers will finally discover why federal bureaucrats want to drive the company out of business.

https://reason.com/2025/07/21/feds-try-to-bankrupt-a-moving-company-for-hiring-strong-young-movers/

Someone in the Trump Admin, needs to shut this down, the prior employees are still pursuing bullshit.

EEOC Oversight Trump Admin

• Andrea Lucas: Appointed by President Trump as Acting Chair of the EEOC, Andrea Lucas is responsible for overseeing the agency's operations and setting its enforcement priorities. She has outlined a focus on rooting out unlawful DEI-motivated race and sex discrimination, protecting American workers from anti-American national origin discrimination, defending the biological and binary reality of sex and related rights, protecting workers from religious bias and harassment, and remedying other areas of recent under-enforcement. Lucas has served as an EEOC Commissioner since 2020, having been nominated by President Trump during his first term. Since her appointment, the EEOC has shifted away from its previous interpretation of civil rights law that included prohibiting workplace discrimination against people based on their gender identity.

Kanwaljit Arora

@mekarora

Made in China didn't work. This is what happens when you trust Made in China.

Bangladesh Air Force's FT-7BGI Fighter Jet crashed in the Uttara Milestone College campus in Dhaka. Pilot killed. Multiple casualties reported.

#Bangladesh

6:27 AM · Jul 21, 2025

22.7K

https://x.com/mekarora/status/1947242054003880065

Stacey Abrams

@staceyabrams

The news of Stephen Colbert’s late-night show cancellation is disheartening. I’ve been fortunate to appear on @colbertlateshow four different times. Each time, Stephen asked important questions and made sure to make us laugh.

10:52 AM · Jul 18, 2025

·663.9K Views

Stacey, hate to break it to you, but no one cares what you think

https://x.com/staceyabrams/status/1946221621485683178

Falls of Clyde to be removed from Honolulu Harbor

The 146-year-old vessel has been docked at the harbor for years and was impounded in 2016. Here's the fate that awaits the ship. Stephanie Salmons July 18, 2025

The 146-year-old Falls of Clyde has been docked at Honolulu Harbor for years.Soon, though, the ship will be sent to a final resting place far below the surface of the Pacific.The state Department of Transportation this week announced that Shipwright LLC, a Florida-based maritime technical consulting firm, was awarded a contract to remove the vessel from the harbor and dispose of it at a deep-water site at least 12 miles due south of Honolulu Harbor. The removal project will cost an estimated $4.9 million.

According to the July 14 announcement, Shipwright will begin removing debris on July 21, "and will restore the watertight integrity of the ship's division bulkheads." That work will be followed by "hull strength remediation" which will allow the vessel to be safely towed out of the harbor in the event of a storm or other emergency, the department continued.

More structural reinforcement work will take place from August through November, the DOT notes, and the vessel will be towed and disposed of in late November.According to the DOT, Shipwright will seek the necessary approvals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Coast Guard.

Falls of Clyde is currently berthed at Pier 7 and was previously part of the now-closed Hawai‘i Maritime Center. That former facility belongs to the DOT and is currently vacant, a department spokesperson confirmed to Aloha State Daily.

The DOT notes that the Falls of Clyde was impounded in 2016 after its permit was revoked and the owner failed to remove it from the harbor.Why has it taken nearly a decade to dispose of the boat?

Dre Kalili, deputy director for the DOT Harbors division, told ASD in an emailed response to questions thatstate laws governing the impoundment and disposal of vessels "require various steps, including the sale of the vessel at public auction."

"The extended timeline on the removal is attributed to time needed to follow the required procedures coupled with attempts to return the vessel to Scotland and previous unsuccessful efforts to award a contract for removal," she said.

This move comes a year after the DOT sought bids for the permanent removal of the ship, and called for bidders to recommend and determine the method and means of removal, the department noted.

The DOT also worked with a maritime archaeologist to catalog and remove historical items from the boat, which are now being stored in a secured facility.Kalili says that among the artifacts that were removed and are now in storage are the binnacle, bell stand, running lights, wheel and name boards. Several other items were display pieces with historical value but not original to the ship, she noted.

Over the past decade, Kalili says that the department has impounded and removed at least 30 abandoned, derelict or inoperable vessels from commercial ports."Removal of these vessels reduces the risk the vessels pose to waterways, piers, wharves, and other port infrastructure if they sink or break loose from their lines," she says. "In the recent past, vessels have sunk in the port waterways and have obstructed or interrupted cargo vessel operations."

A brief history

According to the National Park Service, the ship was built in Glasgow, Scotland, in 1878 and made "several trading voyages to western U.S. ports before being sold to American owners in 1898."

"The vessel was subsequently involved in the Hawaiian transpacific sugar trade as part of Capt. William Matson’s Matson Navigation Co. fleet," the NPS noted. "Falls of Clyde is the oldest surviving vessel from the Matson fleet."

In the early 1900s, the ship was modified as a "sailing oil tanker for the maritime petroleum trade," and made multiple trips between California and Hawai‘i every year, the NPS says. In 1922, it was converted for use as a fuel barge in Ketchikan, Alaska.

"In 1958, a private owner bought the Clyde, towed it to Seattle, and tried to find a city that [would] adopt it. Bob Krauss, a columnist for 'The Honolulu Advertiser' and Hawai‘i philanthropists launched a grassroots effort to save the ship, raising $35,000," a timeline on the Historic Hawai‘i Foundation website notes. "By 1963, the ship was a fixture on the Honolulu waterfront, undergoing $3 million worth of restoration over 34 years."

When it was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989, the ship was the "oldest surviving American tanker and the only surviving sailing oil tanker left afloat in the world," according to the NPS. It was removed from the National Register of Historic Places and had its designation as a National Historic Landmark withdrawn in 2024.

https://alohastatedaily.com/2025/07/18/falls-of-clyde-to-be-removed-from-honolulu-harbor/

Democrats are far more motivated than Republicans for next year’s midterms, CNN poll finds

By Jennifer Agiesta, July 17, 2025CNN manipulated and deception poll1/2

Democrats are far more energized than Republicans about participating in next year’s midterms,but deeply negative perceptions of the Democratic Party and its officeholdersraise questions about the party’s ability to capitalize on that energy.

Overall, 72% of Democrats and Democratic-aligned registered voters say they are extremely motivated to vote in next year’s congressional election, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS. That outpaces by 10 points deep motivation among the same group just weeks before the 2024 presidential election and stands 22 points above the share of Republican and Republican-leaning voters who feel the same way now.

But just 28% of Americans view the Democratic Party favorably, the lowest mark for Democrats in the history of CNN’s polling going back to 1992. Still, only 33% hold a favorable view of the Republican Party, which is the smallest share in CNN polling since just after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol.

The poll suggests Democrats have a major opportunity next year – especially since midterms often favor the party out of power – but also a perception problem within their own ranks, particularly among younger voters.

Among voters younger than 45 who align with the Democrats, just 52% say most Democratic members of Congress deserve reelection, and 48% say they do not. Older Democratic voters, by contrast, say these elected officials deserve another term by a wide margin, 76% to 24%.

Nearly 6 in 10 Americans say most of the Democratic Party’s members of Congress do not deserve reelectionand Democrats themselves are 7 points less likely than Republicans to believe members of Congress of their own party deserve reelection. Those historic lows on favorability are partly driven by Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents being less likely to have a favorable view of their own side (76% of Republican-aligned adults have a favorable view of the GOP, while just 58% on the Democratic side feel that way about their party).

Republicans face several disadvantages

The American public largely agrees that full Republican control of the White House and Congress is bad for the country (57% feel that way), with negative views of both President Donald Trump and his party persistent since spring. Sixty percent say most GOP members of Congress do not deserve to be reelected.

And the Democratic Partymay hold an advantageamong political independents. Nearly two-thirds of independents say full GOP control of the federal government is bad for the country, and slightly more independents say most Democratic members of Congress deserve reelection (38%) than say the same about most Republican members of Congress (33%).

That gap grows to double digits among independent voters who are deeply motivated to vote next year (39% say most Democrats deserve reelection vs. 27% who say the same about most Republicans), though this is driven at least in part by the stronger motivation to vote among independents who lean Democratic.

The Trump brand in politics

Trump won’t be on the ballot in next year’s election, but his presence is likely to loom large for both his supporters and opponents.

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/07/17/politics/democrats-republicans-midterms-poll

>>23358478

2/2

While roughly 3 in 10 Americans call themselves Republicans, in a separate question, 37% of US adults say they’re political supporters specifically of Trump. A smaller share has backed his commercial ventures: 11% have purchased the president’s products or stayed in his hotels. That small group is particularly loyal: They are more motivated to vote than other Trump supporters (62% compared with 45% among Trump backers who haven’t done so) and are more apt to say that Republican members of Congress largely deserve reelection (89% vs. 77%).

The president’s self-described supporters are demographically and politically similar regardless of whether they have spent money on a Trump-branded item or hotel stay. They are largely Republican, more male than female, mainly White, and less likely to have a college degree than those who do not consider themselves supporters.

But having spent money on the Trump brand seems connected to a deeper political commitment to the president: 73% in that group say they strongly approve of his handling of the presidency, compared with 44% among those who say they support him politically but haven’t purchased a product or stayed in one of his hotels.

At the other end of the political spectrum, roughly a tenth of Americans say they’ve participated in some form of protest against Trump since his inauguration, with 8% saying they’ve shown up to a protest in person.

Americans like the idea of a third party, but not Musk’s

With perceptions of both major parties broadly and persistently negative, Americans continue to express interest in a third political party. Overall, 63% say they would favor having a new third political party to run candidates against Republicans and Democrats for major offices. That’s consistent with the appetite for a third party found in other recent public polls and about the same level of support for a third party found in CNN polling in early 2010.

But interest dropped off significantly when voters were asked about the idea of a new party founded by Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO who has floated the “America Party” amid his public falling-out with Trump.His idea for a third party has just 25% support, with 74% opposed.

The poll finds impressions of Musk himself deeply negative – 60% of Americans have an unfavorable view of him, while just 23% see him favorably. That’s worsened since March, when he was a prominent part of Trump’s efforts to slash spending and jobs in the federal government. That shift is almost entirely due to lost goodwill among the president’s partisans: While 75% of Republicans had a positive view of him in March, that stands at just 42% now. His favorability ratings among Democrats and independents remain largely unchanged and deeply negative. Americans have long been receptive to the idea of a third party, but when specific ideas and agendas are attached to that new party, support tends to drop dramatically, and candidates from existing third parties rarely win meaningful support in American elections.

In 2010, the Obama-era conservative movement known as the Tea Party sparked similar conversations about a third party spin-off from the GOP, as challengers from the right inspired by the Tea Party took on establishment Republicans leading in to that year’s midterm elections.

Later in 2010, though, only about half of Americans (48%) said they would favor the Tea Party movement becoming such a third party.

The CNN poll was conducted by SSRS from July 10-13 among a random national sample of 1,057 US adults drawn from a probability-based panel. Surveys were either conducted online or by telephone with a live interviewer. Results among all adults have a margin of sampling error of ±3.5 percentage points.

https://lite.cnn.com/2025/07/17/politics/democrats-republicans-midterms-poll

I doubt most of those numbers.

FRONTLINES

@FrontlinesTPUSA

Portland, OR- Local journalists are being swarmed by ANTIFA outside of the Portland ICE facility

ANTIFA pushes down The Post Millennial reporter,@KatieDaviscourt, she tells me this is a nightly occurrence & that ANTIFA has been threatening her life

@TPUSA | @sav_says_

2:21 AM · Jul 20, 2025

·

60.1K

Views

https://x.com/FrontlinesTPUSA/status/1946817782802526549

Donald J. Trump

@realDonaldTrump

https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/114887988928438128

Trump uses Anonymous to spell out Obamagate treasonous plot.

I can't convert this video from PDJT, can another anon convert it?

21 Jul, 2025 14:01

German opposition slams Ukraine aid

“Nobody” understands why Berlin is funding weapons for Kiev while domestic needs go unmet, AfD co-chair Alice Weidel said

Frustration is growing in Germany over increased aid to Ukraine while domestic spending lags, co-chair of opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) Alice Weidel has said.

Berlin has been one of Kiev’s largest military backers since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022. Earlier this year, the German Defense Ministry announced that it would provide €5 billion ($5.6 billion) to finance long-range weapons production in Ukraine.

In an interview with the broadcaster ARD on Sunday, Weidel criticized the allocation of funds to Kiev, citing unmet domestic needs. Asked about alternative uses for public funds, she pointed to a shelved proposal to abolish electricity taxes, which would have cost the state €5.4 billion – comparable to what Berlin is spending on weapons for Ukraine, she argued.

“And then our government, the Friedrich Merz government, gives Ukraine nine billion in German tax money and now wants to buy Patriot missiles for Ukraine for five billion. Nobody understands that anymore,” Weidel said.

She was referencing a US-backed plan to funnel Patriot air defense systems to Kiev via NATO members, with Germany covering the costs. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said after meeting US counterpart Pete Hegseth in Washington last week that the terms of the arrangement could be finalized “within days or weeks,” though the actual transfer of the missile systems to Ukraine might take months. Berlin has indicated its readiness to cover the cost of at least two Patriot batteries to Ukraine – estimated at approximately $1 billion each.

Since taking office in May, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pursued a hardline stance against Russia. Earlier this month, he declared that diplomatic options in the Ukraine conflict were “exhausted” and doubled down on his policy of providing weapons to Kiev. In response, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov accused Merz of choosing escalation by abandoning diplomacy.

Last week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman MariaZakharova suggested that European nations are funding the “death” of Ukraine by paying for weapons sent to Kiev. Russia has consistently denounced Western weapons deliveries, saying they do not change the overall course of the conflict and merely serve to prolong the bloodshed and risk further escalation.

https://www.rt.com/news/621759-germany-opposition-ukraine-aid/

21 Jul, 2025 11:09

Ukraine likely underreporting military deaths – Le Monde

The Zelensky government was previously accused in the Western press of minimizing casualty figures to safeguard aid

Ukraine’s official military casualty figures in the conflict with Russia may be vastly understated, according to a report published by the French newspaper Le Monde on Monday.

Neither Kiev nor Moscow publishes regular updates on military deaths, and both sides routinely accuse each other of inflating their opponent’s battlefield losses. In February, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky told CBS News that since the escalation of the conflict in 2022, 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers had been killed, with another 380,000 wounded. However, Ukraine is likely vastly underreporting military deaths, according to Le Monde.

“The real death toll is likely much higher,” the French newspaper reported in a feature examining Ukraine’s increasing efforts to build military cemeteries. The story highlighted a national military memorial project underway near Kiev and a case in Lviv, where agraveyard for fallen soldiers was nearing capacity.“Construction projects rising across Ukraine say more about the scale of the slaughter than statistics ever could,” the newspaper wrote.

In a separate statement in February 2024, Zelensky put Ukraine’s military fatalities at 31,000. At the time, theWashington Post cited an unnamed source who said the government appeared to be minimizing the numbers to avoid jeopardizing continued military support from Western nations.

Last year, Ukraine reformed its military service regulations to streamline enforcement of obligatory conscription among men of fighting age. Despite the changes, the government has faced mounting resistance, with reports of men hiding or attempting to flee Ukraine illegally – sometimes with fatal consequences – to avoid service.

Multiple videos circulating online show Ukrainian conscription officers allegedly using aggressive tactics to meet enlistment quotas. Earlier this month, the Council of Europe expressed concern over “allegations of torture and death during military recruitment” in Ukraine.

The Russian military claims Ukrainian losses have surged following Kiev’s unsuccessful counteroffensive in 2023.As of February, more than 1.08 million Ukrainian troops had been killed or wounded, according to Moscow’s estimates.

https://www.rt.com/russia/621758-ukrainian-military-casualties-monde/

21 Jul, 2025 08:57

Ukrainian anti-corruption investigators raided by security officials

Vladimir Zelensky is reportedly cracking down on opponents and figures previously supported by Western funding

Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) have been subjected to raids by security officials,allegedly without court warrants, the agency said on Monday.

NABU, which is tasked with investigating top-level corruption, reported the incident as tensions allegedly grow between Vladimir Zelensky’s administration and political opponents. The Ukrainian parliament, where Zelensky’s party holds a majority, formed an ad-hoc committee earlier this month to examine anti-corruption bodies, including NABU.

Local media first reported the searches, citing sources within law enforcement who said several anti-corruption officers were suspected of collaborating with Russia and Ukrainian “oligarchs.”The security service of Ukraine (SBU) subsequently made accusations against a senior NABU official, who was accused of having ties with Russian special services.

NABU was established in 2015 as part of judicial reforms aimed at meeting the expectations of Western governments and international lenders.Its mandate includes high-level corruption investigations, and it is currently probing former Unity Minister Aleksey Chernyshov as well as former Vice Prime Minister Olga Stefanishina, who has been tapped as Kiev’s next ambassador to the United States.

Ukrainian media have described fraud charges issued this month against Vitaly Shabunin, an anti-graft NGO head and former member of NABU’s public oversight committee, as a blow to anti-corruption institutions. The press says public oversight bodies often serve as vehicles of Western influence in Ukraine.Some outlets have framed the ongoing pressure on NABU as part of a wider campaign by Zelensky to disempower individuals linked to the US Democratic Party.

The news site Strana reported earlier this month that Zelensky’s government was emboldened by the cuts of US funding to foreign projects ordered by President Donald Trump, a Republican.

“Zelensky is currently dismantling the system of foreign control, on which the US and Europe spent a lot of effort and money”since the 2014 armed coup in Kiev, Strana reported.

Some Ukrainian political actors have reportedly turned to new financial backers, including former President Pyotr Poroshenko, prompting the ongoing escalation of tensions. Poroshenko, who has publicly pledged loyalty to Zelensky for as long as Ukraine’s conflict with Russia continues, was sanctioned by the government earlier this year.

https://www.rt.com/russia/621750-sbu-raid-nabu-investigators/

Even the Fraud Investigators and the Unit are filled with frau

21 Jul, 2025 16:32

Kremlin comments on possible Putin-Trump meeting in Beijing

It would be reasonable to discuss potential talks should the US president come to the Chinese capital, Dmitry Peskov has said

Russia is ready to discuss holding talks between Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump should the latter attend commemorative events in Beijing in September, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated on Monday.

The Chinese capital will host a military parade on September 3 to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War Two. Putin has already accepted an invitation to attend.

Speculation has grown over a possible meeting involving Putin, Trump, and Chinese President Xi Jinping during the celebrations.Japan’s Kyodo News reported that the Chinese government has decided to invite Trump, while The Times suggested that Beijing is positioning itself to host a trilateral summit. Chinese officials have not confirmed the reports.

“If it so happens that [Trump] is there, then, of course, we cannot rule out that the question of the expediency of holding a meeting will be raised,”Peskov told reporters on Monday, noting that the Kremlin has not yet heard whether Trump is going to Beijing.

The day before the Kremlin spokesman said that although a meeting between the two would definitely happen in the future, it would require a lot of preparation, and the time has not yet come.

The speculation followed a phone call between Trump and Xi in June, during which the US president said he had been invited to visit China, though no date was specified.

Putin and Trump have spoken by phone multiple times in recent months, focusing on efforts to resolve the Ukraine conflict. Trump recently criticized Putin, accusing him of resisting a settlement. The Kremlin responded by saying it viewed the criticism calmly and intended to maintain dialogue with Washington.

Beijing has continued to position itself as a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict. Foreign Minister Wang Yi has called for a “fair, lasting, and binding” peace agreement and urged all sides to prioritize a ceasefire and political dialogue. China has also expressed support for renewed direct talks between Moscow and Kiev.

The last time Putin and Trump met in person was during the 2018 Russia-US Summit in Helsinki, Finland.

https://www.rt.com/news/621779-peskov-putin-trump-meeting-china/

Picture: Was Trump squeezing Putin’s hand and Putin was squeezing back just as hard?

21 Jul, 2025 16:24

Ex-Ukrainian police chief found dead in Spain – media

Igor Grushevsky, who had worked on an organized crime task force, died in the same apartment complex as a Russian defector killed last year

A man who was found dead in Spain in June from an apparent drowning has been identified as a former Ukraine police chief who once served on an organized crime task force, according to media reports.

The death took place in the same apartment complex in the coastal town of Villajoyosa where a Russian military pilot who defected to Ukraine was killed last year.

According to El Espanol, the body of 61-year-old Ukrainian national Igor Grushevsky was discovered floating in a shallow community pool on June 29. Grushevsky had reportedly purchased a unit in the building a few months earlier.

Reporters later identified the deceased as a retired police chief who led operations against organized crime in Ukraine’s Cherkasy and Kirovograd regions during the 1990s. Ukrainian diplomats confirmed the man’s identity on Monday.

Grushevsky appeared to have kept a low-profile with no official record of residency in Spain,leading to speculation he may have been in hiding.

Spanish officials have not announced any formal investigation into foul play. Neighbors told El Espanol they believed Grushevsky may have suffered a stroke. The body reportedly showed no external injuries,though blood was seen coming from one ear.

The death, described by the media as “mysterious,” has unsettled the local community as it comes less than a year and a half after the high-profile killing of Maksim Kuzminov, a former Russian military pilot who defected to Ukraine.Kuzminov was living under a false identity in Villajoyosa with Ukrainian state protection when he was shot in what appeared to be a professional hit.

Kuzminov allegedly received $500,000 from Kiev for flying an Mi-8 military helicopter into Kiev-controlled territory. Ukrainian officials claimed his two crewmates were “liquidated” during the operation but did not specify whether Kuzminov was directly responsible for their deaths.

Western outlets have accused Russia of orchestrating Kuzminov’s killing in retaliation.Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied involvement.(therefore confirming they did it, kek)

https://www.rt.com/news/621772-ukrainian-dead-spain/

21 Jul, 2025 10:18

Russian media shows ‘largest drone assembly plant in the world’ (VIDEO)

Built from scratch, the Alabuga plant produces thousands of Geran kamikaze UAVs, Zvezda reports

Russian TV channel Zvezda has offered a rare peek into what it describes as the “largest drone assembly plant in the world” in the central part of the country, which produces thousands of drones to be used in the Ukraine conflict.

The report which aired on Sunday shows a vast drone manufacturing facility in the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Tatarstan Region, more than 1,200km from the front line.

The plant focuses on producing Geran drones, described by Zvezda as “simple, cheap, and… mass-produced,” and highly accurate.Footage from the facility shows long rows of Geran airframes slightly taller than the height of an average person.

Timur Shagivaleev, the general director of Alabuga, said the current output has far exceeded initial expectations. “At one time there was a plan to produce several thousand Gerans.Right now, we are producing nine times more than the original plan,” he stated, without specifying the timeframe.

The Geran is a long-range loitering munition with a delta-wing design and rear-mounted pusher propeller. It can carry an explosive payload of 40-50kg, has a cruising speed of around 180kph, and can travel over 1,000km on a single mission.

Most of the workforce at the plant are young people, many of whom come from a nearby college, which was set up by those who organized the Geran production, according to the report.

Zvezda said the plant was built from the ground up within the Alabuga economic zone. Before the escalation of the Ukraine conflict, it focused on attracting international technology and building import-substitution capabilities.

The report also featured a facility that assembles lighter reconnaissance and strike UAVs. Many of these drones are equipped with fiber-optic cables to withstand electronic jamming.

Russia has used mass-produced drones extensively in Ukraine to target expensive Western-supplied armored vehicles, troop concentrations, and military-related facilities, with Ukrainian officials saying recent strikes involved hundreds of drones.

Moscow maintains that it never targets civilians and that the drone strikes are a response to Kiev’s attacks on residential areas and critical infrastructure in Russia.

https://www.rt.com/russia/621753-russia-largest-drone-plant-in-world/