[Federalist] Before Republican Rep. Mike Johnson became speaker of the House, he wasn’t an open proponent of bankrolling the Russia-Ukraine war. Even the Lousiana native’s first few months with the gavel were marked by his repeated pledge that the lower chamber would not pass legislation promising money to secure other nation’s borders while ours was still under attack.
Now that his leadership is threatened thanks to his continual collusion with Democrats and establishment Republicans, however, the self-proclaimed "wartime speaker" is abandoning his record of Ukraine skepticism in favor of joining the push for an endless stream of money to a corrupt overseas regime.
In May 2023, Johnson, then an individual member, declined to support another blank check to Kyiv because the U.S. "should not be sending another $40 billion abroad when our own border is in chaos, American mothers are struggling to find baby formula, gas prices are at record highs, and American families are struggling to make ends meet, without sufficient oversight over where the money will go." Less than one month before becoming speaker, Johnson also voted no on a bill that promised $300 million more to Ukraine.
Even Johnson’s post-speaker election remarks, which featured shoutouts to Israel and other foreign policy issues, made no mention of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Shortly after he met with President Joe Biden at the White House to discuss passing Israel and Ukraine spending packages, Johnson changed his tune.
#4
WTF, utterly impossible assertion given the explicit constitutional language about impeachment. - "The Senate voted to deem both articles of impeachment against Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as unconstitutional — cutting the trial short without any votes to convict or acquit.
Both votes mostly adhered to party lines, aside from Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) voting present on the first article. Senate Democrats for months had repeatedly cast the impeachment against Mayorkas as a sham, forecasting their ultimate decision to dispose of the trial on Wednesday."
[Federalist] The Supreme Court heard arguments Tuesday morning in the case of Fischer v. United States, one of the many criminal cases arising out of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol. Like defendants in a large subset of those cases, Joseph Fischer was charged, among other offenses, with obstruction of an official proceeding under 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2). Fischer’s case in the Supreme Court challenges whether the events of that day can be prosecuted using this obstruction statute.
Most of the justices seemed dubious, or at a minimum concerned, about the Department of Justice’s very broad interpretation of the statute allowing it to sweep in the kinds of conduct that Jan. 6 encompassed. If the court rules for Fischer, his case will automatically apply to all Jan. 6 cases that include a Section 1512 charge and radically change those cases, including the prosecution against former President Donald Trump in D.C. In virtually all instances, such a ruling would likely require that the Section 1512 charges be dismissed outright.
There are a number of different obstruction statutes in the U.S. code, but none of the others apply to Jan. 6. And Section 1512 itself is largely aimed at other sorts of conduct. Subsection (a) prohibits killing or using physical force or threats of force against individuals to affect their testimony or evidence they might have. Subsection (b) prohibits the same sort of obstructive conduct where the person uses intimidation, corrupt persuasion, or misleading conduct toward the witness.
Subsection (c), at issue here, was enacted after the Enron scandal and was aimed primarily at preventing people from destroying or altering their own documents to obstruct an official proceeding. Subsection (c)(1) is clearly limited to impairment of "records, documents, and objects" for use in official proceedings. Subsection (c)(2) criminalizes "otherwise" obstructing official proceedings.
[MAIL] Lawmakers are demanding answers after it was revealed the US is sending taxpayer dollars to a Chinese army lab to make bird flu viruses more dangerous to people. His work continues.
Eighteen members of Congress are demanding answers from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) about the project, which was first revealed by DailyMail.com.
It is part of a $1million collaboration between the USDA and the CCP-run Chinese Academy of Sciences - the institution that oversees the Wuhan lab at the center of the Covid lab-leak theory.
In a scathing letter to USDA Secretary Tom Vilsack last week, the bipartisan group said: 'This research, funded by American taxpayers, could potentially generate dangerous new lab-created virus strains that threaten our national security and public health.'
The research comes as fears about bird flu rise. A farm worker in Texas caught the H5N1 strain that is racing through cattle across the US earlier this month, becoming only the second ever American to be diagnosed - and experts are bracing for more cases.
In February, it was revealed the United States government was funneling $1million to China to see if scientists could make 'highly pathogenic avian influenza' more contagious to mammals using gain-of-function research.
Government records showed the collaboration began in April 2021 and is scheduled to be funded through March 2026. The USDA previously told this website the project was applied for in 2019 and approved in 2020.
The research involves infecting ducks and geese with different strains of viruses to make them more infectious, and studying the viruses' potential to 'jump into mammalian hosts,' according to research documents obtained by the watchdog group White Coat Waste Project and shared exclusively with this website.
It is being funded through the USDA and the main collaborators on the project are USDA Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory, the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the University of Edinburgh’s Roslin Institute - a Wuhan lab partner.
And it has been ongoing despite similar research being restricted in 2022 and growing concerns that dubious Chinese studies may have started the Covid pandemic.
[TheIntercept] American forces did most of the heavy lifting responding to Iran’s retaliation for the attack on its embassy in Damascus.
THE UNITED STATES shot down more drones and missiles than Israel did on Saturday night during Iran’s attack, The Intercept can report.
More than half of Iran’s weapons were destroyed by U.S. aircraft and missiles before they ever reached Israel. In fact, by commanding a multinational air defense operation and scrambling American fighter jets, this was a U.S. military triumph.
The extent of the U.S. military operation is unbeknownst to the American public, but the Pentagon coordinated a multination, regionwide defense extending from northern Iraq to the southern Persian Gulf on Saturday. During the operation, the U.S., U.K., France, and Jordan all shot down the majority of Iranian drones and missiles. In fact, where U.S. aircraft originated from has not been officially announced, an omission that has been repeated by the mainstream media. Additionally, the role of Saudi Arabia is unclear, both as a base for the United States and in terms of any actions by the Saudi military.
In calculating the size of Iran’s attack and the overwhelming role of the United States, U.S. military sources say that the preliminary estimate is that half of Iran’s weapons experienced technical failures of some sort.
“U.S. intelligence estimates that half of the weapons fired by Iran failed upon launch or in flight due to technical issues,” a U.S. Air Force senior officer told The Intercept. Of the remaining 160 or so, the U.S. shot down the majority, the officer said. The officer was granted anonymity to speak about sensitive operational matters.
Asked to comment on the United States shooting down half of Iran’s drones and missiles, the Israel Defense Forces and the White House National Security Council did not respond at the time of publication. The Pentagon referred The Intercept to U.S. Central Command, which pointed to a press release saying CENTCOM forces supported by U.S. European Command destroyers “successfully engaged and destroyed more than 80 one-way attack uncrewed aerial vehicles (OWA UAV) and at least six ballistic missiles intended to strike Israel from Iran and Yemen.”
Israel says that more than 330 drones, low-flying cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles were launched by Iran, including some 30 Paveh-type cruise missiles, 180 or so Shahed drones, and 120 Emad intermediate-range ballistic missiles, as well as other types of weapons. All of the drones and cruise missiles were launched from Iranian territory, Israel says. Some additional missiles were also launched from inside Yemen, according to IDF data.
Most media reports say that none of the cruise missiles or drones ever entered Israeli airspace. According to a statement by IDF spokesperson Adm. Daniel Hagari, some 25 cruise missiles “were intercepted by IAF [Israeli Air Force] fighter jets outside the country’s borders,” most likely over Jordanian territory.
Israel’s statement that it shot down the majority of Iranian “cruise missiles” is probably an exaggeration. According to U.S. military sources and preliminary reporting, U.S. and allied aircraft shot down the majority of drones and cruise missiles. U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said that the Royal Air Force Typhoons intercepted “a number” of Iranian weapons over Iraqi and Syrian airspace.
The Jordanian government has also hinted that its aircraft downed some Iranian weapons. “We will intercept every drone or missile that violates Jordan’s airspace to avert any danger. Anything posing a threat to Jordan and the security of Jordanians, we will confront it with all our capabilities and resources,” Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said during an interview on the Al-Mamlaka news channel.
French fighters also shot down some drones and possibly cruise missiles.
U.S. aircraft, however, shot down “more than” 80 Iranian weapons, according to U.S. military sources. President Joe Biden spoke with members of two F-15E Strike Eagle aircraft squadrons to “commend them for their exceptional airmanship and skill in defending Israel from an unprecedented aerial attack by Iran.” Two F-15 squadrons — the 494th Fighter Squadron based at Royal Air Force Lakenheath in the United Kingdom, and the 335th Fighter Squadron from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina — are forward deployed to the Middle East, at least half of the planes at Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan.
Two U.S. warships stationed in the Mediterranean — the USS Carney (DDG 64) and the USS Arleigh Burke (DDG 51) — shot down at least six ballistic missiles, the Pentagon says. The War Zone is reporting that those ships may have fired Standard Missile 3 (SM-3) interceptors in combat for the first time. A U.S. Army Patriot surface-to-air missile battery in Erbil, Iraq, shot down at least one ballistic missile. Wreckage of an Iranian missile was also found outside Erbil, as well as in an open area outside the province of Najaf.
Iran’s attack marks the first time since 1991 that a nation state has attacked Israel directly. Contending with extremely long distances and utilizing scores of decoys and swarm tactics to attempt to overwhelm Middle East air defenses, Iran managed to hit two military targets on the ground in Israel, including Nevatim Air Base. According to the IDF, five missiles hit Nevatim Air Base and four hit another base. Despite the low number of munitions successfully landing, the dramatic spectacle of hundreds of rockets streaking across the night sky in Syria, Iraq, and Iran has left Tehran contented with its show of force.
Iran “has achieved all its goals, and in our view the operation has ended, and we do not intend to continue,” Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, said over the weekend. Still, he cautioned, “If the Zionist regime or its supporters demonstrate reckless behavior, they will receive a decisive and much stronger response.”
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
04/17/2024
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[Quartz] We’ve all heard the stories recently about electric vehicles sales falling short of expectations. Companies like Tesla have seen sales slow in recent years and automakers such as Ford have even slowed production of their own electric models. Now, we’re seeing what’s happening to the unsold cars that are out in the world already: they’re piling up at ports.
Across shipping hubs in Europe, unsold electric cars are filling storage spaces, with some automakers even looking to rent extra warehousing space to keep their shiny new cars shiny and new, reports Automotive News. As the site explains:
Several automakers have leased large areas in the ports for vehicle imports that so far have no customers for the cars. Logistics companies are also renting additional parking spaces outside the ports.
"This situation currently affects all European ports where large quantities of vehicles arrive," Gert Ickx, spokesman for the administration of the Belgian ports of Antwerp and Zeebrugge, told Automotive News Europe sister publication Automobilwoche.
The issue has been exacerbated by the rise in exports of Chinese electric vehicles, which are sitting in shipping hubs unsold while people argue over whether or not they pose a national security threat.
The Chinese EVs being imported into places like Europe have also been hampered by reduction in subsidies for electric car sales. Automotive News reports that a cut in EV subsidies in Germany has hit sales, leaving many cars stuck on docks with nobody to buy them.
Movement of vehicles around global shipping hubs is also being impacted by a shortage of heavy goods vehicle drivers, with fewer on hand to drive the cars out of ports and onto their next destinations.
[HILL] Former Attorney General Bill Barr said Wednesday he will vote for the "Republican ticket" in the November presidential election.
"I think it’s my duty to pick the person I think would do the least harm to the country," Barr said on Fox News’s "America’s Newsroom." "And in my mind, that’s — I will vote the Republican ticket."
Barr’s comments come in spite of past criticism of his ex-boss, former President Trump, who is the presumptive Republican nominee for president. In December, Barr said his successor in a potential second Trump administration would have to be against the former president’s "abuse of government power."
"Trump needs people around him who will push back and help keep him on the straight and narrow," Barr said.
"During his first term, the main way that could be done is by pointing out to him how this would hurt his prospects for a second term," he continued. "Once he wins a second term, I don’t know you know what considerations can be used to push back against bad ideas."
Barr said Wednesday he thinks "the real danger to the country — the real danger to democracy, as I say, is the progressive agenda."
"And while... Trump may be playing Russian roulette, but a continuation of the Biden administration is national suicide, in my opinion," Barr continued.
Barr recently went after Trump’s call for Congress to shoot down the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), referring to it as "crazy and reckless."
"I think it’s crazy and reckless to not move forward with FISA. It’s our principal tool protecting us from terrorist attacks. We’re living through a time where those threats have never been higher, so it’s blinding us, it’s blinding our allies," Barr told The Hill in an interview.
#1
In December, Barr said his successor in a potential second Trump administration would have to be against the former president’s "abuse of government power."
Funny how we're never given examples of this 'abuse of power'...
[Outside] When Will Cockrell told me he was writing a book about Mount Everest, he couldn’t see the roll of my eyes. But he’s perceptive enough to have picked up on my lukewarm commitment to being interviewed, and so I felt a need to explain that there are already quite a few Everest books out there. My coffee table is in danger of imminent collapse under their weight; my shelves sag with Everest encyclopedias and memoirs. It’s been done, I told him.
Listen carefully, he said: This will be different. It will be the story of the entire guiding industry that was created on and around the world’s highest mountain. He planned to call it Everest, Inc.
That got my interest, because I put about a quarter century of blood, sweat, and tears into this "industry." I first went to the Big E in the early 1990s, which turned out to be the dawn of the commercial era on the Goddess Mother of the Earth. Following years of adventure in the Himalayas, I quit guiding 8,000-meter peaks after the twin disaster years of 2014—when an avalanche on Everest killed 16 Nepali workers in the Khumbu Icefall—and 2015, when a 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed 19 people at Everest Base Camp and a total of 9,000 people in Nepal.
[Townhall] Just days after Iran's unprecedented drone and missile attack on Israel, following months of attacks on U.S. troops in the region by Iranian terrorist organizations, Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian still holds a valid U.S. visa.
"I write to request immediate action to revoke the visa of Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian ahead of his planned travel to attend a United Nations Security Council meeting on April 18, 2024," Republican Senator James Lankford wrote in a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken late Monday. "As documented by United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI) in its letter to you last week, Amir-Abdollahian is a senior card-carrying member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and has direct ties to the heinous October 7, 2023, terrorist attack on Israel and the ongoing attacks that Iran continues to orchestrate through Hamas, Hezbollah, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and the Houthis. In the wake of Saturday’s direct attack by Iran on our ally, Israel, I urge you to prevent Iran from using American soil as a platform to amplify its anti-Israel and anti-American rhetoric."
"Given his ties to terrorism against Israel and US forces, Amir-Abdollahian should not be welcome in our country. April 18, the day of his anticipated meeting at the UN, also marks the 41st anniversary of Iran-backed Hezbollah’s 1983 bombing of the US Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, which killed 63 people, including 52 Lebanese and American Embassy employees, and injured 120. Several months later, Hezbollah’s bombing of the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut would end up killing another 241 Americans. Hosting a senior member of the IRGC on the 41st anniversary of Hezbollah’s terrorist attack would be an insult to the victims and their families," Lankford continued
[ABC] The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released a health advisory after multiple cases of human leptospirosis -- an infection that is associated to exposure to rat urine -- have been reported so far this year in New York City.
There were 24 cases of leptospirosis in the city in 2023, higher than in any prior year, according to the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.
However, in the first quarter of this year alone, there have already been six to date.
"For comparison, the average number of locally acquired cases during 2021 to 2023 was 15 per year, and 3 cases per year during 2001 to 2020," health officials said. "This year, 6 cases have been reported as of April 10, 2024."
[Breitbart] New York Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan reportedly allowed a juror who celebrated former President Donald Trump’s 2020 loss on social media to remain in the jury pool.
Trump’s unprecedented trial began Monday morning with jury selection, the first day of a process that could span two weeks. The trial could last until June.
During Tuesday’s jury selection, Trump’s defense attorneys tried to prevent a potential juror from staying on the case because she celebrated Trump’s 2020 loss, Fox News reported.
"They wanted to have a peremptory challenge to excuse the juror because they thought that she said she could be impartial, but had social media posts that apparently had her celebrating Trump’s loss in 2020," Trace Gallagher reported, "and so they challenged her. The judge said, ’Nope, she can be impartial. She stays.'"
Six jurors were seated Tuesday with six more prospective jurors needed.
[Breitbart] Migrant activists in San Diego, California, are celebrating the additional $39 million in federal funding for illegal border crossers, but others feel the money is being misspent.
Almost $20 million of the funding is from the Department of Homeland Security. It is targeted to support migrants as they wait for the outcome of their immigration proceedings court cases after federal officials dropped them off in the county, KGTV reported on April 12.
Rep. Juan Vargas (D-CA) celebrated the funding, saying, “This funding will help make sure they have the resources they need to continue their important work to provide migrant communities with food, shelter, and other critical services.”
County Board of Supervisors Chairwoman Nora Vargas also highlighted the funding and insisted that the cash would be used to create a more sustainable migrant transition center.
The city’s last migrant welcome center closed down on February 22 when it ran out of money, leaving all newcomers to be disgorged from Border Patrol buses onto the streets, left to their own devices.
But the buses operated by Biden’s Border Patrol kept coming.
Just since December, Border Patrol has dropped 42,000 illegals in San Diego County, overwhelming the city and local non-governmental organizations.
Not every county official was excited that Biden opened up the funding spigot.
District Five Supervisor Jim Desmond blasted the plans, saying the money was being misspent.
“I’d rather see that money have gone towards securing the border and making sure the border patrol stops people or we only allow enough people in that we can manage,” Desmond insisted.
#5
I just mailed my first quarterly estimated tax payment to the United States Treasury. Yes, it pisses me off to see where the money is going. No doubt a significant portion of that $39 million will end up in the pockets of Juan Vargas and his friends. They don't work for free, you know.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/17/2024 12:17
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#6
Remember when lefties wanted check boxes on the tax form so they could opt out of having their $$$ spent by the Pentagon?
That could work both ways...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/17/2024 12:34
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[TENNESSEECONSERVATIVENEWS] Tennessee State Senators voted to pass legislation that will require election coordinators to compare the statewide voter registration database with the Department of Safety database to ensure that there are no illegal aliens registered to vote.
Senate Bill 0137 (SB0137) was brought by Senator Joey Hensley (R-Hohenwald-District 28). Hensley introduced the bill to the floor and requested to substitute and conform to the companion House Bill 0835 (HB0835), sponsored by State Representative Bryan Richey (R-Maryville-District 20).
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFO!
Senator Heidi Campbell (D-Nashville-District 20) asked for clarification on what the bill was intended to do.
Hensley explained that existing law allows election coordinators to compare the two databases, so this legislation would just make that a requirement.
“This is a way to ensure that someone is not inadvertently on there if they are not a US citizen,” Hensley said.
After additional clarification was provided at the request of Senator London Lamar (D-Memphis-District 33), the vote was taken.
The legislation passed with 25 ayes and 3 nays. Only Democratic Senators Campbell, Lamar, and Jeff Yarbro (D-Nashville-District 21) voted against the bill.
The House passed the legislation on April 4. The bill will now be transmitted to Governor Lee to await his signature.
[Breitbart] The Daily Caller on Thursday published a report that found Chinese military companies have spent over $24 million on lobbying the U.S. government since 2020.
The list of names includes companies the U.S. government has identified as major security threats, including telecom titan Huawei and Megvii, a facial recognition firm that helped Huawei design a system that could spot members of China’s oppressed Uyghur minority in a crowd.
“Chinese military corporations cast a wide net across the American government, lobbying the House, Senate and various parts of the executive branch, including the office of the president, often setting their sights on proposed policies that would impact their U.S. operations,” the report from the Daily Caller News Foundation (DCNF) found.
The definition of a “Chinese military company” was established by the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), which maintains a list of entities that are either owned by various arms of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) of China, or are involved in “military-civil fusions.”
Huawei was the biggest spender on Washington lobbyists, with over $10.8 million in outlays since 2020. This is unsurprising not only because of Huawei’s vast size, with nearly $100 billion in annual revenue, but because Huawei has been battling against U.S. legislation that would sharply limit the sale of its products.
As DCNF noted, Huawei won quite a few of those battles after paying big money for the services of high-powered, heavily-connected lobbying firms like the Podesta Group. Huawei has a subsidiary called Futurewei that also reportedly spent millions on lobbyists, and also saw the defeat of legislation that would have harmed its interests.
#1
“Chinese military corporations cast a wide net across the American government, lobbying the House, Senate and various parts of the executive branch, including the office of the president,
[Breitbart] On Monday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “America’s Newsroom,” White House National Security Communications Adviser John Kirby defended the waiver of sanctions that allow Iraq to purchase energy from Iran “to make sure that the Iraqi people have the power and the energy that they need to subsist and to survive themselves economically.” He also maintained, “We have put a lot of pressure on Iran.”
Co-host Bill Hemmer asked, “In light of Saturday’s events, where Iran hit Israel for the first time — or at least tried, anyway, those that got through — is it time to rethink allowing Iran access to billions of dollars in electricity sales between Iraq and Iran? Will that policy be stopped, sir?”
Kirby answered, “As you know, that’s an item that comes up for extension every few months, Bill. The previous administration also extended it, as have we, because the Iraqi people are just so reliant right now on energy resources from Iran. We don’t want our friend, Iraq, to not be able to power itself. We’re working with them, of course, on improving their own energy infrastructure, but it’s really something that we’re extending to make sure that the Iraqi people have the power and the energy that they need to subsist and to survive themselves economically. We have put a lot of pressure on Iran. The president met with the G7 yesterday to talk about a diplomatic response that’s unified, and to explore other opportunities to hold Iran accountable for what they did.”
Posted by: Skidmark ||
04/17/2024
08:15 ||
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#1
It is remarkable that Iraq still hasn't put together electricity infrastructure two decades after Saddam's overthrow.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/17/2024 10:27
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[Breitbart] Tens of thousands of Israelis remain refugees in their own country after attacks by Hezbollah, the Iran-backed terrorist army, forced the evacuation of communities near the northern border in October.
Hezbollah, which sits near the Israeli border in violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1707 of 2006, has been firing mortars, anti-tank missiles, rockets, and ballistic missiles at Israeli communities ever since Hamas, which is also backed by Iran, launched the October 7 terror attack in southern Israel.
As Breitbart News reported in October, Israel was forced to evacuate some 60,000 or so northern residents within four kilometers of the border.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) initially responded to the Hezbollah attacks by targeting the sources of incoming fire, without escalating. More recently, it has carried out airstrikes sites deeper into Lebanon. On April 1, Israel killed the leading Iranian commander in the region, Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, as well as another general and six other Iranian military officials in an airstrike on Damascus, Syria.
The Israeli media reported, and Breitbart News confirmed, that IDF commandos have already begun to operate inside Lebanon, targeting Hezbollah positions near the border and possibly preparing for a broader military invasion. Thus far, Israel is focusing on completing its mission of destroying Hamas in Gaza — and, this past weekend, responding to the massive missile and drone attack by Iran, which Israeli air defenses intercepted with a 99% success rate.
Breitbart News visited some of the border communities on Monday, escorted by Israeli soldiers in an area normally off-limits to journalists. Much of what was seen cannot be published.
The scenes of empty streets and homes were striking.
In the kibbutz — collective farm — of Rosh Hanikra, once a bustling community in the northwest corner of Israel, the only signs of life were the Israeli soldiers who patrol the area, as well as stray cats and a mascot dog.
Rosh Hanikra is a popular tourist attraction, as it sits near beautiful cliffs and caves along the Mediterranean coast. The kibbutz had also recently built a swimming pool for residents, which it had hoped to open by the summer.
Now, the grass in the community is overgrown, as the families wait, month after month, for news about when they might be able to return.
Inside the town of Shlomi, a nearby community in northwest Israel, on Monday, the homes and streets were also empty, with weeds sprouting up alongside the roads.
One home had been badly damaged by a direct hit from a 240-mm mortar shell, carrying 20 kilograms of explosives.
The only sign of life was a tractor pulling a cart of avocados. Only farmers are permitted into the evacuated communities, so that they can tend their crops and take care of their animals.
[Washington Examiner] Former President Donald Trump has adopted as a centerpiece of his presidential campaign a promise that he will help defendants involved in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot if he is elected in November.
Trump has said he will undo the work of President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice, which has prosecuted nearly 1,500 people in connection to the riot, by vindicating those who have faced charges.
The former president’s habit of showing such sympathy and support for the defendants has drawn the gamut of reactions: praise, skepticism, fury. Some agree with Trump that the DOJ has unfairly punished the defendants, while others say Trump is disregarding evidence and that his rhetoric on the matter is insulting.
Here is a look at Trump’s promises and how he could execute them.
[Business Insider] A slew of companies across the tech, media, finance, and retail industries made significant cuts to staff in 2023. Tech titans like IBM, Google, Microsoft, finance giants like Goldman Sachs, and manufacturers like Dow all announced layoffs.
This year is looking grim too. And it's only April.
Nearly 40% of business leaders surveyed by ResumeBuilder think layoffs are likely at their companies this year, and about half say their companies will implement a hiring freeze. ResumeBuilder talked to about 900 leaders at organizations with more than 10 employees. Half of those surveyed cited concerns about a recession as a reason.
[Bus Insider] In the decades before the Islamic revolution of 1979, Iran was ruled by the Shah, whose dictatorship repressed dissent and restricted political freedoms.
But he also pushed the country to adopt Western-oriented secular modernization, allowing some degree of cultural freedom.
Under the Shah's rule, Iran's economy and educational opportunities expanded. Britain and the US counted Iran as their major ally in the Middle East, and the Shah forcefully industrialized large segments of the country.
But the Shah's increasingly authoritarian measures and his eventual dismissal of multiparty rule set the stage for the infamous revolution.
Still, for a period of almost 40 years, the Shah led Iran through a series of sweeping changes.
#1
'Authoritarian'? Possibly. Then again the fact that he was going after Land Reform might have had something to do with his exit. Especially since the mullahs owned upwards of 2/3 of the country.
#2
Iran was ruled by the Shah, whose dictatorship repressed dissent and restricted political freedoms.
Oh, the post civil war through the 1930s were not tranquil times of labor or civil rights in this country either. 'Modernization' is often times painful and bloody even in Western societies.
#3
One of the misbeliefs of conservatives is that democracy is natural. It's one of the hardest systems to operate and requires sufficient checks and balances and the obstruction of concentrations of power. Otherwise, history shows man naturally adheres to tribalism, territorial imperative, and hierarchies for order.
#5
#3 “Democracy often works beautifully at first. But once a state extends the franchise to every warm body, be he producer or parasite, that day marks the beginning of the end of the state. For when the plebs discover that they can vote themselves bread and circuses without limit and that the productive members of the body politic cannot stop them, they will do so, until the state bleeds to death, or in its weakened condition the state succumbs to an invader—the barbarians enter Rome.”
― Robert A. Heinlein, To Sail Beyond the Sunset
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A former US Army financial counselor pleaded guilty to defrauding grieving military families of millions of dollars in life insurance payments.
Victims of Caz Craffy's malicious alleged scam include a teenage girl whose father died, as well as a handful of military widows.
Craffy, 41, may face up to a decade behind bars after pleading guilty to all ten of the charges that were thrown at him, including securities and wire fraud, and making false statements.
In a statement, Attorney General Merrick Garland said: 'Those who target and steal from the families of fallen American servicemembers will be held accountable for their crimes.'
For more than four years from 2018 to 2022, Craffy - of Colts Neck, New Jersey - scammed members of at least 24 Gold Star families into transferring nearly $10million or survivor benefits into private brokerage accounts in his control, according to prosecutors.
Gold Star families are those whose immediately family members die in active duty while serving the country.
Survivors of the fallen can receive up to $500,000 in total post-death benefits.
The alleged fraudster conducted more than 1,000 unauthorized trades, losing more than $3.4million, and generating more than $1.4million in commissions that he pocketed.
Victims were under the impression that the Army was authorizing Craffy's conduct, when in reality he was a civilian employee of the Army. He is also a major in the US Army Reserve, after enlisting in 2003 - it is unclear if he will receive further punishment via the military justice system.
According to court documents, Craffy traded away nearly two-thirds of a widow's $400,000 investment account meant to fund her children's college education and aging mother's care.
He also stole $50,000 from a 13-year-old girl's retirement account.
The defendant's plea was entered before US District Judge Georgette Castner in Trenton, New Jersey.
He is due to be sentenced on August 21 of this year.
Recommended federal guidelines would put Craffy away for between 97 and 121 months (roughly 8-10 years).
Under the plea deal he entered, Craffy agreed not to appeal a sentence that falls within that range.
He also agreed to pay back his victims, using funds that include the proceeds from selling his home.
Craffy's job as originally intended was to provide basic financial guidance to Army families facing the loss of an immediate family member.
Had he not struck a plea deal, Craffy might've faced several decades in prison, if convicted.
'Nothing can undo the enormous loss that Gold Star families have suffered, but the Justice Department is committed to doing everything in our power to protect them from further harm,' said AG Garland.
Following Craffy's misdeeds, Washington lawmakers are now pushed through legislation that strengthens the military's oversight of financial counselors who assist the survivors of deceased service members.
The law requires financial counselors employed by the Department of Defense to submit records annually verifying that have 'no conflicts of interest' or 'stand to improperly benefit from their position' when they are hired.
#1
I did Survivor Assistance Officer back in the day. If I had found out this was happening to one of my families, it would have been quite a convoy of guys who would accompany me to talk to the guy about it. Just thinking about it....
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/17/2024 9:10
Comments ||
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#5
I did one Death Notification/SAO assignment in my career. It was enough. I have little doubt his Leavenworth time above room temperature will be very short!
#6
The Army separated Notification and SAO. With the latter, at least you could feel you were helping. Notification was the worst.
But, yeah, I suspect the guards are going to be distracted frequently.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Over 1,000 migrants gathered outside NYC City Hall on Tuesday ahead of a City Council oversight hearing focused on the experience of black arrivals.
The majority of attendees were from Haiti and Guinea, West Africa, and seeking more aid, better shelters and work permits, according to reports.
Only 250 people were allowed inside the 10am hearing, but hundreds more flocked to the park across the street.
Videos circulating on social media show the crowd chanting and cheering.
Some people were allegedly encouraged to attend under the false pretense they would receive green cards and work visas, and were led to City Hall by an activist group, a source told the New York Post.
City Councilmember Alexa Avilés, who serves as chair of the Committee on Immigration, organized the hearing to feature the testimony of undocumented African immigrants in the city's shelters.
'Today's hearing centers the experiences of Black immigrants in NYC and has turned out over 1,000 people,' Avilés said in a post on X.
'We must uproot the anti-Blackness that plagues our systems of care - this work requires dedication, creativity, and a city willing to fund our short, mid, and long term needs.'
A press released obtained by the New York Post said the City Council's Committee of Immigration and Committee on Hospitals held the joint hearing to 'understand how the [Adams] Administration is addressing language access barriers, cultural competency challenges, health needs and other roadblocks' new immigrants face.
The release stated that prior to listening to the testimonies, committee members heard from activists whose work focuses on providing services to African migrants, The New York Post reported.
A bill was also expected to be introduced during the hearing that would require the Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), in consultation with the Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs (MOIA), to survey newly arrived migrants and asylum seekers to gather data on their skills, economic prospects, and barriers to employment growth.
'Black migrants, who are disproportionately harmed by every aspect of our immigration system, deserve language justice, dignity, and access to services,' Office of New York City Comptroller Brad Lander wrote in a post on X.
The city has taken in more than 175,000 migrants, and are currently accommodating around 67,500, limiting them to a 30 day stay in a shelter to alleviate overflow.
DailyMail.com has previously reported on collapsing migrant programs as a result of racial tension between asylum seekers from Latin America and Africa.
Adams has estimated the city will spend $12 billion over the next three years to handle the influx, setting up large-scale emergency shelters, renting out hotels and providing various government services for migrants.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour told NBC News' Tom Costello in a shocking interview that Boeing's controversial 787 jets should be grounded on account of 'fatal flaws' that could cause the aircraft to fall apart mid air.
The interview, which aired Tuesday night on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt, comes just a day before Salehpour heads to Congress to testify about his concerns surrounding Boeing's safety practices, in particular cracks caused by fatigue as a result of planes flying thousands of hours.
Salehpour said that through coming forward in the media and in front of Congress, he was going to save people's lives. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has also been summoned but it remains unclear if he will attend.
This week, Steve Chisholm, Boeing's chief engineer, mechanical and structural engineering said investigators have not found fatigue cracks on in-service 787 jets that have gone through heavy maintenance.
The pair are set to answer questions surrounding a string of safety incidents involving Boeing, notably the blowout of a door plugin that occurred on an Alaska Airlines flight in January.
The panel plugged a space left for an extra emergency door on the jet, which was operated by Alaska Airlines. Pilots were able to land safely, and there were no injuries.
Earlier this year, the long time engineer laid out his allegations in in a Federal Aviation Administration complaint.
#2
Condolences to Boeing whistleblower Sam Salehpour's family on Sam's upcoming suicide. Or will it be a fatal traffic accident this time? The suicide thing is becoming a bit obvious.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] … from vulnerable victims claiming he was a psychic and promising them wealth and happiness if they sent him cash in the mail during two-decade scam
Patrice Runner, 57, defrauded 1.3million people in his international mail scam
Four co-conspirators previously pleaded guilty to crimes connected to scheme
A conman who swindled more than $175million from 1.3million elderly and 'vulnerable' Americans in a two-decade mail scam has been jailed for 10 years.
Patrice Runner, 57, operated an international mail fraud scam in which he pretended to be a psychic and promised wealth and happiness to those who sent him cash in the post, the US Department of Justice said.
Runner, who holds both Canadian and French citizenship, was convicted of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering and multiple counts of mail fraud and wire fraud in June 2023. He was found not guilty on four counts of mail fraud.
Runner, who authorities had been pursuing since 2014, was handed a decade-long sentence by a New York judge on Monday.
The United States Postal Inspection Service, which investigated his crimes, said after his sentencing that Runner's 'extravagant lifestyle, born on the backs of millions of older and vulnerable Americans, has come to an end'.
Four other co-conspirators had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud in connection with his mass-mailing fraud scheme.
The fraud scheme, which began in 1994 and ran until November 2014, preyed on the elderly and those in desperate positions who were trying to get back on their feet financially.
Using the name and image of Maria Duval, along with that of another French psychic named Patrick Guerin, Runner and his co-conspirators would send letters promising recipients that her psychic guidance and talismans could help turn their lives around.
The fraudsters obtained the names of the vulnerable and elderly by renting and trading mailing lists with other mail fraud schemes.
When a victim would reply to one letter, Runner and his co-conspirators reportedly bombarded them with dozens of additional letters, with some victims receiving as many as 100, according to prosecutors.
Each of the additional letters reportedly also appeared to be a personalized written communication, with portions of it seemingly handwritten, and sought further payment from the victim.
Victims were directed to send payment - often ranging from $5 to $50 - to purchase various purported 'unique and supernatural objects', which were in fact cheap, mass produced trinkets, the indictment claimed.
They were also urged to submit payment to receive 'personalized astrological services and studies', which were never actually returned.
Prosecutors say that neither Duval nor Guerin had any role in sending the letters, did not receive the responses from the victims and did not send the additional letters after victims had paid money.
The letters sent in response were addressed to a New York-based company where employees 'threw the vast majority of responses from victims in the trash', an indictment said.
According to the Department of Justice, Runner used a series of shell companies registered in Canada and Hong Kong to conceal his involvement in the scheme while he was living abroad in multiple foreign countries, including Switzerland, France, the Netherlands, Costa Rica, and Spain.
Infogest Direct Marketing profited from the letters, according to court documents.
They were printed in Canada and driven to Albany, New York using a truck before they mailed out in large batches, of up to 50,000 at a time.
Runner denied breaking the law, telling The Walrus Magazine last year 'maybe it's not moral, maybe it's bullshit... But it doesn't mean it's fraud'.
He also bragged to the magazine about his writing abilities and claimed he could 'get the attention of someone, and at the end, after a few minutes, the person sends a cheque, to get a product, to an address or company they've never heard of'.
A grand jury in the Eastern District of New York indicted Runner in October 2018, and he was arrested in Ibiza in April the following year, before being transferred to a jail in Madrid.
He was extradited to the United States from Spain in December 2020 and on June 16 last year was found guilty by a federal jury.
In 2019, investigators with the United States Postal Inspection Service said they had been able to return more than $200,000 worth of cash and money order payments sent in by nearly 6,000 victims.
Along with pending checks and credit payments that were stopped, the investigation saved victims about $827,000.
As of last June, most victims hadn't received any money back, and officials said it will be incredibly unlikely most ever will.
#2
Patrice Runner, 57, operated an international mail fraud scam in which he pretended to be a psychic and promised wealth and happiness to those who sent him cash in the post, the US Department of Justice said.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Over 1,000 migrants gathered outside NYC City Hall on Tuesday ahead of a City Council oversight hearing focused on the experience of black arrivals.
The majority of attendees were from Haiti and Guinea, West Africa, and seeking more aid, better shelters and work permits, according to reports.
Only 250 people were allowed inside the 10am hearing, but hundreds more flocked to the park across the street.
Videos circulating on social media show the crowd chanting and cheering.
Some people were allegedly encouraged to attend under the false pretense they would receive green cards and work visas, and were led to City Hall by an activist group, a source told the New York Post.
[DM] Feral Yout in Parkland High School in North Salem, North Carolina. THIS is the school to prison pipeline they keep kvetching about. Wanna bet there's no Father in the house?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Ross Marsov
[REGNUM] Well-known Western intellectual and strategy researcher Edward Luttwak published an article with the clickbait headline “It’s time to send NATO troops to Ukraine. After 75 years, the alliance is stuck in the nuclear age.” The name of the author, combined with the stated topic, does not allow us to ignore this text, which provides a good reason to talk about what real opportunities European countries have for escalation and what the war between Russia and NATO will lead to.
A crime problem that appears to be resolving itself.
[BREITBART] At least 43 people were shot, seven of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson ...Hizzonner da Mare of Chicago. He was elected in April 2023 to replace the disastrous Lori Lightfoot and immediately set about out-Richtering her. A member of the Democratic Party (naturally), Johnson previously worked as a social studies teacher in the city"s stellar public schools system. He helped organize the 2012 teachers strike. Prior to becoming Da Mare, he served on the Cook County Board of Boodling Commissioners from 2018 to 2023... ’s (D) reliably Democrat Chicago, aka The Windy City or Mobtown
...home of Al Capone, the Chicago Black Sox, a succession of Daleys, Barak Obama, and Rahm Emmanuel... .
ABC 7 reported Saturday began violent mostly peacefully and ended that way as well.
At 6:30 a.m. Saturday, a 29-year-old man "in the Logan Square neighborhood’s 2600-block of North Sawyer Avenue" was shot and killed. Police do not know what led up to the shooting.
At 5:15 p.m. a 22-year-old man with multiple gunshot wounds was found lying in the street "in the 7700 block of South Carpenter Street," according to CBS News. He was transported to a hospital and pronounced dead.
Within minutes of the 5:15 p.m. shooting, two men opened fire on a 20-year-old man "in the 7700 block of South Union Avenue." He was taken to hospital where he was a pronounced dead.
Over 12 hours later, just before 9:20 p.m., police picked up 18 shots being fired on ShotSpotter in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood. They rushed to the scene to find that shots had been fired at people standing outside a family get together.
Breitbart News reported that 11 people were shot outside the get together, and many of those shooting victims were young children.
NBC Chicago reported that one of a the shooting victims—an eight-year-old girl—was fatally shot in the head.
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[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kupyansk direction, the Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line and repelled two counter-attacks launched by the AFU 21st Mechanised Brigade's assault groups close to Terny (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 30 Ukrainian troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 155mm M198 howitzer, and one 152mm Msta-B howitzer. In addition, one AFU field ammunition depot was destroyed.
In Donetsk direction, units of the Yug Group of Forces took more advantageous lines and inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the 46th Airmobile, 92nd Air Assault, 28th, 93rd Mechanised brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine near Andreyevka, Krasnogorovka, Kurdyumovka, and Kleshcheyevka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Up to 630 Ukrainian troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, and four motor vehicles were neutralised.
In counterbattery warfare, the U.S.-made 155mm Paladin and Polish-made Krab self-propelled artillery systems, one 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system, one U.S.-made 105mm M119 gun, as well as one Nota electronic warfare station were annihilated.
In Avdeyevka direction, the units of the Tsentr Group of Forces have improved the tactical situation and repelled eight counter-attacks of the assault groups of the 25th Airborne, 68th, 71st Jaeger, 23rd, 24th, 115th Mechanised brigades of the AFU close to Novokalinovo, Semyonovka, Petrovskoye, Netaylovo, and Berdychi (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to more than 380 Ukrainian troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and three 122mm D-30 howitzers.
In South Donetsk direction, the Vostok Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line and hit manpower and hardware of the 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade of the AFU, 108th and 128th Territorial Defence brigades close to Lugovskoye (Zaporozhye region), Ugledar, Urozhaynoye, and Staromayorskoye (Donetsk People's Republic).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 80 Ukrainian troops, two motor vehicles, one 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS, one Polish-made 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, one 152mm D-20 howitzer, and one Bukovel-AD electronic warfare station.
In Kherson direction, the units of the Dnepr Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on the 117th Mechanised Brigade of the AFU and 35th Naval Infantry Brigade near Orekhov (Zaporozhye region) and Ivanovka (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 40 Ukrainian troops, five motor vehicles, and one U.S.-made M777 howitzer.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged AFU ammunition and fuel depots, UAV production and storage facilities, as well as clusters of enemy manpower and military hardware in 133 areas during the day.
Air defence systems have shot down 155 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles, six UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, two U.S.-made HARM anti-radiation missiles, four U.S.-made MALD decoy missiles, as well as two HIMARS and Uragan MLRS projectiles during the day.
In total, 583 airplanes and 270 helicopters, 21,292 unmanned aerial vehicles, 502 air defence missile systems, 15,793 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,267 combat vehicles equipped with MLRS, 8,928 field artillery guns and mortars, as well as 21,063 units of special military equipment have been destroyed during the special military operation.
Vice Admiral of the NATO Joint Naval Command Didier Malter spoke about the vulnerability of underwater communications in Europe and North America and called for their protection from possible “underwater hybrid warfare”, which should supposedly be expected from Russia. The British newspaper The Guardian reported this on April 16.
“Right now we are paying special attention to the Russians, but it is very difficult to constantly monitor every cable. This is impossible,” he said.
Malter said that over 90% of Western communications that provide Internet connections between the United States, Canada and Europe are underwater. As arguments about the supposed danger threatening them, he cited the incident with damage to the Balticconnector gas pipeline between Estonia and Finland.
Despite statements by Finnish authorities that they had found evidence of the involvement of a Chinese ship, the vice admiral called for keeping an eye on Russia.
The NATO representative emphasized that the alliance will not be able to protect all areas of underwater communications. According to Malter, each state is obliged to ensure the protection of its own communications.
As Regnum reported, the damage to the Baltic connector gas pipeline was discovered in October 2023. In November, Risto Lohi, a spokesman for the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, said that an anchor found nearby that damaged the pipeline most likely belonged to the Chinese vessel Newnew Polar Bear, which was passing through this area of water before the accident was discovered.
The West has repeatedly made unfounded claims that Russia has plans to attack Europe. President Vladimir Putin called this nonsense on March 27, 2024. In his opinion, such rumors are spread in the West to intimidate the population and thus extort money from them.
See here for the action on the Mexican side of the border.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene slammed Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas for his ties to a non-profit that has urged migrants crossing into the U.S. illegally to vote for Joe Biden.
The testy exchange occurred during a House Homeland Security Committee hearing examining the Department of Homeland Security's $108 billion 2025 budget request.
'You worked as a board member of an NGO that is working in conjunction with other NGOs, which are not only financing the invasion of the country, but also telling illegal aliens to vote in the United States elections,' Greene said.
#4
/\ US box store business has slowed. The Chinese economy is failing, it must be saved. Wuhan research grants, fentanyl precursor imports, Chinese EV's and battery factories, and flying Chinese migrants to the US to work (and send money home) will help.
Henry Kissinger not returning calls. Something must be done.
Text taken from the Telegram account of South Front
[ColonelCassad] At the end of 2021, even before the start of the Russian special military operation, the military-political leadership of Ukraine, at the direction of the British special service Mi6, began to form an armed formation called the “Russian Volunteer Corps” on the territory of Ukraine and NATO countries.
In August 2022, this initiative was transferred to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR). The military unit received a clear ideological coloring, a kind of crazy combination of the ideas of Nazism, neoliberalism (more precisely, extreme transhumanism) and ordinary mercenaries.
The priority task was to carry out sabotage and reconnaissance activities on Russian territory.
The basis of the unit were nationalists with citizenship of the countries of the former USSR (Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, etc.), who fought as mercenaries on the side of Kyiv from 2014-2018.
At the same time, from August 2022, the unit began to actively recruit persons with Russian citizenship who left the territory of the Russian Federation, citing their decision as a protest against the Kremlin’s policies. The overwhelming majority are those who previously declared their belonging to the LGBT community, the values of the New World Order of the collective West and/or to the creative intelligentsia with neoliberal ideology, that is, those who are accustomed to declaring and considering themselves the “new aristocracy” of Russia. Unemployed “creative” youth with a criminal behavior pattern were also recruited. In fact, all these people were united by one personal complaint against the Putin regime - these are the imaginary lost opportunities that would continue to allow them to lead their usual idle lifestyle.
Surprisingly, by the fall of 2022, the number of such people from the 150 million population of Russia and the 250 million population of the countries of the former USSR turned out to be insufficient to form any large unit. Therefore, the curators of the RDK decided to form a combat base from mercenaries from NATO countries, mainly from Poland, France, Canada, the USA, the Baltic countries and Latin America, and military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Their number at the first stage was at least 25%, excluding persons with Ukrainian citizenship. From the very beginning of its activities, the corps was financed from budget funds allocated by the Government of Ukraine for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
By 2024, the number of military personnel of the “updated” RDC with citizenship of NATO countries and Latin America exceeded 40%. Militants with Russian citizenship remain no more than 15% of the total composition of the RDK, the remaining 40-45% are military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with Ukrainian citizenship. The total number of the RDK payroll, that is, those who were paid money as a serviceman of the RDK or a serviceman of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine attached to the RDK, by this period was about 372 people, of which no more than 50 people had Russian citizenship, probably someone else could have dual citizenship.
Back in November 2022, the group of militants, which today is known as the RDK, was formally reassigned and became one of the units of the Territorial Defense Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the International Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time, the unit continues to directly report and act on the instructions of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Currently, members of extremist and nationalist organizations, as well as supporters of opposition movements to the current government of the Russian Federation from among citizens and residents of Russia, whose candidacies are approved by name by the GUR, continue to be invited to participate in the RDC. Since the end of 2022, all of them began to receive the status of military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Since the second half of 2022, RDK military personnel have been directly involved in combat operations against units of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (RF Armed Forces). Thus, from July to November 2022, members of the corps participated in military operations against the Russian Armed Forces in the Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions. However, representatives of the RDK did not achieve significant successes at the front.
The reasons are obvious - small numbers and poor military training. Rare forays onto the line of combat contact were carried out under the leadership of Ukrainian paramilitary right-wing radical units (Right Sector, Freikorps, Kraken) and were aimed only at creating a media effect.
During this period of time, RDK suffered its first significant one-time losses. So, after participating in the next action, the unit concentrated in the rear of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the city of Zaporozhye, where their location was revealed by Russian military intelligence. As a result of Russian rocket fire, up to 20 RDK militants were killed and dozens were wounded.
However, the intelligence services of Great Britain, the United States and Ukraine have agreed that the unit fully meets the objectives of anti-Kremlin propaganda and, more importantly, the objectives of providing cover for its own terrorist activities in Russia. After all, Russian presidential elections were coming up in March 2024.
On March 2, 2023, the sabotage and reconnaissance group "RDK" attacked the village. Lyubechany and s. Sushany, Bryansk region, as a result of which a local resident died, an 11-year-old child and an employee of the Russian border service were injured. As a result of the actions of the DRG, one armored combat vehicle was damaged, a residential building and a civilian passenger car were destroyed.
The Russian side successfully pushed the saboteurs back into Ukrainian territory. Moreover, in order to avoid civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, the Russians did not use heavy weapons on their territory. As soon as the militants found themselves on the adjacent territory of Ukraine (Kharkiv region), they were immediately subjected to a massive artillery strike.
From May 22 to 23, 2023, units of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, consisting of mercenaries from NATO countries, military personnel with Ukrainian citizenship and members of the RDK with citizenship of the countries of the former USSR, carried out an armed invasion of the territory of the Russian Federation in the Grayvoronsky and Shebekinsky districts of the Belgorod region.
As a result of these actions, two servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces were killed, four were wounded, and one was captured. A total of 13 local residents were also injured, one died. The attackers managed to capture the BTR-80A, destroy two Ural-4320 trucks and a 100mm T-12 anti-tank gun.
In addition, buildings and structures of the international automobile checkpoint "Grayvoron" were damaged. Based on the results of repelling this raid, the Armed Forces of Ukraine of the Russian Ministry of Defense announced the destruction of a total of about 50 people, including ethnic Ukrainians and NATO members, excluding the wounded. Four armored vehicles and three pickup trucks were destroyed. In turn, the RDC stated that the losses of the “corps” in this action amounted to two people killed and 10 wounded.
From June 1 to June 5, 2023, the Ukrainian Armed Forces, using the media brand “RDK” as a cover, carried out a repeated, even larger, raid into the Belgorod region, during which they captured and held the village for a short time. New Tavolzhanka. Throughout the action, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked residential and administrative buildings using unmanned aerial vehicles, artillery and mortars. As a result of the fighting, more than 10 servicemen of the Russian Armed Forces were killed, including the commander of the 1009th motorized rifle regiment, Colonel V. Kuznetsov.
In turn, the Russian Ministry of Defense released information that “during the fighting on Russian territory, 70 RDK militants were killed.” Probably, this message should be taken as the fact that 70 servicemen of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were killed, including the RDK, as well as other attached units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (the corpses of many of those killed are available to the Russian Defense Ministry). The rest were forced out of Russian territory.
Foreign mercenaries or seconded NATO military specialists who were part of the RDK or other units of the International Legion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces took an active part in this action. The participation of US and Polish citizens has been confirmed. Somewhat later, on June 9, Russian authorities announced the detention in Moscow of RDK supporters with Ukrainian and Russian citizenship, who were planning terrorist attacks on the territory of the Russian capital.
On January 17, 2024, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that Russian troops hit a temporary deployment point for mercenaries in Kharkov with precision weapons. According to the department, as a result, more than 60 mercenaries, mainly from France, were killed, another 20 were wounded and taken to medical institutions. Approximately 10 of them supervised and directly participated in the activities of the RDK, including their sabotage actions.
By the spring of 2024, despite all the efforts expended and significant financial costs, RDK, as an independent concept and brand, turned out to be essentially a failure. From the end of 2021 to the spring of 2024, British and American intelligence agencies sent more than $110 million through Ukraine to finance this particular project. The result was disastrous both in military and media terms.
However, the presidential elections in Russia were approaching, and it was vital to do at least something to account for creditors. The beneficiaries found an elegant way. They simply attached different labels to some members of the RDC and mercenaries from NATO countries. So, again the “Legion of Freedom of Russia” became popular, and a certain “Siberian Battalion” appeared as part of the International Legion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
On March 12, 2024, the RDK, together with the Russian Freedom Legion and the Siberian Battalion, also formed from former Russian citizens, attempted to break through the Russian state border in the Belgorod region. The Russian Defense Ministry managed to prevent the enemy from penetrating deep into Russian territory.
Russian military correspondent Evgeniy Poddubny, who was at the scene at the time, reported that the Ukrainian Armed Forces lost five tanks, three self-propelled guns, one MLRS, several pickups and infantry fighting vehicles, as well as up to 70 people killed and wounded. There is numerous video evidence. The Russian military managed to capture one RDK participant.
Thus, this action turned out to be a failure both militarily and in information terms.
The latter fact turned out to be extremely painful for the Ukrainian special services.
After all, the entire project of the RDK and other collaboration units was initially focused precisely on creating the required anti-Kremlin effect in the information space. The actions of the RDK were intended to inspire various radicals among Russian citizens and demonstrate the vulnerability of the vertical of power. To effectively implement this task, the GUR, in agreement with Mi6, carefully selected candidates for the formal commander of the RDK and his closest assistants.
As a result, the special services chose Denis Nikitin. His real name is Kapustin Denis Evgenievich, born 03/06/1984. In 2001, he and his mother emigrated from Russia to Germany. According to Der Spiegel, the Kapustin family's repatriation from Moscow to Cologne in 2001 was subject to special procedures due to their Jewish origins. However, his Jewish roots did not prevent Kapustin from becoming an ultra-right football hooligan, who later gained popularity among European and Russian nationalists. Thus, the Ministry of the Interior of North Rhine-Westphalia called him “one of the most influential neo-Nazi activists” in Germany.
However, Kapustin’s actual ideological position is more likely to be in the plane of the superiority of the Anglo-Saxon-Judean elites
Eh? That’s a new one. Does England know that’s who they are?
over the rest of the world, and not in the plane of the superiority of a separate nation or race. That is why Mi6 chose him to be the formal leader of the RDK. In any case, Denis Kapustin is an extraordinary person with strong leadership qualities.
In 2008, Kapustin founded the White Rex clothing brand. The logo was based on the “black sun” - a symbol that was used in Nazi Germany instead of the swastika. Kapustin sold the first batch of clothes from his brand at the “Spirit of a Warrior” tournament of fighting without rules, which he organized in Russia in the city of Voronezh. The entrepreneur stated that White Rex is “not just a clothing brand, but a union of people with common views.”
Since 2012, Kapustin has been actively developing relations with right-wing organizations throughout Europe, promoting his brand. Five years later, in 2017, he moved to Ukraine, where he established stable contacts with representatives of the nationalist Azov battalion, whose activities he spoke with enthusiasm about on his trips abroad.
In 2019, Kapustin tried to bring the White Rex brand to the American market, using his connections with the organizer of the “Right March” rally in the city of Charlottesville in the USA and the founder of the neo-Nazi organization from California “Rise Above Movement” Robert Rundo. However, problems arose with this project due to the coronavirus pandemic in 2020.
Quite a lot is known about the current activities of Denis Kapustin, as the formal head of the RDK, as well as about his immediate circle and supervisors from the Main Intelligence Directorate.
Today, Kapustin is mainly located on the territory of Ukraine, while periodically making trips to NATO countries, where he is in contact with representatives of the American and British intelligence services, as well as with representatives of the Russian opposition. Kapustin uses phone numbers:
All the contact information can be seen at the link for those interested.
The activities of the RDK and directly D. Kapustin from the Ukrainian special services are coordinated by a citizen of Ukraine Andrey Alekseevich Bulakh, born July 24, 1986, who is probably an employee of the Main Intelligence Directorate, since he is currently registered at the address:
Again, all that contact information can be seen at the link.
Coordination of the activities of members of the “RDK” is carried out by the special services of Ukraine through representatives of Ukrainian nationalist structures under their control, in particular:
- Roman Vasilyevich Stoika, born 08/18/1983, citizen of Ukraine, member of the sabotage and reconnaissance unit of the Ukrainian Volunteer Corps “Right Sector”, registered at the address:
Ditto.
- Bogdanov Dmitry Ivanovich, born 06/19/1988, citizen of Ukraine, member of the volunteer reconnaissance battalion “Solnyshko” of the DUK “PS”, registered at the address:
Ditto.
As stated above, the RDK included, among other things, representatives of the neoliberal movement in Russia, who did not agree with the policies of the official Kremlin and emigrated from Russia. One of the active members of the unit is Kirill Kanakhin, who participated in the attack on the village of Lyubechane in the Belgorod region on March 2, 2023. In the past, he is a “poet”, a yoga teacher, and an actor at the Academic Maly Theater of Russia. He starred in films together with Ksenia Sobchak, also a representative of the neoliberal movement in Russia.
In 2012, Kanakhin left the stage and began teaching yoga. During his “spiritual” preparation, he visited India, changed his appearance, covered most of his body with tattoos, as a result of which he was no longer offered roles in the theater where he was still working at that time. Kanakhin himself, according to their testimony, found the reasons for his creative failures in the high level of corruption among artists, as well as in the lack of rights of artists who are subjected to professional discrimination due to disagreement with the policies of the Russian state.
While also disagreeing with state policies, Kanakhin eventually developed his own philosophy of life and formed a complex system of views and moral values, after which he became a supporter of racist and far-right views and became interested in paganism. Being an opponent of the annexation of Crimea to Russia, Kanakhin took part in protests that took place in Moscow. In March 2015, during a march in memory of Boris Nemtsov, Kanakhin was arrested and received eight days of arrest. In 2018, after a criminal case was opened against him on charges of participating in illegal protests, Kanakhin fled Russia and moved to Ukraine, where he joined the Azov battalion, later the RDK.
Kanakhin Kirill Nikolaevich, born 04/09/1982 uses the following telephone numbers for communication:
Ditto.
Kirill was an active buyer of the Sportmaster store even before 2023.
This review provides examples and data from individual RDC members. In general, RDK consists of a very motley and diverse public, which is united, perhaps, only by envy, anger and resentment against the backdrop of extremely inflated self-esteem, which their curators from the GUR and Mi6 successfully use.
At the moment, the RDK project can be considered a failure. The activities of the RDC for two years did not bring any significant results either on the battlefield or in the information space of Russia. They failed to ignite protest sentiments in Russia. On the contrary, their activities led to a change in the rhetoric and behavior of some citizens who previously could be classified as anti-Putin opposition. Members of the RDK began to be perceived exclusively as traitors and degenerates.
Even the far-right part of the Russian population refused to support Denis Kapustin, who came from their midst, and, on the contrary, became more active in joining Russian volunteer units. For example, to the Espanyola volunteer detachment.
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese media reported one dead in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the Israel border.
The IDF later confirmed it had carried out the strike, saying it targeted and killed the commander of Hezbollah's coastal region
The Israeli military and Lebanon’s Hezbollah exchanged fire on Tuesday, with the terror group launching two attack drones at northern Israel as a top commander behind recent attacks was killed in an airstrike.
Three people were lightly hurt in the Hezbollah drone attack, according to media reports and local authorities.
The Israel Defense Forces said the two explosive-laden drones struck areas near the northern community of Beit Hillel.
Hezbollah claimed to have targeted an Iron Dome battery in the area. The terror group has made similar claims in recent months, which have been dismissed by the IDF as empty boasts.
The IDF said it was investigating why sirens did not sound during the attack.
Footage circulating on social media purported to show one of the drones flying over the Galilee Panhandle.
Shortly after the drone attack, Lebanese media reported one dead in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town of Ain Baal, near Tyre, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the Israel border.
The IDF later confirmed it had carried out the strike, saying it targeted and killed the commander of Hezbollah’s coastal region.
Ismail Yousef Baz, whose rank is equivalent to a brigade commander, was "a senior and veteran official in the military wing of Hezbollah," holding several positions, the latest being the commander of the coastal region, the army said.
Baz was the sixth Hezbollah officer with a rank equivalent to a brigade commander to be killed by Israel in recent months, according to the IDF. The military has said that more than 30 Hezbollah commanders have been killed in its strikes in the past six months.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/17/2024
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[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] West Virginian female athletes spoke out against the inclusion of biological males in female sports in their state after an appeals court blocked a state law banning biological males from competing in women’s sports. The case against the state was brought by the ACLU.
These women shared their experiences with former University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines, who began speaking out against the inclusion of males in women’s sports after tying with trans swimmer Lia Thomas at the NCAA championships in 2022, and being forced to hand the trophy over to Thomas for the podium photo.
"Hey ACLU, the girls don’t want this," Gaines wrote in response to the organization celebrating the ruling. "All of these messages are from West Virginia athletes who have had to compete against this boy. History will not look kindly on the ACLU or anyone who clearly sends a message to girls that their rights don"t matter."
"Okay so there’s this boy that’s competing with the girls," one athlete wrote. "West Virginia was going to rule out on it but then they said just wait till Supreme Court does. So he’s been beating us all and I’ve heard he says very inappropriate things to the girls and that he goes in the locker room with the girls."
"So I know that if there’s one person that’s going to stand up to it, it’s gonna have to be me," she added.
Another athlete wrote that she has gotten "4 or 8 throwers willing to step out Thursday."
"The plan is to just step in and step out. If he gets kicked off the team or suspended or anything I will let you know," she told Gaines.
Yet another athlete told Gaines that she sent a letter to the board of education and did not receive a response, sending both the letter as well as score sheets from a recent track meet.
"Science is taking over and he keeps getting stronger," she wrote.
A fourth athlete told Gaines, "Listen, I really hate to keep bugging you but I really need help. The boy threw 95 today. I just really need someone in my ear telling me what to do because I’m willing to do anything to stop this problem."
The ACLU brought forth a lawsuit against the West Virginia law on behalf of transgender track athlete Becky Pepper-Jackson. The ACLU claimed that the law discriminated against transgender students, according to The Hill.
The ACLU claimed that Pepper-Jackson did not undergo male puberty, and therefore had no inherent advantage against female athletes, and should be allowed to compete.
The law was signed into law in 2021. Fourth Circuit Judge Toby Heytens overturned a lower court ruling, adding that the law violates Title IX protections.
“The Act’s sole purpose — and its sole effect — is to prevent transgender girls from playing on girls teams,” Heytens wrote in the Tuesday ruling.
"Offering B.P.J. a ‘choice’ between not participating in sports and participating only on boys teams is no real choice at all,” he continued. “The defendants cannot expect that B.P.J. will countermand her social transition, her medical treatment, and all the work she has done with her schools, teachers, and coaches for nearly half her life by introducing herself to teammates, coaches, and even opponents as a boy."
“By participating on boys teams, B.P.J. would be sharing the field with boys who are larger, stronger, and faster than her because of the elevated levels of circulating testosterone she lacks,” he wrote. “The Act thus exposes B.P.J. to the very harms Title IX is meant to prevent by effectively ‘exclud[ing]’ her from ‘participation in’ all non-coed sports entirely.”
The West Virginia law required athletes to play on the team of their biological sex.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024
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#2
...The ONLY thing that's going to stop this is for everybody else to stop participating. It might take a year or two, but that's what it's going to take.
A less traumatic option might be for parents to organize their own sports leagues - the scouts will know where to look.
#3
/\ ...The ONLY thing that's going to stop this is for everybody else to stop participating. It might take a year or two, but that's what it's going to take.
YES! The Scott Adams solution. "Stay the fok away from them."
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A 35-year-old transgender biological male who identifies as a vampire has been convicted of allegedly sexually assaulting a mentally disabled 16-year-old girl in Waukesha, Wisconsin.
Adam Hetke, who goes by Sabrina, was booked for murder just two weeks later in connection with the death of 28-year-old Vydale Thompson, who also had a mental disability.
According to the Waukesha County Freeman, in July 2021 Hetke approached the teen at a gas station, followed her to her home, and proceeded to sexually assault her while threatening to use a knife if she refused.
The victim only managed to escape by jumping out her bedroom window. She later explained to police that Hetke "told her that he was a vampire and that he would bite her if she didn"t do what he wanted."
Hetke was arrested a short time later and charged with first-degree sexual assault by threatening the use of a dangerous weapon and second-degree sexual assault of a mentally ill victim
Hetke frequently makes posts with gothic imagery online, going along with the claimed vampire status.
Courtesy of Skidmark, the Daily Mail has the usual photos and more here.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024
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#1
Needed: biological male who identifies as a Buffy a vampire slayer.
#3
Face it, although the Media and the progressives try to avoid the obvious.
Read Dr. Paul R. McHugh Transgender Study. He is a famous retired Johns Hopkins University Distinguished Service Professor and former psychiatrist-in-chief for Johns Hopkins Hospital.
His Transgender (Gender Dysphoria) research study (hated by the Left and the Liberal Media) was the work of over 40 years of collected data. He concluded it is plainly a Mental Illness called Gender Dysphoria.
A mental illness with factually collected data showing it is 4 to 5 times more sexually violent and/or prone to pedophile deviant practices. Plus, then there is a Swedish study shows transgenders are 20+/-x more likely to commit suicide than Heterosexuals.
Some collected Prison Transgender Inmate data crime data
See Rep. MTG take on Homeland Security Sec. Alejandro Mayorkas for his part of this here.
[DailySignal] Illegals Instructed to Vote Biden for Border NGO to ‘Stay Open’.
An advocacy group based in Northeastern Mexico that lobbies U.S. lawmakers has distributed and posted flyers encouraging illegal immigrants to vote for President Joe Biden in the 2024 election, according to The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project.
Translated from Spanish, the Oversight Project notes, the flyers posted by the organization Resource Center Matamoros say: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States. We need another four years of his term to stay open.” (The Daily Signal is Heritage’s news and commentary outlet.)
The pro-Biden flyers, discovered by Muckraker and shared with the Oversight Project, were found throughout Resource Center Matamoros in Tamaulipas, Mexico, including on the walls of portable toilets, a video shows. It’s not clear whether RCM authorized the flyers, whether any action was taken to address their presence at the shelter for migrants, or who posted the flyers.
The city of Matamoros, located in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas, borders Brownsville, Texas, where Biden spoke in February about the crisis of illegal immigration at the southern border.
Federal law bans foreign nationals, or non-U.S. citizens, from voting in federal elections.
On Friday, former President Donald Trump endorsed proposed legislation by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., that would require proof of citizenship to vote in U.S. elections.
Resource Center Matamoras describes itself as a six-unit office complex that is “the home for HIAS, which is providing legal assistance and assistance with obtaining formal documents for job search and integration into the city of Matamoros as they wait to access the asylum process in the U.S.”
HIAS, founded more than 100 years ago to help Jews fleeing persecution in Europe, originally stood for Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society.
My grandmother worked for them and was helped by them after they helped settle her and my grandfather in New York City after the war. In those days it was Jews helping Jews. Now there are almost no Jews on either side of their equation, which is why a few years ago they changed from words to initials. And now they’re staunch members of the Borg, and therefore inimical to the survival of the “Hebrews” they were set up to succor.
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a Biden appointee who recently was impeached by the House for not enforcing border laws, is a former board member of HIAS.
The website of Resource Center Matamoras says its founder and executive director, Gaby Zavala, partnered with Mike Benavides of the community organization Team Brownsville in November 2023 to brief members of Congress about the humanitarian crisis at the Mexico-Texas border.
Zavala previously was an organizer for La Union del Pueblo Entero, or LUPE, a group founded by the late labor leader Cesar Chavez, who was an opponent of illegal immigration. LUPE is listed among partners of the George Soros-backed Open Society Institute.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Scientists from the European orbital observatory GAIA have discovered the largest stellar-mass black hole in the Milky Way galaxy, with a mass 33 times the mass of the Sun.The European Space Agency (ESA)reported this on its website on April 16.
According to astronomer at the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) Pasquale Panuzzo, a scientist can make such a discovery only once in his life.
“This is the largest stellar hole in our galaxy, and the second closest discovered,” he said.
It is noted that this kind of celestial bodies arise due to the gravitational collapse of large stars, and scientists classified an object called Gaia BH3, found at a distance of 2 thousand light years from Earth, as a “sleeping giant”.
Typically, black holes have companion stars from which they pull matter, accompanied by a light trail, but this was not the case with Gaia BH3, making it extremely difficult to detect the object.
According to scientists, Gaia BH3 became the third “sleeping” black hole that was discovered during the operation of the observatory. According to ESA, this is the first time that such a large stellar-mass black hole has found itself within the Milky Way; before this, such objects were observed only in distant galaxies.
At the same time, in the center of the Milky Way galaxy, at a distance of 26 thousand light years from Earth, there is a celestial object approximately 4 million times more massive than the Sun called Sagittarius A* (Sagittarius A* or Sgr A*). Unlike Gaia BH3, it formed from clouds of dust and gas.
As Regnum reported, on March 9, the Institute of Applied Geophysics reported a strong high-class M solar flare. According to space weather monitoring, the influence of solar X-ray bursts on the Earth’s ionosphere was at its lowest level during this period.
On the night of February 23, astronomers recorded the largest explosion in this solar cycle. The X6.3 class flare was the largest since 2017. And on February 22, the Laboratory of Solar Astronomy of the Institute of Space Research of the Russian Academy of Sciences reported two powerful flares on the Sun in less than 12 hours.
#7
Re the image in the article; it reminded me of a book written by Gary Bates. Here's a synposis:
Alien Intrusion is the product of many decades of research into the UFO phenomenon, separating fact from fiction, and concluding that while some UFO phenomena are simply the result of optical illusions, hallucinations, fraud and the like, there are some that cannot be explained away with any kind of natural explanation. The author, Gary Bates, makes a very good case that the UFO phenomena that are real - i.e. that have been verified by reliable witnesses and that have no natural explanation - are of diabolical origin. In short, he demonstrates that “aliens” that have been encountered by thoroughly honest witnesses are actually demons whose UFOs are products of their preternatural powers. The demons use their preternatural powers to reinforce the faith of millions of people in molecules-to-man evolution and in the existence of “highly-evolved,” “advanced civilizations” elsewhere in the universe, frequently informing their dupes that they have come as saviors to save us from ourselves and to usher in a New Age of peace.
In the book he states that visitations can be halted by telling the "aliens" to leave in the name of Jesus. I suppose they wouldn't delight in a crucifix either.
#8
Off the "SETI scientists detect unexpected message from black hole on far fringe of Milky Way" pile...
Three cheers for the red, Black, and blue
(and our generous donors, and you,
without whom none of this
racist, socialist bliss
and queer studies could ever come true)!
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Russian delegation was invited to the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the Allied landings in Normandy during World War II, which will take place on June 6, 2024. Agence France-Presse reported this on April 16,citing the organizers of the event, Mission Libération.
“Given the circumstances, [Russian ] President Vladimir Putin is not invited [to the ceremony]. However, Russia is invited and will be represented in order to honor the importance of the participation and sacrifice of the Soviet people, as well as their contribution to the victory of 1945,” a company representative said.
As Regnum reported, earlier on April 16, the leader of the French Patriots party, Florian Philippot, wrote that Paris’s invitation to Russia to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy would be bad news for the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky. According to him, Kiev will try to put pressure on French President Emmanuel Macron in this regard.
Earlier on the same day, French media reported the intention of the country's authorities to invite the Russian delegation to the celebrations for the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy, which will take place in early June. According to radio station Europe 1, it will be difficult to do without Russia at the celebration, despite the difficult geopolitical situation.
Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on April 16 that Moscow has not yet received an invitation from France to the celebrations dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Allied landing in Normandy.
The landing of the military of the United States, Britain, Canada and their allies on the territory of France occupied by the Nazi army (Operation Neptune) took place in Normandy on June 6, 1944 during the Second World War. Soviet soldiers did not directly participate in it, but the USSR made it possible through its military operations, paying the highest price during the Second World War.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A woman who falsely accused former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Trever Bauer of sexual assault has been charged with fraudulent schemes and artifices.
According to TMZ, the charge was filed against Darcy Esemonu in Arizona on Monday. A Maricopa County grand jury previously indicted her on the felony count.
In a video statement, Bauer said that the charge stemmed from allegations Esemonu made against Bauer in a 2023 lawsuit. She alleged that Bauer raped her during a 2020 encounter and that she became pregnant.
Bauer denied any wrongdoing in a countersuit, stating that they did have consensual sex one time in December of 2020, during which the condom broke.
He claimed in the countersuit that Esemonu told him she was pregnant and demanded over $1 million to terminate the pregnancy.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024
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fraudulent schemes and artifices
...The schemes are bad enough, but the artifices...the artifices always get ya.
#2
Bauer lost a lot of $$$ when the LA Dodgers suspended him. All because of the fraud by Esemonu. Interestingly, it was because of discovery that Esemonu's texts were found where she bragged about tricking Bauer.
Posted by: lord garth ||
04/17/2024 10:22
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#3
^ Actually, he's been accused by several wymyns of liking rough s3x, including choking. That was the original accusation by another wymyn who was so traumatized she had several more sessions
Posted by: Frank G ||
04/17/2024 10:47
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#4
She should have accused Trump, she'd be a millionaire.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Brigadier General Gennady Shapovalov was appointed commander of the Operational Command “South” of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The command announced this on April 16 on social networks.
The new commander was introduced to the personnel by the Commander of the Ground Forces of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Lieutenant General Alexander Pavlyuk.
Previously, this post was held by Andrey Kovalchuk. Verkhovna Rada deputy Alexei Goncharenko (listed in Russia as a terrorist and extremist) announced his dismissal from his position on his Telegram channel. The parliamentarian wrote that the commander of the operational command “West”, Sergei Litvinov, was also fired. At the same time, Goncharenko expressed the opinion that these are “not the last changes.”
According to official information from the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Shapovalov was born in 1978 in the Kirovograd region. In 2000, he graduated from the Institute of Tank Forces of the Kharkov State Polytechnic University, and also in 2012 from the Command and Staff Institute for the Use of NBU Forces.
In addition, Shapovalov studied at the US Army War College. Previously, he commanded a separate motorized infantry brigade named after. Yakov Handzyuk. In March 2022, he was promoted to brigadier general.
As Regnum reported, Goncharenko announced the dismissal of Sergei Litvinov and Andrei Kovalchuk from their posts as commanders of the operational commands of the Armed Forces of Ukraine “West” and “South” on April 9, but there was no official confirmation then.
On March 26, the head of the Kiev regime, Vladimir Zelensky, signed a decree dismissing Alexey Danilov from the post of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council (NSDC). By another decree, he appointed Alexander Litvinenko, who previously held the position of head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, to this post. Later that day, Zelensky called Danilov’s dismissal a continuation of the reboot of the control system.
In February 2024, Zelensky dismissed Valery Zaluzhny from the post of commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and appointed Alexander Syrsky to this position. He explained this decision by military failures during the widely announced counter-offensive of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
[NEWSWEEK] A challenge by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to dismiss an open records lawsuit about her office has attracted the scrutiny of one of Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... 's co-defendants in the Georgia election interference case.
Willis is leading the case against the former president, who is accused in an indictment of trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in the state. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee for 2024 has pleaded not guilty "Wudn't me." to all charges against him.
In February, Willis' office was hit by a complaint from Just the News. The news website said the District Attorney's office had failed to comply with the law by not providing requested records of any meetings and communications between Willis or Nathan Wade with White House or Justice Department officials.
Newsweek contacted Willis by LinkedIn to comment on this story.
The request came while Willis was under scrutiny over her relationship with Wade, a special prosecutor she had hired in the case. Former Trump staffer Michael Roman, a co-defendant in the case, said Wade had two meetings with White House employees in 2022. Roman called for Willis to be removed from the case because of the relationship, but, after a hearing, Judge Scott McAfee ruled she could remain if Wade resigned. That decision is being appealed.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Gregor Spitzen
[REGNUM] For many German chancellors, relations with China over the years have been a yin and yang: war and peace, trade and boycott, human rights and Realpolitik.
The leaders of the Federal Republic of Germany, since the time of Helmut Schmidt, were well aware of the huge role of China in global geopolitics and trade, and therefore always tried to build relations with Beijing as pragmatically as possible, avoiding slippery topics that could disrupt the fragile consensus.
“We have very good continuity in relations with China when it comes to German chancellors,” says Jörg Wuttke, honorary president of the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. “It started with Schmidt, continued under Kohl, and then under Schröder and Merkel, who always tried to recognize China as an equal partner and interact with it on economic issues.”
For their constructive approach and some understanding of the “oriental” mentality in the Middle Kingdom, both Helmut Kohl, who did not pay much attention to the situation with “human rights” in the PRC, and Angela Merkel, who visited China 14 times during her 16 years of rule, were really highly valued.
Olaf Scholz, according to some European experts on China, is viewed in Beijing as “a pragmatist who continues Merkel’s policies through social democratic means.”
Scholz is not the first German chancellor to have to balance good economic relations with political distancing from China. This line has always been a thin line, and the heads of government of Germany, which has powerful exports, had to overcome it. But it was much easier to do this before.
If during Kohl’s time, China’s share in Germany’s foreign trade was just over 1%, then when Angela Merkel left her post in 2021, the Celestial Empire’s share in the German economy was already 10%.
A year later, already in the first year of Scholz’s chancellorship, China bought 30% of the capacity of the seaport of Hamburg, the main trade gateway of Germany, which best characterizes the scale of bilateral economic relations between Germany and China.
THERE WILL BE NO AGREEMENTS
According to statements made in Berlin the day before Scholz's trip, the German government wants to continue doing business with China by developing bilateral relations.
Although many Western partners have criticized Berlin for refusing to follow the pro-American policy of “de-risking” (reducing the level of dependence on Chinese markets, goods or investments), the German government continues to treat China as one of its most important trading partners.
If the breakdown of ties with Russia brought Germany to recession and deindustrialization, then much more extensive trade ties with China, if broken, threaten Germany with real economic collapse. This is well understood both in the Bundeschancellery and even in the Ministry of Economics of Robert Habeck.
Olaf Scholz's visit began in a warm and friendly atmosphere, except for the chancellor's meeting in Chongqing with a third-rate official - the city's deputy mayor. Such a diplomatic heel, experts say, signals that Scholz arrived in China as a supplicant, who, in fact, has nothing to offer his Chinese partners.
There were rumors in Beijing long before the chancellor's visit that no important agreements would be signed.
“Every time the head of the German government came to China, one of the main events was the signing of trade agreements and treaties, but that, unfortunately, is in the past,” says Cui Hongjian, a Europe specialist at Beijing Foreign Studies University.
“Compared with his predecessors, Scholz has to take a broader position,” says Jörg Wuttke of the European Chamber of Commerce in Beijing. “On the one hand, he must continue to develop the German and European economies and protect them from excess capacity, and on the other, solve the geopolitical problem: China is increasingly tied to Russia in the conflict in Ukraine.”
China remains a huge market for large German companies. For example, in the chemical industry, China accounts for half of the world market, and in automobile manufacturing it accounts for about a third.
Unlike companies from other countries, the largest German players in these industries have decided to continue playing in the People's Republic. For example, BASF, Bosch, Daimler and Volkswagen.
It's also about jobs, a key issue for the SPD chancellor, although there is not much of classical social democracy left in Germany's modern, big-business-oriented Social Democratic party.
The main political topics of the Chancellor's visit to China are undoubtedly the Iranian-Israeli and Russian-Ukrainian conflicts.
Although Beijing has made it clear that it will maintain Russia's benevolent neutrality in Russia's operation in Ukraine and will side with Iran in the Middle East conflict, Berlin hopes that it can try to achieve success by calling on China to act on the "correct" side, from the German point of view. side of history.
It is not entirely clear on what such hopes are based, given that so far the appeals of Western politicians, and above all US President Joe Biden, to Xi Jinping have not had any impact on the situation.
That Beijing has no intention of changing its attitude towards Russia was further demonstrated just a few days ago when Xi personally received Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
China shares Russia's position in "maintaining social security and stability," Xi said, pointing to the two countries' joint efforts to "reform" a "rules-based world order" that Beijing and Moscow say is unfairly dominated by the West.
CHINESE DUMPING
China believes it can afford a difficult balancing act between partnerships with the United States and Europe. In Germany, they believe that the less Beijing can count on America and the more it finds itself in an economic crisis, the more the Celestial Empire depends on the EU.
Nevertheless, Beijing categorically refuses to feel dependent and continues to flood the European market with cars, solar modules and other goods produced at dumped prices.
According to some EU experts, China is playing with fire by underestimating the capabilities of European regulators, who may lose patience by responding to China with prohibitive tariffs and other anti-dumping measures.
During his trip, Olaf Scholz expressed support for open car markets in Europe for Chinese cars, but called for equal access to the Chinese market for European cars.
“The one thing that should always be clear is that competition must be fair,” Scholz said during a talk with students at Tongji University in Shanghai. “In other words, no dumping, no overproduction and no copyright infringement.”
In Brussels, however, things are not viewed as rosy as in Berlin. EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen claims that China is currently experiencing “a dramatic overproduction of electric vehicles coupled with huge government subsidies”, and therefore the US, Brazil, Mexico and Turkey have already closed their markets from Chinese electric cars.
“The EU cannot be the only market that remains open to Chinese overproduction,” von der Leyen said. “We must not allow the same thing to happen in Europe as with solar panels: European manufacturers are unfairly forced out of the market due to dumping prices subsidized by the state, and as a result, production goes to China.”
In September, von der Leyen announced an antitrust investigation into market distortions caused by Chinese subsidies.
If the investigation finds that China is violating trade laws, the EU could impose punitive tariffs.
However, the German Automotive Industry Association (VDA) has already opposed the idea of the overly proactive President of the European Commission, trying to avoid a trade conflict with China for fear of jeopardizing many jobs in Germany tied to cooperation with the Middle Kingdom.
INCOME FROM THE MIDDLE EAST
Iran's strike on Israel significantly changed the political priorities of Scholz's meeting with Xi and Chinese Prime Minister Li Qian on Tuesday morning.
Initially, Beijing's role in the Ukraine conflict and China's excess production capacity were on the agenda.
Now Scholz wants to convince the country's leadership to use its influence on Iran to de-escalate the conflict in the Middle East.
Middle East expert Ahmed Abuduh of the British think tank Chatham House says China's leadership views both the Iranian drone attack on Israel and attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea as consequences of the war in Gaza.
With this position, China wants to increase pressure on the United States to use its political weight against Israel to end the war.
In turn, the US’s constant calls for China to use its influence on Tehran are, according to a British analyst, an attempt by Washington to “draw attention to China’s inaction and selfish behavior.”
Since the US is well aware of China's limited influence on Iran, the main purpose of the constant demands is to show countries in the region that "Beijing is an unreliable partner, and the US is the only power that can guarantee regional security," Abuduh continues.
Beijing could ask Tehran to show restraint and then leave everything as it is, Abuduh said. Ultimately, it is not in China's interest to escalate the conflict in the Gulf region.
This could jeopardize the rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia that China sees as a diplomatic success.
“If the situation worsens, it will have a serious impact not only on China, but also on the entire regional situation and global security, which China does not want,” said Zhu Yongbiao, a professor at the Department of Politics and International Relations at Lanzhou University.
In recent years, China's leadership has been expanding its influence in the Middle East. It wants to secure access to energy resources and markets - especially in the face of growing geopolitical tensions.
Between 2017 and 2022, Chinese merchandise trade with the region nearly doubled. The People's Republic gets nearly half its crude oil from Gulf countries, including Iran, which the West has imposed sanctions on.
China has become the most important trading partner for many Gulf countries. It is logical that this strengthens Beijing’s political influence in the region.
China is trying to capitalize on this: the state wants to fill the power vacuum left by the United States in the region and find allies for a new world order without American dominance.
GERMANY'S EXPECTATIONS ARE CLEARLY TOO HIGH
The Chinese side, judging by the non-verbal signals sent through diplomacy, clearly does not perceive Scholz’s visit as fateful and breakthrough, capable of turning the page in relations between the two countries and bringing them to a qualitatively new level.
China knows that Europe, which has been in a state of economic crisis since the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, cannot afford to risk its relations with the Middle Kingdom, and therefore makes maximum profit by actively dumping its high-tech products on the European market. China is clearly not going to give up its strategic alliance with Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese President Xi Jinping
It is also unlikely that Beijing in the Middle East conflict will abandon its important ally and trading partner in the region - Iran, which is opposed to Israel, which has turned on the “berserker” regime and, with its actions in Gaza, has alienated most of the civilized world community.
However, Olaf Scholz’s visit still achieved one important goal. A year later, the polite, diplomatic and good-natured Scholz, acting as a supplicant, managed to smooth out the negative impression from the visit of Foreign Minister Annalena Bärbock, who tried in a defiant manner to lecture her Chinese colleagues on the nature of democracy and almost provoked an unprecedented cooling in German-Chinese relations.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are confronting the Russian Army.
In the Bakhmut direction, 12 Russian attacks were repulsed; in the Liman direction, the Defense Forces repulsed 6 Russian attacks.
During the day, Defense Forces aviation carried out strikes on 5 areas where enemy personnel were concentrated and control points. Units of the missile forces inflicted a defeat on the area where enemy personnel were concentrated. 50 military clashes were recorded at the front. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine reported this on the evening of April 16.
In general, the enemy launched 2 missile and 43 air strikes, and carried out 39 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems on the positions of our troops and populated areas.
According to the General Staff, the operational situation in the Volyn and Polesie directions is without significant changes. No signs of the formation of offensive enemy groups were identified.
In the Seversky and Slobozhansky directions, the enemy maintains a military presence in the border areas, conducts sabotage and reconnaissance activities, shells populated areas from the territory of the Russian Federation, and increases the density of mine and explosive barriers along the state border of Ukraine. The enemy carried out air strikes in the areas of Popovka and Vozdvizhenskaya settlements in the Sumy region. More than 15 settlements were subjected to enemy artillery and mortar shelling, among them Liskovshchyna, Chernihiv region; Staraya Guta, Khleborob, Romashkovo, Svobodnaya Sloboda, Sumy region.
In the Kupyansk direction the enemy did not conduct offensive (assault) operations. Conducted air strikes in the areas of the settlements of Glushkovka, Kolesnikovka, Berestovo, Kharkov region. About 20 settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Sinkovka, Petropavlovka, Kislovka, Peschanoye in the Kharkov region.
In the Liman direction, the Defense Forces repelled 6 Russian attacks in the areas of the settlements of Terny, Torskoye, Grigorovka in the Donetsk region and Serebryansky forestry in the Lugansk region. The enemy carried out air strikes in the areas of the settlements of Terny and Zarechnoye, Donetsk region. More than 10 settlements were damaged by artillery and mortar shelling, including Makeevka, Luhansk region and Terni Yampolevka, Torskoye, Donetsk region.
In the Bakhmut direction, our soldiers repelled 12 Russian attacks in the areas of the settlements of Verkhnekamenskoye, Vyemka, Belogorovka, Chasov Yar, Ivanovskoye, Kleshchievka in the Donetsk region, where the enemy, with the support of aviation, tried to improve the tactical situation. Conducted an air strike in the Spornoye area of the Donetsk region. More than 10 settlements came under artillery and mortar fire, including Grigorovka, Kalinovka, Chasov Yar in the Donetsk region.
In the Avdeevsky direction, our defenders repelled 9 attacks by the invaders in the areas of the settlements of Ocheretino, Novokalinovo, Berdich, Semenovka, Netaylovo, Donetsk region, where the enemy, with the support of aviation, tried to oust our units from their occupied lines. He also carried out air strikes in the areas of the settlements of Pervomaiskoye, Solovyevo, Novobakhmutovka, Alexandropol, Donetsk region. About 10 settlements were shelled by artillery and mortars, including Novobakhmutovka, Semenovka, Netaylovo in the Donetsk region.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the Defense Forces continue to restrain the Russians in the areas of the settlements of Krasnogorovka and Novomikhailovka in the Donetsk region, where the enemy tried to break through the defenses of our troops 14 times. He also carried out air strikes in the Antonovka and Konstantinovka areas of the Donetsk region. More than 10 settlements came under artillery and mortar fire from the invaders, among them Paraskoveevka, Konstantinovka, Ugledar in the Donetsk region.
In the Orekhovsky direction, the enemy attacked the positions of our defenders 3 times in the areas of Staromayorskoye, Donetsk region and Rabotinoye, Zaporozhye region. Conducted an air strike in the area of the village of Staromayorskoye, Donetsk region. About 20 settlements were shelled by artillery and mortars, including Poltavka, Malinovka, Krasnoye, Belogorye, Shcherbaki in the Zaporozhye region.
In the Kherson direction, the Russian Federation does not abandon its intention to oust our units from the bridgeheads on the left bank of the Dnieper. Thus, within 24 hours he made five unsuccessful attacks on the positions of our troops in the area of the village of Krynki, Kherson region. Conducted air strikes in the areas of the settlements of Berislav, Odradokamenka and Kazatskoye, Kherson region. About 20 settlements were subjected to artillery and mortar shelling, among them Lvovoe, Tyaginka, Ivanovka, Novotyaginka in the Kherson region.
It was previously reported that 104 military clashes took place over the past 24 hours. In general, the enemy launched 16 missile and 31 air strikes, and carried out 79 attacks from multiple launch rocket systems on the positions of our troops and populated areas.
Let us remind you that the loss of manpower of the Russian troops exceeded 455,000 people.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] A New York City woman out on bail for allegedly stabbing a fellow passenger on the subway has been arrested yet again, this time in Philadelphia, just days after failing to show up for a court appearance.
Takeira Hester, 28, was back in police custody on April 13 after allegedly attacking two people, including a 1-year-old boy, with a "long knife." She has been charged with attempted murder, aggravated assault, simple assault, weapon possession, and reckless endangerment.
According to the New York Post, Hester"s alleged stabbing spree began around 8:30 am on Saturday. While making her way through a Center City neighborhood, she attacked a random 24-year-old woman, knifing her in the chest and hand.
She expeditiously departed at a goodly pace, and shortly after noon went on to stab the aforementioned infant in front of his parents and twin brother while the family was out for a walk on South 18th Street.
"We had two parents walking a stroller down the street with two twins," Philadelphia Police Captain Frank Banford explained. "It looked like this female just rushed up to them and nothing was said— completely random."
He noted that she "tried to stab both children but got one child," noting that the boy was knifed once in each arm.
As the Post reports, the infant"s father chased after Hester, and while she managed to flee, her bag was left behind. Law enforcement was able to find enough evidence inside to track her down, and a few hours later she was arrested.
Both victims of the random attacks were transported to nearby hospitals, where they were treated for their injuries.
Hester was due to appear in court in New York City on April 11 for the subway attack, which took place on October 26, 2022. The victim in that incident, who was simply trying to break up a fight between her and another passenger, sustained stabbing injuries to his neck, wrist, and shoulder.
She was held on $10,000 cash and $15,000 insurance company bond, and managed to post the former in February 2023.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024
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#1
Takeira Hester, 28, was back in police custody on April 13 after allegedly attacking two people, including a 1-year-old boy, with a "long knife."
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Newsfront] 21:35 Good coverage of enemy positions near Pervomaiskoye, which is developing simultaneously with the assault on Netailovo -map.
It is likely that the area between Pervomaisky and Nevelsk will soon come under the control of our troops.
20:15 Avdeevskoe direction. District settlement Ocheretino
Reported about a new successful attack by our assault units on Ukrainian Armed Forces strongholds.
Our strike units cut and wedge into enemy defensive lines using combined strike tactics.
19:18 Footage of the Hours of Yar, for which there are fierce battles -video.
An enemy drone filmed areas of the city being stormed by Russian troops.
18:41 Statements by representatives of the “West”, “South”, “Center”, “East” and “Dnepr” groups on the progress of the special military operation (as of April 16, 2024) –video.
17:54 Telegram channel “Fisherman":
Donetsk direction: Battles for Krasnogorovka, advance near Pervomaisky
Russian troops advance into Krasnogorovka on the southern and eastern outskirts of the city. According to the latest information, about half of the private sector south of the railway again came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces, and the assault groups managed to reach the station some time ago.
This is partly confirmed by footage of enemy strikes on various buildings in the south of the village. The Russian Armed Forces are striking with FABs with UMPC on the territory of the Krasnogorovsky refractory plant and the ruins of the industrial zone to the south.
To the north of the railway there is also progress in the private sector and around Vatutina Street. However, no attempts to advance from Staromikhailovka have yet been observed, since in this area there are fields well targeted by the enemy, as well as fortifications dating back to the days of the Minsk Agreements.
To the north, in the Nevelskoye-Pervomaiskoye section, the RF Armed Forces some time ago began eliminating the “pocket” in the area of ??the Domakha gully. Russian units occupied the territory of the gardens at least to the outskirts of the ravine.
At the same time, the rest of the “pocket,” apparently, has been at least partially abandoned by the enemy, but is not occupied by the Russian Armed Forces due to the complex mine situation and counteraction from enemy drones.
16:24 Special military operation. Situation on April 16 –map.
14:05 Statement by the head of the press center of the Vostok group -video.
Units of the Vostok group of troops continue to carry out combat missions in the South Donetsk direction.
During active operations, the group's units improved the situation along the front line and thwarted the enemy's reinforcement of forward positions in the areas of Urozhaynoye, Priyutnoye and Charivnoye.
Bomber strikes, artillery fire, and heavy flamethrower systems hit strongholds and areas where manpower and equipment accumulated in the 72nd Mechanized Brigade and the 128th Territorial Defense Drigade in the Vodyanoye, Urozhaynoye and Staromayorskoye areas.
Over the course of 24 hours, up to 90 enemy military personnel, three towed howitzers M777, FN-70 and 122mm D-30, three units of automotive equipment, and nine aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were destroyed.
13:18 Statement by the head of the press center of the “West” group -video.
Units of the West group of forces continue to carry out combat missions in the Kupyansk direction.
Motorized rifle units, with the support of artillery and aviation, improved the situation along the front line, inflicted fire damage on the personnel and equipment of the 14th Mechanized Brigade and the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Zagoruykovka and Kotlyarovka.
During the counterbattery fight, artillery units and operators of Lancet loitering ammunition destroyed two towed howitzers M777 and M198 and an American-made M109 Paladin self-propelled artillery mount, as well as five mortar crews.
The group's air defense and electronic warfare systems destroyed seven aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles, including three Leleki-100s, two Valkyries, a Fury and a Spectator.
Enemy losses in the Kupyansk direction amounted to up to 30 military personnel, two electronic warfare stations "Enklav-N" and "Plastun", two vehicles.
12:33 Telegram channel “Fisherman":
Avdeevsky direction: Fighting in Semenovka and advance to Novokalinovo
The Russian Armed Forces continue to advance to Novokalinovo, north of Avdievka. According to our data, Russian forces managed to advance north almost to the intersection of Stepova and Pershotravneva streets (route O0544).
The situation in the Berdychi-Semyonovka section, where the Russian Armed Forces are also advancing, has become somewhat clearer. Most of Semenovka came under the control of Russian forces, but the enemy presence remains on the northern outskirts.
In addition, the western part of Berdychi is under enemy control. Apparently, the assault groups of the Russian Armed Forces that reached the outskirts were forced to roll back behind the reservoir due to difficulties with supplies and counterattacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from Kazberova Street and the ruins of the agricultural airport.
The problem was the destruction of the dams through which communications went to Berdychi. In fact, from the eastern to the western outskirts and vice versa, you can only go on foot or extremely slowly by vehicle, which is obviously very difficult in a combat situation.
Apparently, this is precisely what is connected with the intensification of attacks in fields and plantings north of the populated area, where there is a very difficult mine situation.
11:30 Situation at the front as of April 16, 2024
Formations of the Vostok group of troopscontinueattack in different areas. Assault groups of the 139th motorized rifle battalion captured several enemy positions and continue assault operations. In addition, the 114th Motorized Rifle Regiment destroyed the observation post of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and advanced forward.
The enemy's attempt to strengthen positions in the area of ??the settlement was thwarted. Productive.
Bomber aircraft and artillery strike enemy positions. Thus, Far Eastern soldiers destroyed the M-113 armored personnel carrier, 122mm BM-21 Grad, 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika, 152mm D-20 howitzer, Starlink system, and ammunition depots
. 10:46 Summary on the morning of April 16, 2024
At night, strikes were carried out on enemy targets in Starokonstantinov, Khmelnytsky region, Uman, Cherkasy region, Kherson, Novy Bug, Nikolaev region, Mirgorod, Poltava region. At this point in time, the depletion of enemy air defenses makes it possible to solve problems with fewer weapons.
In the Kherson direction there were battles in the Krynok area; yesterday it was reported that small groups of the enemy were intensifying with the support of Ukrainian Armed Forces artillery. Drones continue to be a problem. The enemy is using a new tactic for using FPV in an electronic warfare environment: he is trying to use the drone as a projectile on the final trajectory of the attack, sending it to the target along a given trajectory without a control signal. The civilian population is under attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces: in Radensk, one person was injured, and nine residential buildings were damaged in Yubileiny.
On the Zaporozhye Front there were heavy battles in Rabotino. On a piece of land, everything is used - from assault groups and drones to tanks and rocket artillery. Fighting in the center of the village.
The Vrem'evsky salient is characterized by active actions of the Russian Armed Forces in the area of Staromayorsky and Urozhayny.
In the South Donetsk direction in Novomikhailovka there are battles for every house. Our troops are also trying to cover the settlement from the south and north. It is reported that the active phase of fighting has resumed in Georgievka in the direction of Kurakhovo. On the southern outskirts of Krasnogorovka, our troops are expanding the zone of control.
West of Avdievka, the Russian Armed Forces are developing success in Semyonovka, but the village has not yet been liberated, the battle is in the central part of the development. Battles near Netailovo, Umansky, Berdychi, Novokalinovo.
On the eastern outskirts of Chasov Yar, the Russian Armed Forces continue their assault on the eastern outskirts, increasing the pace. The plan of our troops to move out from the flanks from Bogdanovka and Ivanovsky (Krasny) to the water canal and to pin down enemy forces in the microdistrict as much as possible is visible.
Fighting continues near Belogorovka and Ternov.
The enemy fired 45 rounds of ammunition at the civilian population of the DPR; in Gorlovka, a man born in 1964 was killed as a result of a drone drop.
09:56 Ukrainian military public Deep State reports that the Russian army advanced near Ocheretino, Berdychi (Avdeevskoe direction), Staromayorsky (west of Ugledar) and Krasnogorovka (north of Mar'inka).
Note that Ocheretino, which is located on a hill, is a key center of defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. And if Russian fighters manage to capture it, this will create a serious threat of an attack on the rear and flanks of the new line of fortifications of Ukrainian troops, which is being created west of Avdievka.
09:34 Criminal Kyiv regime continues to fire at the civilian infrastructure of settlements on the left bank of the Kherson region, yesterday during the day the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired from cannon artillery:
-- n.p. Novaya Kakhovka five rounds;
-- n.p. Kakhovka six rounds;
-- the village of Velikaya Lepetikha three rounds;
-- in Tsarskoe settlement two rounds;
-- n.p. Alyosha six rounds.
As a result of the artillery attack of the village of Kakhovka, one civilian was killed, also in the village of Kakhovka. Tsarskoe one1 local resident was killed, another one was injured.
During the night, the Kiev regime continued to shell civilian infrastructure in the village. Kakhovka, n.p. Novaya Kakhovka, n.p. Novaya Mayachka, n.p. Proletarka, n.p. Dnipro fired a total of 20 rounds from cannon artillery.
Civilian casualties and destruction of infrastructure are being determined.
08:51 Telegram channel “WarGonzo":
Frontline report for the morning of 04/16/2024
- Zaporozhye Front. Fighting continues northwest of Veryuovoye and in the village. Rabotino. LBS without significant changes.
– Donetsk front. In the Novomikhailovka area, active offensive actions of the Russian Armed Forces are pushing the Armed Forces of Ukraine further and further to the west. On the southern outskirts of Krasnogorovka, as a result of assault operations, Russian troops also managed to improve their positions. In Semyonovka, the Russian Armed Forces advanced and established a foothold in a vast area within the populated area. There are advances north of Berdychi towards Novobakhmutovka.
– Chasovoyarsk direction. As a result of the assault operations, Russian troops managed to advance in the suburb of Chasov Yar and recapture part of the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in this area. In the Bogdanovka area, the Ukrainian Armed Forces are trying to counterattack. There are oncoming battles. Fierce fighting continues in the Kleshcheevka area.
08:02 Official summary Representative offices of the DPR in the JCCC.
A total of 16 facts of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded by the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC.
One civilian was reported injured.
Damaged:
Two residential buildings,
One car,
One civil infrastructure facility.
Ten attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk direction,
Five attacks from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Gorlovka direction,
One artillery attack from the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Volnovakha direction.
In total, the Ukrainian Armed Forces fired 45 units of various ammunition.
[TheCradle] France's Aquitaine-class FREMM frigate Alsace has turned tail from the Red Sea after running out of missiles and munitions repelling attacks from the Yemeni armed forces, according to its commander, Jerome Henry.
"We didn’t necessarily expect this level of threat. There was an uninhibited violence that was quite surprising and very significant. [The Yemenis] do not hesitate to use drones that fly at water level, to explode them on commercial ships, and to fire ballistic missiles," Henry told French news outlet Le Figaro in an exclusive interview published on 11 April.
"We had to carry out at least half a dozen assistances following [Yemeni] strikes," he added.
The commander of the Alsace also revealed that, after a 71-day deployment, all combat equipment was depleted.
What onearth will they do in a real war?
"From the Aster missile to the 7.62 machine gun of the helicopter, including the 12.7mm, 20mm, or 76mm cannon, we dealt with three ballistic missiles and half a dozen drones," Henry adds.
According to the French commander, the Franco—Italian Aster missile — each carrying a price tag of up to $2 million — "was pushed to its limits" by the Yemeni armed forces, as the Alsace had to use it "on targets that we did not necessarily imagine at the start."
Henry added that Sanaa has markedly increased its use of ballistic missiles after relying mainly on suicide drones at the start of the country's pro-Palestine operations in the Red Sea and stressed that the French Navy has not faced such a tough battle since NATO collectively launched its 2011 war on Libya to depose the late ruler Muammar Gaddafi.
"I was there too. It wasn't the same thing. It has been even longer since we have engaged with this level of weaponry and violence. The threat to the boat was much greater in the Red Sea," Henry notes.
The Alsace entered the Red Sea in late January, a few weeks after the US and the UK launched an illegal war on Yemen to protect Israeli shipping interests. The frigate was deployed as part of the EU naval operation Aspides — Greek for shield.
With a mandate initially set for one year, Aspides saw the deployment of several EU warships and airborne early warning systems to the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, and surrounding waters. According to authorities in Brussels, the mission is exclusively defensive, and its forces are not taking part in US-led attacks against Yemen.
Aspides came together after several NATO members proved hesitant or outright refused to join the floundering Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), which a top US commander called one of the largest battles the navy has fought since the end of World War II.
"We favor a diplomatic solution. We know that there is no military solution," US Special Envoy for Yemen Timothy Lenderking said earlier this month, acknowledging the futility of Washington's military strategy against the Arab world's poorest country.
According to Yemeni sources who spoke with The Cradle, US officials recently offered Sanaa "an acknowledgment of its legitimacy" in exchange for its neutrality in the ongoing war on Gaza.
"[Washington] pledged to repair the damages, remove foreign forces from all occupied Yemeni lands and islands, and remove Ansarallah from the State Department’s ’terrorism list’ — as soon as they stop their attacks in support of Gaza," The Cradle columnist Khalil Nasrallah cited the sources as saying.
The offer also includes "severely reducing" the role of the Saudi-appointed Presidential Leadership Council (PLC) and "accelerating the signing of a roadmap" with the Saudi-led coalition to end the nine-year war that has decimated Yemen.
Nevertheless, Yemeni officials have maintained that their operations in the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden, and the Indian Ocean will continue until Israel stops the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
"From the coast of the Red Sea or from outside it, we can achieve the goals we want in defense of our country and support of Palestine... We still have many military surprises, and there are military operations that we are keeping secret as part of a specific media strategy," Mohammad Ali al-Houthi, a senior member of Yemen's Supreme Political Council, announced on 3 April.
#3
That's the logical result of playing defense only without even attempting to neutralize the aggressors against free navigation in international waters.
I fear this is one of the portents of a general collapse of the West, first gradually and then suddenly.
#5
What on earth will they do in a real war?
Logistics, logistics, logistics. The French were 'pinching pennies' and did not send a logistics ship to the Indian Ocean. A warship will "shoot itself dry" far faster than the 'Peace time experts' predict... Besides the job of a FREMM frigate in missile defense is to empty its magazines defending more valuable ships, like the French aircraft carrier, and then hope to survive to be reloaded.
#8
Sustained arc light-style bombing should mitigate the Houthis aggression. However, I don't think anything other than a total purge would change their behavior. It looks like France only has two of them in the anti-air role; the other six are ASW.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
04/17/2024 11:44
Comments ||
Top||
#9
Pretending things are like they were because you don't want them to change is not the hallmark of adult leadership.
Radical elements of the Middle East including Iran and its Proxies have been escalating violence as the West keeps avoiding direct, forceful confrontation. Long ago a little bitch-slap would have stopped all this. Now, it requires at least a serious whuppin', by the collective West, but already risks serious, strategic escalation to very energetic, widespread kinetic exchanges.
Sadly, when it happens, a lot of the street-level ugliness may be coming to a neighborhood near you, literally, not just figuratively. Eight million new illegals undoubtedly have included very bad people carrying very bad things.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Iranian authorities promised to provide Russian diplomats with the opportunity to meet with sailor Timofey Kolchanov, who was on board the commercial ship MSC Aries seized in the Strait of Hormuz, the Russian Embassy in Tehran reported on April 16 in its Telegram channel.
“The Iranian side promised to provide access to our citizen in the near future. As soon as this happens, embassy staff will personally visit T. S. Kolchanov,” the message says.
According to Iranian authorities, the ship Aries, which also carries a Russian sailor, was moved to the port of Bandar Abbas. It is also reported that he was given the opportunity to communicate with his family by phone.
As Regnum reported, the naval forces of the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps captured the MSC Aries on April 13. According to the vessel's operator, there was a crew of 25 people.
On April 14, it became known that Kolchanov called his family. He said that the situation should be resolved soon. The sailor called from an unknown phone, the conversation lasted eight seconds, then the connection was interrupted.
Vice-President of the International Human Rights Committee Ivan Melnikov sent a note of protest to Iran. He called for the sailors to be released and the Russians to be helped to return to their homeland. The social activist accompanied the appeal with lines from the collection of hadiths (traditions) of the Prophet Muhammad, which says that it is necessary to free those who are experiencing difficulties.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Security forces suspected a resident of Vladikavkaz of publishing a comment calling for terrorism on a social network. The suspect is under recognizance not to leave the place, the Ministry of Internal Affairs for North Ossetia reported.
Employees of the Center for Countering Extremism of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for North Ossetia and the republican department of the FSB detained a 30-year-old resident of Vladikavkaz on suspicion of public calls for terrorist activities (Part 2 of Article 205.2 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation), he was released on his own recognizance and proper behavior, the Ministry of Internal Affairs reported today in North Ossetia.
According to the security forces, “using a pseudonym, the man posted a destructive comment on a page on one of the popular social networks: a statement justifying terrorist activities, approving the use of violence and containing calls for destructive actions,” according to a message on the department’s Telegram channel.
According to the Astra publication, the case involves a 29-year-old doctor at a children's hospital from Vladikavkaz, who in October 2023 left an indignant comment about gasoline prices.
Yes, but which terror group is he associated with, that drove him to complain about high gasoline prices?
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:31 The Biden administration is ready to consider four separate bills to finance national security needs, including assistance to Ukraine, proposed by House Speaker Mike Johnson, White House National Security Council Speaker John Kirby said.
21:14 Latvia will send the first batch of drones to Ukraine as part of the drone coalition, Defense Minister Andris Spruds said. According to him, this is the country's first significant contribution to this coalition. Latvia will allocate at least 10 million euros per year for the development of the drone coalition. The countries included in the coalition intend to supply Ukraine with 1 million drones.
21:09 The West cannot create a system in Ukraine similar to the Israeli Iron Dome, Borrell said. He also explained that the United States cannot shoot down missiles over Ukraine, as in Israel, since there are no American military bases there that would be threatened by these missiles. At the same time, the head of European diplomacy said that he expects to receive “specific commitments” on the supply of air defense systems to Ukraine at the meeting of the heads of the EU Foreign and Defense Ministries on April 22.
21:05 Thanks to the creation of two levels of protection, it was possible to reduce the consequences of attacks on Ukrenergo substations by at least half, said the head of the company’s board, Vladimir Kudritsky. According to him, the third level is the most ambitious and requires the greatest investment and time for its construction, so construction work is still ongoing. “But only air defense can save power plants from a direct missile hit,” he added.
21:58 In Moscow, there is a fire at the Avangard military plant, which produces missiles for the S-300 and S-400 complexes, Russian media report. Fire on an area of 50 square meters. m occurred in workshop No. 12.
20:22 Ukraine has not received regular American aid since December last year. In March, the Pentagon sent a relatively small package worth $300 million to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, but both American and Ukrainian officials say this is not enough. Given the inability of the US Congress to timely allocate assistance, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are experiencing an acute shortage of ammunition. Read more in the material Situation with the help of the United States.
20:17 The EU Council on Monday, April 22, will discuss arms supplies to Ukraine, said official representative Peter Stano.
20:13 Zelensky in an evening video message confirmed the information about the destruction of the Russian radar station. He thanked the soldiers of the Special Operations Center “A” of the Security Service of Ukraine, who “are effectively destroying Russian air defense systems,” as well as employees of the 13th Military Counterintelligence Directorate of the SBU, “who are doing everything to destroy the Russian ability to terrorize Ukraine, destroying Russian radar stations that, in particular, worked for Russian aviation and bombing with guided bombs."
The president also said that Kyiv will request a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council on the issue of protecting the skies, air defense supplies, relevant systems and missiles. In addition, Zelensky commented on the statements of Western partners about the impossibility of providing the same assistance to Ukraine as to Israel: “In these two days, we have heard everything. About different conflicts - here in Europe and in the Middle East, different levels of threats, different airspace, although the same “martyrdom” and ballistics. About different threats of escalation. But are human lives different, we value each life equally?
19:59 The New York Times writes that Scholz, during his visit to Beijing, raised the topic of the war in Ukraine in a “non-confrontational tone,” at least publicly. The Chancellor, according to journalists, did not express direct concern about China’s support for Moscow’s economy. However, after three hours of negotiations with Xi, Scholz himself said that he called on the Chinese leader to put pressure on Moscow to stop the “senseless” war in Ukraine. Read more about the visit of the German Chancellor to China in the article Will there be friendship against Russia ?
19:25 The Supreme Council of National Defense of Romania stated that the country had become a target for a number of Russian spies who, in particular, tried to collect information about military exercises and assistance to Ukraine. The department's report says that the possible spies entered the country as Ukrainian refugees.
18:42 During the full-scale war, at least 37 thousand Ukrainians went missing, said Ombudsman Dmitry Lubinets. He clarified that this includes both civilians, children and adults, as well as missing military personnel.
18:36 The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution to support the restoration of Ukraine. In the document, MEPs call on all countries where Russia has accounts to take the necessary measures to ensure the transfer of these assets to restore Ukraine's infrastructure. PACE also called for the creation of an international compensation mechanism under its auspices.
18:04 The media have collected in infographics the main changes contained in the law on mobilization:
17:18 The Russians hit the town of Zolochev with a controlled aerial bomb, Bogodukhovsky district, Kharkov region - they hit the Ukrposhta building, two people were injured, said the head of the OBA Oleg Sinegubov.
17:13 Brigadier General Gennady Shapovalov has been appointed commander of OK South, the command reported. In this position, he replaced Major General Andrei Kovalchuk, who now heads the Military Academy in Odessa. Shapovalov was the commander of a separate motorized infantry brigade named after Yakov Handzyuk, and graduated, in particular, from the US Army War College, where senior officers of the American Ground Forces are trained.
17:06 The new law on mobilization, which Zelensky signed today, contains a provision on the confiscation of vehicles for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from citizens who have more than one car. About what kind of cars they want to mobilize and who will be responsible for it, see the material Mobilization of cars from Ukrainians.
16:39 Scholz said that he asked Chinese leader Xi Jinping to influence Russia so that Putin would withdraw troops from Ukraine: “China’s word has weight in Russia. Therefore, I asked President Xi to influence Russia so that Putin would finally stop his crazy campaign and withdraw his troops and ended this terrible war."
The Chancellor also noted that he and Xi had reached a consensus regarding the upcoming peace summit in Switzerland: “China and Germany want to intensively and positively coordinate efforts to facilitate the holding of the high-level conference in Switzerland and the upcoming international peace conferences.”
16:02 Zelensky signed the law on mobilization. After this, the document will be published in the official parliamentary publication Voice of Ukraine, the law will come into force one month from the day following its promulgation.
15:41 For the first time in history, a Ukrainian filed a lawsuit in Argentina due to torture in Russian-occupied territory. The procedure was organized by the war crimes documentation project The Reckoning Project. The Argentine Constitution, on the basis of universal jurisdiction, allows courts to try international crimes, including crimes against humanity and war crimes, regardless of where they occurred.
15:36 In a month, Ukraine lost 7 GW of generation, Energy Minister German Galushchenko said: “We roughly calculated that we lost up to 7 GW in our system. This is a gigantic amount of generation. Russia also destroyed a number of high-voltage transformers at substations transmitting electricity.”
15:17 In the occupied territory of the Zaporozhye region, a “deputy of the Akimov district council” was blown up, the occupation “authorities” of the region reported.
14:25 On the night of April 16, several military and industrial facilities were de-energized in Bryansk, Russia. According to the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense, as a result of the destruction of a transformer at an electrical substation with a capacity of 110 kW, in particular, military unit No. 33149, the 111th military plant and the 192nd central military plant were left without power supply.
14:11 The Russian army dropped a guided aerial bomb on Berislav, Kherson region, 15 people received shell shock, said the head of the OVA, Alexander Prokudin. The blow hit residential buildings - the provider's building, a pharmacy, a residential building and other civil infrastructure were damaged.
13:52 Borrell said that it is cheaper to buy Patriot for Ukraine than to restore the thermal power plant destroyed by Russia: “Before we talk about restoring Ukraine, we must avoid its destruction. It is cheaper to buy Patriot systems than to restore the power plant that the Russians are targeting.”
13:16 Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolai Patrushev said that the investigation confirmed and procedurally consolidates the connection between the direct perpetrators of the terrorist attack in Crocus and “Ukrainian nationalists.”
12:35 Borrell said that he is “knocking on the doors” of EU member states so that they buy anti-aircraft batteries for Ukraine: “I am knocking on the doors of member states to tell them that if they do not have anti-aircraft batteries, then they should buy. Progress is slow, but contributions from member states vary widely." The head of EU diplomacy also said that he had convened the Foreign Affairs and Defense Council on April 22 to see how Ukraine's needs for ammunition and air defense systems could be met.
12:24 Peskov said that Moscow welcomes Beijing’s “balanced position” on the war in Ukraine and is familiar with the PRC’s proposals. At the same time, according to him, the Russian Federation “is not currently recording any changes in Kyiv’s position regarding the complete refusal of negotiations with Russia.” As for the Olympic truce proposed by Macron, then, according to Peskov, “Kyiv uses similar ideas for rearmament and regrouping.”
11:47 Zelensky said in an interview with PBS that Ukraine has no chance of winning the war without American help: “I can tell you frankly: without this support we will have no chance of winning. You need to be much stronger than your enemy. Today the ratio of artillery shells Ours is 1:10. Will we be able to hold on? No. In any case, with such statistics we will be pushed back every day. To protect 100% of what is under our control, we will need to go to a ratio of 10:10."
The president also said that Russia has a large number of shells from Iran, in addition, Tehran transfers 300-350 attack drones to Moscow every month. In addition, Russia is bombarding Ukraine with planes from a distance of 300 km, and now there are no weapons to shoot them down. The ratio of aircraft between Ukraine and the Russian Federation is 1:30. Zelensky stressed that now Russia wants to destroy Ukraine, and it does not need any peace negotiations.
11:23 SBU drones hit a Russian long-range radar station in the Bryansk region, which controlled the sky 700 km deep into Ukraine, Ukrainian media write, citing sources. This is the second modernized Nebo-U complex, which was destroyed by the 13th Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of the SBU. The complex, worth $100 million, helped the enemy identify Ukrainian weapons and supported bombers attacking the Ukrainian border with KABs.
10:51 Trypilska Thermal Power Plant in the Kiev region was attacked by 11 missiles, seven of which were shot down, Zelensky said in an interview with PBS. The remaining four hit the target because the air defense ran out of missiles. “Why? Because there were zero missiles. We ran out of all the missiles that defended Tripoli,” Zelensky explained.
10:44 Xi Jinping, at a meeting with Scholz in Beijing, stated the need to hold a peace conference, which both Russia and Ukraine recognize, “with a fair discussion of all proposals.” According to him, in order to prevent the “Ukrainian crisis” from getting out of control, all parties must work to quickly restore peace.
10:26 The GUR stated that a new trend in TikTok called Everyday Life of a Dodger, which is rapidly gaining popularity, is a Russian IPSO. One after another, videos appear on social networks in which supposedly Ukrainian men film themselves abroad on vacation and call themselves “draft dodgers.” For this content, “folk” songs praising “draft dodgers” were simultaneously created.
Intelligence notes that the synchronicity of the appearance of numerous songs and videos of such content, the anonymity of their authors and the promotion of this content by organized groups of bots indicates a targeted propaganda campaign of the Russian Federation. Such IPSO is a classic technology for splitting society, when on one side there are “defencists” and there are “deviators.” The goal of the Russian Federation is to disrupt mobilization and increase tension in society due to internal confrontation, the Main Intelligence Directorate explains.
09:39 In the Kherson region over the past 24 hours, as a result of Russian shelling, two people were injured, including a child. Nine private houses, critical infrastructure facilities, and a post office were damaged, said the head of the OVA, Alexander Prokudin.
09:17 The Russians fired artillery at night and attacked the Nikopol district of the Dnepropetrovsk region with FPV drones. The power line was damaged, leaving a thousand subscribers without power, said the head of the OVA, Sergei Lysak.
08:55 Scholz said that during his visit to China he will discuss with Xi Jinping how to establish a “just peace” in Ukraine: “My meeting with President Xi will also be devoted to how we can make a greater contribution to a just peace in Ukraine. Good “After my last visit to China, there was an intensive exchange of views between our governments.”
08:23 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of April 16:
personnel - about 455,340 (+920) people,
tanks - 7189 (+9),
armored combat vehicles - 13,809 (+13),
artillery systems - 11,609 (+16),
MLRS - 1046 (+0),
air defense systems - 759 (+1),
aircraft - 347 (+0),
helicopters - 325 (+0),
UAV of operational-tactical level - 9277 (+11),
cruise missiles - 2092 (+0),
ships/boats - 26 (+0),
submarines - 1 (+0),
automotive equipment and tank trucks - 15,563 (+53),
special equipment - 1908 (+0).
07:59 Over the past 24 hours, 104 military clashes took place at the front, the General Staff reported in its morning report. In particular, in the Bakhmut direction, the Defense Forces repelled 33 attacks in the areas of Belogorovka settlements in the Lugansk region, as well as Verkhnekamennoye, Spornoye, Novy, Ivanovskoye, Kleshcheevka, Andreevka in the Donetsk region. In addition, the enemy tried 30 times to break through the defenses of Ukrainian troops in the Novopavlovsk direction - in the areas of Krasnogorovka, Novomikhailovka, Pobeda, Vodyanoye and Urozhaynoye of the Donetsk region.
The enemy did not conduct offensive actions in the Kupyansk direction. In the Liman direction, eight enemy attacks were repelled in the Ternov and Torskoye areas of the Donetsk region; in Avdeevsky - 15 attacks in the areas of the settlements of Novobakhmutovka, Berdychi, Semenovka, Umanskoye and Pervomaiskoye, Donetsk region; on Orekhovsky - seven attacks in the area of Staromayorskoye, Donetsk region, as well as north of Priyutnoye and southwest of Belogorye, Zaporozhye region; on Kherson - five attacks on the left bank of the Dnieper.
06:54 Air defense at night destroyed all nine attack UAVs of the Shahed-131/136 type, which Russia attacked from the Crimean Cape Chauda, the Air Force reported. The drones were destroyed within the Kherson, Nikolaev, Khmelnytsky, Poltava, Cherkassy and Dnepropetrovsk regions.
02:18 House Speaker Mike Johnson unveiled his plan to support allies at a closed Republican conference, presenting four separate bills to help Ukraine, Israel, Taiwan and other national security priorities, The Hill writes.
At the same time, Democrats remain against such a division. President Joe Biden, hosting Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala at the White House, called on the House of Representatives to immediately pass the funding package previously passed by the Senate. “They must do this now,” the president emphasized. The White House also said that “a separate bill would not actually help either Israel or Ukraine—it would actually delay needed aid.”
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] A strike by the Russian military on the Ukrainian Armed Forces training ground near Kharkov could lead to the liquidation of the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov (listed in the Russian Federation as terrorists and extremists) or the commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Alexander Syrsky. This became known on April 16.
“The information is unofficial, but it comes from Ukrainian channels as well. The Russian Armed Forces delivered a powerful blow to the training ground in the Chuguev area, Kharkov region. The head of the State Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Kirill Budanov, was allegedly there. Officers also came under attack,” the Military Delo Telegram channel reported.
It is noted that, according to also unofficially unconfirmed information, it was not Budanov who could have come under attack, but Syrsky.
“All messages come with an emphasis on the fact that important officials have been killed,” the message says.
There have been no official messages from either the Russian or Ukrainian sides.
As Regnum reported, Budanov repeatedly promised reprisals against Russians and admitted the involvement of the Kiev regime in terrorist attacks on Russian territory. One of his loudest statements were the words that Kiev “killed and will kill Russians” anywhere in the world. The head of the Main Intelligence Directorate threatened new terrorist attacks in Crimea and voiced plans to destroy “everything Russian” on the peninsula, calling for the transfer of hostilities to Russian territory.
In December 2023, the Ministry of Internal Affairs put Budanov on the wanted list. By a decision of the Basmanny Court, he was given a preventive measure in absentia in the form of arrest, he was accused of 104 terrorist attacks and was added to the list of terrorists and extremists.
FSB Director Alexander Bortnikov stated that Budanov, like others involved in crimes against Russia, is a legitimate target of the Russian Armed Forces.
The assassination attempt on Ukrainian blogger Anatoly Shariy living in Spain, which occurred in March, was personally supervised by the head of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine Kirill Budanov (listed as terrorists and extremists in the Russian Federation), RIA Novosti reported on April 16, citing a source in Russian law enforcement agencies.
As the interlocutor told reporters, the Main Intelligence Directorate, in collaboration with the Security Service of Ukraine, developed an operation “under a false flag.” The plan was to eliminate the blogger and make it look like Russia organized the murder.
“As part of the operation, surveillance was carried out, traffic routes were identified, weapons were delivered and handed over to the criminals,” the publication quoted the interlocutor.
According to him, the Ukrainian special services, posing as Russian agents, recruited Ukrainians living in Spain and representatives of the local criminal environment. The formal attitude of the Spanish law enforcement agencies during the investigation of the assassination attempt is also noted, since law enforcement officers did not even inspect the fired car and the scene of the incident, and also did not interview witnesses.
As reported by IA Regnum, on March 6, Shariy reported an attempt on him and his wife. The blogger said that they were driving a car when two people opened fire on the car with a machine gun with a silencer. He also stated that two weeks before the incident, Spanish law enforcement agencies received information about an impending assassination attempt.
On March 12, Shariy accused Spanish law enforcement agencies of incompetence and lack of professionalism, as well as reluctance to investigate the attempted murder. He appealed to the Russian special services with a request to thoroughly investigate this case.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REGNUM] With the arrival of warmth and the end of the spring thaw, the front in the Donbass began to move. Reports of fighting come from different areas: from Kharkov in the north to Kherson in the south.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Chinese President Xi Jinping, at a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, proposed four principles for resolving the Ukrainian conflict and quickly restoring peace. The Xinhua agency reported this on April 16
It is noted that during the meeting the parties exchanged views on the conflict in Ukraine.
“First, we must prioritize maintaining peace and stability and refrain from seeking selfish gain. Secondly, we must cool the situation and not add fuel to the fire,” Xi Jinping said.
He also called the third principle for resolving the Ukrainian crisis the creation of conditions for restoring peace and the need to refrain from continuing to escalate tensions.
The fourth principle proposed by Xi Jinping was to reduce the negative impact of the conflict on the global economy and the need to refrain from undermining the stability of global industrial and supply chains.
As Regnum reported, earlier on April 16, Xi Jinping said that China supports the convening of an equal international peace conference to resolve the Ukrainian conflict, which is recognized by both Russia and Ukraine. He stressed that Beijing encourages and supports all efforts that contribute to the peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict.
Later that day, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov called China's position on the conflict in Ukraine balanced. The Kremlin representative clarified that the Chinese side maintains a fairly high diplomatic activity, including on this issue. He added that Moscow welcomes this approach, but so far sees no change in the Kyiv regime’s position on a complete refusal of negotiations.
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Google staffers across the country barged into offices and staged sit-ins to protest the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.
According to the New York Post, the "No Tech for Apartheid" protestors used accounts on Twitch and X to post live videos and images of their takeover of Google Cloud CEO Thomas Kurian’s office in Sunnyvale, Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party,.
The group read statements demanding the company end its participation in "Project Nimbus," a contract with Israel involving Google Cloud and Amazon Web Services, and accused the company of "powering genocide in Gazoo ...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt"s Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with an 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... ."
Groups also occupied the 10th Floor of Google’s Manhattan offices as well as Google’s offices in Seattle as part of a "No Tech for Genocide Day of Action."
Signs brought by the group to the locations included, "Thomas Kurian: Drop Nimbus," "Googlers Against Genocide," and "Don’t Be Evil, Stop Retaliation."
The protestors also wore shirts that read, " Googlers Against Genocide, No Tech for Apartheid."
"Google, Google you can’t hide, we charge you with genocide. Google, Google you can’t hide, you are funding genocide," they chanted, also citing Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
Courtesy of Frank G: the full NY Post story can be seen here.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/17/2024
00:00 ||
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Top|| File under: Hamas
It is clear Google, Facebook and other TECH companies seem to have attracted lots of minions for the Liberal, Socialist Democrats' (LSD) agenda.
So How Stupid Are They?
They support a Terrorist group that would quickly behead these minions for their openly practiced lives, beliefs and social practices.
It should be noted that the LSD agenda is clearly Racists being Anti-Jewish, Anti-White and now supports Islamic Terrorism and Death to America.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] President Joe Biden's administration will help 50 countries identify and respond to infectious diseases, with the goal of preventing pandemics like the COVID-19 outbreak.
Federal officials will work with the countries to develop better testing, surveillance, communication and preparedness for such outbreaks in those countries in order to help 'effectively respond to biological threats wherever they emerge.' "Most likely before any Presidential Debates can occur"
The announcement about the strategy comes as countries have struggled to meet a worldwide accord on responses to future pandemics.
The program will rely on the State Department, the CDC, HHS, and the Agency for International Development, or USAID - to help countries refine their infectious disease response.
The White House on Tuesday will release a website with the names of the countries that are participating in the program.
President Joe Biden 's former Covid advisor has admitted the pandemic may have been borne out of a laboratory leak in Wuhan.
Biden officials are seeking to get 100 countries signed onto the program by the end of the year.
The 50 countries involved is up from 19.
The U.S. has devoting billions of dollars to the effort. Biden, a Democrat, is asking for $1.2 billion for global health safety efforts in his yearly budget proposal to Congress.
Meanwhile, four years after the coronavirus pandemic, the prospects of a pandemic treaty signed by all 194 of the World Health Organization's members are flailing.
The cooperation among the 50 countries 'to ensure they are better able to prevent, detect, and respond to global health security threats.'
Over the next five years, the United States will work with these 50 partners 'to build, further strengthen, and sustain a level of demonstrated capacity in at least five [global health security] areas.’
The Biden Administration oversaw much of the Covid vaccine rollout, which saved millions of American lives. But Covid-19 will not be the last of the administration's public health hurdles.
Bird flu is on the rise nationwide, infecting poultry and cows after the virus was able to jump from the former to the latter. The second person ever to be infected with avian flu was reported earlier this month after catching it from a cow.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A mutant strain of monkeypox
…calling it that proves that someone, somewhere is raaaaaaacis….
with 'pandemic potential' has been found in a town in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The virus is a descendent of the deadlier clade 1 mpox strain, but has evolved to become even more infectious and better at evading tests than its predecessor.
The concerning discovery was made in Kamituga – a poor, densely populated gold mining town that is feared to be ripe for an explosive outbreak. So far there have been 108 cases.
'Without intervention, this localised Kamituga outbreak harbors the potential to spread nationally and internationally,' the authors wrote.
'Given the recent history of mpox outbreaks in DRC, we advocate for swift action by endemic countries and the international community to avert another global mpox outbreak,' they add.
The researchers are concerned that the 'highly mobile' population of Kamituga could be the perfect breeding ground for the new virus.
Miners and sex workers frequently travel to and from the town for work from neighboring countries like Rwanda and Burundi.
And 'many people with mpox symptoms remain in the community and do not seek care', the authors wrote.
The pre-print warns that the 'local healthcare infrastructure is ill-equipped to handle a large-scale epidemic'
The experts have called for the roll out of vaccines and drugs and for heightened surveillance and contact tracing measures to be deployed in the area.
Mpox caused an international epidemic in 2022 when it spread to more than 100 countries and killed hundreds of people - including 58 Americans.
That outbreak was caused by the more mild clade 2 strain, which is rarely fatal.
The outbreak that worried health officials then was primarily concentrated within the gay and bisexual male community.
It is not yet clear whether the genesis of the outbreak in the DRC was driven by sexual contact.
For the past year, the DRC has been struggling to contain a deadlier version of the virus known as 'clade 1', which kills up to 10 per cent of those infected.
The new mutant strain - named 'clade 1b' - appears to be just as deadly. Of the 108 cases, there have been two deaths.
It is believed to have emerged sometime between July and September 2023 in animals and jumped to animals.
As it spread in Kamituga it acquired new mutations that helped it spread - especially among sex workers.
Nearly 30 percent of cases were among sex workers, suggesting the virus spreads in a similar way to the one that caused the 2022 outbreak.
Some 85 per cent of people had genital lesions, while 10 per cent were hospitalized.
The research was led by Congolese scientists in collaboration with experts across Africa, Europe, the US and Canada.
The findings were discussed by the ministers of health of 12 countries at a meeting convened by the Africa Centres for Disease Control last week, The Telegraph reports.
In their latest assessment of Pyongyang's weapons of mass destruction, the US said the mysterious state ruled by Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un has developed sprays and 'poison pens' which can spread deadly diseases.
The weapons are said to be designed to spread germs such as smallpox and anthrax which some experts believe is more dangerous than Kim Jong-un's nuclear weapons programme.
The report by the US State Department, which monitors foreign governments’ compliance with arms control obligations, said: 'The United States assesses that the DPRK [Democratic People’s Republic of Korea] has a dedicated, national level offensive BW [biological weapons] programme.
How many decades have they worked on these projects without developing something they dared to actually use?
#8
Remember when Daily Mail wasn't really pushing Covid hysteria, simply poking fun at 'anti vaxers'. See, it was all simply sarcasm, my friend, now trust me this time. We are serious people, full of happy feelings for you.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] The court sentenced residents of Stavropol Ansar Guseinov, Abdula and Miyasat Irkkuev, as well as Timur Bukharov to long prison terms, finding them guilty in the case of preparing a terrorist attack on behalf of the Islamic State.
As the "Caucasian Knot" reported, on October 7, 2022, the FSB reported that members of a cell of the international terrorist organization "Islamic State"* (IS), who were planning a terrorist attack, were detained in Stavropol. One of the detainees admitted plans to commit a terrorist attack and join the militants of a terrorist organization.
According to investigators, residents of Stavropol Ansar Guseinov, Abdula Irkkuev, Miyasat Irkkueva and Timur Bukharov joined the Islamic State on October 1, 2022. On October 3, 2022, they entered into a conspiracy with a member of the Islamic State to carry out a terrorist attack in Stavropol and acquired components for a homemade bomb. Later, Irkkuev made an explosive.
The Southern District Military Court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced Bukharov and Guseinov each to 14 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony, Irkkuev to 15 years of imprisonment in a maximum security colony, Miyasat Irkkueva to 6 years of imprisonment in a general regime colony, it was reported today " Interfax" with reference to the press service of the court.
Depending on their role, they were accused of participating in a terrorist organization, preparing a terrorist attack, illegally manufacturing explosives, and illegally trafficking in explosives.
It should be noted that in October 2022, the FSB reported three times on the discovery of terrorist cells in the Stavropol region, but this aroused analysts’ distrust. “Such messages may raise doubts, because this is a case when it is impossible to either confirm or refute incoming information,” Deputy Director of the Institute of Political and Military Analysis Alexander Khramchikhin told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
The intelligence services are motivated to spread doubtful reports about the detention of alleged terrorists in the Stavropol region to improve reporting and for propaganda purposes, journalist Elena Suslova and human rights activist Arsen Sarkisov told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
How else is he going to convince the US consumer to purchase a Chinese EV ?
[Just The News] President Joe Biden and his administration have taken over 200 actions against the U.S. oil and natural gas industry as energy prices have gone up, according to a new report.
"President Biden and Democrats have a plan for American energy: make it harder to produce and more expensive to purchase," the Institute for Energy Research states in a new report. "Since Mr. Biden took office, his administration and its allies have taken over 200 actions deliberately designed to make it harder to produce energy here in America."
The analysis highlights actions Biden took on his first day in office, listing them chronologically through March of this year. The first act was canceling the Keystone XL pipeline, issuing a moratorium on all oil and natural gas leasing activities in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and revoking Trump administration executive orders that decreased regulations in order to expand domestic production.
Within a week of being in office, Biden issued additional moratoriums on new oil and gas leases on public lands or in offshore waters and imposed new regulations related to permitting and leasing practices, which were tied up in the courts for years. It was not until last month that a federal court upheld the first oil and natural gas lease sale on federal lands. Last December, the Fifth Circuit also ruled that Gulf lease sales must go forward.
#2
Another reason they won't let Trump win. He'll vacate all the obstructions to domestic oil and flood the market with domestic oil. Within a year the economy would turn around and the world situation would alter once again.
#4
Trump would be able to do some stuff immediately. The permanent bureaucrats would likely have various stall strategies ready to muck things up. Staffing will be critical.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
04/17/2024 15:40
Comments ||
Top||
#5
/\ Staffing will be critical.
Yes, absolutely critical. A critical look needs to be taken at what went wrong with staff selections last time.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The attack on parishioners and the bishop of a Christian church in Sydney has been declared an act of terrorism. This statement was made on April 15 by the Prime Minister of the Australian state of New South Wales, Chris Minns.
We originally had this story from the Daily Mail as a link in comments two days ago, where the parties on the receiving end were identified as “Assyrian religious leader Bishop Mar Mari Emmanuel was preaching at Christ The Good Shepherd Church in Wakeley in Sydney's west …” and the young miscreant was not identified at all…
As Minns explained, state police reported overnight that the attack had been classified as a terrorist incident.
“Operational police units were tasked with investigating the terrorist attack and riots that occurred near the church. Resources have also been allocated to work with other faith-based organizations and structures across Sydney to avoid retaliation or retaliatory violence,” Minns said.
NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb explained that the 16-year-old who attacked the churchgoers was motivated by “extremist motives” and the decision to label the incident a terrorist attack was dictated by the attacker’s behavior. Webb added that investigators believe the attacker sought to intimidate the public and his motives were “in the nature of religious extremism.”
Regnum previously reported that a man attacked Bishop Marie Emmanuel with a knife during a service at Christ the Holy Shepherd Catholic Church in Sydney's west. The injured clergyman was hospitalized. Two more parishioners were injured.
After the incident, about 500 people gathered near the church, demanding that the attacker be handed over to them. The police officers who arrested him and the doctors who arrived at the scene were forced to barricade themselves in the church building. As a result, two police officers were injured, 20 patrol cars were damaged, and ten cars were completely destroyed.
In Sydney, on April 13, a man with a knife attacked visitors to a shopping center; law enforcement officers eliminated him. As a result of the attack, six people were killed and eight more were injured. The man is believed to have acted alone. The embassy in Australia and the Russian consulate general in Sydney reported that they did not have information about Russians injured in the attack.
The Australian TV channel 7NEWS, citing eyewitnesses, reported that the man who was not afraid to fight back against the attacker in a shopping center in Sydney was a Russian.
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.
[Quartz] We’ve all heard the stories recently about electric vehicles sales falling short of expectations. Companies like Tesla have seen sales slow in recent years and automakers such as Ford have even slowed production of their own electric models. Now, we’re seeing what’s happening to the unsold cars that are out in the world already: they’re piling up at ports.
[ABC] The New York Department of Health and Mental Hygiene has released a health advisory after multiple cases of human leptospirosis -- an infection that is associated to exposure to rat urine -- have been reported so far this year in New York City.
[Breitbart] New York Supreme Court Justice 
...Hizzonner da Mare of Chicago. He was elected in April 2023 to replace the disastrous Lori Lightfoot and immediately set about out-Richtering her. A member of the Democratic Party (naturally), Johnson previously worked as a social studies teacher in the city"s stellar public schools system. He helped organize the 2012 teachers strike. Prior to becoming Da Mare, he served on the Cook County Board of 
In Kupyansk direction, the Zapad Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line and repelled two counter-attacks launched by the AFU 21st Mechanised Brigade's assault groups close to Terny (Donetsk People's Republic).
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese media reported one dead in an Israeli drone strike on a vehicle in the town of 
...Oh, noze! Not him!...
[THEPOSTMILLENNIAL] Google staffers across the country barged into offices and staged sit-ins to protest the company’s $1.2 billion contract with Israel.
