[IsraelTimes] The IDF and Shin Bet announce in a joint statement that the head of Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... ’s air array was killed in a September Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... Samer Abu-Daqa was among the snuffies who planned the infiltration of Israel on October 7 with paragliders and drones, says the statement. He served as head of the air array since October 2023, when his predecessor was eliminated by Israel.
Israel calls him "a key source of knowledge," who played a central role in establishing Hamas’s drone and paraglider units.
In the past, he served as the head of the drone unit, and was in charge of Hamas weapon production.
מטוסי קרב של חיל האוויר, בהכוונה של אמ"ן, שב"כ וחיל האוויר, תקפו במהלך חודש ספטמבר 2024 וחיסלו את המחבל סאמר אבו-דקה, ראש המערך האווירי של ארגון הטרור חמאס, שהחליף את ראש המערך האווירי הקודם שחוסל בחודש אוקטובר 2023>> pic.twitter.com/B8ZNRmqK0e
#2
It blows my mind that a mouse couldn't fart in Gaza without Mossad knowing and somehow hang paragliders got smuggled in and used and it was a complete durprise.
But not so much of a surise that they moved a hippie music festival right next to the border where it was sure to get attacked and a lot of hippies killed. It's like Mossad was choosing Jews they wouldn't miss as sacrificial lambs so that they could create casus belli to perpetrate an ethnic cleansing.
Ever read the story of the "canned goods" and the Gleiwitz Incident?
#3
Those tricksy Juices! They even turned you into a conspiratorial a-hole!
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2024 13:32
Comments ||
Top||
#4
"Where it was sure to get attacked."
It blows my mind that people will create excuses for the terrorists.
Paraphrasing: "Those stupid jews should have known better than to have a concert on the border with Gaza... In fact they did know better and only needed a casus belli..."
I'll suggest the casus belli is not any one action by the terror culture, but the fact the jews cant have nice things on their border b/c of the neighboring terror culture.
This isn't the problem: Right next to the border where it was sure to get attacked and a lot of hippies killed.
#5
Jairong-- From my comfortable and safe home in the Nevada desert, I surmise that everyone (IDF, Mossad, Iran, Hezb, PLO, UN, etc.) not actually in the Hamas plan was surprised. Israel was surprised because they had such deep humint into the Iran that they didn't take the Hamas threat seriously because of lack of IRGC chatter. It was a holiday in Israel, the command structure wanted to enjoy it. No conspiracy needed.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli airstrike on Hamas command center in hospital said to hit tents housing displaced people; US protests as images show civilians burning alive; 30 aid trucks enter north Gaza
IDF soldier Sgt. Koren Bitan was killed in battle in southern Gaza, the army announced Monday, as Israel intensified operations in the Strip’s north, while fighting raged across the enclave. Bitan, 19, from Rosh Ha’ayin, was operating with Battalion 450, part of the Bislamach Brigade (School for Infantry Corps Professions and Squad Commanders). He had begun his service in the Kfir Brigade. He is the 353rd IDF soldier killed in Israel’s ground offensive in Gaza.
Separately, the IDF and Shin Bet announced Monday that Samer Abu-Daqa, the head of Hamas’s air array, had been killed in a September airstrike. According to the statement, Abu-Daqa was among the terrorists who had planned Hamas’s infiltration of Israel with drones and paragliders on October 7, 2023. Abu-Daqa had served as head of the air array since October 2023, when his predecessor was eliminated by Israel. He had previously served as the head of Hamas’s drone unit, and was in charge of the terror group’s weapon production. Israel called him “a key source of knowledge,” who played a central role in establishing Hamas’s drone and paraglider units.
IDF SAYS IT STRUCK COMMAND CENTER AT CENTRAL GAZA HOSPITAL
In the early hours of Monday, an Israeli airstrike killed three people and wounded 40 others when it hit some tents of displaced Palestinians at the Al-Aqsa Hospital in the central Gaza Strip city of Deir Al-Balah, where a million people were sheltering, medics said.
The IDF said it had struck a command center inside the compound and accused Hamas of hiding among civilians and using facilities such as hospitals for terror operations.
Footage circulated on social media, which could not immediately be verified, showed several tents set ablaze, as some Palestinians tried ineffectively to put out the fires.
The White House said later Monday it had protested to Israel over the strike that led to what it said were “horrifying” images of displaced Palestinians apparently being burned alive when their nearby tent camp caught fire.
“The images and video of what appear to be displaced civilians burning alive following an Israeli airstrike are deeply disturbing, and we have made our concerns clear to the Israeli government,” a White House National Security spokesperson told The Times of Israel.
“Israel has a responsibility to do more to avoid civilian casualties — and what happened here is horrifying, even if Hamas was operating near the hospital in an attempt to use civilians as human shields,” the spokesperson added in a statement.
The IDF confirmed earlier Monday that it struck the Al-Aqsa Hospital compound in the central Gaza city of Deir al-Balah, where it said terrorists were operating a command center. Three people were killed and 40 were injured, according to Palestinian media.
Meanwhile, the IDF said its 162nd, 252nd, and Gaza Divisions killed several gunmen in close-quarter firefights and airstrikes in the Gaza Strip over the past day, without providing specific locations for the clashes.
A Hamas squad that fired an anti-tank missile at a Gaza Division force was taken out in an airstrike called in by the troops, the army said.
FIGHTING INTENSIFIES IN STRIP’S NORTH; IDF LETS IN AID
Residents of Gaza City, in the Strip’s north, told Reuters that IDF tanks had reached the city’s northern edge, pounding some districts of the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood and forcing families to leave their homes.
Israel has intensified fighting in the area in recent days, saying Hamas has resurfaced there. The escalation has elicited stern comments from Washington and a condemnation from the United Nations warning of an impending humanitarian disaster.
In light of the criticism, Israel said it let 30 trucks into the Strip’s north on Monday. The trucks, carrying flour and food from the UN World Food Programme, were transferred from the Ashdod Port through the Erez West crossing into the northern Gaza Strip, according to the IDF’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), which said “all humanitarian aid was transferred following thorough security inspections.”
The statement has not been confirmed by the UN, which insists that nearly no food, water, fuel or supplies have reached the Strip’s north over the past two weeks, with both major crossings closed since October 1.
The cutoff, combined with Israel’s renewed offensive in the area, has raised fears that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is pursuing the so-called “General’s Plan,” proposed by Maj. Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland, which would besiege the northern third of the strip in an effort to prompt a Hamas surrender.
Responding to a query from The Times of Israel Monday, an adviser to Netanyahu denied the plan was being pursued.
Meanwhile, Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry said Monday that it had begun the second round of a polio vaccination campaign launched last month after the Strip registered its first polio case in 25 years — a 10-month-old boy, now paralyzed in one leg.
A second dose of the polio vaccine will be administered to children under 10 in Gaza’s center over the next three days before the campaign is expanded to the north and south, the health ministry said.
Health workers succeeded in administering the first dose of the vaccine to around 560,000 children, despite myriad challenges, including ongoing fighting, the breakdown of law and order, and widespread damage to roads and infrastructure.
The World Health Organization said humanitarian pauses to facilitate the campaign last month were largely observed.
[Rudaw] At least four regime soldiers including an officer were killed on Saturday in a desert attack by Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... (ISIS) button men in Syria’s eastern Deir ez-Zor province, a war monitor reported.
"Armed ISIS cells from deep in the Syrian desert launched a surprise attack targeting a group of regime forces in the Kabajib desert in Deir ez-Zor, killing a brigadier general and three members," said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor.
The hard boyz fled back into the depths of the desert after the ambush, the Observatory said.
It is the latest in a spate of ISIS attacks in Syria, particularly from the desert regions where jihadist cells maintain a presence.
At least 457 Syrian regime soldiers and pro-Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... hard boyz have been killed by ISIS hard boyz in Syria since the start of the year. The attacks have also killed 57 civilians, according to data from the Observatory.
On Friday, the US military carried out Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s against ISIS camps in Syria. The strikes caused no civilian casualties, according to the army.
[IsraelTimes] Initial IAF inquiry finds that drone strike was part of multi-faceted air attack; Israel to broaden warnings, setting off sirens in more areas
The Hezbollah drone that struck an IDF training base Sunday evening and killed four soldiers fell off of radars, then reappeared briefly before hitting its target, according to the Israeli Air Force’s initial investigation into the attack.
According to details of the IAF investigation shared with The Times of Israel, the Hezbollah drone was part of a multi-pronged aerial attack. The Lebanese terror group fired short-range rockets at the north, three precision rockets toward Haifa, and launched three drones at Israel last night.
One of the drones was shot down by the navy, another by the Iron Dome.
The third was pursued by Israeli jets and helicopters, which fired at it twice, according to the IAF investigation. Electronic warfare measures also failed to force the UAV to lose its bearings. It dropped off radars 30 miles (48 kilometers) northeast of Acre, and the IAF assumed that it had crashed.
The IAF investigation into the incident found that the drone appeared back on radars for another minute in the half-hour between its dropping off of screens and the strike, but forces did not identify it as a drone at the time, and therefore did not trigger warning alarms. There are hundreds of objects flying in Israeli airspace just above buildings at any given time, including birds, adding to the challenge of identifying a drone that appears in an unexpected location.
In addition, police told the IAF of reports of a suspicious aircraft near Yokne’am, which could have been the drone.
Over the course of the war, some 1,200 drones have been fired at Israel, and 221 have gotten through Israel’s defenses.
In light of the incident, the air force is expanding the areas of warning, meaning there will be more sirens and more false alarms. It will also assume a drone is still flying when it disappears, and will determine that it has crashed only when evidence is found.
In the wake of the deadly strike, the IAF has also set a goal of completely eliminating Hezbollah’s Unit 127, responsible for its UAV production, maintenance and operation, The Times of Israel has learned. The effort to kill every member of the unit will now take priority, in terms of intelligence collection and airstrikes.
All four of the soldiers killed in the attack were in combat training and were promoted to the rank of sergeant posthumously. A further 58 soldiers were wounded, with 40 still hospitalized as of Monday morning.
An official investigation found that the explosive-laden drone hit the base while soldiers were eating dinner. Investigators assume that the timing and location of the attack were intentional.
An IDF promotional video about the base uploaded to an official website six years ago showed the location of the dining hall and other buildings, Haaretz reported.
In claiming the attack, Hezbollah touted what it said was its ability to overwhelm Israeli air defenses, even as the military forges ahead with its ground operation against the terror group in south Lebanon. The terror group claimed to have launched “swarms of drones” at Israel, including models that it said were used for the first time.
Visiting the Golani training base on Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to continue to strike Hezbollah.
“We are fighting a tough campaign against Iran’s axis of evil that wants to totally destroy us,” said Netanyahu. “They won’t make it. We keep fighting. We pay painful prices, but we have tremendous achievements — and we will continue to achieve them.”
“I want to make it clear: We will continue to hit Hezbollah mercilessly in all parts of Lebanon — also in Beirut,” he said, after Hebrew media reports indicated that he had instructed the IDF to refrain from hitting the Lebanese capital at Washington’s behest.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, during a call Sunday night, that there would be a “forceful response” against the Lebanese terror group.
Dozens of rockets targeted Israel throughout the day, as fierce fighting continued in southern Lebanon between IDF troops and Hezbollah, while the IAF carried out a rare strike in northern Lebanon.
The IDF said Monday afternoon that over the past day, ground forces and the IAF had killed dozens of Hezbollah operatives in close combat and in airstrikes. The IAF struck 200 targets in the past 24 hours, including rocket launchers, anti-tank missile positions, military outposts and weapons caches, according to the IDF.
That’s comforting.
Hezbollah claimed its fighters had launched rockets at a naval base near Haifa and were “engaged in violent clashes” in the Lebanese frontier village of Aita al-Shaab, saying an Israeli troop carrier had been targeted “with a guided missile.”
A year of cross-border violence between Israel and Lebanon sharply escalated in mid-September after the widespread explosions of Hezbollah communications devices in an operation widely attributed to but not officially claimed by Israel.
Rocket fire from Lebanon has also intensified and Hezbollah has expanded its range, targeting Tel Aviv several times and once aiming rockets at Jerusalem but hitting the outskirts. Israeli airstrikes have also expanded and the IAF has repeatedly struck targets in southern Beirut, a noted Hezbollah stronghold.
[IsraelTimes] Sunday attack that killed 4 soldiers shines a light on IDF’s struggle over the past year of war to knock down unmanned aircraft coming from as far away as Yemen, Iraq and Iran.
One of the worst mass casualty strikes on Israel in a year of war came not from dozens of Iranian ballistic missiles nor the repeated barrages of rocket fire launched by Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... and Hezbollah. Instead, it was a single drone.
The unmanned aerial vehicle, laden with explosives, evaded Israel’s multilayered air-defense system and slammed into a mess hall at a military training camp deep inside Israel, killing four soldiers and wounding dozens.
It is the latest achievement for Hezbollah’s drone fleet and has shined a light on Israel’s struggle over the past year of war to knock down unmanned aircraft coming from as far away as Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , Iraq and Iran.
The terrorist organization has launched roughly 1,500 surveillance and attack drones since it began striking Israel in October 2023, according to the group’s count.
Over the years, Israel has built up its aerial defense array to provide broad protection against short-range rocket fire and medium- and long-range missiles, although experts caution that it is not airtight. While the system has taken down drones repeatedly, many have penetrated Israel’s airspace and sidestepped its defenses, in some cases with deadly results.
THE DRONE TRAVERSED ISRAELI AIRSPACE UNIMPEDED
On Sunday evening, reports emerged of a mass casualty event about 65 kilometers (40 miles) from the Lebanese border. A drone had slammed into a mess hall filled with troops eating dinner, according to Israeli media, killing four soldiers and wounding 67 people.
Minutes earlier, air raid sirens had blared in northern Israel as the aircraft flew overhead. But no sirens sounded at the base, giving the soldiers no advance warning and indicating that the drone may have fallen off Israel’s radar.
An Israeli security official said Israel was still investigating how the drone made it through Israel’s air defenses. A pair of drones initially entered Israeli airspace, but while one was shot down, the other one continued to its target.
Hezbollah said the drone was "able to penetrate the Israeli air defense radars without being detected" and reach its target. It claimed it had outsmarted Israel’s air defenses by simultaneously launching dozens of missiles and "squadrons" of drones simultaneously.
It was the second deadly dronezap in just two weeks. Earlier this month, a drone launched from Iraq killed two Israeli soldiers and maimed roughly two dozen. On Friday, during Yom Kippur, a Hezbollah drone slammed into a retirement home in central Israel, causing damage.
"We already have six dead in the past 10 days from drones. That’s too much," said Ran Kochav, a former head of the military’s aerial defense command.
Drones, he said, "have become a real threat."
DRONES ARE HARDER TO DETECT AND TRACK THAN ROCKETS OR MISSILES
Drones, or UAVs, are unmanned aircraft that can be operated from afar. Drones can enter, surveil and attack enemy territory more discreetly than missiles and rockets. Israel has a formidable arsenal of drones, capable of carrying out spy missions and attacks. It has developed a drone capable of reaching archenemy Iran, some 1,500 kilometers (1,000 miles) away.
But Israel’s enemies have caught Israel off-guard on a number of occasions over the past year, often with deadly consequences. In July, a drone launched from Yemen traveled some 270 kilometers (160 miles) over Israel’s southern tip, all the way to Tel Aviv, slamming into a downtown building and killing one person without it having been intercepted.
An Israeli security official said drones are harder to detect for a number of reasons: They fly slowly and often include plastic components, having a weaker thermal footprint with radar systems than powerful rockets and missiles. The trajectory is also harder to track. Drones can have roundabout flight paths, can come from any direction, fly lower to the ground and — because they are much smaller than rockets — can be mistaken for birds.
The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation into the mess hall strike was still underway.
Kochav said that Israel spent years focusing on strengthening its air defense systems to improve protection against rockets and missiles. But drones were not seen as a top priority. During the current fighting, that has meant Israel’s ability to detect and intercept drones is not as successful as its capabilities in the face of rockets and missiles, Kochav said.
HEZBOLLAH’S DRONE PROGRAM RECEIVES SUPPORT FROM IRAN
Hezbollah began using Iranian-made drones after Israel withdrew from southern Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... in 2000 and sent the first reconnaissance Mirsad drone over Israel’s airspace in 2004. Hezbollah’s drone program still receives substantial assistance from Iran, and the UAVs are believed to be assembled by experts of the terrorist group in Lebanon.
Drones have become an "Iranian-inspired, strategic system" for Hezbollah, according to Tal Beeri, the director of research for The Alma Research and Education Center, a think tank that studies Hezbollah and Israel’s north. The terrorist organization has launched roughly 1,500 surveillance and attack drones since it began striking Israel in October 2023, according to the group’s count.
The attack drones, which Beeri said often hit civilian targets, have a payload of 10 kilograms (22 pounds) of explosives and can fly hundreds of kilometers (miles). He said Hezbollah used a drone that was able to fire an anti-tank missile for the first and only time in May and that it may possess more.
Hezbollah has also used drones to erode Israel’s air-defense capabilities by slamming them into the very batteries and infrastructure meant to take them down. Earlier this year, Hezbollah used an explosive drone to damage Israel’s Sky Dew observation balloon, a component of its aerial defense.
ISRAEL SAYS IT IS WORKING TO TACKLE THE THREAT
On Monday, during a visit to the training camp hit by the drone, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant pledged to learn from the strike and said Israel was "concentrating significant efforts in developing solutions" to tackle the drone threat, without elaborating.
Kochav said there were ways to combat the drones that could be considered. Detection capabilities could be expanded to include acoustic radars to pick up on the sound of the drones’ engine or electro-optics, which could allow Israeli surveillance to better identify them. He said rockets, fighter jets and helicopters could be deployed for interception, and that electronic warfare could be used to overtake the drones and divert them.
"We were busy in recent years... and unmanned (aerial vehicles) [were] not a top priority," he said. "The results unfortunately are not good."
[IsraelTimes] Hamas is beating residents of Jabaliya and preventing them from fleeing fighting in northern Gaza, according to a recording that the IDF says is between a Gazan man and an Israeli soldier from Unit 504, responsible for human intelligence on the battlefield.
“The problem is that we listen to the army’s instructions and want to leave to the Muwasi [humanitarian zone], but there are people who come out against us and start hitting us with sticks,” the man allegedly says.
“We want to leave,” he continues. “We took our things and we want to leave now and they are hitting us and telling us to return home. What can we do?”
The man says the attackers are from Hamas.
The IDF does not say when the conversation took place.
The 162nd Division began operating in Jabaliya last week and called for residents to evacuate southward for their safety.
They’re in another multi-front, existential war. But clearly that's not enough to prevent them from multi-tasking.
[IsraelTimes] Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened in Jerusalem last night the “Nagel Committee” designed to examine defense spending and IDF military force design for the future, his office says.
According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu accepted all of the committee’s interim recommendations, and instructed the task force to move ahead immediately.
The interim recommendations focus on six areas: procurement and production to expand the available munitions and the air defense system; capabilities needed for ground maneuver; naval superiority; manpower; new ways for developing and producing weapon systems; and border protection.
The committee, chaired by Brigadier General (Res.) Prof. Jacob Nagel, comprises representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office, Finance Ministry, Defense Ministry and IDF, and is tasked with determining the directions of Israel’s military force design for the next decade, the budgetary implications, and the economic impact.
So far, says the PMO, the committee held discussions with the Defense Ministry Budget Division, the Accountant General, the Bank of Israel, the Finance Ministry, and members of the defense system. These discussions examined the future scenario that will guide planning, the IDF multi-year plan that was in place before October 7, and the lessons of the war on budgets and planning.
The final recommendation will include a new concept of operations, goals for military force design, and the budgetary implications for the coming years.
The committee will also submit recommendations on transparency and supervision of the budgetary and spending process.
In May, following an extended fight with the defense establishment, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that he had reached an agreement with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to establish the committee.
[IsraelTimes] The European Union imposes sanctions on Iran’s deputy defense minister, senior members of its paramilitary Revolutionary Guard and three airlines over allegations that they supplied drones, missiles and other equipment to Russia for use in its war against Ukraine.
Deputy Defense Minister Seyed Hamzeh Ghalandari is one of seven senior officials now banned from traveling in Europe whose assets in the bloc were frozen. The EU said he “is involved in the development of Iran’s (drone) and missile program,” given his high-level defense role.
Iran Air, Mahan Air and Saha Airlines had their assets frozen. The EU says their planes were “used repeatedly to transfer Iranian-made unmanned aerial vehicles and related technologies to Russia, which have been used in Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine.”
EU foreign ministers endorse the sanctions at a meeting in Luxembourg.
In March, the bloc had warned that “were Iran to transfer ballistic missiles and related technology to Russia for use against Ukraine, the EU would be prepared to respond swiftly, including with new and significant restrictive measures.”
EU member countries, with the exception of Hungary, have been supplying weapons and ammunition as well as economic and other support to Ukraine worth some 118 billion euros ($129 billion) since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
[IsraelTimes] Britain has imposed sanctions against Iranian individuals and organizations following Iran’s missile attack on Israel on October 1, Britannia’s Foreign Office says.
The sanctions target senior figures in Iran’s army, air force and organizations linked to Iran’s ballistic and cruise missile development.
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s foreign minister Abbas Araghchi slams as “a disaster” what he calls US obstruction of United Nations Security Council measures in relation to Israel’s war against Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.
In a phone call with his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi, Araghchi welcomes efforts by China, a permanent member of the council, to “stop the warmongering and the crimes of the Zionist regime” in Gaza and Lebanon and describes the “inaction of the UN Security Council due to the obstruction of the United States as a disaster.”
[IsraelTimes] After a reported meeting between Shin Bet director Ronen Bar and Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel in Cairo yesterday ended without a breakthrough, hostage deal talks are only likely to resume after the US elections on November 5, according to the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i-owned al-Araby al-Jadeed paper.
Two top intelligence officials concur that at the current time, it will be difficult to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza or a hostage and prisoner exchange agreement between Israel, Hamas and other Paleostinian factions.
Bar and Kamel also reportedly talked about security arrangements on the border between the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip and Egypt, to be implemented should a hostage deal be reached. The paper reports that they discussed the possible deployment of international or Arab forces along the Netzarim and the Philadelphi axes, including Egypt’s participation in the latter, but Cairo insists that Israel withdraw from the Gazan side of the Egypt-Gaza border area.
Bar also reportedly asked Kamel to convey a message to Iranian leaders, in light of improving ties between Cairo and Tehran. The message included “hints” to the Israeli response to Iran’s recent ballistic missile attack, and a warning against an Iranian counter-response, al-Araby al-Jadeed writes.
The paper mentions that Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi will visit Cairo in the coming days and will meet with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi and with Kamel, to discuss developments in Gaza, Lebanon, Yemen and the Red Sea, as well as a proposal by Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian to deescalate tensions in the region.
[IsraelTimes] Responding to a New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... article that claims IDF soldiers in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... regularly use civilians as human shields, the military tells The Times of Israel that "the orders and instructions of the IDF forbid using civilians in Gaza who were arrested in the field for military missions.”
It adds: “The orders and instructions are made clear regularly to soldiers in the field during the war.”
”How dare those uppity Jews actually defend themselves when the romantic freedom fighters we’re protecting try to kill them in wholesale lots!”
[IsraelTimes] Pedro Sanchez also calls on international community to stop selling arms to Israel after UNIFIL soldiers were hurt in ground offensive in Lebanon
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Monday urged other members of the European Union ...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing... to respond to his country’s and Ireland’s request to suspend the bloc’s free trade agreement with Israel over its actions in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... For months, Spain and Ireland have been in talks with other EU countries that want a review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement on the basis that Israel may be breaching the agreement’s human rights ...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty... clause.
The agreement stipulates that free trade between the EU and Israel will be "based on respect for human rights and democratic principles" but does not detail what actions would be considered violations of the agreement.
Sanchez’s comments come days after he urged the international community to stop selling weapons to Israel, citing injuries to members of the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... Interim Force in Lebanon.
Four UNIFIL soldiers were maimed on Thursday and Friday by IDF fire as the army was targeting Hezbollah. The IDF said that the two injured on Friday had been warned to take shelter.
A fifth peacekeeper was injured on Friday but the source of the fire is unknown.
After the peacemakers were maimed, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu urged UNIFIL to withdraw its forces from the combat zone to prevent Hezbollah from using them as human shields.
Sanchez condemned the comments, saying that UNIFIL would not withdraw its forces.
Spain has deployed 650 peacekeepers in Lebanon and a Spanish general leads the UN mission.
"Let me at this point criticize and condemn the attacks that the Israeli armed forces are carrying out on the United Nations mission in Lebanon," Sanchez said on Friday when he called for other countries to stop selling arms to Israel.
Sanchez, who has been critical of Israel throughout its war with Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... in Gaza, said Spain stopped selling weapons to Israel in October 2023 and urged the rest of the world to do the same, claiming it would prevent further escalation in the region.
"I think it is urgent given what is happening in the Middle East that the international community stops exporting weapons to the Israeli government," he said.
Earlier this year, Spain and Ireland formally recognized a Paleostinian state along with Norway in what Sanchez called a decision "for peace, for justice and for coherence."
Much of the international community has been critical of Israel to varying degrees since its war with Hamas broke out on October 7 last year with the terrorist organization’s surprise attack, in which some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and 251 were taken hostage.
In response to the massacre, Israel launched a ground offensive in Gaza with the proclaimed objectives of dismantling Hamas and getting the hostages back. The Paleostinian enclave has seen much destruction in the year since due to the ongoing warfare.
#3
NATOs mission ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. Deep State then sought new venues to use it which only played in to traditional Russian paranoia.
[IsraelTimes] Sirens set off across central, northern Israel as impacts hit Karmiel; Israel says it killed head of group’s anti-tank missiles, promises ‘forceful response’ to deadly drone strike
Rockets fired by Hezbollah continued to pummel Israel throughout Monday, setting off sirens as far south as Ness Ziona, as Israel continued to strike in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , after a dronezap a day earlier killed four IDF soldiers.
Dozens of rockets targeted Israel throughout the day, as fierce fighting continued in southern Lebanon between IDF troops and Hezbollah, while the Israeli Air Force carried out a rare strike in northern Lebanon and the IDF set a goal of completely eliminating the terror group’s drone operations.
Mid-morning, around 10 rockets were fired at the Haifa area, and the IDF said that most were intercepted and some fell in open areas. Not long afterward, a barrage of rockets set off sirens in Netanya, Baqa al-Gharbiyye and several dozens surrounding towns. The IDF said it intercepted all of the rockets fired from Lebanon, and no injuries were reported.
In mid-afternoon a barrage of 15 rockets was fired toward Karmiel in the Galilee. The IDF said that most were intercepted, although several impact sites were reported, including a rocket hitting a parked vehicle, setting it on fire. There were no injuries in the barrage, according to Magen David Adom.
In the early evening, three rockets fired from Lebanon set off a wide swath of sirens across central Israel, from as far north as Pardes Hanna all the way along the coast to Rishon Lezion, including Netanya, Tel Aviv, and Holon and dozens of surrounding towns. No injuries were reported and all three rockets were intercepted, the IDF said, adding that it was striking the launchers in Lebanon in response.
Meanwhile,
...back at the precinct house, Don Calamari's lawyer was getting even redder in the face... the IDF said Monday afternoon that it had killed Muhammad Kamel Naim, the head of the anti-tank missile array of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, in an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... in southern Lebanon’s Nabatiyeh.
Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told his US counterpart Lloyd Austin, during a call Sunday night after the deadly Hezbollah dronezap on a Golani Brigade training base near Binyamina, that there would be a "forceful response" against the Lebanese terror group.
In the wake of that attack, the IDF has set a goal of completely eliminating Hezbollah’s Unit 127, responsible for its UAV production, maintenance and operation, The Times of Israel has learned. The effort to kill every member of the unit will now take priority in terms of intelligence collection and airstrikes.
The drone that killed the four soldiers and injured dozens last night was part of a multi-pronged aerial attack. There were short-range rockets fired at the north, three precision rockets fired toward Haifa, and three drones. One of the drones was shot down by the navy, another by Iron Dome. The third was pursued by Israeli jets and helicopters, which fired at it twice, but after it dropped off the radar, it was assumed to have crashed, and therefore no sirens sounded before the attack.
Also Monday, a reported Israeli airstrike on a town in northern Lebanon killed at least 18 people, according to the Lebanese Red Thingy.
The strike hit a small apartment building in the village of Aitou, in one of the northernmost strikes since Israel launched its offensive in Lebanon. Hezbollah is mainly present in the south of the country and the southern suburbs of Beirut.
However,
facts are stubborn; statistics are more pliable... reports said Israel may have targeted a senior Hezbollah leader in the village. There was no immediate comment from the IDF on the strike.
The IDF said Monday afternoon that over the past day, ground forces and the IAF had killed dozens of Hezbollah operatives in close combat and in airstrikes. The IAF struck 200 targets in the past 24 hours, including rocket launchers, anti-tank missile positions, military outposts and weapons caches, according to the IDF.
Later Monday, the military said that troops from the 8th Reserve Brigade, operating on the eastern side of southern Lebanon, took over an underground complex belonging to Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force. The complex, which includes 800 meters of tunnels, is situated under a civilian village, the army said, and includes a bedroom and a fully stocked kitchen.
According to IDF front man Brig. Gen. Daniel Hagari, the complex was designed for a Radwan battalion to arrive, suit up, then head into Israel on foot and on cycle of violences. IDF forces captured the complex late last week and found anti-helicopter missiles, mortar shells, rifles and other munitions.
Hezbollah on Monday claimed its fighters had launched rockets at a naval base near Haifa and were "engaged in violent mostly peacefulfestivities" in the Lebanese frontier village of Aita al-Shaab, saying an Israeli troop carrier had been targeted "with a guided missile."
#1
for every iranian rocket (that's all of them) that land in israel 1 israeli rocket should land in iran.indiscriminately targeted. iran is the enemy.
We don’t want the things, they do. And honest-ish money is made every step of the way. Win-win.
[BBC] The small South Caucasus nation of Georgia has become a multi-billion dollar hub for the international used car market. The vehicles are mostly sourced from the US, and many appear to be ending up in Russia.
On the dusty outskirts of Rustavi, an industrial town 20km (12 miles) southeast of Georgia’s capital Tbilisi, is a vast area of open-air carparks.
Equivalent in size to more than 40 football pitches, it hosts thousands of vehicles up for sale.
You can find pretty much any automobile your heart desires - Mercedes, Porsches, Jaguars, Toyotas and, more recently, Teslas. They are all here.
One of the largest carparks is owned by Caucasus Auto Import (CAI), a company that buys used cars from auctions in the US. The vehicles have often been so badly damaged in accidents that they have been written-off by American insurance firms.
CAI says that its “team of experts” in the States will pick up the cars in person, and then arrange their export by container ship, 10,000km (6,000 miles) to a port on Georgia’s Black Sea coastline. The damaged cars will then be fixed by Georgianmechanics.
“Our company has contributed a lot to the renewal of the Georgian fleet of cars,” says David Gulashvili, CAI’s deputy chief executive. “When we started our business in 2004, Georgian automotive infrastructure was totally Soviet Union produced, like [Soviet brands] Lada and Vaz.”
He says that his company has responded to “a lot of demand for Western-produced vehicles”. Today the firm has 600 employees.
Last year, Georgia imported $3.1bn (£2.4bn) worth of cars, according to official figures. It then exported vehicles to a value of $2.1bn, mainly to former Soviet republics in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Cars are in fact Georgia’s second-largest export by value, after copper ore.
Across the huge car market in Rustavi, curious customers are on the lookout for a deal. Each car has a card on the inside of its windscreen indicating price, engine size, and date of manufacture.
Alisher Tezikbayev has travelled here from Kazakhstan. He and a group of his friends are exploring the Toyota section.
“We've been re-exporting cars from Georgia for about 3.5 years. We send cars to Kazakhstan and organise auto tours, when clients come to Georgia to pick their own car,” says Mr Tezikbayev, who is posting videos to his 100k followers on Tik Tok.
Georgia used to export second-hand US and European cars to its northern neighbour Russia, with whom it shares a border. But that has officially stopped as a result of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
In September 2023, the Georgian Revenue Service announced that, in line with the then latest Western sanctions against Russia, it was restricting the re-export and transit of automobiles imported from the US or Europe to Russia and Belarus.
And Georgian officials have long denied that the country has been complicit in aiding Russia’s evasion of the trade embargoes.
Yet a recent investigation by Georgian media publication Ifacti showed numerous loopholes exploited by an army of car dealers on both sides of the Russian-Georgian border.
David Gulashvili says that his company no longer has any trade with Russia. “From day one of the war we have restricted any kind of transactions from Russia, any kind of exports to Russia. You will not see a single car exported by Caucasus Auto Import to Russia.”
However, he adds that there is no existing mechanism to monitor the final destination for re-exported cars going to other countries.
And since Russia's invasion of Ukraine there has been a steep rise in exports of used cars to Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Armenia – all of which are members of the Russia-led customs union.
It means that a vehicle registered in any of those countries can be driven to Russia with minimal tariffs.
Figures from Georgia’s national statistics agency suggest that cars are indeed going on to Russia. It says that in 2022 Georgia exported 7,352 used cars to Kazakhstan, while in 2023 the number was 39,896, a more than five-fold increase. So much for Russian sanctions.
President Trump on the time he almost purchased the Buffalo Bills: "The owner who got it is a very good man. I think he's done a great job. Well, he made a great pick. He picked a great quarterback, right — Josh." pic.twitter.com/meaSnH5aDp
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Furious seniors have expressed their frustration at the Social Security uplift for next year, with many questioning how they will afford their living expenses.
The Social Security Administration last week announced nearly 68 million Social Security recipients will see a 2.5 percent increase to their benefits in 2025.
This uplift, known as the cost-of-living adjustment, or COLA, is the lowest since 2021 - an average increase of $49 a month.
Older Americans and senior groups have since expressed their disappointment at the raise, which they say does not reflect their changing expenses after years of high inflation.
'My social security disability check currently is only about $60 more than my rent. January when I sign my new lease I'll be running a negative,' one user wrote on a Reddit thread about the increase. 'I'm hanging on by a thread.'
Increased payments to nearly 7.5 million people receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) funds will also start on December 31, 2024.
The COLA uplift is based on a specific inflation measure called the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).
This tracks the price changes that urban wage earners and clerical workers pay for a basket of common consumer goods and services.
The uplift will increase the average retired workers' benefit by $49 in 2025, hiking it to around $1,976 a month.
It is the lowest yearly increase since 2021, when beneficiaries received a 1.3 percent increase to benefits.
In 2024, there was a 3.2 percent hike, and in 2023 there was an 8.7 percent boost - the highest in four decades in response to record high inflation.
In 2022, benefits increased by 5.9 percent.
Now that the pace of inflation is slowing toward the Federal Reserve's 2 percent goal, the COLA adjustment has come down closer toward the historical norm.
The benefit increase has averaged around 2.6 percent over the last 20 years, according to nonpartisan group The Senior Citizens League (TSCL).
But the group said that the measure by which the yearly increase is calculated fails to measure inflation as seniors experience it.
TSCL executive director Shannon Benton said this year represents 'another lost opportunity to grant seniors the financial relief they deserve' by changing the COLA calculation which would 'better reflect seniors' changing expenses.'
She suggested instituting a minimum COLA of 3 percent.
'Our research shows that 67 percent of seniors depend on Social Security for more than half their income and that 62 percent worry their retirement income won't even cover essentials like groceries and medical bills,' Benton added.
And many seniors on social media are expressing exactly these concerns about being able to get by.
'I am grateful for any increase but it's not enough, rent goes up more than that each year, forget the increase in transportation and food and literally everything else, it won't really make much of a difference,' one user wrote on Reddit.
Another said: 'There are going to be many elders that will be going without things. Many live SS check to SS check as it is. With inflation this high it's going to be hard.'
'The COLA needs replacing with a cost increase that reflects the actual spending of seniors,' another person said.
Although inflation has fallen from its 2022 highs, sustained high prices have chipped away at household budgets - which is especially tough for those on a fixed income in retirement.
Food prices have risen by 20 percent in the last five years, according to Labor Department data.
#1
Older Americans and senior groups have since expressed their disappointment at the raise, which they say does not reflect their changing expenses after years of high inflation.
Idiots. Won't make any difference soon. At the rate of spending and the impossible deficit, your money is going to be worthless. Inflation is created by government. But, hey, you voted for it for decades. 100% increase of zero value is still zero value.
#2
The 2.5% will also be the adjustment for people retired from the Federal civil service.
FWIW, the monthly social security amount is capped at $4873 so those at that amount (probably no more than a few hundred like that) would not get an increase.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/15/2024 17:10
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#3
If you have a Gubbamint Pension, the Windfall Provision suitably reduces any SSI payouts you get. I will basically get beer money, as deserved
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2024 18:28
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#5
Helping my soon-to-be 87 yr old (Democrat) Mom reconcile and pay bills yesterday AM.
She said: "You know they'll take away Social Security soon".
I said: "Who Mom? Donald Trump? Who pledges absolutely not?"
She said: "on TV"
We're fucked
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2024 19:19
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#6
We promised both my mother and Mr, Wife's mother that we would support them, should it become necessary.
Because it won’t be President Trump taking away Social Security, but the simple fact that money coming in from workers will be less than money promised to retirees. We’ve been warned about this since the 1970s, and Congress has over the years taken measures to push that back — raising the retirement age, increasing percentages and maximum amount taken out of paychecks, not raising the threshold for paying taxes on payments to keep up with inflation/COLA…
[FoxNews] Judge Johanna Bender said she empathizes with the mother of a murder suspect accused of fatally stabbing a handyman.
A Seattle judge said she empathizes with the mother of a murder suspect and explained that she has received death threats over some of her bail decisions regarding suspects of violent crimes.
King County Superior Court Judge Johanna Bender's remarks came during a case that put the spotlight on the ongoing debate about the criminal justice system's approach to bail.
K'Shawn Jimerson, 20, was charged with second-degree murder over allegations he fatally stabbed handyman and military veteran Michael Gray, 65, in the back with a large kitchen knife, according to Fox 13.
Renton Police said Jimerson was seen on surveillance video striking Gray twice from behind with a broom stick. Gray then turned and followed Jimerson into the home where Jimerson is accused of stabbing him twice. Jimerson claimed self-defense during a 911 call, but police said the video and the wounds in Gray's back and side show that was not the case.
King County District Court Judge Michele Gehlsen initially set Jimerson's bail amount at $50,000 during his first court hearing, according to Fox 13. The decision surprised many in the community, including law enforcement leaders who believed it did not reflect the gravity of the crime.
"Our community deserves to be protected from a suspect who commits these violent acts," Renton Police Chief Jon Schuldt said in a statement after Jimerson was released from jail.
Just days later, prosecutors formally charged Jimerson with second-degree murder and requested his bail be bumped up to $2 million.
During a hearing on Oct. 3 to address prosecutors' request to increase his bail, Bender asked the courtroom if anyone wanted to speak on the issue. Jimerson's mother approached the bench and requested that the media not be allowed to show her son's face over concerns about "vigilante justice," Fox 13 reported.
"People want to take matters into their own hands and attack my child," Jimerson’s mother said. "I feel like he’s being tried before he even had the opportunity to have a trial."
Bender then expressed empathy for Jimerson's mother and spoke about her frustrations with death threats she has received over decisions she makes in a courtroom.
"This hearing is not about me, but I will share with you that I often get death threats based on the decisions that I made," Bender told Jimerson's mother. "Which is equally frustrating to me because I'm trying to do my job, and it should not be the responsibility of any member of the public to threaten my life because I am trying to uphold the law. So, I am very empathetic to the situation that the family finds themselves in, having experienced it themselves, and I understand personally how frightening and disruptive it is all the more so while navigating this incredibly traumatic time for your family."
"I am just doing my job, you're dealing with a crisis," the judge continued. "That's a huge difference and one for which I am very empathetic. I will also take this opportunity to editorialize, that I hope the press takes seriously their obligation to tell the stories of what happens in our courtroom in a fair and unbiased way and takes every reasonable editorial action to not stir up public sentiment for revenge."
Bender ruled that the media could show Jimerson's face because the surveillance video had already been broadcast in the media. She increased his bail to $500,000 instead of prosecutors' request of $2 million.
Other decisions made by Bender that have been criticized by victims and their families include her decision in July to set bail at $50,000 for a man who allegedly shot a grandmother multiple times at an ATM in front of the woman's granddaughter.
In February, Bender lowered the bail of an accused accomplice in a double murder from $1 million to $20,000. The victims' family members slammed the decision, saying: "Nobody is safe, you know, if he's out. $20,000 bail is not enough to protect people."
[FoxNews] Members of a longstanding family in Fairview, North Carolina, are working to rebuild their lives after 13 people in their community, 11 of whom were related, died on a single morning when Hurricane Helene swept over the Appalachian Mountains.
Two weeks after three mudslides decimated homes in the small valley – dubbed "Craigtown" due to residents' ties to the Craig family that has lived in the area for 80 years – Jesse Craig and his wife, Mekenzie Craig, are picking up the pieces of Helene's devastation.
"It's literally like our world has been turned upside down," Mekenzie Craig told Fox News Digital on Sunday.
Her husband, Jesse, lost both his parents, two of his cousins, his aunt and uncle and his great aunt and uncle in a mudslide down a single path through the Craigtown valley, formally known as Garren Creek. Three additional Craig relatives and two others who were not related to the family perished in the mudslides, including a firefighter who was working to rescue others.
"There were a lot of heroic acts over here that day from a lot of different people," Jesse said. "It just shows how tight-knit of a family we are and how tight-knit this community is and how much we love each other."
Jesse and Mekenzie survived their own harrowing night when Helene brought a tree down on their house and both their cars. Later that same day, around 5 p.m., Jesse's brother got a call through – miraculously – to let him know their family members had been swept away by the storm.
"They're gone," Jesse's brother said in his state of shock over the phone. "There is no way they survived that."
Mekenzie said there is no way they could have been prepared for what happened to their family. Part of Jesse's parents' home – the kitchen – is still fully intact. Had they been in a different room of their home, they might have survived, she said.
At their own home in Fletcher, a town over from Fairview, Mekenzie and Jesse had been receiving flood alerts on their phone the night of Sept. 27.
"But we've had those before. It's not like we've never had flood warnings before," she said. "But we obviously did not expect it to be as awful and catastrophic as it was this time. Nobody expected this."
More than 250 people died across multiple states during the hurricane, including 90 people in North Carolina alone. An unknown number of people remains missing.
In the first few days after the storm, more than a million people were without power. Linemen have been working 16- and 17-hour days to restore power, especially in hard-to-reach mountainous areas where power lines and telephone poles were mangled in thick brush and mud up and down steep slopes.
Jesse's father was an avid gardner, and the potatoes he was growing before the storm can be seen poking out of the mud scattered up and down the valley where healthy grass and trees once grew.
Amid the destroyed homes, mangled cars and spray-painted orange "X" symbols on trees and rocks where authorities found bodies days after Helene came through, leaves are starting to turn vibrant colors. A small stream that was ripped from its banks during the storm trickles by quietly and grasshoppers chirp as if nothing happened two weeks ago.
They have been trying to keep busy. In the two weeks since Sept. 27, Jesse and Mekenzie have gotten up every morning, brushed their teeth with water bottles when they were out of water, drove over to Craigtown, which used to be 20 minutes from their home but is now an hour-long drive, and sorted through debris, looking for their loved ones' belongings that survived the storm.
Jesse noted that his parents' 8-year-old golden retriever, Cooper, survived the storm. They found him at home, still in his crate, because he did not want to leave after the storm destroyed nearly everything.
But in the face of shock and overwhelming tragedy, Jesse and Mekenzie expressed deep gratitude to those who stepped up to help them, including their local community and people around the country who have offered assistance.
"Locals and first responders and different fire departments from all over the South, from all over the Eastern Seaboard, came down to help us," Jesse said. "And we spent a lot of time with them and got to know a lot of them personally because we were right here together in it, and they're just incredible people."
Mekenzie described a local Baptist church as a "Dollar General" because it was so full of supplies. They were handed a bucket when they walked inside the church to collect whatever food or other necessities they needed.
A GoFundMe titled "Support the Craig Family After Tragic Loss" aims to assist the Craig family with funeral expenses for 11 people, rebuilding costs and medical expenses.
"That's all we really need is financial help. We have been overwhelmed with so many people from all over the country with supplies. It is amazing," Mekenzie said. "[A]lmost every church in this area, you can go in, and there are literally grocery stores in these churches."
The couple encourages anyone who needs help to seek a local entity that has food, supplies and other necessary resources.
"Find a local entity and go," Jesse said. "They will give you whatever you need. Most of them have plenty. Don't hesitate to go and get help if you need it."
[Breitbart] Put this Bish away
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis instructed her former top prosecutor and ex-lover Nathan Wade not to answer any questions about his work in her office to the House Judiciary Committee.
Willis revealed her instructions to Wade in a Monday letter to Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH). Wade is scheduled for a deposition before the committee on Tuesday.
"I am concerned that your demand for Mr. Wade’s testimony would force him to improperly divulge confidential information that is protected by privileges," she writes, adding that she has informed Wade that her office "is asserting all legal protections and privileges related to information that he possesses about ongoing criminal prosecutions."
Wade’s sole case assignment for Willis was Donald Trump’s election interference case.
Willis’s case against Donald Trump for election interference has hit a number of roadblocks in and out of court.
Jordan launched an investigation into Willis in January 2024 for accepting more than $14.6 million in grant funds from the Department of Justice (DOJ) between 2020 and 2023. The timeframe of the funding has raised questions about whether the DOJ granted Willis federal funds to finance the prosecution of Trump.
On November 18, 2022, Wade spent eight hours in the White House counsel’s office, the same day U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed Special Counsel Jack Smith and Matthew Colangelo, then the third-highest ranking official at the U.S. Department of Justice, resigned to take a position in the Manhattan prosecutor’s office.
That trio of events occurred just days a November 9 press conference in which President Joe Biden, asked about the prospects of Trump running against him in 2024, said, "We just have to demonstrate that he will not take power, if he does run, making sure he, under legitimate efforts of our Constitution, does not become the next president again [sic]."
Wade resigned from the case in March 2024 after Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee ruled that Willis could only remain on the Trump case if she removed Wade or if he voluntarily resigned.
While McAfee’s ruling found that the former lovers’ relationship produced no "actual conflict," he wrote that the two engaged in an "appearance of impropriety" necessitating Wade’s removal.
Willis and Wade have testified under oath that they did not begin dating until after he was hired as special prosecutor in November 2021. But a court filing from former President Donald Trump’s legal team says cell phone data shows Willis and Wade exchanged over 2,000 phone calls in the first 11 months of 2021 — an average of six calls per day before they began a romantic relationship.
Additional evidence contradicted Willis’s testimony as well.
Trump and his legal team maintain Willis’s prosecution is politically motivated lawfare. Trump has pleaded not guilty.
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/15/2024
07:19 ||
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[11169 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
Block federal funds to her office.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/15/2024 12:49
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[The Federalist] The Biden-Harris Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging that Virginia’s removal of noncitizens and other ineligible registrants from its voter rolls is illegal.
"The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected," Kristen Clarke, the hyper-partisan head of the agency’s Civil Rights Division, contended in a melodramatic statement.
The Biden-Harris Justice Department filed a lawsuit on Friday alleging that Virginia’s removal of noncitizens and other ineligible registrants from its voter rolls is illegal.
"The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected," Kristen Clarke, the hyper-partisan head of the agency’s Civil Rights Division, contended in a melodramatic statement.
#2
Behind the scenes, the Harris-Biden administration has reportedly pressed Iran to halt its plottings against Trump and other former members of his administration amid elevated security threats from the US adversary.
#9
"The right to vote is the cornerstone of our democracy and the Justice Department will continue to ensure that the rights of qualified voters are protected,"
The right of US Citizens to have an open and fair election without, uhem, foreigner election interference?
#10
Leave them on the rolls. Jail any of them that vote illegally. Drop them off after the election.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/15/2024 12:51
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#11
"They really don't understand how this looks to normal Americans" "They" fully understand and delight in rubbing these shenanigans in the faces of normal Americans.
[The Federalist] After instructing poll workers last week to give ballots to people who present a noncitizen driver’s license, the Texas secretary of state updated the guidance to require those voters to also provide proof of naturalization.
"[E]lection workers have an obligation under state criminal law not to facilitate illegal voting by non-citizens," reads a Friday memo from Texas Secretary of State Jane Nelson to election officials regarding the updated guidance. "When an individual attempts to vote by presenting a temporary or limited-term driver’s license (which federal regulations say must be issued only to non-citizens who are lawfully present in this country) election workers must require that the individual produce a naturalization card or naturalization certificate demonstrating U.S. citizenship to receive a regular ballot."
Nelson said the change came after the state’s attorney general did not respond to her office’s request for a "formal legal opinion" on "this important issue."
Rep. Chip Roy, R-Texas, told The Federalist the updated guidance is a "good step" in the right direction.
"It is critically important that Texas take every legal step necessary to ensure that not a single noncitizen votes," Roy said. "The secretary of state’s modified guidance was a good step in that direction. I think we need to have continued conversation ensuring that we’ve done all we can do ... and the Texas legislature should clarify the law further to ensure integrity in our elections."
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 23:21 Russia is using rare D-74 cannons on the front in Ukraine, which the USSR gave to Vietnam and China, writes Business Insider. The use of D-74 by the Russians may indicate the import of these systems or at least ammunition for them from North Korea, the publication notes.
22:13 On Thursday, October 17, a meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council will take place. According to the program, the meeting will be held in the format of a "working dinner", as part of a meeting of the Alliance member states at the level of defense ministers.
21:25 Putin submitted to the State Duma a bill on ratification of the agreement on a "comprehensive strategic partnership" between the Russian Federation and the DPRK.
21:19 Head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell said that EU countries have not yet agreed on unblocking 6.6 billion euros to finance arms supplies to Ukraine, but are "closer to a solution." He also said that the EU mission to train Ukrainian troops will be extended for another two years.
21:12 Zelensky reported that he held a meeting with a multi-party delegation of the Canadian Parliament headed by Speaker Greg Fergus: "The main focus is Ukraine's path to NATO and the invitation to join the Alliance. We discussed support for our energy system before winter, defense assistance, continued sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation, and Canada's leadership in the liberation of Ukrainians."
19:16 Zelensky spoke about the "de facto inclusion of North Korea in the war." He also emphasized that "some other countries" with which Russia has relations "are investing in prolonging the war." "Whoever helps Russia, we will respond as harshly as necessary to protect Ukraine. We will also work accordingly with our partners so that Russian intentions do not work," the president assured.
In addition, Zelensky said that this week Ukraine will present to all partners in Europe its "strategy for forcing Russia to a fair end to this war." The head of state also confirmed that his "victory plan" will be presented publicly, "along with the first response that we received from our partners."
The President also said that as of today, 1 million drones have already been purchased with state funds and delivered to the front. "And this is only what the state is doing. There are also supplies from volunteers, from all those who support," Zelensky added.
18:38 Pope's representative Matteo Zuppi arrived in Moscow to discuss the return of Ukrainian children and prisoners, said the director of the Holy See's press service Matteo Bruni. His second visit to Moscow is "within the framework of the mission entrusted to him by Pope Francis to facilitate the reunification of Ukrainian children with their families and the exchange of prisoners, implying the achievement of the long-awaited peace," Bruni specified.
17:55 Zelensky will present a "victory plan" during his speech in the Verkhovna Rada on October 16, said adviser to the head of the President's Office Serhiy Leshchenko.
17:09 For the fifth day, Russians have been trying to break through the Ukrainian Armed Forces' defenses in the Kursk region, "the guys are holding on and counterattacking," Zelensky said following a meeting of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief's Headquarters and a report by Commander-in-Chief Alexander Syrsky. According to the president, active operations are currently underway along the entire length of the front, but the most brutal battles are in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsky directions.
The meeting also included reports from the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense and the Foreign Intelligence Service on who is helping Russia wage war against Ukraine and what steps should be taken to weaken these alliances. In addition, there was a report from the Ministry of Defense "on contracting for the current and subsequent periods, including using partner assistance," as well as on partner investments in the Ukrainian defense industry.
16:13 Pope's envoy Matteo Zuppi arrived in Moscow and met with Lavrov, discussing the war in Ukraine and "interaction in the humanitarian sphere," the Russian Foreign Ministry reported.
14:36 The EU has officially announced sanctions against Iran for transferring missiles to Russia. The list includes Iranian officials, including the Iranian deputy defense minister and the military attaché of the embassy in Russia. Sanctions were also imposed on seven Iranian companies, including three Iranian airlines - Iran Air, Saha Airlines, Mahan Air.
14:20 Russians attacked a civilian car from a drone near Gavrilovka in the Kherson region - two people were killed, one was wounded, reported the head of the OVA Oleksandr Prokudin. In Novovorontsovka, the enemy also hit a car from a UAV, two people were injured.
13:57 Russian troops attacked the Odessa port infrastructure with a ballistic missile - one person was killed, eight were wounded, reported the head of the OVA Oleg Kiper. All the wounded and the dead are workers of the port infrastructure, citizens of Ukraine. As a result of the attack, civilian ships NS Moon under the flag of Belize and the bulk carrier OPTIMA under the flag of Palau, which was already damaged by an enemy strike exactly a week ago, were damaged. In addition, the port infrastructure was damaged, including a grain warehouse.
13:08 Russian troops control the eastern and southeastern districts of Toretsk, said Anastasia Bobovnikova, spokesperson for the Lugansk group of troops: "The situation in Toretsk is really difficult. It is dynamic and constantly changing. The fight is literally for every entrance, for every street. We see that the eastern and southeastern districts of the city - the enemy is there now, but active battles are being waged for other parts of the city. We are holding back the enemy there." According to her, fortifications have been created near Toretsk in case the Defense Forces leave the city.
12:34 The EU foreign ministers have agreed on new sanctions against Iran over the supply of ballistic missiles to Russia, the DPA agency reports, citing European diplomats. The restrictive measures will apply to companies, institutions and individuals involved in the production and supply of these weapons. The EU diplomats did not provide any other details.
11:59 Zelensky showed one of the production facilities of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex:
11:26 Politico writes that Orban refuses to approve an extension of sanctions against Russia, which will complicate the allocation of loans to Ukraine at the expense of frozen Russian assets to help Trump. In this way, the Hungarian Prime Minister wants to give Trump a "big political gift", since the Republican presidential candidate will be able to tell his voters that if he wins, he "will not give Ukraine a cent". If the EU and the US jointly participate in a loan of 35 billion euros, which is part of a 50 billion loan from the G7, Trump will be obliged to service it if he is re-elected president.
10:48 The oil terminal in Feodosia, which Ukraine struck on the night of October 7, has been almost completely destroyed, the Crimean Wind Telegram channel writes, citing satellite images. The fire continued until Saturday, October 12. In total, the fire affected 12 tanks, eight of which were destroyed. Buildings on the site also burned down, and the storage infrastructure was severely damaged.
09:56 Ukrainian monitoring channels write that tonight, for the first time in 48 days, Russia did not launch attack drones at Ukraine - the last time this happened was on August 29.
09:29 In the Kharkiv region over the past day, one person was injured - in Kupyansk as a result of a UAV strike, reported the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov.
09:17 Russian troops attacked Kherson at night - post offices were damaged, fires broke out. There were no reports of casualties, OVA reported. Over the previous day, one person was killed and four were injured as a result of Russian shelling in the region.
08:43 A Tu-134 aircraft belonging to the 117th military transport aviation regiment of the Russian Armed Forces burned down at the Russian military airfield Orenburg-2 on the night of October 13, the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense reported. Such Soviet aircraft are used, in particular, to transport the leadership of the Russian Ministry of Defense.
08:38 Four people were killed in Donetsk Oblast as a result of Russian shelling on October 13: two in Chasovy Yar, one each in Zvanovka and Vishneve. Three more people in the region were injured in the past 24 hours, said OVA head Vadim Filashkin.
07:54 The General Staff announced the estimated losses of the Russian Federation as of the morning of October 14:
personnel - about 670,190 (+1260) people,
tanks - 8975 (+4),
combat armored vehicles - 17,895 (+19),
artillery systems - 19,421 (+11),
MLRS - 1231 (+0),
air defense systems - 978 (+0),
aircraft - 369 (+0),
helicopters - 329 (+0),
Operational-tactical level UAVs - 17,009 (+17),
cruise missiles - 2619 (+0),
ships/boats - 28 (+0),
submarines - 1 (+0),
automotive equipment and tank trucks - 26,622 (+38),
special equipment - 3437 (+2).
05:11 The American Institute for the Study of War (ISW) believes that the successes of the Russian army on the border of the Donetsk and Zaporizhia regions do not indicate a large-scale offensive. This is how analysts commented on reports of a Russian offensive in the Levadnoye area southwest of Velyka Novosilka and a breakthrough of the Ukrainian defense. ISW notes that Russian forces have achieved tactical successes in this area, but so far this does not appear to be part of a large-scale operational offensive effort.
More Evidence that the Commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force, Brigadier General Esmail Qaani is Alive and was in attendance for tonight’s Ceremony at Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran. There have been Hundreds of Rumors about him over the last few… pic.twitter.com/ovttn40Ibz
…Rumors about him over the last few weeks, from him being Killed by an Israeli Airstrike in Beirut, to him having been Arrested on suspensions of Spying for Israel; while something did definitely happen as evident by his Absence, he is Alive.
David Char Revish was arrested on Oct. 9 in East Baton Rouge and has been charged with 18 counts of indecent behavior with juveniles, 18 counts of computer-aided solicitation of a minor and two counts of pornography involving juveniles.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[SUDANTRIBUNE] A high-ranking military source revealed that the Sudanese army had received its first batch of armoured fighting vehicles designed to counter snipers.
This delivery comes days after the army launched a ground operation to reclaim areas in Khartoum and central Sudan under the control of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has deployed sniper teams on rooftops and balconies of high-rise buildings.
The source told Sudan Tribune on Sunday that ''50 armoured vehicles arrived at the Wadi Sayidna military base north of Omdurman the day before yesterday.'' He indicated that subsequent batches of vehicles would arrive later.
In August, the army received aerial weapons, fighter jets, and drones, which enabled it to intensify its air raids before launching the ground operation on September 26th. This operation allowed the army to penetrate the Al-Mogran area in Khartoum, Al-Halfaya, Al-Azirab north of Khartoum Bahri, and south of Khartoum.
The military source explained that the specifications of the recently arrived armoured vehicles are more advanced than those of the ''Sarsir'' vehicles currently used by the army.
He pointed out that in addition to being fully armoured against bullets, the new vehicles are equipped with cameras, communication devices, a Dushka machine gun platform with a 360-degree rotating turret, and six ports for Kornet anti-tank missiles.
Drones and snipers have played an active and decisive role in the battles between the army and the RSF. Since the outbreak of the conflict, the RSF has gained an advantage by deploying snipers on high-rise buildings in areas under its control.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Russian funding?
Posted by: S MAI ||
10/15/2024 6:43
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 19:20 Calculations of the 12mm BM-21 MLRS "Grad" of the "Yuzhnaya" group of forces support advancing infantry groups in the Kurakhovsky direction.
19:18 Obzornaya station near Dzerzhinsk (Toretsk) came under the control of the Russian Army.
In addition to increasing control in the city itself, Russian troops are moving to encircle from the east, reported military correspondent Timofey Ermakov.
18:45 An Iskander "flew" into the Odessa port today. Preliminary, the ships "NS Moon" and "Optima" were hit. In addition, the explosion affected a number of buildings related to the functioning of the port.
Several sources report that a boat of the Marine Guard of the Border Service of Ukraine was also hit. There were six KIAs on the enemy side, war correspondent Kotenok reported.
18:39 Combat work lead T-72B3M crews of the West group of forces
The priority targets are enemy fortifications and military equipment, including foreign-made ones.
18:35 About half of the territory that was taken by the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk region has been liberated, said the commander of the Akhmat special forces, Alaudinov
According to him, a large amount of Western enemy equipment was destroyed in the Kursk direction.
18:30 Artillery of the Vostok group of forces “drives into the ground” enemy positions near Bogoyavlenka/Dobrovolye –video.
18:07 Explosions have occurred again in the Kyiv-controlled city of Kherson. This was reported by the Ukrainian publication "Obshchestvennoye".
18:05 The Divanny General Staff reports on the liberation of Cherkasskaya Konopelka, Novoivanovka, Leonidovo and Olgovka in the Kursk region.
17:29 Situation north of Priyutny.
Today, the assault groups of the 5th Army advanced in the Levandnoye area.
16:44 Footage from the Khar'kov direction: Russian Armed Forces fighters destroyed a reconnaissance group of the Ukrainian Armed Forces consisting of eight people, which included a scout with a chevron with the US flag.
16:32 Russian naval infantry and aAirborne units are driving the enemy out of the settlement of Malaya Loknya using FPV drones and attack drones.
16:06 Footage strike of a high-precision munition "Krasnopol" on a combat armored vehicle of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
16:00 Explosions have thundered again in the city of Kherson, controlled by Kyiv, the Ukrainian publication “Public. News” reported.
15:34 After the liberation of Levadnoye, the Russian Armed Forces began to probe the enemy's defenses in the direction of Novodarovka and Rivnepil, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces also captured in the summer of 2023 during the offensive on the Vrem'yevsk salient. Particularly heavy fighting then took place for Novodarovka.
15:04 Operator of the Kornet ATGM of the 14th Guards Special Forces Brigade sends a missile right into the side of a bus that had arrived at a Ukrainian Armed Forces position for personnel rotation.
14:50 Destruction of temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces using the Inokhodets unmanned strike system in the border area of the Kursk region.
14:27 Footage of assault by airborne troops on the eastern part of the village of Lyubimovka in the Kursk region.
14:00 Special forces of the 29th Army are “hunting” for the remnants of enemy manpower in the forest belts north of Ugledar –video.
13:19 Data is coming in from objective monitoring of the breakthrough of the special forces "Akhmat" beyond the SD-D canal near Chasov Yar in the direction of Stupochki. Our troops have taken the junction of the N-34 highway.
13:00 Paratroopers of the 98th Airborne Division destroyed Flight test of Ukrainian Armed Forces UAV operators in the Kursk direction.
During aerial reconnaissance, a UAV operator discovered a temporary deployment point for Ukrainian Armed Forces FPV drone operators in a house in the border area of Kursk Oblast. Russian "drone operators" raised kamikaze drones to carry out fire damage. As a result, the FPV was destroyed along with the militants.
12:46 Missile “arrival” in Odessa.
12:40 Summary of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the progress of the special military operation (as of October 14, 2024):
Units of the North group of forces in the Liptsov and Volchansk directions inflicted defeat on formations of the 57th Motorized Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 129th Territorial Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Volchansk and Liptsy in the Khar'kov region.
The fighters of the "West" group of forces occupied more advantageous lines and positions, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 3rd tank, 14th, 114th, 115th Mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade, the 1st and 27th brigades of the National Guard in the areas of the settlements of Novoosinovo, Petrovpavlovka, Glushkovka, Kupyansk-Uzlovaya, Dvurechnoye, Pershotravnevoye and Kruglyakovka in the Khar'kov region.
Two counterattacks by assault groups of the 67th Mechanized and 3rd Airborne Assault Brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were repelled.
The servicemen of the "Southern" group of troops continued to advance into the depths of the enemy's defense, inflicting defeat on the formations of the 28th, 56th Mechanized, 79th Airborne Assault brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 116th Territorial Defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Levanevskoye, Shevchenko, Kramatorsk, Zaliznyanskoye and Kurakhovo of the Donetsk People's Republic.
We repelled three counterattacks by units of the 28th, 46th Mechanized and 81st Airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Units of the Center group of forces improved the position along the forward edge, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 5th Tank, 28th, 67th, 100th Mechanized, 25th Airborne brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 119th Territorial Defense Brigade and the 14th National Guard Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Rodinske, Kurakhovka, Selidovo, Dimitrov, Tsukurino, Novoselidovka, Dzerzhinsk and Mirolyubovka of the Donetsk People's Republic.
They repelled nine counterattacks by units of the 53rd, 100th, 110th, 157th Mechanized brigades, 49th and 425th Assault Battalions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and the 38th Naval Infantry Brigade.
The "East" group of forces liberated the settlement of Levadnoye in the Zaporizhia region and occupied more advantageous positions. It inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 72nd Mechanized, 58th Motorized infantry brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 110th territorial defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Dobrovolye in the Donetsk People's Republic and Temirovka in the Zaporizhia region.
Units of the Dnepr group of forces inflicted losses on formations of the 141st Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 35th Naval Infantry Brigade and the 124th Territorial Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Stepnoye in the Zaporizhia region, Dneprovskoye and Antonovka in the Kherson region.
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces groups inflicted damage on concentrations of enemy manpower and military equipment in 119 areas.
Air defense systems shot down a US-made HIMARS rocket and 25 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
12:19 Units of the "East" military group have liberated the settlement of Levadnoye in the Zaporizhia region, the Russian Defense Ministry reported
11:56 Servicemen of the 5th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade of the "Southern" group of troops told on the liberation of the settlement of Ostrovskoe in the Donetsk People's Republic.
Under pressure from our assault groups, the Ukrainian Armed Forces units were forced to hastily retreat to the neighboring village of Kurakhovo, leaving the wounded in their positions.
11:40 UAV operators of the 18th Army destroyed two vehicles of Ukrainian Armed Forces militants on the right bank of the Kherson region.
11:19 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crews of the Airborne Forces artillery unit destroyed a concentration of Ukrainian infantry in the border area of ??the Kursk region –video.
10:31 According to preliminary data, as of the morning of October 14, the Ukrainian Armed Forces have been completely driven out of the village of Novy Put (Kursk region).
The Russian Armed Forces have cleared most of the enemy from the bridgehead captured by the Ukrainian Armed Forces south of Vesyoloye, reported military correspondent Yuriy Kotenok.
10:24 Ka-52M "smashed" personnel and armored vehicles of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of the Kursk region. The strikes were carried out with missiles on reconnoitered enemy targets.
10:10 According to operational information, the route to Novodmitrovka from Selidovo has been completely cut off by Russian troops, plus the Russian Armed Forces have come close to the village of Vishnevoye, implementing the concept of encircling Selidovo.
10:07 Servicemen of the 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crew of the Center group of forces struck an area of concentration of enemy manpower and equipment in the Avdeevka direction.
09:55 Strikes are being carried out on enemy targets in the Sumy and Khar'kov regions.
09:41 Over the past week, Russian forces have repelled 45 attempts by the Ukrainian Armed Forces to penetrate the region's territory on the LPR borders, killing over 7,000 soldiers and foreign mercenaries. This was reported by military expert Andrey Marochko.
09:24 Footage objective control of the destruction of two Ukrainian Armed Forces tanks
In Sumy Oblast, servicemen of the North military group used Lancet loitering munitions to destroy two Ukrainian Armed Forces tanks.
08:19 As a result of a battle in the border area of the Kursk region, naval infantry captured Western-made weapons, flags and personal belongings of Ukrainian Armed Forces militants.
During the assault, the enemy attempted to resist, but to no avail. The Ukrainian Armed Forces fighters were destroyed, and the survivors surrendered.
08:14 Fighters of the "Southern" grouptoldthat during the storming of the settlement of Ostrovskoye in the DPR, “they did not give the enemy the opportunity to dig in and fortify themselves.”
08:09 120mm mortar crew of the Guards airborne assault unit of the North Group of Forcestore offrotation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in one of the border regions of the Kursk region.
08:09 Foreign mercenaries in the ranks of the Ukrainian Armed Forces are the firstare leavingpositions on the front line as Russian attack aircraft approached them, said a senior instructor of the Leningrad regiment with the call sign "Concrete".
08:04 UAV crews of the Dnepr group of troops of the Russian Armed Forces in one of the most difficult areas of the Orekhov direction in the Zaporizhia regiondestroyedUkrainian Armed Forces firing points in the forest belt.
08:01 The Russian Armed Forces have advanced in Donbass and Kursk region.
Russian fighters advanced near Kalinovka, Chasovy Yar, Grigoryevka, Ugledar, Olgovka, Kremnevoye, Tsukurino and Zolotoy Niva.
08:00 First frames The Ministry of Defense from Ostrovsky, liberated by the Russian Armed Forces, to the DPR. The fighters raised the Russian flag.
You think the bankers are up to no good? No band of scoundrels has brought more chaos and grief to the life of this republic than the claque that gathers darkly under the banner of “Lawfare.” Its public face is Lawfaremedia.org, run by Benjamin Wittes, a Brookings senior fellow, but that gang functions only to lend a false-front of decorum to the operations of its Democratic Party activist lawyer-army led by Field Marshal Marc Elias, architect of the ballot fraud that has caused Americans to lose faith in their elections.
Marc Elias was the original expeditor of the RussiaGate hoax in 2016 from his perch at Perkins Coie, then Hillary Clinton’s campaign law firm, which laundered payments to Christopher Steele, front-man for Glenn Simpson’s Fusion GPS political PR shop, which concocted the fraudulent “dossier” and set in motion a train of DC intel blob legal shenanigans aimed at defenestrating Donald Trump from the White House — the Mueller Investigation, impeachment, etc.
While all that was going on through the Trump term, and with the Covid-19 Op providing cover, Mr. Elias engineered the 2020 changes in many states’ election laws and bylaws to permit large-scale mail-in voting, organized ballot-harvesting activities, and introduce the use of drop-boxes for receiving bundled votes. He and his George Soros-financed staff lawyers sued states that attempted to require voter-identification, and provided legal protection for Mark Zuckerberg’s $419-million-dollar assault on election precinct staffing in swing states. When the 2020 election concluded suspiciously, Mr. Elias and his gang joined lawsuits in every case where the balloting was contested and got more than sixty of them dismissed on the basis of “standing,” without the merits of the cases being heard. This is Lawfare.
This time around, 2024, Mr. Elias has done everything possible to ensure that millions of illegal aliens stuffed into swing states will have their putative identities attached to harvested mail-in ballots from addresses such as Walmart parking lots and storage units, and has filed lawsuits wherever a state threatens to require proof of citizenship for voting. He has also filed sixty peremptory lawsuits to obstruct attempts to audit any election count after November 5 — as if it is an affront to democracy to even ask questions about official misconduct.
A parallel Lawfare scam underway is the Democratic Party-sponsored 65 Project that seeks to disbar Trump-adjacent lawyers who attempt to challenge any voting irregularities in this year’s election. Its mission statement reads:
The 65 Project is a bipartisan effort to protect democracy from these once-and-future abuses by holding accountable Big Lie Lawyers who bring fraudulent and malicious lawsuits to overturn legitimate election results, and by working with bar associations to deter future abuses by establishing clear standards for conduct that punish lies about the conduct or results of elections.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Vasiliev
The GUR is training one set of terrorists for the same reason Russia is training a different set of terrorists: to be cannon fodder so their own people can do more productive things. And Russia is talking loudly about the GUR mote so people won’t notice the Russian log.
[REGNUM] In recent months, the flow of news from the African region of Sahel, directly concerning Russia and the Russian presence on the continent, continues to grow. And often it brings only negative things for us.
The current surge of attention to the region began with the events of July 27 in Mali, when dozens of Malian FAMA soldiers and Wagner fighters were ambushed and killed during the battle for Tinzauten. This was a heavy military and reputational loss. This was followed by a statement by the Main Intelligence Directorate (GUR) of Ukraine about helping the Tuaregs in this attack. The reaction of a number of African countries was harsh, including breaking off diplomatic relations with Ukraine.
Among the latest sharp statements, it is worth noting the speech of the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mali Abdoulaye Diop at the "Summit of the Future" within the framework of the 79th session of the UN General Assembly. In his statement, the minister emphasized that the UN Security Council must "take responsibility" and respond to the "conscious choice" of Kiev.
"The Confederation of Sahel States, led by Mali, strongly condemns the Ukrainian government's open support for international terrorism, especially in the Sahel," he said.
At the same time, leading French media do not hesitate to provide support and express sympathy for the separatists, and also directly testify to the connections of Tuareg separatists with Ukraine.
DIFFERENT COUNTRIES, COMMON PROBLEMS
Before attempting to analyze the current flow of events and make a forecast for the prospects for their development, it is necessary to make several reservations.
Firstly, if we discuss current processes even strictly in the context of security issues, we will have to go far beyond the Sahel region states. Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mali, Niger and Chad are usually considered to be part of this region. But de facto, this is already an interregional story.
According to the geographical, geo-economic and even, if you like, geopolitical division, these countries belong to different subregions of Africa - Western, Central and Northern. However, common problems of a trans-border nature, connected primarily with separatism and Islamic radicalism, unite these countries into one region.
These problems are caused, among other things, by differences in landscapes and differences in the way of life of the ethnic groups inhabiting the countries.
Along the perimeter of this entire region, with completely different political, geographical and historical initial data, almost all neighboring countries are forced to come into contact with the same problems to one degree or another. From Morocco, Algeria, Libya to Sudan, South Sudan, DR Congo, CAR, Nigeria, Cameroon, Togo, Benin, Ghana, Guinea and others. Perhaps with the exception of Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire.
Secondly, it is necessary to recognize and record the global nature of the confrontation with Ukraine. This instrument, if it remains in the hands of Western opponents, will always be used against Russia.
Today, the Kiev regime has fully expressed solidarity with the Tuaregs from the unrecognized entity of "Azawad." Tomorrow, it could be the separatist "March 23 Movement" in the east of the Republic of Congo. Yesterday and the day before, it was expressed in support for the Ichkerian separatist terrorists who suffered a complete defeat in Russia in the 2000s.
The confrontation in the modern world has acquired a global character, and Kyiv, as the stakes are rising, has received funds to implement a variety of "wants" in Africa - if only to spite Russia. This includes the supply of weapons to African actors under criminal and gray schemes, and the opening of a whole network of new embassies in African countries, and the training of Tuareg separatists in military technologies using UAVs.
Thirdly, it is impossible not to acknowledge that behind all current global events there is a very public and very precise planning of destructive processes on the part of the main player in the West African region – the USA.
NEW US STRATEGY
All the problems of the recently formed "Confederation of Sahel States" have been predicted in one way or another, and in some places even artificially constructed by the United States. It does not matter whether it is by the hands of Ukraine or terrorist organizations such as the "Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM)" and others.
Back in January, The Wall Street Journal published a very remarkable article acknowledging the problems and tactical defeat of the United States in the Sahel and simultaneously outlining the contours of a new strategy in West Africa.
If we are to believe the publication of a publication known for its inside information from Western intelligence agencies, the world's first army, whose technological power allowed it to literally wipe out more than one of the strongest regional powers, is retreating before the threat of African jihadists in slippers.
Yes, the growth of Islamist sentiments in Africa is a real fact, and it is fueled by objective problems - an explosive growth in the birth rate, underdeveloped infrastructure, the raw materials nature of the economy, etc. But for the States to simply admit their impotence in the face of several thousand poorly trained natives - sounds ridiculous.
In reality, the US withdrawal from the Sahel is, of course, due to the miscalculations of American analysts, who placed their bets on Niger's army special forces and failed to notice the growing role and popularity of Russia in the region, as well as pan-African ideas in general.
Last July, a coup took place in Niamey, and French and American troops were expelled from the country. The foreign policy of the new military government of General Abdourahmane Chiani is firmly oriented towards Russia. This was a grave disappointment to the Americans in their own abilities in Africa.
"Niger has been the linchpin of this approach. The U.S. has built a $110 million base in Agadez and stationed about 1,100 troops in the country," The Wall Street Journal writes.
The ultra-modern base in Agadez has effectively been closed down, and aid to the Niger military has been stopped. Among the new potential allies (and military bases as a consequence) are Benin, Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. In Benin and Côte d'Ivoire, American air bases for UAVs have already been launched, and instructors are present. In Ghana, a similar base has been operating for a long time.
The new strategy is military cooperation and the deployment of bases in several coastal countries of West Africa at once. In this way, the US blocks the growth of influence of Russia and other competitors in the region. No access to the sea - no logistics, no logistics - no influence.
Those same jihadists, before whom the American military suddenly retreated, have indeed gained great strength over the past six months. Including through mastering modern methods of armed confrontation using UAVs, which they learned with the help of Ukrainian military specialists.
Sahel is left alone with its problems and with Russia. The Confederation of Sahel States, which is now the focus of attention of all African countries, and especially neighboring Chad, is first and foremost a pro-Russian geopolitical project in Africa.
And any military failure or defeat of the Confederation countries is automatically projected onto Russia and all Russian projects on the continent.
WAR WITH THE TUAREGS
The main role in destabilizing the situation in retaliation against Russia and the Confederation allied with Moscow is assigned to the Tuaregs. The main blow is aimed at Mali, since it is a kind of key to the entire region. Bamako is behind the formation of the Confederation of Sahel States, and the very possibility of its emergence. As well as behind the manifestation of pan-African and pro-Russian political forces and their rise to power. The leader of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, is the president of the Confederation of Sahel and sets the tone in the unification processes of the three states.
The main problem of the state of Mali since gaining independence is the separatism of the peoples inhabiting the north-east of the country - up to 40% of its territory. First of all, we are talking about the Tuaregs. Today they are sufficiently organized in the ideological, military and political sense to be a full-fledged alternative to the current authorities.
Their unrecognized state formation of Azawad itself was made possible by direct political and military support from Paris and Algeria since 2014. Therefore, there is nothing unexpected in the appearance of Tuareg leaders in the leading media of France.
For example, just recently, Attaye Ag Mohamed, who is responsible for external relations of the key Tuareg separatist organization, the Strategic Composition for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), confirmed on France24 that he has ties with Ukraine.
"The connection was established recently and continues <…> We communicate with various Ukrainian departments and discuss not only issues of data exchange," he said. The Tuareg avoided the question of whether Kiev trains Azawad representatives to handle drones, saying that he " cannot provide details of relations with Ukraine."
The newspaper "Le Monde" was even more frank, citing its own sources in the Tuareg community. Since this summer, separatist fighters from the CSP-DPA group in Mali have been actively using UAVs to attack the regular army and the Russian armed contingent in the country.
Kyiv supplies the terrorists with drones, and a number of CSP-DPA members have been trained in Ukraine. This fact, which they tried to keep secret until recently, has now become a subject of their bragging.
Footage of drone attacks on military bases in northern Mali has been widely shared on social media, with supporters of the CSP-DPA praising the idea that the rebels finally have the capability to carry out airstrikes that could change the balance of power.
The first widespread use of CSP-DPA drones was recorded during the July battles for Tinsauten, a town in northern Mali, near the border with Algeria. In the same area, separatists, together with jihadists from JNIM (former Al Qaeda in West Africa*), carried out a brutal ambush on a convoy of Malian armed forces (FAMA), which was accompanied by Wagner fighters.
According to Le Monde, cooperation between Ukrainian special services and terrorist groups began in early 2024. The publication's sources confirm that at the beginning of the year, several CSP members traveled to Ukraine via Mauritania and Moldova to undergo training in the production and operation of drones.
And in March, Ukrainian instructors went to Mali to continue training militants on the ground, and are still there.
GOOD, BAD, UKRAINIANS
The French carefully constructed strategy of dividing the radicals into “good” separatists and “bad” jihadists is failing: it is quite difficult to distinguish one from the other. Yesterday’s enemies are now acting in concert. The coordination between separatist and jihadist groups is not hidden by anyone. Moreover, some of yesterday’s Tuareg leaders are now becoming jihadists.
Numerous jihadist attacks along the entire perimeter of the Sahel Confederation border add to the problem of separatism in northeastern Mali. Of particular note is the August attack on the airport and the gendarme school in Bamako. It occurred on the anniversary of the formation of the "Sahel Alliance", and dozens of cadets were killed.
Today, Tuareg leaders are fighting with weapons in hand against the legitimate authorities and do not deny their allied ties with the most odious jihadist organization in the region — JNIM. And in these conditions, their support by leading French media is in fact self-exposure. The picture is completed by the involvement of the Kyiv regime in supporting the "good" Tuaregs.
There is not even a step left, but only half a step, before the French admit their support for terrorism in Africa. And that means their entire strategy in the region since 2014 is a total lie to justify their own military and political presence.
France, with its extremely negative reputation in the Sahel, has no chance anymore. Many people understand this even in the “metropolis” itself – from the ultra-left to the ultra-right. With the exception of Emmanuel Macron.
It is obvious that France's goal today is to at least "annoy" the leaders of the Confederation of Sahel States, who dared to leave Paris's guardianship. There is no longer any talk of any positive agenda or prospects. And behind the facade of Paris' dirty and emotional game, Washington is the one who is getting the real profit, implementing a new strategy.
France, with its political and military provocations, will sooner or later leave the region, but the problems for the Confederation will not go away: the global interests of the United States on the Black Continent have not been cancelled.
The main question is whether Moscow will be able not only to ensure security in the region, but also to provide a project for positive economic and political development for the countries of the Confederation.
If so, Russia remains in the pool of such leading states as the US, China, India, Great Britain and France. If not, we will at least have to forget about many of our ambitions in Black Africa, and therefore abandon the long-term strategy of asymmetric responses to our Western opponents.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Victor Lavrinenko
[REGNUM] On October 13, the first round of parliamentary elections took place in Lithuania, the outcome of which already allows us to assess the picture of the changes awaiting the political system of this country.
It would seem that there are no particular surprises: the systemic parties are simply forming a new configuration of the ruling coalition.
But these elections brought one surprise - the unexpected rise of the absolutely marginal Nazi party, whose leader became infamous for his denial of Lithuanians' guilt for the Holocaust. This success became a clear proof of the process of "grassroots" fascisation of the country, which previously they preferred not to talk about much. The political system of Lithuania will undergo serious changes.
FAILED "AGRARIANS"
The most powerful of the local parties is the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats (HO-LD, also known as the Conservatives).
These are the ideological heirs of the "father of Lithuanian independence" Vytautas Landsbergis - he retired from active affairs due to age, but remains an extremely influential figure. His grandson Gabrielius is the head of the LC-LDC, who received the post of Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2020.
The Conservatives differ from other major Lithuanian parties in their heightened level of Russophobia and special devotion to Washington, which they consider their unconditional overlord.
Domestically, they pursue a distinctly neoliberal policy. In 2008–2012, the Prime Minister Andrius Kubilius, who represented the LC-LD, became the most hated person in the country because he “defeated” the economic crisis by ruthlessly cutting down the country’s social system.
Kubilius's activities led to the conservatives going into opposition following the 2012 elections. At that time, a coalition led by the local Social Democratic Party came to power in Lithuania. It lasted for four years, and in 2016, it was replaced by a new coalition led by the Union of Farmers and Greens (UFG).
The regular change of ruling coalitions in Lithuania is explained by the fact that the problems of this state are systemic in nature, which means that they cannot be resolved within the current order of things. The voter quickly becomes disappointed with the next political favorites, and he runs to the next ones, forgetting that he once voted for them. Therefore, there is a cycle of parties, changing places in the ruling coalition and opposition every four to eight years.
Just by 2016, the country had a demand for new meanings, for the creation of a qualitatively new political system. The people entrusted the Union of Peasants and Greens with satisfying it, but it failed in this task.
Firstly, the SKZ received a strong opposition in the form of conservatives. Secondly, the Lithuanian "peasants and greens" did not even try to carry out some kind of "revolution from above". In foreign policy, the SKZ continued the course of its predecessors - confrontation with Russia, attempts to "democratize" Belarus, strategic cooperation with Washington.
At the same time, the Lithuanian "agrarians" were so carried away by geopolitical games that they never found any incentives for the development of their country's economy. As a result, in the fall of 2020, the voters asked them to "leave".
WAR WITH CHINA AND THE COVID "CONCENTRATION CAMP"
However, under the Conservatives’ return to power, Lithuania’s foreign policy games have reached a truly global scale. Immediately after winning the 2020 elections, the Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats promised to “defend democratic values, oppose human rights violations, and protect freedom fighters around the world – from Belarus to Taiwan.”
The main focus of the Conservatives' foreign policy activities in the first year was Belarus. They fiercely supported the Belarusian opposition, introduced new sanctions against Minsk and called on the entire EU to do the same. They did this regardless of the economic losses. The ban on the transit of Belaruskali products through Klaipeda at the end of 2021 alone brought billions of dollars in losses to the Lithuanian economy and led to a wave of layoffs in the transport sector.
Another area of activity that Lithuanian conservatives have declared is the fight against the Belarusian NPP. Through their efforts, Lithuania not only refused to purchase electricity produced at the Belarusian NPP, but also persuaded Latvia and Estonia to join this “energy boycott.”
But the main result of the conservatives' four years in power was Lithuania's quarrel with China, which again resulted in significant economic losses for the Lithuanians. At first, Vilnius showered Beijing with insults, accusing it of "suppressing democracy" and of the Chinese allegedly engaging in "total espionage" and "influence-grabbing" in the EU countries.
But then Lithuania committed a much more serious act: it opened an official representative office of Taiwan, thus directly violating the “one China” principle, which Vilnius supposedly recognizes in words.
An enraged Beijing reduced its diplomatic representation in Lithuania to a minimum and imposed sanctions against the Baltic republic, which, again, caused it enormous damage.
The authorities promised that it was not a problem, that grateful Taiwan would compensate and even cover all losses with its investments, but nothing of the sort happened. And now opposition Lithuanian politicians are increasingly openly saying that the quarrel with Beijing, which was started literally out of nowhere, was an outright stupidity.
Russian-Lithuanian relations suffered even more damage during the conservatives' rule. Long before the start of the SVO, Vilnius was inventing insults against Moscow and constantly inventing all sorts of reasons to prick its neighbor.
When the Western campaign to strangle Russia with sanctions began in the spring of 2022, Lithuania, like the other Baltic countries, constantly tried to get ahead of the game and proactively introduced sanctions that Brussels did not even demand of them, such as a ban on issuing visas to all Russian citizens.
Lithuanian leaders, including Landsbergis Jr., are telling the population that “it is necessary to prepare for Russian aggression,” because “ if Moscow senses weakness, it will certainly attack.” This creates an atmosphere of extreme nervousness and uncertainty in the country.
The conservatives' policy had already become so annoying to the Lithuanian people from the very beginning that within a month of their return to power, more than half of the population had expressed no confidence in the new government. Mass complaints and lamentations began to be heard: why did we vote for these crooks?
Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė cynically advised all those dissatisfied to wait for new elections in 2024. The conservatives especially turned people against themselves by tightening the screws to the limit during the Covid pandemic. Unlike Russia, where "self-isolation" lasted only for a few months in 2020, and then the state began to gradually ease restrictions, the Baltic countries existed in the strictest quarantine regime for two years.
The population of Lithuania then felt as if they were in a collective prison: residents were even forbidden to leave their municipalities. Ordinary Lithuanians repeatedly asked for these restrictions to be relaxed, and when the authorities refused, mass unrest began in Vilnius. Then the protesters blocked the parliament building, and the police used tear gas to disperse them.
Taking into account all of the above, it becomes clear why many people are sick and tired of the SO-KhDL government.
ELECTION RESULTS
The Seimas of Lithuania is elected by universal secret ballot under a mixed system: 71 deputies in single-member constituencies under the majoritarian system, 70 in a multi-member constituency under party lists. This time, fifteen teams competed for seats in parliament - 14 party candidates and one coalition list; 699 candidates competed in single-member constituencies.
And now the results of the first round of voting, which took place on October 13, have become known. In multi-mandate districts, the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDPL) received the maximum result - 20.46% of the votes and 19 mandates.
The Conservatives were only in second place - 16.44% support and 15 mandates. In third place was the nationalist party "Nemunas's Dawn" led by former Seimas deputy Remigijus Žemaitaitis.
Also in the first round, the three party leaders who ran in single-mandate constituencies were the most successful. Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė from the SO-KhDL received 53.55% in her constituency. The Speaker of the Seimas from the Liberal Movement (this party is the junior partner of the Conservatives in the ruling coalition) Viktorija Čmilytė-Nielsen received 44.9%, and the chairwoman of Nemunas Day Žemaitaitis received 46.44%.
They celebrated victory in single-mandate constituencies already in the first round of elections. Others were content with more modest results: five party chairmen made it to the second round, and three lost the single-mandate elections.
What does this result indicate? Fatigue with the current ruling coalition – yes, of course. But the result of the coalition parties cannot be called a rout, and in the case of Šimonytė and Čmilytė-Nilson personally, it is more than successful.
This is explained by the fact that both the SO-KhDL and the Liberal Movement have managed to become parties of the Lithuanian bureaucracy, who associate their personal well-being with their success. The class of officials in Lithuania is quite large, and not only they themselves vote for “their” party, but also their entire numerous relatives.
Moreover, it must be admitted that in Lithuania many people have been fooled by anti-Russian propaganda; they are impressed by the energetic activities of Šimonytė and her party in “ building a defense against aggressive Russia ”: purchasing weapons, strengthening the army, inviting a permanent Bundeswehr brigade to Lithuania, etc.
However, officials, their relatives and victims of Russophobic propaganda were not enough to overcome the negative legacy of the conservatives’ rule.
But the success of the Social Democrats is built on the votes of those who are mortally fed up with the government.
Their candidate for prime minister is the party chairperson Vilija Blinkevičiūtė. She has one serious advantage: she is not an out-and-out Russophobic and, being a left-wing person, is more interested in the country's internal affairs than in geopolitical confrontation.
One plus for Blinkevičiūtė is that she does not share the opinion about the need to liquidate Russian schools in Lithuania. She once disputed the expediency of opening a Taiwan representative office in Vilnius.
In 2021, the Social Democrats objected to the crude interference in Georgia's affairs, where conservative representatives began to visit frequently to teach Georgians how to "properly confront Russia."
Of course, if the Social Democrats head the new Lithuanian government, one should not expect the state's foreign policy to change in any serious way - the country will remain in the American "train". But the anti-Russian policy will be carried out by Vilnius without the previous enthusiasm and without any completely crude insults to Moscow.
"DAWN" OF NEO-NAZISM
But what came as a surprise was the huge success of Zarya Nemunas.
Its founder, Remigijus Žemaitaitis, was kicked out of the respectable Freedom and Justice party in 2023 after he published a series of anti-Semitic posts on social media. In particular, he tried to absolve Lithuanians of responsibility for aiding the Nazis during the Holocaust (during the Nazi occupation, 200,000 Jews were killed in Lithuania with the active participation of local collaborators). Žemaitaitis accused Jews of attacking Lithuanians during the war (indeed, Jewish partisan units operated on the territory of the republic) and demanded an “apology” from them.
The scandal was huge, especially since the US embassy also paid attention to these statements. Zemaitaitis had to say goodbye to both his party at the time and his seat in the Seimas.
However, he did not lose his head and quickly organized a new political force, the success of which no one believed in, given the scandalous past of its founder. And suddenly - triumph, incredible success, when unknown marginal nationalists take third place in the elections.
This success is the result of thirty years of nationalist propaganda hammered into the heads of the population, when Soviet soldiers were declared “occupiers” and the “forest brothers” (many of whom directly participated in the extermination of those same Jews) were proclaimed “heroes.”
It turned out that over the years, a fairly large layer of people has been raised in the country who are ready to repeat the bloody "feats" of their predecessors. The malice of Lithuanian neo-Nazis is directed at the minorities living in Lithuania - Jews, Poles and Russians.
And they are much more outspoken and radical than the same conservatives, whose ranks also include a ton of nationalists who are forced to restrain themselves for reasons of respectability.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
Units of the Sever Group of Forces in Liptsy and Volchansk directions hit formations of AFU 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade and 129th Territorial Defence Brigade near Volchansk and Liptsy (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 45 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, and two motor vehicles.
One field ammunition depot was destroyed.
The Zapad Group of Forces' units took more advantageous lines and positions, inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of AFU 3rd Tank Brigade, 14th, 114th, 115th Mechanised brigades, 112th Territorial Defence Brigade, 1st and 27th National Guard Brigades near Novoosinovo, Petropavlovka, Glushkovka, Kupyansk-Uzlovoy, Dvurechnoye, Pershotravnevoye, and Kruglyakovka (Kharkov region).
Two counter-attacks launched by units of AFU 67th Mechanised Brigade and 3rd Air Assault Brigade were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 490 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, including one U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, three pickup trucks, one U.S.-made 155mm M-198 howitzer, and one 152mm D-20 howitzer.
Three ammunition depots were also destroyed.
The Yug Group of Forces' units continue to advance to the depth of the enemy's defence, defeat formations of AFU 28th, 56th Mechanised brigades, 79th Air Assault Brigade, 116th Territorial Defence Brigade near Levanevskoye, Shevchenko, Kramatorsk, Zaliznyanskoye, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic).
Three counterattacks launched by units of AFU 28th, 46th Mechanised brigades, and 81st Airmobile Brigade were repelled.
The enemy losses were up to 620 troops, one infantry fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzer, one 122mm D-30 howitzer, and one U.S.-made 105mm M-119 howitzer.
Three ammunition depots were wiped out.
The Tsentr Group of Forces' units improved the situation along the front line, hit manpower and hardware of AFU 5th Tank Brigade, 28th, 67th, 100th Mechanised brigades, 25th Airborne Brigade, 119th Territorial Defence Brigade, and 14th National Guard Brigade near Rodinskoye, Kurakhovka, Selidovo, Dimitrov, Tsukurino, Novoselidovka, Dzerzhinsk, and Mirolyubovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Nine counterattacks launched by formations of AFU 53rd, 100th, 110th, 157th Mechanised brigades, 49th and 425th Assault battalions, and 38th Naval Infantry Brigade were repelled.
The enemy lost up to 465 troops, one Turkish-made Kirpi armoured fighting vehicle, four motor vehicles, one 122mm D-30 howitzer, and one 100mm Rapira anti-tank gun.
The Vostok Group of Forces' units liberated Levadnoye (Zaporozhye region) and took more advantageous lines.
They also hit manpower and hardware of AFU 72nd Mechanised Brigade, 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade, and 110th Territorial Defence Brigade close to Dobrovolye (Donetsk People's Republic) and Temirovka (Zaporozhye region).
The enemy losses were up to 120 troops, one armoured personnel carrier, four motor vehicles, one 155mm Bogdana self-propelled artillery system, and one French-made Caesar self-propelled artillery system.
The Dnepr Group of Forces' units hit formations of AFU 141st Infantry Brigade, 35th Naval Infantry Brigade, and 124th Territorial Defence Brigade near Stepnoye (Zaporozhye region), Dneprovskoye and Antonovka (Kherson region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 25 troops and four motor vehicles. One ammunition depot was wiped out.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces engaged AFU manpower and hardware clusters in 119 areas during the day.
Air defence systems shot down one U.S.-made HIMARS projectile, as well as 25 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 646 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 33,605 unmanned aerial vehicles, 582 anti-aircraft missile systems, 18,625 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,472 MLRS combat vehicles, 16,146 field artillery guns and mortars, and 27,251 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
Units of the Sever Group of Forces continued their offensive actions, in the course of which the formations of AFU 22nd, 41st, 47th, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 82nd, and 95th Air Assault brigades, 1st National Guard Brigade as well as 103rd and 129th Territorial Defence brigades have been hit near Lyubimovka, Malaya Loknya, Novy Put, Tolsty Lug, and Plekhovo.
In addition, over the past 24 hours, the Group's units repelled five enemy counterattacks in the direction of Lyubimovka, Olgovka, and Tolsty Lug.
As a result, the AFU losses amounted to up to 40 troops killed and wounded, one armoured fighting vehicle, and two motor vehicles. One serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine surrendered.
Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on clusters of manpower and hardware of AFU 22nd, 41st, and 61st Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 36th Naval Infantry Brigade, 80th, 82nd, and 95th Air Assault brigades, 1st and 17th National Guard brigades as well as 112th and 129th Territorial Defence brigades near Daryino, Kruglenkoye, Kolmakov, Leonidovo, Lyubimovka, Lebedevka, Malaya Loknya, Martynovka, Makhnovka, Novy Put, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Novoivanovka, Plekhovo, Russkoye Porechnoye, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, and Yuzhny.
Operational-Tactical Aviation and Missile Troops have inflicted fire damage in Sumy region on concentration areas and reserves of AFU 21st, 41st, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 95th Air Assault Brigade, 1st National Guard Brigade as well as 101st, 103rd, 107th, 117th, and 129th Territorial Defence brigades near Belovody, Belaya Beryoza, Vodolagi, Glukhov, Zhuravka, Dibrova, Katerinovka, Malushino, Melyachikha, Makeyevka, Miropolye, Sosnovka, Svarkovo, and Utskovo.
The AFU losses were more than 300 people, eight armoured fighting vehicles, as well as three artillery guns, two mortars, and 11 motor vehicles. One serviceman surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the Armed Forces of Ukraine have lost more than 22,950 servicemen, 157 tanks, 72 infantry fighting vehicles, 98 armoured personnel carriers, 917 armoured fighting vehicles, 630 motor vehicles, 189 artillery guns, 36 multiple rocket launchers, including nine HIMARS and six U.S.-made MLRSs, nine anti-aircraft missile launchers, five transport and loading vehicles, 48 EW stations, nine counter-battery warfare radars, three air defence systems, 22 pieces of engineering and other equipment, including 13 engineering barriers, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, and three armoured recovery vehicles.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Breaking: Militant trans activists have been detained by the venue security after allegedly releasing insects all over to try to sabotage the @AllianceLGB conference in London. The conference features gay and lesbian speakers critical of trans ideology. Several suspected… pic.twitter.com/9SDLErI4iA
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Nobel Committee of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics to American scientists Daron Acemoglu, Simon Johnson, and James Robinson for studying the influence of social institutions on the prosperity of society. The first two researchers represent the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, James Robinson — the University of Chicago.
The work of the 2024 laureates helps to understand why societies without the rule of law and exploitation of the population do not prosper, the press release notes.
A good question to answer.
To assess the role of social institutions, the scientists turned to the period of colonization. In some colonies, the invaders pursued the goal of exploiting the native population and using the extracted resources for their own interests. In others, the colonists formed comprehensive political and economic systems for the long-term benefit of European migrants. The laureates' research showed that one of the explanations for why the first type of society declined and the second flourished were the social institutions that were introduced during the process of colonization.
“The implementation of inclusive institutions brings long-term benefits to everyone, while extractive institutions bring short-term benefits to those in power,” the Nobel Committee noted.
In 2023, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to American Claudia Goldin for her research on the role of women in the labor market. She took a new approach to studying gender inequality and explained why women earn less than men.
[IsraelTimes] Vladislav Viktorson, 30, allegedly contacted via social media, then recruited his girlfriend and another to carry out vandalism; suspect agreed to kill an unnamed prominent figure
Two Israelis have been arrested for carrying out a series of acts of sabotage on behalf of Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and plotting to kill a senior Israeli figure, the Shin Bet and Israel Police announced in a joint statement Monday.
According to the statement, an Israeli citizen identified as Vladislav Viktorson, 30, from Ramat Gan was approached by an Iranian identified as "Mari Hossi" via social media networks last August.
Viktorson then recruited his 18-year-old partner Anna Bernstein and another unnamed Ramat Gan resident. The trio carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism — including spraying provocative graffiti and putting up posters, setting fire to cars near Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park, and acts of arson in local forests — at the behest of Hossi, who gave them instructions in Hebrew, the statement said.
It noted that Viktorson was aware that Hossi was an "Iranian entity."
The Iranian agent also asked Viktorson to sabotage ATM machines and communication infrastructure, photograph protesters at political rallies, and recruit homeless people living on the streets for additional activities.
Viktorson and Bernstein filmed some of the sabotage they engaged in and were paid $5,000.
Hossi then asked Viktorson to kill a prominent Israeli by throwing a hand grenade into his house, the statement said. Viktorson agreed to do so and tried to purchase weapons including sniper rifles, pistols, and grenades, the statement said.
The target was not named.
Viktorson and Bernstein were indicted on security offenses, the statement said. Prosecutors asked that the suspects be held until the end of proceedings, Channel 13 reported.
Details of the involvement of the third person and their fate were not included in the statement.
"This investigation reveals, once again, the efforts of the Iranian intelligence agencies to recruit and exploit Israeli citizens in order to promote espionage and terrorist activity in Israel," a senior Shin Bet official said in the agency’s statement.
The official noted that the agency, together with the police, has uncovered a number of attempts by the Iranians to recruit Israeli citizens "in order to carry out various tasks that culminated in harming individuals in Israel."
Investigations uncovered "many fictitious Iranian [social media] profiles" that were monitored to collect information about them, the official said.
"The exposure of the activity led to the arrest and interrogation of Israeli citizens who were tempted to carry out missions," he said.
The statement warned the public against Iranian attempts to recruit Israelis over social media to carry out activities for the Islamic Theocratic Republic.
"Although these tasks may initially be seen as innocent, they have the potential to cause real harm to national security," the statement cautioned, noting that such appeals can be made in different languages, including English and Hebrew, through social platforms such as Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook and Twitter.
While some citizens have been drawn in by the money offered, the statement said "a significant number of Israeli citizens" did not respond to the appeals or reported them to the relevant authorities.
The arrests came as Israel’s years-long shadow war with Iran has spiked into open conflict.
The Shin Bet in recent months has announced a series of alleged Iranian plots, in which Iran had tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions for Tehran.
Last month, a Jewish Israeli civilian was arrested after he was allegedly recruited by Iran to advance an liquidation plot of Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet.
In January, authorities uncovered a scheme in which Israelis were allegedly recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile figures.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. [Regnum] In the Mexican state of Jalisco, National Guard officers found decapitated human bodies and victims' heads on the highway. This was reported on October 13 by the local prosecutor's office.
It was noted that the five male bodies found on the highway from Lagos de Moreno to San Luis Potosi were wrapped in black plastic bags. Police also found a bag that apparently contained the victims' heads. The ages of the victims have not yet been determined.
Street clashes and vandalism involving cartels and security forces have been ongoing in Jalisco for more than a month, following the arrest in the United States of the son of Mexican drug dealer Joaquin Guzman, nicknamed "Shorty" Joaquin Guzman Lopez, and the co-founder of Mexico's largest drug cartel, 76-year-old Ismael Zambada Garcia.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, in 2023, dozens of bags with human body parts were found in the Mirador del Bosque ravine in the Mexican city of Zapopan. The Jalisco State Prosecutor's Office specified that the find was made during the search for seven young call center workers who had previously gone missing.
In 2022, in the central Mexican city of Irapuato (Guanajuato state), searchers from the Hasta Encontrar organization found 52 bags of human remains.
[NYPOST] A top Oregon state official has been put on administrative leave after a pink-haired, DEI-obsessed subordinate complained he was making hiring decisions based on qualifications instead of personal identity considerations, according to a report.
Mike Shaw, who until recently served as the Oregon Department of Forestry's second-in-command, was put on blast by Megan Donecker, the department's former DEI strategy officer, for looking ''beyond gender and identity in hiring, seeking only candidates most qualified for the job,'' OregonLive reported.
He was formally placed on administrative leave Aug. 6 after Donecker filed a formal complaint, according to the Daily Mail.
Shaw first drew Donecker's ire when he dared suggest the agency — which has over 1,400 employees and a biennial budget over $577 million — take a measured approach to DEI initiatives, likening plunging into them headlong to driving too fast on ''an icy road.''
Donecker claimed Shaw further added, ''We don't go 60 [mph] out of the gate, or we're gonna crash the car.''
[IsraelTimes] Meeting in Oman is latest in series of diplomatic trips by Araghchi ahead of Israel’s anticipated response to Tehran’s October 1 ballistic missile attack
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met in Muscat on Monday with Mohammed Abdelsalam, a bigwig from Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... ’s Iran-backed Iran's Houthi sock puppets ...a Zaidi Shia insurgent group operating in Yemen. They have also been referred to as the Believing Youth. Hussein Badreddin al-Houthi is said to be the spiritual leader of the group and most of the military leaders are his relatives. The legitimate Yemeni government has accused the them of having ties to the Iranian government. Honest they did. The group has managed to gain control over all of Saada Governorate and parts of Amran, Al Jawf and Hajjah Governorates. Its slogan is God is Great, Death to America™, Death to Israel, a curse on the Jews They like shooting off... ummm... missiles that they would have us believe they make at home in their basements. On the plus side, they did murder Ali Abdullah Saleh, which was the only way the country was ever going to be rid of him... s, according to his office.
The Iranian foreign ministry released pictures of their talks during Araghchi’s visit to the Omani capital, the latest in a series of diplomatic trips in the region after Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... attacked Israel on October 1 with some 200 ballistic missiles and Israel vowed to respond.
Araghchi’s visit to Muscat came after a trip to Baghdad.
Last week, he visited Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... and Saudi Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start... , where talks mainly revolved around the regional conflict.
On Sunday, Araghchi claimed that Iran was "fully prepared for a war situation... but we do not want war, we want peace."
[IsraelTimes] Report says terror group’s main money sources hit by IDF strikes, Lebanese bankers not providing money for fear of being eliminated
Hezbollah is facing a "financial crisis" and cannot pay its members as Israel’s offensive on the Iran-backed, Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... -based terror group continues, according to a recent media report.
Voice of America reported on Friday that the group’s main cash source is the al-Qard al-Hasan (AQAH) nonprofit, citing researchers in Lebanon and the United States, as well as the US Treasury Department.
Founded by Hezbollah as a charitable organization in 1982, AQAH has grown into a major institution with branches throughout Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon. It operates as a quasi-banking institution without a license, the report added.
The US blacklisted AQAH in 2007, saying Hezbollah uses it as a cover to manage the group’s financial activities and gain access to the international financial system. In 2021, further sanctions were announced.
Apart from AQAH, Hezbollah also relies on Lebanon’s commercial banks and cash that arrives via plane at Beirut’s airport, Voice of America said.
AQAH, according to the report, suffered major blows in Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in September on Hezbollah targets in Dahiyeh — a southern suburb of Beirut and Hezbollah stronghold.
The airstrikes targeted Hezbollah’s "cash storage centers, including a large part of the AQAH vaults," and left it in a "financial crisis," the report said, citing MTV Lebanon, one of the country’s leading TV networks.
With most of AQAH’s branches destroyed, Hezbollah was left unable to pay its members who have "fled their homes and need to feed their families," the report said, citing Hilal Khashan, a professor of political science at the American University of Beirut.
Hezbollah is also losing access to its other cash sources: the Lebanese banking system and Beirut’s airport.
David Asher, a former US Defense and State Department official who targeted Hezbollah’s global drug trafficking and money laundering networks, told VOA on Wednesday, "I’m hearing from Lebanese bankers, including Hezbollah financiers, that Lebanon’s wealthiest bankers who can afford to fly have fled to Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... and the Gulf, fearing they could be targeted next by Israel for helping Hezbollah."
Asher, also a senior fellow at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, added that he is in contact with sources in Lebanon recruited by the US to provide information about Hezbollah and that the group is in "deep trouble."
The bankers, "most of them billionaires," fear Israel could "eliminate them" if they provide Hezbollah with money, he said.
According to Khashan, Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... used to smuggle cash to Hezbollah via regular flights to Beirut, evading the Lebanese government’s customs department. He said that now, the government is asserting more control over the airport, and there is no cash flow.
IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari said on September 27 that Israel would be patrolling the airspace at Beirut’s international airport and would "not allow the transfer of weapons to the Hezbollah terror group, in any way."
Hagari did not mention flights carrying cash, though the next day, according to Rooters, Lebanon’s transport ministry told an Iranian aircraft headed for Beirut not to enter its airspace, warning that it would use force if the plane landed.
Asher also told VOA that his Israeli counterparts had informed him that "the Iranians are scared to send money to Lebanon right now because Israel is threatening to target flights into Beirut. The Israelis are warning they will target flights full of money, not just weapons."
Nevertheless, Kashan told VOA that Hezbollah’s lack of cash was unlikely to stop it from continuing its offensive against Israel.
#3
In the 1980's, Who would have thought we would be getting war news from MTV Lebanon forty years later.
If I am reading btwn the lines, the airstrikes vaporized Hezbollah gold reserves. Or at least, blew it up into a fine mist and or melted the gold to such an extent it is no longer able to be collected / gathered.
#4
Article I read last week cited reliable sources that the IDF strike that hit the Hezbollah HQs incinerated $1.5 billion in cash and melted 2000 lbs of gold into the ground!
#4
I pretty much never hear anyone saying good things about this pope. Hope was expressed with Benedict that the Church would be guided back to the right path and then they elected Lenin-Francis. So now everyone just keeps quiet or mutters how the pope is wrong.
[GEO.TV] At least 28 people suffered injuries after festivities erupted between the students and police during a protest held against the alleged rape of a college girl in Lahore.
According to Rescue 1122 officials, 28 people — 24 students and 4 coppers — were given first aid after the clash. The incident took place outside a private college in Lahore's Gulberg area.
A security guard of the college was arrested recently after reports related to the alleged rape of the student went viral on social media platforms.
Addressing a presser today, Lahore Deputy Inspector General (DIG) Operations Faisal Kamran said that they were investigating the incident of alleged rape of a student.
The police officer said he visited the private college's Gulberg campus and questioned everybody about the incident. He said that none of them had the correct information.
''Nobody reported the incident so far.''
He further said that they could not rely on social media reports as they did not have correct information about the incident.
Meanwhile,
...back at the shootout, Butch started the buffalo stampeding...... a spokesperson of the DIG confirmed that the security guard was in police custody and an investigation was underway in this regard.
''The victim girl and her family did not come forward,'' the spokesperson said, adding that the concerned cop shoppe or the college administration was also not informed by anyone about the incident.
Posted by: Fred ||
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[NYPOST] President Biden quietly tasked his National Security Council to warn Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... that the US would view any Tehran-backed liquidation attempts against former President Donald Trump ...New York real estate developer, described by Dems as illiterate, racist, misogynistic, and whatever other unpleasant descriptions they can think of, elected by the rest of us as 45th President of the United States... as an act of war, according to a report.
Behind the scenes, the Harris-Biden administration has reportedly pressed Iran to halt its plottings against Trump and other former members of his administration amid elevated security threats from the US adversary.
''We consider this a national and homeland security matter of the highest priority, and we strongly condemn Iran for these brazen threats,'' NSC front man Sean Savett said in a statement. with a *wink*
''Should Iran attack any of our citizens, including those who continue to serve the United States or those who formerly served, Iran will face severe consequences.''
The White House has refrained from publicly warning Iran that attempts on the lives of current or former US officials would be seen as an act of war, but Biden, 81, has told the NSC to make that known privately, according to the Washington Post.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Just another in a very long list of "acts of war" against the USA that the USA has endured without responding.
[MSN] In his daily video message on Sunday, the Ukrainian president said: "We see an increasing alliance between Russia and regimes like North Korea. It is no longer just about transferring weapons. It is actually about transferring people from North Korea to the occupying military forces."..
A source in Ukrainian intelligence, who did not want to be named due to the sensitivity of the issue, told CNN last week that a small number of North Koreans have been working with the Russian military, mostly to help with engineering and to exchange information on the use of North Korean ammunition. Some of them were recently killed in eastern Ukraine, the source said.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
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[PUBLISH.TWITTER] Killed in Lebanon, presumably to be buried in Iran — why the stopover in Iraq?
Representative of Grand Ayatollah Sistani led prayers over the body of senior Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander Major General Abbas Nilforoushan, who was assassinated in an Israeli regime airstrike in Lebanon in late September, in Iraq’s Karbala on October 14, 2024. pic.twitter.com/1BOFh8LVU3
#2
I something irreverent given the following:
"Muslims often bury people the day after they've died. At the very latest, a Muslim funeral will happen within 3 days after death. This is because Muslims do not believe in embalming (using chemicals to preserve the body). Islam says that the body should decompose naturally in the ground.Oct 19, 2021" Wiki Source
[GEO.TV] New observations by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa's) James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) suggested a nearby alien exoplanet is shrouded in a thick envelope of steam.
This world, which is located around 100 light-years away from the Earth, has been designated as GJ 9827 d, reported Space.
It is around twice the size of the Earth and three times more massive than our planet with an atmosphere almost entirely composed of water vapour.
"This is the first time we're ever seeing something like this," team member and former University of Michigan undergraduate student Eshan Raul, currently at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, stated.
"The planet appears to be made mostly of hot water vapour, making it something we're calling a 'steam world.' To be clear, this planet isn't hospitable to at least the types of life that we're familiar with on Earth,'' the statement added.
It is worth noting that astronomers have long assumed that "steam worlds" like GJ 9827 d could exist, however, this is the first time such an exoplanet has been observed.
This planet is unlikely to support life, at least as we understand it, but it could help astronomers study other small exoplanets between the size of Earth and Neptune that are habitable, according to Raul.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
Not the first of it's kind, just the first you've ever seen.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
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The Science:
What makes GJ 9827 so significant isn't just its strange, steam-like atmosphere, but the weight of the molecules it's composed of.
According to the study, almost all exoplanets of such a size discovered by researchers have comprised lighter molecules, like hydrogen and helium. By observing GJ 9827, researchers were able to use a method called transmission spectroscopy to determine that its atmosphere's molecules are heavier, much like Earth's.
So while this steamy planet certainly wouldn't be able to support life as we know it, it may aid us in our search for other habitable planets.
"GJ 9827 d is the first planet where we detect an atmosphere rich in heavy molecules like the terrestrial planets of the solar system," said lead study author and University of Montréal astrophysicist Caroline Piaulet-Ghorayeb in a statement. "This is a huge step."
[SUDANTRIBUNE] At least 23 people were killed and 40 maimed in an air strike by the Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... ese army on civilian areas in southern Khartoum on Saturday, activists reported.
The attack comes amid a surge of attacks by the army on the positions of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) paramilitary group.
The Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s targeted the Southern Belt region, hitting a busy market area and residential buildings. Among the casualties were tea sellers, shoppers, and residents of nearby apartments.
''The bombing caused massive destruction that affected a large number of high-rise buildings in the central market area,'' said Mohammed Kandisha, a spokesperson for the Southern Belt Emergency Room.
He added that hospitals were struggling to cope with the influx of injured civilians.
The Southern Belt, comprising several neighbourhoods, including al-Ingaz, al-Salama, and al-Azhari, has been a battleground between the army and the RSF since the conflict erupted in April. The area is frequently subjected to artillery fire and aerial bombardment, resulting in numerous civilian casualties.
This latest attack is part of a major offensive launched by the army on September 26th to reclaim areas under RSF control. However,
nothing needs reforming like other people's bad habits... the army's increased reliance on air power has drawn criticism from human rights When they're defined by the state or an NGO they don't mean much... groups who accuse them of indiscriminate bombing and endangering civilians.
The ongoing conflict in Sudan has triggered a humanitarian crisis, with widespread displacement and shortages of essential supplies. The international community has called for both sides to protect civilians and allow access to humanitarian aid.
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[GEO.TV] The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that at least 42,289 people have been killed in the war between Israel and Palestinian fighters.
The toll includes 62 deaths in the previous 24 hours, according to the ministry, which said 98,684 people have been wounded in the Gaza Strip since the war began on October 7, 2023.
Posted by: Fred ||
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Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] In some areas of Moscow, the first snow fell on Monday afternoon, October 14. This was reported by Mikhail Leus, a leading specialist at the Phobos weather center.
"The first snow in Moscow. It's not official yet — to include this day in the climate data as the day with the first snow in the current autumn period, it must be present at the metropolis's base weather station, VDNKh," he wrote on his Telegram channel.
According to the weather forecaster, the precipitation has not yet been registered at the Moscow base weather station, but it has already been observed at the capital's weather stations in Balgchug and New Moscow.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, earlier on October 14, forecaster Tatyana Pozdnyakova warned Moscow residents about difficult weather in the metropolis. According to her, gusts of wind up to 12-14 m/s and rain with wet snow are expected on Monday.
On the evening of October 13, leading specialist of the Phobos weather center Evgeny Tishkovets warned Moscow residents about rain with wet snow and gusty winds on Monday. The forecaster specified that such precipitation could be observed in the capital until the end of the day, due to which a snow cover of two to six mm thick would form in the city for some time.
Issued: 4:09 AM Oct. 15, 2024 – National Weather Service
...WINTER STORM WATCH IN EFFECT FROM THURSDAY MORNING THROUGH FRIDAY EVENING...
* WHAT...Heavy snow possible. For the Wasatch Mountains South of I-80, total snow accumulations of 10 to 18 inches with locally higher accumulations in excess of 24 inches possible for the upper Cottonwoods. For the Western Uinta Mountains, total snow accumulations of 12 to 24 inches possible.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
10/15/2024 15:21
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[SUDANTRIBUNE] Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... ’s cholera outbreak has killed 677 people, with the number of cases nearing 24,000, the health ministry said on Sunday, as the country battles the epidemic amid a raging civil war.
On Oct. 5, Sudan received 1.4 million cholera vaccine doses to inoculate more than a million people in River Nile, Kassala and Gedaref states, following an earlier vaccination campaign in parts of Kassala.
The ministry’s emergency operations centre said 107 new cases were recorded in six states. Kassala state accounted for 42 new cases, followed by River Nile with 17 and Gedaref with 15.
The cumulative number of cases has risen to 23,887, including 677 deaths.
The outbreak began on Aug. 12 after heavy rains and floods swept vast areas. Stagnant water has become a breeding ground for disease, while the war has disrupted healthcare services.
The emergency operations centre said it was continuing its efforts to combat the epidemic, including monitoring isolation centres, conducting home visits, holding community dialogues and raising awareness in the media.
The actual number of cholera cases is likely much higher than reported, as around 80% of healthcare facilities in active conflict zones are out of service, and up to 40% of facilities in other areas are disrupted.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
There exists the irony that the war waged by the Arab North against the African South Sudan has now at last infected the North. The remnant Sudan nation is now being beggared by elements that would further divide the nation ethnically. A poor nation is now really impoverished. The incidence of cholera is just one example.
Posted by: S MAI ||
10/15/2024 7:04
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/\ All the more reason to stay TFO of Afri tribal conflicts.
Several Hezbollah Technicals, including one with a Rocket Launcher, were Captured by Israeli Forces near the Village of Aita al-Shaab in Southern Lebanon. pic.twitter.com/Xbb1lMnGks
Soldiers of the Israel Defense Force’s 91st Division recently discovered a Massive Underground-Structure used by Hezbollah’s Elite “Radwan Force” in Southern Lebanon, inside of the 800-Meter Facility were Living Quarters, Kitchens, Command Centers, Stockpiles of Food and Weapons,… pic.twitter.com/hibrn39pwK
… Stockpiles of Food and Weapons, as well as Motorbikes. All of this is believed to have been part of Hezbollah’s Plan to launch an Invasion of the Galilee Region in Northern Israel.
Posted by: Fred ||
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#1
One would think that the Hamas - Hizbollah coordination is very poor. Otherwise, why wasn't there a coordinated October attack, with one arm coming from the north.
Posted by: S MAI ||
10/15/2024 6:56
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Hamas had jew blood lust when they saw the Music Festival along the Gaza Border.
There were internal comms btwn Iran, Hezbollah, and Hamas. The formers were not happy with the latter as there was to be a larger more coordinated plan to kill jews. The Hezbollah Terror Tunnels that terminate along the border of N.Israel is a testament to those plans. Hamas jumped the gun with their Oct 7th invasion.
#3
That was the second or third time Hamas jumped the gun on the pincer thing, mossomo. Iran is decidedly not getting their money’s worth on their Gaza investments.
Nor on Hezbollah, given the men, matériel, tunnel infrastructure, and cash and gold that have turned into rubble, red mist, and smoke in the past few weeks. Though Hezbollah stood up smartly for the fight in Syria against ISIS and Al Nusra, so there’s that. But they are Lebanese, and before that they were Canaanites, unlike the feral Gazans who were known for causing trouble for ancient Rome, too.
[BBC] Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023 in a part of Ukraine now occupied by Russian forces.
It took nine months for Russian authorities to confirm the journalist had been detained. They gave no reason.
This week, her father got a terse letter from the defence ministry in Moscow informing him that Viktoriia was dead, aged 27.
The document said the journalist’s body would be returned in one of the swaps organised by Russia and Ukraine for soldiers killed on the battlefield. The death date was given as 19 September.
Again, there was no explanation.
VIGIL FOR VIKTORIIA
This weekend, friends gathered to remember Viktoriia on the Maidan in central Kyiv. They shuffled into position on the steps holding her photograph, young face smiling out at the small crowd.
“She had huge courage,” one woman began the tributes.
“We will miss her enormously,” said another, turning away as her eyes filled with tears.
Viktoriia’s stories were snapshots of life that Ukrainians were not getting from anywhere else.
Reporting from occupied areas of Ukraine was extremely dangerous, but her colleagues remember how she was desperate to go there, even after she was detained and held in custody the first time, for ten days.
“Her parents used to call and tell us to stop deploying her, but we never did deploy her!” one of her former bosses recalled.
“All her editors tried to stop her. But it was impossible.”
The young reporter eventually went freelance in order to deploy herself and when she got back newspapers would buy her reports.
Most strikingly, she never used a pseudonym even though she wrote openly of "occupied" territory and referred to those who collaborated with the Russians as "traitors".
“She wanted to provide information about how those cities live under siege by the Russian army,” Sevgil Musaieva, editor-in-chief at Ukrayinska Pravda, told the BBC.
“She was absolutely amazing.”
DETENTION
Viktoriia's father has previously described how she set out via Poland and Russia last July, heading for occupied Ukraine.
It was a week before she called to say she’d been interrogated at the border for several days.
All we know for sure after that, is that by May she was in Detention Centre No. 2 in Taganrog, southern Russia – a facility so notorious for the brutal treatment of many Ukrainians that some dub it the "Russian Guantanamo".
According to the Media Initiative for Human Rights, another Ukrainian citizen who was released from Taganrog last month has told Viktoriia’s family she saw the journalist on 8 or 9 September.
Then, there was cause for hope.
“I was 100% sure she’d be back on 13 September this year. My sources gave me 100% guarantees,” Musaieva, from Ukrayinska Pravda, says.
She had been told Viktoriia would be included in one of the periodic prisoner-of-war swaps that Ukraine and Russia carry out, planned for the middle of last month.
“So what happened with her in prison? Why didn’t she come home?”
Viktoriia was moved, with another Ukrainian woman, but neither were included in the prisoner exchange.
“That means she was taken somewhere else," says Media Initiative director Tetyana Katrychenko. "They say to Lefortovo. Why there? We don’t know."
She says it’s not normal practice ahead of a swap.
Lefortovo prison in Moscow is run by the FSB security service and used for those accused of espionage and serious crimes against the state.
“Maybe they took her there to start some kind of court proceeding or investigation. That’s happened to other civilians taken from Kherson and Melitopol,” Tetyana says.
The BBC understands that Viktoriia’s father had spoken to her in prison on 30 August.
At some point, she had called a hunger strike, but that day her father urged her to start eating again and she agreed.
“That needs investigating. It also means we’d be blaming her, partially, and not the Russian Federation, as we should,” Tetyana cautions.
Ukraine’s intelligence service has confirmed Viktoriia’s death and the General Prosecutor’s office has changed its criminal case from illegal detention to murder.
In Russia, Viktoriia was never charged with any crime and the circumstances of her detention are not known.
“A civilian journalist … captured by Russia. Then Russia sends a letter that she died?” Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn told the BBC in Kyiv.
“It's killing. Just the killing of hostages. I don't know other word.”
Russia hasn't commented.
Read the rest at the link. Adds politico.eu
“Viktoria died as she was about to be exchanged during one of the upcoming prisoner exchanges,” Ukrainian military intelligence spokesman Andriy Yusov told POLITICO on Friday. “Russia did not inform of the cause of her death.”
“Her return was agreed, and the last information we know, she was being transferred to Lefortovo prison[in Moscow] to prepare for her return home,” Petro Yatsenko, representative of Ukraine’s prisoner exchange coordination staff, said on a Ukrainian national fundraising telethon late on Thursday.
Roshchyna, 27, went missing in August 2023 in the Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, where she was reporting about illegal elections held by the Kremlin, the destruction of Kakhovka dam in the Kherson region and the situation at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
“Only in May 2024 in Russia it was confirmed that she was detained and is on the territory of the Russian Federation,” Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in a statement on Thursday. “Why a young woman died while in Russian captivity is unknown,” the ombudsman added.
Roshchyna’s colleagues mourned her death, remembering her dedication to the profession and her willingness to take risks for a story.
“Nothing could stop Vika if an idea was born in her head. Nothing was more important to her than journalism,” Yevheniia Motorevska, one of Roshchyna’s former editors, wrote on Facebook on Friday. ” Vika has always been where the most important events for the country took place.”
More than 30 Ukrainian journalists are still illegally held in Russia as prisoners, according to Ukrainian MP Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, who is head of the freedom of speech committee in Ukraine’s parliament.
Overall, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are being held in Russian prisons.
[Breitbart] At least 27 people were shot, five of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (D) Chicago.
Breitbart News reported that at least 20 people were shot Friday into Sunday morning alone, and two of those victims succumbed to their wounds.
On Monday morning, ABC 7 noted that the total number of shooting victims had reached at least 27 with three additional shooting fatalities.
One of the additional fatal shootings occurred Sunday at 5:23 a.m. “in the 7300-block of S. Greenwood.” A 23-year-old was shot multiple times and self-transported to a hospital, where he died.
Hours later, at 9:20 a.m., a woman was sitting in her car “on Damen Avenue near McKinley Park Natural Area,” when a gunman approached and opened fire, striking her multiple times. She was taken to a hospital where she died.
Just before noon on Sunday, a driver “in the 400-block of W. 87th Street” was shot multiple times. The man was transported to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.
The Chicago Sun-Times pointed out that 447 have been killed in Chicago so far this year.
[NYPOST] Elon Musk threatened to take legal action against Democrat-led Caliphornia, an impregnable bastion of the Democratic Party, after a state commission cited the Republican-backing mogul's politics in its decision to reject a request for more frequent SpaceX launches.
The billionaire founder of SpaceX, which made history over the weekend when it conducted a successful test flight of its Starship Super Heavy booster rocket, slammed comments made by members of the California Coastal Commission after it denied an annual increase to 50 from 36 of Falcon 9 rocket blast-offs.
In a video of Thursday's meeting, commissioner Gretchen Newsom — no relation to Musk's nemesis and Democratic Calif. Gov. Gavin Governor Hair Gel Newsom ...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland... — expressed concerns over Musk's political posts on his social media platform X before the committee voted down the request 6-4.
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has vowed to take legal action against the California Coastal Commission.
[NYPOST] Vice President Kamala Harris former senatrix from California, 2020 Dem presidential hopeful and ultimately Joe Biden's intended successor is facing allegations of plagiarism after numerous passages from the Democratic presidential nominee's 2009 book ''Smart on Crime'' were discovered to closely resemble — or perfectly match — wording from other sources.
Harris, then the Socialist paradise of San Francisco ...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964... 's district attorney, wrote the book promoting a reform-minded approach to prosecuting crimes alongside ghostwriter Joan O'C. Hamilton — who told The Post when contacted Monday that she was surprised to learn about the alleged copying.
Conservative activist Christopher Rufo published the allegations Monday and credited an investigation by Austrian ''plagiarism hunter'' Stefan Weber — with Rufo posting screenshots on X of five examples in which the wording in the book closely resembles other sources.
In each instance, the purported source material predates Harris' book publication date.
The five side-by-side passages indicate that Harris may have lifted wording from an News Agency that Dare Not be Named article from 2008, a Wikipedia article as drafted in 2008, a Bureau of Justice Assistance report from 2000, an Urban Institute report from 2004, and a John Jay College of Criminal Justice blurb describing a 2007 award.
In at least two of the instances, the source of the original verbiage is cited in footnotes — however, quotation marks are not around the apparently copied words and in other instances passages appear to be wholly uncredited, such as the Urban Institute report.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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Top|| File under:
I deeply resent this Black Bloc/Antifa group of people who “identify” as Jews stealing the identity and attempting to wipe out the existence of those of us who actually are.
[NYPost] At least 206 Jewish anti-Israel protesters were arrested Monday after hundreds rushed the New York Stock Exchange and staged a sit-in outside the Manhattan landmark, police said.
Scores of pro-Paleostinian protesters wearing red shirts stormed toward the building on Broad Street in Lower Manhattan — then chained themselves to the doors just before the stock market’s opening bell at 9:30 a.m., footage shows.
A handful of demonstrators, who hail from the Jewish Voice for Peace group, could be seen removing their jackets as they set up shop outside the building — jackets they wore in a possible bid to conceal their anti-Israel attire and thwart any attempt to stop them ahead of time.
The group immediately started screaming "Free Paleostine" and quickly brandished signs reading "Jews for Paleostine’s freedom" as they blocked off the building and demanded the US government "fund FEMA, not genocide."
At one point, they dressed the iconic bronze Fearless Girl statue in one of their shirts emblazoned with the phrase "Stop arming Israel."
Roughly 200 protesters were nabbed by cops, the group’s political director, Beth Miller, told The Post, with police later confirming that 206 were booked.
Cops could be seen cuffing multiple protesters and hauling them away on Department of Correction buses.
The crowd is believed to have swelled to as many as 500 people before dispersing at noon, cops added.
"Today there were 500 Jews who came here, in front of the New York Stock Exchange, to shut down business as usual on Wall Street with a message to say the US government should stop sending weapons to the Israeli government and stop profiting from the genocide of Paleostinians," Miller told The Post.
"The reason we were here, specifically as Jews, is because the Biden administration and the Israeli government often say this genocide they are committing is in the name of Jewish safety and we reject that with every fiber of our being."
She added: "We were taught in our Jewish tradition that every single life is a universe and that to destroy a single life is to destroy an entire universe."
The NYSE declined to comment on the protest.
JVP is a nonprofit group that touts itself as "the largest progressive Jewish anti-Zionist organization in the world" with allegedly 300,000 supporters.
Founded in 1996, the group calls for a free Paleostine, with its Columbia University chapter notably suspended last year over the anti-Israel protests that erupted on campus.
The Anti-Defamation League has slammed the JVP as "a radical anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activist group that advocates for the boycott of Israel and eradication of Zionism."
In its 2023 federal tax returns, the JVP reported revenue of nearly $3.32 million, according to ProPublica, with the group saying the bulk of its income comes from individual contributions.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[11164 views]
Top|| File under: Hamas
#1
this is allowed because the oligarchs - the rockefellers, gates, clintons, soroses, saudi oil princes, qatari gas princes and all the corporations they own want it to happen
it's happening because these oligarchs want our society to be riven by dissenting groups who fight each other so that we are not unified with a responsive national democracy that represents us
which could boss them around
they want us divided and fighting over identity and foreign wars so they can continue to rob us and write the laws they want
[NYPOST] A family member of an Afghan arrested in Oklahoma last week for allegedly plotting an Election Day terror attack reportedly has been apprehended in France on suspicion of plotting his own strike in support of ISIS.
Authorities indicted a 22-year-old Afghan man Saturday on charges of ''foment[ing]'' a ''plan for violent action'' at a soccer match or shopping center, according to the Anti-Terrorism Prosecutor's Office in Paris.
France 24 reported Sunday that the suspect, who has not been publicly named, is the younger brother of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, who was charged Oct. 8 with conspiring to commit a mass shooting in Oklahoma City.
American authorities investigating Tawhedi's case tipped off French terrorism investigators about the plot after discovering communications between the two relatives on Telegram, according to the report.
It's unclear to what extent the potential attacks would have been coordinated.
Nasir Tawhedi, 27, wrangled his teenage brother-in-law into the Oklahoma plot, in which both he and the unnamed minor were planning to die as ''martyrs,'' according to court documents. The unnamed co-conspirator was a virtual student at Southmoore High School in Moore, south of Oklahoma City.
#12
If Israel destroyed Bandar Abbas and it surroundings, Bushehr, and Parchin and its surroundings, Iran would collapse within a month. Wouldn't hurt to stomp Abadan and Khark Island while they're at it.
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
10/15/2024 13:56
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Top||
#13
Iran temporarily shut down Kharg Island after they shot 200 missiles at Israel, Old Patriot, anticipating Israel’s response. I haven’t noticed them turning it back on yet.
All the benefits of hitting the place, with none of the effort or political blowback. ;-)
Unexpectedly. I thought they'd do that much sooner.
[GEO.TV] Afghanistan's Taliban ...the Pashtun equivalent of men... morality ministry pledged Monday to implement a law banning news media from publishing images of all living things, with journalists told the rule will be gradually enforced.
It comes after the Taliban government recently announced legislation formalising formalising implementation of Shariah law.
"The law applies to all Afghanistan [...] and it will be implemented gradually," the front man for the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (PVPV) Saiful Islam Khyber told AFP, adding that officials would work to persuade people that images of living things are against Islamic law.
"Coercion has no place in the implementation of the law," he said.
"It's only advice, and convincing people these things are really contrary to sharia (law) and must be avoided."
The new law detailed several rules for news media, including banning the publication of images of all living things and ordering outlets not to show disrespect towards the religion, or contradict Shariah law.
Aspects of the new law have not yet been strictly enforced, including advice to the general public not to take or look at images of living things on phones and other devices.
Taliban officials continue to regularly post photos of people on social media and Afghan journalists have told AFP they received assurances from authorities after the law was announced that they would be able to continue their work.
The information ministry did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.
"Until now, regarding the articles of the law related to media, there are ongoing efforts in many provinces to implement it but that has not started in all provinces," Khyber said.
He added "work has started" in the southern Taliban stronghold of Kandahar and the neighbouring Helmand ...an Afghan province populated mostly by Pashtuns, adjacent to Injun country in Pak Balochistan... province, as well as northern Takhar.
Before the recent law was announced, Taliban officials in Kandahar were banned from taking photos and videos of living things but the rule did not include news media.
"Now it applies to everyone," Khyber said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[11156 views]
Top|| File under: Taliban/IEA
#1
So what about all the flowers, trees and stuff in Islamic iconography?
[GEO.TV] Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday rejected accusations that Israeli troops had deliberately targeted UNIFIL peacekeepers in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... as "completely false" and repeated a call for them to be withdrawn from combat zones.
He said the military did its utmost to avoid harming UNIFIL personnel, while striking Hezbollah fighters.
"But the best way to assure the safety of UNIFIL personnel is for UNIFIL to heed Israel's request and to temporarily get out of harm's way," he said.
[IsraelTimes] United Nations ...a formerly good idea gone bad... peacekeepers will stay in all positions in Lebanon despite Israeli calls for them to move, given intensifying fighting between Israel and Hezbollah and five blue helmets suffering injuries, the UN peacekeeping chief says.
“The decision was made that UNIFIL would currently stay in all its positions in spite of the calls that were made by the Israel Defense Forces to vacate the positions that are in the vicinity of the Blue Line,” says UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix.
The IDF and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have made repeated calls in recent days to UNIFIL to evacuate from active combat zones, arguing that Hezbollah has been using its positions as human shields
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[11173 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
#2
If you are supposed to be the impartial referee at a wrestling match, and the wrestlers are shooting guns, then why are you there? Why would your employer insist that you pretend it’s still a wrestling match, not a gunfight
#4
UNIFIL know their wrong. All Israel had to do was to look up what they had done in other conflicts…pull out or retreat! The UN is hedging their bets that Trump won’t win in November.
#5
CNN: Who makes up UNIFIL?
The mission is made up of more than 10,000 personnel from 50 countries, the majority of whom are troops. Indonesia, Italy, India, Nepal, Ghana and Malaysia contribute the most troops. Spain, China, Ireland and France also make up a large presence. Some countries contribute only one UNIFIL troop, like the United Kingdom, Peru and Nigeria.
The peacekeepers operate in a 410 square mile area between the Blue Line and the Litani River in southern Lebanon. They hold 50 positions, with the UNIFIL headquarters situated in Naqoura in the southwest of the country.
Posted by: S MAI ||
10/15/2024 6:49
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“Israel has the right to defend itself against Hezbollah and will continue to do so. We regret any harm that may befall UNIFIL personnel. The Israeli Armed Forces are doing their best to prevent such incidents. However, the best way to ensure the safety of UNIFIL personnel is for UNIFIL to respond to Israel’s request and temporarily move away from danger areas.”
[SUDANTRIBUNE] Sudan ...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans... ese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visited Jebel Moya in Sennar state on Sunday, days after his forces recaptured the strategic mountain range from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Burhan's visit aimed to boost the morale of his troops, who retook Jebel Moya on Oct. 5 after fierce fighting. The army's victory cuts off key RSF supply routes in eastern Sudan.
''Burhan visited the Jebel Moya area where the army and supporting forces from the General Intelligence Service, the popular resistance, and mobilized forces achieved a resounding victory over the Rapid Support Forces,'' the Sovereign Council said in a statement on Sunday.
Videos on social media showed soldiers warmly welcoming Burhan in Jebel Moya.
Burhan continued his tour on Sunday with a visit to Wadi Sayidna air base, where he met with military pilots and expressed his gratitude for their service in the campaign against the RSF.
The RSF had captured the mountain range in late June, disrupting supply lines from the White Nile, Kordofan and Darfur to eastern Sudan. They also launched attacks from Jebel Moya to seize most of Sennar state, including its capital Sinjah.
Recapturing Jebel Moya is a significant victory for the army, which launched a major offensive against the RSF in Khartoum on Sept. 26. The operation has since expanded to other areas, including Sennar, Gezira and Darfur.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[11165 views]
Top|| File under: Govt of Sudan
[GEO.TV] Millions of Israelis rushed to shelters on Monday as sirens sounded across central Israel in response to projectiles fired from Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , the military said.
The military said shortly afterwards that three projectiles had crossed from Lebanon into Israeli territory, and that all of them had been intercepted. Israeli fighter jets struck the launcher from which the projectiles were fired, it added.
It said no injuries had been reported.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[11153 views]
Top|| File under: Hezbollah
[Breitbart] Google wielded its massive market power to extract concessions from California lawmakers and secure a deal to support the state’s struggling journalism industry, according to people familiar with the negotiations who spoke to Bloomberg. Perhaps if you did actual, ya know, Journalism, instead of Democrat propaganda?
Bloomberg reports that in late August, Google reached a handshake agreement with California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks to spend $110 million supporting local journalism in the state over five years. However, the tech giant demanded that California taxpayers contribute an additional $70 million to the fund, even as the state faced a challenging budget deficit.
The deal fell far short of aggressive legislation proposed earlier by Wicks and another lawmaker that would have charged Google hundreds of millions annually to fund journalism in California. After private talks that excluded some of the state’s largest media companies, the agreement helped Google avoid a costly outcome that could have set a precedent for lawmakers in other states considering what Silicon Valley owes struggling news outlets.
Under the pact, which still lacks many key details, the University of California, Berkeley was named as a potential administrator of the new journalism fund, though the school expressed surprise at the announcement. USC is now under consideration for that role instead.
Many in California’s journalism industry criticized the state for not pushing Google for more money, viewing it as a missed opportunity to sustainably fund local news. Others argued the cash influx was the best outcome possible against one of the world’s most valuable companies, which had threatened to cut off news access for 40 million Californians if a deal wasn’t reached. So now Government bought their own "Journalism"
Google’s demand for taxpayer money aimed to establish a model it could point to in potential negotiations with other states seeking similar journalism deals. The company believes including public funds will dissuade other states from pursuing the more aggressive measures proposed in California.
The deal’s impact was limited by the lack of transparency and inclusion in the negotiation process. Few California news publishers, unions or interest groups were consulted, and some of those in the loop had ties to Google. The company is a major backer of several journalism organizations involved in the talks.
An antifa protester with the Revolutionary Communists became enraged when a Springfield, Ohio woman gave public comment at a city council meeting where she described the migrants as "paid mercenaries, occupiers and soldiers of a foreign army." pic.twitter.com/DHEvqzRSt8
Posted by: Fred ||
10/15/2024
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[11197 views]
Top|| File under: Antifa/BLM
#1
i agree we need a revolution. not a commie one though.
We need a return to a society where corporations are smaller than governments, where the economy is not dominated by an oligopoly of billionaires and a handful of multinationals who run the place as they see fit.
We should have again our nations where we elected representatives that passed laws we wanted, that were enforced by neutral and independent courts.
We cannot have that when billionaires and corporations, and their charity trusts, are so big. They need to be broken into many smaller and medium-sized businesses.
And billionaire philanthropies should just be nationalised - just nationalise the Wellcome Trust and the Gates Foundation and Soros' Open Societies. Just take them over.
And cap wealth at $500 million. You can buy all the yachts you want with that money and all the castles you need. Any more than that and you are buying up our governments and we can't have that.
#2
Can't blame the rich for trying to protect that which is theirs. The pols play a viscous game of 'covet thy neighbors wealth'. It isn't for common things like roads, bridges, hospitals, etc but for pure communistic redistribution, 'equity' in the current lingo. In power they play a game of writing up crushing taxes on success only to take 'campaign contributions' from the rich to insert loopholes so they can retain as much what is theirs as possible. The redistribution ultimately is to pols and tax lawyers. The method of robbing someone doesn't make it any less robbery.
[HODHODYEMENNEWS.NET] The Islamic Resistance in Iraq kept up its strikes targeting Israeli targets in support of Gaza and Lebanon against the Zionist aggression.
The Iraqi resistance group announced on Monday a drone strike that was carried out against a vital target in Jordan Valley.
''The fighters of the Islamic Resistance in Iraq on Monday 14-10-2024, attacked a vital target in the Jordan Valley in our occupied lands using drones,'' the group said in a statement.
[Rudaw] Two Islamic Resistance in Iraq drones were intercepted by Israeli defense systems near the Golan Heights, a war monitor said on Monday, adding they entered Syrian airspace from Iraq.
"The Israeli air defences intercepted two drones belonging to the 'Islamic Resistance in Iraq' over the villages of al-Shajarah, and al-Qusayr area in al-Yarmouk Basin..." the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported.
The area near the Golan Heights, amid the protracted Israel-Gaza war, has become a regular attack vector against Israel for Iran-backed groups like the Islamic Resistance in Iraq.
The Observatory added that the drones "entered from Syrian airspace coming from Iraq" and forces from the US-led international coalition against the Islamic State (ISIS) "were unable to intercept them" near the al-Tanf garrison at the trilateral border with Syria and Jordan.
On Sunday, an Islamic Resistance in Iraq drone launched from the "Syrian desert" attacked Israeli forces near the Golan Heights, reported SOHR which relies on a network of sources on the ground. It added that the forces in At-Tanf also "failed to block it."
The drone attacks come amid increased conflict between US-allied Israel and pro-Iran groups, primarily Hamas in Palestine and Hezbollah in Lebanon and Syria.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Former Fox News host's stunning condemnation of Trump goes viral as star renounces MAGA beliefs
“Pay attention to MEEEEEE!!”
Former Fox News host Geraldo Rivera has spectacularly withdrawn his support for Donald Trump and renounced his previous MAGA beliefs. Rivera took to X, formerly Twitter, to share a lengthy statement lambasting his former friend Trump for his unwillingness to accept the results of the 2020 election.
Mr. Rivera only figured that out now? Or perhaps he is selling his opinion when he can get the highest price for it.
'Former President Trump is a sore loser who cannot be trusted to honor the Constitution,' the veteran journalist wrote on Monday.
'That is why I am voting for Kamala Harris to be our 47th President.'
Does anyone care what he thinks?
Geraldo recalled Trump being a 'loyal friend' to him during his presidency, which he called 'underrated.'
But he noted the two have not spoken since a phone call in November, 2020 - just days after Joe Biden won the election. Rivera said Trump assured him that he would recognize the electoral results, so he was disappointed when the president never did.
'As I reported on Fox News that same morning, Friday the 13th, he told me he was a reasonable man and would do the right thing if that time came,' Rivera wrote.
'It never did. Instead, President Trump embarked on an increasingly menacing campaign to discredit the 2020 election.'
'If you are a Republican, Donald Trump has made a liar of you.
'He has coaxed and intimidated tens of millions into pretending he was reelected in 2020, and that the election was stolen'.
Rivera, now 81, worked for Fox from 2001 to 2023. He hosted the tabloid talk show Geraldo from 1987 to 1998.
In his post, he also accused Trump of inciting a violent attack on the nation's 'center of democracy'.
'As his followers trashed that sacred space, he was on the phone urging Vice President Mike Pence essentially to overturn the will of the American people,' Rivera continued.
'Pence refused to put Trump ahead of the Constitution. Trump stabbed the Constitution in the back.'
Rivera concluded that those who decide to vote for Trump because of immigration or tax reduction are 'adopting his big lie'.
'You justify voting for Trump, adopting his big lie about the stolen election makes you a liar,' he wrote.
In the past, Rivera was friendly with Trump and even said that he supported the former president, while adding that he did not 'endorse him'.
'I support the president, but I don't endorse the president...he doesn't always heed my advice,' Rivera told PEOPLE in 2020, as noted by Newsweek.
'But I'm honored that the President of the United States, the most powerful person on earth, listens to a [guy] that's been knocking around television for half a century.'
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.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
...
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,...
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
[Breitbart] 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
[Regnum] In the Mexican state of 
...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula, largely made up of sand and oil rigs. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual haj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. Formerly dictatorial and steeped in Olde Tyme Religion, deferring to Salafist holy men on all issues, it has now done a 180 and is making a serious effort to modernize, so as not to be left in the sand by its Gulf Arab neighbors. The holy men have been shoved to the background and the nation is now still dictatorial but somewhat Frational. That doesn't make them trustworthy, but it's a start...
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
[Breitbart] At least 27 people were shot, five of them fatally, during the weekend in Mayor Brandon Johnson’s (D) Chicago.
...mayor of San Franciscoas it transformed itself into Poopville, currently governor of Californiaas it transforms itself into Cinderland...
...where God struck dead Anton LaVey, home of the Sydney Ducks, ruled by Vigilance Committee from 1859 through 1867, reliably and volubly Democrat since 1964...
...the Pashtun equivalent of men...
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
