[IsraelTimes] A consultant working for Iran’s Revolutionary Guards has died from injuries sustained in an alleged Israeli air attack on the Syrian capital Damascus on Monday, Iran’s Student News Network reports.
The reports identifies the consultant as Majid Divani, without giving further details.
The attack appears to be the same as one reported by Syrian state media, which claimed on Tuesday that three civilians were killed and nine others injured in an Israeli airstrike on the Syrian capital Damascus.
State media reported on Tuesday that Syrian air defenses intercepted “hostile targets” over the vicinity of Damascus three times in a row in one night, following explosions that were heard in the capital.
When asked about the reported attack, the IDF said on Tuesday that it does not comment on foreign media reports.
[IsraelTimes] The European Union announces that it is giving an extra 30 million euros ($33 million) of humanitarian aid to Lebanon as fighting rages between Israel and Hezbollah.
“Today, we are stepping up our humanitarian aid to the people of Lebanon,” says European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen.
“Our new funding will ensure civilians receive much-needed assistance during this very difficult time.
“I am extremely concerned by the constant escalation of tensions in the Middle East. All parties must do their utmost to protect the lives of innocent civilians.”
The latest EU aid package comes on top of 10 million euros announced over the weekend, taking the bloc’s humanitarian assistance for Lebanon to over 100 million euros this year.
[IsraelTimes] Police say woman being charged for displaying symbol of prohibited terrorist organization; authorities on high alert ahead of planned protests marking October 7 anniversary
Australian police on Wednesday charged a 19-year-old woman after an investigation into terror group Hezbollah flags flown at a Sydney demonstration.
She was arrested and charged with publicly displaying the symbol of a prohibited terrorist organization, said New South Wales Police.
Other attendees at the anti-Israel protests, which took place in Sydney and Melbourne last week, also waved other terror-supporting signs, including flags of Palestinian group Hamas and placards with slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.
The protest has divided politicians, police and community leaders on what constitutes free speech or illegal activity.
Authorities remain on high alert ahead of two planned anti-Israel protests this week that will mark the one-year anniversary since Hamas’s October 7 massacres in Israel that triggered the Gaza conflict, which has spread to Lebanon and beyond.
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Wednesday that the two protests — set for October 6 and 7 — should not go ahead and that any demonstration would be seen “as incredibly provocative.”
“It would not advance any cause. It would cause a great deal of distress,” he told national broadcaster ABC. Albanese added he would attend a vigil instead.
Police have indicated they would seek to stop the demonstrations from going ahead.
New South Wales Police said Tuesday that despite discussions with organizers, they were “not satisfied that the protest can proceed safely” and had decided to apply to the NSW Supreme Court to prohibit them.
The matter will be heard in court later this week.
Protest organizers, the Palestine Action Group Sydney, said the police action was “an attack on fundamental democratic rights.”
“We intend on defending our right to protest and are determined to continue standing for justice for Palestine and Lebanon,” the group said in a statement.
Antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment have risen in Australia since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw thousands of terrorists burst across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
In September, anti-Israel protesters and police clashed outside a defense exhibition in Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne, with police using sponge grenades, flash-bang devices and irritant sprays to control parts of the hostile crowd.
In August, anti-Israel demonstrators marched through the streets of Sydney condemning the assassinations of Hamas and Hezbollah terror chiefs Ismail Haniyeh and Fuad Shukr and the ongoing war in Gaza.
Protesters waved Palestinian flags and held signs showing Haniyeh.
In October 2023, a few days after the unprecedented onslaught, Jewish Australians who were holding a vigil outside the Sydney Opera House were faced with antisemitic protesters who chanted “F*** the Jews” and “Gas the Jews,” although law enforcement later claimed that they were chanting, “Where’re the Jews” and not “Gas the Jews.”
[IsraelTimes] IDF warns Lebanon to prevent Hezbollah smuggling Iranian arms through civilian border posts; IDF chief vows to keep Hezbollah out of southern Lebanon border area for the future
The Israel Defense Forces on Thursday stepped up its offensive on southern Lebanon, warning it was determined to stop Iran from resupplying the Lebanese terror group with arms through border crossings and promising that it would keep Hezbollah out of the southern Lebanon border area for the future.
The army broadened its ground operation and also conducted waves of airstrikes at Hezbollah targets, including eliminating a top commander responsible for killing 12 children in a rocket strike on Israel earlier in the year.
The Iran-backed group responded by firing more than 200 rockets into northern Israel on Thursday, keeping residents near bomb shelters.
The military also announced the death of an officer killed during fighting in southern Lebanon on Wednesday, bringing the IDF’s toll in the ground offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon to nine. He was named as Cpt. Ben Zion Falach, 21, of the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion, from Nitzanei Oz. Falach was killed in a separate incident on Wednesday, and not in the battles in which eight other soldiers were killed.
The IDF on Thursday accused Hezbollah of smuggling Iranian weapons through Lebanon’s Masnaa Border Crossing, which tens of thousands have used to flee to Syria in recent days. Col. Avichay Adraee, the IDF’s Arabic-language spokesman, said that since the military struck other border crossings between Lebanon and Syria last week, which were used by Hezbollah to smuggle arms, the terror group began to use Masnaa as its main route for weapon shipments. The terror group has also been attempting to repair the other damaged crossings following the Israeli strikes, according to the IDF.
Adraee said that this past week, the IDF struck a truck ferrying “sensitive weapons” to Hezbollah via one of the crossings. The IDF published footage of the strike. The military warned that it would not allow weapon shipments to Hezbollah via the civilian crossing.
“The state of Lebanon is responsible for its official border crossings and its ability to prevent Hezbollah from [using] these crossings. The IDF urges the Lebanese state to carry out a strict inspection of the trucks passing through the civilian crossings and to return the trucks and vehicles containing weapons to Syria,” Adraee said.
“If necessary, [the IDF] will not hesitate to act, just as it has done during the entire war,” he added.
Pushing back on the allegations, Lebanese Transport Minister Ali Hamiya, a member of Hezbollah, said that all border crossings with Syria were being secured according to international law.
VERY DETERMINED
Also Thursday, IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi vowed the military will not allow Hezbollah to re-establish itself in southern Lebanon.
“Today I met the commanders and troops of the 98th Division and 36th Division, who are fighting in Lebanon, for a very important goal: creating security in the north and returning the residents to their homes after more than a year of being evacuated,” Halevi said in a video statement from northern Israel.
“[To] return the residents, [we must] destroy the terror infrastructure that Hezbollah built near the border to raid our towns on the day that the order is given [and] kill Israeli civilians. We are very determined to destroy these infrastructures and kill whoever is there,” he continued.
“We will not allow Hezbollah to position itself in these places in the future. The severe blows to Hezbollah in all areas, in Beirut, in the [Beqaa] Valley, in south Lebanon, will continue,” he said.
The army said Thursday that it had killed about 60 Hezbollah operatives in the previous day, including a commander responsible for the rocket that killed 12 children in Majdal Shams in northern Israel in July. The IDF said Khader Shahabiya, commander of Hezbollah’s Mount Dov region, was killed in an airstrike Wednesday. Shahabiya was responsible for the rocket fire on Majdal Shams and numerous other anti-tank missile and rocket attacks on IDF posts in the Mount Dov, Hermon, and northern Golan Heights area, the military added.
In addition, the IDF said it struck more than 200 Hezbollah targets in Lebanon over the past day, including more than 15 in the capital Beirut. The targets in Beirut included operatives in Hezbollah’s intelligence division, surveillance equipment, headquarters, weapon manufacturing sites, weapon depots, and other infrastructure, the military said.
Syria’s state-run SANA news agency also reported Israeli airstrikes on Thursday, near the capital Damascus. It said air defenses were confronting “hostile targets,” code for Israeli strikes, in the western part of the Rif Dimashq Governorate, close to the border with Lebanon. Israel rarely comments on operations in Syria.
Hezbollah on Thursday launched more than two hundred rockets and mortars, along with several drones, at northern Israel from Lebanon. There were no immediate reports of casualties or major damage in the attacks. On Thursday evening, residents of the upper and western Galilee, as well as several towns in the northern Golan Heights, were ordered by the IDF to remain close to bomb shelters until further notice. Such instructions are announced fairly regularly when the military has indications of planned major rocket fire from Lebanon.
Hezbollah also said it had fended off an IDF incursion near Metula. Israel did not commented on the terror group’s claim
EVACUATIONS
Amid the fighting Thursday, the army called on civilians in 25 southern Lebanese locales to evacuate immediately and head north of the Awali River — located north of Sidon. The city of Nabatieh and other villages on the list published Thursday are located north of the Litani River — making it the first time Israel has ordered evacuations north of the body of water, which in the past has been seen as a strategic line. The military has also warned vehicles must not cross the Litani River in a southbound direction.
“Hezbollah’s activity forces the IDF to act against it. The IDF does not wish to harm you,” Adraee said in a statement on X. Similar directives were issued to more than 50 villages in the past two days.
The announcement appeared to signal that Israel would broaden the ground offensive it launched Monday night, after escalating airstrikes in the country the previous week, in a bid to end Iran-backed Hezbollah’s rocket fire on the north, which has prevented tens of thousands of northern residents from returning home after Israel evacuated them on October 7.
LEBANESE ARMY FIRES BACK
Lebanon’s army said two soldiers were killed by Israeli strikes in separate incidents in south Lebanon on Thursday, one in an attack on a military post and another in a strike on a rescue mission with the Lebanese Red Cross. Lebanon’s army said it returned fire when the military post was struck, a rare development for a force that has historically stayed on the sidelines of major conflicts between terror groups and Israel. The incident was reportedly the first time Lebanese troops have fired at Israeli forces over the past year of war.
The Lebanese Red Cross said an Israeli strike killed a Lebanese army soldier and wounded four paramedics as they were evacuating wounded people from the southern village of Taybeh, in a convoy accompanied by Lebanese troops and coordinated with United Nations peacekeepers.
An Israeli airstrike in central Beirut killed another nine people, the Lebanese health ministry said. Reuters witnesses reported hearing a massive blast, which targeted a building in the district of Bachoura a few hundred meters from parliament, the closest an Israeli strike has come to the central downtown district. A Hezbollah-linked civil defense group said seven of its staff, including two medics, had been killed in the Beirut attack.
Overnight, some 15 Hezbollah operatives holed up at the town hall of southern Lebanon’s Bint Jbeil were killed in an Israeli airstrike, the military said. According to the IDF, fighter jets struck the Bint Jbeil town hall in a joint operation with the 36th Division after several Hezbollah operatives were identified there. The military said the building was used by Hezbollah to store weapons.
In another joint operation, an IAF drone struck and killed a cell of Hezbollah operatives who were identified by troops of the 36th Division launching rockets at Israel.
On Thursday morning, two Hezbollah operatives opened fire at Golani soldiers in southern Lebanon and a short while later, artillery forces identified the pair and directed an IAF drone to strike and kill them. No soldiers were hurt in the incident, according to the IDF.
In a separate joint operation with the 98th Division, several Hezbollah operatives who launched missiles at the Ramim Ridge area on Wednesday were killed in a strike carried out by IAF fighter jets.
Meanwhile, correspondent Robin Ramaekers and cameraman Stijn De Smet, of Belgium’s VTM news outlet, were beaten up and shot at in Beirut by assailants accusing them of spying for Israel, the broadcaster said.
Since Israel escalated its airstrikes on Hezbollah Monday, more than 630 people have been killed in Lebanon, according to the country’s health ministry. At least a quarter of those killed have been women and children, according to Lebanese health officials. More than 2,000 were wounded. Israel has said that many Hezbollah operatives are among the dead.
The Lebanese government says about 1.2 million Lebanese have been displaced by Israel’s attacks.
#2
correspondent Robin Ramaekers and cameraman Stijn De Smet, of Belgium’s VTM news outlet,
Who came there to make a video about Lebanese children murdered by Zionists were beaten up and shot at in Beirut by assailants accusing them of spying for Israel
#3
Intriguing sentences from the paratroopers link:
In some cases, significant items were found and transferred to Israel along with weapons for intelligence review.
Field reports indicate that some of the underground sites uncovered were constructed to support Hezbollah's plan to conquer the Galilee, which involved swiftly advancing to the border and crossing into Israeli territory as part of an effort to take over northern Israeli communities.
Elon Musk on X:
Just received this note from a SpaceX engineer helping on the ground in North Carolina.
@FEMA
is not merely failing to adequately help people in trouble, but is actively blocking citizens who try to help!
"Hey Elon, update here on site of Asheville, NC. We have powered up two large operating bases for choppers to deliver goods into hands. We’ve deployed 300+ starlinks and outpour is it has saved many lives.
The big issue is FEMA is actively blocking shipments and seizing goods and services locally and locking them away to state they are their own. It’s very real and scary how much they have taken control to stop people helping. We are blocked now on the shipments of new starlinks coming in until we get an escort from the fire dept. but that may not be enough."
#1
Need names, time/date and places. There were many stories during Katrina like this but they mostly proved untrue. Starlink hardware is easy to conceal until it's hooked up. People are flying drones all over the affected areas, AFAICT.
[MSN] Jack Smith has failed in his quest to try Donald Trump before the 2024 election. So instead, the Special Counsel has bent ordinary procedure to get in one last shot, just weeks before voters go to the polls.
,
Smith has now dropped a 165-page doorstop of a filing in federal court, on the issue of Trump's immunity from prosecution. Judge Tanya Chutkan — who suddenly claims not to care about the impending election despite her earlier efforts to expedite the case to get it in before the very same election, which got her reversed and chastised by the Supreme Court — duly complied with Smith's wishes, redacted out a few obvious names (who ever might ''Arizona Governor [Redacted P-16]'' be?), and made the rest public.
,
There are two headlines here. The immediate takeaway lies in the revelations contained in Smith's oversized brief. (He asked the judge for, and received, permission to file a brief that was 180 pages long, four times the normal maximum.) We now have damning new details on Trump's effort to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to throw the election his way, Trump's phone use and use of Twitter as the riot unfolded, and his conversations with family members about efforts to contest his electoral loss. The story's structure is the same as we've long known, but the new details lend depth and dimension.
,
The larger, if less obvious, headline is that Smith has essentially abandoned any pretense; he'll bend any rule, switch up on any practice — so long as he gets to chip away at Trump's electoral prospects. At this point, there's simply no defending Smith's conduct on any sort of principled or institutional basis. ''But we need to know this stuff before we vote!'' is a nice bumper sticker, but it's neither a response to nor an excuse for Smith's unprincipled, norm-breaking practice. (It also overlooks the fact that the Justice Department bears responsibility for taking over two and a half years to indict in the first place.)
[Bee] BEIRUT: Young Hezbollah recruit Muhammed Amin was surprised to learn this week that he's already been promoted to the position of Regional Manager.
Amin recently joined the ranks of the prestigious terror organization and expected to spend the next several years proving himself before rising through the ranks but was given the unexpected news that he was now in an important leadership role.
"I can't believe I'm moving up the ladder so quickly!" Amin said. "I was only recruited last week and all of a sudden they're telling me I am a manager — and not just manager, but regional manager! I can't believe my luck!"
Amin was immediately given a pager and told to check it for explosives, a directive that worried the young man but he decided not to ask too many questions.
"It's just so exciting!" he continued. "They said I would be given a free pager and a set of walkie-talkies but that I was to be super careful and not use them too often and something about imminent bodily harm, but I'm sure it's all just boilerplate corporate orientation stuff. I only wish my mentor could see me, but he exploded last week in what I'm sure is a totally unrelated incident."
At publishing time, Amin's supervisor had been killed in an exploding Gameboy Advance incident and Amin had been promoted to the head of Hezbollah.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2024
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A tiny home has appeared for sale on Amazon for less money than a standard car.
The two-bedroom mobile home - with an open-plan living room and kitchen, and bathroom including a toilet and shower - costs $19,000.
The pre-fabricated home, mostly made of metal, is framed by a cozy fenced-in porch with stairs leading up to the front door.
It is also equipped with plumbing and electricity, as well as a water heater.
The house, made by Emonia, comes with wind protection, fire protection, earthquake resistance, sun protection and rain and moisture resistance, according to the Amazon listing.
The small home, costing less than a new Mitsubishi Mirage, may be a tempting option as home prices continue to hit all time highs.
Around 64 percent of American adults own their own home, according to the Federal Reserve.
This figure falls to 36 percent for those who make $50,000 a year or less.
The current 30-year fixed mortgage rate is around 5.8 percent which can also present barriers to buying a more traditional home.
See the Amazon listing here. It’s #8 in tiny house kits.
#3
Saw the ad from Amazon a few weeks back, making it look like a total win. Win, I says to myself, this is a giant L for the economy.
Does wind protection include tornadoes?
Out: trailer parks
In: yuppie parks
I keep pronouncing the company name as Ammonia? They made in Chyna? Can they do stacks like in Ready Player One? But yeah, still have to have a plot, and hook up to utilities, meet whatever local codes, and hope the local politicians don't see them as a threat to their local grift schemes.
If it has a computer the program can develop bugs. If it connects to the internet it can be hacked.
A Minnesota teenager is lucky to be alive after the in-drive computer of his Honda SUV took control and sent him helplessly careering through the streets at speeds of up to 113mph - only stopping when heroic cops let him crash into their patrol cars.
Stunning footage captured the terrifying episode unfolding on September 17 when Sam Dutcher, 18, was driving late at night through the streets of West Fargo, Minnesota.
Dutcher told WDAY-TV he realized he was in danger when he was speeding through an intersection, and thought: 'Hey, this thing is accelerating, and my foot is not on the gas.'
As the situation escalated, Dutcher called 911, who scrambled several Minnesota State Patrol cars to chase him down and speak to the teen on the phone as he was behind the wheel.
Clay County Deputy Zach Johnson was one of the cops who pursued Dutcher after his car took control and accelerated him through an array of highways, streets and intersections, travelling for at least 30 miles in total.
In footage shared by the sheriff's department, Johnson can be heard asking Dutcher: 'If you hit the brakes, nothing happens?'
As Dutcher struggled to explain what was happening while panic set in, Johnson continued: 'Is the accelerator stuck down?... Are you able to push the e-brake and just lock em up?'
Dutcher said nothing was working, including attempts to turn the car off or put it in neutral - all while he had to keep his focus on the road.
#6
Hey, pop the clutch went through my mind. Been having fun trying to solve this problem during free time today, because modern vehicles are closer to Johnny Cabs than a an '80 Firebird.
I'm not sure other than what the kid did, or some sort of James Bond move. I'm actually impressed a modern day 18 year old could handle a vehicle at that speed.
#7
Bet he obeys the speed limit for about the next 6 weeks.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/04/2024 19:04
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#8
"Your insurance premium for the next 6 months is $9,872"
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2024 19:19
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#9
I don't know man.
100mph+ through an urban environment while doing coms in a foookin Civic? At that speed we're looking at all this happening within about 15 minutes*.
MF's at Honda should offer him a tryout for their F1 team.
If I were a local mil recruiter, I'd shoot him a line, "My man, have you considered MH6 Little Birds?"
*BTW, excellent response time and solution arc. I mean, that Trooper not only had to be/get in front, but get up to a speed that the initial contact wasn't a fooking mess. Yes, that's a high-5 moment all around.
[NY Post] In another blow to Vice President Kamala Harris, the International Association of Fire Fighters announced Thursday that it would not be making a 2024 presidential endorsement.
The union, which represents more than 300,000 career firefighters and emergency responders, was the first to endorse President Biden’s 2020 White House bid and has a long history of backing Democratic presidential candidates.
IAFF’s decision not to endorse a candidate in the 2024 race comes two weeks after the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which has also long backed Democrats, defied the will of its pro-Trump membership and declined to make a presidential endorsement.
"Today, the IAFF Executive Board, by a margin of 1.2%, voted to not endorse a candidate in the 2024 presidential election," read a statement from IAFF General President Edward Kelly.
"Over the past year, the IAFF took unprecedented steps to hear our members’ views on the candidates and the policy issues that matter most to them.
[MSN] The assholes keep trying to buy votes with your tax dollars
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2024
05:37 ||
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Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
It’s like the dollar on the fishing pole. They dangle and dangler some more. Sounds likes all the money is gone to illegals and Ukraine regardless.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/04/2024 7:03
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#2
SCOTUS already ruled. Why would any subordinate jurisdiction believe they can override that ruling?
UK agrees to give up sovereignty of remote Chagos Islands to Mauritius, in historic deal over one of its last overseas territories https://t.co/RpGm3JcQ6w
The Take Away: The island was leased by the UK to the US in 1966 for an initial period of 50 years, before this was extended, and was set to lapse in 2036 before the latest agreement.
The new agreement with Mauritius is set to guarantee the two countries' rights to operate the military base for at least the next 99 years.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] U.S. colleges must immediately stop their partnerships with China, a lawmaker is warning after a sinister 'military base spy plot' involving students was exposed.
The leader of the House China Committee Rep. John Moolenaar, R-Mich., has been warning of China's growing operations within the U.S., and particularly Michigan, for months.
On Wednesday, his warnings came to a head when the FBI announced charges against five Chinese University of Michigan graduates who were discovered with cameras on a military base during a live-fire exercise with U.S. and Taiwanese forces.
Even more surprising is that the graduates, who were caught in August 2023 but were just charged, are not in the FBI's custody.
In fact, the FBI's Tuesday court filing does not indicate where the men are, or if authorities know where to find them.
Now Moolenaar is issuing the stunning warning that U.S. colleges must 'shut down' their joint efforts with Chinese universities immediately.
'All of our nation's universities must shut down their joint institutes with Chinese universities and enact stricter guardrails on emerging technology research,' he wrote in a statement to DailyMail.com.
'American universities must realize they are a target for espionage and protect the critical taxpayer-funded research they do.'
The Chinese men were found at Camp Grayling - a nearly 150,000-acre complex used by the Michigan Army National Guard - using cameras near classified military communications equipment and vehicles during Northern Strike, one of the largest training exercises held in the U.S.
All of them recently graduated from the University of Michigan through a partnership program between the school and Shanghai Jiao Tong University in Shanghai, China.
'This case shows once again that CCP espionage can happen anywhere in America, and we must be vigilant,' Moolenaar warned.
In the FBI-submitted court filing the agency revealed there have been multiple instances of Chinese college students photographing critical U.S. defense sites.
Two Chinese nationals who also studied at University of Michigan were sentenced to prison for one year terms in 2020 for similarly trespassing and photographing a military site in Florida.
Camp Grayling, Moolenaar says, is of particular interest to the CCP.
He has been warning that a Chinese battery manufacturer Gotion is working to bring a massive plant to an area roughly 100 miles away from the camp.
'The CCP obviously has an interest in Camp Grayling, and this is further evidence it would be a mistake for Michigan leaders to allow Gotion to build in our state,' his statement continued.
'State funding for Gotion's plan to bring Chinese nationals to Mecosta County is an open invitation for further spying on Camp Grayling.'
'For national security reasons, Governor Whitmer and the legislature must revoke state funding for Gotion immediately,' he said.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Three Europeans have been linked to the $95 million Texas Lottery jackpot last year, an investigation found.
The winning ticket sold in April 2023 was claimed under a New Jersey business named Rook TX LP, in Scotch Plains, reported NBC DFW.
The claimant accepted a one-time payout of $57.8 million after taking out the third-highest jackpot in state history.
They had purchased the ticket in Colleyville at Hooked on MT, a lottery courier service.
Now an investigation by The Houston Chronicle has found that Ade Repcenko - a gaming entrepreneur operating out of Malta - was the 'point man' behind achieving the massive win.
According to evidence, the enterprise was funded through a large London betting company called Colossus Bets which organizes buying syndicates to make legal wagers.
If it’s legal, this is a job for lawyers and statisticians..
Court documents allege that Philip Gurian, owner of Honey Tree Trading, lent Austin-based online lottery sales company called Lottery.com $1.3 million.
Gurian said he met Repcenko at a gathering of Lottery.com executives and others at a Boca Raton mansion where he admitted to winning the Texas jackpot.
'He told me he worked with a syndicate, and they pool money so that when lotteries get big enough they buy up all the tickets and get a big return,' Gurian said. 'He said, 'We just did it in Texas.'
A report from The Chronicle found that the Texas Lottery Commission assisted in the single-buyer operation to win the $95 million jackpot.
Retailers from Lottery.com - where people can buy Texas lotto tickets - submitted urgent order requests to the lottery commission shortly before the drawing.
Each Texas Lotto draw typically generates 1 million to 2 million ticket sales, but records show over 28 million tickets were purchased for the $95 million jackpot.
An examination of second prize winning tickets by the local newspaper found that Rook TX likely spent $25 million on tickets for that contest because Rook TX cashed in 289 winning tickets in the five-of-six game.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Kamala Harris could potentially win Georgia on the strength of a surge of newly naturalized citizens and an uptick in registered Democrats.
Georgia is considered one of the seven key swing states in the 2024 race, as Donald Trump tries to win it back after losing to Joe Biden in 2020.
Polling numbers have been positive of late for Harris, with numbers suggesting she could improve on Biden's marginal victory in the Peach State four years ago.
Boosting Harris' chances are two factors: new voter registration in the state is trending heavily Democrat and newly naturalized citizens outnumber the margin of victory Biden had in the last election.
Around 158,000 migrants are set to receive citizenship in Georgia this year; Biden beat Trump by just 11,779 votes.
Steve Hubbard, a senior data scientist with the American Immigration Council, says that new citizens are often the most eager to participate in democracy.
'The naturalization process is kind of an arduous process that takes a lot of persistence,' he told WABE.
'There's lots of forms, an interview you have to complete, citizenship tests. We find that they are often very proud of that work and want to participate in the United States and its system of government.'
While there's no polling on whether these new citizens are registered or how they would vote, new registries in general trend Democratic.
Georgia has seen 120,000-plus new voter registrants from July 21 through September 8, encapsulating the first eight to ten weeks since Harris replaced Biden at the top of the ticket.
While more than half of those registrants are unaffiliated, Democrats outnumber Republicans 51,000 to 13,000.
Around 56% of those registering are under the age of 34; 20% of them turned 18 or are turning 18 in time for the election.
About 53% of the new voters registering are people of color; all are demographics that traditionally Democrat, though polling has shown Trump making headway with them in some cases.
[TomKilingenstein] The day before Thomas Matthew Crooks sprayed gunfire at President Trump, the Federal Bureau of Investigations arrested Asif Merchant, a Pakistani national who was admitted into the U.S. via parole for “significant public benefit.” The Dallas office of the FBI sponsored Merchant’s parole for the purposes of “security interests.”
The mainstream media has framed this arrest as an Iranian plot gone awry. Lee Smith investigates Merchant’s connection to Iran and analyzes a dangerous habit at the FBI.
Two attempts on the life of a former president, less than two months apart, is unprecedented in American history. And yet it’s not entirely surprising given that the country’s most powerful institutions and industries have spent the last eight years weaponizing the most suggestible and mentally ill of our citizenry to target Donald Trump and his supporters. Now it seems the FBI may be recruiting from abroad as well.
According to the Trump campaign, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence recently briefed the Republican candidate on “real and specific threats from Iran to assassinate him in an effort to destabilize and sow chaos in the United States.” The Secret Service was alerted to the threat before the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life and reportedly increased his security because of it. But that was not enough to stop Thomas Matthew Crooks from shooting Trump in the face, killing Corey Comperatore, and wounding two other attendees.
There’s little doubt the Iranians are targeting Trump, say former intelligence officials with whom I spoke. “The Iranians are promiscuous assassins, and they hate Trump more than anyone else on earth,” says Peter Theroux, a retired CIA officer who worked on Iran and related issues during his tenure at Langley. “Trump enforced sanctions against Iran. He moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem. He was the most antithetical to everything Tehran wants, including the triumphal visit to Riyadh he made for his first presidential trip in 2017.”
But above all, there’s the fact Trump ordered the January 2020 assassination of Qasem Soleimani, onetime chief of the Quds Force, the external operations unit of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), and second in command only to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. The Iranians have vowed to avenge the terror master’s death and have threatened not only the former president but also former Trump administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Iran envoy Brian Hook, National Security Advisor John Bolton, and his successor Robert O’Brien. In August 2022, the Justice Department charged an IRGC officer for plotting to kill Bolton.
The Islamic Republic definitely has it out for Trump, but it seems this most recent Iranian plot to kill the Republican candidate was hatched by the FBI.
Last month the DOJ announced it had charged a Pakistani national with ties to Iran in connection to a plot to assassinate a politician or U.S. government official on U.S. soil. According to reports, Trump was the target.
The suspect, Asif Merchant, entered the country in April and was arrested on July 12 as he prepared to leave the country. It appears that Merchant was the Iranian threat the Secret Service was briefed on before the July 13 rally in Butler, PA.
The FBI arranged his entry into the U.S. According to an August Twitter post from Fox correspondent Bill Melugin, Merchant “was admitted into the U.S. via parole for ‘significant public benefit’ when [Customs and Border Patrol] encountered him at the airport in [Texas] in April after he flew in from overseas.” The sponsor of his parole, Melugin reported, “was the FBI’s Dallas office, for ‘security interests.’”
Melugin’s sources told him the FBI had intelligence on Merchant “before he arrived in the U.S. and needed him to physically come into the country to develop the case on him and arrest him, and that if they had arrested him at Customs, they would not have been able to gather evidence and information about his plot.”
But to date there’s little evidence the FBI developed a case based on intelligence collected before Merchant’s entry. Rather, it seems more likely that federal law enforcement imported a terrorist entrapment target for the purpose of fabricating a plot. Former FBI agent turned whistleblower Steve Friend says the Bureau’s playbook is simple: “Identify a vulnerable person. Establish fake friendships with undercover agents and informants. Encourage him to agree to commit a terrorist act he is otherwise incapable of committing. Arrest him.”
Friend says that if the FBI really had probable cause for an arrest, it would make sense to facilitate Merchant’s travel rather than going through a lengthy and possibly contentious extradition process. But what’s curious, he says, “is that he was in the country for several months before they executed the arrest.”
If the FBI had intelligence on Merchant’s plan to kill Trump before he arrived in the United States, there’s no evidence of it in the affidavit for his arrest. “It was all information about his actions while in the United States,” says Friend. “That doesn’t mean that he hadn’t done anything before then. But it confirms that they didn’t have enough to arrest him when he arrived here.”
Neither the affidavit nor the indictment make a strong case that Merchant is an experienced operative. The “use of coded language, use of multiple cellular telephones, and removal of cellular telephones to attempt to avoid surveillance” cited in the affidavit do not, contrary to the arresting agent’s contention, exemplify expert “tradecraft and operational security measures.” “It’s laughable,” says Friend. “Like complex tradecraft is telling an accomplice to put his phone in a box? A corner drug dealer’s tradecraft is more sophisticated than that.”
Nor is there any evidence of Merchant’s ties to the Iranian regime. In the affidavit, the arresting agent cites his experience working on investigations related to Iran and the Quds Force, but all that connects Merchant to Iran is the fact he has a wife and family there as well as another wife and family in Pakistan. He traveled to Iran before coming to the U.S., but there’s no indication of what he did there, who he met with, how the plot originated, or on whose behalf it was to be executed.
In fact, according to the affidavit, Merchant told undercover agents that the “people who will be targeted are the ones who are hurting Pakistan and the world, [the] Muslim world.” The FBI resolves this major discrepancy by explaining it away. “In my training and experience,” the arresting agent states in the affidavit, “individuals engaged in plots originating overseas to commit acts of violence in the United States often obscure the sponsor or broader purpose of the plot.”
But that’s not what DOJ records documenting previous Iranian plots show. For instance, DOJ’s 2022 filings regarding the arrest of Iranian national Shahram Poursafi for plotting to kill Bolton specifically identify the suspect as a member of the IRGC. DOJ documents concerning the 2011 arrest of Manssor Arbabsiar for conspiring to kill Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the U.S. show that Arbabsiar confessed that he met with Quds Force officials who recruited, funded, and directed him to blow up a Washington, D.C. restaurant where the Saudi ambassador regularly ate. There’s nothing in the Merchant filings tying him to official Iranian channels.
There are other signs that there’s something not quite right about the Merchant plot. Arbabsiar was ready to pay $1.5 million for killing the Saudi ambassador. Poursafi put a $300,000 bounty on Bolton’s head and said he had an additional job for which he’d pay $1 million, presumably to kill Trump. But Merchant offered only $5,000 to kill Trump. And he didn’t even have the money. He had to travel from New York to Boston to make arrangements to have $5,000 sent from a foreign country, which, according to the affidavit, was likely Pakistan.
But perhaps the most bizarre detail is Merchant’s assertion that the assassination was to be only the first in an ongoing series of high-profile crimes. How, after killing the former and likely future president in broad daylight, did Merchant expect to evade law enforcement authorities long enough to embark on a sustained crime spree targeting heavily guarded politicians and officials?
Historically, the Iranians don’t send their best when targeting their enemies abroad. Arbabsiar, for instance, reportedly suffered from bipolar disorder and was known for being disorganized. But Merchant stands apart. From the court filings alone, it’s plain that he’s delusional. It seems pretty obvious that the so-called Iran plot, or at least the Merchant component of it, is an FBI fabrication.
Why would the FBI invent a plot to kill Trump? First, by claiming the Iranians are responsible for this effort deflects attention from the fact that the real two would-be assassins, Crooks and Ryan Routh, are Democratic Party supporters. Further, says Friend, it boosts FBI statistics. “If they had just been aware of some sort of a plot and brought it to light then it would have been a disruption of a domestic terrorist plot. But because they arrested him, it’s dismantlement, which is a very rare and very valuable statistic.”
Disruption interferes with an organization’s ability to function, like arresting a member of a drug gang. It disrupts the gang in a way that is going to impede them. But dismantlement, says Friend, “means taking down the entire organization. With the Merchant plot, the FBI can argue that he was forming an organization and now [they’ve] dismantled it — even though he was able to create it only because [they] facilitated his entry.” And because the other members of the plot are informants or undercover officers.
The Merchant plot is reminiscent of the alleged Gretchen Whitmer kidnapping and murder plot in 2020. Court proceedings showed that the entire scheme was cooked up by federal law enforcement officers and informants.
The danger with these kind of entrapment schemes, Friend explains, isn’t that someone as obviously incompetent as Merchant was going to kill Trump, but that, as a mentally unstable target committed to righting perceived wrongs against the Muslim world, he might have selected easier targets.
“This is a low intelligence person that they were able to cultivate here,” says Friend. “What if he just at one point had a moment of clarity and said, ‘Hey, this is a huge lift? I don’t have the logistics. I don’t have the financing. Why don’t I just grab a giant knife and stab an infidel?’ But that’s not something the FBI ever takes into consideration because they don’t think about the people they’re supposed to be protecting.”
The FBI’s problem isn’t just that it’s fudging statistics to boost its budget and win accolades, raises, and promotions all around for “solving” a high-profile case. The much bigger issue is timing. After all, Merchant was arrested a day before the first attempt on Trump’s life in Butler. There’s no evidence that the Secret Service’s failures that afternoon can be attributed to anything but incompetence. But the fact that the FBI is importing foreigners and encouraging them to plot against Trump raises questions that both the Secret Service and FBI would prefer to ignore.
Typically, the Bureau hides facts by claiming they are part of an active investigation and can’t be divulged to the public. This time, FBI Director Christopher Wray, notoriously stingy with facts he is bound to share with the American public, must come clean.
Posted by: 3dc ||
10/04/2024
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#1
When I 1st heard of the DC Swamp concocted IRANIAN plot. I said could see them doing it given Trump's no BS manner of taking out Terrorist issues, instead of inviting them in via OPEN BORDERS.
Then the "What if's" started kicking in.
What if this was media bait to cover or facilitate a DC Swamp Assassination attempts, 3 and 4?
Or
What If _ _ _ knew of the plot and wanted to look like heroes by foiling it at the last minute to restore their credibility?
Or
What If it was to deflect media attention from previous mistakes?
Why shouldn't there be an implicit arrangement that if Iran were to rid the swamp of this "turbulent priest politician" the reaction would be limited to a sharp condemnation.
[Ynet] Given the rapid acceleration of military events, the date of 16 September has now receded into the distant background, even though barely two weeks have passed. Yet, that day remains vitally important for understanding the nature of contemporary Western strategy, and marks the beginning of its collapse.
THE STRATEGY OF DOING NOTHING
On that mid-September day, the Biden administration’s envoy Amos Hochstein visited Israel to reiterate some simple, and rather tired, ideas. Specifically, hitting Hezbollah harder would not help Israel, and it would increase the danger of a large war, so the administration sought a diplomatic solution. All of that was declared on what was then the 345 day since Hezbollah began firing on Israel on 8 October last year.
What Hochstein conveyed to Israel is the essence of what passes for the West’s strategy in autumn 2024. A strategy of not rocking the boat, not making the situation worse than it already is, by doing very little, preferably nothing at all. The goal is to preserve the status quo, the still fairly comfortable and safe present enjoyed by the West, if not by Israel, Ukraine and other countries.
The concomitant, unavoidable, obsession is that with diplomacy. If the task at hand is to maintain safety in the immediate term by eliminating almost all risk, it inevitably becomes grossly inappropriate to contemplate war. After all, even a fool knows that wars are not risk-free. Therefore, the fool reaches for that magic wand, diplomacy.
DIPLOMACY AS A DELUSION
What the fool knows not, being a fool, is that the achievements of Western diplomacy over the past many decades are prominent by their absence. In my previous article on this sad topic, I discussed the catastrophe that has overtaken the Korean peninsula as a result of decades of American-led diplomacy. The Stalinist Kim regime is in power, equipped with intercontinental missiles and nuclear weapons, and under no effective pressure.
Everywhere else in the world, diplomacy has been similarly distant from triumph. Take the case of Iran. More than 22 years ago, on 14 August 2002, the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an opposition group, accused Iran of developing nuclear weapons in secret, including by building a uranium enrichment plant at Natanz. It was later suggested that U.S. intelligence had discovered this some months earlier, but in either case it took another 16 months for the first of several failed diplomatic arrangements with Iran.
On 21 October 2003, not by coincidence a mere six months after the fall of Baghdad to coalition forces, Iran agreed with Britain, France and Germany that it would answer outstanding questions about its nuclear program and suspend uranium enrichment. This supposed diplomatic achievement lasted slightly longer than two years, after which Iran resumed enrichment at Natanz in January 2006.
This is the general pattern of Western diplomacy with hostile states. Even to initiate diplomacy, a combination of difficult intelligence work and military pressure, at least of the indirect kind, is needed. Then, once negotiations begin, the hostile state eventually agrees to unenforceable concessions, in order to renege on them at the appropriate time. The West, determined to avoid that unpleasant outcome, war, sidles gradually towards the worst possible outcome, a larger war at a later date.
In substance, the West’s diplomacy only gives its enemies the time and peace of mind needed to become more dangerous. So it has been with Iran. After wasting another eight years, the West was led by the utterly irresponsible Obama administration into a vile nuclear agreement with Iran. This was the Joint Plan of Action of 24 November 2013, which enabled Iran to continue to enrich uranium, and to test more advanced centrifuges for enriching uranium in the future.
President Obama and his Secretary of State, John Kerry, possessed the necessary combination of immorality and stupidity to persist until, on 20 July 2015, they turned the awful 2013 deal into the catastrophic Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). This formally permitted Iran to operate 5,060 enrichment centrifuges, and conduct research with uranium on more advanced centrifuges. On the day when the deal was signed, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter shamelessly promised Israel that "we will be watching Iran very closely."
All the interminable years of diplomacy, all the long-winded promises were shown to be worth nothing in April 2018. Then, Israel, and not the United States or any other signatory of the repugnant Iran deal, made public that its intelligence service had extracted from a secret archive in Tehran the plans of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, Project Amad. The administration of President Trump explicitly referred to the concealment of these plans by Iran as proof of Iran’s bad faith in signing the deal and failure to keep its terms, and so the U.S. withdrew from the deal on 8 May 2018.
Neither Trump, nor his successor President Biden, nor any other leader of any other Western signatory of the catastrophic 2015 agreement, ever found the strength to draw the conclusion that must be drawn. Diplomacy with hostile states in general, and with Iran in particular, is a road to disaster.
If Iran’s nuclear program is to be dismantled, war is the only way. Yet, since the very purpose of Western strategy is to preserve the status quo and avoid war, futile and repulsive attempts to pursue diplomacy with Iran continue to this day. As they go on, Donald Trump nonsensically compares Iran’s attack on Israel to "two kids fighting in the schoolyard," while his election opponent Kamala Harris speaks of continuing to "work with our allies... to disrupt Iran’s aggressive behavior." Neither of the two non-entities understands how irrelevant their talk has become.
THE WEST HAS LOST CONTROL OF EVENTS
Western rhetoric became inconsequential in February 2022, when Russia, one of the two non-Western signatories of the deal with Iran along with China, invaded all of Ukraine. Russia has been openly engaging in nuclear blackmail of the West ever since.
Already in June of that year, China and Russia jointly opposed the West’s feeble criticism of Iran’s insufficient cooperation with nuclear inspectors. Almost 20 years after the diplomacy around Iran’s nuclear program began, it publicly imploded. Over those two decades, the West had comprehensively lost control of events, while Iran came within reach of nuclear warheads.
Meanwhile, the catastrophic 2015 agreement continues to bear poisoned fruit. On 18 October 2023, eleven days after Hamas massacred Israeli civilians, United Nations restrictions on Iran’s missile and drone programs expired. Iran, which was already supplying drones to Russia in breach of those restrictions, can now do so in the knowledge that there are few if any restraints on its actions, and that it is free to use the proceeds of its sales to Russia to further develop its own arsenal.
The only virtue of the 2015 deal, the West’s ability to ’snapback’ all sanctions previously imposed on Iran, has naturally proved a hollow one. Busy attempting to ’de-escalate tensions,’ a miserable euphemism for pretending that the collapsing status quo can still be upheld, Western European states remain parties to the deal and refuse to contemplate ’snapping back’ sanctions. Nothing remains of Western diplomacy but desperation.
SIXTEEN DAYS OF DESPERATION
Desperation, mixed with complete moral bankruptcy, was the guiding star of what passed for Western diplomacy between Hochstein’s visit on 16 September, and Iran’s missile attack on Israel on 1 October.
Hochstein’s predictably worthless visit to Israel was rapidly followed by various successful Israeli offensive actions against Hezbollah, up to and including the killing of the commander of its rocket branch, Ibrahim Qubaisi, on the afternoon of 24 September. Instead of prompting some sobriety in Western thought and action, this led to a grotesque demonstration of desperation, faintly disguised as diplomacy.
The joint statement of 25 September issued by 38 countries, including the 27 members of the European Union and also the United States, is one of the most obscene documents in the many centuries of international diplomacy. As Israel was inflicting substantial damage on Hezbollah, this statement called for "an immediate 21 day ceasefire," which would have given the terrorists in Lebanon vital relief from Israeli pressure.
This same text did not even mention the word ’terrorism,’ or any derivative thereof. It also omitted all mention of Hezbollah. It did call for a "diplomatic settlement" in Lebanon, and also a ceasefire in Gaza. It was nothing less than an attempt to force Israel to capitulate, to allow the terrorists on its borders to survive, to reorganize, and to prepare to murder Israelis more effectively on an even greater scale.
Precisely.
The Biden administration was sufficiently desperate to force this on America’s closest ally that it anonymously briefed multiple members of the press that "we’re expecting the deal in the coming hours." Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet deserve the utmost credit for treating these histrionics with contempt, and standing up to a form of diplomatic extortion which is not less than criminal, because of the threat that it poses to Israel’s survival.
Two days after the statement, on Friday 27 September, State Department Counselor Tom Sullivan was still attempting to press on with a ’diplomatic solution,’ and insistently failing to acknowledge that no such solution is in fact possible now, or was possible in the past. It was most appropriate that Israel closed out that day by killing Hassan Nasrallah.
Nasrallah’s killing was not only an important success against terrorism, it also forced the Biden administration further into a self-created corner. On 29 September, National Security Spokesman John Kirby had to concede that the deaths of Nasrallah and others were "good for the region, good for the world." Kirby did not elaborate that this meant that the administration had desperately attempted to prevent these good developments by imposing a ceasefire on Israel.
The administration is not alone in its desperation. The spokesman of British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called "on all sides to show restraint, to step back from the brink and avoid any further escalation" the day after Kirby’s television appearance. Even after Iran’s missile attack on 1 October, the same spokesman was still calling for ’de-escalation’, while issuing a routine condemnation of Iran. Israel is meant to stop fighting for its survival, simply because Britain does not know, and does not want to know, how to stop Iran.
The West’s practical response to Iran’s attack has been of very limited value. Two U.S. Navy destroyers, the USS Bulkeley (DDG-84) and USS Cole (DDG-67), did fire a dozen interceptors, but this was a fraction of the overall effort needed to defeat an attack in which approximately 200 Iranian missiles were launched. A Navy which has 237 combat ships in service, including dozens of destroyers, could have done much more, but was neither organized nor ordered to do so.
The rest of the West did not intercept a single ballistic missile, and Britain contributed nothing more than two Typhoon fighters which are ludicrously claimed to have provided deterrence, without attacking any targets. British and other Allied aircraft cannot in fact attack any ballistic targets, because what was called the Air-Launched Hit-to-Kill (ALHTK) initiative, involving the launch of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) missiles from aircraft against ballistic missiles, which was advertised in 2007, never came to anything. A natural consequence of the West’s inability to seriously contemplate, and to prepare for, war.
With their direct military contribution to Israel’s defense minimal, the leading nations of the West are stuck in a loop, in which they continue to highlight their own irrelevance and impotence. On 24 September, the G7 called "for a stop to the current destructive cycle." On 2 October, it was still insisting, with no evidence and no attempt at original thought, that a non-specific "diplomatic solution is still possible." The message is clear. Israel’s survival is Israel’s problem, and the West has no answer to anything, no desire other than to keep rolling forward in neutral gear. This cannot and will not continue for long.
Posted by: Grom the Reflective ||
10/04/2024
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BREAKING: @MSNBC Producer Admits MSNBC Is 'Doing All They Can to Help’ the Harris Campaign
During an undercover date with an OMG journalist, Basel Hamdan (@BaselYHamdan), a writer and producer for MSNBC’s show "Ayman," (@AymanMSNBC) was asked what the network has done to assist... pic.twitter.com/y9Yk8o1UX7
#3
With MS-NBC having openly admitted it, shouldn't they have to file with the Federal Election Commission and each state, as campaign donors and be limited to $,$$$.00 as we are?
#4
..yes, they should be held to 'in kind' campaign contributions and fined HEAVILY if they exceeded limits. Same goes for Google. We might be able to cover a portion of one day's debt interest payment.
This case is a project of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, one of the Soros stable of activist DAs.
[FoxNews] Daniel Penny charged with manslaughter in chokehold death of Jordan Neely
An NYPD detective testified in court Thursday that the New York veteran accused of manslaughter in the death of an erratic man who barged onto a subway car and threatened passengers was not told the man had died when he waived his Miranda rights and agreed to speak with detectives.
Lawyers for Daniel Penny, a 25-year-old Marine Corps veteran, told Fox News Digital there is "overwhelming evidence that Danny was justified in the actions he took to protect the commuters on that train." They are questioning whether police had probable cause to detain him and whether statements prosecutors plan to use against him at trial were properly obtained.
Penny was charged after he appeared on cellphone video placing Jordan Neely,
...a homeless schizophrenic who had 40 prior arrests including violent attacks, and was loudly working himself up to attack riders in that car, in part because of the apparently interesting drugs in his bloodstream...
30, in a chokehold as other passengers helped restrain him in May 2023.
The defense called NYPD investigators to the stand Thursday to grill them about whether there was probable cause to arrest their client to begin with.
Penny had not been told that Neely was dead during his questioning, NYPD Det. Michael Medina testified. He and a colleague let Penny go after interviewing other witnesses. They initially dubbed him a "good Samaritan."
Medina, a 23-year member of the NYPD, was the first of five officers involved in the investigation to testify Thursday.
Penny was treated as a witness during the interview and was not placed in handcuffs, he said. Their conversation was recorded on video. Penny waived his Miranda rights. There was another detective, whose last name is McCarthy, in the room with them.
Prosecutors played video from the interview in court Thursday.
It shows Penny calmly cooperating with the detectives, explaining that he's a Marine veteran and studying to be an architect. He said he was on his way to the gym after class at the time of the altercation.
According to testimony at the hearing Thursday, Neely barged onto the train after the 10th Street Station, ripped his jacket off and threatened to "kill anybody," he said.
"He was acting like a lunatic, like a crazy person," Penny told detectives. He said after Neely tossed his jacket, he shouted something along the lines of, "If I don’t get this, this and this, I’ll go to jail forever."
There were women and children on the train, and Penny perceived a threat. When Neely walked into him, he said, he put him in a chokehold.
"I'm not trying to kill the guy," he told detectives. "I'm just trying to deescalate the situation."
He said that two other men on the train helped him hold Neely down as they waited for police to arrive.
"People do this all the time, but this guy, he was actually a threat," he told the officers. Medina and McCarthy told him he would be detained for the time being, and he asked for a lawyer.
A public safety officer testified that when he arrived at the train, he saw Neely unconscious on the ground and asked what happened. The witnesses pointed to Penny, he said, identifying the defendant in the courtroom.
He said witnesses told him that Neely boarded the train, began making threats, and Penny "took him out." Bodycam video showed Penny remained at the scene and cooperated with responding officers.
Neely was unconscious when police arrived but had a pulse, the public safety officer testified. However, responding officers later tried giving him CPR and administered an opioid-overdose antidote used to revive people during overdoses.
The next witness was Officer Dennis Kang, a five-year veteran who also responded to the train car and met Penny at the scene. He said witnesses described Neely as "erratic" and said Penny was "stopping" him. Other people on the train appeared to be supportive of Penny, he said.
The judge said he would not be releasing video played in court Thursday to the media because the trial has not yet begun.
Penny's lawyers are arguing that police had no cause to arrest him, and they are questioning whether any statements they intend to use against him were improperly obtained.
"The government must demonstrate that any statements they intend to use at trial were not obtained through coercion or threats," one of his attorneys, Steve Raiser, told Fox News Digital earlier. "In addition, they will need to prove that probable cause existed to believe that a crime was committed. Our position will be that despite the low level of evidence necessary to demonstrate probable cause, the police did not have sufficient evidence. This is especially true considering the overwhelming evidence that Danny was justified in the actions he took to protect the commuters on that train."
Witnesses said the homeless Neely was threatening subway riders and behaving aggressively. He had a history of mental illness and violence, including the 2021 assault of a 67-year-old woman.
Police questioned and released Penny on the day of the incident, and 11 days later, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg's office announced an indictment on charges of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. He has pleaded not guilty.
Critics of Bragg's decision to prosecute Penny have called the move political.
Penny faces up to 19 years in prison if convicted. His trial was slated to begin before the end of the month.
Thank goodness for toxic masculinity. Bless you for being a stand-up guy, Mr. McCormick.
The quick action of a Navy veteran turned Arizona State University student may have saved the life of a fellow student, who was repeatedly stabbed in a seemingly random attack on campus.
On Sept. 19, Kaci Sloan, 19, allegedly lunged at Mara Daffron, 19, as the pair arrived for class at ASU’s West Valley campus in Glendale.
Police said that Sloan stabbed Mara twice before classmate and Navy veteran, Matthew McCormick, intervened.
"I've never seen anything like this and I hope I never do again," McCormick told FOX 10 Phoenix.
The veteran said that he was settling in his microeconomics class when he spotted Sloan lunging towards Daffron, saying that he immediately felt "compelled" to do something to help the situation.
"In that moment, I didn't really have a thought going through my head, I just knew that I felt compelled to do something," McCormick said.
McCormick's quick action stopped Sloan – as she was going in for a third strike.
"As she was going for a third attack, I was able to grab her wrists and apprehend her before further damage could be done," he said.
Police corroborated McCormick's account in a probable cause affidavit obtained by Fox News Digital, saying that one of the witnesses "was able to disarm the defendant by pulling the knife away from the defendant's right hand and threw it [sic] away from them." Another witness then "kicked the knife to the back of the classroom."
McCormick noted that he was not the only good Samaritan to step in, saying that they were "locked in." Maricopa County authorities said that 13 witnesses were present at the horrific attack.
"It was a great job by everybody that was in that room; by the EMTs, the paramedics and police. Everybody responded really, really well. 9-1-1 calls were pretty instantaneous and everybody seemed pretty locked in and knew what to do," he said.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 20:39 Russian publics today wrote about an alleged Ukrainian attack on the Kursk NPP. Governor Alexey Smirnov stated that in the Kurchatov area, where the station is located, a Ukrainian drone was allegedly suppressed by electronic warfare. As a result of the UAV's fall, according to him, explosions occurred in an outbuilding "not related to the Kursk NPP."
However, the governor's adviser Roman Alekhine reported that the UAV could not be shot down or suppressed, and it "hit where the enemy was aiming." "According to Kurchatov, judging by the information, the enemy hit where it was aiming - everyone saw the explosion and secondary detonation," Alekhine wrote. Meanwhile, Russian Telegram channels are publishing footage of a fire that allegedly started several kilometers from the nuclear power plant as a result of "air defense work."
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tykhy said that Kyiv "categorically denies Russian media claims about Ukrainian strikes on or near the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant." According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.
19:42 Zelensky said in an evening video address that "our active actions continue" in the Kursk region. He also said that he had heard Syrsky's report, in particular, they discussed Russia's responses to the attacks on border communities.
18:26 The death toll from the Russian strike on Poltava on September 3 has risen to 59 - another wounded man has died in hospital, said OVA chief Filipp Pronin.
17:53 Russians launched a suicide drone attack on a public transport stop in Kupyansk, Kharkiv Oblast - two people were injured, including a 16-year-old teenager, the National Police reported.
17:29 The Ministry of Defense reported that the Ukrainian Legion has begun recruiting volunteers - citizens of Ukraine in Lublin, Poland. The first recruiting center was opened at the Ukrainian consulate in Lublin, and a military medical commission is operating on site. Volunteers are trained at a training ground provided by the Polish side. Ukraine provides uniforms and logistical support, while Poland provides weapons and equipment. Training at the training ground lasts 35 days, and further training takes place at NATO bases in Europe.
16:42 Zelensky, commenting on the withdrawal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Vuhledar, said that when Russia "destroys the positions of our fighters, they need to save their lives, because they are much more important than any construction."
16:35 Ukraine has already received the Patriot system promised by Romania, the Romanian Ministry of Defense told Radio Liberty.
16:17 The death toll from the Russian strike on the border area of the Koryukov district of the Chernihiv region has risen to three, including a six-year-old child, said the head of the OVA Vyacheslav Chaus. Another four people were injured, including two children aged four and 13. The Russians deliberately struck a car with a drone that was carrying liquefied gas to local residents. The gas cylinders detonated, and residential buildings caught fire.
15:51 Ukraine has already received more than a third of the 500,000 rounds of ammunition promised under the Czech initiative by the end of the year, said Ukrainian Ambassador to Prague Vasyl Zvarych.
15:04 Switzerland will allocate 1.5 billion Swiss francs (almost 1.6 billion euros) for reconstruction projects in Ukraine over the next four years, Swiss Ambassador to Ukraine Felix Baumann said. He specified that 1 billion of this amount will be directed to the self-government sectors, demining and humanitarian aid, the rest of the amount - to reconstruction programs involving the Swiss private sector. Baumann also said that a Swiss representative responsible for the implementation of this project will work in Kiev.
14:39 Luxembourg has joined the Drone Coalition - it is the 17th partner country to join the initiative, the Ministry of Defence reported.
14:28 New NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte arrived in Kyiv on an unannounced visit, the Alliance's press service reported. This is Rutte's first official visit to Ukraine since taking up the post of Secretary General. The head of the Alliance has already met with Zelensky.
13:40 The Ukrainian Armed Forces are ready to hit 261 military facilities on Russian territory, provided the West gives permission to use long-range missiles, Der Spiegel writes. The targets include large weapons depots and Russian military bases.
13:23 Russians have struck the border village of Gorsk in the Chernihiv region. According to preliminary information, two people were killed, including a child, and four were injured, the Snovsk City Council reported.
13:17 The north of Donetsk region will remain without water supply for an indefinite period, said the head of the OVA Vadim Filashkin. Slavyansk, Kramatorsk, Druzhkovka, Konstantinovka and nearby settlements, where about 260 thousand people live in total, will have problems with water supply due to massive enemy shelling on September 28. As a result of the attack, two facilities of the Voda Donbassa public utility company were critically damaged. Given the large volume of damage, there is no technical possibility of resuming the operation of the equipment. Currently, technical water is temporarily supplied from the Voda Donbassa public utility company river water intake.
12:49 SBU drones struck the Borisoglebsk military airfield in the Voronezh region at night, from which the enemy is bombing Ukrainian territories with KABs, Ukrainian media write, citing sources. The drones attacked warehouses with KABs, parking lots for Su-35 and Su-34 aircraft, and storage areas for aviation fuel. Satellite monitoring recorded four fires on the airfield territory.
11:54 Russians carried out a drone strike on Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region, three people were injured, reported the head of the OVA, Serhiy Lysak.
11:36 Ukraine has sent its best tanks to the Kursk region, Forbes writes. According to the publication, Swedish Stridsvagn 122 and German Leopard 2A6 tanks were spotted in this Russian region. Journalists note that this indicates the importance of this direction for the Ukrainian command. At the same time, Forbes notes that breaking through the border in the Kursk region was a risky move on the part of Ukraine, since "the last well-equipped units" were sent there, which is why units in the east and south of Ukraine were deprived of the necessary reinforcements.
10:52 The Defense Forces destroyed the Russian Nebo-M radar station using ATACAMS ballistic missiles, the General Staff reported. The destruction of this radar station significantly reduces the ability of the Russian army to detect, track and intercept aerodynamic and ballistic targets, the department added. They also said that the Nebo-M radar station is a very difficult target to hit, which operates in stealth mode, scanning the horizon in search of airborne objects. According to available information, there are only ten operating systems of this type left in the Russian Federation, each costing more than $100 million. Also, the destruction of the radar station "will create a favorable air corridor for the effective use of Storm Shadow and SCALP-EG cruise missiles," the General Staff noted.
10:18 In the Odessa region, debris from a downed drone damaged power lines: more than 2,000 subscribers in the Berezovsky district were left without electricity, said the head of the OVA Oleg Kiper.
09:43 The Ukrainian Armed Forces have officially confirmed their withdrawal from Ugledar due to the threat of encirclement of the city. A year ago, the loss of Ugledar would have meant a heavy blow to the Ukrainian army, but now, according to analysts, this is unlikely to radically change the course of offensive operations in the western part of the Donetsk region. More details in the article Where the Russians will go next .
09:35 In the Kherson region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, two people were killed and eight were injured, reported the head of the OVA, Oleksandr Prokudin.
09:21 In Donetsk region, 11 people were wounded as a result of Russian shelling on October 2: three in Peschanka, two each in Krasnogorovka and Andreyevka, one each in Ulakly, Slavyansk, Kramatorsk and Gornyak, reported the head of the OVA Vadim Filashkin.
08:55 Air defense destroyed 78 out of 105 Shahed-type attack UAVs at night, the Air Force reported. One drone flew in the direction of Belarus, another 23 drones were lost in different regions of Ukraine. Air defense forces worked in the Kyiv, Cherkasy, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Zhytomyr, Poltava, Chernihiv, Kherson, Odessa, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Rivne and Ivano-Frankivsk regions.
08:49 The number of victims of the night Russian strike on the Saltovsky district of Kharkiv has risen to 12, including a three-year-old child, the prosecutor's office reported. Another person was injured as a result of the night shelling of the village of Zolochiv in the Bogodukhov district.
The head of the Kharkiv OVA Oleg Sinegubov reported that at night the enemy also struck the village of Cherkasskaya Lozovaya in the Kharkiv district, three people were injured. Over the past 24 hours, two people were also injured in the village of Nechvolodovka in the Kupyansk district, two more in Kupyansk and one in the village of Nikopol in the Izyum district.
07:56 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of October 3. At the same time, some positions of the enemy's total losses were adjusted:
personnel - about 656,710 (+1150) people,
tanks - 8893 (+6),
combat armored vehicles - 17,596 (+17),
artillery systems - 18,906 (+37),
MLRS - 1204 (+0),
air defense systems - 964 (+1),
aircraft - 368 (+0),
helicopters - 328 (+0),
Operational-tactical level UAVs - 16,393 (+43),
cruise missiles - 2613 (+0),
ships/boats - 28 (+0),
submarines - 1 (+0),
automotive equipment and tank trucks - 25,750 (+58),
special equipment - 3330 (+12).
05:34 At night, the Russians attacked Kiev with drones, about 15 of them were shot down by air defense forces, said the head of the Kyiv State Air Defense Forces Sergey Popko. Debris fell in the Desnyansky district, but the consequences were minimal - there were no destructions, fires or casualties.
05:28 American companies continue to supply Russia with electronic components for missile production through intermediaries. At the same time, the US authorities do not accuse them of violating export controls, writes Bloomberg. Components produced by a number of Western companies are regularly found in Russian missiles - for example, in Iskanders. Last year alone, Russia imported components produced by Analog worth $326 million.
The components are not sold directly to Russia - they mostly come to Russia through companies in China and Hong Kong. American chip companies use authorized distributors, who in turn sell to electronics suppliers around the world.
01:54 Russians have launched a KAB strike on Kharkov, one of the bombs hit a residential building between the third and fourth floors. Nine people were injured, including a three-year-old child, there may still be people under the rubble, said OVA chief Oleg Sinegubov.
[FoxNews] A 19-year-old male migrant described as "dangerous" is in custody in connection with the shooting death of a 17-year-old female migrant in Chicago on Tuesday, a police source told Fox News.
A Chicago Police Department (CPD) source told Fox News that Juan Ramirez-Olivo was involved in the death of 17-year-old Stephanie Lopez Ramirez. She was found dead with gunshot wounds to the arm Tuesday in an apartment in Humboldt Park on Chicago’s west side. The two were in the apartment together when shots were fired.
The CPD source and a separate friend of the victim’s family told Fox News that Ramirez-Olivo implied the shooting was an accident. But both sources have called that into question. The CPD source said Ramirez-Olivo was likely illegally in possession of a gun that he purchased on the street.
Ramirez-Olivo also may have lied to Chicago police about where he is from; Chicago police said the arrest report shows that Ramirez-Olivo told police he’s from Venezuela. But an ICE source told Fox News that records indicate Ramirez-Olivo is from Colombia. The CPD source has called Ramirez-Olivo a "liar."
The ICE source told Fox News that Ramirez-Olivo was paroled into the United States and given a notice to appear. Fox News has submitted requests with ICE to confirm Ramirez-Olivo’s status.
Police records indicate Ramirez-Olivo was arrested in March for possession of a knife after someone called 911 on North Michigan Avenue. He was also accused of previously stabbing someone.
Chicago police would not confirm the name of the suspect right now, citing the policy of not releasing an offender's name until they are charged.
Chicago police did confirm that a female victim was found inside a residence unresponsive with one gunshot wound to the left arm. Police said she was pronounced dead at the scene and a person of interest was in custody.
#3
Those NC people are mostly MAGA, no sense wasting good fungible FEMA dollars on them. If they were not MAGA people before Helene they damn sure are now.
#16
I just searched for "national guard delivers relief supplies" and found several NC articles. I can't post from my kindle...
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/04/2024 19:37
Comments ||
Top||
#17
We are at exposure and dehydration days. If there is a sliver of silver, it isn't summer or winter?
Suddenly all those 'Kooks' who remember The Olde Ways are in demand.
What is the rule of thumb, 3 days without water and society starts fraying? The view of power usage before and after is chilling.
I'm hearing stories, unconfirmed, so not sourcing, but Bless the Responders, especially The Volunteers*, if even half true.
*A few weeks back, it was mentioned that Volunteer Response Agencies were about to be buried in paperwork? Just pointing out the bureaucracy of it all, at the least.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] 20:39 Russian publics today wrote about an alleged Ukrainian attack on the Kursk NPP. Governor Alexey Smirnov stated that in the Kurchatov area, where the station is located, a Ukrainian drone was allegedly suppressed by electronic warfare. As a result of the UAV's fall, according to him, explosions occurred in an outbuilding "not related to the Kursk NPP."
However, the governor's adviser Roman Alekhine reported that the UAV could not be shot down or suppressed, and it "hit where the enemy was aiming." "According to Kurchatov, judging by the information, the enemy hit where it was aiming - everyone saw the explosion and secondary detonation," Alekhine wrote. Meanwhile, Russian Telegram channels are publishing footage of a fire that allegedly started several kilometers from the nuclear power plant as a result of "air defense work."
Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tykhy said that Kyiv "categorically denies the Russian media's claims of Ukrainian strikes on or near the Kursk Nuclear Power Plant." According to him, the Ukrainian Armed Forces strictly adhere to the norms of international humanitarian law.
11:36 Ukraine has sent its best tanks to the Kursk region, Forbes writes. According to the publication, Swedish Stridsvagn 122 and German Leopard 2A6 tanks were spotted in this Russian region. Journalists note that this indicates the importance of this direction for the Ukrainian command. At the same time, Forbes notes that breaking through the border in the Kursk region was a risky move on the part of Ukraine, since "the last well-equipped units" were sent there, which is why units in the east and south of Ukraine were deprived of the necessary reinforcements.
Article Linked Is Available Only Via VPN.
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
The Sever Group of Forces in Liptsy and Volchansk directions engaged the units of the 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade, the 92nd Air Assault Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 113th and 129th Territorial Defence brigades in Malye Prokhody, Liptsy, Volchansk (Kharkov region), and the city of Kharkov.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 145 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, one 152mm D-20 gun, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. An Anklav-N electronic warfare station, a manufacturing facility and a storage depot for unmanned aerial vehicles were neutralised.
The Zapad Group's units have taken more advantageous lines and positions. The Group inflicted fire damage on manpower and materiel of the 44th, 63rd, and 66th Mechanised brigades, 143rd Infantry Brigade, 3rd Assault Brigade, 114th Territorial Defence Brigade, and 1st National Guard Brigade close to Kupyansk, Novoosinovo, Kruglyakovka, Lozovaya, Zeleny Gai (Kharkov region), Nevskoye (Lugansk People's Republic), Torskoye (Donetsk People's Republic), and Serebryansky forestry.
Three counter-attacks launched by assault groups of 14t, 53rd, and 116th Mechanised brigades of the AFU were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 400 troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, seven motor vehicles, U.S.-made 155mm M-777 and M-198 howitzers, one UK-made 155mm FH-70 howitzer, and two 122mm D-30 howitzers. Two Anklav-N electronic warfare stations, two U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radars, and four ammunition depots were destroyed.
The Yug Group of Forces improved the tactical position. The Group engaged the units of the 22nd, 30th, 54th, 93rd Mechanised brigades, 56th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 144th Infantry Brigade, and 46th Airmobile Brigade close to Seversk, Nikiforovka, Kramatorsk, Markovo, Verolyubovka, Stupochki, Predtechino, Belaya Gora, Maksimilyanovka, and Katerinovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Three counter-attacks launched by assault groups of 24th Mechanised Brigade, 5th Assault Brigade, and 81st Airmobile Brigade of the AFU were repelled.
The enemy sustained losses of up to 720 troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, one 122mm D-30 howitzer, one U.S.-made 105mm M-119 gun, one 155mm FH-70 howitzer and 105mm L-119 gun made by the UK. One assembly workshop for unmanned aerial vehicle, one Anklav-N electronic warfare station, and three field ammunition depots were eliminated.
The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces continued advancing to the depth of enemy defences. They inflicted fire damage on the 31st, 32nd, 101st, 110th, 151st Mechanised brigades, 1st Tank Brigade, 142nd Infantry Brigade, 95th Air Assault Brigade, 109th and 112th Territorial Defence brigades, 12th and 14th National Guard brigades close to Dzerzhinsk, Druzhba, Sukhaya Balka, Krasny Yar, Grodovka, and Gornyak (Donetsk People's Republic).
Eight counter-attacks launched by assault groups of the 53rd, 100th, 150th Mechanised brigades, 144th Infantry Brigade, 25th Air Assault Brigade, and the 425th Assault Battalion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were repelled.
The enemy losses included up to 615 troops, one tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, four pick-up trucks, one 152mm D-20 gun, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, three 122mm D-30 howitzers, and one 100mm Rapira anti-tank gun.
The units of the Vostok Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line. They inflicted damage on manpower and materiel of the 72nd Mechanised Brigade, 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 118th, 125th, 241st Territorial Defence brigades, and 21st National Guard Brigade close to Dobrovolye, Zolotaya Niva, Velikaya Novoselka (Donetsk People's Republic), and Levadnoye (Zaporozhye region).
Two counterattacks launched by assault detachments of the AFU 110th Territorial Defence Brigade were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 130 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, six motor vehicles, and two French-made 155mm CAESAR howitzers.
The Dnepr Group of Forces defeated the units of the 141st Infantry Brigade, the 35th Naval Infantry Brigade, the 103rd and 108th Tterritorial Defence brigades near Malaya Tokmachka, Nesteryanka (Zaporozhye region), Stepnoye, Kazatskoye, and Kisomys (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 75 troops, one tank, seven motor vehicles, and one 152mm D-20 gun. One U.S.-made AN/TPQ-50 counterbattery radar and three field ammunition depots have been neutralised.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged Ukrainian energy facilities that supported the actions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as well as clusters of enemy manpower and military hardware in 146 areas.
Russian air defence systems have shot down four ATACMS operational-tactical missiles and five U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles along with 144 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles, with 122 of them outside the special military operation zone.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 646 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 32,734 unmanned aerial vehicles, 579 anti-aircraft missile systems, 18,479 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,469 MLRS combat vehicles, 15,507 field artillery guns and mortars, and 26,824 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise an enemy group, which broke into the territory of Kursk region.
The Sever Group of Forces continued offensive and damaged formations of the 21st, 22nd, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 82nd and 95th Airborne Assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 1st National Guard Brigade, the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade, as well as the 129th Territorial Defence Brigade near Daryino, Lyubimovka, Novy Put, Nikolayevo-Daryino, and Plekhovo.
Over the past 24 hours, the Sever Group of Forces repelled two enemy counter-attacks towards Plekhovo. As a result, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost up to 30 troops killed and wounded.
In addition, the enemy made five attempts to break through the border of the Russian Federation towards Novy Put. There was no violation of the State border. The AFU losses amounted to more than 60 troops killed and wounded; three armoured fighting vehicles and one motor vehicle were eliminated.
Army Aviation and artillery strikes inflicted losses on manpower and hardware clusters of the 22nd, 41st, 61st, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 80th and 95th Air Assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 1st National Guard Brigade, the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade, as well as the 112th and 129th Territorial Defence brigades close to Bogdanovka, Daryino, Zeleny Shlyakh, Lyubimovka, Martynovka, Melovy, Nikolo-Daryino, Novoivanovka, Novy Put, Orlovka, Plekhovo, Pokrovsky, Russkoye Porechnoye, Sverdlikovo, Tolsty Lug, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, and Yuzhny.
Operational-Tactical Aviation and Missile Troops hit concentration areas in Sumy region and reserves of the 21st, 41st, 47th, and 115th Mechanised brigades of the AFU, 1st National Guard Brigade, as well as the 101st and 103rd Territorial Defence brigades near the Veliky Bobrik, Velikaya Chernetchina, Glukhov, Makeyevka, Obody, Pavlovka, Peremoga, Rechki, Sklyarovka, Studenok, and Ulanovo.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 300 troops, four armoured fighting vehicles, as well as six artillery guns, including two U.S.-made Paladin self-propelled artillery systems, one Swedish-made Archer self-propelled artillery system, and three motor vehicles.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost more than 19,850 troops, 135 tanks, 66 infantry fighting vehicles, 98 armoured personnel carriers, 864 armoured fighting vehicles, 577 motor vehicles, 162 artillery guns, 33 MLRS launchers, including eight of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, nine SAM launchers, five transport-loading vehicles, 40 electronic warfare stations and nine counter-battery radars, three air defence radars, 19 engineering and other vehicles, including 11 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, and two armoured recovery vehicles.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:59 Official summary of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC from 00:00 10/03/2024 to 00:00 10/04/2024.
A total of 51 cases of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded by the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC over the past 24 hours.
There were reports of one civilian being killed and four injured. Four employees of the Russian Emergencies Ministry were injured.
DAMAGED:
Nine residential buildings,
Two civil infrastructure facilities.
Five artillery attacks in the Donetsk direction,
A total of 46 artillery attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 143 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:03 Crews of 152mm howitzers "Msta-B" of the Airborne Forces destroyed a concentration of Ukrainian Armed Forces manpower and a field ammunition depot in the Kursk border area
Artillery units of one of the Airborne Troops units of the North group of forces carry out daily precision strikes on exposed objects, positions, armored vehicles and manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of the Kursk region.
21:00 Ukrainian soldier Anatoly Shumsky told about the training of Ukrainian Armed Forces servicemen in England.
19:06 Alaudinov stated that the release of Ugledar is a very strong image blow to Zelensky.
18:45 The aerial reconnaissance units of the North group of forces discovered armored recovery vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of the Kursk region. After analyzing the intelligence data, a decision was made to fire on the US-made ARV.
The detected target was successfully hit with a direct hit from a Lancet loitering munition.
18:02 Drone operators of the Kaira unit (Russian 68th Army Corps)are being destroyed a YPR-765 APU – video.
17:12 Russian fighters liberated Ugledar in the DPR, the Russian Defense Ministry reported
17:00 The Russian Armed Forces expanded the control zone in the center of Dzerzhinsk (Toretsk) in the area of the executive committee up to Rudnichnaya Street.
In addition, Russian fighters entered Maksimilyanovka from the village of Ostroye. The Russian Armed Forces also made a breakthrough in Ostrovsky.
16:40 Russian Aerospace Forces launched a missile strike on targets in the Odessa region, in the area of Belgorod-Dnistrovsky
16:07 "Lancet" destroyed the Ukrainian anti-aircraft missile and gun system "Tunguska" was deployed in the Kursk border area, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.
15:52 "Pantsir-S" shot down Ukrainian UAV in the border area of Kursk region.
15:05 130mm M-46 howitzer crew destroyed platoon stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Donetsk direction
Artillerymen of the separate guards motorized rifle unit of the "Southern" group of forces struck another enemy platoon stronghold.
14:11 RF Armed Forces attacked using a universal planning and correction module on the temporary deployment point of the 106th Separate Territorial Defense Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the village of Velykyi Bobryk, 19 km southeast of the city of Sumy.
As a result of the strike, vehicles and up to 30 enemy personnel were destroyed.
13:40 Russian Aerospace Forces missiles in Kyiv airspace, heading for targets in the city, Ukrainian monitoring channels report.
13:17 Powerful explosions in the Kyiv region, the air defense system is also working, the regional city administration reported.
13:09 Russian paratroopers of the Dnepr group of forces shot down a Ukrainian floating craft at night with a Kornet ATGM in the Ochakov area in the Dnieper estuary, the paratrooper commander with the call sign "Rock" reported –video.
13:00 The entire eastern part of the urban settlement of Tsukurino has come under the control of the Russian army. The Russian Armed Forces managed to drive the enemy beyond the railway track, Donetsk Stringer reported.
12:40 Summary of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the progress of the special military operation (as of October 3, 2024):
Units of the North group of forces in the Liptsov and Volchansk directions inflicted losses on formations of the 57th Motorized Infantry, 92nd Airborne Assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 113th and 129th Territorial Defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Malye Prokhody, Liptsy, Volchansk in the Khar'kov region and the city of Khar'kov.
The fighters of the "West" group of forces took up more advantageous lines and positions. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the 44th, 63rd, 66th Mechanized, 143rd Infantry, 3rd Assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 114th Territorial Defense brigade and the 1st National Guard brigade in the areas of the settlements of Kupyansk, Novoosinovo, Kruglyakovka, Lozovaya, Zeleny Gai of the Khar'kov region, Nevskoye of the Luhansk People's Republic, Torskoye of the Donetsk People's Republic, as well as Serebryanskoye forestry. They repelled three counterattacks of the assault groups of the 14th, 53rd and 116th Mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Units of the "Southern" group of forces improved their tactical position. They defeated the formations of the 22nd, 30th, 54th, 93rd Mechanized, 56th Motorized Infantry, 144th Infantry and 46th Airmobile brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the areas of the settlements of Seversk, Nikiforovka, Kramatorsk, Markovo, Verolyubovka, Stupochki, Predtechino, Belaya Gora, Maksimilyanovka and Katerinovka of the Donetsk People's Republic. They repelled three counterattacks of assault groups of the 24th Mechanized, 5th Assault and 81st Airmobile brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Center Group of Forces continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses. It defeated the manpower and equipment of the 31st, 32nd, 101st, 110th, 151st Mechanized, 1st Tank, 142nd Infantry, 95th Airborne Assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 109th, 112th Territorial Defense Brigades, the 12th and 14th National Guard Brigades in the areas of the settlements of Dzerzhinsk, Druzhba, Sukhaya Balka, Krasny Yar, Grodovka and Gornyak of the Donetsk People's Republic. It repelled eight counterattacks by assault groups of the 53rd, 100th, 150th Mechanized, 144th Infantry, 25th Airborne Brigades and the 425th Assault Battalion of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The servicemen of the "East" group of forces improved the situation along the front line. They defeated the manpower and equipment of the 72nd Mechanized, 58th Motorized Infantry brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 118th, 125th, 241st Territorial Defense brigades and the 21st National Guard brigade in the areas of the settlements of Dobrovolye, Zolotaya Niva, Velyka Novosyolka of the Donetsk People's Republic and Levadnoye of the Zaporizhia region. They repelled two counterattacks of the assault groups of the 110th territorial defense brigade.
The Dnepr group of forces defeated the formations of the 141st Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 35th Naval Infantry Brigade, the 103rd and 108th Territorial Defense Brigades in the areas of the settlements of Mala Tokmachka, Nesteryanka in the Zaporizhia region, Stepnoye, Kazatskoye and Kizomys in the Kherson region.
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces groups inflicted damage on Ukrainian energy facilities that supported the actions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as concentrations of enemy manpower and military equipment in 146 districts.
Air defense systems shot down four ATACMS operational-tactical missiles and five US-made HIMARS rockets, as well as 144 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles, including 122 outside the special military operation zone.
12:04 In the Kursk direction, fighting is taking place in several areas. In the area towards Glushkovo, the Russian Armed Forces were able to take the positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of the village of Vesyoloye. At the moment, clashes are continuing on the approaches to the village.
There are clashes in the Novoselovka area, located several kilometers north of Malaya Loknya, which the Russian army has taken under control. The Russian Armed Forces are also advancing in the Plekhovo area, trying to "encircle it and cut off" the Ukrainian Armed Forces from supplies.
11:05 Servicemen of the sniper units of the "West" group of forces carry out combat missions on the front line - destroying especially important targets and enemy manpower in "free hunt" mode, and also supporting the combat work of motorized rifle and tank units -video.
10:07 The Ukrainian Armed Forces have left their positions near the railway station in the village of Tsukurino in the DPR, the TASS agency reported, citing military personnel. It is noted that Russian troops are also increasing pressure on the enemy in the Selidovo direction.
09:15 Warehouse of the Armed Forces of Ukraine destroyed in the DPR: in the area of the settlement of Razliv, aerial reconnaissance of the Russian Armed Forces discovered a warehouse of ammunition and military-technical property of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
09:00 Russian servicemen have formed a “fire bag” for the Ukrainian Armed Forces group stationed near Lisichansk in the LPR, military expert Andrey Marochko reported.
08:54 Russian 68 Army Corps destroys air defense vehicles and Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles in Katerinovka –video.
08:14 Airborne artillerymen around the clock rain fire on targets in the Kursk region, said the gun commander, call sign Smely.
08:06 Russian forces have taken up more advantageous positions near Terny and have come close to the Torsk DPR, military expert Andrey Marochko reported.
08:00 Calculation of the220mm BM-27 MLRS "Uragan" destroyed area of concentration of military equipment and manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Avdeevka direction.
Going to the Here’s one of them link, we see a brief video of a missile taking a quick U-turn and hitting the launch point in a fiery explosion. The text, translated from Dutch:
Too much fun not to share!
A malfunction in an Iranian ballistic missile creates a cookie of its own dough:
Some of the ballistic missiles fired from Iran exploded in the sky over Shiraz yesterday, as recorded in aerial images.
In addition, new images have emerged showing two large fires on the outskirts of Shiraz, where an Iranian citizen claims that missiles fired by the Revolutionary Guard, intended for Israel, landed in the Fars district, just 5 km from the launch site.
BIG BREAKING NEWS 🚨 Opposition leaders of Iran reveal that missiles fired by Iran hit two Iranian cities.
Entire Iran in SHOCK!!
Opposition leaders & public slamming Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
"Misfired" missiles have caused MASSIVE damage in Iran.
#2
Ground videos show damages much more extensive. As with Ukraine Government and media control working together. Ground reference source my contact in Vietnam who handled security during that war. Other sources claim Israel restricting information released. Fog of war.
"There will be severe consequences for this attack, and we will work with Israel to make that the case," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on Tuesday, October 1.
#5
We supply Israels rockets for iron dome. Knowing how depleted stacks are now for USA a prolonged war will be difficult to manage resources. If Russia was a supplier their production levels far surpass the rest of the world. 400 is as nothing when Russia bombards Ukraine daily with far greater number of missiles." the number of individual Russian cruise missiles, rockets and drones targeting civilian areas in 2024. In the first half of 2024, approximately 3,500 ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones were fired at Ukraine, double the number compared to the first half of 2023, with the highest numbers in January (620) and March (over 880 airstrikes)".
#6
How's that 2 week Special Military Operation going?
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/04/2024 10:19
Comments ||
Top||
#7
In the beginning a small number of Russian troops entered Ukraine to encourage a peaceful conclusion to their conflict first do no harm. Pressured by the west and supplied by the west stiffened resolve of Z. So special operations have now transitioned to war. Troops withdrawn so Putin appeared weak. So now lost of life and huge costs drain NATO and Ukraine. Meanwhile Russian has only advanced. Then after election if Harris wins then war will be prolonged and monies spent. As in WW11 Russia will overwhelm and demand complete and total surrender. Absolutely no compromise. Curiously with Z having no authority or not considered by Russia to represent his people. I wonder who the fall guy will be.
#8
#6 Francis, you're thinking like an American (Afghanistan, Iraq, etc...). It took Ivan the Terrible* 3 tries to conquer the Kazan Khanate. It took Russians a 100+ years to destroy Crimean Khanate** (and settle what's became New Russia - the proximate cause of the current war).
*IMO a better translation would've been "the Dreaded".
** Did you know that Peter the Great - the guy who beat Sweden - paid tribute to Crimean Khanate?
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Four defendants in the criminal case on the terrorist attack in the Moscow region's Crocus City Hall were members of the Vilayat Khorasan group
…we generally call it ISIS-K, the branch based in Afghanistan…
(a terrorist organization whose activities are banned in the Russian Federation), according to court documents.
The investigation has already brought charges against them in a separate criminal case.
“A case has also been opened against four defendants for their participation in the activities of the banned terrorist group Vilayat Khorasan,” REN TV cites court documents.
It is noted that all four had previously been transported from Dagestan to Moscow. According to the investigation, the militants were engaged in the manufacture of a homemade explosive device and weapons.
The case also involves a number of other unidentified individuals. Vilayat Khorasan is part of another international organization, the Islamic State (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Sergey Adamov
[REFGNUM] Russian troops are completing the cleanup of Ugledar, a city southwest of Donetsk. Fighters from the Vostok group raised the Russian flag over the city administration building.
The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine stopped mentioning Ugledar in reports on the situation on the fronts on October 1 - a clear sign that the city was taken under control by the Russian army.
The next day, the command of the Ukrainian group of forces "Khortitsa" reported that "as a result of the enemy's actions, there was a threat of encirclement of the city: the high command granted permission to carry out a maneuver to withdraw units from Ugledar in order to preserve personnel and military equipment, and to take up a position for further actions."
The liberation of Ugledar seriously changes the frontline situation and threatens major problems for the Ukrainian Armed Forces. At the same time, in the near future, Russian troops will have to strengthen their new positions, the assault on which lasted more than two years.
Until recently, Ugledar remained the last “fortress city” on the front line Artemovsk – Toretsk – Avdeevka – Krasnogorovka – Maryinka, along which the Ukrainian Armed Forces planned to hold back the advance of Russian troops in Donbass.
In this strategy, the troops in Ugledar were given an important role: to hold a large area of territory from Maryinka to Velikaya Novosyolka. Since the city is located on a hill in the middle of a large plain, control over it provides a strategic advantage on this section of the front.
The five-story buildings in the center of the village were strategically important for the Ukrainian troops; they were turned into observation posts for adjusting artillery fire.
Realizing the importance of the settlement, the Ukrainian Armed Forces command always supported the city garrison in repelling attacks by the Russian army, sending reinforcements and artillery.
But as the “fortress cities” fell one after another, the situation on the Ugledar section of the front began to critically deteriorate for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
"I HAD TO GO OUT ON FOOT"
The final stage of the operation to liberate the city began on September 27, when Russian troops outflanked Ugledar and took it in a semi-ring, cutting off the main supply routes. The enemy garrison in the city found itself in operational encirclement. By September 30, Russian troops occupied the western outskirts of the city.
According to a source of the Regnum news agency, who was in the Ugledar direction, by this time the formations of the 72nd brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces began to leave the city. At the same time, the withdrawal was accompanied by large losses in the ranks of the Ukrainian troops.
"They retreated at night through the fields, along country roads, in groups. Since they started retreating late, the roads were already under surveillance, so we did not allow them to move freely. Individual groups were unable to leave, this is already a task for the cleanup groups," the source said.
The retreat of the Ukrainian Armed Forces from Ugledar became an important topic for Ukrainian and Western media. A number of observers directly condemned the Ukrainian command for weakening a strategically important section of the front.
In turn, servicemen of the 72nd Brigade told journalists that they had to leave on foot, since the command did not organize a planned evacuation. In the ensuing chaos, the retreating troops suffered heavy losses from artillery fire and drones.
At the same time, the Associated Press suggested that the loss of Ugledar was a consequence of the US refusal to allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russian territory.
"This is just a small part of the predicament Ukraine finds itself in, which reflects the US refusal to grant Kiev permission to strike targets deep inside Russian territory without degrading Moscow's capabilities," the agency wrote.
In addition, Russian aviation continues to dominate the air, and Russian industry is developing and promoting increasingly powerful glide bombs, to which Ukraine has no effective response. Deliveries of Western fighters to the Ukrainian Armed Forces have failed to change the situation on the front, AP summarizes.
DIRECTION - NORTH
After the liberation of Ugledar, several directions open up for Russian troops to continue their offensive.
The first is to the north, in the direction of Kurakhovo. Earlier, the forces of the "Center" group, advancing from Maryinka and Krasnogorovka, were able to approach the Kurakhovo reservoir to a distance of less than one and a half kilometers. The offensive is developing from several directions at once, but to completely encircle Kurakhovo, it will be necessary to cut off the Zaporizhzhya highway.
According to the latest data, Russian troops are building on their success in this direction and continue to push back enemy forces, demoralized by the loss of Ugledar.
"The fighting is taking place in the Bogoyavlenka area, where the Ukrainian Armed Forces have retreated from Ugledar. It is several kilometers to the north. But, most likely, they will not fortify there, because the village is in plain sight, and will retreat further - to Uspenovka. No one expects the front to fall apart tomorrow, but our prospects are good," adds the source of IA Regnum.
Another direction that opens up with the capture of Ugledar is to the east, in the direction of Velyka Novosyolka, a local road junction and the center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defense on the border between the DPR and the Zaporizhia region.
There is also the option of an offensive in the northwest direction, towards the administrative border of the DPR, where in a 30-40 kilometer area there is no longer a single large settlement under the control of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
PAYBACK FOR THE KURSK ADVENTURE
Ukrainian sources directly criticize the country's military and political leadership for weakening a large section of the front and report that troops in Ugledar have not received reinforcements or been withdrawn for rotation.
This information is confirmed by the Western press. Forbes magazine analyzed the situation at the front and came to the conclusion that Kiev decided to use reserves not in Donbass, but in the Kursk region.
It was there, according to the publication, that Leopard 2A6 and Strv 122 tanks (the Swedish version of the German tank), as well as the SCV-90 infantry fighting vehicle, were spotted.
Presumably, it was the start of the operation in the Kursk region that led to the collapse of the Donetsk front of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and Kyiv does not have enough forces either to develop an offensive in a new direction or to organize a defense in the Donbass.
The capture of Ugledar is given such close attention that settlements measuring one and a half by one and a half kilometers usually do not deserve. The nearest villages - Pavlovka and Nikolskoye - are much larger in area, but the peculiarity of this city is that there was no private sector there.
Without knowing it, Soviet builders initially built the village of Yuzhny (as it was previously called) as a powerful fortified area - panel high-rise buildings in an open field, to which were added the elegant above-ground structures of the Yuzhnodonbasskaya No. 3 mine.
Its white "skyscrapers" against the backdrop of the steppe have always been considered a favorable shot from the point of view of industrial design: the parallelepiped above the main trunk is beautiful and perfect in combination with the rest of the building complex.
In the 1960s, powerful seams of good-quality gas coal were explored here - with low ash and low sulfur content, suitable for coking and with a relatively shallow occurrence. The deposit, located away from the "old Donbass", was recognized as super-promising, and according to various sources, 7-8 mines were planned to be established here.
At the same time, housing was built - arriving miners were immediately given apartments. The first coal was brought to the surface in 1973, and the following year a railway line was built to transport it to Donetsk, to which the urban-type settlement was administratively subordinate. Since 1969, it has already become Ugledar.
But the eight mines did not work out - the next one was opened only in the mid-80s, and both "Yuzhnodonbasskiye" became the main support points for the formation of the "coal - coke - metal" chain, which became the basis of the prosperity of the "Donetsk clan".
And they worked quite successfully until the coup d'etat of 2014, when the clever guys of Viktor Yanukovych intended to put up for sale through the State Property Fund most of the state mines that were part of the state enterprise "Donetsk Coal Energy Company". And to lock everything in their hands.
The new government did not think in terms of “chains,” so by about 2017, the trusted persons of the new Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko confidently brought the Ugledar mines to bankruptcy.
They pumped money out of them through underpriced coal and overpriced equipment for modernization. At the same time, after the purchase, everything just lay in warehouses.
As a result, production stopped completely in 2019. The New Ukraine project did not envisage any industrial development in principle.
The country, whose goal was to endlessly create problems for Russia, confidently took a course towards complete deindustrialization.
Industrial zones were initially considered solely from the point of view of being cut into metal, and then as objects suitable for military purposes.
Accordingly, Ugledar was turned into a “fortress” dominating the area, without any pity – there were no plans for it anyway and there could not be any.
The Russian Armed Forces units began storming it two years ago, and of course, with little success. The fortress in the middle of the steppe gave huge advantages to the defenders, who had everything in plain sight.
The situation began to change after the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defense was pushed through northeast of Ugledar, in the area of Novomykhaylovka and then Konstantinovka. Later, Vodyanoye fell, and Prechistovka fell to the west of Ugledar. As a result, the flanks crumbled and the city fell - the garrison began to be withdrawn, fearing encirclement.
Moreover, as some military personnel believe, the order to leave was given too late, so as not to spoil Zelensky’s trip to the United States, which led to major losses: the garrison had to fight in an operational encirclement and leave across the same bare steppe.
From a military point of view, this point on the map provides several important advantages. Now, the Russian Armed Forces control the very same railway line to Donetsk, once built to facilitate the development of the deposit.
Through it, the advanced units receive fast communication with the entire south of Donbass; the highway is part of a single network with Mariupol, Crimea, Zaporizhia and Kherson regions.
In addition, this local success helps to form a "cauldron" southwest of Donetsk. In order to avoid falling into it, Ukrainian troops will be forced to roll back to the west, to the border of the Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporizhia regions.
From here it is a stone's throw to Polog and Orekhovo; in these vast spaces there are no longer any large settlements that could be turned into “fortresses”.
At one time, the Germans, having lost the battle for Donbass in September 1943, quickly retreated behind the Molochnaya and Dnieper rivers, burning everything along the retreat route. The Wehrmacht commanders understood that the troops were doomed in the open field. The leaders of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, who will now cling to the last chances to hold back the advance of the Russian army, also understand this.
The last key center of Ukrainian defense on the way to Kurakhovo will most likely be the village of Bogoyavlenka, which will determine the further course of events.
However, the army is followed by the managers. And from the point of view of the future of these territories, the restoration of Ugledar and the development of huge coal reserves, the restoration of industry will be a much more significant victory.
Russia does not rule its lands as a temporary worker, whose task is to rush and run away. So there are people who look at the coal miners' town in the middle of the steppe not only as a "fortified area with commanding heights."
Perhaps those hundred and fifty residents who survived the assault in their destroyed homes stayed precisely for this reason.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov and Vladislav Sovin
[REGNUM] The mantra about returning the “1991 borders” in the Ukrainian version has long become an integral part of any international meetings, and Ukraine’s allies echo it in every possible way on this issue.
Recently, the foreign ministers of the G7 countries stated that they will never recognize the annexation of Ukrainian regions by Russia and demanded that the Russian Federation abandon “its claims regarding the annexation of the Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions, as well as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.”
The formula about borders has become so familiar and categorical that no one even thinks that it fundamentally contradicts the concept that official Kyiv has been building for many years. After all, the borders of Ukraine as of 1991 are the borders of the Ukrainian SSR, a constituent part of the USSR, formed in this form thanks to the targeted policy of the Soviet state.
At the same time, the modern Ukrainian concept of "state-building" categorically denies any connection with it, pursuing a policy of total "decommunization" and "decolonization". The countdown of Ukrainian statehood begins with the Ukrainian People's Republic (UPR) of the period 1917-1920, and the annexation of eastern Polish lands to the Ukrainian SSR is traditionally called occupation.
Consequently, the size of the territory and the contours of the Ukrainian borders have no connection to 1991. Moreover, the redistribution of territories in Europe (and not only there) by Ukraine’s Western partners created enough precedents to no longer speak so categorically about Russia’s actions.
"THERE IS TERRITORY UNDER THE CARRIAGE"
As the first experience of independent nationalist statehood, the Ukrainian People's Republic of the early 20th century and its leaders are glorified at all levels - from school textbooks to monuments and street names. Symon Petliura, the head of the Directory of the UPR, is among the main national heroes.
At the state level, various dates associated with this period of history are annually celebrated, in particular the so-called Day of Unity on January 22, when Zelensky invariably records another pompous address to the people. But then it is completely logical to consider the starting position and borders of the UPR - not those to which it formally claimed, but within which it actually existed.
The first step was the proclamation by the Central Rada (the governing body of various Ukrainian organizations created in March 1917) of the autonomy of Ukraine within Russia. It was allowed within a limited framework by the then Provisional Government, which recognized this autonomy on the territory of five provinces: Kyiv, Volyn, Podolsk, Poltava and Chernigov (with the exception of part of its northern districts).
The Kiev optimists did not receive the desired nine provinces and did not object to this; the text of the First Universal was read by Vladimir Vynnychenko on June 10 (23), 1917 at the Second All-Ukrainian Military Congress and proclaimed that, “without separating from all of Russia… the Ukrainian people must manage their own lives.” The following two Universals reinforced this position.
Thus, the original territory of the autonomous Ukraine as part of Russia included only the central lands and part of the western ones, and its total area was significantly less than half of the territory of the Ukrainian SSR according to the 1991 borders.
When the creation of the UPR was proclaimed after the October Revolution, it aimed at a much larger territory, including Donbass, Kharkov and Odessa. But such desires again did not coincide with reality. Neither the Bolsheviks who came to power in Petrograd, nor the majority of the population of the territories that the UPR declared its own, had any intention of recognizing its claims.
In the confrontation that soon unfolded, the "unrecognized republic" was defeated, the Central Rada fled even from Kyiv and by the end of January 1918 controlled only part of Right-Bank Ukraine. In these conditions, the delegation of the UPR, which began negotiations with Germany and Austria-Hungary, hastily concluded a peace treaty with the latter, according to which it was recognized as an independent state, but in fact passed under external German-Austrian control.
If we talk about the UPR in its second period of existence - from November 1918 to 1920, headed by a new supreme body - the Directory, then everything was even more interesting there. After the defeat of the German and Austro-Hungarian empires and their collapse, the revived UPR regained control over part of the Ukrainian lands, including Kyiv, for some time.
On January 22, 1919, the unification ( the "Act of Zluka" ) of the UPR with the ZUNR - the West Ukrainian People's Republic, created on the territory of Eastern Galicia, which had previously been part of Austria-Hungary, was pompously proclaimed. However, the Red Army was already advancing from the east, and from the west - the Poles, who had revived their state, an integral part of which they considered most of Western Ukraine.
So by the beginning of spring of the same 1919, a little over a month after the "Act of Zluka", only Zhitomir and Vinnytsia remained under the control of the UPR from the large cities. The famous Ukrainian satirical writer Ostap Vyshnya, who witnessed all these events with his own eyes, aptly characterized the situation with the phrase "In the carriage there is the Directory - under the carriage there is territory", which became a catchphrase.
The French consul in Odessa, Emile Henno, who at one time negotiated with the Petliurists regarding the acceptance of the UPR under the protectorate of France, called them "a gang of fanatics without any influence." As a result, due to the complete worthlessness of the UPR, the Western powers - the victors in the First World War, not only did not satisfy the exorbitant Ukrainian territorial "wants" presented at the Paris Peace Conference, but also did not recognize it in principle as a separate state - within any borders.
The last attempt of Petliura and company to stay afloat was the conclusion of the Warsaw Treaty with Pilsudski's Poland in April 1920. In exchange for recognition of the UPR headed by himself and receiving military aid against the Red Army, Petliura agreed to the inclusion of the western Ukrainian lands of Galicia and Volyn into Poland, completely nullifying that same "Zluka" with ZUNR.
However, this alliance with the Poles did not help the Directory, and after the end of the Polish-Soviet War, the UPR, left without territory even under a train car, ceased to exist.
"SOVIET OCCUPATION"
The creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic and the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic fully corresponded to the political moment, and both of them had exactly the same right to exist as the UPR. The DKR, by the way, was also an autonomy within the RSFSR - the process of self-determination after the fall of the empire allowed for any options.
Therefore, the political competition for territory was fair: who had the better idea and more bayonets. As in our days, Kyiv called for help from the Germans and Poles, and Yuzov (future Donetsk) - the Russians. And the fact that Petliura and the romantics from the Central Rada had no unifying ideology and their own resources (just like Zelensky and those sitting in the Verkhovna Rada) - that's their problem.
The crux of the matter is that Soviet Ukraine became a full-fledged state with all its attributes, including a clear state border, while the UPR did not, and it officially renounced its western part. As a result, the Ukrainian SSR of 1939 had a border along the Zbruch. And as a result of the Soviet-Polish war, Poland completely annulled the Warsaw Treaty of 1920 with the Ukrainian People's Republic, and the new treaty established the borders between the RSFSR, the Ukrainian SSR, the BSSR, and the Polish Republic.
No other Ukrainian republics existed any more, and Crimea was not part of the Ukrainian SSR, just as it was not part of the UPR.
In 1939, Galicia and Volyn, which had previously been part of Poland, were annexed to Ukraine. Following this, in 1940, Northern Bukovina (today's Chernivtsi region) and Southern Bessarabia (the south of Odessa region), occupied by Romania after World War I, were annexed.
In 1945, after the victory in the Great Patriotic War, Transcarpathia, which until 1938-1939 was part of Czechoslovakia, was included in the Ukrainian SSR, and during its division was captured by Hungary. Finally, in 1954, Crimea was transferred from the RSFSR to the Ukrainian SSR as a gift in honor of the anniversary of the Pereyaslav Rada - since then denounced by "patriots" at least twice.
The entire Soviet period has been officially declared an occupation period in Ukraine, the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact has been declared criminal, and the rhetoric of Poland and Romania about an act of aggression with the seizure of “ancestral territories” has been supported. On April 9, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a package of laws on “decommunization,” as well as the law “On the condemnation of the communist and national-socialist (Nazi) totalitarian regimes in Ukraine and the ban on the propaganda of their symbols.”
In April 2023, Zelensky signed a law on "decolonization", as the former head of the Institute of National Memory Volodymyr Vyatrovich stated, "this is a systemic document on the liberation of our country from the markers of the "Russian world". This law directly "recognizes as criminal and condemns Russian imperial policy". So, in full accordance with its spirit and letter, the territorial acquisitions of the Soviet period are a solid marker of the Russian world and the consequences of imperial policy.
And the fact that the “1991 borders” are not a dogma was confirmed by President Viktor Yushchenko. When in 2004 Romania appealed to the International Court of Justice with the question of delimitation of the continental shelf in the area of Zmeinoye Island, which belongs to Ukraine, it refused to appeal to the demarcation and delimitation of the borders between the USSR and Romania that took place in the first post-war years. Although it was then mutually recognized by both parties.
In the dispute with Romania, Ukraine could have resorted to the support of the Russian Federation as the successor to the Soviet Union, once and for all closing the question of the ownership of part of its territory. But instead, Kyiv accepted a court decision, according to which 80% of the continental shelf around Zmeinoye went to Romania.
Thus, this precedent has already made the borders different from those in 1991.
And the process of revising the borders that emerged in Europe after the end of World War II was not started by Russia at all. One could start with West Germany's absorption of the GDR in 1990, but the collapse of socialist Yugoslavia in 1991 and the separation of Kosovo as a result of direct military aggression by NATO are more appropriate here.
This is also a precedent that provides grounds for individual regions thirsting for self-determination. Especially if we are talking about a country that is quite consciously rejecting its own territories.
Ukraine must get what it so desperately wants: complete decommunization and decolonization, an integral part of which is decommunization of borders. Let them be honest with themselves.
Commentary by Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin is in italics.
[ColonelCassad] An absolutely amazing article in The Hill - about how "Russians should suffer, but live better than in the EU."
"Russians seem to be suffering less from the war than in 2022. Neither Ukraine's invasion of the Kursk region nor Western sanctions seem to be causing discontent among "ordinary" citizens or wealthy residents of Russia's largest cities.
This came as a surprise to many Western politicians and Russian dissidents, who had pinned some hopes on Muscovites and St. Petersburgers rebelling against the "war economy" and the loss of Western boutiques, free internet and travel to the EU. But even though Russia has been cut off from the West, too few people are irritated by this to cause significant protest.
Western sanctions imposed in 2022 have caused a sharp drop in capital outflow from Russia. Almost all the money that would have previously been directed to luxury European real estate has instead begun to flow into Moscow, St. Petersburg and their suburbs.
Although Visa and MasterCard have suspended their operations in Russia, Russians continue to use the Russian Central Bank's SBP, which allows them to transfer money by phone number immediately and without commission. Russian capitals are now ahead of European megacities in the use of QR codes and facial recognition, and mobile data is the cheapest and fastest in the EU. Even in stores, the range of goods is the same as before the war, including French wine and Italian sweets. In addition, home delivery of food and goods by robots is commonplace.
We see such tempting job offers that many Russians who left are now returning, having failed to integrate into European societies.
Russians are not so much worried as happy about the departure of their liberal compatriots and (not suffering, but) welcoming positive economic changes - and this economic progress has undermined anti-Putin sentiment in the country. Thus, Western attempts to undermine the Russian economy since 2022 have led to the opposite result - at least for now."
Text taken from the Telegram channel of @lost_armor
Moderator note: Units in the original designated as troops regiment, I suspect are simply local/military levies of poor quality/training. I think units designated here and in official Russian Ministry of Defense reports as Territorial Defense, are actual local levies of slightly better quality/training: Fellas who were handed a rifle and told to go stop a bullet. A lot of those are deployed to forward areas wearing trainers/tennis shoes.
Some of the original units I have re-designated because as they were, they did not make military sense.
It appears the Ukrainians are cross-detaching their ground units like crazy, probably to reinforce other units which have suffered heavy losses in infantry. As an aside, they aren't doing anything the Russians aren't doing.
Based on this and other reports, the Ukrainians have committed the combat equivalent of three rifle corps to the Kursk operation, on the NATO establishment.
[ColonelCassad] Update of information on the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region and adjacent areas of the Sumy region.
First of all, I would like to show the changes in the force grouping for the period from the end of August to September 20, as well as the losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces units based on open data.
The left flank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces grouping is in the area of the villages of Kulbaki, Apanasovka, Komarovka, Snagost, Vishnevka, and 10 Oktyabrya.
At the end of August, it was held by units of
• 103rd Troop Regiment (2 battalions),
• 101st Troop Regiment (2 battalions),
• 1st Rifle Battalion, 1st Separate Mechanized Brigade,
• 1st Infantry Battalion, 152nd Separate Mechanized Brigade,
• 501st Separate Motorized Rifle Regiment,
• 116t Territorial Defense Brigade. 145ob,
• Border Guard Brigade "Steel Cordon", participating in the battles mainly with the forces of the 15th Border Detachment.
As a result of the counteroffensive of the RF Armed Forces, the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were thrown back to the line of the villages of Dar'ino and Lyubimovka. To stop this attack, the Armed Forces of Ukraine used reserves:
• 82 Separate Assault Brigade (2 battalions),
• 64 Separate battalion from the 44th Separate Mechanized Brigade,
• 202 battalion of the 103rd Territorial Defense Brigade,
• Detachments of the 73rd and 140th Special Operations Center.
The 1st infantry battalion of the 152nd Separate Mechanized Brigade was withdrawn from the battles.
The center of the Ukrainian Armed Forces group at the beginning of August in the area of the villages Korenevo, Olgovka, Kalinov, Sheptukhovka consisted of:
• 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade (6 battalions, including 1-2 in Sumy Oblast)
• Zhuravli - 225th Separate Battalion,
• Malaya Loknya, Pogrebki - 95th Separate Airborne Brigade (2 battalions, one more in reserve in Sumy Oblast),
• Kamyshovka, Martynovka, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye - 80th Separate Airborne brigade (2 battalions, one in reserve in Sumy Oblast).
Due to heavy losses, by September 20, units of the 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade were replaced by units of the 41st Separate Mechanized Brigade (three mechanized battalions and 40th Separate battalion), reserves were also involved:
• 132nd Separate Reconnaissance Battalion of the Airborne Assault Brigade,
• 21 Separate Mechanized Brigade (one battalion),
• 22 Separate Special Forces brigade from the separate presidential brigade.
• 80 separate airborne assault Brigade was reinforced by a battalion of the 10 Separate Airborne Assault Brigade, which had previously operated in the Khar'kov region.
• 225 Separate Airborne Assault Brigade was withdrawn for attacks in the area of the village of Vesyoloye, Glushkovsky district.
• 95 Separate Airborne Assault Brigade remained to defend itself with the 1st battalion in the area of the villages of Pogrebki-Malaya Loknya, and the 2nd and 13th battalions were transferred for attacks in the area of the villages of Vesyoloye, Medvezhye, Glushkovsky district.
The right flank of the Ukrainian Armed Forces group at the beginning of August, the villages of Russkaya and Cherkasskaya Konopelka, Pushkarnoye, Ulanok, Borki, Plekhovo, and Spalnoye consisted of:
• 61st Separate Motorized Brigade (five battalions, including one in Sumy Oblast),
• 92nd Separate Motorized Brigade as part of the 3rd Mechanized Brigade. battalion,
• One company of the ZK Shkval-92,
• 129 Brigade of the Territorial Defense (three battalions), in September transferred to reinforce the 12th Separate Battalion of the National Guard of the Republic of Ukraine, military unit 3052.
The group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine involved in attacks in the area of the villages Veseloye, Medvezhye village, Glushkovsky district
• 21 Separate Mechanized Brigade (1-2 mechanized battalions, one tank battalion),
• 17 Separate Mechanized Brigade (one mechanized battalion, one tank battalion),
• 95 Separate Airborne Assault Brigade (2 and 13 battalions), 225 Separate Airborne Assault Brigade
Losses of the group of the Armed Forces of Ukraine for August, established according to open data - 687 dead and missing found, 57 prisoners identified.
Losses for September - 711 dead and missing, 22 prisoners identified.
The greatest losses according to known data were suffered by:
• 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade - 210 combatants/infantry soldiers and 14 prisoners,
• 95th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade - 172 combatants/infantry soldiers and 4 prisoners,
• 82nd Separate Airborne Assault Brigade - 152 combatants/infantry soldiers and 8 prisoners,
• 61st Separate Mechanized Brigade - 102 combatants/infantry soldiers and 9 prisoners,
• 80th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade - 91 combatants/infantry soldiers and 5 prisoners,
• 41st Separate Mechanized Brigade - 67 combatants/infantry soldiers and 7 prisoners,
• 103rd Separate Troop-carrying Brigade - 66 combatants/infantry soldiers,
• 225th Separate Airborne Assault Brigade - 37 combatants/infantry soldiers (including 31 former prisoners) and 2 prisoners.
🚨 Breaking: In anticipation of Israel's 🇮🇱 attack on its oil infrastructure, Iran 🇮🇷 shuts down Khark Island where it exports more than 90% of its oil 👇 pic.twitter.com/E4imW9vFlc
While all options are on the table, Israeli officials indicated that its first targets would be Iran's oil facilities, air defense systems, and targeted assassinations. Iran's nuclear program will reportedly remain safe unless Iran attacks again.
Neutering Iran's nuclear program ought to come immediately after the mullahs' air defense systems. Consultations with the leaky Biden White House ought to be kept curt and free of details. Absolutely. After-the-fact only
To give you an idea of how vulnerable Iran's oil exports are, 95% of them get loaded onto tankers at one location.
Brent crude prices jumped 5% after Tuesday's missile attack.
Just as bad, Iran has just 10 refineries for domestic production of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), gasoline, kerosene, fuel oil, and lubricants. Oddly enough, Iran is a net importer of gasoline and needs hard currency to buy enough. Without those distillates, a modern economy grinds to a halt.
The point is that if Israel wants to shut down Iran's foreign moneymaker, it can do so with relative ease. If it wants to go further and shut down Iran's domestic economy, it can do that, too, with a bit more effort.
China, despite buying 91% (!!!) of Iran's oil exports, remains officially mum. That's up from just 26% in 2017, so if you were wondering what keeps the mullahs' regime awash in cash, it's Communist China. If an Israeli strike on Kharg sends Beijing scrambling to replace its Iranian imports, prices will spike worldwide.
Whatever backchannel talks might be going on between Beijing and Jerusalem haven't leaked because neither Xi Jinping nor Bibi Netanyahu is Joe Biden or Kamala Harris.
#5
Kunstler this morning closed his screed with this curious, and pertinent, commentary on Kharg as an Israeli option to restrain Demokrat election cheating. FWIW:
" One surprising October surprise is advanced by whistleblower Mike McCormick on Substack (Midnight in the Laptop of Good and Evil). Mr. McCormick was White House stenographer under Presidents Bush II, Obama, and Trump. His job was to transcribe meetings, speeches, and interactions between major political figures. He was the proverbial fly-on-the-wall for years and years. He has seen and heard a lot and still hears a lot from people who know a lot. He says the Obama-Biden-Harris faction of the Deep State blob is anti-Israel and that Israel understands what this means. He says that Benjamin Netanyahu has told “Joe Biden” (or, let’s say, told errand-boys Tony Blinken and Jake Sullivan) that if the blob engineers a phony victory for Kamala Harris, he will blow up the oil fields in Iran and the anti-Israel Democrats will have to pick up the pieces.
There it is, raw power politics, like so much meat on the table. “Joe Biden” cannot control Bibi. “Joe Biden” is too far gone and two weak, and Israel does not aim to let itself get wiped off the map, as Iran’s leadership never tires of saying. The blob, McCormick says, has to ask itself: does it help rig the election for Harris or stand down on all its ballot harvesting and other trickery and actually allow a real election to roll out? Surprise! Now, take your Kit-kat bar and go home."
These terrorists filmed this video earlier today, and then went to a cafe in Tulkarm (Palestinian Territories). 20 of them were eliminated at the cafe.
[IsraelTimes] IDF says several other operatives also killed in rare strike by fighter jet that’s one of the deadliest in West Bank in years; Hamas decries ‘cruel attack,’ Fatah mourns ‘martyrs’
An Israeli fighter jet carried out a rare attack in Tulkarem late Thursday, with the Palestinian Authority’s health ministry reporting at least 18 fatalities in one of the deadliest airstrikes in the West Bank in recent memory.
A joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet said the strike targeted Zahi Yaser Abd al-Razeq Oufi, a top Hamas commander in Tulkarem, along with several other operatives. According to the military, Oufi was planning a terror attack “in the immediate time frame.”
The statement said Oufi planned and led an attempted car bombing attack near the settlement of Ateret last month.
He was also involved in providing weapons to other terror operatives who carried out numerous attacks in the West Bank and in Israel recently, including those that led to the injury of Israeli civilians, according to the military.
The IDF and Shin Bet added that he “worked to establish terrorist networks on behalf of Hamas and assisted terror operatives in the area to carry out significant shooting and explosive attacks.”
The IDF has carried out dozens of airstrikes in the West Bank in the past year, but mostly with drones and helicopters, rarely with fighter jets.
In addition to the 18 Palestinians killed, numerous other people were reportedly wounded in Thursday’s strike, which a source within the Palestinian security services told AFP was the deadliest in the West Bank since 2000.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s spokesman called for Israel to be held accountable for the “heinous crime,” in a statement that described the attack as a “massacre.”
Hamas condemned Israel over the “cruel attack” and warned it would prove to be a “dangerous escalation.” Other Palestinian factions also denounced Israel, with Abbas’s Fatah movement calling for demonstrations on Friday to honor the “heroic martyrs” of Tulkarem.
Tulkarem has been a focus of recent Israeli counter-terrorism operations in West Bank towns and refugee camps, as part of intensified near-daily military raids aimed at dismantling Palestinian terror groups following Hamas’s October 7 attack from Gaza.
Since October 7, troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Palestinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Palestinian Authority health ministry, more than 716 West Bank Palestinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were gunmen killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or terrorists carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 40 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in clashes with terror operatives in the West Bank.
[IsraelTimes] A Palestinian armed with a knife was shot by Israeli troops at the entrance to the Judea Regional Brigade’s base near Hebron in the southern West Bank, the military says.
There are no injuries to troops in the incident, the IDF adds.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Russian Aerospace Forces have struck four militant bases in Syria. This was reported on Thursday, October 3, by Captain First Rank Oleg Ignasyuk, Deputy Head of the Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides (CRPS) in the Arab Republic.
"The command of the Syrian Armed Forces, with the support of the Russian group of troops, continues to conduct reconnaissance and search operations in the mountainous desert areas of the provinces of Homs and Deir ez-Zor. The Russian Aerospace Forces struck four identified locations of militants who left the Et-Tanf zone," he said during a briefing.
Ignasyuk added that over the past 24 hours, five cases of shelling of positions of Syrian government troops by militants have been identified in the Idlib de-escalation zone.
In addition, the Center for Strategic and Inter-Aircraft Monitoring recorded 14 violations of the rules for the use of Syrian airspace by the so-called international coalition led by the United States in one day. In the At-Tanf area, violations were committed by three pairs of F-15 fighters, pairs of F-16 and F/A-18 fighters, and a pair of A-10 attack aircraft.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on September 18, the deputy head of the Center for Strategic and Military Cooperation reported that Russian troops in the Syrian province of Idlib repelled an attempt by militants to attack positions of Syrian government troops. As a result of the fighting, one terrorist was eliminated.
On September 26, Oleg Ignasyuk reported that the MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle of the "coalition" came dangerously close to the Su-24 fighter jet of the Russian Aerospace Forces. According to him, the collision was avoided thanks to the professionalism of Russian pilots, who promptly took the necessary measures to prevent the incident.
The Israeli Air Force has eliminated Ruhi Mushtaha, Yahya Sinwar’s right-hand man and the head of Hamas’ governance in the Gaza Strip. pic.twitter.com/alR3t8ZMyR
[IsraelTimes] Military says Rawhi Mushtaha was killed along with top officials Sameh al-Siraj and Sami Odeh in a strike on a fortified underground compound for Hamas leaders
Senior Hamas official Rawhi Mushtaha, the de facto prime minister of the Gaza Strip, was killed in an Israeli strike several months ago, the IDF and Shin Bet said Thursday, announcing that they had confirmed his death.
The IDF described Mushtaha as Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s “right-hand man and one of his closest associates.” Channel 12 news reported that he was a long-time cellmate of Sinwar’s in Israeli prison, was freed with Sinwar in the 2011 Shalit deal, and was one of the five key architects of the October 7 Hamas invasion and slaughter in southern Israel.
According to the military and Shin Bet, Mushtaha was targeted in a strike in the Gaza Strip three months ago, along with Hamas officials Sameh al-Siraj, who held the security portfolio in Hamas’s political bureau, and Sami Odeh, the head of Hamas’s “general security mechanism.”
The strike, carried out by fighter jets, targeted the officials while they were hiding in a tunnel in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF says it had “precise intelligence” indicating the officials were in the tunnel.
But until now, they had not been able to confirm that they were killed.
The military described the tunnel as “a fortified and equipped underground compound” that “served as a Hamas command and control center and enabled senior operatives to remain inside of it for extended periods of time.”
Hamas has not confirmed the deaths of the senior officials. The IDF said that Hamas is hiding its losses “to prevent loss of morale and functioning of its terror operatives.”
Mushtaha and Sinwar served a prison sentence together in an Israeli jail, and later together established Hamas’s general security mechanism, according to the IDF.
“Mushtaha was considered to be the most senior figure in the Hamas political bureau in the Gaza Strip, and during the war maintained civil control of the Hamas regime, while simultaneously engaging in terror activity against Israel,” the military said.
The IDF says he was also “one of Hamas’s most senior operatives, and had a direct impact on decisions relating to Hamas’s force deployment.”
“Mushtaha was involved in military decisions while also acting as the head of Hamas civil governance in the Gaza Strip and holding the prisoners affairs portfolio. He also formerly held the finance portfolio,” the military added.
🔴We eliminated terrorist Aziz Salha, who took part in the Ramallah lynching in Oct. 2000, in the area of Deir El Balah in central Gaza.
Salha took part in the brutal lynching of Sergeant First Class (Res.) Yosef Avrahami and Corporal (Res.) Vadim Norzhich in Ramallah in 2000.… pic.twitter.com/NHWw8pF2IO
[IsraelTimes] Photo of Aziz Salha displaying his blood-soaked hands to mob was a defining image of the Second Intifada; IDF says he was targeted in Deir al-Balah
The Israel Defense Forces and the Shin Bet said in a statement Thursday that they had killed Aziz Salha, a Palestinian man infamous for his role in the lynching of two Israeli soldiers in Ramallah in 2000, in an airstrike in Gaza.
The brutal killing of the two soldiers in the first weeks of the Second Palestinian uprising, or Intifada, deeply shocked Israeli society, and the image of Salha proudly displaying his blood-soaked hands to a mob was a defining moment in the long history of violent conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
News of his death was first reported by Palestinian media and later confirmed by Israel. The IDF said Salha, 43, was targeted in central Gaza’s Deir al-Balah.
Reservist soldiers Yosef Avrahami and Vadim Norzhic were killed in October 2000 after they took a wrong turn and ended up in the Palestinian Authority-controlled city of Ramallah in the West Bank. They were seized by PA police and taken to a police station, but that station was then overrun by a mob angry over the recent deaths of Palestinians in violent clashes with the army. The two Israeli men were viciously beaten and stabbed to death and their bodies were mutilated.
Several men were eventually arrested and imprisoned by Israel for their part in the lynching.
Salha was sentenced to life imprisonment in 2004 for his role in the murder of Norzhich, but was released in 2011 as part of the controversial prisoner exchange deal for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped and held by the terror organization Hamas in Gaza.
The IDF and Shin Bet said that Salha had been involved in advancing terror attacks in the West Bank from Gaza in recent years.
The release of some 1,000 terrorists in 2011 as part of the Shalit deal came under greater scrutiny following the October 7 attacks. Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, the architect of the massacres, was one of the many prisoners with blood on their hands who were freed in that agreement.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2024
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[FoxNews] The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said Thursday that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has the funds needed for "immediate response and recovery" in the wake of Hurricane Helene — even as Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas warned about a potential lack of money.
"FEMA has what it needs for immediate response and recovery efforts," spokesperson Jaclyn Rothenberg said on X. "As [Administrator Deanne Criswell] said, she has the full authority to spend against the President’s budget, but we’re not out of hurricane season yet so we need to keep a close eye on it."
The agency had recently lifted immediate needs funding, which allows the agency to focus on urgent efforts and pause non-urgent projects, but Rothenberg said the agency may still need to go back to that "and we will be watching it closely."
Mayorkas had grabbed headlines on Wednesday when he said that FEMA does not have enough funding to make it through hurricane season, which lasts until November.
"We are meeting the immediate needs with the money that we have. We are expecting another hurricane hitting," he said. "FEMA does not have the funds to make it through the season."
Mayorkas spoke on Air Force Once as the states and the federal government assess the damage from Helene, which hit several states and has killed more than 160 people. His calls echoed those by President Biden, who said that Congress may need to pass a supplemental spending bill to help states.
Congress recently made $20 billion in immediate funding available for FEMA’s Disaster Relief Fund as part of a bipartisan deal to avoid a government shutdown at the end of last month. But Congress is currently out until mid-November, after Election Day.
Mayorkas later clarified his remarks at the same event, saying that the short-term funding does not give the agency stability.
Then he’s just pushing for a bigger budget, in case the money might be needed later?
#2
Where were they 6 days ago?
Given the clearly seen threat, why wasn't preemptive measures like multiple regional deployments of emergency supplies and resources taken?
Trump showed up, boots on the ground, quicker than any of the White House Admin.
Only then did Harris and Biden decide to tour the disaster areas.
BTW: FEMA is $$$broke.
Why? I am sure feeding, housing and caring for the recent OPEN BORDERS Illegals, spread around the USA had something to do with it.
About $1.2+ Billion of its budget taking care of the Democrats future Metro- area ILLEGAL VOTERS.
#12
And for all the people who are "heeeerrr heerrr they deserve it" guess what, this is a natural disaster and power outage people prepare for in Hurricane and/or Tornado season, and:
Guess what. You will have your time, and this is the precedent on how you will be treated. And Bubba, well, he ain't coming to you, even if he wanted to.
Text taken from the post in the link
[X] If you are wondering why citizens are being turned away that are coming to help NC and TN - you'll want to hear my experience as someone who has been doing this as a private citizen for almost a decade.
I was able to get into, and out of Asheville. We brought food, water, fuel and other supplies as well as helped people affected by the floods, but there are reasons why they are not allowing outside help.
I cannot confirm the reasons why in NC, but i can tell you the reasons in other storms i have worked - i'll explain below.
Let me share with you the first disaster area that i finally realized that this was all about money.
In the FL Keys with Hurricane Irma, after Texas got hit with Harvey, we finished our efforts in Texas and were the first citizen team to make it to Key Largo.
The federal agencies had US1 shut down just South of Key Largo and wouldn't let anyone in or out, even though the road was okay to pass.
We explained to them that we had boats, Jet skis, food, water, chainsaws and fuel to bring these people.
They didn't care and wouldn't let us in.
It was night by that point and you rarely saw the lights of vehicles in the distance on the individual keys, meaning the emergency response teams from FEMA weren't even working, it was all quiet.
We decided that we would go in anyways.
We filled up the boats and jet skis with all that we could reasonably carry and went by water, around all their BS blockades and around their law enforcement presence on the water.
It was 87 miles by water to get to our first stop, Cudjoe Key and Sugarloaf Key.
When we arrived there we were greeted by a homeowner (for privacy, I won't name him, though we have video) who was elated to see us and all the supplies we brought, his house was in shambles.
We started offloading supplies on the shoreline and helping to get them into what was left of his house. Read the rest at the link
Posted by: Mercutio ||
10/04/2024
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#2
It is time to Legally handcuff DC. Time after time we see and read where the DC Swamp/Cartel has grown out of control and takes every opportunity to circumvent the US Legal Code and the Bill of Rights.
Hell, that statement makes a person sound like a 70's radical. But if you stop and think, many 70's radicals have taken many political offices. It seems these Yuppy liberals, have become what they protested.
Tonight’s Israeli Airstrikes on the Southern Suburbs of Beirut are said to have Targeted a Deep-Underground Bunker utilized by Hezbollah, hiding inside of which Israeli Officials believe was the New Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hashem Safieddine as well as his Family and... pic.twitter.com/JGMvOpwHxi
… his Family and several other Senior Hezbollah Officials.
Very Heavy Airstrikes by the Israeli Air Force on the Dahieh Suburb of Southern Beirut in the last hour, with several High-Rise Buildings reported to have Collapsed. pic.twitter.com/5guS5so54R
#2
For added justice, suggest Israel takes care of any orphans under 10 from Gaza and raise them in loving Jewish families as Jews. Take them away from Islam.
#3
Re #2: Dunno if that would work with 10 year-olds. The Jesuits used to have a saying " Let us have a child until they are 7 and we'll have them forever."
That will be a tough sell. The Paleos were already kicked out of Jordan once for being unconducive to civilization.
Lots of speculation about the Israeli response to the latest Iranian attack. I would be unsurprised if they put off major festivities and simply continued to pick off high-value personnel a few at a time. Battlespace preparation and it does not dramatically escalate the conflict. For the moment.
#7
suggest Israel takes care of any orphans under 10 from Gaza and raise them in loving Jewish families as Jews. Take them away from Islam.
Israel will never do that, Anon1 — we’ve discussed this before. It was done to our children — not always orphans — in both Christendom and the Ummah — up until the 1950s Jews in Egypt still cross-adopted their children at birth to prevent them from being taken for that purpose. The last child taken and forcibly converted in Europe was in the 1850s, the Mortara case.
[IsraelTimes] The Swedish intelligence agency Sapo says that Iran may have been involved in explosions and gunfire around Israeli embassies in Sweden and Denmark this week.
In Denmark, police said they arrested three Swedish nationals on Wednesday after two blasts, likely caused by hand grenades, close to the Israeli embassy in Copenhagen.
On Tuesday, the Israeli embassy in Stockholm was targeted in a shooting, according to Swedish police.
Asked about reports of links to Iran, Fredrik Hallstrom, head of operations at the Sapo agency, tells a press conference that “there are some things that could point in that direction.”
“In part due to the choice of targets and modus operandi, but that is an assumption rather than pure knowledge,” Hallstrom says.
In May, Sapo said that Iran was recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden — a claim Iran denied.
Swedish broadcaster SVT on Wednesday reported that it had received information that the two latest embassy attacks had been ordered by the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot — at the behest of Iran.
A Danish court on Thursday remanded two of the arrested Swedes — aged 16 and 19 — in custody for 27 days. Copenhagen police said that the third Swede, arrested near the crime scene, had been released.
[MiddleEastMonitor] In an interview with CNN yesterday, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib confirmed Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire with Israel moments before the occupation state killed its Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah last week. The Lebanese government had informed America and France of the decision, he explained, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also accepted the terms.
I find this very hard to believe, despite White House claims.
Lebanon and Hezbollah agreed to a ceasefire with Israel moments before the occupation state assassinated the movement’s Secretary General Hassan Nasrallah last week, Lebanese Foreign Minister Abdallah Bou Habib has told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour.
Oh. Her. The Mouthpiece of the Mullahs. The one who claimed that peace-loving Iran does not want conflict with Israel even as Iranian missiles were starting to rain down on the Jewish state. Though to be fair, Iran indeed does not want conflict, they want Israel to peacefully submit in order to achieve the peace of the grave. Lying with the truth, if you will.
“We agreed completely,” said Bou Habib. “Lebanon agreed to a ceasefire.” He added: “The Lebanese House Speaker, Mr Nabih Berri, consulted with Hezbollah and we informed the Americans and the French about the agreement. They told us that [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu also agreed to the statement issued by both presidents.”
Unfortunately, the Americans and the French speak only for their own wishful thinking, not for Israel.
The minister confirmed that Hezbollah had agreed to the ceasefire proposal, which was part of a broader initiative involving American and French leadership. The US, France and other allies had prepared a 21-day ceasefire plan starting on 25 September after Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron met on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. However, the ceasefire agreement was rejected by Netanyahu a day later, after which he ordered the military to continue fighting.
The revelation raises questions about Israel’s motives in escalating the conflict despite apparent progress towards a ceasefire. It’s been pointed out that Israel’s behaviour aligns with a long-standing strategy of avoiding what has been termed a “peace offensive” by the occupation state.
The concept, first articulated by Israeli strategist Avner Yaniv in 1982, posits that Israel perceives a risk in Palestinians or their allies becoming too moderate or diplomatically credible. Such a scenario could force Israel to make peace or engage in talks, potentially undermining its military or political dominance in the Middle East.
Critics argue that successive Israeli governments have historically used escalations in violence as a means to avoid peace negotiations. By provoking or continuing conflicts, Israel can justify military actions, prevent diplomatic solutions, and delay the establishment of a Palestinian state, allowing for continued illegal settlement expansion and the domination of Palestine.
Israel has been offered full normalisation by the Arab world since 2002 through the Arab Peace Initiative.
That was another proposal that started with Israel surrendering — and giving up land under the old Land For Peace formula — as a pause on the way to the complete subjugation of the Jewish state. That one had the additional piquancy of being pushed by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman at a Saudi diplomatic dinner to puff himself up — not even the Saudis were truly keen on it, but they couldn’t say so publicly.
The proposal pledges Arab countries to a comprehensive peace and normal relations with Israel in exchange for ending the occupation and establishing a Palestinian state.
The Palestinians got the West Bank all the way to the Green Line, Gaza, and Jerusalem, while Israel got indefensible, pre-1967 borders and unenforceable promises.
However, Israel has consistently rejected this offer, preferring to continue its illegal occupation and territorial expansion.
The reluctance to pursue peace is evidenced further by the hateful charter of the most successful political party in Israel, Likud, led by Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, Netanyahu. “The Jordan River will be the permanent eastern border of the State of Israel,” says the charter. “The Government of Israel flatly rejects the establishment of a Palestinian Arab state west of the Jordan River.”
This latest claim about Israel rejecting peace in favour of a war with Hezbollah, will be seen as yet another attempt by the apartheid state to avoid diplomatic solutions in favour of continuing its illegal occupation of Palestine.
Lying liar who lies. But a powerless one, poor man, whose government is not even properly elected to the office that nobody wants.
[IsraelTimes] The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq takes responsibility for the drone that was shot down by the Israeli Air Force over southern Israel.
The group says it launched the drone at an unspecified target in southern Israel.
The drone was shot down over the Egypt-Israel border area
Posted by: Fred ||
10/04/2024
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The mass of the plasma cloud that was ejected after a powerful flare that occurred on the Sun is approximately 1 trillion tons. Sergey Bogachev, head of the solar astronomy laboratory at the IKI RAS, told aif.ru on October 3.
"This is significantly higher than average, which is not surprising given the magnitude of the explosion, but still about 10 times lower than what could have been under some scenarios," he said.
According to Bogachev's estimates, solar plasma will reach Earth in two waves. One will reach our planet on October 3, the other on October 4. This flare is estimated to be the second strongest in the current solar activity cycle.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, experts expect that the solar plasma emission will cause magnetic storms on Earth. They should begin on the evening of October 3 and last until October 5. It is predicted that on October 6, weak disturbances will still be observed in the geomagnetic field, which will not reach the level of magnetic storms, and already at the beginning of next week, the planet's magnetosphere will return to a calm state.
Forecasters reminded that a magnetic storm could lead to disruptions in the operation of power systems, disruptions in shortwave communications and navigation systems, as well as power surges in industrial networks.
On the evening of October 3, a magnetic storm will begin on Earth, which will become strong — class G3 — on the morning of October 4, and will end on the evening of October 5. This was reported on October 3 by Mikhail Leus, a leading specialist at the Phobos weather center.
The weather forecaster specified that a new period of solar activity had begun earlier, which was confirmed by an exceptionally strong solar flare. Strong and prolonged magnetic storms are expected on Earth.
"It is expected that already late this evening, after 9 p.m. Moscow time, a weak magnetic storm of class G1 will begin on Earth. Then the intensity of disturbances in the Earth's magnetosphere will increase and on Friday morning, after six o'clock, the magnetic storm will become strong, class G3. After which, with fluctuations in intensity in the range from weak to strong, the magnetic storm will last until the evening, 9 p.m., Saturday," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
Leus noted that on October 6, weak disturbances will still be observed in the geomagnetic field, which will not reach the level of magnetic storms, and already at the beginning of next week, the planet’s magnetosphere will return to a calm state.
He recalled that a magnetic storm could lead to disruptions in the operation of power systems, disruptions in shortwave communications and navigation systems, as well as voltage failures in industrial networks.
“Increased solar activity may expand the geography of observations of the polar lights,” the forecaster added.
#6
Scientists have recorded a significant uptick in earthquakes at the Mount Adams volcano — the largest active volcano in Washington state.
Six earthquakes hit the "high threat" volcano in September, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS), which is a drastic increase from the normal rate of one earthquake at the volcano every two to three years.
This is the largest number of earthquakes recorded at Mount Adams in a single month since records began in 1982. The earthquakes ranged from magnitudes 0.9 to 2 and were recorded via a single seismic station 7 miles (11 kilometers) southwest of Mount Adams' summit. None of the ground shakes were felt at the surface.
According to experts, these earthquakes do not mean an eruption is imminent. "Currently, there is no indication that the level of earthquake activity is cause for concern," USGS representatives wrote in a statement.
Expand article logo Continue reading
Efforts are underway to better understand what's happening beneath the volcano. Scientists with the Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) and Pacific Northwest Seismic Network (PNSN) will install a set of temporary seismic stations in the area to get a better understanding of the size, location and depth of the seismic activity, according to the statement.
Mount Adams towers more than 12,000 feet (3,660 meters) above Earth's surface and stretches 18 miles (29 km) across, making it one of the largest peaks in the Cascades mountain range. It sits around 70 miles (110 km) northwest of Portland.
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/04/2024 11:43
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Top||
#7
I check out the US Geological Survey about once a week, go to settings, and set for all earthquakes magnitude 2.5 or greater. The last few weeks have been pretty quiet, with only a handful of magnitude 6 or greater earthquakes, when there's usually as many as 25. Kinda gives you a different perspective on all the hoo-haa published on the internet.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/04/2024 13:20
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#8
Sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy.
Sunshine in my eyes can make me cry.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Representatives of the radical Yemeni movement Ansar Allah (Houthis) announced a successful drone attack on an "important target" in the Tel Aviv area. This was reported on October 3 by the military spokesman for the Ansar Allah movement, Yahya Saria.
"UAV forces... carried out a military operation using several... drones, the purpose of which was an important target in the Jaffa (Tel Aviv) area," the Houthis' Telegram channel quoted him as saying.
According to Saria, the operation was successful and achieved its goals.
“Once ze rockets go up
Who cares vehr zey come down?
Dats not my department,”
Says Wehrner von Braun.
~ Tom Lehrer
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] The US national debt has grown by a record $347.6 billion at the start of the new fiscal year. This became known on Thursday, October 3, from information published on the website of the US Department of the Treasury.
The U.S. fiscal year begins on October 1 and runs through September 30. The debt stock rose by $143.3 billion on Monday, the last day of the old fiscal year. On October 1, the first day of the new year, it rose by another $204.3 billion.
Similar indicators for the previous and the year before were lower. In 2023, at the beginning of the year, the debt increased by 315.7 billion dollars, in 2024 - by 252.2 billion.
More debt, higher interest rates, and the power of compounding. Yay. The problem could at least be reduced of the politicians would agree to reduce spending below taxes and fees collected. Perhaps next term President Trump will be able to drive that, though he failed last time round, as well as continue the clever savings on spending he managed the last time he was in the White House.
As of today, the total debt amounted to $35.67 trillion.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, entrepreneur Elon Musk said in September that the United States was heading for bankruptcy. He called for special attention to be paid to military-industrial complex spending - according to him, the Pentagon's annual budget was $1 trillion, and interest payments on the national debt had just exceeded the defense budget for revenues and expenditures.
At the end of July, the US national debt exceeded $35 trillion for the first time in history. In January, it exceeded $34 trillion. According to the forecast of the US Congressional Budget Office, the country's national debt will exceed $50 trillion in 2034, which will amount to more than 122% of the country's GDP. The head of the US Federal Reserve System, Jerome Powell, said that the increase in the country's national debt to the critical mark of $35 trillion makes it virtually impossible to continue borrowing. According to him, the US authorities need to take some action.
Putting Mr. Musk in charge of finding savings would likely have brilliant results — look at how he cut spending at X. Although at some point Congress would have to pass a law getting rid of union protections and guaranteed tenure for bureaucrats.
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.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]
[Bee] BEIRUT: Young Hezbollah recruit Muhammed Amin was surprised to learn this week that he's already been promoted to the position of Regional Manager.
[Regnum] The US national debt has grown by a record $347.6 billion at the start of the new fiscal year. This became known on Thursday, October 3, from information published on the website of the US Department of the Treasury.
