[IsraelTimes] Second conference of its kind since Oct. 7 draws broader ideological mix amid rising despair over hostages’ fate; ex-PM Olmert attends event, which Macron and Abbas address remotely.
Drawing from not only the far left this time, but also the occasional center left politician looking for a few additional voters. Oddly enough, all of the article’s photos are cropped too narrowly to allow estimation of the size of the audience seated in the auditorium, but we are intended to assume that at least 2,000 attended... which is not impressive. At least while seated in velvet stadium seats they won’t be rioting in the streets and attacking the soldiers and police on duty, like they usually do.
Israel’s beleaguered peace camp gathered for a two-day convention in Jerusalem from Thursday to Friday, uniting around the shared goals of a hostages-for-ceasefire deal and negotiated end to the Israel-Paleostinian conflict.
The gathering came to a head Friday morning as thousands of peaceniks packed an auditorium in the city’s International Convention Center to hear speeches from politicians, bereaved families and left-wing activists.
Organized by a broad coalition of left-wing and shared society groups, the "People’s Peace Summit" was the second conference of its kind held since the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... -led October 7 onslaught.
This year’s event attracted a broader swath of participants than its forerunner in Tel Aviv last summer. Amid rising despair over the hostages’ fate as Israel enters its 19th month of war, some center-leaning opposition figures took to the stage alongside seasoned members of the Israeli left.
Politicians of international renown also partook in the conference, with French President Emmanuel Macron expressing his support for the gathering in a pre-recorded address, as well as Paleostinian Authority President the ineffectual Mahmoud Abbas ...aka Abu Mazen, a graduate of the prestigious unaccredited Patrice Lumumba University in Moscow with a doctorate in Holocaust Denial. While no Yasser Arafat, he has his own brand of evil, just a little more lowercase....> Macron lauded the conference as a "signal of hope in a time marked by pain."
He went on to call the two-state solution the "only possibility for peace and security for all," noting that La Belle France in June will co-chair a conference to this end alongside Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... A two-state arrangement, he added, must be based on three prerequisites — the release of hostages, disarmament of Hamas and reform of the Paleostinian Authority.
Abbas, who spoke not long after Macron, also called for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as the capital of a prospective Paleostinian state.
The aging PA leader’s former negotiating partner, former prime minister Ehud Olmert, sat in the auditorium’s front row, and later addressed a smaller panel at the heels of the main speaker lineup.
Olmert touted a new plan that he and former PA foreign affairs minister Nasser al-Kidwa had drawn up for a two-state solution.
The ex-premier called for an interim security force to ensure that Hamas does not return to power, and a new administration linked to the Paleostinian Authority that can rebuild Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... without any involvement of the terror group.
"We must pull out from Gaza," Olmert said during the panel. "Gaza is Paleostinian and not Israeli. It needs to be part of a Paleostinian state."
’PEACE THE BEST GUARANTOR OF SECURITY’
The wider ideological spread of this year’s conference meant that some speakers met opposition from the crowd, as did National Unity MK Alon Schuster.
"I believe that the first job of the State of Israel is to protect the security of its citizens in any place, at any time," said Schuster. "At the same time, we must strengthen the political, economic and moral basis for our existence in the Middle East by signing peace agreements... Peace is the best guarantor of security."
When mentioning his party chairman Benny Gantz, Schuster was met by a wave of boos from the crowd.
"I am diverging from the written remarks to beg you, pursuers of peace, do not omit [anyone] from the peace and democracy camp, even those who don’t agree with everything you say," the politician urged.
As he walked off stage, some called on him to invoke a two-state solution, which he neglected to explicitly mention in his speech.
While this year’s confab featured a few new faces, many of the keynote speakers remained the same, such as Labor MKs Gilad Kariv and Naama Lazimi, who ascended to the stage as a pair. Taking turns talking, the two denounced not just the ongoing war but the government’s "de facto annexation" in the West Bank.
"Under the auspices of this war, the annexation machine in the West Bank is grinding on at a dizzying and violent mostly peaceful pace," said Kariv.
Hadash-Ta’al chairman Ayman Odeh, who was also at last year’s event, gave an impassioned speech to loud applause from the audience. He began with an anecdote about a mother and her three children who are chased down by a pack of hungry wolves.
"Out of despair and her survival instinct, the mother throws her eldest son — maybe the wolves will be satisfied with him — but their hunger only intensifies. She throws her second son, then the third, and in the end when she alone remains, the wolves devour her," Odeh recounted. "This is is exactly how fascism fasces -- thin reeds, each flimsy in itself but unbreakable when bound into a bundle. Its distinguishing philosophical feature is the Corporate State. The word is nowadays thrown around by all sorts of people who have no idea what they're talking about... works. It pursues the opposition, and the opposition, frightened, rushes to sacrifice us all."
Odeh likened the panicked mother to the anti-Netanyahu opposition, which he claimed gave up on peace with the Paleostinians, and soon after, on partnership with Arab Israeli leadership.
"I want to put before you a crucial proposition — the historic role of Arab citizens. Without us, it is possible to build a dictatorship, but without us, it is impossible to build a democracy," he said.
"Even during this excruciating and bloody war, Jews and Arabs — you all — continued to have faith in each other and believed that only together we can win," he continued, invoking the well-known wartime slogan.
Prediction: Whatever Iran might agree to, in the real world they will never give up their nuclear weapon program. The DoD needs to refill their logistics alongside upgrading their war fighting ethos in preparation.
[IsraelTimes] US special envoy says Tehran can expand civilian nuclear activities but must get hate rid of all centrifuges, as talks set to resume in Oman on Sunday
US special envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff, who is set to resume nuclear talks with Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... on Sunday, has said the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s uranium enrichment facilities "have to be dismantled" for Washington to take it at its word that it does not want nuclear arms.
"They cannot have centrifuges. They have to downblend all of their fuel that they have there and send it to a far-away place," Witkoff said in an interview with right-wing US news outlet Breitbart on Thursday. "An enrichment program can never exist in the state of Iran ever again. That’s our red line."
"I just believe they have no choice" but to accept the position of US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... against enrichment, said Witkoff. "Obviously, they can say no, and they can test President Trump, but I think that would be an unwise thing to do."
The comments came after Witkoff last month said the US would seek only to cap Iran’s uranium enrichment, but not end it altogether, contrary to the position of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Witkoff quickly backtracked, saying any nuclear deal with Iran "must stop and eliminate its nuclear enrichment and weaponization program."
Speaking to Breitbart, Witkoff said Iran would have to dismantle its three known enrichment facilities in Natanz, Fordow and Isfahan. On the other hand, he said, the Iranians could hold onto their nuclear reactor in Bushehr, where "they have no ability to enrich, they have no ability to have centrifuges there, they can only use that facility for civilian purposes — making of electricity and things of that sort of civilian purposes.
"If that is what they choose to do, if they believe in that program, they ought to expand it if they want to," said Witkoff, adding that his goal in the nuclear talks was to get Tehran to "voluntarily shift away from an enrichment program."
"If we can get them to voluntarily do that, that is the most permanent way to make sure that they never get a weapon," he said.
Iran, whose leaders are sworn to destroy Israel, says it opposes nuclear weapons. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... the Islamic Theocratic Republic is enriching uranium to 60% — far higher than necessary for civilian uses, and a short step away from weapons-grade.
Iran also funds a regional network of anti-Israel proxies, including Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... , Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... ’s Hezbollah and Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s. Getting Iran to stop arming those groups is a "secondary discussion," Witkoff told Breitbart.
"We don’t want to confuse the nuclear discussion because that to us is the existential issue," said Witkoff. "That’s the issue that needs to be solved today and quickly."
Witkoff is set to travel to Oman on Sunday for the fourth round of Omani-mediated talks with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, a source familiar with the matter said, as Iran’s semi-official Tasnim news cited an Iranian negotiator as saying Tehran had agreed to resume talks.
The fourth round of negotiations, initially scheduled for May 3 in Rome, was postponed, with mediator Oman citing "logistical reasons."
Witkoff told Breitbart that the fourth round had been delayed because "we didn’t think that the talks last week were going to be productive, because we needed to get to certain understandings with them, and hopefully this Sunday they will be productive."
Witkoff was reportedly engaged over the past week in talks with Omani and Houthi officials that resulted in a US ceasefire in Yemen, announced by Trump on Tuesday. Sources cited by CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... said the US-Houthi truce talks aimed to provide momentum for the Iran nuclear talks.
The truce did not include a commitment by the Yemeni rebels to stop attacking Israel, and apparently caught Jerusalem by surprise — much like Trump’s announcement of the Iran nuclear talks last month.
Trump in his first term scrapped the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, dubbed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which had promised Iran sanctions relief in exchange for greater oversight over its nuclear program. Netanyahu had railed against that deal, arguing that it kept in place Iran’s capacity to produce nuclear arms.
Witkoff told Breitbart that "we’re never doing a JCPOA deal," saying the agreement had a "mismatched procedure."
"We believe that they cannot have enrichment, they cannot have centrifuges, they cannot have anything that allows them to build a weapon. We believe in all of that. That was not JCPOA," said Witkoff.
"JCPOA had sunset provisions that burned off the obligations and burned off the sanctions relief at inappropriate times. It’s never going to happen in this deal," he said.
Witkoff stressed that Trump, who is expected to visit the Middle East next week, prefers a diplomatic rather than military solution to the Iranian nuclear threat.
Witkoff said critics of his diplomacy included a "neocon element" that "believes war is the only way to solve things."
"Neocon," or neo-conservative, refers in US political parlance to politicians who support intervention in foreign conflicts. The term is often used derisively by Trump’s isolationist supporters.
Witkoff’s comment came after Trump last week fired US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, in part, reportedly, over the latter’s hawkish views on Iran and intense coordination with Netanyahu on a potential military strike there.
Witkoff said his neo-conservative critics "give no consideration whatsoever on what the consequences are" for military action, and are certain that Iran will manipulate Witkoff if it is not handled with force.
"They may attempt to manipulate me. I don’t think they’re going to be able to manipulate me," said Witkoff. "If the Iranians make the mistake of thinking they can procrastinate at the table, then they won’t see that much of me.
"The alternative, as the president says, will be a bad alternative for them," he said. Trump "believes that his force of personality... can bend people to do things in a better way in the interests of the United States government," said Witkoff, adding: "I believe in that too."
ARAGHCHI TO CONSULT WITH SAUDI COUNTERPARTS
Araghchi, Witkoff’s interlocutor in the nuclear talks, is set to visit Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... on Saturday, a day before the fourth round of negotiations and days before Trump is expected to visit those countries, Iran’s foreign ministry said in a statement Friday.
Araghchi is due to hold talks with senior Saudi officials in Riyadh before heading to Doha for a conference on Arab-Iranian dialogue, the ministry said. The Iranian top diplomat later said meetings in Saudi Arabia would cover the latest on the nuclear talks with Washington.
In a video carried by Iranian media, Araghchi said Tehran believes "the sustainability of any possible agreement depends to a large extent on taking into account the considerations and concerns of the countries of the region in the nuclear field," and those countries’ common interests with Iran.
Trump is scheduled to visit Saudi Arabia, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates from May 13 to 16 on his first major Middle East trip of his second term. The president is not expected to visit Israel on the trip.
Trump provoked Araghchi’s ire earlier this week by indicating that the US would decide how to call the Persian Gulf, following reports that Washington could officially rename it the Gulf of Arabia. Araghchi condemned the decision as showing "hostile intent toward Iran and its people."
Ahead of the trip, Trump had predicted that Saudi-Israel normalization would happen "very quickly." However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... sources cited by Rooters this week said Trump had dropped the demand that Saudi Arabia normalize relations with Israel as a condition for progress on a civil nuclear program.
#1
Is Trump really just gonna go back to the deal he tore up in the first place? Anything different about this one? A lack of ballistic missile limitations were a reason he cited for tearing up the first one, as i recall.
[IsraelTimes] Sweden on Friday demanded that Iran release academic Ahmadreza Jalali,
…whose name is new to us…
who is on death row in Iran, after his wife said he had a heart attack in prison and his life is “at immediate risk.”
Jalali, an Iranian who was sentenced to death in 2017 on espionage charges and was granted Swedish nationality while in jail, suffered a heart attack in Tehran’s Evin prison, Vida Mehrannia writes in a post on X.
“He has been transferred to the hospital section in Evin prison. He was informed that he will not be able to see a cardiologist until Sunday,” the wife adds.
“After nine years of suffering, his health is declining rapidly. His life is at immediate risk and he must urgently receive proper care,” she says.
She urges Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard “to do everything in their power to secure his immediate release.”
Stenergard says on X that she had “spoken urgently tonight with the Iranian foreign minister.”
“During the conversation, I demanded that Ahmadreza Jalali immediately receive the specialized care he needs.”
“My work, and that of the government, for Ahmadreza Jalali continues with unabated strength. Ahmadreza Jalali must now be immediately released on humanitarian grounds so that he can be reunited with his family, something I also expressed in today’s conversation,” she says.
Sweden has previously said that Iran does not recognize Jalali as a Swedish national since he was only an Iranian citizen when he was arrested.
Iran does not accept dual nationality, period. But they especially are uninterested in the opinions of the governments of unbelievers, unless that opinion is backed by huge guns — at which point they will engage in taqqiya until they have a hostage or several they can use to control the other party. When it comes to the Swedish government they’ve had several hostages, so Swedish bluster has no impact whatsoever.
In June 2024, Tehran freed two Swedes held in Iran in exchange for Hamid Noury, a former Iranian prisons official serving a life sentence in Sweden. Jalali was left out of the swap.
“It seems not to be a priority for the Swedish officials what may happen to me as a Swedish citizen while I risk dying either by execution or due to poor health,” Jalali said in January, in a voice message obtained by AFP through his wife.
“It seems that due to my dual nationality, I am considered as a second-class citizen,” he said.
Congratulations on finally understanding. Not that having either single nationality would have helped once you were arrested — those given a death sentence in Iran, or any totalitarian society, are not highly valued by the authorities.
Western countries have long accused Iran of detaining foreign nationals on trumped-up charges to use them as bargaining chips to extract concessions.
[LegalInsurrection] Nearly 80% of Palestinians oppose dismantling of Hamas as a terrorist fighting force, poll shows.
Most Paleostinians in West Bank support mass-murder, rape and kidnapping of innocent Israelis by Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... -led turbans on October 7, 2023, a latest poll shows.
"59% of Paleostinians polled in the "West Bank" still think that Hamas’ made the "correct decision" to torture, rape, burn alive, murder, and kidnap hundreds of hostages—even including children," the media watchdog Israel-based Paleostinian Media Watch (PMW) observed, citing the poll conducted by the Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.
Having learned nothing from the October 7 massacre and its aftermath, nearly 80 percent of all Paleostinians were opposed to the dismantling of Hamas as a terrorist fighting force, poll numbers show. "77% of Paleostinians overall (and 85% of Paleostinians in the PA-controlled "West Bank"!) "oppose the disarmament of Hamas in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip in order to stop the war on Gaza," the media watchdog added.
What can only be described as mass-schizophrenia or dark pathology within the Paleostinian society: while most of the Paleostinians supported the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7, an overwhelming majority of them denied the role of the Gaza-based terrorist groups in the terror attack, the poll showed. "Strikingly, nearly 90% of Paleostinians—including those in Gaza—say they do not believe Hamas fighters committed the atrocities captured in videos from October 7, despite mounting global evidence," the Israeli news website YnetNews noted.
Paleostinian Media Watch (PMW):
According to the poll, nearly 80 percent of Paleostinians blamed Israel, or even the U.S., for their current plight in Gaza — not the terrorist group Hamas, Israeli researchers Ephraim D. Tepler and Itamar Marcus observed in the Paleostinian Media Watch (PMW):
More than a year and a half after the Hamas-led atrocities of October 7, 59% of Paleostinians polled in the "West Bank" still think that Hamas’ made the "correct decision" to torture, rape, burn alive, murder, and kidnap hundreds of hostages—even including children—according to the most respected Paleostinian polling agency.
The new poll by Paleostinian Center for Policy and Survey Research asks: "In your view, was Hamas’ decision to launch its offensive against Israel on 7 October a correct or incorrect one?" The polling shows a continuation of the pattern of decreasing support since December 2023, when the first poll was taken after the October 7 atrocities. It found that 82% of "West Bank" Paleostinians thought October 7 was a "correct decision." In March and June 2024, just over 70% of Paleostinians there supported it. In September 2024, support dropped to 64%. And now, 59% still say it was a "correct decision."
The slow but continuous decline in support directly correlates with the worsening military defeat in Gaza. Although the overwhelming majority of Paleostinians supported and still support the atrocities, as the cost goes up, fewer think it was the correct decision.
This is the current Paleostinian Authority message to its people as well. While the PA’s initial response to the Nazi-like pogrom was immediate, spontaneous celebration, it has now changed its message, arguing that while the October 7 atrocities were "legitimate resistance," the suffering it caused Paleostinians in Gaza has made them unjustified. Abbas’ advisor Mahmoud al-Habbash expressed this explicitly when he stressed five times that October 7 was "legitimate resistance" before saying that "what Hamas carried out in terms of its consequences is illegitimate because it led to catastrophic consequences."
As the poll shows (see graph above), support is even lower among Gazooks, who are the ones suffering directly from the war. Those there who see the decision as "correct" is now at 37%, having dropped from a high of 71%.
Interestingly, a total of 78% of Gazooks blame Israel or the US for "the current suffering of Gazooks" while only 12% blame Hamas. Coupled with that is the finding that 77% of Paleostinians overall (and 85% of Paleostinians in the PA-controlled "West Bank"!) "oppose the disarmament of Hamas in the Gaza Strip in order to stop the war on Gaza."
PM’s aide Dermer reportedly meets Trump in Washington for discussions on Iran ahead of fresh nuclear talks and Gaza, where IDF is set to launch major op
Bibi Netanyahu is a wily and experienced negotiator. One assumes that if he thinks the price is too high, it likely is.
But Bibi and almost all Israelis have concluded that the two state path is not possible. So there’s the hang up.
[IsraelTimes] Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman
...Crown Prince and modernizer of Saudi Arabia as of 2016. The Turks hate him, so he must be all right, despite the occasional brutal murder of Qatar-owned journalists... reaffirmed to the recently appointed vice chairman of the Paleostine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, during a meeting this week that Riyadh will not agree to normalize relations with Israel until the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ends and a pathway toward the establishment of a Paleostinian state has been established, Sky News Arabia reports, citing an unnamed Paleostinian source.
The Paleostinian source also reveals that Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... will resume financial aid to the Paleostinian Authority and will announce the decision during an annual summit of Arab leaders that will be held later this month in Baghdad.
Separately, the Kan public broadcaster reports that Riyadh has sent messages to the Trump administration warning the US president against making any surprise announcements during his trip to the region next week that might embarrass the kingdom.
Kan cited a senior Arab official who said the message was particularly regarding potential announcements by Trump regarding Saudi-Israel normalization, which they have repeatedly insisted will not be advanced absent an end to the Gaza war and a political horizon for the Paleostinians.
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#1
No treaty with Arabs is worth the paper it's written on.
(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is aiming to bring the first group of white South Africans to the United States via its refugee program as soon as next week, three people familiar with the matter said, a divisive effort given that Trump has been blocking refugee admissions from the rest of the world.
The Trump administration aims to fly the initial cohort of about 50 Afrikaners into Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, two of the people said, requesting anonymity to share internal plans. The group would participate in a press conference at the airport and then board flights to their U.S. destinations, the sources said.
The sources cautioned that their arrival had already been delayed a week and that the plans could change. As of Thursday afternoon, a charter plane intended to ferry them to the U.S. had not secured a landing permit, one source said.
The U.S. State Department, which administers the resettlement of South Africans whom the Trump administration granted refugee status, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. NPR first reported the timing of the arrivals.
#1
Stephen Miller, a top White House official and the architect of Trump's immigration agenda, defended the program while speaking to reporters, saying the situation "fits the textbook definition" of race-based persecution.
[JustTheNews] In April, Newsom bragged about the strength of the California economy, sharing it’s now the world's fourth-largest economy in U.S. dollars
California legislators have been told to expect a deficit of $10 billion or more even if revenues do not fall due to higher than anticipated spending, reports Politico.
Critics note that the $10 billion figure matches the estimated costs of the state’s expansion of eligibility for Medi-Cal, the state’s taxpayer-financed health care system, to all income-qualifying illegal immigrants.
“What a fiscal coincidence: precisely the estimated cost of Gavin Newsom’s plan to extend state Medi-Cal to illegal immigrants,” said Will Swaim, president of the conservative California Policy Center on X.
Earlier this week, the state-funded Legislative Analyst’s Office warned the state’s economy is “stagnant" and “fragile" and that the budget is reliant on an “unsustainable” stock market. Earlier Friday, the LAO urged lawmakers to consider the possible negative downturn that tends to, but does not always accompany, significant decreases in consumer sentiment.
“If hard economic data fall in-line with worrisome economic indicators, the state’s revenue outlook will turn more negative; however, recent history suggests this outcome is far from certain,” wrote the LAO. “As such, we urge policymakers to weigh the risks of both the possibility of a further downturn and of better than expected growth when making budget decisions.”
Last year, the state narrowly closed a $73 billion deficit through a combination of spending cuts, deferrals, shifts, and reserve withdrawals.
Now, even if state tax revenue remains steady, rising non-discretionary spending, such as from Medi-Cal, combined with possible cuts or funding withholding at the federal level could leave the state billions of dollars short yet again.
Federal spending in California is set to be $171 billion this year.
In February, state officials said California had spent $9.5 billion thus far on Medi-Cal services for illegal immigrants, The Center Square first reported, resulting in California Gov. Gavin Newsom requesting a $6.4 billion emergency bailout to fund the program for the remainder of the fiscal year.
In April, Newsom bragged about the strength of the California economy, sharing it’s now the world's fourth-largest economy in U.S. dollars — due to the relative decline of the Japanese yen to the dollar. After accounting for the high cost of goods and services, California only barely edges out low-performing Italy, and the state has shed hundreds of thousands of private sector jobs amid lower projected sales and corporate tax revenue.
[JustTheNews] The state is facing two lawsuits from inmates over transgender treatments. "Taxpayer dollars should not be used for procedures like this," Kemp said before signing the bill.
Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp signed a bill Thursday that prohibits state funds from being used for inmate transgender care.
"Taxpayer dollars should not be used for procedures like this," Kemp said before signing the bill at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth.
The state is facing two lawsuits from inmates over transgender treatments. Ronnie Fuller, housed in Pulaski State Prison, is asking the state to pay for a mastectomy. Fuller is a female who identified as a male, according to a document filed by the U.S. Department of Justice.
The Justice Department filed a statement of interest in the case of Jane Doe vs. the Georgia Department of Corrections but withdrew its statement last month. The department filed a statement in the Fuller case, according to a release.
“The prior administration’s arguments in transgender inmate cases were based on junk science,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a statement. "There has never been an Eighth Amendment right for inmates to demand elective and experimental surgeries. States’ limited resources need not be wasted to provide these dubious surgeries to inmates."
[JustTheNews] In the "socialist market economy" of China, some cracks are visible that show a country unprepared to stand up to Trump tariffs long-term. China has been increasingly opaque in markets and manufacturing information.
As Beijing and Washington meet this weekend in Switzerand for trade talks, the Chinese economy is in more significant distress than is widely reported. The country is facing heightened pressure from an ongoing property crisis, protests, and a general economic downturn, in part because of recent U.S. tariffs.
U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is holding meetings with senior Chinese Communist Party Politburo member, Vice Premier He Lifeng, China's top economic official, in the Swiss capital of Geneva this weekend. The two are likely to discuss the ongoing trade war that erupted after President Donald Trump imposed sweeping 145% tariffs on China after a tit-for-tat exchange last month.
The Chinese Communist Party and its leader, Xi Jinping, have publicly expressed confidence in Beijing’s ability to weather the tariff storm and have urged the Chinese people to be unified in the face of the challenge to its economy.
OPACITY IN MARKET INFORMATION
However, in an era when Chinese economic data is being increasingly concealed by Xi’s regime, there are still significant publicly available warning signs that the Chinese model is under severe strain, the tariffs being only the latest amplifier.
“Their economy is actually in distress,” Gordan Chang, a lawyer and China commentator who lived and worked in Shanghai and Hong Kong for decades, told the Just the News, No Noise TV show on Tuesday. “They reported 5.4% growth for the first quarter, but when we look at underlying indicators, it looks more like zero. And we know the direction, which is down,” he said.
Though China has become increasingly secretive with its economic data, available price data for February and March “indicate the Chinese economy is in a deflationary spiral that's very hard to get out of,” Chang said. In those two months, China’s consumer price index fell by 0.7% and 0.1%, respectively, contrary to growth projections. This has been described by some researchers as the prelude to a deflationary spiral, which would “lead to lower production, falling wages, and rising unemployment.”
“And we also see some other numbers that look like China was actually contracting during the period. So for instance, tax receipts were down 3.5% that's not consistent with robust growth,” he added. “So we're seeing an economy that is being hit by the tariff dispute at a time when it is in trouble.”
Economists have long harbored doubts about the reliability of China’s economic numbers, but under President Xi, the Chinese government has stopped publishing hundreds of data sets previously used to calculate the health of China’s economy, the second largest in the world. In recent years, government ministries have stopped producing statistics on land sales, foreign investments, unemployment figures, and cremation rates.
In February of last year, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an order to formally adopt revisions to a law on “Guarding State Secrets,” according to state media, CNBC reported. That national security law was broadened to conceal unclassified information, which economists say could easily sweep economic data and information into the dark corner of "state secrets." The cable network also quoted Jeremy Daum of
Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center, who explained that "For foreign businesses, it’s the lack of clarity that will remain an unquantified risk to doing business in China."
The US-China Business Council notes that penalties for disclosing whatever is deemed a state secret range from three years' imprisonment to the death penalty.
WARNING SIGNS IN THE CHINESE ECONOMY
There are warning signs for the Chinese economy beyond the ambit of official statistics that are much harder to conceal from domestic and foreign audiences alike.
For example, late last month, hundreds of Chinese factory workers took to the streets in protest over factory closures and economic uncertainty spurred by the tariffs, primarily demanding back wages after their workplaces came to a standstill. The discontent spread through diverse groups of workers from industries like construction, sporting goods and electronics—showing the breadth of the tariff impacts on the Chinese economy.
Before the protests, The Financial Times reported that factories across China had begun to slow production and furlough workers anticipating the effects of the tariffs. “Our export orders disappeared, so we’ve temporarily stopped,” one factory worker told the FT. The sentiment was echoed by several other workers interviewed by the outlet.
Aside from protests and layoffs, the Chinese government on Wednesday moved to cut key interest rates and implement other policy changes designed to juice a flagging economy and spur growth. These moves were part of a package of “10 coordinated monetary policy tools” released by the central bank that were designed to “promote high-quality economic development” during the “domestic and international economic and financial situation,” according to Chinese state media outlet Xinhua.
Among the changes announced by China’s central bank, the People's Bank of China, is a reduction in the reserve requirement ratio—the minimum amount a commercial bank must hold in reserve—by 50 points, which frees up an estimated 1 trillion yuan in liquidity. The bank also cut the lending rate for commercial banks by a quarter of a point and reduced the first-time homebuyer's five-year mortgage rate.
China is also continuing to endure a major crisis in its real estate sector, an industry which makes up close to a third of the country’s gross domestic product. The crisis began in 2021, following the collapse of two real estate giants, Evergrande and Country Garden, after the Chinese government implemented new policies to curb excessive debt among real estate developers.
Many Chinese real estate companies overbuilt in the country’s cities, leaving unfinished projects and empty buildings that, in some cases, the government has ordered to be torn down. Home prices have fallen significantly and major developers are still experiencing losses.
Chinese consumers have as much as 70% of their wealth tied up in real estate. Many local governments have also seen ballooning debts because of their over-reliance on property sales for revenue.
China is also suffering from a persistently high youth unemployment rate, which now stands at nearly 17%, almost double that of the United States. The figure is a signal of how well young Chinese are — or aren't — finding jobs after finishing their education, a proxy for the strength of the labor market.
Youth unemployment has been a concern of Chinese officials for years. After the rate reached a record high of 21.3% in 2023, the government temporarily stopped publishing the data. It resumed reporting later that year, debuting a new formula that it said better measured the statistic by excluding students.
CHINA WANTS TO APPROACH WASHINGTON, BUT WILL BE RELUCTANT TO ADMIT IT
Though China may have the capacity to fix its major, structural economic problems and sign a deal to reduce tariff rates, President Xi Jinping’s centralizing reforms may hinder changes in policy that could bring about those goals, Gordon Chang said.
“I think the Chinese understand that they got [sic] problems. The issue though…is the political system in China,” Chang said. "Xi Jinping has configured it [...] So he can't make an overture to the United States, which would be the rational thing for him to do, because he cannot appear weak.”
Perhaps because of China's long-standing cultural tradition of “miànzi”, which translates to "saving face," President Xi has been defiant in the face of the American tariffs. He said China is “not afraid” of a tariff war and warned the U.S. that “there are no winners in a trade war, and going against the world will only lead to self-isolation.” Chinese officials also described the tariffs as “unilateral bullying and coercion.”
Chinese leaders were also reportedly reluctant to reach out to the United States to start negotiations out of fears that they would appear weak. Instead, both sides are portraying their upcoming talks in Switzerland as a coincidence, according to Politico.
“I was going to be in Switzerland to negotiate with the Swiss,” Secretary Bessent said in an interview on Fox News. “Turns out the Chinese team is traveling through Europe, and they will be in Switzerland also. So we will meet on Saturday and Sunday.”
#2
Was the best tank of the time. Better than the German ones. French did not use them well though. Spread them out to support the infantry instead of an armored fist.
#3
"Too soon," cooed a Russian, "I fear,
To discuss the misuse of good gear
Before we went all in
On Great Hitler-Stalin
Far-Left Co-Prosperity Sphere."
[Breitbart] Two left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs), both with financial ties to Alex and George Soros’s network, are suing to stop President Donald Trump’s reforms of the Unaccompanied Alien Children (UAC) program, which are intended to end trafficking of such migrant children within the United States.
In February, Trump’s Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued reforms to the UAC program, which resettles migrant children in American communities with adult sponsors after they arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border without parents or guardians.
Part of those reforms is banning UACs from being turned over to illegal aliens in the United States.
HHS whistleblower Tara Lee Rodas has called the UAC program a “white glove delivery service” where migrant children go from Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody to HHS custody before being turned over to adult sponsors that are not their parents or relatives, in most cases.
“…we have delivered these unaccompanied children to criminals, traffickers, and members of transnational criminal organizations who are using the UAC program as a white glove delivery service of children,” Rodas said, calling out former President Joe Biden’s administration for loosening the rules around the UAC program.
This week, the National Center for Youth Law and Democracy Forward — both with financial ties to the Soros network — filed a class action lawsuit to stop Trump’s HHS from verifying the legal status of an adult sponsor before a UAC is handed over to their care.
The groups are asking a district court to find the reforms unlawful and issue a preliminary injunction stopping the administration from implementing the reforms.
Democracy Forward, which is behind a separate lawsuit trying to stop Trump from deporting illegal alien gang members, lists left-wing organizations like the Center for American Progress, National Immigration Law Center, Color of Change, UnidosUS, Common Justice, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network, among many others, as clients and partners.
The Alex Soros-chaired Open Society Foundations has funded several of Democracy Forward’s clients and partners. For example, in 2023, the Open Society Foundations awarded Color of Change a $3 million grant after giving the group nearly $1.5 million in funding in 2018 and 2019.
Similarly, and perhaps most significantly, the Open Society Foundations remains one of the largest donors to the Center for American Progress — a group that is considered the unofficial policy wing of the Democrat Party.
In 2023 alone, the Open Society Foundations gave the Center for American Progress nearly $4 million in grant funding.
Likewise, the Open Society Foundations has thrown millions to the National Immigration Law Center as well as hundreds of thousands of dollars in funding to UnidosUS, Common Justice, and the Catholic Legal Immigration Network.
The other group involved in the lawsuit, the National Center for Youth Law, received $75,000 in funding from the Open Society Foundations in 2017.
The case is Immigrant Defenders Law Center v. HHS, No. 1:25-cv-01405 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.
ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Metro Atlanta residents were startled on Saturday morning as an earthquake from Tennessee shook several nearby states.
The quake’s epicenter was about 12 miles southeast of Greenback, which is near Knoxville. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, it happened at 9:04 a.m. and had an estimated magnitude of 4.1.
People from all over metro Atlanta — including as far south as Lake Oconee — have called Atlanta News First, saying the quake shook their walls and floors.
Atlanta News First is working to learn if any damage was left behind in Georgia.
This is a developing story. Check back with Atlanta News First as we learn more.
[FoxNews] U.S. President Donald Trump announced in a Truth Social post that India and Pakistan have agreed to a ceasefire.
"After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence. Thank you for your attention to this matter!" the president declared in his Saturday morning post.
Both foreign nations are among the handful of world powers that possess nuclear weapons, making tensions between the two countries particularly dangerous on the global stage.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted in a statement that he and U.S. Vice President JD Vance had engaged with officials from the two foreign countries.
"Over the past 48 hours, Vice President Vance and I have engaged with senior Indian and Pakistani officials, including Prime Ministers Narendra Modi and Shehbaz Sharif, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Chief of Army Staff Asim Munir, and National Security Advisors Ajit Doval and Asim Malik," Rubio said in the statement.
"I am pleased to announce the Governments of India and Pakistan have agreed to an immediate ceasefire and to start talks on a broad set of issues at a neutral site," he continued. "We commend Prime Ministers Modi and Sharif on their wisdom, prudence, and statesmanship in choosing the path of peace."
JD Vance reveals what would make Trump admin 'walk away' from Russia-Ukraine war negotiationsVideo
Vance said in a post on X, "Great work from the President’s team, especially Secretary Rubio. And my gratitude to the leaders of India and Pakistan for their hard work and willingness to engage in this ceasefire."
#4
the next time Pak terrorists hear the order from Allan
Allah has nothing to do with it. The orders, along with training, funds, and supplies, come directly from their masters, the general of Pakistan’s ISI. And the jihadis will gleefully follow their orders, as they have done since 1947.
#5
Understanding Trump Trump also wants to be seen as a winner; hence the abrupt reversal of his tariff plans when the stock market tanked. He ordered the justified, targeted assassinations of Qassem Soleimani and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi (and good riddance to the both of them) and chalked those up as victories, even though Iran has since become an even more nefarious force and ISIS still exists. A deal with Iran, Syria, Russia, Ukraine, Israel, Hamas, the PA, Saudi Arabia, the Houthis is the goal. The deal is the win, whatever happens later is incidental. That is how Trump sees the world.
#7
"A career as top Pakistan cop
Doesn't stop one from taking on pop.
Look! Our Kashmir Files songs
Attract film-going throngs!"
"Sir, I'm sorry... that's Elphaba Thropp."
[Breitbart] The Trump administration is hiring a decades-old U.N. migration agency to help illegal migrants self-deport to their home country.
The administration has contracted with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), a UN-sponsored agency founded in 1951 to help people spread around the world return to their homes in the aftermath of WWII. The IOM will provide structure to Trump’s self-deportation policy and give migrants advice and assistance in their journeys back to their country, the Washington Post reported.
“In the United States, many migrants face a challenging reality — navigating complex systems with limited options and resources,” IOM said in a statement reported by the Post. “This initiative provides support to those who choose to return, helping them make a life-changing decision with care and clarity.”
Trump is offering migrants a $1,000 payment to entice them to self-deport, but is also warning of a hefty $998 per day fine if they decide to ignore the offer and remain in the U.S.
Clever.
It is also being reported that Trump officials are allowing self-deporters to take their U.S. earnings with them and will put them on a list that allows them the opportunity to immigrate legally into the U.S. in the future as opposed to those who are forcibly deported and who are placed on a list blocking future legal access.
More than 1,000 migrants have already agreed to enter the self-deportation process for the $1,000 payout, and the Trump administration hopes this number will substantially increase now that they are working with their “implementing partner” in the form of the IOM.
While the IOM has helped more than 1.5 million people migrate back to their home countries, the organization has never before worked with migrants looking to leave the United States, even though the U.S. has been the biggest source of funding for the agency.
IOM also noted that it has no role in deportations. “Our role is to ensure that those who lack the means to return on their own can do so in a safe, dignified, and informed way,” the agency explained. “IOM does not facilitate or implement deportations.”
Nonetheless, advocates for illegal aliens are advising people not to engage with IOM for fear the independent, UN-affiliated organization will somehow give migrants “biased” information.
“I am deeply concerned that this administration is going to present biased information to people,” Greg Chen, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association, told the paper.
Self-deportation is also not favored by many locales outside the U.S. As Bloomberg recently reported, many small towns in other countries thrive off the money illegals send back home earned by working illegally in the U.S. That money, termed “remittances,” can often serve as a sort of “foreign aid,” as if the U.S. was sending American dollars directly to family members living there.
Remittances from migrants living in the U.S. sent to other countries is one of the largest amounts of cash flowing out of our country. According to the Migration Policy Institute, in 2023 alone, foreign-born people in the U.S. sent $85.8 billion U.S. dollars back to their home countries.
Impressive. How much of that was earnt through legal means — eg. construction, lawncare, and cleaning — versus criminally?
The case of Nicaragua is instructive. A recent report revealed that the amount of U.S. dollars sent back home by migrants is the chief source of income propping Nicaragua up, as $5.243 billion sent from the U.S. flowed into the Central American country.
This is money lost to America. Money that is not spent in our stores, money that is not geared toward growing our economy, and money that does not benefit our country at all.
The town of Governador Valadares, Brazil, is another locale impacted by Trump’s migrant crackdown. The town has built an industry out of being a nexus for locals gathering to prepare to migrate to the U.S. But now it finds one of its chief industries slowing down to a crawl as migrants begin turning away from attempting to get to the United States, leaving the region’s migration industry with far fewer customers, both legal and illegal.
Governador Valadares is also finding itself turned into a new and unwelcome nexus as flights from the U.S. are bringing back Brazilians who have been deported by the Trump administration. Not only are people returning home, the U.S. dollars they were sending back have stopped with their return.
Mayor Sandro Fonseca estimated that his residents were receiving $2 million a day in these remittances, but now that source of income is threatening to disappear. It is a blow to finances that they might struggle to replace.
These stories are being repeated in countries all across the world, as locals return home and the money coming from the U.S. begins to dry up.
Sure, but the former migrants will bring back the American drive and standards they acquired while away, which will benefit wherever they end up.
[Washinton Examiner] A federal judge cleared the way for President Donald Trump to fire a top CIA doctor involved in the firing of agents who refused to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.
At a Friday hearing, U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff declined to prevent Dr. Terry Adirim from being fired from her position as head of the CIA Centers for Global Health Services. Adirim claimed that her firing was due to her being targeted by "a political extremist," but the Department of Justice argued the evidence was only circumstantial.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The mayor of Newark was dramatically arrested at an ICE detention facility in New Jersey on Friday.
Mayor Ras Baraka was detained for 'trespassing' according to Alina Habba, the US attorney for the state, who said he 'ignored multiple warnings' by Homeland Security Investigations to leave.
Dramatic footage showed frantic people scrambling outside the gates of the facility, before Baraka was arrested and escorted away by police.
Officers were seen shoving protesters out of the way amid the chaos. Rep LaMonica McIver who was at the facility claimed she and her colleagues were assaulted by ICE officers.
Following his detention, Habba said: 'He has willingly chosen to disregard the law. That will not stand in this state. He has been taken into custody. NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW.'
Governor Phil Murphy said he was 'outraged' by the arrest and called for his 'immediate release'. Baraka was released a few hours following his arrest.
The mayor claims the detention center has been illegally housing migrants amid Trump's mass deportation push.
The mayor claimed the jail has a contract with the city and cannot be housing migrants inside.
Last week he attempted to break in, vowing to turn up daily until he was let in.
A spokesperson for the company which operates the facility confirmed to DailyMail.com that migrants have been housed at the facility for a week.
'Delaney Hall houses illegal aliens. It is not a family detention facility, nor does it house minors,' a spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
[Politico] Within the West Wing, Trump has grown increasingly focused in recent weeks on lowering drug prices, urging aides to find policies capable of making a big dent in the cost of medicines, according to two of the people familiar with the matter.
Trump’s poll numbers have suffered in recent weeks since his tariff policies have begun to rattle markets and raise fears of widespread inflation and shortages of consumer goods.
White House officials initially pressed congressional Republicans to draft in their megabill a “most favored nation” provision tying the cost of medicines in Medicaid to the lower prices developed countries pay abroad.
But that bid ran into opposition across the GOP conference and is unlikely to be included in the legislation, said one of the people familiar with the matter.
The White House is instead now expected to try to advance the drug price proposal on its own, using existing authorities to impose its “most favored nation” model.
The effort, if finalized, would likely draw massive opposition from a drug industry that has warned the idea would decimate companies’ ability to develop new drugs. It could also trigger fresh legal challenges.
Trump’s order this go-around will look largely similar to his first, with even less specifics on which direct medicines are targeted, said one of the people familiar.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Kansas City's Democratic mayor has passed the buck to police about his city's collapse into Mad Max-style lawlessness, with gangs of thugs and bikers scaring locals to stay in their homes after dark.
Speaking with the Daily Mail, Quinton Lucas slammed the 'reckless and foolish' street-racing gangs that terrify locals, but rejected claims that he's personally responsible for the collapse of law and order in his city.
Residents and business owners accuse Lucas of soft-on-crime policies and failing to prosecute lawbreakers since the George Floyd race riots of 2020, and of ignoring their repeated pleas for public safety.
Despite these widespread concerns, Lucas said the problem was under control, that Kansas City could 'handle this moment' and that a police recruitment drive would get more officers on the streets in the coming months.
He spoke as his terrified residents complain that downtown Kansas City has become a hotspot for illegal street racing, reckless ATV and dirt bike riders tearing through the neighborhoods.
Locals now fear to tread downtown after dark — and owners of bars and restaurants there say they can understand why, while also complaining that they're on the brink of going bust.
The dystopian scenes recall the Mad Max movies, which saw a 'road warrior' played by Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy terrorized by post-apocalyptic gangs riding motorbikes and ATVs across the Australian desert.
Another video of brazen lawlessness emerged this week, showing two people mercilessly punching and kicking another person on the sidewalk at a bus stop in the downtown area at night.
'We need to make sure that we have enough officers,' Mayor Lucas, 40, told Daily Mail in a phone interview on Friday.
'More than anything, we need to make sure that there are real consequences for those who are engaging in reckless and foolish behavior in downtown Kansas City and all around our community.'
Lucas said he had not seen the latest shocking videos to emerge of chaos on Southwest Blvd — footage of a rider popping a wheelie and speeding when he hit the walker, who was trying to cross the street.
The mayor has faced criticism for ignoring business owners when they report their concerns about crime and how their eateries are suffering to their top local official.
Lucas he has spoken with David Lopez, the general manager at Manny's Mexican Restaurant — one of the downtown restaurateurs who has complained that diners are too scared to go out for a meal, and that businesses are suffering.
'I have great confidence in the city being able to handle this moment and many others,' said the mayor, who lives in a four-bedroom, $500,000 home.
'I know other American cities are confronting at these traffic issues, street racing and beyond, I think we need serious enforcement for all of them, and I think that's what we will continue to see.'
He added that Kansas City police was seeing its largest recruitment drive 'in over a decade,' which he said would help address the problem.
But Mark Anthony Jones, chairman of a district Republican committee, slammed Lucas, saying the mayor had championed soft-on-crime polices since the George Floyd race riots erupted in early 2020.
'He wants to blame the police, but the reason the police can't seem to get a handle on this is because everything that they do, they get their hands slapped by the mayor,' Jones told The Daily Mail.
Jones lives in downtown Kansas City and says he and his neighbors are regularly disturbed by noisy ATVs and other vehicles racing in the lawless streets in the middle of the night.
'People aren't wanting to go out after dark because you might get shot,' he said.
'In my own street at 3am in the morning, somebody will be shooting. That kind of stuff is normal here.'
Sean Smith, a Republican legislator for Jackson County, added that Lucas is struggling against long-term Kansas City problems of crime and poverty, and he 'has a lot on his plate' thanks to a crisis in City Hall.
City manager Brian Platt, who led efforts to improve traffic safety, was fired last month for retaliating against a whistleblower who'd complained that he directed employees to lie to the media.
Funding for Kansas City police is determined by the state and has been subject to years-long controversy. City officials tried to get more control over police resources amid the Floyd-era protests, but faced opposition from state Republicans.
Missourians voted last year to require Kansas City to direct at least 25 percent of its budget to police, compared to 20 percent previously.
Kansas City business owners have been complaining about lawlessness for weeks.
Frustrated business owners and locals are weighing whether to abandon downtown altogether, blaming the Dem-run city's leadership and law enforcement for failing to curb the chaos and restore a sense of safety.
'This isn't a race issue, this isn't a political issue, this is a safety issue,' Lopez, a local business owner, told Fox News, noting how chaos right outside is a constant occurrence, posing extreme danger for the surrounding community.
'I feel as though this city is about unsafe as it's been since my family has been at 207 Southwest Boulevard, and that's 45 years this September,' he added.
'When things out of your control start to chip away at the very foundation of what you've done for four generations, it hurts.'
Not only is the community feeling the impact as they return to the safety of their own homes by nightfall, but long-standing local businesses are bearing the brunt - watching foot traffic vanish and revenue slip away.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A Missouri man stands accused of a macabre, years-long deception that saw him hide his uncle's dead body in a trash can in order to keep stealing the disabled veteran's government benefits - to the tune of more than $650,000.
The alleged crime is so cold-hearted it has stunned even seasoned prosecutors.
Federal prosecutors say Brian K. Ditch, 44, of Salem, Missouri, systematically abused, imprisoned, and ultimately discarded his paralyzed uncle, Thomas Clubb, an Army veteran with quadriplegia.
Ditch then lived for years off the man's disability checks while telling relatives he had been moved to a nursing home.
But behind Ditch's home, in a shed near the edge of rural Dent County, police found what was left of the truth: Clubb's partially frozen body stuffed into a trash bag inside a garbage can simply left to decompose for nearly six years.
'This is an abhorrent, reprehensible crime,' said Assistant US Attorney Derek Wiseman, who has been prosecuting federal cases for a decade.
'A crime committed against a family member. A veteran. Somebody without the use of their arms and legs. It's a disturbing and flagrant lack of regard for human life.
'I've never seen anything like it,' Wiseman said. 'This case is something else entirely.'
Ditch was indicted on Wednesday in US District Court in St. Louis on 11 federal counts, including wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, theft of government property, and illegally possessing firearms as a felon.
He also faces six state charges, including abandonment of a corpse.
Court documents and investigators say Ditch received sole custody and care of Clubb in 2008.
The US Department of Veterans Affairs rated Clubb as 100% disabled, paying him more than $9,500 per month due to injuries and dementia stemming from a car accident in Germany during his military service.
The Social Security Administration also sent him over $235,000 in additional disability and retirement benefits since 2008.
But instead of caring for him, prosecutors say Ditch locked Clubb in a garage for more than a day at a time 24 hours at a time, depriving him of food and water and forcing him to sit in his own urine and feces.
The indictment claims Ditch would physically and emotionally abuse Clubb - and anyone else who got in his way.
'To execute his scheme to defraud the defendant not only assaulted his quadriplegic uncle, but he also physically and emotionally abused his kids and significant others,' the court filing states.
Family members, including Angie Crowder, Clubb's niece and Ditch's cousin, said they last saw him in 2018.
'Things seemed normal. He looked healthy and fine,' Crowder recalled.
But when years went by without a word from Clubb, family members began calling nursing homes and the VA - searching for a man Ditch claimed had moved out with another caregiver.
Their suspicions eventually led them to tip off the Missouri health department and on March 5, the Salem Police Department received the hotline call.
By March 21, the horror was confirmed as police discovered Clubb's remains wrapped in a trash bag inside a garbage can hidden behind the house.
While Clubb's body lay rotting in the shed, Ditch lived large, investigators say.
He allegedly used the stolen money to buy exotic reptiles, take vacations, and enrich himself while lying to everyone who asked about Clubb's whereabouts.
Despite being a convicted felon with prior charges for burglary and domestic battery, he also illegally possessed three shotguns, found in his home by Salem police.
Court records say between January 2019 and March 2025, Ditch collected at least $650,000 in benefits he wasn't entitled to.
Prosecutors argue the only reason the payments continued was because Ditch never reported Clubb's death.
Ditch is expected to plead not guilty in federal court. If convicted, Ditch could face decades in federal prison.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/10/2025
09:01 ||
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[67 views]
Top|| File under: Nut Jobs
[FoxNews] 'The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways,' US District Judge Susan Illston said
A federal judge on Friday issued a temporary pause on the Trump administration’s plans to restructure various government agencies and cut tens of thousands of federal workers because the government overhaul was not authorized by Congress.
U.S. District Judge Susan Illston put a 14-day pause on the mass layoffs, siding with a group of unions, non-profits and local governments after they filed a lawsuit on April 28.
Illston said Trump may broadly restructure federal agencies, but only in "lawful ways" with approval from Congress.
"The President has the authority to seek changes to executive branch agencies, but he must do so in lawful ways and, in the case of large-scale reorganizations, with the cooperation of the legislative branch," Illston said. "Many presidents have sought this cooperation before; many iterations of Congress have provided it."
"Nothing prevents the President from requesting this cooperation—as he did in his prior term of office," the judge continued. "Indeed, the Court holds the President likely must request Congressional cooperation to order the changes he seeks, and thus issues a temporary restraining order to pause large-scale reductions in force in the meantime."
Illston's ruling was the broadest of its kind against administration efforts to overhaul the federal government, which have been led by Elon Musk and the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE.
Fox News Digital has reached out to the White House for comment.
In February, Trump directed agencies to work with DOGE to identify targets for mass layoffs as part of the administration's plans to restructure the government.
#1
The leftist judges know they will lose. They are on a disrupt and delay agenda, otherwise they would do it together. But no, they wait until one judge loses and the next steps up. This is sedition. Or maybe its justification for congress to authorize a third term....
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2025 11:26
Comments ||
Top||
[FoxNews] SB17 'model legislation' aimed at shutting down land purchases that pose a national security threat, state lawmaker says
Texas lawmakers are charging ahead with what they call the nation’s strongest legislative effort yet to block hostile foreign powers from purchasing land in the Lone Star State.
Championed by Republican state Rep. Cole Hefner and state Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, Senate Bill 17 (SB17) is designed to stop governments and entities tied to countries like China, Iran, North Korea and Russia from gaining a foothold on Texas soil.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, Hefner described SB17 as "model legislation" aimed at shutting down land purchases that pose a national security threat.
"This bill is about actions and affiliations, not race, not nationality," Hefner said. "If you’re acting on behalf of a hostile foreign adversary, we’re going to take that land back."
The bill is in direct response to real-world events.
Hefner cited the 2021 case of a retired Chinese general acquiring over 140,000 acres near Laughlin Air Force Base.
"We've [also] seen the attempt of foreign actors or hostile foreign adversaries to buy land close to food processing plants," Hefner said. "And it's just something that we have found the more we dig into it, the more we find that there's a lot of things we don't know and a lot of vulnerabilities that are out there."
The bill prohibits entities and individuals affiliated with governments designated as national security threats, based on the U.S. Director of National Intelligence’s annual assessments, from purchasing real estate if those purchases pose risks to public health or safety.
The law empowers the state's attorney general to investigate, block and even reverse such land deals through court-ordered receivership.
Under SB17, "real property" includes agricultural, commercial, industrial, and residential land as well as mines, minerals, and timber. The law includes key exemptions for U.S. citizens, lawful permanent residents, and property intended as a personal homestead.
"The strong points of our bill is that it can apply to anyone if we can prove they're acting as an agent," said Hefner. "So even if they're from a friendly country, but they're actually on behalf of a foreign adversary, then they will be subject to the bill."
The bill gives the attorney general investigative powers, and authority to appoint receivers to manage or sell properties acquired in violation of the law.
Hefner pushed back hard on critics who claim the bill is xenophobic. "This has nothing to do with skin color or ethnicity," he said. "It’s about protecting Texans and Americans from foreign espionage and influence."
partisan issue. This is about national security. This is about keeping our citizens safe," said Hefner. "It's not about Republican or Democrat, it's not liberal or conservative. It is just taking care of our people.
"And I believe that's the, you know, the number one responsibility of the government is to make sure that people can live free and safe in their state."
SB17 is set to take effect Sept. 1. Hefner said he hopes the legislation sparks a nationwide effort.
"We need to wake up," he said. "This is about securing the homeland, not playing politics."
[BBC] Former British Army officer and mercenary Simon Mann, who was part of a coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea in 2004, has died of a heart attack while exercising, friends confirmed.
The 72-year-old made millions of pounds from protecting businesses in conflict zones before he took part in the failed attempt to overthrow the west African nation's ruler.
Mann was sentenced to 34 years in prison on arms charges and later said he had been the "manager, not the architect" of the scheme.
In 2009, the ex-SAS commando was pardoned, released and given 48 hours to leave the country.
The plot had been an attempt to overthrow President Teodoro Obiang Nguema - at the time Mann and co-conspirators said the aim was to install exiled opposition leader Severo Moto.
It was uncovered after police in Zimbabwe's capital Harare impounded a plane which had flown in from South Africa.
Mann and more than 60 others were arrested, amid claims they were mercenaries.
They said they were providing security for a mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Mann attended private boys' school Eton before studying at Sandhurst Royal Military Academy and then joining the Scots Guards.
He became a member of the SAS - the army's special forces unit - and rose through the ranks to become a commander.
In 2011, he said the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea - which saw him arrested with fellow mercenaries after trying to load weapons onto a plane in Zimbabwe - was foiled by the CIA.
After serving three years of his 34-year sentence in Zimbabwe, he was moved to Black Beach Prison in Equatorial Guinea.
Speaking in 2011 about that move, he said "friends, family, and enemies" had told him "if that happens, you have had it, you're a dead man".
After being pardoned and released, he expressed regret for what he had done, saying that "however good the money is", the moral case "has to stack up".
#1
In 2011, he said the attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea - which saw him arrested with fellow mercenaries after trying to load weapons onto a plane in Zimbabwe - was foiled by the CIA.
Dictator and president for life Teodoro Obiang Nguema was one of our men. Nobody messes with our men.
[Zero] Vice President J.D Vance has weighed in on the escalating fighting breaking out between nuclear-armed Pakistan and India over the last several days. He said in Thursday comments that a full-scare war would be "disastrous" but cautioned that the United States would not get involved.
"Look, we’re concerned about any time nuclear powers collide and have a major conflict," Vance told Fox News's Martha MacCallum in a segment. "What we can do is try to encourage these folks to de-escalate a little bit."
"But we’re not going to get involved in the middle of war that’s fundamentally none of our business and has nothing to do with America’s ability to control it," he asserted.
But he did admit the danger of nuclear confrontation if it were to spin out of control:
"Our hope and our expectation is that this is not going to spiral into a broader regional war or, God forbid, a nuclear conflict," Vance told MacCallum. "Sure, we’re worried about these things, but I think the job of diplomacy — but also the job of cooler heads in India and Pakistan — is to make sure this doesn’t become a nuclear war."
Interestingly, Vance had actually been visiting India last month when the Kashmir massacre unfolded, involving militants from the Pakistani side of the Line of Control (LOC) killing 26 mostly Indian tourists on April 22.
As for President Trump, he had soon after the killings stated that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi " and the incredible people of India, have our full support and deepest sympathies." He said "Our hearts are with you all!"
But despite calls for de-escalation, the fight has been growing over the last 24 hours, with hundreds of drones being exchanged, and anti-aircraft fire active - and more crucially reports of major fighter jet engagements.
Of regional diplomatic efforts to defuse the situation, The NY Times writes Friday that "Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states are sending their diplomats to try to de-escalate the conflict between India and Pakistan at a moment of particular global disarray."
The city of Jammu, on the Indian side, has been under two straight nights of Pakistani artillery fire - but some reports said this ceased at some point early Friday. Heavy artillery fire has been intermittent.
[Daily Signal] The Chinese Communist Party is "orchestrating a widespread intelligence-gathering campaign at Stanford," according to The Stanford Review.
"In short, ’there are Chinese spies at Stanford,’" the university’s independent student-run newspaper writes in an investigation published this week.
After learning of multiple incidents of unusual behavior from a handful of Chinese students, or those who claimed to be students, members of The Stanford Review launched an investigation to determine whether the CCP was attempting to gather information on the campus.
The paper interviewed "over a dozen individuals, including Stanford professors, current students, and China experts specializing in technology transfer and espionage," the Review explained, adding that most individuals asked to remain anonymous for fear of retaliation from the CCP or the academic community at the California university.
In one account, a student named Anna was contacted by someone using the name Charles Chen, who claimed to also be a Stanford student. What began as casual conversation quickly turned into persistent requests for Anna to visit China.
[Daily Mail, where America get its news] A power outage hit several areas of the Spanish island of La Palma in the Canary Islands on Thursday, just a week after national outages.
Local media reported that thousands of locals and holidaymakers across the island were left without power for nearly two hours after a blackout occurred at around 10am local time.
The affected areas included Los Llanos de Aridane, Breña Alta, Santa Cruz de La Palma and Fuencaliente.
More than twenty towns were left without in the dark in these areas, stretching from north to south of the island, before Endesa and Red Eléctrica begun working on restoring power.
Javier Llamas, the mayor of the town of Aridane, told a local radio station at around midday that: 'More than half of the power outage has already been restored.'
Local media reports explained how the power outage could potentially affect up to 30,000 people in La Palma.
'The source is unknown for now, but everything points to a problem at the Los Guinchos power plant,' La Radio Canaria said.
La Palma was not affected by the massive blackout that hit most of Spain and Portugal, including their capitals, Madrid and Lisbon, on April 28.
Airports were disabled, and shops and offices were left in the dark.
Traffic was gridlocked, flights were grounded, and trains were suspended while people waited to be rescued from elevators and were left without water supplies.
Whole cities were cut off with mobile networks, Wi-Fi, ATMs and card machines inoperative during the disruption, which began around 12.30pm last Monday.
Renfe, the national rail operator in Spain, confirmed the outage and its impact in a statement at the time.
'At 12:30 p.m., the entire national electricity grid was cut off. Trains stopped and there were no departures at any station,' the statement said.
By 7am local time on April 29, more than 99 per cent of energy demand in Spain had been restored, the country's electricity operator Red Eléctrica said.
Portuguese grid operator REN said the following morning all the 89 power substations had been back online since late the night before and power had been restored to all 6.4million customers.
'We have never had a complete collapse of the system,' Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez said in a televised address following the chaos.
He described the problem in the European grid as a 'strong oscillation' and added that the cause was still being determined.
Sanchez asked the public to refrain from speculation and said no theory about the cause of the outage had been discarded.
He also thanked the governments of France and Morocco where energy was being pulled from to restore power to north and southern Spain.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] The US Air Force rolled out dozens of top-line military aircraft in a pointed display of firepower at an airbase in Japan this week as Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping presided over Russia's Victory Day parade in Moscow.
It also came as Russia and China issued a joint statement condemning US President Donald Trump's plan to create a 'Golden Dome' missile defence system as 'deeply destabilising' and one that would risk 'turning space into a battlefield'.
A so-called 'elephant walk' took place at Kadena Air Force Base (AFB) on the island of Okinawa earlier this week, but images of the event emerged today - hours after Russia sent tanks, nuclear missiles and drones rolling through Red Square.
The procession in Okinawa showcased some of the most capable assets that American aviation has to offer.
Two dozen F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters and eight F-15E Strike Eagle multirole fighters took to the tarmac alongside a pair of Washington's coveted Patriot missile defence batteries.
The stunning selection of jets was accompanied by an RC-135 Rivet Joint signals intelligence aircraft, a Navy P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol, reconnaissance, and anti-submarine warfare aircraft, two Navy EA-18 Growler electronic warfare attack planes and three E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft.
The show of force was described by Chief Master Sgt. Brandon Wolfgang, the commander of 18th Wing stationed at Kadena AFB, as a 'message you can't ignore'.
A statement given by 18th Wing said the elephant walk was a 'testament to the lethality Kadena AB can leverage to deter adversarial aggression in the Indo-Pacific region'.
The impressive parade, which also saw six HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters and two MQ-9 Reaper drones on show alongside the aircraft, is said to be one of the largest ever conducted by USAF.
Following the elephant walk, Kadena AFB conducted three-day military drills this week, concluding today as Moscow hosted its own military procession as part of its celebrations to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's triumph over Nazi Germany in World War II.
More than 20 world leaders and Kremlin allies including China's Xi, Putin's right-hand man in Europe, Belarus' Alexander Lukashenko, and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva were in attendance at the Victory Day parade in Red Square.
Putin shared a warm handshake and posed for photos with Xi this morning, dispelling any illusion that efforts by US President Donald Trump to drive a wedge between the Eastern powers had succeeded.
The Russian and Chinese leaders nestled side-by-side to watch the parade in a show of unity after they issued a statement yesterday saying Trump's move to create a 'Golden Dome' missile defence system would be 'deeply destabilising' and would risk turning space into a 'battlefield'.
Putin and his guests, including several high-ranking North Korean military officials, watched on as hordes of soldiers goose-stepped to old marching songs and roared to their commanders before Russia's top brass.
They were followed by a huge procession of Russian military technology that saw dozens of tanks, S400 Triumf air defence missile systems and the gargantuan Yars intercontinental ballistic missiles roll past the Mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin.
As the parade concluded, Putin walked along the square to greet a long line of military commanders from Russia and former Soviet states before stopping to speak with a delegation of Chinese and North Korean armed forces officers.
Both Moscow and Pyongyang in recent weeks acknowledged for the first time that North Korean troops had fought alongside their Russian counterparts against Ukraine.
The festivities ended with Putin, Xi and other world leaders solemnly laying a bouquet of red flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Eternal Flame in memory of the Soviets killed in World War II.
Several drones used to batter Ukraine, including the Lancet, Geran-2, Orlan-10 and Orlan-30 variants, were also shown off in the parade. A flight of Su-25, Su-30 and MiG-29 fighter jets and bombers later soared overhead trailing smoke in the white, blue and red of the Russian tricolour.
Russia's defence minister Andrey Belousov, who arrived in Red Square atop a convertible Russian Aurus government car, addressed and inspected the troops. They responded with a chorus of 'hurrah!', before Putin took to the stage to deliver his speech.
Putin declared that Russia will always remember and appreciate the contribution of US and European allies to victory in World War II.
But he went on to say he would never allow the 'true victors over Nazism to be slandered' and that Moscow would 'fight against the atrocities of the followers of Nazism', echoing the Kremlin's rhetoric that Russia is trying to 'de-Nazify' its neighbour.
'(Russia) has truth and justice on its side. The whole country, society and people support the participants of the special military operation,' Putin insisted, adding: 'We are proud of their bravery and determination, of the fortitude that has always brought us only victory.'
The Kremlin's so-called 'special military operation' is in fact the deadliest war in Europe since the conflict today's parade is commemorating, and Ukraine has called today's events in Moscow a 'parade of cynicism'.
It’s a good day to remember that the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany 1939-1941. It attacked and grabbed territory from Poland, Finland, the Baltic states & Romania in those years
Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain ||
05/10/2025
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#1
My attempt to embed video didn't work, but click through and watch. It's pictures of German emissaries, one supposes military from the uniform, at the May Day parade. Fascinating.
I think those are armored cars in the parade and not Daleks, but I'm not sure.
You did nothing wrong, Snowy Thing. Sometimes it just needs a moderator to open and then close the post without making any changes — as proved to be in this case.So I did, and now it works. :-) Thank goodness Fred and badanov understand Rantburg’s code, as to me it is entirely a black box.
#4
"A commission set up by the West German government found that 3,060,000 German military personnel were taken prisoner by the USSR and that 1,094,250 died in captivity (549,360 from 1941 to April 1945; 542,911 from May 1945 to June 1950 and 1,979 from July 1950 to 1955).[4] According to German historian Rüdiger Overmans ca. 3,000,000 POWs were taken by the USSR; he put the "maximum" number of German POW deaths in Soviet hands at 1.0 million.[5] Based on his research, Overmans believes that the deaths of 363,000 POWs in Soviet captivity can be confirmed by the files of Deutsche Dienststelle (WASt), and additionally maintains that "It seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that 700,000 German military personnel listed as missing actually died in Soviet custody."[6][5]
If he can move the Overton Window merely by saying a few words…
[Daily Mail, whee America gets its news] President Donald Trump is looking at suspending habeas corpus, the right of a person to challenge their detention in court, as part of his sweeping immigration crackdown.
'The Constitution is clear, and that, of course, is the supreme law of the land, that the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus can be suspended in a time of invasion,' White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller told reporters.
'So it's an option we're actively looking at,' Miller said. 'A lot of it depends on whether the courts do the right thing or not.'
Trump campaigned for the White House on a pledge to deport millions of undocumented migrants and has repeatedly referred to their presence in the United States as an 'invasion.'
Since taking office in January, Trump has been seeking to step up deportations, but his efforts have met with pushback from multiple federal courts which have insisted that migrants targeted for removal receive due process.
Although Trump has not mentioned habeas corpus explicitly in public, last month he commented on steps he could take to combat nationwide injunctions against his actions on deportations.
'There are ways to mitigate it and there's some very strong ways,' Trump told reporters on April 30.
'There's one way that's been used by three very highly respected presidents, but we hope we don't have to go that route. But there is one way used successfully by three presidents – all highly respected – and hopefully we don't have to go that way but there are ways of mitigating it.'
One former federal prosecutor told CNN that Miller has the wrong idea about suspending habeas corpus.
'Essentially everything Miller says about suspending habeas corpus – which would eliminate the ability of the courts to rule on immigration matters – is wrong,' said Elie Honig, now a CNN senior legal analyst.
'The Constitution makes clear that suspension of habeas corpus is to be reserved for actual rebellion or invasion posing the most dire threats to public safety. And Congress has never passed a law authorizing deportations without any court involvement, as Miller suggests.'
Among other measures, Trump has invoked an obscure wartime law in March to summarily deport hundreds of alleged Venezuelan gang members to a prison in El Salvador.
Several federal courts have blocked further deportations using the 1798 Alien Enemies Act and the Supreme Court also weighed in, saying migrants subject to deportation under the AEA must be given an opportunity to legally challenge their removal in court.
The AEA was last used to round up Japanese-Americans during World War II and was previously invoked during the War of 1812 and World War I.
Many judges, including one appointed by Trump, have rejected the invocation of the AEA, stating in rulings how the administration had not shown the United States to be under invasion by a hostile foreign power, as laid out under the 18th century statute.
Suspending habeas corpus could potentially allow the administration to dispense with individual removal proceedings and speed up deportations, but the move would almost certainly be met with stiff legal challenges and end up in the Supreme Court.
It has been suspended only rarely in US history, most notably by president Abraham Lincoln during the 1861-1865 Civil War and in Hawaii after the December 1941 Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
In March, the US government deported more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants alleged to have ties to the Tren de Aragua gang to El Salvador, paying the Salvadoran government to imprison them.
Since then, they have had no access to lawyers or ability to communicate with their families. Neither the US nor Salvadoran governments have said how the men could eventually regain their freedom.
The Republican president has touted his immigration crackdown as he marked his 100th day in office last week.
Trump won the White House election last November in large part on promises to combat what he repeatedly claimed is an invasion of criminal migrants.
Trump has sent troops to the Mexican border, imposed tariffs on Mexico and Canada for allegedly not doing enough to stop illegal crossings, and designated gangs like TdA and MS-13 as terrorist groups.
In March Trump invoked the little-known Alien Enemies Act and flew two planeloads of alleged Tren de Aragua members to El Salvador's notorious maximum security CECOT prison.
In a proclamation, Trump said Tren de Aragua was engaged in 'hostile actions' and 'threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States,' adding that Venezuela's Nicolas Maduro was pulling the strings.
#8
He really doesn't have too. Just open up DOJ investigations of the judge's financial history and if they are meeting with hostile foreign powers. The ones that are, arrest and press charges. There is enough of them to make the others shit themselves.
#10
Again, these judges are attacking one at a time to delay and disrupt our national agenda set by the voters. This is sedition. And if they keep it up we will rally for Trumps third term
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
05/10/2025 11:28
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#11
If the argument is whether or not we are experiencing an invasion I think all you need to do is look at pictures of those caravans making their way through Mexico to our border. Of course, they can't invaded us with their military because they have no military of any consequence. That doesn't mean it's not an invasion. It most certainly is. Anyone who, by any means, contributed funding or any other kind of aid to the migrantsinvaders is guilty of aiding and abetting the enemy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/10/2025 12:05
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[FoxNews] Trump signed an executive order to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles
President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order to establish a national center for homeless veterans with redirected funds previously spent on services for illegal aliens, Fox News Digital has learned.
The president’s order directs the secretary of veterans affairs to establish the National Center for Warrior Independence on the Veterans Affairs campus in West Los Angeles.
Los Angeles has approximately 3,000 homeless veterans — more than any other city in the country, and accounting for about 10% of all homeless veterans in America, according to the White House.
"The new National Center for Warrior Independence will help them and other veterans like them rebuild their lives," the White House said.
The center will allow veterans from around the nation to seek and receive care, benefits and services "to which they are entitled," the White House said.
The order redirects funds previously spent on housing or other services for illegal aliens to constructing, establishing and maintaining the new center.
"The Center will promote self-sufficiency through housing, substance abuse treatment, and support for productive work for the veterans housed there," the White House explained.
It said the goal is to house up to 6,000 homeless veterans at the center by 2028.
The order also directs the secretary of housing and urban development to use vouchers to support homeless veterans and instructs the secretary of veterans affairs to "restore accountability at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)."
The order also instructs the VA to take action against individuals who have committed misconduct and to investigate and rectify the Biden administration’s decision to "rehire and reinstate back pay for employees previously fired for misconduct."
The order also ensures that veterans will have access to increased options for care, benefits and services — including reduced wait times for Veterans Health Administration appointments through options such as expanded hours, weekend appointments and virtual healthcare.
The order also directs a feasibility study at the Manchester VA Medical Center to expand services to support a full-service medical center in New Hampshire.
"President Trump strongly believes that every veteran deserves our gratitude, and that the federal government should treat veterans like the heroes they are," the White House said.
[FoxNews] India and Pakistan have traded attacks against one another in recent days
Pakistan's armed forces said they hit back at India, targeting military sites, after India fired missiles at three of its air bases in a frightening escalation between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.
India had earlier targeted the three air bases inside Pakistan with missiles, most of which were intercepted, on Saturday, Pakistani military officials said.
The strike marks the latest escalation between the nuclear-armed rivals, a move triggered by a mass shooting that India blames Pakistan for.
In a televised address, Pakistani army spokesman, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said the country’s air force assets were safe.
He added that some of the Indian missiles also hit India’s eastern Punjab. There was no immediate comment from India.
"This is a provocation of the highest order," Sharif said.
The missiles targeted Nur Khan air base in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, Murid air base in Chakwal city and Rafiqui air base in the Jhang district of eastern Punjab province, Sharif said.
Some of the missiles landed in Afghanistan, he said.
"I want to give you the shocking news that India fired six ballistic missiles from its city of Adampur," said Sharif. One of the ballistic missiles hit Adampur, the remaining five missiles hit the Indian Punjab area of Amritsar."
Earlier this week, Pakistan shot down more than two dozen drones.
The fraught relationship between the neighboring nations hit a low following an attack at a popular tourist area in India-controlled Kashmir, leaving 26 people dead.
Most of those killed were Hindu tourists. India has blamed Pakistan, which denies any involvement.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
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[IsraelTimes] Nazi war criminal Klaus Barbie was deeply involved in setting up one of South America’s most important drug cartels, according to a report by German news weekly Der Spiegel.
Dubbed the “Butcher of Lyon” for his wartime torture of prisoners, the former Gestapo chief in the occupied French city fled to South America after the end of World War II.
He was extradited from Bolivia to France in 1983 and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1987 on charges of crimes against humanity. He died in prison in 1991.
According to Der Spiegel, Barbie — living under the alias Klaus Altmann — became a security adviser to drug baron Roberto Suarez after the two men met in the 1970s.
Suarez’s son, Gary, tells the magazine that Barbie was “an important person to my father.”
“He knew something about security, military strategy and secret service work,” he says.
Barbie was also active in advising the Bolivian security services, helping set up a death squad for dictator Luis Garcia Meza.
A CIA despatch from May 1974, seen by Der Spiegel, reveals that the agency’s officers already suspected Barbie of involvement in the drug trade, the magazine says.
Barbie was recruited as an anti-communist agent by American secret services after the war, and the United States later apologized to France for helping Barbie evade justice.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Israeli army (IDF) intercepted a rocket launched from Yemen. This was reported on May 9 by the press service of the Israeli army.
“A missile launched from Yemen was intercepted,” the Telegram channel said.
It is not specified where exactly the interception took place.
Earlier on May 9, the Israeli army press service reported that air raid sirens were sounding in several areas of Israel.
On May 4, Regnum reported that debris from a rocket launched from Yemen fell in the area of Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport. The IDF confirmed that debris fell during an attempt to intercept it. Following the rocket attack, the airport suspended use of its airspace for an hour, after which it resumed accepting and releasing aircraft.
On April 27, the Israeli army also recorded a rocket launch from Yemen. Air defense systems were used to intercept it. The rocket was destroyed before it entered Israeli territory.
[IsraelTimes] Latest attack since Israeli strikes in Yemen and ceasefire between Iran-backed group and US causes no direct damage or injuries; Katz warns Israel will respond
Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... rebels on Friday afternoon fired a ballistic missile at Israel, triggering sirens across central Israel, in the third attack on the country since the Israeli Air Force launched Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against the Iran-backed group earlier this week.
The Israel Defense Forces reported that the missile was successfully intercepted by air defenses.
There were no reports of injuries or damage caused directly by the attack.
Defense Minister Israel Katz warned that Israel would respond.
"The Houthis continue to launch Iranian missiles at Israel. As we promised, we will respond strongly in Yemen and anywhere else necessary," he said in a statement.
A security source told The Times of Israel that the missile was intercepted by Israel’s Arrow long-range air defense system. The American THAAD system deployed to Israel also engaged the missile but missed, for the second time this week, the source said.
Tel Aviv beach as red alerts sounded during a Houthi ballistic missile attack.
In Friday’s attack, sirens sounded at 4:25 p.m. across central Israel. Preceding the sirens by some three minutes, an early alert warning was issued to a wide area in central Israel, including Jerusalem, alerting civilians of the long-range missile attack via a push notification on their phones.
The new phone alert system, which was recently activated, has faced teething trouble, sometimes not sending alerts or sending out warnings over a wider area than needed and that the sirens cover.
The Friday attack came three days after the US announced that it had reached a ceasefire with the Yemeni terror group.
Houthi officials made clear that the deal, in which they agreed to stop targeting US maritime activity in the Red Sea in exchange for an end to weeks of intense US airstrikes, did not include any agreement to stop firing at Israel or ships linked to the Jewish state.
The attacks came after Israel carried out two days of heavy sorties targeting infrastructure controlled by the Houthis in response to the missile that struck Ben Gurion Airport. The fiery ...a single two-syllable word carrying connotations of both incoherence and viciousness. A fiery delivery implies an audience of rubes and yokels, preferably forming up into a mob... reprisals destroyed the international airport in the capital Sanaa, and caused heavy damage to a port in Hodeida and several power stations and a cement factory, officials said.
The Houthis held their fire when a ceasefire was reached between Israel and Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... in January 2025. By that point, they had fired over 40 ballistic missiles and dozens of attack drones and cruise missiles at Israel, including one that killed a civilian and maimed several others in Tel Aviv in July, prompting Israel’s first strike in Yemen.
Since March 18, when the IDF resumed its offensive against Hamas in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip, the Houthis have launched some 29 ballistic missiles and at least ten drones at Israel.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Ukrainian formations, despite the ceasefire declared by Russia, which came into effect on May 8, have not ceased hostilities in the special operation zone. To date, 5,026 ceasefire violations have been recorded by the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), the Russian Defense Ministry reported on May 9.
"Along the entire line of combat contact, Ukrainian units carried out 1,455 attacks from barrel artillery, tanks and mortars on positions of our troops, as well as 23 using multiple launch rocket systems. In addition, 3,502 strikes and drops of ammunition from unmanned aerial vehicles were carried out. A total of 5,026 ceasefire violations were recorded," the defense department said in a statement on its Telegram channel.
In addition, Ukrainian formations made four attempts to break through the Russian state border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as 15 attacks, one reconnaissance in force in the areas of Novoegorovka in the Luhansk People's Republic, Lipovoe, Redkodub, Dzerzhinsk, Romanovka, Novoolenovka, Mirolyubovka, Ulyanovka, Elizavetovka, Troitskoye, Alekseyevka, Novoaleksandrovka and Vesyoloye in the DPR.
During the May ceasefire, the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) made four attempts to break through the Russian state border. This was reported by the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry.
"Despite the announcement of a ceasefire, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have not ceased combat operations against Russian troops. They have made four attempts to break through the Russian state border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions," the statement said.
In addition, the Ukrainian Armed Forces made 15 attempted attacks and one reconnaissance in force in the areas of the settlements of Novoegorovka LPR, Lipovoe, Redkodub, Dzerzhinsk, Romanovka, Novoolenovka, Mirolyubovka, Ulyanovka, Elizavetovka, Troitskoye, Alekseyevka, Novoaleksandrovka and Vesyoloye DPR.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Artem Degtyarev
[REGNUM] These letters (in fragments) are published for the first time.
In October 1941, their author, 20-year-old student of the Moscow Power Engineering Institute Volodya (Wulf) Glikman, volunteered for the front.
He could probably have been one of the 600 MPEI students who evacuated to Leninogorsk (Kazakhstan) together with the faculty that same October. But he went to war when the Germans were standing in Khimki and looking at the Kremlin through binoculars, and documents were flying in flocks along the Moscow streets – the institutions were feverishly evacuating. His father was already at the front, he volunteered back in July 1941.
At times it seemed as if these cheerful messages had come from a pioneer camp, or perhaps from a student military training camp. It was not so much a matter of censorship (all letters were read by censors), but of a huge, all-consuming concern for his loved ones - his mother, wife, little sister and brother. He cherished them. His cheerful, deliberately frivolous tone seemed to tell his family: his war was a cadet's outing. Articles for the divisional newspaper, exercises in the fresh air, food, tobacco, a bathhouse, political studies, funny night forays to the Germans with a megaphone - there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
The 356th Rifle Division, which included Volodya's 1181th Rifle Regiment, took part in the Battle of Moscow, fought defensive and offensive battles in various directions, suffered losses - and Volodya, from the very center of blood, pain and deprivation, continued to write his cheerful letters to the hostel at the mine in the city of Kizel (Molotov Region, now Perm Region) and to Mstera (Vladimir Region), where his family and the family of his young wife were evacuated.
He asked not to send him parcels, but to send envelopes and paper, he was glad that the family was given potatoes for planting, he bragged a little (he rose from a private to a junior commander), he complained only about the weather and the poor work of the postmen.
This was the case until July 1943, when the Battle of Kursk began.
Alive, well, and with a nose full of tobacco
29.04.1942
My dear, sweet mother! I just received a bunch of letters and postcards from you, Dinochka, Raya, Volodya and Sholom. At the same time, your letter to the battalion commander dated 10.04 was passed on to me... My dear! On top of all that, you still have to worry about the post office, because I write to you and Dinochka very often.
M. b. all my letters will arrive at once, M. b. the military censor found something harmful in them and did not let them through, although I tried not to touch on slippery topics, or maybe they just get lost along the way, although the strange thing is that I often receive news from you, often write to you, and you receive nothing. In any case, the point, of course, is not that I have forgotten you, because now I am thinking about you, because now I am thinking only about you. Who else should I think about? It's just that my heart is simply torn to pieces for Daddy, but you can't do anything, and that makes it even harder.
Mommy! Don't worry about me. I'm alive, healthy, I feel good, I'm well-fed, I hardly run out of tobacco, we go to the bathhouse 2-3 times a month, we change our underwear. What can you expect from life now, being about a thousand meters away from the German dugouts? It seems to me - nothing.
Daddy - Zalman Mendelevich Glikman. He, like Volodya himself, was born in the town of Chereya (now Vitebsk region), served in the Red Army, joined the party in 1920, and was expelled from it a year later (as relatives assume, because he held a religious wedding with Volodya's future mother). In Moscow, he worked as a literary contributor and editor at Gudok, Promyshlennaya Gazeta, and Izvestia.
Volunteer Zalman Glikman was a radio operator in a communications regiment. His last letter came from the Yelnya-Dorogobuzh line. In December 1941 (Volodya was already at the front), he and a soldier left to restore the telephone line and did not return.
That's why I'm the commander!
16.05.1942
…Mommy! I already know from previous letters about Daddy that he remained near Yelnya. I am convinced that this region will soon be liberated by our victorious units and Daddy will return to us safe and sound. I am unshakably sure of this. And you, Mommy, don’t be upset, take care of yourself for the little ones, for all of us…
…Here, my soldiers and I also use everything the same: we eat from the same pot, smoke the same tobacco, the same newspaper. Sometimes I find it funny: as a squad commander, I have all the executive power in the squad, and I have a soldier who is five years older than my dad, and, for example, he asks me every day what time to cook (what to put in first, what to leave for next time, etc.). I find it funny every time, but I have to give all sorts of instructions with the most imperturbable look. That's what I'm a commander for! I have to think about everything, so that the weapons are clean, and there is enough ammunition. So that the soldiers are well-fed, shaved, etc. It's hard, of course, to keep track of everything, but I try as much as possible.
Mommy - Olga (Elka) Davydovna Glikman. Worked as the head of the planning department at the Voskhod printing association. She tried for a long time to find out about the fate of her missing husband, wrote many inquiries. In the 1950s, she married again - to an engineer who returned to Moscow after eighteen years in the GULAG.
…Dinochka, today I watched our “Katyusha” in action. What a wonderful weapon! It was not for nothing that Kostikov received the Stalin Prize for it! The fascists, I think, would give a lot for us not to have these “Katyushas”. But I am sure that there will be more and more of them every day and they will play a significant role in the defeat of Hitler.
…As a party work, I and several other people are working on the moral decomposition of German soldiers. To do this, we crawl up to the front line of the Germans at night and through megaphones in German convey to them elementary concepts about what they are fighting for, what we are fighting for, who their real enemies are, that they must fight Hitler, come over to our side, etc. I hope, my dears, that in this way I also contribute to our common cause of defeating Hitler.
…We live well. It’s just sad without you, my dears. How I now value that pre-war life, in which we had never seen “anything special” before.
…I wish we could destroy the damned Fritzes, Hans and Alfreds as soon as possible and return to you, to work and study! Well, never mind! The time will come, we will smash all the evil spirits and all together raise a toast to our victory, to our Red Army, to its generals and to its leader – Comrade Stalin. Be healthy, my dears.
Dinochka is Volodya's wife. They got married very young, in 1940.
07.06.1942
We have really bad weather. It often drizzles. It's cold... It's not really summer, but real autumn. I even put my grey wool sleeveless jacket back on. I even wanted to put on a blue sweater, but I was just embarrassed by myself, otherwise I would have put that on. It's not bad during the day, but it's often quite frosty at night.
I often remember the institute, my classes. I imagine what I would be doing now if it weren't for the war. (I would be lying on the couch preparing for another exam. And you would be guiding me on the "true path", teaching me how to prepare simultaneously for the 15th time, assuring me that this time you would definitely "fall asleep"... After the exam, we would go to the "Coliseum" or somewhere else. Does this picture resemble you? My mouth is watering at the prospects.)
Alas! For now I have to do other things. But never mind. If not this year, then next year, and we will still study, graduate from the institute, work, relax, have fun... All this is ahead of us! Bye, I'll finish here. Be healthy, baby. Kisses to you, your Vova.
Healthy and cheerful
11.06.1942
… Mommy! I am very happy for Osik's success. He is truly a great guy. To receive a book with the autograph of a famous general at his age (and not at his age) for excellent work, and to also pass the exams with flying colors.
… Mommy, how is Ellochka feeling now? Is there anything left on her cheek? Write, does she know that she has a brother whom she hasn’t seen yet, but who remembers and wants to see her?
… Well, what should I write about myself? I feel good, healthy, cheerful, the mood is “expectant”. I think that soon we will fuck the Fritzes well.
Osik, Volodya's brother - Iosif Zalmanovich Glikman (1930-2016). He became a famous teacher, a specialist in A.S. Makarenko. Author of textbooks and books on pedagogy. He was a professor at Moscow State Pedagogical University, taught until the last years of his life, and was greatly loved by students.
Ella, Volodya's sister, Stella Zalmanovna (born in 1940), hardly had time to remember Volodya - she was one year old when he went to the front. But love for her unknown brother illuminated her entire life. She grew up a dazzling beauty. She worked as an engineer.
I love you more than is necessary to be jealous
14.06.1942
…Dinushenka! In one of your letters that arrived, there was a pinch of salt. I understood that you sent it for pancakes. We have enough salt now. However, if you continue down this path, I am afraid that the post office will not deliver your letters to us, because we do not yet have such things as chickens, piglets, and ham on the menu. I am wondering - maybe you will send all this in other letters?
…As for your observations of Ellochka’s speech development and the transfer of conclusions to all of primitive humanity, this work seems futile to me, since, according to the theory of evolution (and it is accepted by Marxism), nothing is created immediately in a finished form. Although development occurs in leaps and bounds, these leaps are small, almost imperceptible at times. Therefore, of course, the speech of primitive man should have been little dissected in the early stages of his development. You don’t even have to be an expert in theories of the origin of language to understand this. (I remember the theory of evolution well, huh?)
…Dinok! How I envy Oleg, about whom you write. Think about it, this man had the good fortune to see you (I don’t know how often or for how long, but that’s less important) up close, to talk to you, etc. And I, your lawful, dear husband, haven’t seen you for almost a year now. It’s really offensive. Don’t think, my dear, that I’m jealous of you. No. I love you and value you more than is necessary to be jealous (I’m afraid that the last phrases sound too pompous, even banal, but I couldn’t explain my idea any other way).
...You can't imagine how much I want to see you! Yesterday afternoon, our company's platoon commander died in reconnaissance. Too bad. Of all the command staff, he was, in my opinion, the nicest guy. The chairman of the collective farm. At first, he was a clerk in the company. He showed himself well. He was nominated for an order and appointed platoon commander.
...Well, there's nothing to write about myself. Everything is the same as before, healthy, cheerful. Recently there was a note of mine in the divisional newspaper. I wanted to cut it out and send it to you, but the newspaper was smoked out faster than I could even look back. Now the political officer has given me the task of writing an article for the front-line newspaper.
Dear girl, you are not a nun!
15.06.1942
... Innochka's desire to get "the skin of a captured German" pleases me, if you want to know. If children are against the Nazis now, then, of course, when they are older, this feeling will become stronger, "mature". They will be real "Soviet Citizens" (with a capital letter). In addition, this means that our people - I am now talking about adults - hate the enemy with every fiber of their soul, which is necessary, as Comrade Stalin said, for our victory.
…Dinok, you ask if I “don’t mind” your going to the cinema. My dear, I have already written to you asking you to have more fun and to have better fun, so that you don’t get too bored without me. You must have fun for both of us now, because I am currently deprived of this opportunity, and I have no time for it here.
…And you, my dear girl, don’t forget that you are not an old woman, not a nun. If there is a theater, go to performances, concerts, etc. You write, Dinok, that I am probably not interested in the trifles you write about. But you forget that soon it will be a year since I was torn away from you, Mom, from home, so everything that happens with you is of great interest to me. There are no trifles!
Don't be homesick
23.08.1942
…Mommy, summer is ending soon. For me, the end of summer is an unpleasant factor, because we are not at home, where there is always the opportunity to wait out the rain; here life does not change one iota whether it is raining or hailing, you just throw on a raincoat…
...Well, that's nothing. That's not the main thing. The main thing is to defeat Hitler as quickly as possible. Before that, all the inconveniences, troubles and similar things pale in comparison and recede not into the background, but at least into the tenth place.
...I will, of course, try to send you a certificate. If it is possible. I am afraid, however, that junior commanders, of which I am one, do not have the right to send certificates. Tomorrow I will see the political instructor and will talk to him about this. Mommy, you want to send me a parcel. No need, because you yourself do not have everything you need now.
I hope that at least Raya uses the military store? Maybe you have at least some papers that Dad is in the army? Then you can also register with the military store.
…Live, my dears, without longing for home. Here, too, we want to drive out and destroy the Germans and go home. But for now we have to endure, although, I hope, not for long now. Be healthy, Mommy, and take care of the children. I kiss you all very much, Vova.
We will soon drive Hitler and his gang into their graves
15.06.1942
Mommy, how are you now with food after school left? Judging by the letter that Innochka dictated to Dina, where she reports that Osik did not buy lunch, consisting of black noodles and millet porridge, we used to eat more or less tolerably. How is it now? Be sure to write.
Now, on the company commander's orders, I fired several mines at the Germans, and he is watching them hit from up ahead. Mommy, I am sure that soon we will drive Hitler and his gang into the coffin. The treaty between the USSR and England, which we read today in Pravda, is another nail in this coffin.
Every day I rejoice, reading in the newspapers about the successes of our industry, which produces tanks, planes, ammunition for the defeat of Hitler's robber army. Everything is as before with me. Alive, healthy, cheerful. Greetings to Raya. I am very happy for Osik, that he is still a good student. Well done. Tell him to listen to you. Dina writes that he argues with you all the time. Tell him that I will return and box his ears. Be healthy, my dear, sweet Mommy.
Eternal lines
Volodya Glikman never got to box his younger brother's ears. He was wounded on July 11, 1943, in the Battle of Kursk and died three days later in the medical unit.
He is buried in a mass grave in a garden on the southern outskirts of the village of Rydan, Arsenyevsky District, Tula Region, together with 106 soldiers and officers.
As Ella Astakhova, librarian of the Kuzmenskaya rural library of the structural division of the MBU "Arsenyevskaya", writes, soldiers who died from wounds in medical battalion No. 5, which was located in the village of Sorokoletovo, are buried in the mass grave. Also buried here are soldiers from the 37th Guards Rifle Regiment, the 12th Guards Rifle Division, the 1967th Machine Gun Artillery Regiment, the 535th Mortar Division, soldiers of the 504th Rifle Regiment, who died in the battles for the liberation of the village of Rydan and the settlement of Krasnosel'ye.
In 1959, a monument to the "Grieving Woman" was erected on the grave; the author is unknown. For many years, festive rallies in honor of Victory Day were held here.
Nobody lives in the village of Rydan now. But the grave is looked after by local administration workers, district cultural institutions and schoolchildren. Volodya Glikman's relatives also visit here.
Volodya's mother kept his letters until the end of her days. According to the recollections of relatives, she often took them out, stroked them tenderly, reread them and cried quietly. As relatives say, "maybe because of these tears the letters are hard to read, and you have to enlarge the font many times with a magnifying glass."
Letters for publication in the Regnum news agency were provided by Boris Abramovich Kogan, Stella Zalmanovna’s husband.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] On May 9, there is no longer a smell of porridge from the field kitchen on the square and front-line 100 grams in Ukraine. Flags are not waving, orchestras are not playing, veterans in medals are not walking along the asphalt washed the day before.
Instead, there is silence.
More precisely, everyday life.
People go to work, to the store. There is talk of a temporary truce and prices that have risen again. Not a word about what happened 80 years ago.
This year, for the second time in its history, Ukraine celebrated an original state holiday on May 8 — “Day of Remembrance and Victory over Nazism in World War II 1939–1945.” It combined the previous Day of Victory over Nazism, which fell on May 9, with the Day of Remembrance and Reconciliation, which had been celebrated since 2015.
In fact, May 9 is officially celebrated as Europe Day, which went the same way as all the others established by the authorities - not at all. No one celebrates "together with the entire civilized world" except for officials who appear with some routine statements. And Zelensky himself did not bother himself with filming any videos, but simply walked along Khreshchatyk, mumbling into his phone about how "people value their heroes" quietly and without parades, which proves "the gap between us and evil."
Although at this very time, the bones of these heroes are being pulled out like garbage from the military memorial in Lviv with excavators. The "festive date" did not pass without new attacks on monuments - on the night of May 8-9 in Odessa, unknown masked men tore off the plaque on the monument to Marshal Rodion Malinovsky and filmed it on video. And the day before, in Nikolaev, utility workers dismantled the star from the memorial to the sailors-paratroopers from the detachment of Konstantin Olshansky as part of "decommunization".
It will be replaced by a decorative wreath with an ear of wheat and the ideologically correct dates "1939-1945". The same thing happened in March in the Park of Eternal Glory in Kyiv, where it is customary to lay flowers at the Eternal Flame. Because since 2015, according to the decision of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, there is no Great Patriotic War, and at that time, during the commemoration of the fallen, Soviet symbols were abolished.
In general, on May 9, the police have not so much been maintaining order as monitoring symbols for many years. And today, at the Eternal Flame, they detained pensioner Galina Savchenko, who came to lay flowers in a Soviet cap. Galina Petrovna actually did this every year, coming in full uniform from the 1940s, and was one of the unchanging Kiev symbols of Victory Day, as were the "Zhukov sisters", the twin grandmothers Maria and Galina Snegir, who came out with a huge portrait of the marshal.
She was told that she had to remove the red star from her cap, as it was "forbidden," and she traditionally refused, going to the police station for the sixth time to give an explanation. And another woman turned on the song "Victory Day," and the police demanded that she turn it off, stating that listening to this song is prohibited in public places.
But these public protests are already isolated cases. Besides, holidays in Ukraine have been cancelled until the end of the war. There are simply days left that everyone celebrates as they wish – or as they can.
In the city, chestnuts and lilacs are blooming since the morning, flower sellers offer tulips and roses. Carnations - the male flower, this traditional symbol of May 9 10 years ago, are also not visible, but they were still placed near the monument in the Park of Glory and near the monument to military pilots on the Dnieper slope.
Not much, but those who came here did - mostly women who do not have to fear the TCC and the police, and elderly men. There were also flowers with the flag of the Russian Federation. True, it is not the Ukrainian press that is reporting this, but the German DW*, reporting at the same time on the reaction of two people who arrived at the scene specifically to indignate the Luhansk women.
"Someone dared to distort our memory. It turns out that they are Nazis now too. They are destroying us," the publication quotes them as saying, and this has been the basis for denying Victory Day for over 10 years. It cannot be celebrated because Russia is guilty of something - this is the main argument. It all started with a ban on guards ribbons (for wearing which administrative liability was introduced), and ended with the total destruction of the holiday.
They write that in Odessa, where people went to lay flowers at the monument to the Unknown Sailor, the police and the National Guard, who cordoned off the memorial, reported that "the holiday was yesterday." They let people in only after mandatory document checks and even phone numbers, turning away those who showed up without a passport. But still, by three o'clock in the afternoon, the foot of the monument was already covered with a thick layer of flowers.
But all these are people remembering the past that was banned. And the future is shrouded in the fog of war, and in general those who are in power are sure that here they have an absolute victory.
By unleashing a cultural war (which later turned into a civil war, and then even wider), its initiators set a strategic goal - to destroy the memory of the Soviet past and the Victory. According to opinion polls, in 2010, Victory Day on May 9 was one of the most important holidays for 58% of Ukrainians surveyed. In 2021, before the war, only 30% of the population of Ukraine considered it the most important holiday, and in 2024 their number had already increased to 11%.
The only politician at large who publicly recalled the holiday is the former man of the oligarch Kolomoisky, blogger and people's deputy Maksym Buzhansky, elected to parliament from the Servant of the People party. Two years ago, he was the only one to vote against moving Victory Day from May 9 to May 8 and renaming it, and this year he wrote on his Telegram channel: "Brothers, Happy Victory Day! The Great Patriotic War is the history of almost every Ukrainian family. And it is the history of the victors."
And for this he was honored with the attention of his crazy Rada colleague Maryana Bezugla, who announced that she was filing a complaint “against this devil to the SBU.” Although Buzhansky, who continues to speak Russian, has long been included in the unofficial “register of traitors to the state” — even if he simultaneously curses Russia in every way, demonstrating irrepressible patriotism.
But the foreign press pays no attention to this. And the Ukrainian press is very happy to talk about some incomprehensible "social resistance movement" that burned guards' ribbons and Russian flags in an unknown place "on all temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine".
The true meaning of the events of 80 years ago has been carefully erased by a huge eraser of propaganda cliches and routine hysteria.
"By removing itself from the ranks of the victors in World War II, Ukraine has abandoned the identity that allowed it to maintain sovereignty and independence. It is difficult for a victorious country to be accepted into the camp of the defeated, now called the "European Union."
In turn, the lack of identity allows this territory to be integrated into the EU, especially since there is a considerable opportunity to do this in pieces. Moreover, the rejection of history has rightly led to the loss of all economic gains that the victory in WWII gave Ukraine,” another MP, Alexander Dubinsky, who congratulated his subscribers on Victory Day, broadcasts from his prison cell.
The difficult circumstances of life have miraculously contributed to the preservation of clarity of thought, and the current member of parliament, by the way, wisely notes that the renunciation of historical rights automatically led to the loss of historical and economic benefits. "And this is completely fair - after all, if you decided to become a baggy-pantsed Neanderthal - why do you need nuclear energy?" he asks into the void, where everyone is on their own.
Although this does not concern memory. Many today actually remembered their grandfathers. Quietly, in their families.
Fortunately, on May 9th you can simply pour some ice-cold vodka into a regular glass and look into the eyes of the black-and-white photos of the people thanks to whom you are alive today.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:57 Official summary of the Office for Documentation of War Crimes of Ukraine from 00:00 05/09/2025 to 00:00 05/10/2025.
A total of 19 facts of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
There were reports of three civilians being injured, including a teenager born in 2009.
No damage to residential buildings or civil infrastructure facilities was recorded.
17 armed attacks in the Gorlovka direction,
One armed attack in the Donetsk direction,
One armed attack in the Krasnoarmeysk direction.
A total of 58 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:38 VFU again tried to attack the territory of the Republic with long-range missile weapons. Air defense forces repelled the attack.
As a result of the fall of fragments of a downed missile in the village of Krinichnaya in the urban district of Makeyevka, a teenager born in 2009 was injured.
In addition, in the Petrovsky district of Donetsk, a man born in 1960 was injured when a PFM “Lepestok” mine exploded.
In the city of Selidovo in the Krasnoarmeysky municipal district, a man born in 1973 was seriously injured as a result of the enemy using barrel artillery.
All victims are receiving the necessary medical assistance.
20:10 The Ukrainian Armed Forces shelled the village of Zvannoye in the Glushkovsky district, a strike came in handy at a residential building. As a result of the shelling, a 65-year-old man died.
19:55 Paratroopers in Chasovy Yar sent Ukrainian servicemen received a drone with the Victory and Airborne Forces Banners.
17:55 Before the ceasefire, Russian assault units pushed through enemy in Zverevo and the landings to the west.
The advanced assault groups have consolidated their positions in Pershe Travnya (Leontovichi).
16:30 From Berezniki in the direction of Belgorod region todaycame forwardassault unit of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
As a result of the complex fire strike, most of the occupiers were destroyed, the rest were left to die, bleeding, and several militants were able to escape deep into the Khar'kov region.
15:40 Fighters of the 34th Mountain Rifle Brigade are destroying the occupiers and their shelters in Maryino, Sumy Oblast, –video.
14:15 During the strike of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the government building in the Belgorod region, there were casualtiestwohuman.
A Rosgvardia officer received a blind shrapnel wound to the thigh, and Deputy Governor Alexander Alexandrovich Lorenz received a concussion and acubar trauma.
13:21 Ukrainian units are deployed along the entire line of combat contact committed 1,455 attacks from cannon artillery, tanks and mortars, 23 – using MLRS. Also, 3,502 UAV strikes were recorded, a total of 5,026 ceasefire violations.
11:55 In Belgorod, a Ukrainian Armed Forces drone attacked a building of the Belgorod region government.
10:30 The night before the great holiday passed relatively calm. The Russian Armed Forces did not use long-range weapons against the enemy's rear in honor of the ceasefire declared by the Supreme Commander. The official reports of our regional authorities and headquarters also did not contain data on the enemy's UAV raid. At the same time, the enemy brought several dozen MBEKs out to sea. Apparently, he put them on standby, as he had already done more than once.
In the Kursk region, high-intensity fighting continued near Tetkino. The enemy tried to advance through the village, but was met with drone and FAB strikes, as well as fierce resistance from our units, who were not the most prepared to counterattack.
In the evening, an enemy drone attacked the village of Budki in the Glushkovsky district, wounding a 58-year-old woman. During the day, a civilian car hit a mine on the highway in the village of Markovo in the Glushkovsky district, killing the driver. As a result of the shelling, a 61-year-old resident of the village of Glushkovo died
In the Bryansk region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine attacked the village of Demyanki in the Starodubsky municipal district with kamikaze drones. As a result of a targeted strike on a civilian car, a civilian was wounded. In the village of Kamensky Khutor, Klimovsky district.
Unfortunately, a civilian received shrapnel wounds.
In the Belgorod region, Shebekino, Murom, Shamino, Gruzskoye, Urazovo, Kukuyevka, and Grayvoron are under attack from the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
In the Kherson region, enemy activity was noted near the Antonovsky Bridge on our bank, to inflict massive fire damage on the enemy. The Kinburn Spit was under enemy attack.
Regarding the ceasefire declared by the Supreme Commander, the Russian Defense Ministry noted by lunchtime yesterday that along the entire line of combat contact, Ukrainian units carried out 173 attacks from barrel artillery, tanks and mortars on positions of our troops, as well as four using multiple launch rocket systems. In addition, 300 strikes and drops of ammunition from unmanned aerial vehicles were carried out. A total of 488 violations of the ceasefire were recorded.
[IsraelTimes] The Qatari newspaper al-Araby al-Jadeed reports that in the past two days, senior US officials have changed their stance regarding the disarmament of Hamas.
According to the report, the US officials have conveyed their decision to postpone dealing with the issue until after an agreement has been reached to end the war.
Al-Araby also reports that the US believes the Israeli demand to expel all members of Hamas’s military wing from the Gaza Strip is unrealistic, due to the large number of fighters and the lack of willingness from other countries to accept them.
Moreover, al-Araby reports that the US does not believe Israel’s policy of using more military force to release the remaining hostages will work. Instead, the US is working toward a deal that secures the release of all 59 hostages in one batch. Hamas has offered to do this if Israel agrees to permanently end the war — something Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to do, arguing that it leaves Hamas in power.
There is no confirmation of the Al-Araby report, which relies on a lone unnamed Egyptian source.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondence] 22.57 Russia "supports" the idea of a 30-day truce between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, but it is allegedly necessary to "take into account certain nuances in order to reach an agreement." This was stated by Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov, according to the Russian propaganda news agency RIA Novosti.
22.25 The United States Embassy in Kiev reported on Friday, May 9, "specific information" about a possible serious air attack on Ukraine in the near future. This is stated in a statement on the website of the US Embassy in Ukraine.
21.59 US President Donald Trump hopes that the Russian Federation and Ukraine will agree to a 30-day ceasefire. This was stated by White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt at a briefing.
21.48 Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Andriy Yermak and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke on the phone. The main topic of discussion was the ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia. Yermak reported this on his Telegram channel.
18:43 Journalist from Zhitomir, officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Bohdan Lysenko died in the Zaporizhzhya direction of the front. This was reported by the Institute of Mass Information with reference to the journalist's son Anton Lysenko.
18:33 Another nine children have been returned to government-controlled territory of Ukraine, said Daria Zarovna, adviser to the head of the Presidential Office.
Zarovna said that among those who were brought back was 14-year-old Dmitry, whose house was next to a Russian firing position and whose family lived under the constant sounds of gunfire.
"At school, the young man was forced to sing war songs and throw grenades, and some of his classmates were sent to military camps where they were trained by Wagnerites," she added.
They also returned Ekaterina, whose mother was forced to obtain a Russian passport, otherwise she would have been denied medical care during a difficult birth.
Another boy, 9-year-old Stas, despite threats and persecution from teachers and the FSB, refused to sing the Russian anthem and participate in militarized events.
18.21 A meeting of the leaders of the "coalition of the determined" countries will take place in Ukraine. This was announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky. French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed that a meeting of the "coalition of the determined" will take place, which will be held partly virtually and partly in person.
18.00 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz believes that a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine is possible in the next two days. This was reported by Bild.
17.27 The Shevchenkivskyi District Court of Kyiv sent two citizens suspected of working for Hungarian intelligence to pretrial detention. This was reported by Suspilne.
17:00 The Security Service and the National Police have eliminated six new schemes for evading mobilization in different regions of Ukraine. Thirteen dealers who sold fake medical certificates to evaders or helped them escape abroad have been detained. The cost of such "services" was 20 thousand dollars.
16.33 Mass events are banned in Chernihiv on May 9, 10 and 11. This was reported by the head of the city military administration, Dmitry Brizhinsky. He also called on residents not to ignore air raid sirens and avoid mass gatherings.
16.10 EU countries have already committed to providing Ukraine with at least 1.35 million artillery shells by the end of 2025. This was announced by Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha following a meeting in Lviv. According to him, work to increase this quantity is ongoing.
15.30 In Konstantinovka, Donetsk region, emergency rescue and search operations have been completed at the site of a partially destroyed nine-story building damaged as a result of a Russian airstrike on May 7.
402 tons of destroyed structures were dismantled. Emergency workers removed a woman's body from under the rubble.
14:50 A meeting of the EU foreign ministers on the creation of a special tribunal for the Russian Federation for crimes against Ukraine was held in Lviv. The coalition gave political approval to the creation of a special tribunal, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry reported .
14.22 President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed to representatives of partner countries to create a tribunal for the crime of Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Vladimir Putin started a full-scale war against Ukraine because he escaped punishment for previous wars. This can no longer be allowed, the president noted.
14.15 In Belgorod, a strike drone hit the regional government building. Deputy Governor of the Belgorod Region Alexander Lorenz, who was near the epicenter at the time of the explosion, was injured. He was diagnosed with a concussion and acubar trauma. A Rosgvardia employee was also injured in the attack.
13.52 Russian troops dropped guided aerial bombs on Sumy Oblast, killing a woman. This was reported by the Sumy Oblast Prosecutor's Office. It is noted that on the evening of May 8, the enemy dropped, according to preliminary data, 8 guided aerial bombs on the Rechkovskaya community of Sumy District. Only in the morning of May 9, the body of a 63-year-old woman with no signs of life was found on the territory of one of the households. A criminal case has been opened.
13.13 A 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine will be a test for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin's readiness to negotiate a lasting peace. This was stated by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. If the Russians do not agree to a 30-day truce, then Western allies will not hesitate to increase sanctions pressure, he warned.
12.22 Delegations from 35 countries and the Council of Europe arrived in Lviv on Friday. This was reported by the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. A meeting of EU foreign ministers and a meeting of the Core Group on the creation of a Special Tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine will take place.
11.16 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced that his country is introducing the largest package of sanctions against Russia ever.
10.24 Russia is producing munitions at an extraordinary rate – more than 1,400 Iskander ballistic missiles a year, as well as 500 Kh-101 cruise missiles a year, The Economist reports, citing Ukraine’s assessment and a report by the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies.
9:50 For the first time in the history of Ukraine, the Security Service has exposed a network of agents of the Hungarian military intelligence, which carried out espionage activities to the detriment of our state.
The organization's task was to collect information on the military security of the Zakarpattia region, search for vulnerabilities in the land and air defense of the region, and study the socio-political views of local residents: in particular, scenarios of their behavior if Hungarian troops enter the region.
As a result of complex measures in Zakarpattia, the SBU detained two agents from the network of the Hungarian special service. The curator of both defendants was a career employee of the Hungarian military intelligence, whose identity has already been identified.
8.52 Over the past 24 hours, 193 combat clashes have been recorded at the front, with the Ukrainian Defense Forces repelling most of the Russian assaults in the Pokrovsk direction. This was reported on May 9 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is noted that aviation, missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces hit 16 areas of concentration of personnel and equipment of the Russian invaders, two command posts, five artillery weapons, a military supply warehouse and four other important Russian facilities.
8.22 Troops attacked the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region with drones and artillery. As a result of the shelling, one person was injured, a fire started and residential buildings were damaged. This was reported by the head of the OVA Serhiy Lysak. According to him, the invaders fired at the district center, Pokrovsk, Krasnogrigorevsk, Mirovsk and Marganets communities. An 83-year-old man was injured. He is undergoing outpatient treatment. A garage and an outbuilding caught fire. Rescuers tamed the fire.
7.51 Ukrainian military destroyed 1,300 Russian invaders in one day, as well as 4 tanks, 36 artillery systems, MLRS and air defense systems of the enemy. This was reported on May 9 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
7.22 Fighters of the border unit of unmanned aerial systems Phoenix, using drones, destroyed military equipment of the Russians in the eastern direction. This was reported by the operational-strategic group of forces Khortytsia, which published a video filmed by border guards. We are talking about a tank, an MSTA-B cannon and a dozen trucks of the occupiers.
02.58 Georgian volunteer Tarbey (Tabo) Arkania died in the battles near Pokrovsk. He is a refugee from Abkhazia. He lived in Ukraine, was a national and European champion in taekwondo. He is survived by his wife and two small children.
01.11 The 10% decrease in the number of mobilized in December-January is explained by the Christmas and New Year holidays. After that, the mobilization figures returned "to a certain level." This was stated by the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence, Oleksandr Zavitnevich.
[IsraelTimes] The United Arab Emirates has rejected an Israeli request to bankroll a new initiative to resume the distribution of aid into Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... after an over two-month embargo, a bigwig familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel.
The rejection marks a major blow to the initiative, which hasn’t even fully gotten off the ground, as Israel hoped that Emirati support would help convince other countries and international organizations to follow suit.
Israeli officials have been deeply involved in the recent establishment of the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which they want to manage the resumption of aid into Gaza in a manner that prevents its diversion from Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... But a GHF memo provided to potential donors states that the initiative will only feed about 60% of Gaza’s population in an unspecified initial phase. The UN and international organizations briefed on the plan issued a statement earlier this week saying they won’t cooperate with the initiative, as it fails to sufficiently address the humanitarian crisis and "weaponizes" aid.
Maj. Gen. Ghassan Alian, who heads the Coordinator for Government Activities in the Territories, and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer’s aid Moran Stav visited the UAE yesterday to meet with Emirati Minister for International Cooperation Reem Al Hashimy, hoping to convince Abu Dhabi to back the plan, the bigwig says, confirming reporting in the Walla news site.
Hashimy told the Israeli officials that the UAE would not be able to provide such financial support because the GHF initiative — as it currently stands — does not properly address the humanitarian crisis, the official says.
The official stresses that Abu Dhabi’s position could change if the initiative is adapted to properly meet the moment.
A Western diplomat told The Times of Israel earlier this week that GHF was planning to go public with the roll-out of its new initiative this week, but the lack of international support appears to be delaying the announcement.
Organizers sufficed with a presser held earlier today by US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee where he said that the effort was already underway, but he offered minimal details how the initiative would work, while calling on the international community to back the program.
[TelexHungary] "The fifth Orbán government has decided to build a truly effective, combat-ready Hungarian army. This means that we are putting an end to our previous efforts towards peace," Minister of Defense, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in the one-minute audio recording released by Péter Magyar on Thursday morning. According to Magyar, the recording was made in April 2023, just over a year after the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war.
In the recording, the defense minister stated that in accordance with the Hungarian government's decision, we are breaking with our previous mentality of peace and are entering "phase zero of the path to war”.
According to him, this change was also served by the army's recent rejuvenation program. The defense minister had assigned Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, who was appointed chief of staff of the Hungarian Armed Forces in May 2023, to carry out the transition. “I am honored that he has accepted this task, and I expect him to thoroughly carry out this process”, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on the occasion.
We have sent questions to the Ministry of Defense about the audio recording released on Thursday morning. Shortly afterwards, the minister commented on the recording in a social media post, saying: "I am building an army that is prepared and capable of defending Hungary! Because peace requires strength".
"Viktor Orbán's government is a government of lies and war. It's over, they must go. Orbán and his people have been deceiving Hungarians about standing for peace, but it has now become clear that they would drag our wonderful country into war," Péter Magyar said, commenting on the recording. According to him, the Minister of Defense admits, and even proudly proclaims, that “what they have been preaching for years is nothing but a bunch of lies.”
In the opinion of the president of the Tisza Party, it has become clear that “while the Orbán government has for years been talking about protecting the Hungarian people, they are precisely the ones who are willing to sacrifice the safety of their own compatriots in exchange for money and power. This is no political mistake. It's a sin. A sin for which there is and never will be forgiveness.”
Gábor Böröndi was appointed head of the Hungarian Armed Forces in May 2023, replacing Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, who now works as an expert for the Tisza Party. "You have to have the right person in the right place," Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at the time, justifying the decision before the parliament's Defense and Law Enforcement Committee. The defense minister said that Ruszin-Szendi had primarily performed combat duties, whereas the protracted Russian-Ukrainian war required operational-level knowledge and expertise. As he put it: the task of the Hungarian armed forces under Böröndi's leadership is to adapt to the protracted state of war (in Ukraine – TN) and to develop a more combat-oriented, well-equipped, serious military with a new culture.
[DenverPost] Colorado Advisory Committee to U.S. Commission on Civil Rights to examine “presence and/or absence” of antisemitism
Denver’s Auraria campus will be the subject of federal scrutiny after the Colorado Advisory Committee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted unanimously Thursday to begin a year-long examination of “the presence and/or absence” of antisemitism on the downtown campus.
The local undertaking coincides with a larger federal investigation by the commission into what the Trump administration characterizes as rising antisemitism at American college campuses following Hamas’s October 2023 attack on Israel and that nation’s retaliatory war in Gaza.
Demonstrators set up a 23-day encampment at Auraria last year — the largest of Colorado’s pro-Palestinian protests — at which students and others protested the war and called for the University of Colorado to divest financially from Israel.
The committee’s now-approved project proposal alleges the Auraria encampment featured participants chanting slogans “calling for the extermination of the state of Israel and for terrorist attacks on Jews globally.” The proposal attributes that statement to “news reports,” but does not cite any specifically.
The proposal acknowledged such statements are not “per se illegal… just as reading ‘Mein Kampf’ out loud in public is not illegal,” but alleged the encampment interfered with campus access and classes, and included a “hostile occupation” of the student union and vandalism.
A representative of the Auraria Higher Education Center told The Denver Post last month that the campus is committed to fostering a “safe, inclusive and respectful environment for all,” and that antisemitism, along with any form of hate or discrimination, has no place on campus.
Auraria is home to the Community College of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, and CU Denver.
During Thursday’s 45-minute virtual commission meeting, a handful of Auraria students from anti-Zionist advocacy organization Jewish Voice for Peace
…founded by Hamas BDS activist Hatem Bazian, while its social media managers live in Lebanon and a large chunk of its funding comes from the Soros Open Society Foundations…
said they were present during the encampment and felt welcomed and safe until the university called in police to break up the protest.
Interesting that the only Jews or Jewish organization actually mentioned is a false front for genocidal anti-Israel terror groups. Either the reporters and editors of the Denver Post are abysmally ignorant or they, too, fashionably hate Jews.
“These investigations seemingly about antimestimism all across the country have little to do with Jews and everything to do with dismantling higher education,” said a virtual public commenter who identified themselves as Asa.
Why not both? Pro-Palestinian organization leaders have been rcorded on video explaining their ultimate goal is to destroy America altogether….Oh wait, the speaker (they, them) is referring to the Trump administration. Still, entirely too many American institutions of higher education have lost their way in the morass of far left philosophy, and could do with rebuilding from the ground up.
David Kopel, a member of the Colorado Advisory Committee and research director at libertarian think tank Independence Institute, proposed the antisemitism research project.
In a virtual meeting earlier this year, Kopel described antisemitism on college campuses as “a matter that is long overdue for serious analysis… and that has been swept under the rug and dismissed by a lot of authorities in the past.”
“State advisory committees are formally charged with being the eyes and ears of the commission in D.C., so as a factual investigation, this is a place to get some facts and write about it ourselves for Colorado, but also do a useful investigation elsewhere,” Kopel said.
As the project progresses, the committee will invite speakers to provide testimony to inform a forthcoming report.
[IsraelTimes] A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to release a Tufts University student from Turkey who has been held for over six weeks in a Louisiana immigration detention facility after she co-wrote an opinion piece criticizing her school’s response to Israel’s war in Gaza.
US District Judge William Sessions, during a hearing in Burlington, Vermont, granted bail to Rumeysa Ozturk,
,…age 30, Turkish PhD student and Fulbright Scholar, whose student visa was revoked for having co-authored an opinion piece for the Tufts University student newspaper a year earlier supporting the listed terror organization Hamas and castigating the university for not divesting from Israel-related companies. I’ve not yet seen anything about the other three students involved — perhaps that association is what got her in trouble. No doubt her naturalized, activist Iranian-American immigration lawyer, Mahsa Khanbabai, is also somehow objectionable …
who is at the center of one of the highest-profile cases to emerge from Republican President Donald Trump’s campaign to deport pro-Palestinian activists on American campuses.
The judge ruled shortly after a federal appeals court rejected the Trump administration’s bid to re-detain Columbia University student Mohsen Mahdawi, a Palestinian campus activist who a different judge in Vermont ordered released last week after immigration authorities arrested him as well.
The Jordan-born, Palestinian graduate philosophy student at Columbia boasted to a Vermont Gun shop owner that he had plenty of experience with guns, having used them to kill Jews back home in Palestine — he started his career throwing rocks at IDF soldiers as a child and led anti-Israel Palestinian student groups since arriving in America a decade ago, true to the traditions in his family where a cousin is an Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade field commander. He is president of the anti-Israel Palestinian Students Union at Columbia, since 10/7 organizing violent anti-Israel protests and taking the opportunity to beat up Jews, for which he was arrested thrice; he did not think any of this an issue before he was arrested for a revoked green card on his way to his scheduled citizenship exam.
Ozturk’s arrest on March 25 by masked, plainclothes law enforcement officers on a street in the Boston suburb of Somerville, Massachusetts, near her home, was captured in a viral video and occurred after the US Department of State revoked her student visa.
The sole basis authorities have provided for revoking her visa was an opinion piece she co-authored in Tufts’ student newspaper criticizing the school’s response to calls by students to divest from companies with ties to Israel and to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide.”
…which does not mean it’s actually the only reason they have, just the only one shared.
[IsraelTimes] Army destroyed infrastructure in Gaza after getting intel from men who surrendered
The Israel Defense Forces said Friday that during recent operations in southern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... ’s Rafah, two Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... operatives surrendered to troops and provided intelligence on a major tunnel in the area, which was then demolished.
The two Hamas terror operatives were captured by soldiers of the 188th Armored Brigade and handed over to the Shin Bet. During their interrogation, the military said the pair provided "significant intelligence, pointing to the location of underground infrastructure in the area."
The tunnel, which was located shortly afterward in Rafah’s Shaboura camp, served "key terrorists" in Hamas, the IDF said.
Combat engineers of the elite Yahalom unit mapped out the tunnel, which spanned around a kilometer and was some 25 meters below ground. The military said the tunnel featured rooms to reside in, a bathroom, a kitchenette, blast doors and several entrance shafts.
The tunnel was then demolished, the army added.
Meanwhile,
...back at the railroad tracks, Little Nell tried to kick her bound feet and scream post the snotty handkerchief Scarface Al had stuff into her mouth... sources close to the Hamas terror group said a delegation held two meetings with Egyptian and Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i mediators in Doha this week but they produced no breakthrough in the search for a Gaza truce.
"Egyptian officials met twice with a high-level Hamas delegation led by [chief negotiator] Khalil al-Hayya [and] Qatari officials on Wednesday and Thursday in Doha," one source told AFP.
A second source said the talks were "serious" but made "no concrete progress."
In addition, dozens of strikes were carried out overnight by the Israeli Air Force against Hamas targets in the Morag Corridor area of southern Gaza, in a joint operation with the 36th Division, the military says.
Elsewhere in Gaza, a drone strike yesterday killed a terror operative who emerged from a tunnel near where ground forces were operating, the army says, and another strike hit a building from which troops came under fire.
Two IDF soldiers killed, six wounded in southern Gaza fighting
[IsraelTimes] Sgt. Yishai Elyakim Urbach, 20, and Staff Sgt. Yam Frid, 21, named as fallen troops; terrorist who took Yaffa Adar hostage killed in airstrike; IAF hits 150 targets in 72 hours
Two Israel Defense Forces soldiers were killed on Thursday, and at least six were wounded in separate incidents amid fighting in the southern Gaza Strip, the military announced.
The soldiers were named Friday morning as Sgt. Yishai Elyakim Urbach, 20, of the Combat Engineering Corps’ 605th Battalion, from Zichron Yaakov, and Staff Sgt. Yam Frid, 21, of the Golani Brigade’s reconnaissance unit, from Sal’it.
In the first incident, Hamas operatives fired an RPG at a building in Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood, where troops were stationed. The building partially collapsed on the soldiers, killing Urbach and wounding two others, including one seriously and one moderately.
During the second incident, which took place some two hours later in the same area, an armored personnel carrier was hit by an explosive device, killing Frid and wounding four others, including three soldiers — among them two officers — listed in serious condition.
In statements on Telegram, Hamas claimed its operatives ambushed an Israeli 12-man force inside a house in the Tanur neighborhood in the eastern Rafah area (adjacent to Jenina) with two RPGs, and set off an explosive device next to troops nearby.
The incidents brought Israel’s death toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip to 418.
The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza reported nearly 200 dead over the course of the three days.
PALESTINIAN DEPORTED FROM ISRAEL KILLED IN AIRSTRIKE IN GAZA
Additionally, a Palestinian man deported from Israel to Gaza in February was killed in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah, the Arab48 news site reported Thursday.
Basel al-Qur’an, 28, was born in Deir al-Balah but spent his entire adult life in Israel, until he was sent back to the Strip when he completed a prison sentence for traffic violations.
Al-Qur’an’s mother Marwa told the outlet Wednesday that she was notified of her son’s death by one of the people he had been staying with in the Strip. His corpse was taken to Gaza European Hospital in Khan Younis for identification. It was unclear when al-Qur’an was killed.
Al-Qur’an was born to an Arab Israeli mother and an Egyptian father in Gaza. As an adolescent, upon his parents’ divorce, he moved with his mother to Israel, where he spent his entire adult life.
Though his mother, wife and children are Israeli citizens, al-Qur’an was never able to obtain permanent residency or citizenship in Israel due to a 2003 law largely barring Palestinians married to Israeli citizens from naturalization.
Israel plans to resume providing aid to the Strip by using private American security contractors to secure aid distribution hubs within the Strip. According to officials briefed on the plan, five to six thousand vetted representatives will be allowed to travel on foot to the aid hubs once every two weeks in order to pick up a roughly 40-pound box of food for their families.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Soviet Union won freedom and peace for all mankind at the cost of millions of lives. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to participants of the Victory Parade on Red Square.
“Today, we are all united by a feeling of joy and sorrow, pride and gratitude, admiration for the generation that crushed Nazism and, at the cost of millions of lives, won freedom and peace for all of humanity,” the Russian leader noted.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, during his speech the head of state also stated that it was the Soviet troops who determined the outcome of the entire Second World War, and Russia will not allow the true victors of Nazism to be slandered.
According to Putin, millions of citizens of the USSR determined the outcome of the entire Second World War with unconditional victories in the major battles near Moscow and Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge and the Dnieper, as well as many others.
Putin has repeatedly noted the importance of combating the falsification of history and the glorification of Nazism. The Russian leader emphasized that for this purpose, there are a number of movements and actions in Russia designed to familiarize citizens, including young people, with history and places of military glory.
It was the Soviet troops who determined the outcome of the entire Second World War, and Russia will not allow the true victors of Nazism to be slandered. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to participants in the Victory Parade on Red Square.
"The Soviet Union took upon itself the most ferocious, merciless blows of the enemy. Millions of people who knew only peaceful labor took up arms and stood to the death on all heights, bridgeheads and borders. They determined the outcome of the entire Second World War by unconditional victories in the major battles near Moscow and Stalingrad, on the Kursk Bulge and the Dnieper, by the courage of the defenders of Belarus, who were the first to meet the enemy, by the steadfastness of the participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress and Mogilev, Odessa and Sevastopol, Murmansk, Tula, Smolensk," the Russian leader noted.
Putin also stated that Russia will never agree with attempts to justify the executioners and slander the real victors.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] San Francisco was brought to a halt early Friday after the BART train system was suspended due to a network failure.
BART service shut down around 5am PT, stranding thousands of commuters on their way to work.
'Due to a computer networking problem BART service is suspended system wide until further notice,' the train service shared on X.
BART was operating again at 9:24am PT.
The rail system's spokesperson Alicia Trost told NBC Bay Area that the control center was unable to power up the system after its daily overnight shutdown.
An image of the Embarcadero BART station showed the entranceway had been taped off and a sign placed in front that reads: 'No train service.'
Gates leading into many of the 50 stations had also been shut.
The system spans 131.4 miles of track throughout California, connecting San Francisco and the East Bay to other parts of the Bay Area.
BART serves more than 165,000 daily riders and more than 50 million annually.
BART carried its first passengers in 1972, the same year as NASA's final Apollo mission to the moon.
The trains still run on Windows 98, which mechanics access through outdated laptops.
No need for hackers when the computers are held together with duct tape and baling wire. Still, how old is the program running the air traffic control system?
Trost told NBC that network outages do occur as the system is over 50 years old. Still using Disk Operating Systems
The good news is we're in the process of replacing it, and we have the funding to do so because of Measure RR, and the federal government has made investments into our infrastructure,' she continued.
'But it's awful news that the Bay Area can't rely on BART as of this moment. We don't have an ETA as to when the trains will go because part of that is identifying the location of the problem.'
Many commuters were unaware of the issue when they arrived at a BART station, only to be told that they needed to find another mode of transportation. At the Pleasant Hill Station, signs on the platform that provide train times went completely dark.
'What's the issue is our train control computer cannot turn on properly, so that the staff in the control center can see everything, and that's obviously not safe,' Trost said.
'So we're not going to run service until all those things happen.'
The San Francisco Bay Ferry said it was operating larger ferries to accommodate stranded commuters.
'Take the ferry from Vallejo, Oakland, Richmond or Alameda or take transbay buses,' it shared on X.
The last system wide shutdown across all 50 stations occurred in 2019, when a similar computer issue disrupted service for several hours.
[IsraelTimes] Army says senior PIJ operative Nour Bitawi eliminated in drone strike, was planning imminent attacks
A senior Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... operative who Israeli authorities say was planning imminent terror attacks was killed by troops Friday in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Members of the police’s elite Yamam unit, Shin Bet agents and IDF troops encircled a home in Nablus where Nour Bitawi was holed up, killing him along with another terror operative, the military said.
Bitawi had "advanced significant terror activity, and was involved in guiding, financing and carrying out terror attacks against Israeli citizens and security forces," the IDF, Shin Bet and police said in a joint statement, adding that he also was in contact with Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... officials in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip and abroad.
"Bitawi was responsible for the flow of terror funds to Jenin and the other villages in the area, and in this framework, acted to recruit and arm murderous Moslems to carry out attacks against IDF troops. At the same time, he worked to build bombs and plant them in the Jenin area," the statement said.
The IDF said Bitawi had been wanted for many months and was identified fleeing the Jenin area to Nablus, where he was ultimately located and killed.
The Yamam officers carried out a tactic known as "pressure cooker," which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out. The officers used an explosive-laden drone to eliminate him inside the building, alongside another operative, according to officials.
A military official described Bitawi as "the number one most wanted" terror operative in the West Bank.
Since late January, the IDF has been carrying out a major offensive in the northern West Bank, dubbed Operation Iron Wall, focusing mainly on the areas of Jenin and Tulkarem.
The offensive followed a spike in West Bank violence since October 7, 2023. Since the Hamas onslaught, troops have arrested some 6,000 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,350 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 950 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops, or murderous Moslems carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 51 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another eight members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
On Wednesday, three Israeli soldiers were maimed in attacks carried out by Paleostinians in the northern and southern West Bank.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF says troops shot and detained a Palestinian, who was allegedly planning to carry out a terror attack, during operations in the northern West Bank yesterday.
The suspect, who the IDF says was involved in building explosive devices, was shot by members of the Duvdevan commando unit in his home in the town of Tamun. His condition is not immediately known.
The army says the troops came under fire during the operation, though none were injured.
[RedState] On Thursday, Fox News revealed some satellite imagery of a formerly secret Iranian nuclear facility.
Fox News has exclusively obtained satellite imagery revealing what an opposition group says is a previously undisclosed Iranian nuclear weapons facility – raising fresh concerns amid ongoing negotiations between Tehran and the Trump administration.
The newly identified site, located in Iran’s Semnan Province, is far from the regime's already-known nuclear facilities. According to the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), intelligence gathered from sources inside the country points to a sprawling compound covering nearly 2,500 acres.
Code-named the "Rainbow Site" by Iranian officials, the facility has reportedly been in operation for more than a decade, masked as a chemical production company known as Diba Energy Siba.
This is the chilling part:
According to NCRI sources, the primary function of the Rainbow Site is the extraction of tritium – a radioactive isotope used to enhance nuclear weapons. Unlike uranium enrichment, tritium has virtually no peaceful or commercial applications, casting further doubt on Iran’s longstanding claims that its nuclear ambitions are solely for energy or civilian use.
Tritium, we should note, isn't used in producing fission weapons of the sort that were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Tritium is used to boost fission bombs for a substantial increase in yield, and it is used as a primary fuel source in thermonuclear weapons, or hydrogen bombs.
This would indicate that Iran is looking to take their nuclear weapons to the next level. Fusion weapons are orders of magnitude more powerful than fission weapons.
Talks with Iran are still going on, undeterred by the release of these images.
The revelations come as the Trump administration navigates sensitive negotiations with Tehran. When asked about the U.S. position on whether Iran can maintain a nuclear enrichment program short of weapons development, President Donald Trump told reporters Wednesday, "We haven’t made that decision yet. We will, but we haven’t made that decision yet."
I just this morning got ahold of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) page detailing everything they've discovered about this covert site and wanted to share it with you all. Lots to chew on.
NCRI Reveals Iran’s Secret ‘Rainbow’ Facility Linked to Nuclear Weapons and Missile Program
A new exposé by the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) unveils an alarming secret project by Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND) to enhance nuclear weapons capability. Since 2009, SPND has covertly pursued the development of boosted nuclear warheads designed for long-range ballistic missiles exceeding 3,000 km. Central to this effort is the clandestine “Rangin Kaman” (Rainbow) site near Ivanaki, Garmsar, covering 2,500 acres and masquerading as a chemical facility under Diba Energy Sina Company.
Key to the project is the extraction and use of tritium, enabling higher-yield nuclear weapons and the potential development of hydrogen bombs. SPND has secretly recruited nuclear fusion experts from the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran to advance this effort. The parent company overseeing front firms tied to the project is chaired by IRGC Brigadier General Naser Maleki, already sanctioned by the UN for nuclear and missile activities.
The Ivanaki site is heavily fortified with IRGC radar and air defense systems, signaling its strategic importance. This revelation raises serious concerns about Tehran’s nuclear intentions and ongoing deception under civilian and commercial covers.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Radar screens went dark at New Jersey's Newark Airport early Friday during a close call that nearly became a midair disaster.
The momentary power outage hit at 3:55am ET, when air traffic was luckily very light, and lasted for about for 90 seconds.
The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released a statement on X Friday, revealing the blackout was caused by a 'telecommunications outage' at Philadelphia Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) Area C.
This control center, located 90 miles away at the Philadelphia International Airport, manages air traffic for Newark Airport and smaller airports nearby.
According to Flightaware, there were already 125 cancellations and 292 flight delays reported at Newark as of 12pm ET.
It's the second radar blackout to hit Newark in the past two weeks. The previous outage truck the airport's air traffic control tower on April 28, causing computer screens to go dark for 60 to 90 seconds.
Newark is the second-busiest airport in the New York-New Jersey area, catering to nearly 49 million travelers in 2024.
It follows behind New York's John F Kennedy International Airport, which saw 63 million flyers last year.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Public health officials investigating a mysterious brain disease in Canada have finally released the findings of a long-awaited study — and not everyone is convinced.
Since 2019, a small town in New Brunswick — a Canadian province bordering Maine — has experienced hundreds of cases of people suffering from hallucinations, spasms, rapid memory loss and the sensation of bugs crawling under the skin.
More than 500 people in the area, mostly in the city of Moncton, were reported to have the disease by local neurologist Dr Alier Marrero, who was the first to raise the alarm.
However, as no definitive diagnosis has ever been made, the area was reported to be suffering from a 'mystery' brain disease.
But now, after examining two dozen of those cases, researchers say the odds that a new illness has emerged are less than one in a million — and they believe the patients were instead suffering from known conditions like Alzheimer’s.
Patients and their families are raising concerns over the study, however, after it was revealed scientists on the study had previously received fundingfroma company suspected by some locals to be involved in the outbreak.
Online records reveal scientists on the study worked at a hospital that had received $2million from Irving Oil, which extracts hydrocarbons in the state — with some locals suggesting pollution from these could have been behind the cases.
The scientists who led the study strongly refuted claims that this had any influence over their research, adding that the funding was for a completely separate project.
The 'mystery illness' theory gained traction in 2021 when Canadian health authorities began investigating cases based on Dr Marrero’s reports.
Patients were recorded in Moncton, home to 79,000 people, and in a sparsely populated area in its north called the Acadian Peninsula.
While more than 500 were reported, researchers found 222 patients.
Known as New Brunswick neurological syndrome of unknown cause, people became concerned in the area that it was being caused by something in the water.
Doctors initially suggested patients had Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease, or Prion disease, an extremely rare group of neurologic conditions caused by misfolded proteins in the brain.
But tests for this came back negative.
After a two-year investigation of 25 of the patients, scientists from the University of Toronto and the Horizon Health Network concluded there was 'no support for an undiagnosed mystery disease in New Brunswick' and their research 'revealed well-defined diagnoses.'
Published in the US-based journal JAMA, researchers involved in the study contacted 105 patients in the cluster for evaluation.
Of these, 52 declined further contact while 42 did not respond. In total, 15 patients were evaluated.
Scientists also obtained permission to perform autopsies on the bodies of 11 additional patients in the cluster who had died.
Their causes of death were not revealed.
Evaluations were carried out between November 2023 and March 2025.
Based on autopsies, among patients who had died, seven had a form of dementia.
One had adenocarcinoma — a malignant tumor — one had progressive supranuclear palsy — a rare disease that affects walking, balance and swallowing — and one had vascular dementia.
Another patient had unremarkable autopsy findings, but had previously been diagnosed with a primary psychiatric disorder.
The doctors said all these diseases could have caused the symptoms that were considered to be part of the mystery cluster.
Researchers noted there was an absence of one specific change in the brain across all groups that may suggest common exposure to one factor.
Among the 14 patients that came forward for neurological tests, 10 agreed to a second evaluation by four movement disorder neurologists and two behavioral neurologists.
Previously, the patients had only been assessed by Dr Marrero.
He had found all 10 patients had myoclonus — a disorder causing sudden and involuntary muscle jerks — while seven had ataxia — a neurological condition caused by a lack of muscle coordination.
But in the new study, only one of the reassessed patients was found to have a cognitive disorder while two were found to have a psychiatric disorder.
Five others were found to have no cognitive deficits, while two were found to be normal.
None were found to have myoclonus or ataxia as Dr Marrero had suggested.
The researchers said they found 'meaningful discrepancies' between the documented initial history of the patients' conditions and their findings on the second assessment.
This included three patients reported to have experienced hallucinations, whose symptoms were not confirmed on second evaluation. And 10 patients initially reported to have a neurological disorder, with this not found on follow-up.
In their conclusion, the researchers said their investigation highlighted the importance of getting a second evaluation for a neurological diagnosis.
They also said their findings highlighted the erosion of public trust in institutions, which has been blamed on Covid vaccine mandates in the pandemic.
Marrero responded to the study, however, telling NBC News: 'I am in profound disagreement with the study conclusions and have many questions regarding the methods and the content.
'I am sure that our patients, families, and communities share the same very serious concerns.'
Additionally, the study lists several potential notes under the 'conflicts of interest' heading, including that some of the authors had previously worked for Canadian health authorities and a number of pharmaceutical companies - with some saying it calls into question the researchers' objectivity.
The New Brunswick government's investigation into the outbreak is ongoing, with the state's chief medical officer saying this week that it would continue.
Dr Yves Léger said the new study 'doesn’t change my office’s intention to complete its own investigation into cases of undiagnosed neurological illness in New Brunswick.'
DailyMail.com has reached out to the scientists and Irving Oil but has not received a response.
How soon before both perpetrators and victims file lawsuits over this, dear Reader?
[IsraelTimes] Legislation establishes offense of ‘evading arrest by concealment of identity,’ a watered-down version of proposals aimed at combating upsurge in antisemitism
The New York State government on Thursday passed a law to combat masked crime, ending a legislative effort meant to combat antisemitism in the wake of the October 7, 2023, invasion of Israel by the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... terrorist group.
The push for an anti-masking law had spurred backlash from progressives, and the new rule is a watered-down version of the legislation initially sought by politicians in favor of the measure.
The legislation establishes the crime of "evading arrest by concealment of identity" and was signed into law by New York State Governor Kathy Hochul on Thursday with the state budget.
Hochul had attached the law to the state budget as one of her legislative priorities. The $254 billion budget passed more than a month after its April 1 deadline, following weeks of negotiations, including over the masking legislation.
The law applies when a person carrying out a crime, or fleeing from the scene of a crime, wears a mask or covers their face "for no legitimate purpose" to prevent their identification or arrest. The law, a class B misdemeanor, will take effect in 30 days.
The charge will be added to the initial offense and could lead to harsher sentencing. Class B misdemeanors carry a maximum punishment of three months in jail.
Jeffrey Dinowitz, a Jewish state assemblyman from the Bronx who pushed for anti-masking legislation, applauded the new law in a Thursday statement, tying the rule to a disruptive protest by masked demonstrators at Columbia University on Wednesday.
"Time and again we see that when protestors conceal their identity, they can create environments of fear and distress, especially when targeting specific communities," Dinowitz said. "Yesterday’s incident of masked individuals vandalizing and terrorizing students and staff at Columbia University’s Butler Library highlights the necessity of this legislation to hold people responsible for their actions."
Other politicians criticized the legislation as too weak and difficult to enforce.
"This is a nothing burger. Unfortunately, this is nothing," Anthony Palumbo, a Republican state senator from Long Island, said during budget negotiations.
"This was well-intended, I’m sure, but it doesn’t get us to where we needed to go," Palumbo said.
A coalition of Jewish and Black groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the NAACP, launched a push to crack down on masking last year. The effort, called UnMaskHateNY, connected antisemitism by masked attackers to persecution of Black Americans by hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan.
The version of the bill put forward at the time was more expansive than the measure passed on Thursday. The earlier bill sought to outlaw masking at public assemblies such as protests, with carve-outs for facial coverings related to health and religion.
Hochul had previously pushed for a ban on "masked harassment," but retreated from the more strict proposal during the drawn-out budget negotiations.
UnMaskHateNY still celebrated the new measure shortly before the governor signed it into law.
"This law couldn’t have come a day sooner. With this new language on the books, we look forward to long-awaited oversight and accountability for any and all individuals who would hide their faces to commit crimes," a spokesperson for the group said.
The push to crack down on masked crime gained traction during an upsurge in antisemitism in New York City, particularly following an incident when masked protesters targeted "Zionists" on a subway car in May 2024.
Law enforcement said at the time that masking had impeded some investigations into criminal conduct by anti-Israel protesters, including at Columbia University.
Pro-Paleostinian and leftist organizations, including a group called Jews for Mask Rights, opposed the legislative effort, calling it an infringement on the right to free assembly and a risk to the immunocompromised.
Groups, including the New York branch of the American Civil Liberties Union, called on the governor and state politicians to reject the law, characterizing the measure as a "mask ban," despite its limited scope.
"Despite lies to the contrary, this is not a mask ban. It is common-sense legislation that is in the interest of public safety and would not apply to lawful assemblies or protests," Dinowitz said on Thursday.
New York State had an anti-masking law dating back to the 1800s, but scrapped the rule in 2020 due to widespread masking during the COVID pandemic.
Nassau County, on Long Island, passed a law to ban masking at protests last year. That effort was led by Mazi Pilip, an Israeli-American Republican in the Nassau County legislature, who said she was motivated by antisemitism and protests at universities.
[IsraelTimes] The Foreign Ministry says shots were fired at a building near the Israeli consulate in Istanbul.
The shooter was arrested by Turkish police. There are no casualties or damage to the Israeli mission, the Foreign Ministry says.
Earlier today, the ministry said that an “unusual envelope” arrived at the Israeli Embassy in Paris. The envelope was examined and transferred to local security. No one was injured in the incident, the ministry says.
Following the two events, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar tweets that they prove that “terrorism is trying to harm us everywhere.”
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The plane caught fire at London's Gatwick Airport because the pilot confused the right and left sides, the Daily Mail reported on May 9.
The incident took place in June 2024, but the British media only learned about it now.
A British Airways flight to Vancouver had already begun takeoff when the co-pilot, confusing his left and right hands, pulled the wrong throttle.
The plane's brakes overheated and caught fire. Takeoff was aborted at 192 mph (about 309 km/h). The plane stopped on the runway. Firefighters extinguished the fire, none of the 334 passengers and 13 crew members were injured. Dozens of flights were delayed or cancelled at Gatwick.
The publication noted that the pilot who made the mistake had more than 6,000 hours of flying time. During the investigation, he was unable to explain why he made the mistake. The publication's experts noted that such mistakes are extremely rare, and the crash was prevented by the correct operation of the aircraft's safety systems.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] Russian invaders are conducting active offensive actions in the Pokrovsk and Novopavlovsk directions. There are currently 16 battles going on there.
Since the beginning of the day, 80 combat clashes have already been recorded on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an operational report as of 16:00 on Friday, May 9.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, our defenders are repelling two attacks by the aggressor in the area of Volchansk. The clashes are currently continuing.
In the Liman direction, the invader's army attacked nine times near Lipovoye and in the direction of Grekovka, Novy Mir, Zelenaya Dolina. One combat clash continues.
In the Kramatorsk direction, three attempts by the occupiers to advance forward in the areas of Chasovy Yar, Belaya Gora and Kurdyumovka have been repelled, and four more clashes are ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, the enemy attacked 10 times in the areas of Dachnoye, Dilievka, Shcherbinovka and Toretsk. Five battles are still ongoing.
In the Pokrovsky direction, the Russians carried out 18 assaults from positions occupied in the areas of the settlements of Aleksandropol, Novotoretskoye, Promin, Elizavetovka, Dachenskoye, Zverevo, Udachnoye, Kotlyarovka and in the direction of Novonikolayevka and Troitskoye. The defense forces repelled 13 attacks. Five clashes are still ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the enemy attacked 18 times near the settlements of Bagatyr, Konstantinopol, Otradnoye, Rovnopol, Novosyolka, Volnoye Pole, Privolnoye and in the direction of Novopol, Zelenoe Pole. At present, 11 combat clashes are ongoing.
In the Orekhov direction, our defenders repelled two assaults in the areas of Malye Shcherbaki and Shcherbaki.
In the Dnieper direction, the enemy made four attempts to advance. Fighting continues in three locations.
In the Kursk direction, Ukrainian defenders repelled three Russian attacks. Four more clashes are ongoing.
Let us recall that in the course of 24 hours on May 8, Russia lost 1,300 fighters killed and wounded. The total number of Russian losses is approaching 1 million people.
[IsraelTimes] Emily Damari lashes out at prize committee for bestowing honor on Mosab Abu Toha, who called captives ‘killers’ and cast doubt on Bibas children’s murder in social media rants
[IsraelTimes] The NYPD reports 41 antisemitic hate crimes in April, the highest monthly tally since the 45 incidents in June 2024.
There were more antisemitic hate crimes last month than incidents targeting all other groups combined, as in nearly every month.
Last month there were 10 crimes targeting Asians, seven against Black people, one against a Hispanic person, one against another ethnicity, two based on gender, four motivated by sexual orientation, three against white people, two Islamophobic incidents, and five against other religious groups.
The total for the month was 76, meaning Jews were targeted in 54% of all hate crimes in the city.
There was a surge of antisemitic incidents following the October 2023 invasion of Israel, and the rate has fluctuated since then. In the past year, the number of incidents ranges from 55 last May to 18 in January.
There have been 380 antisemitic incidents in the past year, from May 2024 through last month.
The numbers are preliminary and subject to change if, for example, a crime that appeared to be antisemitic turns out to have been motivated by other factors.
Jewish security groups and hate crimes experts say many incidents likely go unreported.
[IsraelTimes] A French pro-Palestinian protest group is contesting a government decision to shut it down, saying the move was politically motivated and based on “false” arguments as part of a wider crackdown on the movement for Palestinian rights.
Urgence Palestine (Emergency Palestine), created in 2023 to protest against Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, filed its counterarguments to the shutdown procedure on Thursday, their lawyer Elsa Marcel says.
French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, explaining the decision, said in a letter dated April 28 to one of the group’s founders, Omar Alsoumi, that Urgence Palestine had provoked violent acts, including toward Jewish people, and had called for armed struggle.
Asked about the decision, Alsoumi tells Reuters, “This shows the partiality of the French government on the genocidal war that the Palestinian people are experiencing.”
He says the group, which has been organizing protests across France over the past 19 months, rejects any conflation of Jews and the Israeli government and that Palestinians have the right to resist occupation under international law.
The French Interior Ministry does not respond to a request for comment.
وزیراطلاعات عطاءاللہ تارڑ نے بھارت کی جارحیت اور بزدلانہ حملے پر پاکستان کی طرف سے بروقت اور اعصاب شکن جواب دینے پر افوج پاکستان کی کاروائی کو سراہا اور بھارت کے جنگی جنون اور خود پسندی کو عوامی انداز میں للکار دی۔
[IsraelTimes] So-called Association Agreement between EU and Israel requires trade ties ‘be based on respect for human rights,’ which some European countries claim Israel has violated.
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.
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat rational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] San Francisco was brought to a halt early Friday after the BART train system was suspended due to a network failure. 
'But it's awful news that the Bay Area can't rely on BART as of this moment. We don't have an ETA as to when the trains will go because part of that is identifying the location of the problem.' 
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
