[IsraelTimes] Controversial plan reportedly caught Netanyahu, top White House aides off guard; Rubio says Gazans’ displacement would be only temporary, contradicting US president.
All the deets at the link, including who said what in appalled disagreement. Bit we know this was just President Trump’s opening bid, with no idea what the final thing will look like except that it won’t be a return to the unacceptable status quo ante.
I’d bet a good deal that this is mostly another case of Iran’s agents paying the uncaring greedy for these acts.
[IsraelTimes] Twelve people arrested by counterterror task force don’t share antisemitic ideology expressed in their crimes, cops say, as Australia passes new, bipartisan hate crime laws
Nearly 200 more have been charged since October 2023 in the state of New South Wales — where Sydney is located — with crimes linked to antisemitism, police say.
A wave of antisemitic attacks has roiled Australia, with a dozen arrests for vandalizing or setting homes, schools, and synagogues on fire since October and hundreds more charged in just over a year with crimes targeting Jews.
The attacks in areas where Jewish people live have provoked an outpouring of condemnation — and a fraught and complicated debate about who’s to blame. But in a rare moment of unity, Australia’s federal politicians on Thursday advanced hate crime laws almost unanimously.
"We want people who are engaged in antisemitic activities to be caught, to be charged and to be put in the clink," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told news hounds.
"This is a time of national crisis," opposition leader Peter Dutton said.
Jewish organizations and hate researchers have recorded drastic spikes in hate-fueled incidents against Jews since the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... attack on Israel — when some 3,000 Lions of Islam invaded the Jewish state, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages — that triggered the subsequent war in 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.
Antisemitic episodes in the two biggest cities, Sydney and Melbourne — home to 85% of Australia’s Jewish population — have drawn the highest profile because they are severe, unusual and public.
Since November they’ve included:
A trailer filled with explosives used in the mining industry and a list of Jewish targets discovered on Sydney’s outskirts;
Firebombing of a Melbourne synagogue, with one person hurt. Defacement of another with Nazi symbols and pro-Palestine graffiti;
A Jewish childcare center set on fire;
Jewish schools in Sydney and Melbourne daubed with white supremacist graffiti;
Three Jewish businesses torched;
The former home of a prominent Jewish leader sprayed with graffiti;
Cars defaced and windows smashed in areas where Jews live.
Counter-terrorism officials have arrested 12 people in connection with those crimes. Nearly 200 more have been charged since October 2023 in the state of New South Wales — where Sydney is located — with crimes linked to antisemitism, police say.
WHO’S COMMITTING THE CRIMES?
Investigators are examining whether criminals for hire were paid by foreign actors to carry out the recent attacks, leaders of the task force said in January. They did not specify what foreign interests they believed were responsible.
Days later, officials said the 12 arrested by the task force don’t share the antisemitic ideology expressed by their crimes, underscoring suggestions that the acts were orchestrated abroad.
The revelations were strange — but not unprecedented, analysts said.
"It’s not completely new, the connection between ideological groups and criminal groups," said Matteo Vergani, a researcher of hate and extremism with Deakin University. "What’s new is that it usually happens in relation to larger scale terrorist attacks. So that is surprising."
WHAT’S BEHIND THE RISE?
Lawmakers in speeches this week said the October 7 attacks by color:gray;' title='Hamas'>Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... provoked an outburst of antisemitism at levels Australia had not registered before.
In tense public debates echoing those in the United States and elsewhere, right-leaning politicians and some Jewish leaders — among them Peter Wertheim from the Executive Council of Australian Jewry — have accused pro-Paleostinian and anti-Israel demonstrators, particularly "progressives" and university students, he said, of fueling the crimes.
Demonstrators use opposition to Israel to target Jews and give antisemitism "a new social license," he said.
WHAT’S THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE?
Albanese’s center-left government on Thursday approved measures in the House of Representatives that will create new and bolstered hate crime offenses protecting a raft of characteristics, including race, religion and gender.
Amendments from the opposition include the imposition of mandatory prison terms for terrorism offenses — which the prime minister had rejected before —- and for displaying hate symbols.
The bill passed 117 votes to 13. It’s expected the Senate will pass it into law.
Other initiatives since last January include:
Imposing sanctions on Terrorgram, an online white supremacist terrorism financing network;
Criminalizing Nazi salutes;
Making doxing — the sharing of personal information online — illegal after a list of Australian Jews was published on the internet in 2024;
Appointing national envoys to address Islamophobia and antisemitism;
Some states have passed their own laws; New South Wales also revealed proposed hate crime measures Thursday.
WHAT’S DIFFERENT IN AUSTRALIA?
By all measures, anti-Jewish hate has spiked across the US, Europe and the United Kingdom since the October 2023 Hamas attack — even though many leaders have denounced the surge — prompting tens of thousands of Jews to leave Europe, according to some figures.
However, Australia’s situation had distinctive factors, analysts said. One was the claim that the primary agitators could be based abroad.
Another was the shock of such hate in a country far from the Middle East where a small community of Jews — fewer than 120,000 people, or about 0.5% of the population — has lived relatively peacefully, said Wertheim.
Australia’s restrictive gun laws might have led the perpetrators to commit vandalism crimes, Vergani said. Semiautomatic rifles were outlawed in Australia after a gun massacre in 1996.
But the episodes have also driven a fraught political climate ahead of a national election due by May 17.
WHY ARE POLITICIANS DEBATING IT?
Antisemitic attacks have led national news and prompted daily questions for Albanese — and claims of inaction from his main political opponent, conservative Liberal party leader Dutton.
Meanwhile, Dutton’s detractors have lambasted him for politicizing the crimes — a charge he has rejected — and for urging a freeze on visas for Palestinians fleeing the war.
Vergani said Jewish people tell him they have not experienced such hatred in Australia before.
“They’ve never in their lives had this continuous feeling that something bigger could happen,” he said.
[PJMedia] When the defendant entered the courtroom, he was dressed respectably in a blue button-down shirt and dark slacks. When his presence was announced, he stood up, said "Good morning," and gave all present a cheery wave. And thus began one of the most important trials of our age, although everyone involved is doing everything possible to ignore all the reasons why it is so important.
Hadi Matar
...Lebanese-American reared un-Islamicly in New Jersey by a single mother. He went to Hezbollahstan a few years ago to visit his dad and came back primed for Shiite jihad. Despite failing to kill Mr. Rushdie, the government of Iran has awarded the misceant a full quarter acre of farmland to show their appreciation…
finally went on trial Tuesday for attempting to murder the novelist Salman Rushdie back in Aug. 2022. There is little, if any, doubt about Matar’s guilt, even though he has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." , for he stabbed Rushdie multiple times in full view of a shocked crowd at the Chautauqua festival. Matar was supposed to have gone on trial in Jan. 2024, but Rushdie wrote a book about the attack, and Matar’s defense attorney, public defender Nathaniel Barone, received a delay in the trial so that he could review the book. It’s hard to fathom how what the victim thought about what happened might affect the guilt of his client, but nevertheless, Barone managed to delay the trial for over a year.
Now that it has begun, both Barone and his opposite number, Chautauqua County District Attorney Jason Schmidt, seem curiously intent on preventing any discussion of Matar’s motive. Matar tried to kill the man who, at the time of the stabbing had carried for 33 years the most famous bounty on his head since the days of the Wild West.
It was on Valentine's Day, Feb. 14, 1989, that Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini called for Rushdie to be killed for supposedly blaspheming against Muhammad in his novel "The Satanic Verses." By 2022, Iran’s bounty on Rushdie’s head was $3 million. Without Khomeini’s death fatwa on Rushdie, Matar wouldn’t have tried to kill him, and there would be no trial. Nevertheless, neither the prosecution nor the defense wants any talk of that as Matar is tried.
Matar himself was upfront about why he stabbed Rushdie. Back in Aug. 2022, he said: "I respect the ayatollah. I think he’s a great person. That’s as far as I will say about that." Of Rushdie, Matar said: "I don’t like the person. I don’t think he’s a very good person. I don’t like him. I don’t like him very much. He’s someone who attacked Islam, he attacked their beliefs, the belief systems." Matar isn’t the most articulate person in the world, but what he said was clear enough to establish that he wanted Rushdie dead in accord with Khomeini’s fatwa.
Schmidt, however, insists all that is irrelevant, saying: "Here, I don’t believe we have to get into issues of Mr. Matar’s religious beliefs, his nationality, and his background to prove an attempted murder charge, which is what we’re doing. The allegation is that Mr. Matar stabbed Mr. Rushdie and stabbed Mr. Reese in an unprovoked attack. Therefore, I think we can prove that without getting into matters that give rise to prejudice of our jury pool."
Schmidt added: "From my standpoint, this is a localized event. It’s a stabbing event. It’s fairly straightforward. I don’t really see a need to get into motive evidence, whether that’s applicable or not applicable and what that consists of. I’d like to avoid all of that."
Well, all right, but isn’t examination of motive ordinarily a staple of murder trials? There are numerous reasons for this, including determination of the gravity of the offense, and the likelihood of similar incidents in the future. But Barone is only too happy to leave Matar’s motives out of the trial, as he wanted jurors screened for dislike of Islam. "They’ve talked about the reason why this alleged crime supposedly occurred was because of this book involving Moslems, all that. So it’s kind of like the barn door’s been opened," Barone said, and he wants that barn door closed.
All this is unfolding just days after Salwan Momika, an Iraqi critic of Islam, was murdered in Sweden for burning the Qur’an. The trial of Hadi Matar carries extraordinarily important implications for the future of the freedom of speech and freedom of expression in the West. Will Western countries defend the freedom of speech in connection to criticism of Islam, or abandon it? Hadi Matar blinded Salman Rushdie in one eye and caused permanent damage to one of his arms because of Rushdie’s criticism of Islam, and now at his trial, both attorneys want to pretend that this was some random and inexplicable murder attempt. The implication is that Hadi Matar was right to want Rushdie silenced, and now the attorneys are joining in the silencing.
[IsraelTimes] Measures against alleged front company for Iranian military come after Trump signs order resuming ‘maximum pressure’ campaign, aimed at ‘driving Iran’s oil exports to zero’
The US Treasury announced financial sanctions on Thursday, the first under the new administration of Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... , that target an "international network" accused of shipping Iranian oil to China to fund Tehran’s military activities.
The sanctions target the network for "facilitating the shipment of millions of barrels of Iranian crude oil worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the People’s Republic of China," the Treasury Department wrote in a statement.
The oil was shipped on behalf of Iran’s Armed Forces General Staff and a sanctioned front company called Sepehr Energy Jahan Nama Pars, the Treasury statement noted.
"The Iranian regime remains focused on leveraging its oil revenues to fund the development of its nuclear program, to produce its deadly ballistic missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles, and to support its regional terrorist proxy groups," said US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent.
"The United States is committed to aggressively targeting any attempt by Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... to secure funding for these malign activities," he added.
The Treasury’s actions follow US President Trump’s recent decision to reinstate his so-called maximum pressure campaign against Iran over allegations that it is trying to develop nuclear weapons.
Trump signed a memorandum on Tuesday reimposing the tough policy of sanctions against Iran, similar to those he levied during his first term, adding he hoped he would not "have to use it very much."
The memorandum instructs every department in the US government to design sanctions on Iran, especially in relation to nuclear activities, a White House aide told Trump at the signing ceremony.
It also directs the Treasury and State Department to implement a campaign aimed at "driving Iran’s oil exports to zero."
[IsraelTimes] Hamas supposed to say Friday which captives it will release; Jerusalem reportedly dispatching negotiators to Doha over weekend for talks on rest of 1st phase, but not 2nd stage
Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... is expected to release a fifth batch of Israeli captives on Saturday as part of the hostage release and ceasefire deal, as US President Donald Trump ...The tack in the backside of the Democratic Party... ’s controversial proposal to relocate Paleostinians from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... fueled further uncertainty on whether the multiphase agreement will hold up.
A list of the three hostages to be released is expected in Israel by 4 p.m. on Friday.
According to Channel 12 news, Israel is pressuring mediators to secure the release of Shiri Bibas and her young sons, Ariel, 4, and Kfir, 2. Hamas has violated the deal by releasing captive female troops and male civilians before the children and their mother, and Israel has said it has "grave concern" for their lives. The father, Yarden Bibas, was released last Saturday.
A Hamas official cited by the network said the terror group would see how Trump’s plan to "take over" the Gaza Strip progresses before deciding on the fate of the deal. According to the network, the terror group is unlikely to thwart the rest of the first phase, including Saturday’s expected hostage release.
On Thursday, the government approved a list of Paleostinian prisoners to be released in return for the hostages. Three prisoners were removed from the list at the last minute, including Mahmoud Atallah, a terror convict accused of raping a prison guard, who was replaced with an identically named security prisoner, according to the Israel Hayom newspaper.
In total, Israel has said it would release up to 1,904 Paleostinian prisoners — including 737 serving life terms for dozens of murders — in return for 33 Israeli hostages during the deal’s first phase.
So far, 13 Israelis have been released, along with five Thai hostages freed outside the framework of the deal.
Though talks for the second phase were supposed to commence Monday, Netanyahu has pushed off sending a negotiating team, reportedly until he returns from Washington next week.
A working-level negotiating team, led by the outgoing Shin Bet deputy director — known by his Hebrew initial "Mem" — is expected in Doha over the weekend, but is empowered to discuss only the first phase, not the second, according to Channel 12. Meanwhile,
...back at the argument, Livia had made her point with her knee to Jane's stomach... Netanyahu’s front man denied reports that the premier presented in Washington a plan to end the fighting in Gaza — a sine qua non for the second stage, but a red line for the right flank of Netanyahu’s coalition.
#2
The few people around here who have been "And Geese are falling out of the sky!" sure rhyme with when they were saying, "Covid causing people to drop dead in the streets!"
#4
I read the woman from the FDA that had farm closed due to bird flu was arrested and fraud charges are headed her way. Forcing 3 states to kill chickens using fabricated information.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
02/07/2025 16:58
Comments ||
Top||
#5
My local Aldi has teas only priced eggs. The spikes appear in to be isolated to specific areas. It seems like some pricing is being impacted by borders or speculators. There is a two carton limit. I’m not cooking breakfast for a bunch of lumberjacks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2025 18:02
Comments ||
Top||
#6
If you buy cage-free eggs, buy the Jumbos. They have 50% double yolks.
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
02/07/2025 20:21
Comments ||
Top||
The Trump Transportation Department has ordered state transportation directors to "decertify" plans created to spend $5 billion to build thousands of EV charging stations across the interstate highway system.
The program was part of the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which included the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure (NEVI) program. As much as $5 billion was earmarked to build charging stations.
To date, about 30 EV charging stations have been constructed.
It's clear, after nearly four years, that the mountains of red tape the Biden administration forced states to add to the program — including DEI mandates, environmental impact statements, and other impediments — would make the NEVI program take years to complete.
"The new leadership of the Department of Transportation (U.S. DOT) has decided to review the policies underlying the implementation of the NEVI Formula Program," wrote Emily Biondi of the Federal Highway Administration in a letter to state transportation agencies.
"Therefore, effective immediately, no new obligations may occur under the NEVI Formula Program until the updated final NEVI Formula Program Guidance is issued and new State plans are submitted and approved," Biondi wrote.
It's a process that will take months. Where I'm sitting, it's necessary. NEVI had turned into a $5 billion boondoggle, and perhaps streamlining the entire process would speed up the construction of the stations.
[FoxNews] London's new ambassador to Washington, D.C., had an R-rated response to a reporter who asked about his former ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the suspected sex trafficker who died in jail in 2019.
Peter Mandelson,
…ambassadorship a consolation prize after he was not elected chancellor of Oxford University? Unusually for British Labour, he’s against Jew-hate and for Israel, but does President Trump want a Dear Friend of Epstein around?
a Labour Party politician and member of the UK's House of Lords, reportedly told an interviewer from the Financial Times to "f--- off" after being questioned about his introduction to Epstein through Epstein's former lover, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.
"I regret ever meeting him or being introduced to him by his partner Ghislaine Maxwell," he told the outlet during a conversation aboard a high-speed train in the U.K.
No doubt. Being publicly embarrassed is no fun.
"I regret even more the hurt he caused to many young women."
Ah, but did you also cause partake in those peculiar Epstein pleasures, milord? Or did you just choose not to see?
The reporter questioned Epstein's relationship with Mandelson, which was described in a 2019 internal document from JPMorgan that noted a "particularly close relationship" between Epstein, Prince Andrew and Mandelson, who was described as "a senior member of the British government."
The missive became public after it was filed in federal court in New York years later.
When asked about the train encounter, a British embassy spokesperson reiterated the new ambassador's regrets about Epstein and his behavior.
"As Lord Mandelson has said in response to questions about Epstein, he regrets ever meeting him or being introduced to him," the spokesperson told Fox News Digital. "He regrets even more the hurt he caused to many young women."
Andrew was named in a document dump last year as an associate of Epstein's as part of a civil lawsuit from Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who accused the British royal of forcing her into sex at Maxwell's London townhouse when she was underage. He has denied her allegations, but he paid her an undisclosed settlement in 2022 and has been relieved of his royal duties as part of the fallout over her claims.
Mandelson recently spoke with Fox News Digital and apologized for calling President Donald Trump a "danger to the world."
"I consider my remarks about President Trump as ill-judged and wrong," the newly appointed ambassador said last week. "I think that times and attitudes toward the president have changed."
“Please God, let my soft answer turneth away his terrifying wrath!”
He also penned a Fox News op-ed in which he acknowledged the will of U.S. voters must be respected abroad.
"Trump’s election-winning ‘America first’ vision foresees a strong America in the world that is respected and seeking peace through strength," he wrote. "America’s allies need to hear the message the American people have sent and calibrate their partnerships in order to work with and alongside the U.S. to stand up for the joint interests that unite us."
“Shoulder to shoulder as we march into the glorious future together, right? ‘Cause it wouldn’t be nearly as glorious if your old pal, England, weren’t there, too.”
#3
Related, anyone catch The Diddys Award Show the other evening?
Bouncy is a Country Star, Lady Gig is super weird into trannies, the Will Smiths are headcases, whoever that larper is for the sportsball final received rewards, all Diddycrats including Bouncy's "husband" Jayz.
[TabletMag] Yesterday, President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive idea of the last hundred years—Palestine. During meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, Trump said he was going to move 1.7 million Palestinians out of Gaza. And just like that, he broke the long spell that had captured generations of world leaders, peace activists, and Middle East terror masters alike, who had paradoxically come to regard the repeated failure and haunting secondary consequences of the idea of joint Arab Muslim and Jewish statehood in the same small piece of land as proof of its necessity.
Palestine was a misshapen idea from the beginning, engendered by an act of pure negation. The Arabs could have gone along with the U.N.’s partition plan like the Jews did, and chosen to build whatever version of Switzerland or Belgium on the eastern Med in 1948. Instead, they resoundingly chose war. That’s the storied "Nakba" at the core of the Palestinian legend—the catastrophe that drove the Arabs from their land and hung a key around the neck of a nation waiting to go home. The Arabs chose the catastrophe; they chose war, based on the premise that they would inevitably win and exterminate the Jews.
Yet despite repeated military failures, and the increasing distance between the first-world powerhouse that the Israelis built and their increasingly war-torn, third-world neighborhood, the global conscience was always predisposed to rebuilding what the Palestinians destroyed. Accordingly, the Palestinian Arabs became a tribe of feral children whose identity was carved out of the relentless vow to eliminate Israel and slaughter the Jews en masse—despite repeated failures, each one more crushing than the last.
Trump said, enough, we’re not rebuilding Gaza. Time for a new idea—the Gazans have to to go, they can try to start again somewhere else, in a land where every building still standing isn’t already wired to explode. Personally, I believe that Arabs shouldn't live outside Arabian Peninsula.
What if they won’t go, or if the Egyptians and Jordanians won’t take them? They’ll take them, said Trump. Ah, he’s talking big, but it’s not real, say the experts—after all, he’s a real estate guy, and he’s pretending it’s just another property deal to pressure Hamas—Mar-a-Gaza. You can’t move a million people just like that, says an American electorate that elected Trump because he promised to deport tens of millions of illegal aliens who crossed the U.S. border in the last four years. He’s nuts says the D.C. foreign policy crowd: He’ll destabilize Egypt and Jordan, and undermine America’s best Arab friends and allies in the region.
Yet Trump is right to see both Egypt and Jordan as paltry constructions with little-to-no ability to project force on America’s behalf, and whose survival depends month to month on American aid. Cairo is useful to the United States only insofar as it, one, makes sure the Suez Canal is open and, two, observes the peace treaty with Israel—i.e., continues its campaign of repression against a populace of 112 million people who can barely afford to buy bread, and many of whose dreams are filled with the same insanity that drives Hamas. The only antidote to this misery that Egypt’s rulers have found is blaming the Zionists next door for the ills of their own society, while torturing religious extremists in their prisons. Maybe when Elon Musk is finished fixing Washington he can conduct an audit of where American money goes in Egypt. Somehow, I doubt he’d get in the door.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally pay him for.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s problem is that he allowed Hamas to smuggle arms through the Philadelphi crossing into Gaza, thereby violating Egypt’s peace treaty with Israel—which is what we nominally pay him for. From the perspective of Trump, an American president keen to enforce treaty obligations, Sisi has a new chance to prove himself as a friend of America and not a grafting liar by adding a million Gazans—who in the past have been ruled by Egypt and have family names like al-Masri ("the Egyptian")—to Egypt’s existing population of 112 million, amounting percentagewise to roughly the same number of legal immigrants that the United States accepts per year. Sisi can deal with the Hamas members among the Gazan immigrants the same way he deals with Muslim Brotherhood militants in his own society—or he can give them all medals for their service. It’s up to him.
And if not? Well, he might remember that Hosni Mubarak’s regime collapsed not because of Muslim Brotherhood-led street protests during the 2011 Arab Spring but because Barack Obama withdrew his support from the longtime U.S. ally.
With money from the Gulf states, or even Israel, Sisi can afford to absorb Palestinians and might even volunteer to take all of Gaza—the average salary in Egypt at present being the equivalent of $5,000 per year. He can then leave Jordan’s King Abdullah responsible for the rest of the Palestinians in the likely event that Trump, as he did in his first term, encourages Netanyahu to annex the Jordan Valley, or goes a step further and acknowledges Israeli sovereignty over Judea and Samaria.
Since the CIA has long treated the Hashemite Kingdom as a key asset, we can expect within the next week The Washington Post’s David Ignatius to publish an article based on intelligence sources—i.e., U.S. and Jordanian spies—concocting a story about Trump’s rationale for "destabilizing Jordan." The reality is that the Jordanians, with U.S. help, put down a Palestinian rebellion in 1970. The country of a little more than 11 million is already estimated to be two-thirds Palestinian, the rest Jordanian tribesmen, and it’s hard to see how adding another 500,000 Palestinians will make it harder for Jordan’s notoriously effective security services to contain their neighbors, especially if the offer includes a few dozen more Black Hawk helicopters. After all, no one will expect the Jordanians to allow Hamas to build a giant tunnel-city stuffed with rocket factories beneath their encampments while giving them billions in foreign aid to pay for it all.
Re: Saudi Arabia: Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.
Again, the key players here aren’t Jordan and Egypt but the oil rich Gulf Cooperation Council states, especially Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and of course Qatar. Trump might make Saudi largesse in resettling the Gazans a precondition for the much-hyped prospect of normalizing relations between Riyadh and Jerusalem. Given the fact that Israel regularly attracts nine- and 10-figure investments from Silicon Valley’s biggest funds, the reality is that the Saudis have little to offer Israel except for money applied to exactly this type of local purpose. Moving millions of Gazans who have repeatedly attacked their Israeli neighbors out of what is now a shattered war zone is a sensible investment in the kind of stability that helps rich people get richer.
The Arabs and Democrats are only the most vocal of the many opposed to Trump’s initiative. Left-wing governments from Europe to Australia are lining up to pledge their allegiance to the fantasy of a Palestinian state, in the hopes of propitiating Muslim and Arab constituencies at home—whose understanding of "peace" means eliminating Israel. But even leaving the patent bad faith of those professing "peace" aside, moving Gazans out of Gaza is the only sane option 14 months after they initiated a campaign of rape, murder, and hostage-taking that brought their own house down on their heads.
After all, what’s more fanciful, moving 1.7 million people out of Gaza, a large portion of whom would simply be required to board air-conditioned buses or walk across the nearby Egypt border, or compelling them to live in a giant rubble field booby-trapped by an Iran-backed terrorist group? Estimates vary as to how long it would take to clear Gaza of explosives—half a decade or more? Fifteen years? Twenty? Are the Gazans supposed to live quietly in tents for the next decade or two while their homes are rebuilt next door? Where? In "temporary cities" made of Dwell Magazine-like rehabbed shipping containers built by graduates of Birmingham University? In Hamas’ tunnels?
Regardless, should the Palestinians remain in Gaza, they would invariably return to war no matter how much munificence the Gulf Arab states, the European Union, and perhaps even the U.S. might shower on the toxic sand castle built over the past two decades with billions of Western aid money. Proof the Palestinians can’t and won’t keep the peace is that even after they won a reprieve when Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff forced the Biden administration’s cease-fire on Jerusalem, Hamas and its NGO-supported human shields celebrated in the streets as if the Hamas space program had successfully landed Palestinians on Mars. Even as Israel released jailed murderers, the Gazans paraded Israeli hostages through the ruins of Gaza like trophies of war.
The Saudis, Qataris, Emiratis and others who now rend their clothes while lamenting the likely fate of their ant-farm death cult might well have counseled: Quiet brothers, you have been spared. Don’t bring attention to yourselves. For the winds of Gaza shift on a whim and who knows if you are not next to be swept away by fate—or the American president.
Here is the stark reality: Gazans, not just the enlisted members of the Hamas brigades, waged an exterminationist campaign against Israel, and they lost. At virtually any other time in history, save the last 75 years, they would be lucky to lose only territory and not have their legend and language permanently deleted from the book of the living.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
02/07/2025
09:29 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11144 views]
Top|| File under:
[10News] Nice try. GTFO
Chair Ellen L. Weintraub said President Trump has the ability to remove her, but her replacement must be confirmed first.
Federal Election Commission Chair Ellen L. Weintraub said in a post on X that she received a letter purporting to be from President Donald Trump saying that she has been removed from the FEC.
The letter addressed to her says, "You are hereby removed as a Member of the Federal Election Commission, effective immediately. Thank you for your service on the Commission."
Weintraub claims President Trump had not followed proper procedure to remove her from the commission.
"There’s a legal way to replace FEC commissioners-this isn’t it. I’ve been lucky to serve the American people & stir up some good trouble along the way. That’s not changing anytime soon," she wrote.
The Trump administration has yet to confirm her dismissal. She is still listed on the FEC's website as the commission's chair.
The Federal Election Commission consists of three Democrats and three Republicans.
#4
I don’t think people are getting fired randomly. This tells me that something is coming down the pike that the FEC should have been doing. All the IGs went first. Think about it. There was an IG who had oversight of USAID.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2025 10:20
Comments ||
Top||
#5
NYP: Weintraub’s term expired in 2007 but she remained on the commission “in holdover status” for over two decades since a replacement for her was never appointed.
Weintraub has been critical of Trump’s claims of widespread voter fraud in federal elections.
“I think it is damaging to our democracy to spread information like that if there is no proof,” she told CNN in a 2019 interview, according to Fox News, describing Trump’s allegations as “baseless.”
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2025 10:36
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Wasn't your job to stir up 'good' trouble. Kind of a creepy statement, actually.
In Treasury's basement, fluorescent lights hummed above four young coders. Their screens cast blue light across government-issue desks, illuminating energy drink cans and agency badges. As their algorithms crawled through decades of payment data, one number kept growing: $17 billion in redundant programs. And counting.
"We're in," Akash Bobba messaged the team. "All of it."
Edward Coristine's code had already mapped three subsystems. Luke Farritor's algorithms were tracing payment flows across agencies. Ethan Shaotran's analysis revealed patterns that career officials didn't even know existed. By dawn, they would understand more about Treasury's operations than people who had worked there for decades.
This wasn't a hack. This wasn't a breach. This was authorized disruption.
While career bureaucrats prepared orientation packets and welcome memos, DOGE's team was already deep inside the payment systems. No committees. No approvals. No red tape. Just four coders with unprecedented access and algorithms ready to run.
"The beautiful thing about payment systems," noted a transition official watching their screens, "is that they don't lie. You can spin policy all day long, but money leaves a trail."
That trail led to staggering discoveries. Programs marked as independent revealed coordinated funding streams. Grants labeled as humanitarian aid showed curious detours through complex networks. Black budgets once shrouded in secrecy began to unravel under algorithmic scrutiny.
By 6 AM, Treasury's career officials began arriving for work. They found systems they thought impenetrable already mapped. Networks they believed hidden already exposed. Power structures built over decades revealed in hours.
Their traditional defenses—slow-walking decisions, leaking damaging stories, stonewalling requests—proved useless against an opponent moving faster than their systems could react. By the time they drafted their first memo objecting to this breach, three more systems had already been mapped.
"Pull this thread," a senior official warned, watching patterns emerge across DOGE's screens, "and the whole sweater unravels."
He wasn't wrong. But he misunderstood something crucial: That was exactly the point.
This wasn't just another transition. This wasn't just another reform effort. This was the start of something unprecedented: a revolution powered by preparation, presidential will, and technological precision.
The storm had arrived. And Treasury was just the beginning.
THE FOUNDATION
"Personnel is policy."
For decades, this principle, articulated by conservative strategist Troup Hemenway, remained more theory than practice. Previous administrations spent months, even years, trying to staff key positions. Trump's first term saw barely 100 political appointees confirmed by February 2017.
Every delay meant another victory for the permanent bureaucracy.
But this time was different.
While media focused on campaign rallies and political theater, a quiet army was being assembled. In offices across DC, veteran strategists mapped the administrative state's pressure points. Think tanks developed action plans for every agency. Policy institutes trained rapid deployment teams. Former appointees shared battlefield intelligence from previous administrations' failures.
By Inauguration Day, over 1,000 pre-vetted personnel stood ready—each armed with clear objectives, mapped legal authorities, and direct lines to support networks. This wasn't just staffing; it was a battle plan decades in the making.
"This is the new normal," Vice President JD Vance declared from his West Wing office, studying real-time data flows across agency systems. "He's having the time of his life," he added, referring to the President's relentless drive. "We've done more in two weeks than others did in years."
Read the rest at the link. I had to stop here — my heart is racing at serious aerobic levels— I’ll need a nap before I go back to find out how it ends.
#4
In just one example of $4 billion spending on Haiti less than 2% was spent for Haiti. The rest went for analysts, various middlemen, and of course studies.
Most USAID spending stays right here in the US. But it always ends up with organizations run by the "correct people."
Posted by: Difar Dave ||
02/07/2025 20:37
Comments ||
Top||
#5
#2: "It was like SAW 47" Amidst huge amounts of layoffs at the agency, one staff member described to NPR how during a virtual staff meeting on Monday people started leaving one by one as their access was cut off.
The staffer said: 'It was like from a horror film', after the administration ordered at least 8,000 staffers and contractors onto permanent leave or furlough.
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2025 20:56
Comments ||
Top||
#6
I hear landscaping is good therapy for that type of PTSD.
#9
They shut the whole thing down, except for about 250 who will probably move to State. Yeah, about 10% of their programs were useful (and will probably continue), but the other 90% was unaccountable graft.
[GulfNews] Aircraft used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance went down in a rice field
A US Marine and three defence contractors were killed when their aircraft crashed in Maguindanao, southern Philippines, on Thursday, according to the US Indo-Pacific Command and a defense official.
The aircraft, a Beech King Air 300 contracted by the US military, was conducting an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission in support of the Philippine government when it went down around 2 pm local time in a rice field in Ampatuan town, the website military.com reported.
NO SURVIVORS
In a statement, the Indo-Pacific Command confirmed:
No survivors were found.
The cause of the crash is under investigation.
The identities of the deceased are being withheld until families are notified.
A provincial disaster officer told the Associated Press that no civilians were harmed at the crash site, which has been secured by troops.
The aircraft, however, killed a water buffalo when it hit the ground.
CNN, citing publicly available data, reported that the aircraft is registered to Metrea Special Aerospace ISR, Inc..
Metrea’s website shows a Beechcraft King Air 350 – the type of aircraft that crashed – and advertises “integrated, turnkey Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (AISR) solutions to our defense partners.”
The Beechcraft crash occurred just a day after newly-appointed US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth held his first call with Philippine Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr.
According to an official readout, the two leaders discussed strengthening deterrence in the South China Sea and enhancing the Philippine military’s capabilities.
US MILITARY PRESENCE
The US military frequently operates in the Indo-Pacific as part of efforts to counter Chinese influence and train partner forces.
In the southern Philippines, US forces have long assisted in training Filipino troops battling communist rebels and militants.
The Indo-Pacific Command, one of six US combatant commands, oversees US military operations in the Asia-Pacific, working to protect US territories, allies, and strategic interests.
#2
I know the article doesn't say how it came down, but could you imagine losing power knowing you can't make it anywhere safe to land, doing everything right to glide down as soft as possible in a soft flat rice field, only to have a fucking water buffalo hidden in the field.
#3
Think about it from the water buffalo's point of view. You are standing there in the paddy minding your own buffalo business. You are munching leaves, maybe eyeing the lady water buffalos and suddenly, literally out of the blue, *WHAM*. It's enough to make you rethink your entire philosophical world view.
Calls to mind the Smite Button cartoon we discussed the other day.
Inside their OODA loop: the red-green nexus Fifth Column trying in vain to protect its own. They forget that President Trump owns the NSA, the FBI, the Justice Department, and all those DOGE coding hotshots who have been tracing flows and connections. Did the anxious students remember to delete their bank information showing connections to questionable funding? Did they remember to return the money so they can claim they weren’t paid for vicious, illegal protests?
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Worried college students at some universities have begun deleting the names of pro-Palestine protesters published online in response to Donald Trump pledging to deport 'Hamas sympathizers'.
Trump, 78, signed a January 30 executive order to cancel the student visas of anyone who had shown support for the Palestinian terror group.
In response, the editorial board at The Exponent, an unofficial newspaper serving Purdue University, announced in an article that it would be 'removing the names, images and likenesses of every such student from our website published since Oct. 7, 2023'. It said the move aimed 'to protect the identities of pro-Palestinian students', adding that it 'refuses to be party to such a blatant violation of the First Amendment rights of potentially hundreds of Purdue students'.
'Further, in future coverage, no such information or images will be published online or in print by the Exponent — no exceptions — until this autocratic attack on free speech is overturned,' the article, penned by anonymous 'editorial staff' added.
Purdue University is a public research facility in West Lafayette, Indiana specializing in science, tech, and engineering studies. The college told DailyMail.com in a statement that they are 'unaffiliated' with The Exponent, which is an 'independent foundation'.
The Exponent is currently overseen by editor-in-chief Seth Nelson, who writes about 'poverty, homelessness and drug addiction' according to his LinkedIn.
Trump's executive order targets people living in the US on visas, including students, who broke laws during demonstrations following the October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel. The president said he would instruct his Justice Department to 'aggressively prosecute terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews'.
He added: 'To all the resident aliens who joined in the pro-jihadist protests, we put you on notice... we will find you, and we will deport you.
'I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before.'
It was the latest in a slew of orders that Trump has signed since becoming President as he looks to fulfill his campaign promises.
Many universities, particularly Columbia University in New York City, became the site of pro-Palestinian protests last year during the Israel-Hamas war. The students involved made radical demands that their universities sever financial ties to Israel and that the US end its military support for its longtime ally.
Trump's latest order gives leaders of government agencies and departments 60 days to provide the White House with recommendations on how to identify anti-Semitic threats.
It comes as Trump welcomed Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the White House this week - the first foreign leader to visit during the US president's second term in office. During the visit, Trump claimed he would take over Gaza and turn the war-torn Palestinian territory into the 'Riviera of the Middle East'.
Trump's latest executive order, due to be signed on Wednesday,
NB: it was signed. Hence the panic…
is his second focusing on anti-Semitism.
During a rally in New Jersey last May, Trump also promised: 'When I am President, we will not allow our colleges to be taken over by violent radicals.
'And if you come here from another country and try to bring jihadism or anti-Americanism or anti-Semitism to our campuses, we will immediately deport you.'
He also tackled the issue in his first term. In 2019, Trump signed an executive order instructing federal officials to expand the interpretation of the Civil Rights Act to include 'discrimination rooted in anti-Semitism'. This added anti-Semitism to the list of prohibited behavior for programs which receive federal funding.
During the college campus protests, some Republicans wanted to use that order to take away federal funding from universities which defended the demonstrations as free speech. Republicans denounced the protests during the 2024 election campaign as an example of liberal bias at elite universities. Several House committees, led by Republicans, investigated federal funding to colleges and threatened to withhold research grants and other government support. And they issued a report calling for more to be done to address anti-Semitism.
Since the ceasefire announcement between Israel and Hamas, college protests have subsided.
That’s one view of the cause. President Trump’s EO is more likely the reason.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Shocking surveillance footage caught the moment a business owner was shot seven times in a random attack in crime-riddled San Francisco.
Martin Olive, 47, could be seen in the footage taking a smoke break outside of the cannabis dispensary he owns at the intersection of Ninth and Mission Streets, scrolling through his phone on January 27, when a man pulls his e-bike to the curb and dismounts.
The e-biker - who has since been identified as 34-year-old Cheasarak Chong - could then be seen casually approaching Olive.
But within seconds, Chong pulls out a gun from his pants pocket, grips it with both hands and fires multiple rounds.
Olive immediately dropped his phone, covers his head and falls to the ground.
As he lies on his back on the sidewalk, Chong fires once more at his head, before he walked into the building next door, where police later tracked him to a sixth-floor apartment, according to the San Francisco Standard.
Olive was left with gunshot wounds to his back, chest and cheek, and was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries, the San Francisco Chronicle reported at the time.
Meanwhile, police were left in a shoot-out with Chong, who was killed inside his apartment.
More than a week later, Olive is back home as he continues to recover from the near-death experience - which he said has also left him with psychological scars.
In the aftermath, police recovered several weapons from his home, including semiautomatic firearms and ammunition.
All of the weapons were obtained legally, Olive's attorney Patrick Goggin, told the Standard.
The news left Olive even more frustrated, noting that Chong had previously faced charges of attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon after stabbing a man.
The public defender's office, which represented Chong at trial, argued he acted in self-defense, and Chong was acquitted in the case.
A man who identified himself as Tee Chong and claimed to be his brother told the Standard his brother dealt with mental health issues for years.
He said that even though they had lost contact with Chong more than eight years ago, the family thought he was doing well and the city 'took care of him' after the 2018 trial.
'All he wanted was a better life and to free himself,' Tee claimed.
'I'm saddened that SFPD didn't let us talk him out of it and... get him help.' l
But Olive said he believes Chong was given an ill-advised second chance.
'I'm a liberal person. I believe in social services. I believe in helping the people that need help,' he said.
'I believe in everyone's right to live and breathe free, but that includes my right to live and breathe free - and this person clearly tried to stop my right to live and breathe free.'
He also said that before he learned Chong had died, he worried that police in the liberal city would let him go free.
'Garnering any sympathy for him [because of his mental health issues] is very insulting and disrespectful to people that have mental health issues and don't commit violence,' Olive said, noting he has previously struggled with depression.
He said he is now holding up well in the daytime, but at night he becomes much more emotional.
'I cry a lot,' Olive said, adding that he is now seeking treatment for PTSD.
'I get nightmares. I get flashbacks. The scene sort of expands with cinema vision around it all.'
He also said that following the shooting, he is temporarily closing the Vapor Room, which opened in 2004 but has been experiencing financial troubles in recent months.
'I need to regroup,' Olive said, noting he wants to 'reopen bigger, better, stronger and more awesome with the help of the community.'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Missouri family is living in fear amid their evil neighbors' reign of terror that has already left their dog poisoned and their car totaled.
The unidentified victims had bought a house on Beachwood Avenue in Pine Lawn, and enjoyed living there - even becoming active in the community, KMOV reports.
But a couple of months ago, a female neighbor punched the husband. The family says they believe she has mental health issues.
Things only got worse from there, though, when someone left a voodoo doll on the front porch, surrounded by rat poison.
The suspect had apparently also strewn rat poison in the front yard, and the family dog ate some. He then had to be rushed to an animal hospital.
Then in December, a man was recorded on the couple's surveillance cameras walking around to the back of the house, where an explosive device went off.
Surveillance footage showed smoke coming from the back porch, and the family said the explosion blew the door handle off the back door.
The family dog ingested some rat poison that was left on the front lawn, and had to be rushed to a local animal hospital.
On Friday, what appeared to be the same man was recorded lighting something on fire and dropping it on one of the cars in the driveway.
The car was destroyed, and a second one was damaged.
'They're terrified they're going to get hurt. They have to sleep in shifts now,' a friend of the family's told KMOV. 'I'm really scared for them.'
He added that the wife 'had to leave her job because of being stressed out' about what the neighbors might do next, and now, 'they're looking to move - because who could live there if they're setting your house on fire and putting bombs on your house.'
The North County Police Cooperative is investigating the targeted attacks on the family, and a spokesman said investigators are taking the reports very seriously.
And so they should, not that the meeting will help protect their illegal people. This is where the can is no longer kicked down the road.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The wealthy residents of East Hampton went into panic mode over the possibility their hired help could face expulsion from the US as part of Donald Trump's mass deportation program.
They prefer cheap illegals who daren’t claim their rights under the law to hiring citizens who need at least minimum wage and can’t be worked for 16-hour shifts. If they really cared about their servants, they’d hire them legally, so they wouldn’t be at risk.
The exclusive Long Island village - with an average home value of $2 million and residents that include Sylvester Stallone's daughters - held an emergency meeting amid fears that ICE would round up the employees of locals.
East Hampton Town Police Chief Michael Sarlo tried to quell their fears by insisting that local cops were not required to assist ICE.
That was the rule during the Biden administration. Under President Trump, the new head of the Justice Department just announced she’ll be cutting off funds to sanctuary communities — and the head of ICE warned there is the risk of arrest for township employees, politicians, and of course those who knowingly hire and hide illegal workers. Not to mention that if ICE has to hunt down illegals on the street, they’re going to deport any random illegals swept up in the net with their targets.
'The only way any of my officers could ever enforce federal immigration law is if they were deputized,' he said. 'The town board would not allow any of our officers to be deputized.'
One migrant resident who spoke at the board meeting was overcome with emotion.
'It's really hard for me when my 10-year-old daughter asked me, "Mom, are you legal?,"' Daniela Rivas said, while adding that others were too 'scared' to attend the event.
'The most important thing we need to focus on right now is our kids. While they're at school, they're scared that when they go back home their parents won't be there.'
East Hampton Village Police Chief Jeffrey Erickson reiterated that local police would not assist federal actions: 'If it is an ICE detainer or an administrative warrant, we do not have the authority, we will not hold them.'
The development came as Attorney General Pam Bondi warned sanctuary cities they 'are going to be next' if local officials continue to harbor and protect illegal aliens over the safety of citizens.
#5
My sister lives in Sagaponeck, NY, just west of East Hampton. She and her husband are conservatives in a sea of liberals. For many years she ran a plant nursery where she hired a lot of Mexicans. IIRC, she had to verify that they were eligible to work in the US, but she was not allowed to question their documents.
#6
The trick of the slave owners Democrats is that them moved to costs of maintaining their labor's food, shelter, and clothing from their books to the tax funded welfare system.
#7
I don't get it, these people have the money to hire legal talent. They just like having slaves?
Supposedly, the illegals are doing the jobs that Americans won't do. Remember George W. Bush saying that? Pissed me off when he did. I think it's more accurate to say they're doing the jobs for which Americans need not apply. Maybe you can blame America's minimum wage laws which make it illegal for American workers to compete with foreigners.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 14:45
Comments ||
Top||
#8
There's gonna be a lot of ex-federal employees coming on the job market soon if not already...
[Breitbart] Democrats are giving President Donald Trump a huge media win on the transgender debate. “Congratulations to every single person on the left who’s been campaigning to destroy women’s and girls’ rights,” author J.K. Rowling quipped.
“Without you, there’d be no images like this,” the Harry Potter author added in her Thursday X post, sharing a photo of President Trump signing an executive order protecting women’s sports from transgender athletes, surrounded by an abundance of female athletes championing his directive.
“We’re here today in the White House to watch as President Trump signs an executive order,” former NCAA swimmer Riley Gaines said in a video montage posted to X by the White House.
While U.S. citizens across the country celebrated President Trump’s executive order saving women’s sports, Democrats had a public meltdown.
“You’re a bad mom if you can’t explain that there are people along a gender spectrum and it’s not this binary,” The Majority Report podcast co-host Emma Vigeland complained.
“Like, I mean, I hear this all the time: ‘My daughter plays sports, what am I going to tell her? It’s not fair to her’ — I love sports as much as anyone, [but] trans women should be able to compete without question in women’s sports,” Vigeland lamented.
Watch Below:
Vigeland then tried to justify men participating in women’s sports, arguing, “There’s an unfair advantage all the time in sports, that’s the nature of sports, that some people are physically more gifted or they have, like, a better mentality.”
She went on to bizarrely compare men’s physical advantages over women to basketball players being taller than others on the court.
But there has been a cultural shift in the U.S. and the tide has turned.
Even CNN has conceded to this reality, with the outlet’s senior data reporter, Harry Enten, acknowledging, “There’s such a clear trend among the American public.”
“I think these numbers are really illuminating on this topic,” Enten said, before analyzing the recent polling on the issue of men participating in women’s sports.
Watch Below:
“So, transgender athletes in women’s sports: only 18 percent of the country says that they should be, in fact, allowed to participate in women’s sports. Compare this to the opposition, I mean, my goodness — 79 percent,” Enten said.
“You rarely get 79 percent of the country to agree on anything,” the CNN reporter noted. “But they do, in fact, agree on the idea of opposing transgender female athletes in women’s sports.”
“It’s not just the here and now,” he added. “What we’re actually seeing is a trend on this particular issue, and it’s going in the direction of oppositions.”
Enten then pointed out that in 2021, 62 percent of Americans opposed men participating in women’s sports.
“A clear majority, but not a ginormous majority,” he said. “Then you look at 2025, [and] you see it at 79 percent.”
“So, it’s not just that the majority of Americans are opposed to transgender female athletes in women’s sports, it’s that the opposition has become considerably larger in just the last four years,” the CNN reporter conceded.
#1
Archaeologists - when they unearth a body - look at the pelvis (among other things) and determine male /female. Apparently, Mother Nature has given us only two options, the rest is a mental aberration.
#6
He's setting the opposition up defending the indefensible so they expend their energy and drama for the next year and a half going into the midterms with the barest of public support.
[Breitbart] Transportation Sec. Sean Duffy roasted former secretary of state Hillary Clinton for blaming him for the recent plane crashes in Washington, D.C. and Philadelphia, accusing her of “lashing out because DOGE is uncovering your family’s obscene grifting via USAID.”
Duffy, who was sworn in as leader of the Department of Transportation (DOT) last week, immediately got to work in his new role in the Trump administration and announced Wednesday that the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) will be helping to “upgrade our aviation system”:
Failed 2016 presidential candidate Clinton jumped in, claiming that DOGE staffers “have no relevant experience” and that “most of them aren’t old enough to rent a car”:
“And you’re going to let them mess with airline safety that’s already deteriorated on your watch?” she asked in an X post.
Some particularly young members of the DOGE team, headed by X owner Elon Musk, have already become targets of a hateful harassment campaign by far-left activists, Breitbart News reported.
Duffy, a former Republican congressman from Wisconsin, shot back at the ex-first lady’s post, arguing that “experienced” bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. “are the reason our nation’s infrastructure is crumbling”.
“You need to sit this one out,” he added.
Clinton retorted by bringing up the January 29 helicopter-plane collision that took the lives of 67 people near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport and the January 31 air ambulance crash onto a busy Philadelphia street that ended seven lives:
“US airlines had gone 16 years without fatal crashes. Then MAGA fired the FAA chief, gutted the Aviation Security Advisory Committee, and threatened air traffic controllers with layoffs,” she wrote.
“Now there have been two fatal crashes. Hope your unvetted 22-year-olds fix things fast,” Clinton snarkily remarked.
That is when Duffy’s full X fire unleashed, calling out the Clinton family’s “grifting”:
“I know you’re lashing out because DOGE is uncovering your family’s obscene grifting via USAID, but I won’t let you lie and distort facts,” Duffy wrote. “The FAA administrator announced he resigned over a month before Trump took office, and the air traffic controllers were always exempt from Trump’s civil service buyouts.”
Former DOT Sec. Pete Buttigieg also made the incorrect claim that air traffic controllers were offered resignation packages along with other federal workers earlier this week, even after the U.S. Office for Personnel management said they were exempt. Duffy continued:
The previous administration shamelessly used USDOT as a slush fund for the Green New Scam, throwing away money and resources on wasteful environmental and social justice projects rather than updating our nation’s antiquated air traffic control systems and other critical infrastructure.
“I’m returning this department to its mission of safety by using innovative technology in transportation and infrastructure. Your team had its chance and failed,” he wrote. “We’re moving on without you because the American people want us to make America’s transportation system great again.”
He concluded by shooting back at Clinton’s jab about the young DOGE staffers, writing, “And yes, we’re bringing the 22-year-olds with us.”
And the young voters, who’ll vote Republican for the rest of their lives, rebelling against their Hillary!- loving elders.
Duffy’s last reply received over 80,000 likes, compared to Clinton’s 27,000 despite having 30 million followers.
[Breitbart] Newly-sworn Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) Scott Turner announced his commitment to removing “far-left agenda items” and being a “good steward of tax dollars” on his first day in the Trump administration.
Turner, who was confirmed by the Senate Wednesday in a bipartisan vote, told reporters on Thursday that he is doing away with the Obama-era “equal access” policy that gave people the right to stay in sex-segregated HUD shelters “in accordance with their gender identity.”
“I am directing the HUD staff to halt any pending or future enforcement actions related to HUD’s 2016 equal access rule, which in essence tied housing programs, shelters and other facilities funded by HUD, to quote, gender identity,” the secretary said at a press conference.
“We are carrying out the mission laid out by President Trump on January 20, when he signed an executive order to restore biological truth to the federal government,” he added, before explaining that his department will recognize that there “are only two sexes, male and female.”
“It’s time to get rid of all the far-left gender ideology.”
Speaking about HUD-funded domestic violence shelters for women, Turner said that victims might feel “uncomfortable” sharing a space with males, even if they are dressed as women.
“We want to protect the ladies that are entering any HUD-funded shelters,” he said.
Turner, a former NFL player and Republican Texas state representative, went on to announce the creation of a U.S. Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) “task force” at HUD.
“We plan on taking inventory on every program” within the department, he said during the press briefing.
“Our mission is to be a good steward of tax dollars,” he continued, before speaking to Breitbart News about the January Los Angeles wildfires.
When asked if the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) would be helping victims who lost their homes to the fires with loans to rebuild, Turner called the disaster “devastating,” and said, “We are working very hard to help people.”
“The FHA will do exactly what it’s called to do, and what it’s supposed to do, and you can count on that.”
When Breitbart News asked him how it feels to be a member of the Trump administration after then-candidate Donald Trump narrowly survived an assassination attempt last July, Turner replied that it is “very humbling.”
“I am extremely humbled to be here,” the secretary said as he looked around the briefing room at the HUD building. “I love America, I love the Lord, I love the people.”
“I thank God he spared President Trump’s life,” he added solemnly.
#1
Shelters tend to have issues with violence because so many addicts and mentally ill folks are collected in a small space with all their belongings. Trans folks are in need and are there as well probably at a higher percentage than in normal society. Some of them are likely also predators. Certainly, sheltering them with vulnerable women is a bad idea. Blocking them can easily escalate into violence. Not sure there is a good solution. Life is messy like that. Shelters are better left to charities where possible. Government sucks at most stuff including farming our money to charities.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
02/07/2025 5:58
Comments ||
Top||
Actually doing their job, and working to do so efficiently and effectively — heaven!
[Breitbart] Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin told residents of the Pacific Palisades that his agency was “working ’round the clock” to remove hazardous material from the burn area.
The Palisades Fire ignited in Palisades and spread to Malibu on January 7; later that day, the Eaton Fire hit Pasadena and Altadena to the east. Thousands of homes were destroyed and tens of thousands of people were displaced.
The EPA is responsible for the first stage of the cleanup from the L.A. fires — so-called “Phase 1” — which involves removing hazardous materials, including the remnants of electric vehicle batteries; household cleaning supplies, and other toxins.
Originally, the EPA was expected to take 90 days to complete its survey and cleanup of the burn area. But under the leadership of President Donald Trump and Administrator Zeldin, the timeline has been shortened to 30 days.
That, in turn, has allowed other stages of the process to accelerate. The most important of these is “Phase 2,” which involves the removal of debris from burned properties, and is managed by the Army Corps of Engineers (though homeowners can also hire their own contractors).
Originally, the timeline for Phase 2 was 18 months. But Major General Jason Kelly told Breitbart News: “I’m going to tell you right now: I plan to beat a year.”
Residents are happy that the EPA is moving quickly. However, there have been some concerns about the fact that the EPA is using the parking lot at the Will Rogers State Beach as a temporary storage site for the hazardous materials before they are removed to a safe disposal site.
Administrator Zeldin told Breitbart News that “nothing touches the ground” as part of the process of managing the hazardous material, and that the EPA would make sure that “no activity … will do anything other than make land, air, and water safer, healthier, and cleaner.”
He added: “EPA’s role is to help… we will work around the clock.”
He noted that there were already 1,200 EPA personnel on the ground, and that the EPA would continue to accelerate its efforts.
In addition, residents are frustrated about apparent delays in the start of Phase 2. They explained to General Kelly that while many of them had signed the “Right of Entry” forms that allow the Army Corps of Engineers to enter their properties, the bureaucracy at Los Angeles County had not yet compiled the forms and sent them to the Army.
[Breitbart] Non-Government Migrant Shelters (NGOs) are feeling the impact as illegal entries continue to dwindle across the southwest border after President Trump’s swift actions to control the border and carry out mass deportations. Non-profit organizations that received hundreds of millions of dollars from the federal government under the Biden Administration began to close their doors.
From Texas to California, the shelters that once counted on a steady flow of cash from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Food and Shelter Program and later by FEMA and Customs and Border Protection jointly under the Shelter and Services Program are no longer receiving released asylum-seeking migrants from the Department of Homeland Security. The released migrants, now the missing part of the equation necessary to receive millions of tax-payer dollars, are causing the rapid closures of shelters in Texas and Arizona in the first few weeks of the new administration.
The latest private non-government migrant shelter to close is in San Antonio, Texas, just a few miles from the San Antonio International Airport. The Migrant Resource Center (MRC) has been run in partnership with the City of San Antonio and Catholic Charities since 2022. On Monday, city officials announced that the shelter would be closing as fewer migrants are being received.
In late January, just days after President Trump’s inauguration, two shelters closed in Pima County, Arizona. County Officials announced the closures in Tucson after the Border Patrol discontinued migrant releases immediately following the 47th President’s inauguration. The end of migrant releases in Arizona and other border regions also spelled doom for those two shelters.
The Arizona shelters, one on Drexel Road in Tucson that temporarily houses 650 migrants and another known as Casa Alitas that provides services to more than 100 migrants, had been in operation for several years during the Biden-Harris administration.
Breitbart Texas visited each of the Arizona shelters and the Migrant Resource Center in Texas several times during high migrant crossing periods. It observed a constant influx of migrants released to non-government entities. The facilities served as transportation coordination hubs that moved hundreds of thousands of migrants from the border region into the interior of the United States yearly.
According to FEMA, in Fiscal Year 2024, Congress appropriated $650 million tax-payer dollars for the Shelter and Services Program to reimburse non-government shelters in multiple border and interior cities nationwide.
The drop in illegal border crossings since the inauguration of President Trump will likely mean more shelters will shutter in the coming days and weeks. On Sunday, less than 500 migrants were apprehended crossing the southwest border, according to a source within Customs and Border Protection. In the Del Rio Sector of the United States Border Patrol, less than 25 migrants were apprehended making landfall on the banks of the Rio Grande on that day, a far cry from thousands of migrants crossing illegally in that region on several days during December 2023.
#1
Poof, the truth will out! The invasion was meant to happen, to change the demographics of the US to support a permanent Demokrat aristocracy. There must be consequences for the willful theft of much of our children's future prosperity and security!
[Jpost] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated that Saudi Arabia had enough land to provide the Palestinians with a state in a Channel 14 interview on Thursday.
"The Saudis can create a Palestinian state in Saudi Arabia; they have a lot of land over there," he said.
When questioned about a Palestinian state as a condition of normalization, Netanyahu said he "would not make an agreement that would endanger the State of Israel."
"Especially not a Palestinian state. After October 7? Do you know what that is? There was a Palestinian state, it was called Gaza. Gaza, led by Hamas, was a Palestinian state, and look what we got — the biggest massacre since the Holocaust," he said.
The interview was conducted during Netanyahu’s Washington visit, which began with a joint press conference with US President Donald Trump, where the president announced his plan for the US to control the Gaza Strip.
Additionally, the two discussed the potential for normalization with Saudi Arabia, with Netanyahu saying, "I think peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia is not only feasible, I think it's going to happen."
However, shortly after the press conference, the Saudi foreign ministry stated it would not discuss ties with Israel without the establishment of a Palestinian state. We need your ties like we need a noose on our necks.
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
02/07/2025
02:57 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11150 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Saudi Arabia
#2
Lots of empty space in the Sinai peninsula. Probably need to build a desalination station somewhere along the coast, but after that, it's trailer parks and tract homes. You could even create gated communities to keep the riff-raff out. Or in, depending.
I guess there won't be a lot of return flights landing. ☺
[TWZ] Iran’s Wacky Aircraft Carrier Has Entered Service. Questions about the Shahid Bagheri's capabilities remain, especially with the reappearance of the infamous Qaher 313 in a new drone form.
Iran has finally shown a drone taking off and landing on – in the latter case with the help of arresting gear – the deck of the country’s unusual new ‘drone carrier,’ the Shahid Bagheri. Newly emerged imagery also shows various drones and crewed helicopters on the flight deck, which has a ski jump at the bow end, including the appearance of ‘drones’ styled after the infamous Qaher 313. Officially touted as a sea base-like ship, Shahid Bagheri has now been shown launching a small missile boat and is armed itself with cruise missiles along with weapons for self-defense.
The new pictures and videos of the Shahid Bagheri were released around a ceremony earlier today marking its formal entry into service with the naval arm of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). The conversion of the ‘carrier’ from a commercial container ship reportedly started in May 2022, and it began sea trials in its new configuration in November of last year.
The imagery from today’s ceremony includes footage showing a modified Ababil-3 drone with an arresting hook, which does not appear to retract or otherwise be capable of being stowed during flight, launching from the Shahid Bagheri‘s 590-foot (180-meter) flight deck. What is presumably the same drone is seen in another clip recovering on the deck by catching an arresting wire with its hook. The Ababil-3 also has two small turbojet engines installed, one under each wing, which could provide valuable additional performance for operations from a short flight deck without the aid of a catapult.
Let me break this down for you. Most databases, including USA Spending, work in an "append-only" way. That means they store entire records as a whole, adding new ones over time. Their search systems (indexes) are built to find whole records or parts of records…
Their search systems (indexes) are built to find whole records or parts of records efficiently—but they aren’t designed to search for specific words inside a giant chunk of text.
Now, USA Spending is massive—about 1.5 terabytes—so if you want to find a specific word or phrase buried somewhere inside, the system struggles. It’s just not built for that kind of search.
What I did with http://DataRepublican.com was add a reverse index on top of as many USA Spending records as possible. This makes searching much faster. When I run it locally, it’s 40% faster than grep—and that includes all the extra work like unzipping files, handling the user interface, and managing search requests. In other words, I made it as fast and searchable as possible. As a bonus, it is all client side, so it can never get overloaded like USA Spending so frequently does.
So instead of mocking the fact that we’re "rediscovering" data, maybe ask yourself why it’s been made so hard to search for this information in the first place.
#2
SVMs can be numerically complex, or simply simple.
The above examples demonstrate a method of 'kmeans clustering' to differentiate sample groups.
Given a worded document, or data record, count the number of common words/fields. This should render a row: word1 word2 word3 word4 …
count1 count2 count3 count4 …
Given multiple documents, you get multiple rows, one per document.
word1 word2 word3 word4 …
doc1 count1 count2 count3 count4 …
doc2 count1 count2 count3 count4 …
doc3 count1 count2 count3 count4 …
doc4 count1 count2 count3 count4 …
doc5 count1 count2 count3 count4 …
…
The resultant matrix from a single pass thru the data (computationally N*little o) renders a 'similarity score'. Documents/records/sentences that share large counts of common words, are similar and bear further examination.
In a past life, I coded a SVM to examine transcripts of Presidential 'State of the Union' speeches, sentence by sentence.
What I found was Obama's speechwriter(s) plagiarized Bill Clinton's. Obama's first differed from Clinton's first by only 13 words. The sentence count was the same.
#3
That’s fascinating, Skidmark. And President Clinton, who is ao proud of his brilliance, smiles and jokes with him in the friendliest manner. How infuriating that must be for him, not to mention the honourable former Senatrix, his wife. What else did your work reveal?
Separately, I wonder if any of the Democratic presidents was dribking from the USAID funding firehose
[PM] The inquiry began after the Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office received complaints regarding Johnson’s involvement in fraudulent schemes.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) has arrested Pearson Mayor Robert "Buster" Johnson, 49, following an investigation into allegations of fraud, bribery, and other criminal activities.
According to the GBI, the inquiry began after the Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office received complaints regarding Johnson’s alleged involvement in fraudulent schemes. The district attorney’s office then requested the GBI’s assistance in reviewing the claims. During the investigation, agents uncovered a series of alleged crimes, including an attempt to secure the release of an incarcerated individual using falsified documents, misappropriation of city funds through kickbacks, theft of municipal property, and bribery of city employees.
As a result, Johnson faces a laundry list of charges, including:
Criminal Attempt to Commit Hindering the Apprehension or Punishment of a Criminal
Influencing Witnesses (3 counts)
Criminal Solicitation to Commit False Statements and Writings
Criminal Solicitation to Commit False Official Certificates or Writings
False Statements and Writings (2 counts)
Criminal Attempt to Commit Theft by Taking
Conspiracy in Restraint of Free and Open Competition
Conspiracy to Defraud State and Political Subdivision (4 counts)
Theft by Deception
Bribery (3 counts)
Theft by Taking (2 counts)
Fraud, Forgery, and Theft in Connection with Registration of Title to Land
Filing False Documents
Violation of Oath of Office by a Public Officer (4 counts)
Following his arrest, Johnson was booked into the Atkinson County Jail and has since been transferred to Coffee County. The GBI has confirmed that the investigation remains ongoing and additional arrests may follow.
In a December 2024 post to Facebook, Johnson wrote out racism "isn’t a think of the past in South GA, especially in good old Atkinson County," the county in which Pearson lies. "What kills me is the suppose to be Christian’s are the absolute worst. I might not say anything but I’m not fooled," the post added. Another post from June stated that he wanted to stand for his mayoral photo in the council meeting room, stating, "I needed the whole world to see this WHOLE NEGRO!! Our ancestors fought and died for me to be where I am standing. Business man and the Mayor of the City I was born and raised in," adding, "Happy Juneteenth."
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/07/2025
00:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11149 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
Busted, and instead of addressing the mountain of criminal charges against himself. He plays the RACE Card.
[LawAndCrime] ‘Clearly unconstitutional’: Federal judge tears into Trump for trying to ‘navigate around’ the ‘rule of law’ and issues nationwide injunction against birthright citizenship ban Judge Shopping™
In a Seattle courtroom late Thursday morning, Ronald Reagan-appointed U.S. District Judge John Coughenour issued a nationwide injunction from the bench prohibiting the government from enforcing the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on Jan. 20.
A necessary step, because this needs to be elevated to the US Supreme Court as quickly as possible. No doubt a number of other Trump executive orders are intended to go through the same process of federal court injunction followed by the administration appealing for a Supreme Court ruling — some President Trump will win, some will need to be rewritten to address Supreme Court concerns, and some will need to go through Congress. And the sooner they know what needs more work, the better for the country.
The judge had sharp words for the effort to do away with the long-established constitutional right — an effort that has itself become sharply divisive.
“It has become ever more apparent that to our president, the rule of law is but an impediment to his policy goals,” Coughenour intoned. “The rule of law, according to him, is something to navigate around or simply ignore.”
Look, I am a 2nd generation Mid-East Europe immigrant. My Grandparents came as Indentured servants (forced labor), via Ellis Island. I myself am married to a sweet Caribbean Indian. She is 1st generation herself.
But I still make the argument for the long held legal precedent that NO criminal can be, nor should be enriched by their illegal acts.
Illegals sneaking into the USA, with the sole goal of having a baby on US Soil, to milk the system for life, is the same thing.
ONLY those that have applied in a proper legal manner should be "Considered”.
#2
Technically as the amendment is written, the order is unconstitutional. It is up to the Supreme Court to decide if you commit a crime to have an anchor baby here if the crime makes the citizenship null and void.
In 1830, he signed the Indian Removal Act. This act, which has been described as ethnic cleansing, displaced tens of thousands of Native Americans from their ancestral homelands east of the Mississippi and resulted in thousands of deaths.
#5
Andrew Jackson was a key figure in the founding of the Democratic Party,
President Andrew Jackson signed the 1830 Indian Removal Act, which started the Trail of Tears and other force marches.
Which resulted in about 20,000+ American Indian deaths.
Due to the piss poor way the Democrat administration handled marching the people 1,400+ miles, poorly supplied them and placed them in a strange new, freezing prison environment with no shelter or supplies.
TRUMP'S plan greatly differs in that it would return those persons ILLEGALLY here to their original Homeland, using modern transport and food. Plus the US is already giving Foreign Aid these offending nations. Plus there will likely be give relocation $$$ to keep the liberals and MSM happy.
#7
Article this morning - the business about a Fed court putting out a nation-wide injunction is bogus; only authorized to address the actual plaintiff.
11th explosion of its kind in two months | IED explodes near military headquarters of Turkish-backed faction in Manbij city#SOHRhttps://t.co/ZH3vN392Vy
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.34 Health Minister Viktor Lyashko, together with Deputy Defense Minister of Ukraine Serhiy Melnyk and Commander of the Medical Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Anatoliy Kazmirchuk discussed the mechanism for reserving medical personnel for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported by the press service of the Ministry of Health on Thursday, February 6.
22.21 On February 6, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy celebrated in his address the six-month anniversary of the Defense Forces offensive in Kursk region. The head of state awarded the participants of the operation, including two Heroes of Ukraine, and presented the "Crosses of Military Merit" and orders.
19.18 On February 5, two Georgian soldiers who fought in the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, David Dvalishvili and Mamuka Beria, were killed at the front. This was reported by the head of the Georgian group of Special Operations Forces.
19.03 Operators of the 412th NEMESIS regiment once again demonstrated a high level of skill by destroying a BM-21 Grad multiple launch rocket system moving at high speed in the Luhansk direction. The corresponding video was released by the Unmanned Systems Forces Command on Thursday, February 6.
16.33 The aggressor state has allocated additional funding for Roskomnadzor in order to strengthen control over the information space both in the Russian Federation itself and in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine on Thursday, February 6.
16.16 The court sentenced three agents of the Russian special services who set fire to Ukrzaliznytsia facilities in Bukovina to 15 years in prison. This was reported by the SBU press service on Thursday, February 6.
15.52 Western allies - France and the Netherlands - have handed over Mirage 2000 and F-16 fighters to Ukraine. This was reported by Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. The modern combat vehicles are already in Ukraine and will soon begin performing combat missions.
15.29 US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg will not present a peace plan to resolve the war at the Munich Security Conference. He said this in a commentary to Newsmax. According to him, US President Donald Trump will do this soon .
12/15 The Ministry of Defense codified and approved for use in the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine seven models of small arms and grenade launchers produced by European and American arms companies during January 2025. This was reported by the Main Directorate for Support of the Life Cycle of Weapons and Military Equipment, the Ministry of Defense reports. Among the codified models are machine guns of various calibers, an ergonomic infantry assault rifle, and sniper rifles.
14.22 SBU counterintelligence prevented sabotage by Russian special services at a Ukrzaliznytsia facility in Odessa Oblast. Two Russian agents were detained in the region, who attempted to derail a freight train on a local railway line.
To commit the crime, the defendants began to dismantle part of the track at night and hammer metal reinforcement into its joints. At this stage of preparation for the sabotage, they were detained.
The enemy's henchmen turned out to be two local residents aged 17 and 18, who were looking for "easy" money on thematic Telegram channels.
14.01 The UK is convening a meeting of the Contact Group on Ukraine's defence in the Ramstein format on 12 February in Brussels. This was reported by the British Permanent Mission to the Alliance headquarters.
13.39 The aggressor country Russia is ready to negotiate with the United States in a "tough bargaining" mode to end the war in Ukraine. The corresponding statement was made yesterday by Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergei Ryabkov. According to him, Moscow demands that Washington take the first step toward normalizing bilateral relations based on the principles of mutual respect and equality.
13.20 Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky reported that he held a working meeting with his Swedish counterpart, Lieutenant General Mikael Klasson, who is visiting Ukraine. The parties discussed international support for Ukraine, cooperation with NATO and European allies.
12:43 In January, 66% of Russian military equipment was disabled as a result of the work of Ukrainian attack UAVs of various types. The largest share of defeats fell on FPV drones. This was reported by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, General Oleksandr Syrsky.
12:17 The first French Mirage 2000 fighters arrived in Ukraine. This was reported by the Minister of Defense of France Sebastien Lecornu on the social network H. Earlier, France trained Ukrainian pilots for these aircraft in a few months.
11:20 The Security Service detained a female agent of the Russian special services in Kharkov, who committed a terrorist attack in the city at the end of January. The woman helped the occupiers detonate explosives near the private home of a veteran of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For conspiracy, the agent wore wigs, and after the terrorist attack, she tried to destroy all the clothes she was wearing while preparing the explosion.
11:00 North Korean missiles that Russia launches at Ukraine have become much more accurate since late December 2024, Reuters reports , citing two high-ranking Ukrainian sources.
It is noted that the missiles from the DPRK, which Russia has been using to hit Ukraine since December 2024, have become significantly more accurate than those used before. Now these missiles have a deviation of 50-100 meters instead of 1-3 km, as it was before.
Possible explanations for the improved accuracy of these missiles are that they are equipped with better navigation systems or a steering mechanism to facilitate maneuvering.
10:29 The Ukrainian Defense Forces have been conducting the Kursk operation for six months. During this time, Russia has lost 40,000 soldiers, and North Korea - 4,000. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
10:20 The majority of Ukrainians surveyed (69%) continue to believe in Ukraine's ability to repel a Russian attack. This is evidenced by the data of a survey conducted by the Sociological Group Rating.
Belief in Ukraine's victory has not changed significantly over the past year: it has increased for 24% of respondents, decreased for 23%, and has not changed for 49%.
Sociologists note that regardless of age, gender, and region, respondents are tired and feel a lot of apathy. The fighting spirit that arose at the beginning of the war has somewhat died down for now.
9:45 Russian troops attacked one of the largest markets in Kharkov, Barabashovo, with drones. At least 100 trade pavilions were damaged.
9:15 At night, Russian troops attacked Ukraine with 77 Shahed-type attack UAVs and drone imitators. Air defense shot down 56 drones, another 18 drone imitators were lost (without negative consequences).
As a result of the enemy attack, Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk regions suffered.
8:35 At night in the Krasnodar region of Russia, Ukrainian drones hit the Primorsko-Akhtarsky military airfield, there were explosions and a fire at the facility.
This facility is used for the storage, preparation and launch of Shahed UAVs on the territory of Ukraine, as well as servicing aircraft performing missions in the Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
8:15 The missile forces and artillery of the Armed Forces of Ukraine hit 19 areas of concentration of personnel and equipment, one command post, an artillery facility, and an electronic warfare station of the Russian invaders. Over the past day, 90 combat clashes were recorded on the front.
7:20 As of February 6, 2025, the total combat losses of Russian troops on the territory of Ukraine were approximately 845,310 people (+1,240 per day).
3:51 Enemy air strikes on the night of February 6 damaged the largest market and transport enterprise in Kharkiv. This was reported by the Kharkiv Regional Prosecutor's Office.
4:55 Ukrainian Defense Forces advanced in the Pokrovsk direction to the east of Nadeyevka (southwest of Pokrovsk). This is evidenced by geolocation footage published on February 5, the Institute for the Study of War noted in a report.
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 hit formations of two territorial defence brigades close to Volchansk and Okhrimovka (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 25 troops, four motor vehicles, and one field artillery gun. One ammunition depot was destroyed.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation and delivered strikes at manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one mountain assault brigade of the AFU, and one national guard brigade close to Peschanoye, Novaya Kruglyakovka, Zeleny Gai, Zagryzovo (Kharkov region), Shangdrigolovo, Novoye, Yampolovka, and Kolodezi (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 200 troops, one tank, five armoured fighting vehicles, to include three U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carriers, seven motor vehicles, five field artillery guns, two of which were Western-made. One electronic warfare station and four ammunition depots were destroyed.
Units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions. Formations of two mechanised brigades, one assault brigade, one motorised infantry brigade of the AFU, and two territorial defence brigades suffered losses near Predtechino, Katerinovka, Orekhovo-Vasilyevka, Nikolayevka, Zelenovka, Sukhiye Yaly, and Chasov Yar (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 180 troops, three motor vehicles, one self-propelled artillery system, and one ammunition depot.
The Tsentr Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line. The Russian troops inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of two heavy mechanised brigades, five mechanised brigades, one jaeger brigade of the AFU, and the Lyut Assault Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine near Druzhba, Shcherbinovka, Udachnoye, Novopavlovka, Tarasovka, Dzerzhinsk, Vodyanoye Vtoroye, and Kotlino (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 505 troops, five armoured fighting vehicles, to include one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, and seven artillery guns, to include one Western-made self-propelled artillery system.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces continued advancing into the depth of enemy defences. Formations of one tank brigade, three mechanised brigades of the AFU, and three territorial defence brigades were hit near Burlatskoye, Novoselka, Novopol, and Rovnopol (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 135 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, two field artillery guns, to include one U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces launched strikes at manpower and hardware of one mountain assault brigade and three coastal defence brigades of the AFU close to Shcherbaki (Zaporozhye region), Dneprovskoye, Yantarnoye, and Nikolskoye (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 45 troops, two motor vehicles, and one uncrewed surface vehicle.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces engaged the infrastructure of military airfields, storage and training sites for the launch of unmanned aerial vehicles as well as clusters of manpower and hardware of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in 142 areas.
Air defence systems have shot down two French-made Hammer guided aerial bombs, ten U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles, and 106 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 653 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 42,569 unmanned aerial vehicles, 590 anti-aircraft missile systems, 21,047 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,513 MLRS combat vehicles, 21,292 field artillery guns and mortars, and 31,239 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
On the morning of 6 February, Ukrainian armed formations attempted to counterattack in the direction of Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Ulanok in Kursk Region. For this purpose, the AFU used up to two mechanised battalions on armoured vehicles. Assault groups of the enemy launched several waves of attacks in the designated direction.
The Sever Group of Forces' units detected the enemy in time, and the Group's units supported by aviation inflicted fire damage on the AFU assault groups.
As of 14:00, the attacks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been repelled and the settlements are under the control of the Russian troops.
The AFU losses amounted to six tanks, three counterobstacle vehicles, three infantry fighting vehicles, and 14 armoured fighting vehicles. The neutralisation of the AFU units is in progress.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise AFU formations on the territory of Kursk region.
Over the past 24 hours, units of the Sever Group of Forces during the offensive actions inflicted fire damage on formations of one heavy mechanised brigade, six mechanised brigades, three air assault brigades, one naval infantry brigade, four territorial defence brigades of the AFU, and one national guard brigade of Ukraine close to Bogdanovka, Viktorovka, Gogolevka, Guyevo, Daryino, Zazulevka, Kazachya Loknya, Kolmakov, Kositsa, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Martynovka, Makhnovka, Nikolayevka, Nikolsky, Novaya Sorochina, Oleshnya, Pogrebki, Rubanshchina, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, Sudzha, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, and Yuzhny.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the enemy near Basovka, Belovody, Veselovka, Zhuravka, Ivolzhanskoye, Iskriskovshchina, Mirlogi, Miropolye, Mogritsa, Sadki, Stetskovka, Yunakovka, and Yablonovka in Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, the AFU losses amounted to up to 205 troops, three tanks, one armoured personnel carrier, 15 armoured fighting vehicles, and 17 motor vehicles were neutralised.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk direction, the AFU losses amounted to more than 57,860 troops, 337 tanks, 244 infantry fighting vehicles, 194 armoured personnel carriers, 1,759 armoured fighting vehicles, 1,844 motor vehicles, 409 artillery guns, 45 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 17 anti-aircraft missile launchers, eight transport-loading vehicles, 106 EW stations, 15 counter-battery warfare radars, five air defence radars, 33 units of engineering and other materiel, including 14 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.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:59 Official summary of the Office for Documentation of War Crimes of Ukraine from 00:00 06.02.2025 to 00:00 07.02.2025.
Nine facts of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
There were no reports of civilian casualties.
DAMAGED:
Two residential buildings,
Six cars,
Five civil infrastructure facilities.
Nine armed attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 21 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:25 Message from the Russian Ministry of Defense
On February 6, 2025, units of the North group of forces thwarted an attempt by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to conduct counteroffensive actions in the direction of the settlements of Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Ulanok in the Kursk region.
All attacks were repelled. In this direction, since the morning of February 6, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, with forces of up to two mechanized battalions on infantry fighting vehicles and combat armored vehicles, supported by tanks and obstacle clearing vehicles, launched eight waves of attacks.
The Ukrainian assault units were stopped and defeated by servicemen of the 11th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, the 810th Separate Naval Infantry Brigade, the Veterans and ArBat volunteer formations, as well as UAV operators of the Rubicon Center for Advanced Unmanned Technologies, the 40th separate marine brigade and the 177th Separate Naval Infantry Regiment, with the support of aviation and artillery.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces lost more than 200 people and about 50 units of weapons and military equipment, including: eight tanks, five infantry fighting vehicles, an armored personnel carrier and 30 armored combat vehicles, as well as three engineering obstacle clearing vehicles, a bridge layer and other equipment.
20:50 UAV crews from the Rubicon center destroy enemy armored vehicles while repelling an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, –video
19:50 Russian troops are expanding offensive bridgehead on the right bank of the Oskol River in the Dvurechnaya area.
18:30 Repelling an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region, –video
17:25 Servicemen of the "West" group of forces destroyed two 82mm mortars of the Ukrainian Armed Forces at camouflaged firing positions in the DPR, –video
17:05 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crews of the army corps of the North group of forces provided support to attack aircraft and destroyed UAV launch points, fortified positions with Ukrainian Armed Forces manpower in the Khar'kov direction, –video
15:30 Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue to defeat of Ukrainian Armed Forces formations in the Kursk region
Over the past 24 hours, units of the North group of forces, during offensive operations, inflicted defeat on formations of a heavy mechanized, six mechanized, three airborne assault brigades, a naval infantry brigade, four territorial defense brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a brigade of the National Guard of Ukraine in the areas of the populated areas of Bogdanovka, Viktorovka, Gogolevka, Guevo, Dar'ino, Zazulevka, Kazachya Loknya, Kolmakov, Kositsa, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Martynovka, Maryevka, Makhnovka, Nikolsky, Novaya Sorochina, Oleshnya, Pogrebki, Rubanshchina, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, Sudzha, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye and Yuzhny.
Strikes by operational-tactical and army aviation and artillery fire hit enemy manpower and equipment in the areas of the settlements of Basovka, Belovody, Veselovka, Zhuravka, Ivolzhanskoye, Iskriskovshchina, Mirlogi, Miropolye, Mogritsa, Sadki, Stetskovka, Yunakovka and Yablonovka in the Sumy region.
Over the past 24 hours, the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost up to 205 servicemen, three tanks, an armored personnel carrier, 15 armored combat vehicles, and 17 cars were destroyed.
15:25 Russian Defense Ministry on the progress of repelling the attempted invasion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces into the territory of the Russian Federation in the Kursk region
On the morning of February 6, Ukrainian armed formations attempted counter-offensive actions in the direction of the settlements of Cherkasskaya Konopelka and Ulanok in the Kursk region. For this, the Ukrainian Armed Forces deployed up to two mechanized battalions on armored vehicles. The enemy's assault groups launched several waves of attacks in the specified direction.
The enemy was promptly attacked by the North group of troops, the group's units, with the support of aviation, inflict fire damage on the assault groups of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Attacks by Ukrainian armed forces have been repelled, and populated areas are under the control of Russian troops.
The enemy's losses amounted to six tanks, three obstacle clearance vehicles, three infantry fighting vehicles and 14 armored combat vehicles. The destruction of the Ukrainian Armed Forces formations continues.
14:20 177th Separate Guards Naval Infantry Regiment of the Caspian Flotilla stopped counteroffensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk border region.
Fighting continues in the Ulanka area. The settlement is under the full control of the Russian Armed Forces.
13:05 The Armed Forces of Ukraine againwentin the assault in the Kursk region. At the moment, active military operations are taking place in the vicinity of the villages of Makhnovka, Cherkasskaya Konopelka, Ulanok and the nearby village of Fanaseyevka, seven kilometers from Sudzha, Severny Veter reports.
11:50 At the moment they are fighting in the Kursk direction near the settlement of Ulanok, the Russian Armed Forces are burning enemy equipment, up to nine armored fighting vehicles have been spotted.
10:50 Calculation of the Strela-10 air defense missile system of the Center group of forces destroyed reconnaissance UAV "Shark" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.
9:10 AFU again attacked Krasnodar region
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' target was a military airfield in the Primorsko-Akhtarsk area, where an aviation regiment is listed. Shot reported on the fall of debris from a downed drone and a fire in one of the areas near the airfield.
8:35 Russian Ministry of Defense:
Crews of the 220mm BM-27 Uragan MLRS of the Airborne Forces artillery brigade from Novorossiysk destroyed strongholds with Ukrainian Armed Forces manpower in the Kursk border area.
7:15 Russian Ministry of Defense:
During the past night, air defense systems on dutydestroyed28 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles: 13 UAVs over the waters of the Sea of ??Azov, eight UAVs over the territory of the Rostov region, six UAVs over the territory of the Krasnodar region and one over the territory of the Astrakhan region.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kamran Gasanov
[REGNUM] In 2011, the Turkish and Syrian governments went their separate ways, like ships at sea, and for more than ten years they had no contact, except for meetings at the level of heads of the Foreign Ministry, Defense Ministry, and intelligence services, mediated by Russia. In the last two years, Damascus and Ankara have been preparing to restore ties, and Recep Tayyip Erdogan wanted to meet with Bashar al-Assad. However, to the delight of the Turkish leader, this was no longer necessary.
Now the Turks do not have to negotiate for a long time on unfavorable conditions for establishing diplomatic relations, which depended on the demands to withdraw troops from the northern territories of Syria. If earlier Turkey, with certain exceptions in the form of Kurdish zones, had control only over a thin corridor from the Mediterranean to the border with Iraq, now Ankara can lay claim to broad influence in the capital of Syria.
The head of the Turkish National Intelligence Organization (MIT), Ibrahim Kalin, was praying at the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus just four days after the change of power, and Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan became the first diplomat to visit the Syrian capital.
Turkey's leadership in Syria, it must be said, was deserved. After all, after the introduction of Russian troops in 2015 and subsequent operations by Assad's army, the armed opposition lost significant territories.
Its former sponsors, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, withdrew, and after Turkish military operations in the north against ISIS* and the Kurdish YPG, the rebels either came under full Turkish control (as the Free Syrian Army, later renamed the Syrian National Army) or were heavily dependent on it (as was the case with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham* and smaller groups in Idlib).
The Americans and Europeans have shifted their focus from the fight against Assad to the fight against Iran and the protection of the Kurds, settling in the Euphrates region.
It is therefore not surprising that the first foreign guests in Damascus are Turks, and one of the top priority destinations for the representatives of the new Syria is Ankara and Istanbul. On January 15, a large delegation headed by Foreign Minister Asad Hassan al-Shibani arrived in the Turkish capita . He was also accompanied by Defense Minister Murhaf Abu Kasra and General Intelligence Director Anas Hassan Khattab.
Given that Turkey is Syria's main military supporter, it was expected that the most important person in the Syrian leadership, Ahmad al-Sharaa, would choose Turkey as his first country to visit. But before arriving in Ankara, al-Sharaa left for a two-day visit to Riyadh.
This circumstance, on the one hand, is surprising. After all, the KSA has not been the main player in Syria for a long time, and moreover, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, together with his colleagues from the League of Arab States, has actually legitimized the "dictator" by returning Assad to the LAS.
However, in politics, such steps are called diversification. Al-Sharaa does not want to fall under complete dependence on Turkey and be Erdogan's puppet, like the president of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. Therefore, he needs to pursue a policy of multipolarity.
High-level Europeans, including the heads of the French and German Foreign Ministries, as well as EU representatives, have come to Damascus, but they demand too much in return – democracy, inclusiveness, an agreement on the creation of Kurdish autonomy. And from the general experience of the Middle East, it follows that the “Westerners” are dangerous and unreliable allies. Al-Sharaa remembers the history of Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gaddafi well.
The Gulf monarchies do not lobby for human rights and democracy, but they have fat wallets that the UK and the US, especially Donald Trump, covet. Half-destroyed Syria needs money. And what about Syria - Erdogan himself went on a tour of the Gulf to save the lira, which was falling into the abyss. Where there is money, there is politics.
Damascus wants to have the support of Arab countries, whose leader Saudi Arabia is trying to position itself not without success. Syria is aiming even wider, hoping to legitimize itself and gain weight in the Islamic world through bin Salman. Such support will strengthen Damascus's independence from Ankara, and at the same time will become, albeit light, but still a bulletproof vest against Israel, which has expanded its occupation of Syrian lands.
What the parties actually agreed on in Riyadh is still unclear. In general, during this transition period there are almost no specifics on any international issue, including the fate of the Russian bases.
At the same time, having flown to Ankara after Riyadh, the interim president of Syria appeared before Erdogan as a much more authoritative leader than he had been just a few days ago. Negotiations with Erdogan are a recognition of both al-Sharaa and the realities “on the ground”. And Turkey is now the most influential of the bordering countries. And al-Sharaa is not averse to monetizing the potential offered by its northern neighbor.
It is clear from the content of the speeches of the two leaders that the special relations between Syria and Turkey stem not only from the former's great dependence on the latter. Al-Sharaa and Erdogan are also linked by relative ideological closeness.
The Syrian oppositionists who came to power, including armed ones, and various militant groups set the task of establishing an Islamist regime in the country in one form or another. Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party are their model and guide in this direction.
From the very first days of the change of power, Ankara made it clear that it was ready to help Damascus build state institutions. And Erdogan said at a meeting with his guest that he attached "great importance to the creation of the country's administration." Al-Sharaa, for his part, appreciated "Turkey's efforts to ensure the political and economic success of the current Syrian administration."
The Syrian authorities also cannot ignore the fact that Turkey supported the anti-Assad forces almost alone and until the very end. “Turkey did not leave the Syrian people alone in their most desperate and difficult days,” Erdogan said. His guest did not skimp on words of gratitude in response, saying that he would never forget how Erdogan let millions of Syrian refugees into his country, and how “Syrian and Turkish blood mixed in the liberation struggle.”
The refugee issue will also remain a common point of contact for a long time. Türkiye would like to bring millions of Syrians home so as not to burden its economy and reduce social tensions.
For Al-Sharaa, this is a big burden. It is not that Erdogan will terrorize Syria, like Europe, with a “migration baton,” but Damascus will still be obliged to take Ankara’s opinion into account. But money will also be needed to support the refugees, and in this regard, the help of the Arab monarchies becomes even more relevant.
The most painful issue for Erdogan, perhaps even more than refugees, remains the YPG, the Kurds and their separatism.
Since Assad's fall, Turkish troops have carried out several operations against them in Manbij and Tel Rifaat, but Ankara wants the complete destruction, disarmament or evacuation of YPG and SDF fighters, the lead structure in the northeast.
Al-Sharaa is negotiating with Kurdish representatives, the Kurds themselves initiated the talks. However, there are no specifics yet. The Kurds sometimes raise green-white-black flags, sometimes demand autonomy for their political institutions and armed forces.
Erdogan and al-Sharaa share a position on the territorial integrity and unity of Syria, hinting that there will be no independent Syrian Kurdistan. However, the Turkish president wants more practical steps in this direction.
"We discussed the steps that need to be taken against the separatist terrorist organization and its supporters occupying northeastern Syria. I told him that we are ready to provide Syria with the necessary support in the fight against all forms of terrorism, be it Daesh or PKK," Erdogan said after the talks, expressing satisfaction with al-Sharaa's "firm will" in the fight against terrorism.
Ash-Sharaa himself is in no hurry to drive the horses to the east.
He speaks of interest in a strategic partnership with Turkey in all areas. He also noted that Ankara and Damascus are working on "creating a common strategy to counter security threats in the region" and discussing issues of Syria's integrity in the northeast. However, there is still no clarity regarding a military solution to the issue or ultimatums to the Kurds.
What explains such caution?
Perhaps, the hope for a diplomatic solution to the issue, fear of Turkey's strengthening after the next military operations, in which the key player will be the SNA, not HTS*. Also, al-Sharaa is forced to look back at the US and the EU, from which he needs the lifting of international sanctions, without which Arab rials and dirhams will not flood the Syrian market.
In terms of the economy, Turkey depends, firstly, on the lifting of sanctions under the US Caesar Act, and secondly, on funding from the Gulf Cooperation Council.
Turkey understands the scale of the upcoming reconstruction work and is ready to participate in the construction of infrastructure facilities. "Turkey is ready to provide the necessary support for the reconstruction of Syria," Erdogan said, adding that the Arab and Islamic world should provide material support to the Syrians.
To sum up, we can say that Turkey holds the lead in terms of geopolitical influence in Syria. Western countries have only opened embassies, Arab countries can buy Syria, but they need permission from the West.
Turkey has a presence on the ground in the form of military bases and under certain conditions (if Al-Sharaa does not decide to go to war with the YPG) it can increase it. Incidentally, according to media reports, the construction of two permanent Turkish military bases in Syria is currently being discussed.
At the same time, it is worth noting that the competition for influence over the new Syrian leadership has already begun and will only intensify. Al-Sharaa invited Erdogan to visit Syria "as soon as possible", but Qatari Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has already been there. Someone else may appear there before Erdogan arrives.
In short, Ankara has a good starting position, but to play its cards successfully, it needs to take into account a number of other factors, including the West's sanctions toolkit, the Gulf's financial advantages, Arab solidarity, and Israeli pressure. And, of course, one should not discount Ahmed al-Sharaa's still underestimated desire for independence.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Ol'ga Borisova
[REGNUM] Two snipers, having worked on targets as part of a sabotage and reconnaissance group, were returning to their own. They went deep into the enemy's rear - they had to walk about five kilometers to their positions. The path lay along a narrow path, which the soldiers called "the run."
There is no way to turn left or right - everything around is mined. The path is covered by enemy mortars and machine guns. You can only run.
"I came up, crossed myself and ran - whether I would be lucky or not. I was unlucky. First, a mortar, a shot threw me back, and then a machine gun caught up with me," sniper Ivan Ivankov, call sign Django, tells IA Regnum.
The wound was serious, the bullet entered the abdominal cavity. But the man and his partner decided not to call an evacuation team - it would have to move along the same "run".
Ivankov knew that even two fighters would immediately become a target for Ukrainian drones, so he told his partner to go forward, letting him go twenty to thirty meters away from him. He himself went behind. Or rather, first he walked, and then simply crawled towards his own.
TO THE FRONT AFTER PRISON
Ivan Ivankov is 49 years old. He was born and raised in Irkutsk, and served in the border troops of the KGB of the USSR. He received an education as a psychologist, but never worked in his profession. He got a job as a security guard, then as a bodyguard.
And then, recalls the interlocutor of IA Regnum, “I met some comrades and decided to organize my own organized crime group.”
"We got involved in banditry. Of course, there's nothing good about it... We had episodes from 2012 to 2015. I was convicted of armed robbery of ATMs in Irkutsk," Ivankov says.
In 2015, he was arrested, spent two and a half years in a pretrial detention center, and in 2017, was sent to a penal colony — a prison for former employees of the internal affairs agencies. In the colony, especially in the pretrial detention center, it was harder than at the front, says Ivankov. Although, he admits, it is a “special experience.”
"Places of imprisonment teach you everything, it's a serious training, " says Ivankov. "For me, at least, it was quite comfortable later, both in the forest hole where I had to sleep, and in other situations."
In the pretrial detention center, the man's education as a psychologist came in handy. Firstly, to help himself - "with meditation and relaxation." Secondly, Ivankov was appointed senior in the cell, and had to resolve conflicts among aggressively minded men.
He was released from prison in March 2023 on parole.
" Many of my friends went to the front directly from the colony - both through Wagner and through the Ministry of Defense. Many friends left, and many stayed there: they died during the capture of Soledar, Bakhmut. I had a patriotic desire to punish that scum that was there..." - the man recalls.
After returning from the colony, he underwent basic military training at the Rokot organization in Irkutsk. There, they taught him fire training and tactical medicine. Then Ivankov signed a contract with the Redut PMC, where he "began to prepare more professionally."
The skills of handling weapons and marksmanship, developed during his military service, came in very handy. At the training ground, all recruits took a test: they had to hit a target, an A4 sheet of paper, from a distance of 100 meters to get a group of four even "holes". Ivankov passed the test successfully and received the sniper specialization.
When asked how his relatives reacted to his decision to go to the North Military District, the Regnum news agency’s interlocutor answered confidently:
"Nobody tried to talk me out of it, and it wouldn't have helped. My ex-wife said that I should think about it, but she is patriotic, and she understood that I was already determined to do it, and I couldn't be swayed. My mother also took it well. Of course, she was worried in her heart, but nevertheless... My friends and brother raised money for me, bought me equipment, helped with everything."
It took two months to prepare, then to the SVO zone. And three months later that same sortie into the enemy's rear, the wounding and the return on a "run" happened.
"When I crawled to my own people, they immediately sent me to the medical unit. There they found out that the wound was serious, they took me to Artemovsk for surgery. And a day later - to the hospital in St. Petersburg," recalls the interlocutor of IA Regnum.
Then began a long process of rehabilitation, returning to Irkutsk, and again trips to St. Petersburg for new operations. Ivankov himself admits that he was lucky: they allocated a quota to a military hospital, although by that time the contract had ended and the man was listed as a "civilian". Despite this, the doctors literally got Ivankov back on his feet: "they did everything perfectly, stitched everything up."
He was especially worried about his physical fitness because he had always been involved in sports and did not want to quit.
"Last April, when I had my last operation, I was forbidden to lift objects heavier than five kilograms. The restriction was for six months, it was April then, but in May I had already signed up for a gym and started lifting weights little by little. I started with five, then ten... Now I lift 140 kilograms - I have fully recovered," Ivankov says.
"THEY MUST UNDERSTAND THAT THEY ARE NEEDED IN PEACEFUL LIFE"
Already in the first days after the injury, the man realized what PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) was - he experienced an acute attack. In the hospital, the most ordinary sounds seemed unbearable.
"I remember it as if it were yesterday: someone turns on, for example, an electric razor, and you perceive it in your sleep as if a drone is flying over you. And such a burning, incredible desire to fall, hide under the bed. You perceive the slam of the door as an explosion or gunfire. Various methods of meditation and relaxation helped me, thanks to them I more or less coped with it," recalls the interlocutor of IA Regnum.
And just recently, when he went to Baikal with friends, he experienced similar feelings: someone decided to take pictures with drones, the man heard a characteristic buzzing - “it immediately gave me goosebumps.”
While still in the hospital in St. Petersburg, Ivankov realized that he wanted to help the soldiers who would return from the front - "they will experience the same thing as me." He began looking for courses to train military psychologists, and saw a program at the St. Petersburg training center "Kupol." In October, he left the hospital and immediately signed up for the course. He studied remotely from November 2023 to February 2024, and received a diploma in military psychology.
I posted an ad and started holding online consultations. I worked mainly with the wives and widows of fighters. Their main request was "help me cope with loss, bereavement."
MAY 9
And then Ivankov, as he says himself, "got into the flow." He saw a message from the Fatherland Defenders Fund that they were recruiting for training in entrepreneurship from the public organization "Business Russia." The man applied, talked to the organizers. He said that he wanted to help the fighters.
Through joint efforts, the concept of a non-profit Center for Psychological Rehabilitation of SVO Participants and Their Family Members was born. The Center has already been registered, and the start of work is scheduled for February 2025.
"It is very important that support is not only from family, but that there are organizations that help cope with everything. I would like our project to develop, to grow into an all-Russian network. I know this from my own experience: you can't drag a person who came from the front to a psychologist, he will twirl his finger at his temple and go drink some moonshine," Ivankov says.
All those who returned have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), Ivan is convinced, but some people cope with it easier, while others have a really hard time. That is why, the man decided, the Center should become a real community - a club for veterans of the Fatherland.
"His activities will be aimed at maximum adaptation to peaceful life. Sooner or later, everything will end, the guys will come back - it will be hard for everyone. We all remember how the Afghan war ended, the Chechen wars: there were all sorts of organized crime groups, drug addiction, alcoholism, suicidal syndrome...
We need to be prepared and help the kids, involve them in social activities. They must understand that they are needed, that they are already in a peaceful life, the world is no longer divided into friends and foes, there are much more colors in it," Ivankov explains.
According to him, the Center will also employ child and family psychologists who will be able to help the children and wives of soldiers.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Gevorg Mirzayan
[REGNUM] USAID, the independent US government agency that handles nearly 60% of American humanitarian aid, has fallen on hard times since Donald Trump came to power. Trump has said the organization is run by “radical lunatics” who need to be removed.
And billionaire Elon Musk, who headed the US Department of Government Effectiveness (DOGE), called USAID a criminal organization that had to die. And on February 3, employees of the agency's headquarters received letters about the closure of the office in Washington.
Then, authorities around the world began to unveil the organization's activities. Tbilisi said the agency had spent millions of dollars on the "2024 Georgian elections" — the very same ones that resulted in the defeated pro-Western opposition attempting to stage a "Maidan."
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has spoken out about the destructive influence of USAID in his country and throughout the European Union. “Apparently, USAID funded the ultra-progressive newspaper Politico in Brussels and virtually all left-wing media in Hungary under the previous US administration,” he said.
USAID was also active in Russia, not only on the “humanitarian” track, but also on the political one. “USAID proudly supports Russia’s oldest human rights organizations, which have played a key role in advancing support for democratic values throughout Russia,” the organization’s report stated.
In addition, the agency “provided support to citizen watchdog groups in Russia that provided impartial oversight of electoral processes, including through innovative use of technology.”
And the icing on the cake: “USAID-funded rule of law experts helped draft the Russian Constitution, Part I of the Russian Civil Code, and the Russian Tax Code.”
But the agency was most active in the human rights sphere. According to Nikita Mendkovich, head of the Eurasian Analytical Club, USAID's main projects in Russia for a long time were the Memorial Society* (liquidated by the Supreme Court for violating the law on foreign agents), the Helsinki Group (liquidated by the Moscow City Court) and, of course, the Voice* organization.
According to Mendkovich, the longest-running project was the Memorial* project. It received funding through various foreign intermediaries, but ultimately everything came from the US budget. "The organization was engaged in ideological processing of the Russian population and discrediting the Russian government. In essence, Memorial* was a key element of the system of rewriting history throughout the post-Soviet space, discrediting our past," the expert notes in a commentary to the Regnum news agency.
It is important to understand that the rewriting of our history and the discrediting of the Russian government were promoted not so much as part of a campaign of Russophobia, but rather as a foreign government organization fulfilling its direct functions.
"In the 1990s, certain political and economic reforms were lobbied for in the post-Soviet space through USAID. Their ultimate goal was to make it easier for the US to establish economic ties with these countries," Ulyana Artamonova, a candidate of political sciences and a research fellow at the Center for North American Studies at the IMEMO RAS, explains to Regnum.
The US-lobbied reforms, she continues, had two goals. First, to prevent the restoration of the Soviet system in any form, and second, to make the political system and culture of post-Soviet states similar to those of the US. "The Americans, with their messianism, sincerely believe that theirs is the best and universal. And they are also sure that it is easier to deal with a country that has the same model," Artamonova adds.
At the same time, Moscow did not consider USAID’s activities to be destructive for some time.
"The agency, for example, issued grants for internships and training programs in the US: even in the early 2010s, having an internship or grant on your resume was a plus for a job candidate. The fact is that American universities have a reputation as some of the most advanced in the world," notes the interlocutor of IA Regnum. And this concerned not only political scientists and journalists, but also representatives of the Russian judiciary.
“More than 5,000 Russian and American judicial officials participated in exchanges and events, resulting in the establishment of strong partnerships between Russian judicial authorities and their U.S. counterparts,” the organization’s report for 2012–2017 says.
But the agency's management was not satisfied with the results of work in Russia. The Americans felt that the Russian political elite was not ready to follow the path that USAID lobbied for. Moreover, this became clear back in the mid-90s, when the US began to gradually reduce the number of projects in Russia in favor of work in other post-Soviet republics. And this led to organizational decisions in the early 2010s.
“USAID activities in Russia ceased in 2012. After the protests on Bolotnaya and the presidential elections in which Vladimir Vladimirovich was re-elected, mutual disappointment finally took shape among the Russian political elite and the United States,” says Ulyana Artamonova.
Russian disappointment manifested itself in the fact that USAID began to be viewed not as a source of funding for civil projects (in attempts to “set Moscow on the right path”), but as an instrument for destabilizing the situation in the country.
But even after the official closure, USAID did not stop working in Russia and continued to finance various projects through legal “straws” — in particular, European human rights organizations. Funding continued even after 2022 and the introduction of numerous European sanctions.
For example, USAID has allocated almost $63 million for projects in our country for 2025–26. Among them are the project “strengthening local self-government in the North Caucasus,” promoting new media in Russia, creating a sustainable civil society, etc.
"All these projects under different names, through different "interlayers" continued to operate, and many are still operating. And their influence cannot be underestimated," Nikita Mendkovich is sure.
One should not underestimate the seemingly closing USAID. Obviously, the organization will be reformed and included in the State Department, after which it will continue to work in the interests of the United States. It will simply begin to implement more pragmatic programs.
"USAID will continue to pose a threat to Russia, after Trump's reform, only the methods of work will change. I believe that, for example, in the southern regions of the CIS, the Americans, including through USAID, will bet not on Western liberals, who have shown limited effectiveness, but on aggressive ethno-nationalists and Islamic radicals," predicts expert Mendkovich.
A similar bet can be made in Russia. Simply because, in the opinion of the Americans, what cannot be changed in their interests must be weakened as much as possible. Or even destroyed.
#1
In addition, the agency “provided support to citizen watchdog groups in Russia that provided impartial oversight of electoral processes, including through innovative use of technology.”
Yeah, we're all too familiar with some of those "innovations" in this country too.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 12:01
Comments ||
Top||
#2
Trump ruined a powerful weapon against Russia. Who else needs more proof he's working for Putin?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Nikolay Antonov
[REGNUM] The fewer days remain before the "starvation death" of the recipients of USAID grants, the more interesting details emerge about who actually received them. The matter has already reached such monsters as the media company Politico, The New York Times and Associated Press. What can we say about the Ukrainian dog Patron, who sadly admitted on his page in a social network that "my cartoons, comics and books became possible thanks to the support of USAID."
The huge web that ensured US influence, the implantation of the narratives they needed, and the management of public opinion was created over decades through huge budgets. But this was not just a cashbox for distributing money, but a complex system that formed controlled elites, undermined state institutions, and prepared the ground for revolutions.
But how exactly did it work, where did it come from and why is it under attack today - we will figure it out further.
FACTORY OF "COLOR REVOLUTIONS"
When the John F. Kennedy administration created the U.S. Agency for International Development in 1961, the publicly stated goal sounded noble: to help Third World countries combat poverty, develop infrastructure, and improve their quality of life.
But the real meaning was different. USAID was originally a scalpel in the hands of the CIA, a subtle instrument for adjusting the political landscape of the world. The Cold War was in full swing, and the United States watched with alarm as the USSR effortlessly expanded its influence. Former French and British colonies in Africa were becoming independent one after another, and with independence came socialist self-awareness. Latin America was erupting with hotbeds of left-wing radical movements, and pro-Soviet governments were rising in Asia as well.
The Americans needed a means that would allow them not only to counteract these processes, but also to covertly control regimes, pushing them in the right direction. However, traditional methods – coups with the help of the CIA, financing military juntas and political assassinations – by that time no longer always worked. The world was becoming more sensitive to open interference.
Thus, the idea of “soft power” was born in the White House, which would later become the foundation of American geopolitics. The agency was supposed to become not only a donor, but also a curator. To create an environment in which politicians, journalists, activists and businessmen needed by the US would receive advantages over others. And this machine started up with amazing efficiency.
A CLASSIC EXAMPLE IS CUBA.
In the 1960s, the United States failed to directly intervene militarily on the Island of Freedom (the famous “Bay of Pigs Operation”), but this did not mean abandoning subversive activities. The new tool began to finance Cuban media (including illegal radio stations), which reported on the “real” state of affairs under Castro. In the 2000s, the agency went further and launched the “Cuban Twitter,” the social network ZunZuneo, which was planned to become a platform for coordinating protests.
To avoid suspicion, the financing scheme was hidden through Panamanian offshore companies and shell companies in Liechtenstein.
Another example is Chile, 1973. The government of Salvador Allende, the democratically elected president, took the socialist path, which enraged Washington. USAID, together with the CIA, began investing in the “democratic opposition”: grants were received not only by opposition politicians, but also by trade unions, entrepreneurs, newspapers, and student movements.
So when General Augusto Pinochet staged his coup, everything was ready for it: the new press had already formed public opinion, the trade unions were divided, the younger generation saw salvation in the military dictatorship.
In Guatemala, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia, the agency worked through networks of NGOs, universities, youth movements, thus creating a “parallel society” that could be activated at the right moment. But the real evolution of USAID began in the 1990s, when the USSR collapsed. America realized: there was no longer a need to play hide and seek, it was possible to enter post-Soviet countries openly, in the format of “developing democracy.”
FAVORITE BRAINCHILD
Ukraine can rightfully be considered one of the main USAID projects, brilliantly adjusted by the “revolutions” in 2004 and 2014, and then finally consolidated by 2019, the year of the last elections. Here, American specialists created a controlled society, where every significant element of the system — from the media and courts to ministries and the president — was somehow connected to the donor structure.
The history of Ukraine's dependence on USAID began long before the Maidan. Already in the early 1990s, the first programs for "democracy development" entered the country through the agency. Grants were distributed generously: first for reforms, then for support of "civil society." And by the early 2000s, the agency was already directly managing entire sectors of Ukrainian politics and economics.
The first big test of the system was 2004 – the “orange revolution”, created, financed and brought to a victorious end by Western structures. By that time, the grantors had already been working closely for several years with journalists, activists and politicians who were soon to become the “face of change”.
In 1999, the agency began supporting Ukrainska Pravda, an online publication that became the main mouthpiece of the “progressive forces” attacking the power of President Leonid Kuchma. Dozens of other independent media outlets, from regional publications to national channels, were formed with money from USAID and the Soros Foundation.
A separate important area is “civil society.” Grants for systemic development were received by youth movements such as “Pora,” which literally copied the Serbian “Otpor,” the organization that led to the overthrow of Slobodan Milosevic.
USAID, together with the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and Open Society, financed “activist trainings,” taught how to properly organize protests, conduct information attacks, create a “crisis of trust” in the government, and raised opinion leaders. “Independent” media outlets spread scandals about “falsifications,” hundreds of activists organized protests, and special structures provided legal protection for those “victimized by the government.”
Victor Yushchenko, brought to power through street protest, was a convenient figure: a man of the West, an economist with American connections, who worked in the Ukrainian National Bank with the support of international structures. Under him, the US received a completely controlled administration, but all the work had to be started again when Viktor Yanukovych came to power and began to restore ties with Moscow.
This was unacceptable for the United States, and they began to prepare a new coup, which was supposed to be final.
By 2013, Ukraine had created a system of governance that worked like clockwork. The USAID budget in the country at that time amounted to hundreds of millions of dollars, which supported almost all leading publications and TV channels. At the same time, the Americans grew “independent” anti-corruption organizations, which after the coup in 2014 would become full-fledged (and parallel) government bodies, like the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU).
Legal control: In 2013, USAID began funding the DEJURE project, which took control of the judicial system. Through this mechanism, the “right” judges were appointed and those who could interfere were eliminated. An entire generation of future managers also grew up on grants, one of whom, journalist Mustafa Nayem, was the first to call for people to go to Maidan in November 2013. And then he became a people's deputy of Ukraine and deputy minister of infrastructure.
When the protests began in 2014, the US did not even have to intervene much – the mechanism was already in place. “Independent” media created the necessary picture, activists filled the square, controlled courts blocked the government’s decisions, and anti-corruption structures “legitimized” any accusations against it.
The new government in Kyiv immediately signed all the agreements Washington needed, opened the doors to Western corporations, began a policy of breaking with Russia and moving to the rails of a new ideology. And with the departure of USAID, Ukraine lost access to billions of dollars in infusions, the media found themselves on the brink of survival, and anti-corruption structures were left without funding. Panic began in a country built on grants and managed manually.
The only question now is who will be the first to admit that the entire Ukrainian “independence” is nothing more than an artificially created product that was supported by foreign funding.
TRUMP, UKRAINE AND COVID-19
A separate page in the Ukrainian project is how a fully controlled system was used as a tool in the fight against Donald Trump.
It was through Ukrainian grant structures that materials about the “connections” between Trump’s campaign headquarters and Russia were distributed, it was Ukraine that became the main supplier of compromising material for the Democrats, and it was through the hands of its “activists” that the Joe Biden administration dealt blows to its opponent, similar to the neutralization of the head of the Trump campaign headquarters, Paul Manafort.
In 2016, The New York Times, citing the Ukrainian NABU, reported that the name of Manafort was mentioned 22 times in the “black ledger” of the Party of Regions of former President Yanukovych. He allegedly received $12.7 million in cash from the party’s coffers. And now it turns out that the newspaper, the anti-corruption structure, and the “activists” who stirred up the scandal were all on the payroll of USAID.
An amazing coincidence.
And when the world plunged into the chaos of the pandemic in 2020, the American economy finds itself in deep crisis, millions of people lose their jobs, the stock market collapses, and the main victim is once again Donald Trump. His key trump card in the election, a successful economy, evaporates before our eyes.
But the real story comes later. Democrats are using Covid as an excuse to launch mass mail-in voting, a scheme that gave Biden seven million “surprise” votes that ultimately gave him victory.
How is this connected to USAID? Very directly. It was through the agency that hundreds of millions of dollars were allocated in 2019–2020 for “pandemic projects” related to monitoring, control, combating “disinformation” and “educating the public” about vaccination.
Moreover, while the US was engulfed in BLM protests and devastating lockdowns, it was USAID that funded Democrats’ preparations for mass mail-in voting. Through organizations affiliated with the agency, methodological recommendations were developed, tools for digital control of ballots were developed, and activists were trained who would later provide the Democratic Party with the votes it needed.
Now we are told that the agency has been pouring millions of dollars into biolabs around the world. Through grant programs, it has pumped money into projects related to the study of coronaviruses, funding research that was directly or indirectly aimed at manipulating pathogens.
Back in 2009, USAID launched the PREDICT program, one of its key initiatives officially aimed at “monitoring potential zoonotic disease threats.” Under the auspices of combating future epidemics, active work began with biolabs around the world. Among the project’s partners was EcoHealth Alliance, an organization that has donated millions of dollars to the Wuhan Institute of Virology since 2014.
This money went towards “enhancing the functions” of coronaviruses, which in scientific language means creating new, more dangerous strains.
By 2017, a USAID report clearly states that the PREDICT program had “successfully identified and classified 1,200 new viruses.” Among them were several strains of coronaviruses that, as it now turns out, may have served as the basis for the development of COVID-19.
Interestingly, the PREDICT program was shut down in 2019, a few months before the pandemic broke out. Why? According to the official version, funding for the project was stopped due to “achievement of key goals.” But if you remember that the pandemic began right after that, it seems that the goals were actually achieved — and “monitoring” turned into a real global epidemic.
It is not surprising that one of the first targets of the Republicans was USAID, now openly called a "criminal organization." Obviously, the current US president has every reason to take it under control. And this is far from just the liquidation of one organization. We are talking about dismantling the system of shadow control over entire states, which has accumulated colossal experience in management. So the question naturally arises: will the countries that have lived under his hand for years really be able to gain independence?
Text taken from the Telegram channel of usaperiodical
Commentary from Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] Allegedly leaking Trump's plan for Ukraine.
The Daily Mail claims that they have a leaked plan from Donald Trump to end the conflict in Ukraine. So, we're listening to the Mail now, Borya?
In brief:
1. The US President intends to convince Zelensky to agree to a ceasefire by Easter, and the final agreement will be published by May 9;
2. Russia's westward advance will be stopped, Ukraine will be banned from joining NATO, and Kiev will be obliged to recognize Russia's sovereignty over its new territories;
3. Ukrainian troops will be withdrawn from the Kursk region;
4. A European military contingent, which may include the British, will be used to guard the demilitarized zone, while the Americans will not be involved;
5. The EU will be asked to help Ukraine in its recovery efforts;
6. Negotiations will begin with a phone call between Volodymyr Zelensky and Vladimir Putin in early February, a meeting in late February - early March, and an official announcement of a ceasefire by April 20.
7. Sanctions will be partially lifted from Russia, including on the oil sector. Western countries will impose a duty on Russian oil, the proceeds of which will be transferred to the restoration of Ukraine.
“In the West, there is a desire – when they see how the front in Ukraine is collapsing – to immediately freeze military actions, deploy their contingents there and begin rearming Ukrainian troops,” RIA Novosti quotes the head of the Russian diplomatic mission as saying.
Meshkov added that Russia sees the West’s intentions, but will not succumb to such tricks.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova stated at a briefing on February 6 that freezing the conflict in Ukraine or a temporary ceasefire is unacceptable for Russia. The diplomat noted that freezing or a temporary ceasefire would simply be used by the collective West to strengthen the military potential of the Kiev regime. Later, attempts to take armed military revenge may be made, she admitted. The representative of the Foreign Ministry noted that potential guarantees for possible agreements on Ukraine will be determined during possible negotiations.
On January 20, Russian President Vladimir Putin noted that Moscow is ready for negotiations on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, but the goal of this dialogue should be long-term peace, not a short-term truce. The head of the Russian state added that the legitimate interests of the Russian Federation must be taken into account.
In December, the head of state noted that Russia seeks to end the conflict in Ukraine, not freeze it. He recalled that in 2021, former US President Joe Biden had already proposed postponing Ukraine's admission to NATO for 10-20 years. However, in the context of historical distances and timeframes, this is one moment, after which the country would still be accepted into the alliance, the president emphasized.
Even more from regnum.ru Russian Ambassador Announces Readiness for Very Serious Negotiations on Ukraine
Russia is ready for a very serious dialogue on the settlement of the Ukrainian conflict, but it stands on the previously announced position. This was stated by the Russian Ambassador to Great Britain Andrei Kelin.
"I will say that we are ready for a very serious discussion on this matter. We have stated our position, and we adhere to our position. I do not think it is necessary to repeat this," the ambassador said in an interview with the ITV channel.
He added that the Russian Armed Forces continue to successfully advance in the special operation zone, which makes the negotiating position advantageous for Moscow. According to the diplomat, much will depend on the events that will take place in the coming weeks and months. Kelin emphasized that Russia is ready to negotiate on Ukraine based on the draft Istanbul Agreements. At the same time, Moscow will insist on holding presidential elections in Ukraine due to the illegitimacy of the head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky.
“As far as I understand, our positions with the Americans coincide on the issue of the need to hold elections,” the head of the diplomatic mission added.
#4
A great deal of damage has been done that cannot be undone. So the EU will help Ukraine rebuild but who will help Russia? Sorry, Vlad. It doesn't matter about Trump. After the Obama/Biden administrations, Russians will never trust the West again.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 11:57
Comments ||
Top||
#5
^They never did before - that's their principal strength.
#6
You're probably right, Grom. I guess what I'm trying to say is Western leaders like Trump should understand that the Russians don't trust us, they should understand why they don't trust us and negotiate accordingly.
I say it doesn't matter about Trump because if we have radical swings in policy it must look to the Russians and others like we are a bipolar people who are subject to radical mood swings. That makes us unworthy of trust.
One could argue that's just how democracy is. But if our democracy produces leaders like Joe Biden, it's sick and nobody knows how long it will take us to recover or if we ever will.
I don't think our leaders understand that but they should.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 13:40
Comments ||
Top||
#7
^It's not the democracy, it's the Globalist ruling "elites".
#8
The Uke war needs to end, BUT, alienating Russia will further entwine China and Russia, especially if there is a mind to surrendering Russia's "traditional sphere of influence". Has anyone speculated on the outcome of the vaccum caused by USAID leaving strategic spaces? Sounds like something Belt and Road was made to fill.
SVR is one of three Russian intelligence agencies; One of two for foreign intelligence.
[Regnum] The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) has published a video message to Americans, for whom love for their homeland and the ideals of freedom are not an empty phrase, reminding them of the two countries' joint fight against Nazism.
“Against the backdrop of the US CIA’s clumsy attempts to recruit Russian citizens with the help of primitive video clips distributed on the Internet, depicting our country in the spirit of hackneyed Hollywood “cranberry movies,” the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is publishing on its official website an appeal to Americans for whom love for their homeland and the ideals of freedom are not an empty phrase,” the agency’s press bureau said in a statement.
It is noted that the destructive efforts of the CIA are futile, and the Russian and American peoples have not forgotten the glorious pages of the history of the joint fight against Nazism.
The department expressed confidence that there are many true patriots in the United States who do not accept support from the corrupt political clique in Kyiv.
“In our video message, we not only recall the past, but also offer options aimed at the future,” the SVR added.
#1
Does the tone of this article and video signal some kind of rapprochement between the USA and Russia? Smells like it, a whiff if nothing else. Also, I mistook the article about the SVR as one about SRV.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
02/07/2025 5:33
Comments ||
Top||
#2
See Mike, you were hoping for 'Texas Flood'.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/07/2025 9:01
Comments ||
Top||
#3
“Dammit, the KGB plot almost succeeded, if it weren’t for those dumb DOGE kids? Quick, Yuri, send out a message congratulating America for winning against the people wittingly and unwittingly doing out bidding.”
That’s the piece we must not forget: the totalitarian bureaucratic deep state, the March Through The Institutions, was literally a Communist plot that they started working in the 1930s, a century ago. So even if former KGB officer Vladimir Putin had turned away from that effort, it was petty clear from posts we watched here that someone over there is still trying to move it along.
#4
At the ultimate strategic level, consider the Kissinger 70's world view of a three-superpower world, and the tactic of changing the triangulation nexus. While the world if far more complex and there are fractures in the old coalitions, the core component still has significant validity. Only now it is the Russians who are the very junior partner, but are very vulnerable to persuasion to limp over to a more Western relationship, with emphasis on shared culture, religion, history, and ethnicity. Not alliance, but peaceful, commercial, co-existence with the West. The Sino-Soviet connection was always flawed and unnatural, driven by necessity, not preference, and now, it is infuriatingly insolent for Russians I suspect. This video may be the opening, soft gambit, and I think it will see it as such.
#5
That’s the piece we must not forget: the totalitarian bureaucratic deep state, the March Through The Institutions, was literally a Communist plot that they started working in the 1930s, a century ago.
Yes, tw. Joe Stalin gave communists a bad name so now they call themselves Democrats. Maybe you can lump RINOs and/or globalists in there too. Ironic, though, that they're the ones who want war with Russia.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 13:54
Comments ||
Top||
#6
There is that, my dear. But you are a more complex thinker than I.
Military escalation in east Aleppo countryside in nearly two months | Turkish forces and their proxies ki*ll 55 civilians, including 11 women and children#SOHRhttps://t.co/qas5KNH6hX
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Member of Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... 's political bureau Ezzat al-Resheq said that US president Donald's latest remarks about taking over 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... and relocating its residents elsewhere reflect ''misperception and deep ignorance about Paleostine and the region.''
''Gaza is not a common land for any party to decide to control, but rather it is part of our occupied Paleostinian land, so any solution must be based on ending the occupation and fulfilling the Paleostinian people's rights and not on the mentality of a real estate businessman or the mentality of muscle and domination,'' Resheq said on Wednesday.
Resheq added that Trump's remarks on Gaza ''vindicated further the unlimited US bias in favor of the Israeli occupation regime and the Zionist aggression against the Paleostinian people and their legitimate rights.''
The Hamas official affirmed that the Paleostinian people and their leaders, backed by their Arab and Islamic nations and the world's free people, would frustrate all the displacement plans targeting them.
In another statement, the Hamas Movement condemned in the strongest terms Trump's remarks on Gaza, describing them as ''hostile to the Paleostinian people and their national cause.''
Hamas said that such remarks by Trump would ''not serve regional stability'' and would only ''pour fuel on the fire.''
''We, alongside our Paleostinian people and national leaders, will never allow any country in the world to occupy our land or impose guardianship over our great people whose blood flowed like rivers in order to liberate our land from the occupation and establish our Paleostinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,'' Hamas said.
Hamas called on the Arab League ...an organization of Arabic-speaking states with 22 member countries and four observers. The League tries to achieve Arab consensus on issues, which usually leaves them doing nothing but a bit of grimacing and mustache cursing... , the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the UN to convene urgent meetings to take firm and historic positions that preserve the Paleostinian people's national rights.
In a joint news conference with the Israeli prime minister in the White House on Tuesday, Trump said the US would ''take over'' and ''own'' Gaza after resettling Paleostinians elsewhere under a redevelopment plan that he claimed could turn the Paleostinian coastal enclave into ''the Riviera of the Middle East.''
In a flagrant announcement upending decades of US policy towards the Paleostinian-Israeli conflict, Trump claimed that his administration would spearhead development in Gaza to ''supply unlimited numbers of jobs and housing for the people of the area.''
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11169 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
''Gaza is not a common land for any party to decide to control, but rather it is part of our occupied Paleostinian land, so any solution must be based on ending the occupation and fulfilling the Paleostinian people's rights and not on the mentality of a real estate businessman or the mentality of muscle and domination,''
hell it's only 5 times the size of a small Montana ranch that only 2 live on. Why the hell should the rest of the world give a damn about 1.2 million welfare mother breeders of Satan's horde?
"It is the nature of Islam to dominate, not to be dominated, to impose its law on all nations and to extend its power to the entire planet."
Hassan al-Banna
"Gaza is not a common land for any party to decide to control"
They don't recognize the sovereign existence of any Western nation.
Why should any Western nation respect their 'sovereignty?'
[Epoch Times] Border czar Tom Homan promised on Feb. 6 to find those responsible for leaking the details of a raid targeting members of the Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang and hold them accountable.
The Venezuelan gang has become increasingly active in the United States amid a years-long surge in illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. It is one of several high-threat groups the Trump administration has prioritized for deportation.
"This isn’t a game," Homan told reporters outside the White House. "When operations get leaked like that, it puts our officers at great risk."
"We know that TDA is dangerous. Everybody can agree to that," Homan said. "But when they get a heads up that we are coming, it’s only a matter of time before our officers are ambushed. Their job is dangerous enough, so we are going to address this very seriously."
The raid in question took place on Feb. 5 in Colorado. Before approaching the gaggle of reporters, Homan told Fox News that his team had already identified the source of the leak, which is not the first to hinder the border operations.
"Look, I said from day one, we want to be transparent with the American people," he said. "We’ve invited numerous media outlets along, but right now, it’s all about operational security.
"So we may have to stop the media ride-alongs because—I’m not pointing the finger at them—but the less people that know about these operations, the safer it is for our agents."
Posted by: Bobby ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11181 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
Lebanese social media accounts have shared footage showing the moment Israeli airstrikes struck Hassan Nasrallah’s bunker in Beirut’s southern suburbs. Reports claim the strike killed Nasrallah along with other senior Hezbollah commanders.@ariel_oseranpic.twitter.com/qk1E2gCkaa
[GEO.TV] Officials from the Ministry of National Food Security and Research (MNFSR) confirmed on Thursday that a newly established slaughterhouse in Gwadar has started production to meet the surge in demand for donkey meat, bones, and hides in China for manufacturing the traditional product, e-jiao.
The National Assembly Standing Committee on Food Security, chaired by Committee Chairman Rana Muhammad Hayat, convened, during which officials disclosed that China has inked an accord with Pakistain for the procurement of donkey carcass parts.
A Chinese company has begun operations in Gwadar, marking a significant step in this unconventional export sector, the committee was informed.
When Hayat questioned why Pakistain was not exporting live donkeys instead, officials explained that the logistics of exporting live animals were challenging and less viable than exporting their by-products.
The MNFSR officials further disclosed that requests for setting up donkey slaughterhouses in other parts of the country were also pouring in, while negotiations were underway with other Chinese firms looking to invest in the trade.
As the discussion continued, the committee chairman pointed out that donkeys, once the mainstay of small-load transport, were losing their relevance as beasts of burden, leading to a decline in their domestic use.
In the same breath, Hayat suggested that selective breeding of high-quality donkeys should still be encouraged to maintain their population — given their potential economic value.
Pakistain's donkey population stands at approximately 5.9 million, with China being a major market where donkey meat is used in cuisine and the hides for producing e-jiao, a traditional medicinal gelatin.
Previously, exports were limited due to delays in finalising the necessary protocols, which have now been completed.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11150 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Pakistan
#1
Donkey-hide gelatin or ass-hide glue is gelatin obtained from the skin of the donkey by soaking and stewing. It is used as an ingredient in the traditional medicine of China, where it is called ejiao, meaning "gelatin of Dong'e County".
[FoxNews] U.S. Indo-Pacific Command says 3 defense contractors also involved in fatal crash
A U.S. military service member and three defense contractors died Thursday in the Philippines after their surveillance flight crashed, officials say.
U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said the aircraft contracted by the Department of Defense went down in the southern province of Maguindanao del Sur
…in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Moslem Mindanao. Between resentful remnants of the the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF — get your snickers out, dear Reader, then we’ll go on) and ISIS-linked Daulah Islamiyah, successor to the infamous Maute Group, the region remains a hotbed of Islamic militancy…
"The incident occurred during a routine mission in support of U.S.-Philippine security cooperation activities," U.S. Indo-Pacific Command said in a statement to Fox News.
"We can confirm no survivors of the crash. There were four personnel on board, including one U.S. military service member and three defense contractors," it added.
The aircraft involved in the crash was a U.S. Marine Corps Beechcraft King Air 350, a senior U.S. defense official told Fox News.
The cause of the crash remains under investigation. The names of those involved are being withheld pending next of kin notification.
Windy Beaty, a provincial disaster-mitigation officer, told the Associated Press that she received reports that residents saw smoke coming from the plane and heard an explosion before the aircraft plummeted to the ground about half a mile from a cluster of farmhouses.
A water buffalo on the ground was also killed as a result of the plane crash, local officials said.
U.S. forces have been deployed in a Philippine military camp in the country's south for decades to help provide advice and training to Filipino forces battling Muslim militants, the AP reported.
The region is the homeland of minority Muslims in the largely Roman Catholic nation.
[GEO.TV] US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... will sign an executive order on Thursday to sanction the International Criminal Court for targeting the United States and its allies, such as Israel, a White House official said.
The order will place financial and visa sanctions on individuals and their family members who assist in ICC investigations of US citizens or US allies, said the official.
The move by Trump comes after US Senate Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... last week blocked a Republican-led effort to sanction the ICC in protest at its arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister. Netanyahu is currently visiting Washington.
The ICC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. ("OH shit!")
The court has taken measures to shield staff from possible US sanctions, paying salaries three months in advance, as it braced for financial restrictions that could cripple the war crimes tribunal, sources told Rooters last month.
In December, the court's president, judge Tomoko Akane, warned that sanctions would "rapidly undermine the Court's operations in all situations and cases, and jeopardise its very existence."
This is the second time the court has faced US retaliation as a result of its work. During the first Trump administration in 2020, Washington imposed sanctions on then-prosecutor Fatou Bensouda and one of her top aides over the ICC's investigation into alleged war crimes by American troops in Afghanistan.
The 125-member ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals. The United States, China, Russia and Israel are not members.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11167 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Declare it a terrorist organization, all members, aides, etc are now valid targets for special operations to remove from the living.
🚨#BREAKING: A SEPTA train carrying 350 passengers burst into flames catching fire prompting evacuations⁰⁰📌#RidleyPark | #Pennsylvania⁰⁰Currently, numerous firefighters are responding to a SEPTA train fire in Ridley Park, Pennsylvania, located 21 minutes or 16 miles from… pic.twitter.com/F2s7tyjHGe
[NAHARNET] Paleostinian refugees in Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... , many of whom in exile since 1948, believe that U.S. President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... 's proposal for 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... is doomed to fail, an activist said.
Suheil NATO ...the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. A collection of multinational and multilingual and multicultural armed forces, all of differing capabilities, working toward a common goal by pulling in different directions... ur, who heads an aid group in the Mar Elias camp in Beirut, said that neither the Paleostinians themselves nor the neighboring countries that Trump suggested might absorb them will accept the population transfer plan.
He said that even U.S. allies like Egypt or Jordan refuse to be threatened to absorb the Paleostinians from Gaza.
Fathi Kallab, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine ... a breakaway faction of the Pöpular Frönt för the Liberation of Paleostine. The are regarded as the most intellectual of Paleostinian fedayeen groups, smoking cheap cigarettes and drawing heavily on Marxist-Leninist theory to explain their crappy lives. They can occasionally be seen strutting through the streets of Paleostine, dressed up like soldiers and lugging firearms, though they seldom manage to hit anything and then usually by accident. This may be because of their habit of wearing black masks that cut off most of their vision. That would also explain their habit of occasionally walking into walls, which is a well-known attribute of those immersed in true understanding of the dialectic...
, a leftist political faction, said that the displacement of residents under humanitarian pretexts is ''considered a war crime punishable by law, as recognized by multiple international organizations.''
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11165 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran Proxies
[NAHARNET] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> has named Hezbollah leader Sheikh Naim Qassem ... the Grand Vizier of the Hezbullies... as his "representative" in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... , Iranian media reported Wednesday.
"The leader of the revolution in a decree introduced Sheikh Naim Qassem, secretary general of Hezbollah, as his representative in Lebanon," Tasnim news agency said.
Tasnim carried a copy of the official decree which said Qassem will represent Khamenei in handling "non-litigious matters" and "managing religious affairs" in Lebanon.
The news agency recalled that Qassem's predecessor Sayyed ...Arabic term meaning your/his lordship. Groveling in His Exalted Presence is encouraged... His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah ...The late, lamented satrap of the Medes and the Persians in Leb...> -- who was killed in an Israeli air strike on Beirut's southern suburbs in September 27 -- had held the same title.
Hezbollah is part of the "axis of resistance", an alliance of Iran-backed gangs opposed to Israel and its U.S. ally.
Khamenei, who has the final say in all matters of state in Iran, has representatives in all of Iran's provinces with a mandate to collect religious funds and perform other duties.
Qassem was named Hezbollah leader in October after heir apparent Sayyed Hashem Safieddine was killed in an Israeli strike shortly after Nasrallah's death.
Hezbollah is to hold a public funeral for both Nasrallah and Safieddine on February 23. It had put off public commemorations for safety reasons until after a fragile ceasefire with Israel took hold on November 27.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11165 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[GEO.TV] A Pakistain Army soldier embraced martyrdom and 12 bad boyz were potted in an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's North Wazoo district, the military's media wing said on Thursday.
A statement from the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said: ''On February 5-6, security forces conducted an intelligence-based operation in general area Hassan Khel, North Waziristan District on the reported presence of khwarij."
Last summer the government of Pakistan declared the Tehrik-e-Pakistan (TTP) as "Fitna al-Khawarij,” functionally rebellious heretics, and then banned them. This had exactly the non-effect one would expect.
'During the conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location and resultantly 12 khwarij were sent to hell,'' the ISPR added.
However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all... during the exchange of fire, Lance Naik Muhammad Ibrahim, 34, a resident of District Hangu ''fought gallantly'' and was martyred.
"Weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed khwarij, who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as murder of innocent civilians."
Sanitisation operations were being conducted to eliminate any other terrorists, the military's media wing added.
"Security forces of Pakistain are determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country and such sacrifices of our brave soldiers further strengthen our resolve,'' it concluded.
The operation is part of a sustained counter-terrorism effort as the country witnessed a surge in violent mostly peaceful attacks since the Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, particularly in the bordering provinces of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... The country witnessed a sharp increase in terror attacks in January 2025, surging by 42% compared to the previous month, according to data released by the Pakistain Institute for Conflict and Security Studies (PICSS), a think tank.
The data revealed that at least 74 krazed killer attacks were recorded nationwide, resulting in 91 fatalities, including 35 security personnel, 20 civilians, and 36 krazed killers. Another 117 individuals sustained injuries, including 53 security forces personnel, 54 civilians, and 10 krazed killers.
KP remained the worst-affected province, followed by Balochistan. In KP's settled districts, forces of Evil carried out 27 attacks, resulting in 19 fatalities, including 11 security personnel, six civilians, and two krazed killers.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... has transferred dozens of people from the eastern Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... i province of Mahrah to train in camps in the al-Abr border area within the so-called ''Dera al-Watan'' factions.
Sources reported that the young men were suddenly summoned and transferred to training in the Shehn area, which led to a breakdown in communication between them and their families.
Reports indicate that the recruits were transferred to the factions' training camp in al-Abr amid local rejection of the establishment of these factions.
Through the formation of ''Dera al-Watan,'' Saudi Arabia seeks to protect an oil pipeline that it plans to pass through Mahrah to reach the port of Nashton on the Arabian Sea, despite opposition from local tribes since 2017.
Using Shaheen drones and heavy weapons | Military Operations Administration attacks positions of gunmen close to Hez*bollah near Syria-Lebanon border#SOHRhttps://t.co/vr6uUMEKo1
[NAHARNET] The toppling of former Syrian President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Oppressor of the Syrians and the Lebs... , who had strong ties to Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Hezbollah, has crippled Hezbollah's ability to bounce back by cutting off a vital weapons-smuggling route through Syria.
Syria's new president and Leb ...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects.... 's caretaker Prime Minister met last month in Damascus and discussed the relations between the two countries. In the meeting, Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa vowed that Syria will no longer allow the smuggling of weapons and money to Hezbollah, a local media report said.
The report, published Thursday in al-Akhbar, said al-Sharaa criticized Hezbollah and Iran for intervening in Syria's civil war. Hezbollah sent thousands of fighters to bolster Assad's forces when the civil war broke out in 2011. Assad had long played a strategic role in Iran's "axis of resistance", particularly in facilitating the supply of weapons to Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
Al-Sharaa told Lebanese PM Najib Mikati that Hezbollah and Iran must "reconsider their policies in the region," al-Akhbar said.
Apart from the weapons-smuggling, Mikati and al-Sharaa discussed the land border demarcation between the two countries, the fate of thousands of missing Lebanese who disappeared at the hands of Assad's troops, and the repatriation of Syrian refugees in Lebanon to Syria.
The new Syrian President demanded patience from Mikati for the demarcation and the repatriation of Syrians. He said all prisons have been emptied from prisoners and warned the Lebanese PM against "Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group's attempts" to form cells in north Lebanon.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11156 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Syria
[NAHARNET] Armed festivities erupted Thursday in the Syrian-Lebanese border region between the Zoaiter and Jaafar Lebanese clans and fighters from Syria's Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, formerly al-Nusra, before that it was called something else ...al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate, from which sprang the Islamic State... , which consist the core of Syria's new Islamist-led authorities, media reports said.
''The Lebanese clans seized military equipment, killing two HTS members and capturing two others in the Syrian border town of Hawik, which has been historically inhabited by Lebanese residents,'' the reports said.
A shell meanwhile landed on the outskirts of the Lebanese border town of al-Qasr, wounding one person, reportedly a Lebanese Army soldier.
''Following festivities for more than two hours between HTS members and the clans, HTS forces entered the Syrian town of Hawik and Lebanese residents left the town for Lebanese territory, amid the blowing up of some houses at the hands of the HTS,'' reports said.
Fierce festivities were also reported in the Syrian area of Jirmash on 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 border, also between the area's clans and Syria's new authorities.
The Lebanese Army meanwhile sent major reinforcements to the border area to prevent the entry of button men into Lebanese territory.
According to VDL radio (93.3) , light-, medium- and heavy-caliber weapons were used in the festivities.
Annahar newspaper for its part said that ''the Lebanese town of Hawik which overlaps with the Syrian border has come under fierce shelling from Syria's new administration from the neighboring town of Heet.''
''Mortar shells and 23mm anti-aircraft guns were used, as a number of residents sought to confront its efforts to erect checkpoints in the area to reinforce its authority and halt smuggling,'' the daily said.
A bigwig from the new Syrian administration meanwhile told Annahar that ''military reinforcements arrived yesterday, Wednesday in the area with the aim of securing the border and closing illegal crossings.''
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11190 views]
Top|| File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
[NAHARNET] The Lebanese Army has seized a Hezbollah truck loaded with weapons in the Iqlim al-Kharoub region near Sidon, media reports said Tuesday.
The weapons, including detonators and grenades, were taken from a warehouse in Wardaniyeh after it was targeted by an Israeli strike.
The drivers of the truck left it and bravely ran away when they noticed they had been followed by an Israeli drone, the reports said.
A ceasefire deal reached in late November gave Israel and Hezbollah 60 days to remove their forces from southern Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... and for the Lebanese army to move in and secure the area.
Israel says Hezbollah and the Lebanese army haven't met their obligations, while Lebanon accuses the Israeli army of hindering the Lebanese military from taking over.
The 60-day deadline expired at the end of January. Israel said the agreement is progressing but, in some sectors, "it has been delayed and will take slightly longer."
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11165 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Indiscriminate gunfire | Two civilians ki*lled by members of Military Operations Administration chasing suspects in Latakia#SOHRhttps://t.co/nKCVVtTtFL
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The diesel-electric submarine Magadan of the Pacific Fleet (PF) performed a deep-sea dive (DSD) to a depth of 240 m in Avacha Bay off the coast of Kamchatka. This was reported on February 6 by the press service of the PF.
“During the GVP, the operation of all the submarine’s mechanisms and systems was tested, and an algorithm for operating the ship at great depths was worked out,” the statement said. Did it return?
The submarine crew, having successfully completed the underwater part of the exercise, surfaced and continued to operate within the framework of the fleet's combat training plan. The corvette Gremyashchiy and the rescue vessel Georgy Kozmin also provided support for the tasks, the press service specified.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, the newest Project 636.3 submarine Magadan was laid down in November 2019. It was launched in March 2021, and in October it joined the Russian Navy. The submarine's endurance is 45 days, maximum diving depth is 300 m, underwater speed is 18 knots, and the crew is 52 people.
The Magadan submarine is also equipped with Kalibr cruise missiles. It is capable of hitting targets at a distance of 1,000 km. The corresponding tests were conducted in the Sea of Japan.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Azerbaijan has banned the activities of Rossotrudnichestvo and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in the country. This was reported on February 6 by the Azerbaijani publication Report.
It is noted that Baku sent Moscow a notification via diplomatic channels about the termination of the Russian agency's activities. The press secretary of the republic's Foreign Ministry, Ayhan Hajizade, announced on February 6 that the American side had also been warned about the ban on USAID's work in the republic.
The publication, citing sources, stated that the reason for this decision was Baku's desire to be independent from external influence. The decision to close USAID was made even before US President Donald Trump ordered the agency to be liquidated.
“Our country itself has become a donor and does not need outside help,” the source told the publication.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on February 2, Trump called the USAID leadership radicals who needed to be removed. The following day, employees of the agency's headquarters received notices about the closure of the office in Washington.
American entrepreneur, head of the US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) Elon Musk then announced the beginning of the liquidation of USAID. He emphasized that this organization cannot be restored.
Following a meeting with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Baku in August 2024, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev called the relations between the countries allied and friendly. He also noted the successful development of bilateral trade and economic relations.
#2
Add a rule that if articles are filed and the president is not convicted, the one who filed them will suffer the death penalty. Make Congress /exciting/.
#3
^ #2 I'd support barred public office thereafter for those involved. With each member that voted in support of it, required to make personal restitution of the legal fees incurred by the TAXPAYERS & President in pursuing a political stunt.
The U.S. government is executing a substantial reduction of USAID's workforce, from approximately 14,000 to just 294 staff members, as confirmed by various news sources. This decision has coincided with legislative moves to potentially dissolve the agency entirely, as Rep. Greg Steube introduced a bill to abolish USAID and redirect its functions to the U.S. Department of State. Additionally, the pause in USAID funding has impacted the BBC's international charity arm, BBC Media Action, which expressed concerns over its operational capabilities due to an 8% funding cut.
USAID’s Samantha Power has been FIRED.
She claims, “People that work for USAID wanted to make the World a better place…”
Senator Eric Schmitt breaks down some of the insane spending:
- $45 million for DEI scholarships in Burma - $3 million for girls centered climate action in Brazil - $125 million to racialize public health - $280,000 for diverse birdwatchers - $1.5 million for DEI in Serbia -… pic.twitter.com/PB0TZ1Ncq8
- $70,000 for DEI musical in Ireland
- $2.5 million for electric vehicles in Vietnam
- $47,000 for trans opera in Colombia
- $32,000 trans comic book in Peru
- $2 million for sex changes in Guatemala
- $6 million for tourism in Egypt
#5
The $40 billion a year is only a small fraction of the US budget.
The importance lies in the tremendous damage that has been inflicted on Western Civilization in general by these $40 billion a year.
The peculiar thing about this 'deep state' is not corruption and grifting but the apparent fanatical commitment of that entity to the ultimate destruction the very institutions that it parasitizes.
#6
I am hoping that the breakup of this "hive of villainy" is transformative to our world. Less chaos and more growth. All of the events that didn't quite make sense could be explained by these maggots disrupting our society.
#7
The common thread in the USAID grants seems to be "we'll pay you to lie for us".
Personally, I think they should hung from lamposts and not fired, but that's just me.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
02/07/2025 9:12
Comments ||
Top||
#9
While people struggle with their incomes just to exist and you had survivors living in tents, these people were playing Oprah, a billion for you, a billion for you. They keep pushing this crap, the guillotines will be coming out.
#11
She claims, “People that work for USAID wanted to make the World a better place…”
The problem is that you're idea of a better place is out of sync with the American people who just elected Trump to can your ass. Don't give us any crap about suddenly not know how you're gonna pay rent either. Having worked in the private sector, I've been there and done that and I don't see why federal employees should never have to worry about it like I have. If the taxpayers don't want to pay your bills anymore, you might have to find another job where actual work is involved. Try the Waffle House.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 12:18
Comments ||
Top||
#12
This post.
I had to ask the guy next to me to pinch me in case I was dreaming.
#13
USAID was funding over 6,200 journalists across 707 media outlets and 279 "media" NGOs, including nine out of ten media outlets in Ukraine.
Some years ago I posted a question on Rantburg. I asked what power could make all these birds sing the same song, word for word and note for note in perfect harmony every day. Now we know.
I don't know if it was ever really true or just an ideal but the ideal was that big cities would all have multiple media outlets and each outlet would compete every day for the biggest "scoop". Reporters would work their asses off every day trying to find some little snippet of information that the others didn't have yet. That way, they could keep each other and the politicians honest. If there ever really was such a time, we need to get back to it. Putting a tight leash USAID seems to be a good step in the right direction.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
02/07/2025 12:47
Comments ||
Top||
#14
Me on a Friday Night, watching USAID trying to dance.
[NAHARNET] MP Ghayath Yazbek of the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... on Thursday said that ''Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... has demonstrated an advanced and alarming image about the (Shiite) Duo's future performance in Cabinet.''
He was referring to Berri's reported disagreement with PM-designate Nawaf Salam over the so-called ''fifth Shiite minister,'' which torpedoed the announcement of the new cabinet line-up.
''To put it shortly, the guys (Berri and Hezbollah) have not changed their old habits: they either get what they impose or they obstruct. If the president and the PM-designate wait for the Duo to quit its bad habits, they will wait a lot and the state will not move forward,'' Yazbek added.
Posted by: Fred ||
02/07/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11148 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] General Staff reported the number of clashes on the front.
The enemy suffers significant losses - in particular, in the Pokrovsk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces neutralized 148 Russians, 81 of whom were irreparably killed. A tank, eight vehicles, a UAV control antenna, an artillery system, a transporter, a howitzer, and a cannon were destroyed.
Ukrainian defenders continue to resolutely rebuff the enemy's attempts to advance deep into our territory, inflicting effective fire damage on them, exhausting them along the entire front line. Since the beginning of this day, 89 combat clashes have occurred. This was noted in the General Staff report on Thursday, February 6.
The Russian invaders carried out three missile and 65 air strikes, using four missiles and 65 KAB. In addition, the Russians used 1,105 kamikaze drones to destroy the positions of our troops and populated areas.
In the Kharkov direction, our troops repelled one enemy attack in the Volchansk area.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy carried out five assaults on the positions of our defenders in the areas of Lozovaya, Novaya Kruglyakovka, Petrovpavlovka and Zagryzovoye. Ukrainian defenders repelled all enemy attacks.
In the Liman direction, during the day, Russian invaders attacked Ukrainian positions 18 times near Zelenaya Roshcha, Kopanki, Novosergeevka, Grekovka, Novoye, Zelenaya Dolina, Novolyubovka, Yekaterinovka, Yampolevka, Terny and Kolodtsy.
In the Seversk direction, during the day, the enemy made two attempts to attack the positions of our units in the Belogorovka area. At the same time, it dropped two aerial bombs on Seversk and Zvanovka.
In the Kramatorsk direction, two ongoing military clashes have been recorded near Vremenny Yar. The enemy attacked Bondarnoye with guided air bombs.
In the Toretsk direction, the Russians attacked the positions of the defense forces 13 times. The occupiers concentrated their main offensive efforts near Dilievka and Toretskaya. Currently, four combat clashes are ongoing.
Since the beginning of this day, in the Pokrovsk direction, the invaders' units have tried to break through our defenses 28 times near the settlements of Zelenoe Pole, Novotoretskoye, Pokrovsk, Peschanoye, Udachnoye, Mirolyubovka, Luch, Lysovka, Kotlyarovka, Uspenovka, Dachnoye, Andreyevka and Shevchenko. Three combat clashes are still ongoing. The settlement of Novoalexandrovka was hit by an airstrike with two guided bombs.
The enemy is suffering significant losses - today in this direction Ukrainian soldiers have neutralized 148 occupiers, 81 of them irretrievably. Also destroyed was one tank, eight vehicles, a UAV control antenna, one artillery system, also damaged was a tank, a multi-purpose transporter, a self-propelled howitzer and a cannon of the enemy.
Today, in the Novopavlovsk direction, the enemy attacked seven times near Lisovka, Konstantinopol and Razdolnoye. No success. Conducted air strikes with unguided missiles on the settlement of Novosyolka and dropped two KABs in the Otradnoye area.
The enemy did not conduct offensive operations in the Orekhov, Gulyai-Polye and Dnieper directions.
In the Kursk direction, there have been five combat contacts since the beginning of the day.
While in other areas the situation has not undergone significant changes.
The General Staff recognized the soldiers of the 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade and the 406th Separate Artillery Brigade, who steadfastly held back the invasion of superior enemy forces.
Let us recall that over the past 24 hours, aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Ukrainian Armed Forces hit 19 areas of concentration of personnel and equipment, one command post, an artillery facility, as well as a radio-electronic combat station of the Russian invaders.
On February 5, Russia lost more than 1,200 soldiers at the front in one day. The total combat losses of Russian troops are approaching 850,000 people.
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.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
[TabletMag] Yesterday, President Donald Trump single-handedly collapsed the most destructive idea of the last hundred years—Palestine. During meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli officials, Trump said he was going to move 1.7 million Palestinians out of Gaza. And just like that, he broke the long spell that had captured generations of world leaders, peace activists, and Middle East terror masters alike, who had paradoxically come to regard the repeated failure and haunting secondary consequences of the idea of joint Arab Muslim and Jewish statehood in the same small piece of land as proof of its necessity.
[10News] 
[PM] The inquiry began after the Alapaha Judicial Circuit District Attorney’s Office received complaints regarding Johnson’s involvement in fraudulent schemes.
[LawAndCrime] ‘Clearly unconstitutional’: Federal judge tears into Trump for trying to ‘navigate around’ the ‘rule of law’ and issues nationwide injunction against birthright citizenship ban
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
The Venezuelan gang has become increasingly active in the United States amid a years-long surge in illegal immigrants crossing the southern border. It is one of several high-threat groups the Trump administration has prioritized for deportation.
[FoxNews] U.S. Indo-Pacific Command says 3 defense contractors also involved in fatal crash
...every time you hear the phrase 
...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....
Democratic Front for the Liberation of Paleostine
...Arabic term meaning 
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects....
...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....
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
