[IsraelTimes] Anti-government, pro-hostage deal protesters set up camp to spend the night outside the IDF’s Kirya headquarters in Tel Aviv, as part of what some hostages’ families call “Operation Kirya Cordon.” ONE night?
The largest encampment is outside the base’s main eastern entrance, on Begin Road. Smaller encampments are set up outside two entrances on Kaplan Street, on the base’s south side, and outside an entrance on Shaul Hamelech Street, on the north side, just across from Hostages Square.
The weekly Begin Road protest, which usually disperses at about 10 p.m., is still going strong, with protesters gathered around a bonfire on the road chanting: “The cabinet’s responsible for the life of the hostages.”
Earlier, the protesters were addressed by Jimmy Miller, cousin of slain hostage Shiri Silberman Bibas, and Jon Polin, father of slain hostage Hersh Goldberg-Polin.
Silberman Bibas’s body was returned to Israel last month along with those of her young sons Ariel, 4, and Kfir, nine months, as part of the ceasefire deal with Hamas. Her husband, and the boys’ father, Yarden Bibas, was returned to Israel alive on February 1.
Speaking through a megaphone to dozens… of supporters, Miller says Yarden’s wish and only comfort is that “hostages will keep coming back alive.”
[IsraelTimes] Reform Rabbi Ari Jun, a self-described liberal Zionist, has called for empathy for Palestinians in Gaza; protest organizers say his values don’t align with theirs
When Rabbi Ari Jun learned that faith leaders were invited to speak at a rally in Cincinnati against neo-Nazi ...adherents of a philosophy that was seen even at the time as pure evil, which makes them either consciously purely evil, or attention-seeking ratbags. Pick one, or both.... s and white supremacy
...the pernicious doctrine that laws were intended to be obeyed, that society works better when people don't pour shreiking from their places of worship every Friday for a weekend of rioting over insults real or imagined; and that cannibalism, beastiality, incest, murder, theft, rape, and similar activities are bad. A Dead White European (which invalidates his opinion) philosopher once opined that societies thrive when a person's word can be relied upon, and that a society which puts individual happiness first will invariably fail. Strangely enough, other successful societies, such as China, Japan, Korea, and those kinds of places could also be lumped with white supremacist societies, since they push the same values... , he quickly responded that he would be there.
As the former director of the local Jewish community relations council who recently took the helm of a progressive Reform synagogue, Jun has experience responding to antisemitism and a passion for social justice.
But a week later, he was told he was off the docket. The reason: He is a Zionist.
"Some of your values do not truly align with the values this protest is trying to represent," Laini Smith, an organizer of the rally being held Sunday in the city’s Washington Park, told him via text message.
Billie Pittman, another organizer with Queen City United, a progressive group, spelling things out even more clearly: "Rabbi Ari Jun is a well-known Zionist, and while this event is intended to oppose Nazis and white supremacy, allowing Zionists to participate undermines the original goal of the demonstration."
”Dear lord, can you imagine?! Letting Jews stand with us against Nazis — we’d get their cooties just from breathing the same air!”
Pittman also posted on the event’s Facebook page: "We are in the works of having another speaker from the Jewish community."
That’s a misquote. That person meant “Jewish” community.
The about-face by Queen City United comes as progressive Jews around the United States and beyond continue to struggle with how they fit into the political communities they called home before the onset of the Israel-Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... war on October 7, 2023.
Only the stupid ones struggle. To the rest of us it is obvious that Jew-hate is fashionable on the American left once again.
The war broke out after Hamas-led forces of Evil invaded Israel, killing some 1,200 people and kidnapping 251.
Many progressive Jews have reported feeling excluded by litmus tests — often implicit, but sometimes explicit — that require them to denounce Israel’s very existence in order to be welcomed in political spaces.
Jun offers a case study in these dynamics. A graduate of the Reform movement’s Hebrew Union College, he said as he assumed the role of senior rabbi at Temple Sholom in January that he was eager to rebuild interfaith relations and continue the synagogue’s longstanding tradition of social justice.
Temple Sholom is actually Reconstructionist, the terribly earnest Unitarianism of Judaism with all that entails.
He has also been a vocal critic of the Israeli government and its right-wing US supporters, even challenging some centrist orthodoxies in the immediate wake of Hamas’s attack on Israel. "If our empathy extends only to Israelis and Jews ... we play into Hamas’s hands," he wrote on his own blog in November 2023, in advance of the Jewish community rally in Washington DC that drew an estimated 300,000 people. Last month, he wrote in an op-ed in the Cincinnati Enquirer that US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... ’s 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... plan is "nothing short of the dictionary definition of ethnic cleansing."
Terribly earnest but not necessarily rigorous thinkers, in the sadly typical far left way.
He has also drawn scorn from some non-Jewish progressives, for example from the Cincinnati Socialists last year, for his attitudes about Israel and Zionism.
Those attitudes put him in the American Jewish mainstream. According to a 2021 Pew Research study, 80 percent of US Jews say caring about Israel is an essential or important part of what being Jewish means to them. Nearly 60% said they personally feel an emotional attachment to Israel. Last year, the American Jewish Committee Survey of American Jewish Opinion found that 85% of US Jews think it is important for the United States to support Israel in the aftermath of October 7.
"I would call myself a liberal Zionist," Jun said. "I am attacked by people to the right of me in the Jewish community for being insufficiently allegiant to Israel, and I am attacked by progressives for having any association with Israel. I don’t consider all anti-Zionism to be antisemitism, but I do know there is a dramatic overlap between the two."
The rally’s organizers did not publicly announce that they had disinvited Jun. As the news emerged on Thursday, both critics and supporters of his exclusion posted a flood of comments on the event’s Facebook page.
"This is a shameful march that’s a complete lie. I am a progressive, but progressives can’t stand for equality when you exclude Jews," wrote Rabbi Sammy Kanter, director of Jewish learning at the local JCC. "Excluding a minority group is not a rally against hate, but rather breeds more!"
Mohammad Ahmad, who leads a pro-Paleostinian group in Northern Kentucky, just across the Ohio river from Cincinnati, praised the decision to disinvite Jun.
"As a Paleostinian, I want to thank the brave organizers of this event for taking a clear stance against Zionism and all forms of white supremacy in the Tri-State area. Bravo and well done," he wrote. "Zionism is unequivocally racism and Zionism is, without a shadow of doubt, an ultranationalist, fascist ...anybody you disagree with, damn them... , and far-right ethno-supremacist ideology that has inflicted so much harm not just on Paleostinians in Paleostine, but on so many other marginalized groups, including right here in Cincinnati."
The organizers, too, weighed in on the Facebook page. Smith wrote they believe that "standing up against white supremacy, neo-Nazism, and other forms of oppression requires us to critically engage with the full scope of ideologies and actions that perpetuate harm," and that they believe hate has no place in Cincinnati.
"The decision to not invite Rabbi Jun-Ballaban was not based on his Jewish identity, but rather on a fundamental divergence in values," Smith wrote. "Our event is rooted in a commitment to challenging white supremacy, ethnic cleansing, and the ongoing harm against marginalized communities."
Previously, according to private messages between Jun and Smith that Jun shared, his plan was to speak about the threat of white supremacy, which Smith said "would be perfect."
Jun had even told his congregants that to "counter Nazism," they would need to show up in spaces where they may feel uncomfortable. Since his dismissal by organizers, he said he feels differently.
"It’s one thing to go to a rally expecting different people with disagreeing viewpoints to show up as their full selves, and for that to create discomfort and to live with that discomfort," Jun said. "It’s another thing for us as a Jewish community to be told, ’You cannot show up as your full selves.’"
Is that in addition to the damage caused when Hezbollah’s portside fertilizer stash blew up, taking out half the city, or including it?
[IsraelTimes] The World Bank estimates Lebanon’s recovery and reconstruction costs will amount to some $11 billion following the war between Israel and Hezbollah, which ended with a ceasefire last November.
“Reconstruction and recovery needs following the conflict that affected Lebanon are estimated at $11 billion,” the World Bank says in a report assessing damage and losses from October 8, 2023 — when Hezbollah began launching attacks on Israel unprovoked — to December 20, 2024.
[IsraelTimes] Tens of thousands of Moslem worshipers flock to al-Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusalem for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan.
The Jordanian Waqf, which manages the site, says some 90,000 people were in attendance during midday prayers.
The prayers took place amid heavy police presence across the Old City, and with limited attendance from West Bank Paleostinians due to Israeli authorities restricting their access to the site.
As was the case last Ramadan, Paleostinian males aged 55 and older, women who are at least 50 years old, and children aged 12 and below can enter Jerusalem to attend the prayers after receiving a permit from Israeli authorities.
Just outside the Temple Mount compound, near Lion’s Gate, some 100 others perform the prayer under heavy police presence.
Cops and border guards are seen manning temporary checkpoints throughout the Old City. Law enforcement said yesterday that some 3,000 officers would be deployed throughout Jerusalem.
[IsraelTimes] Aid organizations operating 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 are being forced to scale back programs or pay out of pocket after the Trump administration froze hundreds of millions of dollars in contractual payments as part of its cuts to USAID.
According to three USAID officials speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... for fear of retribution, the Trump administration approved over $383 million in funding on January 31 to ensure the survival of the tenuous ceasefire in Gaza.
But since then, they say that there have been no confirmed payments to any partners in the Middle East, leaving organizations without promised funds.
Senior officials at aid organizations say that they have spent millions of dollars on supplies and services out of pocket and cannot afford to continue operations indefinitely, while others are already being forced to lay off workers and scale down operations, according to internal USAID information shared with the AP.
Among the organizations impacted by the freeze is the International Medical Corps, a global nonprofit that provides medical and development assistance. It was awarded $12 million to continue operations at two hospitals in Gaza, including at the largest field hospital in the Strip, whose construction was funded by USAID at the request of the Israeli government.
It has now requested payback of over $1 million, says one USAID official, adding that the freeze has forced the organization to lay off some 700 staff members and offer only basic services at the hospitals, with a skeletal crew.
A former IMC staffer says the program providing life-saving treatment for malnutrition is almost frozen for lack of funds, and that the current nutrition services are at a minimum level.
Meanwhile,
...back at the palazzo, Count Guido had escaped from his bonds and overwhelmed his guard using the bludgeon the faithful Filomena had smuggled to him in the loaf of bread... termination letters severing the contracts between USAID and Gaza partners have also been sent out to organizations that were major providers of shelter, child protection and logistical support in the Gaza aid operation, a USAID official says.
Some of the termination letters seen by the AP were signed by new USAID deputy chief Peter Marocco — a returning political appointee from Trump’s first term. They instruct organizations to "immediately cease" all activities and "avoid additional spending chargeable to the award," citing a directive from Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... .
[IsraelTimes] US President Donald Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland has been daubed with pro-Palestinian graffiti, with a protest group claiming responsibility.
Local media shows images of red paint scrawled across walls at the course with the slogans “Free Gaza” and “Free Palestine” as well as insults against Trump.
“Gaza is not for sale” is also painted on one of the greens and holes dug up on the course.
Palestine Action says it caused the damage, posting on the social media platform X: “Whilst Trump attempts to treat Gaza as his property, he should know his own property is within reach.”
Last month, Trump enraged the Arab world by declaring unexpectedly that the United States would take over Gaza, resettle its over 2-million Palestinian population, and develop it into the “Riviera of the Middle East.”
Police Scotland says it is investigating.
The most expensive golf course in Britain, Trump's Turnberry golf resort, got a visit by Palestine Action.
No longer can ordinary people sit by whilst the American adminstration arms Israel and makes plans to ethnically cleanse Gaza.
#1
Now think a little deeper.
The fact any Pro-Terrorist group was even able to gain entry to the golf course and tag and vandalize it, speaks volumes about the security.
First freeze everything, then restart those worth doing.
[IsraelTimes] The UN nuclear watchdog’s ability to monitor Iran’s nuclear program has been disrupted after US President Donald Trump suspended two programs that provide aid to international nuclear inspectors, the New York Times reports, citing current and former US government nuclear experts.
The two programs were suspended by a sweeping executive order signed by Trump on the first day of his presidency that froze all US foreign aid programs for 90 days.
Citing unnamed sources, the Times says that the two programs are intended to support the International Atomic Energy Agency by recruiting and training atomic inspectors, and supplying it with the equipment and sophisticated lab devices needed for examining samples.
According to the Times, one of the programs has since been restored, although the other remains frozen.
While the IAEA declines to comment on the reported aid cuts, the US State Department, which is supposed to fund the programs, tells the Times that US national security is a top priority, and that “certain US assistance to programs that support International Atomic Energy Agency efforts and capabilities to inspect nuclear facilities worldwide, including in Iran, are continuing.”
The State Department does not say, however, whether any of the programs have been frozen or cut.
[IsraelTimes] The evidence behind a New York Times essay suggesting troops targeted children is less clear-cut than it seems, and there is reason to question the piece’s scathingly anti-IDF author
On January 30, as Israeli and Thai hostages were being released from Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... captivity amid chaotic mobs, John Spencer, a leading international expert on urban warfare, watched the proceedings while focusing on one specific detail: the weapons held by Hamas button men.
"They were carrying M16 and M4 rifles which use 5.56 mm bullets, the same rifles that Israeli soldiers use," Spencer told The Times of Israel by email.
To Spencer, head of urban warfare studies at the Modern War Institute at West Point in the US, the terrorists’ use of the same weapon as the IDF cast serious doubts on the allegation made in an essay in The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... three months earlier implying that Israeli soldiers were deliberately targeting children during the 15-month Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... war.
Attached to the essay were X-ray pictures appearing to show 5.56-millimeter rounds lodged in children’s heads and necks.
"It could be that the forces of Evil were shooting the children," Spencer said.
The 5.56mm rounds are standard issue for IDF infantry units, and are also used by Hamas, which is partially armed with stolen Israeli weapons.
Hamas has a long history of exploiting and harming minors, as well as noncombatant adults, to advance its political goals—through tactics such as training children as jacket wallahs and soldiers, forcing them to construct tunnels in perilous conditions, using them as human shields, or intentionally killing them.
Over months of war, as Gaza’s civilians have been brutalized and displaced by deadly crossfire, Israel has been nearly universally blamed as the aggressor, repeatedly tarred in cases where there is little evidence beyond the reality of fighting. In some instances, however, the facts show that Hamas or other Gazook terror groups are actually to blame.
Perhaps the most well-known such incident occurred in the opening weeks of the war, when an Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... rocket slammed into Gaza’s al-Ahli Hospital, killing scores of people. With no evidence but the claims of Hamas officials, Israel was still widely blamed for both the attack and a wildly inflated corpse count.
Other cases, though, are less clear-cut, like that of Ahmed Shaddad Halmy Brikeh, a 13-year-old boy who appeared on the Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry’s monthly fatality list as a victim of "Israeli aggression" in August.
But nine months earlier, Brikeh’s cousin reported online that the teen was rubbed out by Hamas button men while trying to obtain food from a humanitarian aid shipment.
"He was killed by a shot in the head," the cousin wrote on December 24, 2023.
Throughout the war, Hamas has repeatedly been found to use civilians as human shields, and to hide military infrastructure in hospitals and humanitarian facilities. Israel says the cynical strategy has put the lives of innocent Gazooks at risk as it fights Hamas, a key factor in turning the tide of international public opinion against Israel.
"Hamas wants every and anybody who died to be counted as Israel’s fault, including killing people themselves," Spencer said.
’INSANE TO MAKE DEFINITIVE STATEMENT’
The IDF began its military operations in Gaza after the Hamas-led massacre on October 7, 2023, when over 5,000 forces of Evil stormed across the border into Israel, murdering 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages, while carrying out other atrocities including rape and torture.
According to data released by the Israel National Council for the Child, 38 children were killed during the Hamas-led terrorist onslaught in southern Israel. Three of those children were under the age of 3, and another four were under 6. Some were shot to death at close range or burned alive while trying to hide from the marauders.
In contrast, there have been no reliable direct accounts of Israeli soldiers deliberately targeting Gazook children, though many have been killed unintentionally.
Nonetheless, foreign doctors volunteering in Gaza have repeatedly accused Israeli soldiers of systematically targeting children in response to kids being brought to hospitals with single bullet wounds to the head or chest.
In April 2024 and again in October, the doctors were given high-profile platforms in the Guardian and New York Times to lay out the accusations, though they only had secondhand knowledge of the circumstances of the shooting and incomplete forensic evidence.
"That is the insanity of making a definitive statement that any child with a gunshot wound was shot purposefully by an IDF soldier when there are many other possibilities and no way to know who shot the kid or what was the context of the injury," said Spencer.
In The New York Times on October 9, 2024, Dr. Feroze Sidhwa wrote in an opinion piece that while volunteering at the European Hospital in Gaza in February and April last year, he saw 13 children who had been shot in the head or the chest.
"At the time, I assumed this had to be the work of a particularly sadistic soldier located nearby," the Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,-based surgeon wrote in the op-ed, which gathered the experiences of 65 volunteer medical staff in Gaza.
While the piece does not explicitly accuse Israel of targeting children, the newspaper said it still reached out to the IDF for comment, which "responded with a statement that did not directly answer whether or not the military had investigated reports of shootings of preteen children, or if any disciplinary action had been taken against soldiers for firing at children."
An April 2, 2024, article in the Guardian quoting nine foreign doctors in Gaza made similar claims, largely based on secondhand accounts regarding the faraway source of sniper fire. "Some of the physicians said that the types and locations of the wounds, and accounts of Paleostinians who brought children to the hospital, led them to believe the victims were directly targeted by Israeli troops," the Guardian reported.
Tellingly, the article credulously reported on a conspiracy theory regarding swarms of quadcopters mounted with guns, a rumor likely born of confusion regarding the source of gunfire when surveillance drones are seen.
In response to an inquiry by The Times of Israel, an IDF spokesperson said that "the claim that the IDF deliberately targets civilians, including children, is entirely unfounded and is categorically rejected by the IDF."
Spencer, a former infantryman who entered Gaza four times during the war to observe the Israeli military’s operations, said it was likely some soldiers had disobeyed protocols, though there is no evidence any of them took wanton aim at Gazook children.
"There’s no military in the world that has no soldiers within the ranks that aren’t doing wrong things," he said.
During the war, some Israeli soldiers posted videos on social media about their military exploits. In one, a soldier says that he is blowing up a neighborhood in Gaza in retribution for a kibbutz in Israel that was destroyed during the Hamas-led massacre.
The Israel Defense Forces’ top lawyer, Maj. Gen. Yifat Tomer-Yerushalmi, issued a warning to commanders in February 2024 against illegal actions carried out by troops in the Gaza Strip.
She mentioned unjustified use of force, including against detainees, looting, and destruction of civilian property contrary to protocols, as incidents that "cross the criminal threshold."
SADISTIC SOLDIERS SEEKING REVENGE?
In a teleconference interview with The Times of Israel in December, Sidhwa sharpened his accusations and claimed that Israeli soldiers were intentionally targeting children.
"It’s not a decision that’s being made by the Israeli military," Sidhwa charged. "It is a decision that is being made by individual soldiers." But he admitted that "there’s no way of proving" his allegation.
The lack of concrete evidence did not stop Sidhwa from alleging in an October 2 letter to the Biden administration that children in Gaza were "suffer[ing] violence that must have been deliberately directed at them," and claiming it was "impossible" Israel’s civilian and military leaders were unaware.
Though the letter called for an arms embargo on both Israel and armed Paleostinian groups, it ended with the statement that "every day that we continue supplying weapons and munitions to Israel is another day that women are shredded by our bombs and children are murdered with our bullets."
During the interview, Sidhwa speculated about the mindsets of Israelis and of soldiers in Gaza in an attempt to build a case against them, calling into question his role as a reliable source of information.
The US doctor claimed Israeli soldiers, some of whom "happen to be violent mostly peaceful sadists," were out for blood due to accounts of Hamas atrocities during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, some of which he contended had been fabricated.
The result, he said, was that Gazook children were being targeted by "individual angry soldiers who are either playing out their most sadistic impulses or they’re still angry about October 7."
"Israel is seeped in propaganda about what actually happened on October 7," he alleged. "It’s very widely believed that [babies] were bound up and burned alive on October 7. None of those things happened, but the fact that they are widely believed means that there are probably plenty of soldiers who think that it’s justified to shoot Paleostinian children."
Accompanying The Times’ article were three photos of X-rays purporting to show intact bullets lodged in two children’s heads and one child’s neck.
"A single X-ray view cannot provide a medical professional with enough information to determine etiology of the injury," said Dr. Tyler Reynolds, an American trauma surgeon with 13 years of military and civilian experience who stated that he was not speaking on behalf of any institution. "In these images, the projectile may be inside or outside the skull."
Two of the images reflect what appear to be 5.56 mm bullets, said Dr. Gavin Harris, assistant professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, who has a degree in military history and personal firearms experience.
The 5.56mm rounds are standard issue for IDF infantry units, including sharpshooters but not snipers. They are also used by Hamas, which is partially armed with stolen Israeli weapons.
"The shots could have been from friendly fire, from the accidental discharge of a weapon of a friend or family member, homicide or suicide," said Reynolds. "There is nothing that a medical professional can glean from a case series of opinions without verifiable data."
After the article received a considerable number of objections, Times opinion editor Kathleen Kingsbury responded that a second round of experts examined the images and also found them credible, though she misidentified them as CT scans.
Sidhwa showed The Times of Israel actual CT scans that he said were connected to one of the children seen in the X-ray photos. He pointed out the bullet and the blood "that comes in with the bullet," saying that this was a "completely normal CT scan of someone who’s been shot in the head."
The New York Times did not respond to two Times of Israel inquiries for comment.
KILLED, BUT NOT TARGETED
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza claims over 48,000 Paleostinians have been killed in the fighting, around a third of whom it says were minors, a category that could also include teen operatives. The figures cannot be verified and have been called into question.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January and another 1,000 forces of Evil inside Israel on and just after October 7.
The IDF admits that civilians have been killed, but says it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
"I am reasonably sure children were killed in the battle space as a result of IDF action," said Jacob Stoil, research professor of Middle East security at the US Army Strategic Studies Institute, who emphasized that he was speaking from his personal research and not on behalf of the US Army or any other institution.
"But from my broader knowledge of rules of engagement and how the IDF operates, I would find it extremely unlikely that the IDF deliberately targeted children," he added.
An Israeli soldier who served in northern Gaza from October to December 2023 told The Times of Israel that since Hamas forces of Evil do not wear uniforms, "it’s very hard to differentiate them from civilians, especially when it’s very fast."
"I did see children who were killed because they suddenly ran out from a place where there were Hamas terrorists," said the soldier, who was interviewed in November on condition of anonymity.
Stoil called Gaza an "incredibly difficult" urban operating environment.
"There was a high density of civilians in the battle space and no real ability to evacuate them because there’s no place for them to go," he said.
When the IDF targeted "what they thought was hostile or threatening movement, some of that was, unfortunately and tragically, civilians who were in the battle space, including children," Stoil said.
According to Spencer and other experts, collateral damage in war is inevitable.
"There’s no such thing as a bloodless war," he said.
But the former American soldier noted that during the fighting, Israel implemented strategies to "protect civilians including evacuations, notification techniques, and facial recognition technologies."
Hamas, he added, "acted to get as many Gazooks killed as possible."
[IsraelTimes] Army confirms reports of action beyond buffer zone, issues footage from operations
The Israeli military said Saturday it had carried out several "targeted raids" in southern Syria over the past week while issuing footage from its operations.
The Israel Defense Forces said troops captured and destroyed numerous weapons during the missions.
The weapons included rifles, ammunition, rockets, and other military gear.
Earlier this week, Syrian media reported that Israeli forces were operating near the Tel al-Mal peak in the Daraa Governorate, where a military post belonging to the former Syrian regime once stood. The hill is located some 13 kilometers (over 8 miles) from Israel’s border, well outside a buffer zone between the countries that Israel captured following the fall of Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... ’s regime.
The IDF has described its presence in southern Syria’s buffer zone as a temporary and defensive measure, though Defense Minister Israel Katz has said that troops will remain deployed to nine army posts in the area "indefinitely."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said last month that southern Syria must be completely demilitarized, warning that Israel would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Syrian Islamist-led government near its territory.
Earlier this week, the IDF carried out an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in northwestern Syria, saying that the attack targeted a military facility belonging to the former Syrian regime in the town of Qardaha, east of Latakia, where weapons were being stored.
Late last month, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes targeting military sites containing weapons in southern Syria.
Even before Assad’s fall, during Syria’s civil war, Israel carried out hundreds of strikes in the neighboring country, mainly on government forces and Iranian-linked targets.
The same day Assad was ousted, Israel announced that its troops were entering a UN-patrolled buffer zone that separated Israeli and Syrian forces on the strategic Golan Heights.
ADL gave A grades to eight schools: Brandeis University, CUNY Queens College, CUNY Brooklyn College, Elon University, Florida International University, University of Alabama, University of Miami, and Vanderbilt University.
Notable improvements were identified at CUNY Queens College, Georgetown University, Harvard University, Michigan State University, SUNY Purchase College, SUNY Rockland Community College, Tufts University, University of Michigan, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, and Vanderbilt University, all of which moved up by two grades. Harvard, Tufts University and UNC Chapel Hill had previously received failing grades.
The ADL gave failing marks to 13 schools: California Polytechnic State University, DePaul University, Evergreen State College, Haverford College, Loyola University New Orleans, Pitzer College, Pomona College, Portland State University, Scripps College, The New School, University of California – Santa Barbara, University of Illinois – Chicago, and University of Minnesota.
Columbia University and its sister school, Barnard College, both received D grades. While both schools have made progress in enforcing antisemitism policies, violent protests continue to threaten Jewish students, with anti-Israel activists disrupting a History of Modern Israel class at Columbia in January and occupying a building on Barnard’s campus in February.
Until last week, I had been seriously considering teaching at Columbia University next year as a visiting professor. But I’m now convinced that to do so would be folly—to serve as a prop or a fig leaf. Moreover, I feel doing so would mean putting myself and my students at risk.
[X]
🚨BREAKING
HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., along with the Dept of Education and GSA, announced a comprehensive review of Columbia University’s federal contracts and grants in light of the university's failure to adequately respond to rampant antisemitism on campus. pic.twitter.com/9al8B7SxBn
Anti-Israel demonstrators protest former PM Bennett at Columbia University
[IsraelTimes] More than 200 pro-Palestinian, anti-Israel protesters gather in front of Columbia University in New York to demonstrate against former prime minister Naftali Bennett, who was at the campus for a speaking engagement. None of the individual protesters at the event, many of whom wore masks or traditional Palestinian keffiyehs, agree to speak with AFP journalists.
“The decision to host a man with such a violent and openly discriminatory record sends a message that the university values some voices over others,” a spokesperson for Columbia Palestine Solidarity Coalition — one of the groups taking part in the protest — says in a statement.
Anti-Israel activists release new footage of Columbia building takeover last year
[IsraelTimes] An anti-Israel activist group releases new footage of protesters preparing to clash with police inside a Columbia University campus building last year. The protest group, Unity of Fields, says it is releasing the footage in response to the expulsion of a student involved in the takeover. The footage comes out as the Trump administration threatens the university’s funding due to antisemitism. Unity of Fields, formerly known as Palestine Action US, is a hardline anti-Israel activist group that is not formally tied to the campus. The group has released other footage related to Columbia in the past, such as anti-Israel vandalization around the campus.
Protesters forcibly occupied the building, Hamilton Hall, last spring, prompting a police crackdown and dozens of arrests. After police cleared the building last year, the NYPD said many of those arrested were not university students or affiliates. Most had their charges dropped.
BREAKING: Columbia has issued its first expulsion for alleged involvement in the occupation of Hind's Hall.
In response, we are releasing never before seen footage of the Battle of Hind's Hall--which was smuggled out in a militant's bra--with a message to the Student Intifada: pic.twitter.com/j0YFBvvvYU
Yale Law School Scholar Is Member of US-Sanctioned Terror Fundraising Organization
[FreeEacon] .Helyeh Doutaghi, deputy director of Yale Law School’s Law and Political Economy Project, placed on “immediate administrative leave” as university investigates allegations of membership in Samidoun, an organization sanctioned by the U.S. government in October in an announcement that described it as a "sham charity" and a "front organization" for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a foreign-designated terrorist organization.
Samidoun’s website indicates that Doutaghi, whom it describes as "a doctoral student of international law and a member of the international Samidoun Network," delivered a speech in Iran at a Samidoun-sponsored screening of the film Fedayin: Georges Abdallah’s Fight. Abdallah, the founder of the Lebanese Armed Military Forces, was sentenced by a French court to life in prison in 1987, convicted of complicity in the 1982 murders of U.S. military attaché Charles Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov, as well as involvement in the attempted 1984 assassination of the then-American consul general in Strasbourg, Robert Homme.
The federal Task Force to Combat Antisemitism says the probe will investigate whether the university system has violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination.
“This Department of Justice will always defend Jewish Americans, protect civil rights, and leverage our resources to eradicate institutional Antisemitism in our nation’s universities,” says US Attorney General Pamela Bondi.
Most federal probes into campus antisemitism are filed under Title VI, which prohibits discrimination in institutions that receive federal funding.
Jewish legal groups are also seeking to expand the use of Title II, a law that prohibits discrimination in public spaces.
BREAKING: Terror supporters are currently outside of the Ohio State University Hillel harassing Jewish students, chanting for a “global intifada.”
Can you imagine the outrage if Jews showed up outside of the Muslim student association and harassed them? pic.twitter.com/XuQCTsmwRQ
[Breitbart] Ex-Georgia House Rep. Stacey Abrams said this week that she received $2 billion from Former President Joe Biden’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to greenwash home appliances in what some have likened to an alleged Democratic “vote buying” scheme.
EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin recently revealed that the Biden-era EPA passed through $20 billion in “gold bars,” or grants, to leftist groups. The Abrams-linked Power Forward Communities received $2 billion as part of these grants, a sum amounting to “20 million times the organization’s reported revenue,” according to the EPA.
“Stacey Abrams’ Power Forward Communities received $2 BILLION to be a pass through entity for Biden EPA’s $20 billion ‘gold bar’ scheme,” Zeldin wrote in an X post in mid-February. “They reported just $100 in total revenue after their founding in late 2023.”
Abrams — a Democrat who infamously lost two Georgia gubernatorial runs — took to MSNBC in early March to claim that there was nothing nefarious about Power Forward Communities receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer funds.
“In 2023 and 2024, I led a program called Revitalizing Desoto,” she told the network, explaining that she worked to help those in South Georgia replace their inefficient appliances with more energy-efficient models.
Abrams said that based on the success of this endeavor, a coalition of organizations came together to “let us invest the money of America to lower the cost of Americans.”
Steve Milloy, who served on President Donald Trump’s first-term EPA transition team, described the Abrams-linked “grift” as a “vote buying” ploy akin to the Obama-era “Obama phones.”
“The EPA-Stacey Abrams grift revealed: @staceyabrams just told MSBNC’s @chrislhayes that the Biden EPA gave her $2 billion to buy people new home appliances to reduce electric bills. So Democrats upgraded vote buying from Obama phones to Biden refrigerators,” Milloy wrote on X.
#1
That’s a tough call for Stacey: how much to steal and how much to use to buy votes. I’ld like to see folks go to jail over this. I will surely be disappointed.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/09/2025 16:13
Comments ||
Top||
#2
You just know a Stacey Abrams-sized refrigerator isn't just a walk-in, it's a drive-in
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/09/2025 16:23
Comments ||
Top||
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Elon Musk's DOGE has been granted access to a sensitive child support database by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The landmark move was approved by the HHS, now headed by Robert F. Kennedy Jr., despite protests from career employees within the department, according to the Washington Post.
The huge government database contains swaths of personal income data from Americans across the country, and it was initially created with the intention of enforcing child support payments.
An HHS official told the Post that DOGE agents requested 'read only' access to the database, and were required to take 'necessary trainings' before they were allowed into it.
The official said the Administration for Children and Families, which oversaw the database, 'supports DOGE’s efforts to improve efficiency and data quality to reduce waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs.'
'ACF will continue to assist DOGE in efforts to strengthen the programs it runs,' the anonymous official said.
Insiders reportedly saw DOGE's access of the child support database as part of its efforts to crackdown on wasteful federal payments to Americans, with their attempts to access IRS data previously halted by federal law.
The child support database may offer similar information on tax records and federal benefits that could highlight duplicate or fraudulent payments that may have been previously missed by the separation of huge federal agencies.
According to HHS insiders who spoke with the Post, a career civil servant protested allowing DOGE agents into the child support database, but that person has since left the department.
Civil servants in multiple agencies have objected to DOGE's efforts to obtain sensitive government data since Donald Trump re-took the White House, amid fears the new department could overstep important safety guardrails.
DOGE was reportedly especially interested in accessing a component of the child support database known as the National Directory of New Hires, which shows hiring data nationwide.
The controversial new government agency has sparked backlash for its 'chainsaw approach' to cutting government spending, with critics claiming legitimate, needed government programs have been slashed alongside waste.
After being rebuffed by the IRS as some opponents argue DOGE may recklessly access sensitive data, the department claims accessing such databases is necessary to root out issues deep within the federal government.
As DOGE's access to the child support database was reported on Friday, Democrats urged the department to fully explain the move and reveal how many Americans 'have had their confidential information received or accessed.'
'It is essentially an end-run around the confidential taxpayer information protected by the IRS,' Congressman Richard Neal told the Post.
Neal, the top Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, wrote a letter to RFK Jr. and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent urging the White House to lead with transparency.
'No one, including DOGE, should be rummaging around in the confidential information of private citizens at any agency where the protected information resides,' Neal added.
And yet, prior to DOGE so many did without the slightest acknowledgement, let alone protest, from Congressman Neal.
The widespread cuts pushed by Musk's DOGE have sparked protests in recent weeks, as opponents lament the mass firings across the federal government and slashing of support.
It appeared this week that Trump heard criticisms of Musk's slash-and-burn approach as he told his cabinet leaders that they alone are in charge of hiring and firing employees within their departments, not Musk.
'DOGE has been an incredible success, and now that we have my Cabinet in place, I have instructed the Secretaries and Leadership to work with DOGE on Cost Cutting measures and Staffing,' Trump wrote in a post to Truth Social.
The president abruptly assembled his Cabinet on Thursday amid rising scrutiny over how much power Musk wields over the U.S. government.
It appears Trump told his top leaders that they need to be more selective if they continue to conduct clear-outs of their workforce.
He said that instead of taking a 'hatchet' approach, secretaries should instead use a 'scalpel' for 'surgical' precision over who they dismiss.
The news from HHS comes just days after the agency controversially announced that the CDC will study the potential link between vaccines and autism.
Two sources told Reuters the agency is planning a large study into the long disproven connection.
However, it is unclear whether newly appointed health secretary RFK Jr., who has long been skeptical of vaccines, is involved in the planned study or how it would be carried out.
The bombshell move comes amid one of the largest measles outbreaks in US history, with more than 150 cases across the country and two deaths in Texas and New Mexico.
Experts believe the outbreak has been fueled by declining vaccination rates in parts of the US.
Kennedy, whose role includes authority over the CDC, has long sowed doubt over the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine, along with Covid shots made by Pfizer and Moderna.
However, he did make a U-turn move earlier this week when he urged people to get the shot to prevent measles.
Explains so much...
[NYPOST] Up to a dozen members of Congress reportedly have mental faculties so diminished they can no longer do their jobs — with some even showing up drunk or stoned to cast votes.
''There's no question that somewhere between six and a dozen of my colleagues are at a point where they're — I think they don't have the faculties to do their job,'' Rep. Jim Himes (D-Conn) told Politico, which spoke to 25 members of the House and Senate who spilled the tea on their unnamed colleagues.
A Republican colleague concurred, with an important addendum.
''I have a difficult time sometimes telling between the deterioration of members and a handful who are just not very smart,'' the unnamed politician said.
After President Biden's 2024 presidential campaign spectacular collapse due to his age-related cognitive issues, the issue of elected officials hanging on past their expiration date has come sharply into focus — with neither chamber of Congress being spared.
Former Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, Sen. Dianne Feinstein ...late Dem Senator-for-Life from Caliphornica. She was a politician since about the time she was weaned. Feinstein was the author of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and tried it a second time in 2012. Feinstein chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. At age 80, Feinstein was the oldest serving United States Senator. They carried her out feet first.... held office despite being so diminished she was forced to cede power of attorney to her daughter. Texas Rep. Kay Granger — the powerful former chair of the House Appropriations Committee — was found in an assisted living facility last year after being AWOL for six months.
''The United States Congress is the world's most prestigious senior center,'' Rep. Ritchie Torres, 36, (D-NY) quipped to The Post.
Some politicians claimed late night votes in the House are rarely cast entirely sober.
''Every time we do an 11 p.m. vote, a minority of the chamber has a zero blood alcohol content. Now, that's different than voting drunk. I don't think I've ever seen somebody demonstrably drunk on the floor,'' Himes noted.
Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) claimed to have seen one GOPer who ''show[ed] up drunk'' several times — and that ''there were one or two Dems I thought might be high on something, but not drunk.''
Added Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY): ''I would say DC is more like 'Veep.' We've had a couple of 'Veep' moments in my office.''
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
11:47 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11152 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
....with some even showing up drunk
Where is my shocked face?
All members and candidates for the seats in Congress should have to take a civics test on the Constitution. Done in public within a specified time limit. Not open book. Not for disqualification, but for public posting for voters to view.
[FoxNews] Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., has emerged into the spotlight amid a new ethics complaint due to his voting in favor of laws that ultimately funded millions in grants to a nonprofit climate group that pays his wife's consulting firm.
But who is his wife, Sandra Whitehouse?
Whitehouse earned her bachelor's degree at Yale University, similar to her now-senator husband, according to her LinkedIn page.
After that, she earned her master's degree at the Graduate School of Oceanography at the University of Rhode Island, studying there from 1986 to 1994.
She and Sheldon Whitehouse married in 1986 at the St. George's School Chapel in Newport, Rhode Island, according to a newspaper announcement.
The couple live in Newport and have two children, Molly and Alexander, as well as two grandchildren, according to the senator's website.
Throughout her career, Whitehouse has advised nonprofits, nongovernmental organizations, a state agency, a legislative body and private companies, according to a biography from the Atlantic Council, where she was a nonresident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.
Her husband was first elected to the U.S. Senate in 2006. She first began working for the group at the center of the latest ethics complaint roughly two years later, in 2008.
Whitehouse started working for Ocean Conservancy in September 2008, according to her LinkedIn page. She served as a senior policy advisor, and her "consulting work includes providing strategic advice for the Executive Team and Program Directors, raising awareness of ocean policy issues at various workshops and conferences, and engaging key stakeholders in Ocean Conservancy's mission. Areas of policy focus include climate change, ocean plastics, and ocean planning."
Whitehouse is no longer directly employed by Ocean Conservancy, but the organization does pay her firm, Ocean Wonks LLC, for similar consulting.
She became president of Ocean Wonks LLC in 2017, and in this capacity, she "consults for various non-profit organizations, leveraging decades of scientific, regulatory, and policy experience to educate on and advocate for ocean policy issues," according to her LinkedIn.
Ocean Conservancy has notably received more than $14.2 million in federal grants since 2008, according to USASpending.gov. It was given two sizable grants in just 2024, one for $5.2 million from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and another for $1.7 million from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), both for marine debris cleanup. The former was funded by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), and the latter was funded through the EPA’s annual appropriations bill. The senator voted for both.
According to tax documents, Ocean Conservancy has paid Whitehouse a total of $2,686,800 either directly or through her firm since 2010.
This was cited in last month's complaint to the Senate Select Committee on Ethics Chairman James Lankford, R-Okla., and Vice Chairman Chris Coons, D-Del., from ethics watchdog the Foundation for Accountability and Civic Trust (FACT).
In a statement to Fox News Digital, Whitehouse spokesperson Stephen DeLeo said, "This is a repeat dark money performance, and the previous attempt by a dark money group to plant these same smears was roundly dismissed by Senate Ethics. The billionaires and Supreme Court capture operatives behind FACT would like to try to stop Senator Whitehouse from shining a light on what they’ve done to deprive regular people of a fair shake before the Court."
"But false accusations from far-right special interests and billionaires will not impede the Senator’s pursuit of an accountable, ethical government that responds to Americans’ needs," he added.
Whitehouse's office also provided a letter to Fox News Digital from the committee last year informing another watchdog group, Judicial Watch, that the senator's actions did not violate "federal laws, Senate rules, or other standards of conduct."
The group had filed a similar ethics complaint to FACT.
[FoxNews] After SpaceX's eighth suborbital flight test of its fully integrated Starship megarocket on Thursday ended in an explosion, MSNBC hosts dug into CEO Elon Musk, saying, "Go back to your day job and work that out."
One of the goals of the flight was to catch Starship's Super Heavy booster, one of two major components, using the "chopsticks" on the launch tower, which was completed successfully.
However, similar to its last flight test in January, its upper stage, once in space, started spinning uncontrollably before losing contact and breaking apart, sending debris plunging back to Earth.
Iterative debugging is his process. Once the plan is laid out, Mr. Musk needn’t hover over the shoulders of the scientists and engineers doing the work. But there are always ignorant carpers, who fortunately need not understand any of it to complain that it isn’t being done their way.
It is one of the most dangerous places in the world to be a woman – or a Christian. Disease is rampant, and children as young as 4 are being forced to work in mines.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is 95% Christian, yet the faithful are being targeted by jihadists. Just last month, Islamist ADF terrorists, who want the eastern part of the country to become a Muslim Caliphate, rounded up 70 Christians and beheaded them – in a church.
Women are under threat too. According to the U.N., 895 cases of rape were reported in the last two weeks of February alone – an average of more than 60 a day.
In the east, "Sexual violence and human rights abuses remain rampant, as is the looting and destruction of civilian homes and businesses," Patrick Eba, deputy director of UNHCR’s Division of International Protection, said this week.
Eba added that "hundreds of thousands of people (are) on the move", fleeing the violence, with many crossing into neighboring countries.
Over 150 women inmates were raped, and many of them then burned to death, in Goma in October last year. As M23 rebels advanced on the city, prison guards at the local jail fled. Hundreds of male inmates are said to have jumped over a wall and raped the women, before escaping.
The sick are also at risk. Earlier this week, the U.N. humanitarian affairs coordination office (OCHA) reported that armed men had raided at least two hospitals in North Kivu’s capital Goma, abducting dozens of patients.
Disease also stalks people – with three mystery "outbreaks" in the past six months in the DRC. In the latest, the World Health Organization stated late last month that 60 have died and a further 1,318 have shown symptoms of suffering from an as yet unidentified serious illness in Equateur Province.
The agency said the disease spreads through the body fast "with a median time from onset of symptoms to death of one day." Tests for Ebola and the Marburg virus have come back negative so far.
In the Eastern Kivu provinces of the DRC, hundreds of thousands have been displaced, as rebel groups, often foreign-backed, push back government troops in a war "playing out in one of the poorest regions of earth," analyst Frans Cronje told Fox News Digital, adding, "Thousands have been killed, disease pandemics are commonplace, (and) women live under the constant fear of rape and abuse."
"The conflict in the DRC is essentially about control of critical minerals", Cronje, an advisor for the Yorktown Foundation for Freedom, continued. "Scores of rebel groups and some state actors are engaged in the conflict. The two Kivu provinces contain vast deposits of these minerals that could be used in applications from defense and AI to green energy."
Bill Roggio, senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD) and editor of the Long War Journal, told Fox News Digital, "I would argue that the minerals are only partially, or even tangentially, related. The main violence plaguing Congo runs from regional political issues, like Rwanda/M23 (rebel group), to ethnic like CODECO, (an association of militia groups) to religious, like Islamic State Central Africa Province, aka ADF, (rebel group) to just general localized banditry. And some groups do control and make money from artisanal mines, but not all."
And, for more than a decade, children in some DRC areas have faced extreme exploitation and abuse, reportedly from China, forced to mine deep underground in its quest for metals such as cobalt. An estimated 70% of the world’s cobalt is produced in the DRC, according to Michigan State University’s Global Edge Research Organization. China is said to either own, or co-own with the DRC’s government, 80% of the DRC’s cobalt mines.
This modern-day child slavery continues despite outcry. A report to a joint House and Senate Committee in November 2023 stated that the DRC "is a country that has been brutally pillaged throughout history, fueled by corrupt men’s unquenchable thirst for power, riches, land, rubber, copper, palm oil, and now cobalt, all at the expense of innocent women, men, and children."
"Children as young as 4 are forced to mine cobalt, "Jason Isaac told Fox News Digital last year. Isaac is the founder and CEO of the American Energy Institute.
The FDD’s Bill Roggio told Fox News Digital there are steps the Trump administration could take, "from counter-terrorism against one of IS' most active global branches (ISCAP) to walking back a potential massive regional war, or even to improving good governance, a more stable, secure and prosperous Congo would do wonders for the global economy and regional security."
[NYPOST] A Maryland hairstylist allegedly assaulted a 15-year-old customer and dragged her across the shop floor when she attempted to walk out without paying her $150 bill, according to a report.
Jayla Cunningham, 18, was charged with second-degree assault on the minor following the incident inside the Prince George County Maryland hair salon earlier this month, court records viewed by The Post report.
Cunningham says she had just finished working on her client's hair, which included adding a weave to the girl, when it came time for the client to pay for the services, Fox 5 DC reported.
An argument broke out over the $150 payment, which the teen allegedly claimed she sent through Cash App, but Cunningham never received the payment.
As the young client began to leave the shop, the hairstylist grabbed her client's hoodie and dragged her back inside the building.
''She ran. Forget trash, she ran without paying me,'' Cunningham told the outlet.
Cunningham was captured on a security camera pulling the girl down a hallway before yanking her into a room next to a bag of trash.
The hairstylist then shouted at her client to stay on the floor while she left the room to grab scissors to undo the work she had done.
''Sit right here until somebody sends it. I''m not f—king playing. You just tried to f—king run. You lucky I ain't beat the s—t out you,'' Cunningham could be heard saying, according to the video obtained by the outlet.
The irate hairstylist disappeared down the hallway before quickly returning and staring down at the camera that captured the entire incident.
''I dragged her by her hood back into the salon until I could get paid or, you know, until the police come or until, you know, she let me take out the service, because it's like she literally ran outside, like she was about to be gone,'' she said.
The teen's mom claims her daughter sent the transaction to the wrong person, which sparked the miscommunication between both sides.
''It's just absolutely absurd. It's viral. It's all over the country,'' the disheartened mother told the outlet.
The teen's mom accused Cunningham of taking hold of her daughter's hair when she grabbed the hoodie, leaving the teen traumatized.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
09:34 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11154 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
She detained a Shoplifter, so I have to kinda side with the Hairstylist on this one.
$150 weave job for 15 y/o ????
Where in the hell did she get that kinda $$$$
[Whatfinger] Biden admin hid 2,000 US troops in Syria—DOUBLE what they claimed. Pentagon’s excuse? Called 1,100 soldiers "temporary" to cook the books. Now troops face ISIS surge & strikes while D.C. bureaucrats play shell games with their lives.
Time to expose the swamp’s military deception. — DOgeai
Having 2k soldiers over there is a powder keg. I’m not so sure someone doesn’t want something to happen to them knowing how our President would respond and try to bog him down. The amount of things thing man has faced as impediments even right before taking office and now that he is in office is absurd. — Johnny St Pete
When can we start holding these officials accountable? Remember for decades pentagon officials lied about Afghanistan. We must deter this for the next 5 decades, doing nothing isn’t the answer. Name names, and arrest them. @SecDef please sir. We must stop allowing the lies.
Christians are being slaughtered in Syria right now. The Biden regime is to blame. If you recall, Joe Biden told the American people that this new government was going to serve ALL Syrians. He even sent them ’ humanitarian aid.’ People need to go to prison. — Breanna Morello
Why did the Biden Admin lie about US troop numbers in Syria? We have 2,000 American soldiers in harm’s way as human shields as Syria descends into blood chaos
#1
The treatment of German collaborators by those people liberated by the Allies in France and elsewhere usually stopped with the specific accused person rather than the whole family.
#2
The Dems and Lindsey Graham are some ISIS loving folks. Whenever you put an Obama puppet into the White House the outcome is Christian’s getting slaughtered.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/09/2025 10:49
Comments ||
Top||
#4
Not that I have any use for slaughtering civilians, but this story is misleading:
The American troops are in the northwest of Syria, in or near the Kurdish territory, nowhere near where the Alawite massacre is happening on the coast.
The primary supporter of what became the new Syrian regime was Turkey, which gave them shelter. Turkey is 'NATO' by title, but not it's Turkish backed militias that are attacking the Kurdish SDF near the actual US bases.
[Breggin] Rhonda Miller is an independent analyst of some of the worst abuses that have afflicted children throughout the Western world. She began working with Dr. Judith Reisman, another independent analyst and dear friend of ours who took on Alfred Kinsey and his popular books aimed at destroying the moral fiber of our sexual life and who tortured children in the name of proving their sexuality.
She has succeeded in defunding the Kinsey Institute at Indiana University but is now finding resistance in getting it closed and in exposing its files confirming the criminal abuse of children by Alfred Kinsey and the people who worked with him and for him.
She has branched out into much broader studies of how global forces, toward the goal of destroying America, have been corrupting our schools and educational system and even turned the network of child and protective services into child trafficking.
Her examination discloses the efforts of Bill Gates, the Rockefellers, and the UN in corrupting our children on every possible level. This show is an eye-opener on many levels of the abuse of children around the globe.
This hour delves deeply into the pattern of the close relationship between concentrations of power in institutions and people and the inevitable accumulation of evil in these power centers, often marked by child abuse, sex trafficking, and enslavement, followed by murder.
We greatly admire her work and encourage people to support her.
[Newsweek] A man was shot by U.S. Secret Service personnel early on Sunday, following an armed confrontation with law enforcement near the White House.
Officers were alerted on Saturday "to a potential threat involving a suicidal individual traveling from Indiana to Washington, D.C.," the agency said in a statement Sunday.
About midnight, officers discovered the suspect's parked vehicle near 17th and F Streets, near the White House perimeter, and later spotted an individual on foot who matched the suspect's description, the agency added.
"As officers approached, the individual brandished a firearm and an armed confrontation ensued, during which shots were fired by our personnel," the statement said.
"The suspect was transported to an area hospital and his condition is unknown. There were no reported injuries to Secret Service personnel."
The suspect's name, nor potential motive, had not been released by 8:50 a.m. ET.
D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department told Newsweek that its Internal Affairs Division's Force Investigations Team is leading the probe and did not have any details to release shortly before 10 a.m.
WHY IT MATTERS
The incident highlights the ongoing security challenges in Washington, D.C., especially around critical government sites such as the White House. The armed confrontation with law enforcement near the president's official residence and workplace underscores the heightened threats faced by officials and law enforcement.
[Jpost] China will step up resources and funding to support employment and unveil new policies to help college graduates get jobs, as the external environment could become more complex and severe, human resources minister said on Sunday.
China faces an arduous task to stabilize and expand employment in 2025, minister Wang Xiaoping said, estimating this year's employment will be generally stable. Trouble in Paradise?
Posted by: Grom the Affective ||
03/09/2025
04:04 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11153 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
Attempted hit job by [a] recent graduate of Stony Brook University's Master's program in Journalism. Before beginning a career with the Daily Mail served as a Managing Editor at a local community newspaper on Long Island.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The FBI's newest director has sparked an unprecedented firestorm within the bureau he was hand-picked to lead.
Kashyap 'Kash' Patel, 45, known for his close relationship with MAGA politics, has demanded sweeping loyalty tests and extensive vetting procedures for the agency's staff, indicating the FBI's latest leader may not fully trust the agency he was named to lead.
That’s exactly what he was brought in to do. Expressing shock is more than a bit disingenuous, a bad look for big, tough FBI types.
The FBI director, whose critics have branded him a conspiracy theorist,
…they aren’t conspiracy theories when they're proven conspiracy facts, O baby Daily Mail reporter…
also inquired about hiring his own private security detail not long after his Senate confirmation in February, The Wall Street Journal reported.
As director, Patel is automatically assigned a team of FBI agents tasked with ensuring his safety, however, his latest request suggests that he is not willing to place his life in the hands of his very own agents.
The former prosecutor also inquired about how to get a secure phone line directly to the Oval Office from both his FBI office in Washington D.C. and his home, according to the Journal.
Patel reportedly claimed he did not wish to go through the FBI landline in his office, but instead a direct line to his ally, President Donald Trump.
Under the usual chain of command, the FBI director would contact the president through the Attorney General, like all FBI directors have since J. Edgar Hoover in 1929.
The indirect line of contact was allegedly installed to help maintain distance and demonstrate independence from the White House.
Patel, however, is a loyal ally of the president, serving as a national security advisor in his first administration.
'Director Patel is aggressively working to deliver on removing criminals from our streets, restoring law and order, and ensuring agents have the resources they need to perform their duties effectively,' FBI spokesperson Ben Williamson said.
'We have absolutely zero interest in engaging with false leaks or distractions that undermine that mission,' he added.
The New York-native was among Trump's most controversial administration picks.
Patel, who was born in New York to Indian Gujarati immigrant parents, shockingly made it through the Senate vote even after every single Democratic senator, as well as two Republicans, voted against his confirmation.
Their reservation wasn't just that Patel had a complete lack of experience at the FBI, but overwhelming concerns from critics suggested that the newly-appointed federal agent is a conspiracy theorist.
In 2022, the FBI Director authored a children's picture book which pushed the claim that former President Joe Biden rigged the 2020 election against Trump.
Patel was also often known to label his political opposition and even the FBI as part of 'the deep state' - which refers to a body of people, typically influential members of government agencies or the military, believed to be involved in the secret manipulation or control of government policy - during his time serving as a commentator at The Epoch Times.
He has also expressed a sympathetic attitude toward the QAnon movement, which claims that the Democratic Party is a 'pedophilic cabal.'
Just last month, Patel was accused of spearheading the purge of senior FBI officials, even before his confirmation.
The Justice Department has also been trying to fire FBI agents who investigated Trump but has faced legal pushback, the Daily Beast reported.
Last week, Patel and Attorney General Pam Bondi, another well-known Trump ally, enraged Trump's supporters with a release of 'Epstein files' that offered no new information on the disgraced sex-offender.
#1
As director, Patel is automatically assigned a team of FBI agents tasked with ensuring his safety, however, his latest request suggests that he is not willing to place his life in the hands of his very own agents.
The former prosecutor also inquired about how to get a secure phone line directly to the Oval Office from both his FBI office in Washington D.C. and his home, according to the Journal.
Given what we know about the Bureau these days, that seems only prudent.
#3
Loyalty tests, eh? When I worked at McDonald's, we called "doing what the boss wanted". Now that you mention it, that was a feature of every other job too. It sounds sinister if you call it a loyalty test, so delightfully Owellian.
[Federalist] Last Friday, Donald Trump signed an executive order making English the official language of the United States, ending 249 years of the country not having any official language, a designation the U.S. shared with only Mexico and the Pacific archipelago nation of Palau. The order also rescinded a 2000 Bill Clinton mandate requiring aid-dispensing agencies to provide language assistance to non-English speakers, while leaving the door open to agencies to do so if they choose. While the Left will undoubtedly cry "nativism" and "xenophobia" over the coming days, the order’s wording, historical perspective, and common sense show this is a necessary step to strengthen "melting pot" by uniting as "a citizenry that can freely exchange ideas in one shared language."
First, it’s necessary to understand why America never had an official language. From its colonial beginnings, America had an Anglophone supermajority but a smattering of other languages. At the nation’s founding in 1776, New York, Pennsylvania, and sections of the Appalachian backcountry harbored large minorities of German and Dutch speakers, and establishing a state language went no more with the libertarian character of the Revolutionary generation than establishing a state religion, which the First Amendment expressly forbade. But America’s political economy assured voluntary assimilation anyway, and America’s great Founding documents and debates, from the Federalist Papers to Common Sense, were in English, a shared language that brought the Union together and made its ideals legible to citizens in South Carolina just as for Massachusetts.
[Zero] President Trump's address to a joint session of Congress on Tuesday night made it very clear that Mexican drug cartels have been put on notice—the fight may soon be coming to them.
"The cartels are waging war on America, and it's time for America to wage war on the cartels," Trump told lawmakers, referring to the drug death catastrophe claiming 100,000 American lives per year—fueled by Mexican cartels. This is the clearest indication that the president's 'America First' has shifted focus on dismantling cartel command and control networks.
Ahead of the fight against cartels, the US government conducted several signals intelligence (SIGINT) operations near the US-Mexico border using spy planes.
Some of these operations include:
USAF Spy Plane Runs SIGINT Operation Near Cabo As US Preps For Potential Cartel Fight
USAF Spy Jet Flies Second SIGINT Operation On US Border With Focus On Narco Hub
Border Czar "Expects" Kinetic Warfare Between US Troops & Mexican Drug Cartels
US Designates Mexican Cartels As "Foreign Terrorists," Signaling Financial Warfare Looms
According to local media outlet Diario CAMBIO22, the latest SIGINT operation involving a US spy plane occurred last week in the southeastern state of Campeche.
Illegal arrested for distribution of child porn in Mississippi. When police followed the tip to arrest him, they found him with 6 other illegals who were also promptly arrested.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
03/09/2025 11:00
Comments ||
Top||
#5
I find it ironic that EVs are supposed to save the planet, yet these protesters are attacking and destroying them just because the Teslas are associated with Elon Musk.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] An earthquake of magnitude 6–7 occurred in the north of Armenia, 6 km from the city of Spitak in the Lori region. This was reported on March 8 by the rescue service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Armenia.
According to seismologists, the tremor was recorded at 09:26 (08:26 Moscow time). The epicenter was at a depth of about 10 kilometers.
The Armenian Ministry of Internal Affairs specified that the earthquake measuring 4-6 points was felt by residents of the Lori, Shirak and Tavush regions, and tremors measuring 2-4 points were registered in the Kotayk, Gegharkunik and Aragatsotn regions. There is no information about casualties or damage.
An earthquake with a magnitude of 2.4 occurred in the northwestern part of Armenia near the borders with Georgia and Turkey on the night of July 5. The epicenter was located 11 km east of the village of Ashotsk in the Shirak region.
A powerful earthquake occurred in Armenia on December 7, 1988. Its epicenter was in the city of Spitak. The strength of the tremors there reached ten points on a 12-point scale. According to official data, 25 thousand people died, 140 thousand became disabled, and 514 thousand people were left homeless. On the anniversary of the tragedy on December 7, 2024, Armenian President Armen Sarkissian honored the memory of the victims of this incident.
[Gateway] Over three years ago, on January 5, 2021, a suspect planted pipe bombs near the Washington DC RNC and DNC headquarters the night before the January 6, 2021 protests.
The US Capitol was shut down on January 6 after the feds found the bombs near the Republican and Democrat Party headquarters.
As previously reported — A mysterious suspect planted two pipe bombs at the RNC and DNC DC Headquarters and safely detonated by a bomb squad on January 6.
The FBI continued to drip out new videos of the suspect who placed two pipe bombs at the DNC and RNC the night before the Capitol riot in the months following the incident.
The lack of investigative rigor on this one could hardly have been more profound.
[GEO.TV] South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol walked out of a detention centre in Seoul on Saturday after prosecutors decided not to appeal a court decision to cancel the impeached leader's arrest warrant on insurrection charges.
Yoon remains suspended from his duties, and his criminal and impeachment trials continue over his short-lived martial law imposition on December 3.
The Seoul Central District Court cancelled Yoon's arrest warrant on Friday, citing the timing of his indictment and "questions about the legality" of the investigation process.
"First of all, I would like to thank the Central District Court for their courage and determination in correcting the illegality," Yoon said in a statement.
His lawyers said the court decision "confirmed that the president's detainment was problematic in both procedural and substantive aspects," calling the ruling the "beginning of a journey to restore rule of law".
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] According to the forecast, six regions of Russia will face bad weather this weekend, with snowstorms and strong winds expected. This was warned on March 8 by the scientific director of the Hydrometeorological Center of Russia Roman Vilfand.
“In Bashkortostan on Saturday, heavy snow, blizzards, snow drifts and black ice are expected, in Udmurtia on Saturday and Sunday - heavy snow, blizzards, wind of 14-19 m/s, ice on the roads and snowdrifts,” he said.
The weather forecaster also said that on March 8, snowfalls will occur in the Murmansk and Arkhangelsk regions, as well as in the Perm region. Strong winds, the speed of which will exceed 20 m/s, are expected in the Altai Republic and Novorossiysk, Vilfand told TASS.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, earlier on March 8, the leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Mikhail Leus reported that warm weather is expected in Moscow in the next five days, with the average daily air temperature ranging from +4 to +7°C. This is 6–9°C higher than the climatic norm.
Leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets reported on March 7 that the snow in the capital had completely melted. According to the forecaster, due to record warmth, the line of snowdrifts had shifted 230–280 km east of Moscow. At the same time, snow cover remained in areas located further south: in Krasnodar Krai, Stavropol Krai, and in the republics of the North Caucasus.
[GEO.TV] At least three bad boyz were potted by security forces during an intelligence-based operation (IBO) in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's Tank district, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said on Saturday.
A statement from the military's media wing said security forces conducted an operation based on the reported presence of terrorists.
"During the conduct of the operation, own troops effectively engaged the khwarij location, as a result of which, three khwarij were sent to hell," the ISPR said. "Do not pass GO. Do not collect $200"
It added that weapons and ammunition were also recovered from the killed terrorists, who remained actively involved in numerous terrorist activities against the security forces as well as innocent civilians.
"Sanitisation operation is being conducted to eliminate any other Kharji found in the area," it said, adding that the security forces were determined to wipe out the menace of terrorism from the country.
The country has been reeling under increased terrorist attacks targeting especially the law enforcers and security forces since the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... 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 murderous Moslem attacks were recorded nationwide, resulting in 91 fatalities, including 35 security personnel, 20 civilians, and 36 murderous Moslems. Another 117 individuals sustained injuries, including 53 security forces personnel, 54 civilians, and 10 murderous Moslems.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11153 views]
Top|| File under: Pak Taliban (TTP)
Commentary by Russian Military Journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics:
[ColonelCassad] Trump on negotiations:
1. Putin did not want to start a conflict in Ukraine.
I talked to Vladimir about this. I talked to him about this for a long time. But he never wanted to go there. This conflict should never have started.
2. Yes, I believe him. I believe him. I think we are doing well with Russia. But right now they are bombing Ukraine like crazy. And Ukraine… I find it increasingly difficult to deal with Ukraine, frankly. And they don’t have the cards. As you know, we are meeting in Saudi Arabia – sometime next week, early. And I think in terms of getting a final settlement, it may be easier to deal with Russia, which is surprising, because they have all the cards.
3. Without my participation, a peaceful resolution of the conflict in Ukraine "would not have had a single chance. Unlike me, European countries have no idea how to end the conflict in Ukraine.
4. I don't know if Ukraine wants a resolution to the conflict.
If Ukraine does not want to resolve the conflict, we are leaving.
Further support for Ukraine will depend on its readiness for peace talks.
In general, if the globalists do not allow the war to be stopped, then Trump will simply roll back support for Ukraine and leave (prepare for a confrontation with China).
Of course, this makes things a little easier for us, because fighting in conditions when the US and NATO stood behind Ukraine and when only NATO stands behind Ukraine are two very different things, although it will not be easy.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A secret crematorium was found on the territory of one of the ranches in the Mexican state of Jalisco, where police officers also found about 200 pairs of shoes, charred human remains and bullet casings. This was reported on March 8 by the publication Swissinfo.
The crematorium was found on a ranch that was surrounded by law enforcement several months ago during an operation that resulted in the arrest of 10 armed men, the release of two kidnapped people and the discovery of a body. The ranch is also said to have a crude obstacle course that was used as a recruitment and training center for the Jalisco New Generation drug cartel.
Representatives of public associations involved in the search for missing persons claim that the remains found may belong to people who disappeared without a trace. The activists also appealed to the authorities to conduct a more thorough investigation.
The police are currently working to identify the people to whom the remains belong. According to the national search commission, more than 15,000 people are missing in the state of Jalisco.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on September 29, 2021, in the Nuevo Laredo region of Tamaulipas state in Mexico, police discovered an underground crematorium with human remains.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth said on March 1 that if Mexican authorities continue to do nothing against local drug cartels, Washington will have to take decisive action. In turn, US Department of Government Effectiveness chief Elon Musk said that the only way to deal with Mexican cartels is to conduct a special operation in Mexico.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Western specialists involved in processing satellite data for Ukraine have left the country. This was reported by Time magazine.
According to a source close to the Ukrainian General Staff, a group of specialists who helped the Ukrainians receive and process intelligence data from satellites have left Kyiv. These people worked at the military headquarters in Kyiv.
"There is no one left," the source said.
It is also noted that the possible termination of cooperation with Kiev in the field of satellite data exchange by Washington may be compensated by the Europeans. Intelligence agencies of some European countries have already offered their services. But it will not be possible to quickly organize a replacement, since it takes time to deploy European systems, the publication noted.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, after the scandal in the Oval Office involving the head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, the United States suspended military aid to Kiev. The United States also imposed a temporary ban on the UK transferring American intelligence to Kiev.
The US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency reported on March 7 that it had temporarily suspended the Kiev regime's access to satellite images. The Ukrainian Armed Forces were actively using these images to adjust artillery fire and identify targets for drones.
#2
No worries, dudes! There is an open source army of GIS and image processing nerds willing to do the job. Just give us the data.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces were actively using these images to adjust artillery fire and identify targets for drones.
Identifying targets is a task that can be done offline, but adjusting artillery fires is a real-time task. That suggests some interesting capabilities.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has accused Israel of committing war crimes in the Gaza Strip. This was reported on March 8 by the Qatari television channel Al Jazeera.
Israel has been accused of continuing to kill Palestinian civilians and blocking all humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip. It is noted that the OHCHR report states that at least 58 Palestinians, including ten children and three women, have been killed since the ceasefire.
“Attacking Palestinians who are not actively participating in the hostilities constitutes a war crime, regardless of the restrictions on movement imposed by Israel,” the OHCHR report emphasizes.
The UN agency said the Israeli blockade, which has now entered its seventh day, has resulted in a sharp rise in prices that could once again trigger famine in the Palestinian enclave.
"As an occupying power, Israel has a legal obligation to provide essential services to the Palestinians living under its control. Any denial of essential services to civilians may amount to collective punishment, and the use of starvation as a weapon of war constitutes a war crime," the OHCHR explained.
Earlier, Regnum News Agency reported that in mid-January, Israel and Hamas, during negotiations mediated by Qatar, Egypt and the United States, concluded an agreement on a temporary truce in the Gaza Strip. It should take place in three stages: the first - Israel will withdraw its troops from Gaza, and Hamas will release 33 hostages, the second - the release of the remaining Israeli prisoners and a permanent ceasefire, the third - an exchange of bodies of the dead.
On February 22, Hamas released the last of the hostages in the first phase of the truce. Israel was supposed to release 602 Palestinian prisoners, including at least one with a life sentence, from prison as part of the exchange. On February 23, the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that the release of more than 600 Palestinian prisoners from prisons was suspended due to the “humiliating ceremonies” of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas during the release of Israeli hostages.
On February 27, Hamas handed over the bodies of four Israeli hostages to the International Red Cross.
On March 2, Israel agreed to a US proposal for a temporary ceasefire in the Gaza Strip during Ramadan and Passover. The decision was made by Netanyahu, with the participation of the defense minister and the negotiating team.
On March 6, US President Donald Trump threatened members of the radical Palestinian movement Hamas with death if they did not release all Israeli hostages and return the bodies "immediately."
#2
What about all the war crimes that the UN commuted in Gaza? I noticed that nobody seems to be accusing UN of war crimes that they actually commuted!
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] In Sweden, a latent hatred for Donald Trump is growing. Ordinary Swedes are ready to see in the new-old American president and his henchmen the fiends of hell who want to “abandon Ukraine and Sweden to the mercy of the eastern aggressor.”
Local propaganda has built an alternative world in which their small country, like Hobbiton, is under serious threat of invasion by “orcs from the east,” and the United States is no longer ready to defend it.
And in protest, the Swedes began to boycott American goods. A similar picture can be seen in the Baltic countries, which are economically dependent on Sweden – they also hate Trump for allegedly being ready to abandon them “to Moscow’s profit.”
THE SMELL OF BETRAYAL
Swedish media are broadcasting panic messages into the reader's brain. "US President Donald Trump called Volodymyr Zelensky a 'dictator' and accused Ukraine of a full-scale Russian invasion," Nyheterna, for example, is indignant. Trump is also accused of intending to introduce 25 percent tariffs on EU goods, including cars. For Sweden, with its powerful car industry, this will be very sensitive.
In a major development for the country, the local US embassy removed a banner declaring support for Ukraine that had adorned its façade for three years. This happened immediately after Trump's meeting with Zelensky in the Oval Office of the White House, which ended in scandal.
Former Swedish MEP Gunnar Hökmark describes his horror as he walked past the embassy and saw the banner no longer in its usual place. "This is a terrible message to the whole of Swedish society. It is clear that Trump prioritizes relations with Putin over relations with Zelensky and Europe," the former MEP said, calling the move by the US embassy "a disgrace."
Former Swedish Foreign Minister and well-known Russophobe Carl Bildt said that the White House is now occupied by "a savage who repeats Vladimir Putin's words." The Swedish press writes that the government is very nervous and concerned about the current situation.
Swedish citizens are asking themselves: Will Trump sell out Ukraine and can Sweden trust the US in other contexts? Will Trump take a position closer to Russia than to the EU? The anxiety, the sense of a betrayal crisis, is present not only among government officials, but literally hovers over the entire country.
Swedes, a majority of whom, according to polls, oppose stopping the fighting in Ukraine, perceive Donald Trump's peacemaking initiatives as a "betrayal."
However, the government has chosen a cautious strategy: to express as little direct criticism of the overseas hegemon as possible. Stockholm has invested too much effort in joining NATO and in strengthening relations with the United States and is afraid to make any sudden moves now.
"We should focus on what the US is actually doing, not just what they say. They still have tough sanctions against Russia, and it is important for us to continue to damage the Russian military economy," said Swedish Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergaard.
A SUDDEN AWAKENING OF HOSTILITY
The Swedish authorities have taken a rather extravagant step to demonstrate their disagreement with Trump's peacekeeping initiatives.
At the end of February, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sent out an order to foreign diplomatic missions to film a video in which embassy employees demonstrate what is presumably a protest performance.
“Through a joint communications campaign, we mark the anniversary (of the start of the SVO – Ed.) and demonstrate that Sweden is united in its unwavering support for Ukraine,” says the letter sent to all Swedish embassies.
The ministry instructs that in the video, diplomatic workers should first sit down and then stand up at the same time. “Stand up straight! Keep your hands at your sides and avoid happy expressions,” the relevant instruction says.
The participants of the performance were ordered to choose one of three forms of arrangement of chairs: zigzag, U-shape or pyramid. Ukrainian flags had to be present in the frame, and the video itself was recommended to be filmed outdoors, avoiding the "official office environment".
However, public relations experts interviewed by Expressen expressed skepticism about the idea. “I don’t think that such videos will bother Russians at all or have any significant effect,” says media expert Hampus Knutsson.
While government officials hesitate, avoiding decisive action, ordinary Swedes are already taking action.
A recent survey in the country showed that 78% of the population (that is, almost four out of five) are ready to join the boycott of American goods. Women are especially active in supporting this idea.
Recently, more and more accounts have appeared in the Swedish social media sector that are furiously “pushing” for a boycott of American goods and services. All those who do so explain their suddenly awakened hostility towards the overseas power by the actions of the Trump administration.
Niklas Sorum, an employee of the University of Gothenburg, recalls that the Swedes also boycotted goods from South Africa in protest against the apartheid policy that was being carried out by that country.
Sorum emphasizes that for a boycott to be an effective means of influencing the United States, it must be as widespread as possible and take place against the backdrop of the establishment of supplies of similar goods from the “right” countries.
"WE NEED TO THROW OUT AMERICAN WEAPONS"
In the Baltics, which are an economic colony of Sweden, the same sentiments are observed, only more pronounced. It has reached the point that Estonian MEP Riho Terras, a former commander-in-chief of the Estonian army, called on the European Union to prepare for measures to influence the US - to "press them with sanctions" and accused Trump of "betraying" Ukraine.
The local press publishes articles that suggest that Trump and his associates are destroying the sacred cause of Euro-Atlantic unity. “It is clear that they want to see the same anti-democratic forces in power in Europe, the return of which they themselves symbolize. This has, of course, been the long-term desire of their new ally, Russia,” writes, for example, Estonian public figure Eero Janson, head of the NGO Eesti Pagulasabi (Estonian Refugee Council).
He is very upset with Trump because his NGO used to receive substantial funding from the American agency USAID, which it has now lost.
One can see why he would be upset, yes.
Cartoons of Trump, sometimes quite offensive, are circulating in the Baltic Internet sector, depicting him as a pig. Calls to refuse American products have been heard in social networks in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, just like in Sweden.
"Throw away your iPhones and computers. And let the Latvian army throw away American weapons, Black Hawk helicopters," one resident of Riga sneers. "Europe, I suppose, will not only not understand us, but will certainly not protect us. However, it looks like the States won't either. Everything is going down the drain," another user summed up.
Those who are more sober are already calling for acceptance of the new reality. “Trump views Europe as a competitor and, perhaps, as a potential source of problems – if we are talking about a war on the territory of Ukraine – but not as a partner,” says Igor Gretsky, an expert at the Tallinn International Center for Defense and Security.
According to him, Washington now perceives China as its “key strategic opponent,” and is much less concerned about what is happening in Europe.
Gretsky warns that we shouldn’t perceive what is happening now in the US as some kind of “aberration,” “error,” and hope that after Trump’s natural departure, everything will return to normal: “This is a long-term trend, we need to adapt to it.”
And only a very few dare to publicly advise that, in the changed conditions, the countries located around the Baltic should change roles and concepts – and move from confrontation with Russia to cooperation with it.
Thus, the Latvian publicist, a well-known activist of the local Russian community, Vladimir Linderman, writes that a sharp turn of history is taking place: “Latvia as an anti-Russian “Western outpost” will become unclaimed. It is time to change the concept.”
However, people like Linderman are considered "marginal". Any respectable politician who dares to repeat this thought out loud can instantly become an outcast. The elites in the countries around the Baltic cannot simply change their "DNA", hoping that the presidency of the "red-haired madman" will be outlasted, and everything will return to normal.
#7
Message to Sweden and the Baltic States: Feel free to load your gear, saddle up your troops, and go to Ukraine and fight it out.
We're not going to.
I thought you people wanted the US out of your affairs.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/09/2025 9:58
Comments ||
Top||
#8
his henchmen the fiends of hell
That sounds like Bagndad Bob or some serious Juche.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 19:03 Fighters of the 30th Motorized Rifle Regiment liberated the village of Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, –MAP. 18:56 The Russian army liberated Constantinpol, –MAP.
18:22 From 15.30 to 17.00 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty destroyed five Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles:
Three UAVs over the territory of the Belgorod region and
Two UAVs over the territory of the Kursk region.
16:35 Drone operators of the North group of forces shot down a Fury reconnaissance drone of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Khar'kov region by ramming it, –video.
16:18 The Russian Armed Forces have expanded control north of Andreyevka, –MAP.
15:28 Russian Armed Forces advance in Constantinpol, –MAP.
15:25 FPV drone calculations on fiber optics have revealed and destroyed a combat vehicle of the 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Khar'kov region.
14:37 A missile strike by an Iskander operational-tactical missile system on a camouflaged HIMARS MLRS position in the village of Novonikolaevka.
As a result of the blow destroyed HIMARS MLRS transport and loading vehicle with ammunition and up to 10 Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen.
14:32 Air defense forces intercepted and destroyed four Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of the Voronezh region.
12:34 Crew of the 152mm Msta-B gun destroyed UAV control center with personnel, which was camouflaged in abandoned houses in Kherson.
12:18 In Sudzha, FPV operator GV "Sever" discovered American-made Bradley IFV. A kamikaze drone on fiber optics approached enemy equipment without interference and destroyed it.
12:14 Units of the North group of forces during offensive operations released settlements of Viktorovka, Nikolaevka and Staraya Sorochina in the Kursk region.
10:59 Ukrainian militants have concentrated in one of the strongholds in the Pokrovsk direction. Kamikaze drones and artillery of the "Center" groupcoveredtheir position with heavy fire.
10:07 Russian Army units started attack directly on Sudzha.
09:54 In the village of Veterinary, Khar'kov region, aerial reconnaissance of the Guards "North" was carried out, leading to the discovery of a launch site for Ukrainian Armed Forces drones.
Army aviation opened fire on the target - the UAV crew and the Ukrainian soldiers' ammunition were destroyed.
08:02 Destruction of strongholds and temporary deployment points of the second assault battalion of the 79th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine using FPV drones in the area of the settlement of Constantinpol in the South Donetsk direction, –video.
07:36 Changes to map over the past 24 hours:
Old Sorochina was liberated;
Nikolskoye was liberated;
Viktorovka was liberated;
Advance between Kurilovka and Guevo towards the state border;
Advance in the direction of Basovka in Sumy region;
The enemy was able to gain a foothold on the outskirts of Shevchenko;
The opponents were able to regain some of their positions in Udachny and Uspenovka;
The enemy counterattacked in Zagryzovo.
07:22 During the past night, air defense systems on duty intercepted and destroyed 31 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles:
26 UAVs over the territory of Krasnodar Krai,
Three UAVs over the territory of Bryansk Oblast, and
One UAV each over the territories of Leningrad and Yaroslavl Oblasts.
06:34 Kherson direction. Combat work of the 81st Artillery Regiment of the 70th Motorized Rifle Division.
As part of the counterbattery operation, the regiment's UAV-ST "Skat" crew discovered an enemy weapon firing at infantry positions on the front line.
The fire from the regiment's cannon battalion stopped the enemy's gun activity.
[EngMilRu] In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on units of three territorial defence brigades close to Granov and Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 30 troops, seven motor vehicles, three field artillery guns, an electronic warfare station, and an ammunition depot.
The Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and delivered strikes at manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades of the AFU near Katerinovka, Kamenka, Kondrashovka, Lozovaya (Kharkov region), and Yampol (Donetsk People's Republic).
The enemy losses amounted to up to 195 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles including a U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, two motor vehicles, five field artillery guns, two of them were Western-made. Two ammunition depots and seven electronic warfare stations were eliminated.
Units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions. Russian troops hit formations of three mechanised brigades, an airmobile brigade of the AFU, and a territorial defence brigade close to Seversk, Rozovka, Konstantinovka, and Ivanopolye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 245 troops, three motor vehicles, a field artillery gun, two electronic warfare stations, and three ammunition depots.
The Tsentr Group of Forces improved the situation along the frontline, engaged units three mechanised brigades, an airborne brigade, a jaeger brigade, an assault regiment of the AFU, and a national guard brigade near Lysovka, Mirolyubovka, Grodovka, Alekseyevka, Petrovskogo, Sribnoye, Uspenovka, and Zverevo (Donetsk People's Republic).
The enemy lost more 595 troops, a German-made Leopard tank, three armoured fighting vehicles including a French-made VAB armoured personnel carrier, and a U.S.-made MaxxPro armoured vehicle. Two pickup trucks and three artillery guns were neutralised.
Units of the Vostok Group of Forces continued advancing into the depth of enemy defences. Russian troops engaged formations of a mechanised brigade, a jaeger brigade, an assault regiment of the AFU, a naval infantry brigade, and two territorial defence brigades close to Bogatyr, Perebudova, Novopol, Konstantinopol, Dneproenergiya of the Donetsk People's Republic, and Gulyaypole(Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 155 troops, an armoured fighting vehicle, three motor vehicles, and a 155mm Swedish-made Archer self-propelled artillery system.
The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces engaged the manpower and hardware of two coastal defence brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a territorial defence brigade close to Kachkarovka, Tokarevka, Sadovoye, and Goncharnoye (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 80 troops, five motor vehicles, two field artillery guns, a U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar, and two electronic warfare systems.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack UAVs, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged infrastructure of military airfields, power industry facilities supplying defence industry enterprises of Ukraine, manufacturing shops, depots, and command posts of UAVs as well as manpower and hardware clusters of the AFU in 148 areas.
Air defence systems shot down five JDAM guided bombs, a U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectile, and 178 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 656 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 45,649 unmanned aerial vehicles, 600 anti-aircraft missile systems, 22,083 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,523 MLRS combat vehicles, 22,348 field artillery guns and mortars, and 32,595 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise AFU formations on the territory of Kursk region.
The Sever Group of Forces liberated Viktorovka, Nikolayevka, and Staraya Sorochina during the offensive.
The Russian Armed Forces inflicted damage on units of a heavy mechanised brigade, five mechanised brigades, a motorised infantry brigade, an assault brigade, two air assault brigades, two territorial defence brigades, and two assault regiments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Gogolevka, Goncharovka, Guyevo, Zaoleshenka, Ivashkovskiy, Pervy Knyazhy, Loknya, Malaya Loknya, Makhnovka, Orlovka, Rubanshchina, Sudzha, and Cherkasskaya Konopelka.
Operational-Tactical and Army Aviation, and Artillery strikes engaged AFU manpower and hardware close to Viktorovka, Gornal, Kazachaya Loknya, Pervy Knyazhy, Kolmakov, Kositsa, Kubatkin, Melovoy, Mirny, Oleshnya, Yuzhny, Basovka, Belovody, Zhuravka, Zapselye, Miropolye, Novenkoye, Yunakovka, and Yablonovka in Sumy region.
For the past 24 hours, the AFU losses amounted to more than 180 troops, two infantry fighting vehicles including a German-made Marder infantry fighting vehicle, two armoured personnel carriers, seven armoured fighting vehicles, 13 motor vehicles, two German-made Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery systems, four field artillery guns, three mortars, three UAV command posts, and an ammunition depot. One AFU serviceman surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk direction, the AFU losses amounted to more than 65,580 troops, 386 tanks, 298 infantry fighting vehicles, 259 armoured personnel carriers, 2,144 armoured fighting vehicles, 2,341 motor vehicles, 522 artillery guns, 52 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and seven of MLRS made by the USA, 25 anti-aircraft missile launchers, a self-propelled anti-aircraft system, ten transport-loading vehicles, 119 EW stations, 15 counter-battery warfare radars, nine air defence radars, 53 units of engineering and other materiel, including 21 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, five bridge launchers, one engineering reconnaissance vehicle as well as 14 armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in Kursk region.
To stabilize the situation in the Kursk region, reserves of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been deployed.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces Command is monitoring the situation in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and information about a massive breakthrough of the Ukrainian border by Russians in the Sumy region is not true. This was reported by Ukrainska Pravda with reference to a comment from the press service of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Saturday, March 8.
"The information about a massive breakthrough of the Ukrainian state border by Russian units is not true. In the areas of the settlements of Novenkoe and Zhuravka in Sumy Oblast, the enemy is still operating with sabotage and reconnaissance groups and small infantry groups of several people each. They are trying to gain a foothold on Ukrainian territory in order to expand the combat zone, but are gradually being destroyed."
In addition, it is confirmed that Russian assault groups have moved along the gas pipeline branch with the aim of gaining a foothold in the vicinity of Sudzha.
"At present, the Russian special forces are being blocked and destroyed. The enemy's losses in Sudzha are very high," the General Staff assured.
They state that heavy fighting continues in the Kursk region, the situation remains difficult, but it is under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces command.
The most large-scale assaults by enemy troops took place in the directions from the settlement of Kornevo to Sudzha, as well as in the directions of Novoivanovka, Malaya Loknya and south of Sudzha.
The enemy has brought in the most combat-ready units from the naval infantry (177th Naval Infantry Regiment and 810th Naval Infantry Brigade), Airborne Troops, Kadyrovites from the Akhmat Battalion, and the 1427th Motorized Rifle Regiment to carry out the assault. Mercenaries from the DPRK numbering up to two battalions have also been thrown into the battle.
"Our command sees the full picture and is taking the necessary measures to strengthen the stability of the defense. Reserves of the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have been deployed to stabilize the situation. Thanks to these decisions, enemy units have suffered significant losses," the statement said.
Earlier it was reported that Russian troops continue to try to break through to the Ukrainian border in the direction where the Defense Forces are conducting an operation in the Kursk region. The occupiers are trying to enter the territory of Ukraine to cut off logistics routes, but these attacks are not massive.
According to the General Staff, as of 16:00, 26 battles had taken place in Kursk region and most of them are still ongoing. This is currently the hottest direction on the front.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22.45 Russian military attempted to approach the city of Sudzha in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation via a gas pipeline. They were discovered by Ukrainian paratroopers and are now being destroyed. This was reported by the Ukrainian Airborne Assault Troops.
21:53 Ukraine expects that the talks with US representatives in the city of Jeddah in Saudi Arabia will be productive and its interests will be taken into account. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky in an evening video address.
20.57 Russian aggressors prepared their attack on the city of Dobropillya in Donetsk region well. That is why it became one of the most brutal. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky in his evening video address.
18.47 The Ukrainian Armed Forces Command is in control of the situation in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation, and the information about a massive breakthrough of the Ukrainian border by Russians in the Sumy region is not true. This was reported by Ukrayinska Pravda with reference to a comment from the press service of the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
17.42 Due to new Russian shelling in Donetsk Oblast, one person was killed and five others were wounded. This was reported by the head of the local OVA Vadim Filashkin. Pokrovsk and Konstantinovka were hit.
17.17 Since the beginning of the current day, 101 combat clashes have occurred on the front in 10 directions. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported the details in the operational summary as of 16:00.
16:40 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will visit Saudi Arabia next Monday, but will not meet with American negotiators. He announced this on the social network X. The head of state also named the composition of the Ukrainian delegation for the talks on March 11.
15.56 Ukrainian paratroopers in the Sudzhansky district of the Kursk region of the Russian Federation set up an ambush for Russian attack aircraft that were trying to attack through a local gas pipeline. This was reported by the officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Miroslav Gai.
15.25 The number of civilian casualties as a result of the Russian missile strike on the city of Dobropillya in Donetsk Oblast has reached 40 people. This was reported by the Office of the Prosecutor General.
14:56 There is currently no record of a mass breakthrough of the border between Novyenkiy and Zhuravka in Sumy region. This was reported by the Center for Countering Disinformation. As is known, the network is spreading information about a mass breakthrough of the Russian army on the border of Sumy region. The Center verified this information in the Kursk group of troops and reported that the enemy is still trying to act in individual groups of several people. The main goal of such groups is to consolidate their positions on Ukrainian territory and expand the combat zone. The Ukrainian Defense Forces are effectively destroying such groups.
14:15 Defense forces destroyed enemy communication antennas and a Russian video surveillance system in the Kharkiv region. This was reported by the operational-strategic group of forces (OSGV) Khortytsia, which published a video. It is noted that in the Vovchansk direction, the Skorpion unit, in cooperation with RUBpAK Furia, successfully destroyed the takeoff point of enemy drones, two communication antennas and a Murom-M video surveillance system, which the enemy tried to disguise as a birdhouse.
13:50 The Ukrainian command is not planning to withdraw troops from the Kursk region of the Russian Federation. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine, citing its own sources. According to the publication's sources, measures are being taken to stabilize the situation and countermeasures are being planned.
12.56 Russians dropped five aerial bombs on the city of Konstantinovka, wounding four civilians. This was reported by the head of the Donetsk OVA Vadim Filashkin. According to him, local residents aged 29 to 48 were wounded. Seven multi-story buildings, four private houses, four administrative buildings, a pharmacy, a store, six power lines and two gas pipelines were also damaged in the city.
12.41 An official of the State Space Agency who worked for the Russians has been detained. This was reported by the SBU on March 8. The defendant had secret information about domestic strategic enterprises, as well as access to secret satellite images.
12:20 In the Leningrad region (Russia), the Kirishinefteorgsintez (KINEF) oil refinery was attacked on the night of March 8. This was reported by the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Andrei Kovalenko.
10.53 Russian troops attacked Ukraine with missiles and dozens of drones in six directions on the night of March 8. Air defense shot down more than half of the drones and a missile. This was reported by the Ukrainian Air Force. The downing of an Iskander-K cruise missile and 79 Shahed-type attack UAVs and other types of drones was confirmed. 54 enemy drone imitators were lost.
9.50 Over the past 24 hours, 124 combat clashes have occurred on the front. More enemy attacks have been recorded in the Kursk region, as well as in the Toretsk direction. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the operational zone in the Kursk region, units of the Defense Forces of Ukraine have repelled 26 attacks by Russian invaders over the past 24 hours.
8.52 Russian occupiers lost 1,000 soldiers in the war against Ukraine in one day. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also destroyed 24 artillery systems, 113 vehicles and 148 enemy UAVs. This was reported by the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
8.37 The death toll from the Russian airstrike on Bogodukhov has risen to three. This was reported by the head of the Kharkiv OVA Oleg Sinegubov. According to him, all the dead are civilian men. A rescue operation is underway at the site of the strike.
8.16 In Zaporozhye, on the night of March 8, as a result of the fall of fragments of a Russian drone on the territory of a private enterprise, a large-scale fire with a total area of 400 square meters broke out. This was reported by the State Emergency Service. The fire engulfed the welding shop and auxiliary buildings. The blast wave damaged two nearby cars.
7.45 At least 11 people were killed and 30 wounded as a result of enemy shelling of Dobropillya in Donetsk Oblast. This was reported by the Main Directorate of the State Emergency Service in Donetsk Oblast. As a result of the shelling, 8 five-story residential buildings, an administrative building and 30 cars were damaged, fires broke out in two five-story buildings and administrative buildings.
7.23 At about 2 a.m. on March 8, Russians used a drone to strike a civilian enterprise in Bogodukhov, Kharkiv Oblast, killing one person and injuring seven others. This was reported by the head of the Kharkiv OVA Oleg Sinegubov.
01.48 Russian occupiers launched a massive drone attack on Odessa in the evening of March 7. As a result of the massive drone attack, fires broke out in Odessa. A hangar with agricultural machinery, a service station building, a car shop, solar panels in an open area, and a four-story industrial building burned. Critical infrastructure was also damaged. According to preliminary data, there are no victims or injured.
00.30 Maxar Technologies has confirmed that it has cut off Ukraine's access to its satellite imagery after the United States government decided to temporarily suspend Ukrainian accounts in the Global Enhanced Geospatial Data Delivery (GEGD) program. The program provides individual users with access to commercial satellite imagery that Maxar produces for the U.S. government.
[GEO.TV] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office said Israel will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an "effort to advance negotiations" on the fragile ceasefire in Gaza.
"Israel accepts the invitation from US-backed mediators, will send a delegation to Doha on Monday in an effort to advance negotiations," a statement from Netanyahu's office said Saturday.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11138 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[GEO.TV] Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> said on Saturday that Tehran will not negotiate under pressure by a "bullying country", a day after US 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... said he had sent a letter to the country's top authority to negotiate a nuclear deal.
In an interview with Fox Business, Trump said "there are two ways 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... can be handled: militarily, or you make a deal" to prevent Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
In a meeting with senior Iranian officials, Khamenei said the aim of Washington's offer for negotiations was to "impose their own expectations", Iranian state media reported.
"The insistence of some bully governments on negotiations is not to resolve issues, but to dominate and impose their own expectations."
"Talks for them is a path to have new expectations, it is not only about Iran's nuclear issue. Iran will definitely not accept their expectations."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11162 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Iran
#1
The good news is that we don't need to negotiate with him.
[GEO.TV] The foreign ministers of France, Germany, Italy and Britain said on Saturday they supported an Arab-backed plan for the reconstruction of Gaza that would cost $53 billion and avoid displacing Palestinians from the enclave.
"The plan shows a realistic path to the reconstruction of Gaza and promises — if implemented — swift and sustainable improvement of the catastrophic living conditions for the Palestinians living in Gaza," the ministers said in a joint statement.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11149 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
I don't think they have a meaningful say in the matter.
Was it the Art of the Deal?
Where Trump announced the USA will take control of Gaza.
Then stepped back and watched the EU suddenly have a serious self-interest.
AND/OR!
Could it be, because the EU sees and fears its own large Islamic population living inside the EU, due to EU Open Borders?
#2
A German convert in Syria is probably former ISIS — they specialized in Europeans and European converts. Al Nusra/HTS mostly seems to to prefer native Syrians and entire units that together came from elsewhere in the Ummah.
For those who may have noticed, a sort of Euro problem solving technique. At least for the past several hundred years or so.
Their churches remain empty while thier trenches continue to fill. Meanwhile the hinges on the Gates of Vienna are clattering once again. Interesting times, these.
Trantifa and Antifa militants held a direct action and harassed media in the Canadian capital in Ottawa. @OttawaPolice watched and did nothing.pic.twitter.com/0JCtsYcg8K
#2
Generally speaking.
Given the years that various media outlets have supported the Far Left, its lies, its perversions and its aggressive tactics. The media should have seen this coming.
Yemen’s Houthi leader Abdul-Malik al-Houthi threatens to resume attacks on Israeli ships if aid isn’t delivered to Gaza within four days. pic.twitter.com/QBIaxQ3iEX
The Nigeria Police Force has arrested 26 foreign nationals over their alleged involvement in the kidnapping of a 30-year-old Ghanaian woman, Rigana Asuma, in the Isheri Osun area of Lagos.
According to intelligence sources, the police received a distress call at about 9pm on March 7, 2025, reporting that the victim had been kidnapped and confined in a building at No. 21 Yemi Ogunleye Street, Isheri Osun.
The sources said that the swift operation by a joint team of conventional coppers and tactical squads led to the successful rescue of the victim and the arrest of 26 suspects, including 18 males and 8 females.
"The arrested suspects include individuals from Ghana, Benin ...Benin, a French-speaking West African nation, that they put where Dahomey used to be. It is a birthplace of voodoo and zombies. In Abomey, Dahomey's former capital, the Historical Museum occupies two royal palaces with bas-reliefs recounting the kingdom’s past and a throne mounted on human skulls. To the north, Pendjari National Park offers safaris with elephants, hippos and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!... Republic, and Togo, raising concerns over the growing involvement of foreign syndicates in criminal activities within Nigeria," a counterinsurgency expert, Zagazola Makama said.
[RealClearDefence] At around 0300, on Sunday, 22 December, the Aegis cruiser USS Gettysburg (CG 64) shot down an F/A-18F preparing to land on USS Harry S Truman (CVN 75) while operating in the Red Sea. The Carrier Strike Group to which each of these units was assigned was an element of the U.S.-led Operation Prosperity Guardian, assigned to protect Red Sea merchant traffic from Yemen-based Houthi attacks.
First, we all need to understand that there is only one man who knows what happened on that day, and that is the commanding officer of Gettysburg. Apart from the F/A-18F crew, which possesses a very small but critical piece of the puzzle, everyone else is just an observer, a post-exercise armchair quarterback. Having said that, while Gettysburg’s captain knows what happened in terms of the detailed, incredibly complex sequence of events, unless the failure was the result of discrete, identifiable human error, he may not, in the immediate aftermath, understand why certain things did happen. For example, if systems or off-ship persons failed to operate as advertised, he wouldn’t know exactly why those systems or persons failed. That level of detail may only be revealed in the post-mortem.
Slowly, those pieces are being put together, and each day more is understood as to what happened. That is a good thing, because this was a combat-level laboratory, in which strengths and weaknesses were on real-world display. This was a night which should be closely studied, and learned from, against future nights in which the missiles are flying.
Here’s the problem: By the time that the Navy, writ large, understands all the errors and failures that contributed to this particular chain of events, a standard strategy may well have been enacted, i.e., “Nothing to see here, folks. Move along.” You see, the Navy doesn’t like to discuss “family business” with taxpayers, who may ask awkward, and potentially embarrassing, questions. It is much easier to pin the tail on one specific, commanding officer donkey.
During the first decade of this century, the commanding officer a ship was referred to, by the staff of Commander Naval Surface Forces, as “the sacrificial captain,” and for good reason. Holding one person up to the public, as the single point of failure in any specific disaster, forestalls further, probing questions that often don’t have easy answers.
In the end, this may mean that larger systemic issues remain unresolved. Rather, blame is often placed at the door of the ship in question, and everyone else who might have been, in one way or another, complicit, simply moves out of the blast pattern until it’s safe to go back to exactly what they were doing before.
Based upon information from people who know and understand specific parts of the overall equation, I believe what transpired that night is significantly more complex than the idea that the ship simply made a mistake.
It appears that this is what happened: There was an “Air Warning Red” environment in the Red Sea, that night. This means that the Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group was under attack. In fact, in the hour proceeding the engagement in question, the strike group had countered one-way attack (OWA) UAVs and cruise missile threats. In such a scenario, the defending ships – in this case, led by Gettysburg – are charged to kill anything “not positively identified as friendly.”
This of course, begs the question as to how you identify an airborne object as “friendly.” Without wading into the esoteric, there is one method that most commonly serves as the final arbiter of a friendliness; and that is “Mode V” IFF, or Identification Friend or Foe. It is not the only method, but it is the final, pre-engagement gate though which a ship must pass before undertaking an engagement. Mode V is an encoded piece of IFF query that only friendly units can respond to. In fact, the missile system in Gettysburg will not allow the ship to shoot a target with “Positive Mode V.” And the challenge is automatically initiated before any missile shot.
In other words, if the challenge is automatically initiated, and if Gettysburg could not fire if a positive response was received from the potential target, and if F/A-18F’s are equipped with Mode V - which they are - what failed on that day?
It now appears that the accident was caused by a combination of human and computer errors. As far as human error, much does fall on the shoulders of Gettysburg. If the ship had followed its own procedures properly, despite the other issues which arose, the engagement might have been averted. In the effort to identify aircraft as either hostile, neutral, or friendly, there is a complex, multi-watch station effort that takes place on a ship. On that night, while not all Mode V messages were arriving in the ship, at least one operator did get a positive response from the soon-to-be engaged aircraft. However, the ship then went to flight quarters. When a cruiser goes to flight quarters to either launch or recover a helicopter, a large segment of the ship’s radar is shut down to prevent harming the ship’s helicopter. Then, once flight operations were concluded, and the F/A-18F was redetected, it was mistakenly identified as a “Vampire,” or incoming hostile missile. That operator could have stopped the engagement. Why didn’t he?
In another case, a Gettysburg operator was able to identify the jet, based upon its radar emissions. It appears that he reported this via push button action, rather than voice. His report got hung up in the computer system, which has been a known electronic warfare problem in NAVSEA – the provider of computer systems to ships - since 2021. Still, if the operator had asserted his knowledge, via voice, to the commanding officer and Tactical Action Officer (TAO) disaster might have been averted.
There was another system onboard Gettysburg that day. A system which more than backs up the standard Combat Systems computer networks. This system is called the Cooperative Engagement System, or “CEC.” That system would have known the exact identity of the F/A-18F in question, and independently of any other system. On that night, CEC was down. If it had been working, the chance for a “blue-on-blue” engagement would have been erased. Unfortunately, and even though they knew that this critical system was inoperative, the ship failed to report this casualty.
If you’re the captain, you bear ultimate responsibility. This has always been the code. This is the way we like it. As far as the ship’s captain, his change of command took place prior to the release of the still-in-progress investigation. He was not fired, but you may rest assured that his career is over. Still, the fact that he was not “relieved-for cause,” suggests that the responsibility for this event spreads far beyond USS Gettysburg.
#3
The command of the air craft carrier is different from the command of the air crew. Two separate organizations. So, there were four individual command structures involved in this problem…
Posted by: Old SALTY ||
03/09/2025 13:34
Comments ||
Top||
Syrian Christians and Alawites are being slaughtered in Syria by soldiers of the ISIS/AlQaeda terrorist government. The death toll is 1800 in just the last few days, with many victims still missing. Entire villages are being slaughtered by these terrorist govt forces. These… pic.twitter.com/Gm0YVlg9VM
— Iraqi Christian Foundation (@iraqschristians) March 8, 2025
…by these terrorist govt forces. These pictures are of just some of the Christian and Alawite victims from the last few days. This is what we warned would happen if the secular Syrian Government was removed. Pray for the Christians & other minorities in Syria.
Over 160 civilians from the same religious minority community as deposed Syrian dictator Assad have been executed by Sunni extremists. Videos online show bodies being dragged on streets. Leftists who say they care about Arab human rights have been quiet. https://t.co/S6wL9YyZ34
“We must preserve national unity (and) civil peace as much as possible and, God willing, we will be able to live together in this country,” Sharaa says in a speech delivered from a mosque in Damascus.
Translation: “Surrender or die, surrounded by the tortured bodies of those you love.”
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11192 views]
Top|| File under: Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (al-Nusra)
#10
Is it wrong to point out that the Alawites/Assad regimes have far more blood on their hands and are perhaps deserving of some pay back? I’m not rooting for either side here. It’s tough to ride that cycle of violence.
This is a brutal turf war between Mafia like entities.
Bugs Moran and Al Capone were mortal enemies but they also were the enemies of normal, law abiding people.
The exact ideological flavor of an Islamic totalitarian regime doesn't make a difference for the dhimmis and sub-dhimmis under its power.
Control of Syria switched from the Iranian to the Qatari sub-branch of the Iran-Qatar-Russia alliance.
What matters is that Israel weakened Syria and that certain military options Assad had were destroyed.
[GEO.TV] The Israeli military said it conducted an air strike on Saturday 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 targeting several people attempting to retrieve a drone that had crossed into the Paleostinian territory.
According to the military, the drone had flown from Israeli territory before being targeted by an Israeli aircraft in south Gaza.
"An IAF aircraft struck the drone and several suspects who collected it in the southern Gaza Strip," the military said in a statement.
The military has previously stated that drones have been used to smuggle weapons into the territory.
[IsraelTimes] Military says it hit suspects planting bombs and engaging in other malign activities in the Strip
The Israel Defense Forces struck several suspects in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... that it said were acting against Israeli forces.
In northern Gaza on Friday night, the IDF said it carried out a dronezap targeting a group of suspects planting a bomb near Israeli troops.
Paleostinian media report two dead in the strike in Gaza City’s eastern Shejaiya neighborhood.
Israeli forces are still deployed to a buffer zone along the Gaza border amid the ceasefire, and the IDF has repeatedly warned Paleostinians against approaching the area.
On Saturday, the IDF said it detected and tracked a drone flying from Israel into the southern Gaza Strip overnight. In the morning, after the device was picked up by suspects in southern Gaza, an Israeli Air Force drone carried out an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... against them, the army said.
According to Paleostinian media, two people were killed in the strike.
Also on Saturday, the IDF announced that a tree-planting event planned for Monday morning near the Gaza border had been called off following a fresh assessment of the security situation.
The event by the Jewish National Fund (KKL-JNF) near Be’eri was to dedicate a new forest commemorating those killed during the October 7 onslaught and in the war. Hundreds of bereaved families were set to participate. The event had already been postponed by the IDF once last month.
The military said that there were no other changes to the civilian guidelines.
In recent weeks, there have been several attempts to smuggle contraband into the Gaza Strip, with the IDF saying suspects on the Israeli side load up drones with weapons or drugs and fly them over the border.
The strikes in Gaza come amid ceasefires on both war fronts, but Israel has said it will continue to act against terror operatives who are in breach of the truces and who pose a threat to its forces.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11151 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#2
I don’t remember the Hampton as being susceptible to spontaneous simultaneous brush fire. It would have to be a group of folks in coordination like CA.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/09/2025 10:55
Comments ||
Top||
#6
In America, it’s more to get leftists out to cause trouble along with pyromaniacs. The state governments apply for federal relief aid and then syphon the cash off. Much of this happens in CA. This East coast incident is an anomaly.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/09/2025 13:35
Comments ||
Top||
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are fighting in 10 directions.
The greatest activity of Russian troops is recorded in the Kursk region. Currently, 14 combat clashes are ongoing there.
Since the beginning of the current day, 101 combat clashes have occurred on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an operational report as of 16:00 on Saturday, March 8.
In the Kharkov direction, our soldiers repelled three attacks in the area of Volchansk and Petro-Ivanovka. Two more clashes are still ongoing.
In the Kupyansk direction, the enemy carried out seven assaults near Stepnaya Novoselovka, Novaya Kruglyakovka and Zagryzovoye. Two combat clashes are currently ongoing.
In the Liman direction, the invaders attacked 14 times near Novomikhaylovka, Novoye, Mirny and Zelenaya Dolina. Eight clashes are still ongoing.
In the Kramatorsk direction, two attempts by the occupiers to advance forward in the areas of Chasovy Yar and Belaya Gora were repelled.
In the Toretsk direction, the enemy attacked 15 times near Druzhba and Toretsk.
In the Pokrovsk direction, the occupiers carried out 14 attacks in the areas of the settlements of Elizavetovka, Luch, Andreyevka, Alexandropol, Pokrovsk, Sergeyevka, Novoaleksandrovka, Bogdanovka, Zeleny Kut and Ulakli. The defense forces repelled 12 assaults, two clashes are still ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the enemy attacked five times near Constantinople and Burlatskoye. Two combat clashes are still ongoing.
In the Gulyai-Polye direction, the enemy carried out two attacks in the direction of Storozhevy and Volshebny.
In the Orekhov direction, our defenders repelled four assaults in the directions of the settlements of Pyatikhatki, Stepnoye and Shcherbaki.
In the Kursk region, our defenders repelled 12 attacks by the Russians, and another 14 clashes are still ongoing.
Let us recall that in the course of 24 hours on March 7, Russia lost 1,000 soldiers killed and wounded at the front. The total number of Russian losses since the beginning of the war is approaching 900 thousand people.
[MSN - Daily Wrap] Lithuania has officially withdrawn from the international convention banning cluster bombs. This decision is a response to Russia's actions involving using this weapon.
The Lithuanian Parliament decided to withdraw from the convention as early as July last year. At the beginning of fall, Lithuania submitted the necessary documents to the UN, which initiated six months after which the decision would become legally binding. This period ended on Thursday, March 6, at 12:00.
Cluster bombs are containers that can be launched from the air or ground. They contain several dozen to several hundred smaller charges that disperse over a large area, comparable to a soccer field (about 7,140 square metres).
Lithuania decided to leave the convention, arguing that Russia uses this weapon, and all means are necessary to deter a potential aggressor.
Lithuania is also considering withdrawing from the Ottawa Convention, which bans using anti-personnel mines. A decision on this matter is expected within a few months.
[GEO.TV] The Israeli army conducted 15 air strikes within 30 minutes on southern Lebanon around 10pm local time (20:00GMT), reports Al Jazeera, citing local Lebanese outlet L'Orient-Le Jour.
This constituted the highest concentration of strikes by Israel on Lebanon since the November ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah.
Around 20 to 25 missiles were fired at across different districts of the south, the outlet said.
[IsraelTimes] The Israel Defense Forces carried out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Friday night in southern Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... , saying it targeted Hezbollah military sites.
The army said it hit a Hezbollah operative and sites used to store weapons and rocket launchers, adding that the strikes were carried out due to the threat they posed to Israel.
The operative was "involved in the rehabilitation of terror infrastructure and directing Hezbollah terror operations in southern Lebanon," the military said.
"The weapons and the rocket launchers in the military sites posed a threat to the State of Israel and constituted a blatant violation of the understandings between Israel and Lebanon," the IDF said.
Lebanese media showed the results of an Israeli strike on a car between the southern Lebanon towns of Khirbet Selm and al-Jumayjimah. One person was reported killed and another seriously injured.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11154 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[SAHARAREPORTERS] The National Agency for Foods, Drugs Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has arrested at least 40 suspects and destroyed banned pharmaceutical and other products worth N100 billion in a major crackdown on illicit drug activities.
The operation targeted markets in Idumota, Onitsha, Ariara, and Ezeuku, where counterfeit, unregistered, and banned products were seized.
The Director General of NAFDAC, Professor Christiana Mojisola Adeyeye, disclosed this during a destruction exercise held at the Dumpsite in Moniya, Akinyele Local Government Area of Oyo State.
Represented by Mrs. Yedunni Adenuga, Director of Narcotics and Control Services, Prof. Adeyeye described the discovery of counterfeit and banned products in major markets across the country as "mind-boggling."
Among the seized items were banned pharmaceutical products such as Analgin and controlled substances like Tramadol 225mg.
Prof. Adeyeye emphasized that these illicit products contribute to insecurity in the country, stating, ''The discoveries made of the presence of unregistered products, banned products such as Analgin, controlled substances such as Tramadol 225mg amongst others, are part of the things making our country unsafe in terms of security.''
The operation was carried out with the support of the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, who approved the deployment of over 1000 security personnel, including the military, police, and the Department of State Services (DSS).
During the destruction exercise, Prof. Adeyeye revealed that the seized products included expired, falsified, controlled, unregistered, and banned medicines removed from Idumota Open Drugs outlets.
She added, ''The estimated street value of these products being destroyed stands at one hundred billion naira.''
Posted by: Fred ||
03/09/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[11150 views]
Top|| File under: Narcos
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.
_01.jpg)
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...
...late Dem Senator-for-Life from Caliphornica. She was a politician since about the time she was weaned. Feinstein was the author of the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, and tried it a second time in 2012. Feinstein chaired the Select Committee on Intelligence since 2009. At age 80, Feinstein was the oldest serving United States Senator. They carried her out feet first....
[NYPOST] A Maryland hairstylist allegedly assaulted a 15-year-old customer and dragged her across the shop floor when she attempted to walk out without paying her $150 bill, according to a report.
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...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 
...Benin, a French-speaking West African nation, that they put where Dahomey used to be. It is a birthplace of voodoo and zombies. In Abomey, Dahomey's former capital, the Historical Museum occupies two royal palaces with bas-reliefs recounting the kingdom’s past and a throne mounted on human skulls. To the north, Pendjari National Park offers safaris with elephants, hippos and lions and tigers and bears, oh my!...
...
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel...
