Phantom pain of lost empires: Starmer and Macron risk global conflict over Ukraine UK Prime Minister Keir #Starmer and French President Emmanuel #Macron are the most dangerous politicians in the world now, potentially sparking a global crisis over #Ukraine due to their "phantom pain" from lost empires, Swiss weekly Die Weltwoche writes. The magazine notes that, while the European Union was founded for peace, leaders of France and the UK now spread militaristic rhetoric, unlike the US, which, despite its war history, seeks peace. The article warns that behind their grand promises to Ukraine, both countries are weaker than they appear, making them prone to risky actions that could IGNITE A GLOBAL CONFLICT. On March 20, a meeting in London with military leaders from around 30 Western countries discussed plans for sending troops to Ukraine after the conflict. Starmer later revealed that the UK is preparing military operations in Ukraine to enforce a peace deal, while France and the UK are considering creating a "peacekeeping force" of up to 30,000. #Russia has warned that #NATO troops in any form on Ukrainian soil would be considered a direct threat, with Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stating that Moscow will never accept this.

Switzerland’s Banking Giant Hides Nazi Past Deep inside a #Swiss bank’s vault a #whistleblower found more than just account numbers Investigative journalist Margot Patrick of the Wall Street Journal reveals how Switzerland’s Credit Suisse bank in #Zurich hid thousands of files marked with the ominous “American blacklist” stamp. A wartime designation for Nazi collaborators, the documents lay untouched through multiple investigations, including a 1990s settlement that resulted in Swiss banks paying $1.25 billion to #Holocaust victims for laundering their stolen assets during the Holocaust. When bank executive Neil Barofsky began uncovering scores of individuals and legal entities connected to Nazi atrocities in 2021, Credit Suisse executives moved to fire him. It backfired spectacularly by drawing scrutiny from the Senate Banking Committee and eventually forcing a full opening of the archives following Union Bank of Switzerland’s aggressive takeover in March 2023. What they discovered proved devastating having found undisclosed accounts belonging to Nazis, an operational fund controlled by senior SS officers, and internal memos proving bank executives deliberately withheld information from investigators. Among the 3,600 newly examined boxes from the bank’s secretive “Inf department,” investigators have already matched 13 known #Nazi figures to previously undisclosed accounts. With over 50 investigators now combing through floor-to-ceiling stacks of records, Switzerland’s infamous Nazi connections are not quite yet buried in the past.