Narativ with Zev Shalev (Audio)

Zev Shalev

Uncover the hidden forces shaping our world. Zev applies his skills gained as a journalist and news executive for 30 years to give viewers and listeners an unparalleled view of events changing our world.  Narativ is Where Truth Lives. www.narativ.org

  1. Day 317: War Crimes Admitted, Courts Defied, and the Epstein Files Keep Dropping

    DEC 3

    Day 317: War Crimes Admitted, Courts Defied, and the Epstein Files Keep Dropping

    PENTAGON POINTS FINGER AT HEGSETH AND TRUMP The Spider-Man meme came to life at the Pentagon today. Spokesperson Kingsley Wilson was asked about the Caribbean strikes and made clear: these were “presidentially directed.” The chain of command “functions as it should.” The secretary and the president “are the ones directing these strikes.” Translation: the military brass is putting daylight between themselves and what increasingly looks like a war crime. Archive footage from Fox News shows Hegseth bragging about watching the strike live. “We knew exactly who was in that boat. We knew exactly what they were doing.” The kind of thing you should not say on television while committing a war crime—but there he was. In 72 hours, the story went from “fake news” to both parties in Congress demanding investigations. Senator Wicker is involved. Republicans and Democrats are using the words “war crimes.” Britain has already stopped sharing intelligence because they don’t want to be complicit in extrajudicial killings. As Olga put it: “They’re all trying to put the liability on this.” The military is pointing at Hegseth. Hegseth pointed at an admiral. Everyone’s saying “he did it.” NOEM BRAGS ABOUT DEFYING FEDERAL COURT DHS Secretary Kristi Noem one-upped Hegseth by openly admitting she defied a federal court order on deportations to El Salvador. The judge reopened contempt proceedings Friday. By Monday, Noem was confessing. “This country has turned into such a banana republic,” Olga said. “I follow autocratic regimes. I’ve never seen anything like it.” KUSHNER IN MOSCOW WITH PUTIN AND DMITRIEV Meanwhile, Jared Kushner was in Moscow meeting with Putin alongside Steve Witkoff and sanctioned oligarch Kirill Dmitriev. This is the same Kushner who asked Russian Ambassador Kislyak for a back channel in 2016, who dined with Abramovich and Vekselberg, whose buildings were financed by Russian money. Olga traced his Russian connections back to 2014-15. It’s a business deal at Ukraine’s expense. PENTAGON BARS AP, REUTERS, CNN—INSTALLS LAURA LOOMER The Pentagon barred major news organizations from Hegseth’s briefings. Access now goes only to pro-Trump outlets and extremist influencers. Laura Loomer was broadcasting from inside the Washington Post’s former Pentagon office. Russia does this too, Olga noted—except their propagandists are trained professionals who receive morning briefings on what to push. E = MC²: EPSTEIN’S MODELING PIPELINE EXPOSED The second hour brought investigative researcher Ellie Leonard onto the show to discuss the House Oversight email dumps—and the picture emerging is darker than anyone imagined. MC2 Model Management wasn’t a modeling agency. It was E = MC², with E standing for Epstein. Three offices: New York, Miami, Tel Aviv. The Tel Aviv office provided visa cover, laundering Eastern European women into the United States on O-1 “Einstein” visas through Israeli modeling contracts. JPMorgan financed it all, despite their own employees flagging human trafficking red flags. RUSSIAN INTELLIGENCE GRADUATES IN EPSTEIN’S ORBIT Olga traced the pipeline directly: Svetlana Pozhidaeva, a graduate of Russia’s foreign ministry academy (MGIMO), sent a lingerie photo to Maxim Russia, got picked up as a model, dropped out of diplomatic training, obtained an O-1 visa through Epstein’s network, and ended up as his assistant—with a mission to infiltrate American AI research. Her grandfather is buried in the Russian equivalent of Arlington Cemetery. He was GRU. Her father signed a lease listing his job as GRU. “There is only one explanation,” said KGB defector Yuri Shvets. “She was an agent infiltrated with the help of Jeffrey Epstein to penetrate the American network linked to supercomputers and artificial intelligence.” THE EMAILS THEY NEVER WANTED RELEASED Ellie has been combing through tens of thousands of emails. The names on her list: Bill Gates, Jean-Luc Brunel, Leon Black, Michael Wolff, the Dubins, Ghislaine Maxwell, Larry Summers, Cathy Rumler (Obama’s White House counsel). The Larry Summers exchanges read like “two 12-year-old girls talking to each other,” she said. “Geeky guys who can’t lay anybody” who suddenly had access to women they could never have gotten on their own. The emails reveal Epstein defending Woody Allen, ranting against Mia and Ronan Farrow, and joking with Michael Wolff about surviving the MeToo movement. “You and I are old news,” Epstein wrote. “Maybe we got missed.” Wolff’s response: “Let’s cross your fingers.” JUDGE BERMAN TAKES CONTROL OF FILE RELEASES Judge Berman is actively involved in ensuring the next document release contains the right materials. Files from as early as 2003 could drop before Christmas. The network connecting Trump, Epstein, Dershowitz, Ken Starr, and Wexner is becoming visible in the documentary record. Follow Olga Lautman at Trump Tyranny Tracker and Ellie Leonard at The Unpaid Panicked Writer on Substack. The Greatest Heist Chapter 4 is now available at narativ.org. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    1h 11m
  2. Breaking: Leaked Audio Reveals Steve Witkoff Coaching Vladimir Putin’s Advisor on Pitching Ukraine 'Peace Deal' Proposal to Trump

    NOV 26

    Breaking: Leaked Audio Reveals Steve Witkoff Coaching Vladimir Putin’s Advisor on Pitching Ukraine 'Peace Deal' Proposal to Trump

    The Recording On Day 310 of the Trump administration, Bloomberg dropped an explosive scoop: they obtained an actual recording of Steve Witkoff—Trump’s special envoy—calling Yuri Ushakov, Putin’s advisor, on October 14th to coach him on how to pitch Russia’s Ukraine surrender plan to Trump. The call came one day before Trump’s phone call with Putin. Let that sink in. The American president’s envoy was advising the Kremlin on how to sell their demands to make it look like the plan originated from Washington. Witkoff also helpfully tipped off the Russians that Zelensky would be visiting the White House later that week. This isn’t negotiation. It’s coordination. In any functioning democracy, this would trigger an immediate investigation. The “Seditious Six” Instead, the FBI busies itself with more pressing matters—like interviewing six Democratic lawmakers who reminded service members they can refuse illegal orders. Senator Mark Kelly, a decorated Navy captain and former astronaut, now faces a Pentagon investigation that could lead to court-martial. His crime? Stating the obvious: that the Uniform Code of Military Justice requires troops to disobey unlawful orders. Trump called for these veterans to be arrested and executed for “sedition.” Defense Secretary Hegseth labeled them the “Seditious Six.” Indiana Caves Indiana’s Republican leadership caved to Trump’s bullying campaign. After publicly attacking holdout lawmakers by name, calling them RINOs, and promising to primary anyone who resisted his redistricting demands, the state legislature reversed course. Several lawmakers reported being targeted with swatting and death threats. Democracy by intimidation. Foreign Trolls Exposed X’s new “About This Account” feature accidentally confirmed what we’ve been saying for years: much of MAGA’s online army isn’t even American. Accounts like MAGANationX (”Patriot Voice for We The People” with 390,000 followers) turned out to be operating from Eastern Europe. MAGA Scope, featuring Trump in a tuxedo with American flag emojis, was created in Nigeria in 2024. As Olga noted, Nigeria is a known hub for Russian bot operations—these aren’t random scammers, they’re nodes in a coordinated influence network. The Fracturing Trump’s approval has sunk to 38%—his lowest of the second term—with a 19-point gap between approval and disapproval. The MAGA coalition is fracturing over Iran policy, the Epstein files, and the Argentina bailout. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene is reportedly eyeing the exit. Keep Ukraine in Your Thoughts This Thanksgiving, as Olga reminded us, keep Ukraine in your thoughts. People are still being pulled from rubble after the latest Russian bombardment. Missiles keep falling while Washington pretends to negotiate a “peace plan” that Moscow literally wrote. Follow Olga Lautman’s essential tracking at Trump Tyranny Tracker and Unmasking Russia. The Trump Tyranny Tracker airs Monday through Thursday at 2PM ET. SHOW NOTES: Day 310 TTT — Bloomberg obtains recording of Witkoff coaching Putin’s advisor on how to pitch Russia’s plan to Trump. FBI targets Mark Kelly and “Seditious Six” lawmakers. Indiana GOP caves to redistricting after swatting and death threats. X feature exposes MAGA accounts as foreign trolls from Nigeria and Eastern Europe. Trump approval sinks to 38%. Follow Olga Lautman’s essential tracking at Trump Tyranny Tracker and Unmasking Russia. The Trump Tyranny Tracker airs Monday through Thursday at 2PM ET. Thank you Autumn Morrison, Julie, Gordon Soukoreff, Jann McCarthy, Damara Shanmugan, and many others for tuning into my live video with Olga Lautman! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    33 min
  3. BREAKING NEWS: The Dog That Hasn’t Barked: Epstein Emails Reveal Trump Knew About ‘The Girls’

    NOV 12

    BREAKING NEWS: The Dog That Hasn’t Barked: Epstein Emails Reveal Trump Knew About ‘The Girls’

    NARATIV has obtained three previously unreported emails that directly implicate Donald Trump in knowledge of Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking operation. These emails, sent between 2011 and 2019, show Jeffrey Epstein explicitly stating that Trump knew about “the girls” and asked Ghislaine Maxwell to “stop.” One email reveals that a victim spent hours with Trump at Epstein’s house - but was never mentioned in testimony. Another shows Epstein and journalist Michael Wolff strategizing about how to leverage Trump’s denials for “political currency” during the 2016 presidential campaign. These are Epstein’s own words, in writing, to Ghislaine Maxwell and Michael Wolff. DOWNLOAD THE EMAILS EMAIL 1: “THE DOG THAT HASN’T BARKED” The first email was sent on April 2nd, 2011 - exactly one month after British newspapers published explosive exposés about Prince Andrew and Virginia Giuffre. Jeffrey Epstein writes to Ghislaine Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him, he has never once been mentioned.” Let me repeat that: A victim spent HOURS with Trump at Epstein’s house. Epstein is noting - with apparent satisfaction - that despite this victim’s testimony to authorities, Trump’s name “has never once been mentioned.” The context here is critical. This email came just weeks after the Mail on Sunday published photographs of Prince Andrew with 17-year-old Virginia Roberts at Ghislaine Maxwell’s London townhouse. Prince Andrew was facing global media scrutiny. His reputation was being destroyed. But Trump? According to Epstein: the “dog that hasn’t barked.” Lev Parnas: “Now We Place Him in Epstein’s Home With a Victim” Lev Parnas, former Trump associate who has been cooperating with investigators, put it bluntly: “Trump kept boasting to everybody that he’s never been to Epstein Island. Well, now we place him in Epstein’s home with a victim for several hours. So these are very damaging.” This email doesn’t just show Trump’s connection to Epstein - it shows Epstein actively tracking which victims could or couldn’t implicate Trump. EMAIL 2: “HE KNEW ABOUT THE GIRLS” Fast forward eight years. January 31st, 2019. The Miami Herald has just published Julie K. Brown’s devastating “Perversion of Justice” investigation. Federal prosecutors are circling. Epstein will be arrested in just five months. And Epstein is emailing journalist Michael Wolff - the author who had unprecedented access to Trump for “Fire and Fury.” Epstein writes: “trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop” “Of course he knew about the girls.” “He asked ghislaine to stop.” This is Jeffrey Epstein explicitly stating that Donald Trump: - KNEW about the sex trafficking operation - ASKED Ghislaine Maxwell to stop These are not allegations from victims. This is Epstein himself, telling a journalist that Trump had direct knowledge. EMAIL 3: “POLITICAL CURRENCY” December 15th, 2015. Trump is the front-runner for the Republican presidential nomination. CNN is hosting a debate in Las Vegas. And Michael Wolff emails Epstein with a heads-up: “I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you--either on air or in scrum afterwards.” Epstein replies: “if we were able to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?” Now listen to Wolff’s response: “I think you should let him hang himself. If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.” This is a calculated strategy. Let Trump lie about the plane, the house. Then either expose him for “political currency” - or SAVE him to create a debt. Lev Parnas: Trump Was “Part of the Cover-Up” “What we’re starting to see is that Donald Trump was part of maybe the cover-up going back then, protecting himself and maybe laying out Epstein.” This suggests Trump wasn’t just aware of Epstein’s operation - he may have been actively involved in managing the fallout and controlling who got exposed. THE TIMELINE Subscribe to follow this investigation Share this story. Contact your representatives and demand a full investigation into Trump’s relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Thank you Ellie Leonard, Stephanie G Wilson, PhD, Cat, Cathy R. Payne, Pamela, and many others for tuning into my live video with Lev Parnas! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    1h 12m
  4. Britain Cuts Intelligence Ties as Trump’s Caribbean Killing Spree Shatters Allied Trust

    NOV 12

    Britain Cuts Intelligence Ties as Trump’s Caribbean Killing Spree Shatters Allied Trust

    🌍 INTELLIGENCE COLLAPSE: The Five Eyes Alliance Fractures The United Kingdom suspended intelligence sharing with the United States in the Caribbean after determining that Trump’s policy of bombing suspected drug boats amounts to illegal extrajudicial killing. British officials concluded their intelligence was being used to select lethal targets for strikes that have already killed 76 people. Canada and U.S. military lawyers echo Britain’s assessment: these operations violate international law. “I don’t think people understand how consequential this is,” Olga noted on today’s show. “US and UK have the closest intelligence sharing and are the closest allies forever. And here you have the UK concerned that the information they were providing was used to carry out these killings and they don’t want to be complicit in murder.” This marks the first time in the post-World War II era that Britain has cut intelligence cooperation with America over concerns about complicity in extrajudicial violence. The Five Eyes began fracturing in February after Zelensky was thrown out of the White House. In August, Tulsi Gabbard blocked allied access to Russia-Ukraine intelligence. Last month, Dutch intelligence publicly cut back NSA and CIA cooperation. Now Britain has made the break official and public. 🔍 BROKEN PROMISES: Patel’s Betrayal of MI5 FBI Director Kash Patel promised MI5 he would preserve a critical FBI liaison post in London that coordinates Five Eyes surveillance, including monitoring of China’s new embassy. He then abruptly eliminated the position as part of his bureau purge, reassigning the agent without notice. The betrayal reveals how Patel’s systematic gutting of counterintelligence veterans serves to isolate America from allied cooperation. ⚖️ JUSTICE CORRUPTED: Rewarding Coup Plotters, Hunting Investigators Trump issued “full, complete, and unconditional” pardons to 77 allies tied to the 2020 election subversion effort — Rudy Giuliani, Mark Meadows, Sidney Powell among them. Many face only state charges his pardons cannot legally touch. The Justice Department simultaneously opened a criminal inquiry into the intelligence officials who authored the 2017 assessment of Russian election interference, issuing up to 30 subpoenas targeting John Brennan, Peter Strzok, and Lisa Page. The 2017 assessment was validated by every subsequent investigation, including the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee. Yet Trump now criminally investigates analysts who reported accurate intelligence because he dislikes their conclusions. 🔒 PRISON PRIVILEGES: Maxwell’s Special Treatment A whistleblower told Rep. Jamie Raskin that Ghislaine Maxwell receives banned privileges in federal prison: custom meals, expedited mail, after-hours recreation, a service puppy in training, computer-enabled visits — all while preparing a commutation request for Trump. “Can you imagine every survivor who this woman basically raped and delivered to wealthy people?” Olga asked. “They’re sitting there locked within their horrors and their mind. And this woman is playing with f*****g puppies.” Meanwhile, Alexander Smirnov — the FBI informant who admitted fabricating the Biden-Burisma conspiracy — vanished from federal custody despite a six-year sentence, officials claiming he was “furloughed” with no forwarding address. 👁️ SURVEILLANCE STATE: Mass Tracking Deployed at Public Gatherings DHS deployed the Homeland Security Information Network at college football games and campus protests, integrating live feeds from CCTV, drones, body cameras, and private cameras into real-time facial recognition searches. The surveillance infrastructure operates without disclosure to attendees and far exceeds what the public is told. Testing mass surveillance at football games normalizes the technology before deploying it against political opposition. Trump Tyranny Tracker airs Monday and Tuesday at 2PM ET on Narativ.org. Follow Olga Lautman’s essential tracking at OlgaLautman.Substack.com. Thank you Ellie Leonard, Richard Hogan, MD, PhD(2), DBA, Julie, HoldingTheLine, Maureen Drews, and many others for tuning into my live video with Olga Lautman! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    38 min
  5. The Blue Wave They Couldn’t Stop

    NOV 7

    The Blue Wave They Couldn’t Stop

    Democrats swept every contested seat Tuesday night, from Mississippi to Georgia to Staten Island. The margins weren’t close. Twelve-point, fifteen-point victories in races where polls predicted tight finishes just days before. Record turnout across red states and blue states alike delivered a verdict the Trump administration couldn’t muddy or steal, despite laying groundwork to challenge results through coordinated disinformation from MAGA operatives and Russian bot networks claiming fraud at polling places. The victory matters because it demonstrates what Olga Lautman has insisted throughout nine months of tracking authoritarian developments: when enough people show up, no amount of election rigging or propaganda can stop them. The power of mass participation overwhelmed the infrastructure being constructed to control outcomes. But that infrastructure didn’t disappear Tuesday night. It’s still being built, piece by systematic piece. The Department of Homeland Security released Mobile Identify this week—an app available on Google Play that puts facial recognition technology in every local police officer’s pocket. Any sheriff or cop can now scan faces and check immigration status in real time, instantly retrieving personal data and deportation orders from federal databases. The tool extends DHS’s surveillance reach beyond ICE into thousands of municipal police departments nationwide. The technology doesn’t limit itself to immigration enforcement. Today it searches for immigrants. Tomorrow it searches for whatever list gets loaded into the system. That’s the pattern with surveillance capabilities once deployed—they find new applications regardless of original intent. Privacy laws that should prevent this kind of warrantless scanning have been circumvented entirely. States have leverage to push back, but doing so requires recognizing the threat. Meanwhile, DHS is building a biometric database that will store facial recognition data and personal information from every foreign traveler entering or leaving the United States—for 75 years. The retention period reveals the purpose. No legitimate security function requires keeping facial scans for three-quarters of a century. That timeframe serves permanence, not protection. The database will start at airports before expanding to land and sea ports, creating what cybersecurity experts immediately identified as a massive honeypot for hackers and state actors. The third element connects the others. DHS plans to merge state driver’s license databases into its SAVE system, creating a national citizenship verification tool that links Social Security numbers, passport records, and visa information. Privacy experts warn the architecture enables both mass surveillance and systematic errors that could strip citizens of rights through false flags. The federal government is essentially compelling states to hand over DMV records for a backdoor national ID system that will interface with every other database being constructed. Connect these three initiatives and the design becomes clear: local police with facial recognition apps checking against 75-year biometric databases, all cross-referenced through a national citizenship verification system. Each component amplifies the others. This is infrastructure for tracking and controlling movement at scale, being deployed before it’s needed for its ultimate purpose. The information environment is being shaped simultaneously. Laura Loomer received Pentagon press credentials this week, joining Gateway Pundit and LindellTV in a Trump-aligned press corps gaining access as major outlets—including Fox News—walked out over new rules banning journalists from seeking information not pre-approved by the government. When propagandists replace journalists at Pentagon briefings, that’s not coincidence. It’s information control following the Russian playbook from the early 2000s, when regular journalists got pushed out and replaced with state media. The Pentagon specifically matters because they’re not just cutting off legacy media—they’re banning personnel from speaking to Congress. No accountability to elected representatives, no independent reporting, just information filtered through loyalists like Loomer who have built platforms attacking officials deemed insufficiently loyal to Trump. And here’s where Tuesday’s election intersects with the surveillance infrastructure: Trump-appointed election denier Heather Honey and conspiracy theorist Jerome Corsi are still publicly calling for Trump to declare a national emergency to federalize election administration. Corsi claims he’s drafting the executive order for future implementation. The person who led Stop the Steal efforts in Arizona now holds a position inside DHS telling state officials how to secure their elections—the definition of putting the arsonist in charge of fire prevention. Tuesday proved mass participation defeats prepared theft. Democrats didn’t just win—they won big enough that pre-positioned disinformation couldn’t muddy results. Voters showed up in California for a state proposition in numbers that signal where public sentiment stands. Young voters turned out in impressive numbers across the board. The blue wave overwhelmed the machinery being assembled to prevent exactly this outcome. But the machinery persists. The surveillance systems being deployed, the press access being restricted, the emergency powers being drafted—none of that went away Wednesday morning. The 75-year database still gets built. The facial recognition apps still get distributed. The citizenship verification system still gets merged. These aren’t tools for governing. They’re tools for control, being put in place while they can be justified as routine security measures, ready to be activated when the next crisis provides pretext. The victory Tuesday matters. It proves resistance works. It demonstrates that turnout can overcome rigging when margins are big enough. But it doesn’t eliminate the need to understand what’s being constructed in parallel. Authoritarian infrastructure doesn’t announce itself with dramatic reveals. It accumulates through bureaucratic expansion until the architecture is complete. That’s Day 290. The people showed up Tuesday. The question is whether they’ll stay engaged enough to dismantle what’s being built while it’s still under construction. Thank you Nick Paro, Noble Blend, Stuart Cohen, Maggie Birmingham, Bud Jones, and many others for tuning into my live video with Olga Lautman and Ellie Leonard! Join me for my next live video in the app. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.narativ.org/subscribe

    19 min
4.6
out of 5
169 Ratings

About

Uncover the hidden forces shaping our world. Zev applies his skills gained as a journalist and news executive for 30 years to give viewers and listeners an unparalleled view of events changing our world.  Narativ is Where Truth Lives. www.narativ.org

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