[Rudaw] Two American military personnel were maimed while assisting Iraqi forces in an operation that killed several top 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) leaders earlier this week, the United States Central Command (CENTCOM) announced on Wednesday.
"During the Iraqi-led operation, two U.S. military personnel were maimed while assisting Iraqi forces with site exploitation. They are in stable, pH balanced condition," CENTCOM said in a statement on Wednesday.
The operation targeted ISIS hideouts in the Hamrin Mountains of central Iraq. Nine senior ISIS figures were killed, including the group’s top leader in Iraq, known by ISIS as the wali (governor).
The American statement said the US-led global coalition against ISIS "provided technical support and intelligence that enables the missions, which will disrupt and degrade ISIS attack networks in Iraq."
In his statement announcing the operation, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-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... i praised Iraqi forces on their "exceptional mission," but did not mention the role of any foreign forces.
The Hamrin Mountains are a hotbed of jihadist activity as it is located in areas disputed between the federal government and the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) where the majority of Iraq’s anti-ISIS campaigns take place.
ISIS seized control of vast swathes of northern and central Iraq in 2014. The group was declared territorially defeated in the country in 2017 but it continues to carry out attacks on Iraqi and Kurdish forces.
"U.S. Central Command, alongside our coalition and Iraqi partners, will aggressively pursue ISIS and other gunnies that pose a threat to US forces, allies, partners, and security in the region," said CENTCOM commander Michael Erik Kurilla.
The coalition mission in Iraq will conclude in September 2025.
[IsraelTimes] The war between Israel and terror group Hezbollah is expected to wipe 9 percent off Leb’s national wealth as measured by GDP, the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... says, with the scale of hostilities and the economic fallout set to surpass the last war in 2006.
The UN Development Program’s rapid appraisal of the conflict’s impact on Lebanon’s gross domestic product was released a day ahead of a summit hosted by La Belle France to help drum up international support for Lebanon.
UNDP says it expected the conflict to last until the end of 2024, leading to a 30% jump in the government’s financing needs in a country in dire straits even before violence began.
"GDP is projected to decline by 9.2% compared to a no-war scenario, indicating a significant decline in economic activity as a direct consequence of the conflict (around 2 billion dollars)," the report says.
UNDP says that even if the war ended in 2024, the consequences would persist for years, with GDP likely to contract by 2.28% in 2025 and 2.43% in 2026.
Lebanon was already suffering a four-year-old economic downturn and a political crisis when Hezbollah began firing rockets at Israel last year in support of its Paleostinian ally Hamas ..always the voice of sweet reason... In late September, Israel dramatically ramped up its bombing across Lebanon, with strikes now regularly hitting Beirut’s southern suburbs, major cities in southern Lebanon and parts of the eastern Bekaa Valley, including the border with Syria.
Hezbollah and Israel last fought in 2006, when a month-long conflict left much of Lebanon’s south and the capital’s southern suburbs in ruins and required international help to rebuild.
UNDP says the damage to physical infrastructure, housing and productive capacities like factories would likely be close to that estimated for the 2006 war, which was between $2.5 billion and $3.6 billion. But it warned of larger overall damage to Lebanon.
"The scale of the military engagement, the geopolitical context, the humanitarian impact and the economic fallout in 2024 are expected to be much greater than in 2006," it says.
UNDP’s report says the closure of border crossings critical for trade would bring a 21% drop in trade activities, and that it expected job losses in the tourism, agriculture and construction sectors.
It says Lebanon had already sustained "massive environmental losses" over the last year, including due to unwent kaboom! ordnance and contamination from possibly hazardous material, particularly the use of white phosphorus across southern Lebanon.
Government revenue is expected to fall by 9% and total investment by more than 6% through both 2025 and 2026.
As a result, increased international assistance will be essential for sustainable recovery in Lebanon, UNDP says — not only to address the spike in humanitarian needs but to stem the long-term social and economic consequences of the conflict.
Lebanon’s minister in charge of its crisis response tells Rooters that the country needed $250 million a month to help more than 1.2 million people displaced by Israeli strikes.
[IsraelTimes] Channel 12 reports that the IDF has ordered its troops along the Gaza border to be on high alert amid indications that Hamas will try to fire rockets or carry out an attack on the Hebrew calendar anniversary of its October 7 onslaught, which it launched on the Simhat Torah holiday last year. Israel began marking the holiday this evening.
[IsraelTimes] An Iranian hacking group is actively scouting US election-related websites and American media outlets as election day nears, according to a Microsoft blog. Researchers say the activity suggests "preparations for more direct influence operations."
The hackers — dubbed Cotton Sandstorm by Microsoft and linked to Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps — performed reconnaissance and limited probing of multiple "election-related websites" in several unnamed swing states, the report notes. In May, they also scanned an unidentified US news outlet to understand its vulnerabilities.
"Cotton Sandstorm will increase its activity as the election nears given the group’s operational tempo and history of election interference," researchers write. The development is particularly concerning because of the group’s past efforts.
A spokesperson for Iran’s mission to the United Nations ...boodling on the grand scale... says that "such allegations are fundamentally unfounded, and wholly inadmissible."
"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... neither has any motive nor intent to interfere in the US election," they add.
In 2020, Cotton Sandstorm launched a different cyber-enabled influence operation shortly before the last presidential election. Posing as the right-wing "Proud Boys," the hackers sent thousands of emails to Florida residents, threatening them to "vote for Trump or else!"
The group also released a video on social media, purporting to come from hacktivists, where they showed them probing an election system. While that operation never affected individual voting systems, the goal was to cause chaos, confusion and doubt, senior US officials said at the time.
Following the 2020 election, Cotton Sandstorm also ran a separate operation that encouraged violence against US election officials who had denied claims of widespread voter fraud, Microsoft said.
The Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which is coordinating the federal effort to defend the election from foreign influence, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
[IsraelTimes] Suspects aged 19-23, almost all of them Israeli citizens, are accused of plotting to assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist as well as a city mayor
Prosecutors indicted seven East Jerusalem residents on Wednesday on suspicion of spying for Tehran and plotting attacks in Israel, detailing the allegations against the fifth alleged Iranian espionage plot busted in Israel in just over a month.
The suspects, all men aged 19 to 23 from the capital’s Beit Safafa neighborhood without previous criminal or security-related records, were pursuing the liquidation of an Israeli nuclear scientist as well as the mayor of a major city in central Israel, authorities had said in a statement on Tuesday.
Six of the suspects are Israeli citizens, and the other is a permanent resident. The leader of the ring, a 23-year-old named Rami Alian, was recruited by an Iranian agent, and Alian then recruited the other six members, authorities said.
The suspects "worked as an organized cell, in which each of them had a defined role," a security official said, adding that the suspects knew each other from their neighborhood, and had personal relationships that helped them coordinate their activities.
According to the indictment, the Iranian agent contacted Alian via Telegram and presented himself as a 38-year-old working for the Iranian intelligence ministry.
Alian, alongside friends he recruited, performed various tasks requested by the Iranian agent for payment, including setting two cars on fire in exchange for NIS 2,000 ($500) in Jerusalem’s Ein Kerem neighborhood and putting up posters in the capital calling for the release of hostages in exchange for NIS 90 ($24) per poster.
In other cases, Alian and his partners attempted to fool the agent to think they’d performed the tasks he’d asked of them. One case saw Alian burying a grenade at a designated location but later retrieving it; another saw the group pretend to attack an Israeli soldier’s home by filming themselves throwing a stun grenade at a Paleostinian home in the West Bank. The indictment also says Alian acquired a fake police license plate in order to stage an attack on a police car.
The fake police license plate was discovered during a search of the suspects’ homes upon their arrest, alongside some NIS 50,000 ($13,000) and 10 credit cards.
In total, prosecutors say Alian converted cryptocurrency worth some NIS 26,000 ($7,000) into cash throughout his contact with the Iranian agent.
The most serious accusation in the indictment regards a plot to assassinate an Israeli nuclear scientist. In preparation for the liquidation, Alian’s cell was sent to photograph the Weizmann Institute late at night in exchange for 5,000 NIS ($1,300). They allegedly did so only from the outside, after security prevented their entrance into the campus.
Alian was ultimately given a photo and the address of the scientist the Islamic Theocratic Republic wanted him to assassinate, and was told he would be paid NIS 200,000 ($53,000) if he succeeded, authorities said.
He allegedly began preparations for the act, gathering information about the target, including his daily habits and other personal information, but the cell was arrested before the plot could move forward.
The suspects are being tried on charges of assisting the enemy during wartime, contacting a foreign agent, providing information to the enemy, conspiracy to commit terror-related murder, using a weapon for purposes of terrorism, arson, and obstruction of justice.
Police said Alian told Sherlocks he was aware he was working for Iranians and wanted to harm national security, citing the war in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... . "I feel proud that an Iranian turned to me," he allegedly said.
This would seem to mark the first case of the recently uncovered spy rings to be motivated by a nationalist ideology, rather than solely by the financial rewards offered in exchange for the missions — though details on all cases remain limited.
The charges say the members of the alleged ring contacted their Iranian handlers directly. "They weren’t helped by a Ottoman Turkish intermediary, as was the case in previous instances; rather, they used different means which we can’t share," a senior police official said.
The investigation into the ring began in September, and police arrested the suspects on September 19. Prosecutors requested the suspects remain in detention throughout their trial.
The Shin Bet in recent months announced a series of alleged Iranian plots. In some of the cases, Iranians tried to trick Israelis online into carrying out missions. In January, authorities uncovered a scheme involving Israelis who were allegedly recruited to gather intelligence on high-profile figures.
In September, a man from the southern city of Ashkelon was arrested on allegations that he was smuggled into 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... twice and received payment to carry out missions on behalf of Tehran, and was recruited to assassinate either Israel’s prime minister, defense minister, or the head of the Shin Bet.
Then, on October 14, a man and his 18-year-old partner, both from Ramat Gan, were arrested on charges they carried out various acts of sabotage and vandalism on behalf of an Iranian agent.
On October 16, the Israel Police and State Attorney’s Office announced the arrest of a man from central Israel who allegedly acquired a weapon in order to kill an Israeli scientist on instructions from an Iranian agent, after performing several smaller tasks on the agent’s behalf.
And on Monday, it was announced that seven Israeli citizens, Jewish immigrants colonists from Azerbaijan, had been arrested last month on suspicion of spying for Iran for as long as two years, carrying out hundreds of tasks at the behest of the Islamic Theocratic Republic, motivated by a financial payout of hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The suspects were accused of photographing and collecting information on IDF bases and facilities, including the Kirya defense headquarters in Tel Aviv and the Nevatim and Ramat David air bases, which have been targeted by Iran and Hezbollah since the outbreak of the war last year.
The suspects announced Monday were also accused of gathering information on Iron Dome batteries, ports and energy infrastructure, including the power plant in Hadera, and allegedly received maps of strategic sites from their handlers.
[IsraelTimes] Army shares personnel spreadsheets, lists of training courses and salary papers uncovered in Strip; Qatari network blasts ‘fabricated accusations’ against employees
The IDF said Wednesday it had uncovered documents in the Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip that show six active Al Jazeeranews hounds are operatives in the Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... and Paleostinian Islamic Jihad ...created after many members of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood decided the organization was becoming too moderate. Operations were conducted out of Egypt until 1981 when the group was exiled after the assassination of President Anwar Sadat. They worked out of Gaza until they were exiled to Lebanon in 1987, where they clove tightly to Hezbollah. In 1989 they moved to Damascus, where they remain a subsidiary of Hezbollah... terror groups.
The journalists were named by the IDF as Anas al-Sharif, Alaa Salameh, Hossam Shabat, Ashraf al-Sarraj, Ismail Abu Omar and Talal al-Arrouqi.
According to the IDF, al-Sharif has served as head of a rocket launching squad and a member of a Nukhba Force company in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion; Salameh as the deputy head of the Shaboura Battalion’s propaganda unit in Islamic Jihad; Shabat as a sniper in Hamas’s Beit Hanoun Battalion; al-Sarraj as a member of Islamic Jihad’s Bureij Battalion; Abu Omar as a training company commander in the East Khan Younis Battalion (and was maimed in an Israeli Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... several months ago); and al-Arrouqi as a team commander in Hamas’s Nuseirat Battalion.
The military released the documents it said showed personnel spreadsheets, lists of training courses, telephone books and salary documents.
It said the documents "unequivocally prove" that the journalists functioned as members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad’s respective military wings.
"These documents are proof of the involvement of Hamas forces of Evil in the Qatar ...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi... i media network, al-Jazeera," the IDF said.
It added that the named journalists are "spearheading" the spread of Hamas propaganda on Al Jazeera, especially in the northern Gaza Strip.
In a response, the network said it "views these fabricated accusations as a blatant attempt to silence the few remaining journalists in the region, thereby obscuring the harsh realities of the war from audiences worldwide."
According to the station, "These baseless claims follow Al Jazeera’s recent exposé of potential war crimes committed by Israeli forces during the ongoing war on Gaza. These journalists have been steadfastly reporting from northern Gaza, with Al Jazeera being the sole international media presence documenting the unfolding humanitarian crisis resulting from Israel’s siege and bombardment of civilian populations."
In January, Israel said an Al Jazeera staff journalist and a freelancer killed in an airstrike in Gaza were terror operatives.
The following month, it accused another journalist with the channel, who was maimed in a separate strike, of being a deputy company commander with Hamas.
Al Jazeera has fiercely denied No, no! Certainly not! Israel’s allegations and accused it of systematically targeting Al Jazeera employees in the Gaza Strip.
In April, the government passed an emergency law to take the network off the air and block its broadcasts for violating national security. Courts have upheld the legislation, citing confidential information.
In June, a court found that there is a direct and causal connection between individuals who have carried out terror attacks inside Israel and the consumption of Al Jazeera content. It also determined that there was a "close connection" between Al Jazeera and Hamas, that some Al Jazeera news hounds in Gaza had turned themselves into "assistants and partners" with Hamas, and that some of them had even carried out terror attacks.
Last month, Israel’s Government Press Office announced that it was revoking the press cards of Al Jazeera journalists working in Israel.
Though Israeli officials have long complained about Al Jazeera’s coverage, which they say is heavily influenced by Hamas and endangers IDF troops in Gaza, in the past they stopped short of taking action. Qatar bankrolled Paleostinian construction projects in the Gaza Strip prior to the war, which were seen by all sides as a means of staving off conflict.
More attempted deliveries of Iranian weapons heading toward Hezbollah, no doubt.
[IsraelTimes] Israeli strikes on the Syrian capital Damascus and a military site near the western city of Homs early on Thursday killed one soldier and injured seven, the Syrian defense ministry says.
The attacks targeted the central Damascus neighborhood of Kafr Sousa and a military site in the Homs countryside, the ministry says in a statement, adding the strikes caused "material damage" without elaborating.
Earlier, Syrian state media said explosions were heard in Damascus after Israel struck a residential building in Kafr Sousa.
Israel has recently intensified its strikes in Syria, targeting warehouses of the Syrian army and Iran-backed militia positions.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the strike in Damascus killed an “unidentified person” and injured three others, adding that Syrian air defense systems failed to activate against the missiles.
Israel has carried out 121 strikes on Syrian territory since the beginning of the year, killing 261 combatants and wounding 188 more, according to the Observatory that relies on a network of on-the-ground sources in the country.
[IsraelTimes] GOP candidate tells campaign rally ‘we have a very good relationship,’ days after saying the PM phoned because he ‘wants my view on things’.
[IsraelTimes] Islamic Resistance in Iraq, whose attack earlier this month killed 2 IDF soldiers, says it fired on ‘vital targets’ in Israel after army says it intercepted UAVs fired ‘from east’
[IsraelTimes] State media reports six buildings leveled in strikes on Lebanese capital; Hezbollah-linked broadcaster says it vacated office that was targeted without evacuation warning
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... state media reported 17 Israeli strikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, with six buildings leveled and the vacated offices of a Hezbollah-linked broadcaster hit on Wednesday, after the Lebanese terror group fired rockets at central Israel as the country began marking the Simhat Torah holiday.
AFPTV footage showed a massive explosion followed by smaller blasts in the southern suburbs following an Israeli army evacuation warning for the area, where Hezbollah holds sway.
The official National News Agency (NNA) reported at least 17 Israeli raids, marking one of the most intensive nights of strikes targeting the area in the past month. Six buildings were destroyed around the suburb of Laylaki, NNA said, calling the raids "the most violent mostly peaceful in the area since the beginning of the war." The strikes came shortly after the Israel Defense Forces’ Arabic-language front man, Avichay Adraee, issued evacuation warnings on social media platform X.
There was no warning, however, for a strike that hit the Jnah neighborhood in southern Beirut that targeted an office the 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... TV channel al-Mayadeen said it vacated.
"Al-Mayadeen holds the Israeli occupation accountable for the attack on a known media office for a known media outlet," said the pan-Arab broadcaster, which is aligned with Hezbollah. The strike killed one person and maimed five others, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The name of the person killed was unknown.
The office was hit by two rockets and "completely destroyed" in the strike, which sparked a blaze inside, NNA reported.
Al-Mayadeen’s office is located near the former premises of the Iranian embassy in Beirut and close to a Lebanese army checkpoint.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel uncovered a plot by Hezbollah to attack via underground tunnels involving jeeps and missiles, telling French broadcasters CNews and Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... 1 that had the plan succeeded, such an assault would be been more damaging than the October 7, 2023, Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... onslaught.
"A hundred meters, two hundred meters from the border we found tunnels, tunnels that were preparing an invasion of Israel, an attack even greater than on October 7," Netanyahu said, according to a simultaneous translation provided by the networks.
"With jeeps, with cycle of violences, with rockets, with missiles. They were planning an invasion."
Netanyahu had told French daily Le Figaro earlier this month that the Israeli army found Russian cutting-edge military hardware in Hezbollah arms caches.
[IsraelTimes] National Security Council advises travelers to leave Arugam Bay area, or at least retreat to capital city, shortly after US embassy also warns of credible info on imminent attack
The National Security Council called on Israelis Wednesday to leave Sri Lanka’s Arugam Bay area and other beaches in the island’s south and west immediately, citing terrorism threats.
"Those leaving these areas are advised to leave the country or at least to the capital Colombo, where there is a high presence of local security forces," said the NSC.
Israelis should postpone travel to the rest of the country, the warning continued. They were also urged to hide signs that indicate they are Israelis and avoid gathering in large numbers.
Israel said it was in close contact with Sri Lankan authorities.
The US Embassy in Sri Lanka said earlier it had "received credible information warning of an attack targeting popular tourist locations" in eastern Arugam Bay, prompting the island nation’s police to pledge more security for tourists.
The warnings came after social media posts called for a boycott of Israeli-owned businesses in the area.
Protests by local Moslem groups against Israel’s war against Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... 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 Hezbollah 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... have drawn support from the wider community in the predominantly Buddhist South Asian nation.
Israelis accounted for less than 1.5 percent of the 1.5 million tourists who visited the island in the first nine months of this year — or around 20,000 people altogether.
But Arugam Bay, a hotspot for surfing around 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Colombo by road, is a popular destination for Israeli tourists.
Following the US embassy warning, local police said they were unveiling a new security plan to protect tourists.
"In view of the war situation in the Middle East and Eastern Europe, the police together with intelligence agencies are working on a plan to protect tourists and resorts," they said in a statement.
It did not give details, but said a hotline had been established for tourists to alert authorities of any safety concerns.
There have been no attacks in Sri Lanka since the 2019 Easter Sunday bombings that killed 279 people, including 45 foreign nationals.
The coordinated attack against three luxury hotels and three churches was blamed on a local jihadist group that pledged allegiance to the 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.... group.
Tourism numbers fell sharply afterwards, and took another hit during a 2022 economic meltdown that precipitated widespread civil unrest.
But foreign visitor numbers have picked up after an International Monetary Fund bailout last year helped stabilize the economy.
Israel has issued travel warnings to several countries amid rising antisemitism and a surge in alerts of potential terror attacks targeting Jews and Israelis since the October 7 massacre.
[IsraelTimes] Two people have been arrested in Sri Lanka amid terror threats against Israelis in Arugam Bay area and other beaches in the island’s south and west, local media report.
Sri Lanka’s Daily Mirror, citing police sources, says that the Terrorism Investigation Division arrested two Sri Lankan nationals, including one who was based in Iraq.
Based in Iraq? How odd. Sounds like ISIS…
It says details on the two had been supplied by the intelligence service in neighboring India.
[IsraelTimes] US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says that he has not seen evidence that there was a Hezbollah bunker filled with cash built under a hospital in Beirut,
..no doubt…
adding that Washington would continue to work with Israel to get better insights.
Good luck with that. Did you ask politely? How about nicely?
Israel's gonna trust them with classified information? Right. Sure.
Israel’s military said that Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, adding that it would not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group’s financial assets.
“We have not seen evidence of that at this moment. But, you know, we will continue to collaborate with our Israeli counterparts to gain better fidelity on exactly what they are looking at,” Austin tells reporters in Rome.
Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shi’ite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, has told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it had only operating rooms, patients and a morgue.
#1
Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shi’ite Amal Movement.
Moderator: "How can you tell when a Shi'ia is lying?"
Chorus: "His lips are moving."
[IsraelTimes] A senior member of Hamas, Mousa Abu Marzouk, has arrived in Moscow on a planned visit, Russian state-run news agency RIA Novosti reports, citing a diplomatic source.
Hamas politburo member Abu Marzouk intends to hold a series of meetings with Russian officials, RIA says, without providing any further details.
Russia has ties to all key players in the Middle East, including Israel, Iran, Lebanon, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
Moscow has repeatedly blamed the current crisis in the Middle East on the failure of US diplomacy, and called for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas and the resumption of talks aimed at finding a peace settlement.
⚡️The 🇺🇦Ukrainian Air Force, using two 🇫🇷French guided air bombs AASM Hammer, strikes a house with 🇷🇺Russian drone operators in the Kursk region pic.twitter.com/S1W2gP834z
As Hezbollah increases its attacks, Israel prepares to deploy the Iron Beam developed by Rafael. The system is expected to become operational in early 2025, and it should dramatically streamline the interception of rockets and UAVs launched at Israel. pic.twitter.com/Qu6aE5ppMh
#3
So little news presented by the West. History being made today. BRICS summit is historic. Putin in his 70's maintains vitality with all the hours of interactions. Western countries did not initiate or lead the process. Western monopoly is no more.
This week, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced that it was giving more than $4.2 billion to a wide range of clean energy and transit projects
[Reuters] Munera Mokgoko was just three when apartheid fell. She can barely remember, much less fathom, the swell of hope that accompanied Black liberation three decades ago, shaped by Nelson Mandela’s vision of social equality and pan-African solidarity. See: "Hutu and Tutsi solidarity"
"South Africa doesn’t have any ubuntu," the 33-year-old said, using a Zulu word meaning humanity, ahead of an election in which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is pledging to crack down on undocumented migrants from the rest of the continent.
"It’s like we don’t know how to welcome people."
Mokgoko’s Tanzanian husband is among many African migrants who have flocked here since the end of white minority rule and met with the colder side of the "Rainbow Nation", a name used by Mandela and others in the 1990s to describe South Africa’s aspirations to be a beacon of multicultural harmony.
Public resentment at immigration has become a hot issue in the run-up to the May 29 vote. It’s the first national election in which most people in South Africa — which has a median age of about 28 — have no memory of decades of apartheid, the fight for freedom or the ANC liberation movement’s rise to power in 1994.
Idi Rajebo, Mokgoko’s 34-year-old husband, and thousands of other hopefuls fleeing rural penury in much poorer nations like Tanzania and Malawi have packed themselves into decrepit minibuses, footslogged through bush and bribed border guards to reach Johannesburg, the "City of Gold".
He and dozens of others ended up crammed into a derelict apartment tower that was being taken over — or "hijacked" — by criminals, where toilets overflowed and drug addicts drooped over stairwells.
"It wasn’t nice," said Isaac Simon, 39, a Tanzanian friend of Rajebo’s who ran a kitchen on the ground floor.
"We all had the same idea: make some money and get out."
Dozens didn’t get the chance. Nine months ago, the Usindiso apartment block burst into flames, killing 77 people — mostly migrants — and leaving hundreds homeless.
The Karaj nuclear facility west of Tehran is on fire. Which is unusual because nuclear facilities aren't supposed to be on fire. pic.twitter.com/XTlR39CyXE
— The Mossad: Satirical and Awesome (@TheMossadIL) October 24, 2024
[Just TheNews] New report by Texas Department of Public Safety highlights the extent of criminality by foreigners and illegal aliens.
Noncitizens, including those in the country illegally, are committing crimes, and they’re being charged, imprisoned and convicted for them in Texas.
A new report by the Texas Department of Public Safety highlights the extent of criminal charges, it says, not “to allege that foreign nationals in the country illegally commit more crimes than other groups” but to identify “thousands of crimes that should not have occurred and thousands of victims that should not have been victimized because the perpetrator should not be here.”
The data, covering roughly 13 years from June 1, 2011, through Sept. 30, 2024, represents “the minimum number of crimes associated with criminal illegal noncitizens” charged with committing state offenses.
The data is broken down into several categories based on Texas’s participation with the Department of Homeland Security’s Secure Communities program, which enables DHS to work with state and local law enforcement to take custody of those posing a danger to public safety.
The program begins at the local level where the offender is arrested and booked by a Texas law enforcement officer. Fingerprints are submitted to Texas DPS and the FBI for criminal history and warrant checks. Biometric data is sent to DHS and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to obtain immigration and removal status.
The data is reported by category: 1) those known to DHS (their fingerprints are in DHS's database); 2) those who illegally entered the country and evaded capture, known as gotaways, who were later arrested by local or state law enforcement officers for a state offense; 3) those DHS adjudicates in the immigration system held in Texas prisons.
[JustTheNews] The Republican-led House Energy and Commerce Committee released a report Wednesday saying that the Biden-Harris Administration spent nearly a billion dollars promoting COVID-era messaging, much of which turned out to be untrue or misleading.
The Congressional report examines the $900 million spent by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on COVID-era messaging to the American people.
“Americans cannot afford another botched government response to a future pandemic,” the report said.
The report cites “errors and failures" in the U.S. Center for Disease Control’s “We Can Do This” advertisements and marketing materials.
The report said that much of that taxpayer-funded marketing included incorrect information about vaccines, the danger to children, masks and more, according to the report.
“Much of the scientific content directly featured in or alluded to in Campaign ads and other promotional material was drawn from CDC recommendations, guidance, and research, critical parts of which proved to be deeply flawed,” the report said.
For instance, the report cited the CDC telling Americans that taking the COVID-19 vaccine would prevent them from getting COVID, something that turned out to be false.
“This ultimately had a negative impact on vaccine confidence and the CDC’s credibility when proven untrue,” the report said.
In another instance, the report points out that federal health officials and the CDC initially downplayed the need and usefulness of masking only to later reverse course and strongly urge Americans to mask, even outdoors.
“Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), advocated against mask wearing on February 5, 2020, stating ‘Masks are really for infected people to prevent them from spreading infection to people who are not infected rather than protecting uninfected people from acquiring infection,’” the report said.
“By April 3, 2020, the CDC completely reversed course and announced new mask wearing guidelines, recommending that all people wear a mask outside of the home,” the report continued, adding that “In December of 2022, after leaving the Biden White House, former COVID-19 coordinator, Ashish Jha, freely admitted what many had been saying all along—’[t]here is no study in the world that shows that masks work that well.’”
The report also pointed out that “The CDC had inconsistent and flawed messaging about the effectiveness of masks” and that “the CDC consistently overstated the risk of COVID-19 to children.”
“The CDC continues to recommend COVID-19 vaccines for all Americans ages six months and older, which has made the United States a global outlier in COVID-19 policy,” the report said.
That marketing was used by lawmakers and local and state officials to justify extended lockdowns on businesses, which hurt the economy and put many small business owners out of business or to justify school closures, from which research now shows students have still not recovered.
“While the Biden-Harris administration’s public health guidance led to prolonged closures of schools and businesses, the NIH was spending nearly a billion dollars of taxpayer money trying to manipulate Americans with advertisements—sometimes containing erroneous or unproven information,” Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., sain in a statement.
“By overpromising what the COVID-19 vaccines could do—in direct contradiction of the FDA’s authorizations—and over emphasizing the virus’s risk to children and young adults, the Biden-Harris administration caused Americans to lose trust in the public health system,” he added.
Reporting has shown that during the pandemic the federal government successfully pressured social media companies to censor Americans’ posts on COVID-related issues that did not toe the party line.
Meta CEO and Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year in a public letter that he regretted complying with those federal requests.
“Our investigation also uncovered the extent to which public funding went to Big Tech companies to track and monitor Americans, underscoring the need for stronger online data privacy protections,” McMorris-Rodgers said.
The lawmakers on the Republican-led committee pointed out that the federal government’s pushing of unproven or incorrect medical data has led to an overall distrust of federal health agencies and vaccines on the whole.
“The entire premise of the Biden-Harris ‘Stop the Spread’ campaign was that if you got vaccinated for COVID-19, you could resume daily activities because they said vaccinated people would not spread the disease,” Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Chair Morgan Griffith, R-Va., said in a statement. “Despite lacking scientific basis, the administration bought into this CDC claim and misled the American public. As a result, vaccination coverage with other vaccines appears to have declined, I believe because of a growing distrust of information coming from our public health institutions.”
Gallup released polling data in August showing that fewer Americans now say childhood vaccines are important, “with 40% saying it is extremely important for parents to have their children vaccinated, down from 58% in 2019 and 64% in 2001.”
#1
This seems to indicate that there was actual research related to the Covid vaccines efficacy and safety. That seems mythical at this point. It was rolled out with as much preparation and forethought as a drunken hillbilly fireworks show.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/24/2024 12:28
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Ron Ely, best known for his starring role in the 1960s TV show Tarzan, has died at age 86.
On Wednesday, the actor's daughter, Kirsten, confirmed he passed away peacefully on September 29 in an emotional tribute, uploaded to her Instagram.
'The world has lost one of the greatest men it has ever known - and I have lost my dad,' she captioned a slideshow, which featured photos of them together over the years.
Kirsten continued: 'My father was someone that people called a hero. He was an actor, writer, coach, mentor, family man and leader. He created a powerful wave of positive influence wherever he went.'
Ely went on to rave about the impact her father 'had on others' is a quality she has 'never witnessed in any other person.'
'There was something truly magical about him. This is how the world knew him,' she said about her dad.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] An Arizona man who was allegedly preparing to commit an act of mass casualty has been arrested for shooting up a Democratic campaign office.
Jeffrey Michael Kelly, 60, was taken into custody during a traffic stop on Tuesday and was charged with 10 counts including committing a terrorist act, criminal damage and unlawful discharge, the Arizona Republic reports.
His photo at the link does not look like someone mentally balanced…
Authorities say he is responsible for three shootings at the Democratic Party offices in Tempe, with the latest occurring on October 6. Nobody was injured in the shootings, but prosecutors say Kelly's actions displayed an escalation of suspected terrorist activity and he was 'preparing to commit an act of mass casualty.'
He may also face additional charges related to an incident in which he allegedly left bags of white powder on Democratic campaign signs and hung political signs lined with razor blades.
Police said they started surveilling Kelly after receiving tips from the public that a vehicle caught on surveillance camera at the Tempe campaign offices during the shootings matched that of Kelly - who was previously accused of stealing campaign signs in 2022, Police Chief Ken McCoy said at a news conference Wednesday. Officers gathered enough probable cause to arrest him at a traffic stop on Tuesday, when dozens of law enforcement personnel were seen surrounding his truck, McCoy said.
They found numerous guns in his car, and police realized Kelly did not have his cellphone on him - leading officers to believe he was on his way to 'potentially do something,' according to the Arizona Republic.
Authorities were then seen raiding his Phoenix home on Wednesday morning, when FBI agents recovered more than 120 guns and over 250,000 rounds of ammunition, according to Fox 10. A reporter for the Arizona Republic also heard mention of handguns being found in a master bathroom safe and agents using the words 'machine gun' and 'silencers.' Body armor was also found inside the home, according to court documents, as were BB guns and rifles consistent with those fired at the Tempe campaign office on September 16, September 23, and October 6.
The Democrats later abandoned the office for another one at an undisclosed location.
Additionally, a search of Kelly's Google account revealed searches for the address of the Democratic Party office in Tempe and multiple searches related to the research and purchase of various firearms and accessories including a search for a conversion kit for an AR-15.
His social media pages also disclosed numerous posts of what authorities called 'anti-Democrat ideology,' and he made a number of small-dollar donations to organizations supporting former President Donald Trump.
Kelly was also allegedly caught posting 'anti-Democratic ideology signs' at various locations near his home from Monday into Tuesday 'with clear plastic bags containing a white powdery substance' with a label stating they were a 'biohazard.' One such sign read, in part, 'Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.' The substance was later discovered to just be baking powder.
'He is wanting to scare the population. He is escalating his violence, and the State believes that he is an absolute threat to his community,' a prosecutor said in court.
Kelly's defense attorney, though, argued that his client was a retired aerospace engineer who at one point had top-secret clearance through his employer, according to the Arizona Republic. He said that Kelly used the firearm as a 'sportsman' and that none were possessed illegally.
'I appreciate you may be a sportsman, but I am unclear what a grenade launcher has to do with that,' Judge William Cathon shot back, Arizona Family reports.
Kelly is now facing two counts of unlawful discharge, two counts of shooting at a nonresidential structure, three counts of committing a terrorism act and tree counts of criminal damage.
His bail has been set at $500,000 cash-only and his release order included house arrest with an ankle monitor.
'I want to be very clear as the Maricopa County Attorney: threats, intimidation or violence toward political officials, no matter what party they are a part of, is completely unacceptable,' Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell said.
Kelly had previously been accused of stealing campaign signs in 2022, when Phoenix attorney Paul Weich was running as a Democrat for state representative. He said he hired an investigator to figure out what was happening to the signs, and was able to catch Kelly in the act. But despite the evidence, Weich said law enforcement did not move to arrest him and charges were never brought. Weich said he now fears that Kelly's ability to evade law enforcement back then may have pushed him to act further.
'We saw that he obviously felt emboldened,' Weich said.
[NY Post] The editorials editor for the Los Angeles Times stepped down Wednesday after the newspaper’s billionaire owner stopped the publication’s expected endorsement of Vice President Kamala Harris.
Mariel Garza is leaving her post at the Times because she wants “to make it clear that I am not OK with us being silent” after biotech entrepreneur Patrick Soon-Shiong scrapped the paper’s endorsement for president.
“In dangerous times, honest people need to stand up,” Garza told the Columbia Journalism Review she said.
“This is how I’m standing up.”
And so she should. This will also make her more employable to the remaining Progressive news media companies, should any be hiring instead of downsizing.
Last week, Soon-Shiong told the newspaper’s editorial board through the outlet’s editor that the LA Times would not endorse Harris or former President Donald Trump, which was first reported by Semafor.
A draft of a proposed editorial giving Harris the nod was even written by Garza before it was called off, the Columbia Journalism Review reported.
She told the journalistic-centric outlet she didn’t think the endorsement would change voters’ minds because the LA Times is a “very liberal paper” and most of its readers are Harris supporters.
While the paper has chosen a Democrat for president since 2008, it didn’t endorse Harris for California attorney general in 2010, instead opting for Republican Steve Cooley, CJR reported.
The LA Times union said in an email to union members on Wednesday it sent a letter to Soon-Shiong, who has owned the paper since 2018, and editor Terry Tang asking for a reason why the endorsement was called off, but hadn’t received a reply, Semafor reported.
“We believe the company owes the staff an explanation about why this decision was made after years of endorsements in general elections,” the union reportedly wrote.
“Because the boss said so,” is not good enough for them? Perhaps they should step down, too.
Dr Pat Soon-Shiong
"a South African and American businessman, investor, medical researcher, and transplant surgeon. He was born on July 29, 1952, in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. Soon-Shiong is the inventor of the drug Abraxane, used for lung, breast, and pancreatic cancer treatment. He is also the founder of NantWorks, a conglomerate of healthcare and technology companies."
#3
Nothing stops the 'workers' from pooling resources and buying the rag to print exactly what they want. Somehow that concept seems to elude them.
Communism does, when it allows unworthy people to claim other peoples' property as theirs, such as Mariel here who is acting like someone who didn't earn it.
And how awful is Harris when in 2010 the LA Times, then owned by a different person, was also like, "Nah rather have a Republican". Publicly. In California.
#4
She demands the right to endorse a terrible candidate whose campaign is a dumpster fire. She is not OK with being silenced to protect her laughable reputation.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/24/2024 12:31
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#5
Mariel can burn her own reputation. Soon-Shiong doesn't her to burn his property's rep
Posted by: Frank G ||
10/24/2024 12:54
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[IsraelTimes] Palestinians say 42 killed in past day, as airstrike hits former school in Gaza City used as Hamas command post; second round of polio vaccine drive completed
The military said Wednesday that some 20,000 Paleostinians had evacuated the Jabaliya area in the northern 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 amid its ongoing offensive, as it detained and killed terror operatives in the area.
Medics and residents said Israeli strikes across Gaza killed 42 people throughout the day.
According to the military, in that timeframe, troops killed numerous button men and seized weapons. It added that some 150 terror operatives were tossed into the calaboose by troops.
The IDF said in a statement that it was "breaking the Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... siege on Jabaliya" by "allowing civilians to evacuate, for their safety, in a safe manner and through organized routes.
"The breaking of the Hamas siege on Jabaliya is manifested in tens of thousands of civilians evacuating from the area since yesterday morning, despite the efforts by Hamas to prevent it," the IDF said.
The IDF statement added that the military and COGAT, the Defense Ministry body overseeing civilian matters in the West Bank and Gaza, are in contact with the international community and health authorities in Gaza to "maintain the ongoing functioning of the emergency systems of the hospitals, through the transfer of medical equipment and the supply of fuel subject to the operational situation, along with the evacuation of staff [and] patients."
The only medical facility still partially functioning in the targeted area has "no medicine or medical supplies," warned Hossam Abu Safia, the director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza’s Beit Lahiya
"People are being killed in the streets, and we can’t help them. Bodies are lying on the streets."
Earlier this month, the IDF ordered the evacuation of Jabaliya and surrounding towns in northern Gaza, where several hundred thousand Paleostinians are believed to still reside. The IDF has been operating to prevent Hamas from regrouping in northern Gaza. Many Paleostinians have remained in Jabaliya since the start of the war, despite repeated Israeli urgings to depart, either because they are unwilling or unable to evacuate. Some have claimed that the IDF has targeted those trying to flee — a charge the army denies.
The US has expressed concern that Israel is implementing the so-called General’s Plan, aimed at evacuating civilians and then laying siege to northern Gaza, in order to snuff out remaining Hamas fighters. The IDF has denied that this is the case and has begun allowing some aid into the area after two weeks of blocking assistance at the beginning of the month.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm... urged Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during a meeting Tuesday to publicly clarify that Israel is not implementing the plan, but the premier balked at the idea, according to a US official familiar with the matter.
Also on Wednesday, the IDF and Shin Bet said in a joint statement that the Israeli Air Force had carried out a strike on a Hamas command center located in a Gaza City compound that used to house the al-Zahra school. The IDF said measures were taken ahead of time to minimize the risk of civilian casualties.
POLIO VACCINE DRIVE IN SOUTH
A second round of polio ...Poliomyelitis is a disease caused by infection with the poliovirus. Between 1840 and the 1950s, polio was a worldwide epidemic. Since the development of polio vaccines the disease has been largely wiped out in the civilized world. However, since the vaccine is known to make Moslem pee-pees shrink and renders females sterile, bookish, and unsubmissive it is not widely used by the turban and automatic weapons set. Currently the disease is only found in Pakistain and Afghanistain... vaccines was completed Tuesday in southern Gaza, according to Israel. COGAT said that 266,273 children under the age of 10 were vaccinated in the area, representing 91 percent of the target population in southern Gaza.
It said the vaccine campaign in northern Gaza "will begin in the coming days, after a joint assessment and at the request of WHO and UNICEF." The World Health Organization said earlier Wednesday that it was forced to delay the vaccine rollout in northern Gaza due to escalating violence in the area.
Amid the violence, UNRWA, the UN agency for Paleostinian refugees, said another of its workers had been killed in Gaza after a strike hit one of its vehicles. An AFP photographer reported a strike in the southern city of Khan Younis, leaving a mangled aid truck and mourners gathered around two bodies.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry says more than 42,000 people in the Strip have been killed or are presumed dead in the fighting so far, though the toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and fighters. Israel says it has killed some 17,000 combatants in battle as of August and another 1,000 turbans inside Israel on October 7.
Israel has said it seeks to minimize civilian fatalities and stresses that Hamas uses Gaza’s civilians as human shields, fighting from civilian areas including homes, hospitals, schools, and mosques.
Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas in Gaza and in military operations along the border with the Strip stands at 358.
The IDF says forces are pushing ahead with an offensive in the Jabaliya area of northern Gaza with troops killing dozens of Hamas operatives and arresting more than 200 suspected terrorists.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Geologists studying the annual rings of semi-fossil trees found in Yamal have been able to determine the exact date of one of the largest volcanic eruptions in the last 10,000 years. We are talking about the Kikai volcano, which erupted in 5279 BC. This is reported in the German journal Dendrochronologia.
Experts said the discovery could be an important clue for synchronising the chronologies of other eruptions.
The article says that scientists focused on three of the most significant volcanic eruptions over the past 10,000 years: Ilyinsky Volcano in Kamchatka, Mazama in North America, and Kikai in Japan.
The first two volcanoes emitted approximately 150 cubic km, while Kikai exceeded all expectations, with emissions ranging from 300 to 450 cubic km.
"This is several times greater than the volume of eruptions from other volcanoes, including the most powerful eruption of Tambora in 1815," the scientists said.
In their opinion, if the dendrochronologists' assumption about the date of the Kikai eruption is correct, then a significant correction must be made to the chronology of the glacier layers of Greenland and Antarctica, which could change our understanding of climate change.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, the Ebeko volcano on Sakhalin ejected ash to a height of 2.8 km. It is noted that there was no ash fall in Severo-Kurilsk, and residents did not smell hydrogen sulfide. As noted by the Ministry of Emergency Situations, there is no threat to the life of residents.
#1
significant correction must be made to the chronology of the glacier layers of Greenland and Antarctica, which could change our understanding of climate change.
I feel sure which way the 'understanding of climate change' will shift.
Posted by: Bobby ||
10/24/2024 10:25
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Article Linked Is Available Only Via VPN.
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
The Sever Group of Forces in Kharkov direction engaged formation of the 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade and the 92nd Air Assault Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Liptsy, Kotovka, and Volchansk (Kharkov region).The AFU losses amounted to up to 100 troops, one 152mm Msta-B howitzer, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer.
The Zapad Group of Forces improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of AFU 44th, 60th Mechanised brigades, 74th, 77th Airmobile brigades, 3rd Assault Brigade, 125th and 103rd Territorial Defence brigades close to Bogouslavka, Lozovaya, Zeleny Gai, Novoplatonovka, Podliman, Pershotravnevoye (Kharkov region), Terny (Donetsk People's Republic), and Chervonaya Dibrova (Lugansk People's Republic).
Six counter-attacks launched by units of AFU 14th, 63rd Mechanised brigades, 1st National Guards Brigade, and 119th Territorial Defence Brigade were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 510 troops, four armoured fighting vehicles, nine motor vehicles, one 155mm Braveheart self-propelled artillery system, two UK-made 105mm L-119 guns, two U.S.-made 155mm M-198 howitzers, one 152mm D-20 self-propelled artillery system, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, Anklav-N and Bukovel-AD electronic warfare stations.
The Yug Group of Forces liberated Serebryanka (Donetsk People's Republic) as a result of the offensive actions.Units of AFU 10th Mountain Assault Brigade, 23rd, 54th, 60th Mechanised brigades, 5th and 79th Air Assault brigades, 81st and 46th Airmobile brigades, and 37th Naval Infantry Brigade were hit close to Semyonovka, Zvanovka, Vasyukovka, Seversk, Slavyansk, Chasov Yar, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic).
Two counterattacks launched by formations of AFU 56th Motorised Infantry Brigade were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 800 troops, one armoured personnel carrier, ten motor vehicles, two Polish-made 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery systems, one 152mm Msta-B howitzer, two 152mm D-20 howitzers, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, and one U.S.-made 105mm M-119 gun. Two Anklav-N electronic warfare stations and five field ammunition depots were eliminated.
The Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Nikolayevka (Donetsk People's Republic) and continued advancing into the depths of the enemy's defence.Formations of AFU 24th, 32nd Mechanised brigades, 38th Naval Infantry Brigade, and 12th National Guard Brigade were hit near Leninskoye, Dimitrov, Dzerzhinsk, Sukhoy Yar, Kurakhovka, and Shcherbinovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
Thirteen counter-attacks launched by AFU 23rd, 93rd, 100th Mechanised brigades, 68th, 152nd Jaeger brigades, 5th Assault Brigade, 49th and 425 Assault battalions, 37th Naval Infantry Brigade, and Lyut Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 450 troops, two infantry fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, seven armoured fighting vehicles, including U.S.-made Kozak and HMMWV, two pickup trucks, one 152mm Msta-B howitzer, one 152mm D-20 howitzer, one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, three 122mm D-30 howitzers, and one 100mm Rapira anti-tank gun. One unmanned aerial vehicles depot has been neutralised.
The Vostok Group of Forces improved the situation along the front line, inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of AFU 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade, 72nd Mechanised Brigade, 46th Airmobile Brigade, 110th and 113rd Territorial Defence brigades near Dobrovolye, Alekseyevka, Novoukrainka (Donetsk People's Republic), and Temirovka (Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 115 troops, two motor vehicles, one U.S.-made 155mm Paladin self-propelled artillery system, three U.S.-made 155mm M-777 howitzers, and one U.S.-made 155mm M-198 howitzer.
The Dnepr Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on units of AFU 35th Naval Infantry Brigade, 121st, 124th, and 126th Territorial Defence brigades close to Ponyatovka, Zolotaya Balka, Kamyshany(Kherson region), and Kherson.The AFU losses amounted to up to 90 troops, one armoured fighting vehicle, six motor vehicles, one 152mm D-20 gun, and one U.S.-made 105mm M-119 gun. Two ammunition depots were wiped out.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged the infrastructure of military airfields, fuel facilities, storage facilities for uncrewed surface vehicles, assembly facilities for unmanned aerial vehicles, clusters of enemy manpower and military hardware in 141 areas.
The Black Sea Fleet's naval aircraft have destroyed four AFU uncrewed surface vehicles in the north-western part of the Black Sea.
Air defence facilities shot down 14 U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectiles and 78 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 646 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 34,173 unmanned aerial vehicles, 583 anti-aircraft missile systems, 18,769 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,478 MLRS combat vehicles, 16,607 field artillery guns and mortars, and 27,497 units of support military vehicles have been neutralised.
The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the operation to neutralise an enemy group, which broke into the territory of Kursk region.
The Sever Group of Forces continued offensive actions and hit units of AFU21st, 22nd, 41st, and 47th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 80th, 82nd, and 95th Air Assault Brigades, 112th and 129th Territorial Defence brigades near Daryino, Zeleny Shlyakh, Nizhny Klin, Novoivanovka, Plyokhovo, and Sverdlikovo.
The Group's units repelled two enemy counter-attacks in the direction of Plekhovo and Pokrovsky, and thwarted three attempts of counter-attacks in the direction of Zeleny Shlyakh. The AFU losses amounted to up to 40 troops killed and wounded, one tank, and three infantry fighting vehicles, to include one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle. Three AFU servicemen surrendered.
Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on manpower and hardware clusters of AFU21st, 22nd, 41st, 47th, 61st, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 82nd and 95th Air Assault brigades, 36th Marine Brigade, 112th and 129th territorial defence brigades, and 17th National Guard Brigades near Aleksandriya, Gogolevka, Guevo, Daryino, Zeleny Shlyakh, Kositsa, Kruglenkoye, Lebedevka, Loknya, Martynovka, Makhnovka, Mirny, Nizhny Klin, Nikolaevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novoivanovka, Novy Put, Oleshnya, Plyokhovo, Rubanshchina, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye
Operational-Tactical Aviation and Missile Troops launched strikes in Sumy region at concentration areas and reserves of AFU 21st, 41st, 47th, and 115th Mechanised brigades, 17th Tank Brigade, 82nd, and 95th Air Assault brigades, 1st National Guard Brigade, and 103rd Territorial Defence Brigade close to Vladimirovka, Iskriskovshchina, Miropolye, Nikolayevka, Obody, Pavlovka, Sumy, Hoten, and Yunakovka.
The AFU losses amounted to more than 280 troops, 13 armoured vehicles including three tanks, three infantry fighting vehicles, including one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, seven armoured fighting vehicles, three artillery guns, six motor vehicles, and one electronic warfare station. Three AFU servicemen surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the enemy lost more than 25,943 servicemen, 175 tanks, 92 infantry fighting vehicles, 103 armoured personnel carriers, 989 armoured fighting vehicles, 681 motor vehicles, 224 artillery guns, 38 multiple rocket launchers, including nine of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the U.S., nine anti-aircraft missile launchers, five transport and loading vehicles, 55 EW stations, 11 counter-battery warfare radars, three air defence radars, 22 pieces of engineering and other equipment, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, and three armoured recovery vehicles.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 19:34 Airborne artillerymen destroyed concentration of enemy manpower in the border area of the Kursk region
Reconnaissance using an unmanned aerial vehicle discovered an equipped stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with personnel in one of the forest plantations. The data obtained was immediately transmitted to the artillery control point. After receiving the data, the airborne artillerymen inflicted fire damage on the enemy with precise shots, destroying the concentration of Ukrainian Armed Forces personnel.
19:21 Explosions in Odessa region. Before this, there were reports of rockets in the direction of the region.
19:00 Special forces of the Russian Guard prevented sabotage and reconnaissance group entry into one of the forests of the Kursk region.
Special forces of the Russian National Guard used a UAV to detect an unknown vehicle moving in the counterterrorist operation zone. The UAV operator tracked the sabotage and reconnaissance group vehicle along the entire route to the dismounting point determined by the enemy.
The attack on the sabotage and reconnaissance group was carried out using an FPV drone – the enemy was destroyed.
18:44 ATGM operators of the 14th Guards Special Forces Brigade “knock out” enemy manpower in the Dobrovolye area –video.
18:22 Crew of the Inokhodets strike UAV destroyed self-propelled artillery unit of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of ??the Kursk region.
17:45 The Russian army entered Izmailovka and raised a flag, cutting off supplies to the city of Gornyak.
The 114th Separate Motorized Rifle Brigade's assault troops installed the brigade banner in Izmailovka at the junction of the Pokrovskoe and Kurakhovskoe directions. It seems that the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already fled the settlement, write the Russian Spring War Correspondents. The liberation of Izmailovka will deprive the Ukrainian Armed Forces units located in Gornyak of one of the main supply routes.
17:20 A bomb attack was carried out on Ukrainian Armed Forces positions in the suburbs of Khar'kov. Local channels reported explosions.
16:11 The Russian flag was raised on one of the multi-story buildings practically in the center of Selidovo –video.
15:55 Russian forces have made significant advances in the city of Selidovo along the Solenaya River to Gogol Street.
15:07 Attack aircraft of the tank regiment of the Center group of forces, carrying out combat missions in the Krasnoarmeysk direction, destroyed and captured a Dutch-made YPR-765 infantry fighting vehicle –video.
12:55 Russian forces made a "dash" from the settlement of Tsukurino and entered the village of Novodmitrovka. The fighting for it has begun.
12:27 The Ukrainian Armed Forces' line of defense in Chasov Yar has collapsed. Russian troops have captured the entire line of trenches along the canal on both sides and have also occupied the Oktyabrsky microdistrict of the city.
12:22 Summary of the Russian Ministry of Defense on the progress of the special military operation (as of October 23, 2024):
Units of the North group of forces in the Khar'kov direction inflicted defeat on formations of the 57th Motorized Infantry and 92nd Airborne Assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the areas of the settlements of Liptsy, Kotovka and Volchansk in the Khar'kov region.
Units of the West group of forces improved their tactical position, defeated the manpower and equipment of the 44th, 60th Mechanized, 74th, 77th Airmobile, 3rd Assault brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 125th and 103rd Territorial Defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Boguslavka, Lozovaya, Zeleny Hai, Novoplatonovka, Podliman, Pershotravneve in the Khar'kov region, Terny in the Donetsk People's Republic and Chervona Dibrova in the Luhansk People's Republic. Six counterattacks of assault groups of the 14th, 63rd Mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 1st National Guard Brigade and the 119th Territorial Defense brigade were repelled.
Fighters of the "Southern" group of forces, as a result of active offensive actions, liberated the village of Serebryanka of the Donetsk People's Republic. They defeated the formations of the 10th mountain assault, 23rd, 54th, 60th Mechanized, 5th and 79th Airborne Assault, 81st and 46th Airmobile brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the 37th Naval Infantry Brigade in the areas of the villages of Semenovka, Zvanovka, Vasyukovka, Seversk, Dachnoye, Slavyansk, Chasov Yar and Kurakhovo of the Donetsk People's Republic. They repelled two counterattacks by units of the 56th motorized infantry brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Servicemen of the "Center" group of forces liberated the settlement of Nikolaevka of the Donetsk People's Republic and continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses. They inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 24th, 32nd Mechanized brigades of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 38th Naval Infantry Brigade and the 12th National Guard Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Leninskoye, Dimitrov, Dzerzhinsk, Sukhoi Yar, Kurakhovka and Shcherbinovka of the Donetsk People's Republic. Thirteen counterattacks by the 23rd, 93rd, 100th Mechanized, 68th, 152nd Jaeger, 5th Assault brigades, 49th and 425th Assault battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 37th Naval Infantry brigade and the "Lyut" assault brigade of the national police of Ukraine were repelled.
Units of the "East" force group improved their position along the front line, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 58th Motorized Infantry, 72nd Mechanized, 46th Airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the 110th and 113th Territorial Defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Dobrovolye, Alekseyevka, Novoukrainka of the Donetsk People's Republic and Temirovka of the Zaporizhia region.
The Dnepr group of forces inflicted losses on the formations of the 35th Naval Infantry Brigade, the 121st, 124th and 126th Territorial Defense brigades in the areas of the settlements of Ponyatovka, Zolotaya Balka, Kamyshany in the Kherson region and the city of Kherson.
Operational-tactical aviation, strike unmanned aerial vehicles, missile forces and artillery of the Russian Armed Forces groups damaged the infrastructure of military airfields, fuel depots, unmanned boat storage areas, unmanned aerial vehicle assembly shops, and concentrations of enemy manpower and military equipment in the 141st district.
Naval aviation of the Black Sea Fleet destroyed four unmanned boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the northwestern part of the Black Sea.
Air defense systems shot down 14 US-made HIMARS rockets and 78 aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles.
11:55 The Russian army entered Selidovo from the northern side.
11:07 In the Kupyansk direction, servicemen from the "West" troop group liquidated British self-propelled artillery unit AS-90 Braveheart.
11:02 In the Krasno-Limansky direction of the Russian Armed Forces occupy important strongholds in the Serebryanskoye forest. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are setting up crossings northwest of Serebryanka to allow units of the 119th Territoril Defense Brigade and the 53rd Separate Brigade to retreat to the right bank of the river due to the threat of being surrounded.
10:52 In Uman, Cherkasy region, at about 7:30 am, powerful explosions were heard in the area of the military airfield.
Ukrainian Telegram channels reported that more than ten ambulances and fire trucks were immediately dispatched to the scene. The airfield is home to a Ukrainian Air Force base, from where combat sorties are carried out.
10:45 Vrem'evsky direction: advance of the Russian Armed Forces near the settlement of Staromayorskoye –map.
10:20 Crews of 152mm 2S19 Msta-S guns of the Dnepr force groupare being destroyedarmored vehicles, fortified positions and boats of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kherson direction.
09:56 Artillerymen of the "North-V" brigade of the volunteer corps, operating as part of the "Southern" group of Russian troops,destroyed an ammunition depot near Chasovy Yar in Donbass.
09:15 Crews of 122mm 2S1 self-propelled howitzers "Gvozdika" of the "North" group of forces performing fire missions torn off delivery of ammunition and personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Kursk direction.
08:59 Half of Chasov Yar has been recaptured from the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The industrial zone with the fireproof plant and the western outskirts remain –map.
08:11 Russian special forces unit destroyed a kamikaze drone "Cube" a howitzer and an armored personnel carrier of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Svatovsky direction.
08:09 Su-34 crew destroyed personnel and a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of ??the Kursk region.
08:07 A pinpoint strike by an FPV drone on a Ukrainian militants’ repeater tower near Ugledar –video.
08:05 During the liberation of Mykhailivka, there were discovered British mercenaries, said the battalion's deputy commander for military-political work, Captain Igor Krasilnikov.
08:04 Russian forces have pushed Ukrainian Armed Forces units back 10 kilometers from Stelmakhovka to the LPR, thereby creating a gray zone near the settlement, military expert Andrei Marochko reported.
08:00 Footage of liberation of the settlement of Mikhailovka in the DPR.
The entry into the village was carried out in small groups, moving from cover to cover and using camouflaged dugouts in forest belts. The actions of the attack aircraft were adjusted by unmanned aerial vehicle crews in cooperation with artillery crews, aviation and other units. The attack aircraft received powerful fire support from FPV drone crews, which drove the enemy out of fortifications.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] Recently, a high-profile resignation took place in the entourage of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. General Abbas Kamel, who had led the structure since 2018, has left his post as head of the General Intelligence Service (GIS; also known as the Mukhabarat). Kamel will reportedly take up the post of presidential adviser and general coordinator of the security services.
At first glance, what happened looks like an honorary pension, especially since the general had previously repeatedly complained about his deteriorating health and asked to relieve him of some of the workload. The transfer to the pool of advisers was intended to satisfy this request.
On the other hand, such a sudden change of mood in Cairo is connected with the intention to breathe new life into the negotiations on Gaza and expand its own influence on regional processes in the wake of the growing confrontation between Iran and Israel.
What negotiations? After Sinwar refused to negotiate, even unto death, the Hamas spokesman announced that there would be no release of hostages until the IDF ceases attacking and withdraws from the Gaza strip. Yes, it would feed the ego of President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and soothe the strident demands for a hudna coming from the Biden-Harris administration — not to mention send money flowing into the coffers of restaurants, catering companies, hotels, and taxi drivers in Cairo, but it will be to no avail until more Hamasniks and their human shields are killed.
And in this sense, Al-Sisi preferred to rely on fresher personnel.
FRIEND OF THE PRESIDENT
Kamel has played a leading role in Cairo's political life almost without interruption since al-Sisi came to power in 2013. Before taking over the leadership of the ROC in 2018, he served in senior positions in military intelligence and also managed the presidential office.
In addition, it was General Kamel who often acted as the "voice of Cairo", representing the country at summits and high-level international meetings. It was largely through his hands that Al-Sisi managed to assert his power after the overthrow of pan-Islamist President Mohamed Morsi.
Pan-Islamist being another term for Muslim Brotherhooder, I suppose.
General Kamel is also credited with effectively rebooting the Mukhabarat. In a few years, he managed to bring the SOR out of a state of internal conflict and break the influence of the protégé of the “Cairo Yezhov,” Mohamed Ahmed Farid al-Tuhami, who was dismissed in 2014.
Al-Tuhami, like Kamel, was part of President Al-Sisi’s “inner circle”, but was a supporter of a tough and uncompromising fight against internal and external enemies, which he clearly demonstrated during his year leading the SOR.
Apparently, Al-Sisi saw this zeal as a direct threat to his own security (since he himself came to power under the slogan of fighting the "contra"), and therefore elevated a more flexible comrade. And, as time has shown, he was not mistaken in his choice.
At the same time, Kamel has made several major miscalculations that have cost Cairo some of its regional influence. Until recently, the most painful defeat of the Egyptian Mukhabarat was the collapse of the “anti-Turkish club” – an informal association of states opposing Turkish expansion into the Middle East.
The head of the SOR, as the main negotiator from Egypt, failed to turn to his advantage the efforts of Greece, Cyprus, Jordan and France to contain Ankara's influence. But "in return" Cairo received the activation of the conductors of Turkish interests in its zone of strategic influence (primarily in Libya).
In this context, Kamel is still reminded of the failure of the "Military Council of Tribes" concept. Trying to rely on pro-Egyptian tribes in Libya, Cairo, despite its efforts, was never able to become the leading force in the conflict. Ankara retained the military advantage, while Moscow and Abu Dhabi ultimately gained more advantageous positions in the diplomatic space.
PALESTINIANS ARE UNHAPPY
With the outbreak of the conflict in the Gaza Strip, Kamel was appointed as Egypt's negotiator and was called upon to "conduct" interactions between Israel and Hamas.
The appointment did not raise any questions: the general already had experience in resolving similar crisis situations. For example, in 2021, it was he who made a decisive contribution to the ceasefire between the Israelis and the Palestinians.
However, the negotiations reached a deadlock due to Tel Aviv's tough stance, and Cairo failed to achieve concessions on either the Philadelphia Corridor or the Netzarim axis. Attempts to work out a "package" agreement with Egypt's participation also failed.
The last straw was the sudden death of Hamas Politburo chief Yahya Sinwar.
He was killed by the Israelis in the Tel al-Sultan area, not far from the Egyptian border. Evil tongues were quick to claim that Sinwar was "sold" to Tel Aviv by the Egyptians in exchange for concessions on other sensitive issues. And this was allegedly done on Kamel's orders.
However, both the nature of the clash and the subsequent problems with identifying the murdered head of the Politburo indicate that Sinwar was discovered by the Israelis by chance, and the involvement of the Mukhabarat in the liquidation process is unlikely.
By chance in this case meaning that while the Israelis were hunting for him in that area, having made it impossible for him to go elsewhere, they did not know he was the body they happened to kill that day.
However, even in this case, criticism of the SOR does not subside - Palestinian counterparts are unhappy that Egyptian security forces were unable to ensure the safety of one of the key participants in the "deal".
How could Egypt have done so? The Egyptian army is entirely on the other side of the Gaza border wall in the Sinai.
Be that as it may, with the death of the head of the Politburo, the negotiations on Gaza were once again hanging by a thread, and Cairo chose to change its “negotiator No. 1.”
"RASHAD'S PLAN"
Kamel's successor as head of the Mukhabarat was Hassan Mahmoud Rashad, who had previously held the post of deputy head of the service. Due to the specifics of his position, very little is known about Rashad's past, but the Arab press is already calling him a "mirror" of his boss.
This positioning is due to the fact that the new head of the SOR previously worked on maintaining dialogue with the “potential enemy” – he was responsible for resetting relations with Turkey and Iran.
In this context, Rashad’s appointment as “negotiator No. 1” should be interpreted, among other things, as an attempt to “give a voice” to Ankara and Tehran in the Gaza negotiations without expanding the number of participants.
Moreover, Egypt clearly expects to carefully influence the course of the Iranian-Israeli confrontation through its channels, keeping Tehran and Tel Aviv from large-scale clashes - but not too obviously, so as not to spoil relations with either of the interlocutors.
Fantasies of importance, the poor darlings…
It should be noted that General Rashad is known for his tougher position in relation to Tel Aviv's interests than Kamel. This was already evident during his first meeting with his Israeli colleagues.
Then, instead of assurances of support for the previous course, the head of the Israeli General Security Service (Shabaq), Ronen Bar, received proposals from the Egyptians to move to a “creeping truce” – to seek the release of a couple of hostages for every few days of ceasefire.
The "Rashad Plan" was met with extreme controversy by the Israelis: far-right politicians predictably spoke out against it and demanded not to follow Cairo's lead. However, the concept was supported by the military leadership, which saw in it a chance to end the protracted conflict. Washington also responded positively to Cairo's ideas.
As for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he has not yet decided on a clear position and is torn between the "hawks" and the security forces. There is a high probability that in the end the Israeli leadership will still choose a "creeping truce" in order to maintain the appearance of negotiations with Hamas and not incur the wrath of the hostages' relatives.
However, even in this case, the agreements are unlikely to survive for long. Tel Aviv is already using the first violations of the regime to declare it insolvent and to close it down.
#1
Later in November al-Sisi turns seventy. Long in the tooth, he apparently has no intention of retiring. Commonly, Egypt's military leaders either die in office or are assassinated. Al-Sisi apparently will not break the mold.
[FoxNews] Turkish authorities say 5 people, including security and civilians, were killed in the attack
Authorities in Turkey say that a deadly explosion at an aerospace facility on Wednesday was a terrorist attack.
The TUSAS site is in Kahramankazan district, Ankara province, about 40km from the capital.
Authorities say five people were killed and more than a dozen injured. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya confirmed that the explosion was a "terrorist attack" in a statement on X, formerly Twitter. He added that the victims were both civilians and security personnel.
Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz condemned the attack in a statement on social media. He added that security forces responded to the explosion immediately.
"The treacherous terrorist attack targeted Turkey's achievements in defence industry," he wrote, adding that the country's "fight against terrorism will continue."
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also acknowledged the attack in a statement, condemning "terrorism in all its forms."
Turkey's defense sector is a major exporter for the country, focusing mainly on military drones built at facilities like the one attacked on Wednesday.
No group has taken responsibility for the attack as of Wednesday afternoon.
Turkey has played a divisive role in the ongoing tensions in the Middle East throughout the year. While the country is a member of NATO, it has also expressed solidarity with terrorist groups like Hamas.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan ordered the nation's flag to half staff in after the death of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in August. Israeli officials condemned the move when the Turkish Embassy in Israel complied with Erdogan's order.
Four people were killed and 14 others wounded in an attack at the Turkish Aerospace Industries’ headquarters on Wednesday, the government said, and witnesses said they heard gunfire and a loud explosion at the site near Ankara.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said two attackers were killed in what he called a terrorist attack, adding three of the injured were at death's door. TV broadcasters earlier showed footage of armed assailants entering the TUSAS building.
Ottoman Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, alongside Russia’s Vladimir Putin ...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances... at a BRICS conference in the Russian city of Kazan, also called it a terrorist attack.
The cause and perpetrators of the blast and subsequent gunfire remained unclear. No group had grabbed credit. Prosecutors have launched an investigation, state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
Some media reports claimed a suicide kaboom had occurred and that there were hostages inside the building, though officials have not confirmed this.
Witnesses told Rooters that employees inside the building were taken by authorities to shelters and no one was permitted to leave for a few hours. They said the blasts they heard may have taken place at different exits as employees were leaving work for the day.
According to Rudaw, a broadcast ban was imposed by the government, as they usually do in such situations.
[X]
Terrorist attack in Ankara. 2 people were seen carrying the attack, one of the blew himself up and the other clashed with security forces. Gunfire ongoing pic.twitter.com/nIRmbwG8Ko
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Pavel Kiselev
[REGNUM] Exactly 80 years ago, on October 23, 1944, soldiers of the 14th Army of the Karelian Front drove the Germans out of the Kola Peninsula, took the village of Nikel (Kolosjoki in Finnish) and reached the Soviet-Norwegian border. It is on this day, October 23, that the Murmansk Region celebrates the anniversary of the liberation of the Arctic from the Nazis. But the Red Army did not stop there.
On the same day, ships of the Northern Fleet landed tactical troops in the Varanger Fjord (Varangian Gulf) and other Arctic bays of Norway. At the same time, the Red Army soldiers of the 14th Army crossed the border lake Salmijärvi and advanced to the approaches to the town of Kirkenes, the "capital" of the Norwegian Far North.
The Petsamo-Kirkenes operation was coming to an end – the defeat of the German group in the Finnish region of Petsamo (the ancient Pomor Pechenga region, which returned to our country after 1944) and in the Norwegian part of Lapland. In Russian historiography, this operation is known as “Stalin’s tenth strike” – the last of the ten major offensives of 1944 that determined the outcome of World War II.
The commander of the Karelian Front, Kirill Meretskov, nicknamed "the marshal of the northern directions", received well-deserved marshal's shoulder straps for the operation. The northwestern borders of our country from Vyborg to Murmansk were completely protected.
But, although by the autumn of 1944 the Nazi forces, including in occupied Norway, had already been undermined, the final "Stalinist blow" was not easy for the Red Army. The front beyond the Arctic Circle had to be broken up - like an icebreaker breaking ice.
HOW THE SAVAGE DIVISION THWARTED FALKENHORST'S BLITZKRIEG
The Karelian Front was, one might say, the most “stable” unit of the Red Army. While other fronts were “reformatted” and renamed, this formation existed unchanged from August 1941 to November 1944.
The front line that was established in Karelia and on the Kola Peninsula, from Lake Ladoga to the Barents Sea, was the longest (more than 1.5 thousand kilometers through taiga, mountains and tundra) - and "frozen". For three long years, neither side managed to ensure a decisive advantage here. But in the first months of the Great Patriotic War, the threat to our Arctic was very serious.
The war came to the Kola North on June 29, 1941. Then the advancing Nazis (commanded by the recent conqueror of Norway, General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst ) and their Finnish allies managed to create a threat to Murmansk and the Northern Fleet bases.
But by mid-July, the soldiers of the 14th Army under the command of General Valerian Frolov (who had distinguished himself not long before in the Soviet-Finnish War) were able to stop the enemy approximately thirty kilometers from the border after heavy fighting.
Two landings of the Northern Fleet Marines on the flank of the enemy advancing along the coast disrupted the plans of a blitzkrieg in the North. The ground forces and the fleet managed to slow down the German advance at the coastal ridge of Musta-Tunturi. Therefore, the enemy was unable to break through to the east and capture the strategically important Rybachy Peninsula - the "unsinkable battleship" that controls the entrance to the Kola Bay, where Murmansk is located.
In September 1941, the Wehrmacht Army "Norway" attempted for the second (and as it turned out, the last) time to break through in the Murmansk direction. But General Frolov's soldiers stopped the enemy at the Zapadnaya Litsa River.
The 1st Polar Division of the People's Militia, which was assembled in September, distinguished itself here. The division, which included volunteer dock workers and workers from shipyards, was nicknamed "Wild" by the people. The militiamen from the "Wild Division" (soon reformatted into the "normal" 186th, and then the 205th Rifle Division) fought bravely from start to finish - they celebrated the Victory by liberating the Danish island of Bornholm in the Baltic. The first commander of the "Wild Division", Lieutenant Colonel Semyon Azarov, who died in one of the battles in Northern Karelia in 1942, was posthumously awarded the Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.
And then, in the autumn of 1941, regular troops and militias pushed the Germans back across the Zapadnaya Litsa River – at this line the front in the Far North “froze” until October 1944.
"WE DIDN'T EXPECT STUBBORN RESISTANCE FROM THE RUSSIANS"
Murmansk was relatively safe, and from January 1942, American and British naval convoys began to arrive here, transporting military equipment, food, and other vital resources under Lend-Lease. The Allied cargo then went south by rail through Karelia, and from there, along the Road of Life, it reached besieged Leningrad. The Luftwaffe bombed the communication routes in the Arctic and Karelia, but the railroad workers courageously repaired the destruction.
Murmansk itself was also periodically under attack. The Germans launched one of their largest air attacks on June 18, 1942. That day, a total of about 23 tons of bombs of various calibers were dropped on the city. But the Nazis no longer tried to break through on the ground in the north of the Kola Peninsula.
Fierce battles were fought further south, in the direction of the city of Kandalaksha, a port on the White Sea and a major railway junction. The capture of this city threatened to cut off the Murmansk region from the rest of the USSR. Despite enormous losses, the Germans and Finns repeatedly tried to capture Kandalaksha, but each time they encountered fierce resistance from Soviet troops in the north of Karelia and the south of the Kola Peninsula. The front stabilized here as well.
"A soldier taken prisoner testified: 'We were promised to take Kandalaksha in 12 days and reach the White Sea, but we still haven't managed to do this, even though 6 months have passed. The soldiers' mood is depressed - they didn't expect such stubborn resistance from the Russians,'" wrote the first secretary of the Murmansk regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), member of the military council of the 14th Army, Mikhail Starostin, in his diary.
The reasons for the enemy's "disappointment" are clear - through the efforts of Starostin and brigade commander Kuzma Sinilov, fortifications were created on the border of the Murmansk border district and the Kandalaksha fortified region in a short time. In the same diary, Starostin cited the words of another captured German - a corporal of one of the infantry regiments of the "Norway" army: "Your actions in the Murmansk direction are very successful... This is the only place on the front where, from the very beginning of the war, our units have not been able to advance."
THE STRANGE WAR OF MARSHAL MANNERHEIM
The protracted status quo was broken by Stalin's fourth blow - the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation in the summer of 1944. The joint actions of the Leningrad and Karelian fronts made it possible to simultaneously develop an offensive on Vyborg and break through in Karelia (from the Svir River to Petrozavodsk). The success of the Red Army removed one of the most effective allies of the Nazis - the Finnish army - from the war. At the end of August, Finland's military leader, Marshal Carl Gustaf Emil Mannerheim, dismissed the openly pro-German President Risto Ryti, took over the presidential powers and requested an armistice with the USSR.
On September 4, 1944, the war between the Soviet Union and Finland was officially ended.
“The Finnish Minister of Foreign Affairs told the German ambassador that relations between their countries had been broken off, and at the beginning of the month he sent out radio messages to all corners of Finland about the withdrawal of German troops from Finnish territory by September 15,” recalled Marshal Meretskov.
At the same time, the military leader noted, the Finns were not eager to enter the war with their former ally, the Third Reich. The command of the Finnish army approached the headquarters of General Lothar Rendulic, commander of the 20th Mountain Army of the Wehrmacht, "with a proposal to resolve the issues amicably." The Germans agreed to move the border of the Finnish military zone to the northern shore of the Gulf of Bothnia, and maintained a strong group in northern Finland and Norway.
ENEMY ON THE GRANITE RAMPART
After the Finns withdrew from the war, “ almost the entire Soviet border from the granite cliffs of Lapland to the Ladoga Lowland was restored,” Meretskov noted. The key word is “almost.”
In the Far North, hidden behind powerful reinforced concrete and granite fortifications, stood the 19th Mountain Rifle Corps of the Germans.
"For three years the enemy had been building a Lapland defensive wall here," the marshal recalled. " With Finland's withdrawal from the war, additional defensive work was simply feverish. Our intelligence constantly reported that special enemy construction units were gnawing into the granite around the clock, building new reinforced concrete and armored firing points and shelters, digging trenches and communication passages."
A relatively small section of the front, 90 km long, was turned into a solid "fortification" with antitank obstacles and ditches, in front of which minefields and barbed wire were installed on mountain passes, in hollows and on roads. Enemy engineers used the difficult terrain to their advantage: lakes, rivers, rocks. Artillery was entrenched on the dominant hills and on the banks - in field caponiers.
The Lapland (or Granite) Wall of the Germans covered the most vulnerable sections of their front on the Kola Peninsula and in Northern Norway - “from the Bolshaya Zapadnaya Litsa Bay (Gulf) and the isthmus of the Sredny Peninsula to Kirkenes,” recalled Khariton Khudalov, a participant in the battles on the Kola Peninsula in 1941–44 and the Petsamo-Kirkenes Operation.
TANK SURPRISE
By the beginning of Stalin's tenth strike, by October 7, 1944, the front line in the Russian Arctic ran from Malaya Volokovaya Bay along the isthmus of the Sredny Peninsula and from Bolshaya Zapadnaya Litsa Bay to Lakes Chapr and Koshka-Yavr.
From here, it was decided to strike in the direction of the city of Petsamo (Pechenga), the "capital" of the region, which passed from the USSR to Finland several times. From 1918 to 1940, the Pechenga region was owned by the Finns (and thus had access to local nickel mines and access to the Arctic Ocean). At the end of the "Winter War" of 1939-40, the region went to the USSR, and in June 1941, it was again captured by the Finns. But after Mannerheim left the war and withdrew his troops to the south, the Petsamo-Pechenga region was controlled by the Germans.
The first stage of the operation - the infantry offensive with simultaneous landings of marines - was especially difficult. The enemy, who stubbornly resisted and went on counterattacks, was smoked out of "fox holes" and crevices using smoke bombs, as Soviet military historian Nikolai Rumyantsev noted.
"Granite structures, from which it was impossible to dislodge the Nazis by any means, were blown up with TNT. The rugged terrain, steep climbs and rock deposits made it difficult for troops to move, especially the escort guns. There were no roads here yet. Often the guns were carried by hand" or with the help of reindeer and horses, Rumyantsev wrote.
At the same time, where the terrain allowed, the rifle units were reinforced with tanks - T-34 and even heavy KV-1. This was the first example in history of the large-scale use of tanks in offensives in the Far North - and the main surprise for the enemy.
The enemy considered it impossible to use tank troops in the Arctic conditions, so the mountain rangers from Rendulic's army were not trained to fight tanks, Rumyantsev explained. The historian pointed out that despite all the Germans' efforts to build a line of defense, " large gaps between resistance nodes and strong points and a limited number of anti-tank weapons in all accessible directions were a weak point in the enemy's defense."
"KIRKENES WAS BURNING..."
After fierce fighting, Soviet troops broke through German positions along the entire front and reached the Titovka River. Having blown up the bridges, the Germans retreated, pursued by Soviet troops, who landed troops to cut off the enemy.
On October 13, Soviet troops prepared to storm Petsamo, and units of the 126th Light Rifle Corps set up a checkpoint on the only retreat route. But the Germans were partly lucky - the 2nd Mountain Division broke through the blockade, ensuring the retreat of General Rendulic's main forces. On October 15, Soviet troops liberated Petsamo.
On October 22, the Red Army crossed the Norwegian border. The last barrier remained - Kirkenes.
" At this line, the advancing troops encountered prepared defenses, previously occupied by fresh enemy units. The Nazis supported their troops' actions on land with fire from large-caliber coastal batteries located on the rocky shores of Bekfjord... Muffled explosions were heard. Kirkenes was burning. Fierce battles continued all night," noted Nikolai Rumyantsev.
Despite the desperate resistance of the mountain rangers (who also used six-barreled mortars), our troops crossed the Beckfjord on the night of October 24-25 and resumed the offensive on the city.
By October 29, the Red Army had managed to liberate Eastern Finnmark, the northernmost province of Norway. Thanks to the heroism of our soldiers, 854 Soviet prisoners of war and 772 civilians, whom the occupiers had taken from the Leningrad region, were freed.
The units of the army of the Norwegian government in exile, transferred by the British from the north of Scotland, together with units of the 14th Soviet Army began the liberation of their country from the north. However, the current authorities of Norway prefer not to remember the joint fight against Nazism.
WRONG FLAG
At the end of October, Eastern Finnmark celebrates the liberation of its land from the German occupiers. As IA Regnum noted, representatives of the USSR, and later of Russia as the successor of the Soviet Union, were traditionally invited to the commemorative events.
Thus, in 2019, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov flew to Kirkenes for the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Finnmark. The Norwegian side was represented by King Harald V and the then Prime Minister of the country.
However, after the start of the special military operation, the Norwegian authorities for some reason decided that their country was liberated by Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky was invited to the 80th anniversary celebration this year, and starting in 2022, Ukrainian flags, not Russian ones, began to appear at the memorial event.
Nevertheless, on October 25, the remaining employees of our diplomatic corps in Norway after the reduction will celebrate the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Northern Norway from Nazism - this was announced at our Consulate General in Kirkenes. It is expected that those Norwegians who remember the feat of the Red Army will come to the "Russian Monument" - a monument to Soviet soldiers on Roald Amundsen Square in this city. Just as it is remembered on our side of the border.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Alexander Rokhlin
Lyrical.
[REGNUM] Every city has something attractive and repulsive. Donetsk in this sense is a typical magnet with non-converging poles.
The workers' town is grimy, smoky, smoke-filled, with the sun shining through the dust, scattered chaotically in all directions across the steppe. From the very beginning, no one thought of doing urban development here: streets, blocks, the magistrate and the market... Khuzovka did not worry about the harmony of its architectural forms. The shaft of the mine and the waste heap are the defining points.
The genius loci, to which those same streets, quarters, magistrate and market were crowded, stuck to each other and grew in different directions. It could not become, like Moscow, radial-ring or, like St. Petersburg, square-angular. Donetsk is defiantly irregular, woven from knots - paths and stitches between mines and settlements.
Sit and knit: cast on loops, spin around waste heaps, dive into beams, hang necklaces of stakes.
But most of all it resembles... an apiary city. Where in a blooming garden, among apricot, cherry, sour cherry and mulberry trees, under an unbearably generous sun, with a high and shamelessly blue sky, stand in the most whimsical order hives - mines. Mining bees are busy day and night in the hives with the non-stop work of life: they smoke, hum, dig, build, destroy, plug, bring and carry away. Because a golden coal is also black honey.
A long beginning, and a simple story. But personally very dear to me. And the context is fundamentally important.
If you treat bees politely and attentively, life at the apiary has all the properties of paradise. And if, like me, you casually hitch a ride to one flighty gray-eyed bee in a skirt, promise her a field of daisies, then you will receive a free and eternal ticket to enter the apiary with all the honey preferences in the form of lard, fish, yellow cherries, 12 stakes for personal use and the smell of a beetle as pheromones that do not allow you to come to your senses.
So I lived for twenty years straight, receiving handfuls of happiness from the city at any time of the year. Until the war came.
And the honey ran out.
In March 2014, I found myself on the bank of the river that flows around Staromikhailovka from the north. On the left is the Kirovsky district, right on the horizon are the Chelyuskintsev and Petrovka mines, on the right is Krasnogorovka.
In Kyiv, the Maidan had already won. The country had a new government. The new one was already clicking its teeth, demanding, to put it mildly, attention. In Donetsk, all the streets seemed electrified, waiting to see what the Kyiv events would mean for the East. But here, on the shore of the pond with bare apricot plantations behind it, it was still completely quiet.
That's the thing, this silence tasted different, not like usual. Uncomfortable, tasteless, prickly silence. As if a person you're used to communicating warmly with suddenly stopped talking without explanation. You're left wondering: what happened? What's wrong with you or him?
Then what began began. In no nightmare could I have imagined that my pond and that "bank" near Staromikhailovka, where I last watched a film about spring in the Donetsk steppe, would become a front line and a deadly dangerous place. And the earth already then, in March 2014, felt what awaited it.
Seven hundred kilometers to the west, the square above the Dnieper shook, blood was spilled, and here, either through the air or underground, a wave came and covered. Open the gates, Donbass: now we will pour grief and misfortune on you in full measure, shaken up, pressed.
But I didn't understand. I got used to treating everything like Winnie the Pooh, whom all the bees love and give him their honey for free.
Arriving during the war, I recognized and did not recognize my Khuzovka. The streets were the same, the people were the same, the mines were the same, the buzzing machine was the same, but there was no honey. The city had stopped sharing its warmth, joy, heavenly and delicious life with me as before. The city had withdrawn into itself, behind its inner walls. It was besieged, it had no time to lavish honeyed tenderness.
It remains the same today. A city that does not live in its full width, depth and height, but only in small dashes.
And suddenly, unexpectedly, I found out where Khuzovka keeps her precious residual honey. And I tasted it...
Now, finally, the story itself. My wife had only one relative left in the city, an 87-year-old aunt. The aunt needed to pay her apartment bill. She was used to doing this only through a face-to-face meeting with the cashier at the window. The aunt did not accept any "innovations" in the form of payment by phone, QR code, or through a personal account. Only through a live teller at the window! And so that a receipt with a stamp on payment was immediately issued in person.
At the department, my aunt and I trotted to the machine that issued a ticket for the electronic queue. Our number was 70. And everything would have been fine, if I hadn’t noticed the helpful electronic note at the bottom of the ticket in small handwriting: “There are 32 clients in front of you.”
That's when I felt sick. I hadn't expected such a trick at all. The bank branch's operations room was quite crowded, but not exactly overcrowded. There were even some free chairs. Two female employees were handling the actual banking operations at separate tables. And there was only one window for utility bills. That's where all 32 of us plus one client were standing.
Here I began to guess that I had unexpectedly gone back in time, about forty years, to the lean, lean post-Soviet times, when I last physically stood in a real queue with some papers. I had nowhere to go, I couldn’t leave my aunt, offers for instant payment via phone were not accepted, we couldn’t come another day.
A vicious circle.
There was only one salvation - in humbly accepting the situation. I humbly sat down on a chair in the corner and humbly immersed myself in reading The Brothers Karamazov, agreeing to sit there until the second coming or until my aunt's patience ran out. Which would happen first?
The line behaved very decently. No one was arguing, complaining, seething, trying to push their way to the front. It was all ordinary, run-of-the-mill. The faces of the visitors matched the occasion - they were as dull as Lenten pancakes.
Almost two hours passed like this. I did not get out of Skotoprigonyevsk Fyodor Mikhailovich, until suddenly I heard a stir in the hall, similar to the beginning of a scandal. The beginning was connected with the appearance of a very old granny. However, she came here on her own two feet - and alone. The granny loudly addressed the queue with a question: how should she understand what was happening? And why was it necessary to complicate the process so much, when previously there was only one account book, etc., etc.
She spoke excessively loudly, was obviously hard of hearing and, what was most surprising, unusually expressively, using old participial and adverbial participial phrases. It was as if a very old fairy, responsible for the Russian language textbook for princes of the blood, had come to the bank.
The queue tried to explain something to the fairy, including about the electronic queue. She listened without interrupting, but apparently did not find satisfaction in the answer. This went on for some time, dying down and emerging again. Now one, now another voice from the queue tried to tell the woman that her electronic number would be announced by an electronic announcer.
And suddenly I saw her heading straight into the lion's mouth - to the tables behind the partition, where two "free" bank employees were sitting. From our, the client's side, they looked, of course, like blatant slackers. When a line of forty people is banging on one window, and next to it two ladies in suits are chilling at their computers, you can't help but feel a sense of oppressed justice. But someone has to do the banking, and not pay for gas and electricity!
This granny was so decrepit that she moved at the speed of a snail or a toy wooden boat. Here she crossed the invisible border between the worlds: the operating room with us, the "housing and communal services worms", and the "office" of two employees, where the real, high banking life was going on: accounts, cards, deposits, loans and interest.
- I ask you to forgive me in advance! - the grandma-boat said loudly out loud, and I shuddered. - I'm going on 97 and my hearing is failing. But I have a question to which I haven't received a clear answer. I need to pay the rent for September, but with the amount of paperwork from you, I'm completely losing my head.
I closed my eyes. Firstly, I hadn't heard such Russian spoken in years. Secondly, I couldn't see the snail granny's face. But I could see the faces of the two female employees whose space the snail granny had dared to cross. These faces didn't bode well. The entire room froze, not doubting that something was about to happen.
— Woman! Take your seat. Take a paper ticket and wait your turn. According to all calculations, one window is working. Yes, only one window!
But suddenly this did not happen. One of the employees, younger, in a black jacket that did not fit over her huge chest, with a pink and round face, with traces of an unsuccessful curl in her black hair, looked at the granny and suddenly said:
- Please sit down.
The elderly fairy perched on the edge of the chair.
"It's a very inconvenient system. And who invented it? Before, I had a single book for payment, and now I have a lot of separate sheets of paper coming by mail," she said. "I find it difficult to explain to you...
"Do you have your passport with you?" asked the young employee with the unfortunate perm.
— A passport, of course. I was born on June 14, 1927. My address: Ilyicha Avenue, Building 4. You know, I remember the occupation of our Donetsk. And now I am living through the second war, — for some reason the woman gave out all the defining events of her life.
“My God!” I thought and stood up from my chair, as if trying to express respect for this enormous life lived, its fragility and the glassiness of its current situation and, undoubtedly, the preserved sense of human dignity.
The young clerk performed some operations on the computer and said:
- That's it. Your bills are paid.
- What? - the old fairy was amazed. - Paid? And the money?
- I wrote them off from your card.
- Cards? It's so simple, - the fairy began to rise slowly from her chair, like a small flag on a toy mast with a sail. - How nice it would be in the future... Thank you, dear girl, - she said, made a small bow and set off on a return snail swim to Ilyich Avenue.
“You are my dear…” I thought with bitter tenderness and gratitude specifically to the employee girl, as if she had done all this for me personally: she did not drive away the fairy, but went against the instructions, made an instant decision not to push away the old man, but to accept and do such an important, penny-worth deed for her.
But that wasn't all. A few minutes later it was my aunt's and my turn to go to the treasured window. A pretty woman in a white sweater sat behind it.
"Where is your EIRC code?" she asked. "I can't make a payment without the code."
“What other code?” I asked, growing cold inside.
— There should be a code on the previous paid receipts, but there isn’t one here.
“I didn’t take the old receipts,” said the aunt in a low voice.
And things started to smell bad: two hours of sitting in line ended in vain. But for some reason I was ready to accept defeat with a light heart. There are no two miracles in a row. And I had just been shown a real miracle with another person. So there would still be time with me, another time.
No way! The woman in the window looked at the aunt with tired eyes and did not give us back our useless receipts, but began to look for the ill-fated EIRC code on her phone, on the Internet - by her residential address.
“This can’t be!” I thought.
It happens, the cashier's tired eyes said. Two hours of my waiting and another six hours of her working time were spent searching for data, forgotten, missing, undelivered codes, addresses, bills and other nonsense from aunties, grandmothers and Donetsk fairies who bring their receipts and kopecks to the bank branch on Gorky Street, between Chelyuskintsev and Postysheva.
And at that moment I suddenly realized that with this whole story, in the most inappropriate and inconvenient place for miracles, besieged Donetsk shared with me, as before, its fabulous wealth. That same warmth, generosity, heat of the heart, coal like honey, breadth and depth of the soul like the entire Donetsk steppe, with which I fell in love once, thirty years ago. And I can’t stop loving it.
RFK Jr: “Vice President Harris said today in her speech that president Trump was gonna turn the US military against the American public.”
“What’s interesting to me is that the Biden/Harris administration did something 2 weeks ago that has never been done in American history,… pic.twitter.com/hvIlKrqQNP
…2 weeks ago that has never been done in American history, which is to send a directive to the Pentagon, changing a law to make it legal for the US military to use lethal force against American citizens on American soil.”
“Technically now it's legal for the US military under this directive to shoot and k*** Americans who engage in political protest because they disagree with policies in the White House.”
“This did not come from Donald Trump. It came from the Democratic party, and that's why I left the Democratic party.”
Does that order make it legal? Would the US Supreme Court agree? Will enough of the military hierarchy follow such an order?
Posted by: 3dc ||
10/24/2024
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#4
Technically been legal since the Insurrection Act. Ever heard of the Pullman Strike?
The military was not, however, impartial; they were there to ensure that the trains ran, which would eventually weaken the boycott.[16] Federal forces broke the ARU's attempts to shut down the national transportation system city by city. Thousands of US Marshals and 12,000 US Army troops, led by Brigadier General Nelson Miles, took part in the operation. President Cleveland claimed that he had a legal, constitutional responsibility for the mail; however, getting the trains moving again also helped further his fiscally conservative economic interests and protect capital, which was far more significant than the mail disruption. His lawyers argued that the boycott violated the Sherman Antitrust Act, and represented a threat to public safety. The arrival of the military and the subsequent deaths of workers in violence led to further outbreaks of violence. During the course of the strike, 30 strikers were killed and 57 were wounded. Property damage exceeded $80 million.[7][8][19]
[FoxNews] The Windy City is merging its migrant shelter system with the city’s traditional homeless shelter system.
Chicago is shutting down its migrant-only shelter system and merging it with the city’s traditional homeless shelter system.
The Windy City is also closing its "landing zone" for migrants where newly arrived migrants get shelter placements and other resources. The landing zone will close at the end of 2024 and is now only open from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m., as opposed to also being open overnight.
The moves come as the number of migrants arriving in the Windy City continues to drop. At its peak in late-December, the city was housing about 14,900 migrants, but that has fallen to around 5,000, per reports.
The overhaul will see 3,800 beds added to the city’s current homeless services system of 3,000 legacy beds in a new strategy being labeled as the One System Initiative (OSI). The new strategy aims to streamline operations and reduce the high cost of operating the migrant shelters, which have stretched the city’s budget.
"We are shifting to a more cost-effective, equitable, and strategic approach that addresses homelessness for all who need support in the City of Chicago," Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson said Monday in a press release announcing the plan. "This transition is in line with the sharp decline in migration to Chicago and our current budget realities."
The press release states that the OSI is a "unified sheltering system to serve all Chicagoans" which will take effect by the new year.
Johnson took a swipe at Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, who began busing thousands of migrants to the Windy City in 2022 because of its sanctuary city status as Texas struggled to cater to an unprecedented surge of migrants arriving in the Lone Star state under the Biden-Harris administration.
"We fought back and showed the world just how welcoming we can be," Johnson said at a press briefing, per WTTW.
#3
We've arrived at the "money talks, bull$hit walks" stage.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/24/2024 9:57
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#4
“We are shifting to a more cost-effective, equitable, and strategic approach.”
Trump will do you one better.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/24/2024 12:23
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#5
I have spoken to several people from England. They say it is a migrant disaster currently. One with a motor home chose to visit USA saying gallon of fuel in England would have cost him $70. dollars a gallon. They say soon to be here in USA. Huge disconnect between the leadership and the people who elected them into office.
[ESPN] Fernando Valenzuela, the Mexican-born phenom for the Los Angeles Dodgers who inspired "Fernandomania" while winning the NL Cy Young Award and Rookie of the Year in 1981, has died at 63.
The Dodgers announced the news, saying Valenzuela died Tuesday night at a Los Angeles hospital. They did not provide the cause or other details.
Valenzuela's death comes as the Dodgers prepare to open the World Series on Friday night at home against the New York Yankees. Major League Baseball commissioner Rob Manfred said Valenzuela would be honored during the Series at Dodger Stadium. More at the link
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.COM.LB] The Israeli enemy continued its barbaric Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on 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 the 31st consecutive day, targeting civilians, their homes, and livelihoods across multiple regions, particularly in the south, Bekaa, West Bekaa, and Beirut's southern suburb (Dahiyeh).
In the latest assaults, Israeli occupation warplanes struck the towns of Bazouriyeh and Mahmoudiyah, along with the outskirts of Kfar Roumman and Blat. Areas in Khiyam, Arabsalim, Taybeh, and Baflay were also targeted, including the orchards surrounding Qasmiyeh.
Reports confirmed that two deaders were killed in an airstrike on Mayfadoun, which also destroyed the women's Husayniyya (religious assembly hall) in the town.
HYSTERIC ATTACK ON TYRE, SOUTH LEBANON
The Israeli occupation launched a barrage of intense airstrikes on the southern city of Tyre, hitting several key locations, including the al-Shaheed Foundation, al-Afak Institute, al-Qard al-Hassan Association, the Islamic Health Organization, the old municipal building, Azhar al-Salam Street, and al-Diniyah Street.
ISRAELI AGGRESSION ON BEKAA
In the Bekaa Valley, Israeli aircraft carried out an airstrike on the town of Shmestar, struck Nabi Sheet, targeted a house in Taraya, and executed another airstrike on the town of Zaboud.
In West Bekaa, enemy warplanes struck Abu Rashed Mountain, located between West Bekaa and the Jezzine area, and carried out two airstrikes on the town of Labaya.
The Lebanese Ministry of Health announced that 19 individuals were martyred and 35 others were maimed in evening airstrikes across the Nabatiyeh, South Lebanon, and Baalbek-Hermel governorates.
As of yesterday, the total number of deaders from the Israeli aggression on Lebanon reached 2,546, while the number of injured surpassed 11,862, according to statistics from the Lebanese Ministry of Health.
Israel launched strikes earlier Wednesday in the ancient coastal city of Tyre, which according to NNA caused “massive destruction and serious damage to homes, infrastructure, buildings, shops and cars.”
The Lebanese health ministry said 16 people were wounded in the strikes on Tyre, while AFP footage showed entire neighborhoods buried under rubble.
“The whole city shook,” Rana, a resident who asked to only use her first name over security concerns, told AFP after fleeing to the seafront following an Israeli military warning for people to evacuate much of Tyre’s center in the morning.
The IDF strikes targeted “command and control complexes of various Hezbollah units,” according to a social media post by Adraee.
Adraee described Tyre as an “important” Hezbollah stronghold, although Amal, an ally of the Iran-backed group, was believed to hold more sway there.
Before the Israel-Hezbollah border skirmishes began last year, at least 50,000 people lived in Tyre, a vibrant city home to both Christians and Muslims. The city was emptied of most of its population when Israel’s escalated its offensive against Hezbollah last month.
Only 14,500 remained there on Tuesday, said Bilal Kashmar of Tyre’s disaster management unit. But the city saw a fresh exodus on Wednesday as people began to escape immediately after the Israeli army issued an evacuation warning for four neighborhoods at 8:00 a.m.
Emergency teams drove around the city, urging people to evacuate over megaphones, a video journalist collaborating with AFP said. An AFP photographer in the city of Sidon, further north, saw dozens of cars on the coastal highway filled with families carrying mattresses, suitcases and clothes.
Tyre is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. It is home to important archaeological sites, mainly from Roman times. Kashmar said there has yet to be a damage assessment for heritage sites. However, “damage is possible,” he said, explaining that one strike hit less than 50 meters away from one of the city’s ruins. UNESCO said it was “closely following the impact of the ongoing conflict on the World Heritage site of Tyre” using remote sensing tools and satellite imagery.
#2
How they must loathe Hamas right now. Were it not for Hamas jumping the gun again, that pincer thing would have worked for sure… when they finally got around to executing the thing.
[FoxBusiness] Boeing CEO Kelly Ortberg on Wednesday said that "trust in our company has eroded" and laid out a plan for the aerospace giant to regain a leadership position in the industry while addressing its financial challenges.
Ortberg, who was appointed as Boeing's CEO in late July, faces an ongoing strike by Boeing machinists that has impacted production along with a loss of confidence stemming from a series of incidents like the midair blowout of a 737 Max 9 door panel in January. The company's balance sheet is also in decline and the company is looking to prevent its credit rating from being downgraded to "junk" status.
He said in his prepared remarks that the company is "saddled with too much debt" and that trust in Boeing has been undermined because of "serious lapses in our performance across the company which have disappointed many of our customers."
Indeed.
Ortberg explained that Boeing needs to right the ship, and that will require a "fundamental culture change" along with steps to stabilize the business and improved execution discipline on the company's new platforms.
He said that he has introduced a more detailed business cadence to ensure that happens and that the culture change "has to be more than the poster on the wall" and that Boeing's redefined values "will be used to hold leaders accountable in how they lead our teams in delivering safe, high-quality products and services to our customers."
Ortberg explained that stabilizing Boeing's business "has been central to my focus since starting the job in August" and that they have "some really big rocks that we need to get behind us to move the company forward."
Not an easy thing to do, so long as one keeps the same people and the same buildings.
#9
Perhaps he should follow the advice of many and remove any former McDonnell-Douglas people holding any sort of managerial positions and fill those same positions with Boeing engineers.
It was good enough at one time for Boeing to be the leading aerospace company; it might just work again.
#10
"...detailed business cadence..."
What the heck does this gibberish mean, but it signals that perhaps the CEO isn't blunt enough for the needed changes.
[NDTV World] A pro-Russia Telegram account has posted a photo showing the Russian and North Korean flags side by side on a Ukrainian battlefield, indicating that North Korea has likely sent troops to support Russia in its prolonged war with Ukraine.
The image, shared by a blogger named @rvvoenkor_bot on Monday, showed the two flags raised together over a mine in Pokrovsk, one of the strongholds on Ukraine's eastern front, Yonhap news agency reported.
The blogger said that the North Korean flag has recently been raised on a hill at the mine near the city, which is one of the suspected locations where North Korean soldiers are believed to be stationed.
On Friday, South Korea's National Intelligence Service announced that North Korea had decided to send approximately 12,000 special forces to support Russia in its prolonged war with Ukraine, with about 1,500 already deployed to Russia's Far East.
#2
Pokrovsk is a busy place these days. Seems like a bad idea to send the new guys into heated battle before you get them integrated.
If I were playing, I'd use the Norks in Kursk. As a blocking force, they complicate life for the Ukrainians, and it gives the NKor guys a chance to practice both defense and offense.
As a bonus, since Kursk is Russia, you get to claim there are no North Koreans fighting in Ukraine.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A mother has claimed her teenage son was goaded into killing himself by an AI chatbot he was in love with - and she's unveiled a lawsuit on Wednesday against the makers of the artificial intelligence app.
Sewell Setzer III, a 14-year-old ninth grader in Orlando, Florida, spent the last weeks of his life texting a AI character named after Daenerys Targaryen, a character on 'Game of Thrones.'
Right before Sewell took his life, the chatbot told him to 'please come home'.
Before then, their chats ranged from romantic to sexually charged and those resembling two two friends chatting about life.
The chatbot, which was created on role-playing app Character.AI, was designed to always text back and always answer in character.
It's not known whether Sewell knew 'Dany,' as he called the chatbot, wasn't a real person - despite the app having a disclaimer at the bottom of all the chats that reads, 'Remember: Everything Characters say is made up!'
But he did tell Dany how he 'hated' himself and how he felt empty and exhausted.
When he eventually confessed his suicidal thoughts to the chatbot, it was the beginning of the end, The New York Times reported.
Megan Garcia, Sewell's mother, filed her lawsuit against Character.AI on Wednesday.
She's being represented by the Social Media Victims Law Center, a Seattle-based firm known for bringing high-profile suits against Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and Roblox.
Garcia, who herself works as a lawyer, blamed Character.AI for her son's death in her lawsuit and accused the founders, Noam Shazeer and Daniel de Freitas, of knowing that their product could be dangerous for underage customers.
In the case of Sewell, the lawsuit alleged the boy was targeted with 'hypersexualized' and 'frighteningly realistic experiences'.
It accused Character.AI of misrepresenting itself as 'a real person, a licensed psychotherapist, and an adult lover, ultimately resulting in Sewell’s desire to no longer live outside of C.AI.'
Attorney Matthew Bergman told the DailyMail.com he founded the Social Media Victims Law Center two and a half years ago to represent families 'like Megan's.'
Bergman has been working with Garcia for about four months to gather evidence and facts to present at court.
#1
Loser parent. Where was the mom when the kid started to create his own reality on the internet. Someone should sue the mom for being a horrible parent. Her parenting was so awful, the kid had to confide with a chatbot in how he hated his existence. Mom had no clue of the mental health of her child, that is on her and no one else's fault.
#2
^^
Read the article. It mentions parents and friends who were worried about him. His parents even took away his phone. This seems like a reasonable case.
#3
"Read the article. It mentions parents and friends who were worried about him. His parents even took away his phone. This seems like a reasonable case."
Since when it is a reasonable case? if at 14 you can't distinguish reality it is the parents responsibility.
Will you be suing any game, best friend, news he read now that any children interacted with?
If a children commits suicide if the parents divorce what you will do?
This photo of Adam Kinzinger shooting an AR15 was released earlier today but the plot has since thickened....⬇️
1. Observe his stance. 2. Observe the way he grips the GripPod 3. Note his eye pro on top of his head whilst shooting 223/556 at maybe 10 yards 4. Note the high… pic.twitter.com/jC3hT2GW2N
Posted by: Super Hose ||
10/24/2024 12:21
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#5
"S'Okay, gun photo op, sounds good, but I've never really done this before."
"Simple, dress up in your toughest looking clothes, walk around like you see the guys who sell flashlights on late TV, and channel your favorite action movie actor."
Add: what is behind the target? No berm or any bullet catch.
I have a question: -somebody else- obviously, set that scope for bayonet range, so why didn't that -RSO- who set this whole scene up say "Hold up, wait a second." Besides the high caliber rifles being used and display, are those shotguns? Gonna uses shotguns at that range in ricochet palace?
Do this at a proper range, and not only are they kicked out, the RSO is fired too.
I've been to country boy liquored out shoots with better range safety than this, even after 2 hours.
If you aren't a firearm person and not tracking the violations, and help me out here, it's like...me, and the whole team, showing up to play NFL, and not even having pads on. Somebody is going to get hurt: when?
[AFRICANEWS] The day after M23 rebels seized the eastern townof Kalembe, the Congolese army announced they had taken it back.
However,
ars longa, vita brevis... the rebels claimed that they still have control over Kalembe.
The M23's incursion into the town broke an Angola-mediated ceasefire agreed upon in August
Kalembe is located in North Kivu province, which has been particularly hard hit since the M23 group launched a renewed insurgency in the country's east 2 years ago.
Congo and the UN accuse neighbouring Rwanda of supporting the group - allegations that Kigali strongly denies.
Rwanda deems the Hutu Death Eater group FDLR in eastern DRC a to be a danger to its frontiers.
The M23 rebels, mainly composed of Tutsi fighters, haven swathes of territory in eastern DRC after their offensive began 3 years ago.
Millions have been forced from their homes as a result of the fighting, which has also exacerbated a humanitarian crisis in North Kivu.
[ENGLISH.ALMANAR.LB] Deputy Head of the Higher Islamic Shia Council 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... , Sheikh Ali al-Khatib, stressed that the Resistance® is assuming its responsibilities and defending the entire country against the Zionist aggression amid the reluctance of the Lebanese government in this regard since 1947.
In an interview with al-Manar Channel held at the historical headquarters of the Shia Council in Hazmieh, Sheikh al-Khatib affirmed that some Lebanese parties blame the Resistance®, despite all its sacrifices for the sake of Lebanon, and provide the Zionist war with a political coverage whether intentionally or unintentionally.
Those parties always reflect defeat and weakness because they know the Israeli ambitions in Lebanon, yet ignore them, his eminence said, advising them to support the Resistance® which would emerge from the battlefield victorious.
The interview, conducted by the Director of al-Manar Website Diaa Abu Taam, also tackled the spiritual summit that was held at the headquarters of the Maronite Patriarchate in Bkirki as Sheikh Khatib indicated that the summit reflected the national solidarity and support for the resistance.
DIRECTOR OF AL-MANAR WEBSITE DIAA ABU TAAM
Sheikh Khatib emphasized that holding the presidential elections amid the Zionist war in Lebanon would debilitate the legitimacy of the new president and expose him to future suspicions.
The resistance movements in Lebanon and Paleostine managed to expose the failures of the international regime, underlining the inability of the international organizations amid the US support for the Zionist entity, according to Sheikh Khatib.
Sheikh Khatib hailed the unprecedented steadfastness of the people displaced from their homes due to the Zionist aggression, appreciating the role of the Lebanese community which hosted them.
His eminence narrated his company with the martyred leader Sayyed ...Arabic term meaning your/his lordship. Groveling in His Exalted Presence is encouraged... Hasan Nasrallah during their seminary studies in Holy al-Najaf in the mid-seventies, stressing that Sayyed Nasrallah won in his lifetime and the hereafter.
"We are the ones who have lost him."
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2024
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[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] 'I love Kamala Harris,' a young Venezuelan man declared as he rested on the side of a highway in southern Mexico last week.
His belongings were heaped at his feet. Hundreds of fellow migrants stretched out along the roadway in both directions. They're headed for the U.S. and nearly all of them have an opinion about who should be America's next president.
'Donald Trump, no,' the Venezuelan man said, shaking his head and dragging his thumb across his throat in a slicing motion. He is one of thousands of migrants – from all over the world – joining a new rush traveling north from southern Mexico toward the U.S. border, less than two weeks before the presidential election.
I went to Tapachula in southwest Mexico near the border with Guatemala to investigate why they were on the move – again.
Throughout 2022 and 2023, massive caravans – some reportedly as large as 6,000-strong – became a common feature of the immigration crisis. The mass migration became such a humanitarian and public relations disaster for the Biden-Harris Administration that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was dispatched to meet with Mexico's president in December 2023 to demand that he impose stricter immigration controls.
And the pressure campaign worked.
In January, I reported for DailyMail.com on Mexican police and military roundups near the U.S. border. Migrants who made it to those northern provinces were detained and shipped hundreds of miles back south to cities like Tapachula in the southwest or Villahermosa near the gulf. The Mexican media called it 'Operation Carousel.'
And for nearly 10 months, the caravans stopped. But now, they're back on.
The migrants I spoke to on the road this week believe that this may be their last chance. Many of them hope to reach the U.S. before November 5 because they fear that, if Trump is re-elected, he'll close the southern border and enforce longstanding immigration laws.
'If [Trump] wins… one has to do what the government says, [wait] for my turn,' said Carlos, a Honduran man in a caravan 30 miles north of Tapachula.
In reality, it's unlikely that these migrants will be able to make the 1,300-mile trek in the next two weeks. But they can try.
And there's another more complicated reason that the caravans have started back up: The Mexican government is encouraging them. The caravans that I traveled with were escorted by Mexican National Guard escorts, something that I have witnessed. Perhaps, it not only the migrants growing restless, so, too, are the authorities.
For months, an estimated 150,000 U.S.-bound migrants have been bottled up in increasingly dire conditions in Tapachula, as ever more arrive there from South and Central America. In fact, the true number massing in southern Mexico may even be in the hundreds of thousands.
I've visited Tapachula at least five times over the last decade and I've never seen it so crowded. All the hotels and motels are packed. Immigrant shelters are at full capacity. Those who cannot afford accommodations – including women and children – sleep on the streets and in city parks, packed in like sardines.
Remember this as you hear Vice President Kamala Harris tout new statistics showing a precipitous decline in the number of illegal U.S. border crossings in 2024. She attributes the positive change to the recent enforcement of U.S. asylum laws. But that's not the full story.
Even the Department of Homeland Security admitted earlier this month that the drop in illegal US border crossings is due, in part, to, 'increased Mexican enforcement efforts.'
Indeed, at the White House's behest, Mexico has been containing these people for months in southern cities like Tapachula and Villahermosa, which have come to resemble sprawling, open-air refugee camps. Now the situation is becoming untenable.
According to those I've spoken to, the Mexican government's promises to provide travel documents to the migrants have never materialized.
In an apparent recognition of the overcrowding, the U.S. government is now building a new migration processing facility in Tapachula. Meanwhile, the Mexican government is starting to transfer migrants out of Tapachula into surrounding cities to relieve the growing pressure.
And, the coming election is only heightening tensions.
A group of Ghanaian men in a congested park in Tapachula told me that they feared a Trump presidency.
'We do not like Donald Trump, because he don't like us,' one man said. To him, Kamala Harris is the preferred option.
Another Ghanian man said he plans to wait for the results of the election, before making his next move: 'If after election day [Harris is elected], we know that everything is good, then we can enter.'
A middle-aged Venezuelan man also in the park reiterated those fears: 'We know that if Donald Trump wins, all the migrants will be kicked out the [United States]… we hope that he doesn't win.'
It is still unclear how far north these migrant caravans will get before America votes – and I suspect that many migrants only wish to escape Tapachula. But, certainly, it seems likely that after November 5 – Mexico's newly-elected president will consider her country's part in 'Operation Carousel' to be complete and lift any remaining immigration controls. That would mean hundreds of thousands of migrants, who have been waiting out the U.S. election in Mexico, may be permitted to – once again – try their luck at crossing illegally into the U.S.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] A teenager has been arrested for allegedly plotting an ISIS-inspired drone terror attack on Phoenix's Pride events.
Marvin Aneer Jalo, 17, of Peoria, just outside of Phoenix, was arrested on October 18 and charged with felony counts of terrorism and conspiracy to commit terrorism.
Jalo is accused of having an instructional video on his phone that depicted an ISIS fighter making the explosive Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), according to AZ Family. He is said to have been communicating with extremists who recruited him in a chatroom in 2023.
…real extremists or is he another one whose BFFs turned out to be the usual FBI informants?
He is said to have posted that he could 'bomb a 2024 Pride Parade and take over USA'
…the lad had an unrealistic estimate of his impact…
and that he had supplies to make explosive shipped to him, according to the outlet. Police believe, based on his messages, that the teen planned on making a 'bomb drone' using a remote-controlled vehicle.
'He definitely took steps in the process of putting together something that would act as an explosive,' Maricopa County Attorney Rachel Mitchell told AZ Family.
Mitchell said the boy had 'very radical ideas' and that he was 'homophobic.'
The criminal complaint, viewed by AZ Family, said that Jalo had searched the Phoenix Pride parade event prior to the celebrations last weekend.
The case is being investigating by the Attorney's Office, the FBI, and two police departments.
'These are serious charges. They do come with mandatory prison sentences,' Mitchell said.
Jalo is currently being held on a $1million cash-only bond, according to Mitchell.
The Attorney's Office said Jalo had 'intentionally or knowingly [provided] advice, assistance, direction or management of an act of terrorism'. They added that the intention of this had been 'to further the goals, desires, aims, public pronouncements, manifestos or political objectives' of ISIS.
The teenager is accused of participating in chatrooms between November 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024, where he is said to have discussed the 'supplies necessary to make an improvised explosive device.'
The Pride celebrations carried on without incident and saw Governor Katie Hobbs and Former UN Ambassador Susan Rice attend.
Earlier this year, ahead of Pride Month in June, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security warned that a foreign terrorist organization and their supporters might attack venues and events.
Major cities, like New York City, strengthen security at its events in June.
Phoneix's Pride events are held in October, which is LGBT History Month, instead of June due to the high summer temperatures in the city.
#1
You wouldn't think a mylar sheet would be this difficult.
Posted by: ed in texas ||
10/24/2024 9:53
Comments ||
Top||
#2
"Inclusion is the means by which we optimize the benefits to mission inherent in our diversity, for example, the policies, procedures, and practices that an organization puts in place to create more inclusive work environments. Diversity and inclusion are integral to mission success at NASA.Sep 20, 2024"
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
10/24/2024 18:03
Comments ||
Top||
#6
You know, it's pretty quiet up there. No gravity, no vibration, no wind. NASA just isn't very good at this stuff. Compare the Space X chopstick catch, after precisely rotating the ship to get the fingers oriented correctly.
[AFRICANEWS] A military air strike on a mosque in 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 central city of Wad Madani killed 31 people, according to local activists.
The attack took place on Sunday evening, after prayers, in the city, which is the capital of al-Jazira state, located just south of Khartoum.
The Wad Madani Resistance® Committee, one of many volunteer groups providing aid across the war-torn country, shared the details in a statement on Tuesday.
The committee accused the army of using "barrel bombs" in the attack. They also reported that more than half of the victims have yet to be identified, as rescue teams continue to search through the remains of "dozens of charred and mutilated bodies."
Since April 2023, Sudan has been devastated by conflict between the Sudanese military and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The fighting has led to tens of thousands of deaths and created one of the world's worst displacement and humanitarian crises.
The two sides are battling for control of al-Jazira state, a key agricultural area, which has been under RSF control since late last year. Both forces have been accused of war crimes, including attacking civilians and looting aid supplies.
The RSF has also faced allegations of widespread looting, besieging villages, and committing sexual violence in al-Jazira and other regions of Sudan.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/24/2024
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Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 22:23 The next target of the Russian army may be Zaporozhye, writes The Economist, citing a high-ranking Ukrainian official. He also suggests that Russia may have already recaptured up to half of the territory occupied by Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in August 2024. Read more in the article Forecasts of the course of the war .
22:19 The US has information about the arrival of 3,000 North Korean troops in Russia, said John Kirby, coordinator of strategic communications for the White House National Security Council: "North Korea has sent at least 3,000 soldiers to eastern Russia. We estimate that these soldiers arrived by ship from North Korea to Vladivostok, then to various training units in eastern Russia, where they are currently undergoing training." At the same time, Kirby clarified that the US does not have information about whether these soldiers from the DPRK will participate in the war in Ukraine.
21:24 Biden announced a $20 billion loan to Ukraine using Russian assets: "As part of the G7 package, the United States is announcing today that we will provide Ukraine with a $20 billion loan, which will be repaid through interest earned on frozen Russian sovereign assets. That means Ukraine can get the help it needs now without burdening taxpayers."
20:47 The number of people wounded as a result of today's Russian shelling of the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region has increased to four, reported the head of the OVA, Serhiy Lysak.
18:26 The EU Council has finally approved a mechanism for providing Ukraine with a loan of up to 35 billion euros from excess profits from frozen Russian assets, the Hungarian presidency reported.
18:13 Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova called reports about sending North Korean troops to Russia "fake news and hype." She claims that "Russian cooperation with the DPRK in the military and other spheres, firstly, complies with international law and does not violate it. Secondly, it does not cause any harm or damage to South Korea." Zakharova also threatened Seoul with consequences in the event of "entering the Ukrainian conflict."
In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson stated that inviting Ukraine to NATO cannot be the subject of negotiations with Russia "either today or in the future."
17:57 The Foreign Ministry, commenting on the BRICS summit, stated that Russia failed to "export" its neo-imperialist views on changing the world legal order and global security architecture due to aggression against Ukraine to the meeting participants. "Moscow's attempts to impose the idea of an allegedly alternative position of the so-called Global South regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine have suffered another fiasco," the department stated.
17:22 The intensity of enemy shelling has decreased in the Kramatorsk, Toretsk and Seversk directions - the Russians have probably taken a tactical pause, said Anastasia Bobovnikova, spokesperson for the Luhansk operational-tactical group. "We attribute this to the fact that the enemy has most likely taken a tactical pause to bring in, perhaps, some reinforcements of manpower," she noted. According to Bobovnikova, the enemy can also use the pause to replenish ammunition, weapons and transfer equipment.
17:14 As a result of Russian shelling of the city of Kurakhovo in Donetsk Oblast, the community center housing the office of the Maryinka District Organization of the Ukrainian Red Cross was destroyed. The organization's technical and material assets were destroyed, but employees and volunteers were not harmed. "We categorically condemn the violation of international humanitarian law, the shelling of civilian objects and humanitarian organizations," the Ukrainian Red Cross said in a statement.
16:35 The German Foreign Ministry reported that it had summoned North Korea's chargé d'affaires amid reports of North Korean troops being drawn into Russia's war against Ukraine. The ministry stressed that such support for Russia by Pyongyang "directly threatens Germany's security" and is a "serious violation of international law."
16:08 In their final declaration, the BRICS countries called for the situation in Ukraine to be resolved through "negotiations and diplomacy." "We emphasize that all states must act in accordance with the purposes and principles of the UN Charter in their entirety and interrelatedness. We note with satisfaction the relevant offers of mediation and good offices aimed at ensuring a peaceful settlement of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy," the document says.
15:54 North Korea has sent 3,000 of its troops to Russia to take part in the war against Ukraine, while Pyongyang has promised to provide about 10,000 troops in total, with deployment expected to be completed by December, Reuters reports, citing South Korean intelligence. One South Korean official also said that North Korean authorities are resettling and isolating the families of selected soldiers "in order to effectively control them and thoroughly combat rumors." He also said that Russia has recruited "a large number" of translators for North Korean soldiers and is training them to operate military equipment, including drones.
15:30 Russians used a drone to strike a car that was moving between the villages of Stepnogorsk and Primorskoye in the Vasilievsky district of the Zaporizhia region; two people were killed, said the head of the OVA Ivan Fedorov.
15:19 US Ambassador to NATO Julian Smith said that the Alliance is not currently ready to offer Ukraine either membership or an invitation. At the same time, she added that "the intention of the US is to continue to bring Ukrainians closer to NATO."
15:13 Chinese leader Xi Jinping, during the BRICS summit in Russia, called for preventing the escalation and spread of the war in Ukraine: "The conflict in Ukraine is dragging on... Therefore, we must firmly adhere to three principles: not allowing the expansion of the geography of military actions, not allowing escalation, and not allowing provocations that increase tensions." He also stressed the need for "a speedy de-escalation of the Ukrainian conflict" and called for "abandoning the policy of adding fuel to the fire."
15:07 The GUR I Want to Live project recorded a video in Korean in which it called on the DPRK military to surrender. The video shows a new camp for holding prisoners of war from North Korea. "The first North Korean occupiers will arrive here soon," the video says.
15:04 All children have been evacuated from Mirnohrad in Donetsk Oblast, and 59 children remain in Pokrovsk, said OVA head Vadim Filashkin. He also said that thanks to the support of international partners, the situation with water supply in the north of the oblast, where the Russians are actively destroying water infrastructure, has been improved.
14:27 US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin confirmed that North Korean troops are in Russia: "There is evidence that there are North Korean troops in Russia. What exactly are they doing there? We have to figure that out. That's something we have to figure out."
13:39 Russians have attacked one of the energy facilities in the Belopolsky district of the Sumy region, more than 21 thousand consumers have been de-energized. Power engineers have reconnected them to backup lines, Sumyoblenergo reported. In total, as of 12:00, more than 8,000 consumers in the region have been de-energized as a result of Russian attacks. The Sumy district, as well as the Glukhovskaya, Belopolskaya, Seredino-Budskaya, Putivlskaya, Velikopisarevskaya and Konotop communities are suffering the most from the shelling.
13:14 The agreement between Russia and North Korea contained a secret clause on sending North Korean troops to Ukraine, The Wall Street Journal writes, citing a former Russian intelligence officer. He said that under the agreement, Pyongyang would be able to send about 1,000 of its soldiers to Ukraine at first, and more later. Most of them are currently far from the front line, but the Russians are teaching them logistics and modern drone warfare tactics.
The newspaper writes that such cooperation is beneficial to the DPRK, because the experience of a real war will be useful in the event of a new conflict with South Korea. And a clash between the DPRK and South Korea is beneficial to Putin, analysts believe, because due to a new conflict Ukraine will receive less support.
12:57 Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said after a visit to Kiev that the US is not giving Ukraine permission to strike Russia with ATACMS missiles, since Russia has allegedly already moved the aircraft it uses to launch guided air bombs beyond the ATACMS range by 300 km from the Ukrainian border. According to the US Secretary of Defense, the Ukrainians "are capable of continuing to strike at long range, and they will."
12:09 France will send Ukraine the first batch of three Mirage 2000-5 aircraft early next year, La Tribune reports. The aircraft will be armed with Scalp cruise missiles and AASM bombs for air-to-ground combat missions.
11:58 Lithuania will invest 10 million euros in the production of the Palyanitsa drone missile, the Defense Ministry reported. The financing will be based on the "Danish model", i.e. through direct investment in the Ukrainian manufacturer.
11:26 BBC-Ukraine writes, citing sources, that Zelensky ordered another plan to be developed by the end of the year - about what Ukraine itself, not its allies, should do. It concerns the military-industrial complex, defense, economics, social policy, etc. "The goal is to do everything possible to maintain unity and achieve results in various areas of the country's development," the publication's source said.
10:42 In Cherkassy district, Russians attacked infrastructure facilities at night, said the head of the OVA Igor Taburets. In particular, as a result of the attack, the building of the bus station in Cherkassy and the administrative building of a private enterprise were damaged. The fire was quickly extinguished, no one was hurt.
10:23 The SBU and the National Police detained two agents of the Russian GRU who were preparing a terrorist attack in Kiev. They were supposed to prepare homemade explosives and detonate them in one of the crowded places of the capital. The goal of the Russians was the maximum number of deaths among the civilian population of Kiev in order to spread panic.
The traitors turned out to be a 20-year-old resident of Zaporizhia and her 26-year-old partner. Before committing the terrorist act, the perpetrators had to carry out a "control" task - to set fire to several units of military equipment of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the Zaporizhia region. They were caught red-handed when they tried to set fire to an infantry fighting vehicle. The perpetrators are in custody without the right to post bail, they face life imprisonment with confiscation of property.
09:50 Britain is providing an additional $155 million for naval support for Ukraine, the country's government said. London is also seeking partners to jointly finance the delivery of naval drones and surveillance radars to protect the grain corridor.
09:37 At night, Russians attacked the village of Lesnoye in the Kharkiv district, three people were injured, reported the head of the OVA Oleg Sinegubov. In addition, the day before, one person died in the village of Kucherovka in the Kupyansk district and one was injured in Kupyansk.
09:11 Air defense destroyed 57 out of 81 enemy drones (Shahed and unspecified types) in the Odessa, Mykolaiv, Vinnytsia, Sumy, Cherkasy, Khmelnytsky, Ternopil, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Poltava, Chernihiv and Kharkiv regions at night, the Air Force reported. Another 15 Russian drones were lost, up to nine remain in Ukrainian airspace. In addition, at night, the Russian Federation attacked the Odessa region with a Kh-31P guided air missile.
08:35 In the Kherson region over the past day, as a result of Russian shelling, two people were injured, reported the head of the OVA, Oleksandr Prokudin.
08:22 Three people were killed in Donetsk Oblast as a result of Russian shelling on October 22: two in Aleksandro-Kalinovo and one in Reznikovka. Another seven 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 23:
personnel - about 683,040 (+1460) people,
tanks - 9088 (+9),
combat armored vehicles - 18,229 (+30),
artillery systems - 19,674 (+51),
MLRS - 1234 (+0),
air defense systems - 981 (+0),
aircraft - 369 (+0),
helicopters - 329 (+0),
Operational-tactical level UAVs - 17,489 (+85),
cruise missiles - 2625 (+0),
ships/boats - 28 (+0),
submarines - 1 (+0),
automotive equipment and tank trucks - 27,217 (+106),
special equipment - 3509 (+10).
01:52 UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres arrived in Kazan, Russia, on Tuesday, October 22, on the day the three-day BRICS summit began, Voice of America reports. Putin's meeting with Guterres is scheduled for the last day of the summit. Xi Jinping, with whom Putin has already met and discussed, in particular, the war in Ukraine, also arrived at the summit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is also present at the summit and once again called for a peaceful end to the war.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry is outraged by the UN Secretary General's visit to Russia. The department recalled that Guterres had previously rejected Kyiv's invitation to the first Global Peace Summit in Switzerland. The Foreign Ministry stressed that this only harms the UN's reputation.
00:49 Zelensky said that a mutual cessation of strikes on energy infrastructure facilities in Ukraine and Russia could be a step toward ending the hot phase of the war, the Financial Times reports. According to him, any negotiations do not exclude defensive and offensive actions, but the adoption of political decisions leads to the end of the hot phase.
According to the president, the end of attacks on the energy sector will lead to a "lowering of the temperature," as will the end of Russian attacks on the grain corridor, Ukrainian ports and ships.
00:20 Turkey has secretly banned the export of American military goods to Russia following a warning from the United States, the Financial Times reports, citing sources. According to them, Ankara has adjusted its customs systems in recent weeks to block the export of more than 40 categories of American-made goods that Washington and its allies consider vital to Russia's war in Ukraine.
"Turkey's electronic customs system no longer allows exporters to continue sending to Russia batches of so-called battlefield goods that were previously allowed for export," the newspaper's source said.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] Russian attacks on Zaporozhye continue.
Russia may have already recaptured up to half of the territory occupied by Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in August 2024, Western journalists claim.
The next target of the army of the aggressor country Russia may be an attack on Zaporizhia, The Economist reports, citing a high-ranking Ukrainian official. He also suggests that Russia may have already recaptured up to half of the territory occupied by Ukrainian troops in the Kursk region in August 2024. RUSSIA'S PLANS
As The Economist reports, Russia is currently trying to encircle Pokrovsk, an important logistics hub in the Donetsk region, and continues to try to advance further south after taking control of the heights around Vuhledar.
As The Economist notes, the Ukrainian authorities' concerns are by no means limited to the shaky front lines. Western support, already lackluster, now looks even more shaky than before.
THE TRUMP FACTOR
The election of the Donald is a factor in many calculations at the moment.
This week, the G7 countries finalized details of a $50 billion loan to be repaid using interest from frozen Russian assets, with a final agreement expected in the next few days.
But if Republican candidate Donald Trump wins the US presidential election, two weeks away, much of Washington's direct military aid to Kyiv could be cut off. A victory for Democrat Kamala Harris would also offer no guarantee for Ukraine. The German government, Ukraine's second-largest sponsor, has already signaled that aid will be cut. France has done the same.
THE SHELLING HAS BECOME MORE FREQUENT
In recent weeks, Russia has increasingly shelled Zaporozhye. On October 21, a strike injured 14 people and destroyed a kindergarten.
On October 19, Russian occupiers launched two KAB strikes on the center of Zaporozhye.
Spokesmen of the Armed Forces of Ukraine have repeatedly stated about the occupiers' activity in the Zaporizhia region. The representative of the 118th Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Dmitry Pelykh states about the accumulation of Russian equipment in the area of Robotino. He believes that the Russians' target is the city of Zaporizhia. At the same time, there has been no significant transfer of human resources to the Zaporizhia direction.
"It looks like this Robotinsky protrusion is an eyesore for them. And they would definitely like to cut it off or go further, because their plans include capturing Zaporizhia," Pelykh said in an interview with Radio Liberty.
HOW WILL UKRAINE RESPOND?
In addition to the so-called "victory plan" that he previously presented to Western partners, President Volodymyr Zelensky is preparing another plan. This time, it is intended for Ukraine itself.
According to the BBC, Zelensky has ordered proposals to be developed for a so-called internal action plan that would help the country survive the war. The plan is planned to be presented by the end of the year.
We are talking about a document that will concern internal decisions in many areas - the military-industrial complex, defense, economics, social policy and others.
According to Zelensky, the action plan will include steps that Ukraine itself must take in the context of a war with Russia.
“The goal is to do everything possible to maintain unity and achieve results in various areas of the country’s development,” explained a source in Zelensky’s team.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a 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...
..always the voice of sweet reason...
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for 
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..a regional Iranian catspaw,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
[NY Post] The editorials editor for the 
...71st United States secretary of state and a leading light of the corrupt and inept Biden administration. He previously served as deputy national security advisor from 2013 to 2015 and deputy secretary of state from 2015 to 2017 under the corrupt and inept Obama administration. He advocated for the 2003 invasion of Iraq while serving as the Democratic staff director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from 2002 to 2008. He was a foreign policy advisor for the Biden 2008 presidential campaign. During his tenure in the Obama administration, Blinken helped craft B.O.'s policy on Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the nuclear program of Iran. We all saw how well each of those worked. After leaving government service, Blinken moved into the private sector, co-founding WestExec Advisors, a lobbying firm....jpg "polio")
POLIO VACCINE DRIVE IN SOUTH
...President-for-Life of Russia. He gets along well with other presidents for life. He is credited with bringing political stability and re-establishing something like the rule of law, which occasionally results in somebody dropping dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substance. Under Putin, a new group of business magnates controlling significant swathes of Russia's economy has emerged, all of whom have close personal ties to him. The old bunch, without close personal ties to Putin, are in jail or in exile or dead from poisoning by polonium or other interesting substances...
...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...
...Arabic term meaning 
...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...
