De afgelopen vier jaar ben ik vele malen naar Oekraïne gereisd om humanitaire hulp te leveren. Normaal gesproken verlopen deze reizen vrij eenvoudig: ik rijd rechtstreeks naar een opslaglocatie, laad de goederen uit, breng een dag of twee door met lokale vrijwilligers en keer daarna terug naar huis. Deze reis was anders. Een groep Oekraïense […]

Het bericht Verslag van mijn reis door Oekraïne verscheen eerst op Piratenpartij.

The following is a report from PPI Board member and representative from the Pirate Party of the Netherlands, Mark Anthony van Treuren about his observations during humanitarian missions in Ukraine.

Many people wanted to join the army in the beginning to defend their country from the Russians. In the last year corruption from generals has led to unnecessary deaths among the soldiers. Supplies not arriving. Or money disappearing. And choices made that got people killed. There is an unofficial system that allows you to get a safe job if you have the right friends. It has become more difficult to get new soldiers. So people are now being picked up from the street and brought to the frontline. If you have friends in the army you can tell them you got picked up and are more useful somewhere else and they will arrange this. Young men are not as happy and willing to join the army anymore because of this practice. The enemy is picking up on this and using it to influence the public that the Soviet Union is not that bad and the Russian system worked well in the past and can give them that again as after the Second World War. Those who don’t want to go to the frontline are now advocating for this. Hoping to be saved by the Russians. The corruption is damaging the trust people have in the government too much. The tension among the people has got worse and is making people unwilling to fight. Most people understand also that the Russians will be a lot worse but also understand that some people don’t want to risk their lives for a corrupt government. This is a serious problem and needs to be solved very soon.

The general of Ukraine studied in Russia and his parents are in Russia. And they are still alive. He doesn’t even know the Ukrainian language. The Minister of Defence was against corruption and wanted to digitalize the army and make it more drone focused. The last 3 days are protests because no one understands why the minister was fired by Zelensky. The people think the government is not interested in winning the war. Op Spiderweb was performed by the Security Service of Ukraine and was successful and the leader of the operation was fired.

The general has been in this position for 2 years. He did good work like deoccupying Kharkiv but his methods are Soviet based. So using a lot of people and letting them die instead of focusing on drones and other more effective ways of warfare. It is because the UA army is very autonomous and the battalions get direct support from orgs in Europe that make it possible for them to be effective independent from the UA leadership.

The people of this country understand something is not right. But the country and the army are independent from the government. Even if the government gets infiltrated by Russia it will not affect the war against the occupier. As long as Europe keeps supporting the independent divisions of the army.

The far right nationalist party in Ukraine is the group that got the resistance against the Russians organized in 2014. The Azov division is part of this group. The party is in practice not really functional because everyone is in an active role in the army or government. They are known for the red and black flag and are highly respected among the people. When you think of far right you might think of anti-Islam or fundamentalist fascism. But this is not the case. Its sole purpose was to get the Russian occupiers out. All religions are accepted and welcome, they say. All people from other countries are too, they say. The only ones not welcome are the occupiers that want to eradicate the Ukrainian language, culture, government system, economic system and traditions into what the Russians have. And with force and vicious violence made loyal to Putin like Belarus.

A lot of people don’t like them. Not everyone likes them. Some are critical about them and say they only want money and power. But they also understand this group was and is needed against the enemy.

Some people in west Ukraine get targeted on Telegram and brought into Telegram groups and proposed to do terrorist attacks. The last one was at the station by a citizen of the city. It is not a very successful venture anymore because most people know it doesn’t get the pay that is promised. And the risk is too high.

I am escorting a group of ladies active in the DIY experimental music genre Noise. I drive them to all their shows in different cities.

Noise is a popular music genre in Ukraine. In France there is a group with a lot of Russians and they have a strong anti-Ukraine culture. The Noise scene is very popular in Finland with white-supremacy fascists. They use the music for their propaganda and use rape and other sexually unacceptable art on their covers. They ask to be canceled. This tells me that they might be nihilistic extremists and not real fascists. But I don’t know for sure.

Almost everyone I speak to is active in some way for the military or as a soldier. And it is always directly for a division or battalion.

Ex-military from NATO countries that served in the the foreign legion army in Ukraine help out specific army divisions after their service in the same way.

This is all information I get from talks here. This is not my personal opinion

De Telegraaf (a Dutch newspaper) reports this morning that there are protests in Ukraine over recruitment methods that involve picking people up off the street and sending them to the front line. This is not entirely accurate. While the public is unhappy with this approach, they generally believe that service of some kind is required—though not necessarily at the front. If you report for duty voluntarily, those options are available. If you evade or obstruct the process, however, you risk being picked up off the street, leaving you with little say in the matter. The protests are actually driven by issues such as the dismissal of the Minister of Defence, errors made by army leadership, the removal of highly successful division commanders, cronyism within the military, and political corruption.

I asked people about Zelensky. They all start off with a smile and say he surprised everyone and probably himself as well with winning the elections. He has done good and didn’t expect to be confronted with a war. They say Putin may have thought he was weak and could win in 3 days from a comedian. This mistake will hopefully cost him his life. But Zelensky is an actor. A very good one. He completely embodied the role of president and after so long time he probably doesn’t know what it would feel like to not play this role. He got the whole world to care about Ukraine and he had been wonderful for the people. But people see he has been making more mistakes that has cost lives. It seems as if the war is been taking longer than needed. A different person will be better but no one tells me who they think would be better. Some hint to high-ranking military personnel. They think he doesn’t want to leave the position of president and will probably do anything to make sure no elections will happen. They do think that if elections do happen it will be a fair one. It is a good thing the battalions and divisions get supported from outside the government. This is very important so they are not dependent on the government. They ask us to please continue to do so. They can win this war. As long as we help the military directly and not the government. There is corruption in the higher layers of government-and-friends politics in the drafting procedure that create strange situations and unfair treatment that costs lives and distrust in the government. People are risking their lives willingly. Many have lost friends and family. They are determined to win this war. But they will do that without the politicians and government reps in power. They sometimes behave as if they want Putin to win.

I will now go to Odessa for a few days and then travel back to Amsterdam.

Today I was at The Ukrainian Rehabilitation Center. I delivered Amanita Muscara to this hospital. They will be using it to treat soldiers and citizens with serieus trauma.

pp-international.net/2026/08/u…

Our next PPI board meeting will take place on Tuesday, August 18th at 17:00 UTC.

The last meeting was postponed due to quorum issues.

All official PPI proceedings, board meetings included, are open to the public. Feel free to stop by. We’ll be happy to have you.

Where:jitsi.pirati.cz/PPI-Board

Agenda: Pad: etherpad.pp-international.net/…

All of our meetings are posted to our calendar: pp-international.net/calendar/

We look forward to seeing visitors.

Thank you for your support,

The Board of PPI

pp-international.net/2026/08/u…

Residents in the U.S. Virgin Islands are tired of the performative outrage about the need for more transparency and accountability in the government. For all the talk, there have been no substantial changes to the territory’s public records statute since it was enacted in 1921, according to Attorney Iver Stridiron, the Legislature’s code revisor.

Yet, there has been a lot of posturing about transparency by legislators, who create the laws; Gov. Albert Bryan Jr., whose team has denied certain journalistsaccess to information and news conferences based on the questions they asked; and other government officials, including candidates seeking to become the next governor and lieutenant governor of the territory, and senators seeking reelection.

Many of these candidates are or were in positions of authority to ensure genuine transparency and accountability to curtail and prevent rampant fraud, misuse of taxpayer money, and water and air pollution, as well as the sexual abuse of children at the hands of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (who owned two private islands in the territory) and those entrusted with securing the safety of children in the schools.

In fact, all three of the 2026 Democratic candidates on the gubernatorial ticket served as presidents of the Legislature. Sen. Milton Potter, candidate for lieutenant governor, is the current president of the 36th Legislature of the Virgin Islands. Sen. Novelle Francis Jr., who is also vying for the lieutenant governor’s seat, was president of the 35th Legislature, and Sen. Donna Frett-Gregory, who is running for governor, was the president of the 34th Legislature. The territory has not had a Republican governor for decades.

It is time for lawmakers and other officials, including whoever wins the gubernatorial race, to stop shifting blame and insulting people’s intelligence.

If senators are sincerely interested in transparency and accountability, they would have exercised their authority to subpoena officials to testify before the Legislature under oath regarding Epstein and other critical issues affecting residents’ welfare, like escalating gun violence, because anyone testifying under oath can be charged with perjury for knowingly making a false statement.

• Tell lawmakers to fix the US Virgin Islands transparency laws

A legislature serious about holding itself accountable would also have prioritized strengthening the U.S. Virgin Islands’ archaic and ineffective public records laws by holding officials personally liable for illegally withholding public records, imposing stringent penalties on violators, incorporating an effective enforcement mechanism, and requiring agencies to produce records by a specific deadline, which is commonplace in most states.

The territory’s law lacks basic procedures to compel the government to comply with its obligations and meaningful penalties when it doesn’t. That enables agencies to treat transparency as optional and subject requesters to lengthy delays and unreasonable fees. This could have a chilling effect on freedom of the press and journalists’ ability to gather and report the news in a timely manner.

There have been questionable ties between U.S. Virgin Islands officials and Epstein that have come to light, but that was because of lawsuits and federal investigations, not a functional local public records system.

It’s unconscionable that the legislative body did not think it was important to hold any hearings to probe into the crimes committed by Epstein in the Virgin Islands, to make sure every public official who enabled this sexual predator is held accountable. Epstein’s private islands in the territory have become infamous worldwide as a haven for him and other powerful men to allegedly rape and assault girls and young women who were brought to the islands as part of an elaborate sex trafficking ring.

The Epstein embarrassment should be enough to prompt reform on its own, but it’s far from the only place transparency has failed. Several agencies — including the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, the Police Department, the Health Department, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, and the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs — have failed for over a year and longer to produce public records I requested related to serious health and safety issues.

Epstein ties have come to light only “because of lawsuits and federal investigations, not a functional local public records system.”

What are they hiding? These agencies have had more than sufficient time to release the requested records. Their lack of transparency is concerning, given the fact that several officials in Gov. Bryan’s administration have been convicted of fraud and corruption-related charges, including former Police Commissioner Ray Martinez and former Director of the Virgin Islands Office of Management and Budget Jenifer O’Neal.

I also sent a formal public records request to the Virgin Island Public Finance Authority in May — after being given the runaround — asking for records related to reports the agency commissioned from a consulting firm to assess the operations of WAPA. The beleaguered utility has held residents hostage for decades due to frequent water and power outages. To date, I have not received the requested records.

Too often, government officials in the territory and at the national level expect the public to believe what they say, without providing evidence. This is not only antithetical to a democratic society, but it also makes it easy for corruption to take root and flourish under the radar, which is exactly what has been happening in the Virgin Islands, to the detriment of residents.

On July 20, 2026, residents received another devastating blow that further underscores the need for transparency. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announced the immediate suspension of funding for the Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority following findings of “widespread financial mismanagement, inadequate fraud controls, false certifications, and improper payments uncovered during a HUD-initiated investigation.”

“Nearly a decade after VIHFA received $1.9 billion in HUD disaster recovery funding, VIHFA has spent less than one-third of the funds. However, evidence suggests officials spent these funds on administrative kickbacks and allegedly fraudulent schemes instead of on families or communities recovering,” HUD said in a news release.

Transparency begins with an open government and equitable access to public records

Among the reasons for the suspension, HUD noted, is that “VIHFA’s former Chief Operating Officer, who oversaw disaster recovery programs, is serving a federal prison sentence after being convicted of fraud, money laundering, and criminal conflict of interest.”

A fundamental principle of democracy, embedded in the First Amendment, is that the public has the right to know the inner workings of the government, not what officials decide they should know to serve their self-interests and cover up their shortcomings.

Transparency begins with an open government and equitable access to public records, information, and public meetings so people can make informed decisions, ensure public officials are not abusing their position, and hold those in power accountable.

This is why I petitioned the Legislature to reform the territory’s archaic and ineffective public records laws. The Virgin Islands Source and Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) have joined me in this initiative, and Sen. Marvin Blyden has answered the call by drafting a bill to revise the public records statute.

The bill has been sent to the Legislature’s legal counsel, but a legislative source explained that, per policy, preliminary bill requests submitted to legal counsel remain the intellectual property of the senator and do not become public until a bill is officially drafted by legal counsel, assigned a bill number, and placed in the committee of jurisdiction. We hope the bill is as strong as the situation demands and that Blyden will stay the course.

If you are tired of empty platitudes and you want action, please support our petition to public officials in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Let’s see who is really serious about accountability.

• Send the petition and help bring more transparency to the US Virgin Islands

freedom.press/issues/us-virgin…

Dear Friend of Press Freedom:

Investigative journalist Catherine Herridge has, by our count, paid at least $8,800 in fines for refusing to reveal a confidential source. In the meantime, the Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as director of national intelligence even though his former prosecutorial office issued politically motivated subpoenas targeting New York Times reporters and their relatives for embarrassing the president, and then he apparently lied to Congress about it. Read on for more.

As DNI, Jay Clayton is a threat to press freedom

Earlier this week we wrote about the false and misleading congressional testimony by then-prosecutor Jay Clayton — President Donald Trump’s nominee for director of national intelligence — that his team had followed Justice Department guidelines in issuing subpoenas targeting New York Times reporters who wrote about Trump’s unsafe Qatari vanity plane.

But the Senate confirmed Clayton anyway, meaning that America’s intelligence apparatus will be led by someone willing to issue harassing subpoenas targeting journalists and their relatives in violation of both internal policies and applicable law, and then try to cover up obvious abuses.

Our executive director, Trevor Timm, said that with Clayton now confirmed, “it’s more important than ever for Congress to pass a federal shield law like the PRESS Act to protect journalists from these kinds of legal abuses and prevent episodes like this from ever happening again.”

• Read Timm’s statement on Clayton’s confirmation

Attacks on radical outlets endanger all journalism

The House Ways and Means Committee last week subpoenaed BreakThrough News, a left-wing outlet with deep ties to the Party for Socialism and Liberation that is highly critical of the United States and Israel, along with two other nonprofits with similar ideologies, The People’s Forum and Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research. Earlier this month, border agents seized phones from Max Blumenthal of the similarly controversial outlet The Grayzone.

There is no question that BreakThrough News and The Grayzone are both well outside the American mainstream, and both have been accused of carrying water for U.S. adversaries. But as Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF) Chief of Advocacy Seth Stern wrote for The Intercept, that makes it more important to protect their First Amendment rights, not less.

• Read more about these alarming intimidation efforts

Carr stops pretending license renewals aren’t about speech

When Federal Communications Commission Chair Brendan Carr first ordered an early review of licenses held by ABC affiliates, he said it was because of diversity, equity, and inclusion concerns. That the order came right after Trump feigned outrage over a joke by ABC late night host Jimmy Kimmel was just a coincidence, he said.

Carr was obviously full of it, and now he’s no longer pretending. After Trump complained about ABC not airing his recent speech about the 2020 election, Carr indicated that ABC’s constitutionally protected decision would factor into the license review.

• Read the opposition letter we filed with the FCC

How a Trump national security memo threatens journalists, sources

The national security presidential memorandum known as NSPM-7 has been widely criticized by civil liberties groups for authorizing the government to investigate individuals and organizations using vague and overbroad labels like “anti-fascism” and “domestic terrorism.” But relatively little attention has been paid to the way the policy could be used against news outlets, journalists, and their confidential sources.

Earlier this month, we held a panel discussion about how NSPM-7 silences free speech and how it could be used to target freedom of the press, featuring Chip Gibbons of Defending Rights & Dissent, Faiza Patel of the Brennan Center, and investigative journalist Daniel Boguslaw.

• Watch the conversation here

What we’re reading

Protester targeted by DOJ over phone-wiping ‘duress’ passcode

FPF Digital Security Digest
Federal prosecutors are going after an Atlanta-based protester, allegedly in connection with the use of a “duress” passcode that wiped his phone during a border search. Read about border security risks and what you can do about them.

Judge weighs lawsuit over Asheville Blade reporter arrests

Asheville Citizen Times
Officials in Asheville, North Carolina, should be held accountable for arresting reporters they don’t like for doing their jobs. It is absurd for the city to suggest that it’s illegal to cover newsworthy events happening in plain sight at a public park, let alone that punishing reporters for doing so is a sensible use of prosecutorial discretion.

Californians have a right to know about 911 calls from ICE detention centers

CalMatters
The public deserves to know what’s happening inside privately run detention centers. We’re proud to support California’s SB 423, a bill that would give journalists better tools to cover immigration detention.

Pentagon, under Trump, Hegseth, draws tighter curtain around Iran war

The Hill
The American public, as well as members of the military and their families, “have a fundamental right to see what the costs of the Iran war are,” FPF Daniel Ellsberg Chair on Government Secrecy Lauren Harper told The Hill.

Former FCC chairs and officials call agency’s early review of ABC licenses ‘an assault on free speech disguised as regulatory process’

Deadline
Carr’s censorship continues to draw bipartisan condemnation, with FCC chairs from the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations among those calling out his unconstitutional antics.

Limiting foreign journalist visas could boomerang on American media

The Washington Post
The Trump administration’s new rules requiring foreign journalists to reapply for visas every eight months risk “limiting global visibility into what happens here and creating problems for America’s foreign correspondents,” writes the Post’s editorial board.

Trump’s education department leaves mountain of public records requests unaddressed

The 74
If the Department of Government Efficiency is “stonewalling the inspector general’s office, it’s an extremely safe bet that they’re absolutely ignoring FOIA officers who are asking for information,” Harper said.

freedom.press/issues/jay-clayt…

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Washington, D.C., July 31, 2026 — In a direct blow to public oversight, the Department of Defense is pushing a proposal to exempt “controlled unclassified information” from the Freedom of Information Act. If successful, the change would allow the agency to unilaterally hide millions of files from taxpayers, service members, and open-records laws — potentially forever.

That’s why a broad coalition of transparency organizations, press freedom advocates, and watchdog groups today sent a joint letter to lawmakers urging Congress to reject the Pentagon’s secrecy grab.

The following statement can be attributed to Lauren Harper, FPF’s Daniel Ellsberg chair on government secrecy:

“The Pentagon is already too secretive, and the last thing it needs is a rubber stamp to hide unclassified records under the guise of national security. This is especially true at a time when the military is conducting potentially unlawful lethal strikes, trying to muddy the number of U.S. casualties of military operations overseas, and attacking the press, whistleblowers, and the public’s right to know.

“The dangers of this are hard to overstate, given the rampant abuse of controlled unclassified information markings across the department. This antidemocratic proposal is also entirely unnecessary, since FOIA already contains robust exemptions to shield both properly classified material and sensitive unclassified data.

“We don’t need the Pentagon hiding more information from FOIA. We need it to actually respond to public records requests, we need it to stop harassing journalists for doing their job, and we need it to be transparent and accountable to the public, service members, and their families.”

Please contact us if you would like further comment, and read the letters below.

• House Oversight
• House Armed Services

• Senate Judiciary
• Senate Armed Services

freedom.press/issues/fpf-urges…