#4
My dear Israeli friends, I wish you all Godspeed in getting back what folks and their remains you can, and the grim realities that will reveal. And I trust that once you have done that, what follows reflects exactly what needs to be done!
Two suspects have been arrested in Azerbaijan for planning to assassinate a senior figure in the country’s Jewish community, according to Israel’s public broadcaster Kan. The plot was discovered and foiled by Azerbaijani security forces.
According to the report, the two were offered $200,000 by representatives of another country, likely Iran, to kill a member of the Jewish community. The primary suspect, a drug trafficker, had recently traveled to another country and met with its security services.
A source within the Azerbaijani Jewish community told Kan that the target was a well-known figure who actively promotes cooperation between the predominantly Muslim country and Israel.
Iran is actively seeking to lure local agents to attack Jewish and Israeli targets. Earlier Tuesday, the Israeli National Security Council warned citizens to be on high alert for such attempts.
[Rudaw] The United States last month engaged directly with a designated terrorist group in Syria in a significant policy shift, a move explained by senior US official Nikolas Granger during an interview with Rudaw on Monday.
Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... (HTS), formerly an al-Qaeda affiliate, led a coalition of forces in a swift and unexpected offensive that toppled Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Before going into the family business Pencilneck was an eye doctor. If he'd stuck with it he'd have had a good practice by now... 's regime last month.
HTS, under the leadership of Ahmed al-Sharaa, previously known as Abu Mohammed al-Jolani, a US-designated terrorist, capitalized on the weakened state of Assad's forces, which were demoralized and lacked support from their traditional allies like Russia and Iran. This transformed Sharaa from a terrorist to a liberator in the eyes of many.
Granger, the Syria Regional Platform Director at the US Department of State, laid out the rationale behind his country’s engagement with HTS and Sharaa, the acting president of Syria. In December, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf visited Damascus, announcing the removal of a $10 million bounty on Sharaa’s head after meeting him.
"From our perspective, it didn't make sense to have a bounty hanging over his head when in fact we were engaging with him in a diplomatic dialogue," said Granger, adding that the move does not alter his status as an "specially designated global terrorist" under Executive Order 13224, but it opens a channel for communication to influence the political landscape in Syria.
"The terrorist designation against HTS stays in place, and any decision on that designation will be a separate process," he said in response to a question on whether the US is considering removing HTS from its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
HUMANITARIAN AND ECONOMIC IMPERATIVES
Earlier this month, the US Department of Treasury temporarily eased sanctions on Syria in a decision called General License 24.
"The general license we issued last week was meant to provide immediate relief to the Syrian people," Granger said, noting that the license facilitates the provision of essential services like electricity, water, and sanitation, ensuring that sanctions do not impede these critical areas.
"There are huge needs across the economy in Syria," he stressed.
The general license is set for 6 months, allowing the US to monitor the situation on the ground and assess the impact of its policy shift.
SUPPORT FOR INCLUSIVE GOVERNANCE
Granger underscored Washington’s stance on the political transition in Syria, saying "we believe that all Syrians - Kurds, Arabs, whatever their identity - but all Syrians have a role to play in Syria's political and social life."
He emphasized the expectation for the interim authorities to follow through on commitments to inclusivity and representation.
"We have made it clear our expectation to the interim authorities and we will continue to be monitoring the situation very carefully throughout Syria to ensure that there is accountability for any attacks that happen," he added.
ROLE OF THE SYRIAN DEMOCRATIC FORCES (SDF)
Granger also addressed the future of the SDF, a key ally in the fight against the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS), and said that Washington’s alliance with the Kurdish-led force is valued.
"We continue to value our partnership with the SDF, addressing threats by ISIS, guarding detention facilities, and securing camps in northeast Syria," he said.
"This is something that will be important for the future Syrian state to be responsible for. It's important that the SDF and the interim authorities engage in serious dialogue on what the future for Syria looks like for all actors on the ground, ensuring they can work together to fight against ISIS.
Granger encouraged the Syrian authorities and SDF to engage in dialogue on the future of the multi-ethnic and multi-religious country.
"It's important that the SDF and the interim authorities engage in serious dialogue on what the future for Syria looks like for all actors on the ground, ensuring they can work together to fight against ISIS," he stated.
He expressed cautious optimism about the future of Syria.
"We will continue to engage with the Syrian people, offer our support as they chart the course forward, and engage with the interim authorities to make clear our expectations that they will follow through on their words with concrete action."
[IsraelTimes] Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar says that comments earlier today by Nawaf Salam, the newly appointed prime minister of Lebanon, who served as the president of the International Court of Justice, prove that the ICJ is biased against Israel and its decisions must be invalidated.
“The president of the ICJ, just appointed prime minister of Lebanon, has called Israel an enemy,” says Sa’ar. “This is the president of a court presiding over a case related to Israel — someone who is supposed to remain impartial and neutral. Yet, he refers to Israel as an enemy.”
In his first speech as premier earlier today, Salam — referring to Israel — said he would work to “impose the complete withdrawal of the enemy from the last occupied inch of our land.”
“How can such a person be expected to judge Israel fairly?” asks Sa’ar. “President Salam’s decisions regarding Israel must be disqualified immediately. Otherwise, they might as well take the ‘J’ out of the ICJ.”
Salam, who resigned from the court today, began his role as ICJ president in February 2024 and has served as a member since 2018. He has been presiding over South Africa’s case accusing Israel of genocide, and took part in rulings, including, in January 2024, saying there is “plausibility” that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza and in July 2024 calling Israel’s presence in the West Bank “illegal.”
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) on Tuesday said they had lost contact with three fighters after clashes with Syrian National Army (SNA) militants in northern Syria.
“Four of our fighters were wounded, and communication with three others was lost,” the SDF said, adding that the clashes resulted in the killing of 28 Turkish-backed SNA fighters and the injury of 36 others near Manbij.
“Our forces successfully targeted mercenary gatherings 24 times and shot down one suicide drone,” the SDF added.
Kurdish forces in northern Syria are under intensified attacks by Turkey and Turkish-backed SNA militants, who have taken the strategic towns of Tal Rifaat and Manbij since late November, at the same time the Islamist-led Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) was amid a blistering offensive that toppled Bashar al-Assad’s regime.
The clashes are especially intense near the crucial Tishreen Dam and Qere Qozaq bridge on the Euphrates River that leads to the symbolic Kurdish city of Kobane on the Turkish border.
Turkey considers the People’s Protection Units (YPG), the backbone of the SDF, as the Syrian front for the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and has threatened to carry out a military offensive against them.
JUST IN: Top Pentagon Advisor Jamie Mannina has just been FIRED per email to @OKeefeMedia from Joint Staff Public Affairs Spokesman Joseph Holstead
Mannina was caught on OMG hidden cameras revealing plans “with a Couple of Retired Generals to Explore What We Can Do” to to… pic.twitter.com/Aq4dH1Whn0
… “with a Couple of Retired Generals to Explore What We Can Do” to to ‘Protect People from Trump’.
@DeptofDefense
@SecDef
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
2025-01-15 01:22 ||
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#1
Props once again to Mr. O’Keefe.
Probably unrealistic, but might’ve been nice to find out some of the names of these retired generals — in order, perhaps, to find out what their plans are. And who else they’re working with.
[IsraelTimes] Thousands attend Tel Aviv demonstration in eager anticipation of Hamas’s response to proposal, while hundreds in Jerusalem fume at government over ‘surrender’ to terror group.
Details at the link, for those interested. As far as I can tell, the agreement is ever-receding, like cold fusion. But maybe I’ll be wrong — at any rate, it didn’t happen as promised yesterday. This is what they got instead:
[IsraelTimes] Israel and Hamas agreed in principle to a hostage deal on Monday night and have since been working in Doha to finalize the details regarding implementation of the agreement, two Arab officials tell The Times of Israel.
One of the main issues that has yet to be finalized is the exact parameters of the IDF’s withdrawal from Gaza, and the mediators are still waiting for a map from Israel laying this out, the Arab officials say.
The two officials speculate that a deal will be announced on Wednesday or Thursday in the form of a joint statement from the US, Qatar and Egypt, who have been mediating between Israel and Hamas.
Earlier Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken claimed that Israel had accepted the hostage deal, while Hamas had yet to do the same.
On Monday, two officials familiar with the matter told The Times of Israel that US President-elect Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff held a “tense” meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Saturday during which he leaned on the premier to make the compromises necessary to secure an agreement.
One of the Arab officials speaking to The Times of Israel on Tuesday says Witkoff managed to move Netanyahu more in that one meeting than the Biden administration had in countless conversations over the past year.
[ZERO] Landlords in fire-stricken Los Angeles are jacking rents in violation of California law as thousands of residents seek shelter due to multiple fires burning in the area.
A search of local listings by several outlets reveal several landlords who have raised prices by as much as 124%, flouting a state law that prohibits rent hikes in excess of 10% after a state of emergency has been declared.
California’s state of emergency, declared by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday, bans price gouging for a range of goods and services, including rental housing. That means any rent increase above 10 percent since the start of the state of emergency is illegal for the duration of the crisis.
But since Tuesday, some landlords and their agents have raised prices by more than what California law allows. These price increases come as hundreds, if not thousands, of displaced Los Angeles residents search for interim housing while they figure out their next steps, worsening an already tight rental housing market in the region. -NY Times
One five-bedroom rental in Santa Monica which listed for $12,500 in February 2024 was going for $28,000 per month, an increase of 124%, before it was pulled from the market on Sunday according to Inside Edition's Lisa Guerrero.
#1
Meh. The iron law of supply and demand states that if the rents can’t go up, then application fees and bribes will go up unti a balance point is reached for the new conditions. Exactly the kind of problem they have in New York City. The other piece being people moving to where the total cost of housing is affordable, and most never returning.
#3
I am predicting lots of orders placed for hits by rich demoncrats who have lost their homes.
If I was a democratic politician in California who had acted inline with the idiots who created this mess I would be actively creating a new identity in some country far far from the USA. Along with an Exit Stage Left.
[FoxNews] The governor of Puerto Rico pleaded for President-elect Trump to intervene after Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro threatened to invade the U.S. island territory.
In a letter addressed to Trump, Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón said, "[J]ust a few days after holding an illegitimate swearing-in ceremony in a desperate attempt to cling to power in Venezuela," Maduro "publicly proposed an invasion of Puerto Rico."
Maduro, who was sworn in for a third six-year presidential term despite international condemnation of his recent reelection as illegitimate, made the threat Saturday at the end of the "International Anti-Fascist Festival" hosted in Caracas. The socialist dictator made an apparent reference to Trump's remarks eyeing U.S. control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, stating: "Just as the North has an agenda of colonization, we have an agenda of liberation." Maduro vowed that the "freedom of Puerto Rico is pending, and we will achieve it with Brazilian troops," according to Latin America Reports.
"This is an open threat to the United States, our national security, and stability in the region," González-Colón told Trump. "I trust your incoming administration will swiftly respond and make clear to the Maduro regime that, under your leadership, the United States, will protect American lives and sovereignty and will not bow down to the threats of petty, murderous dictators."
#3
Venezuela would need ships that work for an amphibious landing. They could be repelled by Carnival Cruise lines. It’s just a ludicrous threat in response to Trump’s Panama statements.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 17:47
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Early on Tuesday morning (Jan. 15), a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket sent Blue Ghost and Resilience — lunar landers built by Firefly Aerospace and the Tokyo-based company ispace, respectively — into the final frontier from Florida's Space Coast.
#3
At 4pm Starship blast off on another test flight with a new version of the 2nd stage that is a major design change. For people who like to see big booms the changes are big enough they might see a 2nd stage blow up.
Sir Keir Starmer‘s government is disappearing around him, and it couldn’t happen to a more deserving party.
[BBC] Treasury minister Tulip Siddiq has resigned after growing pressure over an anti-corruption investigation in Bangladesh.
She had referred herself to the prime minister's standards adviser, Sir Laurie Magnus, after questions about links to her aunt, who was ousted last year as Bangladesh's prime minister.
Sir Laurie said he had "not identified evidence of improprieties" but it was "regrettable" that Siddiq had not been more alert to the "potential reputational risks" of the ties to her aunt.
Siddiq said continuing in her role would be "a distraction" for the government but insisted she had done nothing wrong.
WHO IS TULIP SIDDIQ?
Before her resignation was announced, Siddiq had been named in a second investigation in Bangladesh.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said the prime minister "dithered and delayed to protect" her. Writing on X, she said: "It was clear at the weekend that the anti-corruption minister's position was completely untenable. Yet Keir Starmer dithered and delayed to protect his close friend.
"Even now, as Bangladesh files a criminal case against Tulip Siddiq, he expresses 'sadness' at her inevitable resignation.
"Weak leadership from a weak prime minister."
In a letter accepting Siddiq's resignation, Sir Keir said the "door remains open" for her.
Siddiq, whose role as Economic Secretary to the Treasury included tackling corruption in UK financial markets, was named last month in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn from infrastructure spending in Bangladesh.
Her aunt is the former Bangladeshi prime minister Sheikh Hasina, head of the Awami League, who fled into exile after being deposed last year.
Siddiq, Labour MP for Hampstead and Highgate, also came under intense scrutiny over her use of properties in London linked to her aunt's allies.
The Financial Times reported that one of the properties, a flat in King's Cross, had been given to her by a person connected with the recently ousted Bangladeshi government.
According to the Mail on Sunday, in 2022 Siddiq had denied the flat was a gift and insisted her parents had bought it for her and had threatened the paper with legal action preventing publication of a story. Labour sources subsequently told the newspaper the flat had been gifted to Siddiq by a property developer with alleged links to her aunt.
Sir Laurie spent eight days investigating the allegations after Siddiq referred herself to the standards watchdog. In his letter, Sir Laurie said Siddiq "acknowledges that, over an extended period, she was unaware of the origins of her ownership of her flat in Kings Cross, despite having signed a Land Registry transfer form relating to the gift at the time".
He said the MP "remained under the impression that her parents had given the flat to her, having purchased it from the previous owner".
This had led to the public being "inadvertently misled" about the identity of the donor of the flat, added Sir Laurie.
Sir Laurie said this was an "unfortunate misunderstanding" which had led to Siddiq issuing a public correction of "the origins of her ownership after she became a minister".
In the letter, Sir Laurie said: "A lack of records and lapse of time has meant that, unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain comprehensive comfort in relation to all the UK property-related matters referred to in the media.
"However, I have not identified evidence of improprieties connected with the actions taken by Ms Siddiq and/or her husband in relation to their ownership or occupation of the London properties that have been the subject of press attention.
"Similarly, I have found no suggestion of any unusual financial arrangements relating to Ms Siddiq's ownership or occupation of the properties in question involving the Awami League (or its affiliated organisations) or the state of Bangladesh.
"In addition, I have found no evidence to suggest that Ms Siddiq's and/or her husband's financial assets, as disclosed to me, derive from anything other than legitimate means."
In Bangladesh, there is an ongoing anti-corruption probe based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Siddiq's aunt Hasina. Court documents seen by the BBC show that Hajjaj accused Siddiq of helping her aunt to broker a deal with Russia in 2013 that over-inflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh. She attended the power plant's signing ceremony and was pictured with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Sir Laurie said Siddiq had "explained the context" of that visit as "solely for the social purpose of joining family and enjoying the tourist access to the city facilitated as a result of her aunt's official visit as head of state".
He said Siddiq had been clear that she had "no involvement in any inter-governmental discussions between Bangladesh and Russia or any form of official role".
"I accept this at face value," he said, "but should note that this visit may form part of investigations in Bangladesh."
Labour MP Emma Reynolds has been appointed the new Economic Secretary to the Treasury to replace Siddiq. Reynolds first became an MP in 2010, before losing her seat in 2019. She returned to parliament in 2024's general election after a stint as managing director at a financial and professional services lobbying firm.
See the liveblog of yesterday’s hearing here, and the summary here.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The Senate is holding a marathon confirmation hearing day with six of Donald Trump's nominees facing a Capitol Hill grilling on Wednesday.
The day kicks off in the Senate Judiciary Committee with a hearing for former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, 59, Trump's pick to lead the Department of Justice.
Next up is Sen. Marco Rubio who Trump nominated to be Secretary of State. As a sitting Senator from Florida he has bipartisan backing and his hearing is expected to be smooth sailing.
John Ratcliffe, Trump's pick to lead the CIA, and former Wisconsin lawmaker, reality star and Fox News host Sean Duffy will take questions in his bid to replace Pete Buttigieg as the next Transportation Secretary.
PJ Media is liveblogging here.
Townhall is liveblogging here.
Mary Chastain is running several liveblogs for the various candidates, so go find them on the main Legal Insurrection page.
[Breitbart] Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to serve as the next Secretary of State, will take the globalist foreign policy establishment to task in his opening statement at his confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Breitbart News has learned exclusively.
Rubio’s remarks, provided exclusively to Breitbart News ahead of their public release, show him viciously criticizing the globalist elites who have dominated the American foreign policy worldview for the last several decades since the end of the Cold War.
“At the end of World War II, the United States was, in the words of then Secretary Acheson, tasked with creating a world order ‘a free half’ out of chaos ‘without blowing the whole to pieces in the process,’” Rubio will say per the prepared opening statement. “In the decades that followed, the global order they created served us well. For Americans, incomes rose and communities flourished. Alliances emerged in the Indo-Pacific and Europe that led to the emergence of stability, democracy, and prosperity in these regions, and prevented a cataclysmic third world war. And ultimately a wall in Berlin came down and with it, an ‘evil empire.’”
But, once the U.S. won the Cold War and the Berlin Wall came down, Rubio will say, a “dangerous delusion” of grandeur settled into the globalist elites’ mindset: They thought they reached “the end of history” and that a “liberal world order” would overtake national identity.
“Out of the triumphalism of the end of a long Cold War emerged a bi-partisan consensus that we had reached ‘the end of history,’” Rubio will say. “That all the nations of earth would become members of the democratic Western-led community. That a foreign policy that served the national interest could now be replaced by one that served the ‘liberal world order.’ And that all mankind was now destined to abandon national identity, and we would become ‘one human family’ and ‘citizens of the world.’ This wasn’t just a fantasy; it was a dangerous delusion.”
In the next three sentences, Rubio will lay out how this obsession with a new global order for the past few decades has led to trade, immigration, and national security policies that devastated America’s working and middle class.
“Here in America, and in many of the advanced economies across the world, an almost religious commitment to free and unfettered trade at the expense of our national economy, shrunk the middle class, left the working class in crisis, collapsed industrial capacity, and pushed critical supply chains into the hands of adversaries and rivals,” Rubio will say. “An irrational zeal for maximum freedom of movement of people has resulted in a historic mass migration crisis here in America and around the world that threatens the stability of societies and governments. And across the West, governments now censor and even prosecute domestic political opponents, while radical jihadists openly march in the streets and drive vehicles into our people.”
But while the U.S. has receded from using its influence to serve its national interest on the world stage, Rubio will argue other nations have been throwing their weight around. Rubio specifically aggressively will call out China. But he also will call out bad actors in the Western Hemisphere and Iran, North Korea, and Russia, who he will argue are all wielding this “postwar global order” structure as a “weapon” against the United States.
“While America far too often continued to prioritize the ‘global order’ above our core national interests, other nations continued to act the way countries always have and always will, in what they perceive to be in their best interest,” Rubio will say. “And instead of folding into the post-Cold War global order, they have manipulated it to serve their interest at the expense of ours. We welcomed the Chinese Communist Party into this global order. And they took advantage of all its benefits. But they ignored all its obligations and responsibilities. Instead, they have lied, cheated, hacked, and stolen their way to global superpower status, at our expense. In our very own hemisphere, despots and narco-terrorists take advantage of open borders to drive mass migration, traffic women and children, and flood our communities with fentanyl and violent criminals. And in Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang, dictators sow chaos and instability and align with and fund radical terror groups, then hide behind their veto power at the United Nations and the threat of nuclear war. The postwar global order is not just obsolete; it is now a weapon being used against us.”
Rubio will then argue that the United States faces a “moment,” a challenge similar to the immediate post-World War II timeframe, now in which the U.S. must “confront the single greatest risk of geopolitical instability and generational global crisis in the lifetime of anyone alive here today.”
“Eight decades later, we are called to create a free world out of chaos once again,” Rubio will say. “This will not be easy. And it will be impossible without a strong and confident America that engages in the world, putting our core national interests above all else once again. Just four years ago we saw the beginnings of what that would look like. During President Trump’s first term, American strength was a deterrent to our adversaries and gave us leverage in diplomacy. There were no new wars, ISIS was eviscerated, Soleimani was dead, the historic Abraham Accords were born, and Americans were safer as a result.”
Rubio then will say that Trump returns to the White House “with an unmistakable mandate from the voters” which is they want a “strong America” that is “engaged in the world” but “guided by a clear objective, to promote peace abroad, and security and prosperity here at home.”
“That is the promise President Trump was elected to keep,” Rubio will say. “And if I am confirmed, keeping that promise will be the core mission of the United States Department of State. Tragically, horrifying atrocities and unimaginable human suffering can be found on virtually every continent. And I am certain that today I will be asked about the array of programs and activities the Department of State carries out to address them. As a nation founded on the revolutionary truth that ‘all men are created equal’ with rights that come not from man but from God, we will never be indifferent to the suffering of our fellow man. But ultimately, under President Trump, the top priority of the United States Department of State must be and will be the United States.”
Rubio will conclude by detailing the three questions he says will guide all of Trump’s administration’s foreign policy decisions: “Does it make America safer? Does it make America stronger? Does it make America more prosperous?”
Rubio’s confirmation hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will begin at 10:00 a.m. ET on Wednesday.
[FoxNews] Gov. Greg Abbott threatened the university president for potentially violating Texas law against DEI offices
Texas A&M University pulled the brakes on an upcoming conference trip after Republican Gov. Greg Abbott discovered that only applicants of a particular race could attend.
On Monday, conservative activist Christopher Rufo posted an image of the university promoting the PhD Project’s Annual Conference in Chicago. The application specified that the conference is "designed for historically underrepresented individuals considering business doctorial studies," and only Black/African American, Latinx/Hispanic American or Native American/Canadian Indigenous students were eligible.
"Texas A&M is sponsoring a trip to a DEI conference that prohibits whites and Asians from attending. The university falsely claims that this use of taxpayer funds does not violate the state's DEI ban. @TAMU is supporting racial segregation and breaking the law," Rufo wrote.
The post eventually caught Abbott’s eye late Monday, leading him to threaten the job security of the university’s president if the matter was not corrected.
"Hell, no. It’s against Texas law and violates the US Constitution. It will be fixed immediately or the president will soon be gone," Abbott warned.
The university eventually put out a statement on its X account, reiterating that it does not discriminate based on race in compliance with SB-17, a state law that bans diversity, equity and inclusion offices in Texas public colleges.
"Texas A&M does not support any organization, conference, process or activity that excludes people based on race, creed, gender, age or any other discriminating factor. The intent of SB-17 is very clear in that regard. We will continue to honor both the letter and the intent of the law," the post read.
In a statement sent to Fox News Digital, university President Mark A. Welsh III acknowledged the application in question and conceded the conference itself was "not in line" with the state’s law, canceling the trip altogether.
"While the proper process for reviewing and approving attendance at such events was followed, I don’t believe we fully considered the spirit of our state law in making the initial decision to participate," the statement read. "This particular conference’s limitations on the acceptable race of attendees is not in line with the intent of SB-17, and, as a result, we will not be sending anyone to participate in this conference."
Welsh continued, "Texas A&M faculty and staff attend hundreds, if not thousands, of conferences and other events during the course of each academic year. We need to be sure that attendance at those events is aligned with the very clear guidance we’ve been given by our governing bodies."
The statement was sent to staff and faculty at the Mays Business School.
OH! But this is OK? Because it's against White & Asian students who NEVER practiced racism?
How about, instead, doing what has been done in the last 40 years. When other racially discriminatory educational institutions were found conducting such practices with another colored race?
It many times resulted in the cut of Federal and State funding, the freeze on NEW student loans and various accreditations being lost.
But it's just against White & Asian students.
Those Liberals sure are a racist bunch.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Videos and images circulated recently online have revealed a warehouse stocked with Emirati ammunition and missiles in the city of Wad Madani, Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... This comes after the Sudanese Armed Forces regained control of the strategic city, driving out the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
The footage shows members of the Sudanese army inspecting the warehouse filled with large supply crates, with one soldier claiming that all the weapons present originated from the UAE.
On Saturday, the Sudanese Armed Forces, in coordination with allied gangs, declared their capture of Wad Madani, the capital city of Al Jazirah State, which had been under RSF control for a year. The RSF has been engaged in a civil conflict against the Sudanese army since April 2023.
Meanwhile,
...back at the pound, the little lost dog had finished eating the rat terrier... Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, leader of the RSF and commonly known as Hemedti, acknowledged the loss of the city but emphasized that the battle is far from over.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
01:32 ||
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[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The 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... i Armed Forces carried out two military operations targeting Israeli enemy positions in occupied Yaffa (Tel Aviv) and the power station in Umm al-Rashrash (Eilat), using a cruise missile and several drones.
The Yemeni Armed Forces issued the following statement:
''In support of the oppressed Paleostinian people and its fighters, and in response to the massacres against our brothers in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... , as part of the fifth phase in the battle of the Promised Conquest and the Holy Jihad, and in retaliation for the ''Israeli'' aggression against our country,
The UAVs Force of Yemeni Armed Forces carried out a specific military operation hitting Israeli enemy targets in the occupied area of Yaffa (Tel Aviv), using a number of drones.
The missile force of the Yemeni Armed Forces, with the help of Allah Almighty, carried out a military operation targeting the power station of the Israeli enemy in Umm al-Rashrash area in the south of occupied Paleostine with a winged missile.
The two operations achieved their goals successfully, thanks to Allah.
The Yemeni Armed Forces will carry out more military operations against the Israeli enemy and, with the help of Allah Almighty, they are capable of targeting more military targets of the Israeli enemy during the coming period in support of the Paleostinian resistance. These operations will not stop until the aggression on Gaza is stopped and the siege is lifted.''
Another day, another Houthi claim that turns out to be partially true: yes, they did shoot off their missiles and drones. No, yet again Allah did not override Israel’s anti-missile defenses. See here for details.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
01:31 ||
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[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] In an ambush by former Syrian Arab Army forces against the Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... affiliated snuffies in Ain al-Sharqiya, east of Jabla in Latakia province, two snuffies were killed and seven others were captured, media outlets reported.
The operation was led by Bassam Hussam al-Din, commander of the 25th Division of the former Syrian Army and a close associate of the renowned SAA commander, Suhail Hassan.
Hussam al-Din demanded the withdrawal of Tahrir al-Sham forces from the Jabla area, threatening to execute the captured snuffies if they did not comply.
Latakia city and its surroundings have witnessed recent armed operations against Tahrir al-Sham snuffies and their allies. Several holy warriors, including a field commander, have been killed in these attacks.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Burkina Faso ...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president used to be Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and was chased out in 2014. Now it's the usual army officer type guy, Captain Ibrahim Traore, running things, who's just doing a bang-up job unless he's already been deposed... 's President Captain Ibrahim Traore accused French President Emmanuel Macron of insulting all Africans in his recent speech, criticizing some countries' ''ingratitude'' towards La Belle France.
The French president criticized alleged French military interventions against armed movements in the Sahel, stating that ingratitude is a disease that cannot be transmitted to humans.
''He insulted all Africans. (—) This is how this gentleman sees Africa, sees Africans. We are not human in his eyes,'' reacted Captain Traore, during a New Year's ceremony.
Relations between La Belle France and Burkina Faso continued to deteriorate since the 36-year-old captain took power by force following a coup in September 2022.
As one of the Sahelian countries, along with Mali and Niger, Burkina Faso ordered the departure of French forces from its soil in 2023.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
01:28 ||
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#1
Insulting all of Africa? Dude, have you seen Africa lately? It's a bit of a mess. A lot of possibilities, but it is definitely a fixer-upper.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The UAE-backed Southern Transitional Council (STC)'s factions stormed the office of Rashad al-Alimi, the head of ''Presidential Leadership Council'' at al-Maasheq Palace in Aden, southern 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...
In my youth it was The People's Democratic Republic of Aden for this particular city in Yemen.
, according to informed sources.
The sources explained that the STC's elements entered the ''Presidential Council office'' at the palace, expelled the employees, and prevented them from returning to their offices.
They also mentioned that the storming and expulsion of the ''Al-Alimi office'' was ordered by the UAE after the factions took control of three gates of the Maasheq Palace at the end of December, following festivities with the ''Presidential Protection Battalion'' loyal to al-Alimi.
Recently, the labor unions loyal to the STC threatened that al-Alimi and government loyal to the Saudi-led coalition would not be allowed to return to al-Maasheq Palace in Aden, amid calls from to form a ''Southern Government'' in response to the economic collapse and the deterioration of various services.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] A shocking international study has revealed the extent of the illicit trade that thrives on the back of the suffering of African migrants colonists heading to 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... A study conducted by the ''MMC'' (a global network), which specializes in migration research, showed that the smuggling of African migrants colonists to Yemen generates about $30 million annually for organized smuggling gangs.
The study indicated that about 100,000 migrants colonists attempt to cross Yemen annually, making this route a major target for smuggling gangs that operate in an organized manner from Djibouti.
This trade is considered one of the most dangerous types of illegal immigration in the world, as migrants colonists put their lives at risk on a dangerous journey across the Red Sea.
During the past year, hundreds of African migrants colonists arrived on the coasts of Shabwa and Abyan ...a governorate of Yemen. The region was a base to the Aden-Abyan Islamic Army terrorist group until it dropped the name and joined al-Qaeda. Its capital is Zinjibar. In March 2011, al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula declared the governate an Islamic Emirate after seizing control of the region. The New York Times fastidiously reported that those in control, while Islamic hard boyz, are not in fact al-Qaeda, but something else that looks, tastes, smells, and acts the same. Yemeni government forces launched an effort to re-establish control of the region when President-for-Life Saleh was tossed and the carnage continues... provinces amid accusations against leaders of the UAE-backed factions of collusion with smuggling gangs in exchange for sums of money paid to them on a monthly basis.
Just before Christmas when I ordered lots of green coffee beans from a site in Oakland CA (Oakland where much of our good coffee enters the USA), They had 3 types from Yemen. They have not had Yemen coffee in years so somehow Yemen coffee is on the world's market again even though they lob missiles and drones like confetti.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
01:27 ||
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[11148 views]
Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
#1
So Yemen coffee beans are kinda like South African blood diamonds trafficed thru Oakland?
#2
Oakland is just where most beans come into the USA. But blood diamonds might be correct. Last time green beans from Yemen on the market were about $25 a pound. This time the most expensive were $14/lb and the cheapest were $10/lb.
Compare to the best Colombian at $8.50 with lowest green Colombian at $6.50. This is like $55 roasted to $70 roasted in your local high quality store for Colombian. Most cost if after roasting. So if one could find roasted Yemen on the market it would be way over $100/lb.
#4
TW .. Nobody else grows beans the way Yemen does. I would never drink Yemen coffee. They rot the fruit and leave the rotten fruit to burn off the beans when they roast it. Sometimes the save some of the rotten fruits and make a tea out of the putrid fruit. It's truly a disgusting way to prepare a food source and drinking it is an acquired taste.
[NAHARNET] Higher Islamic Shiite Council leader Sheikh Ali al-Khatib on Tuesday called for ''consolidating national unity and building the state upon citizenship and equality among citizens,'' during a meeting in Baabda with President Joseph Aoun.
''Had there been illusory illusory sovereignty and a strong state that defends its people's dignity, we would not have needed all this debate about the issue of weapons, which are not sacred to us. What is sacred is the country's unity and the people's dignity, security and stability,'' Khatib added.
''What we want, like the rest of the Lebanese, is stability and the absence of sectarian conflicts and quota sharing in the state, which is the root of decay,'' the Shiite leader said.
He added that Shiites have never had and will not have in the future a ''private political project in the region.''
''These were political accusations aimed at creating political alignments,'' he said.
''We have great hope in you and high confidence in your performance,'' Khatib added, addressing President Aoun.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
01:23 ||
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[11183 views]
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#1
In Gulf War 1 (Bush Sr) Motorola was given beautiful ancient and scared swords by the various Arabic countries involved in the war. They were kept for display in the Schaumburg IL-03 building. When Motorola was broken up the swords disappeared. If somebody wants some valuable gem encrusted sacred swords... why just trace them down and steal them.
[NAHARNET] Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... leader Samir Geagea ....Geagea was imprisoned by the Syrians and their puppets for 11 years in a dungeon in the third basement level of the Lebanese Ministry of Defense. He was released after the Cedar Revolution in 2005.... has responded to the remarks that MP Mohammad Raad voiced Monday at the Baabda Palace, saying there was no ''exclusion'' in the designation of Nawaf Salam as premier.
''Where was the exclusion? It is known that the PM post belongs to the Sunnis in Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... and the two candidates for the post were from this sect and the MPs names their candidates without any pressures. The word exclusion can be said when a certain sect interferes in a post belonging to another sect,'' Geagea explained in an interview on al-Arabiya's al-Hadath channel.
''The structure of the Lebanese state reflects a consensus process, but it is not necessary to tackle every issue through consensus. What Raad said about coexistence is also out of context, seeing as exclusion can be true if PM-designate Nawaf Salam decides to form the new government without the Shiite sect,'' Geagea added.
Stressing that the unwritten 1943 National Pact stipulates the representation of the Christian and Moslem religious communities and not every sect belonging to them, the LF leader noted that Salam's designation would have violated the National Pact had no Moslem MP voted for him.
''The president and the premier must ask Hezbollah about the fate of its arms, to see if they want to send them to Iran, sell them or hand them over to the Lebanese Army, and then a new phase would begin, which would be in the interest of all Lebanese, specifically Hezbollah's environment, seeing as there can be no leniency with these arms,'' Geagea went on to say.
As for the deliberations that led to Salam's nomination, Geagea said the so-called Change MPs were behind the selection.
''We secured the votes of 35 MPs for MP (Fouad) Makhzoumi, whereas some Change MPs secured 17 votes for Nawaf Salam and refused to vote for Makhzoumi. In the face of that situation and for the sake of Lebanon, we chose to endorse Judge Salam, and had it not been for this move, (caretaker PM Najib) Mikati would have become premier anew,'' Geagea explained.
Noting that recovering the money of depositors is one of the priorities of the Lebanese Forces, Geagea said the first topic that he will discuss with the new premier will be the case of the Beirut port explosion and ''the need to resume investigations with all due transparency.''
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
01:22 ||
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[11144 views]
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[FoxBusinessNews] "Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves," the president-elect continued. "It is time for that to change. I am today announcing that I will create the EXTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE to collect our Tariffs, Duties, and all Revenue that come from Foreign sources."
#1
It doesn't collect "foreign money". Tariffs are borne by the US importer who will often pass them on to US consumers.
Of course the expectation is that foreign producers will have to lower their prices in order to stay competitive. That may work sometimes but certainly not always.
In the case of my company it won't. We export a product to the U.S. that has little competition but is in high demand. We won't lower our price (which is fair and well established), so the U.S.consumer will pick up the tab 100%.
Tariffs may work in limited cases when you're facing unfair competition from abroad, often from state actors (or aided by state actors, e.g. China). Blanket tariffs on all foreign goods are never a good idea. Prices will rise and retribution will be much more targeted. Nobody wins.
That said, governments tend to love tariffs just like they love taxes, because they are revenue. That's why the next administration ofdten keeps tariffs in place (Biden did keep many tariffs Trump enacted). But somebody will have to pay the price and often it will be YOU.
Also I have no idea why Trump needs to create a new government agency in order to collect tariffs. What was wrong with the way it was handled up to now?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/15/2025 6:04
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#2
"The president-elect also threatened that the European Union must purchase more American oil and gas or else be subjected to "TARIFFS all the way!"
That's an absurd statement. "The European Union" imports nothing, importers from EU countries do. And they will import what they need, and price and conditions must be right.
Importers from EU countries imported much more LNG from the U.S. in recent years (to make up for Russian gas). Demand is slowing down now (somewhat) because the production of renewable energy is up and the LNG market seems saturated at the moment. You don't import what you don't need (or others can supply cheaper and/or faster). It doesn't make any sense to threaten a German machinery producer with higher tariffs because a French energy company doesn't import enough U.S. gas.
We do want a market economy, not a socialist planned economy, don't we?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/15/2025 6:33
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#3
What may actually happen, may surprise all of us.
As this could be another one of Trump's well known playing the Media against itself scenarios.
#4
Well, a new org will allow staffing by loyalists.
Reduced task load at the IRS will also allow staff deprecation and redirection, like the armed enforcement bureau.
#6
It seems to me also that this is an opening salvo to get a more serious discussion going. Including in Congress about the need to raise revenue, reduce spending.
And finally, this is more “Trump must be crazy” stuff that I’ve seen suggested elsewhere might be an attempt to keep America’s enemies like Russia, China, and jihadis off balance and waiting to act lest he turn the craziness on them, rather than attacking America at this tempting moment while the presidency sits functionally empty.
However, congress started seeing "Campaign Donations & Board positions & Family employment" and strangely created a lot of Upper Income loopholes and found ways to screw those of us retired and making even a basic income.
#10
America has a $76B trade deficit with Germany (2024) in part because the German government protects certain industries by limiting or eliminating imports from the US. I think most Americans would like the trade balance even out.
#12
@The Walking Unvaxed
Examples? Except for some foods (meat) I'm not aware of many limitations and if they exist they wouldn't go anywhere near to affect the trade deficit.
US exports to Germany are mainly energy (natural gas and oil), cars, data processing machines, electrical appliances, services... No limits on these.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/15/2025 11:39
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#13
To be considered is the importation of goods originating in sanctioned nations which pass through one or more partner nations in transit and have counterfeit COO's.
#14
It should be said that Economic barriers between the EU and the United States are relatively low. TTIP would have eliminated almost all of them but Trump stopped negotiations in 2018.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
01/15/2025 11:50
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#15
Maybe tax outflows from illegals to the home countries. Twist the pig's ear, and listen to him squeal.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
01/15/2025 12:45
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#16
Used to be our IRS dollars went into a dedicated account (not the general fund). Congresscritters saw that as too inviting and initiated an action that dumped IRS dollard into the general fund.....where they could get their hands on it.
Perhaps Trump's creation of an "External Revenue Service" is an attempt to keep those dollars away from the congessional thieves ?
#18
America was founded on tariffs. Tariffs were good enough for George Washington and the Founders. Our first two hundred years, that's all America knew. This idea that we should be tax serfs all our lives is sickening. Taxation is theft. It's nice of Trump in trying to move us away from that taxation scheme and back to tariffs.
#19
Somewhere I heard that one of the reasons we have the income tax is because of Prohibition. The people who wanted to ban liquor realized that much of the income of the federal government came from excise taxes on liquor. They realized that if liquor was outlawed, the government would lose a significant source of revenue. So they pushed for the income tax, and then worked to ban liquor.
#21
Yes it's a tax that gets passed on to consumers of imports, directly or indirectly through manufacturing processes. Not much different than existing taxes that hit everything in any contemporary consumer products. From the farmer's bushel to the wildcater's oil head, there's a tax in every hand it passes through.
#6
Riley Gaines is probably not the only female athlete to be disgusted by the Democrat Party's denial of reality and the imposition of sick, dangerous men into their sport. Way to go, AOC. Thousands of young women can now see socialism for the destructive force that it is.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/15/2025 13:28
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#7
Have a trans dude primary her. She would be forced to retire on principle.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 17:40
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[GEO.TV] Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar accused the Palestinian Authority on Tuesday of encouraging terrorism and inciting violence against Israel, saying that its policies were standing in the way of achieving peace.
"For this, we must see a deep and real change among Palestinians. Unfortunately, we are not seeing it today," he said at a news conference with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani in Rome.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
00:00 ||
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[11145 views]
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[IsraelTimes] National Security Council says man’s phone infected with hacking malware by someone who contacted him on Telegram, posing as employee of Al Arabiya outlet’s Persian-language site
Iranian proxies attempted to lure an Israeli businessman to Dubai under the pretext of an interview, the Israeli National Security Council revealed on Tuesday, warning citizens to be on high alert for such attempts.
In a statement, the NSC warned that Iranian elements are targeting Israelis online and trying to convince them to attend meetings abroad at which they will be targeted.
Recently, the NSC said, an Israeli businessman was contacted on Telegram by someone posing as an employee of the Persian-language version of the Al Arabiya news outlet. The Israeli man received a request to fly to Dubai for a meeting in order to take part in an interview about "the Iranian regime."
Becoming suspicious, the businessman alerted the NSC, which discovered that the contact had infected his cellphone with malware to hack into his phone.
The NSC warned Israelis against sharing information with unknown contacts online and not disclosing personal details or travel plans with any potential business or academic partners without verifying their identities. Israelis were urged to be vigilant and to contact the Foreign Ministry or NSC about any suspicious activity.
In November, an Israeli-Moldovan Chabad emissary based in the United Arab Emirates — Rabbi Zvi Kogan — was kidnapped and murdered by three Uzbeki citizens who Israel believes were recruited by Iran.
Last month, Iranian-Israeli journalist Babak Itzhaki said he was the target of a plot by Iranian paramilitary forces to lure him to The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... and then smuggle him into Iran.
In recent months, Israel has also uncovered a significant number of plots of Iranian proxies recruiting Israelis online to carry out espionage against Israeli figures and facilities.
Since September 2024, Israeli authorities have announced arrests in many cases involving individuals or cells suspected of spying or plotting attacks on behalf of Iran. In some, Tehran tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions on its behalf. In other cases, individuals are alleged to have knowingly operated on Tehran’s behalf for money.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Rashida Jones is set to step down from her role as president of broadcast network MSNBC. The move was made known in an internal memo to staff.
According to Mediaite, Jones said, ''After four incredible years at the helm of MSNBC and 11 years at NBCU, I have made the decision to pursue new opportunities."
''I came to this decision over the holidays while reflecting on our remarkable journey and the many successes we've achieved together as a team,'' she added. ''This has been the most rewarding chapter of my professional career and I am immensely proud of what we have accomplished, which has been made possible only by you.''
Jones added that she will be staying with MSNBC to help with the transition for the ''next few months."
Rebecca Kutler has been tapped to be the interim president of the network as Jones has decided to step aside.
It was reported in early December that Jones was thinking about leaving the role after Trump got elected. The statements announcing her upcoming departure in light of the incoming administration confirm the previous rumors.
At the time, a media executive quipped, ''It's amazing how people want to spend more time with their families or look for new challenges when the ratings crash. Of course she's making the decision. They're all leaving on their own, Norah O'Donnell, Chris Wallace.''
Audience numbers for the network dropped off after the election of Trump, especially for some programs such as Morning Joe. Ratings dropped like a rock when hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski visited Trump down at Mar-a-Lago.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] During Pete Hegseth's confirmation hearing in the Senate, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand
...Machine non-entity selected to become the successor to Hillary Clinton as Senatrix-for-Life from Noo Yawk. She is running for the Dem presidential nomination in 2020. She has no observable principles, will apparently say anything to anyone, and seemingly lacks any personality of her own.... (D-NY) called him "mean" for previous comments about women in the military and added that he will have to change his attitudes about women.
After recalling different statements Hegseth has made in the past where he has said women should not be in combat roles, Gillibrand attacked Hegseth, saying, "Please explain these types of statements because they're brutal, and they're mean, and they disrespect men and women who are willing to die for this country," Gillibrand said.
During her statements, Gillibrand said that his previous statements on the military are "so hurtful to the men and women who are currently serving in the US military." She later added, implicating that Hegseth is sexist, "You will have to change how you see women to do this job well, and I don't know if you are capable of that."
Gillibrand addressed a previous comment from Hegseth where he said, "Dads push us to take risks. Moms put the training wheels on our bikes. We need moms. But not in the military, especially in combat units." Hegseth has said that ability should be the factor in determining who should be able to serve in the military, but that standards have to be high for both men and women who want to serve.
Hegseth responded, talking about what he saw in the military while speaking to military personnel, and said that standards have been changed and that quotas for female soldiers have been implemented in some instances.
Gillibrand hit back, saying that quotas for women in military units "do not exist" and added that he has denigrated women in the military because of his statements. "Your statements are creating the impression these [quotas] exist because they do not. There are not quotas."
#2
Quotas don’t exist? Did she say that seriously? She must be for merit based promotion as well.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 17:21
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#3
Kirsten is paling so much she barely seems alive. Her emotional arguments don't improve that assessment. Thank Hawai'i for putting forward a female Senator (Mazie!) that sets the lowest bar
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2025 18:26
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#4
And with Warren doing her thing, that's saying something.
Should just go into next meeting playing The Damn Few's episode Starship Sealy.
Should hear what my dude said about running transport in Iraq with females. Couldn't drive the rig, get in and out easily, or even shut the hood. In fact, all they did was fill out the requirement of 2 in the cab and get pregnant.
[GEO.TV] US Secretary of State Antony Blinken proposed international security forces and temporary UN leadership to stabilise post-war Gaza where he warned that Hamas has recruited as many fighters as it has lost.
With talks in Qatar closing in on a ceasefire to the devastating 15-month war and days before he leaves office, Blinken laid out his long-awaited roadmap for post-war Gaza and warned that it required Israel accepting a path to a Palestinian state.
In line with his calls since the start of the war, Blinken said that Gaza should be under the control of the Palestinian Authority -- which now holds shaky, partial control of the West Bank and has been repeatedly undermined by Israel.
Acknowledging the limitations of the Palestinian Authority, Blinken said an unstated number of countries have offered to send troops and police to post-war Gaza.
He said that the "interim security mission" would include both foreign forces and "vetted Palestinian personnel."
"We believe that the Palestinian Authority should invite international partners to help establish and run an interim administration with responsibility for key civil sectors in Gaza, like banking, water, energy, health," Blinken said.
In a lengthy address at the Atlantic Council that touched on many aspects of the war and the broader state of the Middle East, Blinken offered extended criticism of Israel’s war strategy, particularly its refusal to devise a plan to replace the Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... terror group, which, he contended, has recruited as many fighters as it has lost in the 15-month war.
Blinken said the outgoing administration would hand over its proposed roadmap to President-elect Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... ’s team to pick up, if a ceasefire deal is reached, as Israel and Hamas appeared to be on the brink of such an agreement.
Blinken said he envisions the Paleostinian Authority inviting international partners to help establish and run an interim administration responsible for key civil sectors in Gaza, such as banking, water, energy, health, and civil coordination with Israel.
He said the international community would provide funding, technical support, and oversight to this interim administration in Gaza, without elaborating on who exactly would fund the enterprise.
He said the interim panel would be assembled through consultation with communities in Gaza and should include representatives from the Strip along with representatives from the PA.
The committee would work closely with a senior UN official appointed to oversee the international Gaza reconstruction effort. The temporary committee would be replaced by a reformed PA "as soon as it’s feasible."
An interim security mission would be made up of troops from US-allied countries, along with vetted Paleostinian personnel. It would be in charge of securing humanitarian aid along with border security and smuggling prevention, Blinken said.
He revealed that some US allies have already expressed their willingness to contribute security forces to the interim mission, but that they have conditioned this support on Israel agreeing to allow the West Bank and Gaza to be reunited under a reformed PA, as part of a pathway to a two-state solution — something Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.
Blinken said his plan also envisions the US establishing a new initiative to train, equip, and vet a PA-led security force for Gaza, which would gradually take over the interim security mission.
These various frameworks for Gaza’s governance, reconstruction, and security would be enshrined in a UN Security Council resolution.
Blinken’s speech was a subject of controversy within the Biden administration, with some arguing that it would be exploited by Netanyahu for political gain. Others maintained that it could even harm the hostage negotiations. Another US official told The Times of Israel that the decision to unveil the plan in this manner decreases the likelihood that it will be adopted by the incoming Trump administration, which largely wants to avoid continuing initiatives from the outgoing team.
Turning to the current negotiations for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, Blinken said American, Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i, and Egyptian mediators submitted a final hostage deal proposal to Israel and Hamas on Sunday, hinting that the terror group has not given an answer.
"The ball is now in Hamas’s court. If Hamas accepts, the deal is ready to be concluded and implemented," he said, indicating that Israel has already accepted — something even Netanyahu’s office has not confirmed.
"I believe we will get a ceasefire," he added in his speech. "Whether we get there in the remaining days of our administration, or after January 20, the deal will follow closely the terms of the agreement that President Biden put forward last May and that our administration rallied the world behind."
ANTI-ISRAEL HECKLING
Blinken’s speech was interrupted three times in its first 15 minutes by anti-Israel protesters who accused him of facilitating "genocide."
"You will forever be known as Bloody Blinken, secretary of genocide," the first protester shouted before being led out of the event.
"You’re a brutal war criminal," screeched a second protester, five minutes later.
Blinken remained calm, telling one heckler, "I respect your views. Please allow me to share mine," before resuming his remarks.
Blinken said US officials had debated "vigorously" the Biden administration’s response to the war, a reference to a slew of resignations by officials in his State Department who criticized the policy to continue providing arms and diplomatic cover to Israel.
Amy resignations for the policy of abusing Israel? I don’t recall reading about it.
Others felt Washington held Israel back from inflicting greater damage on Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and its proxies, he said.
"It is crucial to ask questions like these, which will be studied for years to come," he said. "I wish I could stand here today and tell you with certainty that we got every decision right. I cannot."
Rest easy — you got every decision wrong.
RECIPE FOR ’PERPETUAL WAR’
Blinken criticized Israel’s war strategy, saying Netanyahu’s refusal to advance a viable alternative to Hamas rule in Gaza, such as the PA, led the IDF to repeatedly return to places in the Strip it had previously cleared of Hamas fighters who then managed to return.
That’s certainly one view. The other is that the Biden administration’s insistence that Israel fight with both hands tied behind its back allowed Hamas to regroup and return.
“We’ve long made the point to the Israeli government that Hamas cannot be defeated by a military campaign alone, that without a clear alternative, a post-conflict plan, and a credible political horizon for the Palestinians, Hamas, or something just as abhorrent and dangerous, will grow back,” Blinken said.
Yes, you did. But that’s not how the World War II was prosecuted, nor the Cold War against the Soviet empire. Possibly your stepfather spoke of it, during his lectures on his experiences during the Holocaust — there are videos on the internet for you to consult, should your memory fail.
“That’s exactly what’s happened in northern Gaza since October 7. Each time Israel completes its military operations and pulls back, Hamas militants regroup and reemerge because there’s nothing else to fill the void,” he said.
“Indeed, we assess that Hamas has recruited almost as many new militants as it has lost,” Blinken revealed. “That is a recipe for an enduring insurgency and perpetual war.”
The new recruits lack the experience and skill of those who died. But really, the way war works one must keep killing the enemy until either he gives up or ceases to exist.
“Israel has pursued its military campaign past the point of destroying Hamas’s military capacity and killing the leaders responsible for October 7, convinced that unrelenting military pressure was required to get Hamas to accept a ceasefire and hostage deal on Israel’s terms,” he said.
Patently false, since Hamas has niot accepted a ceasefire and hostage deal on Israel’s terms,despite all the claims that they are about to do so.
He added that Hamas has “cynically weaponized the suffering of Palestinians,” and pointed to a Wall Street Journal report that purported to reveal a message that the late Hamas terror leader Yahya Sinwar sent to mediators, in which he called the death of Palestinian civilians “necessary sacrifices” and argued that the more innocent Palestinians were killed, the more Hamas would benefit.
Blinken panned both the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority for some of their policies over the past several years.
How balanced of him.
“Israelis must abandon the myth that they can carry out de facto annexation [of the West Bank] without cost and consequence to Israel’s democracy, to its standing and to its security,” Blinken contended.
Yeah, yeah.
“Israel is expanding official settlements and nationalizing land at a faster clip than any time in the last decade, while turning a blind eye to unprecedented growth in illegal outposts. Violent attacks by extremist settlers against Palestinian civilians have reached record levels,” he lamented.
There has to be a cost for not making peace. Like Hamas, the Palestinian Authority has repeatedly refused to sign a peace treaty, or even a formal ceasefire. Past experience is that Israel gave up land for peace, so it ought not matter that Israel is improving properties will become Palestinian when they finally give up their intended war of intended annihilation.
Blinken said Israel’s refusal to allow the Palestinian Authority to gain a foothold in Gaza and to accept a time-bound, conditions-based approach for Palestinian statehood has prevented other international actors from accepting Israel’s call to help rebuild Gaza.
*shrug* The PA couldn’t hold Gaza last time. In the meantime they’ve become weaker, so it’s even more likely they wouldn’t be able to hold it now.
He acknowledged that some in Israel argue that heeding those requests would amount to a reward for Hamas. However, Blinken argued that Hamas is opposed to the two-state solution for which the international community has advocated, and which it sought to quash with the October 7 onslaught.
Yes, but Israelis no longer believe that a two-state solution is possible, as the PA has shown no interest in governing the little statelet in the West Bank beyond stripping it to line the pockets of the leadership. Had the PA leadersshown themselves capable instead of bloodthirsty and venal, it would be different.
“Israel’s government has systematically undermined the capacity and legitimacy of the only viable alternative to Hamas — the Palestinian Authority,” Blinken said, pointing to Israel’s withholding of hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax revenues that belong to the PA.
Not viable.
“Israelis must decide what relationship they want with the Palestinians. That cannot be the illusion that Palestinians will accept being a non-people without national rights. Seven million Israeli Jews and some 5 million Palestinians are rooted in the same land. Neither is going anywhere,” he said.
If there were five million Palestinians, possibly that might be true. But there might be as many as 3.5 million, and of them the 1+ million actual (versus imaginary) Gazans pretty much all want to move abroad.
As for the PA, Blinken said it “repeatedly failed to undertake long-overdue reforms,” including ones to rein in corruption, decrease bloated bureaucracy, and alter its welfare program to cease payments to security prisoners based on the severity of their attack against Israelis.
Indeed.
He also blasted the PA for refusing to consistently and unequivocally condemn Hamas’s October 7, 2023, onslaught, saying it “only entrenched doubts among Israelis that the two communities can ever live side by side in peace.”
True. Clearly you ae not blind, Secretary Blinken. Does it therefore follow that you’re stupid?
Reflecting on the dangerous ripple effects of the war in Gaza, Blinken noted that “the more people suffer, the less they feel empathy for the suffering of those on the other side.
“Throughout the Arab and Muslim worlds, large majorities believe that October 7 didn’t happen — or if it did, that it was a legitimate attack on Israel’s military,” he said of the terror group’s 2023 onslaught that started the war, in which some 1,200 were killed and 251 taken hostage, amid widespread and widely documented atrocities against civilians, including attacks on hundreds of families in their homes and on a music festival.
“In Israel, there is almost no reporting on the conditions in Gaza and what people there endure every day,” Blinken continued.
That’s a blatant lie, Mr. almost-former Secretary. Most undiplomatic.
“This dehumanization is one of the greatest tragedies of the conflict.”
You have it backwards. It is you that is dehumanizing the Israelis, along with just about all the Biden-Harris administration. And it’s not a tragedy — it’s a disgrace.
#6
Aren’t in Gaza, aren’t alive, are physically wrecked after over a year of torment and torture… And Hamas has no idea because their un-assassinated emirs are abroad; the now-dead local leadership shared out the booty so widely after 10/7 — like Boko Haram and ISIS back in their heyday — they don’t even know who they gave hostages and bodies to, let alone which one is now where, so can’t exert pressure on hard boys to return the trophies they’re so enjoying having.
[GEO.TV] Israeli will not compromise on security and will intervene if it sees a threat from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... in the future, Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Tuesday as a ceasefire deal with the Paleostinian group Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... appeared to be close to being agreed.
"And if we will see terrorism in the Gaza Strip at any point in the future, we will do the same thing we are doing in Judea and Samaria," he told a presser in Rome with Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani.
Saar employed a term widely used in Israel for the occupied West Bank, where Israeli troops regularly conduct raids against Paleostinian groups.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A new investigative report from O'Keefe Media Group reveals "spy hunter" Jamie Mannina denigrating President-elect Donald Trump as well as incoming Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. Over the course of several fake dates with an OMG undercover journalist, he reveals the nature of his work in the Pentagon and his background in government going back to his work for Hillary Clinton when she was Secretary of State.
He believes that Trump will attempt to remain in office past the end of his term in the White House. "I predict Trump will probably entertain publicly the idea of staying in office, changing the laws to stay in office, which he's not allowed to do by Constitution, but he'll probably suggest it and there'll probably be an effort to try." This, Mannina believes, is in service to Trump's desire to not go to jail."
Mannina is a consultant senior advisor with the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the Department of Defense, a former special agent with the FBI and a former special assistant to Hillary Clinton. When she lost the presidential election, he went to work with the FBI and became a spy hunter. He met Clinton when he was in college and worked for her at the State Department before going to the FBI where he specialized in catching Russian and Chinese spies. He was inspired to do this because he believed that they had compromised the 2016 US presidential election. Mannina believed that the 2016 election had not been fair or uncompromised by foreign agents.
Some additional info like his Linked-in status page
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamie-mannina/
continued:
When asked by his undercover date what he thought of President Donald Trump, he said "He's a sociopathic narcissist who is only interested in advancing his name, his wealth, and his fame. He's had a lifetime of cheating. He's habitually addicted to lying about himself."
The OMG reporter asked him if there was anything he "could do to protect the American people from stuff that he might try to do?"
"I'm in conversation with a couple of retired generals," Mannina said, "to try to explore what we can do."
She asked who the retired generals were, and Mannina said "they're like one, two, and three star generals and admirals." He said that there was a "Rear Admiral, another is a Major General in the Army." He said he talks to "quite a few" of them. Mannina was sure that had Kamala Harris won the presidential election he would have received a big job with National Security Leaders for America. That group, he said, was focused on "explaining the national security consequences of another Trump presidency."
"This organization tried to defeat Donald Trump. Tried to engage the American public, conducted hundreds of interviews," he said. Mannina said that he published over 100 opinion columns in newspapers across the country in furtherance of the mission to defeat Trump. Mannina wrote for the Huffington Post and The Hill in 2017, penning such articles as "Trump's actions are an assault on the Constitution." During the recent election cycle, Mannina did not write in his name but ghost-wrote for generals. When Trump won, Mannina was upset not only because of the "mission failure" but because he was hoping to further his career.
During a follow-up dinner date, Mannina told her "So I also have a big day tomorrow. Probably the biggest day of all." He detailed that he would be in "a huge, huge meeting with military leaders in a very secure room called the tank. So we have a tank meeting with like all the top, top leaders in the United States military tomorrow on my topic that I prepared."
[X]
BREAKING VIDEO: Top Pentagon Advisor Reveals On Hidden Camera Conversation “with a Couple of Retired Generals to Explore What We Can Do” to ‘Protect People from Trump’
Confirms Secret Meetings regarding AI: “That is sensitive information… We’re going to have to keep it between… pic.twitter.com/Ry2zAMW3rn
#2
This guy has a date in a public place with a person not known well to him, a person who hasn't undergone any official professional background checks.
On this date in a public place, the other patrons and the restaurant staff being unknown to him and also not having undergone background checks, the public place not having been sweeped for listening devices he carelessly spills secrets involving "tank rooms" secured by technology that James Bond's Q would envy.
Informational security/secrecy is as strong as its weakest link, and this guy isn't a weak link, he's no link.
I am certain that the Chinese/Russians/Others know every bit of classified data he's ever had access to.
The Western ruling elites are evil but not geniuses, they are, in general, evil morons.
#3
Yes, but Elmerert, she’s a girl. The rules are always different when there’s a girl involved.
Oy. What you said — all of it. And even when management sends the word down to be careful about O’Keefe and Project Veritas, the idiots spill their guts to the pretty, sympathetic girl or boy anyway. It’s enough to make one believe in magic wands
It could be the nice family or the elderly couple sitting at the next table, equipped with sensitive microphones and sophisticated software that will filter out the chatter.
This wouldn't be a danger for any ordinary Joe Sixpack but he is a publicly known affiliate of the DoD, and surveillance of this kind would be a cheap fishing expedition for any adversarial player.
Even Maxwell Smart was smart enough to always insist on the Cone of Silence...
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2025 6:07
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#7
"He's a sociopathic narcissist who is only interested in advancing his name, his wealth, and his fame. He's had a lifetime of cheating. He's habitually addicted to lying about himself."
But we've had that for the last four years, how is Trump going to be different?
#8
Congratulations...
To the Former Hillary Clinton staffer plotting with retired Generals against Trump. This qualifies as an admission of 18 U.S.C. § 2381 Subversion and Treasonous acts.
#14
This guy has dedicated his adult life to supporting Hillary Clinton because Donald Trump is a psychopathic narcissist. I don’t think reprogramming is worthwhile for him; there is just too much latent stupidity. Trying to convince him that his theories are BS is as advisable as customizing a roached 2005 Ford Focus, a bad investment all around.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 17:38
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#15
For something coming onto him, a dog is fetching.
[IsraelTimes] Karim Khan submits response to appeals against warrants, dismisses claim International Criminal Court does not have jurisdiction over Israelis.
[NYPOST] Dozens of out-of-town vultures have been busted for sneaking into ritzy neighborhoods in the Los Angeles wildfire evacuation zone to loot abandoned homes — and local police are naming and shaming them as a warning to the rest.
More than 40 people have been bagged by the Santa Monica police for allegedly preying on the thousands of homes left abandoned there and in the neighboring Pacific Palisades.
About 88,000 Los Angeles County residents are under mandatory evacuation orders as the 24,000-acre Palisades Fire and other blazes burn across the region — with tens of thousands more who were preveiously told to flee their homes.
Criminals have taken advantage, flocking to prey on what residents left behind — forcing cops to divert vital resources from fire safety to keep out the low-lifes.
Ten of the suspects named by the Santa Monica Police Department have been charged with burglary, while the others were hit with a laundry list of charges related to drugs, driving, warrants and violating probation or parole.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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Top|| File under: Migrants/Illegal Immigrants
[GEO.TV] The corpse count in the Israeli attack on Deir el-Balah in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... has risen to 13, according to Paleostine's Wafa news agency.
Wafa says that the attack hit the home of the Shaheen family in the southern area of the city.
The building was sheltering Paleostinians displaced from other parts of the Strip, said the news agency.
[X] Labour’s Head of Operations, Sophia Patel, has deleted her LinkedIn profile and locked her Twitter after explosive allegations surfaced that she organized 100 Labour staffers to meddle in the 2024 US election—allegedly to prevent Donald Trump’s reelection.
Here’s where it gets serious: thanks to extradition laws signed by former Labour PM Tony Blair, it’s now easier for UK citizens to be sent to the US to face charges.
Patel could potentially be charged with:
1️⃣ Election Interference
2️⃣ Failure to Register as a Foreign Agent (FARA)
3️⃣ Conspiracy to Commit an Offense Against the US
4️⃣ Cybercrime or Unauthorized Access
5️⃣ Transporting Funds for Unlawful Purposes
6️⃣ Interstate Travel to Aid Unlawful Activities
If convicted, these charges carry severe penalties, including significant fines and prison time. Is Patel now terrified she’ll be extradited and prosecuted under US law?
This could explode into a major international scandal with far-reaching implications.
#1
They need to be prosecuted, "pour encourager les autres".
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/15/2025 9:12
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#2
If Britain is to survive with idiots like this at the helm, especially ones that trumpet their sort of secretive operations, I have little hope.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/15/2025 11:45
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#3
The tariff announcement will be interesting for the UK.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 14:01
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#4
Check out the Australian Labor Party(ALP), too. For an up and coming young apparatchik, working for the Democrats in an American Presidential campaign is a rite of passage. Can you do that on a 90 day visa waiver? Inquiring minds want to know.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Twenty-seven people have been charged in the case of the terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall near Moscow, said Alexander Bastrykin, Chairman of the Investigative Committee. The Investigative Committee press service reported this on Tuesday, January 14.
“Twenty-seven defendants have been charged in the case of the terrorist attack at Crocus,” Bastrykin said in an interview with Rossiyskaya Gazeta.
On March 22, 2024, terrorists broke into Crocus City Hall and opened fire on visitors and employees of the concert hall. They also started a fire. Their actions killed 144 people, and injured 551 more. The Investigative Committee opened several criminal cases, including under Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Terrorist act"). 12 people were arrested.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in June 2024, the media reported that Turkish intelligence services warned Russia and helped prevent a second terrorist attack in Moscow after the attack on Crocus City Hall. According to these data, the new attack (on the shopping center) was being prepared by the same group - Vilayat Khorasan
…a.k.a. ISIS-K…
(a terrorist organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation), associated with the Islamic State (a terrorist organization whose activities are prohibited in the Russian Federation).
In December 2024, law enforcement officers detained four Batalkhadzhin terrorists (the movement is recognized as terrorist and banned in the Russian Federation). It was established that they helped to organize a terrorist attack in Crocus City Hall. During the search, weapons were found on them, and correspondence with the leaders of the organization hiding abroad was found on their mobile phones.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A Missouri high school teacher was taken into custody on child sex crime charges. Seth Brummond, 37, of Greenwood, has been accused of distributing and uploading at least 12 images of child pornography in recent months. He teaches at Lee's Summit High School and was placed on administrative leave following his arrest, the school district said.
According to the Department of Justice, Brummond has been charged with one count of distributing child pornography over the internet and one count of possessing child pornography between September 1 and December 18, 2024. He was arrested on December 19 and is being prosecuted by the US District Court in Kansas City, Missouri.
On September 8, 2024, Lee's Summit coppers received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user had uploaded 12 videos of child pornography via the Kik Messenger application. The user was later identified as Brummond. Authorities initiated an investigation into Brummond and placed his home under surveillance on December 19 to serve federal search warrants, KSHB 41 News reported.
Brummond left his home in a vehicle around 6 am and officers followed. Police initiated a traffic stop and took Brummond into custody. Officers seized his iPhone and a computer tower that was located in the trunk of his car.
During an interview with detectives, Brummond allegedly confessed to using Kik for child pornography purposes. He reportedly told authorities that he knew it "was immoral and wrong to view and share" the images and videos.
In a statement to the network, the Lee's Summit School District said Brummond has been placed on administrative leave. The district believes none of its students were involved in the allegations against Brummond, but encourages parents and guardians to contact the police if they have any concerns. He is no longer listed on the school's website.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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[11141 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Remember when such employment positions required a Personality Profile test? A test, which had a high success rate of weeding out such perverts.
#3
I ask because the gentleman arrested for his photo collection at the trailing daughters’ elementary school was otherwise a wonderful, if disorganized, fifth grade teacher, beloved of parents, students, and his colleagues.
[GEO.TV] Police in India's southern state of Kerala have arrested 44 men accused of raping an 18-year-old girl over a period of five years, a police official said on Tuesday, in a case that has shocked the coastal tourist resort.
The victim, an athlete who belongs to the so-called lower caste community known as Dalits, told police in a statement that she was sexually abused by 62 people over a period of five years.
Police have identified 58 of those men, some of whom are minors and arrested 44 over the last two days, officials said.
"We have identified the remaining 14 and they would be arrested soon," the Deputy Superintendent of Police in the Pathanamthitta district where the crimes took place, PS Nandakumar, told Rooters.
The case came to light after the girl narrated the gang rape to a volunteer during a gender awareness programme.
Nandkumar, who heads the investigation, said details of how the crimes were committed were still being investigated.
In her statement to the police, the victim said the abuse began when she was 13 after her neighbour allegedly raped her.
Local media reported that four of the accused were minors.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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Top|| File under: Human Trafficking
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The number of migrants granted asylum in Sweden dropped to the lowest level in 40 years in 2024, according to the country's government - the result of a decade-long crackdown on immigration.
Sweden stunned the world by taking in nearly 163,000 asylum seekers during the 2015 migrant crisis - the highest number per capita of any EU country.
But following a dramatic policy reversal, just 6,250 asylum-related residence permits were granted in the Scandinavian country last year, according to Migration Minister Johan Forssell, who cited fresh statistics from the Migration Agency. That figure does not include Ukrainians, who have been granted temporary protection throughout the European Union.
The number of people who applied for asylum in Sweden in 2024 was 9,645, the lowest since 1996 and down by 42 percent since 2022.
The huge influx of migrants in 2015 onwards made it impossible to effectively integrate all of the new arrivals, Mr Forssell has now said, with insufficient housing, schools and work opportunities. This prompted successive left and right-wing governments to tighten rules around asylum, with the most hardline immigration policies coming in following the landmark 2022 election. Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson's centre-right minority government, propped up by the anti-immigration Sweden Democrats, brought in a sweeping package of reforms.
Recent measures introduced to reduce migration include the granting of only temporary residence permits to asylum seekers, tighter family reunification requirements, and raising income requirements for work visas for non-EU citizens. The current government has also announced plans to offer immigrants $34,000 to leave the country, and to make it easier to expel migrants for substance abuse, association with criminal groups or statements threatening 'Swedish values'.
Mr Forssell, who has overseen the crackdown since he took up his office in September 2022, told reporters: 'While the number of asylum seekers is historically low, the number being granted asylum is also low.
'Today, three out of four people seeking asylum in Sweden are not considered to have sufficient grounds to be granted residency. They are therefore not refugees, and they must return home,' he said.
Mr Forssell noted that Sweden's low levels stood out, with the number of asylum seekers in the European Union, Norway and Switzerland topping one million last year, nearing the level seen during the 2015 migrant crisis. He said Sweden would need to continue to keep its numbers down in the coming years.
Forssell told The Times earlier this month: 'We are implementing what we describe as a paradigm shift in Swedish migration policy, and we are doing this with a very outspoken agenda that we want to limit the number of people seeking asylum here in Sweden'.
He explained that the move does not mean that the country does not like migrants, or understand the situation they face, but because it is 'impossible' to manage the task of integration when there is such a huge influx each year.
'What happened during the refugee crisis was that all these very nice words, all this open-heart policy, met a very tough reality,' Mr Forssell added.
I’m shocked they’re willing not only to admit it, but to act so decisively.
Sweden once considered itself to be a 'humanitarian superpower', a haven for the war-weary and persecuted, but over the years it has struggled to integrate many of its newcomers.
Even after the 2015 migration wave, Sweden held onto its open-hearted ideals, but as gang-related gun violence and bombings soared, critics warned that the country was being stretched to breaking point.
In 2023, Sweden had by far the EU's highest rate of per capita
…missing words here: maybe gun deaths or murders…
and by December 2024, 40 people had been shot dead in the country - a chilling number for a European country of only 10 million people.
These figures represented a 35 per cent decrease compared to 2022, the most lethal year of the gang wars, when 63 people were shot dead.
Police said gangs have begun using social media platforms as 'digital marketplaces' to openly recruit children, some as young as 11, to commit murders and bombings across the Nordic region. Inexperienced teenagers, seen as expendable by the gangs, are easier for police to catch than those ordering the shootings.
Still, 72 per cent of deadly shootings were solved in 2023, compared to just 29 per cent in 2022, helped in part by surging camera surveillance. Police said they aimed to employ 2,500 cameras and drones this year, a five-fold increase from five years ago.
The radical right-wing Sweden Democrats capitalised on this discontent, gaining ground by highlighting problems linked to immigration.
Scandinavian neighbours began issuing warnings about 'Swedish conditions,' alarmed by the spillover of gang violence into their own borders.
Even the traditionally centre-left Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson conceded at the time that Sweden didn't need more 'Somalitowns' or 'Little Italies'.
Things changed with the 2022 election, with reforms coming thick and fast after the Moderates formed a government by striking a deal with the Sweden Democrats, giving the conservative party significant influence over crime and immigration policies. Family reunifications have been tightened, residency permits are more easily revoked, and asylum rights have been slashed to the bare minimum allowed under EU law. Immigrants who do not qualify for residency are being urged to return home, with some placed under electronic surveillance or confined to special centres.
Sweden's immigration policy has undergone a seismic shift, abandoning its once open-handed approach in favour of stricter rules and a focus on control. The government is now steering away from traditional asylum status and pushing more migrants into the weaker 'subsidiary protection' category. This status, unlike full asylum, requires renewal every 13 months and only extends beyond three years for those who can prove they are financially independent.
Mr Forssell has made no apologies for the hardline approach, and speaking candidly, he revealed that the goal is to return to a pre-1970s immigration model, prioritising skilled 'guest workers' and limiting asylum to only those with indisputable claims.
'We're going back to basics,' he explained, adding that restricting family reunification has already delivered results.
The minister also wants to introduce mandatory language and integration tests for anyone seeking Swedish citizenship. While most European nations adopted such measures years ago, Sweden's reluctance to follow suit was once a badge of pride, but now, even Forssell dismisses the previous policy as absurd. He blasted the ability of becoming a Swedish citizen if an individual can not speak the language or known little to nothing about the country as 'stupid'.
Sweden's shift is also reflected in its refugee demographics. Syrians, who made up a third of the 2015 wave, now dominate Sweden's refugee population, numbering 111,000. Many of them are expected to return home as the Assad regime stabilises, but Mr Forssell estimates that some 100,000 undocumented immigrants remain in Sweden, forming what he calls a 'shadow society.'
This shadow society represents one of Sweden's toughest challenges. These undocumented individuals, many with no right to stay, exist on the margins, out of reach of the state's systems but still within its borders. Mr Forssell is determined to crack down, especially on those who have committed crimes yet managed to avoid deportation due to legal loopholes.
Currently, even convicted criminals who can't be deported are allowed to remain in Sweden, receiving benefits and holding jobs. The minister called this 'completely unacceptable' and vowed to end it, defiantly stating that if an individual is not granted asylum, then they must return home. In the past, Sweden's leniency allowed undocumented immigrants to reapply for asylum after four years of living in the shadows, a policy Forssell says led to tragic consequences.
It's a stark turnaround for a nation once celebrated as a haven for refugees. A decade ago, when Forssell served as a migration spokesman, foreign observers would marvel at Sweden's utopian image. The minister said Sweden was once recognised as a country where everything worked perfectly before it erupted into chaos.
But now, nations are asking Sweden how they flipped the situation so quickly, becoming a role model in handling a seemingly out-of-control immigration crisis. And although Sweden may no longer be the superpower of its humanitarian heyday, under Forssell's leadership, it has carved out a new identity - one that prioritises control, integration, and a no-nonsense approach to immigration.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The United States is experiencing an acute shortage of chicken eggs due to the H5N1 bird flu epidemic in the country. This was reported by the American television channel CNN, citing Emily Metz, CEO of the American Egg Council.
"We can't make up the deficit overnight. In fact, it takes six to nine months," she said.
According to the publication, more than 17 million laying hens died in the United States in November and December alone. This led to a decrease in the production of chicken eggs and caused a significant increase in prices. The article states that at the end of December, the price of a dozen eggs was $4.33, which is 25% higher than at the beginning of November.
I’ve read that they’re having problems in California, but in Cincinnati Krogers recently ran a special price on a dozen eggs as a loss leader — I don’t remember what it was, not having a good memory for numbers, but it was worth buying two dozen that day instead of my usual package of 18.
Metz linked the outbreak of bird flu to hurricanes that altered the migration routes of wild birds, causing them to fly over poultry farms twice, spreading the virus.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on January 7, the first death of a person from the H5N1 bird flu virus was recorded in the United States. It is noted that the patient was infected with H5N1 after contact with a flock that included wild and domestic birds.
#2
Was watching a show about Bismark and Tirpitz, and it was like each one of those ships would cost $1.2Billion in todays value. Hold up, wait a minute, what year was this made? 2014. I feel like in 2024 Brandon Dollars it would be around $2Billion each (before any MIC and Big Guy surcharges).
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] America has warned China that 'today is not the day to start World War III' as the US Air Force unveiled its latest weapon to combat Beijing's military advances.
The US is 'accelerating tests' and development of its B-21 Raider, a stealth bomber that will be capable of delivering precision long-range strikes anywhere in the world.
The military placed an initial order of 100 aircraft, with experts expecting more B-21 Raiders to be commissioned soon afterwards.
America unveiled the new bomber just weeks after China's military revealed two new combat aircraft of its own and surrounded Taiwan in an unannounced exercise, that was the world's largest naval demonstration since the end of World War II.
Experts warn that by 2027, China is expected to outnumber US forces in the areas west of the international dateline where American forces are deployed.
The People's Liberation Army (PLA) is also rapidly advancing, with American officials warning its pace of modernization is 'unprecedented and far outpacing' US efforts.
'The PLA is the largest and most modern that it has even been. That is risk. That is uncertainty,' 412th Test Wing commander Brig. Gen. Doug Wickert warned during a briefing earlier this month. 'We are the smallest and oldest that we have ever been.'
Wickert, who leads one of the most important Air Force units, further argued the US 'cannot afford' to take a 'step backward', before unveiling the new B-21 Raider and issuing his stark warning to Beijing.
'Today is not the day to start World War III, because we have this,' he said, gesturing to a large projection of the bomber.
That’s just dumb. How many years will it be before the things are on the tarmac and ready to fly?
Edwards Air Force Base is currently 'accelerating' tests of the B-21 bomber and 'delivering integrated capability to the warfighter', Wickert revealed.
'This is one of the many, many things that you are working on right here that will change [PLA] Chairman Xi Jinping's calculus about our readiness,' he said.
The PLA is preparing for conflict, according to US officials, who cited how the Chinese military in December was conducting mock ariel attacks on shipping in Taiwan's waters and formed a two-deep naval blockade to restrict sea and air approaches from the west.
Beijing's new super long range fighter jet also appeared to take its maiden voyage on December 26 last year. The new jet was spotted alongside a Chengdu J-20, the current generation of fighters.
The jet was seen flying with its landing gear open, a standard practice during early testing stages, from the airfield of the Chengdu Aircraft Industry Group, which develops Chinese drones and fighters.
China's new fighter is speculated to have the ability to fly on edge of space and has been designed to target US early warning aircraft and tankers that could not be reached before, according to defense news and analysis website The War Zone.
In addition to testing its new jet, Wickert says that Beijing has also built a full-scale replica of Taiwan's Taichung International Airport in the Gobi Desert, complete with runways, taxiways and parking lots.
Nearby, the PLA has created a life-size outline of a US Navy USS Gerald R. Ford-class aircraft carrier and has mock-ups of US destroyers that 'weave evasively through the desert on rails'.
'Do you think we know what they're doing, what they're planning?' Wickert said. 'Based on what you know now, can you update your assessment of the risk to the world and how important our mission is?
'And that's why what we are doing here at Edwards Air Force Base is so very important, because we are developing and modernizing and doing those things that will change Chairman Xi's calculus.'
He added: 'We cannot afford to have to take a step backward because we have a mishap. Our mission is too important.'
Wickert also highlighted the threat of Chinese cyber espionage, noting how at least 'at least a dozen telecom companies' have admitted that their critical infrastructure was 'infected' by Beijing malware, leaving the US and its western allies vulnerable.
'The CCP now knows who my government phone has talked to for at least the last four years, and they're still there and we can't get them out,' he said. 'That's uncertainty. That's risk. And it makes for a very, very dangerous world right now.'
The B-21 is expected to become the backbone of Global Strike Command's bomber fleet and will incrementally replace the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit.
It is a long-range, highly survivable, penetrating strike stealth bomber that will play a major role supporting national security objectives and assisting US allies and partners across the globe.
The weapon system - with each one each one is projected to cost $750 million
…we aren’t going to have any of the things if President Trump doesn’t get the budget under control. Of course, neither will China…
- is manufactured under the Air Force's contract with Northrop Grumman. The B-21 Raider weighs around 30,000 pounds, has a wing span of 172 feet and can reach maximum speeds of 621 miles per hour.
It is touted to be virtually 'invisible' to all enemy stealth radars and will equipped with the latest features in military tech.
'It is designed with an open systems architecture, enabling rapid insertion of mature technologies, and allowing the aircraft to remain effective as threats evolve over time,' according to the US Air Force.
The B-21 Raider is a nuclear-capable craft and the first of its kind to be introduced since the end of the Cold War. Long term, the Air Force hopes to have at least 220 of them to replace old B-1 and B-2 bombers.
The service previously estimated that the program will likely cost at least $203billion over 30 years to develop, purchase and maintain the B-21 fleet.
The B-21 is part of the Pentagon's efforts to modernize all three legs of its nuclear triad, which also includes silo-launched nuclear ballistic missiles and submarine-launched warheads, as it shifts from the counterterrorism campaigns of recent decades to meet China's rapid military modernization.
#1
"Wunderwaffe"
It didn't work the last time.
"Air Force hopes to have at least 220" which will become 100, then 70, then 50 and, maybe, 30. Someone tell Brig. Gen. Doug Wickert that we're broke.
DailyMail.com obtained more than 20 flyers for events at CIA headquarters
They include 'equity assurance training' and a transgender lecture
DEEP DIVE: How Donald Trump won America back
A lecture by the highest ranking transgender officer in the armed forces; a celebration of Loving Day and sessions on 'equity assurance training.'
A trove of flyers obtained by DailyMail.com from serving CIA officers lays bare the extent of the agency's 'diversity, equity and inclusion' work triggering fresh accusations that it is being distracted from its core job of protecting Americans from foreign threats.
But Trump transition insiders say those concerns will be tackled head on by John Ratcliffe, who is the president-elect's pick to lead the agency, and who will be grilled by senators about his plans on Wednesday.
'I suspect Ratcliffe is going to come in like a wrecking ball to the woke deep staters,' said a source familiar with his plans.
'The mission is all he cares about.
'No more politicized intelligence products. No more social experiments.
'Nothing and no one that distracts from the mission of collecting foreign intelligence and keeping Americans safe.'
The list of targets is laid out in more than 20 flyers collected by disgruntled staff.
For Pride Month last year, CIA agents were invited to a lecture by Admiral Rachel Levine, assistant secretary at Health and Human Services, the first openly transgender four-star officer in the armed forces.
A year before, CIA headquarters held a week of events to mark 'Loving Day,' the anniversary of a 1967 court judgment allowing interracial marriages in Virginia.
Then there are support groups for people getting divorced; 'Orange Shirt Day,' to remember indigenous people affected by their experiences in residential schools; 'intentional parenting' sessions; and even lessons in importing dogs from overseas postings.
Officers are invited to join the Multicultural Inclusion Exchange or the Peer Support Cadre.
Some carry the slogan 'DEIA enables mission,' suggesting that diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility help the CIA to do its job.
The events may be appropriate for a consumer-facing hipster coffeeshop but not for agents whose prime focus is on completing the mission, said a former CIA paramilitary operations officer.
'We're the point of the spear for the Agency and we don't have time for this nonsense,' he said. 'And that's what it is: Nonsense.'
The issue will come into focus on Wednesday when Ratcliffe will appear before the Senate intelligence committee for his confirmation hearing.
He is expected to address the topic of the CIA's DEI work in his opening statement as he sets out his broader goals and ambitions.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/15/2025 8:59
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#3
It looks like the COA is interfering in domestic politics. How about we take care of that on a priority basis. Let’s also see what part government played in the 60s assassinations. Investigate the gay lectures after we have all of Epstein’s clients in Federal prison.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 17:53
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Egypt is currently in a project to flood the Qattara Depression. There are many videos on YouTube about it. The depression is larger than Lebanon and if it can work it is very interesting. Can work is the main point, but scientists are not agreed that it can.
Tunisia and other Sahara countries have similar ideas:
#3
Wouldn't that have some effect on the local 'climate' and maybe even some impact of 'global climate change'? Maybe all that water into the desert would lower the sea level, offsetting the glaciers melting?
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/15/2025 8:10
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#6
Unless it's got a layer of clay under it, I dunno.
Other than that, it's theirs, sure. Go for it.
(There's got to be a significant amount of ordinace in there.)
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/15/2025 8:57
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#7
Many proposals for this over the past 80 years or so.
A canal to connect it with the Med would be about 60 Miles long. If the canal were wide enough and deep enough the water falling into the depression could generate a lot of electricity, perhaps as much as 200-400 MW with evaporation keeping the water level from rising too much.
But the cost of excavation is enormous and besides excavation, there are many unexploded bombs and mines dating from WWII.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
01/15/2025 10:15
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#8
^ That's why you have Paleo Chain Gangs dig it
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/15/2025 10:22
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#9
Egypt has such a serious excess of population that they’re building an entire new city to take the pressure off Cairo. They need not look to Gaza for pick’n’shovel bodies to die digging their canal… and the men would be grateful for the opportunity, especially if a death benefit is promised to the family.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] NATO countries intend to radically increase their military presence in the Baltic Sea. This was stated by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on January 14.
"The growing Russian aggression forces us to make decisions that are unprecedented in some senses. In this case, we are talking about a radically strengthened NATO presence in the Baltic Sea," Tusk told journalists after the end of the NATO summit of the North Atlantic Alliance in the Baltic region.
The Polish Prime Minister recalled the presence of extensive underwater and surface infrastructure in the Baltic Sea.
Which countries and in what form will strengthen their military presence in the region has not yet been decided, Tusk clarified, adding that the Polish Navy has limited capabilities.
He clarified that all participants in the meeting want to have the right to control ships in the neutral waters of the Baltic, and, if necessary, to detain ships.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, at the end of December 2024, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte promised to urgently consider the issue of deploying the Navy Policing mission in the Baltic Sea to protect infrastructure facilities in the region. According to Finnish media, the alliance will send about 10 ships to the Baltic to protect underwater cables.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported on January 14 that a submarine cable in the Baltic Sea connecting Sweden, Lithuania, Germany and Finland had been damaged. Four other cables had previously been reported damaged.
The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov emphasized that accusations of Russia's involvement in damaging cables in the Baltic Sea are groundless and absurd. According to the Kremlin representative, such statements are ridiculous against the background of the lack of reaction to Ukraine's subversive activities in the Baltic Sea. It is the Kiev regime that prefers to commit acts of sabotage and terrorism, Peskov noted and recalled the blowing up of the Nord Stream gas pipelines.
NATO countries want to give themselves the right to control ships in the neutral waters of the Baltic Sea, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Tuesday, January 14.
Such control is not possible now, and this is the "biggest problem", but NATO countries have agreed to work on "legal possibilities", Tusk told reporters after the end of the NATO Baltic summit in Helsinki.
"All participants in the meeting and NATO Secretary General [ Mark Rutte ] agreed that protection is needed not only in territorial waters, but also that it will be necessary to control ships outside territorial waters, so to speak, in the middle of the Baltic," said the Polish prime minister.
Miraculously, this time, I didn't need the VPN.
[EngMilRu] Last night, the AFU launched a missile strike at objects in Bryansk region by six U.S.-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles, six UK-made Storm Shadow air-based cruise missiles, and 31 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles from the territory of Ukraine.
During the air defence battle, all air attack means were shot down by air defence crews. There were no casualties or wounded as a result of the attack.
In addition, two UK-made Storm Shadow air-based cruise missiles were shot down over the Black Sea waters.
These actions of the Kiev regime, supported by Western curators, will not go unanswered.
***
In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces defeated formations of one motorised infantry brigade and two territorial defence brigades close to Liptsy and Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses were up to 50 troops, five motor vehicles, and two field artillery guns. Three ammunition depots were destroyed.
As a result of decisive actions, units of the Zapad Group of Forces liberated Terny (Donetsk People's Republic).
Losses were inflicted on manpower and hardware of two mechanised brigades, one assault brigade, one airmobile brigade of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades close to Dvurechnaya, Zapadnoye, Zagoruykovka, Boguslavka, Lozovaya (Kharkov region), Ivanovka, and Torskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses were up to 600 troops, one tank, eight armoured fighting vehicles, including two U.S.-made M-113 and one Turkish-made Kirpi armoured fighting vehicles, 13 motor vehicles, and five artillery guns, including two NATO-made guns. Three ammunition depots and four electronic warfare stations were wiped out.
Units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions and defeated formations of two mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, and one air assault brigade near Konstantinovka, Markovo, Podolskoye, Orekhovo-Vasilevka, Minkovka, Yantarnoye, Kramatorsk, Dachnoye, Kurdyumovka, Sukhiye Yaly, and Chasov Yar (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses were more than 220 troops, four armoured fighting vehicles, including two U.S.-made M113 and one French-made VAB armoured fighting vehicles, two motor vehicles, and four artillery guns.
Units of the Tsentr Group of Forces improved the tactical situation along the front line and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of five mechanised brigades of the AFU and two national guard brigades close to Shcherbinovka, Shevchenko, Dzerzhinsk, Slavyanka, Novovasilevka, Ukrainka, Solenoye, Vozdvizhenka, Petrovka, Lysovka, Petropavlovka, and Novoyelizavetovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses were up to 500 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, and two motor vehicles. Eight field artillery guns were eliminated.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces continued advancing into the depth of the enemy's defences and liberated Neskuchnoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
Losses were inflicted on formations of two mechanised brigades of the AFU and three territorial defence brigades close to Konstantinopol, Velikaya Novoselka, Novopol, Bogatyr, Vremevka (Donetsk People's Republic), and Novodarovka (Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses were up to 220 troops, seven motor vehicles, two artillery guns, including one 155mm Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery system.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces engaged manpower and hardware of one mechanised brigade, one infantry brigade, and two coastal defence brigades of the AFU close to Veseloye, Novopokrovka, Novoandreyevka, Kamenskoye (Zaporozhye region), Pridneprovskoye, and Antonovka (Kherson region).
The AFU losses were up to 50 troops, eight motor vehicles, and three field artillery guns.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces struck power object ensuring operation of a Ukrainian defence industry enterprise, infrastructure of military airfields, as well as engaged clusters of the enemy's manpower and hardware in 148 areas.
Air defence units shot down six U.S.-made ATACMS operational-tactical missiles, eight UK-made Storm Shadow air-based cruise missiles, one U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectile, and 180 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, including 146 outside the special military operation.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 652 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 40,395 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,526 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,508 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,569 field artillery guns and mortars, and 30,255 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise an enemy group, which broke into the territory of Kursk region.
Units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted losses on formations of one tank brigade, one heavy mechanised brigade, four mechanised brigades, two air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, and three territorial defence brigades of the AFU near Viktorovka, Guyevo, Ivashkovsky, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novaya Sorochina, Pogrebki, Sverdlikovo, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye. In addition, three enemy counter-attacks were repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation, and artillery engaged AFU manpower and hardware close to Agronom, Viktorovka, Guyevo, Zamostye, Ivashkovsky, Kositsa, Kruglenkoye, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Martynovka, Mikhaylovka, Mirny, Nikolsky, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Sverdlikovo, Sudzha, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, Yuzhny as well as Basovka, Belovody, Veselovka, and Zhuravka in Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, the AFU losses were over 460 troops, three tanks, two armoured personnel carriers, 22 armoured fighting vehicles, 18 motor vehicles, six artillery guns, and one mortar.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 51,900 troops, 303 tanks, 229 infantry fighting vehicles, 168 armoured personnel carriers, 1,561 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,474 motor vehicles, 364 artillery guns, 44 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 16 anti-aircraft missile launchers, eight transport-loading vehicles, 93 EW stations, 14 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 30 units of engineering and other materiel, including 15 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, eight armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.50 During a conversation with the Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Air Force, the President of Ukraine instructed not to reduce the number of specialists needed to carry out combat missions. Volodymyr Zelensky reported this in a video address.
22.26 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that the next meeting of the contact group on Ukrainian defense issues in the Ramstein format will take place in Brussels a week before the Munich Security Conference. It will take place on February 14-16.
21.15 The Cabinet of Ministers has allowed enterprises to rebook workers through the Diia portal without having to wait 72 hours. This was reported by the Ministry of Economy. The rule will be in effect from January 22 to March 1 for enterprises that have updated their status as critical. Reservations for such workers will be made in real time.
19:21 President Volodymyr Zelensky has released a new video of the interrogation of captured North Korean soldiers.
"Communication between captured soldiers from North Korea and Ukrainian investigators continues. We are establishing the facts. We are checking all the details. The world will know the full truth about how Russia is using these guys who grew up in a complete information vacuum, know nothing at all about Ukraine and are used by Russia solely to continue and expand this war," the statement says.
18:51 The South Korean government plans to hold consultations with Ukraine regarding the transfer of North Korean soldiers captured by the Ukrainian military, the South Korean Foreign Ministry said.
18.15 The Ministry of Defense has developed three versions of a bill on demobilization. However, none of these documents directly contain the term "demobilization".
17.31 During demining in the Kherson region, two Zaporizhzhya policemen-explosives experts died - Senior Lieutenant Oleksiy Safonov and Lieutenant Ilya Dergilev. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.
17.25 Law enforcement officers detained two more enemy henchmen
…such a charming word choice…
who, on orders from the Russian Federation, were setting fires in the Vinnytsia region. The main "targets" of the defendants were cars of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and volunteer organizations, the SBU reported.
17:19 Since the beginning of the day, 84 combat clashes have occurred on the front in nine directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a report as of 16:00. Most enemy attacks are recorded in the Pokrovsky direction. There, Russian troops are trying to advance in the areas of 12 settlements.
16.45 In Zakarpattia, the police have not recorded any complaints about the theft of money from the TCC, and no Interception plan has been announced in the region . Meanwhile, the Zakarpattia Regional TCC and SP called the information about a repeat offender stealing 27 thousand euros fake .
16.16 The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine confirmed that military personnel from other units, except for specialists in acute shortage, are being sent to the infantry and attack aircraft. This does not include specialists from the Air Force's engineering and aviation service who service aircraft.
16:00 President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to calls for mobilization. According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have about 100 combat brigades and all of them need additional staffing. This should be a priority for partners.
15:31 In the Obolonsky district of Kiev, a restaurant refused to serve a soldier due to an alleged "order from management." The police opened a criminal case on this fact - gross violation of public order based on obvious disrespect for society.
15:18 On Tuesday night, the Ukrainian Defense Forces carried out the largest strike on military facilities in Russia. According to the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, targets were hit at a distance of 200 to 1,100 km deep in the Russian Federation - in the Bryansk, Saratov, Tula regions and the Republic of Tatarstan.
14:55 In Zakarpattia, a mobilized soldier stole 27 thousand euros from the head of the TCC and disappeared. People's Deputy Olha Vasylievska-Smaglyuk stated that the perpetrator was a "former recidivist", but did not specify where she got this information. It was claimed that the head of the TCC "collected this money for the guys from the Armed Forces of Ukraine to buy drones."
14:35 A Russian court has wrongfully convicted seven Ukrainian prisoners of war for participating in military actions in the Kursk region. This was reported by the Russian Prosecutor General's Office.
14:03 The State Bureau of Investigation has exposed a scheme involving the delivery of defective large-caliber machine guns to the front. The former director of a department of the Ministry of Defense and two heads of a state enterprise are suspected in the case, due to whose actions the state budget lost more than 193 million hryvnia, and the military received unusable weapons. This was reported by the press service of the State Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday, January 14.
12:12 Ukrainian military carried out a precise strike on the Bryansk Chemical Plant in the city of Seltso. This was reported by the Ukrainian Armed Forces Unmanned Systems Forces. This operation became an example of coordination between intelligence, missile forces, rocket artillery and unmanned systems.
12:06 Since the summer, the Russians have been stockpiling missiles and fuel at the airfield in Engels. The oil depot near the local airfield is one of the key ones for the needs of the Russian strategic aviation. Now it has been seriously hit, said the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation Andrei Kovalenko.
11:40 President Volodymyr Zelensky submitted to the Verkhovna Rada bills on extending the martial law and mobilization in Ukraine. They are proposed to extend them from February 8 for another 90 days.
11:18 The Ukrainian military again hit the infrastructure of the Russian military airfield Engels-2 in the Saratov region of the Russian Federation. Tu-95MS and Tu-160 aircraft of the 22nd heavy bomber aviation division of the Russian Federation are based there. This was reported by the 14th Separate BpAK Regiment.
10:38 On Tuesday night, military-industrial complex (MIC) facilities in the cities of Saratov, Engels, Kazan, Bryansk and Tula were hit in Russia. This was reported by the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation (CCD) under the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Andrey Kovalenko.
9:59 German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has arrived in Kiev. He plans to hold talks with the Ukrainian government on further military support in the defensive battle against Russia.
9:44 On the night of January 14, the Russian Federation launched 80 "shaheeds" at Ukrainian territory. The drones were launched from four directions.
9:29 Almost 166 battles took place on the front over the past 24 hours, January 13. Half of them were in the Pokrovsk direction. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces.
8:30 Over the past 24 hours, the Russian military lost 1,330 soldiers at the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
7:59 DPRK troops delivered a unique air defense system to the Kursk region, but the Russians mistakenly destroyed it. This was reported by Forbes.
7:48 Russian troops intend to block Ukrainian land lines of communication in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in the Donetsk region. Thus, the enemy wants to force the Ukrainian Armed Forces to retreat from the cities in the coming months. This is evidenced by the report of the American Institute for the Study of War.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Murad Yusupov and Akhmed Zakayev were sentenced in absentia to 19 and 20 years of imprisonment in the case of the terrorist organization "Separate Special Purpose Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria".
… a special forces unit of Chechen volunteers, part of the International Legion of Territorial Defense of Ukraine. It is one of several Chechen units. It sounds like it should be part of the War on Terror, but it looks like they’re actually just part of the Ukraine fight against Russia.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, the case of two natives of Chechnya, Akhmed Zakayev and Murad Yusupov, who were accused of organizing and leading the terrorist community "Separate Special Purpose Battalion of the Armed Forces of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria*" (OBON), was submitted to the Southern District Military Court for consideration. In June 2024, Akhmed Zakayev was arrested in absentia by a court decision.
The Southern District Military Court sentenced Murad Yusupov and Akhmed Zakayev to 19 and 20 years in prison.
"The court sentenced Zakayev to 20 years of imprisonment for the totality of [crimes], with the first three years to be served in prison and the rest of the term in a strict regime penal colony; Yusupov to 19 years of imprisonment, with the first three years to be served in prison and the rest of the term in a strict regime penal colony," TASS quotes the court representative as saying.
According to the investigation, in July 2022, Zakayev proclaimed himself the leader of the so-called independent Chechen Republic of Ichkeria on the territory of Ukraine, recruited Yusupov and other unidentified persons to the group to participate in military actions on the side of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Zakayev, as the investigation believes, also created the terrorist community "Separate Special Purpose Battalion of the Ministry of Defense of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria as part of the Foreign Legion of Ukraine", which he led until July 28, 2022, then handed over leadership to Yusupov.
According to the prosecution, the members of the terrorist group were armed with machine guns and hand grenade launchers. They recruited new members and set up training camps. Cases were opened in absentia against Zakayev under Part 2 of Article 205.2 (public calls to commit terrorist activity), Part 1 of Article 205.4 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (leadership of a terrorist group), and against Yusupov - also in absentia under Part 2 of Article 208 (participation in an armed formation on the territory of a foreign state...), Part 1 of Article 205.4 (leadership of a terrorist group) of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation.
Zakayev and Yusupov have been included by Rosfinmonitoring in the list of individuals for whom there is information about their involvement in extremist activity or terrorism.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Deaths in the United States are expected to outpace births for the first time within the next decade. This comes as birth rates have hit record lows in the country in recent years. Widespread use of birth control leads to population decline? Who'da ever guessed?
According to the Congressional Budget Office, projections show that "beginning in 2033, annual deaths exceed annual births." The office projected that the population of the country will increase from 350 million in 2025 to 372 million in 2055, with immigration becoming an "increasingly important source of population growth"
''Without immigration, the population would shrink beginning in 2033, in part because fertility rates are projected to remain too low for a generation to replace itself,'' the CBO wrote in its report. Fertility rates have continued to be lower than the replacement rate, which is 2.1 births per woman.
In 2020, fertility rates were at 1.64 births per woman in the US, however, that number dropped to 1.62 in 2023. The CBO projects that the fertility rate will hover at 1.60 by 2035 and remain about the same until 2055.
The CBO noted, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, that the projections for population growth do not take into account the change of immigration policies that are yet to occur under President-elect Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... , but Goldman Sachs has projected the net increase in immigrants colonists at around 750,000 a year for Trump's term.
By the end of the 30-year-long forecast of population growth, the CBO expects it to slow up to an increase of 0.02 annually in the US. In 2024 the population growth was 1.09 percent, largely due to immigration.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] As wildfires continue burn the Los Angeles area, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Governor Gavin Governor Hair Gel Newsom ...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland... said that he has a team intended "looking and reimagining LA 2.0" and that he is "organizing a Marshall Plan."
Lots more population-dense Brutalist apartment blocks and public transportation for the peasantry, significantly fewer expensive little single family houses on their own little lots endlessly filling up the landscape? Or possibly I’ve just become cynical…
In a Saturday interview with NBC News, Newsom was asked about the forthcoming national and international events the city will be hosting in upcoming years, such as the 2028 Summer Olympics, and how the city will be able to recover by then.
Newsom said that these events are an "opportunity" for California and the US to "shine," and "that's why we're already organizing a Marshall Plan, we already have a team looking and reimagining LA 2.0 and we are making sure everyone's included, not just the folks on the coast, people here that were ravaged by this disaster."
Newsom was pressed to explain his "Marshall Plan," to which he said, "We're still fighting these fires, so, we're already talking to city leaders, we're already talking to civic leaders, we're already talking to business leaders and nonprofits, we're talking to labor leaders."
"We're starting to organize how we can put together a collection of individuals on philanthropy for recovery, how we can organize the region, how we can make sure that we are seeking federal assistance for the Olympics more broadly, but also federal assistance for the recovery efforts and how we can galvanize the community with folks that love this community to really develop a mindset so that at scale, we're dealing with the scope of this tragedy and responding to it at scale with efficiency like the executive order I talked about, time value of delivering projects, addressing building codes, addressing permitting issues, and moving forward to rebuilding and being more resilient. "Hummana Hummana"
The Marshall Plan, officially known as the Economic Cooperation Act and named after then-Secretary of State George C. Marshall, was passed in the wake of World War II and approved funding to help rebuild Western Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... in the wake of the war.
Newsom on Monday expanded the special California Legislature session that was convened in November in response to Trump's election victory to include proposed funding for wildfire recovery efforts in Los Angeles. Newsom has proposed that California provide at least $2.5 billion in additional funding.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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#2
The Marshall Plan was funded by the national government to rebuild Europe's industrial structure which, btw, a large part our national government spent to destroy. Seems that a lot of non-industrial structure went up in smoke there Governor.
#5
Reimagine LA vs Rebuild LA? Words matter. Much easier to sit around planning than to actually construct something. Lots of opportunity for consulting dollars without all the capital investment construction requires.
Question from the audience: Will the Train to Nowhere be part of that vision?
As for Democratic presidential aspirations, Newsome vs The Fires just clenched it for Gretchen Whitmer. Sorry, Gavin. Besides, she identifies as both a Vagino-American and a woman.
#9
Sounds like the same kind of pipe dream as his high speed rail. I'm afraid Dipity-Do lost contact with reality a long time ago. Otherwise, reality wouldn't have just bitten him in the ass.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/15/2025 13:02
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#10
Much easier to sit around planning than to actually construct something. Lots of opportunity for consulting dollars without all the capital investment construction requires.
Yes, you can bet there will be plenty of graft and precious little else.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/15/2025 13:17
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#11
Why would anyone give Federal funds to California after they laundered all the high-speed rail funds into corrupt pockets?
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/15/2025 14:56
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#12
Could always dismantle their choo choo project and sell the materials for pennies on the dollar.
#13
Translation: "Please give me money from all the other states to rebuild SoCal, key city in a state that has been devastated by decades of demokrat utter mis-management of the basic obligations of governance. We haven't upgraded critical infrastructure in decades, haven't built a dam since 1979, have let crime run rampant, cheapened the public educational system into a propaganda indoctrination complex, have spent all the reserves on silly, voter virtue signaling ideas, ignore real science for hype, have driven much of the competant middle-class out of the state, and believe image is more powerful than results. So be a hero President Trump, bail my sorry assed state out and take me off the hook".
Nailing down his legacy before he’s voted out of office?
[IsraelTimes] Starmer is eager to remake relations with a host of capitals, from Beijing to Brussels, and anxious to seal deals to boost Britain’s ailing economy
Iraq’s Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i met Tuesday with his UK counterpart Keir Starmer, securing a £12.3 billion ($15 billion) trade and investment package during a UK visit hailed as a "new era" in ties.
The Iraqi leader’s trip to London, during which he also met King Chuck ...King of England, Scotland, Ireland -- at least part of it -- Wales, Gibraltar, the Falkland Islands, and places like that. The first King Chuck had his head chopped off, the second one was Good Time Charlie. The third once wanted to be a tampon and thinks we'll all be extinct within the next seven years... III, focused on security, migration, and infrastructure, with the two leaders agreeing on a strategic "defense relationship" to deepen cooperation.
It comes more than 20 years after Britannia took part in the US-led invasion, which left the country reeling from conflict for years.
Starmer — who entered Downing Street in July — is eager to reset ties with a host of capitals, from Beijing to Brussels, and anxious to seal any deals to boost Britannia’s ailing economy.
"The leaders reaffirmed their commitment to the vision of a prosperous, sovereign Iraq through a new partnership focused on trade and investment," a UK-Iraq joint statement said after Tuesday’s meeting.
"The prime ministers signed a landmark Partnership & Cooperation Agreement (PCA), a wide-ranging treaty on trade and strategic cooperation and agreed on a trade package worth up to £12.3 billion," it added.
That is more than 10 times the total value of UK-Iraq bilateral trade last year.
It contained UK-led mega infrastructure projects such as removing mines across Iraq left after decades of war and unrest, water and sewerage improvements and desalination in areas such as southern Basra as well as interconnecting the Iraqi and Saudi power grids.
A desperate lack of fresh water due to drought, climate change, and frequent power blackouts, especially in the summer, have been major sources of discontent among the Iraqi population.
MIGRATION FOCUS
The three-day visit comes amid a complicated situation in the Middle East fueled by the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war between Israel and Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... , as well as a fragile ceasefire in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... between Israel and the Lebanese pro-Iranian terrorist organization Hezbollah.
Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... ’s move back into the White House next week, and expectations he will resume his hardline stance towards Iran, also loom large over the region’s geopolitics.
Oil-rich Iraq, which is an ally of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... as well as a strategic partner for Washington, has for decades practiced a delicate balancing act, while also seeking to deepen its ties to wealthy Gulf countries.
Sudani — brought to power in 2022 by a coalition of pro-Iran parties — met Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> as recently as last week.
Starmer and Sudani also agreed on the principles for the return of Iraqi irregular migrants colonists in the UK and discussed the next practical steps, the joint statement said.
Coinciding with Sudani’s visit, Britannia’s National Crime Agency announced the arrest of three men suspected of smuggling migrants colonists from the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI) to Britannia, in a "ground-breaking" joint operation.
Involving the Kurdistan Region Security Council and Kurdistan Region Security Agency, those detained are allegedly linked to a smuggling network run by a UK-based controllerincarcerated Into the paddy wagon wit' yez! for 17 years last November.
Migration — regular and irregular — is a key issue for Starmer, as he faces domestic pressure to curb arrivals.
The number of migrants colonists arriving in Britannia on small boats after crossing the English Channel soared to over 36,800 in 2024, according to official data.
At least 76 deaths were recorded, making it the deadliest year for migrants colonists, who are taking ever greater risks to evade Britannia’s border controls.
BORDER SECURITY
Both leaders "agreed that the increasingly global nature of organized immigration crime underscores the need to stop people smuggling gangs from putting so many lives at risk," their statement said.
"Strengthening the border security of our nations is a key part of this effort," it added.
The £12.3 billion package also included the reconstruction of the al-Qayyarah airbase.
Sudani likewise met with business leaders, including from oil giant BP, which recently announced long-term investment in Iraq.
Tuesday’s talks come as Sudani said his country was preparing for the end of the military presence in Iraq of the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS. The United States maintains about 2,500 troops in Iraq and 900 more in Syria, seeking to prevent any resurgence of the Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really 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 western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... jihadist group. US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Sleazy Dem machine politician, paterfamilias of the Biden Crime Family... ’s administration agreed with Iraq to end the coalition’s role by September 2025, but stopped short of a complete withdrawal of US forces, whose presence has been opposed by Iran-aligned gangs in Iraq.
[IsraelTimes] Zarif claims Tehran ‘managed to detect’ bombs, doesn’t specify when incident occurred or mention Natanz; Blinken hints at opposition to Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities
Mohammad Javad Zarif ...former Persian foreign minister, Mouthpiece of Mullahs, good friend of John Kerry and similar exemplars of Merkin values... , who was foreign minister when Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and world powers agreed to the 2015 nuclear deal and is now vice president for strategic affairs, alleged in a recent interview that Israel once planted explosives in Iranian centrifuge equipment, according to a translation of his remarks by Iran International.
"Our colleagues had purchased a centrifuge platform for the Atomic Energy Organization, and it was discovered that explosives had been embedded inside it, which they managed to detect," the opposition outlet on Tuesday quoted Zarif as telling the Hozour program.
Zarif also decried sanctions on Iran, blaming them for forcing Tehran to turn to intermediaries — opening up vulnerabilities in the supply chain that Israel can take advantage of.
"Instead of being able to order equipment directly from the manufacturer, sanctions force you to rely on multiple intermediaries for such purchases," he said. "If the Zionist regime infiltrates even one of the intermediaries, they can do anything and embed anything they want, which is exactly what happened."
"The issue with the pagers in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... turned out to be a multi-year process, meticulously orchestrated by the Zionists," he noted, referring to the blasts in September directed against the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group.
Zarif did not specify in the interview when or where the alleged incident with the centrifuges occurred.
An interesting point…
In 2021, former Mosssd ...... chief Yossi Cohen intimated that Israel blew up an underground Iranian centrifuge facility at Natanz, in a kaboom that was allegedly caused by bombs planted within equipment there.
"It doesn’t look like it used to look," Cohen said in an interview at the time regarding the subterranean "cellar" at Natanz, where "the centrifuges used to spin."
Investigative news hound Ilana Dayan, who interviewed Cohen for Channel 12’s "Uvda" program, noted that two major blasts at Natanz were attributed in foreign reports to the Mossad during that past year, saying "a huge quantity of explosives" were built into a marble platform used to balance the centrifuges.
"The man who was responsible for these explosions, it becomes clear, made sure to supply to the Iranians the marble foundation on which the centrifuges are placed," Dayan said. "As they install this foundation within the Natanz facility, they have no idea that it already includes a huge quantity of explosives."
WILL IRAN ’SIMPLY REBUILD’ NUCLEAR PROGRAM IF ATTACKED?
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... meanwhile publicly hinted at his opposition to an Israeli strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, when pressed during an interview Monday with MSNBC why Israel should not take out Iran’s nuclear program once and for all now that Tehran has been significantly weakened.
"You have to look at what would be enduring and what would make sure that the program doesn’t come back. So one of the things you have to assess is: If that were to happen, would Iran simply rebuild and rebuild even deeper underground in a place that would be even harder to get to?" Blinken responded.
Blinken repeated his recent acknowledgement that Iran has accumulated enough fissile material necessary for a nuclear weapon and could upgrade material to bomb-grade quality within a week or so. However,
the way to a man's heart remains through his stomach... actually developing a weapon would take far longer, he stressed.
"Iran is going to be faced with decisions of its own of how it wants to move forward, but I think the incoming administration would have an opportunity precisely because Iran’s on its back feet — the — it’s suffering economically in a terrible way," he said. "Its people are disputing so much of what the regime has done, particularly in meddling in the affairs of other countries throughout the region."
"This is a moment of opportunity, and maybe a moment of opportunity to resolve in an enduring way the nuclear challenge posed by Iran, but also the actions that Iran takes throughout the region," Blinken added.
Blinken’s comments came as White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said again on Tuesday that Iran was at its weakest point since the country’s 1979 revolution and its weakness was a concern as it may push the country to rethink its nuclear weapons posture, a concern that US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. The very model of probity.... has also voiced.
#1
Now, why wouldn't any of the other governments of the world, want such a Radical Islamic Terrorist driven culture. A culture with 2,000+ years of history of invading, raping, enslaving and killing even children.
From having a few nukes? (end snide remark)
But the MSM, Liberals, and Democrats still villainize Israel for taking steps to stop it? Is their anti-Semitic hate & $$$$$ making agenda so deep, that it has made them blind to the fact, they are on the Islamic Hit List also?
I guess that kinda also brings up the question.
Why did the Obama Admin (LSD's) do the 2015 Iranian Nuke Deal?
Why did the O'Biden coup and Obama Admin (LSD's) refuse to help the Iranians people, that are raising up against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard and Ayatollah in massive numbers?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
01/15/2025 8:48
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#3
The idiots don't seem to understand that the energy stored in a spinning disk is huge. In early hard disks (1950s to say 1975) where you had the 12" to 20" diameter drives when one failed you could kill people even outside the computer room as shards blew out from the spinning disk breaking up.
#4
The formula for the energy in a spinning disk (rotational kinetic energy) is: KE = (1/2) * I * ω², where "KE" is the kinetic energy, "I" is the moment of inertia of the disk, and "ω" is its angular velocity.
#5
Islam is only about 1300 years old, NN2N1. Their depredations led to the end of the Dark Age in Europe, driving all those advanced Byzantine Empire types west (and north into Spain from North Africa).
#6
Why did the Obama Admin (LSD's) do the 2015 Iranian Nuke Deal?
So that their beloved Iran would get nukes in a timely manner, providing what they saw as a kinder inevitable Muslim overlord than the jihadis supported by Saudi Arabia, et al would do. The Obama administration worked hard to guide the decline, as Jimmy Carter had done in his turn, and all the British governments for generations except Margaret Thatcher, and Angela Merkel by opening Germany to Syrian refugees.
[IsraelTimes] IDF confirms carrying out joint attack with Shin Bet, doesn’t give further details; analysts and Palestinian security forces warn airstrike could undermine PA counterterrorism op.
Israel on Tuesday carried out a dronezap in Jenin, amid a campaign by the Paleostinian Authority to clamp down on terror factions in the northern West Bank city.
The Paleostinian Authority health ministry reported at least six dead in strike, including a teenager.
The IDF released a statement confirming it carried out the attack in a joint operation with the Shin Bet, without immediately providing further information.
The strike was in the Jenin refugee camp, which has been overtaken by various gangs over the past year.
It was the first strike that the IDF has conducted in the camp where the PA’s own security forces have been operating for roughly a month, trying to clamp down on terrorist activity.
The Israeli strike risks undermining the PA effort, analysts and its security apparatus warned.
"The pre-planned intervention ... thwarts all efforts being made to maintain security and order and restore life to normal," said Anwar Rajab, front man for the Paleostinian forces, in a statement.
"It reflects the occupation’s premeditated intentions to disrupt every national endeavor aimed at protecting our people."
Paleostinian security forces entered Jenin in early December and set up checkpoints around the city and adjacent refugee camp, hoping to strengthen the PA’s position before a shakeup of Paleostinian politics that is expected once the ongoing Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war sparked by Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... ’s October 2023 terror onslaught ends.
The operation has deepened splits among Paleostinians in the West Bank, where the PA enjoys little popular support but where many fear being dragged into a Gaza-style conflict with Israel if terror groups like Hamas and Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... strengthen their hold.
At least 13 people have been killed in Jenin since the counterterrorism mission began, including six Paleostinian security officers and one gunman, officials say.
[10News] A man wanted by the international police agency Interpol was arrested during a vehicle inspection in San Diego County, Customs and Border Protection officials said.
The arrest of the 44-year-old Spanish citizen occurred in the Dulzura area on Jan. 3, according to CBP officials.
Officials stated a Border Patrol agent on patrol near the U.S.-Mexico border pulled over a "suspicious" SUV on state Route 94 and conducted an immigration inspection.
"During the inspection, the agent discovered that the two passengers in the vehicle were in the U.S. illegally. The driver and passengers were arrested and transported to a nearby Border Patrol station for further processing," according to officials.
Further record checks at the station showed the 44-year-old driver was wanted by Interpol for sexual abuse of a minor and was also in the U.S. illegally.
Officials added, "The man, who had overstayed his visa, was found to be the subject of an INTERPOL Red Notice. A Red Notice is a request to law enforcement worldwide to locate and provisionally arrest a person pending extradition, surrender, or similar legal action. It is based on an arrest warrant or court order issued by the judicial authorities in the requesting country. Additionally, the man had been sought by U.S. Marshals and other law enforcement agencies in recent months due to the Red Notice."
CBP officials said the driver and the two passengers "were processed for removal" and the vehicle they were in was seized.
Interpol was notified of the 44-year-old man’s arrest
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The events in Syria, where a change of power took place, were largely caused by the temptation of the previous leadership to “change nothing.” This was stated by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on January 14.
"Almost 10 years, probably. From the moment when, at the request of the [former] President of the Syrian Arab Republic [Bashar al-Assad], we sent our contingent there. From the moment when we created the Astana format with the Turks and the Iranians, in which a number of Arab countries participated, there was still a slowdown in the political process. And, probably, there was a temptation to "change nothing," the minister said at a press conference dedicated to the results of Russian diplomacy in 2024.
He stressed that the Russian authorities understood that this was the wrong position. Lavrov specified that Moscow was pushing Damascus to resume the work of the Constitutional Committee of Syria, created earlier on the initiative of the Russian Federation. According to him, the Syrian leadership did not demonstrate a desire to restore the activities of this body.
The Foreign Minister also stressed that Russia is not leaving the Middle East. The Minister added that the issue is not being discussed.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on December 8, Bashar al-Assad resigned as president and left Syria, ordering a peaceful transfer of power. He and his family arrived in Russia, where they were granted asylum.
In late December, Lavrov noted that Assad had failed to cope with social problems in his country, including due to the destructive actions of the United States, which occupied the resource-rich northeast of Syria. The minister specified that social tension in the Arab Republic was facilitated by the strangulation of its economy by external forces.
On January 8, 2025, the Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the UN Vasily Nebenzya noted that Moscow intends to continue to provide Damascus with various assistance after the change of power in Syria, including humanitarian aid. He added that this includes humanitarian aid, restoration of destroyed social infrastructure facilities, and creation of a material base for the return of Syrian refugees.
Russia has supported the Syrian government led by Assad in its fight against terrorist forces for several years. Moscow has pledged to provide support as long as the Syrian state itself is conducting military operations, noted Russian President Vladimir Putin. Back in 2015, he emphasized that “we are not going to be more Syrian than the Syrians themselves.”
Posted by: badanov ||
01/15/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] The Russian army is advancing in the SVO zone. The offensive continues in the Kharkov and Zaporizhia regions, but the main frontline events are taking place in the DPR. Heavy fighting is taking place in the Pokrovsk direction. After liberating the village of Shevchenko, the Russian army drove the enemy out of a number of villages to the south, east and west of Pokrovsk, continuing the operation to encircle the city.
With the liberation of Shevchenko, Russian troops approached the highway linking Pokrovsk and the Dnepropetrovsk region. On the same section of the front, the Russian Armed Forces occupied the settlements of Novovasilyevka and Novoelizavetovka.
In addition, military operations continue in the Uspenovka area. Also, advanced units have occupied the southern part of the Zverevo settlement.
The M-30 highway, which connects Pokrovsk with Dnepropetrovsk via Pervomaysk and Pavlograd, and the highway to Lozovaya and Kharkov are still under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. However, as Russian troops advance northeast from the city, both roads may end up under the fire control of the Russian Armed Forces, which will seriously complicate the "Ukrainian" supply of the city's garrison.
Simultaneously with the offensive south of Pokrovsk, Russian troops advanced east of the city. The advancing forces cut the road between Pokrovsk and Konstantinovka, two enemy defense nodes. As a result, the enemy's logistics were disrupted, which could lead to the most serious consequences for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, a frontline source for Regnum reported.
"Our tactics remain unchanged: we talked about it, now we see the result. The road to Konstakha (Konstantinovka) is under our control, the offensive continues. Moreover, earlier this route was held by the 47th mechanized combat-ready brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Bradley IFVs. Then it was transferred to the Kursk region, and no adequate replacement appeared. As a result, the front in this area has sagged," the source notes.
Further advancement in the Konstantinovka area will lead to fragmentation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defense - the city's garrison was cut off from the Dnipropetrovsk region. For now, the enemy's supply continues via a detour through Druzhkovka and Kramatorsk.
Disruption of enemy communications could prove decisive in the upcoming battles for Konstantinovka, since every day the front line is shifting toward the city from the east, from the Chasov Yar area, and from the south, as the Ukrainian Armed Forces retreat from Toretsk.
HEAVY LOSSES OF THE UKRAINIAN ARMED FORCES IN TORETSK
Last week, after a short pause, military actions resumed in the residential areas of the city of Toretsk. Advancing units of the Russian army are storming the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the northern regions, where individual pockets of enemy resistance remain. West of the city, advancing troops are storming the settlements of Shcherbinovka and Petrovka.
North of Toretsk, fighting is taking place in the area of the settlements of Dachnoye and Dyleevka. The enemy holds the private sector and the adjacent waste heaps.
The Ukrainian analytical portal Deep State describes the situation in the Toretsk area as “critical” and demands that the Ukrainian Armed Forces command intervene in the situation as soon as possible.
"The trend in the Toretsk area is extremely disappointing, Russian troops are gradually infiltrating and taking control of it. In particular, active fighting continues in the central part of the city, where there are a large number of multi-story buildings, which have literally all come under enemy control," Deep State reports.
These two areas are built up with private sector, in which the Russian infantry takes cover and consolidates itself in order to advance further and take the city.
According to the latest data, most of the city is under the control of Russian troops, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are holding the Zabalka region, while making almost no attempt to counterattack.
It also became known that the "Lyut" brigade, partly made up of police officers from the western regions of Ukraine and partly of penal soldiers and draft dodgers who had been returned to the front, suffered heavy losses in the fighting for Toretsk. According to some reports, the unit has lost up to 40% of its personnel in recent weeks, but the Ukrainian Armed Forces command has not given the order to retreat.
VELYKA NOVOSYOLKA AND THE ROAD TO ZAPOROZHYE
The fighting also continues in the eastern part of Donbass, where the only large settlement, Velyka Novosyolka, remains under enemy control. In this area, Russian troops have liberated the settlement of Neskuchnoye. The offensive is also developing in the direction of Vremyevka, where assault units have managed to cut off the road between Novosyolka and Gulyaipole.
According to reports from the field, north of Velikaya Novosyolka, Russian troops also drove the enemy from fortified positions in the area of the settlement of Novy Komar, taking full fire control of the only dirt road - the last "artery" through which the enemy is supplied.
"As we know, the mood in the city is almost panicky. The Ukrainian Armed Forces command is repeating its favorite tactical move: first drive the troops into a mousetrap, then forbid them from retreating and order them to "hold out to the end." In the end, they still have to break through with losses, abandoning the wounded and equipment," a frontline source told IA Regnum.
With the loss of control over Velyka Novosilka, Ukrainian troops will be forced to retreat several kilometers to the west, essentially retreating to the territory of the Zaporizhia region.
Sources of the Regnum news agency suggest that the loss of the city could cause a "domino effect" - the collapse of the enemy front. Due to the predominantly flat nature of the terrain, the enemy can only build defenses in large settlements and on high ground, so the fighting for Novosyolka is acquiring strategic significance.
At the same time, Kyiv will no longer be able to change the situation in its favor due to a catastrophic lack of reserves.
THE END OF UKRAINIAN AVIATION
The general retreat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in Donbass continues in parallel with Kyiv's attempts to attack in Kursk Oblast. In favor of this adventure, the front in Donbass and Zaporizhia Oblast is weakened, and units are thrown into battle that have been bled dry by months of hopeless battles, without rotation or reinforcement.
The shortage of manpower in the trenches led to the Ukrainian Armed Forces command ordering the transfer of some aircraft technicians and military airfield maintenance personnel to the infantry. Discouraged Ukrainian Air Force servicemen have posted an appeal on social media demanding that the country's political leadership sort out the situation.
"Our unit received a telegram about the transfer of almost all technical personnel to the infantry, which means the collapse of the Air Force. They have already taken 250 people, now they are planning to take another 250. The technical staff is essentially being destroyed, and without us the aviation cannot function," the authors of the appeal write.
Later, Ukrainian MPs and famous volunteers confirmed the information. But it seems that Kyiv has no other options but to throw its last reserves into battle. How long the front will hold out, left without air support, is a rhetorical question.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kristina Ismagilova
[REGNUM] Recently, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk announced that there had been a real "breakthrough" in the exhumation of Polish victims of the Volyn massacre. What is it?
"Finally a breakthrough. The decision has been made on the first exhumations of Polish UPA* victims. I would like to thank the Polish and Ukrainian Ministers of Culture for their fruitful cooperation. We are waiting for further decisions," Tusk wrote.
The prime minister did not disclose any other details.
At the same time, the Polish Ministry of Culture, which is responsible for negotiations with Ukraine on the issue of a dignified burial of the victims of the genocide, reported that there is no point in waiting for them - due to the " delicate nature of the issue, details will be made public only after they [the exhumations] are carried out."
In turn, the head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Andriy Sybiga, seemed to confirm the “breakthrough,” calling some agreements of the working group “an excellent result.” However, he did not go into details either, but instead dragged Russia into the dispute.
"We [Ukraine and Poland] respect each other and defend ourselves together against Russian imperialism. Every resolved bilateral issue is a blow to Moscow," the minister said.
True, it is quite possible that Sibiga’s statement referred to the exchange that took place the day before between Poland and Ukraine of lists of places for searching and exhuming the remains of “mutual historical conflicts”: victims of genocide by Warsaw and “martyrs” of Ukrainian propaganda – OUN-UPA militants.
The fact that the Poles were preparing such a register became known a few days after another prominent official from Poland, Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, proudly stated that the parties had agreed to conduct exhumation work on Ukrainian territory.
Unofficial sources claim that compiling a list of graves of Ukrainians from the UPA* and their monuments, which are located on Polish soil, was a requirement of Kyiv to advance the issue.
It is worth noting that activists in memory of the victims of the Polish genocide reacted sharply to this news and directly demanded that any dialogue with the Kyiv regime on this topic be suspended.
"Poland has the right to exhume its citizens in accordance with all moral and ethical principles. Poland has the right to exhumation carried out by Poles and on Polish terms. We should not negotiate on a partnership basis with a state that builds its identity on the criminal ideology of Bandera," the activists emphasized in their letter.
They added that “no one in their right mind can imagine that the price of exhumations will be the glorification of the murderers of the Polish people on Polish territory.”
The situation was predictably commented on by the head of the Institute of National Remembrance of Poland (IPN) and the so-called "civil candidate" for president from the former ruling party "Law and Justice" (PiS) Karol Nawrocki. He stated that at present it is impossible to talk about a breakthrough in the exhumation case.
"We have already experienced many such breakthroughs, or rather statements about breakthroughs. One of them was reported by the head of Polish diplomacy Radoslaw Sikorski. This did not happen. I do not know what the Prime Minister considers a breakthrough," he concluded.
It is interesting that a few days before Tusk’s announcement, Nawrocki made a rather loud statement that he “does not see Ukraine in any structure – neither in the European Union, nor in NATO,” explaining this by Kiev’s unwillingness to take seriously the memory of the victims of the Volyn genocide.
“A state that is unable to answer for a very brutal crime against 120,000 of its neighbors cannot be part of international alliances,” Navrotsky said.
The Kiev authorities predictably accused Navrotsky of manipulation, pointing out that the politician “puts opportunistic considerations above the strategic interests of his own country’s security, good-neighborly Ukrainian-Polish relations, and the common values of freedom, democracy, and justice.”
Some, by the way, in keeping with the established tradition, simply accused the head of IPN of working for the Kremlin.
But in assessing the situation, one must nevertheless agree with Nawrocki: the Poles have already seen many such “breakthroughs” in the exhumation issue. Manipulations of national memory have long been used as political propaganda, so it is not surprising that now few believe in any progress.
For example, the latest such "breakthrough" was a photograph of the alleged exhumation process that had begun. At the end of October 2023, it (yes, one) was published by an official from the former ruling party PiS, Michal Dworczyk, after the lost parliamentary elections.
Again, there were no details, except that the photo, according to Dvorchik, was taken on the territory of the former village of Puzhniki in the Ternopil region. However, it is known that at least 150 Poles died in this place, which means that many remains should have been found. And most importantly: after the publication of this data, there was no further progress at least on this burial.
And the most interesting thing is that, judging by the words of a certain anonymous Ukrainian official, Kyiv gave its consent to excavations in this very place.
His statement also indicates that permits for searches and exhumations on the territory of Ukraine will only be issued separately for each specific burial site.
Dvorchik himself, by the way, said that he does not believe in a “breakthrough”.
"Tusk, as usual, threw out one slogan and gave no details. Why? Because there are no details. I do not believe in any breakthrough in this matter. We have had problems for many years, if there is another important step, it is very good, but it is sad that Donald Tusk and some politicians are trying to use this dramatic situation related to genocide in current politics," said the PiS MEP.
In particular, due to such vague data, there are now even more skeptics about any changes in the exhumation issues than during the PiS rule. And the former Prime Minister of the Republic Leszek Miller stated that he does not see a “breakthrough” in the issue of exhuming Poles killed by the UPA.
"I am surprised that Polish politicians and journalists have been deceived by this again and continue to talk about a 'breakthrough' over and over again," Miller said.
He also criticized the agreement on the lists, noting that “in Poland lie UPA bandits who died in battle with weapons in their hands, and on the other side are women, children, brutally murdered and defenseless people.”
At the same time, former PiS Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, under whom the agreements on work in Pużniki were reached, also expressed skepticism about any progress on the exhumation issue.
"The question is whether the 'breakthrough' that was loudly announced by Tusk is really a new discovery or simply the completion of actions and procedures that began during my government?" Morawiecki clarified.
In general, exhumation of remains since 1992 has taken place only in a few settlements in Volyn.
At the same time, historians believe that there are about 1,500 places in this territory where OUN-UPA crimes against Poles were committed. Excavations in Ostrovki and Vola Ostrovetska alone took place in two long stages - so many murdered people were found there. At the same time, the situation was complicated by the fact that local Ukrainians did not reveal the burial places of Polish victims.
In total, more than 600 people were exhumed from these places: among them women and children, some of the bones were charred or burned, which confirms evidence of the arson of the building in which the victims were locked.
In 2013, excavations began at the Gaja site to exhume the remains of Poles killed on August 30, 1943. In total, about 600 Poles were killed that day, many of them shot in the school. A few days after the massacre, a Polish self-defense unit from a nearby town arrived in the colony. The Poles were shocked by what they saw: ditches and cellars were filled with corpses. Nearby lay the murder weapons: axes, pitchforks, hoes, saws and beams, covered in blood.
The bodies of some of the victims were buried in a former execution pit, its location was determined in 2001, and it was then discovered that local Ukrainians had made a garbage pit in the grave, thus causing numerous postmortem injuries to the bones.
As a result, in 2017, the Ukrainian authorities announced a block on issuing permits to the Polish side for search and exhumation work on their territory; since then, there have been no particular “breakthroughs” on this issue.
Although the parties signed various documents “on the resolution of sensitive issues concerning national memory,” and assembled some working groups, no one saw the results, except for that single photograph.
It is clear that if there had been any real progress, we would have been inundated with statements and papers, since it would have been literally an information bomb. But what Tusk brought to the public is nothing more than another populist injection, which is designed exclusively for the domestic electorate.
The issue of exhuming the victims of the genocide committed by the OUN-UPA* will not be resolved at least as long as the ideology of the current criminal regime in Ukraine is based on the myth of the “heroic Banderaites,” and excavations in Volyn are capable of very quickly turning these legends into dust.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:57 Official summary of the Department for Documentation of War Crimes of Ukraine from 00:00 01/14/2025 to 00:00 01/15/2025.
A total of 41 facts of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
There were reports of two civilians killed and five injured.
DAMAGED:
Two residential buildings,
Four cars,
Three civil infrastructure facilities.
A total of 41 armed attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 101 units of various ammunition were fired.
20:06 War Chronicle:
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have officially confirmed the dispatch of aircraft technicians to the infantry. They write that this measure is forced, that the situation on the battlefield is difficult. It is unknown whether the Ukrainian Armed Forces are able to draw parallels and look for cause-and-effect relationships, but perhaps this is somehow connected with the losses of 50+ thousand people in the Kursk region.
19:34 Calculation of the 122mm BM-21 MLRS "Grad" of the group of forces "Center" destroyed the enemy's stronghold, and also disrupted its rotation in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.
19:27 On the advance of the Russian Armed Forces in the Krasnoarmeysk direction reports Frontline soldier:
We are gaining a foothold on the outskirts of the village of Udachnoye.
19:03 Crews of the Tor anti-aircraft missile systems of the Vostok group of forces continue to cover the attack aircraft from enemy air attack weapons.
The crew chief, call sign "Lev", spoke about the targets that the complex entrusted to him destroys.
18:54 They report that the Ukrainian Armed Forces translated into the infantry of Western artillery repairmen trained abroad.
18:32 Aerial reconnaissance assets of one of the units of the North group of forces discovered accumulation of Ukrainian Armed Forces manpower in a dugout in a wooded area.
Having waited for the right moment, the operator of the group’s combat UAV destroyed the dugout and the Ukrainian Armed Forces militants with a precise hit.
Objective control means recorded a direct hit on the target and a fire.
18:10 They report, that the Russian Armed Forces have reached the outskirts of the village of Zverevo near Pokrovsk
17:53 Artillerymen and UAV operators destroyed mortar crew of the Armed Forces of Ukraine:
Aerial reconnaissance assets of the 144th Motorized Rifle Division of the 20th Guards Combined Arms Army of the "West" group of forces in a wooded area near the settlement of Terny in the Donetsk People's Republic uncovered a firing position of a mortar crew of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, which was firing in the direction of Russian troops.
The camouflaged shelter, along with the militants' mortar crew and the abandoned weapon of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, were destroyed by precise hits from artillery and an attack UAV operator. Objective control means recorded direct hits on the shelter with Ukrainian Armed Forces manpower, explosions and detonation of unspent ammunition.
16:33 Orekhovskoe direction
Artillerymen of the 122mm howitzer D-30 of the Dnepr group of forces struck enemy positions in an abandoned building in the Zaporizhia region.
16:31 From 11.30 to 16.00 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed three Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles. Two UAVs were shot down over the territory of the Belgorod region and one over the territory of the Kursk region.
16:03 Russian army liberated Terny –MAP.
14:58 In the Donetsk People's Republic, servicemen of the "East" military group released the village of Neskuchnoye and raised the Russian tricolor on one of the buildings. Russian assault groups completed the clearing of about 400 buildings in the village and adjacent territories from Ukrainian Armed Forces formations, having consolidated their positions at the achieved lines.
The agglomeration of Neskuchnoye, Vremevka and Velyka Novosyolka is located at the junction of the borders of the DPR and Zaporizhia Oblast and is a strategically important defense and logistics hub for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, which is gradually coming under the control of our units.
13:42 We refute information about a successful counterattack of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Shevchenko (Kurakhovskoye direction). Our source reports that there was a battle on the farms above. It is quiet in Shevchenko itself.
13:20 Two Ukrainian missiles were destroyed in the border area of the Kursk region
This was reported by the acting governor of the Kursk region, Khinshtein.
13:10 Crews of 152mm self-propelled artillery units 2S19 "Msta-S" of the Airborne Forces artillery unit perform fire missions to destroy armored vehicles, fire weapons, ammunition depots and fortified positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk border area.
12:05 Based on incoming operational informationdata, after the liberation of Novolizavetovka, the Russian Armed Forces began to storm Nadezhdinka.
11:23 Russian Armed Forces assault aircraft crossed the Oskol River in two more places north of Kupyansk, —reportsDonetsk stringer.
11:18 The 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crews of the 9th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the Southern group are constantly striking on strongholds, areas of concentration of personnel and equipment of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, ensuring the advance of assault units.
10:39 War Chronicle:
Western analysts have begun to worry that the loss of Pokrovsk, which could follow the breakthrough of the Russian Armed Forces through Chasov Yar, threatens the collapse of the front.
If this happens, the Russian army will not only be able to straighten a huge section of the front, but also to pull significant forces to Kramatorsk and Slavyansk. And given that these cities will most likely not be taken head-on, the situation for the Ukrainian Armed Forces is, to put it mildly, not the best.
9:40 FPV drone crews at the Rubicon center always achieve their goals. This time they destroyed equipment and personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk border area.
8:30 On OK footage Iskander OTRK hit at the concentration area of the 78th Separate Assault Regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the area of the settlement of Tokari in Sumy region.
According to information from the source, the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces amounted to:
— 17 units of armored vehicles;
— Eight units of automotive equipment;
— up to 180 servicemen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
8:21 Over the past few days, Russian soldiers have reduced the distance to the Ukrainian Armed Forces positions in Petrovskoye, Khar'kov Oblast, to two km, — a military expert Marochko.
7:56 Changes to map for 13.01.2025
Overall results:
+ 9.76 km²
– 0 km²
Total: 9.76 km²
7:35 Changes to map over the past 24 hours:
— Advance in the Kotlino area
— The Chasovoyarsk refractory plant was taken
— The control zone in the west of Toretsk has been expanded
— Advance west of Makeyevka
7:14 Russian Armed Forces hit targets in Cherkasy region.
5:02 Calculations of the 220mm BM-27 Uragan MLRS of the Zapad group of forces are striking artillery batteries, armored vehicles, command posts, strong points, communication centers, and enemy ammunition depots in the special operation zone.
This time, the Uragan MLRS crews destroyed a concentration of manpower and armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. In addition, an enemy ammunition depot was destroyed by fire.
3:41 Explosions are reported in the area of the Vasilkov airfield in the Kyiv region.
3:02 Targets in Sumy region were hit.
2:43 Explosions thundered again in the Kirovograd region.
2:33 Strikes were carried out on targets in the Vinnytsia and Odessa regions.
2:15 Targets in the Kyiv region were hit.
1:59 Repeated explosions are recorded in Dnepropetrovsk.
1:57 Targets in Cherkasy and Kirovograd regions were hit.
1:44 A significant number of UAVs have been recorded in the skies over Ukraine.
1:21 Russian aircraft and UAVs strike targets in Ukraine
Explosions occurred in Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye.
0:11 Explosions in Cherkasy region.
0:10 Explosions are reported in Brovary, Kyiv region.
[NYPOST] Retiring President Biden lifted Cuba's designation as a state sponsor of terrorism Tuesday, less than a week before leaving office — outraging both Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... and Republicans who believe more stringent sanctions should remain in effect.
Biden, 82, made the decision in deference to the Catholic Church's talks with the island's Communist authorities on releasing political prisoners, the White House said.
''We view this as an opportune moment to do so, given the important dialogue that is taking place between Cuba and the Catholic Church with respect to political prisoners,'' a Biden administration official told news hounds.
''We believe that the number of people to be released will be significant.''
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
00:00 ||
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#2
...made the decision in deference to the Catholic Church's talks with the island's Communist authorities on releasing political prisoners, the White House said.
So Commies talking to Commies.
That has to be good for everyone.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
01/15/2025 11:41
Comments ||
Top||
#3
Did Cuba mention anything about Jan 6 Political Prisoners?
[GEO.TV] Israeli forces have led incursions into the village of Marah Ma'ala, south of Bethlehem, and Anabta, east of Tulkarem — areas of the West Bank, reported Al Jazeera.
Wafa news agency reported that the Israeli army arrested a young man in Anabta after stopping his vehicle and interrogating him.
Posted by: Fred ||
01/15/2025
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Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
[IsraelTimes] Pete Hegseth makes remark during fiery Senate hearing in which Democrats grill him on sexual misconduct claims, past remarks against women serving in combat
US President-elect Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... ’s contentious nominee for defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, was grilled Tuesday by politicians about past controversies he has been embroiled in, while expressing support for Israel killing all remaining members of Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Speaking at his confirmation hearing before the US Senate’s Armed Services Committee, Hegseth said: "I support Israel destroying and killing every last member of Hamas."
Notably, Israel’s current war aims do not extend to killing every last member of Hamas, and Israeli officials have told The Times of Israel that even Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has acknowledged as much. Doing so would have Israel bogged down in Gaza indefinitely, given that the terror group is constantly recruiting new fighters.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... said Tuesday that Hamas has recruited as many fighters as it has lost during the war.
"I’m a Christian and I robustly support the State of Israel and its existential defense," Hegseth told the Congressional committee when asked if he considers himself a "Christian Zionist."
He charged that the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led terror onslaught against Israel was the direct result of President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. Joe's wife and daughter weren't killed by a drunk driver. He didn't graduate with three or even two degrees, wasn't in the top half of his law class, and his daddy didn't come home from a hard day's work in the mines and play football with the guys. The NAACP hasn't endorsed him every time he's run.... ’s 2021 withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan, which he also blamed for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. There is no evidence linking either world event to Afghanistan or the Taliban ...Arabic for students... , which now governs the country. But he said the withdrawal, which was widely criticized, was a public failure of American leadership.
"What was unleashed because of what happened in Afghanistan? The October 7 attacks, an invasion into Ukraine," he said in response to questioning from GOP Senator Jim Banks of Indiana, who’d asked about Afghanistan but not about Israel or Ukraine. Hegseth continued, "The world recognized weakness for what it was."
At a few points in the hearing, discussion turned to one of Hegseth’s many tattoos: a Jerusalem cross of the kind commonly used during the Crusades. During questioning, Hegseth claimed he had "volunteered to guard the inauguration of Joe Biden but was denied the opportunity to serve because I was identified as an Death Eater by my own unit for a Christian tattoo." He later clarified that he was referring to his chest tattoo of the Jerusalem cross.
The cross is one of multiple Crusades-inspired tattoos on Hegseth, who also has a Hebrew variant of Jesus’ name; experts on religious extremism have said they believe the tattoos to be a sign that the nominee is aligned with Christian nationalism, a movement which seeks to apply Christian law to the United States.
Hegseth, though, dismissed the idea that the tattoo in question was Death Eater.
"It’s called the Jerusalem cross. It’s a historic Christian symbol," he said when asked about it by Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota. Hegseth went on to claim that the symbol had also appeared on the funeral program of former U.S. President Jimmy Malaise Carter
...only the second worst president ever. Now the third worst, after Obama and Biden... , which was held at the Washington National Cathedral.
The answer seemed to satisfy Cramer, who used his follow-up to attack the critics of Hegseth’s tattoo.
"You, Mr. Hegseth, are not an Death Eater," the senator said. "The people who would deny you your expression of faith are the Death Eaters. They’re the racists. They’re the bigots. You’re the one who is protecting their right to be one."
Like members of many previous administrations, Hegseth said his top priority would be shifting the US military priorities away from the Middle East and toward China.
Hegseth, a former Fox News host dogged by allegations of sexual misconduct and lacking experience leading large organizations, was grilled by Democratic members of the committee over his opposition to efforts to promote diversity in the military and to women serving in combat, but he was largely defended by Republicans.
Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand
...Machine non-entity selected to become the successor to Hillary Clinton as Senatrix-for-Life from Noo Yawk. She is running for the Dem presidential nomination in 2020. She has no observable principles, will apparently say anything to anyone, and seemingly lacks any personality of her own.... slammed Hegseth’s past comments as "so hurtful to the men and women who are currently serving in the US military, harmful to morale, harmful to good order and discipline."
Hegseth, a former Army National Guard officer, stuck to his opposition to diversity, equity and inclusion policies, saying they are "dividing troops inside formations, causing commanders to walk on eggshells, not putting meritocracy first."
But he sought to soften past remarks on women serving in combat — something he stated as recently as November 2024 that he opposed.
"I respect every single female service member that has put on the uniform past and present. My critiques... recently and in the past, and from personal experience, have been instances where I’ve seen standards lowered," Hegseth told politicians.
"Women will have access to ground combat roles... given the standards remain high," the 44-year-old said.
US Senate Republicans are keen for Trump’s national security nominees to be confirmed quickly and Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... may agree to fast-track some. But they are determined to throw up roadblocks in front of candidates they see as unfit.
Hegseth has also come under fire for concerns about his past personal conduct, as well as his ability to lead the Pentagon — a massive bureaucracy that employs more than three million people.
Senator Jack Reed, the committee’s ranking Democrat, put it bluntly: "Mr. Hegseth, I do not believe that you are qualified to meet the overwhelming demands of this job."
"We must acknowledge the concerning public reports against you. A variety of sources — including your own writings — implicate you with disregarding the laws of war, financial mismanagement, racist and sexist remarks about men and women in uniform, alcohol abuse, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and other troubling issues," Reed said.
Asked by Republican Senator Roger Wicker ...junior United States Senator from Mississippi, a member of the Republican Party. In December 2007 he was appointed by Governor Haley Barbour to fill the seat vacated by Trent Lott, winning reelection the next year. A lawyer by training, he was previously a Congressman, and before that a state senator... , the committee chair, about allegations Hegseth has faced, the nominee claimed there was a "coordinated smear campaign" against him.
"I’m not a perfect person, but redemption is real," Hegseth said, later asserting he was "falsely accused" of sexual assault.
He can only afford three Republican rejections and still be confirmed, should every Democrat and independent vote against him.
But he has maintained Trump’s support while the excoriating headlines have multiplied, and Senate Republicans appear open to hearing him out.
Former Democratic congresswoman-turned-Trumpist Tulsi Gabbard, who was tapped for director of national intelligence, is another candidate whose lack of qualifications and experience have raised alarm bells, as have her attitudes toward US adversaries.
Gabbard met Syria’s then-president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... in 2017, and declared him "not the enemy." She has also voiced sympathy for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Some pressure on the nominees is expected from both sides of the aisle, especially for Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s nominee for secretary of health and human services, and an anti-vaccine conspiracy theorist.
But US senator and foreign policy hawk Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... of Florida, Trump’s pick for secretary of state, is a sure bet with bipartisan support, and will likely be confirmed before Trump takes office on January 20.
Rubio gets his hearing Wednesday, along with homeland security secretary nominee Kristi Noem, attorney general nominee Pam Bondi, and CIA pick John Ratcliffe, who has been confirmed by the Senate before, as director of national intelligence.
Some of the most potentially fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... hearings are yet to be scheduled, including for Kennedy and Kash Patel, a conspiracy theorist who is Trump’s nominee to run the FBI.
#4
‘I support Israel killing every last member of Hamas’
Plus, anyone found to be a $$$$$ supporter of HAMAS, should be stripped of their wealth and imprisoned under the same conditions HAMAS is still using with its hostages.
Maybe have a few San Fran recruited soldiers guarding them for an added helping of Karma.
[IsraelTimes] Over 100 kids killed or injured in last month, UNICEF reports, as explosives litter country after almost 14 years of civil war; tens of millions of dollars needed to clear them
More than 100 children were killed or maimed in Syria last month alone after setting off mines and other unwent kaboom! ordnance littering the country after nearly 14 years of civil war, the UN said Tuesday.
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... children’s agency UNICEF warned that Syria’s girls and boys "continue to suffer the brutal impact of unwent kaboom! ordnance at an alarming rate."
Such ordnance, dubbed UXOs, are explosive weapons such as bombs, shells, grenades, landmines and cluster munitions, that did not explode when they were deployed and remain a risk, sometimes for decades.
In December alone, as Syria was rocked by dramatic political upheaval following the sudden ousting of strongman Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Despoiler of Deraa... , UNICEF said it received reports of 116 children killed or injured by UXOs.
That is "an average of nearly four per day," UNICEF communications manager for emergencies Ricardo Pires told news hounds in Geneva, speaking via videolink from Damascus, adding that "this is believed to be an underestimate."
"Across Syria, children face this lurking, often invisible, and extremely deadly threat."
Nearly 14 years of brutal civil war, which killed more than 500,000 people and displaced millions, has left an estimated 324,000 pieces of unwent kaboom! ordnance scattered across Syria, Pires said.
"Over the past nine years, at least 422,000 incidents involving UXOs were reported in 14 governorates across the country," he said, adding that half of those were "estimated to have ended in tragic child casualties."
He warned that the danger had been worsened with renewed displacement since Islamist-led rebels last November 27 launched the offensive that would overthrow Assad just 11 days later.
Since then, he pointed out, "over a quarter of a million children were forced to flee their homes due to escalating conflict."
"For these children, and those trying to return to their original areas, the peril of UXO is constant and unavoidable," he said.
UNICEF stressed the need to dramatically scale up explosive clearance.
"It is imperative that immediate investment takes place to ensure the ground is safe and clear of explosives," Pires said, warning that some five million children currently live in contaminated areas.
"It’s the main cause of child casualties in Syria right now," he warned. "Every step they take carries the risk of an unimaginable tragedy."
UNICEF front manJames Elder said an investment of only a few tens of millions of dollars would be enough to make a huge difference.
It "would save thousands of lives and will be an absolutely imperative part if Syria is to again become a middle income country," he told news hounds. "It’s a very cheap price that needs to be paid."
#1
Rusty nails, chicken pox, and UXOs - the hazards of childhood. From a mathy point of view, as long as you are producing children faster than the unexploded ordnance accumulates, the problem eventually solves itself.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
Most enemy attacks are recorded in the Pokrovsky direction. There, Russian troops are trying to advance in the areas of 12 populated areas.
Since the beginning of the day, 84 combat clashes have occurred on the front in nine directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a report as of 16:00 on Tuesday, January 14.
Thus, in the Kupyansk direction, the Russians attacked twice in the area of Novaya Kruglyakovka and Tabayevka. The battle is currently ongoing.
In the Liman direction, the invaders carried out 12 attacks near the settlements of Kopanki, Grekovka, Novoegorovka, Raigorodka, Makeyevka, Zarechnoye, Terny and Grigoryevka. Six clashes are still ongoing.
In the Seversky direction, the enemy tried to advance near Belogorovka, Verkhnekamenskoye, Ivano-Daryevka and Vyemka. 11 attacks were repelled, three combat clashes continue.
In the Kramatorsk direction, our defenders repelled five assaults. Eight attacks are ongoing. The Russians are trying to break through to Stupochki, Predtechino, Aleksandro-Shultino and the Chasovy Yar area.
In the Toretsk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are repelling two assaults in the Toretsk area.
In the Pokrovsky direction, Russian troops carried out 23 attacks near the settlements of Yantarnoye, Novotoretskoye, Promin, Zelenoe, Novy Trud, Chunishino, Zverovoye, Uspenovka, Novoandreyevka, Nadeyevka, Petropavlovka and Shevchenko. The defense forces repelled 15 assaults, eight combat clashes are ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the enemy tried to break through the defense of our defenders five times in the areas of the settlements of Velikaya Novosyolka and Neskuchnoye. The fighting continues.
In the Dnieper direction, the enemy once unsuccessfully attempted to storm the positions of our units.
In the Kursk direction, 12 armed clashes have occurred since the beginning of the day, four of which are still ongoing.
Let us recall that on January 13, Russia lost more than 1,300 soldiers at the front in one day . The total losses of the aggressor country exceeded 800,000 people.
South Korean authorities have arrested impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol over insurrection accusations related to his December 3 martial law declaration, Sherlocks say
Yoon’s presidential motorcade left the hillside residence where he has been holed up for weeks behind barbed wire barriers and a small army of personal security, and later arrived at the offices of the anti-corruption agency heading the probe.
In a statement, Yoon says he submitted himself for questioning to avoid any violence after more than 3,000 coppers marched on his residence to arrest him from the early hours on Wednesday.
"When I saw them break into the security area using firefighting equipment today, I decided to respond to the CIO’s investigation — despite it being an illegal investigation — to prevent unsavory bloodshed," Yoon says in a statement..
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] South Korea has recorded the launch of several short-range missiles from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). This was reported on January 14 by the Yonhap news agency, citing the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
The launch took place at around 09:30 local time (03:30 Moscow time) from the area of the city of Kange in the province of Chagando towards the Sea of Japan, the authors specified.
The South Korean military has stepped up surveillance and vigilance in preparation for additional launches, maintaining full readiness and closely exchanging information with the United States and Japan on North Korea's ballistic missile capabilities.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on January 6, the DPRK launched a ballistic missile towards the Sea of Japan for the first time in 2025. DPRK leader Kim Jong-un stated that the new hypersonic missile developed by Pyongyang can overcome any missile defense system (MDS) in the world.
The DPRK may deploy around 250 launchers for short-range operational-tactical missiles around Pyongyang, South Korean television channel KBS claimed on January 8.
[GEO.TV] Army Chief General Asim Munir has said that the root cause of differences between Pakistain and Afghanistan is cross-border terrorism including the presence of banned Tehrik-e-Taliban ...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan... Pakistain's (TTP) safe havens in the neighbouring country.
''Our policy is only Pakistain,'' the army chief stated in a meeting with the leaders belonging to different political parties in Beautiful Downtown Peshawar ...capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, administrative and economic hub for the Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan. Peshawar is situated near the eastern end of the Khyber Pass, convenient to the Pak-Afghan border. Peshawar has evolved into one of Pakistain's most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities, which means lots of gunfire... The army chief also assured the representatives of different political parties that no grand operation was being planned in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, saying that only intelligence-based operations (IBO) were being conducted against the murderous Moslems.
Calling Afghanistan brotherly and Islamic country, the army chief said Pakistain has always sought cordial ties with the neighbouring country.
''The only difference with Afghanistan is the presence of Fitna al-Khawarij [TTP murderous Moslems] in Afghanistan and the spread of terrorism in Pakistain from across the border, and it will remain so until they [Taliban rulers] resolve this matter,'' the army chief remarked.
''Is spreading chaos not a sin in the eyes of Allah?,'' the army chief remarked.
The army chief highlighted the importance of state saying: ''If there is state, there is politics. God Forbid, if there is no state, there is nothing at all.''
COAS Munir called for standing against terrorism without discrimination and prejudice.
''The situation will improve if we move together,'' he said, adding that humans are prone to committing mistakes but not learning from the blunders is even a bigger fault.
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.
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
[ZERO] Landlords in fire-stricken Los Angeles are jacking rents in violation of California law as thousands of residents seek shelter due to multiple fires burning in the area.
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State...
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president used to be Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and was chased out in 2014. Now it's the usual army officer type guy, Captain Ibrahim Traore, running things, who's just doing a bang-up job unless he's already been deposed...
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
[FoxNews]
...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland...
[IsraelTimes] Zarif claims Tehran ‘managed to detect’ bombs, doesn’t specify when incident occurred or mention Natanz; Blinken hints at opposition to Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities
......
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...every time you hear the phrase 
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm...
Despoiler of Deraa...
...the once and current oppressors of Afghanistan...
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