[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) announced on Tuesday that they had thwarted two separate Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) attacks targeting military checkpoints in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah provinces. The SDF also warned of an uptick in holy warrior activity aimed at destabilizing the region.
"Our forces thwarted two separate ISIS attacks targeting our military checkpoints in the eastern Deir ez-Zor and Hasakah countrysides," the SDF said in a statement.
Regarding the incident in Hasakah, the SDF reported that the attack occurred when one of their fighters stopped a "suspicious civilian vehicle" at a checkpoint. The vehicle was found to be carrying weapons and ammunition. Shortly afterward, two ISIS bully boyz on a cycle of violence launched an attack on the checkpoint. The SDF repelled the attack, which resulted in material damage but no casualties.
In the Deir ez-Zor countryside, an SDF patrol came under fire from an "ISIS cell" while conducting a routine security operation.
"Our forces responded effectively to the attack," the SDF stated, adding that "the losses inflicted on the Lions of Islam remain unknown." The SDF reported only minor material damage and confirmed that there were no casualties among their ranks.
The SDF has been warning for months about a resurgence in ISIS activity targeting both their forces and civilians, particularly in oil-rich areas like Deir ez-Zor, which remains partially under their control.
[IsraelTimes] The IDF confirms carrying out a drone strike in the Lebanese town of al-Mansouri, close to Tyre, today, killing a Hezbollah operative.
According to the military, the operative was the commander of Hezbollah’s forces in al-Mansouri.
The IDF says he was involved in advancing numerous attacks on Israel during the war, restoring Hezbollah’s infrastructure in the al-Mansouri area, and smuggling weapons.
[IsraelTimes] For the second time in days, Jordan carried out an evacuation of child cancer patients along with their family members from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... as it works to gradually fulfill a promise King Abdullah made to US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... Six young patients and 19 family members were evacuated by the Jordan Armed Forces from Gaza, a Jordanian official tells The Times of Israel.
Abdullah announced during a February meeting with Trump that Jordan would take in 2,000 child cancer patients and other sick children from Gaza for treatment in the Hashemite kingdom, as Washington sought to push countries in the region to facilitate the emigration of Paleostinians from the war-torn Strip.
The total number of sick Gazook children taken in by Jordan now stands at 39, after four were evacuated last week with 12 of their family members and 29 were evacuated in March along with 44 family members.
The Jordanian official says Amman seeks to evacuate more children from Gaza, but Israeli authorities have "put up hurdles."
"Jordan wanted to evacuate all the children from Gaza by air, but Israeli authorities didn’t agree," the Jordanian official says, adding that the evacuations took place by land, with patients being driven into Israel and then through the West Bank before reaching Jordan for treatment at the King Hussein Cancer Center.
The official notes that Ammn is also seeking to deliver aid into Gaza and has 100 trucks sitting in Jordan that are ready to enter the Strip, but that Israel has not allowed them in.
While Israel has not guaranteed that those who leave Gaza will be able to return, a group of patients who had received treatment in Jordan were allowed back into the Strip on May 13. However,
there's no worse danger than telling a mother her baby is ugly... before they reentered, Israeli authorities seized their belongings, including money, cellphones, and food, the Jordanian official says.
[IsraelTimes] British maritime security firm Ambrey says a Panama-flagged and UAE-linked products tanker was reportedly interdicted approximately 51 nautical miles northwest of the Iranian port of Bandar-e jask.
It says an urgent broadcast was transmitted that the vessel has been "hijacked."
[IsraelTimes] During interview one year after Iranian president died in chopper collision, foreign minister says ‘Thank God’ it became clear that Israel was not involved.
Foolish Iranians! If Mossad did not do it, then it was entirely Allah’s will. He does not seem to like y’all anymore.
#1
"...The Foreign Minister went on to clarify, "This was NOT fiendish Zionist sabotage and murder; this was one hundred and ten percent, home-grown Iranian incompetence!"
[IsraelTimes] After Israel announced recovery of archive in ‘covert and complex Mossad operation,’ sources tell Reuters that Sharaa okayed its return to ease Israeli hostility and as gesture to Trump
Syria’s leadership approved the handover of the belongings of long-dead spy Eli Cohen to Israel in a bid to ease Israeli hostility and show goodwill to US President Donald Trump ...Oh, noze! Not him!... , three sources told Rooters.
Israel announced its recovery of the trove of documents, photographs and personal possessions relating to Cohen on Sunday, saying its spy agency Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... had worked with an unnamed foreign intelligence agency to secure the material.
However,
a good lie finds more believers than a bad truth... a Syrian security source, an adviser to Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa and a person familiar with backchannel talks between the countries said the archive of material was in fact offered to Israel as an indirect gesture by Sharaa as he seeks to cool tensions and build Trump’s confidence.
Cohen, who was hanged in 1965 in a downtown Damascus square after infiltrating Syria’s political elite, is still regarded as a hero in Israel and Mossad’s most celebrated spy for uncovering military secrets that aided its lightning victory in the 1967 Six Day War.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described Cohen on Sunday as a legend and "the greatest intelligence agent in the annals of the state."
While Israel has long sought to recover his body for reburial at home, the return of his archive held for 60 years by Syrian intelligence was hailed by Mossad as "an achievement of the highest moral order."
Israel has not publicly revealed how the archive came into its possession, saying only that it was the result of "a covert and complex Mossad operation, in cooperation with an allied foreign intelligence service."
Netanyahu’s office, Syrian officials and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Syria’s role in Israel’s recovery of the Cohen archive.
COHEN DOSSIER
After rebels led by Sharaa suddenly ousted President Bashir Pencilneck al-Assad Supressor of the Damascenes... in December, ending his family’s 54-year-long rule, they found the Cohen dossier in a state security building, according to the Syrian security source.
Sharaa and his foreign advisers quickly decided to use the material as leverage, the source added.
The Syrian security source said Sharaa had realized that the Cohen archive was important to the Israelis and that its return could amount to a significant diplomatic gesture.
Ending Israeli attacks on Syria and improving relations with the United States and other Western countries are vital for Sharaa as he seeks to revive his shattered country after 14 years of civil war.
Israel regards Sharaa and his ex-insurgents, who once formed the al Qaeda faction in Syria, as unreconstructed jihadists. Israeli forces have been deployed to nine posts inside southern Syria since the fall of the Assad — mostly within a UN-patrolled buffer zone on the border between the countries — and have repeatedly bombed targets in support of Syria’s minority Druze sect.
This month, Rooters reported that the United Arab Emirates had set up a backchannel for talks between Israel and Syria that included efforts to build confidence between the sides.
There have also been other indirect channels for talks, according to two people familiar with the matter.
In the talks, Syria agreed to measures including returning the remains of Cohen as well as three Israeli soldiers killed while fighting Syrian forces in Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... in the early 1980s, a person familiar with those talks said. The body of one of those soldiers, Sgt. First Class Zvi Feldman, has been returned, Israel said last week.
The return of the Cohen archive came in the context of those confidence-building measures and was done with Sharaa’s direct approval, the person said.
Last week, Trump held a surprise meeting with Sharaa in 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... where he urged him to normalize ties with Israel and announced that he would lift sanctions on Syria.
Syrian officials have said they want peace with all states in the region, and Sharaa confirmed this month that Damascus had carried out indirect talks with Israel via states it has ties with in order to calm the situation.
”How dare Israel defend itself! We will accept nothing less than that they lay down and die while apologizing for bleeding on their murderers.”
[IsraelTimes] Foreign Ministry says rift with fourth largest trading partner ‘will not divert’ Israel’s war plans; EU also reviewing ties with Jerusalem in response to aid shortage
British Foreign Secretary David Lammy announced Tuesday that the United Kingdom is suspending free trade agreement negotiations with Israel and taking other punitive measures, including the imposition of sanctions on West Bank settlers, in response to Israel’s wartime policies during its conflict with Hamas in Gaza.
It’s not the gorgeous fruits so much as Israel’s advanced technology products that the UK will have to learn to do without, becoming ever more a Third World society to match their abject surrender to their Moslem colonists.
The announcement followed comments by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer earlier on Tuesday, saying he was “horrified” by Israel’s expanded ground campaign in Gaza.
No doubt.
“While the UK government remains committed to the existing trade agreement in force, it is not possible to advance discussions on a new, upgraded FTA with a Netanyahu government that is pursuing egregious policies in the West Bank and Gaza,” the British government wrote in a statement.
What vile people. And they’ve surrendered to Brussels, too, completely overturning Brexit.
Speaking to parliament, Lammy accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of “planning to drive Gazans from their homes into a corner of the Strip to the south and permit them a fraction of the aid that they need.”
“The Israeli government has a responsibility to intervene and halt these aggressive actions,” Lammy said in a furious speech. “Their consistent failure to act is putting Palestinian communities and the two-state solution in peril.”
The two state plan was over long before Hamas invaded on 10/7. Not that dear Lammy would understand that — his party likes having been invaded.
“Despite the glimmer of hope from January’s ceasefire, the suffering from this conflict has worsened,” Lammy said. “But January showed another path was possible. We urge Netanyahu’s government to choose this path. The world is judging. History will judge them. Blocking aid, expanding the war, dismissing the concerns of your friends and partners. This is indefensible and it must stop.”
Why don’t any of them make any demands on Hamas? They’re the ones who started the war, took hostages, surround themselves with human shields, forbade Gazan civilians from escaping the Strip…
He said Britain would be “reviewing cooperation” with Israel under its so-called 2030 roadmap for UK-Israel relations, and noted: “The Netanyahu government’s actions have made this necessary.”
More for Israel to sell in new markets — there are a bunch of Arab countries that want to benefit from improved relations…
“I say now to the people of Israel: we want, I want, a strong friendship with you based on our shared values, with flourishing ties between our people and societies. We are unwavering in our commitment to your security and to your future, to countering the very real threat from Iran, the scourge of terrorism and the evils of antisemitism,” Lammy stressed.
Such fine sounding lies. Stick a sock in it, Sir Keir — your hypocrisy is sickening.
“But the conduct of the war in Gaza is damaging our relationship with your government.
Under the circumstances, that’s quite a compliment to Israel. Carry on damaging it, Bibi.
And, as the prime minister has said, if Israel pursues this military offensive as it has threatened, failing to ensure the unhindered provision of aid, we will take further actions in response.”
Middle East Minister Hamish Falconer also summoned Israel’s Ambassador to the UK Tzipi Hotovely to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office in response to “the wholly disproportionate” expansion of military activity in Gaza.
In a statement, the Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem retorted: “The British Mandate ended exactly 77 years ago. External pressure will not divert Israel from its path in the struggle for its existence and security against enemies seeking its destruction.”
“Even before today’s announcement, the matter had not been advanced at all by the current British government,” said the ministry, adding that the trade agreement “is mutually beneficial” and if, “due to anti-Israel obsession and domestic political considerations, the British government is willing to harm the British economy — that is its decision.”
[IsraelTimes] Israel rejects a European Union decision to review the bloc’s cooperation deal in a bid to pressure Israel over its intensified offensive in Gaza.
“We completely reject the direction taken in the statement, which reflects a total misunderstanding of the complex reality Israel is facing,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Oren Marmorstein says in a message on X.
Brilliant insight that anyone paying the least bit of attention has known for at least a decade. But what can Iran do about it if they do? Israel destroyed their anti-aircraft system last year, and there’s no word Russia sold them a replacement — though if they did, Israel can just destroy it again in a single night’s work.
[IsraelTimes] CNN says it’s unclear whether Israeli leaders have made a final decision to attack, though one source says likelihood they will do so ‘has gone up significantly in recent months’
New intelligence obtained by the United States suggests that Israel is making preparations to strike Iranian nuclear facilities, CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... reported on Tuesday, citing multiple US officials familiar with the intelligence.
It was not clear whether Israeli leaders have made a final decision and there was disagreement within the US government about whether they would ultimately decide to carry out strikes, CNN added, citing the officials.
The report could not immediately be confirmed. The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond, nor did the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, which was contacted after hours.
One source familiar with the intelligence told CNN the likelihood of an Israeli strike on an Iranian nuclear facility "has gone up significantly in recent months."
The person added that the chance of a strike would be more likely if the US reached a deal 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... that did not remove all of the country’s uranium, CNN added.
US President Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... ’s administration has been conducting negotiations with Iran aimed at achieving a diplomatic deal over its nuclear program, and the CNN report quoted US officials as saying that an Israeli strike would mark a major break with Trump.
The new intelligence was based on the public and private communications from senior Israeli officials as well as intercepted Israeli communications and observations of Israeli military movements that could suggest an imminent strike, CNN reported.
CNN cited two sources saying that among the military preparations the US had observed were the movement of air munitions and the completion of an air exercise, though the report noted the moves could be part of an Israeli pressure campaign against Iran rather than an indicator of a possible strike.
Earlier on Tuesday, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> said US demands that Tehran stop enriching uranium are "excessive and outrageous," state media reported, voicing doubts over whether talks on a new nuclear deal will succeed.
With the negotiations ongoing, a source that CNN described as familiar with the Trump administration’s thinking said the US is unlikely to assist Israel in striking Iran’s nuclear program right now, while an American official said intelligence efforts were ramping up to help if Israeli leaders decide to attack.
The report also cited a source familiar with the matter saying that Israel does not have the means to take out Iran’s nuclear program without US help, though an Israeli source said Israel was ready to act alone if Washington negotiates a "bad deal" with Tehran that is unacceptable to Jerusalem.
"I think it’s more likely they strike to try and get the deal to fall apart if they think Trump is going to settle for a ’bad deal,’" a person familiar with US intelligence told CNN. "The Israelis have not been shy about signaling that to us... both publicly and privately."
CNN’s reporting follows a report in The New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... last month on how Trump "waved off" a planned Israeli strike on Iran’s nuclear program that would require US military support.
While backing nuclear diplomacy, he has also warned of potential military action if it fails. Iran and the United States so far have held four rounds of Omani-mediated talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between the two foes since Trump abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord during his first term in office..
They had confirmed plans to hold another round of discussions during their last meeting on May 11, which Iran described as "difficult but useful," while a US official said Washington was "encouraged."
Trump has said he presented Iran’s leadership with an "olive branch," adding that it was an offer that would not last forever.
He further threatened to impose "massive maximum pressure," including driving Iranian oil exports to zero if talks failed.
Trump later doubled down on his warning, saying that "something bad is going to happen" unless the Iranians "move quickly" toward a deal. CNN reported that s senior Western diplomat who met with Trump said the US president indicated he would give the talks weeks before turning to a military option if no diplomatic breakthrough is reached.
[IsraelTimes] Crude prices surge following a report that US intelligence suggested Israel is planning a strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, which would send geopolitical tensions into overdrive and fuel regional conflict fears.
While safe haven gold pushes almost two percent higher, the news from CNN appears to be having little detrimental effect on Asian equities in early trade, with most extending the previous day’s rally.
Both main crude contracts jump almost two percent after CNN reported multiple US officials as saying the government had received intelligence indicating Israel was preparing to target Iranian atomic facilities.
There are fears that such a sharp escalation could tip the Middle East into a war.
[IsraelTimes] Zamir tells Gazan civilians that their leaders, not Israel, ‘brought destruction’ upon them, as hostage talks appear to once more reach an impasse in Doha
The Israeli military is prepared to capture more territory 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 if Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... does not agree to release the remaining hostages it is keeping in captivity, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir warned in a video statement on Tuesday.
He issued the ultimatum following a situational assessment and field tour in Gaza, days into a major new offensive dubbed "Gideon’s Chariots," through which Israel seeks to attack Hamas and seize and retain territory, while relocating Paleostinians from the north of the Strip to its south.
The offensive was launched amid negotiations in 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... for a ceasefire and hostage release deal, which started back up again last week following the release of American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander.
Israel had previously warned that it would launch the offensive should no agreement be reached following the end of US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... ’s visit to the region last week. While reports initially indicated that the new talks were moving in the right direction, they hit a wall in recent days.
Zamir said "Hamas will pay a price for its refusal" to release the hostages.
"It will face intense firepower," he said. "We will expand the ground maneuver, conquer additional territory, clear and destroy the terror infrastructure until its defeat."
"Hamas only has one option, and that is to release our hostages," Zamir continued, adding that should an agreement be reached, "the IDF will know how to adjust its activity accordingly."
"Our objectives are clear: the return of the hostages to their homes, the defeat of Hamas and the dismantling of its rule," he continued. "We are defending ourselves, and for that we must attack. We cannot defend ourselves only on the defense, without clearly removing the threat from the other side of the border."
At several points during his remarks, Zamir recalled that Israel had not been the one to start the war in Gaza, but that it erupted when Hamas launched its deadly cross-border invasion on October 7, 2023.
"This was not a military assault, but a horrifying crime against innocent civilians, and act of terror against the State of Israel and the Jewish people," he said of the attack, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages, of whom 58 are still awaiting release.
"Since that dreadful day, the IDF has acted with force and determination in a multi-front campaign against enemies whose goal is to destroy us," said Zamir.
Turning to the Paleostinian civilians in Gaza, he added: "We are not the ones who brought this destruction upon you."
"We did not start the war. We did not rob you of food, shelter, or money. We are not the ones hiding in hospitals or schools. We are not the ones staying in luxury hotels while you live in hardship," he said.
"This is your leadership, those who are holding our hostages. Hamas is responsible for starting the war. It is responsible for the dire situation of the population. It destroyed, and it will not be the one to rebuild."
This is who Hamas is. This is who all the jihadis are.
[IsraelTimes] According to reported testimony from ex-hostage Edan Alexander, Matan Zangauker suffers from muscular atrophy, is held in cages and has been severely tortured.
Released hostage Yarden Bibas says he encountered Yahya Sinwar in tunnel
[IsraelTimes] Released hostage Yarden Bibas describes meeting Yahya Sinwar while in captivity, when the former Hamas leader allowed him to remain with his best friend, David Cunio, who is still held captive in Gaza, for around two weeks before they were separated.
“David is my best friend, he has been with me my whole life,” Bibas tells Channel 12 news.
Bibas says he met Cunio on the day his wife, Sharon Aloni Cunio, and their twin daughters were released from captivity on November 27, 2023, as part of a temporary ceasefire deal.
“He was moved to me in the tunnel. When he saw me for the first time, he was in shock. He thought he saw a ghost. I hugged him, and then he continued to the next place,” Bibas says.
“When Sinwar arrived at the tunnel, I said to him that this is my best friend and I want to stay with him. He said there was no problem, you can stay with him. After around two weeks, they separated us. I don’t know why,” Bibas says.
Asked by the former Likud lawmaker how he held onto hope in captivity, Alexander reportedly answered: “I knew that my friends from Golani were fighting above for me and I had a duty to survive for them.”
“My captivity was difficult. We moved between dozens of places, we slept in apartments, mosques, and even on the street. One of the times we didn’t stop moving from place to place, and then we slept on Basmata Street — without anyone noticing. And now we must do everything to release everyone,” he said, Channel 12 reports.
Channel 12 also says that Alexander was held alongside senior Hamas officials, including its former leader and October 7, 2023, massacre mastermind, Yahya Sinwar, who was killed by IDF troops in October.
According to Alexander’s reported testimony, food cans would explode in the tunnels due to the intense summer heat.
Separately, Channel 12 reports on a meeting between Alexander and the family of hostage Nimrod Cohen, with whom he was held in captivity.
Alexander reportedly told them Cohen supported him during their time together, but was very depressed and traumatized due to his experiences of the October 7 massacre, when he saw his friends murdered.
[IsraelTimes] Source involved in talks disputes Netanyahu’s claim that Israel accepted Witkoff’s proposal; hostage families accuse government of having ‘no real plan to return the last hostage’
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on Tuesday evening that after a week of "intensive" hostage talks in Doha, high-level members of Israel’s negotiating team have been recalled to Israel, while a number of working-level representatives will remain in the 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 capital.
The announcement followed reports that the renewed ceasefire and hostage deal talks in Qatar, which began last week following the release of Israeli-American hostage Edan Alexander, had yet to make any progress.
In a statement released by the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu said that the high-level delegation members would be returning to Israel for consultations, "after about a week of intensive talks in Doha."
The Prime Minister’s Office reiterated that "Israel agrees to the American proposal for the return of the hostages, which is based on the Witkoff framework."
"This proposal was recently conveyed to Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... via the mediators, but so far, it continues to cling to its refusal," it said.
The framework in question, presented by US special envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, calls for a short-term ceasefire 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 exchange for the release of roughly half of the living hostages.
Earlier this week, the Axios news site reported that Witkoff was pressuring both Israel and Hamas to accept a proposal for the release of 10 living hostages in exchange for a 45-60 day truce, and the release of an unspecified number of Paleostinian security prisoners.
The report also said that US offer included modified language aimed at providing Hamas with guarantees that the temporary ceasefire could lead to a permanent one.
It was unclear whether the statement from the Prime Minister’s Office was referring to Witkoff’s original proposal or one with modified language.
Disputing Netanyahu’s claims regarding Israel’s willingness and Hamas’s refusal to accept the Witkoff proposal, a source involved in the negotiations told the Times of Israel that the premier mischaracterized the current status of the talks.
According to the source, mediators were still working to coax both sides, not just Hamas, to compromise on a number of issues.
"This is not a matter of just waiting for Hamas to say ’yes,'" the source said.
The source explained that negotiators were trying to come up with a temporary hostage deal that allows Hamas to claim the agreement will lead to the eventual end of the war, while also allowing Israel to continue claiming that it has not committed to doing so.
Given the lack of trust between the sides, this has been a difficult task to accomplish, the source said, while insisting that a deal is still possible.
The source noted that the senior members of Israel’s negotiating team called back from Qatar from the get-go did not play an integral role in the current round of talks, as Witkoff — who is also not in Doha — has been in continued contact with Netanyahu and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer.
At the same time, Paleostinian-American political activist Bishara Bahbah has continued to operate a backchannel between the US and Hamas leaders in Qatar, where he arrived on Monday.
Netanyahu’s decision to recall the senior negotiators was nevertheless met with fury by the families of the hostages, who accused the government of having "no real plan to return the last hostage," despite frequently stating that it is working to do so.
"A majority of the nation supports the return of all the hostages, even at the price of ending the war," the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said. "Only the return of everyone, in one stage, will allow a process of rehabilitation and renewal for the country and the army."
"Hamas will not be defeated without the return of the last hostage," it added. "Until then, there will be no victory, nor even the appearance of victory."
Expressing a similar distaste for a deal which would free some captives while others remain in Gaza, bigwigs in the defense establishment were said on Tuesday to have informed Netanyahu that they are not willing to compile a partial list of hostages for release.
According to Channel 12 news, high-ranking Mosssd ...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end... officials informed Mossad chief David Barnea that there was "no reasonable way" to create such a list, in which some living hostages would be freed while others remain behind for an unknown length of time, as all the captives are in equal need of being released.
In addition, a senior defense official was said to tell Netanyahu directly that they "will not compile a partial list."
"If it comes to that, I will give the data to Ron Dermer, let him decide, or let the prime minister decide," the official was said to have told the premier. "Or they’ll decide not to decide, and leave it to Hamas to determine the list."
"In any case, I made it clear that I will not be the one to decide who is released in a partial deal like this and who is not," the network quoted the official as saying.
The reported refusal to select which hostages will be freed and which will remain in Gaza differs from the latest ceasefire early this year, for which the list of those eligible for release was drawn up in the middle of 2024.
That list was based partly on information provided by the hostages’ families regarding their loved ones’ health conditions.
This time, however, Channel 12 cited a security bigshot as saying that they have asked "several times to convene a special discussion" to present decision-makers with available data on the hostages, but the request has not been accepted.
"They don’t want to," the official said. "They run away from it like fire. It’s clear to everyone that this is a highly explosive issue."
Netanyahu’s office denied the report and dismissed it as "another piece of fake news from an anonymous and irresponsible source on Channel 12."
"Prime Minister Netanyahu is fully and continuously updated on the condition of the hostages, according to the information available to Israel," the premier’s office added.
Terror groups in the Gaza Strip are holding 58 hostages, including 57 of the 251 kidnapped by Hamas-led bully boyz on October 7, 2023.
They include the bodies of at least 35 confirmed dead by the IDF, and 20 are believed to be alive. There are grave concerns for the well-being of three others, Israeli officials have said.
Hamas released 30 hostages — 20 Israeli civilians, five soldiers and five Thai nationals — and the bodies of eight slain Israeli captives during a ceasefire between January and March, and one additional hostage, a dual American-Israeli citizen, in May as a "gesture" to the United States.
The terror group freed 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November 2023, and four hostages were released before that in the early weeks of the war. In exchange, Israel has freed some 2,000 placed in durance vile Maw! They're comin' to get me, Maw! Paleostinian terrorists, security prisoners, and Gazook terror suspects detained during the war.
Eight hostages have been rescued from captivity by troops alive, and the bodies of 41 have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli military as they tried to escape their captors, and the body of a soldier who was killed in 2014.
The body of another soldier killed in 2014, Lt. Hadar Goldin, is still being held by Hamas, and is counted among the 58 hostages.
[IsraelTimes] UN says aid distributed through ‘existing systems’ though new US-Israeli mechanism set to begin in coming weeks; UN official claims 14,000 babies on verge of death in ’48 hours’
The United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... received permission from Israel for 93 more aid trucks to enter the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip on Tuesday, a spokesperson for its humanitarian office and Israeli authorities said, as international pressure mounted on the government to take immediate steps to alleviate the effects of an 11-week blockade that ended Monday.
Israel had blocked all aid from entering Gaza since March 2, arguing that sufficient humanitarian assistance had entered the Strip during a six-week ceasefire and that Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... was stealing aid, with the blockade necessary to pressure the terror group to release the dozens of hostages it is holding. In recent weeks, however, some officials in the IDF have begun warning the politicianship that the enclave was on the brink of starvation.
Five trucks of humanitarian aid, including baby food, entered the Gaza Strip Monday via the Kerem Shalom Crossing, Israel said, marking the first such delivery since the blockade began.
"We have requested and received approval for more trucks to enter today, many more than were approved yesterday," Jens Laerke, spokesperson for the UN humanitarian office told a Geneva press briefing on Tuesday.
Later Tuesday, the Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced that 93 UN trucks carrying humanitarian aid entered Gaza.
COGAT said the aid delivery came "following the recommendation of professional IDF officials and in accordance with the directive of the political echelon."
The trucks included "flour for bakeries, food for babies, medical equipment and pharmaceutical drugs," COGAT said. The aid underwent an inspection first by Israeli authorities before entering Gaza via the Kerem Shalom crossing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cleared nine aid trucks on Monday to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing, although just five of those actually entered the territory.
"The next step is to collect them, and then they will be distributed through the existing system, the one that has proven itself," said Laerke.
The "existing system" for aid distribution that Laerke referred to is based on several international organizations, including the UN World Food Programme and the World Central Kitchen, which have taken on the task of distribution for much of the 19-month-old war against Hamas in Gaza.
This system is in contrast to a new US- and Israel-backed mechanism, known as the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), which is set to begin operating later this month.
Through the GHF, aid will only be distributed from a small number of sites in southern Gaza that are secured by American contractors.
Aid organizations currently operating in Gaza have come out strongly against the GHF plan, arguing that it violates humanitarian principles, forces mass displacement of Paleostinians who aren’t currently living near the humanitarian zone, ignores vulnerable populations, and doesn’t adequately address the humanitarian crisis.
Members of the American company that will distribute aid in the Gaza Strip were photographed during media briefings in Israel armed and wearing bullet-proof vests.
According to a Tuesday report by the Ynet news outlet, the American GHF contractors, which it referred to as "elite combat veterans," have arrived in Israel and are undergoing training for their expected deployment in the Strip.
Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir slammed the large-scale resumption of aid trucks to the Strip on Tuesday, complaining that the aid is entering Gaza "while our hostages continue to be dragged through the tunnels" and that "there is no way to guarantee [that the supplies] will not end up in the hands of Hamas murderers."
"This is a serious mistake, which is delaying our victory. I call once again on the prime minister to explain to our friends in the White House the implications of this ’aid,’ which only prolongs the war and delays our victory and the return of all our hostages," he said.
Ben Gvir also condemned the decision to allow even five aid trucks to enter Gaza on Monday, asserting that "the prime minister is making a grave mistake with this move, which doesn’t even have a majority."
"We must crush Hamas and not simultaneously give it oxygen," Ben Gvir said in a statement, as other hawkish politicians and groups joined in pillorying the step.
HIGH COURT DEMANDS GOVERNMENT RESPOND TO AID PETITION
Also on Tuesday, the High Court of Justice told the government to respond by May 27 to a petition demanding the immediate facilitation of large supplies of humanitarian aid into the Gaza Strip.
The Israeli human rights One man's rights are another man's existential threat. group Gisha and others argued in a petition filed this week that the blockade of Gaza since March 2 constitutes a violation of the government’s obligations under Israeli and international law to enable the provision of humanitarian supplies to Gaza’s civilian population.
In response to the petition, Justice Yosef Elron asked the government to update it within a week whether "a change in factual circumstances justifies rejecting the petition."
In the petition filed on Sunday, the human rights groups asserted that the humanitarian situation in Gaza is the worst it has been since the beginning of the war, and pointed to a sharp increase in the cases of child malnutrition as recorded by humanitarian organizations working in Gaza between March and April.
It also pointed out that in the state’s response to a 2024 petition by Gisha on the same issue — which was ultimately dismissed by the court — the government did not deny it had an obligation to provide for the humanitarian needs of Gaza’s civilian population and the court affirmed this obligation in its decision, despite ruling against the motion.
Gisha asserted in its petition that the government’s decision to prohibit the entry of all aid into Gaza violated the orders of the International Court of Justice in the genocide case brought by South Africa.
The organization also pointed out that the Israeli ad hoc judge on the ICJ panel, Aharon Barak, voted in favor of that specific order, despite voting against most of the other court orders against Israel.
"The government’s decision [to block aid] is using a protected civilian population to exert pressure on Hamas and therefore amounts to prohibited collective punishment and even using starvation as a tool of war," alleged Gisha in its petition.
’14,000 BABIES COULD DIE IN NEXT 48 HOURS’ IF NO AID
A top UN official said Tuesday that some 14,000 babies in Gaza could die in the next 48 hours if aid does not reach them in time.
"I want to save as many as these 14,000 babies as we can in the next 48 hours," Tom Fletcher, the UN’s under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, told BBC Radio.
He said that "we need to flood the Gaza Strip with humanitarian aid."
When the program’s host, Anna Foster, said that 14,000 is "an extraordinary figure," Fletcher replied that it is an "utterly chilling" figure.
Asked how the UN arrived at these figures, Fletcher did not specify how the figure was calculated or what it was based on.
"We have strong teams on the ground, and of course many of them have been killed," he said.
He went on, "We still have lots of people on the ground — they’re at the medical centers, they’re at the schools... trying to assess needs."
"But this is what we do, we keep going. It will be frustrating, we will be impeded and run huge risks. But I don’t see a better idea than getting that baby food in," he said.
There was no immediate comment on his claims from the Israeli government or military.
The war in Gaza began with the Hamas-led October 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, in which Lions of Islam killed some 1,200 people and kidnapped 251, who were taken as hostages to Gaza. Since then, more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry. That toll includes hundreds of Gazooks killed in strikes since Israel initiated a fresh intensive operation on Friday.
The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 Lions of Islam inside the country during the October 7 onslaught.
[IsraelTimes] Military says more than 100 ‘terror targets’ hit, as Hamas health authorities report strikes on civilian infrastructure, including school-turned-shelter
Widespread Israeli strikes 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 killed at least 60 people overnight and into Tuesday afternoon, Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... -run health authorities said, as ground forces pressed forward with the first stages of the major "Gideon’s Chariots" offensive, through which Israel is seeking to "conquer" the war-torn Paleostinian enclave.
Paleostinian health authorities said a number of the strikes targeted civilian infrastructure, including a school-turned-shelter and several family homes.
The IDF, meanwhile, announced that in the past day, the air force had struck more than 100 "terror targets," including a weapons depot, observation posts and buildings used by terror groups — including one used by 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... for storing weapons.
According to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry, which does not differentiate between combatants and civilians, at least 22 people were killed on Tuesday when two strikes targeted a family home and a school sheltering displaced people in northern Gaza. It said that more than half of those killed were women and kiddies, although the figures could not be independently verified.
The IDF told AFP that it "struck a Hamas terrorist who was operating from within a command and control center" within the school complex.
In footage from Gaza City, men, women and kiddies could be seen sifting through the rubble of the Daraj neighborhood school where they had been sheltering, and where charred pieces of clothing and a red teddy bear lay among scattered belongings.
At the nearby al-Ahli Hospital, men performed prayers over bodies wrapped in white shrouds, before carrying them to their graves.
"What is our fault? What is the fault of children? What is the fault of the women we found on the stairs with their hair and clothes torn and burned?" said Omar Ahel, who had been sheltering at the school. "By God, this is injustice."
Elsewhere, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital said that a strike in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah killed 13 people, and another at a gas station in the nearby Nuseirat refugee camp killed 15.
Two strikes in the southern city of Khan Younis were said by Nasser Hospital to have killed 10 people. Outside the hospital, Younis Abu Sahloul said his brother, sister-in-law and their four children were killed in a strike that hit the displaced persons camp without prior warning.
A front man for Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said dozens more people had been maimed.
According to Israeli officials, the fresh offensive launched over the weekend will see the IDF "conquer" Gaza, raze the vast majority of buildings and retain the territory for the foreseeable future; attack Hamas and prevent it from taking control of humanitarian aid supplies; and move Paleostinians from the Strip’s north to its south.
Hamas official angers Gazooks with comments on toll
Even as Israel’s conduct in Gaza has been drawing increasing criticism from the international community, a senior Hamas official angered Gazook residents after dismissing the high corpse count as "material calculations," in a recent interview.
Speaking from Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... , where he is located, senior Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri ...a senior spokesman for Hamas. Zuhri gained notoriety in 2006 when he dropped his money belt containing somewhere between 640,000 and 900,000 euros, which was confiscated by Paleostinian security and customs officials at a routine border crossing from Egypt to Gaza. The news brought competing Hamas and Fatah forces to the crossing checkpoint for an epic face-making and hollering contest... claimed that the number of births in the Gaza Strip — around 50,000 since October 7, 2023, exceeded the number of casualties.
This, he said, demonstrated that the heavy losses did not reflect the broader picture of the conflict with Israel.
"The deaders [killed in the war] — the wombs of Gaza’s women will give birth to twice as many," he said. "This is the price that must be paid. If we thought in material terms, we would not be able to hold onto our land."
The interview originally aired as a podcast in late March, but resurfaced in recent days amid the intensified Israeli strikes, and prompted a wave of backlash from Gazook civilians, who considered the comments deeply disrespectful to the tens of thousands killed.
Many were quick to point out that Abu Zuhri does not reside in Gaza and, as such, is disconnected from the impact of the war.
"A man outside the Strip says that everyone who was killed can simply be replaced. This is someone deluded beyond reason — he’s not one of us," said one Gazook, in a recorded response.
The outrage also spilled out into the streets during an anti-Hamas demonstration in Khan Younis on Monday, where demonstrators could be heard chanting, "Oh Abu Zuhri, you disgrace, even the child wants to live."
More than 500 people have been killed by Israeli strikes in the past eight days, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry, which says more than 53,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the war so far.
The tolls cannot be verified and do not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas, including homes, hospitals, schools and mosques.
Israel says it has killed some 20,000 combatants in battle as of January, and another 1,600 turbans inside the country during the October 7, 2023, onslaught, when thousands of Hamas-led turbans killed some 1,200 people and took 251 hostages.
[IsraelTimes] US, Palestinian officials quash speculation that aid to Gaza stemmed from US deal with Hamas; Huckabee says report that Trump will ‘abandon’ Israel if war continues is ‘nonsense’
The White House stressed Monday that US President Donald Trump ...His ancestors didn't own any slaves... wants 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... to end, as American officials denied reports that Washington was threatening to "abandon" Israel if it didn’t follow suit.
Trump "has made it very clear he wants to see this conflict in the region end," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in response to a question during a briefing about whether Washington supports Netanyahu’s comments from earlier in the day that Israel will take over all of Gaza as it massively expands its military campaign in the Strip.
"The president is moving as quickly as he possibly can and working overtime to end these conflicts in both Israel and Gaza and also the Russia-Ukraine war," Leavitt added. "The president made it very clear to Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... that he wanted to see all hostages released."
Netanyahu does appear to be responding to the mounting US desire to end the war, saying Monday that he’d be willing to end the conflict "if the remaining hostages are released, Hamas lays down its arms, its murderous leaders are exiled and Gaza is demilitarized."
But Hamas has said it will only release the hostages if Israel fully withdraws from Gaza — something Netanyahu has said won’t happen, insisting that the IDF will control the Strip for the foreseeable future.
Separately Monday, The Washington Post published a report citing an an unnamed source, who claimed the Trump administration would abandon Israel if it kept the war going in Gaza.
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee dismissed the claim, telling the Ynet news site, "Their reporting is nonsense. They need to listen to what the President says — not what some uninformed ’source’ pretends to know."
A senior US official chimed in, telling The Times of Israel that while there may be disagreements between the Trump administration and Israel, "the idea that we would abandon Israel is preposterous."
The official also denied reports in American and Israeli press that Israel’s agreement to allow a small amount of aid into Gaza on Monday after a 78-day blockade was part of a secret deal with Hamas that saw the terror group release American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander last week.
"This was a goodwill gesture. The release was unconditional," the US official told The Times of Israel.
Hamas did hope that the move would lead to the US coaxing Israel to end the war and allow aid into Gaza, but that was not a condition of his release, according to the Paleostinian official.
Also on Monday, the Axios news site reported that US Vice President JD Vance considered traveling to Israel this week but ultimately decided against it in order to avoid signaling Washington’s approval of Israel’s expanding military operation in Gaza.
Vance later insisted, though, that the decision not to make the trip had to do with logistics, not politics.
#1
Trump had better not, Or AIPAC will primary every Republican in Congress.
Just like they did AOC.
Threats to the existence of Israel will not be tolerated.
[IsraelTimes] Ayatollah says American negotiators should ‘refrain from speaking nonsense’ after Witkoff says Tehran will not be allowed to enrich uranium
Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei ...the very aged actual dictator of Iran, successor to Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini...> said Tuesday that nuclear talks with the United States were unlikely to yield any results, amid a diplomatic standoff over the Islamic Theocratic Republic’s enrichment activities.
"We don’t think it will lead to any outcome. We don’t know what will happen," said Khamenei during a speech, adding that denying Iran’s right to enrich uranium was "a big mistake."
Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and the United States have held four rounds of Omani-mediated nuclear talks since April 12, the highest-level contact between the two foes since Washington abandoned the 2015 nuclear accord.
They had confirmed plans to hold another round of discussions during their last meeting on May 11, which Iran described as "difficult but useful," while a US official said Washington was "encouraged."
Iran currently enriches uranium to 60 percent, far above the 3.67% limit set in the 2015 deal and a technical step away from the 90% needed for a nuclear warhead. Western countries, including the United States and Israel, have long accused Iran of seeking to acquire atomic weapons, while Iran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Iran has repeatedly insisted its right to maintain uranium enrichment was "nonnegotiable," while chief US negotiator Steve Witkoff has called it a "red line."
On Sunday, Witkoff reiterated that the United States "cannot allow even one percent of an enrichment capability."
Khamenei said Tuesday that "the American side involved in these indirect negotiations should refrain from speaking nonsense."
Earlier, Iran’s Foreign Minister and lead negotiator Abbas Araghchi said "enrichment in Iran, however, will continue with or without a deal."
"If the US is interested in ensuring that Iran will not have nuclear weapons, a deal is within reach, and we are ready for a serious conversation to achieve a solution that will forever ensure that outcome," he wrote in a post on X.
Iranian diplomats have said Tehran would be open to temporary restrictions on how much uranium it enriches and to what level.
Since returning to office in January, US President Donald Trump ...They hit him with slander, they impeached him twice. Nancy Pelosi tore up his State of the Union address on national TV. They stole an election and put his adherents in jail. They vilified him. They couldn't crucify him, so they shot him. Still, they can't keep him down... has revived his "maximum pressure" approach against Iran. While backing nuclear diplomacy, he also warned of potential military action if it fails.
Trump has said he presented Iran’s leadership with an "olive branch," adding that it was an offer that would not last forever. He further threatened to impose "massive maximum pressure," including driving Iranian oil exports to zero if talks failed.
Trump later doubled down on his warning, saying that "something bad is going to happen" unless the Iranians "move quickly" toward a deal.
Iranian officials, however, criticized what they described as "contradictory" positions by US officials along with the continued imposition of sanctions targeting Iran’s oil industry and nuclear program despite the talks.
On Sunday, Araghchi said Iran has been observing "dissonance... between what our US interlocutors say in public and in private."
On Friday, Iran held parallel talks with the Britannia, La Belle France, and Germany — all parties to the 2015 deal. They are currently weighing the reimposition of UN sanctions in response to Iranian non-compliance. The option to trigger the sanctions mechanism expires in October.
Araghchi said Iran was willing to "begin a new chapter" with Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and urged it to play a role in the nuclear negotiations.
[IsraelTimes] Authorities have reported a growing number of Iranian-directed spy plots inside Israel, often carried out by citizens in exchange for small sums of money
Authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of two Israeli citizens suspected of conducting intelligence-gathering missions on behalf of 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... in the town of Kfar Ahim — where Defense Minister Israel Katz resides — in what officials say is the most recent case in a widening Iranian espionage campaign inside Israel.
In response, Katz thanked security services for "foiling an Iranian plot to harm me as defense minister of the State of Israel."
Roy Mizrahi and Almog Atias, both 24 and residents of Nesher near Haifa, were detained in late April following a joint investigation by the Shin Bet and the Israel Police’s Lahav 433 major crimes unit.
According to reports, they were recruited in a Telegram group for swingers.
Officials say Mizrahi maintained contact with Iranian operatives throughout 2025 and carried out a series of security-related missions — some alongside Atias — fully aware they were acting under Iranian direction.
One mission included transferring a bag that was buried in the ground, believed to contain an bomb, from one location to another at the instruction of Iranian handlers.
Mizrahi reportedly used a newly acquired phone and an encrypted messaging app to maintain covert communication with his contacts.
The Central District Attorney’s Office is expected to file serious indictments against the two in the coming days.
"This case joins a series of recent incidents that point to persistent efforts by hostile terrorist and intelligence entities to recruit Israeli citizens to carry out missions intended to harm the security of the State of Israel and its citizens," a security official said.
Earlier this week, 18-year-old Moshe Attias of Yavne was charged with spying on former prime minister Naftali Bennett while the latter was hospitalized.
Attias allegedly filmed the cardiology department at Kfar Saba’s Meir Medical Center, documenting the area where Bennett was being treated, and carried out additional missions at the behest of Iranian operatives.
Additionally, in January, authorities said they arrested two IDF reservists — Yuri Eliasfov and Georgi Andreyev, both 21 — for allegedly passing sensitive material about the Iron Dome missile defense system to Iran in exchange for payments as small as $50.
Those cases are the most recent in a two-year trend of Iranian intelligence operatives ramping up efforts to recruit ordinary Israelis as spies in exchange for money.
Last December, police arrested nearly 30 Israelis, mostly Jewish citizens, for espionage activities on behalf of Iran.
In most of those cases, the suspects began by carrying out small, innocuous tasks that gradually grew into more serious offenses, like intelligence gathering and liquidation plots.
Authorities have repeatedly urged Israelis to avoid any contact with foreign operatives and warned of severe legal consequences for those who cooperate with hostile intelligence services.
[ShabelleMedia] Heavy fighting ... as opposed to the more usual name-calling or slapsy... looms in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region as government troops, backed by armored vehicles and bigwigs, pour into the area in a renewed offensive against the murderous Moslem group al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... President of Hirshabelle State, Ali Gudlawe, accompanied by former regional officials, including ex-governor Ahmed Mayre Makaraan and political figure Ahmed Faal, arrived at the frontlines to oversee and support ongoing military operations.
The offensive, which extends into areas bordering the Hiraan region, aims to dislodge al-Shabaab fighters from key territories they recently infiltrated. Military convoys and reinforcements continue to stream into the region as the government intensifies efforts to regain control.
"The situation is escalating rapidly," a regional security source told Radio Shabelle, requesting anonymity due to the sensitivity of the operation. "This is one of the largest troop movements we’ve seen in Middle Shabelle in months."
In a morale-boosting address, former governor Makaraan urged the troops to set aside local grievances and unite against a common enemy. "Our unity is the strongest weapon we have against al-Shabaab," he said during a briefing at the frontline.
The campaign is part of a broader national effort, supported by the Somali federal government, to weaken al-Shabaab’s hold in central Somalia. The group has maintained a persistent insurgency for over a decade, launching attacks on government forces and civilians.
No official casualty figures have been released, and the government has yet to announce territorial gains from the current operation. However,
those who apply themselves too closely to little things often become incapable of great things... local residents report hearing heavy gunfire and seeing military aircraft in the skies over several contested villages.
As operations continue, authorities warn of a protracted fight ahead but remain optimistic about eventual success in clearing al-Shabaab from the region.
[ShabelleMedia] Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... regional forces have launched a major military operation targeting ISIS turbans hiding in the rugged Cal-Miskaad mountain range in northeastern Somalia, officials said on Tuesday.
The offensive, described as intense and ongoing, aims to dislodge the group from strategic positions it has used for years as a base of operations. Security sources report that Puntland forces have already regained control of several key areas previously held by the bad boys.
Among those killed in the recent fighting is Ahmed Muse Said, a senior ISIS figure responsible for coordinating the arrival of imported muscle into Somalia, according to local officials.
"The operation is still underway and is focused on eliminating ISIS presence in the remote mountainous areas where they continue to hide," said Abdifatah Abdinuur, Minister of State at the Puntland Presidency. "We are making significant progress and will not stop until they are fully defeated."
Puntland has been engaged in a sustained campaign against ISIS elements operating in the region, particularly in Bari province. While the group remains significantly smaller than al-Shabaab ... the personification of Somali state failure... , it has continued to pose a threat through ambushes and assassinations.
The Puntland Defense Forces have steadily advanced in recent days, pushing ISIS fighters further into retreat. Officials say the group has lost several of its key hideouts and is on the defensive.
The offensive marks the latest phase in Puntland’s broader security effort to ensure stability in the region and dismantle holy warrior networks.
[Garowe] Ahmed Muse Said, the ISIS militants coordinator killed in Cal-Miskaad mountains, Tuesday, was a well-connected individual who was also well-travelled across the world, thus his links with several foreign fighters in Puntland state.
When Operation Lightning started late last year, Puntland forces, along with foreign military teams, established that most of the fighters are 'imported' from foreign countries, with their passports recovered in various caves which have been seized.
And multiple sources revealed that Said, who was killed last week, frequently travelled abroad - to Ethiopia, Oman and the UAE. The three countries have close ties with Puntland, with the United Arab Emirates providing aerial surveillance throughout the campaign against ISIS.
Brigadier General Ahmed Abdullahi Sheikh, the commander of Operation Lightning, termed him a 'high-value individual (HVI)' while confirming his identity. He was one of the most sought-after terrorists.
"This operation underscores the unwavering commitment to combating terrorism and ensuring regional security. The successful elimination of this key figure represents a substantial blow to Daesh's operational capabilities and its ability to conduct destabilising activities," General Sheikh said.
"We commend the exceptional professionalism, dedication, and precision demonstrated by all personnel involved in the critical mission. Their efforts are a testament to the resolve in the face of terrorist threats," he added.
He said no further details of the time, date, or specific aspects of the operation will be disclosed at this time. The connection with foreign countries, specifically, could worry Puntland, which closely works with Somalia’s international partners.
Officials are keen to unearth his links to the UAE, Oman and Ethiopia, which could aid in the fight against ISIS militants. In southern regions, the federal government of Somalia, which has not come out clearly to support Puntland’s stance against ISIS, is tackling Al-Shabaab militants.
#4
So. African Pres Cyril Ramaphosa got his State visit with POTUS Trump today. Didn't go as he planned. Slide show of teh Black politicians yelling "Kill the Boers", white crosses of farm dead. NBC news was disgraceful, as usual. On now.
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2025 13:05
Comments ||
Top||
#5
Omg. HAPPENING NOW: Trump is making the South African president watch the video of black South Africans calling for the genocide of white farmers. He had a tv brought in. Turned down the lights and played the video 😮😮😮😮😮 pic.twitter.com/NCeAZjp9e7
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Donald Trump has unveiled his plans for a $175 billion 'Golden Dome' defence system which he says will protect the US from the world's most powerful weapons - provoking fury from China and Russia amid fears it will trigger a global arms race.
Such a defence programme is 'long overdue' and 'absolutely necessary' amid growing threats from China, North Korea and Russia, experts have said in response to Tuesday's announcement.
Moscow and Beijing have both put offensive weapons in space, such as satellites with abilities to disable critical US satellites, which can make America vulnerable to attack.
Beijing has warned that the plan to put US weapons into the earth's orbit for the first time 'heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race, and undermines international security.'
Meanwhile Moscow has called for Washington to make contact regarding the programme. Trump said on Tuesday that he had not yet spoken to Vladimir Putin regarding the programme, but would do so 'at the right time'.
Following talks between the allies earlier this month, Beijing and Moscow released a joint statement condemning Washington's plans as being 'deeply destabilising' and turning space into 'an arena for armed confrontation.'
The plan is necessary, according to the US Defence Intelligence Agency, because missile threats from America's adversaries will not only 'expand in scale and sophistication in the coming decade' but already exist.
An unclassified DIA report released this month stated that China and Russia 'are developing an array of novel delivery systems,' to exploit gaps in US defences, while traditional ballistic missiles are expected to remain the primary threat to American soil.
North Korea has successfully tested such missiles with sufficient range to reach any part of the US, the DIA stated, while Iran will likely be able to launch ICBMs within the next decade.
Trump declared on Tuesday that the establishment of the Golden Dome would provide 'close to 100 percent protection' of the US and is 'very important for the success and even survival of our country.'
He said it would be delivered within two and a half to three years - before the end of his presidential term.
'I'm pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state-of-the-art system that will deploy next-generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors,' Trump said.
'Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world, and even if they're launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built.'
Trump issued an executive order on January 27 instructing defence secretary Pete Hegseth to make the plan a reality.
While limited details were made available on how the architecture of the ambitious system will work - with hypersonic interceptors not expected to be delivered until the mid-2030s - Hegseth said they would draw on existing technologies and build it up over the coming years.
He said that some technology such as space-based sensors and air and missile defense already exist, but added that all systems comprising the Golden Dome would 'need to be seamlessly integrated' in order for it to work.
'Golden Dome will be fielded in phases, prioritising defense where the threat is greatest,' he added.
He promised that the completed system will protect the US from 'cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear.'
It comes as the US Air Force on launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic as part of tests at the Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, early on Wednesday.
'This ICBM test launch underscores the strength of the nation's nuclear deterrent and the readiness of the ICBM leg of the triad,' said Gen. Thomas Bussiere, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command.
#2
Beijing has warned that the plan to put US weapons into the earth's orbit for the first time 'heightens the risk of space becoming a battlefield, fuels an arms race, and undermines international security.'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] French President Emmanuel Macron's political party has announced that it wants to ban minors under 15 from wearing the Muslim headscarf in public.
It comes as his government held a security meeting on Wednesday to discuss the spread of 'political Islamism' in France.
The meeting, which included the head of government and key ministers, addressed a report which sounds the alarm about the Muslim Brotherhood and the rising influence of the Islamist movement - which it said poses 'a threat to national cohesion' in France.
After the meeting, the Elysee Palace said measures will be taken, 'some of which will be announced' while others will remain classified.
The report into the movement, which was founded in Egypt in 1928, was commissioned by the government and prepared by two senior civil servants.
It 'clearly establishes the anti-republican and subversive nature of the Muslim Brotherhood' and 'proposes ways to address this threat', said the Elysee Palace.
It comes as Macron's Renaissance party said it would forbid 'minors under 15 from wearing the veil in public spaces,' phrasing that generally means places outside the home like the street, cafes, parks and stores.
It added the hijab 'seriously undermines gender equality and the protection of children'.
The party, led by former prime minister Gabriel Attal, also wants to introduce a 'criminal offence for coercion against parents who force their underage daughters to wear the veil'.
Renaissance is a minority force in the French parliament and works in a minority government alongside a traditional right-wing party.
Critics see the headscarf worn by some Muslim women as a symbol of creeping Islamisation after deadly jihadist attacks in France, while others say they are just practising their religion and should wear what they want.
Jordan Bardella, leader of France's far-right National Rally (RN), accused Attal of making a 'U-turn' on the issue, sharing a video on his social media from a 2022 debate in which the former prime minister warned against the potential persecution of veiled women under a Marine Le Pen presidency.
During her unsuccessful 2022 presidential campaign, Le Pen had evoked banning the wearing of the hijab by everyone in all public spaces in France.
Under current French legislation, civil servants, teachers and pupils cannot wear any obvious religious symbols such as a Christian cross, Jewish kippa, Sikh turban or Muslim hijab in government buildings, which includes public schools.
The government is also pushing for a new law to ban the headscarf in domestic sports competitions, a move critics of the law argue would be just the latest rule discriminating against visibly Muslim women.
Responding to the news and the new government report, critics have condemned what they call the rise of Islamophobia in France.
'Islamophobia has crossed a line,' hard-left firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon said on X.
He accused the Defence Council meeting chaired by Macron of endorsing 'the delusional theories' of Le Pen and France's hardline Interior Minister, Bruno Retailleau
France's authorities are eager to prevent any spread of extremist Islamist ideas in a country that has been rocked by a string of deadly jihadist attacks.
Religious radicalisation has become a hot-button issue as the far-right is becoming increasingly popular in France, with the new government report sparking heated reactions.
Le Pen accused the government of inaction, saying on X that she has long proposed measures to 'eradicate Islamist fundamentalism'.
Bardella meanwhile said on France Inter radio: 'If we come to power tomorrow, we will ban the Muslim Brotherhood.'
The report, a copy of which was obtained by AFP, pointed to the spread of Islamism 'from the bottom up', adding the phenomenon constituted 'a threat in the short to medium term'.
At the same time, the presidency stressed, 'we are all perfectly aligned in saying that we must not lump all Muslims together'.
'We are fighting against Islamism and its radical excesses.'
The report zeroed in on the role of Muslims of France (Musulmans de France), which it identified as 'the national branch of the Muslim Brotherhood in France.'
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Two people have been killed and two police officers have been injured in a mass stabbing incident in the Netherlands.
A police officer was among the victims, and at least one person is said to still be in a very serious condition.
Emergency services were called to the scene in Hoofddorp, the main town in Haarlemmermeer, in northern Holland, early this morning.
Police said in a statement they received a report of a stabbing incident at Fanny Blankers-Koenlaan at around 6am local time (4am GMT).
'There are multiple victims, including a colleague. Multiple ambulances and the MMT are on site,' Politie Eenheid Noord-Holland said in a statement.
Local media reported that the injured officer has been taken to hospital, with one police car 'smeared with blood'.
It was not immediately clear what caused the incident. Police are currently investigating and have closed off the street.
Fanny Blankers-Koenlaan is a group home residential facility for people with a mild or moderate intellectual disability.
At least 50/50 odds a Moslem colonist is involved. The other side is a refugee/illegal migrant, with a small percentage going to a domestic nutter.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are still having trouble staying awake through their overnight sessions negotiating President Donald Trump's 'big beautiful bill.'
In the middle of a session that spanned into the early hours of Wednesday morning, it was 71-year-old Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.) who was caught on camera dozing off this time.
Making Congressional work hard work again, which will encourage those who no longer have the drive and energy choose to make way for young MAGA Republicans eager to enact the agenda. Brilliant.
The 1:00 a.m. vote on the multi-trillion-dollar bill includes $4.5 trillion in tax cuts, but is widely criticized by Democrats for gutting social programs like Medicaid and food assistance.
Critics claim that Republicans are being bullied by Trump into holding the vote that's forced members of Congress to stay in session overnight on more than one occasion.
No doubt. And right he is to do so, if they won’t on their own.
Rep. Teresa Leger Fernández (D-N.M.) tore into Norman in an X post exposing him for falling asleep around 2:15 a.m. during the consequential session.
Of course he did. Note should be taken of those judges blocking MAGA initiatives at all levels, with a view to replacing them or something.
[FoxNews] The law was passed over a year ago but was delayed due to a legal challenge by the Biden Justice Department
A federal judge in Oklahoma has put a two-week hold on a 2024 state law coming into force that criminalizes illegal immigrants living in the state, a decision that was welcomed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) but drew a strong rebuke from the state’s attorney general, who blasted the decision as "outrageous."
Federal District Judge Bernard Jones on Tuesday ruled that House Bill 4156 may not be enforced for at least 14 days while a court challenge proceeds.
The law creates the crime of "impermissible occupation" and empowers state and local law enforcement officers to arrest immigrants suspected of being in the U.S. illegally.
A first offense under the law is a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail and a fine of $500, and a second offense is a felony that could result in up to two years in prison. The law also requires a person to leave the state within 72 hours of conviction or release from custody.
The bill was signed into law in April 2024 but was held up from taking force due to a lawsuit filed by the Biden administration challenging its constitutionality in that it violates the federal government’s immigration authority, which led to a pause in enforcement.
However, the new Trump Justice Department decided to drop the federal government’s case in March.
That led to two unnamed undocumented immigrants and the ACLU representing a local advocacy group filing a new lawsuit, which prompted Jones to issue another temporary injunction on Tuesday.
Jones said that their case is likely to succeed in court, adding that he will consider a longer-term injunction of the law after a court hearing in early June.
Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond blasted the delayed enforcement, writing on X that "it is outrageous that Oklahoma is once again prohibited from enforcement of HB 4156."
He said it was critical to the state’s efforts to shut down illegal marijuana grows, fentanyl distribution and other illegal activities.
Drummond also blasted the judge for allowing the case to proceed despite two of the plaintiffs being anonymous because to reveal their identities would "expos(e) them to federal authorities" for federal lawbreaking, he said, quoting the judge.
"In the name of federal law, the court is protecting admitted lawbreakers from federal and state consequences," Drummond said in a statement. "This is perverse, contrary to the rule of law and we will be evaluating all options for challenging the ruling."
Tamya Cox-Touré, the executive director for the ACLU of Oklahoma, said the decision was a victory for immigrants' rights.
"But the damage of HB 4156 and the national rhetoric repeated by local politicians has already created an environment of fear in our state," Cox-Touré said. No matter what someone looks like, sounds like, or what their immigration status may be, they should feel safe in their own communities. We will continue to fight for the rights and dignity of immigrants and their families."
[FoxNews] Army pledges to prioritize drone capabilities, AI-driven systems and combat readiness over 'parochial interests'
Since becoming secretary, I have been alarmed to find that our Army is at risk of falling behind other major powers across the globe, including China. Why? For decades, antiquated processes and bureaucratic bloat shackled our innovation and modernization efforts. If we continue business as usual our national security will be at risk.
The gap between the Army we have and the Army we need is growing fast. Our soldiers are innovative, resourceful and capable – they are our nation’s best. But they are being held back by lobbyists and complacent stakeholders who prioritized parochial interests over our soldiers’ lethality and readiness.
No lobbyist ever took a hill. No lobbyist ever won a war. Our soldiers deserve better. And our nation deserves better. That’s why Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth recently directed the Army to accelerate change.
We got to work immediately.
The Army Transformation Initiative (ATI) is how we break free from entrenched government bureaucracy, enable our soldiers and outpace our adversaries.
This is the way forward:
1. Get battle-winning gear to the front lines
Our soldiers must out-survive and outfight the enemy on the battlefield. Today, they need drone and counter-drone capabilities, AI-driven decision-making and lethal, battle-ready tanks and attack aircraft. We have been slow to put these tools in our soldiers’ hands, not for lack of vision, but because of outdated acquisitions practices. That ends now. Our mission is clear: cut red tape so we can quickly equip troops with the best capabilities available.
2. Out-innovate the enemy
We will channel America’s bold and innovative spirit, not just in words, but in action. We will fuel market competition, back industry-led research and development, and streamline the process by placing users, testers and developers shoulder-to-shoulder in the field. We will embrace change and fight system inertia, keeping us agile, lethal and one step ahead of our enemies.
3. Unloading what we don’t need
For far too long, our hands have been tied by parochial interests propped up by swarms of lobbyists. We have been forced to buy gear that we no longer want or need. With ATI, we’ll ensure that we use American taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars effectively. If a capability no longer benefits our soldiers and does not make our Army more lethal, we will not buy it.
4. Efficiency over bureaucracy
We are transforming the Army from the ground up, not just upgrading our processes and equipment. We are building an organization that will drive process improvements, leading to better products and better outcomes for soldiers. As a start, we will consolidate organizations within the Army to eliminate redundancies and reduce bureaucratic overhead.
5. Getting soldiers out from behind desks
We will refocus resources on our fighting formations by cutting overhead, starting within the Army headquarters. We will get our soldiers back where they belong: training to dominate the battlefield and win wars.
Our soldiers and the American people deserve an Army that is equipped to fight and win anywhere, anytime, against any adversary. Under the leadership of President Trump and Secretary Hegseth, that’s exactly what the Army Transformation Initiative will deliver.
Make it so. They’re having issues over on the watery side of the Service:
Trump’s shipbuilding agenda is sinking.
I returned this week from shipyard tours in California to a flood of calls and DMs from DC and none of the news is good.
Friday marks 45 days since the president signed the Executive Order mandating a full shipbuilding review in 45 days.… pic.twitter.com/UAt84Zz0gx
…in 45 days. So far, only one Cabinet Secretary has shown any urgency, and only in the past few days.
I pray I’m missing something, but sources inside every relevant department say otherwise. There’s no indication
@SecDuffy
,
@KristiNoem
, or
@SecDef
are prioritizing this effort.
Reports from inside DOT are disturbing: they’re 20 years behind on their mandated shipyard survey to Congress. DOT should be the lead agency on this—but they’re failing.
Trump’s pick to lead
@DOTMARAD
—known for shaking things up had his nomination pulled by Duffy days before confirmation. No explanation, but rumors swirl about ties to Project 2025 and the anti-Jones Act Heritage Foundation.
The replacement is a strong candidate on paper, but shipbuilding is his weak spot and he has deep ties to
@Maersk
, which prioritizes Chinese shipyards.
No Deputy Administrator at MARAD has been named. DOT also hasn’t filled the critical Assistant Secretary role for policy and planning.
The acting head of MARAD is a West Point classmate of Mark Esper—yes, the same Esper who helped auction off the Army’s watercraft fleet. Sources claim he’s undermining both Trump’s and Esper’s maritime goals.
Lobbyists hold major sway at MARAD, making the General Counsel role crucial. A well-known, pro-Trump maritime executive with a stellar résumé applied, he was sidelined by Duffy. Instead, a woman with zero shipbuilding experience was installed this week. Initial reports about her are terrible.
Several of the most capable Trump loyalists at MARAD who held the line during the Buttigieg years have resigned in frustration.
On the Navy side, there’s no serious effort underway to reorganize the 83,000-person shipbuilding & repair enterprise. The critical SUPSHIP AGM role is still up in the air.
No admirals have been fired. No CNO appointed. The acting CNO is offering nothing but bureaucratic word salad.
The Secretary of the Navy remains verbally committed but no action plan has been released. Sources say he’s overwhelmed with internal crises & not getting enough support from the admirals and SES
Not one admiral has publicly endorsed shipbuilding as a national priority.
At USCG, a culling of admirals is underway & DHS is quietly investigating but the rot runs deeper than expected. Until that’s fixed, real shipbuilding effort is impossible.
Meanwhile, the individual making the most shipbuilding waves in DC? A former Obama donor who runs a CIA-linked registry exposed by
@DataRepublican
.
Trump promised a dedicated shipbuilding office during his state of the union speech. This idea was nixed along with shipbuilding desks at OMB, NEC, and a new White House office. Instead, Waltz expanded his NSC maritime team but progress stalled as Waltz fell out of favor. A leaked memo lists staffers to be purged this week & two of them work on maritime.
Interim Director Rubio has barely been seen or heard from at NSC. Nothing’s moving.
At State, the maritime team is small, and slow.
No one with real, hands-on experience building commercial ships at world-class yards has been hired.
Finally, after a promising bipartisan start, several top maritime leaders are breaking ranks publicly voicing concern about last-minute changes made to the bill and there are rumors that Mark Kelly’s strong anti-Trump rhetoric could sink the effort.
The clock is ticking. We started drifting without power when the dedicated WH shipbuilding office idea was nixed then lights went out Duffy pulled the nomination for MARAD. Now the ship is taking on water.
Silver lining? Trump & JD are, by all accounts, more interested in shipbuilding lately, not less. They just seem to be too trusting that Hegseth, Duffy and Noem are following commander’s intent.
#2
McCrystal, you uncultured swine, martial arts is not just a physical ability but also a mind set. A mind set you don't get by playing candy crush in between diabetes shots and DEI streaming videos.
Even the Starship Troopers movie, intended to be a parody of the book, acknowledges this.
#3
Time to weed out the careerists and really start holding people accountable. F* the staff report, it is not a substitute for making the hard decisions. If you don't want to make the decision, retire. Keep your f*ing fingers out of the process. Build for today not waiting for something that may or may not come along in time. If you can not settle the designs, fire those who are delaying it.
Since becoming secretary, I have been alarmed to find that our Army is at risk of falling behind other major powers across the globe, including China
No you are not falling behind other 'major' powers. All those other powers are regional. They don't project far from their borders. The Chinese are salivating over Taiwan not Alaska. The Russians are tied up in the Ukraine. The Euros are lame unless Putin's on their border. The Iranians need to keep their reliable Revolutionary Guards at home to keep the population in awe.
[Federalist] With The Affirmative Action Myth: Why Blacks Don’t Need Racial Preferences to Succeed, Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley has written another clear-eyed analysis of affirmative action policies. This latest book serves as a follow-up to Riley’s 2014 title, Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed, and both are lucid, well-written arguments from a black perspective against special considerations.
Much has happened in the intervening ten-plus years since Please Stop Helping Us — particularly the emergence of critical race theory and the host of pseudo-intellectuals promoting it, such as Ibram X. Kendi, Robin DiAngelo, and Nikole Hannah-Jones. Riley quickly debunks these people and the projects they promoted, including the 1619 Project, the campaign for reparations, and the dubious research regarding "redlining," upon which arguments for reparations are based. Black home ownership between 1940 and 1980, like many measures of advancement, rose at a greater pace than it did for whites.
Indeed, the postwar period saw "black upward mobility" — even amidst "laws, policies, and customs that openly discriminated against blacks." As an illustration, Riley refers to the popular 2016 movie Hidden Figures, based on the book by Margot Lee Shetterly about three black female mathematicians working for NASA in the 1950s and 1960s. Shetterly’s "sketches of black America in the early and middle decades of the twentieth century," Riley writes, "may surprise readers in the twenty-first century who have come to associate black communities with crime, violence, underperforming schools, empty lots, solo parenting, and high levels of unemployment."
#1
In the late 60's & early 70's years I saw A-A put in place in several places.
The problem I saw, even as a teen, was how to hire the productive ones willing to actually do the job, vs those milking the untouchable A-A hired that did little or nothing.
Many employers took to hiring former military who had multiple enlistments, to resolve that.
Face it, this ain't the 60's. A-A isn't needed in the same way it was. Now we have lawyers and race pimps always there running their mouth to rake in $$$$$.
[MAIL] Millions of women taking the combined contraceptive pill are at an increased risk of suffering a sudden, unexplained stroke, worrying research suggests.
Researchers, who analysed data from over 500 women, found those who used a combined oral contraceptive—better known as The Pill—were three times more likely to suffer a stroke than those who didn't.
This was despite researchers finding no significant link between The Pill and known risk stroke factors such as high blood pressure, migraines and obesity, suggesting it was the drug itself that was somehow responsible.
[BPN via ZERO] Sriram Krishnan, Senior White House Policy Advisor on Artificial Intelligence, joined the Monday edition of TBPN to explain why the U.S.-UAE AI Partnership is a strategic victory for the United States in its race to lead AI development against China, a perspective largely (and unsurprisingly) overlooked by mainstream media.
[Whatafinger] Dan Bongino now is either corrupted or has his head up his rear. They got to him? Awaken with JP covers it. Alex Jones too in second vid at this link — BAM (Almost all respect is now gone for Bongino, Kash.... Let’s hope they prove us all wrong)
Epstein did not kill himself.
They got threatened by higher powers and people on the inside, there is no way. No way they don’t know by now.
You can see when kash and bongino were lying. Kash gets all cross-eyed, and Bongino blinks like crazy.
Dan and Kash clearly have seen how scary the corruption is.
Unless some brave soul who knows everything risks theor life to spill the beans this is the end of the saga.
That interview TANKED their reputation and credibility.
Anything they do or say can’t EVER be believed nor trusted again
Kash is saying what he was told to say. Two guards asleep and camera tampered with are not coincidence. Three things are NEVER coincidence.
Let’s just be real, were never going to get the truth about 90% of what goes on, no matter who’s in charge.
Bongino better stay the deputy director or just retire. His career as a commentator is OVER. His success hinged on his trustworthiness... and that’s gone with this.
Very weird what Patel and Bongino did. They did look coerced, which I find hard to believe that anyone could do that to them. It’s a bit of a mystery right now what is going on.
#4
They were put in place to restore justice by either putting untouchable people in jail or by making processes transparent. They have done nether in this case. Whatever files they have seen, we need to see. Epstein can no longer be charged. There is no active investigation. Don’t ask us to trust. We no longer trust. Restoring trust requires transparency.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/21/2025 6:47
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#5
It IS transparent.
We can't see the Jeffrey Epstein files!
Is English your second language?
Promises made, promises kept.
Even if the files are totally fictitious? At this point I don't believe any such information disclosed or not. I do believe that by now a massive coverup, deletion and distortion campaign has rendered "transparency" impossible.
#7
I wanna know what those sleepy prison guards are up to these days. How did things turn out for them? Are they security guards at a strip mall in Buffalo or living large in Florida?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/21/2025 12:25
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#8
Or did they get whacked because they knew too much?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/21/2025 12:26
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Top||
#9
If I had to guess, they were directly ordered to say what they did, by the highest authority in the land, because it was clear that the rot that would be revealed was so deep through-out government and industry, so wide-spread and damaging, and the impact on the intelligence connections to Mossad and other allies so great, even government stability would be in doubt.
PDJT is working miracles in turning around so much of the momentum of our national character and truly represents an existential savior for the American experiment. I think it is therefore a sense that this will fester, but it can be treated later if more progress in our national recovery can be accomplished. No other argument makes any sense, as I honestly believe both of them are men of integrity and nothing else would convince them to do this.
#10
Epstein may be one of many, to reveal clients allows someone to link them to other "parties" which would then be exploited or could expose a much larger operation.
The client list has far greater value as leverage than as a legal tool of justice.
Like Cartels, Epstein gives a snapshot into the real deep state. The nebulous world where individual, family, criminal and corporate wealth, power and influence align with accountable federal agencies for a mutual benefit, and a snapshot is all they will allow.
To consider is also that Kash and Bongino were set up to fall, be discredited, by someone. possibly the "deep state" allowed them to pass through congress calculating with high probability they would be thrown under the bus. Epstein was a long play game, chess not checkers, decades not 4 years and now the info is as well.
[ZERO] From Portland to Washington, D.C., and across Europe, the far-left extremist movement known as Antifa has unleashed years of orchestrated chaos driven by a radical, anti-capitalist agenda aimed at destabilizing the West. Now, for the first time, explosive undercover footage reveals life inside an illegal Antifa headquarters.
YouTuber The Urban Legend has released 30 minutes of explosive footage captured inside a secret and illegal Antifa headquarters in Manchester, United Kingdom.
The video reveals what appears to be a fully operational base—complete with stockpiles of food, racks of clothing, a sleeping area, and what looks like a makeshift revolutionary workshop for rioters.
They only pretend to be anarchists.
The footage offers a rare and disturbing glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of the revolutionary movement that has fueled unrest across the West.
[ZeroHedge] Biden's Was The First Fully Deep-State Presidency
The “presidency” of Joe Biden is one of the greatest scandals in American history. The legacy media is only now covering the mental incapacity of a president who apparently left the entire ship of state to the unaccountable bureaucracy.
On Friday, Axios released Friday night news dump audio of Biden’s 2023 interview with special counsel Robert Hur.
If you heard the tape and haven’t been in a coma for the past four years, then nothing here is truly surprising. The former president sounded senile and evasive when answering questions about his handling of top secret documents.
Some of my colleagues went through the full tapes and found that Biden “forgot the names of President Barack Obama’s former secretary of defense and comedian Jay Leno; referred to Africa as a country, not a continent; and was unaware he had in his possession a notebook with war advice in it for Obama during his interview with special counsel Robert Hur and investigators in October 2023.”
Biden certainly did not sound like someone who could be trusted to make large-scale national decisions or even small-scale personal ones.
This is entirely unsurprising unless you are a left-leaning corporate media journalist on the political beat.
If you are, then I’m sure that the reports coming out about Biden in office are jaw-dropping, gob-smacking revelations to you.
The media elite are shocked, shocked to discover that Biden may have been unfit for office.
The release of these tapes was followed by a Sunday afternoon reveal that Biden has been diagnosed with advanced prostate cancer.
The cancer diagnosis is certainly a terrible thing. But the idea that this should end the story about what happened the last four years is a farce. It couldn’t be clearer now that due to mental and physical ailments, Biden was a diminished man from the moment he assumed the president’s office.
Despite some of the aforementioned elite journalists calling for a lid to be put on conversations about Biden’s presidency due to his health, the reality is the cancer diagnosis only raises more unsettling questions. Is this really a new diagnosis? Did Biden’s doctors really somehow miss the signs of treatable cancer?
And that makes this situation entirely unprecedented.
Posted by: Skidmark ||
05/21/2025
01:00 ||
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Link ||
E-Mail||
[180 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
They cheated and installed a guy in hospice into the White House. They faked his actions as president. They did this with the willing cooperation of the national press. We aren’t moving on. There needs to be accountability for all the participants in the scam.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/21/2025 6:51
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#2
Media covering his alleged cancer 24x7.
Media coverage of Trump team accomplisments, not so much.
Texas Law States that consent cannot be given by a person with diminished capacity. Further, consent is not effective, even when its given, by a person with diminished Capacity.
[Denver7] President Donald Trump on Monday called for former Mesa County Clerk Tina Peters to be released from prison, where she is serving a nine-year sentence for a voting data scheme related to the 2020 presidential election.
Peters is a “political prisoner” and “hostage,” Trump said in a Monday night post on Truth Social, describing her case as “communist persecution by the radical left Democrats.”
Peters’ case was prosecuted by a Republican district attorney and she was convicted of several felonies related to unauthorized access to state voting machines, including giving a security badge to a man associated with MyPillow chief executive Mike Lindell so the man could access Mesa County’s election system in an unsuccessful search for voter fraud.
The U.S. Department of Justice is already reviewing Colorado’s prosecution of Peters, and Mesa County District Attorney Dan Rubinstein has repeatedly denied that her case was politically motivated, citing her conviction by a jury of her peers in a majority-Republican county.
In his Truth Social post, Trump wrote he was ordering the Department of Justice to take all necessary action to secure Peters’ release.
Posted by: Fairbanks ||
05/21/2025
00:43 ||
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Link ||
E-Mail||
[185 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life,
#1
Peters is a “political prisoner” and “hostage,” Trump said in a Monday night post on Truth Social, describing her case as “communist persecution by the radical left Democrats.”
Ignore the Denver Post at the bottom – it’s the same thing.
[NAHARNET] A 28-year-old man was remanded in jug in Denmark on Monday on suspicions of purchasing drones to be used in a Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... "terrorist attack", Danish intelligence said Monday.
Flemming Drejer, head of operations at Denmark's PET intelligence service, said in a statement it believed that "this individual purchased drones intended for use by Hamas in a terrorist attack at an unknown location in Denmark or abroad."
Appearing before a court on Monday, the man was remanded in jug until June 11.
PET said the case had links to both Hamas and criminal gangs in Denmark, and related to a number of arrests made in December 2023 as part of an operation to prevent a suspected planned "terrorist attack".
Six people were ordered detained at the time, four in absentia, among them the 28-year-old man, who Danish media reports said was a prominent figure in organized crime in Copenhagen.
According to public broadcaster DR, the suspect had been extradited from Leb ...home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade.... over a separate double murder case.
"PET and the Prosecution Service believe that the individual is a leading figure in a prohibited gang and has ties to Hamas," PET said.
Danish intelligence has repeatedly indicated that the conflict in the Middle East has a "spillover effect" on the "threat landscape" in the Scandinavian country.
"The conflict holds considerable potential for mobilization that may prompt a number of spontaneous or premeditated reactions, including terrorist attacks, from various known and unknown threat actors," PET said.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2025
00:39 ||
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[83 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
[NAHARNET] An Israeli drone targeted on Tuesday morning a motorcycle in south Lebanon near a school in Mansouri in the Tyre district, injuring nine people, three of them critically.
The Health Ministry said nine people were injured in the strike on the al-Mansouri-Majdal Zoun road, including two children, adding that three of the injured were in critical condition.
Minister of Education Rima Karami condemned the strike and called for pressure on Israel to stop its attacks on civilians. The Israeli army meanwhile said it targeted and killed a Hezbollah member in Mansouri.
On Monday, one person was killed in the southern border town of Houla and three others were wounded by Israeli attacks on multiple locations across southern Lebanon. On Sunday, two people, including a Lebanese soldier, were wounded in an Israeli strike.
Israel has continued to launch strikes on Lebanon despite the November 27 truce that sought to halt more than a year of hostilities with Hezbollah including two months of full-blown war.
Under the terms of the ceasefire deal, the only armed bodies in southern Lebanon are meant to be U.N. peacekeepers and Lebanon's army, though Israel has retained its forces in five areas it has declared strategic.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2025
00:38 ||
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[Breitbart] Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) called for anti-voyeur legislation during a hearing on Capitol Hill wherein she shared a blurred “naked silhouette” screenshot of herself being recorded without consent.
Mace was chairing the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on surveilling people in private spaces.
“Freedom is not a theory. It is the right to breathe. It is the right to dress and undress, to sleep without someone’s camera filming your naked body. The Founders wrote liberty in parchment, but hidden cameras erase it in pixels,” Mace said. “I speak not just as a lawmaker, but as a survivor.”
The congresswoman displayed a poster board behind her featuring a wide-angle security camera view of a living room with a blurred figure in the doorway.
“Behind me is a screenshot from one of the videos I found of myself. The yellow circle, my naked silhouette, is my naked body,” Mace said. “I didn’t know that I had been filmed. I didn’t give my consent. I didn’t give my permission.”
Mace further called upon lawmakers to back her Sue VOYEURS Act, which would create a civil right of action, and the Stop VOYEURS Act. Her call comes months after she accused several men of secretly recording women and girls with hidden cameras at a rental property co-owned by her ex-fiance, per The Hill. Her ex-fiance, Patrick Bryant, has strongly denied the allegations.
“I categorically deny the false and outrageous claims made by Nancy Mace. I have never raped anyone. I have never hidden cameras. I have never harmed any woman. These accusations are not just false—they are malicious and deeply personal,” Bryant said. “My mistake was loving and trusting someone who later weaponized our relationship.”
Bryant said that several witnesses disputed Mace’s account and that he has complied with the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division’s investigation. Since the Constitution’s Speech or Debate Clause protects lawmakers from lawsuits for what they say and do to advance legislation, Bryant called on her make her accusations outside the House chamber.
“If she believed them to be true and there was evidence to support her accusations, she would say them outside the chamber—away from her public role and protections and pursue them through proper legal channels. She has not done so, because she cannot,” Bryant said
“This isn’t advocacy. It’s an abuse and exploitation of her political position for the sole purpose of promoting herself politically. Her allegations are absolutely baseless,” Bryant added. “And, I will, at the right time, do whatever is necessary and appropriate to clear my name, to prove my integrity, and to restore my reputation in the community.”
Mace shot back and told The Hill, “I don’t really give a fuck what Patrick Bryant has to say.”
“I’ve written over a dozen bills to protect women and kids, based on my experiences, both personally but also working with victims for the last year and a half, and it has informed my legislative process,” Mace said. “When I went through this, I surely thought the Violence Against Women Act had provisions to protect victims of voyeurism. It didn’t. There’s not even a civil tort in the Violence Against Women Act for women who are victims of voyeurism.”
[NAHARNET] al-Mustaqbal ... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri...
... the Future Movement, political party led by Saad Hariri... Movement's former Beirut coordinator Mahmoud al-Jamal, a retired brigadier general, has managed to clench a seat on Beirut's new municipal council, preventing a list comprising most political parties from winning all 24 seats.
Al-Jamal's win came at the expense of Elie Andrea, a Greek Orthodox member of the rival list who was backed by Greek Orthodox Metropolitan of Beirut Elias Audi.
Andrea was the subject of ''dismay, especially among Greek Orthodox voters, which led to the redaction of his name by voters due to his bad performance as a member of the outgoing municipal council,'' the Nidaa al-Watan newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Andrea had also faced a social media campaign against him prior to the elections against the backdrop of his dispute with outgoing municipal chief Jamal Itani, Asharq al-Awsat newspaper reported.
This is the first time in decades that sees Moslems outnumbering Christians in the municipal council. The country's rival political parties had formed an electoral alliance in Beirut under the excuse of preserving Christian-Moslem parity.
Political rivals such as Hezbollah and the Lebanese Forces A Christian political party founded by Bashir Gemayel, who was then bumped off when he was elected president of Leb... came together to form the list, which also comprised the Amal Movement, the Kataeb Party, the Free Patriotic Movement Despite its name a Christian party allied with Hizbullah, neither free nor particularly patriotic... , al-Ahbash, the Tashnag Party Socialist party representing the Armenian diaspora in Leb. They're Christians, but they try to remain neutral, which means they get shot at without shooting back... , the Hunchak Party, the Progressive Socialist Party and MP Fouad Makhzoumi.
Al-Jamal's list was backed by MP Nabil Bader and the Jamaa Islamiya and apparently received votes from Mustaqbal supporters.
Four other lists were also formed in the capital, including one by the Beirut Madinati civil society group, which won one third of the capital's votes in the 2016 polls.
Voter turnout reached only 21% in Beirut, which has historically witnessed similar low turnout levels.
[NAHARNET] Leb ...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?... still has "more" to do in disarming Hezbollah following the war between the Iran-backed group and Israel, Deputy U.S. Envoy for the Middle East Morgan Ortagus said Tuesday.
As part of a deal agreed to end 14 months of fighting last November, Hezbollah was to withdraw its fighters north of Lebanon's Litani River, while Israel was to pull all its forces from south Lebanon.
The Lebanese Army has been deploying in the area as Israeli forces have withdrawn and has been dismantling Hezbollah infrastructure there.
U.N. peacekeepers are also present in the area and play a role in supervising the ceasefire.
Lebanese authorities "have done more in the last six months than they probably have in the last 15 years," Ortagus said at the 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... Economic Forum referring to efforts to disarm Hezbollah.
"However,
alcohol has never solved anybody's problems. But then, neither has milk... there's a lot more to go," she added.
"We in the United States have called for the full disarmament of Hezbollah. And so that doesn't mean just south of the Litani. That means in the whole country," Ortagus said at the Qatar conference calling on Lebanese politicians "to make a decision."
Israel has continued to launch raids on Lebanon despite the ceasefire.
Last month, President Joseph Aoun said the army was deployed in more than 85 percent of Lebanon's south, and that the sole obstacle to full control across the frontier area was "Israel's occupation of five border positions".
In defiance of the ceasefire agreement, the Israeli military continues to occupy five positions close to the border that it has declared to be strategic.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2025
00:30 ||
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[NAHARNET] The issue of Paleostinian arms in Leb ...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... might be the ''last'' topic on the agenda of Paleostinian 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....> during his visit to Lebanon this week, a Beirut-based Paleostinian official said on Tuesday.
''This topic is new and is not the priority for the Lebanese and Paleostinians,'' Haitham Zuaiter, a member of the Paleostinian central and national councils, told al-Jadeed television.
''There is no proposal for removing Paleostinian arms in Lebanon,'' Zuaiter said, reminding that the national dialogue sessions chaired by Speaker Nabih Knobby Berri
...perennial Speaker of the Lebanese parliament, head of the Amal Shiite party aligned with Hezbollah, a not very subtle sock puppet of the Medes and Persians... had called for ''removing Paleostinian arms outside the camps and controlling them inside the camps'' and that ''President Joseph Aoun has called for the removal of heavy-caliber arms.''
''We support bringing Paleostinian arms under control inside the Paleostinian camps within the framework of serious discussions and a drastic solution,'' Zuaiter went on to say.
He added: ''Honestly we cannot talk about the issue of Paleostinian arms without resolving the Paleostinian issue in the Lebanese arena in a comprehensive way.''
Warning that Israel might target Paleostinian camps in Lebanon the same it has targeted refugee camps in the Paleostinian territories, Zuaiter said Abbas will tell Lebanese officials that ''the Lebanese Army should not enter the Paleostinian camps by force.''
''Paleostinian security forces are in charge of security inside the camps and would coordinate with Lebanese authorities,'' the Paleostinian officials added, noting that ''arms must be under the authority of the Lebanese state.''
''What's needed is to prevent a repetition of the (1982) Sabra and Shatila massacre and had there been light weapons (in the hands of the Paleostinians at the time), this massacre would not have happened,'' Zuaiter added.
They can declare all they want, but they're pathetically inept at execution. Houthi missiles have gotten through US Navy and IDF defenses about three times since the whole thing started, their UAVs a few more times than that. As wars go, they’re much better at waking up Israelis in the middle of the night because the warning sirens went off than they are at actually reaching the country, never mind hitting anything other than deserts, seas, and open fields. Some foreign airlines have fled the field, which just mean s more business for the braver ones, and of course the Israeli companies.
[Breitbart] The Iran-backed Houthi terrorists of Yemen declared a “maritime blockade” of Israel’s Haifa port on Monday – a blockade they presumably intend to enforce with missile and drone attacks on shipping.
“All companies with ships present in or heading to this port are hereby notified that, as of the time of this announcement, the aforementioned port has been included in the list of targets,” said Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree.
Another Houthi spokesman, Ahmed Salah, said that civilian vessels are now “prohibited” from loading or unloading cargo at Haifa, which is Israel’s largest seaport. Ships which defy the order will be considered “military targets” by the Houthis.
“The presence of any vessels heading to the Port of Haifa, or having any indirect connection thereto, will expose your company and its fleet to sanctions,” Salah said.
“In the event that your company is listed on the sanctions list, its fleet will be prohibited from transiting the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandab Strait, the Gulf of Aden, the Arabian Sea, and the Indian Ocean. Moreover, it will be subject to targeting by the Yemeni Armed Forces wherever reachable,” he said.
Neither Houthi spokesman mentioned whether Israel’s other ports would be included in the “blockade.”
The Houthis have been attacking civilian ships in the Red Sea ever since Hamas launched the Gaza War by attacking Israel on October 7, 2023. The Yemeni insurgents, who drove the legitimate government out of the national capital in 2014 and control much of Yemen’s coastline, have a habit of declaring escalated attacks or “blockades” whenever Israel escalates its military activity in Gaza.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a new operation in Gaza after Hamas refused to release the remaining hostages it kidnapped on October 7. IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir said on Tuesday that Hamas will “pay the price for its refusal” by losing more of its territory and “terror infrastructure.”
“Hamas has one option, and that is to release our hostages. If there is an agreement, the IDF will know how to adjust its activity accordingly,” Zamir said.
The Houthis declared a “blockade” of Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in early May, after slipping a lone ballistic missile past Israeli and U.S. defenses and blowing up a grove of trees near the airport. Ben Gurion resumed normal operations soon after the attack, although the threat of more missile strikes has not been taken lightly.
The Houthis threatened to attack Ben Gurion again on Monday, causing some airlines to suspend flights to the airport.
The Houthi declaration of a “naval blockade” against Haifa, and the new threat against Ben Gurion Airport, were probably intended as direct responses to IDF Arabic-language spokesman Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee warning Yemeni civilians to avoid three “seaports controlled by the terrorist Houthi regime,” including the major port of Hodeidah, because they could face Israeli military action.
“Due to the terrorist Houthi regime’s use of seaports for its terrorist activities, we urge all those present at these locations to leave and stay away for your own safety. Evacuating these ports will keep you safe,” Adraee said last Wednesday.
The Houthis announced last week they had agreed to “pause” attacks on Red Sea shipping after the U.S. and Israel took action against Houthi piracy. The ostensible “pause” did not exclude the possibility of renewed attacks based on Israeli military action in Gaza.
“Yemen’s position on the Palestinian issue and its support for Gaza will not change. We received requests from the U.S. through the Sultanate of Oman, and what changed was the U.S. position, while our stance remains unchanged,” a Houthi spokesman said last Wednesday.
[Breitbart] Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins on Tuesday pointed out the Trump administration was able to undo an egregious instance of government weaponization against the Maude family of ranchers in South Dakota during a policy event hosted by Breitbart News.
Rollins lamented how the “government has weaponized itself against families like the Maudes,” noting that they are fifth generation farmers and ranchers.
During the Biden administration, the United States Forest Service alerted the Maude family that their property allegedly blocked access to the Buffalo Gap National Grasslands and in good faith agreed to a survey of the property lines. However, after the survey was completed, the Biden administration transformed a simple civil dispute into a “costly, invasive, and unnecessary criminal prosecution.”
Rollins noted that the “fence that was put up in 1910 by Charles’s great-great grandad that no one ever thought there was a problem.”
She added, “Fast forward one hundred and ten years, and someone from the Forest Service shows up, says your fence might not be in the right place.”
“That’s they hear of it until agents in SWAT gear show up at their front door and say that they are being criminally charged for theft of government property that they need to find guardians for their young children because they are likely going to jail,” the Agriculture Secretary continued.
Rollins charged, “The fact that this happened in America should absolutely stun everyone in this room today, everyone on the livestream, every media representative that’s here.”
She asked rhetorically, “This is America. You’re going to put people in jail over a fence line?”
Contrasting it with the Democrats, she said, “We have members of the other party going to El Salvador going to get a gang member out prison, that’s who they are fighting for.”
Rollins remarked, “So, thankful to the White House, thankful to President Trump. We got all of the criminal charges dropped. We had the Maudes in town a week ago.”
Rollins noted that they had set up a hotline to blow the whistle about other instances of government weaponization to stop more outrages like this.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] Two Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... i non-combatants were killed in separate attacks launched by Saudi forces near the border areas of Saada and Hajjah provinces in northern Yemen.
According to sources, a maiden of tender years was killed by Saudi army gunfire in the Ayash area of Munabbih district, Saada.
In a separate incident, a man was shot and killed by Saudi-backed mercenaries in the al-Shaab area of Haradh district, Hajjah.
This attack adds to a series of ongoing violations committed by the Saudi enemy against residents of border villages, which are subjected to daily artillery and machine-gun fire—highlighting the kingdom's continued disregard for calls for a genuine peace.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2025
00:16 ||
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[Breitbart] A Texas sheriff’s deputy intercepted a pickup truck hauling a trailer packed with large round bales. Stuffed inside the hollowed-out bales were about a dozen illegal aliens being smuggled into the U.S. interior.
Fayette County, Texas, Sheriff Keith Korenek reported on Tuesday that drug interdiction Sgt. Randy Thumann stopped a white Ford F-250 pickup truck hauling a gooseneck hay trailer shortly after noon on Tuesday. Inside the round bales of hay, Thumann found about 12 migrants who were being smuggled into the interior of the country.
The traffic stop took place on Interstate 10 near the 658 mile marker between San Antonio and Houston. This location is nearly 250 miles from the Texas-Mexico border.
Sheriff Korenek said Thumann discovered the hay bales had been carved out and modified to hide illegal aliens inside the bales. The human smugglers used metal frameworks and layers of hay to evade detection.
“This method of concealment is not only deceptive but incredibly dangerous to human life,” the sheriff explained. “Smugglers continue to use increasingly creative and hazardous techniques to transport individuals across Texas highways.”
Officials identified the alleged human smuggler as 44-year-old Delbert Flanders, a Kansas resident. Medical crews transported Flanders to a local hospital for undisclosed medical treatment. Two Houstonians, 22-year-old Adanaylo Lambert and 25-year-old Lency Delgado Fernandez, were identified as the “coordinators” and were taken into custody. The Houstonians face state and federal charges related to human smuggling.
Sheriff’s office officials turned the 12 migrants over to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers for processing and removal.
Breitbart Texas has written about the exploits of Sgt. Thumann since July 2016. Over the years, he and his K-9 partners, along with other deputies within the department, have been responsible for the seizure of massive loads of drugs, millions of dollars in currency, and the occasional human smuggling interdiction.
Assisting Sgt. Thumann in this interdiction were Texas DPS troopers, the Flatonia Police Department, Fayette County Sheriff’s Office deputies, and Fayette County EMS.
The incident remains under state and federal investigation, Sheriff Korenek stated.
[BUSINESSDAY.NG] Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has appealed to the Federal Government to deploy decisive strategies that will ensure that Marte town and other Borno communities do not fall under the control of the Boko Haram ... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality... and ISWAP turbans.
Governor Zulum, who was actively involved in coordinating security logistics till late in the night at the weekend, undertook a tour to assess the challenges faced in Marte town, while also exploring sustainable solutions to foster stability.
Before Governor Zulum's arrival, Marte was completely deserted following a Boko Haram attack last Friday, with thousands taking refuge in Dikwa town.
Speaking to journalists, the governor emphasised that his visit to Marte was to foster community cooperation, resilience and continuous support to the security agencies, stating that ''Marte was resettled about four years ago, but unfortunately, over the last three days, it was ransacked and was displaced again.''
''About 20,000 people left Marte for Dikwa; this huge number is a threat, as allowing them to stay in the camp may make most of the younger ones become vulnerable to recruitment by the turbans.
''Alhamdulillah, we returned to Marte yesterday and spent the night with the support of the Nigerian Army and our volunteers. The community is now resettled for the second time. Still, my prayers to the federal government of Nigeria and the Nigerian Army are that we do everything possible to keep this town on the ground.
''Hitherto, Marte Local Government comprises over 300 towns and villages, now we have only one standing, if we cannot maintain this one, then we will lose the whole Local Government to the turbans, which will be very obnoxious, and I think we will not allow this to happen. Therefore, I am calling on the federal government and the Nigerian Army so that we can put our heads together and hold our ground for this single town in this LGA to remain.''
The governor reiterated his commitment to supporting security agencies in attaining lasting peace in Borno State, saying, ''On my part as the Governor of Borno State, I would do everything within my power to support our gallant military in their efforts towards lasting peace in our beloved State.''
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2025 19:12
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#4
^ and Pete "Journolist" Alexander of NBC had a "wanna get away?" ad that even Southwest Airlines couldn't have created. Trump kicked his/their ass, live and on national TV
Posted by: Frank G ||
05/21/2025 19:16
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB detained seven people who provided the operation of a drug marketplace on the darknet. This was reported by the official representative of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs Irina Volk.
"My colleagues from the operational units of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia and the FSB of Russia, employees of territorial police units and investigators of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia stopped the activities of seven alleged participants in a criminal group. They provided the activities of one of the marketplaces in the shadow segment of the Internet. Drugs were distributed through it and other criminal services were offered," Volk wrote in her Telegram channel.
According to her, law enforcement officers in eight Russian regions conducted 28 searches of homes and commercial premises used by the suspects.
In addition, according to preliminary data, employees of one of the IT companies provided services to their accomplices in the criminal business to ensure the stable operation of the online platform. Employees of a cryptocurrency exchange service were also identified who accepted payments for drugs.
The detainees were charged under Articles 33, 228.1 and 210 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (“Types of accomplices to a crime”, “Illegal production, sale or transfer of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances or their analogues”, as well as “Organization of an organized criminal group”).
At the request of the investigator, the court chose a preventive measure in the form of detention.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on May 20, officers of the FSB department in the Amur region stopped a major drug distribution channel. About 10 kg of the prohibited substance were confiscated from a local resident.
Earlier in Dagestan, police opened a criminal case against a local resident who was transporting more than two kilograms of mephedrone in his car. The driver hid plastic bottles with prohibited substances in the car's fuel tank.
In March, the Ministry of Internal Affairs discovered two large drug labs in Ramenskoye near Moscow and seized large quantities of mephedrone from them.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] Andrey Rezyapkin on FB raised the personal file of Grandfather Baerbock and closed the question: "Against the backdrop of Annalena's latest appointment, the Baerbockiad around her grandfather has intensified again. The first Bild report (already emotional) was supplemented with new details from the declassified dossier on the ardent Nazi, member of the party and SS, colonel and holder of the Golden Knight's Cross of Military Merit. All this, of course, is being erased from the World Wide Web and hidden again in a distant drawer.
In order not to be late, we will also open the very personal file that excited correspondents and social networks - PERS 6 / 226922 (BA-MA, Freiburg) - and delve into its contents.
Grandfather Waldemar, being a qualified engineer (graduated from the technical Karlsruhe University in 1937), was mobilized by the "military commissariat" of Hanover and from 1938 underwent training in various air defense units as a specialist in the aircraft recognition service and the instrumental (rangefinder) reconnaissance service of anti-aircraft artillery. By the third year of service, he was re-certified from a reserve non-commissioned officer to an officer candidate, in September 1941 he became a lieutenant and in 1944 - a senior lieutenant (Kriegsoffizier*), he ended the war as the head of the special equipment workshop in the mobile instrument battalion of anti-aircraft artillery as part of the 10th Air Defense Brigade (headquartered in East Prussia). In 1945 he was captured by the Americans.
*Kriegsoffizier = "wartime officer" - the result of rapid promotion to command positions - where there was a shortage of command personnel during the war.
In 1944 he received the so-called "Cross of War Merit" 2nd degree with swords" (KVK 2 m.Sch., an analogue of the medal "For Military Merit", most likely a list award). A commemorative medal for the Sudeten Campaign (Sudeten-Erinnerungsmedaille) is also mentioned. He had no other military awards. In the 1944 characterization, it is noted that he has good technical knowledge, but no field or combat experience.
No particular political activity is noted in his personal file. He joined the party and the SA in 1933, and was promoted to flight commander (SA-Scharführer) in 1934. He managed to receive the SA sports badge (analogue of the GTO complex). Then his political career was cut short. He was not a member of the SS.
The file contains a statement that Waldemar did not participate in left-wing parties and does not have Jewish roots (a standard form filled out when promoting to command positions). In the service characteristics, related to his promotion, there are also notes on his worldview (I quote in full, due to its particular piquancy):
1941 - Hat das Buch "Mein Kampf" gelesen unf steht vollkommen auf dem Boden der nationalsozialistischen Weltanschauung.
1942 - Seine Weltanschauung wurzelt im Nationalsozialismus.
1944 - Bedinungsloser Nationalsozialist.
That's it, nothing more can be squeezed out of a personal file, no matter how hard you try. Frankly, I don't understand what all the fuss is about. His granddaughter gives much more reason to get excited"Well, in fact, he became an open Nazi in 1933 after Hitler came to power. He remained a member of the NSDAP until the end of the war. He participated in the aggressive wars unleashed by Hitler.
So, in fact, the daughter did not go too far from her grandfather, also taking part in unleashing an aggressive war in Europe. Of course, you can say that Baerbock's grandfather was a small and insignificant Nazi. But the determining factor here is that the grandfather was, in fact, a Nazi.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] A characteristic document from 1945 showing the real attitude of the Red Army command to the topic of rape and looting on German territory.
The guilty, regardless of rank or position, should be arrested and strictly judged
April 30, 1945.
CIPHER Message #872
From: 47th Army
TO CORPS COMMANDERS, CHIEF OF TROOPS, CHIEF OF POLITICAL DEPARTMENT, MILITARY PROSECUTOR, CHIEF OF ARMY OKR "SMERSH".
I am transmitting for management and strict execution the directive of the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front #254 of April 30, 1945.
Receipt of the directive and its dissemination to personnel are to be conveyed.
"Several cases of outrages by front-line servicemen against representatives of foreign states not allied with us /embassies/, trade missions, journalists, correspondents/ of Japan, Switzerland, Ireland and others, located on the territory of Germany, have been noted.
Thus, complaints were received from representatives of the Japanese and Irish embassies about the looting of their property, the rape of the wife of a Japanese correspondent, etc.
All these phenomena could have occurred due to the connivance of senior commanders and political workers, military prosecutors, who are not truly fighting for the implementation of the directive of the Front Military Council No. 0143 and the manifestation of political short-sightedness on their part.
The Front Military Council demands:
I. Immediately bring to the attention of all personnel that diplomatic and trade representatives, correspondents, journalists of foreign states not at war with us, located on the territory of Germany, their property enjoy the right of inviolability and any attempt at arbitrariness against them may entail serious complications in the relations of their states with our state. Any serviceman, officer first of all, in case of detection of such missions or persons in his area, is obliged to take measures to protect them and their property and immediately report on command, not leaving them unattended until the arrival of senior commanders.
2. Only officers from the regiment commander and above, heads of the counterintelligence agencies "SMERSH" may personally inspect the premises of missions of foreign states, check documents. Other persons are strictly prohibited from doing this.
The seizure may be carried out only with the permission of the Military Council of the Front.
3. The Military Council of the 47th Army, the Military Prosecutor of the Front immediately and thoroughly investigate the case of the rape of the wife of the Japanese correspondent, the guilty, regardless of rank, position, - arrest and strictly judge.
4. Henceforth establish that for such cases of arbitrariness against representatives of foreign states not at war with us, unauthorized seizure of their property, along with the culprits, the unit commander and his deputy for the political department, whose subordinates are to be removed from office and brought to trial committed this crime, and the commander of the unit and the head of the political agency must be severely punished along administrative and party lines, up to and including removal from office.
Report the time of receipt of the directive and measures to bring it to the attention of personnel.
Report immediately all foreign missions discovered in their zones, as well as persons guarding their property.
№254 ZHUKOV TELEGIN".
TROOPS COMMANDER MEMBER OF THE MILITARY COUNCIL OF THE 47TH ARMY /PERKHOROVICH/
GUARDS LIEUTENANT GENERAL MAJOR GENERAL OF THE 47TH ARMY /KOROLEV/
CHIEF OF STAFF OF THE ARMY LIEUTENANT GENERAL /LUKYANCHENKO/
Archives of the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. F. 1021. Op. 1. D. 225. L. 311-313.
Similar draconian orders were issued regarding looting, rape and other crimes committed by individual soldiers and commanders of the Red Army in Poland and Germany. Punishments there were also harsh - from demotion in rank and deprivation of state awards to sending to camps. Zhukov acted here as a conductor of Stalin's policy, which he carried out in the liberated territories of Eastern Europe, where it was necessary to suppress any outrages at the grassroots level.Which, of course, did not prevent Nazi and Western propaganda from then cultivating myths about "raped Germany" and "rape policy".
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Two Tu-95MS strategic missile carriers of the Russian long-range aviation carried out a scheduled patrol over the Barents Sea, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry reported on its Telegram channel.
The flight over neutral waters was accompanied by Su-33 aircraft of the Navy and lasted more than four hours. At certain stages of the missile carriers' flight, they were accompanied by fighters of foreign countries.
“All flights of Russian Aerospace Forces aircraft are carried out in strict accordance with international rules for the use of airspace,” the Defense Ministry emphasized.
The Defense Ministry recalled that the crews of long-range aviation, which includes the Tu-95MS and Tu-160 strategic missile carriers and Tu-22M3 long-range bombers, regularly fly over the neutral waters of the Arctic, North Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Baltic and Black Seas.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A potentially deadly chemical leak at an industrial park in Texas has injured four workers as thousands of locals were ordered to shelter-in-place.
Sirens began blaring at 9:00am local time at the Olin Plant B in Freeport after chlorine gas spewed from the facility.
Images of the scene captured clouds of yellow gas bellowing out from machinery.
Reports claimed that four workers were injured, with one still hospitalized.
The worker who is still hospitalized is 'alert and awake,' expected to make a full recovery. He's been a worker at Plant B since 1990, the union said.
The Lake Jackson Police Department described it as an active Level 3 chlorine release, meaning the gas had moved beyond the immediate area of the plant.
Breathing in chlorine gas—even in small amounts—can irritate the eyes, nose, and throat, and may lead to more serious respiratory issues.
At higher concentrations, chlorine gas can cause lung injuries, including pulmonary edema (fluid in the lungs), and may be fatal.
Freeport, a city in Brazoria County with a population of over 10,500, issued orders for residents to stay indoors. The directive also applied to schools and nearby communities.
Olin Corporation confirmed that local officials had issued a shelter-in-place order for Clute and Lake Jackson as a precaution.
The leak was contained at 9:46am, though shelter-in-place orders remain in effect, but no other communities will be impacted.
Resident Michael Kelly told local Click2Houston:'It is just part of being here, explosions, gas releases.
'The chemical plants take precaution for this, it is an undesirable situation but it does happen.'
Brazosport Independent School District, located 10 miles from Olin Plant B, was quick to respond to the sirens, ordering all doors to remain closed on campus.
'We will not be releasing students until the All Clear is given by local authorities,' the district stated on Facebook.
'We will provide updates as soon as we receive additional information.'
The City of Freeport Emergency Management Office said it is closely monitoring the situation.
'At this time, there is no immediate threat to the surrounding community,' Freeport officials told KHOU11.
Locals in surrounding communities have reported burning sensations in their eyes.
'The smell is so strong all in Clute and lake Jackson. Eyes feeling the burn,' one local posted on X.
'We encourage residents to avoid the area until further notice.'
Olin Plant B in Freeport is a major part of Dow Texas Operations, a large chemical manufacturing complex.
The facility is a leading North American manufacturer of chlorine, caustic soda, industrial bleach, hydrochloric acid, potassium hydroxide, hydrogen and related products.
These chemicals are important building blocks for plastics, pulp and paper products, soaps and detergents.
They also play an important role in municipal drinking water and wastewater treatment.
The chlorine leak comes just months after another Texas refinery incident that left one person dead.
In October 2024, hydrogen sulfide leaked from a Pemex Plant in Deer Park, with the cities of Pasadena and Deer Park now issuing shelter-in-place orders.
Local residents were told to go indoors, close their windows and doors, and keep their air conditioners turned off until an all-clear is given.
Hydrogen sulfide is a colorless gas that is none for its strong odor. It is extremely flammable and highly toxic.
The Pemex refinery is responsible for producing gasoline, aviation fuel, and ship fuel. It produces 312,500-barrels-per-day.
A month before this incident, evacuation orders were issued after a pipeline in in La Porte burst into flames.
The company that owns the pipe, Energy Transfer, said a vehicle struck a valve at the pipe, which they believe may have caused the fire.
Sheltering in Place, depends on when, where and what stage that it is.
When you mix Chlorine and Water and Fire, you pretty much get an Air based Bio-Weapon Gas.
Very, very few people have the mean to seal their apt. and homes from such a produced gas.
Plus no business can do it given their HVAC systems alone.
[ScienceDirect-Journal of Industrial Information Integration] ABSTRACT
As Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) is more and more frequently used in farming and logistics, civil and military alike, researches involving UAVs also starts to boom. In the civil field, UAV is generally flown in urban areas, so buildings are the main factors hindering the normal flight of UAV. Therefore, it is necessary to calculate an optimal flight path of UAV under constraints. The intelligent logistics UAV proposed in this paper can be used to replace special couriers to deliver small goods. It is a quadcopter integrated with a webcam, ultrasound Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS), and is controllable through a mobile APP. Gradient descent algorithm, Linear Quadratic Regulator (LQR) and improved Proportion-Integral-Derivative (PID) controllers are applied in its flight control system, MATLAB and wavelet transform to handle fuzzy image. In addition, ant colony algorithm and adaptive strategies are used in the path planning process. As a result, it can detect surrounding obstacles in-flight, and the ground control station can receive feedback information and prepare for emergency operations.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The BT-3F floating armored personnel carrier, created on the basis of the BMP-3 by specialists from the High-Precision Systems holding, has entered the state testing stage. This was reported by the press service of the Rostec state corporation in the Telegram channel.
It is noted that the armored personnel carrier is designed to transport units of the Naval Infantry of the Coastal Troops and units of the ground forces. It can provide fire support to dismounted troops under any combat conditions.
“The equipment must confirm the specified tactical and technical characteristics on land and in water in various climatic zones, and also undergo firing tests from a stationary position, on the move and afloat,” the statement said.
Rostec specified that the BT-3F can transport up to 12 fully equipped paratroopers. The vehicle is equipped with a remotely controlled combat module with a machine gun and an automatic grenade launcher, and also has a towing hitch for towing trailers.
Earlier, the company "High Precision Systems" reported that the improvements that are being made to the appearance of the BMP-3 as a result of the vehicle's participation in a special operation in Ukraine will be implemented in the BMP-3F and BT-3F. The production of the basic "land" BMP-3 was increased several times against the background of the SVO. In particular, in the first quarter of 2023 alone, the Ministry of Defense was supplied with as many units of equipment as in the whole of 2019.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Yaroslav Karpikov
[REGNUM] Two years ago, on May 20, 2023, the longest and most difficult battle since the beginning of the Central Military District ended with a victory for Russian weapons - the 9-month battle for Artemovsk.
In the Kyiv information field, the city was long called nothing other than “fortress” (borrowed from Latin via Polish for a fortress). The city itself was renamed in 2016 from Artemovsk to Bakhmut — which was part of the Ukrainians’ struggle with the “heavy colonial” Russian and Soviet legacy. But by changing the Soviet name Artemovsk to the historical name Bakhmut, Ukrainian nationalists — without intending to — emphasized the Russian history of the city and the region.
In Ukraine, since gaining independence in 1991, a historical phantom of a “Cossack state” has been created. On the pages of literature textbooks, Taras Shevchenko “suffered” about the bygone time of hetman glory. School history textbooks were filled with victories of the glorious Zaporizhian Cossacks, who supposedly gave the first examples of Ukrainian statehood back in the 17th century.
In this mythical Cossack country "from San to Don" modern Ukrainian historiography (and essentially political mythology) includes the lands of the South-East, which ended up within the borders of the Ukrainian SSR. The following formulas were developed: Slobozhanshchina - Cossack autonomy, Donbass - "palanka" (district, from the Turkish palanka) of the Zaporizhian army, Novorossiya - the land of the Zaporizhian Cossacks.
Many pro-Ukrainian regional historians of Donbass from the period 1991–2022 actively developed the theme of the “Kalmius palanka” — supposedly an administrative-territorial unit of the Zaporizhian Sich in the south of Donbass in the 18th century, naturally “zagrabany” (“captured”) by the insidious Russian Empire.
But were there Cossacks in Donbass and specifically in Bakhmut? What kind of Cossacks were they?
FAIRY TALES TELL THE TRUTH
The city of Bakhmut and the surrounding lands are historically connected with Voronezh. It was in the Azov (Voronezh) Governorate that Bakhmut was located during the first half of the 18th century, forming a province with a number of other towns and villages within the Voronezh Governorate. And only with the creation of the new Novorossiysk Governorate in 1764 and at the personal request of the first governor, Lieutenant General Alexei Melgunov, the Bakhmut Province was transferred from the Voronezh Governorate to Novorossiya.
The Military Collegium created by Peter I was responsible for all military issues in the Russian Empire in the 18th century. It was in charge of both irregular troops - the Cossacks - and the garrisons of fortresses.
From the moment of the beginning of industrial salt mining in Bakhmut and Tora (modern Slavyansk), as well as on the bridge over the Seversky Donets River near the fortress city of Mayak, the peace of the salt workers from Tatar raids was protected by Cossacks specially settled there. They did not come from the Dnieper steppes, but from the Great Russian lands. This can be judged, for example, by the "fairy tales" - censuses of taxpayers.
For example, on June 25, 1722, a 40-year-old mounted Cossack, Konon Kozmin son Boklanov, a resident of the Tor fortress, a native of the Yezdotskaya settlement of Stary Oskol, now the Belgorod region, submitted a tale about himself.
From Stary Oskol, Konon and his father moved to Tor 25 years ago (in 1697). At first, he served as a Cossack in the Izyum Slobodsky Regiment, but in 1713, by order of Colonel Fyodor Shidlovsky, he was assigned to Bakhmut, where he served, guarding the salt industry.
Most of the Torsk mounted Cossacks were natives of Livny, now a city in the Oryol region. In addition to them, there were people from Belgorod's Valuyki, from Yelets and Chernavsk (modern Lipetsk region) and from Oboyan, a city halfway between Kursk and Belgorod. Thus, the documents confirm that the first settlers of both the future Slavyansk and the future Artemovsk were natives of Great Russia.
"THEY PROTECTED UKRAINE FROM THIEVES AND TRAITORS"
On February 27, 1736, the Military Collegium received a letter from Field Marshal Count Christopher Minich, which is still kept in the archives.
The famous military leader reported that the Russian Cossacks Tora and Mayakov had submitted a petition to him. They wrote that for many years "our grandfathers and fathers and relatives" had settled in these places "and they served in the mounted Cossack service" together with the Cherkassians (that is, with the Cossacks who had moved to Russia from the Little Russian lands that belonged to Poland). Together, the Great Russians and Cherkassians "protected Ukraine from the hostile Tatars, thieves and traitors." Let us recall that "Ukrains" then meant the outlying lands of the Russian state.
Until 1692, the Torsk and Mayak mounted Cossacks received a cash salary from Chuguev (a city in the Russian borderland, now in the Kharkov region of Ukraine) - after which the payment of salaries from the government ceased.
Therefore, the Cossacks, just like their "colleagues" from Bakhmut, began to make a living by boiling and selling salt. Also, in their petition, the Torsk and Mayak Cossacks wrote that they participated in the Poltava battle of 1709, went on campaigns to Poland, and participated in the suppression of the rebellion of Kondraty Bulavin.
In 1711, 150 Cossacks led by Ataman Vasily Shabelsky were in permanent service in Bakhmut. The fortress artillery consisted of 10 cannons of different calibers with four barrels of gunpowder for them.
1711, as well as 1713, were especially difficult - then the Crimean Tatars "ran up" to Tor and Mayaki, devastating the surrounding area. In addition, among those who attacked the border towns, the constant heroes (or rather antiheroes) of the history of the southern Russian frontier - the "Khartsyz" - are often mentioned.
"Khartsyz" in Turkic languages literally means "robber" (in this sense, the etymology of the name of the Donbass city of Khartsyzsk is interesting). This term was used to designate impoverished people who fled the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and who engaged in robbery in the Wild Field - on the territory of modern Donbass - and often conflicted even with the Zaporozhian Host. This term was also used to designate "lumpenized" Zaporozhian Cossacks, who created problems, including for the Cossack elders themselves.
In a petition from 1736, Russian Cossacks Tora and Mayakov wrote: in 1713, “they had a strong resistance and battle... against the Tatars and Khartsyz.”
And in 1730, an attack by the "Khartsyzsk gangs" of a certain Bulava was repelled. After the battle, "Bulava was taken prisoner." Judging by the documents stored in the archives, the Bakhmut residents reported more than once about frequent raids on the city by "enemy Tatars and traitorous Zaporozhians," who stole livestock and horses.
Unfortunately, the constant military work of the defenders of Russian Bakhmut and the city of Tor, the future Slavyansk, was not always appreciated. Petitions that the Cossacks submitted "to the authorities", including the aforementioned complaint transmitted through Field Marshal Minikh, contain evidence that the Tor, Mayak and Bakhmut Cossacks did not receive wages from the treasury. Obviously, the money from the sale of salt was not always enough "to live on".
Another example: on February 27, 1716, a petition was submitted to the Senate chancery by Captain Shabelsky “with his comrades,” in which they reported that they had been transferred to the Bakhmut fortress from the Trinity fortress (modern Taganrog), and complained about the meager salary, which “made it impossible for them to feed themselves.”
All these problems were solved by the authorities manually - as a targeted response to petitions coming from the border. And the Cossacks and other service people, enduring inconveniences, continued to guard the restless frontier.
IVAN VASILIEVICH, THE SOUL OF THE COMPANY
In the archives we find materials for the biography of one of the Bakhmut commanders - “servants of the tsar, fathers of the soldiers”, or rather, the Cossacks.
On March 28, 1748, by decree of the Military Collegium, all three mounted Cossack "companies" - units were ordered to come under the command of the Bakhmut fortress. In the same year, the Bakhmut Cossack Regiment was created - by analogy with the Azov Cossack Regiment at the fortress of St. Anna (near the modern village of Starocherkasskaya in the Rostov region).
The question arose as to who would be the colonel, the commander of the new unit. The choice fell on the captain of the Bakhmut Cossack company, Ivan Vasilyevich Shabelsky, the son of the aforementioned ataman Vasily Shabelsky.
Captain Shabelsky had a good service record and, as they would say now, brilliant recommendations. His certificate was signed, among others, by three colonels, one lieutenant colonel, an engineer captain, a second major and representatives of the Cossacks themselves.
According to the certificate, Ivan Vasilyevich Shabelsky began his service in 1733. On September 23, 1735, he was already fighting the Crimean Tatars in the steppe on the upper reaches of the Tora River, freeing prisoners. On November 9, 1735, in a skirmish with the Tatars at the top of Zheleznaya Balka, where he recaptured Russian prisoners. In April 1736, the Cossack fought with the Tatars sent by the Crimean Khan at the upper reaches of the Blizhnie Stupki River, the battle took place at night, the Tatars were defeated, and two captured Crimean Tatars were sent to Kharkov to General Prince Nikita Yuryevich Trubetskoy.
In the same year of 1736, Ivan Shabelsky took part in the campaign against Crimea under the command of Field Marshal Minich, being subordinate to Major General Hein, he took part in the battle at the Bolgunak River, where he captured two Turkish Janissaries (for which he received a monetary reward from Minich).
On August 12, 1737, while on patrol with his brother Prokofiy near the Bakhmut fortress, Ivan "encounters the Tatars", successfully repels the raid and takes two people prisoner. In 1737, Shabelsky was engaged in the supply of provisions under the command of Colonel Bogdan Bibikov. For good results, he was granted the rank of ensign of the Bakhmut company by Field Marshal Minikh from the ranks of the Cossacks. In 1738, he was patrolling the border from Bakhmut to the Dnieper River, discovered the horde of the Crimean Khan heading for the city of Izyum in time and informed Lieutenant General Baron von Spiegel.
In the same year, he was in continuous patrol of the border from Bakhmut to the Mius River - on the lands of today's DPR.
In 1739, Ivan Shabelsky, while on patrol near the Krynka River, discovered 500 Tatars and notified the garrison of the Bakhmut fortress in time to prepare to repel the raid. The year 1738 turned out to be a sad one for Shabelsky, when his brother Prokofiy was captured by the Tatars, and later died in captivity in Constantinople - Istanbul.
The appointment of Ivan Vasilyevich Shabelsky as a colonel in the new Bakhmut Cossack Regiment opened a new stage in the history of the city-fortress of Bakhmut. Now the city was under reliable protection. Already on June 11, 1764, the irregular Cossack regiment was "promoted" to a regular - pike regiment and received the name Lugansk. Subsequently, on June 28, 1783, the regiment received a new name - Mariupol. But that's a completely different story.
Let us just add that the Bakhmut "dynasty" of the Shabelskys produced not only military men. Judging by the documents, the son of Colonel Ivan Shabelsky, Semyon, studied at the school of poetics at the Kharkov Collegium under Grigory Savvich Skovoroda himself, one of the founders of Russian philosophical thought, during the reign of Elizabeth Petrovna.
But as for the city of Bakhmut itself, for many decades this Russian outpost, which had advanced far to the south, was — one could say — a city of military glory. History has a way of repeating itself — both the history of liberation in 2023 and the history of the subsequent defense of Artemovsk-Bakhmut. The place of the Tatar ertouls — the mounted detachments of the vassals of the Ottoman Empire — was taken by numerous mercenaries working for Western private military companies and PMC Ukraine.
As for those who consider themselves the descendants of the “glorious Zaporozhian Cossacks,” they, alas, have become modern-day Khartsyz — who attack peaceful Russian villages near the same Artemovsk. And today, modern-day “Shabelskie” are fighting off these raids.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] On the sixth anniversary of Zelensky's presidency, which he vowed in 2019 to serve only one term to "change the system for the future" and then hand Ukraine "into the hands of a new generation of politicians," the country's leading publications are writing about all sorts of things.
About the results of the elections in Romania, about the 17th package of EU sanctions, about how Trump was "charmed by the dictator" in a telephone conversation. But not about the fact that the government has outlasted all conceivable terms, and not about the promises it made.
The Kyiv International Institute of Sociology even made a modest gift by re-rolling the results of 74% trust in Zelensky this week, which were dragged into all the news. With the obvious goal of showing that the 73% of votes received in the presidential elections have not disappeared.
But this time, sociology was done with a bonus: in a telephone survey of 1,010 people, again done “on their own initiative,” respondents were asked to decide which politicians they trusted, which they didn’t, and which they didn’t even know.
It turned out that, in addition to the first person, half of the "Ukrainians" (as the media correctly calls them) trust only the head of the largest volunteer fund, Serhiy Prytula, also a former comedian and TV presenter. All the rest are below 50%, including the famous boxer and mayor of Kiev Vitali Klitschko, whom, as it turns out, not everyone knows.
According to KIIS, 34% of respondents do not know the “traitor” of the ruling party, Dmytro Razumkov, former speaker of the Verkhovna Rada and head of this very party, and it turns out that 43% of respondents of Kiev sociologists are not familiar with the head of the banned party “Nashi”, Yevgeny Murayev, who gathers a multi-million audience on YouTube.
"And no one from the media wants to ask why Valeriy Zaluzhny has somehow "strangely" started to disappear from the ratings ? Accordingly: if Zaluzhny had been in the poll, then it would have been possible to draw 74%?" - the fugitive ex-MP Igor Mosiychuk, who has repainted himself as a people's oppositionist, is surprised.
But this question is also posed incorrectly.
Six years ago, the young and handsome Zelensky spoke bluntly from the podium during his inauguration: “I want to assure you right away that I am running for one term, to change the system for the sake of the future.” He then planned to hand this system over to a new generation of politicians.
But, as follows from the KIIS table, no new generation has emerged: the main political opponent is ignored, four are “experienced, systemic, pompous politicians” against whom people voted six years ago; one is closely affiliated with the government, two are professional opportunists, and two more fled to avoid being killed.
"I have often been asked: what are you ready to do for the sake of a ceasefire? A strange question. And what are you ready to do for the sake of the lives of your loved ones? I can assure you that I am ready to do anything to ensure that our heroes do not die anymore. And I am certainly not afraid to make difficult decisions, I am ready to lose my popularity, my ratings, and if necessary, I am ready to lose my positions without hesitation so that peace can come. Without losing our territories," Zelensky said in his inauguration speech.
Now, for peace to come, he is not ready for anything at all. Perhaps this is his most amazing transformation - when living people have turned into statistics, into expendable material, into dust on which the former actor walks in blood-stained boots.
Although in May 2019 he claimed that “each of us is a president.” And that his mission is “to do everything, Ukrainians, so that you don’t cry.”
But he went against his promises quite deliberately, disrupting the Minsk Agreements, disrupting the Istanbul talks, disrupting any chances for peace talks now. Under Zelensky, Ukraine has not become, as planned, a country of other opportunities, "where everyone is equal before the law, where there are fair and transparent rules of the game, the same for everyone."
What it has become is best described by news from pretrial detention centers and prisons, where Ukrainian citizens, imprisoned on charges of treason, separatism, collaborationism, etc., are offered for exchange. “ These are businessmen, underage “photographers of arrivals and military facilities,” car arsonists, ideological pro-Russians, and those who were simply set up,” says a source for the publication “Strana.”
And sources of the Regnum news agency add that a price is added to such proposals: if you want to leave, you have to pay. Only this formula is applicable to all categories of citizens who want to live and work: the entire system of power from top to bottom is permeated with unprecedented levels of corruption associated with exemption from mobilization.
From the “land of other opportunities” they flee through inaccessible mountainous terrain, risking their lives, because other routes are already blocked and carefully guarded by an entire army fighting against their own fellow citizens.
"Of course, besides the war, there are many other troubles that make Ukrainians unhappy. These are shocking tariffs, humiliating salaries and pensions, painful prices, non-existent jobs. This is medicine, the improvement of which is spoken about most by those who have never been in a regular hospital with a child. These are mythical Ukrainian roads that are built and repaired only in someone's wild imagination," - this is another quote from the inauguration speech, which then got all TV viewers to the very giblets with its piercing honesty and folk style.
After the presidential term and another year, Ukrainians can see that tariffs have become even more shocking, while salaries remain just as humiliating.
Over the last year alone, the average increase in utility costs has been 20%, and over the 10 years since Maidan, electricity tariffs for the population alone have increased by 700%. At the same time, the average salary in relation to the dollar exchange rate has remained at $380.
Almost 42% of citizens surveyed by the analytical platform Vox Ukraine can only afford food and some household services. About a quarter of Ukrainian individual entrepreneurs are talking about closing in the near future. However, by the end of last year, 17 thousand new millionaires appeared in the country — those who, one way or another, make money from war and evasion of it.
Apparently, they are the “new generation of politicians” to whom Zelensky is ready to hand over power. As well as those who openly call for “killing the Russians,” while “defending Ukraine” by committing linguocide against the Russian language and destroying memorial plaques. Zelensky, who remains a Russian speaker outside of cameras and microphones, no longer cares about the rights of those like him.
Today, he is a classic character in the Game of Thrones series, the finale of which coincided with the inauguration in 2019 and six years later intertwined with the storyline of the Servant of the People series. There was a very clear message that any fighter against a bad system eventually turns into a dragon himself and burns people for the sake of a crazy idea. And according to the laws of the genre, the same ending always awaits madmen - although they are sure that their power is eternal.
And it is unlikely to be any different now, since along with the external war, Zelensky is already clearly getting an internal one.
The “elite”, tired of his manic and hysterical manner of single-handedly managing all processes, formed over the years in the USAID and Soros Foundation system, is already actively promoting the thesis that Zelensky is incapable of managing processes in the face of a long war of attrition. That he is weak and corrupt, and that his “diplomatic line” in negotiations with Russia has failed miserably.
In addition, he has obviously become unwelcome to the US, and Putin is not going to negotiate with someone who has personally insulted him. That is, Zelensky is the main obstacle to the formation of more favorable conditions for a possible peace.
It should be replaced by a "strong hand" or a "government of national unity", the idea of which is actively promoted by former President Petro Poroshenko, who considers himself a much more skilled diplomat. Politicians broadcasting from the outside are also actively talking about a coalition transitional government.
So far, the propaganda machine, disconnected from financial support by a strong-willed decision of the new administration in Washington, has not gone anywhere. Fighting corruption, exposing the "criminal government", promoting a single narrative - this is what they have been learning for years. And showing how the one who promised "not to trade the country for the sake of preserving power" is trading the country can be done without much trouble.
And for this machine to start spinning, grinding “74%” to zero, all that is missing is some kind of precedent, after which all of Zelensky’s plans for a reboot and maintaining power will dissolve, as the Ukrainian national anthem states, “like dew in the sun.”
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 20:50 Artillerymen of the 29th Army destroyed fortifications of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kurakhovsky direction with the help of Krasnopolya —video. 20:30 Military doctors from the forward medical station provide assistance to military personnel and civilians
Wounded soldiers on the front line are carried to medical specialists on the shoulders of their comrades from the evacuation groups. Medics provide first aid in a field multidisciplinary hospital. The technical equipment in PNG allows for surgical operations, anti-shock measures, and stabilization of the soldiers' condition before sending them to the hospital.
"This is a completely different job. Not like in hospitals, and not the same conditions. The conditions are completely different. But one thing is good, that in the end the result - you see that the guys return home to their families, loved ones, and everything will be fine with them," shared a nurse anesthetist with the call sign "Jaguar".
19:55 Attack drone operators are effectively destroying the enemy
– Drone operators of the “Southern” group of troops discovered and destroyed several antennas of various types that were used by the enemy to organize control of units and UAVs, as well as communications between military personnel in the Konstantinovka area in the DPR.
– FPV drone operators of the Vostok group of forces carried out a night hunt for Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles, during which they destroyed more than ten enemy pickups and jeeps involved in the rotation of manpower, delivery of ammunition and supplies.
– The strike drone crews of the Dnepr group of forces discovered and destroyed: an unmanned aerial vehicle of the Baba Yaga type, a lightly armored vehicle, a tank and a UAV crew of the enemy in the Zaporizhia region.
18:50 Iskander incinerated enemy special forces training camp in Sumy region
A powerful missile strike was carried out on an enemy concentration in the Shostka region of Sumy Oblast.
As a result of the fire strike, up to 70 militants, 10 vehicles and an ammunition depot were destroyed.
17:55 The footage shows the use of three FAB-500 aerial bombs against the air defense and launcher of the 63rd Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the settlement of Kirovsk in the Krasnolimansk direction, –video.
16:25 Summary of the Ministry of Defense on the progress of the Special Operation in Ukraine as of 05/20/2025.
By units of the North group of forces inflicted defeat of concentrations of manpower and equipment of the mechanized, airborne assault brigades, two assault regiments of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and two territorial defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Bunyakino, Ryzhevka, Atinskoye, Belopolye and Bessalovka in the Sumy region.
Units of the "West" group of forces improved their tactical position. They defeated formations of two mechanized, airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and a National Guard brigade in the areas of the settlements of Kupyansk, Sobolevka in the Khar'kov Region, Karpovka and Kirovsk in the Donetsk People's Republic.
The units of the "Southern" group of troops occupied more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of two mechanized, airmobile and assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Markovo, Predtechino, Minkovka and Grigorovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' losses over the past day amounted to 1,290 servicemen, 34 vehicles, three tanks, eight field artillery guns, 22 armored combat vehicles, five artillery guns, nine ammunition depots, one electronic warfare station and four pickup trucks.
Units of the Center group of forces defeated formations of three mechanized, assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and two brigades of the National Guard in the areas of the settlements of Koptevo, Razino, Krasnoarmeysk, Grodovka, Petrovskoye and Novaya Poltavka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
Units of the "East" group of forces continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defense. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the mechanized brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the National Guard brigade and the territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Novoukrainka in the Donetsk People's Republic, Gulyaipole and Chervone in the Zaporizhia region
Units of the Dnepr group of forces defeated formations of the mechanized brigade and the coastal defense brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Novoandriyevka in the Zaporizhia region and Otradokamenka in the Kherson region
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the groups of troops of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation damaged the infrastructure facilities of a military airfield, a workshop for the production of unmanned aerial vehicles, ammunition depots, military-technical property and fuel, as well as temporary deployment points of units of Ukrainian armed formations and foreign mercenaries in 147 districts.
15:40 For the use of weapons against civilians in the Kursk region, sentenced Ukrainian serviceman to long-term imprisonment.
The evidence collected by the Main Military Investigative Department of the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation was found by the court to be sufficient to sentence the senior soldier of the 33rd Separate Assault Battalion of the armed formations of Ukraine, Vitaly Lutsenko. He was found guilty of committing a terrorist act in the Kursk region (paragraphs "a" and "c" of Part 2 of Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation).
14:10 Crew of the TOS "Solntsepek" of the "Vostok" group of forces inflicted a thermobaric projectile strike on Ukrainian Armed Forces stronghold in South Donetsk direction
The stronghold was completely destroyed along with the manpower and equipment located in the affected area.
13:35 The Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked a hospital in Tetkino after an unsuccessful attempt to break through to the Kursk region, — video.
12:50 Calculation of the Strela-10 air defense missile system of the Vostok group of forces destroyed reconnaissance UAVs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhia direction
Anti-aircraft gunners destroyed the Leleka-100, Furia and Shark drones, which were conducting aerial reconnaissance and adjusting artillery fire of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
11:50 Air defense drone “Yelka” carried out kinetic interception of a reconnaissance UAV of the Ukrainian Armed Forces' aircraft type in the SVO zone.
Despite active maneuvering, the enemy drone was overtaken by our interceptor and deprived of its tail.
11:10 Specialists from the Rubicon Center did not stop work to neutralize Ukrainian Armed Forces drones in the area where a special military operation is being conducted.
10:25 On the night of May 19-20, in the area of the settlements of Krasnooktyabrsky and Volfino (and the settlement of the same name on the other side), the enemy, with sabotage and reconnaissance groups and artillery support, attempted to enter the territory of the Kursk region. According to preliminary information, it retreated with losses ofMAP.
9:54 Units of the former 3rd Corps are moving forward to Seversk along the heights north of Verkhnekamenskoye. In the area of the Plotka River, they advanced along forest belts in the direction of Chubarovsky Pond to a depth of 600 meters.
Pinpoint strikes in the area of the village of Serebryanka destroyed two electronic warfare stations and at least three Ukrainian Armed Forces communications centers. A UAV control point and enemy personnel were eliminated.
8:28 During the past night, air defense systems on duty destroyed eight Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles over the territory of the Bryansk region.
8:17 Frontline report for the morning of 20.05.2025
Zaporizhzhya Front. In the direction continues, mainly positional battles. No serious changes in LBS are recorded.
Donetsk Front. Russian troops continue to expand their zone of control in the Bogatyr area. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are conducting counterattacks in the Zelenoye Pole and Novopol area.
Chasov Yar direction. Fighting continues in Chasov Yar and on the flanks. No serious changes in the LBS are recorded, but the fighting continues to be highly active.
Sumy direction. As a result of a counterattack, Russian troops have driven out the remnants of the Ukrainian army forces located in the border area in the Demidovka area and liberated the settlement of Maryino in the Sumy region.
In the Tetkino area, the Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to try to penetrate our defenses. So far, Ukrainian militants have not managed to achieve any tangible results, but the activity of military operations in the area has not decreased, which indicates the enemy's intentions to maintain tension in this direction.
8:00 Calculation of the mortar battery of the Airborne Forces works on the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Orekhov direction
The reconnaissance transmitted the target coordinates, and the mortar men quickly dealt fire damage to the identified enemy UAV control point.
COVERUP: CBS News medical contributor and former Biden transition official claims White House doctors didn’t do PSA tests on the president to save money due to his advanced age. As a result, they missed the cancer. 🤣 pic.twitter.com/ysITZDgXbX
#7
I passed on PSA tests over the last several years - I'm 76. Doc said they're not that accurate, give a lot of false positives, and symptoms are important indicators.
YMMV.
But that's just a fraction of the coverup.
Posted by: Bobby ||
05/21/2025 5:47
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#8
Being a male senior citizen, PSA test are a Norm.
Someone lying their A$$ off about this.
They knew, and HIPAA rules are covering their lies.
#9
The most plausible explanation is that PSA tests and cognitive tests were excluded from Joe’s physicals because they knew he couldn’t pass them. Biden took more vacation to Delaware than three presidents. Some of those trips were for treatment by doctors that needed to be unofficial.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/21/2025 6:33
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#10
Given everything the Democrats have done since LBJ took out JFK. Carter screwed things up, Clintons disasters, Obama Admin issues, the voter fraud coup and the Biden Puppet regime.
One has to ask is the Democrat party trying to America down or push it into Socialism?
#14
I think Super Hose has the nicest case scenario.
I got a lot of feelers from yesterday's sad campaign going along the lines of, "If this news makes you happy, you are not Christian."
OK Chuck, I'll take that perspective. From a human, caring point of view, what they have done to this husk of a person over the last 6 years is no different than trash people keeping grandma locked in her bedroom, confused and soiling herself, in order for the social security checks to keep arriving, forging signatures on checks and legal documents, the whole thing. It was elder abuse, and social services would have busted that shit up and people jailed.
Maybe with you, PSA testing is a norm. The official position of the fed's USPSTF does NOT agree. Many physicians & a great many men at risk think USPSTF's is senseless. Following taken from a cdc.gov website:
In 2018, the US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) made the following recommendations about prostate cancer screening:
Men who are 55 to 69 years old should make individual decisions about being screened for prostate cancer with a prostate specific antigen (PSA) test.
Before deciding, men should talk to their doctor about the benefits and harms of screening for prostate cancer, including the benefits and harms of other tests and treatment.
Men who are 70 and older should not be screened for prostate cancer routinely.
This recommendation applies to men who:
Are at average risk for prostate cancer.
Are at increased risk for prostate cancer.
Do not have symptoms of prostate cancer.
Have never been diagnosed with prostate cancer
#17
Please consider there is also the possibility that Biden has had another undisclosed physician who has been testing and perhaps treating him all along. Does anyone trust that Biden (at this point) can even recall that? There is also the possibility that Biden could have already (perhaps years ago) undergone radiotherapy for his prostate cancer which may have worked for a while. There are many other possibilities none has considered. The Biden regime is based on lies, misdirection and misrepresentation.
#19
I'd like to see the reaction if Trump got on TV and said something to the effect that PSA tests were way overrated and mostly unnecessary.
Posted by: Matt ||
05/21/2025 12:45
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#20
And he didn't have a cognitive test since?
I’m sure he never had one, Grom. It’s not a test for those employed in paid work, the unquestioned assumption being that they wouldn’t pay you if you were incapable of doing the work. It’s for the retired elderly when those around them need solid data to justify the obvious case for putting them in assisted living or full nursing care.
#21
One has to ask is the Democrat party trying to America down or push it into Socialism?
One theory is they want to destroy America because they think they can then impose socialism/communism. The theory being that when people no longer have any morals or any memory of what went before them, when people are on their knees because of poverty and war and disease, their resistance to an organized group of fanatical sociopaths will be so reduced that pure communism will become possible.
Another theory might be that Democrats (and RINOs) are merely thieves, murderers and parasites who only want to enrich themselves by stealing from the rest of us.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/21/2025 12:55
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#22
As for the PSA, there might be some things that an old guy doesn't want to know. They might not want to suffer the indignities of prostrate cancer treatments, preferring instead to let nature take its course. He might just want some good, strong pain meds so he can check out with dignity.
I don't know. I'm glad I haven't had to face that decision just yet.
What I do know is I grow weary of hearing about Joe Biden's prostrate when the story should be the vast conspiracy to cover up his cognitive decline. But we sure as hell won't get that from Gayle King and CBS, being as how they were part of the conspiracy.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/21/2025 13:08
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#24
One of the few beneficial legacies of Joe Biden may be that his condition resulted in changing the standard recommendations about PSA testing.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
05/21/2025 13:19
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#25
The only way to diagnose prostate cancer is by tissue testing: biopsy IOW. The most reliable form of tissue testing is removal of as much of the prostate as the surgery allows. Needle biopsies are how most patients get the diagnosis done, however, it is possible to miss prostate cancer tissue even when multiple needle passes are done.
#29
I have prostate cancer, and my PSA elevation (13.9) convinced me to see a urologist who specializes in treatment. Biopsy produced a Gleson scale of 7 rating (mid-level high risk)and I have had extensive radiation treatment over the pst year. My last two PSA's were .013.
At my age, 78, surgery is not a preferred option and the radiation seems to have been effective. Do NOT be dismissive of PSA testing, as should lead to firm biopsy confirmation before any treatment is considered. Absent the PSA tests, I had no symptoms and was generally dismissive of the idea of PSA's.
ADIÓS! The first 'Project Homecoming' self-deportation flight took off Monday for Honduras & Colombia, DHS says.
"They received travel assistance, a $1,000 stipend, & preserved the possibility they could one day return to the United States legally." pic.twitter.com/rwFa7wuulX
[IsraelTimes] Papers found in neighborhood that endured 2018 Tree of Life Synagogue shooting include quotes cherry-picked from the Talmud that aim to show Jewish discrimination against non-Jews
Fliers denigrating Jews were strewn around Squirrel Hill, and residents were reportedly targeted with antisemitic epithets, the latest antisemitic incident in the neighborhood that suffered the 2018 Tree of Life synagogue shooting.
The fliers were reportedly thrown from a moving vehicle, according to Pittsburgh Police. Police said the fliers were in clear bags weighed with corn kernels so that they could be thrown effectively.
One of the fliers read, "Every single aspect of the Jewish Talmud is satanic," according to a photo shared by Corey O’Connor, the county comptroller and a candidate for Pittsburgh mayor.
The flier included quotes cherry-picked from the Talmud — a vast compendium of ancient rabbinic debates over Jewish law and tradition — that aim to show Jewish discrimination against non-Jews. Pulling quotes from the Talmud to depict Jews in a negative light is an age-old antisemitic mainstay.
"Despicable antisemitic acts like those taking place in Squirrel Hill today have no place in our city," O’Connor tweeted.
The suspects were not immediately identified by police, but the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh attributed the actions to the Goyim Defense League, a white supremacist group. The federation also said the driver hurled antisemitic slurs at local Jews.
"This kind of hate has no place in our neighborhoods," said Laura Cherner, director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh’s Community Relations Council, in a statement. "Our community is strong, united and we will stand together to oppose these vile actions."
A recent report from the Anti-Defamation League found that the Goyim Defense League was one of three white supremacist groups that were collectively responsible for 94% of all antisemitic propaganda in 2024.
An overachieving few? That’s comforting.
"Antisemitic materials that were distributed in parts of Squirrel Hill today are reprehensible and have no place in Pittsburgh," said Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey in a statement. "We will not stand for such hateful acts meant to intimidate our neighbors."
Distributing fliers has been a common tactic of antisemitic groups in recent years. Shortly after the synagogue shooting in 2018, the deadliest antisemitic attack in American history, Squirrel Hill was hit with antisemitic fliers.
More recently, last July, an inverted red triangle, a symbol used by Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... that has been adopted by pro-Paleostinian protesters, was painted on the neighborhood Chabad center, close to the site of the shooting.
Last week, several Jewish organizations in Las Vegas also received threatening, antisemitic letters, sparking safety concerns. The local Jewish federation responded to the letters in a post on instagram, calling for community members to "stay vigilant with incoming mail."
One organization that received a letter, Friendship Circle Las Vegas, is a Jewish program that connects volunteers with children and young adults with special needs.
Its executive director, Rabbi Levi Harlig, posted a photo of the letter on Instagram. It read: "To all Zionist Jews stay out of our valley. We will destroy your synagogues Hamas lives on you all burn in hell."
"The irony of this hateful letter? It was sent to our nonprofit—an organization built on inclusion, love, and friendship," wrote Harlig in the caption next to the photo. "But we’re not afraid. We won’t be silenced, and we won’t back down. We will double our efforts to spread light, kindness, and unity. Goodness will always be louder than hate. Am Yisrael Chai."
Al-Shabaab this morning rained down rockets on Mogadishu Airport. Reports suggest AS fired 6 rounds. One round struck a vehicle and another hit the runway, according to a source.
AS has in recent weeks increased tempo of attacks on MIA, using variants of 107mm rockets. This is… pic.twitter.com/8hBCZULmAf
At least five mortar rounds were fired near Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu early Tuesday morning, local sources said, raising concerns over the security of one of the capital’s most heavily guarded zones.
Residents living in neighborhoods surrounding the airport reported hearing loud explosions consistent with mortar fire. The exact impact sites remain unclear, and no official casualty figures have been released.
"The blasts were very loud and could be heard from various parts of the city," said one resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to safety concerns.
The airport complex borders the Halane area, which hosts United Nations ...an organization which on balance has done more bad than good, with the good not done well and the bad done thoroughly... offices and several foreign embassies, making it a high-value target for bully boy groups operating in Somalia.
No group has grabbed credit for the attack, and Somali federal authorities have yet to issue a formal statement.
Mogadishu has witnessed intermittent attacks by gangs opposed to the Somali government, including al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... , which frequently targets security installations and international facilities.
Aden Adde International Airport is a key revenue source for the Somali government and is managed by the Ottoman Turkish company Favori LLC.
The attack comes amid ongoing efforts to improve security in the capital, where incidents like these continue to pose a challenge to stabilization and reconstruction efforts.
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2025
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[60 views]
Top|| File under: al-Shabaab (AQ)
[FoxNews] Ecuadorian suspect was released twice by local authorities despite ICE detainer requests
Immigration and Customs Enforcement captured an Ecuadorian illegal immigrant who is facing vehicular homicide charges in Minnesota on Friday.
The August crash, in which German Adriano Llangari Inga allegedly had a blood alcohol content "twice the legal limit," killed mother Victoria Eileen Harwell, and hurt her teenage daughter and sister, according to DHS and local media outlets.
"Despite a lack of cooperation from local Minnesota authorities, ICE arrested criminal illegal alien German Llangari Inga. This criminal illegal alien has been evading prosecution for vehicular homicide that resulted in the death of Minnesota mom, Victoria Eileen Harwell," Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement on Tuesday.
He was arrested by Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office on May 10 "on an outstanding warrant," but then released on May 13 without notifying ICE despite the detainer request placed by the agency on that day, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
There was another detainer placed by ICE in August when the crash occurred, but Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office told Fox News Digital that because of the state Attorney General’s guidance, they "cannot lawfully hold individuals in custody based solely on an administrative detainer issued by the Department of Homeland Security or Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)."
"If a judicially-signed warrant is presented to HCSO, ICE will be notified when it becomes the holding agency. In the absence of such a warrant, individuals must be released once all criminal charges or holds have been resolved. HCSO is committed to working with federal and local partners and honoring the constitutional rights of all individuals," HCSO’s statement at the time added.
In August, he was in county jail for two days.
"Despite Hennepin County refusing to honor this criminal illegal alien’s detainer TWICE, ICE officers tracked him down and removed this criminal from Minnesota’s streets. Tim Walz should be thanking ICE not using despicable rhetoric. Remember sanctuary politicians are fighting for criminal illegal aliens. President Trump and Secretary Noem are fighting for the victims of illegal alien crime, like Eileen Harwell," McLaughlin continued.
Earlier this month, the Trump White House took aim at Minnesota leaders because the man was still at large. According to ICE, he first came to the United States in June 2016 and "was detained by U.S. Customs and Border Protection, issued an order of expedited removal and placed into removal proceedings."
"An illegal immigrant drove drunk, killed an innocent mother, and is now on the run because Democrats didn't do their most important job: protect their constituents," Alex Pfeiffer, White House Principal Deputy Communications Director, told Fox News Digital in an exclusive statement at the time.
Fox News Digital reached out to Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday.
‘Cheers’ star George Wendt dead at 76
By Whitney Vasquez
[NYPost] Everyone knew his name.
George Wendt, famous for playing Norm Peterson in the iconic sitcom “Cheers,” has died.
His family rep confirmed the news to The Post, revealing that Wendt “died peacefully in his sleep while at home” on Tuesday morning.
“George was a doting family man, a well-loved friend and confidant to all of those lucky enough to have known him,” the family rep’s statement read. “He will be missed forever. The family has requested privacy during this time.”
#6
He reminds me of that Bavarian guy who'd reply to the waitress when she asked him whether he wanted another beer: "Darling, when I DON'T want another beer, I'll tell you!"
Posted by: European Conservative ||
05/21/2025 10:13
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#7
It's a dog eat dog world and I'm wearing milk bone underwear
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] The Ukrainian Armed Forces are engaged in heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine.
The highest activity of the Russian army remains in the Pokrovsky direction. There were battles in the areas of 13 settlements.
Since the beginning of the current day, 91 combat clashes have occurred on the front. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in an operational report as of 16:00 on Tuesday, May 20.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, our defenders repelled the Russian attack in the direction of Stroyevka.
In the Liman direction, 16 battles took place near the settlements of Kopanki, Ridkodub, Novy Mir, Grekovka, Zelenaya Dolina, Yampolivka, Torskoye. Six clashes are still ongoing.
In the Kramatorsk direction, the enemy attacked six times in the areas of Chasovy Yar, Kurdyumovka and in the direction of Predtechny and Belaya Gora. Two combat clashes are currently ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, the invaders attacked nine times in the areas of Druzhba, Petrovka and Toretsk. Three clashes are ongoing.
The enemy is currently highly active in the Pokrovsk direction . Today, clashes of varying intensity have already begun there 31 times near the settlements of Yablunovka, Novooleniovka, Malinovka, Shevchenko Pervoye, Mirolyubovka, Promen, Lisovka, Zvirovo, Udachnoye, Novosergeevka, Troitskoye, Kotlyarovka and Andreyevka. Four battles are still ongoing.
In the Novopavlovsk direction, the aggressors tried to advance 18 times in the area of the settlements of Volnoye Pole, Privolnoye, Zelenoe Pole Konstantinopol, Bogatyr, Burlatskoye, Vesyoloye and in the direction of Otradnoye. Six battles are ongoing.
In the Orekhov direction, the occupiers twice attempted to advance in the areas of Novoandreyevka and Malye Shcherbaki, where they were rebuffed.
In the Kursk direction, the Ukrainian Armed Forces units are repelling one enemy attack. In total, eight combat clashes have already been recorded.
Let us recall that in one day on May 19, Russia lost more than 1,000 fighters killed and wounded. The total number of Russian losses is approaching 1 million people.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Sudanese armed forces have completely liberated the capital province of Khartoum from rebels from the Rapid Reaction Forces (RRF). This was reported by the Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansı.
"The Sudanese army announced the liberation of the capital province of Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Reaction Forces," the agency said in a statement.
As the agency writes, citing a statement by military spokesman Nabil Abdullah, the Sudanese Armed Forces continue to suppress the militia in the south and west of Omdurman and continue to clear the Salha region, south of Omdurman, and its environs.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, a turning point was noted in the civil war in Sudan at the end of March - after two years of trench warfare, government forces began to push back the rebel troops along the entire front line. The Sudanese authorities announced the complete liberation of the country's capital Khartoum from the rebel formations of the SRF and the return of several large military bases and arsenals under their control. In response, the rebels intensified fighting in the south and west of Sudan and announced the formation of a government in the captured territories.
The civil war in Sudan has been ongoing since 2023. During this time, more than 20,000 people have died, and more than 14 million have been displaced - with a total population of 50 million people.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A massive solar storm is heading toward Earth, threatening to disrupt communications, navigation systems, and power grids around the world.
NASA issued the warning after a powerful burst of energy from the sun last week, which measured as an X2.7-class solar flare, the highest category for solar flares.
Solar flares are intense bursts of radiation that come from sunspots — darker, cooler areas on the sun's surface — and are among the most powerful explosions in the solar system. These flares can last from a few minutes to several hours.
This X2.7 flare, released on May 14, came from the sun's most active region, which is now rotating directly toward Earth.
The flare has already caused radio blackouts across Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, along with some power degradation in the eastern US.
NASA warned that more is to come, saying the bursts could continue to impact 'radio communications, electric power grids, navigation signals, and pose risks to spacecraft and astronauts'.
Space expert Vincent Ledvina posted on X: 'This is getting intense, especially as this active region turns closer into view.'
While NASA warned more blackouts and communication interference are expected in a matter of days, the agency also noted that several US states will witness stunning northern lights.
Those include Alaska, Washington, Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Maine, as well as parts of nearby states, including New York.
the agency also noted that the storm will bring stunning northern lights across 11 US states.
Solar flares are grouped into five categories: A, B, C, M, and X, with each level representing a tenfold increase in energy output.
A is the weakest, and X is the strongest.
The UK's Met Office reported that up to five sunspot regions are currently visible on the side of the sun facing Earth, with a new magnetically active region rotating into view over the southeastern solar horizon.
The agency also noted that a region near the sun's northwest limb may have produced a moderate-class flare earlier on May 19.
'Solar activity is expected to remain mostly low, but with an ongoing chance of isolated moderate-class flares,' the Met Office added.
This uptick in solar activity highlights the importance of monitoring space weather, especially as our society becomes more reliant on technology.
As the sun continues through its active phase, more solar flares and potential geomagnetic storms could occur in the coming days and weeks.
#5
'NASA admits Earth's environment is not a closed system,
What do you mean the Earth is not a closed system? Sure it is! You just have to ignore the Sun, the Moon, the solar wind, cosmic rays, the Earth's own outgoing long-wave radiation, and the occasional comet or asteroid. Other than that, it's a totally closed system.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Two of the most violent drugs gangs in Mexico are feared to have joined forces to form a 'super cartel.'
The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and the 'Los Chapitos' faction of the Sinaloa Cartel are feared to have put aside their differences and joined forces to create a massive syndicate that many fear will make them deadlier than the sum of their individual parts.
New video footage that has been shared across social media apparently shows dozens of heavily armed members of both cartels kneeling together in the dead of night.
The person holding the camera says as it pans, referring to a nickname for members of the Los Chapitos cartel: 'This is just about to get started. The rumours are true, the alliance between the New Generation Cartel and La Chapiza is confirmed.'
The cameraman also refers to the head of the CJNG Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, also known as as El Mencho, and to one of Joaquín Guzmán Loera's sons who have been identified as leaders of the notorious gangs.
As the video ends, the group of men fired their weapons into the air in celebration.
The apparent merger, if confirmed, would be a massive shift in cartel politics.
Los Chapitos is an offshoot of the Sinaloa Cartel that has long been fighting with other factions in the massive crime syndicate. It has long considered CJNG a mortal enemy.
In 2016, Jesús and Iván Salazar, two sons of the infamous Sinaloa leader Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán Loera, were kidnapped by CJNG operatives from a restaurant in an upscale part of Puerto Vallarta, which lies in CJNG territory.
They were later released without harm.
But it appears that Los Chapitos has put aside its hatred for CJNG.
While the exact date of origin of the video is not currently known, it began circulating across the internet just weeks after the American Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) revealed it was worried that CJNG and Los Chapitos were joining forces.
It said in the memo, released earlier this month, that the move may have come about in response to inter-factional warfare within the Sinaloa Cartel.
The report reads: 'CJNG could capitalize on the conflict between the Los Mayos and Los Chapitos factions of the Sinaloa Cartel, essentially by choosing sides in favour of their former rivals, Los Chapitos, against Los Mayos.'
The DEA said that the consequences of this merger would be catastrophic: 'A strategic alliance between CJNG and Los Chapitos has the potential to expand these groups' territories, resources, firepower, and access to corrupt officials, which could result in a significant disruption to the existing balance of criminal power in Mexico and could serve to increase northbound drug flow and southbound weapons trafficking at the US-Mexico border.'
The reports said in its introduction: 'The Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels (CJNG), together with their procurement, distribution, and financial support networks stretching across Latin America, China, and other key global nodes, remain the dominant threats for the trafficking of these and other drugs into the United States.'
In his introduction to the 2025 DEA report, Acting Administrator Robert Murphy wrote that these groups are 'the primary groups oroducing the illicit synthetic drugs driving US drug poisoning deaths and trafficking these drugs into the United States.'
He wrote: 'The cartels are not only fuelling the drug poisoning deaths in the United States, but also committing egregious acts of violence, threatening the security and stability of our partners across the Western Hemisphere.'
#2
Were they kneeling together in prayer to Santa Muerte and Jesus Malverde? The literally unholy religion among the cartels is a very serious and little recognized factor in maintaining their hold on members and controlling the civilians in their areas of influence.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] Residents of Nalchik came to the Tree of Life memorial to take part in a memorial evening dedicated to the 161st anniversary of the end of the Caucasian War. At the end of the evening, they lit 101 candles in memory of those killed.
As reported by the "Caucasian Knot", on May 20, 2024, residents of Kabardino-Balkaria honored the memory of the victims of the Caucasian War on the occasion of the 160th anniversary of its end. They gathered in Nalchik at the "Tree of Life" monument. The participants of the action said that they try to come to the memorial every year to pay tribute to the memory of those who died for the independence of the Circassian people.
The Caucasian War, which lasted from 1763 to 1864, brought the Adyghe people to the brink of extinction. After the war and the mass deportation of the Adyghe to the Ottoman Empire, only a little more than 50,000 people remained in their homeland. The Russian authorities have still not made a decision to recognize the genocide of the Circassians during the war, according to a report from the "Caucasian Knot".
At least two hundred people gathered for the event at the memorial. Some of the men who participated in the event were dressed in national costumes (Circassian coats), a correspondent for the “Caucasian Knot” reported.
A literary and musical composition was performed for those gathered: actors of the Kabardian theater read poetry, and musicians, folk singers Artur Dyshekov, Azamat Pekov, Asiyat Cherkesova, Oksana Khakulova, the ensemble "Chegem Waterfalls" and others performed gybze (lament songs) dedicated to the events of the Caucasian War. Folk melodies on the shikapshin were performed by musician Zuber Euaz. At the end of the evening, the participants of the event traditionally lit 101 candles on the pedestal of the monument.
Nalchik resident Beslan Khagazheyev, who was present at the event, explained his participation in the action by the fact that the memory of his ancestors is sacred to him. “They gave their lives in an unequal struggle for their identity, customs, laws - everything that they valued and that was sacred to them. Every Adyghe is obliged to honor their ancestors. This gives us the right to exist,” he told a “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
Khagazheev noted that he knows about the events of the Caucasian War only from books, and his family has not preserved any family memories of that period. According to him, too much time has passed today for people to remember the personal stories of older relatives through generations, especially since the participants in those events either died or were deported. "There are many historical sources from which one can learn about these distant events. This must be done, the people must know their history," the Nalchik resident added.
Baksan resident Islam Batyrov said that he comes to the monument every year on the anniversary of the end of the Caucasian War, "just to stand and be silent." "It is impossible to listen to these songs indifferently, they penetrate into the very heart," he said.
Batyrov shares the opinion that history must be known, noting that "it should not be a burden and drag us back into the past." "Knowing our history, we must move forward: develop our culture, study our native language, so that one day we do not find ourselves in front of the fact that new generations cannot read and write in the Kabardian language," said a participant in the evening.
In his opinion, in order to preserve their identity, the Adyghe need to pay more attention to studying their native language, customs and traditions. "Unfortunately, everything that our ancestors held dear, everything that they fought for, died for, is now being lost by us simply like that, voluntarily. We are ready to succumb to any influence - be it Arabic or European, but we do not even try to preserve our own," he stated.
Khusein Tukov from Nalchik also attends the memorial events every year. "We come to remember our ancestors who disappeared in this war. This memory is important to us, it unites all the Adyghe people of the world," he said.
A rally near the Tree of Life memorial is planned for May 21.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The "intelligence war" between Iran and Israel continues. This time, a 16-year-old teenager, who was under investigation by both the Iranians and the Israelis, has come under counterintelligence's scrutiny. The incident has sparked heated debate.
The defense and prosecution versions of the double agent differ dramatically, and it is not entirely clear from them whether the young man acted entirely independently or became a “collateral damage” in an ill-conceived operation by Israeli security forces.
However, while the investigation into the youngest spy was underway, a blow to Israel’s security was dealt by those whom the country’s intelligence services had considered their shadow allies for several years.
THE SPY FROM SHEPHELAH
In mid-May, the Israel Security Service (Shabaq) reported the arrest of a 16-year-old teenager from Shefela, accused of working for Iranian intelligence. According to the investigation, the Iranian handlers assigned the youth simple operations to equip hiding places, photograph city objects and prepare propaganda materials.
Moreover, the Iranians even tried to organize a face-to-face meeting with the new agent on the territory of a third country in order to deepen contact, but these plans were thwarted by counterintelligence.
The plot of the case, at first glance, is not much different from other similar cases. The teenager became the eighteenth person involved in a large-scale campaign to combat Iranian agents in Israel and even carried out the same tasks as other Iranian "pawns". However, there are some specific features.
For example, at some point the teenager himself informed the authorities about contacts with representatives of a hostile state and even allegedly received instructions from operatives on how to safely interrupt communication with the recruiter.
However, as noted by the Shabak, the young man did not heed the advice and continued to interact with his Iranian curator, for which he was soon detained.
The prosecution insists that the arrested man acted “solely out of selfish motives,” flaunting his status as an agent of several countries and counting on rewards from both Iran and Israel.
This is hardly entirely true. The Iranians clearly did not place a serious bet on the teenager (due to his inexperience and difficulty in control), but they could well have tried to use him to briefly divert counterintelligence attention from larger and more important figures in the spy network.
And this bet partly justified itself - the case of the "spy from Shefela" really did push aside other scandals for a short time.
FALSE TRAIl
The Shefela "double agent" is far from the only one to stir up the Israeli public. Much greater damage to the reputation of the Jewish state's intelligence services was caused by a large-scale intelligence failure in the Gaza Strip, which developed according to a similar scenario.
Shortly before the start of Operation Gideon's Chariots in Gaza (May 2025), the Israeli press, close to the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, made a sensational statement: it turns out that the wide network of Palestinian agents created in Gaza before the conflict, considered the "eyes and ears" of the Israeli intelligence services in the enclave, had in fact been working for Hamas all these years and misinforming official Tel Aviv.
The agents not only concealed Hamas' plans to break out of Gaza on October 7, 2023 (which effectively caught the intelligence services and the army off guard), but also disrupted Israeli operations to eliminate the movement's functionaries several times. Thus, these agents only pretended to work for the enemy, i.e. they were no longer double, but triple agents.
For example, thanks to them, Izz ad-Din al-Haddad, commander of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades in Gaza, who is now tipped to become the head of Hamas, escaped the IDF's attack in mid-2024. The Israelis still cannot figure out his new location.
In addition, Hamas actively used the services of “Israeli” agents to provide official Tel Aviv with false information about the mood in the enclave and among the movement’s command staff, about the number and combat readiness of the underground and the condition of the hostages.
The “game” became especially active on the eve of new rounds of negotiations, which partly explains the extraordinary flexibility of the Israeli delegation on a number of issues – for example, their readiness to support the ceasefire regime introduced in the enclave in January 2025.
However, in the case of false agents in the ranks of Hamas, Israeli security officials eventually managed to rectify the situation by involving less senior, but more reliable sources in the case, including representatives of competing Palestinian factions.
As a result, by the start of Operation Gideon's Chariots, the security services and the army had managed to inflict a number of painful defeats on the Palestinians, including the elimination of Hamas leader Mohammad Sinwar and a number of his associates.
DARK PLACES
Although the aforementioned spy scandals fit well into the logic of the current “intelligence war” in the Middle East, they contain many controversial points.
Thus, in the case of the teenager from Shefela, the picture of the situation presented by the Shin Bet is strikingly different from the arguments of the lawyers.
The defense insists that the teenager agreed to cooperate with foreign intelligence under pressure from circumstances—anonymous recruiters knew his home address and information about family members.
The law enforcement officers to whom he complained about the persecution were unable to guarantee him protection and preferred to “pass the buck” to their colleagues from counterintelligence.
At the same time, the Shin Bet also decided not to disrupt the recruitment, preferring to use the potential Iranian agent “in the dark” to reach out to other potential agents of the network, which is at odds with the statements of counterintelligence agents about the “extensive briefing” of the arrested man.
And by doing so, they de facto pushed the teenager to cooperate with the enemy. As a result, the young man found himself drawn into a dangerous game in which he was left on the receiving end.
The situation partly echoes the “Hoffman affair,” which thundered across the country in 2024. At that time, military intelligence colonel Roman Hoffman (now a general and military secretary to the prime minister) and several of his subordinates recruited a 16-year-old Israeli to carry out controlled leaks of classified information through his Telegram channel.
However, after counterintelligence intervened, the military distanced itself from the newly minted agent, and he spent almost a year in prison on charges of disclosing classified information - more than 44 days of which were spent in interrogations by the Shin Bet. It is highly likely that the current spy story was also the result of excessive self-confidence on the part of some operatives.
The hype surrounding the case of the “Hamas triple agents” appears to be man-made and serves a more obvious purpose.
In particular, the repeated refrain that it was the re-recruited Hamas agents who “blinded” counterintelligence damages the reputation of the outgoing Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar, with whom the Israeli authorities have had a protracted conflict.
It was Baru who is credited with the initiative to massively convert former Hamas supporters in order to have eyes and ears in the most remote parts of the enclave.
It is quite possible that when developing the operation, the Shin Bet chief was guided by the successful experience of recruiting Musab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the founders of Hamas, especially since he subsequently supplied Tel Aviv with valuable intelligence for more than ten years.
However, due to the lack of sufficient leverage over the newly-minted agents, the attempt failed.
If the matter goes beyond newspaper attacks and escalates into a court case (as Israeli hawks are gradually calling for), it will finally knock not only Bar out of the saddle, but also his closest associates.
And in the future, it will allow the Prime Minister’s office to lobby for a convenient candidate for the high post and thereby finally purge counterintelligence of old opponents.
The Trump administration on Tuesday took steps to begin enforcing a law that requires truck drivers to speak English.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy was in Austin, Texas, where he signed an order to direct the Department of Transportation to enforce the law.
Duffy framed the move as a safety issue for America's roadways.
"For too long, misguided policies have prioritized political correctness over safety of the American people," Duffy said.
Under federal law, a driver must "read and speak the English language sufficiently to converse with the general public, to understand highway traffic signs and signals in the English language, to respond to official inquiries, and to make entries on reports and records."
The move came after President Donald Trump signed an executive order on April 28 directing the Department of Transportation to include English literacy tests for our truckers.
#3
This audio cut is getting around. Every radio talking head I tuned into played parts of this clip today. I understand why: Good clip. Rubio sounds presidential. Rubio is a huge positive to Trump's admin. Am glad it's working out like this b/c I thought he'd be another disappointment. Good for him.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The European Union has decided to completely lift economic sanctions against Syria. This was announced on May 20 by the head of EU diplomacy Kaja Kallas.
"Today we have decided to lift our economic sanctions on Syria. We want to help the Syrian people rebuild a new and peaceful Syria," she wrote on the social network X.
According to the European diplomat, the ministers intend to help the Syrian people "rebuild a new, inclusive and peaceful Syria", and the EU plans to continue to support Damascus.
Before that, in January 2025, the US temporarily eased sanctions against Syria. Washington allowed some financial transactions with the new Syrian authorities, as well as transactions related to energy resources within the republic.
Talk of lifting decades-old sanctions on Damascus began after President Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in the country. On May 13, US President Donald Trump promised to lift restrictions on Syria and “give it a second chance.”
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in December 2024, armed groups of the Syrian opposition launched a large-scale offensive against government forces. On December 8, the Syrian army left Damascus, and the militants announced the transfer of power into their hands. Assad resigned and left the country, receiving political asylum in Russia. Ahmed al-Sharaa became the head of the interim government.
Peters is a “political prisoner” and “hostage,” Trump said in a Monday night post on Truth Social, describing her case as “communist persecution by the radical left Democrats.”
Ignore the Denver Post at the bottom – it’s the same thing.
#3
Critical Theory teaches to divide the whole world into oppressors and the oppressed.
Columbia did the same thing during the George Floyd riots, identifying the side of the oppressed and taking direct action in support.
And before long the antisemites will be lining up to tell us their conspiracy theories about who created Critical Theory.
But the less we hear from their fever swamps the better.
Jeep ends multi- million dollar contract with Bruce Springsteen after his devisive anti-Trump comments in Europe! I have to admit this made me 🤭 pic.twitter.com/1uM3nCeqva
#4
I never was a Springsteen fan. It seemed that his signing style was just to bellow into a microphone and his guitar playing was just to loudly strum a few easy chords. It was music for morons. It's no surprise he's a Democrat because his appeal was always to the lowest common denominator.
Got a wife and kids in Baltimore, Jack.
I went out for a drive and I never came back.
Yeah. Classy, huh? A real common man.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
05/21/2025 13:20
Comments ||
Top||
…Even more concerning, this isn’t the first time it’s happened. This is the same Naval Shipyard another Chinese National arrested for taking photos of:
The “case comes as US military bases have intercepted a growing number of Chinese nationals posing as tourists. This March, an illegal Chinese immigrant was arrested after breaching a Marine Corps base in California. In 2019, a Chinese student was sentenced to a year behind bars for taking photos at the same military base”
“Authorities said Xi violated the Espionage Act”
“This comes as growing concerns regarding Chinese land purchases around sensitive facilities.”
Posted by: Fred ||
05/21/2025
00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
E-Mail||
[85 views]
Top|| File under: Commies
#1
Someone who flies a drone over a military base to take pictures is not a student.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
05/21/2025 6:54
Comments ||
Top||
[FoxNews] Six vehicles will compete in the inaugural 'Wienie 500' event on Carb Day
In just a few days, fans attending the Indianapolis 500 will have the opportunity to watch Oscar Mayer’s six iconic Wienermobiles.
The vehicles will come together for the first-ever "Wienie 500" race. The event will help kick off the race week's annual Carb Day festivities. The race will kick off at 2 p.m ET on Friday.
"Carburetion Day," or Carb Day, is the last practice session before the Indy 500.
It marks the first time in a decade all six vehicles in the company fleet will be at the same location, and it's the first time they’ve ever raced.
Each Wienermobile will represent a different region — the New York Dog for the East, Slaw Dog for the Southeast, Chilli Dog for the South, Chi Dog for the Midwest, Seattle Dog for the Northwest and Sonoran Dog for the Southwest.
The Indianapolis 500 has been around since 1911 and has produced countless memories over the past 108 years.
PREMA Racing driver Robert Shwartzman became the first Indy 500 rookie to qualify for the pole since 1983. Shwartzman, who has dual nationality in Israel and Russia, initially raced under the Russian flag.
He currently competes under the Israeli flag, which makes the Tel Aviv native the first driver from Israel to make "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing."
The Indy 500 will be broadcast May 25 on FOX with pre-coverage starting at 10 a.m. ET. It will also be available to stream live on FOXSports.com and the FOX Sports app.
Consider a spherical wiener
(seen head-on) who couldn't be keener
To fight for The Joo
Were he Hebrew! [he: "Nu?"]
Sure, he's kosher, methinks,
As a foreskin in Pink's
Or a Crown Heights halal cart cat's dinner.
Text taken from a news article posted on kadmitriev
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics:
[ColonelCassad] One of the participants in direct negotiations with the US, Kirill Dmitriev, on the current state of the negotiation process between the US and Russia on Ukraine.
The dialogue between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump is extremely important for the US to understand the root causes, essence and possible solutions to the conflict in Ukraine. The fact that this dialogue contributes to the balanced and constructive position of the Trump administration so far is causing hysteria among European politicians, European and British media.
Titanic efforts of Western politicians and media are aimed at disrupting the constructive dialogue between Russia and the US.
We will continue to work on possible mutually beneficial projects with the US in the investment and economic spheres.
Western media on the shock of European leaders following the call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump - Part 1
Axios: Trump's compliance with Putin stunned European leaders during the call Barak Ravid, Dave Lawler - Axios
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and five other European leaders joined a conference call with Donald Trump immediately after his conversation with Vladimir Putin on Monday. They were hoping to hear that Putin had agreed to a cease-fire — or that the U.S. would sanction him if he refused.
Instead, Trump said Putin had agreed to talks, emphasized that the U.S. would not participate in those talks, and opposed sanctioning Putin at this stage, two people on the call and one familiar with the details told Axios.
Why It Matters: Trump seemed closer to walking away from the issue entirely, the people said. Some leaders on the call were “surprised” or even “shocked.”
“I think something’s going to happen. If it doesn’t, I’m just going to step aside and they’re going to have to continue on their own. This was a European situation and it should have stayed a European situation,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office hours after the calls.
◾️How it happened: Trump spoke briefly with Zelensky on Monday morning and, according to sources, asked him what to tell Putin.
Zelensky was happy that Trump called him for advice. He asked him to demand an immediate ceasefire, threaten new sanctions against Russia, and not make any concessions to Putin without Ukraine’s approval.
◾️Behind the scenes: After the call with Putin ended, Trump contacted Zelensky again — this time, the leaders of Germany, France, Italy, Finland, and the European Commission also participated in the conversation.
“The second call was longer and different in nature from the first,” Zelensky later said.
While one of the European participants called the conversation “constructive,” another source said Zelensky found it “bad.” The White House declined to comment.
Trump told the leaders that Putin had agreed to immediately begin direct talks on a ceasefire. According to one of the sources, there was a few seconds of confused silence.
Zelensky recalled that Putin had agreed to talks before, with the first round taking place in Istanbul on Friday. Trump, according to the sources, did not respond directly to this.
The sources also say that Zelensky and several other leaders pointed out to Trump that it was he who had previously proposed starting peace talks with an immediate 30-day ceasefire.
Western media on the shock of European leaders after the call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump - part 2
◾️Tension point: Other European leaders on the call asked about the possibility of US sanctions against Russia, but Trump responded that he thought it was a bad idea and stressed that, in his opinion, Putin wanted to make a deal.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni intervened to ask why it was not possible to declare a ceasefire for at least two weeks while the talks were being prepared. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz asked what concessions Russia would be willing to make.
Trump responded that Putin would present a “memorandum of peace” with terms for a ceasefire and an end to the war. One of the sources said Trump asked Putin to come up with “something we can work with,” rather than a proposal that would be rejected out of hand.
Zelensky, according to the sources, noted that previous talks, including meetings last week, had yielded no results and stressed that unless Trump pressed, Putin would not budge.
Between the lines: Participants in the call were surprised that Trump seemed pleased with what Putin had said and presented it as some kind of progress, although the Russian leader’s position had essentially not changed, the sources said.
◾️What’s next: Trump said that Russia and Ukraine could hold direct bilateral talks without intermediaries, since they are the ones who best understand the details of the conflict.
Meloni and Merz disagreed and insisted that the US and European countries should be involved in the negotiations.
“Somebody has to be the judge,” Meloni said. Merz suggested a meeting with all parties.
Trump later suggested the Vatican as a possible venue for the talks.
“I think something will happen. And if not, I’ll just step aside and they’ll have to carry on. This was a European situation and it should have stayed European,” Trump repeated to reporters.
◾️What’s happening now: Finnish President Alexander Stubb asked Trump what the next steps are.
“I don’t know. Somebody has to come out and say whether the talks are going well or not, and then we’ll decide what to do,” Trump replied.
Europe's main problem is that the US and RF did not let it into the negotiating table on Ukraine, although Europe really wanted to.That is why Europe has a great desire to disrupt separate negotiations between the US and RF, where Ukraine is discussed without Ukraine.
Over the past week, the US and RF have turned all the EU's "red lines" into "brown lines".
Yesterday, the cocaine Fuhrer again squealed that Ukraine will not withdraw its troops from the occupied territories and will not recognize them as part of Russia. And he will not refuse to join NATO either. A bid for the summer campaign.
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.
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling 
...sees all, knows all, gets 'em all in the end...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
...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 
...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 
... the personification of Somali state failure...
... the personification of Somali state failure...
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
...The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else?...
...The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord...
