[IsraelTimes] Over 120 said wounded as Hezbollah supporters attempt to breach roadblocks on 60th day of ceasefire, ignoring Israeli warnings; IDF says withdrawal delayed due to Lebanese army
Hundreds of Lebanese attempted to reach southern villages near the border with Israel by force on Sunday morning, defying warnings by the Israel Defense Forces to stay away, as the ceasefire’s original 60-day deadline for Israel to withdraw its forces passed with troops remaining in parts of the country’s south.
The Lebanese health ministry said 22 people had been killed, including a Lebanese soldier, and some 124 had been maimed by IDF fire in southern Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... since the morning.
The crowds appeared to be largely made up of Hezbollah supporters. Hezbollah’s al-Manar television, broadcasting from several locations in the south, showed footage of residents moving toward villages in defiance of Israeli orders, some holding the terror group’s flag and images of Hezbollah fighters killed in the war, as well as slain Hezbollah chief His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> An Israeli military official told news hounds that hundreds of Lebanese, among them Hezbollah operatives, tried to reach villages in southern Lebanon while carrying out "provocations."
The official said the military had prepared for civilians attempting to reach the border villages at the end of the 60-day truce, despite its warnings.
The IDF said it opened fire on suspects who approached troops still deployed in southern Lebanon and who posed an "imminent threat." Troops also detained several suspects, according to the military.
"The IDF remains deployed in southern Lebanon, continues to operate in accordance with the ceasefire understandings between Israel and Lebanon, and is monitoring Hezbollah’s attempts to return to southern Lebanon. The IDF will operate against any threat posed to IDF troops and the State of Israel," the military said.
Israel has said that it needs to stay past the 60-day deadline because the Lebanese army has not deployed to all areas of southern Lebanon, as was agreed, to ensure that Hezbollah does not reestablish a military presence in the area. The Lebanese army has accused Israel of procrastinating in its withdrawal.
The military official said that discussions on extending the ceasefire to allow for the IDF’s gradual withdrawal to be completed were being held between Israeli political officials and the United States, and between the US and Lebanon.
Demonstrators on Sunday attempted to enter several villages in the border area to protest Israel’s failure to withdraw. Protesters were reported to breach or attempt to breach roadblocks that had been set up by both Lebanese and Israeli troops.
The Lebanese health ministry said that 22 people were killed, including a member of the Lebanese Armed Forces, and more than 124 were maimed, in several villages in southern Lebanon.
The Israeli military official said the IDF was aware of the claims, but the details regarding the killed Lebanese soldier were being looked into.
The IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson in a post on X addressed to the people of south Lebanon, accused Hezbollah of trying to "heat up the situation" and sending "rioters" to the border area. He said the Israeli army would "in the near future" inform them of places to which they could return.
"Hezbollah does not care about Lebanon’s interests. The images coming from some areas of southern Lebanon are evidence of that," Col. Avichay Adraee said.
"The defeated party is using all its media outlets to challenge Lebanon’s interests and to divert attention from the sin of its leaders who brought southern Lebanon to this reality."
The Lebanese army called on civilians to "exercise self-restraint" and follow its instructions.
In a statement, the Lebanese Armed Forces said it was accompanying civilians entering several villages in south Lebanon, "amid the Israeli enemy’s persistence in violating Lebanon’s illusory sovereignty, its attacks on citizens, causing deaders and maimed among them, and its refusal to abide by the ceasefire agreement and withdraw from the Lebanese territories it occupied."
Hezbollah, badly weakened by Israel during the war, has put the onus on the Lebanese state to ensure the IDF’s withdrawal, describing Israel’s failure to leave southern Lebanon by the deadline as a violation of the agreement.
"We are in our land and the enemy is the one who turned against the agreement and violated the agreement, and thus the people are the ones who are liberating their land with their own hands and blood," said Hezbollah politician Hassan Fadlallah, speaking to al-Manar.
"We want the state to play its role," he added.
Another Hezbollah politician, Ali Fayad, said on Saturday that Israel’s "excuses" were a pretext to "pursue a scorched earth policy" in border areas that would make the return of displaced residents impossible.
The ceasefire deal stipulates that Hezbollah pull back its forces north of the Litani River — about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the border — and dismantle any remaining military infrastructure in the south.
But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Friday that "the ceasefire agreement has not yet been fully enforced by the Lebanese state," so the Israeli military’s withdrawal would not yet take place despite the Sunday deadline.
Israeli forces have left coastal areas of southern Lebanon, but are still present in areas further east.
"The withdrawal process is conditional upon the Lebanese army deploying in southern Lebanon and fully and effectively enforcing the agreement, with Hezbollah withdrawing beyond the Litani River," a statement from Netanyahu’s office said.
It added that "the gradual withdrawal process will continue in full coordination with the United States," a key ally and one of the monitors of the ceasefire.
The White House said on Friday that a short, temporary ceasefire extension was urgently needed.
Lebanese President Joseph Aoun, who was head of the US-backed Lebanese army until parliament elected him head of state on January 9, called on the people of the south to exercise self-restraint and trust in the Lebanese military.
"Lebanon’s illusory sovereignty and territorial integrity are nonnegotiable, and I am following up on this issue at the highest levels to ensure your rights and dignity," he said in a statement.
Aoun spoke on Saturday with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, whose government is also involved in overseeing the truce. According to a statement from his office, Aoun spoke of the "need to oblige Israel to respect the terms of the deal in order to maintain stability in the south."
Aoun also said Israel must "end its successive violations, including the destruction of border villages... which would prevent the return of residents."
Macron’s office, in its summary of the conversation, said the French president had called on all parties to the ceasefire to honor their commitments as soon as possible.
The fragile ceasefire has generally held thus far, even as the warring sides have repeatedly traded accusations of violating it.
The IDF has continued to carry out frequent strikes that it says target Hezbollah fighters, and Lebanese state media has reported that Israeli forces have carried out demolitions in villages they control.
[IsraelTimes] IDF soldiers operating in southern Lebanon are continuing to locate weapons and Hezbollah infrastructure, the military says.
The IDF says troops of the 7th Armored Brigade, during scans in south Lebanon, found Russian-made anti-tank missiles, grenades, and assault rifles.
Additionally, in a joint operation with the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, the army says troops found several tunnels belonging to Hezbollah, some of which were used as weapon depots.
The weapons were seized and infrastructures were demolished.
[IsraelTimes] A man has been arrested and charged for allegedly vandalizing and attempting to set on fire the Newtown Synagogue near Sydney, Australia, earlier this month, the New South Wales Police Force says.
The arrest of a second suspect is also expected soon, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb says.
The Newtown Synagogue was attacked on January 11 before dawn, when vandals spray-painted red swastikas outside the synagogue’s entrance and tried to burn it down. Security videos showed two men working together.
The 33-year-old suspect was apprehended by Strike Force Pearl detectives in an overnight raid in Camperdown. Police also seized a number of items which have been taken for further examination. The suspect was first taken to St Vincent’s Hospital under police guard, and upon release was taken to the police station. He was charged with numerous crimes, including destroying property with fire and damaging property. The suspect was denied bail.
Numerous synagogues around Australia have been attacked since the firebombing of the Adass Synagogue in Melbourne attracted international attention in December. The day before the Newtown Synagogue was attacked, the Sydney Southern Synagogue was graffitied with the words “Hitler on top” and “Free Palestine.”
Strike Force Pearl was established in December 2024 after the arson attack on the Adass Synagogue to investigate antisemitic hate crimes in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. The team includes counter-terrorism and special tactics officers.
It was Strike Force Pearl’s ninth arrest, the New South Wales Police note.
[IsraelTimes] A day after a 33-year-old man was arrested for allegedly vandalizing and attempting to set fire to the Newtown Synagogue earlier this month, a second suspect has also been apprehended, Australia’s New South Wales Police Force says.
The 37-year-old man was caught this afternoon at a Darling Harbour hotel after Strike Force Pearl detectives located and tasered him. He was assessed by paramedics before being taken to a police station.
The Newtown Synagogue was attacked on January 11 before dawn, when vandals spray-painted red swastikas outside the synagogue’s entrance and tried to burn it down. Security videos showed that there were two men working together.
Strike Force Pearl was established in December 2024 after the arson attack on the Adass Synagogue to investigate antisemitic hate crimes in Sydney’s Eastern Suburbs. The team includes counter-terrorism and special tactics officers.
[IsraelTimes] Senior Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... politburo official Moussa Abu Marzouk tells the Saudi Al Arabiya news outlet that the terror group is not necessarily seeking to govern 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... Strip in the aftermath of the war it started with Israel on October 7, 2023.
He says that Hamas understands that, going forward, the governing body in the Strip will require both regional and international backing, including the support of Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> Last month, Hamas and the PA’s Fatah party agreed to create a committee to jointly administer postwar Gaza.
A draft proposal of the plan acquired by AFP showed that the committee would be comprised of 10-15 nonpartisan figures with authority on matters related to the economy, education, health, humanitarian aid and reconstruction.
It is unlikely that Israel would agree to the deal, as it has rejected any role for Hamas in Gaza, and has said it does not trust Abbas’s PA to run the enclave.
Dismissing Jerusalem’s say in the matter, Abu Marzouk tells Al Arabiya that Hamas leadership is "open to dialogue with all parties besides Israel" when it comes to formulating a plan for future control of the Gaza Strip.
He says that the group would be willing to negotiate the makeup of the Strip’s government with the US, as it believes that President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... "is a serious president" in light of the ceasefire and hostage release deal that he and his Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff helped finalize.
He nevertheless criticizes Trump for recent comments suggesting that the enclave should be cleared out and its population sent to Jordan and Egypt.
"No Paleostinian or Arab will accept Trump’s idea of displacement," he warns. "it will not succeed."
Thanks to @POTUS leadership, Belarus just unilaterally released an innocent American, ANASTASSIA Nuhfer, who was taken under JOE BIDEN! @ChrisWelbySmith from our team did a great job on this. 🇺🇸 PEACE THROUGH STRENGTH
[IsraelTimes] Government commission concludes Belgian National Railway Company should apologize for WWII transports; Holocaust restitution group pans outcome
Of course they have judged themselves, only to conclude they owe nothing to the Jews. Besides, almost all of them have died in the meantime, and the rest will die off soon enough — Belgium need only wait them out.
The Belgian railway company that sent Jews to Nazi death camps during World War II should not have to pay compensation to survivors, a panel commissioned by the Belgian government has concluded.
The official report, released on Friday, ended a five-year investigation into the role that the Belgian National Railway Company played in the Holocaust. Between 1942 and 1944, the railway carried more than 25,000 Jews and 353 Roma to Auschwitz and other concentration camps. Fewer than 1,200 people returned alive.
Belgium’s government opened an independent probe of the railway company, known by the acronym SNCB, in 2019. It invited a research center, the Study and Documentation Centre for War and Contemporary Society, to investigate the railway’s role in the Holocaust. Last week, a committee revealed its recommendations based on what the researchers learned.
The committee said that SNCB should offer an official apology to survivors and urged expanded Holocaust education and commemoration initiatives, but they stopped short of recommending reparations. Instead, they said the deportation trains were the "collective responsibility" of Belgian authorities and a silent, complacent Belgian public.
"The ultimate responsibility cannot therefore be attributed to a single person or even to a single company," said the report.
One member of the commission, Belgian Supreme Court Judge Sidney Berneman, spoke strongly against the report’s conclusions. Berneman’s parents were Holocaust survivors from Poland who settled in Antwerp after the war.
"It is with a bitter feeling that I must give the final report a resounding fail and cannot in good conscience endorse it," Berneman said. "The report does not honor the memory of thousands of Jews."
The finding drew swift condemnation from the World Jewish Restitution Organization, or WJRO, founded four decades ago to negotiate reparations for Holocaust survivors. The group’s president Gideon Taylor and COO Mark Weitzman said they were "very disappointed."
"To reject compensation from the perpetrator to the victim denies the moral obligation by SNCB to those it wronged," the group said in a statement. "Accepting responsibility means facing and dealing directly with individual victims."
The report comes as the number of survivors — and thus opportunities for restitution — dwindles. Fewer than 250,000 survivors were alive a year ago; the number is lower now.
Taylor and Weitzman pressed Belgium to compensate people urgently while they are still alive, noting that the annual mortality rate for Holocaust survivors is between eight and ten percent. January 27 marks International Holocaust Remembrance Day and the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
Belgium’s investigation follows similar moves in La Belle France and the Netherlands, where railway companies that shipped Holocaust survivors to death camps have successfully arrived at agreements for compensation. Dutch Railways said it would pay about $17,000 to each living survivor, while La Belle France’s SNCF railway negotiated payments of up to $100,000.
Meanwhile,
...back at the hanging, Butch continued with his last words, trying not to repeat himself too often...... Amsterdam’s public tram company last year announced that it would donate more than 100,000 euros to Jewish groups to divest itself of revenue generated by transporting local Jews to the Nazis.
WJRO rebuked the Belgian group for stepping away from those precedents and accused it of failing to cooperate with WJRO, which represents Belgian Holocaust survivors living abroad.
"Such consultations would have enabled the Committee to draw on a broader range of perspectives from Holocaust survivors and benefit from our expertise in restitution, fostering a more inclusive process that addresses the full scope of these injustices," said Taylor and Weitzman.
[IsraelTimes] PM’s office also says Hamas has sent how many 1st-phase captives are alive, with tally matching Israeli intelligence; IDF to allow Gazans to return to Strip’s north Monday morning
Israel announced Sunday night that a dispute over the implementation of the ceasefire and hostage deal with Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... 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... had been resolved, with the terror group set to release six hostages in two batches this week, including civilian woman Arbel Yehud and soldier Agam Berger.
Jerusalem also said Hamas had finally sent a list detailing the conditions of the remaining hostages set to be released in the ongoing, 42-day first phase of the ceasefire, which began on January 19. Both the failure to send this list by Saturday and Hamas’s failure to free Yehud before IDF servicewomen had been regarded by Israel as violations of the truce deal.
With those matters resolved, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the military would allow hundreds of thousands of displaced Gazooks to return to the Strip’s north through the Netzarim Corridor starting Monday morning.
Netanyahu’s office said Israel had reached the agreement with Hamas after "strong and determined negotiations," and reiterated that it would "not tolerate any violation of the agreement."
The statement came shortly after 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... ’s foreign ministry released similar details. The United States welcomed the developments and praised the Israeli government.
According to the agreement, Yehud, Berger and a third unnamed hostage will be released on Thursday. In addition, three more hostages will be freed on Saturday as scheduled.
NBC News previously reported that Keith Siegel, 65, a US native, would be released in the coming week, though there was no confirmation and it was unclear if this would happen on Thursday or Saturday.
In exchange for the hostages, Israel will free Paleostinian security prisoners — 30 for each civilian, and 50 for Berger including 30 murderous Moslems serving life sentences.
The fate of Yehud had become a major sticking point in the deal’s implementation, with Israel blocking the return of Paleostinians to northern Gaza after Hamas released four female soldiers on Saturday. Under the ceasefire and hostage release deal, the terror group had been required to prioritize the release of civilian women.
Yehud is being held by the Paleostinian 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... , which had reportedly been falsely describing her as a soldier and demanding more prisoners be released in return for her. The Kan public broadcaster reported Sunday evening that PIJ had agreed to classify her as a civilian, helping to resolve the crisis.
Hamas said Sunday that it had given guarantees that Yehud was alive and safe and would be released soon.
In another step that helped overcome the obstacles, the Prime Minister’s Office said late Sunday that it had received a document from Hamas regarding whether or not the remaining hostages slated for release in the first stage of the ceasefire deal were still alive.
Hebrew media outlets reported, citing unnamed senior Israeli officials, that the Hamas list only included an overall number of captives who are alive rather than a specification regarding each abductee.
However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt... the sources said the number checked out with the intelligence Israel has and didn’t contain "surprises."
Reports have previously stated Israel believes 25 of the total of 33 hostages slated for release in the first phase are alive. With seven captives already released alive over the past week, this would mean that 18 of the remaining 26 hostages are alive while eight are dead.
Yehud, 28, and her boyfriend Ariel Cunio, 26, were kidnapped from Kibbutz Nir Oz on October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas-led murderous Moslems stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking the war in Gaza.
Cunio’s older brother David is also in Hamas captivity. Neither is slated for release during the deal’s first phase, in which Hamas has committed to free 33 women, children, men over 50, and those considered especially unhealthy, in return for some 1,904 Paleostinian security prisoners.
With the release Saturday of female soldiers Naama Levy, Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa and Liri Albag, three Israeli women remain in captivity in Gaza: soldier Agam Berger and civilians Yehud and Shiri Silberman Bibas.
The civilian women were to be released alongside the two children still in captivity: Silberman Bibas’s sons Ariel, 5, and Kfir, 2. The Bibas’s relatives said Saturday that their "world came crashing down" when Hamas announced it would not be releasing Shiri, Ariel and Kfir over the weekend.
Yarden Bibas, Silberman Bibas’s husband and father of the boys, is included in the list of unhealthy men to be released toward the end of the agreement’s first phase. The IDF said of the Bibas family Saturday that Israel has "grave concerns for their fate."
GAZANS SET TO BE ALLOWED TO RETURN TO NORTH
The announcement of the imminent green light for the return of Gazooks to the Strip’s north came after tens of thousands massed Sunday on a coastal road in central Gaza near the Netzarim Corridor, an IDF-held area separating northern Gaza from its south.
The IDF said it had fired warning shots at those who approached forces and "posed a threat." In addition, the military said that in southern Gaza, troops eliminated a member of Paleostinian Islamic Jihad’s rocket unit, after he "posed a threat."
Under the ceasefire deal, the Israeli military was to allow Paleostinians to return to northern Gaza along the al-Rashid road starting Saturday, and was to withdraw from part of the Netzarim Corridor, along that road, by Sunday.
However,
denial ain't just a river in Egypt... Israel kept the passage closed, saying it would not allow Gazooks to reach the north of the Strip until Hamas arranged for the release of Yehud.
After that was overcome, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesperson tweeted that residents would be allowed to return northward on foot via the Netzarim Road and Rashid Street on the coast starting at 7 a.m. on Monday.
Vehicles would be allowed to pass through Salah a-Din Street in the east, after a security inspection, starting at 9 a.m., Avichay Adraee said.
Adraee also issued a series of warning to Gazooks, including not to transport terror operatives or weapons to northern Gaza; not to approach IDF positions and troops in Gaza or Israeli territory; not to near the Rafah Crossing and Philadelphi Corridor area in southern Gaza; and not to swim, dive or fish in the Mediterranean Sea in the coming days.
US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff described the latest Israel-Hamas agreements as "wonderful," shortly after they were announced.
"I talked to the president about it and he was thrilled about it," Witkoff told news hounds, hailing the role of Qatar and Israel in the talks.
[IsraelTimes] The Hamas terror group confirms that it will release Arbel Yehud and two other hostages “before Friday,” and that this is in addition to three hostages being set free on Saturday.
This confirms Israel’s version of the agreements, according to which Yehud, soldier Agam Berger and another captive will be released on Thursday in addition to three others on Saturday.
Hamas also says displaced residents of northern Gaza will be allowed to return to their homes this morning. The IDF has said the process will begin at 7 a.m.
[IsraelTimes] An anti-Israel journalist tried to accost a senior Israeli general who was on an official visit to London yesterday.
In a video shared by Declassified UK — a British investigatory news site — journalist Alex Morris can be seen approaching Maj. Gen. Oded Basiuk, the head of the IDF Operations Directorate, outside a building that houses a British security think tank, adjacent to the UK Ministry of Defence headquarters.
“General Basiuk, what did you discuss with the MoD?” Morris says as he approaches the IDF operations chief.
“Are you worried about the ICC investigating you for war crimes?” he says, as Basiuk heads inside the building.
Morris continues to shout: “Are you a war criminal, General Basiuk?”
The incident comes amid efforts by pro-Palestinian organizations to target Israeli soldiers and officers traveling abroad with criminal prosecution over the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza.
[IsraelTimes] A Gay Paree court sentences a Pak man to 30 years in jail for attempting to murder two people outside the former offices of Charlie Hebdo ...Pix/Charlie-Hebdo-Life-of-Mohammed-Part-1-238x350.jpgA lefty French satirical magazine, home of what may well be the majority if the active testicles left in Europe... in 2020 with a meat cleaver.
When he carried out the attack, 29-year-old Zaheer Mahmood
…more fully Zeheer Hassan Mehmood from Mandi Bahauddin in Punjab province, whose dear papa avowed himself terribly proud of his son for his actions. Of some small interest, when first arrested the miscreant was identified as Ali, age 18, and then as Hassan A., 18…
wrongly believed the satirical newspaper was still based in the building, which was targeted by Islamists a decade ago for publishing cartoons lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.
In fact, Charlie Hebdo had moved in the wake of the storming of its offices by two al-Qaeda-linked masked button men, who killed 12 people including eight of the paper’s editorial staff. The killings in January 2015 shocked La Belle France and triggered a fierce debate about freedom of expression and religion.
Originally from rural Pakistain, Mahmood arrived in La Belle France illegally in the summer of 2019. The court heard how Mahmood was influenced by radical Pak preacher Khadim Hussain Rizvi, who had called for the beheading of blasphemers.
Khadim Rizvi, who died in 2020, was the Punjabi founder of the Tehreek-e-Labbaik Pakistan party, which campaigned on the death penalty for blasphemers, the establishment of Sharia law, and calling out huge mobs to protest about such things.
Mahmood was convicted of attempted murder and terrorist conspiracy and he will be banned from La Belle France when his sentence is served.
[IsraelTimes] Half of community has considered leaving Britain due to antisemitism, according to the Campaign Against Antisemitism, with overwhelming majority saying authorities not doing enough.
Lots of statistics at the link that add up to British Jews feeling very unhappy. Two questions: how many will actually act on that unhappiness, and where they’d go — neither of which is answered in the article.
Only one-third of British Jews believe that Jews have a long-term future in the United Kingdom, and half have considered leaving Britain in the past two years due to antisemitism, according to a new survey published by the Campaign Against Antisemitism.
The survey of 4,078 British Jews, conducted in June 2024, was released Monday to coincide with International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Respondents were required to self-identify as Jewish and confirm that they lived in the United Kingdom, and were contacted through other Jewish organizations. Campaign Against Antisemitism conceded that it is possible that the numbers include duplicate responses.
The results reflect the sharp rise in antisemitism in the UK since October 7, 2023, when Hamas launched its war against Israel by invading, killing 1,200 in Israel and taking 251 hostages.
[IsraelTimes] Confirmation comes after French president last year tried to restrict Israeli businesses at arms fair and called for a halt to weapons exports to Israel over Gaza war.
Good. He demonstrates he is capable of learning, whatever his motivation happens to be in this case.
[IsraelTimes] Vandals deface an Israeli restaurant, Miriam, in the Park Slope neighborhood of Brooklyn, local officials say.
New York City Council member Shahana Hanif, who represents the area, posts an image showing the restaurant with red paint splattered on its door.
“Israel steals culture” and “genocide cuisine,” the graffiti says, according to the image.
Hanif says her office is in contact with police.
Other local officials condemn the vandalism.
“These kind of vile attacks are continuing after the ceasefire agreement,” Manhattan Borough President Mark Levine says on X. “This restaurant, Miriam, is a beloved Middle Eastern venue whose only offense appears to be that the owner is Jewish. Disgusting.”
[IsraelTimes] Handala group also reportedly sends intimidating text messages to tens of thousands of Israelis, claims to infiltrate National Security Ministry, which says it sees no breach
Iranian hacker group Handala infiltrated panic buttons in some 20 kindergartens Sunday morning, using the systems’ loudspeakers to broadcast rocket sirens and Arabic songs supportive of terrorism.
The systems, run by electronics firm Maagar-Tec, were disconnected, and the company said it was looking into the incident. The matter was also referred to the National Cyber Directorate.
Using another of the same company’s systems, Handala also sent intimidating text messages to tens of thousands of people, the Directorate said, adding that the messages posed no danger and that recipients should simply block the sender.
Handala also claimed to have broken into the National Security Ministry’s command and control system, and stolen from the ministry’s servers four terabytes of internal communications, video recordings, confidential documents and personal records of all coppers and firefighters.
The hacker group posted pictures that appeared to show a control panel for bomb shelters in central Israel, registrars of local police forces’ vehicles, coppers with their weapons, and civilians’ private gun licenses.
However,
Switzerland makes more than cheese... the Cyber Directorate and National Security Ministry said it had found nothing unusual on the ministry’s servers, Kan reported.
Last week, on a designated Telegram channel created on December 7, Handala had begun what it called a "countdown" to the alleged breach. On Thursday, the group posted an Arabic Koranic verse in which the Prophet Muhammad pledges to wipe out peoples, including Jews, who don’t accept Islam. On Friday and Saturday, the group posted threatening messages aimed at the National Security Ministry,
Iranian-backed hacker groups, some of which are thought to have ties to the government in Tehran, have repeatedly targeted Israeli infrastructure, companies and individuals in recent years. There has been a marked uptick since October 7, 2023, when thousands of Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... -led gunnies stormed southern Israel to kill some 1,200 people and take 251 hostages, sparking 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... . Israeli-linked groups have also claimed attacks on Iranian servers.
Iran’s leaders, who are sworn to destroy Israel, operate an "Axis of Resistance®" network of regional proxies to further that aim, including Hamas, 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.... ’s Hezbollah and 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... ’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s.
It is unclear if Handala is linked to the Iranian leadership, though the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s state-owned outlet PressTV has positively covered the "hacktivist" group.
Handala, whose name and logo derive from a Paleostinian cartoon character, has announced several attacks on Israeli security forces during the Gaza War.
It has posted what it said was personal data of former defense minister Benny Gantz, former foreign minister Gabi Ashkenazi and former prime minister Ehud Barak, though the pictures Handala posted had already been published.
The group also said it had stolen troves of data from the Soreq nuclear research center in September, and from the Shin Bet internal security agency in October. Neither alleged infiltration was confirmed.
[IsraelTimes] Iran says it arrested 13 adherents of the banned Baha’i faith, accusing them of proselytizing to children and adolescents, local media reported, drawing condemnation from an international organization representing Baha’is.
A statement yesterday by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ intelligence unit, carried by state media, says the arrests were made in the central city of Isfahan.
It says the 13 arrested “were acting illegally and were indirectly promoting their ideological deviation by exploiting children and adolescents.” It does not elaborate.
The Baha’i International Community, which represents the faith worldwide, says in a statement that the arrested women “were facilitating simple children’s classes – arresting them is the equivalent of arresting people for teaching Sunday school.”
Simin Fahandej, representative of the Baha’i International Community to the UN in Geneva, describes the arrests as a senseless act against innocent women.
Last month a group of UN special rapporteurs expressed serious concern at what they described as a rise in systematic targeting of Baha’i women in Iran, including through arrests, interrogation and enforced disappearances. The Iranian government said in response that Baha’i women faced no restrictions.
The Islamic Republic considers the Baha’i faith a heretical offshoot of Islam.
Its faithful see Baha’i as an independent religion and its more than five million followers are spread across more than 190 countries.
Exiled Baha’i leaders say hundreds of followers have been jailed and executed since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Israel is home to around 12,000 members of the Baha’i faith, and the spiritual and administrative center of the religion is located in the northern Israel cities of Haifa and Acre.
[IsraelTimes] Bishara Bahbah says Palestinians need not leave Gaza for reconstruction to take place, suggests relocation idea was by aides who are far more hawkish than the president
The chairman of a group that lobbied Arab and Moslem Americans to vote for Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... in the recent election came out strongly on Sunday against the US president’s call for Jordan and Egypt to take in Paleostinians from war-torn 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... "We categorically reject the president’s suggestion that the Paleostinians in Gaza be moved — apparently forcefully — to either Egypt or Jordan," Arab Americans for Trump chairman Bishara Bahbah told The Times of Israel.
"What the Paleostinians need right now is a continuation of the ceasefire, more aid, a reconstruction plan and for the Paleostinian Authority to take over the Gaza Strip," he said.
The PA will not be taking over Gaza — they’ve already demonstrated conclusively they are not capable of holding it, so what would be the point?
"We don’t need wildish claims or statements relating to the fate of the Paleostinians. The only resolution to the Israel-Paleostine question is a two-state solution. Period," added Bahbah, who did not provide his organization’s size but insisted that it played a central role in electing Trump and represents a majority of the views of the 3.8 million Arab Americans.
There may be a Palestinian state someday, but probably not in this generation. The Palestinians need to grow up quite a bit before they are ready to take on the responsibilities of self rule.
After this story was published, Sam Yono, an Iraqi-American community activist asserted to The Times of Israel that Bahbah "only represents himself, not the Arab-Americans who worked with the Trump campaign in Michigan."
Asked for his thoughts on Trump’s comments regarding Gaza, Yono acknowledged that he wasn’t particularly familiar with the issue but that he trusted the president’s judgement.
Trump did win a plurality of the Arab and Moslem vote in Michigan, flipping a swing state that former US president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. This Is A Man That Does Not Seem Demented... won in 2020.
While Trump told news hounds Saturday the relocation of Paleostinians that he currently envisions could be temporary, Bahbah doesn’t buy that would be the case. "There is nothing that is temporary."
"This is not what we voted for as Arab Americans for Trump," he said, adding that his group still greatly appreciates Trump’s effort in securing the long-elusive Gaza ceasefire and hostage release deal.
"He promised us an end to the wars, a lasting peace in the Middle East, which is satisfactory to all parties," Bahbah continued. "This might be satisfactory to [far-right Israeli politicians Itamar] Ben Gvir and [Bezalel] Smotrich, but it’s not satisfactory to the Paleostinians and the Arabs."
Asked how the idea Trump raised may have come about, he speculated that Trump saw pictures of Gaza’s devastation and determined that it needed to be "swept from end to end."
However,
Caliphornia hasn't yet slid into the ocean, no matter how hard it's tried... Bahbah argued the reconstruction process could be done gradually and that Paleostinians need not be forced to leave the Strip for it to take place.
He claimed that Trump’s advisers are far "more hawkish" than the president and are counseling him accordingly.
"They’re absolutely hawkish to the point where they’ve told me not to talk to them about a two-state solution and to come up with any other alternative. But there is none," Bahbah asserted.
He declined to name the aforementioned aides, but his group put out a separate statement saying many of Trump’s Arab and Moslem appointees are "old timers who played little role in his reelection or who are little aware of the communities’ priorities and concerns."
"The president has said to me that he supports a two-state solution. He has also said that he doesn’t care whether it’s one state or two states, but apparently, some of these advisors are getting to him and putting ideas in his mind," he maintained.
The Arab Americans for Trump chair speculated that pushback from Egypt, Jordan, the PA and the international community will lead to the shelving of Trump’s proposal.
Both Jordan and the PA quickly denounced the proposal.
"But if he doubles down, the Arab world has money to make up for US aid," Bahbah added, referring to the massive amounts of aid that Washington provides to Egypt and Jordan that could well be used as leverage to coax them into taking in Paleostinians.
A brilliant idea. The Arab nation can well afford to support their poorer members without involving Uncle Sugar.
Trump said Saturday that he’d like to see Jordan, Egypt and other Arab nations increase the number of Paleostinian refugees they are accepting from the Gaza Strip — potentially moving out enough of the population to "just clean out" the war-torn area and create a virtual clean slate.
The proposal has to date been a red line for Arab states, particularly Jordan and Egypt, which have viewed the mass migration of Paleostinians to their countries as a potential existential threat. They have pointed to Israel’s refusal to publicly commit to allowing any Paleostinians who leave the Strip to later return, and don’t want to be seen as complicit in an exile of Paleostinians.
The fear of being unable to return has also deterred many Paleostinians from leaving. Over 100,000 Gazooks did succeed in entering Egypt, though they were forced to pay exorbitant to do so and have largely not received any assistance upon arrival, as Cairo refuses to recognize them as refugees.
The Biden administration also initially considered the idea of temporarily relocating some of the population early on in the war, as it sought to move Paleostinians out of harm’s way, but so adamant were Jordan and Egypt in their refusal that it quickly shelved the notion.
But Trump, known for often snubbing traditional foreign policy norms, sought to bring back the idea of mass Paleostinian migration to neighboring countries on Saturday as his new administration tries to sustain the nascent ceasefire in Gaza and plan for the Strip’s reconstruction, while over two million people remain in a territory overwhelmingly destroyed by the past 15 months of war.
During a 20-minute question-and-answer session with news hounds aboard Air Force One, Trump described Gaza as a "demolition site" after the Israel-Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... war. He said he had spoken to Jordan’s King Abdullah II about the issue and expected to talk to Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi on Sunday.
The White House readout on the call with the Jordanian monarch was light on details, saying the pair "discussed the importance of regional peace, security, and stability."
Trump filled in some of the details on Air Force One, saying he had told Abdullah, "I’d love you to take on more because I’m looking at the whole Gaza Strip right now and it’s a mess, it’s a real mess. I’d like him to take people."
When asked if this was a temporary or long-term suggestion, Trump said: "Could be either."
"You’re talking about probably a million and a half people, and we just clean out that whole thing. You know, over the centuries it’s had many, many conflicts, that site. And I don’t know, something has to happen," Trump said.
In October, during his presidential campaign, the former real estate developer said that war-torn Gaza could be "better than Monaco" if it were "rebuilt the right way."
"It’s literally a demolition site right now. Almost everything is demolished and people are dying there," Trump said in his Saturday comments. "So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing at a different location where they can maybe live in peace for a change."
[IsraelTimes] Jordan’s FM also rejects suggestion, after US president says he discussed it with King Abdullah; Hamas politburo vows Palestinians will ‘foil such projects’ as they have in past
#4
Of course everyone conveniently forgets that both Gaza, then in Egypt, and the West Bank, then in Jordan, were 'temporary relocation' sites for Arabs who self-displaced during the 1948 war.
#8
I can see why Jordan would not want them, based on historical experiences. As for Egypt, it has enough problems already.
Where can you go when you've gone too far? Given that the Paleo cultural skill set consists mainly of Juice-hating, I propose Iran as their new homeland.
[FOX] Fox News host Mark Levin traces the history behind birthright citizenship on ’Life, Liberty & Levin’ after President Donald Trump signed an executive order to ban the practice.
[Breitbart] An Ohio woman reportedly froze to death overnight in her yard while letting her dog outside this week.
Deputies with the Huron County Sheriff’s Office found 43-year-old Eugenia Michele Wadman dead in her yard after responding to a 911 call just before 11:00 a.m. on Sunday, according to a report by WKYC.
The emergency call reported an unresponsive person at an address on Hanville Corners Road in Willard, Ohio
…population approximately 6,200…
— located in Huron County — approximately 60 miles southwest of Cleveland.
Authorities said Wadman apparently fell on snow and ice in her yard while she took her dog outside during the night “wearing only light pajamas.”
The 43-year-old woman “appeared to have fallen and sustained injuries consistent with struggling and crawling on the snow- and ice-covered yard,” the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies also disclosed that Wadman was already dead when EMS and law enforcement arrived at the scene, adding that they do not suspect foul play.
Ohio authorities said that hypothermia likely set in “quickly” due to temperatures hovering around 20 degrees around the time Wadman appeared to have fallen in her yard.
The sheriff’s office also noted that medical conditions may have contributed to the woman’s death.
An investigation into Wadman’s death is currently being conducted while officials wait to receive full autopsy results.
[Breitbart] Sorry, President Trump! UK to Backtrack on Boosting Defence Spending to Avoid Welfare Cuts
The British government simply can’t afford to fund its military to the NATO standard demanded by alliance leader America due to its dwindling economy, it is claimed.
Of course. They’re spending all their money on illegal migrants and Moslem colonists. Decline is a choice.
U.S. President Donald Trump, in a bid to reverse the situation where Washington massively subsidises the defence of NATO member states while Europe gets a free ride, has recently told the alliance they need to increase their members’ annual military spending to five per cent of GDP. This is double the target President Trump and the alliance were previously advocating at 2.5 per cent, itself a meaningful increase from the two per cent the alliance had been trying to persuade its members to hit for years.
Even now, several major economies in NATO are well behind the decade-old remedial minimum of two per cent, with Spain being the worst offender at less than 1.3 per cent of their economy spent on defence. Trump has recently threatened Spain with tariffs if it doesn’t meet its obligations to NATO.
The United Kingdom has long been one of NATO’s best performers in terms of defence spending, part of the second-tier of members behind the United States, even if this distinction is from a very low bar. Yet the British government’s previous promises to hit 2.5 per cent soon, never mind President Trump’s ambitions to make Europe a credible deterrent to Russia without totally relying on America, appear to be on the verge of being broken.
British newspaper of record, The Times of London, cites an unnamed government source who says the state simply can’t afford it, as it has other spending priorities. This person is claimed to have told the paper: “If we try to hit the target by 2030 it will mean deeper cuts to public services in the run-up to the election. It feels like a non-starter.”
The same newspaper noted Monday morning that the UK is facing an economic downturn. This is a “setback to the government’s growth plans,” they said, somewhat generously, given that many would dispute that repeated tax hikes and punishment of the nation’s wealthier residents constitute a growth plan at all.
The six-month-old Labour government of Sir Keir Starmer is presently undertaking a defence spending strategic review, a byword in British politics for the repeated investigations into how to cut defence capabilities to save money that has periodically occurred since the end of the Second World War. Yet, all the rhetoric surrounding the threat of Russia that emanates constantly from London does not appear to have shifted the government away from its defence-cutting ways.
The paper further quotes a military source who said of the attitude from the government: “The Treasury is putting its fingers in its ears again, saying it has to be 2.3 per cent, maybe it can be 2.5 per cent in the distant future. But that is going to lead to some very bad headlines about cuts to the military at a time of war in Europe”. The Times says the government did not meaningfully confirm or deny anything when confronted with these assertions.
The matter of spending priorities — whether on cash for welfare or defence and deterrence wins — has been a matter of emphasis for the NATO leadership this past year, with top officials in the alliance repeatedly making clear that members will likely have to sacrifice some creature comforts to guarantee the nation-state.
NATO’s Admiral Rob Bauer said last year: “If you ramp up your deterrence and if you ramp up support to Ukraine, there will be less money to spend on other things. It will take away some of our luxuries, it will require sacrifice.”
Secretary-General Mark Rutte said in December: “I know spending more on defence means spending less on other priorities. But it is only a little less. On average, European countries easily spend up to a quarter of their national income on pensions, health and social security systems. We need a small fraction of that money to make our defences much stronger, and to preserve our way of life.”
Prime Minister Sir Keir and President Trump spoke for the first time since the inauguration on Sunday. While the 45-minute conversation was said to be cordial, the official readouts from the talk suggest they managed to avoid talking about the most contentious issues, including defence spending, the Ukraine war, and Starmer’s ambitions to give away the land underneath an important American military base.
[Breitbart] A “committee” widely cited in the media as opposing the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Health and Human Services turns out to be a Bill Gates-backed “Astroturf” organization that accepts fake signatories.
The “Committee to Protect Health Care,” cited by NBC News and others, published an open letter declaring that doctors are “appalled by Donald Trump’s reckless decision” to appoint Kennedy. Thousands are said to have signed.
However, there is no verification process for signatories. (Breitbart News was able to sign up as Dr. Donald Duck, OG, of Disney World, FL, specializing in podiatry.) The anti-Kennedy petition simply accepts any signature from anyone.
Others have tried the same experiment, including fitness influencer Jillian Michaels and provocateur Alex Jones.
The Committee to Protect Health Care is a 501(c)4 organization, meaning that it does not have to reveal its donors.
However, a related 501(c)3 charity, The Committee to Protect Health Care Fund, does have to reveal its donors. It is funded in part by the “left-of-center Sixteen Thirty Fund (1630 Fund) and Hopewell Fund.” The Hopewell Fund, in turn, has “hired Arabella Advisors, a leading national philanthropy services firm, to manage its project hosting and fiscal sponsorship services.” The Sixteen Thirty Fund is likewise managed by the Arabella Advisors organization.
I’d like Egypt to take people and I’d like Jordan to take people. You’re talking about probably a million and a half people and we just clean out that whole thing and say, “You know it’s — over the centuries, it’s had many, many conflicts. And … something has to happen.” It’s literally a demolition site … So I’d rather get involved with some of the Arab nations and build housing in a different location, where they can maybe live in peace. … Could be temporary, could be long-term.
[PopulistTimes] Michigan Caseworker Stabbed Multiple Times by an Afghan Refugee He Resettled.
A Michigan refugee worker was severely stabbed multiple times by an Afghan refugee he was assisting in settling into the country.
Deputies in Oakland County, Michigan, said they responded to an emergency call from a man in Orion Township “who had been stabbed multiple times.” "I've been punctured by Cultural Differences!"
On arrival, they found the caseworker with “very serious” injuries while the assailant had escaped with the victim’s vehicle.
While an investigation was ongoing to determine the cause of the attack, authorities believe the incident was isolated and did not involve other people. Subsequently, the attacker did not pose any danger to other Michigan residents.
No doubt it will be discovered the stabbing resulted from a cultural miscommunication, meaning the man will very likely react in the same way to similar triggers. In other words, he is most definitely a danger to others. Send him back to Afghanistan.
“We don’t know specifically what his complaint was or his motive was because the individual that was attacked is in surgery, as we speak,” said Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard, according to Fox2Detroit. “He was stabbed multiple times.”
Law enforcement authorities later apprehended the suspect while the victim, who was in serious condition, underwent surgery, which was successful by Thursday morning.
“The suspect is in custody and there is no indication there is anyone else involved or any danger to the community,” said Bouchard.
The caseworker was attached to Samaritas, formerly Lutheran Social Services of Michigan. The attacker’s immigration status and motive for the attack remain unreported. However, it was reported that the Afghan immigrant tracked the caseworker to his home before severely attacking him.
The stabbing incident occurred as authorities continued to round up hundreds of violent illegal immigrants across the country.
The attack also coincided with the Senate approving the Laken Riley Act, with 12 Democrats crossing the floor to support the measure. The legislation now heads to Trump’s desk for signing. It mandates the detention of illegal immigrants arrested for various petty offenses, including theft and shoplifting. ICE has already made 420 detainer requests related to the ongoing operation.
[FoxNews] The annual House GOP retreat this week is held at Trump National Doral in Miami
House Republicans are flying down to South Florida this week for their annual issues conference, where President Donald Trump is expected to speak with lawmakers hashing out the GOP agenda for the next two years.
It’s another sign of the House GOP conference’s push for unity with Trump that the conference is being held at Trump National Doral, his golf course and resort near Miami.
"He’s going to come and address the Republicans there, and we’re looking forward to that," Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., confirmed to reporters last week.
Trump has made no secret of his intent to keep a close eye on the Republican majorities in the House and Senate this year, particularly as they discuss how to use their numbers to pass a massive conservative policy overhaul via the budget reconciliation process.
By reducing the threshold for Senate passage from 60 votes to a 51-seat simple majority, reconciliation allows a party in control of both congressional chambers to enact sweeping changes, provided they’re relevant to budgetary and fiscal policy.
Meanwhile, lawmakers are also contending with the debt ceiling being reinstated this month after it was temporarily suspended in a bipartisan deal during the Trump administration.
And coming on March 14 is the deadline to avert a partial government shutdown, which Congress has extended twice since the end of the previous fiscal year on Oct. 1.
"I think obviously everyone is ready to get to work," Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., told Fox News Digital. "With President Trump’s inauguration behind us, now we’re focused on the task at hand – everything from the border to the tax package, energy and defense and national security, and our debt. What we need to do over the next two years to really fulfill the agenda that we laid out for the American people."
Lawler said he anticipated reconciliation would be a key focus of Trump’s remarks.
With razor-thin margins in the House and Senate, Republicans can afford few dissenters if they are going to get to the finish line.
Lawler is one of several Republicans who have drawn red lines in the discussions, vowing not to vote for a reconciliation bill that does not lift state and local tax (SALT) deduction caps – limits that have put a strain on suburban districts outside major cities.
He was realistic about setting expectations for their short Florida trip but was optimistic Republicans would eventually come together.
"I think we’re in the middle of the process and, you know, this is obviously not going to be resolved over these three days," Lawler said. "But this is, I think, an important opportunity for everyone to really sit down and spend their time going through a lot of these issues."
President Donald Trump will sign an executive order to reinstate service members booted from the military for declining to get COVID-19 vaccine jabs, according to the White House.
"The Executive Order directs the Secretary of Defense to reinstate all members of the military (active and reserve) who were discharged for refusing the COVID vaccine and who request to be reinstated," according to the White House fact sheet.
The service members who are reinstated will be restored to their prior rank, and will be provided back pay and benefits, according to the fact sheet.
"From 2021 to 2023, the Biden Administration and former Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin discharged over 8,000 troops solely due to their COVID-19 vaccination status," the fact sheet notes. "After the vaccine mandate was repealed in 2023, only 43 of the more than the 8,000 troops dismissed elected to return to service under the Biden Administration and Secretary Austin."
During his inauguration speech, Trump pledged to make the move.
"This week I will reinstate any service members who were unjustly expelled from our military for objecting to the COVID vaccine mandate, with full back pay," the president declared during remarks on Jan. 20.
During a campaign speech last year, Trump promised to rehire service members who were dismissed over the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, saying they would get back pay plus an apology from the government.
#2
46 minutes on the DNC broadcast system doesn't match a few postings on X or Truth Social. Very expensive and ever growing useless propaganda operation you got there. Your remaining audience is literally dying off.
[BBC] Swedish authorities have seized a ship suspected of damaging a data cable running under the Baltic Sea to Latvia.
The Vezhen - a Maltese-flagged ship - is now anchored outside the Swedish port of Karlskrona.
Prosecutors said an initial investigation pointed to sabotage. An inquiry has been launched involving Sweden's police, military and coast guard.
Images shared by Swedish media showed that the ship appeared to have a damaged anchor.
However, on Monday, Bulgarian shipping company Navigation Maritime Bulgare, which listed the Vezhen among its fleet, said one of the ship's anchors dropped to sea floor in high winds and that there was no malicious intent.
On Sunday, Latvia's military reported that three ships were seen in the area where the damage occurred.
Less than a month ago, Nato launched a new mission in the Baltic Sea in response to repeated attacks on underwater power and telecom cables — some of which have been blamed on Russia.
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina said her country was working closely with Sweden and Nato in response to the incident.
The cable belongs to Latvia's state broadcaster, LVRTC, which said in a statement there had been "disruptions in data transmission services", but that end users would be mostly unaffected.
Earlier this month, Nato launched its new Baltic Sentry mission, after several cables under the Baltic Sea were damaged or severed in 2024.
Nato chief Mark Rutte said the mission would involve more patrol aircraft, warships and drones.
While Russia was not directly singled out as a culprit in the cable damage, Rutte said Nato would step up its monitoring of Moscow's "shadow fleet" - ships without clear ownership that are used to carry embargoed oil products.
Rutte said there was "reason for grave concern" over infrastructure damage, adding that Nato would respond to future incidents robustly, with more boarding of suspect vessels and, if necessary, their seizure.
Finnish police said late last year they were investigating whether a Russian ship was involved in the sabotage of an electricity cable running between Finland and Estonia.
[X] Apropo of the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz: Israel has five nuclear-equipped submarines. Each carries several ballistic missiles, and each missile can deliver several nuclear warheads. Each boat can destroy every city of size in the Middle East, Central Asia and Pakistan. When we say, "Never again," we mean it in deadly earnest. Hate us all you want, but mess with us at your peril.
#4
Deterrence is the foundation of Western security.
When the enemy fears the consequences of an attack he will not attempt an attack.
Objectively, maintaining and strengthening deterrence would be a vital security interest of all Western nations.
Why then, was Western consensus policy, especially after 9/11, a policy that did maximally erode deterrence, by making enemies and potential enemies hate us more and fear us less?
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The shocking truth about a Chinese spy balloon that entered US airspace last year has finally been revealed.
Panic swept the nation when officials spotted a massive, white balloon float over the Canadian border in February 2023.
While the Chinese government insisted it was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course, it floated near Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, home to some of America's intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs).
The mysterious trajectory led to officials ordering it be shot down, sending an Air Force F-22 Raptor over the Atlantic Ocean to get the job done.
Glen VanHerck, retired Air Force general who led the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) told the National Post that officials only contacted him when the balloon was nearly over Alaska - two weeks before it crossed into the Lower 48.
He immediately scrambled two Raptor stealth fighters and two armed F-16s to deal with the balloon, but due to it not posing a physical threat the jets had to stand down until President Joe Biden gave the greenlight.
Now, more than a year later, VanHerck said he should have been warned about the spy balloon in advance. Reports have since suggested that U.S. intelligence may have been aware of the balloon from the moment it launched from Hainan Island in China.
'It's a failure of multiple intelligence, Department of Defense agencies. I should not get surprised by something that's coming into my area of responsibility … Anybody who knows about it should pass that on. It shouldn't be less than 24 hours notice.'
This is why President Trump brought in all his disrupters to head the various agencies.
News broke about two days before the take down that a Chinese spy balloon, the size of three buses, was spotted floating over Montana for day.
Biden was briefed two days before the take down and after it was spotted and reported by civilians in a commercial airliner.
The president suggested the high-altitude balloon should be shot down, but the Pentagon opposed the move, fearing civilian casualties if the giant balloon explodes in the air.
'The United States government has detected and is tracking a high-altitude surveillance balloon that is over the continental United States right now,' Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told NBC News.
'We continue to track and monitor it closely.'
The Chinese government insisted that the device was a civilian meteorological device that had blown off course, but after the balloon altered course and passed over sensitive nuclear sites, it was shot down with a Sidewinder missile fired from an Air Force F-22 Raptor over the Atlantic ocean.
'The balloon opened up eyes,' said Glen VanHerck, a now-retired U.S. air force general who commanded NORAD (North American Aerospace Defense Command) during the balloon's incursion into U.S. airspace.
VanHerck told the National Post that the balloon highlighted how attacks could arrive without warning, 'We're not going to see long-range cruise missiles. We're not going to see balloons over the horizon.
'Today, with missiles being fired off submarines, missiles being fired off aircraft, missiles being fired from the land well beyond curvature-of-the-Earth ranges, your time is limited to respond to those types of things.'
VanHerck said that although NORAD had been warned the previous year by U.S. intelligence sources about similar balloons, he 'knew immediately it would be a huge deal' as he was notified of the arrival of the craft.
Alarms were raised at NORAD after the balloon changed course, heading south on a trajectory that would take it over Idaho, which borders Montana, where a military base and nuclear missile silos are located.
Military officials hatched a plan to shoot down the balloon, but waited until it was over water, to minimize the risks to U.S. civilians and infrastructure.
Colorado-based NORAD dates from the Cold War and has a mission to deal with air- and space-based threats including nuclear missile attacks - and held back from shooting down the missile over fears that debris would fall in a seven-mile radius.
Vanherck, a former fighter and bomber pilot, had prepared for the arrival of a Chinese spy balloon, researching whether balloons which can float as high as 80,000 feet were still within U.S jurisdiction (his legal advisers told him that U.S. sovereignty extends all the way to space).
He said, 'I told my team it was just a matter of time before one of these approaches North America.'
VanHerck says that the intelligence community only got in touch on January 27, 2023, when the balloon was almost over Alaska's Aleutian Islands.
So the new storyline is the DOD leaders that the Biden Puppet masters picked to run things are to blame. Well NO! Because, the Biden puppet masters had ultimate control over each of them.
What if one of these floating CCP balloons were like the WWII Nippon Fu-Go balloon bombs that cause havoc along the West coast in 1943-1945?
#3
The president suggested the high-altitude balloon should be shot down, but the Pentagon opposed the move, fearing civilian casualties if the giant balloon explodes in the air.
A controlled shoot down of a high altitude balloon over a sparsely populated area would have happened kilometers away from any human being, let alone any civilian.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Haitian migrants have turned to religion amid the looming threat of deportation under the presidency of Donald Trump - who accused them of eating their neighbors' pets on the campaign trail.
The First Haitian Evangelical Church of Springfield, Ohio was jam-packed with parishioners on the first Sunday service since President Trump's inauguration as immigration raids take place across the country.
'I asked God to protect my people,' Reverend Reginald Silencieux said after the service.
'I prayed especially for the Haitian community, and I prayed for U.S.A. too, because Trump is our president. As a church, we have an obligation to pray for him because he's our political leader right now.'
The town was thrust into the national spotlight during the presidential campaign when Trump accused Haitians in Springfield of eating their neighbor's cats and dogs.
Now, migrants in the community are concerned that they will be targeted and sent packing, as Trump authorizes ICE raids across the nation.
Many had come to receive a blessing and hear guidance on how to deal with federal agents in case of raids stemming from President Trump's crackdown on immigration.
Other congregants stayed home out of fear and growing uncertainty.
Community leaders say many of Springfield's estimated 15,000 Haitians are overwhelmed by fears Trump will end or let expire the Temporary Protected Status program that allows them to remain in the U.S. legally.
'The community is panicking.' Viles Dorsainvil, leader of Springfield's Haitian Community Help and Support Center, told AP.
'They see the arrests on TV in other parts of the country and they don't know what's going to happen.
'The majority of immigrants in the U.S.A. are not criminals, and they're hard-working people.'
Haitian community leader Jacob Payne has been guiding locals with immigration forms, employment authorization cards and questions on their TPS applications.
'Before, we had a different type of fear - it was a fear of retaliation, whether it was the far right, the Proud Boys,' Payne said.
'Now, there's a fear of deportation. That keeps a lot of people from going out and has caused a lot of people to have left,' he said.
But anti-immigrant sentiment has been on the rise in Springfield after false rumors spread that cats and dogs were being stolen - and eaten - by Haitian migrant communities.
The rumors spread like wildfire following a social media post in September 2024 that a local cat had been mutilated and exacerbated fears in the mostly white, blue-collar city of about 59,000.
Trump repeated the rumor, and additionally claimed dogs were also being eaten, at his debate with Kamala Harris and in the weeks that followed, schools, government buildings and the homes of elected officials were targeted with dozens of bomb threats.
Thousands of temporary Haitian migrants legally arrived in Springfield in recent years under the TPS program, as longstanding unrest in their home country has given way to violent gangs ruling the streets.
'Everything changed because Trump is president. People are scared right now. Most are staying in their homes — they don't want to go outside,' said Romane Pierre, 41, who settled in Springfield in 2020 under the TPS program after fleeing violence in his native Haiti.
'I love my country, but you can't live there; it's terrible right now,' said Pierre, who works at the Rose Gaute, a popular Haitian restaurant in Springfield. 'So where do you go back to?'
The TPS, which allows him and thousands of others to remain legally in Springfield, expires on February 2026. He still hopes Trump will keep in mind the violence in Haiti and renew it.
'Think about Haitians because Haiti is not a place to return to right now,' he said. 'God, talk to Mr. Trump and do something for Haitians.'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Axial Seamount, a massive underwater volcano located nearly 300 miles off the Oregon coast, is showing signs of an imminent eruption.
This 3,600-foot-tall volcano, which spans 1.25 miles across and sits 4,626 feet beneath the Pacific Ocean's surface, is currently experiencing significant swelling and rumbling, indicating a buildup of magma.
Volcanologists predict an eruption before the end of 2025, but despite its activity, scientists remain unconcerned.
Mike Poland, a scientist at the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory, expressed excitement about this event, highlighting Axial Seamount as one of the world's best-monitored submarine volcanoes.
'This particular volcano is probably the best-monitored submarine volcano in the world,' he told Cowboy State Daily. 'It's fascinating and doesn't really pose a hazard.'
Situated along the Juan de Fuca Ridge, a chain of undersea volcanoes extending between Oregon and Alaska, Axial Seamount is a young shield volcano - a broader volcano with a low profile.
Its resemblance to Mauna Loa, Earth's largest active volcano, and the typical non-explosive nature of shield volcano eruptions, lessens the concern among volcanologists about the imminent eruption.
'When Axial Seamount erupts, it'll look a lot like a Hawaiian lava flow eruption,' he said. 'It's not an explosive eruption, but calm effusions of lava flowing out of the caldera and across the seafloor.'
#8
Now, now. Kilauea is a shield volcano on Hawaii's Big Island that is also currently erupting, or at least has been erupting recently, without earthquakes of any note or tsunamis. The sulfur dioxide gets into the air and causes what the locals call "vog" which is irritating for some and the lava flows often result in a great deal of property damage. But the flows move slowly giving people a chance to flee. Submerged shield volcanoes are famous for growing into islands of which the Hawaiian Island chain is probably the most famous. A new island off the Oregon coast would be interesting.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2025 11:58
Comments ||
Top||
[IsraelTimes] An Australian university is under fire for including a lecture with "disturbing" antisemitic messages in a conference on fighting racism.
The "National Symposium on Unifying Anti-Racist Research and Action" at Queensland University of Technology (QUT) on Wednesday included a talk by Sarah Schwartz, an executive officer of the Jewish Council of Australia. The organization, founded last year, strongly opposes Israel’s policies regarding the Paleostinians.
During her presentation, Schwartz showed a slide onstage mocking Australian opposition leader Peter Dutton, a known supporter of Israel. In a video from the talk leaked on X, she displayed a cartoon character captioned "Dutton’s Jew," which was labeled with characteristics like "Hates Paleostinians, Arabs and Moslems" and "Thinks of antisemitism as the only form of racism."
"The reality is that for Dutton and his ilk, us Jews are the perfect avatars for peddling racism, Islamophobia ...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do... , anti-immigrant sentiment," Schwartz said in her talk.
Some of my friends used secret recording devices to film this insane “anti-racist” conference at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia.
This is their section on Jews. “THE RIGHT WING USE JEWS AS THE PERFECT AVATAR FOR PEDDLING RACISM AND ISLAMOPHOBIA”… pic.twitter.com/gqeLpHdJpM
Jewish leaders have been incensed at the talk. The New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies called the lecture "perverse and disturbing" in a statement on X, and called on Education Minister Jason Clare to sanction the university.
Dutton, meanwhile, called the event a "disgrace."
Responding to the incident, QUT Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Sheil said in a statement "I understand why the presentation has caused significant offense, and I am sorry for the hurt caused to anyone within, and outside, the QUT community."
"I will undertake to review the circumstances of this presentation and take any action necessary," She added, "It is equally important that this is done in a way that is respectful and safe."
Shwartz defended her speech on social media.
In my presentation, I referred to Dutton’s racist conception of Jewish people as ’Dutton’s Jew’ — Dutton’s racist conception of Jews, not actual Jewish people," she wrote. "Only opportunists could wilfully misrepresent my point, which is that Peter Dutton is exploiting the rise in antisemitism for political gain."
"My speech was part of a comedy event making fun of racists," she concluded. "If we didn’t laugh we’d cry."
[IsraelTimes] Two Iranian cargo ships are set to transport a key ingredient for missile propellant from China to Iran in the coming weeks, the Financial Times reports, citing intelligence from Western security officials.
The cargo on board the Golbon and the Jairan, some 1,000 tons of sodium perchlorate, could be used to manufacture fuel for hundreds of mid-range missiles, the report notes.
The officials who spoke to the paper did not know whether Chinese authorities were aware of the shipments.
Officials in Beijing’s embassy in Washington tell FT that China is “not familiar” with the matter, while asserting that it is committed to “maintaining peace and stability in the Middle East and Gulf region.”
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 20:53 Russian Armed Forces advance near Kotlino –MAP. 20:27 Ukrainian Armed Forces driven out of Nadezhdinka –MAP.
19:47 Footage of pursuit and destruction of a Ukrainian Armed Forces pickup truck in the Kursk region.
During surveillance of enemy positions in one of the districts of the Kursk region, Rosgvardia UAV operators discovered an enemy vehicle transporting militants of the armed formations of Ukraine to the line of combat contact. The driver of the pickup truck managed to spot the attack drone pursuing him and attempted to escape.
The vehicle and the Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel inside were destroyed.
19:32 Russian Armed Forces advance near Petropavlovka, Dachny and Sukhi Yal –MAP.
19:04 From 16:00 to 18:00 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed seven unmanned aerial vehicles: five Ukrainian UAVs were shot down over the territory of the Belgorod region and two over the territory of the Republic of Crimea.
18:32 Russian flag flutters over Velikaya Novosyolka. As a result of active offensive actions by units of the 5th Guards Separate Tank Brigade of the 36th Army and the 40th Guards Naval Infantry Brigade of the "East" group of forces, the settlement of Velikaya Novosyolka of the Donetsk People's Republic was liberated. After clearing Velikaya Novosyolka of the Kyiv regime formations, the guardsmen installed the state flags of the Russian Federation and the banners of their units in all areas of the settlement.
17:33 "Working, guys." Assault units of the "Southern" group of troops are developing an offensive, clearing the forest belts in the Kurakhovsky direction of Ukrainian nationalists. Unit commanders control the battle from the command post, making adjustments based on the operational situation.
13:11 This morning the enemy attempted to transfer troops to the Tetkino area. The attempt was promptly uncovered by fighters of the state border cover group in the Tetkino direction, the troops and armored vehicles were destroyed by FPV drone crews and our artillery –MAP.
12:10 Calculations of heavy flamethrower systems inflicted strikes with thermobaric rounds on nationalist positions, destroying their shelters, firing points and observation posts.
The assault groups then continued clearing buildings, basements, and positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The assault forces received fire support from rocket and barrel artillery crews, as well as FPV drone operators.
Velyka Novosyolka is the last large, well-prepared line of defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the South Donetsk direction.
11:54 The settlement of Novoegorovka in the LPR is completely under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.
"Novoegorovka is ours and completely under our control! All goals will be achieved, victory will be ours!" - servicemen of the "West" military group announced the liberation of Novoegorovka.
As a result of intense combat operations, the units of the West group of troops were completelytookunder control of the settlement of Novoegorovka on the territory of the Lugansk People's Republic.
Despite the enemy's attempts to attack from several directions, a well-organized maneuverable defense allowed Russian servicemen to successfully complete the task.
11:00 Drone operators work seven days a week. Calculation of FPV drones of the Rubicon center struck combat armored vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Pokrovsk direction.
09:20 In the morning, the Black Sea Fleet’s duty fire weapons in the northwestern part of the Black Sea destroyed two unmanned boats heading towards the Crimean Peninsula.
08:33 A curious situation folds west of Pokrovsk.
The Russian army is currently just over three kilometers from the administrative border with the Dnepropetrovsk region. The flanking attack southwest of Pokrovsk continues to develop. It is 85 kilometers to Pavlograd as the crow flies. About 100 kilometers by road. And 120 km if the crow has to take the bus...
Considering that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have lost Velyka Novosyolka, the "East" and "South" groups may unite to further develop the offensive and enter operational space. Although it is possible that the "Eastern" will turn west after Velyka Novosyolka and strike towards Gulyaipole in the Zaporizhia region.
07:21 During the past night, air defense systems on duty destroyed 15 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles: eight UAVs over the territory of the Ryazan region, six over the territory of the Kursk region, and one over the territory of the Belgorod region.
06:33 Powerful attack of our attack aircraft.
On frames- assault on the stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces by units of the "Center" group of forces in the Krasnoarmeysk direction. Previously, UAV operators identified and destroyed the main firing points of the Ukrainian militants. Then, attack aircraft of the "Atlant" motorized rifle battalion of the 35th Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade of the "Center" group of forces, under the cover of a grenade launcher, entered the forest belt where the stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was located.
Covering each other, the soldiers eliminated the militants who refused to surrender. After that, they cleared the dugouts, consolidated their positions, and continued their offensive.
05:12 Orlan found, "thirty" destroyed.
Crews of 122mm D-30 howitzers, in cooperation with the crew of the Orlan-10 unmanned aerial vehicle of the combined arms army of the Zapad group of forces, destroy camouflaged strongholds, concentrations of manpower and lightly armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
During aerial reconnaissance using the Orlan-10, a concentration of enemy manpower and equipment was detected in fortified positions camouflaged in a forest belt. Having received the coordinates, the crews successfully hit the targets.
01:02 Russian Armed Forces advanced north of Kotlino in the Pokrovsky direction –MAP.
Linked article is available only through a VPN. [EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on formations of one motorized infantry brigade and one air assault brigade of the AFU near Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 40 troops, two motor vehicles, one field artillery gun, and three electronic warfare stations. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation. Strikes were delivered at manpower and hardware of two mechanized brigades, one air assault brigade of the AFU, two territorial defense brigades, and one national guard brigade close to Peschanoye, Zagoruikovka, Kutkovka, Putnikovo, Kurilovka (Kharkov region), and Yampol (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 390 troops, two armored fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, five field artillery guns, three of which are NATO-made ones. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
The South Group of Forces' units took more advantageous lines and positions. Strikes were delivered at formartions of three mechanized brigades, one airmobile brigade of the AFU, one territorial defense brigade close to Seversk, Dronovka, Verkhnekamenskoye, Ivano-Daryevka, and Chasov Yar (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 200 troops, one US-made M-113 armored personnel carrier, three motor vehicles, and two NATO-made field artillery guns. Two ammunition depots were wiped out.
As a result of active operations, the Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Zelyonoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The strikes were delivered with manpower and hardware from four mechanized brigades, one motorized infantry brigade, and one airmobile brigade from the AFU near Sribnoye, Dzerzhinsk, Novopavlovka, Shcherbinovka, Andreyevka, and Novoyelizavetovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 650 troops, four armored fighting vehicles, eight motor vehicles, and three field artillery guns.
The Vostok Group of Forces' units continued advancing into the depths of the enemy's defense. Strikes were delivered at formations of two mechanized brigades, one tank brigade of the AFU, one naval infantry brigade, and one national guard brigade close to Velikaya Novosyolka, Burlatskoye, Razliv, and Volnoye Pole (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 150 troops, one tank, one armored fighting vehicle, and three motor vehicles. Four field artillery guns were neutralized, to include NATO-made one.
The Dnepr Group of Forces' units have engaged manpower and hardware of one mechanized brigade of the AFU and one territorial defense brigade close to Malaya Tokmachka (Zaporozhye region) and Berislav (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 40 troops and seven motor vehicles.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged power facilities providing for actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the defense industry complex, infrastructure of military airfields, production workshops, depots for the storage of UAVs, places where they are stored and prepared for launch as well as clusters of enemy manpower and hardware in 153 areas.
Air defense systems shot down three US-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles and 68 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 652 aircraft and 283 helicopters, 41,507 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 20,852 tanks and other armored fighting vehicles, 1,510 MLRS combat vehicles, 20,945 field artillery guns and mortars, and 30,806 units of special military vehicles have been neutralized.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat AFU formations in Kursk region.
In the course of offensive operations, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage 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 close to Viktorovka, Gogolevka, Goncharovka, Gornal, Guyevo, Zaoleshenka, Kazachya Loknya, Pervy Knyazhy, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Mirny, Nikolayevka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novaya Sorochina, Sverdlikovo, Sudzha, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery engaged AFU manpower and hardware close to Viktorovka, Guyevo, Zazulevka, Kazachya Loknya, Pervy Knyazhy, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Melovoy, Mirny, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novaya Sorochina, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, Sudzha, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, Yuzhy as well as Basovka, Belovody, Veselovka, Vodolagi, Zhuravka, and Miropolye (Sumy region).
During the day, the enemy losses amounted to more than 180 troops, one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, four armoured fighting vehicles, 10 motor vehicles, one self-propelled artillery system, two towed howitzers, one mortar, three electronic warfare stations as well as two UAV command and control centres, and one ammunition depot.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 55,000 troops, 319 tanks, 238 infantry fighting vehicles, 183 armoured personnel carriers, 1,626 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,639 motor vehicles, 392 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, 103 EW stations, 14 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 32 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, nine 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] 13.49 Russian troops have struck positions of the Defense Forces and populated areas of Ukraine this week using about 1,250 aerial bombs and more than 750 attack drones, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday, January 26.
13.27 Israel has begun supplying Ukraine with Russian weapons seized in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, according to OSINT data.
12.43 Units of the Unmanned Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine have again hit the facilities of the Ryazan Oil Refinery Company, which is involved in providing the Russian occupation army. This was reported by the press service of the General Staff on Sunday, January 26.
11:37 In the area of Chasovy Yar, enemy units of Akhmat appeared, which include former members of the Wagner PMC and Russian neo-Nazis from the Rusich formation. This was reported on the air of Suspilne Novyny by Andrey Polukhin, a representative of the press service of the 24th separate mechanized brigade named after King Daniel.
10:29 Russian troops attacked the Dniprovskyi district at night with artillery and drones. This was reported by the head of the Dnipropetrovsk OVA Serhiy Lysak on Sunday, January 26.
The shelling did not cause any damage, the situation is under control.
09:43 The Defense Forces shot down 50 drones with which Russian troops attacked Ukraine since the evening of January 25, another nine enemy UAV simulators were lost without negative consequences. This was reported by the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
08.33 The thousand and sixty-eighth day of large-scale armed aggression of the Russian Federation against Ukraine has begun. Ukrainian defenders are steadfastly holding back the onslaught of the occupiers, inflicting significant losses on them. In total, 167 combat clashes have been recorded over the past day. This was noted in the General Staff report on Sunday, January 26.
07.31 Over the past 24 hours, the Russian army lost 1,720 soldiers killed and wounded at the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the morning report on Sunday, January 26.
07.27 Russian troops carried out 325 strikes on 13 settlements in the Zaporizhia region in 24 hours, including attacks by aircraft and drones. Houses and infrastructure were damaged, there were no civilian casualties. This was reported by the head of the Zaporizhia OVA Ivan Fedorov on Sunday, January 26.
07.19 The military recorded an enemy ship in the Black Sea in the morning of January 26. Russia has withdrawn the vessel from Kalibrama again after weeks of absence. This was reported by the press service of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Sunday, January 26.
05.10 Russians attacked Kharkov with drones. City authorities reported that one of the strikes hit a private home in the Osnovyansky district of the city. According to preliminary information, the windows, roof and part of the building were damaged. There were no casualties.
04.58 Russian troops captured the settlement of Vremovka in Donetsk region and advanced in Velyka Novosilka, Toretsk, Kotlino, near Nadeyevka, Petrovpavlovka and Kotlino, the DeepState project reported.
02.52 Drones have again attacked an oil refinery and oil depot in the Russian city of Ryazan. A large fire broke out. The Center for the Prevention of Cruelty to the NSCDC commented on this: "The Ryazan refinery is trying to achieve this. This is fuel for military equipment and more." The previous attack was two days ago.
[FoxNews] President Trump's executive order on DEI was among dozens he signed on his first day in office
Trump’s newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), headed up by Elon Musk, wrote on X Friday that approximately $420 million in current/impending contracts, mainly focused on DEI initiatives, had also been canceled.
After Trump signed the order on the day of his inauguration, the federal Office of Personnel Management (OPM) notified heads of agencies and departments that they must begin taking steps to close all DEI offices by the end of the day Wednesday, and place government workers in those offices on paid leave. It is not yet clear when or if they will be terminated.
Acting Director of the Office of Personnel Management Charles Ezell sent a memo to heads and acting heads of departments and agencies on Tuesday evening directing them that by the end of business on Jan. 22, they were to inform all agency employees of the DEI shutdown. In addition, they were instructed to tell workers directly involved in DEI they were being placed on paid leave immediately, take down all DEI-related websites and social media accounts, cancel any related contracts or training, and ask employees to report any efforts to disguise DEI programs by using coded or imprecise language.
The memo also directed the heads of agencies and departments that by noon on Jan. 23, they were to provide OPM with lists of all DEI offices, employees, and related contracts in effect as of Nov. 5, 2024.
By Friday, Jan. 24, at 5 p.m., agency heads were required to submit to OPM a written plan for executing a reduction-in-force action regarding DEI employees and a list of all contract descriptions or personnel position descriptions that were changed since Nov. 5, 2024, to obscure their connection to DEI programs.
The executive order was among dozens Trump signed on his first day in office, including the government only recognizing two genders and withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement.
He also issued two other executive actions on Tuesday targeting DEI – an executive order to end discrimination in the workplace and higher education through race and sex-based preferences under the guise of DEI and a memo to eliminate a Biden administration policy that prioritized DEI hiring at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Trump’s Monday executive order rescinded President Joe Biden’s one on promoting diversity initiatives, "Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government," which he signed on his first day in office.
#Kobani marks 10 years of liberation from ISIS with an international celebration. However, Turkish threats and attacks continue to challenge the city. #Syria#Turkeyhttps://t.co/QAaEhipcMp
[KhaamaPress] Officials at the Baghlan Public Health Department have reported a new case of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... in the city of Pul-e-Khumri.
Abdul Qahar Ahmadi, the head of the Public Health Department in the province, stated today (Sunday, January 26) that immediate measures will be taken across the city to prevent the spread of the virus.
The head of Baghlan’s Public Health Department emphasized that widespread vaccination and public cooperation will play a crucial role in controlling this disease.
Meanwhile,
...back at the mall, Clarissa spent the day shopping for new underwear. Tonight was going to be a special occasion... the Polio Eradication Campaign Office announced yesterday that a polio vaccination campaign will begin in various parts of the country within two days.
However,
some people cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go... the office did not specify the exact number of children to be vaccinated or the regions where the vaccination will take place.
It is worth noting that about a month ago, the Ministry of Public Health under the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... announced that, in coordination with international organizations, it had launched polio vaccination campaigns in some provinces of the country.
According to a statement from the ministry, at least 5.3 million children under the age of five in 11 provinces have received the polio vaccine.
Afghanistan and Pakistain remain the only two countries in the world where polio has not been eradicated and continues to claim victims among children.
According to statistics from the World Health Organization, 72 positive cases of polio were recorded worldwide last year, including 23 cases in Afghanistan and 49 in Pakistain.
The new case of polio in Pul-e-Khumri highlights the ongoing challenge of eradicating this debilitating disease in Afghanistan. While vaccination campaigns and international collaboration are making strides, the persistence of polio in both Afghanistan and Pakistain underscores the need for continued vigilance, public awareness, and proactive health measures to protect vulnerable children and ultimately eliminate the virus.
[IsraelTimes] Several Palestinians with Polish citizenship have filed a complaint with Polish authorities calling for the arrest of Israeli Education Minister Yoav Kisch, who arrived in Poland over the weekend to attend a ceremony tomorrow marking the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the Kan public broadcaster reports.
The complainants assert that Kisch, who served as an IDF fighter pilot during his mandatory IDF service and until his retirement from the reserves in 2016, is responsible for alleged war crimes in the Gaza Strip, including the deaths of some of the complainants’ family members.
Kisch responds to the report, saying: “I am in Poland to represent the State of Israel at the ceremony marking 80 years since the liberation of Auschwitz. Here, I will emphasize to world leaders our commitment to memory and the lessons of history.”
“The Palestinian attempts to spread lies and distort reality will not deter me from presenting the truth: the State of Israel will continue to defend its citizens against murderous terror and steadfastly fight for its right to security,” he adds.
#2
We seem to read a lot about how the once Bedouin Palestinians now demand a homeland (GAZA).
But then we clearly see that massive numbers continue to migrate Bedouin style to anywhere in the worldwide.
It seems the only ones really fighting for a Palestine are the Iranian-backed Terrorist groups and their supporters
BTW: Here in the United States. We have 255,000+. Which for some reason, the majority are settled in Chicago, Detroit and Los Angeles. Which as we know are all Liberal DEMOCRAT run Metro's with major issues.
Late Ottoman period
In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, there were several migration waves of Egyptians to Palestine. One notable influx occurred in the 1780s due to a severe famine in Egypt. The main migration wave happened between 1829 and 1841, when Muhammad Ali and Ibrahim Pasha invaded Palestine, some Egyptian settlers and army dropouts stayed in Palestine after Egyptian retreat. These migrants primarily settled in the low country: in the Beisan area, Wadi Araba, the Jezreel valley, the Shephelah, the coastal plain and the Negev desert.[88][89] In total some 20,000 Egyptians had settled in Palestine by 1850.[88] Algerian refugees ("Maghrebis") also arrived in Palestine in the 1850s following Abdelkader's rebellion.[90][91] Many settled in abandoned villages in Galilee, and in Safed.[90]
#5
Note that Pm Netanyahu is not there. That’s because after announcing that they probably would arrest him per the ICC arrest warrant, the Polish president personally extended an invitation, promising that Bibi probably would not be arrested after all. One can understand why he demurred.
[KhaamaPress] International media outlets have reported that the German government is planning to deport a group of Afghan migrants colonists to their home country for the second time in three years.
According to Rooters, in a report published earlier on Saturday, January 25, the German Interior Ministry is organizing the deportation of Afghan refugees who have been convicted of crimes, in collaboration with a regional partner.
The deportation is scheduled to take place before Germany’s general elections, which are set for February 23. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... a spokesperson for the German Interior Ministry clarified that these deportations are not connected to the upcoming elections and will proceed as soon as all necessary conditions are met.
This marks the second deportation of Afghan migrants colonists by Germany in the past three and a half years. The first instance occurred earlier in September, 2024 when 28 Afghan migrants colonists were deported and returned to their country. This program specifically targets convicted individuals and differs from other deportation initiatives.
It is noteworthy that German media previously reported on the broader deportation efforts involving Afghan migrants colonists. Over 1,300 Afghan asylum seekers were deported from Germany in 2024 alone.
According to Deutsche Welle (DW), citing the German Interior Ministry in a report dated January 8, 2024, a total of 1,361 Afghan migrants colonists were deported from Germany last year, either to Afghanistan or other countries. Some were sent to Afghanistan directly, while others were transferred to countries deemed responsible for processing their asylum applications under the Dublin Regulation.
The Dublin Regulation governs the handling of asylum requests within EU member states, assigning responsibility for asylum cases to specific countries based on established criteria.
German media also highlighted a significant increase in the overall number of deportations in 2024 compared to previous years. The German newspaper Bild revealed that deportations rose by approximately 20% compared to 2023.
The German federal government intensified its deportation efforts following violent mostly peaceful acts committed by Afghan migrants colonists with murderous Moslem Islamist ideologies, prompting public and political calls for stricter measures.
The German government’s decision to deport Afghan migrants colonists reflects its focus on addressing criminal activities and managing public safety concerns. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... this approach has drawn attention to the broader challenges of asylum and migration policies within the EU. While Germany has framed these deportations as a necessity, the growing numbers of deportations and the focus on convicted individuals raise important ethical and humanitarian questions about balancing national security with the rights of migrants colonists. As the general elections approach, this policy will likely remain a contentious issue in German political discourse.
Another submarine cable between Latvia and Sweden has been damaged Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] An underwater fiber-optic cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged on the morning of January 26. This was reported by the LSM portal with reference to the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC).
"At the moment, there is reason to believe that the cable is significantly damaged and that the damage was caused by external influences. A possible culprit has also been identified," the article says.
LVRTC also added that the company's data transmission monitoring system recorded interruptions on the section between Ventspils, Latvia, and Gotland, Sweden.
It is noted that the company has already notified the country's Navy, which has contacted NATO allies, including Sweden. The investigation in Latvia has also opened a criminal case, and the country's Prime Minister Evika Silina has held a meeting of responsible services and ministries.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on January 14, the Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported that the submarine cable in the Baltic Sea connecting Sweden, Lithuania, Germany and Finland had been damaged. Earlier, four other cables had been reported damaged.
On the same day, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk noted that the North Atlantic Alliance would radically increase its military presence in the Baltic Sea. According to him, the incident could have been caused by Russian aggression.
In December, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also promised to urgently consider the issue of deploying a Navy Policing mission in the Baltic Sea to protect infrastructure facilities.
On January 16, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the alliance had used the incident with the damaged submarine cables as a pretext to increase its military presence in the strategic region. She noted that Western countries continue to undermine global energy security.
The Swedish Prosecutor's Office has detained a vessel suspected of damaging a fiber-optic submarine cable in the Baltic Sea. This was reported on January 26 by the press service of the Swedish agency.
"A preliminary investigation has been launched into possible serious sabotage following the alleged damage to a communications cable running between Sweden and Latvia in the Baltic Sea," the statement said.
It is specified that by decision of the prosecutor's office, a vessel suspected of damaging the cable has been arrested. What type of vessel is in question and who it belongs to is not specified.
As Senior Prosecutor Mats Ljungqvist explained, several agencies are involved in the investigation, including the National Police Operations Directorate, the Coast Guard and the Armed Forces.
"I can say that the Swedish authorities are now working intensively and collaboratively to investigate this incident," the senior prosecutor added.
Earlier, Regnum news agency reported that the Latvian Navy had spotted a vessel at the site of the damaged underwater cable, which was allegedly heading to Russia under the flag of Malta, but did not find any traces of suspicious activity.
Earlier, the LSM portal, citing the Latvian State Radio and Television Centre (LVRTC), reported that the underwater fibre-optic cable in the Baltic Sea was damaged on the morning of January 26. The centre claims that there is reason to believe that the cable is significantly damaged and that the damage was caused by external influences.
On January 14, Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported 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.
In December, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also promised to urgently consider the issue of deploying a Navy Policing mission in the Baltic Sea to protect infrastructure facilities.
On January 16, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said the alliance had used the incident with the damaged submarine cables as a pretext to increase its military presence in the strategic region. She noted that Western countries continue to undermine global energy security.
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Los Angeles realtor believes a staggering 70 percent of Pacific Palisades residents may never return to rebuild their homes.
The Southern California community was left devastated by unprecedented wildfires, which have scorched more than 50,000 acres, claimed 28 lives, and destroyed more than 16,000 structures since January 7.
Despite pledges to rebuild, former Million Dollar Listing real estate agent Josh Altman believes it to be easier said than done and painted a devastating reality for many former homeowners with particularly grim challenges ahead.
'They're not staying away because they don't want to return,' Altman told Fox Business. 'Of course they want to go back there. They're not going to return because it's simple math. I don't believe they're going to be able to afford to rebuild.'
Altman is known for brokering high-end real estate deals across Los Angeles, outlined a daunting economic landscape.
'We're talking about $1,000 per square foot to build in places like the Palisades and Malibu. With most people heavily underinsured and construction costs skyrocketing - lumber, steel, everything - it's just not feasible for many,' he said.
Altman's grim prediction is compounded by the logistical nightmare of rebuilding amidst an area that looks more like a war zone full of burned out buildings, ash coating the area and toxic chemicals everywhere.
'Getting a construction crew to show up at your site is going to be nearly impossible when 16,000 structures - homes, schools, commercial buildings - have been destroyed.
'It's a disaster. Even with insurance, I don't know if they'll be able to do it.'
Southern California has been battling relentless wildfires since early January, with flames engulfing entire communities and leaving destruction in their wake.
As fire conditions eased slightly on Friday, the region braced for isolated pockets of rain over the weekend.
While the much-needed precipitation could aid in controlling lingering hotspots, it also poses a new threat: mudslides in burn-scarred areas.
In response to the massive fires, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency after touring the hardest-hit areas on Friday, including Pacific Palisades and Malibu.
Accompanied by residents who had lost everything, Trump witnessed firsthand the immense scale of the catastrophe.
Early estimates peg the financial toll at around $50 billion, a figure that far surpasses previous disasters in the region.
The situation has been further exacerbated by a shrinking insurance market in California, with major providers pulling out, reducing coverage, or refusing to write new policies altogether.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has approved a $2.5 billion relief package aimed at wildfire recovery, but Altman believes that funding alone will not be enough to overcome the hurdles of rebuilding.
The state of California has a notoriously slow and bureaucratic construction process.
'The recipe for success is cutting the red tape,' Altman suggested. 'Building a house in California is wrapped in so much bureaucracy. It can take a year just to get permits, and if you're near the coast, the Coastal Commission could add another two years.
'It's time for the governor to step up and start removing these roadblocks. We need to move forward as a team.'
Altman also suggested that specific regulations and taxes should be repealed such as the mansion tax and wildlife ordinances.
'Get rid of it for all the people who lost their houses,' he said. 'That's how we'll get back to being a strong Los Angeles.'
Altman also shared his take having toured the fire-ravaged communities himself.
'You have to see it to believe it,' he said. 'I've walked the Palisades and Malibu. It's way worse in person than you could ever imagine. Hopefully, seeing this devastation firsthand will open up more funding on the federal level.'
A leftist queer and "antifascist" activist in Indiana has been federally charged over TikTok threats to kill President Trump and bomb "Nazi" government institutions. Ngo reports: https://t.co/p8MzwpA7F6
…Douglas Thrams, 23, of Goshen, Ind., called for mass political violence against "Nazis" in the government in social media videos. Thrams posted videos on TikTok, making explicit threats, including bombing government buildings and suggesting Trump "needs to be assassinated."
"This time don’t ... miss,” Thrams said in one video.
He is currently booked in the St. Joseph County jail.
TikTok is a popular app for leftist extremists to make threats and radicalizing content.
The president has extended access to TikTok on U.S. app stores for an additional 75 days. The Chinese app is being forced to divest from Chinese ownership in a bi-partisan law passed last year. Like other apps, TikTok tracks one's geo-loca tions, contacts and keyboard strokes. The Chinese government can access that information uninhibited, making it a national security risk for family members of the military and politicians who use TikTok. ByteDance, TikTok's owner, chose to shut down rather than sell when it took itself offline in the U.S. for a day. He looks like he'll enjoy his time in pass around prison
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#1
His "fan boy" wall mug shots in the background look like your average Mooslim terrorists...just sayin'
#3
Looks like the poster child for the incel movement.
BTW__ it's nice that Trump declared the drug cartels terrorists - but when are you going to do Antifa? Then that whole "treason" thing comes into play.
[Red State] One of the first executive actions that President Donald Trump took was to pull the security clearances of the 51 former intel officials who were involved in the infamous letter about the Hunter Biden laptop.
That action from Trump prompted a whining fit from former CIA Director John Brennan, who was one of the signatories of that letter.
On Sunday, Brennan was still whining on MSNBC's "The Weekend." This time, he was railing about the roles the Director of National Intelligence and Director of the CIA play in making sure people who have to make the decisions are fully informed about what the reality is. If they withhold things or "skew things," it's really going to be detrimental, he declared.
Brennan claimed it was "so, so dangerous" if they just gave Trump the information he wanted to hear.
Does he realize that the president of the United States gets information from multiple sources — and can even do his own research? Or at least an energetic, intelligent president will do so. “Trust but verify,” as President Reagan said.
#1
There is a group of Republican Senators that McConnell usually rotates from his bullpen to support Schumer’s agenda with votes. They are compensated and allowed to make conservative votes at other times for cover. Romney, McCain, Murkowski and Collins were/are in that rotation. McConnell definitely has some loyalists lined up for the Tulsi vote. Hopefully, all those Senators got a good look at happened to Columbia over the weekend. It is a while before 2026 and Trump is transactional. He moves on. We, his voters, do not move on. Any Senators that participate in McConnell's plan will wear the mark of Cain in our eyes going forward. The Dem plan also will not work. They might stop Tulsi, but Trump surely has another capable loyalist ready to go. He is a chess master. Don’t be a pawn.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
01/27/2025 6:23
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#2
Getting Trump loyalist in DoJ, FBI, and CIA, they'll have a trove of info that I suspect many Congresscritters would rather keep silent. Trump doesn't care about feelings after all you did to him.
Text taken from the Telegram, account of prorivists
Commentary by Russian military journalist is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] In one squabble with anti-Soviets regarding the "innocently repressed Japanese spies", the constant refrain was "I think" that there could not have been so many spies, and they could not have been engaged in minor sabotage such as driving spikes into logs to break blades for a sawmill.
I would like to say the following on this account.
1. Japanese intelligence already at the beginning of the 20th century put forward the principle of "total espionage", that is, the exceptional mass nature of agents.
2. All other intelligence services of large capitalist countries came to this principle during the First World War - the huge territory of combat zones required mass agents.
3. After the Civil War in the USSR there was enough mass material for recruitment - the state security agencies caught those who had compromised themselves by shooting Red Army soldiers, handing over Red partisans, and banditry up until the 1970s, until this contingent died out for natural reasons. And this was after large-scale purges, after the Great Patriotic War, when the "heroes of the White cause" again crawled out in the uniform of Vlasovites and policemen, having decided that the Reich was forever.
4. The mass nature of the personnel naturally resulted in their extremely low quality. Such agents had zero training, they were of little value as expendable material. Most did not have access to any important information.
5. As follows from the above, they were used by intelligence extremely wastefully, and often one-time. They were not seriously cared about covering them when handing out assignments. Therefore, they also poured out en masse, to the delight of the OGPU and NKVD.
6. Since managing mass agents is a very complex matter, a significant part of them did not have clear instructions from the intelligence service for which they worked, but had a very vague direction of activity - such as, "in the event of a conflict with the Mikado's troops, conduct sabotage activities."
Due to the low training and low education of the mass personnel, this was interpreted very freely. Therefore, a recruited peasant could unscrew nuts from railroad tracks, and at interrogation, with full right to say that he did it on the instructions of Japanese intelligence, and, most importantly, everything will be true, depending on the imagination of the person. Someone, working as an accountant, mixed up the accounting, someone hammered spikes into logs at a sawmill, someone drew a swastika on bread.
7. Finally, among the mass agents there were such categories as support agents with tasks that did not contain anything openly spy-like (for example, simply bringing food to a taiga hut on the "path" along which the supply goes, from time to time, such an agent could be used blindly), canned agents, and finally, just agents who got lost in the accounting or did not maintain contacts.
8. The main direction of foreign intelligence work against the USSR in the 20-30-40s was the organization of an armed uprising, from this, in particular, followed the mass recruitment of agents, including those incapable of intelligence work. For example, a man plows the land in the wilderness, stupid and illiterate, he will not be able to find out a secret. But for the "rebellion" it is just right - he knows the taiga, has combat experience, shoots like a god, loves money, Soviet power - on the contrary.
In a word, the capitalist intelligence services in the USSR recruited "cannon fodder" quite comparable to the mass of those repressed for espionage.
I. Shevtsov
What the mass recruitment of disposable agents looks like could be clearly seen after the beginning of the SVO, when the public suddenly realized that enemies of the people, mass sabotage and sabotage and foreign agents are not figures of speech.
A Florida Democrat Party official was arrested on charges of transporting child sex abuse material after sending child porn to an undercover police officer.
Matthew Inman, 39, who served as Orange County’s Democratic Party treasurer in Orlando, Florida, was arrested after being caught in a sting operation by undercover law enforcement officers.
Between “August and October of 2024, Inman received and saved several videos of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) to his phone. These videos depicted adults sexually assaulting young children,” the Middle District of Florida’s Attorney’s Office wrote in a press release.
The release went on to reveal that in “October 2024, Inman traveled to Las Vegas and began talking online with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as the father of a 9-year-old boy. During this conversation, Inman expressed interest in meeting and sexually assaulting the purported child. He also sent CSAM videos to the undercover officer.”
Authorities revealed that as FBI agents went to execute a search warrant for Inman’s home, he attempted to delete the videos off of his phone while hiding “in the attic of his house.”
Inman also served as the president of “Rainbow Democrats” a nonprofit organization seeking to “foster goodwill between lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual, and allied members of the Democratic Party and the community at large.”
The initiative to arrest Inman was part of “Project Safe Childhood” which is a nationwide initiative the Department of Justice launched in 2006 aimed at combating the sexual exploitation and abuse of children.
If convicted, Inman faces up to 20 years in federal prison.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[ColonelCassad] Against the backdrop of Trump's decision to suspend foreign aid, the Zelensky regime has once again stepped up its campaign of air-to-air drone strikes on Russian territory. UAVs have become the main type of weapons for Ukraine, as other weapons have either been knocked out or their numbers are steadily declining. And if the US turns off the tap on military supplies, drones will become the only thing Ukraine will be able to fully use on the battlefield.
Kiev is simultaneously declaring its "own production of drones" — but is this really true?
At the end of last year, the enemy announced plans to produce/purchase/receive from 1.2 million to 1.5 million drones of various types in three months, most of which are FPV drones. For these purposes, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense plans to distribute UAH 2.5 billion between the brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. And this is where the most interesting part begins.
The main external sources of modern drones for Ukraine are NATO countries, as well as the purchase of various Chinese quadcopters through third countries. But due to China's export restrictions in relation to Ukraine, some NATO countries are beginning to actively develop their own production.
In addition, a network of workshops and workshops for the assembly of FPV drones of various types has been deployed on the territory of Ukraine, which are massively supplied to the troops. But there is a subtlety. Kiev would not have found its own money for this, and for a long time everyone wondered who was paying for such investments. The answer turned out to be simple: $1.5 billion was secretly invested in drone production in Ukraine.
Apparently, the United States knew for sure that by scaling up the use of FPV drones, the Ukrainian Armed Forces would try to compensate for the shortage of anti-tank systems, as well as hamper the offensive activity of the Russian Armed Forces in key areas. As
in the past year, FPV drones are an important part of the tactical defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in most areas. And in the future, the stake on this type of weapon will increase, especially with a reduction in the supply of artillery systems and anti-tank weapons.
In addition, quadcopters play an important role, putting serious pressure on the tactical defense/offensive zone of the Russian Armed Forces and on the logistics of our troops. Here it is worth highlighting first of all drones of the “Baba Yaga” type, which, as a rule, are also purchased and assembled on the basis of agrodrones for spraying chemicals.
In order to strike the territory of the Russian Federation, the enemy has launched mass production of aircraft-type kamikaze drones and is regularly working to improve them, trying to compensate for the lack of classic strike weapons. However, given that 95% of components for Ukrainian drones are produced in China and Europe, and eight European countries are helping Kiev with the production of UAVs, there is no point in talking about any independence of Ukraine even in this matter.
It is also highly likely that Kiev's Western sponsors assemble a certain percentage of the drones used not on the territory of Ukraine, but in the nearest border areas - Romania and Poland, in order to avoid Russian missile strikes on production facilities. Kiev receives finished products, practically ready for use.
[GEO.TV] Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... on Sunday accused Israel of violating 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... ceasefire agreement by preventing hundreds of thousands of Paleostinians from returning to their homes in the northern part of the territory.
"The occupation is stalling under the pretext of prisoner Arbel Yehud, despite the movement informing mediators that she is alive and providing all the necessary guarantees for her release," Hamas said in a statement.
"Hamas holds Israel responsible for the delay in implementing the agreement," it added.
Translation: Hamas blames Israel for not surrendering as they ought. Hamas is full of fools and idiots who thus far only learn through pain, and then only temporarily.
[GEO.TV] Israel said on Sunday that Hamas had violated a ceasefire agreement, which came into effect one week ago and has so far resulted in the release of seven hostages and dozens of Palestinian prisoners.
"During the execution of the second phase of the swap yesterday, Hamas committed two violations. Arbel Yehud, a civilian hostage who was scheduled for release on Saturday, has not been freed, and the detailed list of all hostages' statuses has not been provided," said a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.
GEO TV makes it sound like these are minor details, but both of them are major items in the ceasefire agreement, which is why the IDF is blocking Gazan civilians from returning to their homes in the north of the Strip. Hamas tried similar nonsense last week, so the IDF bombed freely until Hamas fulfilled the requirements. Does Hamas want to be bombed again?
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#1
And so it starts, just as predicted.
Hamas likely is running out of LIVING Hostages and needs deflection.
…who is clearly relishing his new role in the Trump administration…
on Saturday threatened bounties on the heads of Afghanistan's Taliban leaders, sharply escalating the tone as he said more Americans may be detained in the country than previously thought.
The threat comes days after the Afghan Taliban government and the United States swapped prisoners in one of the final acts of former U.S. President Joe Biden.
The new top U.S. diplomat issued the harsh warning via social media, in a rhetorical style strikingly similar to his boss, President Donald Trump.
"Just hearing the Taliban is holding more American hostages than has been reported," Rubio wrote on X.
"If this is true, we will have to immediately place a VERY BIG bounty on their top leaders, maybe even bigger than the one we had on bin Laden," he said, referring to the al-Qaida leader killed by U.S. forces in 2011.
Rubio did not describe who the other Americans may be, but there have long been accounts of missing Americans whose cases were not formally taken up by the U.S. government as wrongful detentions.
In the deal with the Biden administration, the Taliban freed the best-known American detained in Afghanistan, Ryan Corbett, who had been living with his family in the country and was seized in August 2022.
Also freed was William McKenty, an American about whom little information has been released.
The United States in turn freed Khan Mohammed, who was serving a life sentence in a California prison.
Mohammed was convicted of trafficking heroin and opium into the United States and was accused of seeking rockets to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
The United States offered a bounty of $25 million for information leading to the capture or killing of Osama bin Laden shortly after the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, with Congress later authorizing the secretary of state to offer up to $50 million.
No one is believed to have collected the bounty for bin Laden, who was killed in a U.S. raid in Pakistan.
HARDER LINE ON TALIBAN?
Trump is known for brandishing threats in his speeches and on social media. But he is also a critic of U.S. military interventions overseas and in his second inaugural address Monday said he aspired to be a "peacemaker."
In his first term, the Trump administration broke a then-taboo and negotiated directly with the Taliban -- with Trump even proposing a summit with the then-insurgents at the Camp David presidential retreat -- as he brokered a deal to pull U.S. troops and end America's longest war.
Biden carried out the agreement, with the Western-backed government swiftly collapsing and the Taliban retaking power in August 2021 just after U.S. troops left.
The scenes of chaos in Kabul brought strong criticism of Biden, especially when 13 American troops and scores of Afghans died in a suicide bombing at the city's airport.
The Biden administration had low-level contacts with Taliban government representatives but made little headway.
Some members of Trump's Republican Party criticized even the limited U.S. engagements with the Taliban government and especially the humanitarian assistance authorized by the Biden administration, which insisted the money was for urgent needs in the impoverished country and never routed through the Taliban.
Rubio on Friday froze nearly all U.S. aid around the world.
No country has officially recognized the Taliban government, which has imposed severe restrictions on women and girls under its ultra-conservative interpretation of Islam.
The International Criminal Court's chief prosecutor on Thursday said he was seeking arrest warrants for senior Taliban leaders over the persecution of women.
#3
The protest, which lasted approximately seven hours, showcased the group's passion on the issue. Demonstrators carried signs, chanted slogans, and waved flags, most of which represented the country of Mexico.
Around 5:30 p.m. protestors moved into the streets and onto the bridge, at which point Dallas Police officers threatened to arrest protestors if they didn't move onto the sidewalks. Everyone moved, and no arrests were made according to the police department. WFAA - Dallas
Posted by: Bobby ||
01/27/2025 14:12
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#4
Arrest them and issue heavy fine. (Excellent source of revenue for roads and bridges)
So they claim, though really, of course, they can have absolutely no idea, even if they were not lying through their teeth.
[GEO.TV] The health ministry in Gaza said on Sunday the death toll had reached 47,306, with numbers rising in spite of a ceasefire as new bodies are found under the rubble.
The ministry said hospitals in the Gaza Strip had received 23 bodies in the past 72 hours — 14 "recovered from under the rubble", five who "succumbed to their injuries" from earlier in the war, and four new fatalities.
The ministry said the war had also left 111,483 people wounded.
The ministry again reiterated its appeal for Gazans to submit information about dead or missing people to help update its records.
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump celebrated the confirmation of Kristi Noem as Secretary of Homeland Security with a simple three word message to the country - America is back.
Noem was confirmed with a majority of 59 to 34 on Saturday in a rare weekend vote.
She replaces the widely criticized Alejandro Mayorkas, who was largely blamed for the migrant crisis that exploded across the country during Biden's time in office.
Among those who confirmed Noem's appointment today was Democratic Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman.
The Minnesota POST Board, appointed by radical Governor Waltz (who, as a reminder, was NOT elected vice president) "accidentally" released the names and dates of birth of 257 undercover peace officers.#lawenforcement#newshttps://t.co/zGChCbTAnW
The Minnesota Board of Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST) reportedly blew the cover of 257 undercover police officers putting their lives and the lives of their families at risk according to a lawsuit from The Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association (MPPOA).
In the lawsuit, as reported by KARE11, the MMPOA alleges that the POST board, a body appointed by Governor Tim Walz, acting in compliance with a Minnesota Government Data Practices Act request released the names of all Minnesota Police Officers to the Invisible Institute, an Illinois non-profit organization which according to its website recognizes an urgent “need to have public and private conversations about the constellation of issues we refer to by the shorthand ‘race.’”
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
I guess someone needs to track donations, family getting $$$,$$$.00 jobs, and etc.
[FoxNews] Major airport in Goma, Congo, evacuated, flights canceled
The Rwanda-backed rebel group M23 is battling Congolese government forces in Congo's key city of Goma, causing the international airport there to be evacuated.
M23 is one of about 100 armed groups fighting for control in the mineral-rich region, where a long-running conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on M23 to immediately halt all hostile action and withdraw its forces, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
The international airport in Goma was evacuated and commercial flights temporarily grounded on Sunday as fighting between Rwanda-backed rebels and government forces raged around eastern Congo's key city, leaving at least 13 peacekeepers and foreign soldiers dead and displacing thousands of civilians.
The M23 rebel group has made significant territorial gains along the border with Rwanda in recent weeks, closing in on Goma, the provincial capital that has a population of around 2 million and is a regional hub for security and humanitarian efforts.
Goma’s international airport, which is east of the city, was evacuated by the military and commercial flights were temporarily grounded due to the fighting, an airport agent told The Associated Press. The agent spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to speak on the matter publicly.
Congo, the United States and U.N. experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, which is mainly made up of ethnic Tutsis who broke away from the Congolese army more than a decade ago. It's one of about 100 armed groups that have been vying for a foothold in the mineral-rich region, where a long-running conflict has created one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises.
Rwanda’s government denies backing the rebels, but last year acknowledged that it has troops and missile systems in eastern Congo to safeguard its security, pointing to a buildup of Congolese forces near the border. U.N. experts estimate there are up to 4,000 Rwandan forces in Congo.
The Congolese Foreign Ministry said late Saturday it was severing diplomatic ties with Rwanda and pulling out all diplomatic staff from the country "with immediate effect."
Rwanda’s Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe told AP on Sunday that the decision to cut ties was a unilateral move by Congo "that was even published on social media before being sent to our embassy."
"For us, we took appropriate measures to evacuate our remaining diplomat in Kinshasa, who was under permanent threat by Congolese officials. And this was achieved on Friday, one day before the publication of this so-called note verbale on social media," he said.
In the last 48 hours, two U.N. peacekeepers from South Africa and one from Uruguay were killed, and 11 peacekeepers were injured and hospitalized, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres’ spokesman said Sunday ahead of an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council.
The U.N. chief reiterated his "strongest condemnation" of the M23 offensive "with the support of the Rwanda Defense Forces," and called on the rebel group to immediately halt all hostile action and withdraw its forces, U.N. spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said.
On Sunday morning, heavy gunfire resonated across Goma, just a few miles from the front line. Scores of displaced children and adults fled the Kanyaruchinya camp, one of the largest in eastern Congo, right near the Rwandan border, and headed south to Goma.
[IsraelTimes] The Washington Post says it has seen documents according to which Google employees actively assisted Israel in gaining access to certain advanced AI technology quickly after the war in Gaza began.
The report says Israel’s Defense Ministry sought to expand its use of Vertex AI, a Google service applying AI algorithms to data. One worker warned internally that a delay in granting access to the tech could push Israel to switch to competitor Amazon.
The paper notes that while the documents confirm Google’s cooperation with Israeli defense officials, they do not detail how precisely the AI technology was intended for use.
[NPR] As much needed rain falls across Los Angeles and Ventura Counties and gives firefighters relief from ongoing wildfires, officials are warning residents of hazardous waste, toxic ash runoff and mudslides.
The National Weather Service has issued a flood watch beginning at 4:00 p.m. PDT on Sunday through 4:00 p.m. PDT Monday that includes areas scorched by the fires known as "burn scars."
Firefighters have made progress on the fires, with the Palisade Fire 87% contained, the Eaton Fire 95% contained and the Hughes Fire, which broke out on Wednesday morning, 92% contained.
------------- one wildfire in San Diego is only 10% contained but that will change tomorrow; rain may lead to flow of toxic substances
#6
Bass was losing the election until 3am. Obama flew to LA to endorse the Bass election results. Now you know why everything else, including why she couldn't dismiss the fire chief, her corruption is such an open secret. Like someone here at Rantburg said, she knows where the bodies are.
[IsraelTimes] In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, relatives of captives urge Trump to pressure Netanyahu to maintain ceasefire after current 6-week first stage, bash Smotrich for opposing accord
Weekly protests for the release of hostages held by terrorists in Gaza were held Saturday evening in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, with activists and relatives of captives hailing the week-old ceasefire that has so far seen the release of seven female hostages, and urging the government to keep the ceasefire going through its second phase in order to guarantee the return of all the hostages.
The protests came after Hamas on Saturday morning released four female IDF soldiers who were kidnapped on October 7, 2023, and held in Gaza for 477 days: Karina Ariev, Daniella Gilboa, Naama Levy and Liri Albag. Six days earlier, under the nascent accord, Hamas freed three female civilian hostages: Doron Steinbrecher, Emily Damari and Romi Gonen.
Saturday night’s rallies were the first weekly protests since the ceasefire and the releases began.
Before the rallies, hostages’ families made a statement to the press, congratulating the four soldiers released earlier in the day and calling on US President Donald Trump to prevent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu from halting the ceasefire and hostage release deal before its completion.
Israel and Hamas agreed to a 42-day first phase that will see the release of 33 “humanitarian” hostages — female, underage, elderly, sick and injured abductees — in return for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners, including convicted murderers. The sides agreed to begin negotiations on a second stage two weeks into the truce.
A second and third phase, if implemented, would see Israel withdraw entirely from the Strip, a permanent ceasefire and the return of all hostages, but would also likely cause the collapse of Netanyahu’s coalition. The premier’s far-right coalition partner Itamar Ben Gvir has already bolted the government over the deal, and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has threatened to follow suit if Israel doesn’t resume fighting after the first phase.
Hardline ministers have often cited the sacrifice of soldiers killed in the Gaza war, saying ending the war before Hamas is utterly defeated would besmirch their memory and mean they had died in vain.
Smotrich has also been highlighting the danger of future deaths caused by the thousands of Palestinian terrorists and security prisoners Israel is releasing in exchange for the hostages as part of the deal. Critics of the deal point out that Yahya Sinwar, mastermind of the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre, was one of the Palestinian prisoners released in the last such deal, when Israel freed 1,027 prisoners in exchange for IDF soldier Gilad Shalit in 2011.
Lots of quotes at the link from the organizers and speakers at many of the apparently small protests, should you be interested, dear Reader.
#2
The Judenrat "Peace Camp" created the situation if the first place. And, I wonder, for how many of the actual relatives of the hostages - it's just "my moment in the limelight"?
An International Intelligence Report published by The Times reveals that Suhil Bahij Gharb, the head of Lebanese Military Intelligence in southern Lebanon, along with over a dozen other Lebanese Army officers, has been involved in sharing highly classified information about… pic.twitter.com/wbaG5CjdkM
…classified information about Israeli forces with Hezbollah. This sensitive intelligence, sourced from a security control room jointly operated by the United States, France, and the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL), has reportedly enabled Hezbollah to anticipate specific Israeli raids and patrols in southern Lebanon. As a result, the group has been able to evade detection and facilitate the movement of weapons.
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[GEO.TV] South Korea's prosecutors indicted impeached President Yoon Suk Yeol on Sunday on charges of leading an insurrection with his short-lived imposition of martial law on December 3, Yoon's lawyers and the main opposition party said.
Yoon's lawyers criticised the indictment as the "worst choice" made by the prosecution service, while the main opposition party welcomed the decision.
The charges are unprecedented for a South Korean president, and if convicted, Yoon could face years in prison for his shock martial law decree, which sought to ban political and parliamentary activity and control the media.
His move set off a wave of political upheaval in Asia's fourth-largest economy and a top US ally, with the prime minister also impeached and suspended from power and a number of top military officials indicted for their roles in the alleged insurrection.
"(The) President's declaration of emergency martial law was a desperate plea to the public over a national crisis caused by the opposition getting out of control," Yoon's lawyers said in a statement.
The prosecutors' office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The indictment was also reported by South Korean media.
Yes, he is autistic. But he chose to be dangerous, so prison is the only place where society is safe from him. Maybe he will learn there what he did not learn at home.
#3
From what I understand, child molesters don't do well in prison here in the US. It's probably worse for child killers. If it's the same in the UK, Axel is probably serving what will amount to be a life sentence.
[IsraelTimes] Ben & Jerry’s ratchets up its censorship lawsuit against Unilever, accusing its parent company of suppressing a social policy statement the ice cream maker wanted to release because it mentioned US President Donald Trump.
No doubt they did, because Ben and Jerry are self-righteous fools who insist on their right to display that fact for all to see.
The allegation comes in an amended complaint filed in Manhattan federal court, where Ben & Jerry’s in November accused Unilever of silencing attempts to express its pro-Palestinian stance and call for an end military aid to Israel, and threatening to dismantle its independent board.
Ben & Jerry’s wants a court order freeing the board to continue oversight of its social mission, and requiring Unilever to honor its commitment to make $25 million of payments to groups chosen by the ice cream company.
Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s do not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Both companies have been publicly at odds since 2021 when Ben & Jerry’s decided to stop selling Cherry Garcia, Chubby Hubby and other ice cream flavors in the West Bank because it was inconsistent with the company’s values.
#8
49 Pan, the merger agreement specifies that Ben & Jerry’s board retains control of the social mission, while Unilever controls the financial side. It’s been a quarter century, and they’ve only noticed problems in the last few years.
[IsraelTimes] German police have arrested a 27-year-old suspect accused of throwing a Molotov cocktail at a synagogue in Oldenburg nine months ago, according to the country’s Bild news outlet.
After investigators had been unsuccessful in identifying the perpetrator of the April 2024 attack, a video of the incident was broadcast last Wednesday on “Aktenzeichen XY… Ungelöst,” a popular unsolved crime crime series on the ZDF network.
Police received several tipoffs following the program, including one that led them to the suspect in Germany’s Vechta district, where he was arrested at midday and confessed to the crime.
No one was hurt when the incendiary device was thrown at the door of a synagogue in April, and the fire was extinguished without the help of the fire department. Two days after the attack made national headlines in April, hundreds came out to demonstrate against antisemitism in front of the synagogue, Bild notes.
The informant will receive a reward of 5,000 euros, the report says.
[John Kass News] In the coming days the silky tongued Deep State Democrats will try to peel the skin from poor Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard. They are, as you know, President Donald Trump’s nominees for director of FBI and National Intelligence.
But before the left wing corporate media can distract you with their own drama and howls, I’d ask all Americans to concentrate on a specific image:
The painting at the top of today’s column at johnkassnews.com. It is called simply “Rat-Catching at the Blue Anchor Tavern.”
We don’t hunt rats for sport these days, though we should, because all dogs need a job. Back in London in the 1850s, the people weren’t sentimental as we are in America. Then, London was bursting at the seams. The United Kingdom was enjoying economic prosperity during the Victorian Age. They bred fine carriage horses and fine dogs. And they hated rats that spread disease and death. And I also hate them. Not dislike, but actually hate.
… How many rats live in Washington under protection of the bi-partisan Combine that I’ve been telling you about for years? They are a legion. And so there is work to do.
To give you an idea of how frightened the Deep State rats are now, I’m linking here to a video for you to watch It is of Patel, speaking at the Conservative Political Action Conference. It shows you how important it is to unleash Patel to hunt those rats down.
Posted by: Frank G ||
01/27/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] Lithuania has sentenced the notorious Estonian hitman Imre Arakas, also known as the Butcher. The story is reminiscent of the plots of Guy Ritchie films. The Butcher began his criminal career during the Brezhnev era, became famous as a killer in the 90s, committed a number of high-profile murders, but his agreement to carry out an order for an Irish cartel was his undoing.
Now Arakas the Butcher is in prison, and the investigation is revealing more and more details of his previous bloody "exploits". The irony is that in today's times he could well be proclaimed a hero of the "struggle against the Soviet occupation regime".
FREELANCE KILLER
The 67-year-old Butcher is a colorful character. In his youth, he played sports, was a wrestler, thought about becoming an actor, but ultimately decided to live by robbery. Imre began his criminal career in the Estonian SSR, at the age of 18. Together with his accomplice Heiki Terras, they were engaged in thefts, and then decided to flee the Soviet Union. To do this, in August 1977, they stole a rubber boat.
The plan failed due to a motor failure, and on the morning of October 1, 1977, the wind and waves carried the boat back to shore. The accomplices returned to theft: in the following months, they stole a boat motor from the Dynamo sports base in Tallinn, two stereo tape recorders with speakers from the Tallinn Conservatory, and similar equipment from a music school.
In the autumn of 1978, Terras and Arakas stole a police uniform, documents and sobriety testing devices from a traffic police car. Then they visited Dynamo again, stealing a bow, arrows and, for some reason, a flag. Later, they stole two more boat motors from the pier of the lifeguard station in Tartu, then stole a car. In the end, the criminals became so brazen that they attacked an employee of the gun room of the shooting range at the same Dynamo base. After beating him up and intimidating him, the criminals took possession of the keys and stole thirteen pistols and 1,248 rounds of ammunition.
Given the extraordinary nature of this crime for the calm Soviet times, the entire local police force was put on its feet. The criminals were caught, but Arakas managed to make a daring escape right from the courthouse. Three months later, he was caught again and given fifteen years of strict regime - he served his sentence in prisons in Russia.
Imre Arakas was released in the early 90s and found himself in a world of rampant crime, where he immediately found a place for himself. Arakas joined the so-called "Poultry Farm Group" that existed in Estonia at the time, waging a merciless war against its competitors. He quickly found his specialty, becoming one of the most professional killers in the post-Soviet space.
In 1996, the Estonian police arrested Arakas on suspicion of committing contract killings, but they failed to prove his guilt. His specific fame quickly crossed the borders of Estonia, and he began to receive orders in other countries. In 1998, when the number of Arakas' enemies in his homeland exceeded all limits, the killer considered it best to change his place of residence and moved to Spain. His enemies tracked him down in Marbella, Arakas received several gunshot wounds, but survived.
In 2011, Arakas helped Estonian businessman Toomas Tamm stage an attempted murder. Tamm wanted to blame his competitor, but everything came to light, and Arakas received a year and two months suspended sentence. Before one of the court hearings, Myasnik attacked the photographer who was taking his picture and hit the poor guy several times.
Continuing his career as a freelance killer, Arakas managed to get away with it for many years. He was suspected of many crimes, but each time there was not enough evidence. He himself flaunted his fame - in a 2015 interview, when asked whether he still led his old lifestyle, Arakas said: "Maybe a little bit."
That same year, Lithuanian gangsters recruited Myasnik and two other Estonians to murder crime boss Deimantas Bugavičius, the lover of pop star Vita Jakutiene. The crime caused quite a stir, as the deceased was a very influential man.
"DEEPLY TRAUMATIZED"
In early 2017, the Irish contacted Imre Arakas. At the time, the country was in the midst of a long-running bloody confrontation between the Hutch and Kinahan gangs. Members of the Kinahan cartel hired the Butcher to eliminate James Gately, an important person in the criminal structure built by the Hutch gang. For this task, the Estonian was promised 100 thousand euros. He desperately needed the money, because he had recently gotten into large debts. And here, for the first time in many years, luck turned its back on the then 59-year-old Arakas.
The employers leaked the information, and when Arakas bought a plane ticket to Dublin, the authorities found out. The Estonian only managed to get instructions from the gangsters and was arrested in Dublin on April 5, 2017, in the company of two cartel members, before he could even carry out the order.
Cocaine worth around €5,000 was found on the detainees. The butcher had two pieces of paper with him. One had Gately's address in Belfast and instructions on how to find his photo in a search engine. The second piece of paper had a description of the victim's apartment, information about his driving style, where he parked, and the gyms he frequented.
At the time of the arrest, the police seized Arakas's phone. During the investigation, the police read Myasnik's correspondence with the customers, in which he stated that he intended to kill the victim "with one shot to the head." This correspondence was photographed literally at the last moment - it was soon deleted remotely.
Arakas eventually admitted his guilt, but the trial did not start immediately: Myasnik suffered a stroke in the pretrial detention center. At the trial, the killer chose a unique line of defense: he complained that he spent the entire 1980s behind bars, that he "suffered and was deeply traumatized by imprisonment in Russia."
However, the judge was not particularly impressed by these outpourings, and on December 12, 2018, the Irish court sentenced the Estonian to six years in prison. The term turned out to be relatively short, since Myasnik did not have time to commit the crime. Other mitigating circumstances were the defendant's serious health problems and his cooperation with the investigation.
While Arakas was behind bars, the local press, hungry for sensations, began to paint him as a romantic folk hero, almost like Robin Hood. “Depending on who you talk to in Estonia, he’s either a folk hero, a bloodthirsty gangster, or both,” The Irish Times vividly wrote. The most tragicomic thing here is that the newspaper presented Arakas’s long-ago crime of robbing a shooting gallery as “an act of protest against the communist regime.”
"FIGHTER AGAINST OCCUPATION"
Arakas was generally satisfied with the conditions of detention in the Irish prison, expecting to serve out these six years in peace and return home. But fate intervened again. In Lithuania, the investigation into the death of the authority figure Bugavičius had been ongoing all these years. It led to an international criminal group involved in smuggling weapons and drugs. Butcher's accomplices in the murder of Bugavičius were detained, having given the police all the information about this crime.
In June 2020, a request for Myasnik's extradition was sent to Ireland from Lithuania. The review dragged on for several years, but in 2023 he was finally deported to Lithuania.
In December 2023, Imre Arakas gave an interview to the Estonian Kanal2 from a Lithuanian prison. He claimed that he was promised freedom, $5 million, new documents and travel to the United States in exchange for agreeing to become an informant for the Kinahan cartel. After all, the group’s fame and influence have long since transcended the borders of Ireland — the syndicate is considered one of the largest organized crime groups in the world. “I told them to fuck off,” Myasnik fumed.
Meanwhile, new charges continued to be brought against him. In June 2024, Lithuanian police completed their investigation into the murder of Remigijus Morkevicius, a well-known Lithuanian martial artist who had crossed paths with the local criminal community. During the investigation, it was suspected that Arakas was the shooter. It also emerged that in November 2016, Myasnik had shot at Bugavičius's associate Gia Zabachidze — he did not kill him, but seriously wounded him.
After reviewing the evidence, the prisoner admitted guilt in both crimes. On January 21, a Lithuanian court found him guilty and sentenced him to ten years. In addition, he must pay 100,000 euros in compensation to Morkevicius' relatives and 15,000 to Zabachidze to cover medical expenses. Myasnik has not yet been sentenced for his participation in the murder of Bugavičius.
There is a touch of comedy in this story. Last year, Heiki Terras, an accomplice of Arakas's criminal youth who served eleven years in prison, filed a petition to review the 45-year-old court decision and to rehabilitate himself. He claimed that all of his and Arakas' criminal actions, which had once landed them in a Soviet prison, were motivated by... "resistance to the occupation regime."
In December 2024, an Estonian court ruled that the theft of an inflatable boat and motor in 1977, the subsequent theft of police uniforms and documents, and finally the robbery of a shooting range could indeed be interpreted as “resistance to occupation”. However, the theft of tape recorders from the Tallinn Conservatory and the carjacking “are not related to the struggle for Estonian independence or resistance to injustice inflicted on the Estonian people”. Therefore, Terras was only partially rehabilitated.
[IsraelTimes] Al Jazeera reports that one of its correspondents was arrested by the Palestinian Authority in Jenin overnight due to his coverage of the ongoing IDF counterterrorism operation in the northern West Bank city.
According to the Qatari-based news outlet, Mohamad Alatrash was arrested from his home by PA security forces.
The reported arrest comes after the PA ordered the temporary suspension of Al Jazeera broadcasts across the West Bank earlier this month against the backdrop of its critical coverage of Ramallah’s crackdown on terror groups in the territory.
The PA accused the outlet at the time of “broadcasting inciting content and reports characterized by misinformation, incitement, sedition and interference in Palestinian internal affairs.”
🚨BREAKING: 2,373 criminal illegal aliens (pedophiles, gangbangers of MS-13 & Tren de Aragua, drug-traffickers, rapists & terrorists) have been arrested and deported by Trump’s ICE, FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the U.S. Marshals Service in just the first 6-days of taking office. pic.twitter.com/DrneNtu0kP
Federal agents took nearly 50 illegal immigrants into custody early Sunday during an operation targeting the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA)'s networks in Colorado.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Rocky Mountain Field Division said its agents, as well as partners at the Denver offices for Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) conducted an early morning operation targeting drug trafficking and TdA members in Adams County, Colorado.
The early morning raid targeted what federal authorities deemed a "makeshift nightclub" in Adams County that was "invite-only." The DEA said "dozens connected to the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang were there."
In posts on X, the agency shared photos of illegal immigrants lined up in handcuffs in the snow.
"Drugs, weapons, and cash were seized in Adams County," one post said. "Nearly 50 illegal aliens were taken into custody."
Another post included video of the bus used to take the nearly 50 illegal immigrants away from the scene. The DEA said many of those detained are connected with TdA gang from Venezuela but did not specify the breakdown.
The operation comes as President Donald Trump's border czar Tom Homan is spearheading his mass deportation strategy, first prioritizing apprehending criminal illegal immigrants across the country.
Acting U.S. Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove and Trump administration Border Czar Tom Homan visited Chicago on Sunday, saying the two are working in "lockstep" to address a "national emergency" caused by the Biden administration’s failed immigration policies.
Homan told Fox News that Sunday’s targeted enforcements in Chicago resulted in arrests of aggravated sex offenders, convicted murderers, members of the Tren de Aragua gang and a few collaterals. He said "national security threats" were taken off the streets of Chicago.
Bove also released a statement on Sunday about the steps being taken to address illegal immigration in Chicago and across the country.
"This morning, I had the privilege of observing brave men and women of the Department deploying in lockstep with DHS to address a national emergency arising from four years of failed immigration policy," he said. "In Chicago, and across the country, FBI, DEA, ATF, USMS, and federal prosecutors are working with DHS to secure the border, stop this invasion, and make America safe again. We will support everyone at the federal, state, and local levels who joins this critical mission to take back our communities."
Posted by: Fred ||
01/27/2025
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#1
All great criminal cleaning efforts start with the easy low-hanging criminal fruit. Trump’s ICE, FBI, ATF, DEA, CBP and the U.S. Marshals Service will need to act quick. Or upper cartel operators will flee the initial sweep and be back later .... In Case, GOD forbid, if we ever have another Biden Coup type Regime.
#9
Forget about numbers for the moment, this is establishing the intent and seriousness to perform this task, and is also building the transportation and logistic lines, and diplomatic lines, to perform the mission.
The real meat should come with the self deport aspect. Illegal can go to local LEO, get a bus ticket and departure time, transport to the flight hub, stay in a hotel until their flight is up, go home with the option to petition to return legally, no questions asked. Open program until 2027. After that, get the business.
Get picked up, get the business, con transport to holding facility then shipped home on military transport with home's law enforcement waiting at the tarmac. Not able to legally return to the USA ever, and if caught, get the real shit treatment.
This is 2025, the information campaign should be simple, especially since they all have better phones than I do. Establish that sure as shit Red Cross got you here, sure as shit send you home one way or another, watch it happen.
Public sees illegal night clubs full of armed and gang tatt'd TnA get rounded up, they will be on board. Clear Springfield of the illegals and crow about how traffic safety has improved, watch their what are you going to do about it arrogance shrink and crack in real time.
Syrian authorities intercept weapons shipment en route to #Hezbollah through smuggling routes near the Syrian-Lebanese border. #Syriahttps://t.co/toYg9XEMsu
Hayat Tahrir al Sham is not inclined to aid and abet Iran’s plotting with Hezbollah against Israel.
The Syrian Ministry of Interior announced on Sunday the interception of a weapons shipment intended for smuggling into Hezbollah in Lebanon.
According to the state-run SANA news agency, the weapons were seized along smuggling routes near the Syrian-Lebanese border in the city of Serghaya, located in the Damascus countryside.
The operation was conducted by the General Directorate of Border Security following surveillance and monitoring efforts.
On Jan. 17, the Tartus General Security Directorate of Syria’s new administration reported foiling a similar attempt to smuggle weapons into Lebanon through illegal crossings.
The confiscated items included various weapons and rockets, intercepted before reaching Lebanese territory.
Images showed several assault rifles, RPG launchers, and ammunition.
Earlier this month, Syrian authorities said they captured a shipment of rifles, Iranian-made drones, and other weapons they said were headed to Lebanon, but at the time did not explicitly mention Hezbollah.
Active Syrian efforts to prevent weapon transfers to Hezbollah would represent a significant turnaround after years of enabling such shipments under the former Bashar al-Assad regime, though it was unclear whether the latest captures represented a broad shift in policy.
[IsraelTimes] Troops said to have opened fire on building near Jenin after intel said gunmen were sheltering there; three soldiers wounded in separate incident, one seriously
The Paleostinian Authority health ministry said a two-year-old girl was killed by Israeli fire on Saturday during an ongoing counter-terrorism operation in the Jenin area of the northern West Bank.
PA health officials said that the toddler, identified as Layla al-Khatib, was shot in the head by Israeli forces.
According to the IDF, troops opened fire on button men holed up inside a building in the village of ash-Shuhada, just outside Jenin. It said in a statement that it was aware of claims that civilians were harmed by the gunfire and that it was investigating them.
A military source said that troops had arrived at the building following intelligence on button men in the area. The soldiers began to carry out a tactic known as "pressure cooker," which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out.
The source claimed that soldiers had used a loudspeaker to call for the suspects to come out of the building and threw a stun grenade in an attempt to draw them out, although nobody exited the structure.
Then the soldiers opened fire on the building, and moments later identified a maimed toddler. Paleostinian medics were called to the scene and the 2-and-a-half-year-old was evacuated along with her pregnant mother who was lightly injured as well.
The source added that troops were continuing to scan the building.
Earlier on Saturday, a soldier with the Egoz commando unit was said by the military to have been seriously maimed during fighting in the Jenin area. Another two Egoz soldiers were moderately and lightly maimed in the same incident.
The operation in the northern West Bank city was launched on Tuesday afternoon, and was expected to last several days. It began with a series of dronezaps on infrastructure used by terror groups in Jenin, a military source said.
A senior IDF officer in the West Bank division told news hounds on Thursday that the operation, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, was launched to neutralize the so-called Jenin Battalion, made up of operatives affiliated with terror groups such as Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... and Paleostinian 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... Previous raids on Jenin in the past year did not specify such a goal, the officer said.
Operation Iron Wall is the third major IDF incursion in less than two years into Jenin, a longtime major stronghold of terror groups including Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which said its forces were fighting Israeli troops.
Hundreds of troops, including several special forces units, Border Police officers and other IDF units, backed by drones and helicopters, have been operating in the Jenin camp since Tuesday morning. The officer said troops were scanning homes, capturing weapons, and eliminating terror operatives.
As the raid began, Paleostinian Authority security forces pulled out of the Jenin refugee camp after having conducted a weeks-long operation to try to reassert control over the area from terror groups.
According to Paleostinian media and Israel’s Kan public broadcaster, PA forces were still operating in and around the city of Jenin itself, and detaining terror operatives fleeing the army’s action.
As the operation continued, some 2,000 Paleostinians left their homes in the camp, a crowded township for descendants of Paleostinians who fled or were driven from their homes in the 1948 war around Israel’s creation. "Thank God, we were at home, we went out and asked an ambulance to take us out," said a woman who gave her name as Um Mohammad.
Since October 7, 2023, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas. According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 858 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time.
The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or Lions of Islam carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 46 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another seven members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
#5
It's never a good idea to underestimate your enemy. Check where your computer was made, Grom. Does it work? Well, I guess that's what we get for letting American computer companies outsource all their manufacturing to China. Once great companies like Dell and Hewlett-Packard are now mere retailers for the CCP. I personally don't know if DeepSeek is worth its salt or not but if it becomes a huge asset for them it's our own damn fault.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
01/27/2025 13:45
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#6
^There is a difference between copying & creating.
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.
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...the irrational fear that Moslems will act the way they usually do...
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
[John Kass News] In the coming days the silky tongued Deep State Democrats will try to peel the skin from poor Kash Patel and Tulsi Gabbard. They are, as you know, President Donald Trump’s nominees for director of FBI and National Intelligence.
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
