[IsraelTimes] Tens of thousands of Muslim worshipers visited the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem this morning for the second Friday prayers of Ramadan.
The Islamic Waqf, which manages the site, estimates that some 80,000 people attended the midday prayer. Israel Police does not provide a number, only saying “tens of thousands” of people were in attendance.
Police say that prayers ended peacefully and without any unusual incidents, despite fears of unrest during the Muslim holy month due to tensions over Gaza.
In a statement ahead of last week’s Friday prayers, the Prime Minister’s Office said that it would be granting entry permits into Jerusalem to a “reduced number of Muslim worshipers” from the West Bank.
Though the Prime Minister’s Office did not disclose how many West Bank Palestinians were granted permits, the proposal issued by Israeli security brass reportedly recommended a limit of 10,000.
As was the case last Ramadan, Israel allowed only Palestinian males aged 55 and older, women at least 50 years old and children aged 12 and below to enter the city for Friday prayers.
[GEO.TV] Israeli forces stormed the courtyard of Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied East Jerusalem as Palestinians gathered for dawn prayers, reported Al Jazeera.
Israeli authorities have placed heavy restrictions on Palestinians from the occupied West Bank travelling to the mosque — Islam's third-holiest site — to pray during Ramadan.
[IsraelTimes] Turkish police detained five suspects today on charges of espionage for the Iranian intelligence service, local media reports.
Officers carried out operations in Turkey’s largest city Istanbul as well as in Antalya and Mersin in the south, and detained five people, the DHA news agency reports.
The suspects allegedly collected information about military bases and key regions in Turkey and abroad before passing it on to the Iranian intelligence service, the report says.
There was no immediate information about the nationality of the suspects.
[Rudaw] Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Friday announced the killing of senior Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abdullah Makki Muslih al-Rafiei, "one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” in an operation carried out with the support of the United States-led global coalition.
Iraqi intelligence, with the support of the global coalition, "was able to kill the terrorist Abdullah Makki Muslih al-Rafiei, known as Abu Khadija, who holds the position of so-called deputy caliph and who holds the position of the so-called governor of Iraq and Syria,” Sudani said on X.
He did not reveal where or when the operation took place.
Sudani said that Rafiei also held other positions within the extremist group and was "one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world."
The United States in 2023 named Rafiei a Specially Designated Global Terrorist as an ISIS leader.
Iraq’s Foreign Minister Fuad Hussein issued a stark warning on Sunday about the growing threat posed by ISIS, saying it poses an increasing danger to Iraq, Jordan, and Syria.
[Rudaw] The Kurdistan Region Security Council (KRSC) said on Friday that it played a key role in killing senior Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abdullah Makki Muslih al-Rafiei, and slammed Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani for failing to credit them.
Rafiei was killed "after several years of investigation and relying on information from the Kurdistan Region Security Council, in coordination with the coalition and later with Iraqi federal forces," the KRSC said.
Sudani had announced earlier in the day that Iraqi intelligence, with the support of the United States-led global coalition against ISIS, carried out an operation targeting Rafiei, aka Abu Khadija. He did not reveal where and when the operation took place.
The KRSC criticized Sudani for failing to credit the Kurdish forces.
"This oversight is not a good indication for the future of cooperation between the regional and federal institutions," the KRSC warned.
"The institutions affiliated with the Kurdistan Region Security Council have played an influential role in confronting the threat of terrorists in this region and will continue to effectively perform this duty. It would be better for the federal government to create a more favorable environment for cooperation and coordination for the sake of maintaining peace and stability throughout Iraq," it added.
Hours later, the Iraqi Special Operations Forces published the details of the operation, stating that it took place in Anbar province on Thursday. It also acknowledged the role of the KRSC in the operation.
Erbil and Baghdad have coordinated in many anti-ISIS operations in the past.
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... reacted to the news on his social media platform Truth Social, saying al-Rifai's ''miserable life was terminated.''
''Today the runaway leader of ISIS in Iraq was killed,'' Trump wrote Friday night. ''He was relentlessly hunted down by our intrepid warfighters. His miserable life was terminated, along with another member of ISIS, in coordination with the Iraqi Government and the Kurdish Regional Government.''
[IsraelTimes] 60 clerics pray at tomb of Nabi Shuaib, the most important Druze religious site, are set to meet leader of Israeli community; other Syrian Druze strongly oppose trip
Dozens of Syrian Druzeholy mans crossed into Israel on Friday for their community’s first pilgrimage to a revered shrine since Israel’s creation in 1948.
On board three buses escorted by military vehicles, the holy mans crossed the armistice line at Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights and headed to northern Israel.
According to a source close to the group, the delegation of around 60 holy mans was due to meet the spiritual leader of Israel’s Druze community, Sheikh Muafak Tarif, in northern Israel.
They then headed to the tomb of Nabi Shuaib near Tiberias in the Galilee -— the most important religious site for the Druze — where they arrived in the evening to pray.
Followers of the esoteric monotheistic faith are mainly divided between Syria, Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel... and Israel.
A source close to the delegation said that the visit followed an invitation from the Druze community in Israel, but that it had been met with "strong opposition" from other Druze in Syria.
The Druze account for about three percent of Syria’s population and are heavily concentrated in the southern province of Sweida.
In Israel, there are around 150,000 Druze, with most of those living in Israel holding Israeli citizenship and serving in the army.
However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves... of the some 23,000 living in the Golan Heights, most do not hold Israeli citizenship and still see themselves as Syrian nationals.
Dr. Amir Khnifess, chairman of the Druze and Circassian Movement for Democracy and Equality, welcomed the visit as a "historic and meaningful moment" for the Druze, in a statement quoted by the Israel Hayom news site.
The visit signified "the beginning of a new chapter in the country’s history with its neighbor," he said.
’BOLD ALLIANCE’
Israel seized much of the strategic Golan Heights from Syria in a war in 1967, later annexing the area in 1981 in a move recognized by the US but not by most of the international community.
The pilgrimage comes as Israel has voiced support for Syria’s Druze and mistrust of the country’s new Islamist leaders.
Following the ouster of longtime Syrian president Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad The Scourge of Hama... in December, Israel carried out hundreds of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Syria and sent troops into the demilitarized buffer zone of the Golan in southwest Syria.
Government front man David Mencer said on Thursday that 10,000 humanitarian aid packages had been sent to "the Druze community in battle areas of Syria" over the past few weeks.
"Israel has a bold alliance with our Druze brothers and sisters," he told journalists.
During a visit to military outposts in the UN-patrolled buffer zone between Israel and Syria on Tuesday, Defense Minister Israel Katz said that Israel would remain in the area and ensure the protection of the Druze.
In early March, following a shootout between government-linked forces and Druze fighters in the suburbs of Damascus, Katz said his country would not allow Syria’s new rulers "to harm the Druze."
Druze leaders immediately rejected Katz’s warning and declared their loyalty to a united Syria.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that southern Syria must be completely demilitarized, warning that his government would not accept the presence of the forces of the new Islamist-led government near its territory.
Courtesy of Fred:
[X]
In a rare visit, a Druze delegation from southern Syria arrives in Israel, coinciding with Sheikh Hikmat al-Hijri’s strong stance against Damascus. How will this impact Syria’s Druze community? #Syria#Druze#Israel#MiddleEasthttps://t.co/L90QQG5Boa
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) March 14, 2025
[IsraelTimes] Thousands crowded into Tel Aviv’s Hostages Square on Thursday night for the Purim eve reading of the Book of Esther, which tells the story of the biblical heroine Queen Esther saving the Jewish people from extermination in what is now modern-day Iran, as they connected the plight of the Jews in the ancient city of Shushan to that of the hostages, held 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 by Iran-backed terrorists.
Nearby, hundreds of protesters gathered to support the families of the hostages on the sixth day of their encampment outside the IDF’s headquarters, where they are attempting to put pressure on those in charge to clinch a deal for the release of the remaining 59 hostages.
The Purim gathering at Hostages Square, which included Israelis from different communities, sectors and denominations, also called for parties to agree to a comprehensive deal to return the remaining hostages held in the Gaza Strip in one fell swoop, according to a statement from the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, the main non-government organization representing families of hostages.
The event was dedicated to the 59 hostages still in captivity, 58 of whom were among the 251 people kidnapped during the Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... -led onslaught in southern Israel on October 7, 2023. The Gaza terror group is also holding the body of fallen IDF soldier Lt. Hadar Goldin, who was killed during fighting in the Strip in 2014.
A complex three-phase ceasefire brought more than a year of fighting to a halt in January, and saw dozens of hostages released in small batches in exchange for Israel releasing thousands of Paleostinian security prisoners. But the truce stalled after the first stage and hostage families have demanded the government reach a deal that sees all those still held captive freed together in a single move.
Taking up the cry for a comprehensive deal, hundreds of protesters joined the families of the hostages at their encampment on Tel Aviv’s Begin Road, close to the IDF headquarters, where for the past six nights they have been calling for the release of the hostages.
Banging drums and holding larger-than-life cutouts of the hostages’ faces, the protesters descended onto the busy Tel Aviv street, temporarily blocking traffic as they did.
"All of them! All of them, all of them, all of them!" the protesters chanted. "Why are they still in Gaza?!"
Far-right elements of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition oppose extending the ceasefire deal beyond its first phase, which ended late last month, insisting instead that the war continue until the total destruction of Hamas. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who has asserted that leaving Hamas in Gaza is a major security threat to the country, has threatened to pull his Religious Zionism party from the government, removing its parliamentary majority, if his demand to continue fighting is not met.
The US-mediated hostage deal stalled at the end of its first phase in late February amid mutual accusations of violations by Israel and Hamas.
In an attempt to get the process back on track, US special envoy Steve Witkoff was said on Thursday to have presented Israel and Hamas with a new outline to extend the ceasefire by several weeks in exchange for the release of five living and 10 dead hostages.
The reports drew concern from the families of the hostages, who said the deal, if agreed upon, would leave many of their loved ones in captivity for a "long and undetermined length of time."
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] When Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... -supporting Columbia graduate student Mahmoud Khalil appeared in court on Wednesday, he was represented by, among others, Ramzi Kassem, a lawyer perhaps best known for defending al Qaeda terrorists.
The Syrian-born Khalil had his green card revoked by Immigration and Customs Enforcement over the weekend as part of the Trump administration's crackdown on foreign nationals involved in pro-terrorist demonstrations at universities.
Kassem has represented murderous Moslems including Ahmed al-Darbi, an al Qaeda member convicted in 2017 for the bombing of a French oil tanker, as well as several other Guantanamo Bay detainees, including a "close associate" of the late Osama bin Laden ...... who is no longer with us, and won't be again...... . He went on to serve as an immigration policy adviser to former president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. This Is A Man That Does Not Seem Demented... as a member of the White House's Domestic Policy Council.
Like his new client, Kassem was also involved in anti-Israel activism as a student at Columbia, where he lobbied to rename a sandwich called the "Israeli wrap" in the student dining hall, claiming the terminology was offensive to Moslems. He attended Columbia Law School on a fellowship funded by Paul Soros, the elder brother of Democratic megadonor George Soros ...either Ernst Stavro Blofeld or Auric Goldfinger come true. Maybe both.... His client, Khalil, who graduated from a Columbia graduate program in December, was a leader of Columbia University Apartheid Divest, which backed Hamas's "armed resistance" against Israel. He served as a lead negotiator for student activists' illegal anti-Israel encampment last spring and vowed that the group would "remain in this encampment until we achieve all of our demands," which included a boycott of Israel.
Columbia briefly suspended Khalil for his role in the encampment, but he continued to back the demonstrations on campus, which turned violent mostly peaceful in the spring, when students stormed and occupied campus building.
"What we will see [is] the students will continue their activism, will continue doing what they've done in conventional and unconventional ways," Khalil told The Hill in August. "So not only protests, not only encampments, kind of any—any available means necessary to push Columbia to divest from Israel."
"And we've been working all this summer on our plans, on what's next to pressure Columbia to listen to the students and to decide to be on the right side of history," Khalil went on.
Since then, pro-Hamas activists at Columbia have disrupted classes to distribute anti-Semitic flyers, violent mostly peacefully seized campus buildings, and physically assaulted university employees. The chaos led the Trump administration last week to cut off $400 million in federal grants to the university, citing the school's "continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students."
Khalil is expected to remain in the country after a federal judge, Jesse Furman, intervened on Wednesday to block his immediate deportation. Furman, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, is a prolific Democratic donor who once threw out a terrorism lawsuit against the Paleostine Liberation Organization.
Furman, who has served as a judge for the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York since he was nominated in 2011 by President Barack Obama My friends, we live in the greatest nation in the history of the world. I hope you'll join with me as we try to change it... , has a long history of involvement with liberal political causes. The brother of Obama’s former economic advisor Jason Furman, Jesse Furman has donated over $20,000 to Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... , including Obama, Crooked Hillary Clinton ...former first lady, former secretary of state, former presidential candidate, Conqueror of Benghazi, Heroine of Tuzla, formerly described by her supporters as the smartest woman in the world, usually described by the rest of us as The Thing That Wouldn't Go Away. Politix is not one of her talents, but it's something she keeps trying to do... , and the Democratic National Committee.
Furman also served as the treasurer of his family’s charity, the Furman Foundation, which has donated to Media Matters, the Alliance for Justice, and People for the American Way, according to his Senate confirmation questionnaire.
The Khalil ruling isn’t the first time Furman has staked out a controversial position on a case involving Israel. In 2018, Furman dismissed a terrorism lawsuit against the Paleostine Liberation Organization (PLO) and Paleostinian leadership in the West Bank, citing a lack of jurisdiction.
The lawsuit was filed by the family of Ari Fuld, an American-Israeli citizen who was stabbed to death by a Paleostinian terrorist outside an Israeli shopping center in 2018. The plaintiffs argued that the PLO and Paleostinian Authority were liable in Fuld’s murder under the Anti-Terrorism Act, because the Paleostinian government paid the terrorist’s family following the attack. Critics say this payment system, known as the "pay-to-slay" program, incentivizes terrorism.
Furman tossed the suit, arguing that the court didn’t have jurisdiction over the PLO and the Paleostinian Authority. But Fuld’s family and other victims of Paleostinian terrorism have appealed the issue, and the Supreme Court agreed to take up the question of jurisdiction in December.
In Khalil’s case, the government is challenging the Southern District’s jurisdiction over the case, arguing that Khalil's lawyers should have filed it in either New Jersey or Louisiana, where Khalil was detained at the time.
Ted Frank, the director of the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, told the Washington Free Beacon that there is a strong argument for challenging the jurisdiction and that he would be "surprised if the motion isn't granted."
Khalil's lawyers countered that there is legal standing to file his case in the place where he was arrested, if there is evidence that the government transferred him to prevent him from speaking with legal counsel.
"There is a two-track process here: habeas corpus (in federal court) and deportation (before an immigration judge)," Andrew McCarthy, a former prosecutor in the Southern District and columnist for National Review, told the Free Beacon. "The issue in the habeas case is whether Khalil's arrest and detention violate the Constitution."
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] Aidan Parisi, the son of a longtime State Department official who emerged last spring as a Columbia University encampment leader and is best known for owning an "emotional support rabbit," was among the students Columbia expelled for storming Hamilton Hall, he announced Thursday night.
Is Dad one of those State Department officials who is being downsized or one of those valuable enough to keep on staff?
Parisi, a graduate student in Columbia’s School of Social Work, wrote on X that he was among the student activists expelled nearly a year after they stormed and occupied Hamilton Hall. Last spring, Parisi, the son of longtime State Department official Elizabeth Daugharty, emerged as a constant presence in the illegal encampment that plagued campus for weeks in April. He was also suspended shortly after his involvement in a pro-Hamas event, "Palestinian Resistance 101," held on campus in March 2024, which featured a number of terror-tied speakers who explicitly called for violence against Jews.
Columbia announced Thursday evening that it punished students who stormed Hamilton Hall with multi-year suspensions, expulsions, and temporary degree revocations. The university declined to say how many were sanctioned, but Columbia University Apartheid Divest (CUAD)—the Ivy League school’s most notorious anti-Semitic student group—claimed 22 students across Columbia and its sister school, Barnard College, were disciplined, including nine expulsions.
Grant Miner, the president of Columbia’s graduate student union who was arrested for storming Hamilton Hall, was also expelled Thursday. The self-described "medievalist" is the son of veteran California lobbyist and former Arnold Schwarzenegger aide Paul Miner, who owns a $1.8 million Sacramento home, the Washington Free Beacon reported. In October 2023, just two days after Hamas's terror attack on the Jewish state, the younger Miner was photographed at a New York City rally holding a sign that read, "Resistance against occupation is a human right."
Last spring, Parisi had pledged to "resist" what he called "institutional repression" at Columbia and praised the "intifada." He also has a long history of anti-American and anti-Israel activism, having posted a photo of the two nations’ flags burning on July 4, 2020. "No love for any colonizer flag," he wrote in his caption.
It’s unclear what role Parisi played in organizing the "Resistance 101" event, but when Columbia suspended him over his involvement, he refused to leave his university apartment, saying that doing so would require him to find "housing that would accept his emotional support rabbit."
That event, which CUAD hosted and the Free Beacon attended virtually, featured speakers who explicitly endorsed terrorism against Jews.
One speaker, Charlotte Kates, a leader of the Israeli-designated terror group and U.S.-designated terror financier Samidoun Palestinian Prisoner Solidarity Network, praised Hamas's Oct. 7 terror attack for showing "the potential of a future for Palestine liberated from Zionism." Kates’s husband, Khaled Barakat, a Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) activist, also lauded the terror group's airplane hijackings as "one of the most important tactics that the Palestinian resistance have engaged in." Shortly after the event, Columbia student radicals launched the anti-Israel encampment and eventually stormed Hamilton Hall.
In October, the United States sanctioned Samidoun and Barakat for providing support to the PFLP, a terrorist organization that participated in Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack.
Parisi also contributed to the mayhem that engulfed campus, serving as a leader of the unauthorized encampment zone and a participant in the overtake of a campus building, for which he was arrested on April 30.
Parisi, meanwhile, was spotted Tuesday at a violent anti-Israel protest in New York City against the detainment of Mahmoud Khalil, the Columbia student activist and foreign national whom the Trump administration moved to deport over his pro-Hamas campus organizing. Police arrested several agitators after they refused to clear the roadway in front of City Hall.
In February, Parisi and two other Columbia encampment leaders sued the university, alleging that its disciplinary actions against them caused "severe emotional and psychological harm." One of their attorneys, James Carlson, stormed Hamilton Hall last spring and clashed with a facilities worker.
The defense attorney did? Oh dear.
CUAD is also organizing a campus protest Friday afternoon, vowing to "mass disrupt" Columbia and "all genocidal institutions."
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian student protester at New York’s Columbia University has been arrested, and another whose visa was revoked “self-deported,” the US Department of Homeland Security said on Friday.
The department said Friday that Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian from the West Bank, was arrested by Newark, New Jersey, immigration officers for overstaying an expired student visa. Her visa expired in January 2022 due to “lack of attendance,” the statement said, adding that Kordia was arrested after partaking in “pro-Hamas protests” at Columbia in April 2024. Around that time, activists took over a campus building and held an unauthorized protest encampment.
Professional protester? Who was paying her?
The other student, Ranjani Srinivasan, from India, had her visa revoked on March 5 for “supporting Hamas and terrorist activities,” the Department of Homeland Security said. Srinivasan was a doctoral student in urban planning at Columbia on a student visa. She used a US Customs and Border Protection app to “self-deport” on Tuesday, the department said.
A Columbia University doctoral student who expressed support for the "anticolonial liberation movement in Palestine" used the Trump administration’s revamped "CBP Home" app to self-deport to Canada about a week after Secretary of State Marco Rubio revoked her student visa, the Department of Homeland Security announced Friday.
Ranjani Srinivasan, an Indian national and doctoral candidate in Urban Planning at Columbia’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation was "involved in activities supporting Hammas [sic], a terrorist organization," according to the DHS announcement. The department shared footage from Tuesday of Srinivasan using the "CBP Home" app, the Trump administration’s newly transformed version of the Biden-era "CBP One" app that aims to streamline the self-deportation of illegal immigrants.
[FOXNEWS] An appeals court on Friday lifted a block on President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... 's executive orders ending federal support for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs.
A panel of three judges ruled the orders can be enforced during a pending lawsuit, reversing a nationwide injunction from U.S. District Judge Adam Abelson in Baltimore, the News Agency that Dare Not be Named reported.
Two of the judges on the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the orders "could raise concerns" about First Amendment rights, but found Abelson's "sweeping block went too far," according to the report.
Abelson, a Biden nominee, previously ruled the orders violated the First Amendment right to free speech and were unconstitutionally "vague," as they did not define DEI.
The ruling followed a lawsuit filed by the City of Baltimore, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education, the American Association of University Professors and the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, which alleged the executive orders were presidential overreach and anti-free speech.
They argued the president's power "is not limitless."
Trump's orders directed federal agencies to terminate all "equity-related" grants or contracts, and required federal contractors to certify that they don't promote DEI.
The administration argued in court that the ban only affected DEI programs violating federal civil rights laws.
"What's happening is an overcorrection and pulling back on DEI statements," attorney Aleshadye Getachew said in a hearing.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
12:04 ||
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They argued the president's power "is not limitless."
[NYPOST] White House officials under then-President Biden helped the FBI build out its 2020 elections case against Donald Trump ...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat The Smartest Woman in the World in the general election. Then he beat Kamala while dodging bullets... by turning over government-issued cellphones belonging to the 45th president and former Vice President Mike Pence, documents show.
The revelation was made in whistleblower disclosures released by Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) on Friday, related to the FBI's so-called 2022 ''Arctic Frost'' investigation into Trump, which the politicians say was improperly opened by ''anti-Trump'' former Assistant Special Agent in Charge Timothy Thibault.
''Sunshine is the best disinfectant,'' Grassley and Johnson wrote in a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, informing them of their findings. ''The American people deserve to know the complete extent of the corruption within the DOJ and FBI that led to the investigation into President Trump.
''We are making this information public for purposes of public accountability and to provide specific examples of past behavior at your institutions that must not be repeated,'' they added.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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[DailySceptic] It would not have been surprising at all that a visitor to Mark Steyn’s home in New Hampshire, USA, on the evening of March 4th would have heard the popping of bottles of champagne being opened and the clinking of glasses amidst cheerful toasts. On that Tuesday, Justice Judge Alfred S. Irving Jr. of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia issued a long (over 14,000 words) Final Judgment Order, reducing the punitive damages charged against Steyn from an astronomical $1 million to a modest $5,000 in a 13-years long defamation suit launched by the plaintiff Michael Mann in October 2012.
If that visitor would have gone to Mr Steyn’s home on March 12th he would probably have heard more popping of corks and clinking of glasses celebrating a further decision by the same judge. In an eviscerating judgment, the court ruled that Dr Mann and his counsel acted in “bad faith” on multiple occasions in presenting false claims related to the plaintiff’s grant funding. Judge Irving said:
Here, the Court finds, by clear and convincing evidence, that Dr Mann, through [his lawyers] Mr Fontaine and Mr Williams, acted in bad faith when they presented erroneous evidence and made false representations to the jury and the Court regarding damages stemming from loss of grant funding. … The Court does not reach this decision lightly.
The judge didn’t mince his words about Mann and his two lead lawyers:
They each knowingly made a false statement of fact to the Court and Dr Mann knowingly participated in the falsehood, endeavouring to make the strongest case possible even if it required using erroneous and misleading information.
The judge went on:
Dr Mann’s assertion that there was no falsehood or misrepresentation in his testimony or his counsel’s conduct borders on frivolity… the record plainly shows the deliberate and knowing misconduct of Dr Mann’s counsel in eliciting false testimony from Dr Mann and misrepresenting his grant funding… Dr Mann’s counsel’s bad faith misconduct is an affront to the Court’s authority and an attack on the integrity of the proceedings warranting sanctions.
The court was convinced that “the record plainly shows deliberate and knowing misconduct of Dr Mann’s counsel in eliciting false testimony” which was presented to the court and jury. The court decreed that each defendant (Rand Simberg and Mark Steyn) can now sue for expenses incurred in responding to Dr Mann’s “misconduct”.
The misconduct of Dr Mann and his counsel
(1) was extraordinary in its scope, extent and intent;
(2) subjected a jury not only to false evidence and grievous misrepresentations about a crucial part of Dr Mann’s case, but also to additional trial proceedings for correcting the record and the jury’s impressions thereof that otherwise likely would have been unnecessary;
(3) further complicated a trial already rife with convoluted and difficult legal and factual issues; and
(4) burdened Defendants and the Court with the time-and resource-intensive task of ascertaining the true extent of the misconduct and determining appropriate remedial measures for the same, all without any meaningful acknowledgement of the nature of the misconduct by Dr Mann or his attorneys.
JUSTICE DELAYED IS JUSTICE DENIED: THE PROCESS IS THE PUNISHMENT
I wrote in these pages on Sunday (March 10th) about the legal ‘hockey stick’ saga which took place over 12 years with multiple suits, counter-suits and interlocutory actions and costing millions in legal fees. The judgment delivered yesterday is probably not the end of the matter, and it is not clear what the quantum of fees will be that each of the defendants can claim from Mann’s misconduct in the trial. But recovery of legal costs by the two defendants cannot compensate for the time consumed, the toll it took on their mental and physical health and the sheer anxiety that such legal ordeals can cause their victims.
For interested readers, a short timeline of the main events of the ‘climate trial of the century‘ will be informative:
July 2012: Rand Simberg of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) published a blog post criticising Mann’s ‘hockey stick’ chart, controversially comparing him to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky by stating that Mann had “molested and tortured data”. Shortly after, Mark Steyn referenced Simberg’s post on the National Review’s blog, labelling Mann’s work as “fraudulent”.October 22nd 2012: Michael Mann filed a defamation lawsuit in the District of Columbia Superior Court against Mark Steyn, the National Review, Rand Simberg and the CEI, alleging that their statements were defamatory.
December 22nd 2016: The DC Court of Appeals ruled that Mann’s case against Simberg and Steyn could proceed, stating that a “reasonable jury” could find against the defendants.
May 2019: National Review‘s Special Motion to Dismiss prevailed in large part, with the court dismissing Mann’s libel claim based on Editor Rich Lowry’s ‘Get Lost’ post and the broader intentional infliction of emotional distress claim against National Review. However, the defamation claim based on Mark Steyn’s blog post was not dismissed, allowing that part of the case to continue.
March 19th 2021: The DC Superior Court granted summary judgment in favour of the National Review, stating that actual malice could not be imputed to the company based on the state of mind of an independent contractor like Steyn.
January 16th 2024: The rescheduled trial commenced. After deliberations, the jury found that both Simberg and Steyn had defamed Mann. The jury awarded Mann $1 in compensatory damages from each writer, $1,000 in punitive damages from Simberg and $1 million in punitive damages from Steyn.
March 11th 2024: National Review filed a motion in the Superior Court for the District of Columbia to recover a portion of the legal fees incurred during the litigation, seeking over $1 million from Mann.
January 7th 2025: The court issued a decision awarding National Review $530,820.21 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
March 4th 2025: The Superior Court of the District of Columbia reduced the punitive damages against Mark Steyn from $1 million to $5,000, deeming the original award “grossly excessive and unconstitutional”.
March 12th 2025: The court sanctioned Michael Mann’s legal team for misconduct during the trial, ordering it to pay a portion of the defendants’ legal fees. The court cited improper conduct during discovery and trial proceedings as the basis for these sanctions.
[NYPost] Detained anti-Israel protester Mahmoud Khalil worked for the controversial United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... agency for Paleostinian refugees while pursuing his graduate degree at Columbia University.
The campus rabble-rouser’s stint at the UN Relief and Works Agency for Paleostine Refugees came after he held a senior position at the UK office for Syria in Leb ...The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. Only one of those statements is an exaggeration.... for four years, according to multiple reports.
The role would have required a thorough background check and "rigorous security clearance," Andrew Waller, one of Khalil’s former co-workers there, told The Guardian.
He was involved, too, with a British government program, known as the Syria Chevening Program, which dishes out fully funded scholarships to foreign students who "show potential to inspire" so they can study in the UK.
Khalil — a Syrian-born Paleostinian who is also a citizen of Algeria
Oh? How did that happen?
— stopped working there roughly two years ago — right before he relocated to the US in 2022 to enroll at Columbia.
Khalil, 30, was grabbed by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents Saturday at his Columbia-owned apartment building and later transferred to a detention facility in Louisiana, where he faces deportation.
The new details about his trajectory before he became a student leader of last spring’s riotous campus protests emerged as Khalil, now a permanent legal resident, continues to fight the Trump administration’s push to revoke his green card and boot him from the US.
Born in 1995, Khalil was raised in a Paleostinian refugee camp in Syria after his grandparents were displaced from Tiberias, his lawyer has said in court papers.
More fully, they fled ahead of the invading five Arab armies, looking forward to returning afterward to get their share in the resulting loot. Only the untrained, self-organized Jews with their small arms beat back the armies, so there was neither returning nor loot, only half a million Arabs trapped by their hosts in “refugee camps”, living off the world’s largess and watching the unconquered Jews turning swamp and desert into a land of milk and honey. Bummer.
After civil war broke out in Syria, he fled for Lebanon at 18,
…just him? Where was his family?
the Guardian reported, pursuing an undergraduate degree in computer science at the Lebanese American University in Beirut.
He then got the gig at the UK office for Syria, a diplomatic mission within the UK embassy in Beirut.
There, he worked in a support role that helped inform British foreign policy on Syria given his knowledge of the region, as well as his Arabic skills, the newspaper reported.
After rising up the ranks, he decided to pursue a master’s degree in public administration from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and moved to the US on a student visa in December 2022.
From June through November 2023, he was a political affairs officer with the UNRWA.
The infamous relief agency was stripped of tens of millions in federal funding after an explosive report that some of its members took part in Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... ’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
Not so much some as lots. But do go on.
Following the bloodshed and the start of the Israel-Hamas war, Khalil became a driving force behind many of the anti-Israel protests, building takeovers and encampments that plagued Columbia for more than a year.
He had a leading role in Columbia United Apartheid Divest (CUAD) — an umbrella of radical student organizations that sympathizes with terror groups like Hamas and Hezbollah and has previously called for the "end of Western civilization."
Khalil acted as the main negotiator between CUAD and Columbia administrators during the encampment protests that saw scores of tents set up for weeks on the Morningside Heights campus.
The group also spearheaded the violent mostly peaceful takeover of Columbia’s Hamilton Hall last April.
He has been pictured at various campus protests over the past year — speaking into bullhorns, taking part in dance circles and marching draped in a keffiyeh head scarf.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, while defending the Trump administration’s move to deport Khalil this week, said "pro-Hamas propaganda fliers with the logo of Hamas" were handed out at some of the protests.
Khalil has also been a regular fixture on news programs discussing the group’s disruptive efforts — including an interview on Quds News Network where he spoke in Arabic.
At one point, Khalil was filmed telling CUAD members during a forum that "we’ve tried armed resistance, which is legitimate under international law, but Israel calls it terrorism."
He became a permanent US resident after marrying his wife, Noor Abdalla, in the Big Apple in 2023.
She’s been a dentist for a few years. Has he been letting her support him, or is someone paying him for all that protesting and organizing he’s been doing?
The pair had originally met in Lebanon in 2016 when Abdalla, a US citizen, was part of the scholarship program Khalil was overseeing at the time.
They had a seven-year long-distance relationship before tying the knot, she revealed in a Rooters interview this week.
The couple, who are expecting their first child in late April, live in an off-campus apartment owned by Columbia, where ICE agents detained him last week.
The Trump administration has argued it can legally boot Khalil given his role in the anti-Israel campus protests.
Officials have said that while Khalil isn’t accused of or charged with a crime, his actions are "contrary to national and foreign policy interests."
Khalil’s wife is a 28-year-old dentist in New York.
Protesters at UMass Amherst, Harvard, rally over detention of Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil
[BostonGlobe] Protesters at Harvard University and University of Massachusetts Amherst campuses stood in solidarity Thursday with Mahmoud Khalil, a graduate student and outspoken figure during the Gaza war protests last spring at Columbia University, who was arrested last weekend at the behest of the Trump administration.
About 100 demonstrators, including students, gathered on each campus, waving Palestinian flags, handing out flyers, chanting down the Trump administration, and calling for their universities to divest from companies tied to Israel. The administration is seeking to deport Khalil, who was born in Syria to Palestinian parents and has a green card to stay in the United States. He is married to a US citizen. He has not been charged with any crimes.
At UMass Amherst, the protest took place outside the Whitmore Administration Building, where many were draped in black and white keffiyehs while others wore medical masks and sunglasses to conceal their faces.
One student hunched over a stack of cardboard posters, scrawling “sanctuary over suppression” across them with thick markers. Another stood with a megaphone by her side, greeting students as they arrived.
Just before 4 p.m., one student stepped forward with the stack of cardboard in hand. She placed the stack on the pavement and encouraged attendees to take a sign.
The protests are the latest iterations of the pro-Palestinian encampments built on campuses across the nation last spring, including one at UMass Amherst, which resulted in over 130 arrests.
On Thursday, students passed out small sheets of paper that outlined their demands. A “Free Palestine” chant filled the air.
“Don’t engage with Zionists, don’t engage with cops,” a student yelled to the crowd. “Who’s ready?”
Students at UMass Amherst said the police presence has increased on campus since Saturday’s arrest of Khalil.
Khalil’s detention has set off widespread uproar and daily protests in New York, including on Friday, when several hundred protesters gathered outside Columbia in support of Khalil.
The protest took place off campus on Broadway Ave., outside Columbia’s main gate. The campus is only accessible to those with a Columbia ID.
It was not clear how many of the protesters were students. Many had their faces covered with masks or keffiyehs. They held signs that said “Free Mahmoud” and “The people want the fall of the regime.”
Police set up metal barricades all around the protest area. Two helicopters hovered overhead, and onlookers watched from balconies and windows on campus.
The demonstration was backed by an array of Muslim and anti-Israel activist groups.
The coalition of Columbia protest groups, Columbia University Apartheid Divest, on Friday posted photos of an “anonymous submission” showing red paint splattered on the Columbia president’s mansion alongside graffiti that said “Free them all” and an inverted triangle, a Hamas symbol.
On Thursday, federal officials sent a letter to university leaders outlining steps Columbia must take to secure its federal funding. The Trump administration cut $400 million in funding for Columbia last week over campus antisemitism and threatened billions more.
The letter said the university must enact discipline against student protesters, institute a mask ban, adopt the IHRA definition of antisemitism, create a plan for admissions reform, and put the academic department covering the Middle East under academic receivership, meaning an outside figure, not from the department’s faculty, would take the helm of the department.
Amid the pressure from the administration, Columbia on Thursday said it had expelled, suspended and revoked the degrees of students who forcibly took over the campus building last year. There were no details about the number of students punished. Columbia University Apartheid Divest claimed that 22 students had been sanctioned.
The White House has said Khalil is being deported for distributing pro-Hamas propaganda. Days before his detention, he attended a protest at Barnard where activists distributed Hamas material. Federal immigration laws prohibit non-citizens from espousing support for terror groups. Columbia University Apartheid Divest, for which he served as an organizer and spokesperson, in the past also voiced support for terror groups and violence.
In a Thursday court filing, Khalil’s lawyers said he was a Palestinian who grew up in Syria. When the war broke out in Syria, his family was displaced and is now dispersed in Europe and West Asia.
Answering the question asked above. Are they now going back to Syria, or choosing to remain scattered abroad?
The Thursday court filing was an amended complaint that came after a judge ordered Khalil to be allowed phone calls with his lawyers.
The Student Workers of Columbia held a rally in support of Khalil and Grant Miner, President of UAW Local 2710 - Student Workers of Columbia, whom the union said Columbia expelled for his involvement in pro-Palestinian campus protests.
[ShabelleMedia] The Somali Federal Government has shut down 12 websites that were pro-Al-Shabaab, following a successful operation that had earlier resulted in the closure of more than 30 other websites linked to the militant group.
Authorities also seized critical data and identified numerous individuals involved in managing these platforms and funding their operations. This information is expected to aid in taking action against those supporting Al-Shabaab’s online activities.
As part of an ongoing campaign to dismantle the group’s use of the internet for propaganda, thousands of online posts and content created by Al-Shabaab have been removed.
Government agencies tasked with targeting Al-Shabaab’s online presence are also hopeful of soon gaining control over additional websites used by the group to spread criminal activities and radicalizing messages.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
00:00 ||
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[11150 views]
Top|| File under: Moslem Colonists
#1
Der Starmer: "What terrible stories
One hears of abuse of their houris
From Britishers true --
And Mohammedans, too!"
[cue irrational horror of Tories]
#10
Whoever uses the term "Islamophobia" is an enemy of Western Civilization because what they call "Islamophobia" is the normalcy of the free marketplace of ideas, the foundation of Western Civilization.
#12
I believe the nation once seen as the Mother Country of original American culture is lost, literally committed cultural suicide to become the new West Pakistan.
[IsraelTimes] Tehran using drones, facial recognition software and public vigilantes to identify women not wearing head covering; report points to ‘disturbing pattern’ of deaths of protesters
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... is increasingly relying on electronic surveillance and the public to inform on women refusing to wear the country’s mandatory headscarf in public, as hard-liners push for harsher penalties for those protesting the law, a United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... report released Friday found.
The findings of the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on the Islamic Theocratic Republic of Iran come after it determined last year that the country’s theocracy was responsible for the "physical violence" that led to the death of Mahsa Amini.
The 22-year-old’s death led to nationwide protests against the country’s mandatory hijab laws and the public disobedience against them that continues despite the threat of violent mostly peaceful arrest and imprisonment.
"Two and a half years after the protests began in September 2022, women and girls in Iran continue to face systematic discrimination, in law and in practice, that permeates all aspects of their lives, particularly with respect to the enforcement of the mandatory hijab," the report said.
"The state is increasingly reliant on state-sponsored vigilantism in an apparent effort to enlist businesses and private individuals in hijab compliance, portraying it as a civic responsibility," it added.
Iran’s diplomatic missions to the UN in New York and Geneva did not respond to a request for comment on the findings of the 20-page report.
Mission chair Sara Hossain cited two new areas of investigation this year: One involved "the disturbing pattern" of deaths of some protesters, including girls, which the state dismissed as cases of suicide. Families faced "judicial harassment" such as being prevented from mourning loved ones who died, she said.
The mission was also looking at the use of mock executions. "We found that detainees men, women and kiddies had been held — in some cases at gunpoint or had nooses put around their necks — in a form of psychological torture," Hossain told news hounds in Geneva.
The team found that "chronic impunity" exists for those responsible for the repression, she added.
DRONES, SURVEILLANCE CAMERAS MONITOR WOMEN
The Sherlocks outlined how Iran increasingly relies on electronic surveillance. Among the efforts include Iranian officials deploying "aerial drone surveillance" to monitor women in public places. At Tehran’s Amirkabir University, authorities installed facial recognition software at its entrance gate to find women not wearing the hijab, it said.
Surveillance cameras on Iran’s major roadways also are believed to be involved in searching for uncovered women. UN Sherlocks said they obtained the "Nazer" mobile phone app offered by Iranian police, which allows the public to report on uncovered women in vehicles, including ambulances, buses, metro cars and taxis.
"Users may add the location, date, time and the license plate number of the vehicle in which the alleged mandatory hijab infraction occurred, which then ’flags’ the vehicle online, alerting the police," the report said. "It then triggers a text message (in real-time) to the registered owner of the vehicle, warning them that they had been found in violation of the mandatory hijab laws, and that their vehicles would be impounded for ignoring these warnings."
Those text messages have led to dangerous situations. In July 2024, coppers shot and paralyzed a woman who activists say had received such a message and was fleeing a checkpoint near the Caspian Sea.
The Sherlocks found that 8,000 vehicles were confiscated because their drivers weren’t wearing the proper hijab.
"What’s unusual and extraordinary about this is the kind of activity that is being monitored through the use of this app... what a woman wears or doesn’t wear," Hossain said. "She shouldn’t have to be sanctioned for that."
TENSIONS REMAIN AFTER 2022 DEATH OF MAHSA AMINI
Amini, 22, died on Sept. 16, 2022, in a hospital after her arrest by the country’s morality police over allegedly not wearing her hijab to the liking of the authorities.
Amini’s death sparked months of protests and a security crackdown that killed more than 500 people and led to the detention of more than 22,000. After the mass demonstrations, police dialed down enforcement of hijab laws, but it ramped up again in April 2024 under what authorities called the Noor — or "Light" — Plan.
At least 618 women have been arrested under the Noor Plan, the UN Sherlocks said, citing a local human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... activist group in Iran.
Meanwhile,
...back at the Hubba Hubba Club, Big Shirley was still trying to snatch Nunzio bald-headed. She was already halfway there... Iran executed at least 938 people last year, a threefold increase from 2021, the UN said. While many were convicted of drug charges, the report said the executions "indicate a nexus with the overall repression of dissent in this period."
As Iran continues its crackdown over the hijab, it also faces an economic crisis over US sanctions due to its rapidly advancing nuclear program. While US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... has called for new negotiations, Iran has yet to respond to a letter he sent to its 85-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> . Social unrest, coupled with the economic woes, remain a concern for Iran’s theocracy.
#1
The hijab stuff will be their Tea Tax. Trump will drop the price of oil and cripple the Iranian economy. The economic stuff could be weathered with a patriotic push, but you can’t play the patriot card while you are bullying the population about religious adherence. The mullah’s will fall.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 10:04
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Top||
#2
Brent Crude is already down to just over $70/bbl from over $80 last month.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
03/15/2025 10:46
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Top||
#3
They will fall.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 12:01
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[IsraelTimes] Former central banker takes over from Justin Trudeau at the helm of the Liberal Party, will likely trigger a general election within days amid surging tensions with US
Former central banker Mark Carney was sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister on Friday, and will now try to steer his country through a trade war brought by US President Donald Trump ...dictatorial for repealing some (but not all) of the diktats of his predecessor, misogynistic because he likes pretty girls, homophobic because he doesn't think gender bending should be mandatory, truly a man for all seasons... , annexation threats and an expected federal election.
Carney, 59, replaces Prime Minister Justin Trudeau ...hereditary prime minister of the Great White North... , who announced his resignation in January but remained in power until the Liberal Party elected a new leader. Carney is widely expected to trigger a general election in the coming days or weeks.
The governing Liberal Party had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared economic war and repeatedly has said Canada should become the 51st state. Now the party and its new leader could come out on top.
Carney has said he’s ready to meet with Trump if he shows "respect for Canadian illusory sovereignty″ and is willing to take "a common approach, a much more comprehensive approach for trade.″
Carney, a former Goldman Sachs executive with no experience in politics, becomes Canada’s 24th prime minister.
Trump put 25% tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products April 2. He has threatened economic coercion in his annexation threats and suggested the border is a fictional line.
The US trade war and Trump’s talk of making Canada the 51st US state have infuriated Canadians, who are booing the American anthem at NHL and NBA games. Some are canceling trips south of the border, and many are avoiding buying American goods when they can.
The surge in Canadian nationalism has bolstered the Liberal Party’s chances in a parliamentary election expected within days or weeks, and Liberal showings have been improving in opinion polls.
Carney, who navigated crises when he was the head of the Bank of Canada from 2008, and then in 2013 when he became the first noncitizen to run the Bank of England — helping to manage the worst impacts of Brexit in the UK — will now try to steer Canada through the trade war brought by Trump.
"He will do very well. He’s respected internationally," former prime minister Jean Chrétien told news hounds Friday. But, he added: "There is no magic solution. This is not a normal situation. We’ve never seen someone who changes his mind every five minutes as president of the United States. It creates problems everywhere, not only in Canada."
A new cabinet is also being sworn in. Francois-Philippe Champagne becomes Canada’s new finance minister, the government’s second most powerful position. He was previously industry minister. Dominic LeBlanc goes from finance to intergovernmental affairs.
Mélanie Joly remains foreign minister. Chrystia Freeland, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister who lost to Carney in the Liberal Party leadership race, becomes minister of transport and internal trade.
[KhaamaPress] FBI Special Agent Seth Parker testified that Mohammad Sharifullah
… a.k.a. Mohammad Sharif, alias “Jafar” of ISIS-Khorasan, he was identified by the CIA as the shot-caller for the suicide kaboom at Kabul International Airport‘s Abbey Gate during the fatally disorganized Biden pull-out, for which a number of American generals should be thoroughly ashamed…
was not a top level planner of the August 2021 Kabul airport bombing but played a supportive role. Captured by Pak forces and handed over to U.S. authorities, Sharifullah faces charges for conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization resulting in death.
President Trump announced Sharifullah’s capture in a joint congressional session, stating he was involved in the Kabul airport attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and over 170 Afghans. Sharifullah’s arrest, facilitated by intelligence sharing with Pakistain, is seen as a significant counterterrorism success.
Sharifullah’s defense argues he was not among the main planners and was not present during the bombing. However,
the hip bone's connected to the leg bone... Agent Parker noted Sharifullah’s role in conducting reconnaissance for the attack and his affiliation with ISIS-Khorasan. Sharifullah also admitted to involvement in other terrorist activities, including attacks in Moscow.
He had previously provided weapons training for two of the four jihadis who committed the March 22, 2024 Crocus City Hall concert massacre that killed 144, maimed 550, and caused $150 million in damage.
In court, Sharifullah claimed ignorance of the bombing details and denied being present during its execution. Despite these claims, evidence points to his active role in planning and facilitating the attack, leading to his detention without bail.
The Kabul airport bombing resulted in at least 182 deaths, including 13 U.S. service members. The attack, claimed by ISIS-K, occurred during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, highlighting the complex security environment during that period.
If this ISIS member is found guilty for his role in the suicide kabooms, he is likely to be sentenced to life in prison.
[Garowe] The Somali National Army (SNA) staged a successful attack against the al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... holy warriors, military officials said, noting the significance of the destruction of the base used by the group to launch attacks against security forces and innocent civilians.
According to officials, the military destroyed the base at Biyo Cadle, a rural area near El Buur district in central Somalia’s Galgaduud region. This comes amid an ongoing intensive crackdown against the hard boyz who are predominant in central and southern regions.
The heavily fortified base is used by the hard boyz to wage ground attacks against civilians within the vicinity of the village, officials said. The officers said the operation was in response to increased al-Shabaab activities within the region.
Multiple casualties were reported but the exact figure was not immediately disclosed by the officers. However,
by candlelight every wench is handsome... there are reports that several hard boyz were killed during the operation with weapons seized in the process.
With support from the US Africa Command and the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia, the local forces have managed to make huge strides by liberating several strategic towns within the country.
The raid in the ministry base came hours before Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... forces in the north also managed to kill the ISIS commander responsible for directing drone attacks using explosive-laden unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
[Garowe] Security forces in Somalia confirmed the death of a senior Al-Shabaab leader along with 50 fighters, in an operation spearheaded by local forces with support from international partners in the fragile Middle Shabelle.
Through a press release, security forces in central regions are said to have conducted an airstrike within Damasha and Shabeelow areas, where the leader of Al-Shabaab's combat vehicles was also killed.
According to reports, the leader, identified as Mansoor Tima-Weeyne, who masterminded the preparation and use of combat vehicles for terrorist attacks, was the leader killed in the airstrike. The airstrikes are part of aerial surveillance operations conducted by the international partners.
Further, reports indicate that Tima-Weeyne had recently arrived from the Bulo Fulay area and was driving a repaired vehicle used by the group for its attacks. His death was described as a major 'win' in the fight against violent extremism in Somalia.
The press statement, in addition, states that the three combat vehicles equipped with heavy machine guns were also destroyed. More than 50 militants were killed, further reducing the capacity of the group to respond to military operations.
While describing the operation as a 'blow' to the group, the military command said the airstrike was carefully planned to avoid any damage to civilians. Both the Somali National Army and the international partners are undertaking operations in central and southern regions.
On Tuesday, the militants targeted the Qahira Hotel on the outskirts of Beledweyne, leaving at least 11 people including traditional elders dead. The siege was ended later on Wednesday following assistance from the Djibouti Defence Forces serving in the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia.
[GEO.TV] The United States and Israel have reached out and talked with three East African governments about the forced displacement of Palestinians from Gaza to Sudan, Somalia and its breakaway region of Somaliland, according to Al Jazeera.
Officials from Sudan rejected overtures from the US while officials from Somalia and Somaliland told The Associated Press that they do not know about any contacts.
Officials say approaches also made to breakaway region of Somaliland; Sudanese, Somali and Somaliland officials says proposal rejected.
The US and Israel have reached out to officials of three East African governments to discuss using their territories as potential destinations for resettling Paleostinians uprooted from 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 under 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... ’s proposed postwar plan, American and Israeli officials said.
The contacts with Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... , Somalia and the breakaway Somali region known as Somaliland ...Republic of Somaliland is an unrecognised sovereign state in the Horn of Africa, recognised internationally as a de jure part of Somalia. It is located in the southern coast of the Gulf of Aden with approximately 5.7 million residents as of 2021. The capital and largest city is Hargeisa. The government regards itself as the successor state to British Somaliland, which united from 1960 to 1991 with the Trust Territory of Somaliland (the former Italian Somaliland) to form the Somali Republic. Under the Siad Barre regime, Somaliadestroyed ninety percent of Hargeisa Per international law, once you're in, you gotta stay in, no matter how bad it smells.... reflect the determination by the US and Israel to press ahead with a plan that has been widely condemned but has also jolted new energy into planning for Gaza’s future.
Officials from Sudan and Somalia said they had rejected overtures from the US, while officials Somaliland told The News Agency that Dare Not be Named that they were not aware of any contacts.
Somalia rejects any proposal that would undermine the Paleostinian people’s right to live peacefully on their ancestral land, its foreign minister said on Friday.
Ahmed Moalim Fiqi told Rooters that Somalia also rejected any plan that would involve the use of its territory for the resettlement of other populations.
Abdirahman Dahir Adan, Somaliland’s foreign minister, told Rooters that "there are no talks with anyone regarding Paleostinians."
Because all three places are poor, and in some cases wracked by violence, the proposal also casts doubt on Trump’s stated goal of resettling Gaza’s Paleostinians in a "beautiful area" where they would enjoy a higher standard of living than in the Strip.
Trump proposed the plan after a US, Egyptian and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i-mediated ceasefire halted 15 months of war in the Gaza Strip that began on October 7, 2023, when the Paleostinian terror group Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... led 5,000 attackers to invade southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting hundreds, mostly civilians.
The war caused widespread devastation to Gaza, raising the need for a comprehensive rehabilitation plan that Israel has demanded include a new administration to replace Hamas’s rule. In the meantime, the complex three-phase ceasefire, which included the release of hostages, has stalled after its first stage amid mutual accusations of violations by Israel and Hamas, though so far fighting has not resumed.
Under Trump’s plan, Gaza’s more than 2 million people would be permanently sent elsewhere. He has proposed that the US would take ownership of the territory, oversee a lengthy cleanup process and develop it as a real estate project.
The idea of a mass transfer of Paleostinians was once considered a fantasy of Israel’s ultranationalist fringe. But since Trump presented the idea at a White House meeting last month, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has hailed it as a "bold vision." His allies, including Defense Minister Israel Katz, have touted the formation of a government-backed body to encourage and facilitate voluntary migration out of the Strip.
Paleostinians in Gaza have rejected Trump’s proposal and dismissed Israeli claims that the departures would be voluntary. Arab nations have expressed vehement opposition and offered an alternative reconstruction plan that would leave the Paleostinians in place.
Speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a secret diplomatic initiative, US and Israeli officials confirmed the contacts with Somalia and Somaliland, while the Americans confirmed Sudan as well. They said it was unclear how much progress the efforts made or at what level the discussions took place.
Separate outreach from the US and Israel to the three potential destinations began last month, days after Trump floated the Gaza plan alongside Netanyahu, according to the US officials, who said that Israel was taking the lead in the discussions.
Israel and the US have a variety of incentives — financial, diplomatic and security — to offer these potential partners. It is a formula that Trump used five years ago when he brokered the Abraham Accords, a series of mutually beneficial diplomatic accords between Israel and four Arab countries.
The White House declined to comment on the outreach efforts. The offices of Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer, a Netanyahu confidant who has been leading Israel’s postwar planning, also had no comment.
Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, a longtime advocate of what he calls "voluntary" emigration of Paleostinians, said this week that Israel is working to identify countries to take in Paleostinians.
He also said Israel is preparing a "very large emigration department" within its Defense Ministry.
Here is a closer look at the places the officials say have been approached.
SUDAN
The North African country was among the four Abraham Accord nations that agreed to normalize diplomatic relations with Israel in 2020.
As part of the deal, the US removed Sudan from its list of state supporters of terrorism, a move that gave the country access to international loans and global legitimacy. But relations with Israel never took off as Sudan plunged into civil war between government forces and the RSF paramilitary group.
The conflict has been marked by atrocities, including ethnically motivated killing and rape, according to the UN and rights groups. The International Criminal Court is investigating alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity, and then-US president Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We get to suffer the consequences... ’s administration in January said the RSF and its proxies were committing genocide.
The US and Israel would be hard-pressed to persuade Paleostinians to leave Gaza, particularly to such a troubled country. But they could offer incentives to the Khartoum government, including debt relief, weapons, technology and diplomatic support.
Two Sudanese officials, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... to discuss a sensitive diplomatic matter, confirmed that the Trump administration has approached the military-led government about accepting Paleostinians. One of them said the contacts began even before Trump’s inauguration with offers of military assistance against the RSF, assistance with postwar reconstruction and other incentives. Both officials said the Sudanese government rejected the idea.
"This suggestion was immediately rebuffed," said one official. "No one opened this matter again."
Military chief Gen. Abdel-Fattah Burhan told an Arab leaders’ summit last week in Cairo that his country "categorically rejects" any plan that aims to transfer "the brotherly Paleostinians from their land under whatever justification or name."
SOMALILAND
Somaliland, a territory of over 3 million people in the Horn of Africa, seceded from Somalia over 30 years ago, but it is not internationally recognized as an independent state. Somalia considers Somaliland part of its territory.
Somaliland’s new president, Abdirahman Mohammed Abdullahi, has made international recognition a priority.
An American official involved in the efforts confirmed that the US was "having a quiet conversation with Somaliland about a range of areas where they can be helpful to the US in exchange for recognition."
The possibility of US recognition could provide an incentive for Abdullahi to back away from the territory’s solidarity with the Paleostinians.
The United Arab Emirates, another Abraham Accord country that has developed strong ties with Israel, once had a military base in Somaliland and maintains commercial interests there, including a port. The territory’s strategic location, in the Gulf of Aden waterway near Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , home to the Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... rebel group, could also make it a valuable ally.
Over the years, Somaliland has been lauded for its relatively stable political environment, contrasting sharply with Somalia’s ongoing struggles amid deadly attacks by al-Qaeda-linked hard boy group al-Shabaab ... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa... . Since 1991, Somaliland has maintained its own government, currency and security structures. Still, it has one of the lowest income levels in the world.
Somaliland’s Foreign Minister Abdirahman Dahir Adan told Rooters it was not participating in any talks with anyone about the resettlement of Paleostinians.
"I haven’t received such a proposal, and there are no talks with anyone regarding Paleostinians," he said.
SOMALIA
Somalia has been a vocal supporter of the Paleostinians, often hosting peaceful protests on its streets in support of them. The country joined the recent Arab summit that rejected Trump’s plan and seems like an unlikely destination for Paleostinians, even if they did agree to move.
Sambu Chepkorir, a lawyer and conflict researcher in Nairobi, Kenya, said it is difficult to understand why Somalia would want to host Paleostinians given the country’s strong support for Paleostinian self-rule.
"The realignments keep changing, and so maybe there is a hidden agenda in why Somalia," Chepkorir said.
A Somali official, speaking on condition of anonymity
... for fear of being murdered... because he was not authorized to talk to the media, said the country had not been approached about taking in Paleostinians from Gaza and there had been no discussions about it.
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[EngMilRu] From 8 to 14 March, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation carried out 15 group strikes with high-precision weapons and attack unmanned aerial vehicles to hit gas and power infrastructure and other important facilities that support the work of the Ukrainian defence industry. In addition, the infrastructure of military airfields, assembly workshops, storage and training facilities for operators of attack drones, ammunition and POL depots as well as temporary deployment areas of the AFU were hit.
Over the past week, units of the Sever Group of Forces continued to eliminate AFU formations on the territory of Kursk region.
As a result of decisive actions, following 29 settlements were liberated: Sudzha, Viktorovka, Nikolayevka, Staraya Sorochina, Lebedevka, Kositsa, Malaya Loknya, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, Agronom, Bogdanovka, Bondarevka, Dmitryukov, Zazulevka, Ivashkovsky, Kubatkin, Kolmakov, Martynovka, Mikhaylovka, Pravda, Yuzhny, Kazachya Loknya, Pervy Knyazhy, Vtoroy Knyazhy, Zamostye, Mirny, Podol, Melovoy, Goncharovka, and Novenkoye (Sumy region).
Aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles strikes, and artillery hit manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one air assault brigade, one naval infantry brigade, and two territorial defence brigades.
In Kharkov direction, Russian troops inflicted fire damage on formations of two motorised infantry brigades, one air assault brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and the two territorial defence brigades.
Over the past week in the area of responsibility of the Sever Group of Forces, the AFU losses were more than 2,315 troops, seven tanks, and 111 armoured fighting vehicles. In addition, 140 motor vehicles, 56 field artillery guns, and six ammunition depots were neutralised.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line, defeated manpower and hardware of three mechanised brigades, one mountain assault brigade, one assault brigade of the AFU, and three territorial defence brigades.
The AFU losses were more than 1,585 troops, two tanks, 14 armoured fighting vehicles, including seven foreign-made ones, 32 motor vehicles, 19 field artillery guns, 15 electronic warfare stations, and eight field ammunition depots.
The Yug Group of Forces' units improved the tactical situation and, as a result of active actions, liberated Novomarkovo and Gorkogo (Donetsk People's Republic). Russian troops hit four mechanised brigades, one motorised infantry brigade, and one airmobile brigade of the AFU as well as one naval infantry brigade, and one territorial defence brigade.
Over the past week, the AFU losses were up to 1,815 troops, three tanks, 16 armoured fighting vehicles, 24 motor vehicles, and 25 field artillery guns during the week. In addition, 15 field ammunition depots were destroyed.
Units of the Tsentr Group of Forces continued advancing into the depth of enemy defences. Russian troops launch attacks on three mechanised brigades, one jaeger brigade, one airmobile brigade, one motorised infantry brigade, one naval infantry brigade, two National Guard brigades, and the Lyut Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine.
The AFU losses were more than 3,540 troops, three tanks, including one German-made Leopard tank, and 23 armoured fighting vehicles. In addition, 42 motor vehicles and 26 field artillery guns were neutralised.
The Vostok Group of Forces' units advanced further into the depths of enemy defences and liberated Dneproenergiya and Konstantinopol (Donetsk People's Republic). Russian troops delivered strikes at formations of four mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, one naval infantry brigade, and three territorial defence brigades.
The AFU losses were more than 1,085 troops, four tanks, including one German-made Leopard tank, 11 armoured fighting vehicles, 20 motor vehicles, and 18 field artillery guns. Two electronic warfare stations were destroyed.
Units of the Dnepr Group of Forces engaged manpower and hardware of two mechanised brigades, one infantry brigade, and one territorial defence brigade.
The AFU losses wete more than 440 troops, one tank, three armoured fighting vehicles, 43 motor vehicles, and six field artillery guns. Six electronic warfare stations and five ammunition depots were destroyed.
Over the past week, air defence facilities shot down one MiG-29 aircraft of the Ukrainian Air Force, 27 U.S.-made JDAM guided bombs, two Neptune long-range guided missiles, 17 U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles, one Czech-made Vampire MLRS projectile, and 1,135 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the AFU losses amounted to 657 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 46,606 unmanned aerial vehicles, 601 anti-aircraft missile systems, 22,274 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,526 MLRS combat vehicles, 22,570 field artillery guns and mortars, 32,874 units of special military vehicles.
During offensive actions, units of the Sever Group of Forces liberated Goncharovka (Kursk region).
In addition, Russian troops inflicted fire damage on formations of two mechanised brigades, one air assault brigade, two territorial defence brigades, and one assault regiment of the AFU near Gogolevka, Gornal, Guyevo, Zaoleshenka, Zapselye, Oleshnya, and Rubanshchina. One AFU counter-attack was repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery strikes engaged AFU manpower and hardware near Gogolevka, Gornal, Rubanshchina as well as Aleksandriya, Basovka, Belovody, Velikaya Rybitsa, Vodolagi, Zhuravka, Miropolye, Novonikolayevka, Obody, Sadki, Yunakovka, and Yablonovka in Sumy region.
Over the course of the day, the AFU losses were more than 260 troops, five armoured personnel carriers, two armoured fighting vehicles, five motor vehicles, four artillery guns, two mortars, and three UAV command posts. In addition, 12 AFU servicemen surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk direction, the AFU losses amounted tomore than 67,410 troops, 392 tanks, 316 infantry fighting vehicles, 283 armoured personnel carriers, 2,198 armoured fighting vehicles; 2,433 motor vehicles, 553 artillery guns, 52 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and seven of MLRS made by the USA, 26 anti-aircraft missile launchers, one self-propelled anti-aircraft system, ten transport-loading vehicles, 120 EW stations, 16 counter-battery warfare radars, ?ten air defence radars, 56 units of engineering and other materiel, including 23 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, five bridge launchers, one engineering reconnaissance vehicle as well as 15 armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
In Kharkov direction, the Sever Group of Forces inflicted damage on a mechanised brigade and a motorised infantry brigade of the AFU near Kazachya Lopan and Volchansk (Kharkov region).
The AFU lost up to 35 troops, a tank, five motor vehicles, two artillery guns, and an electronic warfare station. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
The Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of a mechanised brigade, an assault brigade of the AFU, and a territorial defence brigade close to Kopanki, Novoyegorovka (Kharkov region), and Redkodub (Donetsk People's Republic).
The enemy losses amounted to more than 220 troops, four U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carriers, three motor vehicles, four field artillery guns, and two electronic warfare stations. Two ammunition depots were destroyed.
Units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and positions. Russian troops hit formations of four mechanised brigades, an infantry brigade, an assault brigade, and an unmanned aerial vehicles brigade of the AFU close to Aleksandropol, Aleksandro-Kalinovo, Verolyubovka, Konstantinovka, Alekseyevo-Druzhkovka, and Krymskoye ( Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 225 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles including a U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, two motor vehicles, and a field artillery gun. Two ammunition depots were destroyed.
The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces continued advancing to the depths of enemy defences. Russian troops hit formations of two mechanised brigades, two jaeger brigades, an assault brigade, an unmanned aerial vehicles brigade of the AFU, a naval infantry brigade, and two national guard brigades close to Dimitrov, Novopavlovka, Krasnoarmeysk, Shevchenko, Sribnoye, Udachnoye, Ulyanovka, Mirolyubovka, and Uspenovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
The enemy lost more than 475 troops, five armoured fighting vehicles including a U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, a UK-made Spartan armoured personnel carrier, seven motor vehicles, two artillery guns, and an electronic warfare station.
The Vostok Group of Forces engaged an infantry brigade, an assault regiment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and two territorial defence brigades close to Otradnoye, Bogatyr, Fedorovka, and Konstantinopol (Donetsk People's Republic) during active operations.
The enemy losses amounted to more than 180 troops, a tank, four armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, four field artillery guns including two Bogdana self-propelled artillery systems.
The Dnepr Group of Forces units inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of a coastal defence brigade of the AFU and two territorial defence brigades close to Nikolskoye, Burgunka, Tyaginka (Kherson Oblast) and Pavlovka (Zaporozhye region).
Up to 55 troops, eight motor vehicles, and one electronic warfare station were neutralised.
Operational-tactical aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops, and artillery crews of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation have inflicted damage on military facilities of airfield infrastructure, the unmanned aerial vehicles and storage facilities as well as clusters of AFU manpower and hardware and foreign mercenaries in 158 areas.
Russian air defence systems shot down four JDAM guided aerial bombs and two HIMARS projectiles as well as 147 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, the AFU losses amounted to: 657 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 46,508 unmanned aerial vehicles, 600 anti-aircraft missile systems, 22,144 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,526 MLRS combat vehicles, 22,521 field artillery guns and mortars, 32,745 units of support military vehicles
The Sever Group of Forces liberated Melovoy, Podol, and Sudzha during offensive operations.
Moreover, Russian units hit formations of two mechanised brigades, a motorised infantry brigade, an assault brigade, an air assault brigade, two territorial defence brigades, and an assault regiment of the AFU near Gogolevka, Goncharovka, Guyevo, Zaoleshenka, Zapselye, Oleshnya, Rubanshchina, and Sudzha. One AFU counter-attack was repelled.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery strikes engaged AFU manpower and hardware near Gornal, Oleshnya, Aleksandriya, as well as Basovka, Belovody, Varachino, Vodolagi, Zhuravka, Miropolye, Novenkoye, Sadki, Yunakovka, and Yablonovka in Sumy region.
The AFU losses were over 340 troops, two infantry fighting vehicles, three armoured personnel carriers, five armoured fighting vehicles, 17 motor vehicles, four artillery guns, two mortars as well as two UAV CPs.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk direction, the AFU lost more than 67,150 troops, 392 tanks, 316 infantry fighting vehicles, 278 armoured personnel carriers, 2,196 armoured fighting vehicles, 2,428 motor vehicles, 549 artillery guns,52 MLRS launchers, including 13 of HIMARS and seven of MLRS made by the USA, 26 anti-aircraft missile launchers, one self-propelled anti-aircraft system, ten transport-loading vehicles, 120 EW stations, 16 counter-battery warfare radars, ten air defence radars, 56 units of engineering and other materiel, including 23 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, five bridge launchers, one engineering reconnaissance vehicle as well as 15 armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[[Korrespondent] 21.44 Russian troops launched a missile attack on Krivoy Rog on the evening of March 14. Eight people were injured in the attack.
The Russians had previously launched Iskander-M ballistic missiles. One hit was recorded at a nightclub in a dense multi-story building. The second hit was at a civilian infrastructure facility.
20:26 Satellites and joint reconnaissance, including drones, will be key means of monitoring the ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"It is possible, in my opinion, to track violations in the following steps: the first step is a satellite, the second step is intelligence, joint intelligence between America and Ukraine," the head of state said.
In addition, according to Zelensky, reconnaissance drones can also be used for monitoring.
19:45 Border guards have repelled an attack by a Russian sabotage and reconnaissance group in Sumy Oblast. A group of ten Russian saboteurs crossed the border and tried to advance deeper into the territory. Fire was immediately opened on them, using a mortar crew. During counter-sabotage measures, the enemy was forced to retreat.
18:53 The Kursk operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces has achieved its main goal - to pull back part of the Russian troops from the Pokrovsk, Kharkov and Sumy directions. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting with journalists on Friday.
18:28 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is lying about the real situation on the battlefield. Decisive and strong steps must be taken to put pressure on Russia. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote about this on Telegram.
18:16 Special Operations Forces fighters carried out a successful raid on Russian positions in the Kursk region, eliminating dozens of invaders and capturing their weapons. The corresponding video was published by the Special Operations Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Friday, March 14.
Careful planning and unit coordination allowed the operators to conduct a successful raid on enemy positions.
17:55 Odessa activist Demyan Ganul was killed by a 46-year-old deserter. This was reported by the SBU. In a video distributed online, the man allegedly confirms his military rank - senior lieutenant.
17:50 The Third Separate Assault Brigade became the Third Army Corps, headed by Andrey Beletsky. The main priorities of the corps are combat training, a professional sergeant corps, work with management, planning and technology.
17:39 Since the beginning of the current day, 90 combat clashes have occurred on the front. Russian troops are most active in the Pokrovsky and Limansky directions, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported in an operational summary as of 16:00.
17:18 Reports of the alleged "encirclement" of Ukrainian units in the Kursk region of the Russian Federation do not correspond to reality and are created by Russians for political purposes and to put pressure on Ukraine and partners. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
16:56 Russian aggressors do not stop their assaults in the Kharkov direction. However, in the area of Vovchansk, the enemy is being held back. This was written by the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Oleksandr Syrsky, in Telegram.
16:29 Law enforcement officers have detained a man suspected of murdering activist Demyan Ganul in Odessa. This was reported by the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Klimenko.
16:10 US President Donald Trump spoke with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin. They had a "very good and productive discussion." Trump wrote about this on his social network Truth Social.
15.56 Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced an agreement between Ukraine and Spain on training Ukrainian military personnel, which will be an important step in strengthening defense cooperation between the two countries. This was reported by the Defense Ministry press service on Friday, March 14.
The meeting identified priority areas of cooperation, in particular, deepening industrial cooperation, strengthening air defense systems, supplying ammunition and armored vehicles. Particular attention was paid to training the Ukrainian military, which will form the basis of a new agreement between the countries.
15:49 The issue of Ukraine joining NATO is no longer being considered. This was stated by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in an interview with Bloomberg.
15.40 A drone attacked the territory of a military training ground and a military unit in the village of Mulino in the Nizhny Novgorod region of the Russian Federation. This was reported by the Telegram channel ASTRA.
The settlement is home to the 333rd Combat Training Center of the Western Military District. Russian media write that this facility is supposedly "unique." Before the sanctions were imposed, it was built with the participation of Germany's Rheinmetall Defense Electronics.
"The center combines traditional training grounds with modern computer technology: complex simulators reproduce the battlefield in 3D, and the physical environment includes models of cities and towns for tactical exercises... The center's capacity is up to three brigades per year, with the ability to train 700 servicemen."
15:37 On March 14, Russian aviation struck the center of Kherson with a guided bomb. A 23-year-old civilian was injured. This was reported by the head of the Kherson OVA Oleksandr Prokudin on Friday, March 14.
As a result of the attack, social facilities and retail establishments were damaged and civilian vehicles were destroyed.
14:52 The previous evening, Russian leader Vladimir Putin received American special envoy Steve Witkoff, through whom "additional signals" were transmitted to US President Donald Trump, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
13.53 Ukraine has already actually begun to form a national team that will develop algorithms of actions to control a possible 30-day truce. This is a very complex process. This statement was made by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andriy Sybiga.
12:59 A video has been published online showing the moment activist Demyan Ganul was killed in Odessa. The footage shows an unknown man firing two shots.
12:51 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that he signed decrees to award more than 300 Ukrainian soldiers with state awards.
12:45 Ukrainian Interior Minister Igor Klimenko has taken personal control of the investigation and disclosure of the murder of activist Demyan Ganul in Odessa. He said this during the government question hour in the Verkhovna Rada.
12:36 Ukrainian-made WINFLY unmanned aerial systems have been codified and approved for use in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. This was reported by the Main Directorate for Support of the Life Cycle of Weapons and Military Equipment, the Ministry of Defense reports.
11:31 A murder has been committed in the central part of Odessa. This was reported by the National Police. In turn, People's Deputy Oleksiy Goncharenko reported that the well-known activist and volunteer Demyan Ganul was killed.
10:57 In Finland, DShRG Rusich fighter Jan Petrovskiy (Vojislav Torden) was sentenced to life imprisonment for war crimes in Ukraine. This was reported by Helsingin Sanomat. It is noted that Petrovskiy was charged with five war crimes committed in 2014, when he fought on the side of pro-Russian militants as deputy commander of the Rusich sabotage and assault reconnaissance group. Petrovskiy's lawyers plan to appeal the court's verdict.
10:47 SBU drones successfully attacked two gas compressor stations, Davydivska and Novopetrovsk. This was reported by Ukrinform, citing sources in the special service. The drones also hit a field warehouse of missiles for the S-300/S-400 systems near the village of Radkovka in the Belgorod region.
10:29 A meeting of the Council of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War was held in Kiev. This was reported by the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine (SVRU). Particular attention was paid to the issue of communication between central executive authorities and family members of missing persons and prisoners of war.
10:22 An accomplice to the terrorist attack that the Russian special services carried out in the Kharkiv region in early February 2025 has been detained. At that time, the occupiers, together with an improvised explosive device (IED), blew up their 15-year-old agent, who, under the guise of a courier, brought explosives to a military unit of the National Guard. This was reported by the SBU.
9:40 The Ukrainian Defense Forces shot down 16 Russian drones, and another 9 UAVs were lost. This was reported by the Ukrainian Air Force. The aftermath of the Russian attack was recorded in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
9:26 Attempts by small assault groups from Russia to enter the territory of the Sumy region, in particular in the direction of the settlements of Novenkoye or Zhuravka, are being recorded. This was reported on television by the spokesman for the State Border Service of Ukraine, Andriy Demchenko. According to him, the Russians are not using armored vehicles or transport to advance, since the terrain does not allow it. They are trying to move on foot in groups of two to five soldiers.
8:36 Over the past 24 hours, aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Defense Forces hit 13 areas of concentration of personnel, weapons and military equipment, five artillery weapons and one ammunition depot of the Russian invaders. This was reported on March 14 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is noted that over the past 24 hours, 146 clashes took place on the front, 49 of which were in the Pokrovsk direction.
8:19 On the night of March 14, Russian troops carried out an air strike using drones on the territory of the village of Zolochiv in the Kharkiv region. A hit was recorded on the building of a local hospital, a fire broke out. One victim is known. This was reported by the head of the Kharkiv OVA Oleg Sinegubov. According to him, the drone attack occurred around midnight. As a result of the UAV hit, the roof of the hospital caught fire. 40 minutes later, the enemy carried out a second strike with two drones.
7:49 Ukrainian military destroyed 1,410 Russian occupiers, 6 tanks and 46 artillery systems in 24 hours. This was reported on March 14 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The enemy's total combat losses from 24.02.22 to 14.03.25 were approximately 891,660 people.
7:23 Drones attacked Moscow and the Moscow region of the Russian Federation. Explosions thundered there and smoke appeared due to the air defense system. This was reported by Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin's Telegram, the Russian publication ASTRA and Russian publics.
05:22 Trump's special representative Steve Witkoff held talks with the Russian side in Moscow and is returning back to discuss the results with the president. Speaking about this to the media, US National Security Advisor Mike Walz expressed "cautious optimism".
02:52 A large fire occurred at an oil refinery near the city of Tuapse in the Krasnodar Territory of the Russian Federation. Social networks write that it was attacked by a drone. The published footage shows that the flames engulfed at least one tank.
00:06 The United States is ready to resume deliveries of long-range bombs to Ukraine, known as GLSDB ground-launched small-caliber bombs, Reuters reports. These deliveries were suspended by the Biden administration due to the need for modernization to better counter Russian obstacles. The ammunition will arrive amid reports that stocks of the Army Tactical Missile Systems of similar range (ATACMS) in Ukraine have been depleted. According to media reports, a batch of bombs for Ukraine is already in Europe.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] An armed man broke into a kindergarten in New Moscow and opened fire. One person was injured, the Telegram channel " 112 " reported.
The attack took place on Lipovy Park Street.
According to the channel, the attacker entered the building where the kindergarten is located and shot the first person he came across.
The wounded man is an adult. Law enforcement officers arrived at the scene.
Ugh. It wasn’t great when this was thought to be a uniquely American problem, but it’s worse now that the rest of the rest of the world picked up on this evil behaviour.
[GEO.TV] The Paleostinians said Friday a 21-year-old man was killed by Israel fire near Nablus in the north of the occupied West Bank, as Israel's military said stone-throwers were targeted.
"Omar Abdelhakim Daoud, 21, was martyred by fire from occupation forces in the village of Salem east of Nablus," a Paleostinian health ministry statement said.
An Israeli military spokesperson told AFP "several terrorists" had thrown stones at Israeli soldiers operating in the area, and that a hit was claimed when they opened fire.
Daoud is the latest to die in an Israeli military operation begun on January 21 targeting gangs in the northern West Bank.
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[KhaamaPress] Pakistain’s economy faces persistent structural challenges that have hindered investment and economic growth for decades. The investment-to-GDP ratio has declined to 13.1% in FY24, marking its lowest level in 64 years, while neighboring economies such as India, Bangladesh, and Vietnam maintain ratios above 30%.
Good to know.
This disparity highlights deep-rooted systemic issues that discourage productive capital inflows while fostering speculative and rent-seeking activities. Despite repeated efforts to attract foreign investment, fundamental barriers remain entrenched, limiting Pakistain’s economic potential.
The country’s approach to investment promotion often contrasts starkly with the realities on the ground. While officials present investment portfolios and reform pledges abroad, structural inefficiencies persist, reinforced by bureaucratic hurdles, regulatory unpredictability, and a taxation framework that is widely seen as a deterrent rather than an enabler of business growth. Investors frequently cite concerns over complex tax policies, legal uncertainties, and shifting economic regulations, making long-term planning difficult.
The recent hesitancy of Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... —historically one of Pakistain’s closest economic partners—to proceed with planned investments in May 2024 underscores these challenges.
Hmmmm…
This decision reflects broader concerns about the investment climate, regulatory transparency, and policy consistency in Pakistain, even for allies with strategic interests in the country.
A critical factor contributing to this environment is the state’s excessive reliance on revenues generated from taxation and borrowing, rather than fostering private sector-led growth. More than 60% of federal resources are allocated to debt servicing, leaving limited fiscal space for infrastructure development, industrial support, or investment incentives. Rather than implementing structural economic reforms to stimulate private sector growth, the regulatory landscape remains a maze where well-connected businesses benefit from exemptions while others struggle under restrictive policies.
Pakistain’s exchange rate volatility and erratic fiscal policies further complicate investment planning. Business forecasting has become increasingly unpredictable, discouraging industrial expansion and reducing foreign direct investment (FDI). Despite initiatives like the Special Investment Facilitation Council (SIFC), Pakistain attracted just $1.9 billion in FDI during the 2023-2024 fiscal year, a figure significantly lower than its annual external financing needs of approximately $25 billion. This mismatch between investment inflows and financial obligations continues to strain economic stability.
Additionally, Pakistain’s Competitive Industrial Performance Index ranking declined from 78th in 1990 to 80th in 2022, reflecting ongoing deindustrialization. Over the past four decades, the industrial sector’s share of GDP has shrunk at an average rate of 0.6% per year, highlighting the persistent shift of capital away from manufacturing toward unproductive sectors like real estate. This trend is not incidental but a consequence of policy choices that incentivize asset price inflation over industrial productivity.
The government’s reliance on International Monetary Fund (IMF) bailouts—now totaling 25 programs—exemplifies the cyclical nature of Pakistain’s financial distress.
As bad as rolling over on a credit card. Why on earth does the IMF do this to the countries that need external discipline instead? They’re making things worse instead of helping.
The latest $7 billion agreement, while providing short-term relief, does not address fundamental inefficiencies in governance, taxation, or energy sector management. While Pakistain has committed to tax increases equal to 3% of GDP, there has been little progress in tackling wasteful government spending, inefficient subsidies, and politically entrenched economic distortions.
Even when foreign investments materialize, they often come with conditions that introduce long-term economic distortions. The Bloody Karachi ...formerly the capital of Pakistain, now merely its most important port and financial center. It is among the largest cities in the world, with a population of 18 million, most of whom hate each other and many of whom are armed and dangerous...
Electric Supply Company serves as a case study, where subsidies granted to attract private investment have resulted in ongoing financial burdens on public resources. Such policies, while initially designed to stimulate investment, frequently create imbalances that hinder sustainable economic growth.
The reluctance of successive governments to implement investment-friendly reforms stems from deep-seated political and economic structures. Expanding the tax base would require challenging influential groups that have historically avoided taxation, while liberalizing trade would threaten domestic industries that rely on protectionist policies. Reducing government expenditures could dismantle key political patronage networks, creating risks for policymakers reluctant to confront entrenched interests.
As a result, Pakistain continues to pursue short-term solutions such as borrowing, securing bilateral assistance, and making superficial policy adjustments, rather than enacting structural reforms. The fiscal deficit remains high, private sector credit is constrained, and economic productivity has stagnated. Despite nominal GDP growth, the 2.4% economic expansion recorded last year remains below the 2.6% population growth rate, indicating a rise in poverty levels rather than meaningful economic progress. Inflation further erodes purchasing power, while job creation remains insufficient to absorb new labor market entrants.
Even when policymakers acknowledge the need for reforms—such as prioritizing manufacturing over real estate, reducing corporate tax burdens, or easing trade restrictions—implementation remains inconsistent. Pakistain’s estimated external financing needs of $146 billion from FY2024 to FY2029 underscore the urgent need for economic restructuring. However,
the difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits... its largest creditor, China, which holds $23.6 billion in bilateral loans, has shown limited willingness to engage in comprehensive debt restructuring, further complicating the country’s financial outlook.
Domestic debt, comprising nearly 60% of Pakistain’s total public debt, presents an even greater challenge. Addressing this issue requires political consensus and fiscal discipline, both of which have been elusive in Pakistain’s governance landscape. The core of Pakistain’s investment dilemma is not simply economic mismanagement, but an institutional structure that prioritizes rent-seeking over productivity.
It’s higher status to come from the ruling class than to work for a living…
Until Pakistain fosters a business environment where success is driven by efficiency rather than political connections, where regulatory frameworks support rather than hinder markets, and where capital is allocated based on economic merit rather than speculative incentives, investment will remain elusive.
[BIZPACREVIEW] Entrenched Democrat Rep. John Larson launched into a red-in-the-face tirade over Elon Musk's mission to root out waste and fraud within government ranks.
Accusing Republicans on the House Ways and Means Committee of keeping the DOGE chief from testifying, Larson screamed and pointed at those on the floor while seemingly questioning Musk's ''genius.''
''Where's the independence of the committee!'' Larson screamed.
''Where's Elon Musk? I'm sure he's a genius and is a very credible person because of the wealth he's accumulated, but that does not put him above the law or the responsibility to come before this committee in this Congress,'' Larson yelled, completely glossing over the groundbreaking innovations and life-saving technology the ''genius'' has gifted the world.
''If he's so great, if these plans and all the fraud and abuse that he found are so imminent, why isn't he here explaining it?'' Larson railed.
The Connecticut Democrat accused Musk of wanting to ''privatize Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid,'' and the fear-mongering rant made its way to X, where Musk allies, including Musk himself, slammed Larson's theatrics:
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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Maybe he got on the wrong side of Nancy Pelosi’s booze vending operation.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 9:17
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[KhaamaPress] Following the surrender of an ISIS member to the United States and President Donald Trump’s praise for Pakistan, Islamabad has become hopeful about renewed cooperation with Washington. However, this move is unlikely to quickly lead to a warmer relationship between the two countries.
Michael Kugelman, a prominent Southeast Asia expert, wrote on Wednesday in Foreign Policy that the relationship between the U.S. and India, alongside Pakistan’s alliance with China, and differing priorities make it less likely for the U.S. to seek deeper cooperation with Pakistan.
The article noted that recent cooperation between the U.S. and Pakistan would not lead to a strategic partnership. After the U.S. attack on Afghanistan, relations and financial aid to Pakistan were increased due to Islamabad’s role in capturing al-Qaeda members and its strategic importance as a transit route for U.S. forces.
However, with the end of the war on terrorism and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, Pakistan no longer holds a defined place in U.S. foreign policy. Islamabad is now attempting to redefine its position by cooperating with the U.S. to combat ISIS.
The U.S. sees cross-border attacks by ISIS-Khorasan as a security threat to itself and other nations. President Trump, in a joint speech in Congress on March 4, surprised many by thanking Pakistan for helping capture Mohammad Sharifullah, a member of ISIS-Khorasan, who is accused of playing a major role in the 2021 Kabul airport attack.
Despite recent efforts by Pakistan to work with the U.S., the seven-year suspension of U.S. security aid and reduced strategic focus on Pakistan since the U.S. exit from Afghanistan have limited the potential for bilateral cooperation. The U.S. and Pakistan may still find some areas for collaboration, especially through the existing counterterrorism dialogues and intelligence sharing on groups like ISIS-Khorasan, TTP, and the Baloch Liberation Army.
However, the deepening of U.S.-Pakistan security ties is limited by Pakistan’s alignment with China and its focus on TTP, which operates in both Afghanistan and Pakistan, creating a complex situation where cooperation on ISIS-Khorasan may not be enough to overcome broader geopolitical challenges.
[Rudaw] A Kurdish politician on Thursday said that the number of Kurds returning to Afrin in northwest Syria has significantly increased after the agreement between the new Syrian administration and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), as Arab settlers continue to leave the city.
"Exact statistics are not available, but after the March 10 agreement, Kurdish returns have significantly increased, to the point where people are returning to their areas minute by minute," Ahmed Hassan told Rudaw. He is the head of the local council for the Kurdish National Council (ENKS/KNC) - a coalition of Kurdish political parties that is considered the main opposition in northeast Syria (Rojava).
"Arab settlers are also returning in large numbers, and there are villages where no Arabs remain," Hassan added.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa and SDF chief Mazloum Abdi signed a landmark agreement on Monday to integrate the SDF into the Syrian state apparatus. The agreement recognizes the Kurds as an integral part of Syria, includes a countrywide ceasefire, and stipulates the return of displaced Syrians to their hometowns.
In 2018, The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor... and its allied Syrian militias seized control of Afrin, a Kurdish enclave in northwest Syria. Thousands of Kurds fled, many moving to the nearby Shahba region and families displaced from elsewhere in Syria moved into Afrin.
International organizations have recorded numerous human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. violations against Afrin’s Kurdish population since 2018, including killings, kidnappings, looting of agricultural crops, cutting down of olive trees, and imposing taxes on farmers.
Syria’s interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa visited Afrin in mid-February and met with locals, the majority of whom were Kurds. He pledged to remove gangs and put an end to the violations, a representative from ENKS who attended the meeting told Rudaw.
Kurds returning to Afrin are no longer subjected to imprisonment or forced to pay levies. Displaced families returning to their homes had been forced to pay fees, ranging from $1,000 to $1,500.
[GEO.TV] In a statement, US special envoy Steve Witkoff accused Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... of making ''entirely impractical'' demands and stalling a deal to release an American-Israeli captive in exchange for an extension of the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ceasefire.
''Hamas is making a very bad bet that time is on its side. It is not,'' a statement from the Witkoff's office and the US National Security Council said.
''Hamas is well aware of the deadline, and should know that we will respond accordingly if that deadline passes,'' it said, adding that Trump had already vowed Hamas would ''pay a severe price'' for not freeing captives.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[Breitbart] The Trump administration has ejected South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool out of the country, declaring him persona non grata after he gave a lecture claiming that President Donald Trump is a white supremacist leader.
The Trump administration has ejected South African Ambassador Ebrahim Rasool out of the country, declaring him persona non grata after he gave a lecture claiming that President Donald Trump is a white supremacist leader.
Rasool also had a history of supporting Hamas, which reportedly led American officials to avoid meetings with him.
Rasool’s ejection is the latest chapter in a confrontation between South Africa and the U.S. over South Africa’s expropriation laws and its alliance with hostile regimes such as Chin and Iran. South Africa equivocated on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and led international efforts to isolate Israel after the Hamas terror attack of October 7, 2023.
The State Department did not have additional details about the ban, and it was unclear whether Rasool was even in the U.S. at the time the decision was made.
Rubio posted as he was flying back to Washington from a Group of 7 foreign ministers meeting in Canada.
It is highly unusual for the U.S. to expel a foreign ambassador, although lower-ranking diplomats are more frequently targeted with persona non grata status.
Rasool previously served as his country's ambassador to the U.S. from 2010 to 2015 before returning in January.
As a child, he and his family were evicted from a Cape Town neighborhood designated for white people. Rasool became an active anti-apartheid campaigner, serving time in prison and identifying as a comrade of the country's first post-apartheid president, Nelson Mandela.
He later became a politician in Mandela's African National Congress political party.
His ouster comes after Trump signed an executive order that cut aid and assistance to the Black-led South African government.
In the order, Trump said South Africa's Afrikaners, who are descendants of mainly Dutch colonial settlers, were being targeted by a new law that allows the government to expropriate private land.
The South African government has denied its new law is tied to race and says Trump's claims over the country and the law have been full of misinformation and distortions.
Trump said land was being expropriated from Afrikaners — which the order referred to as ''racially disfavored landowners'' — when no land has been taken under the law.
[KhaamaPress] Germany’s conservative election winner, Friedrich Merz, has announced that the new government plans to halt the refugee acceptance program, including the acceptance of refugees from Afghanistan. That was this week. Who knows what he'll say next week
He stated that after the formation of the new government, the focus will be on tightening immigration policies and border controls, particularly in coordination with neighboring countries. As part of the strategy, asylum requests at shared borders will be rejected. Merz emphasized that all legal measures will be taken to reduce illegal immigration.
On Saturday, March 8, during a meeting with potential future government partners, Merz highlighted the importance of strengthening border control right from the first day of the new government’s formation. This will be done in a "strong" manner to ensure the protection of national interests and security. He also pointed out that migration restrictions would be included in the new residence law, underscoring a shift in the country’s immigration policies.
Merz, referring to refugee acceptance programs from various countries, including Afghanistan, stated that these programs must come to an end. He made it clear that Germany will no longer prioritize accepting refugees from war-torn regions, signaling a major shift in the nation’s stance on immigration. This decision is likely to impact many individuals who have been seeking asylum in Germany.
German officials also reiterated the suspension of family reunification programs for individuals with only subsidiary protection. Additionally, it was emphasized that the federal police would be empowered to request temporary detention or pre-departure detention for asylum seekers who are obligated to leave Germany. This move is seen as an effort to enforce stricter immigration policies and ensure that those who are not eligible to stay in the country comply with deportation orders.
The incoming government’s approach to immigration represents a significant shift toward stricter border controls and reduced refugee intake. The decision to end the acceptance of refugees from Afghanistan and other countries highlights a focus on limiting asylum admissions in favor of strengthening national security. With measures like tightening border controls and suspending family reunification, the new policies are aimed at reducing illegal immigration and ensuring compliance with deportation laws.
This approach is likely to have significant implications for Germany’s future immigration strategy. It reflects growing concerns over immigration and the need to balance humanitarian responsibilities with national security priorities. How this policy shift will impact Germany’s relationships with other nations, particularly those affected by the refugee crisis, remains to be seen, but it is clear that immigration will be a key issue in the upcoming government’s agenda.
Wandering awfully far from their home on the Afghan-Pakistan border….
[KhaamaPress] Spanish police have arrested 11 Pakistani nationals suspected of being members of the banned militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) in a coordinated counter-terrorism operation in Barcelona.
Spanish authorities have arrested 11 Pakistani nationals suspected of being members of the banned militant group Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The arrests were made in Barcelona through a joint operation conducted by the National Police, Mossos d’Esquadra, and the Italian Polizia di Stato.
The suspects are accused of promoting extremist activities, including violent acts such as beheadings, through encrypted communication channels, the Jerusalem post reported on Monday, March 10.
According to the news agency, the investigations reveal the group had a hierarchical structure and primarily operated through instant messaging platforms. These platforms were allegedly used to spread extremist ideology, recruit members, and identify potential targets across Europe. Authorities have indicated that the arrested individuals had strong ties to the TTP, often referred to as the “Pakistani Taliban.”
According to the Spanish National Police, this operation is part of a broader counter-terrorism effort that has led to 30 arrests in Spain over the past three years. In this latest phase, ten suspects were detained in Barcelona and its surrounding areas, while another was taken into custody in Italy. Reports suggest that one of the key communication networks was managed by women, who played an active role in radicalization and target selection.
Meanwhile, in Pakistan, the TTP has intensified its attacks on security personnel, particularly in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Pakistani officials claim that the surge in terrorist activities is linked to the presence of TTP sanctuaries in neighboring Afghanistan. They have accused the Afghan Taliban of providing shelter and strategic support to the militant group.
However, the Afghan Taliban have repeatedly denied these allegations, insisting that they do not harbor or support TTP militants. Despite Pakistan’s concerns and diplomatic efforts, cross-border security tensions continue to escalate, raising fears of further instability in the region.
[KhaamaPress] Italy has donated €3.5 million to support Afghan returnees, particularly those returning from Iran and Pakistan amid increased deportations.
The International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Afghanistan has reported a €3.5 million donation from Italy to support Afghan returnees. This funding will specifically be used to assist those returning from Iran and Pakistan, addressing the growing number of Afghan migrants returning home under increasingly difficult conditions.
The organization further mentioned that its goal is to assist 25,000 returnees over the next 12 months. These efforts will provide critical support for reintegration, including access to housing, education, and employment opportunities. The IOM’s initiative aims to ease the transition for returnees and reduce the hardships they face upon returning to Afghanistan.
The IOM announced on Wednesday, March 12 that this financial aid would help facilitate the return of Afghan migrants who have been forced to leave their host countries. This funding is expected to address the needs of those facing challenges in reintegrating into Afghanistan society after returning from abroad.
According to the IOM, both Iran and Pakistan have intensified efforts to deport Afghan migrants, leading to a sharp increase in the number of returnees expected in 2025. This trend is seen as a response to mounting pressure to manage migrant populations within these countries, affecting thousands of Afghan families who had sought refuge there.
In 2024, the IOM registered over 1.3 million returnees, with 67% of them being forcibly deported. This statistic highlights the pressure that Afghan migrants are facing in host countries, often being sent back without adequate support or preparation for reintegration. These figures reflect the broader crisis facing displaced people of Afghanistan.
[KhaamaPress] The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) stated on its social media platform X on Tuesday, March 11 that it has been actively working to support drug use disorder treatment in Afghanistan. A major highlight is the donation from the Government of India, which contributed 32 tons of humanitarian aid.
This current support includes essential medicines, medical equipment, winter coats, social support items, and sports supplies, which will help strengthen drug treatment centers in Afghanistan.
India and Afghanistan share strong people-to-people ties. India has consistently demonstrated its readiness to address the urgent humanitarian and developmental needs of the Afghan people, including over the past three and a half years.
Since August 2021, India has provided significant relief to Afghanistan, delivering 27 tones of relief material, 50,000 tones of wheat, 40,000 liters of pesticides, and over 300 tones of medicines and medical equipment. This ongoing assistance highlights India’s commitment to supporting the country during times of crisis.
[Rudaw] Iraqi security forces on Wednesday formed a committee to pursue assailants of Syrian refugees after videos circulated of a group attacking Syrians in the country.
A video circulated on Tuesday of an Iraqi Shiite militia calling itself the "Ya Ali Popular Formations" attacking Syrian refugees in Iraq against the backdrop of the violence in western Syria.
Yet another Shiite group doing the work of IRGC paymasters? Except those fleeing Syria would be Shiite, Alawite, Kurd, of Christian, so why would Iraqi Shiites go after them?
"A security team has been formed to arrest those who attack Syrian citizens working in Iraq and commit violence and inappropriate acts against them," Sabah al-Numan, spokesperson for Iraq’s Joint Operations Command, told Rudaw.
Numan said the team was formed under the directive of Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... i, who on Wednesday condemned the attacks.
"We strongly condemn this criminal act, which violates all human and moral values and constitutes a blatant infringement on human dignity and rights — regardless of nationality or affiliation," Sudani’s office cited Numan as saying.
The attacks drew the condemnation of Damascus. "We condemn the attacks on Syrians in Iraq, as these acts constitute a violation of human rights ...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless... and international law," the Syrian foreign ministry said in a statement.
It called on Baghdad to pursue the perpetrators and hold them accountable.
On Wednesday, Iraqi interior ministry spokesperson Miqdad Miri said that security agencies and intelligence departments recorded several incidents by foreign nationals that incited sectarian hate and violence.
"These actions are rejected, and those on Iraqi soil must respect the law and traditions of its people, and anyone who crosses the line will be handed over to the law," Miri stressed.
Several Syrian refugees in Iraq have been arrested over the past week for allegedly supporting "extremist organizations."
Loyalists of ousted Syrian dictator Assad on Thursday launched an attack on security forces affiliated with the new Syrian leadership in regions to the west of Syria.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights on Monday reported that around 1,500 people, mostly Alawites, have been killed in the violence by government or government-affiliated forces.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Democrat Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has been slammed by critics who have said she is not doing all that she can to stop the Satanic "Black Mass" that will be taking place at the state's Capitol later in March.
The group hosting the event, Satanic Grotto, told the Daily Wire that they will keep pushing to hold the event in the state Capitol building, which has been described by them as an act of "sacrilegious blaspheme." Kelly has ordered that the "Black Mass" take place on the steps of the facility, and not inside.
Michael Stewart, who calls himself the "Devil of Kansas" told the outlet, ''I will be performing that black mass in our State Capitol. If they have to arrest me, then they have to arrest me. I will be putting the call out to every satanist within three hours of Kansas City or Topeka and saying, 'Who wants to march into the Capitol with me?' We'll see how many show up.''
After Kelly ordered the event be moved outside, Stewart said she had only "caved" to Republicans that were pushing her to make the order. The hosts have said that they are inviting all to come to the "Black Mass," a deliberate and explicit mockery of a Catholic Mass.
On Facebook, the event announcement stated, "The Satanic Grotto is proud to present Black Mass at the Capital. An expression of blaspheme and a dedication to Satan," and that the event will take place between 11 am and 1 pm on March 28.
''We have wafers,'' Stewart told news hounds. ''I don't want to comment on whether they're consecrated or not because that would ruin the mystery.''
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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The people of Kansas would be making a huge mistake to let them consecrate the state to evil. That is the purpose of the ritual. Allowing that to happen leads to no good. The governor is adopting a strategy of mitigating the optics of having her state consecrated to evil. The state electorate has chosen poorly in her. This isn’t an equal protection situation. The state hasn’t been asked or accepted a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Mary be performed in the Capitol.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 9:47
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She was probably the guest of honor.
She was also installed by the Education Machine buffeted by Big Ag illegal voter harvesting. It was 'funny' how many counties flipped red after state voter ID. Her reelection year had very little organized Republican effort for some reason; some say the Republican primary well was poisoned.
She was just as tyrannical as the big names with Covid, just Kansans weren't having anything to do with it, other than the normal NPCs.
Governess Catlady: you ranchers need to stop driving more than a half mile a day!
Ranchers: go fk yourself.
Catlady: OK, then we need the National Guard to go take over Agriculture activities.
National Guard, State Congress, Ag Plants, Sheriffs, Ranchers: Ma'am, can we talk to you in private?
[GEO.TV] An Israeli airstrike on the Zeitoun neighbourhood in the southern part of Gaza City killed four people, medics said on Friday, according to Al Jazeera.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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#1
Supermen? No.
Morally superior as a nation to those who’ve been trying and failing to erase Jews from the face of the earth for nearly a century — not to mention militarily and culturally vastly superior? Absolutely.
[GEO.TV] Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Hamas, has demanded that Israel withdraw troops from the so-called Philadelphi Corridor along the Gaza-Egypt border, in line with its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, reported Al Jazeera.
''Reports indicate new proposals are being presented aimed at circumventing the Gaza agreement,'' Qassem told the AFP news agency.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Speaking at the Department of Justice on Friday, President Donald Trump ...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party... declared that the days of the Biden administration weaponizing the DOJ against parents, Catholics, and other Americans are "over" and "never going to come back."
He said that "we must be honest about the lies and abuses that have occurred within these walls," stating that "a corrupt group of hacks and bandidosbully boyz within the ranks of the American government obliterated the trust and goodwill built up over generations. They weaponized the vast powers of our intelligence and law enforcement agencies to try and thwart the will of the American people."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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It will be over once people are charged and tried. Right now, the baloney has just been put back in the fridge for use at a later date.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 9:27
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[GEO.TV] Hamas said on Friday it received a proposal from mediators to restart Gaza ceasefire negotiations and had agreed to it.
Hamas also said that it agreed to release Edan Alexander, an Israeli American hostage, and will release the bodies of four other hostages.
''The movement affirms its complete readiness to begin negotiations and reach a comprehensive agreement on the issues of the [ceasefire's] second phase, calling for the occupation to fully implement its obligations,'' a statement said as quoted by Al Jazeera.
Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... announced on Friday it had agreed to release hostage soldier Edan Alexander — a dual US-Israeli citizen —and the bodies of four other slain captives who are dual US nationals. In response, the Prime Minister’s Office blasted the terror group for rejecting a wider proposal by US special envoy Steve Witkoff that it said Israel had accepted, and accused Hamas of engaging in psychological warfare.
The Witkoff outline, which Israel says was proposed by the US envoy, would reportedly see 10 living hostages released immediately, a ceasefire through the end of Passover, and the release of all the other hostages if an agreement is reached on ending the war.
"While Israel has accepted the Witkoff proposal," the Prime Minister’s Office said, "Hamas remains firm in its refusal and has not budged one millimeter."
The PMO accused Hamas of engaging in "manipulation and psychological warfare."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will convene top aides and senior ministers on Saturday night to hear a briefing from Israel’s negotiators, his office said, and to decide on the next steps.
According to the PMO, negotiators who have spent the past week in Doha conducting mediated talks with Hamas were to be brought home later Friday.
Alexander is a soldier who was stationed near 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 on the morning of October 7, 2023, when he was taken captive by Hamas-led gunnies during their brutal onslaught in southern Israel.
He was born in Tel Aviv, grew up in Tenafly, New Jersey, and joined Golani as a lone soldier after graduating from high school in 2022. He is believed to be the only living hostage with American citizenship still held in Gaza.
A gaunt-looking Alexander appeared in a Hamas propaganda video released in November, in which he called on the Israeli government to bring him home.
In the second half of the video, Alexander speaks in English and calls on the incoming Trump administration to work for his release.
In its official statement, Hamas did not provide the names of the four slain dual US nationals or when they would be released. According to Israeli authorities, Hamas is holding the bodies of dual US citizens Judith Weinstein and her husband Gadi Haggai, Omer Neutra, and Itay Chen.
The terror group said it "affirms its complete readiness to initiate negotiations and reach a comprehensive agreement on the issues of the second phase while calling for the occupation (Israel) to fully implement its obligations."
The Hamas move appeared aimed at driving a wedge between Israel and the US.
The Hamas statement indicated that the terror group had accepted an ostensible proposal that was discussed during direct talks with US hostage envoy Adam Boehler, held in recent weeks.
Those talks infuriated Jerusalem, which wasn’t fully kept in the loop, didn’t like that Boehler was discussing Israeli concessions without its knowledge, and feared it would lead Washington to abandon the remaining Israeli hostages after such a deal was reached.
But Boehler’s remit is specifically to try and free American hostages worldwide and his effort was approved by US Mideast envoy Steve Witkoff when the main track of negotiations was stuck due to Israel’s refusal to begin substantive negotiations on the current deal’s second phase. That phase provides for the release of what are believed to be the final 24 living hostages, the freeing of large numbers of Paleostinian gunnies and detainees, a full IDF withdrawal from Gaza and a permanent ceasefire. The deal, which went into effect on January 19, required that those talks begin on the 16th day.
There had not appeared to have been a breakthrough in Boehler’s direct talks — which broke off after Israel learned about them and leaked their existence to the media, according to two US officials — and talks had returned to their original channel led by Witkoff with mediating from Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and Egypt in Doha. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio ...The diminutive 13-year-old Republican U.S. Senator from Florida, Secretary of State in the second Trump administration... on Monday described Boehler’s direct contacts with Hamas as a "one-off situation" that had not borne fruit.
Hamas’s decision to suddenly agree to release Alexander and the four slain dual US-Israeli hostages pointed to an attempt to divide the US and Israel by daring Jerusalem to deny an opportunity to free Americans.
Channel 12 noted Friday afternoon that Israel took a decision in principle at the start of the war not to favor hostages with dual nationalities over those without in its negotiations for the release of captives.
FAMILIES URGE MINISTERS NOT TO WASTE TIME
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum slammed the PMO statement, stating that the issue of the hostages was more urgent and could not wait until after Shabbat for Netanyahu to meet ministers.
Yeah, yeah. Look to the needs of the whole nation, not just your Bibi-hating selves.
Netanyahu had reportedly initially scheduled a security consultation for Friday afternoon, before his office announced that ministers would meet after Shabbat.
"Twenty-four hours in captivity is 24 hours in hell, torture and abuse, those are 24 hours of danger of death and disappearance," the statement said, citing the principle of Pikuah Nefesh in Jewish law, which allows the laws of the sabbath to be broken to save lives.
In an earlier statement, the forum said it welcomed any opportunity to bring hostages home. Addressing Netanyahu, it said it was "deeply horrified" by the chance that hostages may remain in captivity for another extended period and urged him to end the war in exchange for a deal to release them all.
"If the Hamas announcement is true and gets underway, the return of those hostages should be the opening to an agreement that will bring everyone back in immediately in a single stage," the forum said.
"Otherwise, it is selectivity that separates Zionism from its values and continues the abandonment of October 7 on the basis of a foreign passport. If Israel insists on stopping in the middle [of the deal] and leaves its citizens behind — the entire Jewish people will know that they must issue their child a foreign passport, or they will be abandoned," it said.
During ongoing ceasefire talks in Doha this week, Witkoff reportedly proposed to extend the ceasefire in the Gaza Strip by several weeks in exchange for Hamas releasing five living and 10 dead hostages.
His proposal would reportedly maintain the current ceasefire until the end of both Ramadan and Passover, in exchange for the release of additional hostages, according to an Axios report on Thursday. At the same time, Israel would also be required to resume the flow of humanitarian aid into the war-torn Paleostinian enclave.
Hebrew media outlets reported later Thursday that the US proposal would see the ceasefire extended for a further 42-50 days.
Israel gave "a positive response" to Witkoff’s latest proposal, the Axios report said, while Qatar and Egypt were still awaiting Hamas’s response after delivering the details of the outline to the terror group on Wednesday night.
According to a Channel 12 report on Friday, Israel has demanded that eight living hostages be freed. Hamas, for its part, reportedly demanded that the US guarantee that there will be discussions on phase two of the current deal.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Authorities rescued two teen girls during a sex trafficking operation in Danbury, Connecticut, on Tuesday night, according to police. Five men were taken into custody on a variety of sex crime charges. The raid occurred at what authorities described as a brothel.
Oswaldo Ordonez-Ortega, 39, has been charged with sex trafficking, while the other four men are accused of paying to have sex with underage girls. The two victims, both aged 15, have not been publicly identified. One of the victims was from Queens, New York, while the other recently arrived in the United States from Venezuela
...a country in Central America that sits on an enormous pool of oil. Formerly the most prospereous country in the region, it became infested with Commies sniffing almost unlimited wealth. It turned out the wealth wasn't unlimited, the economy collapsed under the clownish Hugo Chavez, the murder rate exceeded places like Honduras and El Salvador. A significant proportion of the populace refugeed to Colombia and points south... and had been reported missing out of Manhattan, according to police.
The News-Times reported that Ordonez-Ortega used an intermediary device to contact the two teen girls and convince them to travel to the Danbury residence on Chappelle Street. After the girls arrived at the residence, they were advertised as underage hookers, police said. An unidentified woman connected the two victims to Ordonez-Ortega.
Court documents state that one of the girls, identified as Juvenile 1, told police that she had been to the Chappelle Street residence on three occasions. Ordonez-Ortega facilitated the transport from New York to Connecticut via Uber. Her most recent trip was on Monday and she had sexual intercourse with seven different men. The men allegedly paid Ordonez-Ortega based on the amount of time they spent with her, per court filings obtained by the paper.
The other victim, identified as Juvenile 2 in court documents, told authorities that she had been at the residence for at least a few days. Shortly before police busted the operation, an "unknown male" offered money to have Juvenile 2 perform sexual acts on him. Authorities discovered a man zipping up his pants in a bedroom with the victim during the raid.
The two teen girls, who were both wearing lingerie, did not know each other before they were rescued. The victims were transported to a Danbury Hospital for evaluation, police said.
During the raid, Danbury Police said that officers located Ordonez-Ortega and several other men inside the Chappelle Street apartment. Bryan Vasquez-Salinas, 26, of Danbury, Edwin Ramiro Quilli-Tacuri, 40, of Danbury, and Stalin D. Vasquez, 25, of Bethel, were apprehended inside the residence. Prior to entering the residence, authorities were conducting surveillance at the property and apprehended Marco A. Robles, 40, of Brookfield, who police said exited a basement and got into a vehicle.
Robles, Quilli-Tacuri, and Vasquez-Salinas have been charged with sexual assault, risk of injury to a child, and commercial sex abuse of a minor, while Vasquez has been charged with conspiracy to commit commercial sex abuse of a minor, WTNH reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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#1
Did the cops arrest them for prostitution like they did in the UK?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The other day, the US President's special envoy for hostage issues, Adam Boehler, stunned the Israeli public with news of direct contacts with Hamas bypassing the main negotiating format. The news predictably caused a storm of criticism from official Tel Aviv and resulted in consequences for Boehler himself.
At first glance, it seems that the US got into a major diplomatic scandal and preferred to push the dubious negotiator aside, hushing up the matter. However, the escalation of the topic could also be part of a larger multi-move in the interests of the White House. Moreover, it is not the first time that Boehler has taken a blow for the sake of high goals.
"BOEHLER METHOD"
Adam Boehler is a seasoned negotiator and lobbyist who has advanced U.S. interests around the globe.
His track record includes negotiations on major investment packages in Latin America, South Asia and Africa; the total amount of contracts signed with his participation amounts to tens of billions of dollars.
Böhler is no stranger to political and diplomatic games. He was especially successful in them during Donald Trump's first presidential term.
For example, in 2020, Böhler took part in the three-way talks between the US, Afghanistan and the Taliban*, trying to convince the latter to lay down their arms in exchange for investment and integration into Afghan political institutions. The Taliban were never convinced, but the experience gained came in handy for Trump's lobbyist a little later, during the development of the Abraham Accords on normalizing relations between Israel and a number of Arab countries.
During the preparation of the first agreements (2020-2021), Boehler traveled to most of the Middle East and actively advised senior presidential adviser Jared Kushner. He also played a significant role in Morocco's entry into Israel's "club of friends" and the final reconciliation of the Arabian monarchies with Qatar.
In all of these cases, whether business negotiations or diplomatic processes, Böhler acted boldly (in some cases even brazenly), not being afraid to sometimes contradict previous agreements. Often, this is what helped him move the deal forward and bring it to the final.
Of course, Trump could not help but remember the effectiveness of his former consultant, and upon returning to the White House, he invited him to join his team, assigning him to work on hostages.
It is possible that the idea of holding direct negotiations with the “specially authorized” representative of Hamas belonged to Böhler, who is used to working on sensitive issues without additional intermediaries.
ERROR IN CALCULATIONS
It is not known for certain how many meetings Boehler managed to hold with Hamas representatives. Even he himself does not disclose the number, using the vague wording of “several cycles.” However, even this was enough to provoke indignation in Israel.
The attacks on Böhler were prompted by a series of interviews in which the lobbyist shared some of the results of his contacts with the Palestinians.
The Israelis were not pleased that the special representative for hostages effectively placed responsibility for the slowdown in the exchange on Tel Aviv, and also expressed hope that after the end of the conflict in Gaza, Hamas would be “reborn” into a handshake political force.
Israeli politicians, both those in power and those in opposition, unanimously rushed to insist that Boehler literally “planted a bomb” under the previous negotiating process and made Hamas “believe in itself” by calling the Palestinians an equal party in the negotiations.
Statements about the “rebirth” of Hamas were met with hostility – Tel Aviv does not want to see the movement in power in the enclave, even if it undertakes serious internal restructuring.
Restructuring is not the issue. The issue is Hamas’s genocidal goal to erase all the Jews of the world, finishing what Hitler started, and to accomplish the first step by repeating 10/7 over and over until Israel is conquered. Israel cannot allow Hamas to exist after this is over, nor for Hamas’ people to live anywhere within reach.
The scandal became so significant that at one point Secretary of State Marco Rubio had to intervene. He said that direct negotiations with Hamas were a “one-off situation” that “did not produce results.” He called Böhler’s public statements “ambiguous and in places wrong.”
And the very next morning, the American press published “government insiders” about Boehler’s removal from work on the Gaza agreement, which the Israeli press eagerly picked up. Tel Aviv took the news about the excommunication of the Trump lobbyist as a small victory.
However, despite the possible disagreement within the negotiating team, the US prefers not to officially air its dirty linen in public. Boehler continues to appear in press releases from the State Department and the White House, and gives comments to the media on the development of the negotiating process. And, more importantly, he still formally remains the authorized person for hostage affairs.
However, even a cursory comparison of his latest statements shows that his current statements are extremely general in nature, and all of his theses refer exclusively to the work of the official American negotiator on Gaza, Steve Witkoff. He no longer conducts independent work in this direction, at least not publicly.
VACCINATION AGAINST HARMFULNESS
Although Boehler's gamble quickly failed, the US attempts to launch a parallel negotiating track did bear fruit. In particular, the White House created in Israel the conviction that Tel Aviv was not the main link in the settlement scheme.
Washington, if necessary, can negotiate with the Palestinian factions independently – and not only from a position of strength. Is it a coincidence, but during the period of Boehler’s participation in direct negotiations with Hamas, Trump suddenly abandoned most of his own ultimatums and suddenly “changed his mind” about forcibly resettling Palestinians from the enclave.
Given that the US interest in the Gaza negotiations largely revolves around the release of several US hostages from Hamas captivity, such public flexibility is understandable. Tel Aviv was given a transparent hint that Washington has the opportunity to resolve the issue on its own.
This way of putting the question partly explains why Israel so easily agreed to the new version of the “Whitkoff plan” announced by the US delegation at the negotiations in Doha on March 12.
According to it, the number of hostages that Hamas is obliged to release in order to extend the "silence regime" was halved. Tel Aviv will receive five live hostages, as well as nine bodies of Israelis who died in captivity. In exchange, Israel is obliged to resume humanitarian aid deliveries to the enclave.
The temporary ceasefire is planned to be extended until April 20, covering Ramadan and Passover.
And although the Israeli Ministry of Health reports that at least 59 more people are in the hands of Hamas, Tel Aviv is not yet inclined to dispute the White House proposals.
This means that the “Boehler method” worked in some way.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Frosts and snow are expected in Moscow and the region in the coming days, which will remind us of the recently departed winter. This was reported by the leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets.
According to him, snow is possible in Moscow on the night of Saturday, March 15, and in the Moscow region the temperature may drop to -2°C. On Monday, March 17, a cold front will bring local precipitation in the form of snow. At night the temperature will be around -1°C, and during the day around 0°C.
"Nature will come to its senses" only from the middle of next week, the forecaster noted. Thanks to the anticyclone, the weather will improve, and warm March days will set in in Moscow, as well as in Central Russia. Already on Wednesday, the temperature will rise to +6–7°C, and by Saturday, in the middle of the day, the air will warm up to +14°C, Tishkovets added.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, Tishkovets also warned that today, March 14, a nine-point storm is expected in Moscow. On Friday, there will be rain again, and the temperature at night will be +7–10°C, and during the day +11–14°C, which may also become a record. Wind gusts in Moscow in the middle of the day on March 14 will reach a dangerous 18–23 m/s, and the storm will peak between 15:00 and 18:00, which on the Beaufort scale corresponds to a nine-point storm.
According to Tishkovets, with such a wind, the air flow exerts pressure of up to 30-35 kg per 1 square meter, which can lead to the breakage of tree branches, their tilting, obstruction of pedestrian movement, demolition of shaky structures and damage to roofs and chimneys.
[Garowe] Puntland Counter-Terrorism Forces killed the head of drone operations for the remnants of the Islamic State group in Somalia during a military operation in the Calmiskaad Mountains on Thursday, regional authorities said.
The offensive targeted militant strongholds in the areas of Lugta Huraanhur and Togga Raq-raq, where forces also seized military supplies and captured command posts used by the terrorists.
The operation marks a significant blow to the ISIS faction in Somalia, which has faced intensified pressure from Puntland’s counter-terrorism units in recent months.
Authorities did not release the identity of the slain drone commander but confirmed the seizure of equipment and infrastructure critical to the group’s operations in the rugged mountain region.
According to reports, the commander is a foreign national who was killed during an operation around the Lugta-Huraanhur and Togga Raq-raq areas of the Al Miskaad mountains in the Bari region, which has been the battlefield for the last two months.
Officials did not disclose whether additional ISIS fighters were eliminated in the operation but noted that Puntland forces had expanded their control in the area, prompting the militants to retreat. Puntland forces have killed more than 200 ISIS militants throughout the operation.
[GEO.TV] Director General of Inter-Services Public Relations (DG ISPR) Lieutenant General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry on Friday termed India main sponsor of terrorism in 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... , saying the latest attack on Jaffar Express is the continuation of the same policy.
Addressing a media briefing flanked by Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, the DG ISPR said: ''The latest attack in Balochistan and other terrorist incidents that took place in the past—we understand that the main sponsor of these [attacks] is your eastern neighbor.''
The outlawed Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), during Tuesday's attack on the Jaffar Express, blew up train tracks and held over 440 passengers hostage in a day-long standoff with security services in a remote mountain pass in Bolan district.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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#1
Yeah, you gotta watch out for those Hindu pacifist terrorists. They're sneaky.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
03/15/2025 6:51
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[ShabelleMedia] Somali Defense Minister, Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur, announced that more than 150 Al-Shabaab militants were killed in airstrikes carried out in southern Somalia over the past 48 hours.
The strikes targeted areas where the militants had been hiding.
Nur urged the public to avoid areas under Al-Shabaab control, warning that military operations would continue to target the group.
“The airstrikes were successful, and over 150 Al-Shabaab members lost their lives in the operation,” the minister said. “We continue to urge civilians to stay away from areas where the enemy is present. They are being targeted.”
The announcement comes as Al-Shabaab has stepped up its attacks in the central and southern regions of Somalia, attempting to regain control of territories previously lost to Somali and allied forces.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:57 Official summary of the Office for Documentation of War Crimes of Ukraine from 00:00 03/14/2025 to 00:00 03/15/2025.
A total of 28 facts of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
There were reports of three civilians being injured.
DAMAGED:
Three residential buildings.
A total of 28 armed attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 92 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:28 Deputy technical officer of the assault detachment with the call sign "Skipper" showed captured American M-777 towed howitzer.
Our soldiers captured the weapon during the assault on Ukrainian Armed Forces positions in the Kursk border area.
"During the cleanup, together with the fighters, we found a trophy. Slightly burnt. I think for the museum. If you put your hand to it, you can also use it on enemies. There is an ammo pack, you can safely launch it back," says "Skipper".
20:51 Crews of the 120mm Nona-S and 120mm Nona-SVK self-propelled guns continue to destroy enemy equipment and manpower —video.
20:22 From 18.50 to 19.15 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty intercepted and two Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed:
- One - over the territory of the Republic of Crimea,
- One - over the territory of the Belgorod region.
19:30 Ukrainian Armed Forces with the help of drones continue attacks in the Belgorod region. According to preliminary information, there are no casualties.
In the city of Shebekino, an FPV drone struck an enterprise, damaging the walls, glazing of a warehouse, and process equipment. Another drone detonated on the territory of a commercial facility, causing equipment to catch fire — fire crews have extinguished the source of the fire.
19:15 Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine disguise themselves as civilians in the Sudzhan border area, – video.
With the help of the local population, fighters from the North military group detain Ukrainian soldiers dressed in civilian clothes.
The video shows how soldier 229th Support Ccenter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Slutsenko Sergey shows a military uniform under civilian clothes. During the initial interrogation he states that he did not take part in combat operations, worked as a welder.
18:15 Russian Ministry of Defense:
At about 16:20 Moscow time, air defense systems on duty destroyed Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle over the territory of the Belgorod region.
17:49 Direct hit on a dugout
An FPV drone operator of the North group of forces destroyed a dugout with an enemy UAV crew in the Kharkiv region —video.
17:25 Zaporizhia direction: development of the offensive and expansion of the control zone—map
Active military operations continue in the Zaporizhia direction, during which Russian troops are exerting systematic pressure on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, achieving tactical successes in key areas of the front.
– As a result of successful offensive actions, Russian forces liberated about 8 square kilometers of territory in the area of the village of Shcherbaki. This expands the operational control of the Russian Armed Forces and creates opportunities for further offensive.
- Assault units of the Russian Armed Forces have entered the outskirts of Malye Shcherbaki, where intense fighting continues. In the event of a successful breakthrough of the Ukrainian defense in this area, the Russian Armed Forces will have the opportunity to further advance to Kamenskoye and Orekhovo, creating a threat to the strategic encirclement of Ukrainian positions.
- It is reported that Russian units are advancing in the Zherebyanki area with further development of the offensive towards Kamenskoye. Control over this area is important for creating conditions for an offensive on the enemy's deep defensive lines and destroying its logistics.
Thus, Russian troops continue to systematically pressure the defensive positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, creating the preconditions for further development of the offensive and reaching key settlements in the region.
16:51 Destruction of the Ukrainian PzH 2000 by the Lancet in the Seversky direction —video.
16:27 The operator of the Orlan-10 reconnaissance UAV discovered a concentration of enemy equipment and manpower on the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region.
The coordinates were promptly transmitted to the VKS control center. The pilots fired FAB-500 aviation bombs at the target with a universal planning and correction module —video.
15:13 Deputy Head of the Defense Ministry handed over state awards to military personnel who demonstrated courage and heroism while performing combat missions in the area of a special military operation.
13:47 From March 8 to 14, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation inflicted 15 group strikes with high-precision weapons and strike unmanned aerial vehicles, which resulted in the destruction of gas and energy infrastructure facilities that support the operation of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex, as well as facilities of the military-industrial complex of Ukraine.
13:29 Around 10.30 Moscow time by air defense systems on duty intercepted Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle over the territory of the Republic of Crimea.
13:14 UAV crews of the Center group of forces destroyed enemy manpower in the Krasnoarmeysk direction —video.
12:24 Footage of successful urban battles and the liberation of Zaoleshenka near Sudzha —video.
11:55 Changes to map over the past 24 hours:
- Our guys went into Basovka
- Goncharovka was liberated
- Advance in the Guevo area
- Zaoleshenka was released
- Rubanshchina has been liberated
— Adjustment in Dzerzhinsk
— Advance in the Vasyukovka area
11:26 Presumably, this is already the third American M-777 howitzer captured from Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region.
In the footage visible a well-equipped firing position and some ammunition.
10:49 Our drone operators continue to destroy the columns of the retreating enemy:
FPV drone crews from the Rubicon Center hit the vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces units fleeing from the Kursk border area —video.
10:25 122mm D-30 howitzer crews of the 25th Combined Arms Army of the West group of forces continue to destroy manpower, armored vehicles and fortified positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces –video.
09:51 Telegram channel «Fisherman»:
Chronicle of the special military operation for March 13, 2025
– Russian troops launched drone strikes on enemy targets in Dnepropetrovsk and its environs. Ukrainian forces attacked industrial enterprises in the Rostov, Kaluga, Saratov and Voronezh regions.
– In the Kursk direction, Russian troops, after the liberation of Sudzha, continue to advance westward to the border with the so-called Ukraine and are fighting in Basovka, Sumy Oblast.
– In the Pokrovsk-Mirnograd direction, Ukrainian formations continue to attack in the Shevchenko area, trying to drive the Russian Armed Forces out of the settlement.
08:22 On the morning of March 14, air defense forces attacked using four Ukrainian Armed Forces drones aimed at Moscow. The media writes that the attack was carried out by home-made drones.
The attack damaged three cars, a motorcycle and part of an attic in Moscow's Troitsky District. Drone debris also fell on the canopy of an entrance to the Avangard residential complex in the west of the capital. A two-level apartment was damaged there.
Three drones were shot down in the Moscow region this morning, two UAVs were shot down over Balashikha, and another drone was destroyed near the Zheleznodorozhny microdistrict. The debris from the third drone fell on a multi-story building under construction.
8:13 Logistics and control points of the Ukrainian Armed Forces drones in Orekhov and Preobrazhenka under the fire control of the operators of the attack drones of the Shaman unit of the 1455th Motorized Rifle Regiment of the Russian Army, –video.
[KhaamaPress] The United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has reported a significant rise in the price of opium, reaching $750 per kilogram in 2024, ten times more than in 2022. Despite a reduction in production, high prices continue to benefit major narcos.
According to the UN, the reduction in drug production following the Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... ’s ban on opium led to a decrease in heroin and opium trafficking, with seizures of these substances dropping by about 50% since 2021.
The UNODC stated that the high price per kilogram still generates large profits, mainly benefiting high-level traders and exporters within organized criminal groups.
The UN’s report estimated Afghanistan’s opium stockpiles at approximately 13,200 tons by the end of 2022, enough to meet demand for Afghanistan’s opium until 2027.
Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the UNODC, emphasized that the rising price of opium and substantial reserves indicate that drug trafficking in Afghanistan remains a highly profitable illegal business.
Waly added that the profits from drug trafficking flow to transnational organized crime groups, contributing to instability in Afghanistan, the region, and beyond. Addressing this issue requires a coordinated strategy that targets trafficking networks while investing in sustainable economic alternatives for farmers.
The UN highlighted that before the reduction in poppy cultivation, Afghanistan’s opium reserves could have been worth between $4.6 billion and $5.9 billion, representing 23-29% of the country’s GDP in 2023. This could help mitigate some of Afghanistan’s economic problems following the Taliban’s return to power.
Hossein Zolfaqari, the secretary-general of the Iranian Drug Control Headquarters, recently claimed during a Vienna conference that heroin and methamphetamine are being produced underground in Afghanistan, calling it a "serious threat."
[KhaamaPress] The U.S. immigration detention centers for illegal immigrants are at full capacity, housing 47,600 detainees. According to Reuters, this was stated by a senior official from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a call with reporters on Wednesday.
The official mentioned that the Trump administration is seeking additional beds at these centers to increase detention capacity.
The official, who chose to remain anonymous, stated that ICE, in collaboration with the Department of Defense and the Federal Bureau of Prisons, is working to increase the detention facilities’ capacity to manage the growing number of detainees.
Currently, ICE’s budget has been allocated to house 41,500 migrants, but the Trump administration plans to expand this capacity further. The goal is to ensure enough space to handle the increasing number of detainees due to tighter immigration policies.
Tom Homan, a senior official in the Trump administration, stated that the U.S. needs at least 100,000 detention beds to enforce its deportation policy effectively. This would significantly increase the detention capacity to accommodate the anticipated surge in migrants.
Official statistics reveal that since Trump took office, over 32,800 migrants have been detained, with 27% of them having no criminal record. This highlights the government’s growing focus on detaining individuals regardless of their criminal background.
The Trump administration’s effort to expand immigration detention capacity comes as part of its ongoing commitment to aggressive immigration enforcement.
#1
Those are rookie numbers.
Anyone notice they quit posting the day-to-day numbers? Because they're pathetic.
20 million illegal aliens. They'll not be deported at this slow rate for 150 years.
#2
How much more effective will the raids be when Homeland Security and the FBI aren’t full of corrupt officers busily leaking the raid schedule to “activists”, so they can warn the targets?
Beyond that, it’s not even been two months — the tipping point is still approaching.
The inflow at the border has pretty much been stopped already, the money flow to illegal-supporting NGOs is being pinched off — USAID will turn out to be only one of many sources of government funding aiding and abetting the arrival and support of illegals in this country — and the measures to make America unwelcoming to illegal migrants and those legal migrants hostile to American life and culture are in the early stages, like the revocation of visas for those in the Black Bloc-Muslim coalition that’s been rioting through our universities and streets celebrating the war on Israel.
We’re already starting to see illegals self-deporting, which will accelerate as the loss of benefits and protection makes the whole thing considerably more risky and considerably less profitable.
#3
The deportation will mostly be voluntary. The welfare dollar spigot will be shut. Everify will reduce employment options. The threat of permanent banning from coming into the country will discourage more folks. Deportation will be needed for a much lower number of folks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 14:24
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[GEO.TV] A blast tore through a mosque on Friday in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa's South Wazoo district, leaving at least four people injured including district emir of Jamaat Ulema Islam-Fazl (JUI-F), police said.
Abdullah Nadeem, a leader of the JUI-F, was believed to be the target of the blast and had been hospitalised with serious injures, said DPO Asif Bahadur, a district police chief in South Waziristan.
He added that two children were among the injured. It was not immediately clear who was behind the earth-shattering kaboom.
Attacks have been escalating in Pakistain's border regions with Afghanistan in recent months.
Last month, a jacket wallah killed six worshippers Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani — son of Maulana Samiul Haq ...the Godfather of the Taliban, late leader of his own faction of the JUI in Pakistain. Known as Mullah Sandwich for his habit of having two young boys at a time. Now beyond all cares and woe, done in by his secretary in a lovers' quarrel... and chief of his own faction of the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam ...Assembly of Islamic Clergy, or JUI, is a Pak Deobandi (Hanafi) political party. There are two main branches, one led by Maulana Fazlur Rahman, and one that was led by Maulana Samiul Haq. Fazl is active in Pak politix and Sami spent more time running his madrassah until his secretary rubbed him out in a jealous rage. Both branches sponsor branches of the Taliban, though with plausible deniability... (JUI-S) during Friday prayer at the Darul Uloom Haqqani in Nowshera district.
This week in 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... , bandidosmurderous Moslems hijacked a train and held passengers hostage in a day-long standoff with security forces, leaving at least 26 hostages and four security personnel dead.
Last month, a suicide bomber killed six worshippers Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani — son of Maulana Samiul Haq and chief of his own faction of the Jamaat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S) during Friday prayer at the Darul Uloom Haqqani in Nowshera district.
Also:
Slavery has been forbidden in the state of Minnesota since that state's admission to the Union in 1858. The second section of the first Article of the state's constitution, drafted in 1857, provides that:
There shall be neither slavery nor involuntary servitude from the State otherwise there is the punishment of crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted
#3
The Romans had slavery. I fear for Italy's finances.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/15/2025 7:48
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Top||
#4
Minnesota was a free state.
..in the presidential election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln won Minnesota with 63% of the vote, his second largest share of the popular vote after Vermont. In the ensuing Civil War, Minnesotan soldiers fought and died on battlefields such as First Bull Run, Mill Springs, Antietam, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, Gettysburg, Missionary Ridge, and Nashville. Indeed, records show that 21,982 Minnesotans enlisted in the United States armed forces between 1861 and 1865 of whom 635 died in combat and 1,936 as a result of disease or accident. This is equal, proportionately, to 86,000 dead from today’s population. Minnesota paid a high price in blood to save the Union and end the evil of slavery..
This is just the Democrats trying to drag everyone else into the crime they committed. Reparations - let the Donks pay for it themselves.
#5
Here's an idea.
Since the Democrat party fought for and promoted Slavery and Jim Crow Laws for over 125 years. Sue the Democrat party in Federal Court, and force THE DNC to pay all reparations.
Maybe I should apply for Reparations? 🤔
As, my Grandparents were sold/traded by an Eastern European family, who started and owned a Cotton Mill in Western Mass in 1890's. As indentured servants, under contract, they were forced to work 60–72 hrs a week, live in company rented housing, and purchase items from the company store.
[cue slavery-cost industry humming]
Let's jump on this belt and go slumming
Where nothing that's rotten
Is ever forgotten
And Democrats scream, "Keep it coming!"
#14
...I've got an idea: find the people/corporations in Minnesota whose actions led to the need for reparations, and then levy a chunk of that 100M against their human or corporate descendants.
#15
Just send the bill to Target. Let them see how that works out for them. They should have moved long ago, but they're raging lefties themselves so they deserve the pain.
Svetlana with her daughter at a temporary accommodation centre
Svetlana Aleksandrovna and her family did not have time to leave Sudzha because of their eldest 24-year-old son. The guy had a work shift from August 6 to August 7 last year. On the morning of August 6, when the invasion began, the family woke up from a terrible roar - a HIMARS flew into their street, and their house on the outskirts of Sudzha jumped from the blast wave.
“My husband said: ‘That’s it, the offensive has begun,’” recalls Svetlana Alexandrovna.
When the eldest son returned home, it was already impossible to leave. In front of Svetlana and her children, a Ukrainian drone blew up the car in which a family - husband, wife, and child - was trying to leave. All three died.
“The only thing left to do was to hide,” Svetlana states.
Over the course of seven months, Ukrainian soldiers came to the family’s home many times, looking for Russian servicemen and robbing abandoned neighboring houses.
"To put it bluntly, they looted. They took everything: gold, household appliances, cars... We fought to get our car back so many times... Once they almost shot us for it," says Svetlana.
The most terrible moment was when the VSSU officers, whom the Belobrovs had already seen before, came drunk and started threatening.
"At first they all came in uniform, and then we got used to the fact that they were here for two weeks and then they left, they had a rotation. And they came in civilian clothes - like... maybe stoned, maybe shot up, I don't know. And there was a time when [they told us], you're going to go dig trenches now, children - for organs, women - there... That happened. And, of course, it was scary," Svetlana recalls with horror.
There was no connection with the outside world during this time: it was immediately cut off by the occupiers. But they managed to find out what was happening on the other side using the radio, on which they listened to the news. Several times the invaders offered the civilians to go to Ukraine, supposedly in order to then return to Russia through Ukraine, but the Belobrovs refused:
"It's a foreign country. Especially since we've seen enough of all this stuff they do. Well, imagine, here's your thing, and someone came and took it. Disgusting."
And all these months the Belobrovs did not even doubt that our fighters would come and liberate them. There were simply no thoughts that it would be otherwise.
After March 8, Svetlana began to notice that Ukrainians were starting to leave the neighborhood in groups.
"Early in the morning of March 10, another group of Ukrainians passed by. And then I saw another group walking between the houses. Some grimy, all dirty. I thought, maybe another group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was leaving. And then we looked closer, and they had red armbands. My husband said, "Guys, are you ours?" They said, "Ours." Well, there were emotions, of course. I burst into tears," Svetlana wiped away the tears that had welled up again.
Russian special forces warned civilians not to show their faces: a cleanup operation is underway.
“They are great guys,” Svetlana cannot hold back the tears choking her.
At the temporary accommodation point, Svetlana and the children came to their senses a little. The head of the family stayed at home — he hopes to leave the dangerous zone a little later with his things, in the same car that he defended until the very end.
"She is dear to him. He saved up for her, penny by penny. And he is the kind of person who will not abandon his own," explains Svetlana.
The family's favorite cat, who was taken in as a tiny kitten several years ago, will leave the house with the owner. They decided not to take the pet with them to the temporary accommodation center.
"He's a real coward. And how can we deal with an animal in a temporary accommodation facility? We need to feed him and use the cat's toilet. Some people won't like him, some have allergies," says Svetlana.
In the near future, the family plans to move to Kursk, rent a place to live, and find a job. But they probably won't return to Sudzha. Not because the city is broken, but because they had to endure too much there.
Units of the Sever group of forces liberated Kursk's Sudzha on March 13, defeating the enemy and depriving it of some military equipment. The Russian Defense Ministry shared footage from the settlement, which shows buildings destroyed by fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, burnt-out cars, and broken-down bus stops. According to Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, all settlements in Kursk Oblast located around Sudzha have been liberated and cleared.
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the Russian military for liberating the city. The head of state also noted that the Russian Armed Forces continue to liberate settlements in the Kursk region near Sudzha one after another.
On the same day, the Russian Interior Ministry removed 154 people who had disappeared in the Sudzhansky District of the Kursk Region from the wanted list ; in addition, the ministry's employees continue to provide assistance to residents arriving from the liberated territories. In total, more than 240 people were taken out of settlements that had previously been under the control of Ukrainian forces.
More from regnum.ru Rescued from Sudzha: I was not allowed into the cemetery, I buried my mother under the windows
Valentina Glushchenko, a local resident rescued from liberated Sudzha, told IA Regnum editor-in-chief Marina Akhmedova how, under the conditions of Ukrainian occupation, she was forced to bury her 94-year-old mother right under the windows of her house, since the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Ukraine did not allow anyone into the cemetery.
According to the woman, she and her mother, who was paralyzed after a stroke, remained alone in the Kursk borderland. Glushchenko's mother could not walk or talk. On November 8, the woman died.
"She died quietly, I fed her there, that's all. And at lunchtime, somewhere around half past twelve, I said, "Mom, maybe some more water? I said, well, if you understand me, blink. She couldn't blink anymore, nothing, that's it. And she fell to the floor, I lifted her up onto the sofa once, she fell to the floor again, that's how she died. I took her hand and I felt that it, the hand, was already finished. Cold-cold," Glushchenko recalls.
Ukrainian troops refused to let the woman into the cemetery. In addition, Valentina had no opportunity to officially register the fact of her relative's death.
"We decided to bury her right in front of the windows. And now we have to rebury her," said a resident of Sudzha.
The full version of the interview with Valentina Glushchenko about life in occupied Sudzha will be published on the Regnum news agency website in the near future.
Units of the Sever group of forces liberated Kursk's Sudzha on March 13, defeating the enemy and depriving it of some military equipment. The Russian Defense Ministry shared footage from the settlement, which shows buildings destroyed by fire from the Ukrainian Armed Forces, burnt-out cars, and broken-down bus stops. According to Lieutenant General Apti Alaudinov, commander of the Akhmat special forces, all settlements in Kursk Oblast located around Sudzha have been liberated and cleared.
Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked the Russian military for liberating the city. The head of state also noted that the Russian Armed Forces continue to liberate settlements in the Kursk region near Sudzha one after another.
On the same day, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs removed 154 people who had disappeared in the Sudzhansky District of the Kursk Region from the wanted list ; in addition, the ministry's employees continue to provide assistance to residents arriving from the liberated territories. In total, more than 240 people were taken out of settlements that had previously been under the control of Ukrainian forces.
"A deliberate blow was dealt to liberated Sudzha, which hit the building of the local history museum. According to preliminary information, an employee was killed," the acting governor wrote on his Telegram channel.
Khinshtein specified that the woman remained in the city during the occupation and came to the museum on March 14 to inspect its condition. Two more museum employees were injured as a result of the strike and were quickly taken to a medical facility. The acting head of the region expressed condolences to the relatives of the deceased and said that they and the wounded would receive all the necessary assistance.
The historic building itself, an architectural monument from the late 19th century, was destroyed as a result of aggression by Kyiv militants, Khinshtein concluded.
The transfer of Sudzha under the control of the Russian Armed Forces was officially announced on the afternoon of March 13. The Ministry of Defense reported that during the offensive actions, the military of the Russian group "North" also liberated the settlements of Melovoy and Podol. On March 14, the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations reported the evacuation of more than 240 people from the settlements of the Sudzhansky District.
Later, the regional operational headquarters reported that restrictions on visiting and moving citizens would be introduced in a number of settlements in the Kursk border area from March 15. In particular, this concerns some settlements in the Glushkovsky, Sudzhansky, Belovsky, Bolshesoldatsky, Korenevsky and Lgovsky districts.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee Alexander Bastrykin reported earlier that more than 27 thousand people were recognized as victims of the attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region. In total, more than 39 thousand people were questioned in criminal cases on the events in the Russian region. After the invasion of the Kursk region, Kiev militants destroyed more than 20 cultural heritage sites.
“Unfortunately, examples of atrocities and war crimes committed by militants are widespread,” Khinshtein wrote on the Telegram channel
He also added that many cases of vandalism by Ukrainian formations are recorded. At present, 48 destroyed or damaged cultural heritage sites in the border area have been identified. Khinshtein emphasized that the Ukrainian Armed Forces deliberately desecrate Orthodox churches.
The acting head of the region noted that military investigators promptly record all the facts of crimes committed by Ukrainian military personnel at the sites of shelling, question the civilian population and identify persons involved in the atrocities of the occupiers, and initiate criminal cases in each case.
According to him, it is planned to increase the number of military investigators in the region. The acting governor also added that he asked the Investigative Committee of Russia to take control of numerous cases of barbarity and vandalism committed by the Armed Forces of Ukraine against cultural heritage sites.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the Chairman of the Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, reported on March 2 that 652 civilians were killed by the actions of Ukrainian armed formations in the border and rear regions of Russia.
Among them are 23 children. Also, 2,980 people were injured, including 169 children. The head of the department added that all the facts are being investigated, and a total of 2,690 criminal cases have been opened.
The head of the Investigative Committee called the crimes of the Ukrainian Armed Forces against residents in the villages of Nikolayevo-Daryino, Russkoye Porechnoye, Korenevo in the Kursk region horrific. He also did not rule out similar atrocities in other settlements that are temporarily under the control of Kyiv.
More than 27,000 people have been recognized as victims of the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacks in the Kursk region. In total, more than 39 thousand people have been questioned in criminal cases on the events in the Russian region. According to Bastrykin, after the invasion of the Kursk region, the Ukrainian military destroyed more than 20 cultural heritage sites.
On March 13, during a briefing, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, could hardly hold back tears when she cited data on children killed in attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on Russian regions. According to her, 88 children were injured in the Belgorod Region, 12 died. In the Kursk Region, 24 children were injured, four died.
She added that at least 1,700 children have suffered and died as a result of the criminal actions of the Kyiv regime since 2014. Over the past year, the largest number of children injured by the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was recorded in the DPR. There, 127 minors were injured and 11 were killed.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... is planning to implement a tax policy that would make it so that those earning less than $150,000 annually will not pay any income tax, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick said on Wednesday.
"I know what his goal is — no tax for anybody making under $150,000 a year. That's what I'm working for," Lutnick told news hounds, per Newsweek. Lutnick said that the tax plan is possible without causing the debt to increase at a massive rate and that the Trump administration can do so by taking on overseas tax fraud.
Trump's proposal would impact the vast majority of Americans, as most do not earn over $150,000 a year in income. In 2022, 93 percent of all Americans who were working over the age of 15 were not earning that much income, per data from the Census. However,
if you can't say something nice about a person some juicy gossip will go well... the measure may decrease tax revenue by a significant amount.
Lutnick reiterated that the plan is the eventual goal of the Trump administration, and that other tax measures will include eliminating taxes on tips, Social Security payments, as well as decreasing the corporate tax rate. The Commerce Secretary said that the plan would be bringing in more tax revenue through tariffs as well as clamping down on overseas tax fraud and evasion. Lutnick said that many fat merchantmen claim to be under the control of other countries such as Liberia in order to avoid US tax rates. "All those ships are paying no tax, it's a tax scam."
He also turned his attention to Ireland, where some businesses hold their intellectual property rights because of more favorable tax law.
"Ireland has a $60 billion surplus... because our companies drop their IP there. They pay Ireland the money — tax scam," Lutnick said. "How about we end the tax scams." Lutnick also spoke about Trump's immigration "Golden Card," visas which will propose that if an immigrant pays $5 million to the US, they will automatically get those rights associated with a Green Card.
"The rest of the world leans on our economy, breathes off our economy - not only is our economy $29 trillion, but we consume $20 trillion a year. We are the buyer of everybody's stuff," Lutnick added. "So, we are the buyer of everybody's commodities, products, goods and services. Everything comes from us. Let them pay a membership fee. We all understand that model - let them pay."
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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#1
Trump’s ‘I have a dream’ speech on taxes. Congress likes complicated tax laws…. It rewards supporters and punishes opponents.
States and Federal Gov's should abolish all personal Income Taxes and implement a sales tax.
Then citizens would clearly know how much they are being screwed over at every purchase.
It would likely have a serious effect on Gov spending and who gets elected going forward. While also forcing the Gov's to closely track where every penny goes and how it is spent.
Likely a lot less politicians becoming Millionaires while in office.
#7
I love how they come straight out and admit the little guy is carrying the burden.
This is weak tea - abolish the IRS entirely and replace it with nothing.
#2
Q1. Does she consider herself "educated"?
Q2. How come "African-American" proponents of unrestricted immigration never look at how blacks are treated in Latin America?
#3
The Peoples Republic of California is about the only place with Illegals picking crops. (veggies and fruits)
Most of our crops are corn, wheat, oats, rice and cotton. Machines pick them.
#5
And speaking of spillover from last month, iconic images (the casta thing), and public broadcasting found comedy...
Black History Month! Always fresh looks
And fresh meat from the usual cooks!
PBS: "Still to come:
Untold Stories" (more chum?)
Overlaying that view of the Brooks.
#9
Jasmine Crockett is definitely a gift that keeps on giving.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
03/15/2025 7:57
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#10
Americans freed slaves and returned them to Africa to the present day Liberia. Those former slaves then made slaves of the locales. "Quelle Surprise"
#13
Grom, I once got curious about why there were no great black Argentine black soccer players. The answer surprised me.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 9:25
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#14
The winery/vineyards I worked on had all their workers doc'd. Crew chiefs were year round and often organized their harvest crews year to year as they didn't want greenhorns F'n with 100 yr old zin vines.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
03/15/2025 10:06
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#15
"Fundamentally non-serious". Giving a black woman a position of authority is a "fundamentally non-serious" decision.
#18
Do they *have* to be illegals?
Lots of places have a strong seasonal demand for service and ag workers. Seems simple enough to create a seasonal visa system now that we have invented the computer.
According to several German newspapers, the German Bundesnachrichtendienst (damn those Germans for making things unpronounceable and unreadable!), the foreign intelligence service, has known for five years that the COVID-19 virus was whipped up in the Wuhan Institute of Virology.
For five years, the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) has assumed that the coronavirus originated in a Chinese laboratory. The BND classifies the laboratory theory as "probable" and is "80 to 95 percent" certain. Since then, the German government has kept secret the BND's findings that the virus originated in the biolab in Wuhan. This is reported by NZZ, Zeit, and Suddeutsche Zeitung.
To date, it remains officially unclear whether the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus is of natural origin or originated in a laboratory. Despite intensive research, no intermediate host has been identified that naturally transmitted the pathogen from animals to humans. At the same time, controversial experiments at the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) that supported the laboratory theory came into focus.
Virologists meeting at the foreign intelligence service?
According to reports, several scientists at the German foreign intelligence service, the Federal Intelligence Service, have been meeting in recent weeks, initiated by the Federal Chancellery. The first meeting took place last year, with the participation of renowned virologists. A central topic of these discussions was the possible origin of the virus. According to Zeit, the Federal Chancellery has been keeping relevant information under wraps for five years.
What do you want to bet that the CIA knew this too, and that the Germans, the CIA, MI6, and all the big intelligence agencies assessed this to be the likeliest explanation around the same time but decided to hide the fact for...reasons? Since they likely financed the 'off-shore' research through Fouci and NIH cutouts, of course they knew.
Hmm. I wonder what those reasons could be...
In the United States, a Republican-led congressional investigative committee has been investigating the origins of the pandemic and policy measures such as lockdowns in recent years. Immunologist and longtime director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), Anthony Fauci, has testified several times. Thousands of pages of documents have been released during the investigation, providing a new perspective on the events.
Particularly explosive are the findings from so-called gain-of-function (GoF) experiments conducted at the Wuhan Institute of Virology. These experiments involve deliberately modifying viruses to increase their transmissibility or virulence. Official data from the US government platform USAspending.gov show that the EcoHealth Alliance received approximately $94.3 million in taxpayer funds from NIAID—the agency Fauci headed for 38 years—between 2008 and 2024. It is striking that, starting in 2014, increased funding was provided for research into bat viruses.
Surely it had nothing to do with the fact that the United States FUNDED THE RESEARCH THAT CREATED THE VIRUS and that all these governments have deep ties to the US intelligence "community," which was busily covering up the true origins of the pandemic.
Not to mention that all these governments were using the crisis to implement sweeping changes to their societies, impose draconian restrictions on citizens, and bully any dissenters who just happened to be less inclined to submit to government fiat.
You have to simultaneously admire and despise the way they talk out of all four sides of their mouth on both their faces when they release another half-truth
Trump admin given bombshell intelligence from ally that Covid was lab-made... and proof of new China program https://t.co/iKh7YqqWdq
The Daily Mail's reporting gives some details on how the Germans came to the conclusion. Not that common sense wasn't enough to make it more likely than not that it came from the lab, but the evidence piled up to increase the probabilities.
In Wuhan, the BND agents 'struck gold,' coming 'as close to the origins of the pandemic... as possible in China,' German media Die Zeit reported.
They found unpublished dissertations from 2019 and 2020 that allegedly discussed the effects of coronaviruses on the human body.
Additionally, uncovered materials revealed Chinese scientists had 'an unusually large amount of knowledge about the supposedly novel virus available at an unusually early stage.'
Based on the materials BND agents found and analyzed, they used a 'Probability Index' to measure the reliability of information, which determined the lab-leak theory was 'probable' with an '80 to 95 percent' certainty.
Dr. Richard Enbright, long accused of being a COVID "conspiracy theorist" said the obvious: everybody knew that it came from the lab, but covered it up.
Sic. Dr. Richard H. Ebright, Board of Governors Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Rutgers University. You can follow him on x here: https://x.com/R_H_Ebright.
People involved in Saaremaa told the German media outlets they took their findings to German officials in 2020, including the Federal Chancellery and the state secretary responsible for intelligence services.
A federal chancellery secretary was also briefed, the agents claimed, and then Chancellor Angela Merkel was also reportedly made aware, according to Die Zeit.
When asked to confirm if she was informed, Merkel declined to answer, Die Zeit reported.
People involved in Project Saaremaa told the media outlets the German government took no action and the World Health Organization was never informed: 'The BND was sworn to secrecy.'
Dr Richard Ebright, a professor of chemical biology at Rutgers University, told DailyMail.com: 'The main points are clear: All informed persons - without exception - knew by early 2020 that SARS-CoV-2 likely entered humans through a research-related incident in Wuhan.
'But most chose to lie or to stay silent.
Convenient that. Revealing that the virus was concocted through the collaboration of Western governments--the UK was implicated as well through the EcoHealth Alliance--might inspire a bit less trust in the good faith and competence of government authorities. So they lied.
Best hide the facts lest you and I think less of governments. The conspiracy was not a "theory," but a fact.
There is lots of evidence that Anthony Fauci was deeply involved in changing the CIA analysis of the virus' origins, and allegations (which I believe to be true, but cannot prove) that the CIA altered its analysis at his behest. Far be it from me to allege that the CIA or other intelligence agencies might be anything but 100% transparent and truthful, but it appears that in this specific case at least they might have, gasp!, lied to all of us.
Shocking, I know. Truly unprecedented.
What is so personally frustrating to me and surely is for others, including many of you, is that we all pretty much knew this and were slandered, censored, and banished from polite society for stating a pretty obvious truth. It was forbidden to say, and so many of our fellow citizens not only went along with the lie, but cheered on the authorities for punishing us for speaking up.
They used the might of government to censor us, encouraged others to shun us, and did it all with our own tax dollars. The Pravda Media went all-in on pushing the lie--and surely they suspected it was a lie--and called us racist and conspiracy theorists.
Most of those same people will now shrug and move on, never acknowledging or paying a price for gaslighting us all and furthering the divide in society.
The original files behind all these assessments and the notes of the discussions should be released. Lay out all the facts. Expose all the lies. Hide nothing.
None of this should be swept under the rug. Not this time.
#1
"damn those Germans for making things unpronounceable and unreadable!"
You never heard about "Rindfleischetikettierungsüberwachungsaufgabenübertragungsgesetz" (Beef Labeling Monitoring Task Transfer Act), did you?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/15/2025 6:49
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Of course, if the names of laws are too complicated, use their abbreviations. How about "SozSichAbkÄndAbk2ZAbkTURG", the "Gesetz zu dem Zusatzabkommen vom 2. November 1984 zum Abkommen vom 30. April 1964 zwischen der Bundesrepublik Deutschland und der Republik Türkei über Soziale Sicherheit und zu der Vereinbarung vom 2. November 1984 zur Durchführung des Abkommens vom 11. Dezember 1986" (Law on the Supplementary Agreement of November 2, 1984 to the Agreement of April 30, 1964 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Turkey on Social Security and to the Agreement of November 2, 1984 on the Implementation of the Agreement of December 11, 1986”).
Elon, are you busy right now?
Posted by: European Conservative ||
03/15/2025 7:46
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Do you think that we simply make this stuff up ?
#4
Say what you want about German, at least it's got an easy R. Try saying "Secretario de Desarrollo Rural" cinco tiempos espeedio without being born to it, eh?
#5
So the German bought into the American plan to obfuscate the American funding of the creation of the Covid virus in a weapons lab of our most threatening enemy. I’ld like to see Fauci in jail ASAP as the Biden’s absolute power to pardon does not extend to a proxy clown doing shenanigans with an auto pen.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
03/15/2025 10:15
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#6
So the German bought into the American plan to obfuscate the American funding of the creation of the Covid virus in a weapons lab of our most threatening enemy. I’ld like to see Fauci in jail ASAP as the Biden’s absolute power to pardon does not extend to a proxy clown doing shenanigans with an auto pen.
I'll try to be simple so people will actually get it:
The German government, lead by Merkel, bought into the American bureaucracy's war against the American people.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] At the beginning of the Ukrainian tragedy, I had a keen sense of powerlessness and pity for people who did not want to see the obvious and predictable. Then, as a result of their emotional reactions to my persistent attempts to convey to them what I saw and knew, a feeling of disappointment and resentment arose. Lately, it has become indifference. I no longer want anyone's "insights" or "repentances" under the pressure of new circumstances.
It is easy to predict that, integrating into the new trend and deprived of the global USAID pacifier, the new "creative class" will once again restructure itself, its chameleon scales will sparkle with new colors of the time, and in a couple of years they will be inspired to tell in Moscow how they "fought" the Nazi regime in Kiev, how they hid their true beliefs from the authorities, and what valuable experts and propaganda personnel they are. I wish them neither good nor evil. They are so arranged and the only thing worth regretting today is so many words and emotions wasted yesterday.
There is no inertia in the world stronger than the inertia of the closest circle of friends, colleagues and relatives, blackmailing rejection, condemnation, loneliness. The price of intellectual freedom is the fastest growing indicator of our time, not measured by any of the exchanges. This is the only battery that feeds hope.
(c) Oleg Yasinsky
You just need to cut off in advance those who change their skin so easily.
In 2014, I excluded all such people from all possible social circles and subsequently saved myself from almost all disappointments and grief on their account.When you understand that you are not on the same path with these people, then getting rid of social contacts is quite simple. Although, of course, I understand those for whom this issue affected close relatives and even family. It's more complicated there, but of course there's nothing new about it, given the rich history of civil wars.
Protests erupt across northeast Syria as activists reject the new constitutional declaration, calling for decentralization and minority rights. Will the new government address these concerns? #Syria#Qamishli#Kurdistanhttps://t.co/7d5DtW5Xza
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) March 14, 2025
Posted by: Fred ||
03/15/2025
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In Britain, Ugandan United Nations (UN) judge Lydia Mugambe has been found guilty of slavery. This is reported by the Associated Press (AP).
"A British jury has convicted UN judge Lydia Mugambe of forcing a young woman to work as a slave and provide unpaid childcare after Mugambe tricked her into coming to Britain," the agency said in a statement.
According to the agency, the prosecution proved that the UN judge "exploited and abused her victim, taking advantage of her lack of understanding of her rights to properly paid work and deceiving her about the purpose of her visit to the UK."
According to UK department lawyer Caroline Howie, Mugambe conspired with Ugandan Deputy High Commissioner John Mugerwa to enable the victim to obtain a visa "under the pretext that she would work in the diplomat's household and office". Once the victim arrived in Britain, she was taken to Mugambe's home, stripped of her papers and forced to work as an unpaid nanny.
Mugambe denied forcing the young Ugandan woman to do housework and said she had "always" treated her with love, care and patience. The trial was adjourned because the defendant appeared "unwell". Mugambe is set to be sentenced on May 2.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Maria Orlova and Anastasia Krasota
[REGNUM] Inna Demyanenko, deputy editor-in-chief of the Sudzhanskie Vesti newspaper, was missing for seven months. She had been missing since August 5, 2024, the day Sudzha in the Kursk region was captured in an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Now that the city has been finally liberated by Russian troops, it turns out that our colleague, about whom we wrote, is alive and well: on March 13, the acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinshtein, met with her and other residents evacuated from Sudzha.
Inna is currently in a temporary accommodation center in Kursk. Here is what Khinshtein said about meeting her on his Telegram channel: “Inna said that she did not want to leave, she did not believe that everything was so serious. And when she realized that it was dangerous, it was already too late — the Ukrainian Armed Forces did not let her go. She really wanted to read, but there was no light, candles, or lanterns. Now she is learning to enjoy simple things — food, water, and freedom.”
IA Regnum was able to talk to her and find out how she survived in the occupied city. After all, until yesterday, all that was known was that Inna Viktorovna worked the entire working day on August 5 and left her editorial office, located in the very center, on Sovetskaya Square, in the evening.
The city was captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces at night. The last time she was online was on the morning of August 6, 2024.
"My family and I fled under shelling, grabbed our documents and left for Kursk. Inna Viktorovna last contacted us on August 5, now her phone is unavailable, and we don't know where she is or what happened to her," the journalist's colleague Elena said in August 2024.
After contact with Demyanenko was lost, Olga Boldyreva, chairwoman of the Kursk Region Union of Journalists, said the organization was actively searching for and compiling lists of journalists from border areas to assist in the investigation. She stressed the importance of joining efforts to ensure the safety of journalists.
It is now known that Inna simply had no way to report herself: there was no electricity or internet in Sudzha. Accordingly, her newspaper's website was blocked, as was her ability to access social networks. It was even impossible to take the now-familiar photos on a phone: there are no photos or videos of those terrible months.
The woman, like other residents who remained in the city, had to live through the end of summer, autumn and winter in extreme conditions.
"It's a very long conversation about how I lived, how I saved myself, " she says. " We were surrounded. We lit a fire to cook food." At first, we got food from unattended chain stores. And then mutual assistance between people saved us, and everything was fine with food.
"I recognized neighbors I hadn't seen before. We stuck together. We survived," Demyanenko shares sparingly. As for the Ukrainians, she says that her relations with them were smooth, they were all simple soldiers, simple people, and they behaved politely. She is a religious person, and this supported her greatly during the difficult times of occupation. She prayed that the Lord would arrange everything.
The thought that she needed to continue living saved her. But it was very hard: despondency overtook her, the woman worried that everyone had forgotten about them, that no one needed the Sudzhans. And when the Russian military finally came in, Inna experienced a sea of emotions:
"We went out into the street, our soldiers are coming. We were really looking forward to this day of liberation, we were really looking forward to it, because almost eight months have passed. May God give health to the soldiers who liberated us, and to the people who prayed for us."
When it became clear that there was fighting for Sudzha, Inna decided to dye her hair. She says that shells were flying, everything was exploding and shaking, and she heated up some water and started to dye her hair. Although she was shaking, trembling and scared. But the Lord really arranged everything.
Most of all, Inna missed fresh bread and books. In Kursk, she was surrounded with care and attention, and she is gradually recovering from what she had experienced. She says that she simply did not expect such care. Only there did she learn that her colleagues were looking for her through all possible channels. And if at least some news had arrived earlier, it would have helped a lot.
Demyanenko is still unable to distract herself from fresh memories, she says, put me in a movie theater and put on a comedy - and I'll leave. I don't want to see comedies. She gradually learns to smile again and begins to look in the mirror: "I didn't look in any mirror there, I just didn't want to. We were so unkempt."
There is a corner in the temporary accommodation centre with books that residents of Kursk bring there, and the woman immediately took a stack of books for herself, since she needs to train her brain.
"It was hard to think because there was no TV, no information, no communication with intelligent people with whom you communicated before. I need to restore my memory - I can't remember anything. I need to recover again and think about how I will get back the ability to read my favorite authors. That's why I want to read Dontsova, too, just to somehow make a "hole" for other books," she says.
Inna told us that she was happy to go home right now - her beloved cat Basik and another cat that had strayed during the occupation were still there.
"I had already unearthed and trimmed my favorite roses. Our daffodils had already all come out of the ground. I was getting ready to evacuate quickly. I grabbed a bag containing my autumn-winter wardrobe and arrived with it," the journalist says.
But while there is no electricity or gas, it is impossible to live at home. We must wait until at least something is restored in the city. And then, perhaps, we will be able to return to work.
"Sudzhanskie Vesti" is a classic regional newspaper that recently celebrated its centenary. The newspaper was among the leading ones in the region; the authors of articles in Soviet times were tractor drivers, milkmaids, cultural workers, village council workers, builders...
In the 1940s, the newspaper published materials on the restoration of the national economy after the fascist occupation. Apparently, now Inna Demyanenko and her colleagues will have to recall the experience of their predecessors from those years.
Moreover, she is a veteran of the regional press, a member of the Union of Journalists of Russia. Having graduated from the journalism department of the Voronezh State University, she worked in the media for more than 30 years. And she has been working in the editorial office of the Sudzhan newspaper since 1996.
She has enough professionalism and objectivity; the Union of Journalists of Russia notes the high qualifications and active life position of the heroic deputy editor-in-chief.
Meanwhile, this week, 154 people evacuated from the territories of the Sudzhansky District of the Kursk Region liberated from the occupiers will be removed from the wanted list by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs as missing. Although not everyone was so lucky... These people contact their relatives and tell about their fate. According to the assistant to the head of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations, Yuri Mezinov, the rescued people are in different emotional states. Some of them could not cope mentally, and psychotherapists will work with them.
But, of course, their return is a joyful event in any case. "Families will now find their loved ones. Can you imagine, not knowing or seeing anything for more than six months? And now imagine what a holiday it is," Mezinov noted in a conversation with the media.
On behalf of the entire journalistic community, we say: we are happy for Inna Demyanenko, for her return to normal life from that terrible "gray zone" where no one knew whether she was alive. Now the main task is to improve her health.
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.
[Rudaw] Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia' al-Sudani on Friday announced the killing of senior Islamic State (ISIS) leader Abdullah Makki Muslih al-Rafiei, "one of the most dangerous terrorists in Iraq and the world,” in an operation carried out with the support of the United States-led global coalition. 
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
Khalil is expected to remain in the country after a federal judge, 
[WashingtonFreeBeacon] 
...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US...
...The man who was so stupid he beat fourteen professional politicians, a former tech CEO, and a brain surgeon for the Republican nomination in 2016, then beat 
[DailySceptic] It would not have been surprising at all that a visitor to 
...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 
...hereditary prime minister of the Great White North...
... the personification of Somali state failure...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...the occupiers of Greek Asia Minor...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
[Breitbart] The Trump administration has ejected 
[KhaamaPress] Germany’s conservative election winner, 
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Democrat Kansas Governor Laura Kelly has been slammed by critics who have said she is not doing all that she can to stop the Satanic "Black Mass" that will be taking place at the state's Capitol later in March.
...Never got invited to a P.Diddy party...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
...the 
