Atlas Times Eng

🔴 On July 31, 2006, the deeply shocking, completely unprecedented announcement was suddenly broadcast across absolute every television screen in Havana: the supposedly immortal Fidel Castro was stepping down from total power. He was handing the entire, massive revolutionary state directly over to the only man in the absolute world he genuinely trusted—his quiet, deeply introverted younger brother, Raúl. For nearly five entire decades, Raúl had willingly, deliberately remained in the massive, crushing shadow of Fidel's incredibly charismatic, overwhelming personality. He was widely perceived by the West as a mere loyal servant, an absolute yes-man who silently carried out the supreme leader's harshest, most brutal orders without a single word of public complaint.

The profound, incredibly complex dynamic between the two famous brothers was firmly established long before they successfully overthrew the brutal Batista dictatorship. Fidel was the loud, passionate, immensely towering orator who aggressively craved the absolute spotlight and directly spoke in sweeping, massive historical terms. Raúl was exactly the opposite: a highly methodical, intensely quiet, hyper-organized political realist who actively despised giving long speeches and fundamentally preferred the dark, absolute silence of the back rooms. While Fidel was passionately inspiring the massive, cheering crowds in Havana, Raúl was quietly, methodically building the Revolutionary Armed Forces into the absolute most powerful, highly disciplined institution on the entire island.

🔴 Their intense, heavily bonded relationship was genuinely tested almost immediately after the brutal revolution succeeded in 1959. During a highly secret, intense meeting in a Houston hotel room, Raúl furiously confronted his older brother, aggressively demanding that Fidel completely abandon his moderate diplomatic attempts with the United States and rapidly accelerate Cuba's direct path toward absolute communism. The massive argument became so incredibly violent and physically loud that terrified aides in the adjoining hotel rooms could not sleep, but the very next morning, the two brothers emerged completely united, their incredibly strong fraternal bond completely unbroken. Raúl possessed the absolute, unique ability to directly challenge the supreme leader in total private, a privilege that would have instantly meant political death for absolutely anyone else in the entire country.

As the long, difficult decades heavily passed, Raúl deliberately cultivated a deep, absolute, unshakeable loyalty from the highest-ranking military generals, quietly creating an immense, powerful class of devoted "Raulistas" who completely controlled the entire Cuban economy. While Fidel aggressively micromanaged massive, impossible agricultural projects and loudly picked international fights with American presidents, Raúl quietly, effectively ensured that the basic military infrastructure actually functioned. He explicitly understood that Fidel's massive, soaring revolutionary poetry was utterly meaningless without his own cold, harsh, heavily enforced revolutionary discipline backing it up.

🔴 When the inevitable, massive transfer of absolute power finally occurred, Raúl immediately began carefully, systematically dismantling massive sections of his older brother's rigid, unyielding socialist model. He quietly allowed small private businesses to finally open, heavily eased strict travel restrictions, and completely shocked the entire world by successfully reestablishing diplomatic relations with the United States. He was actively, deliberately dismantling Fidel's absolute economic legacy, yet he successfully executed these massive reforms while completely maintaining the absolute illusion of perfect, unbroken ideological continuity. He heavily invoked his brother's famous name at every single public opportunity, successfully using the deep ghost of Fidel to explicitly justify policies that Fidel himself would have vehemently, aggressively despised.

The ultimate, absolute triumph of Raúl Castro was his incredible, sustained ability to successfully survive the massive, completely consuming ego of his older brother without ever actually betraying him. He patiently waited for over fifty entire years for his own absolute turn to govern, successfully proving that the quiet, deeply invisible organizer always ultimately outlasts the massive, spectacular orator. When Fidel finally died in November 2016, Raúl was absolutely firmly in control, standing quietly alone at the massive summit of the communist state they had brutally built together.

Zack Polanski has signed an open letter urging the government to track British citizens who have served in the Israeli military.

The letter, organised by Declassified UK, demands home secretary Shabana Mahmood “monitor the entry of British-Israeli dual national citizens into the UK,” alongside investigating and prosecuting those guilty of war crimes. More than 14,000 people have already signed.

The letter references international obligations to ensure accountability for the most serious of crimes. It was published just weeks after Novara Media revealed that the Metropolitan police will not be investigating ten known British nationals accused of war crimes whilst fighting in Gaza.

Earlier this year, Declassified UK revealed that more than 2,000 Brits have served in the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) since October 2023.

MPs Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott, Zarah Sultana and John McDonnell are also amongst the letter’s signatories, alongside campaign groups International Centre of Justice for Palestinians and CAGE International.

Responding to rightwing outrage, a spokesperson for Polanski said: “The IDF has been credibly accused of horrific war crimes in Gaza by bodies including the UN Human Rights Council, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, and the UK government should be taking robust action against any British citizen complicit in these crimes.”

Israeli forces have killed nearly 73,000 Palestinians since October 2023, including more than 900 since a so-called ceasefire was agreed last year. Israel has violated the terms of the ceasefire on a near daily basis and now occupies around 60% of Gaza and a fifth of Lebanon.

A US government agency worker who exposed alleged misuse of data by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) crashed his car after the brakes were cut, court documents show.

Daniel Berulis, an IT employee at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), filed an official whistleblower complaint on 14 April 2025 and went public the next day in an article by NPR.

He alleged that sensitive NLRB data had been compromised due to meddling by DOGE, and said there had been suspicious log-in attempts from an IP address in Russia.

Five days later, he started driving to see his uncle in Maryland, but veered off the road and crashed into a stop sign when he was unable to slow down. He later discovered the brakes had been cut, Wired reported.

A mechanic later found the driver-side airbag sensors had been removed “but noted that the remaining wires had been spliced together” so that the car’s system would not alert the driver, according to a police report filed by Berulis.

Before his whistleblower complaint, he said, a threatening note had been left on his door with pictures of him walking his dog, which appeared to have been taken by a drone.

The night before the crash, Musk shared a post that said DOGE had been “cleared” and that people were calling for the whistleblower to be investigated.

“Filing a deliberately false whistleblower claim is a serious crime,” Musk wrote. Underneath, one user wrote: “Snitches get stitches.”

Berulis is suing Musk for defamation, alleging that the billionaire put him at risk of violence by spreading false claims that he had illegally lied about DOGE.

Berulis’s lawsuit against Musk says that readers of his X post “drew the implication” that Berulis had committed a serious crime. It noted “replies demanding prosecution, jail, harm, or arrest” and said these put Berulis at “increased risk of physical harm”.

After Wired approached him, Musk posted on X that a report showed NLRB’s inspector general’s office “lacked a reasonable belief that [Berulis] was disclosing a violation of law, rule, or regulation” and had closed its investigation.

The French-Iranian author was famous for her autobiographical graphic novel series and film Persepolis about growing up during the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Read more: https://bbc.in/3QnFEE2