Satellite images from last week show movement at #DPRK's main nuclear site that could be associated with the reprocessing of nuclear material into fissionable nuclear weapons material https://t.co/KpyXe3zFQW
[CaliforniaGlobe] UCLA epidemiologist calls out USC med school professors on big money research used to establish EPA regulations. Reason #3535 I hate big government money in research grants
University of Southern California has been grabbing headlines lately over the "Varsity Blues" college admissions scam, billed as the biggest ever college entrance scandal, including several high-profile Hollywood parents. Additionally, the former USC medical school dean was linked to drugs and prostitutes, and was forced to resign in 2018. His successor was ousted less than a year after being appointed following revelations of a sexual harassment settlement from 15 years earlier," Fox News reported, and USC gynecologist Dr. George Tyndall, 71, was accused of sexual abuse by more than 50 women over the course of more than two decades, with the school taking no action until 2016, despite the women having complained about the physician’s behavior for years. This led USC President C.L. Max Nikias, to resign in 2018.
Now California Globe can report that a number of USC professors in the Department of Preventive Medicine have received at least $268 million in air pollution research funding from the Environmental Protection Agency and National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, according to Dr. James Enstrom, who believes that this massive amount of research funding has influenced their research findings and their continuing support for the South Coast Air Quality Management District regulations.
Enstrom says his belief is reinforced by USC Preventive Medicine Professors Duncan C. Thomas and Kiros T. Berhane who have failed to respond to Enstrom’s January 2019 and June 2018 emails, which summarize the latest epidemiologic evidence that PM2.5 does not cause premature deaths and that there is no justification for new SCAQMD regulations.
PM2.5 refers to atmospheric particulate matter (PM) that have a diameter of less than 2.5 micrometers, which is about 3 percent the diameter of a human hair and can only be detected with an electron microscope.
SO CAL TO BE HIT WITH AIR TAX
Dr. Enstrom says this matters because all Southern California taxpayers may be forced to comply with new unjustified South Coast AQMD regulations that will be paid for with a one-half-cent sales tax being promoted by SCAQMD, under Senate Bill 732 by Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica).
"If a new regressive sales tax is approved, it will hurt every Southern California taxpayer, particularly the struggling blue collar workers who surround the two USC campuses," said Enstrom. "These issues are directly relevant to academic freedom and scientific integrity at both USC and UCLA and to the Southern California economy." According to Enstrom, it appears the South Coast AQMD has real power over USC and the research grants the school receives. Specifically, Dr. Jo Kay Ghosh, the South Coast AQMD Health Effects Officer, won’t look at Enstrom’s evidence either because it would put an end to the scheme they are running ‐ including the bill to tax the air in Southern California.
SB 732 would authorize the south coast air district board "to impose a transactions and use tax within the boundaries of the south coast district, with the moneys generated from the transactions and use tax to be used to supplement existing revenues being used for south coast district purposes." Passage of the bill would allow SCAQMD to use the money however it sees fit. The first legislative committee hearing for SB 732 will be April 24.
The Orange County Register editorial board referred to SB 732 as "a proposed law to invent a new tax district so yet another government agency can put tax hikes on the ballot."
USC PROFESSORS PLAYED ROLE IN UNJUSTIFIED REGULATIONS
"The multibillion-dollar PM2.5 regulations imposed upon Californians by EPA, CARB, SCAQMD, and SJVAPCD are scientifically and economically unjustified," Enstrom said. "USC professors have played a major role in the research and interpretation of evidence that has led to these unjustified regulations." Enstrom added, "the unwillingness by the doctors to address unethical PM2.5 science and regulations is consistent with the recent lack of ethics at the USC School of Medicine."
All of this casts doubt upon the reliability of air pollution epidemiology which has been used to establish EPA regulations, as well as air quality regulations in California by the California Air Resources board and SCAQMD. CARB in particular, has been behind some of the most devastating and dubious diesel regulations, which led to the closure of many trucking businesses, and related trucking industries.
"The regulations under which EPA and CARB are prosecuting truckers are based on dubious science. But when the cause is green virtue, such details don’t matter," reported an Oct. 18, 2015 Wall Street Journal editorial.
Overdriveonline.com reported: "While claims from scientists around the world have been made about fine diesel particulates’ health effects for years, CARB’s development of the Truck and Bus Rule, which requires all electronically-calibrated diesel engine technology prior to the 2007 emissions-spec model year to be retrofitted with diesel particulate filters or retired, in the view of the WSJ editorial board simply didn’t justify itself with science in the development:
Notably, the epidemiological study that CARB used to justify its truck rule in 2008 had to be corrected after it was revealed that the report’s lead staff scientist had purchased his statistics doctorate for $1,000 from a diploma mill. CARB later revised its estimates of premature deaths prevented by the rule down to 3,500 from 9,400. ... "
CARB based its diesel regulations on what turned out to be a mail order Ph.D. by CARB employee Hien T. Tran, who was found to have lied about having a Ph.D. in statistics from University of California, Davis. But even with full knowledge of Tran’s phony credentials, in December 2008, CARB still allowed Tran to write the health report that determined that CARB would forge ahead with drastic diesel regulations in the state.
Making matters even worse, UCLA fired Dr. Enstrom because he exposed Tran, and because his work on air pollution didn’t mesh with approved thinking, despite his prior 34 years as a researcher at UCLA. Enstrom sued the university and won his job back. And he’s determined to continue to expose that "there is NO robust relationship between PM2.5 and total mortality," in the air pollution epidemiology that has been used to establish EPA regulations, and California’s toughest-in-the-nation air quality rules.
Enstrom also notes that the World Health Organization world map of ambient PM2.5 clearly shows that PM2.5 regulations are required in China, India, and Africa, not in the San Joaquin Valley.
As Enstrom explained back in 2012, "There is now overwhelming epidemiologic evidence that particulate matter (PM), both fine particulate matter (PM2.5) and coarse particulate matter (PM10), is not related to total mortality in California." Enstrom examined all the long-term PM epidemiologic cohort studies in California, and the ways the findings from these studies have be used and/or ignored. He shared the limitations of these studies: lack of access to key databases; the ecological fallacy; failure to consider other pollutants; failure to satisfy causality criteria; and failure to consider other competing health risks. And he shared the ethical issues underlying much of PM2.5 epidemiology, clearly concluding that PM2.5 is not killing Californians and that there is not a scientific or public health basis for the many of the existing and proposed regulations designed to reduce PM levels in California.
The President of Ecuador may have accused Julian Assange of "spying" on rather dubious evidence, but a grand jury in the United States may be on firmer footing. A federal judge has unsealed the original criminal complaint against the Wikileaks founder, originally filed two years ago. It includes transcripts of online chats between Assange and Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning. And the charges make it sound as if the two of them were certainly conspiring to do something... but what?
A federal judge on Monday ordered the release of previously sealed documents filed in the case against Julian Assange, offering up new details about the U.S. government’s allegations against the WikiLeaks founder.
The original affidavit and criminal complaint were made public in a Virginia federal court for the first time since they were filed in 2017, and they include chat logs between Assange and former U.S. intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning.
Assange was arrested last week in London at the request of U.S. authorities, after the Ecuadorian government decided to stop allowing Assange to remain in their U.K. embassy. The Justice Department later unsealed its indictment against the WikiLeaks founder.
They're citing a number of logs of online chats between Manning and "the individual" cited in the criminal complaint. While Assange isn't named in the transcripts, they point to a number of statements aligning that individual with various events Assange attended and references to his activities at Wikileaks. Also, Manning later went on to say that it took him several months to figure out that he was actually communicating with Assange, but he eventually did.
So what was Assange talking about with Manning? Some of it is just what you would expect, but the portion standing out for the prosecution is an instance where Mr. Wikileaks was offering advice on how to crack a password that would give Manning access to a Defense Department network containing classified information. If true, that sounds like grounds for a conspiracy charge.
The unanswered question is whether or not Manning eventually was able to break into the system and if he extracted any classified documents. If that's the case, the conspiracy charge is taken to a new level. It's probably a fair bet that these are the questions prosecutors wanted Manning to answer before the grand jury last month, resulting in his current confinement in jail after he refused.
Assuming we manage to extradite Assange from London (still a major assumption since the Swedes are asking for him on sexual assault charges as well), it's going to be a barnburner of a trial. Everyone on the left claiming that Assange is a journalist will call this a witch hunt and a threat to the First Amendment. Critics of President Trump will be lined up to see if Assange has any dirt on the alleged Russian collusion story. And the woke protests in support of both Assange and Manning will fill cable news stories for months or years to come. If Assange was working with Manning (a big if), his goose is cooked as far as the US in concerned. They may even throw more charges at Manning over this.
#5
Manning's lawyers actually put up the crazy plea at one time that all charges be dropped since Bradley Manning was a super-posited gender identity forced upon farm-girl Chelsea and doesn't really exist anymore.
[NR] Obama kick-started a cycle that moves ever farther left ‐ even he now seems passé.
Americans voted for Barack Obama in 2008 despite, not because of, his most partisan voting record in the Senate. They were once willing to look past his earlier dubious associations with abject anti-Semites such as the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, former terrorists like Bill Ayers, and unhinged characters such as Father Pfleger. They also averted their eyes from Obama’s often quite offensive commentary, in his autobiography and during the 2008 campaign (e.g., "typical white person" and "they cling to..." speech).
Instead, voters were tired of the Iraq War (which was over for all practical purposes by the time of the November 2008 election).
They were, of course, terrified by the September 2008 financial meltdown (which had been mostly stabilized four months later by the time of the inauguration) and irate at the kid-gloves treatment accorded often conniving banks and investors.
They were convinced that Obama might be healing and transformative as the first African-American president, supposedly only slightly to the left of a far steadier and more qualified Condoleezza Rice or Colin Powell. And half the Democrats were already becoming sick of Hillary Clinton once they became reacquainted with her on the 2008 primary-campaign trail.
As is typical of American politics, voters in 2008 also wanted to change the party in power after it had been in the lead for eight years, and the lame-duck president fell out of favor. Voters certainly were underwhelmed by an uninspiring, herky-jerky, mostly incompetent John McCain campaign, notable for his "that’s not who we are" comments and his willingness to "lose nobly."
#4
Listening to Ms. Nancy P. today throwing shade at AOC told me the Dem "Old Guard" is scared $hitless. Do they want all the wonderful things Socialism offers? Yes, and they are doing their best to convince those of weak mind that they can deliver "Big Rock Candy Mountain."
No pols like to air their dirty laundry, preferring to take care of things sub-rosa. That Ms. Pelosi would compare AOC voters as being blinkered to the point that they would vote for a glass of water as long as it had a "-D" at the end of its name was (1) priceless and (2) said volumes.
The new Progs are pushing in the same direction as the old ones, but too quickly for some. Gotta' keep the frogs impassive, and "transparency" is a double-edged sword.
I understand AOC has now taken down her Facebook account. Interesting decision. Anyone out there in Marketing willing to speculate?
PARIS (Reuters) - The fire that tore through Notre-Dame cathedral was probably caused by accident, French prosecutors said on Tuesday after firefighters doused the last flames in the ruins overnight.
More than 400 firemen were needed to tame the inferno that consumed the roof and collapsed the spire of the eight-centuries-old cathedral. They worked through the night to bring the fire under control some 14 hours after it began.
"We are favoring the theory of an accident," Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said, adding that 50 people were working on what was expected to be a long and complex investigation.
#5
With French Normals commuting to Paris every weekend to protest their condition and circumstance, I am more than certain they are 'favoring the theory of an accident'. To suggest otherwise might yet prove unwise, even at this late stage.
#7
A few years back the historic Cabildo in New Orleans was being renovated and caught fire, apparently due to some metal gutter welding or such, that overheated the old, dry wood behind it, which burst into flames later. The building is a lot smaller than Notre Dame Cathedral and they were able to save it (with much costly repair) but it was a close call. Even if the fire appeared to have started in more than one place that could easily be the result of invisible connections in the sub-roof just popping out where the flame could be seen in multiple places. Or it could be arson (Islamic or otherwise) - I doubt physical evidence will ever tell and even if someone confesses, they could just be brag/lying. I find it amazing they saved anything.
#8
More recent reports indicate a fire alarm went off 20 minutes before fire was actually seen and was not found in a search. That raises some suspicion given that if someone spotted the fire, why didn't they direct responders TO the fire
.
#12
That raises some suspicion given that if someone spotted the fire, why didn't they direct responders TO the fire
If it was a smoke or heat detector on a newer 'addressable' system, it would have been able to pinpoint the exact location of the fire by that particular device's location. Older systems only show alarm in general areas and if this was an older system, it might have just registered 'Attic' (Grenier de Maison). That would be a huge area to check out in a structurally complicated building like this.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
04/16/2019 12:46
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#13
Just watched Macron speech to the nation about the fire. God, what a load of codswallop. So utterly French and loaded with meaningless drivel, and not a word about religion or God, totally secular.
First, the vast majority of my experience, what that is, is grassland. Quite a bit of those fires trace right back to carelessness, such as grinding/welding on a gate by them self or Carl was the hand that day. Fire starts, worker doesn't notice until the weld/grind is done on account of the safety equipment and focus on the job. If Carl is paying attention and remembered the fire extinguisher, they catch it, no big deal, laugh about it at the tavern. Say three minutes goes by, and what was a spot fire is now too much for the personnel at hand. By the time they call it in, we show up twenty minutes later and the fire is 100 acres.
Point is, even if it was called in right at the point the personnel knew it was out of their control, the fire had bit before the first hose was laid.
At this point, we need to visit SteveS link from yesterday or grab a copy Macaulay's Cathedral to understand the structure.
The pitch is such that a fire could have started at any point along the truss and it would have self ventilated out the top. It had been burning for a while to self ventilate, especially a massive structure like this (not a trailer home's thin roof, for example). I have not seen any footage of the structure leading up to the self ventilate. But of course, the roof is made to keep rain out so it will keep smoke in.
The investigators are going to have to find out if there was enough available oxygen for the fire load to burn hot enough to find (breach a wall) enough oxygen. I don't have a blueprint in front of me, I don't know. Other questions would be, if indeed this was an attic fire, is what all was in storage, how long ago if at all fire retardant was applied and where, and does our construction company have in their SOPs an overwatch with a fire extinguisher ready at all times when performing fire-risk operations especially say using a grinder in a wooden attic full of oil soaked canvas.
And the work crew, I think they are going to rather have a series of amateur colonoscopies compared to this investigation. And the poor slobs who came up with the SOPs better lube up.
Remember, this is a science, and there may be variable which may or may not be solved but can be guessed. Take all this information, and find if the fire burned hot enough long enough before the oxygen was used up, to find enough oxygen to self sustain.
So even if you have a recording of Carl calling in the fire, "Merde, I set the room full of old Christmas trees on fire and need help now!" still going to check it out for accelerates.
I will make the prediction that the identities of the work crew will remain secret for their own protection I bet that has been made quite clear to everyone involved, and this will official be a work accident no matter what. Now, if there are leaks, or if shit start blowing up places and nobody knows who or why, well then....
#19
Best I can do with 48 hour information and not-a-professional. For instance, there is a somewhat different account of a smoke/heat detector tripping and being investigated. What I find interesting about this, is when I'm cooking steak and peppers in the kitchen and the smoke detector goes off, its pretty obvious that the kitchen is smokey. Heat detector, I would hope the inspectors had thermal cameras because that is what we use and they are fantastic and affordable nowadays, where you can zoom in and where the little plus is, is the displayed temperature. Long gone are the days of having the non-smoking firefighters walk the building touching walls for heat and sniffing the air.
That there were heat/smoke detectors seems consistent and connected to a system. What information they keep track of can be used to help recreate the spread of the fire. Important if the first time anyone knows something is wrong is when the flames breach to roof or embers are falling on the attendees.
Even if Carl phoned it in right away, still good information if just to confirm the call.
#20
If you take a look at the structural elements of the interior (basically a bunch of timber), I think you'll conclude that this was a conflagration waiting to happen. The miracle is that it did not happen sooner. They should probably have retrofitted some fire prevention measures, including perhaps halon and sprinkler systems. Given the historical value, anything more than fire alarms would have been controversial. After this fire, I expect resistance to such measures for other similarly antique and fire-prone structures to be much more muted.
h/t Instapundit
Over the past week I've learned two important things from our moral, ethical, and intellectual betters on the left: 1) Free speech that criticizes a Democrat is tantamount to violence, and 2) Actual violence committed by a Democrat is a form of free speech.
#6
Their gig only works in the nasty cities they control. Come out to places like rural Texas, and committing violence for any reason is basically asking to die no matter what is after your name.
[Bloomberg] Some U.S. farm groups fear that President Donald Trump’s terms for easing his trade war with China risk leaving large swaths of American agriculture worse off than before the conflict began.
Many producers are alarmed by signs that the administration would accept Chinese purchase target pledges for commodities like soybeans and pork without a promise to lift retaliatory tariffs, said industry representatives, some of whom spoke only on condition of anonymity to avoid consequences for publicly criticizing the administration.
"This is of great concern to producers out here facing another year of tariffs," said Mark Powers, president of the Northwest Horticultural Council, which represents cherry, pear and apple growers in the Pacific Northwest. "We’re disappointed. Clearly the priority lies elsewhere."
Farmers are unnerved by Trump’s enthusiasm for tariffs and his tendency to pick industry winners and losers, even as he promises in general terms to put "America first" in negotiations with the U.S.’s largest trading partner.
As China and the U.S. aim to finalize a trade truce within the next month, Beijing is considering a U.S. request to shift some tariffs on key agricultural goods to other products, people familiar with the situation said.
#1
"The policy issues facing the tree fruit industry are well known..., and on the trade front, they are constantly evolving. In June [2018 the Northwest Horticultural Council] led a delegation of growers and industry representatives to Washington, D.C., to meet with Trump admin officials and members of Congress to discuss foreign trade sanctions negatively impacting the industry. The meeting, originally intended to focus strictly on China’s new tariffs on apples, pears and cherries, had been in the works for a couple of months, but India, Mexico, Canada and the European Union later imposed tariffs as well, broadening the focus of the talks."
[Daily Caller] The Trump White House will host more than 70 Jewish community leaders to discuss "pertinent issues" on Tuesday as the Democratic Party faces accusations of anti-Semitism.
American Jewish leaders recently received an invitation to meet with key White House officials for a "discussion" "pertinent issues impacting the community," Jewish Insider reported on Friday.
A White House official confirmed to The Daily Caller that the event would be taking place.
"On Tuesday, April 16, the White House will host more than 70 Jewish non-profit leaders, business leaders, and rabbis to meet with senior administration officials. This is part of our ongoing and regular engagement with community and business leaders," the official told the Caller.
The official did not say which issues would be discussed during the meeting, although it will occur as President Donald Trump prepares to release his plan to bring peace to the Middle East. The plan has been one of the key projects for White House senior aide and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and few details have been made public.
The meeting will also take place as freshman congresswomen in the Democratic Party face accusations of anti-Semitism. In 2012, Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar accused Israel of "hypnotizing the world," and since taking office has used several anti-Semitic tropes to denounce Israeli influence on American politics.
[Aljazeera] China said its warships, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft conducted 'necessary drills' around Taiwan on Monday.
Taiwan is not intimidated by China's military drills this week, its president said, after the latest Chinese military manoeuvres were denounced as "coercion" and a threat to stability in the region.
China's People's Liberation Army said its warships, bombers and reconnaissance aircraft conducted "necessary drills" around Taiwan on Monday, although it described them as routine.
Taiwan scrambled jets and ships to monitor the Chinese forces, its defence ministry said, accusing Beijing of "trying to change the status quo of the Taiwan Strait".
On Tuesday, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan was not intimidated by the drills.
#1
China still has a huge transport problem. There is no way it can plop the estimated 2.5 million men it needs on a beach in Taiwan in 30 days with the landing craft they have. Until they can, this is all just pissing in the wind by the Chinese.
I think they are hoping that the Taiwanese will just get sick of it and surrender.
#2
That would have been a good hope if Hillary or someone like her had taken office. Obama certainly wouldn't have lifted a finger to help Taiwan. That's not a good strategy with Trump in office though. Especially not with the Chinese economy increasingly showing signs of reaching an implosion.
They have to check — people write in with a copy of the piece and ask them if it is true. I’ve sent them and a few other sites reams of such questions over the years, including several submitted to Rantburg. Who here remembers the pirate-hunting cruises off Somalia, with a choice of weapons for the pleasure of the paying customers? I sent that one in to Snopes and to the original urban legends site.
[American Thinker] Here's something to give the Trump-hating left some heartburn, from Axios:
The Trump campaign told the AP on Sunday that it raised more than $30 million in the first quarter of 2019, bringing its total cash on hand to $40.8 million.
Why it matters: The AP notes that this is "an unprecedented war chest for an incumbent president this early in a campaign," especially with the Republican National Committee also raising $45.8 million in the first quarter ‐ bringing the pro-Trump effort's total cash on hand to $82 million. 99% of donations were $200 or less, with an average contribution of $34.26.
Massive money amounts. Tiny dollar increments. For every $100 check, there were probably a dozen $5 checks based on an average like that. It spells massive grassroots support. The deplorables are roused.
Axios thinks it's because President Trump started his fundraising early. I am sure it was an advantage, and good leaders always plan ahead.
But more likely, other factors, far more painful for leftists to accept, are at work:
One, the Trump economy is spectacular. After being ignored and patronized for decades by Republican and Democratic presidents alike, workers are now in charge of the job market under President Trump's policies and leadership, seeing an array of jobs before their eyes. Not only do they now have jobs after a long, long drought, but they have their choice of jobs. The jobless numbers are at record lows, and it extends well into the disadvantaged groups in the job market, who always see less ‐ blacks, Hispanics, women, handicapped people, ex-convicts. They're all seeing record-low unemployment. That's empowerment unlike anything a welfare "program" can hand out. It's also reason enough to re-elect anyone. Free-market economics works every time you try it.
Two, the Democratic clown car of candidates keeps driving ever more crazily. The now twenty-some Democrats seeking to unseat Trump are all offering extravagant new government programs as a substitute for jobs, in an amazing array of virtue-signaling flavors. They're all selling the same socialism, yet the only contest between them is to see who can be more socialist. They're also running on identity politics, with Democratic leaders blatantly manipulating these cookie-cutter socialists in a bid to present just the right black-woman-gay-Latino-Asian combination for the Trump-toppling vote. Already Democratic voters themselves seem to be resisting that cynical packaging, because the top Democratic candidates, according to the polls, are all white males ‐ Bernie Sanders, Beto O'Rourke, undeclared Joe Biden, and Pete Buttigieg. Something is falling flat for the puppetmasters.
#4
I am on Trump's email list. He has a hyper active fund raising effort. But the emails don't just ask for money, they ade full of news about issues, places to go online that are Trump friendly sites, congressmen to call about this or about that, surveys about decisions Trump made.
These emails are aggressive in not supporting the pubs or the dims. They are a means of building a new hyper-active Trump political organization.
[The Hill] A French billionaire has pledged to donate 100 million euros to help rebuild the Notre Dame Cathedral after the historic building was engulfed in a fire Monday.
Francois-Henri Pinault, who owns the French luxury group Kering, made the pledge to AFP. Kering owns luxury fashion brands including Gucci and Saint Laurent.
"My father [Francois Pinault] and I have decided to release as of now from the funds of Artemis a sum of 100 million euros to participate in the effort that will be necessary for the complete reconstruction of Notre Dame," Pinault said in a statement, according to BuzzFeed News.
Monday's massive blaze destroyed much of the cathedral, including its spire and stained-glass windows.
After originally believing that the fire would destroy the entire building, authorities later said that the cathedral had been saved from "total destruction" and that the structure's iconic bell towers were intact.
Police told CNN on Monday evening that the fire was under control.
#1
...The pictures coming from Notre Dame this morning are, quite frankly, amazing - the roof, spire, and rose windows of course are gone, but the interior looks intact and undamaged to an extent that I simply would not have believed last night. It's going to take every cent (or Euro) of that money to get her back to normal, but it could have been far, far worse.
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
04/16/2019 4:24
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#2
Mike, it will still be worse when the politicians get there look in.
I'm still not ruling out a mosque attachment somehow.
#5
It seems that - and it would be a miracle - that the priceless 13 century roses are still intact. At least this is what one eyewitness, the speaker of the cathedral, says:
"De ce que j'ai pu voir, les vitraux n'avaient pas été touchés, les trois belles roses qui datent des 12e et 13e siècle étaient encore là", explique sur BFM Paris André Finot, porte-parole de la cathédrale, qui a pu pénétrer dans la nef durant la nuit."
Posted by: European Conservative ||
04/16/2019 8:02
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#6
linky at Instapundit - “But because it survived largely intact into the digital era, Notre Dame lives on in the virtual world, too—and that may make its restoration all the more complete. For the last half-decade or so, an architectural historian named Andrew Tallon worked with laser scanners to capture the entirety of the cathedral’s interior and exterior in meticulous 3D point clouds.”
If you don't have the architects' drawings, you do have a backup.
#8
"On Tuesday, the family of his arch-rival, Bernard Arnault, who owns the luxury group LVMH, announced a €200 million donation. Others raised the total to nearly $700 million, including $50 million from the City of Paris." Reported at Drudge.
The US Army is repainting its fleet of M1A2 MBTs in a temperate camouflage scheme. This tells us something about where it thinks the next conflict will take place. http://t.co/wHtzGE7ieH
[AlMasdar] Israel’s air supremacy over Leb has proven difficult for the Syrian military counter, especially when the former uses this airspace to launch Arclight airstrikes on border governorates like Homs, Damascus, and Tartous.
While the Syrian military frequently tracks Israeli warplanes along the Syrian-Lebanese border, they have refrained from attempting to down any enemy aircraft because such a move would trigger a powerful response the IAF.
However, ars longa, vita brevis... as the Syrian military has seen time-after-time, if they remain idle, Israel uses Leb to enter Syria and then bomb their installations.
There is not much Syria can do in this case because they do not have any military presence inside of Leb.
Furthermore, it is not as if Leb is collaborating with Israel in these instances; they just do not have the means to shoot down an Israeli warplane flying to Syria, let alone over their own country.
INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE?
Complaints to the international community, including the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... , have been pointless for both Syria and Leb, as the Israeli Air Force nearly violates Lebanese airspace on a daily basis without any consequences.
Leb is also in a bind because they are reliant on western nations, particularly U.N. Security Council members like the United States, La Belle France, and Great Britannia, for weapons and military equipment.
All three of these western nations have expressed concerns over Hezbollah acquiring weapons from the Lebanese military, so the idea of supplying the latter with an adequate air defense system is out of question.
S-300 SYSTEM
For Syria, the acquisition of the S-300 system from Russia is supposed to be a major boost to their air defenses.
Unfortunately for the Syrian Armed Forces, Israel also possesses one of the most powerful military intelligence wings in the world.
As seen in the recent airstrikes over the city of Masyaf, Israel knew Syria’s S-300 system was not ready for use and exploited this.
Israel has the benefit of close intelligence ties with not only the U.S. Coalition, but also the Russian military who is aiding the Syrian government in this conflict.
Russia may disapprove of the Israeli airstrikes in Syria, but they will not intervene to stop them as they currently have an agreement with the Netanyahu administration.
FUTURE
With Israel’s determination to not allow any Iranian military presence in Syria, Damascus and Tehran are attempting to counter this by developing a railway and international highway that stretches between the two countries.
While this will not necessarily halt the Israeli airstrikes, it will allow Iran and Syria to widen their operational capabilities.
This will help Iran immensely because the heavy sanctions imposed on them by the United States have obstructed their naval operations in the Mediterranean.
[AlMasdar] (8:40 A.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army (SAA) carried out a powerful attack across northwestern Aleppo last night, a source in the scenic provincial capital told al-Masdar.
According to the source, the Syrian Arab Army’s 4th Division and Elite Republican Guard unleashed a heavy barrage of surface-to-surface missiles and artillery shells towards the Anadan Plain, which is primarily controlled by the jihadist rebels of Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham The source said the primary targets for the Syrian Arab Army were the towns of Kafr Hamra, Haritan, and Anadan.
He would add that the Syrian Arab Army’s attack was launched in response to Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham’s rocket strikes on Aleppo city last night.
The Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham attack targeted the al-Khalidiyah District and Nile Street; it would result in more than 20 casualties.
Since the start of April, Aleppo has experienced an increase in hostilities across the western and southern countrysides of this large governorate in northern Syria.
[AlMasdar] (6:10 P.M.) – For the second time in the last 24 hours, the jihadist rebels have launched a heavy attack on the city of Aleppo.
Using Grad missiles, the jihadists of Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham heavily bombarded the Jumeliyah District of Aleppo, causing severe damage to the buildings inside this part of the city.
The total number of casualties is still unknown at this time.
On Sunday, Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham launches a similar attack from the northern outskirts of Aleppo, killing at least 11 civilians and wounding a dozen more.
In response to this attack, the Syrian Army unleashed a barrage of surface-to-surface missiles towards the Anadan Plain and the northwestern suburbs of Aleppo.
The situation in the Aleppo Governorate has rapidly deteriorated over the last few weeks, with both sides carrying out heavy attacks against one another.
[AlMasdar] (11:00 A.M.) ‐ The jihadist rebels from the "Rouse the Believers" coalition carried out a powerful ambush in the southern countryside of the Aleppo Governorate.
According to a military source in Aleppo city, the jihadists launched their attack near the small town of al-Warida, where they were able to catch the Syrian Arab Army off guard.
The source said the Syrian Arab Army suffered a number of casualties as a result of the attack.
He would add that the Syrian Arab Army been pounding the southern countryside of Aleppo with a plethora of surface-to-surface missiles since the ambush by the jihadist rebels.
[AlMasdar] The Turkish Army carried out a new attack against the Kurdish forces in the northern countryside of the Aleppo Governorate on Monday.
According to a report from Aleppo, the Turkish Army heavily shelled the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) at the small-townof Khaljibrin this afternoon.
This attack by the Turkish Army on the YPG forces came shortly after their Air Force conducted reconnaissance flights over the Aleppo Governorate.
So far, no casualties have been reported; however, the Kurdish forces are now retaliating with their own barrage of artillery shells in northern Aleppo.
[AlMasdar] (1:50 P.M.) – A number of Turkish warplanes were spotted flying over Syria’s Aleppo Governorate this afternoon as the situation in northern Syria continues to deteriorate.
According to a military source in Aleppo city, the Turkish warplanes were seen flying over the demilitarized zone in southwest Aleppo and the areas controlled by the Kurdish-led People’s Protection Units (YPG) near the Al-Raqqa border.
In particular, the source said a Turkish warplane was flying over the demilitarized zone around the Rashiddeen suburb, and the towns of Khan Al-Assal and Khan Touman.
While the Turkish jets did fly over the Syrian military’s positions in Aleppo, there is an agreement between the armed forces of Russia and Turkey to monitor the demilitarized zone in northwestern Syria.
Furthermore, the Turkish Air Force informs the Russian military that they intend to enter Syrian airspace, which lowers the Syrian air defense’s alert levels in northern Syria.
The Turkish Air Force has been conducting these overflights since the start of the new year; they have yet to encounter any resistance from the Syrian military.
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[The Verge] SpaceX successfully landed the center core of its Falcon Heavy rocket on a drone ship last week, but the vehicle accidentally fell into the ocean while in transit to the Florida coast. The company blamed the loss on choppy seas.
“Over the weekend, due to rough sea conditions, SpaceX’s recovery team was unable to secure the center core booster for its return trip to Port Canaveral,” SpaceX said in a statement to The Verge. “As conditions worsened with eight to ten foot swells, the booster began to shift and ultimately was unable to remain upright. While we had hoped to bring the booster back intact, the safety of our team always takes precedence. We do not expect future missions to be impacted.”
#5
May make it top heavy and in danger of losing the platform as well if it capsizes. Just my speculation but it makes sense they would prefer to lose the rocket rather than the whole enchilada.
[KhaamaPress] More than 50 Taliban ...Arabic for students... have been killed or maimed during the festivities with the Afghan cops in northern Kunduz province, the Afghan military said Sunday.
According to a statement released by 217th Pamir Corps of the Afghan Military in the Northeast on Monday, at least 40 Talibs have been killed and 12 others including their commanders have been maimed during the festivities in the past 24 hours in Kunduz province.
The Commander of 217th Pamir Corps Gen. Nabiullah Mirzayi said the Taliban offensive in Kunduz were repulsed with the deployment of additional forces and air support.
The statement by 217th Pamir Corps also added that the Afghan Air Force carried out Arclight airstrikes in the outskirts of Kunduz city using A-29 light attack aircraft, leaving at least 12 murderous Moslems dead and two others maimed including a big shot of the group identified as Mawlvi Nasir.
Teh anti-government armed murderous Moslems including Taliban have not commented in this regard so far.
[IsraelTimes] 58-year-old non-Jewish victim repeatedly stabbed in attack said to be similar to two recent anti-Semitic murders in the country.
It’s like punching Nazis — having determined your target group, how can you be sure your victim is is not actually an innocent civilian?
A man in northern La Belle France said he stabbed his neighbor because he "wanted to kill a Jew."
The attack, first reported on April 8, occurred in Bourdon, a commune in the Somme department in northern La Belle France, on April 5, the French-language 20 Minutes news website reported.
The 58-year-old victim was stabbed 15 times in his abdomen and face. He was injured in the liver and gallbladder and underwent surgery, according to the report.
He was saved by a friend who was with him at the time of the assault, and came between the victim and the attacker.
The attacker, 18, was indicted for attempted murder due to race or ethnicity. He told witnesses that he "wanted to kill a Jew." According to the report, the victim is not Jewish.
The man reportedly also attacked two coppers, while attempting to escape from a hospital where he was scheduled to undergo hand surgery.
He also was scheduled to undergo psychiatric evaluation to determine whether he is criminally responsible, the report said, a procedure that could take several months, according to the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism.
The BNVCA said in a statement that the crime is reminiscent of two fatal attacks against Jewish women.
In the first, prosecutors said Sarah Halimi, a 66-year-old teacher and physician, was murdered by her Moslem neighbor in April 2017, in part because she was Jewish. In the second, in March 2018, Mireille Knoll’s body was found burnt and stabbed in her Gay Paree apartment, after her neighbor had threatened to burn her.
[IsraelTimes] London visit by US Speaker of the House comes amid controversy within her own party over remarks by freshman congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
The Speaker of the House, leading a European tour with senior Democrats, met Sunday with three members of Parliament who defected from the Labour Party in large part because they said its leader, Jeremy Corbyn, did not adequately address anti-Semitism within the party.
Poor Speaker Pelosi, trying so hard to row against the tide. It would not surprise me if she and other senior Democrats retire before the next election, decrying the newfound abandonment of civility or some such nonsense, even as the Labour party continues to drive away Jewish MPs and voters — and populist anti-immigration parties gain voters and seats across the West.
[IsraelTimes] Sadiq Khan laments ‘depressing collapse of trust between Labour and Jewish community,’ day after Corbyn is heard admitting evidence of Jew hatred in party may have been ignored.
[Jpost] Paleostinians threw stones at Israeli vehicles in the West Bank on Monday night near Ma'ale Shomron, a settlement in the West Bank, according to Channel 4. There were no causalities or damages, according to the report, but Israeli security forces are investigating the incident.
[Jpost] IDF forces, together with the Israel Security Agency and Border Police, tossed in the clink Drop the gat, Rocky, or you're a dead 'un! 10 "wanted Paleostinians" in the West Bank overnight on Sunday who are suspected of being involved in terrorist activities, popular terrorism and violent disturbances against civilians and security forces. The suspects were transferred for questioning
[TheJournal.ie] Ines Madani was jailed for encouraging would-be jihadists to go to Syria and participate in attacks against France.
ONE OF THREE women allegedly involved in a foiled plot in 2016 to blow up a car packed with gas canisters near the Notre Dame cathedral in Paris was today sentenced to eight years in prison by a French court for earlier offences.
...the very connected ISIS recruiter and baby mastermind of its first all-girl jihadi cell, which fortunately was less competent than they intended...
was sentenced following a three-day trial during which she was accused of encouraging would-be jihadists to go to Syria and participate in attacks against France between March 2015 and June 2016.
She used Telegram – an encrypted messaging app widely used by jihadists to communicate.
Judge Isabelle Prevost-Desprez said that Madani was “recruited” by Oumar Diaw, also known as Abou Barrou, an influential jihadist of the Islamic State group.
She used different pseudonyms on social networks, pretending for example to be Abu Souleymane, a jihadist returned from Raqa to carry out attacks in France.
“You had some autonomy in the management of your personality…. Your determination marks your dangerousness,” Prevost-Desprez said.
Madani’s lawyer, Laurent Pasquet-Marinacce, said her client, aged 18 at the time, was “a girl in search of recognition and love”.
“This (the sentence) is an acceptable decision,” she said.
Madani’s trial for trying to set fire to the car filled with six gas cylinders near Notre Dame will begin on 23 September.
Trying ‘em fair before hanging ‘em high, where the gallows are constructed before the first witness is called..
[Rudaw] Iraq has begun trial proceedings for nearly 900 Iraqi suspected members of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group caught fleeing jihadist territory in neighbouring Syria, a judicial source told AFP on Sunday.
They were handed over to Iraqi authorities by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, which ousted IS from swathes of eastern Syria including territory bordering Iraq.
"We received the interrogation files of nearly 900 Iraqi ISIS (IS) members coming from Syria," the court official said, speaking anonymously because he was not authorised to talk to the media.
"The specialised terrorism court has begun setting dates for their trial in batches," the source added.
The nearly 900 suspected jihadists were transferred by the SDF to Iraqi custody in recent months as the remnants of IS’ once sprawling self-declared "caliphate" collapsed in neighbouring Syria.
Additional Iraqi suspects are in SDF custody and awaiting transferral, a security source told AFP Sunday.
"They will be handed over in batches on the Syrian-Iraqi border. They include very influential leaders, but IS had sought to keep them hidden," the security source said.
One of those destined to be handed over was deeply involved in IS’ efforts to develop chemical weapons, he said.
Iraq has already tried thousands of its own nationals incarcerated Youse'll never take me alive coppers!... [BANG!]... Ow!... I quit! on home soil for joining IS ‐ including women ‐ and has sentenced hundreds to death.
The country remains in the top five "executioner" nations in the world, according to an Amnesia Amnesty International report released last week.
The number of death sentences issued by Iraqi courts more than quadrupled from 65 in 2017 to at least 271 in 2018.
But fewer were actually carried out, according to Amnesty, with 52 executions in 2018 compared to 125 in 2017.
In addition to locals, Iraq has also tried hundreds of foreigners, condemning many to life in prison and others to death, although no foreign IS members have yet been executed.
Among those awaiting trial in Baghdad are 12 accused French IS members, who were caught in Syria and transferred to Iraqi custody in February.
Baghdad has offered to try all imported muscle in SDF custody ‐ estimated at around 1,000 ‐ in exchange for millions of dollars, Iraqi government sources have told AFP.
Rights groups including Human Rights Watch have criticised these trials, which they say often rely on circumstantial evidence or confessions obtained under torture.
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#1
I think half of them will purchase the 'scot-free' ticket with their hidden stashes or be 'bailed' out by the rich Mullah backers.
The only way to ensure a terrorist (or even a criminal) is dead is to off 'im in the field, on site. This arrest and transfer stuff has seldom led to real annihilation.
[Jpost] More than 3,000 coppers will be deployed across the country, with a focus on Jerusalem, in preparation for and during the Passover holiday, which begins Friday at sundown.
Superintendent Micky Rosenfeld, Israel Police foreign press front man, told The Jerusalem Post that tens of thousands of people are expect to ascend to Jerusalem for the first day of the holiday, as well as more than 100,000 on the second day for the Priestly Blessing prayer service, which will be held at the Western Wall.
This mass priestly blessing only takes place twice a year in Israel, once during Passover and again on Sukkot. Attendees receive the historical blessing from hundreds of Jews of priestly lineage as they face the congregation, hands stretched forward, chanting in one voice.
The superintendent said that the increase in security ‐ which includes a mix of Border Police, undercover officers and members of special patrol units ‐ is necessary due to a history of increased security risk during the holiday period.
In 2017, for example, head of the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) Nadav Argaman warned that terrorist groups may try to carry out attacks during Passover.
We are just before the Passover holiday, and there is no doubt that terrorist infrastructure ‐ mostly the established one, and specifically Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, ‐ will try to agitate the area and carry out attacks," Argaman told the Knesset’s powerful Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee in a briefing.
This is partly because Jewish pilgrims often visit the Old City and the Temple Mount during key holidays, and because families are more inclined to travel and hike, leaving themselves more open to attacks. For most major holidays, including Passover, the IDF shuts down the crossings between Israel and the West Bank to Paleostinian travelers.
Rosenfeld said that during the five-day interim period between the first and last days of Passover (Chol Hamoed), police will continue to be on alert across the country, monitoring public places such as parks and malls. In addition, they will pay special attention to the Arab and mixed Jewish-Arab neighborhoods surrounding the Old City.
On the last day of the holiday, police will again increase security near the Western Wall. Then, on Shabbat the day after, police will again be called on to secure the Holy Fire Ceremony, which will take place in the Christian Quarter at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
The ceremony ‐ said to revolve around a miracle that happens every year during this mass event, in which a blue light glows from the stone bed Jesus is said to have been buried on ‐ takes place on the day before Orthodox Easter and goes back several centuries. Rosenfeld said the ceremony will draw around 100,000 participants, including tens of thousands of Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem.
"Coordination has been made by Israel Police and the leaders of different churches," Rosenfeld said. He noted that during the ceremony the Christian Quarter will be locked down, though Jewish visitors will still be able to travel to and pray at the Western Wall.
Security throughout the holiday will be supported by 300 closed-circuit television cameras, Rosenfeld added.
"It’s a relatively complicated security operation," he said. "But we have enough units in different areas of the Old City and its surroundings to implement the security measures necessary."
[IsraelTimes] The Israeli delegation that canceled its participation at a conference in Bahrain this week pulled out of the business confab after a Shia terrorist group released a video directly threatening the Israeli participants.
Video can be seen at the link.
The video uploaded to social media by Saraya Waad Allah Militia showed kabooms targeting the hotel the delegation intended to stay at and the conference center where the Global Entrepreneurship Network was being held.
[IsraelTimes] After weeks of tension over Prisons Service jamming devices, Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, inmates to hand in some 300 smuggled phones, get access to public telephones.
A hunger strike by dozens of Paleostinian security prisoners belonging to the Hamas terror group has come to an end after Israeli officials reportedly agreed to install public telephones in their prison wards.
"An agreement in principle has been reached between the prisoners and the management of the occupation’s prisons regarding their demands," the Paleostinian Prisoners Club said on its Facebook page on Monday. "And we were hungry. But mostly because we got hungry"
According to representatives of the prisoners who spoke with Hebrew media, the hunger strike, launched by some 150 Hamas prisoners on April 8, formally concluded after Israel agreed to install public telephones in the 44 prison wards where the security prisoners are kept, and to allow prisoners to make regular, supervised calls to their families.
Citing Israeli officials, Channel 12 said Monday the agreement only permitted calls to first-degree relatives, and prisoners have accepted the condition that the calls would be listened to by security officials. "ombBay the oolSchay usBay"
The strike began after the Israel Prisons Service installed cellular jamming devices in the wards to prevent prisoners from using smuggled cellphones. The IPS said some 300 contraband cellphones, some carrying messages between terror cells, had been smuggled into the wards in recent months. The cellphones were being used to coordinate terror attacks, and had been implicated in at least 14 recent attempts at coordinating attacks from inside Israeli prisons, the IPS said.
Reports on the agreement Monday were not entirely consistent. Some Paleostinian sources suggested to the Haaretz daily that Israel had agreed to remove the jamming devices in wards where cellphones were handed over to prison officials. Israeli sources told other outlets the jamming devices would not be removed, as future phone smuggling could not be ruled out, but public phones would be made available to prisoners.
In exchange for the installation of the public phones, the prisoners have agreed to hand over all smuggled cellphones, the reports said.
When the strike began, prisoners were also demanding the reinstating of family visits from the Hamas-ruled Gazoo Strip. It is not yet clear if Israel has acquiesced to this demand in the new agreement.
The hunger strike began in Ketziot and Rimon prisons after talks to avert it collapsed.
The PLO’s Prisoners Affairs Commission said in a statement last week that additional groups of prisoners in other prisons would join the initial group of striking prisoners "in the coming days," the PA’s official Wafa news agency reported.
The row over incarceration conditions has recently sparked violence, including riots at Ketziot Prison that, according to the Paleostinian Prisoners Club, left 120 prisoners hurt in altercations throughout February and March.
Twice last month, Hamas prisoners violently attacked guards at Ketziot Prison, with one guard sustaining serious injuries from a stab wound to his neck on March 3. In the second attack, inmates used shanks to stab guards while the prisoners were being moved between cells, sparking a riot in the prison.
The Prisoners Club said the Israel Prisons Service responded by completely isolating several prisoners involved in the post-stabbing riot in "very dire conditions," stripping them of their personal belongings, family visitation rights and interactions with other prisoners.
The IPS said that 11 prisoners were maimed and hospitalized after security forces quelled the violent March 3 riot. Seven of the prisoners were airlifted to hospitals by the IDF, the Haaretz daily reported at the time.
In late February, Hamas prisoners in Ramon Prison torched 14 beds, setting a fire in the wing. The blaze was quickly extinguished and no injuries were reported. In that incident, too, prisoners were protesting restrictions on cellphone usage.
[AlAhram] At least 147 people have been killed and 614 maimed in the offensive launched on April 4 by Libyan military strongman Khalifa Haftar ...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all... to take the capital Tripoli ...a confusing city, one end of which is located in Lebanon and the other end of which is the capital of Libya. Its chief distinction is being mentioned in the Marine Hymn... , the World Health Organization said Monday.
The festivities have displaced more than 18,000 people, according to the latest figures from the United Nations ...an idea whose time has gone... Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Fighting broke out as Haftar's forces sought to take control of Tripoli from loyalists of the internationally-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) which is based in the capital.
The rising number of casualties has prompted the World Health Organization to deploy surgical teams "to support Tripoli-area hospitals as they cope with the influx of trauma cases", the UN agency wrote on Twitter.
At least eight ambulances have been hit during festivities in the southern outskirts of the capital, as both sides have defied international calls to halt the fighting.
WHO urged "all parties to exercise restraint and avoid causing collateral damage to hospitals, ambulances and health workers".
In addition to ground fighting, both pro-government forces and Haftar's self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA) carry out daily air raids and accuse each other of targeting civilians.
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[IsraelTimes] Finland’s leftist Social Democrats won a razor-thin victory in Sunday’s general election, holding off the far-right Finns Party which surged on an anti-immigration agenda.
With 100 percent of ballots counted, the Social Democrats, led by 56-year-old former trade union boss Antti Rinne, picked up 40 seats in parliament, after campaigning on a ticket of fierce opposition to the austerity imposed by the previous center-right government of Prime Minister Juha Sipila.
Meanwhile the Finns Party, which won 39 seats, had focused almost entirely on an anti-immigration agenda under the leadership of hardline MEP Jussi Halla-aho, who also decried the "climate hysteria" of the other parties.
Continued on Page 49
#4
#2 - there's a youtube vid on that. It's a relationship of concentration between two populations, human and animal. If you are looking to where there is high concentrations of both in close quarters, I'd say the best bet today is on China. London was fun in the 19th Century in playing that game.
[Rudaw] Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif claimed on Monday that Tehran is not prohibited from enriching uranium by the 2015 nuclear deal, UN Security Council resolutions, or a global pact to prevent the spread of atomic arms. His comments come after a French diplomat implied that the Islamic Theocratic Republic is prohibited from enriching uranium.
"Reminder to our E3 partners in #JCPOA: There is NO prohibition on the enrichment of uranium by Iran under #NPT, #JCPOA or UNSCR 2231. Neither now, nor in 2025 or beyond," he tweeted. Iran summoned French ambassador to Tehran on Sunday protesting about the remarks by the French diplomat with Abbas Araqchi, the political deputy at the foreign ministry calling on the French government to make its position clear on the issue.
#5
met him once on an airplane from NY to Boston. Voted for him for governor as the lesser of two evils. Seems like he is still mediocre at best and not representative of the US.
[Jpost] The Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned Israelis of a serious threat of terrorist attacks in the Sinai as it issued a travel warning, according to Mivzak Live.
The bureau told all Israelis living or visiting the Sinai to leave immediately. The director of the Foreign Ministry’s overseas department toured the Israel-Sinai border on Monday according to the report.
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[Jpost] Congresswoman Ilhan Omar Somali-American Dem representative from Minnesota. She is apparently married to her brother and may be her own grandmaw... is calling for the release of a terrorist.
On her Twitter page last week, Omar demanded that US President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and what ever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... push for the release of a senior member of the Egyptian Moslem Brüderbund, Hoda Abdelmonem.
Omar posted a photo of herself meeting with pro-Moslem Brüderbund campaigners and retweeted an Al Jazeera video that calls for Abdelmonem’s release.
The Moslem Brüderbund is classified as a terrorist organization in many countries, including Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... , the United Arab Emirates, Russia and Egypt. Republicans have long lobbied Congress to classify the group as a terrorist organization in the United States, too.
The terrorist organization is one of the oldest in the world. It promotes a platform called "The Project," an 18-page plan that is focused on destroying the Western world from within its border. That plan charts the groundwork of jihadists for establishing an Islamic government in North America.
Several Hamas, the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®, and al-Qaeda activists have been trained by the Moslem Brüderbund.
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Baghdad (IraqiNews.com) A police source informed that the security forces carried out a search operation in Basateen area, north of Baghdad, and closed all the area’s entrances and exits.
The source said in a statement for Alsumaria News that Iraqi security forces carried out, today, an operation to search for wanted persons and weapons, in Basateen area.
The security forces closed all the entrances and exits of the area, north of Baghdad, the source added.
It is noteworthy that the security forces are carrying frequesnt search operation in different areas of Iraq, to search for wanted persons or hidden weapons.
[Daily Mail, Where America Gets Its News] French President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to rebuild Notre Dame with help from the international community after a devastating fire gutted the famous cathedral on Monday night.
Speaking just hours after the roof of the 850-year-old building caved in, Macron told the world's assembled press that a national fundraising campaign to restore Notre Dame would be launched Tuesday, and he called on the world's 'greatest talents' to help.
The French leader credited the 'courage' and 'great professionalism' of firefighters with sparing Notre Dame's facade and two landmark towers from being destroyed.
In an impassioned speech outside the cathedral, Mr Macron said: 'We will appeal to the greatest talents and we will rebuild Notre-Dame because that's what the French are waiting for, because that's what our history deserves, because it's our deepest destiny.'
Late on Monday evening fire chiefs confirmed that the structure of the cathedral has been saved, despite initial fears it may be entirely destroyed.
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[KhaamaPress] The Afghan Military in the North has announced that 179 Talibs including 15 commanders of the group hailing from Afghanistan as well as abroad have been killed in Northern and Northeastern provinces of the country since the group announced the launch of its spring offensive "Al-Fath".
The announcement was last Friday, 12 April. It sounds like all parties involved have been busy since then.
The 209th Shaheen Corps in a statement said the bandidosLions of Islam were killed during the festivities in Badakhshan, Kunduz, Baghlan, Balkh, Sar-e-Pul ...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and Hazara ...a grouping of Dari-speaking people of Sino-Tibetan descent inhabiting Afghanistan and Pakistain. They are predominantly Shia Moslems and not particularly warlike, which makes them favored targets... communities, of which the Hazaras mostly don't bother anyone... , and Faryab provinces.
The statement further added that 77 bandidosLions of Islam including their 6 commanders were also maimed during the same festivities.
According to 209th Shaheen Corps, Talibs intensified their attacks in northern parts of the country after announcing their spring offensive but the Afghan armed forces effective responded and repulsed the attacks with the resistance of the ground forces and Arclight airstrikes carried out by the Air Forces.
The 209th Shaheen Corps also confirmed that 7 security personnel also bit the dust during the festivities and 11 others sustained injuries but the civilians have not suffered casualties so far.
The anti-government armed bandidosLions of Islam including Taliban ...Arabic for students... have not commented regarding the report so far.
I’m not sure if this is important, but Al Ahram is exercised enough on the subject to post an article.
[AlAhram] French weapons are being used by the United Arab Emirates and Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... in Yemen, according to a classified note revealed by French media on Monday which contradicts the claims of La Belle France's government.
The note from the French military intelligence service, published by new investigative media outlet Disclose, concluded that the UAE and Saudi Arabia deployed French weaponry from artillery to ships in their war against Houthis.
Under pressure from rights groups in La Belle France over the sales, the Gay Paree government has always insisted that French arms are only used in defensive circumstances to deter attacks by the Huthis.
La Belle France, the third-biggest arms exporter in the world, counts Saudi Arabia and the UAE as loyal clients in the Middle East, its biggest regional market in 2017.
Those two countries intervened in 2015 to support the Yemeni government against Houthis, which are backed by Iran, in a war that has left around 10,000 dead and pushed millions to the brink of starvation.
The UN calls the situation in Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic... the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
ARTILLERY, TANKS, SHIPS, HELICOPTERS
The classified note -- provided to the French government in October 2018, according to Disclose -- said that 48 Caesar artillery guns manufactured by the Nexter group were being used along the Saudi-Yemen border.
Leclerc tanks, sold in the 1990s to the UAE, have also been used, as have Mirage 2000-9 fighter jets, while French missile-guiding technology called Damocles might have been deployed, according to the assessment.
Cougar transport helicopters and the A330 MRTT refuelling plane have also seen action, and two French ships are serving in the blockade of Yemeni ports which has led to food and medical shortages, the DRM military intelligence agency concluded.
Asked for comment by AFP, the French government said that "to our knowledge, the French weapons owned by members of the coalition are for the most part in defensive positions, outside of Yemen or in military bases, not on the frontline."
Disclose is a new investigative website working in partnership with established media companies including public broadcaster La Belle France Info, online brand Mediapart and Franco-German television channel Arte.
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#1
France's primary war item sorely missing. Must be a white flag shortage at home.
Iranian border guards opened fire on an Afghan family and their Kurdish guide on the Turkish border killing three of them including the guard Behrouz Chatozadeh father of three. The incident happened on April 9 near Torah village in Khoy, West Azerbijan @KurdistanHRNpic.twitter.com/3lXCLP8P9O
Either the Egyptian negotiators can’t persuade them to stop, or Egypt does not really care.
[IsraelTimes] Two small fires were started in southern Israel by balloons carrying incendiary devices from the Gazoo Strip, the local fire department says.
The blazes were quickly brought under control by firefighters, the department says.
One of the fires was located in the woods outside Kibbutz Be’eri. The other was outside the community of Shokeda.
[BLOOMBERG] Venezuela sold about $400 million in gold despite a growing international push to freeze the country’s assets, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.
The amount, which would equal almost 9 tons, was reflected by a drop in the bank’s total reserves, which fell to $8.6 billion on April 12, according to data provided by the central bank. About $5.1 billion of that is gold.
A central bank press official didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment on the sale Monday.
The sale could mean President Nicolas Maduro Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy... has found a way to skirt the economic blockade. Maduro has blown through reserves, selling gold to firms in the United Arab Emirates and The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the most dubious NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Originally it was a mutual defense pact directed against an expansionist Soviet Union. In later years it evolved into a mechanism for picking the American pocket while criticizing the cut of the American pants... ally.... , as sanctions increasingly cut off his authoritarian regime from the global financial system. While he maintains a stranglehold on power on the ground -- including the military and government bureaucracy -- opposition leader Juan Guaido is using support from dozens of countries to slowly seize Venezuela’s financial assets abroad.
The U.S., which recognizes Guaido as the nation’s rightful leader, sanctioned state gold producer Minerven last month. It said lucrative trading in the precious metal keeps the military loyal to Maduro.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Mosul (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi security forces on Monday tossed in the calaboose Yez got nuttin' on me, coppers! Nuttin'! an Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... bully boy in djinn-infested Mosul ... the home of a particularly ferocious and hairy djinn... city, which once hosted the bully boy group’s self-styled caliphate, a security source was quoted as saying.
Speaking to Al Madar News website, the source said that "the terrorist was apprehended in al-Qawsiat district in Mosul after his relatives lodged a complaint with police that he belongs to the Islamic State bully boy group."
He was handed over to the competent authorities for interrogation, added the source.
Mosul (IraqiNews.com) – Iraqi troops arrested on Monday a senior Islamic State leader during a security operation in the eastern side of Mosul, once the de-facto capital of the terrorist group in Iraq.
“Iraqi military intelligence forces arrested the Islamic State’s booty official in al-Zahraa district in the eastern side of Mosul,” Almaalomah news website quoted the Military Intelligence Directorate as saying in a press statement.
“His arrest came after intelligence forces received accurate data on his location,” the statement read.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[KhaamaPress] At least ten gunnies were killed during a joint operation of the Afghan and coalition forces in south-eastern Ghazni province of Afghanistan.
The 203rd Thunder Corps of the Afghan Military in the Southeast issued a statement late on Sunday evening confirming that ten gunnies were killed and three others including one of their commanders were maimed during a joint Afghan-coalition forces operation sin Gilan district of Ghazni.
The statement further added that the operations were conducted in Lawang and Khatak areas of the distric.t
According to 203rd Thunder Corps, the Taliban ...Arabic for students... commander who has sustained injuries during the operation has been identified as Abdul Rahim.
The security forces also discovered a large weapons and explosive cache belong to Talibs during the same operation, the 203rd Thunder Corps said.
The anti-government armed gunnies including Taliban have not commented regarding the operation so far.
[IsraelTimes] Belgian authorities say they have placed in durance vile ... anything you say can and will be used against you, whether you say it or not... a man on suspicion that he was part of a terrorist group and might have been planning an attack.
Federal prosecutors said Monday the 22-year-old Belgian man, identified as Jimmy K., is charged with "taking part in the activities of a terrorist group."
Searches were conducted in three Belgian towns in connection with the arrest but no weapons or explosives were found. No other details were provided.
State broadcaster RTBF says the man was detained early Sunday at his grandmother’s house in Wavre, 30 kilometers (19 miles) southeast of the capital, Brussels. It said he had converted to Islam and become radicalized and was in the early stages of preparing an attack. RTBF did not identify the source of its information.
#1
The Lib SJWs are not welcoming them. They want someone else to, particularly red states so they can turn blue. The Libs just want Moralistic Preening
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/16/2019 9:42
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#2
Cher - "We can't take care of our own"
Trump - "I agree with Cher"
Cher - incomprehensible Chernobyl meltdown
[ToloNews] As the new school year has begun almost one month ago, a girls school was "destroyed" in an attack by unknown gunnies in western Farah province on Sunday night, local officials confirmed. The school was set ablaze by some gunnies last year but it continued to provide education for almost 500 girls.
The officials said the gunnies entered the school and placed explosives inside the building and detonated it afterward.
The incident took place against Benafsha Girls High School in Tosak village on the outskirts of Farah city, said Dadullah Qaane, member of Farah Provincial Council.
At least 500 girls are enrolled in the school, he said, adding that the school had received threats many times.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack.
Statistics by the Ministry of Education show that 3.5 million children are deprived of education and at least 900 schools have remained closed across the country.
[Jpost] Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has announced the launch of OPAL, an innovative solution that will redefine the battlefield by connecting all platforms in the battle arena, manned and unmanned alike.
"The OPAL solution provides an unprecedented range of proven capabilities and operational flexibility, which allows for optimal utilization of the available resources to maximize effectiveness for a wide range of missions. OPAL is installed in a variety of advanced fighters, attack helicopters, refueling aircrafts, UAVs, ships, Command and Control centers, as well as mobile and fixed-base stations," IAI said.
In today’s modern battlefield, the ability to share information and maintain continuous communication between different forces is vital for the success of any mission.
For example, the IDF has recently begun practicing on a new four-dimensional combined battle strategy called the "Gideon Battlegroup" in preparation for a possible war on its northern front with Hezbollah.
The Gideon Battlegroup, which was drilled on during the recent large-scale divisional exercise with the 36th Armored Division, will include an invisible battlefield network having 24 intelligence planes that can detect anything that emits a signal. Once that signal is detected and decoded, it’s exact location is found and turned into a target in a matter of seconds by the "smart trigger" system.
If in previous wars troops could visualize the enemy in one clear location, today’s enemy is decentralized and much harder to visualize. They have become time-sensitive targets which challenge the IDF to strike them immediately after they are detected, before they disappear once again.
OPAL is based on forming a decentralized communication cloud for all members to allow real time information sharing, the company said, explaining that the system "allows all members to exchange relevant information in order to achieve a comprehensive, common operational picture of the battlefield."
The system ‐ which is compatible with any platform including fighter jets, tanks, ships or ground troops ‐ relies on a secure and proven communication network that connects different networks and platforms without fixed-base stations.
It provides users with optimized effectiveness in accomplishing their mission goals by generating and sharing a Common Operating Picture in real time ‐ providing interoperability of fifth-generation fighter aircraft with legacy platforms, maximized utilization of resources and the ability to execute multiple missions within a given time frame.
By sharing threat data, ground forces can improve their survivability in danger zones; pilots will have enhanced flight safety with collision avoidance warning indicators, which provide visual avoidance maneuvers.
OPAL also "significantly reduces the time to introduce new capabilities on the platforms from years to months" by enabling users to develop new operational capabilities and rapidly deploy them without having to change any hardware or aircraft avionic software blocks.
"OPAL is a unique and advanced IAI development that has been operational for many years and is a major factor in operational successes. OPAL provides comprehensive interoperability of communications and operational capabilities between air and ground forces, and serves as a force multiplier," said Yossi Melamed, executive vice president and general manager of Aviation Group. "I believe it will be a major asset for air, sea and ground users, and enhance their performance in the future battlefield."
#4
That's what I worry about. Sure these systems are great but they will start to be relied on and then when not if they get hacked, they are going to lose quite a bit of effectiveness. It won't be a massive hit, but it will happen. I expect that the Israelis WILL force their troops to conduct training both with and without for just that reason.
[STARTRIBUNE] Minneapolis man said he went to the Mall of America Friday "looking for someone to kill" before throwing a 5-year-old boy nearly 40 feet over a third-floor railing in an attack that shocked the nation.
Emmanuel Deshawn Aranda, 24, was formally charged in Hennepin County District Court Monday with attempted first-degree premeditated murder. He is being held on $2 million bail and is expected to make his first court appearance Tuesday.
The boy, named Landen, fell about 40 feet to a stone floor. According to the criminal complaint, medical responders at the scene said his injuries included fractures to multiple bones, including in his arms and legs. He was bleeding from the head and had massive head trauma.
The boy is being treated at Children's Hospital in Minneapolis, where his condition Monday was listed as critical.
Aranda confessed to the attack, according to the criminal complaint.
"Defendant ... said that he was the one who had thrown the 5-year-old Victim from the balcony and fled," the complaint said. "He said he formed a plan to kill someone at the Mall" on the day before the actual attack, but it didn't work out that day.
Aranda told Sherlocks he returned to the mall on Friday, April 12.
"He said he planned to kill an adult, because they usually stand near the balcony, but he chose the Victim instead," the complaint said.
Aranda told Sherlocks he had been going to the Bloomington mall for several years "and had made efforts to talk to women in the Mall, but had been rejected, and the rejection caused him to lash out and to be aggressive." Can't imagine why he was so unsuccessful
Aranda admitted to police that he knew what he did was wrong, the complaint said. Surveillance video showed Aranda walking on the third floor and looking over the balcony several times before approaching the victim and his mother, the complaint said.
The victim's mother told police that she and her son were with a friend of hers and her friend's child outside the Rainforest Cafe when Aranda approached them. The victim's mother said Aranda came very close to them, and she asked him if the group should move.
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#1
This animal should never have made it out of there alive.
#4
Suspect in MOA attack was 'looking for someone to kill'
Brave bastid wasn't he, picking a 5 year old. Perhaps he could find a job at Planned Parenthood upon his release from prison...in 6 months.
Minnesota Dem Rep. Ilhan Omar will come to Aranda's defense soon. A well intended 'white privilege' reduction program gone wrong. If simply provided his reparations payment, none of this might have happened.
Nineveh (IraqiNews.com) ‐ Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... bandidosDeath Eaters kidnapped on Monday two Iraqi brothers in the northwestern province of Nineveh, a security source said as the kidnapping cases continue to rise in the country despite the defeat of the terrorist group in 2017.
"The IS bandidosDeath Eaters were dressed up in military uniforms when they kidnapped the pair in al-Ba’aj district in Nineveh," the source told Baghdad Today news website without giving further details.
Posted by: trailing wife ||
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[Breitbart] The U.S. government awarded hundreds of work permits in 2017 to a front company that, according to an FBI statement, trafficked almost 2,000 Chinese graduates into the U.S. white-collar labor market.
The March 28 FBI document alleges that a Chinese migrant named Weiyun Huang took money to issue fraudulent claims of employment to Chinese students who were seeking to get “Optional Practical Training” work permits. Huang was arrested March 26, the document says.
Huang’s firm helped roughly 1,900 Chinese migrants get OPT work permits for various white-collar jobs in the United States, the document said. Other federal data shows the company got 732 OPT workers in 2017.
The alleged white-collar job theft is also tied to national security concerns. One beneficiary of Huang’s alleged OPT fraud was arrested in late 2018 for suspected espionage via the “MAVNI” program, which recruited foreigners for the military.
The federal investigation began shortly after Huang’s California-based company, Findream, was spotlighted in a March 21 Breitbart News article, and it comes as many Senators and Representatives push a bill — H.R.1044 and S.386 — that would help U.S. investors outsource many more white-collar jobs via the OPT program to graduates imported from China and India.
The OPT program allows universities to earn revenues from foreign student customers by offering them work permits for up to three years in the United States for each degree earned at the university. The OPT program is attractive to foreign students and companies in part because it hurts many American graduates.
It gives companies a tax break for hiring foreigners instead of Americans, and it also encourages foreigners to accept very low wages in exchange for the promise of a huge deferred bonus from the federal government, in the form of a green card. The OPT program helps foreign workers get into the better known H-1B program, which keeps roughly one million white-collar workers in the United States and allows roughly 50,000 H-1B workers and family members to get green cards each year.
#1
H-1B program is one of the most abused set-ups for keeping American workers down. They've been running it for so long, we're talking decades, that it has depressed any interests in pursuing certain careers. It became self fulfilling for 'not finding any qualified Americans'. Why invest the education years of your life working towards a job you know will be filled by an H-1B?
#3
^ "Hey, Mei Guo! You need Chinese spies?
What? Can't find enough with round eyes?
That totally crazy...
You people too lazy!
Put sign out and see who applies!"
[KhaamaPress] At least ten Talibs were killed and nine others were maimed during the operations which were conducted in Kunduz and Badghis province in the past 24 hours.
Informed military sources said Monday that the Afghan Special Forces conducted an operation in the picturesque provincial capital of Kunduz province killing 4 Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... fighters and arresting 9 others.
The sources further added that Arclight airstrikes were also conducted in Kunduz city which left 3 Taliban fighters dead.
"Airstrikes were conducted in Bala Murghab district of Badghis province in support of Afghan Security Forces killing 3 Taliban fighters," the sources added.
The anti-government armed forces of Evil including Taliban have not commented regarding the operations so far.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[CaliforniaGlobe] UCLA epidemiologist calls out USC med school professors on big money research used to establish EPA regulations.
The President of Ecuador may have accused Julian Assange of "spying" on rather dubious evidence, but a grand jury in the United States may be on firmer footing. A federal judge has unsealed the original criminal complaint against the Wikileaks founder, originally filed two years ago. It includes transcripts of online chats between Assange and Chelsea (then Bradley) Manning. And the charges make it sound as if the two of them were certainly conspiring to do something... but what?
[Bloomberg] Some U.S. farm groups fear that President Donald Trump’s terms for easing his trade war with China risk leaving large swaths of American agriculture worse off than before the conflict began.
[AlMasdar] Israel’s air supremacy over 
[IsraelTimes] 58-year-old non-Jewish victim repeatedly stabbed in attack said to be similar to two recent anti-Semitic murders in the country.
[TheJournal.ie] Ines Madani was jailed for encouraging would-be jihadists to go to Syria and participate in attacks against France.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
[Jpost] More than 3,000 
[IsraelTimes] After weeks of tension over Prisons Service jamming devices, 
...Self-proclaimed Field Marshal, served in the Libyan army under Muammar Qadaffy, and took part in the coup that brought Qadaffy to power in 1969. He became a prisoner of war in Chad in 1987. While held prisoner, he and his fellow officers formed a group hoping to overthrow Qadaffy. He was released around 1990 in a deal with the United States government and spent nearly two decades in the United States, gaining US citizenship. In 1993, while living in the United States, he was convicted in absentia of crimes against the Jamahiriya and sentenced to death. Haftar held a senior position in the anti-Qadaffy forces in the 2011 Libyan Civil War. In 2014 he was commander of the Libyan Army when the General National Congress (GNC) refused to give up power in accordance with its term of office. Haftar launched a campaign against the GNC and its Islamic fundamentalist allies. His campaign allowed elections to take place to replace the GNC, but then developed into a civil war. Guess you can't win them all...
...a city and eponymous province in northern Afghanistan, population about 500,000. Demographically it is majority Tadjik and Uzbek. There are small Pashtun, Arab, and 
...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of. Except for a tiny handfull of Jews everthing there is very Islamic...
Venezuela's attempt at producing a Muammar Qadaffy...
[IsraelTimes] Belgian authorities say they have 
[STARTRIBUNE] Minneapolis man said he went to the Mall of America Friday "looking for someone to kill" before throwing a 5-year-old boy nearly 40 feet over a third-floor railing in an attack that shocked the nation.
