[IsraelTimes] A video of a former Israeli hostage confronting an anti-Israel activist on a panel has gone viral for the woman’s comments on coexistence and the need for activists to learn the facts on the conflict.
Moran Stella Yanai, who was held hostage for 54 days in Gaza before being freed in the November 2023 deal, recently took part in a panel on the Gaza conflict alongside Aidan Doyle, who was a leader of the anti-Israel encampment at UCLA. Mosab Hassan Yousef, the pro-Israeli disowned son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef, was also on the panel.
Noting that she had worked with Arabs and had been friends with Arabs for years, Yanai confronted Doyle on his vociferous criticism of Israel.
“Have you ever been to Israel? Have you visited Gaza before? Probably not,” she said, which Doyle, visibly uncomfortable as she spoke, did not contest. “Did you know that the vast majority of the hostages believe in coexisting?”
Yanai went on: “On October 7, and this is what [the terrorists] told me, they didn’t know about the Nova festival, they didn’t know that we have 3,000 people there. They planned, and they told me that, they planned to move on and kill as much as they could. In Beersheba, in Tel Aviv, in Haifa — they wanted to slaughter everybody.
“When I was entering Gaza and there is a video that I saw, 100% of civilians celebrating me being taken… All I saw was 100% of civilians lynching me, beating me up. I was with a broken leg. I had bruises all over my body. Do you know that I’ve never cursed them? I’ve never argued with them. And I’ve never treated them like garbage. I respected them even when they abused me, because I believe that if I want to be respected, I have to respect everybody else.
“So I’m asking you one thing and one thing only because I see you’re not comfortable. I’m asking you to check facts on both sides.”
RELEASED HOSTAGE MORAN STELLA YANAI explains in simple human terms to UCLA Encampment leader Aidan Doyle what she thinks would likely solve the Israeli Palestinian conflict. MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF ("Son of Hamas") adds his perspective.
SEE THE FULL DEBATE (Part I and Part II) FEATURING MOSAB HASSAN YOUSEF ("Son of Hamas"), moderated by David Rouda on YouTube @Gr8.Debate
Oh, those tricksy, tricksy juices. You know what happens when Jewish blood invades a formerly good and pious jihadi? The very thought is horrifying.
[IsraelTimes] The Israeli military has facilitated the delivery of blood units to a hospital in isolated northern Gaza.
Israel has imposed a tight siege on the northernmost part of the territory since launching an offensive there in early October. Aid groups say very little humanitarian assistance has been allowed in and have warned of famine.
The Israeli military agency in charge of transferring aid to Gaza, COGAT, says it sent 1,000 units of blood through a northern crossing yesterday. The UN’s health cluster says the blood shipment was delivered to Kamal Adwan hospitalin Beit Lahiya.
Tens of thousands of Palestinians have fled the northernmost reaches of the Strip since the offensive began, and hospitals there have struggled to function.
I checked the Hodhod Yemen News site last night and saw nothing on this story.
[IsraelTimes] Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels claim responsibility for an attack that twice targeted a Panama-flagged bulk carrier traveling through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden yesterday.
Houthi military spokesman Brig. Gen. Yahya Saree makes the claim about the attack on the Anadolu S in a prerecorded statement.
Missiles twice splashed down near the ship yesterday, causing no damage or injuries.
[IsraelTimes] Iran has further increased its stockpile of uranium enriched to near weapons-grade levels in defiance of international demands, according to a confidential report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog seen today by The Associated Press.
The report by the International Atomic Energy Agency says that as of Oct. 26, Iran has 182.3 kilograms (401.9 pounds) of uranium enriched up to 60%, an increase of 17.6 kilograms (38.8 pounds) since the last report in August.
Uranium enriched at 60% purity is just a short, technical step away from weapons-grade levels of 90%.
The IAEA also estimates in its quarterly report that as of Oct. 26, Iran’s overall stockpile of enriched uranium stands at 6,604.4 kilograms (14,560 pounds), which represents an increase of 852.6 kilograms (1,879.6 pounds) since the last report in August. Under the IAEA’s definition, around 42 kilograms (92.5 pounds) of uranium enriched to 60% purity is the amount at which creating one atomic weapon is theoretically possible — if the material is enriched further, to 90%.
The amount being held by Iran is more than 32 times the limit set in a 2015 accord between Iran and world powers to limit its nuclear program.
[IsraelTimes] The United Nations chief denounces the “systematic” looting of humanitarian aid in Gaza, a day after Hamas authorities claimed that 20 people were killed in a security operation targeting such groups.
“Armed looting has become systematic and must end immediately. It is hindering life-saving aid operations and further endangering the lives of our staff,” says Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres. “However, the use of law enforcement operations must be lawful, necessary and proportionate.”
[IsraelTimes] The Knesset gives final approval to two bills cutting national insurance benefits for terror convicts.
The first law, sponsored by Likud MK Ariel Kallner, is approved 29-8 in its third and final reading in the Knesset and revises the National Insurance Law to cut child allowances paid to parents of minors imprisoned for security or stone-throwing offenses.
The second, sponsored by Yisrael Beytenu MK Yulia Malinovsky, passes 34-2 and revokes National Insurance Institute benefits paid to anyone living abroad who “has been convicted of an offense pronounced by the court to be an act of terrorism.”
The new law mandates the cessation of payments under the National Insurance Law, such as work injury allowances to eligible non-residents of Israel who fall under its purview.
According to the explanatory notes for the bill, which passed its first reading 23-7 in July: “In the course of the Swords of Iron war [in Gaza], it became apparent that there are also benefits paid to residents of the Gaza Strip who were involved in terrorist activity.”
Addressing the Knesset Labor and Welfare Committee earlier this month, Malinovsky stated that there are currently more than 30 people detained in Israel who meet this definition.
“The circus is over, the benefits for terrorists are being stopped,” she said at the time. “Thanks to the law, we will put an end to the absurd situation in which state benefits [paid for] from Israeli taxpayer money go to terrorists who have blood on their hands and have harmed innocent citizens.”
[IsraelTimes] Iran’s judiciary says it has not issued an indictment against a student who stripped down to her underwear earlier this month at a university in Tehran.
“Considering that she was sent to the hospital, and it was found that she was ill, she was handed over to her family… and no judicial case has been filed against her,” judiciary spokesman Asghar Jahangir tells a news conference, without naming her.
Earlier in November, footage of a female student circulated online, showing her sitting and briefly walking at Islamic Azad University in Tehran before stripping down to her underwear. The move sparked harsh reactions from officials in Iran, where covering the neck and head and dressing modestly became mandatory for women following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
Science Minister Hossein Simaei described it as an “immoral and uncustomary” act, while adding that she had not been expelled from her university.
London-based human rights group Amnesty International said the woman was “violently arrested after she removed her clothes in protest against abusive enforcement of compulsory veiling by security officials.”
Given that the PA is the PLO is mostly Fatah, that seems fair.
[IsraelTimes] The Jerusalem District Court ruled earlier today that the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization are required to pay tens of millions of shekels to victims of the 2001 terrorist bombing of the Sbarro pizza restaurant in central Jerusalem, Channel 12 reports.
Sixteen civilians were killed in the August 9, 2001 suicide bombing, including seven children, and 130 people were wounded, in one of the deadliest terrorist attacks of the Second Intifada.
The court made the determination on the basis of the PA’s yearslong policy of making financial payments to terrorists and the families of terrorists, the TV report says.
It says the precedent-setting court ruling potentially also opens the door for victims of the Hamas-led October 7, 2023 massacre to seek financial compensation from the PA.
The court issued its ruling in response to two suits that victims of the 2001 bombing have been pursuing for the past two decades, the report says, and relied upon a Supreme Court ruling that the Palestinian Authority can be held liable for terrorist acts, due to its policy of paying stipends to security prisoners in Israeli jails and the families of those killed during attacks on Israelis.
Justice Isaac Amit, setting out the Supreme Court ruling in April 2022, found that the decision to pay convicted Palestinian terrorists and those killed as part of the “struggle against Israel” made the PA liable for their actions. “[The PA] expresses its consent to their actions, in a manner that takes responsibility for the acts. This justifies that [the PA] will be assigned personal and direct responsibility,” Amit wrote.
Meir Schijveschuurder, a lawyer for the victims whose own parents and three brothers were among the fatalities in the bombing, hailed today’s ruling, telling Channel 12, that the court decision would help quell “rampant terrorism because the Palestinians will not be able to bear the financial consequences.” The decision, he said, “will bring relief to the families of the victims, and significantly reduce terrorism.”
The Channel 12 report indicates that the compensation ordered by the court could be paid out of funds that Israel has been withholding since 2018 from the monthly tax revenues it collects on behalf of the PA.
[IsraelTimes] The Rishon Lezion Magistrate’s Court clears for publication the name of three of the suspects arrested for firing flares at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s private home in Caesarea on Saturday night.
One of them is Rear Adm. (res.) Ofer Doron,
…an ADMIRAL?!? Truly appalling…
a former senior Navy officer who announced last year that he would no longer show up for volunteer reservist duty in protest of the government’s controversial judicial overhaul plan, and was suspended from the reserves in response.
The other two suspects are named as Amir Sadeh and Itai Yafeh, both longtime anti-government protesters.
Professional cadres? Do their souls belong to the Biden/Obama State Department, international Progressive billionaires, or China? All three are paying the protest movement…
According to Channel 12 news, the three suspects told police that they did not intend to fire toward Netanyahu’s home, and that they even fired a test to make sure it would not head in that direction but that the wind forced it off course.
Even I am not that gullible.
Nobody was harmed in the incident and no damage was caused, and the Netanyahus were not home at the time.
[IsraelTimes] Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are eating away at US stockpiles of air defenses, the top US admiral overseeing American forces in the Asia-Pacific region says.
“With some of the Patriots that have been employed, some of the air-to-air missiles that have been employed, it’s now eating into stocks and to say otherwise would be dishonest,” Adm. Sam Paparo, head of the US Indo-Pacific Command, says during an event.
“Inherently, it imposes costs on the readiness of America to respond in the Indo-Pacific region, which is the most stressing theater for the quantity and quality of munitions, because the PRC is the most capable potential adversary in the world,” Paparo says, using an acronym for the People’s Republic of China.
[IsraelTimes] US State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller says looting of humanitarian aid convoys in Gaza cannot be fully addressed until a new Palestinian-led governing and security force replaces Hamas in the Strip.
While the US and the international community have pushed for the Palestinian Authority to play this role, the idea has been rejected outright by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has often likened the PA to Hamas.
Netanyahu said earlier this week that he has directed the IDF to come up with new solutions to ensure the safe distribution of aid, though Israeli officials have told The Times of Israel over the past year that the security establishment also feels that the PA is the only viable alternative to continued Hamas rule in Gaza.
At a press briefing, Miller criticizes the repeated looting of aid convoys, saying those behind the actions are siphoning assistance away from civilians who desperately need it.
The US is working with Israel to try and find interim solutions to address the looting that has intensified as the IDF has gradually depleted Hamas’s military presence in Gaza, including the terror group’s ability to maintain internal security, says the State Department spokesperson.
At the request of the US, Israel opened new routes for delivering aid within Gaza aimed at avoiding roads targeted by looters. However, a subsequent case of looting reportedly ended up taking place on one of these new routes.
The US has been careful not to say that Hamas is directly behind the aid looting, while Israel has repeatedly insisted that the terror group siphons off much of the aid coming in.
“Ultimately, you are not going to finally solve this problem without an end to the war and the establishment of a new governance and security authority inside Gaza,” Miller says, adding that the US also strongly opposes having Israel become the occupying power in Gaza.
#1
The solution is simple, send the IDF solders in with the aid trucks and shoot any would be looters.That'll stop the looting and reduce the ranks of Hamas terrorists at the same time!
[IsraelTimes] Border Police officers surround building in Qabatiya, near Jenin, after coming under fire during arrest raid; troops find rifles, bombs, other combat equipment
Three button men from the 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 group were killed by Israeli forces during a firefight in the northern West Bank, the army said Tuesday.
No Israeli soldiers were maimed in the Tuesday morning exchange, which came as troops raided the Jenin area as part of an ongoing anti-terror operation.
Border police troops had entered the town of Qabatiya south of Jenin to arrest Raed Hanaysha, 24, a PIJ operative previously imprisoned for terrorism. Hanshaya is suspected of being involved in shooting and bombing attacks against soldiers in the West Bank that did not cause casualties, according to a joint statement from the Israel Defense Forces, Israel Police, and Shin Bet security service.
Officers laid siege to the building where Hanaysha was holed up after coming under fire from two other button men in the building, using a tactic known as a "pressure cooker," which involves escalating the volume of fire against a building to flush suspects out.
Both Hanaysha and the two button men were killed, with Islamic Jihad later confirming that the three had been members of the terror group. The other two men were identified by PIJ as Anwar Saba’neh, 25, and Suleiman Tazazaa, 32.
Three assault rifles and other military equipment were found on the bodies of the terrorists. In addition, the Israeli troops found three more weapons and destroyed two bomb-making labs, as well as several bombs that had been placed under roads to harm soldiers.
Since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas ..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,... terror group attacked Israel, starting the ongoing 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... , troops have arrested some 5,250 wanted Paleostinians across the West Bank, including more than 2,050 affiliated with Hamas.
According to the Paleostinian Authority health ministry, more than 716 West Bank Paleostinians have been killed in that time. The IDF says the vast majority of them were button men killed in exchanges of fire, rioters who clashed with troops or murderous Moslems killed while carrying out attacks.
During the same period, 41 people, including Israeli security personnel, have been killed in terror attacks in Israel and the West Bank. Another six members of the security forces were killed in festivities with terror operatives in the West Bank.
Since October 7, 2023, the IDF has carried out more than 70 Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.
[IsraelTimes] Targets include terror group’s representatives abroad, operative who aided deadly 1997 bombing at Tel Aviv café, and financiers funneling money into Gaza, West Bank
Washington imposed sanctions on six senior Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... officials, the US Treasury Department said Tuesday, in further action against the Paleostinian terror group as Washington has sought to achieve a ceasefire and the release of hostages 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... The Treasury Department said in a statement the sanctions targeted the terror group’s representatives abroad, a senior member of its military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, and those involved in supporting fundraising efforts and weapons smuggling into Gaza.
"Hamas continues to rely on key officials who seemingly maintain legitimate, public-facing roles within the group, yet who facilitate their terrorist activities, represent their interests abroad, and coordinate the transfer of money and goods into Gaza," Treasury’s Acting Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, Bradley Smith, said in the statement.
"Treasury remains committed to disrupting Hamas’s efforts to secure additional revenue and holding those who facilitate the group’s terrorist activities to account."
Among those targeted was Abd al-Rahman Ismail abd al-Rahman Ghanimat, a longtime member of Hamas’s military wing who is now based in The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the decaying remnant of the Ottoman Empire... , the Treasury said. It accused him of being involved in "multiple attempted and successful terrorist attacks," including the 1997 Café Apropo bombing in Tel Aviv.
Ghanimat was previously sentenced to five life sentences in prison but was one of 1,027 Paleostinian security prisoners released in 2011 in exchange for Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier held at the time by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
Two other Hamas officials based in Turkey were also among those targeted by the sanctions, the Treasury said, charging that Musa Daud Muhammad Akari and had been involved in facilitating the transfer of funds from Turkey "into Gaza and the West Bank for Hamas."
Akari was previously convicted by Israel for taking part in the 1992 murder of Israeli police officer Nissim Toledano. He was released from prison as part of the Shalit deal in 2011.
Ankara has denied that it has become the new base of Hamas’s politburo operations although 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... said Tuesday that the Hamas leaders involved in negotiations for a hostage release-ceasefire deal with Israel were "not in Doha" anymore.
In addition to the three Turkey-based Hamas officials, the US Treasury Department said that it was imposing sanctions on Gaza-based officials Basem Naim and Ghazi Hamad.
It charged that Naim has "participated in Hamas’s engagements with Russia and been a part of Hamas delegations to other countries," while Hamad has "served as the editor of Hamas propaganda outlets and is authorized to speak publicly on behalf of Hamas."
Hamad was also involved in the past with overseeing Gaza’s border crossings, which the Treasury said were "one of the primary ways Hamas smuggled weapons into Gaza," and were also used by the terror group to smuggle in the equipment it used to build its "extensive tunnel network they intentionally interspersed among Paleostinian civilians."
The final Hamas official included in Tuesday’s sanctions list was Mohammed Nazzal, whom the Treasury said has "provided support to the terrorist group for over 30 years. Nazzal, who has previously lived in both Jordan and Syria, is a big shot on Hamas’s Council on International Relations, the Treasury said.
The sanctions freeze any US-based assets owned or controlled by the named individuals. They also block financial transactions with those designated and prohibit the contribution of funds, goods and services to them.
Tuesday’s action marked the ninth time that the Treasury has imposed sanctions on Hamas entities and backers since the October 7, 2023 terror onslaught enacted by the group in southern Israel, in which some 1,200 people were killed and 251 were seized as hostages.
Most recently, on October 7, 2024, the Treasury imposed sanctions on a "sham charity" in Italia that it said had been fundraising for the Paleostinian terror group, and on two senior Hamas representatives in Europa ...the land mass occupying the space between the English Channel and the Urals, also known as Moslem Lebensraum... — one in Germany and the other in Austria.
[IsraelTimes] In remarks at Oman’s National Day celebration in Washington, Muscat’s deputy ambassador to the US warns against conflating between Zionism and Judaism.
“We must also be mindful of the dangerous confusion between Judaism as a religion and Zionism as a political ideology. This confusion actually fuels antisemitism and undermines efforts for peaceful resolutions to the conflict,” says Sabra Ahmed Al-Hooti.
Successive polling shows, however, that a substantial majority of Jews view Israel as a central part of their Jewish identity.
Oman’s then-sultan hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in 2018 and Muscat has been floated as a potential candidate to join the Abraham Accords. But in 2022 its lower house of parliament voted to expand its Israel boycott law. Still, it opened its airspace to Israeli flights last year.
Since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war, Muscat has joined other countries in the region in doubling down in their stance against normalizing relations with Israel before a Palestinian state is established.
The Israel-Palestinian conflict is the first issue mentioned in Al-Hooti’s brief remarks welcoming guests. She reiterates Oman’s call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and for the establishment of a Palestinian state before highlighting the past year’s achievements for Muscat domestically and in its relations with the US.
#3
◄ Psalm 137 ►
JPS Tanakh 1917
1By the rivers of Babylon,
There we sat down, yea, we wept,
When we remembered Zion.
2Upon the willows in the midst thereof We hanged up our harps.
3For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song,
And our tormentors asked of us mirth:
‘Sing us one of the songs of Zion.’
4How shall we sing the LORD’S song
In a foreign land?
5If I forget thee, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand forget her cunning.
6Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth,
If I remember thee not;
If I set not Jerusalem
Above my chiefest joy.
One can’t expect a Moslem to know the Jewish bible, but that psalm was written during the Babylonian Exile, after the fall of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 587 BCE, almost 1000 years before Mohammed had his revelation. Zionism was been baked into Judaism from that point, and the first return of exiled Jews to Israel occurred after Persia conquered Babylonia in 539 BCE, as recorded in the Old Testament’s Book of Ezra.
[IsraelTimes] Netanyahu says captives will be freed regardless, even as defense officials said to warn him that a ceasefire deal is the only way to rescue them
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed on Tuesday that Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... would not rule 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... after the war, seemingly rejecting efforts to reach a ceasefire with the terror group still partially intact as he visited an Israeli military position in the enclave.
The premier also reiterated an offer to lavishly pay Gazooks who turn over Israeli hostages, upping the reward to $5 million for each captive, after previously suggesting Israel would pay "several million" for their recovery.
The visit came as Israel presses an offensive in northern Gaza to root out resurgent Hamas activity, and amid dire warnings about the condition of the Israeli hostages who remain captive some thirteen months after they were kidnapped by Hamas-led holy warriors on October 7, 2023.
In a video of the visit later published by Netanyahu’s office, the prime minister said that IDF troops in the enclave had "achieved excellent results toward our important goal — that Hamas will not rule in Gaza. We are destroying its military capabilities in a very impressive manner, and we are moving on to its ruling capabilities... Hamas will not be in Gaza."
In addition, he said, Israel is also doing everything it can "to locate our hostages, and return them. We are not letting up. We will continue to do so until we get them all — both the living and the dead."
Addressing "those who are holding our hostages," Netanyahu said, "Whoever dares to harm our hostages — he is a marked man. We will pursue you and we will get you."
Netanyahu spoke after visiting the Netzarim corridor, a belt running the width of the Strip where Israeli troops have dug in for several months, controlling access between the northern and southern halves of the enclaves and building out infrastructure for a semi-permanent presence, though Hamas has insisted that the IDF fully withdraw in any ceasefire and hostage release deal.
In his remarks, the premier offered $5 million and safe passage out of Gaza for anyone who turns over a hostage, seemingly upping a previous offer.
"The choice is in your hands, but the result will be the same. We will bring everyone home," he said.
It is believed that 97 of the 251 hostages kidnapped by Hamas on October 7 remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 34 confirmed dead by the IDF.
Hamas released 105 civilians during a weeklong truce in late November, and four hostages were released before that. Eight hostages have been rescued by troops alive, and the bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the military as they tried to escape their captors.
Hamas is also holding two Israeli civilians who entered the Strip in 2014 and 2015, as well as the bodies of two IDF soldiers who were killed in 2014.
Netanyahu has insisted that Israel can both continue fighting and recover the rest of the captives, despite mediators insisting that the best way to get the hostages out is via a deal. Reports in recent days have suggested that senior defense officials concur, warning Netanyahu that the captives are being endangered by the ongoing war and advising him that striking a deal with the terror group is the only way to free them.
The prime minister was slated to participate in a high-level meeting Tuesday night about the condition of the hostages, where defense officials were expected to warn him again that continuing the war could harm the captives that remain alive, Channel 12 reported.
On Sunday, Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz, who accompanied him to Gaza, were each briefed separately by senior defense officials on the subject of the hostages, and were presented with a grim picture of the surviving captives’ condition, according to Channel 12.
Last week, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum health team assessed that some of the remaining hostages have lost around half of their body weight due to the lack of food in captivity, which will reduce the chances of their survival in the upcoming winter.
Negotiations to free the captive and reach a Gaza ceasefire have been at a virtual standstill for several months, with no apparent horizon for a meaningful resumption of talks.
Polling has found a large majority of Israelis support a hostage deal with Hamas that would end the war in Gaza, and critics of Netanyahu have accused the prime minister of keeping the war going to ensure the survival of his right-wing coalition — which includes far-right elements who want the fighting to continue and for settlements to be established in northern Gaza — and not due to security concerns, preventing an agreement.
Netanyahu was recorded late last month telling Likud politicians that Israel could not accept Hamas’s demand to end the war in exchange for the hostages, ostensibly over concerns that a deal would allow Hamas to remain in Gaza in some form.
On Monday, during his address to the Knesset plenum, the prime minister said, "We will bring home dozens more hostages, I hope in the near future," but it was not clear what that assessment was based on.
During his visit to Gaza, Netanyahu toured the Netzarim Corridor, alongside Katz, IDF Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi and Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar. There, he and Katz met at an observation point with 99th Infantry Division commander Yoav Brunner and Southern Command Maj. Gen. Yaron Finkelman, for a survey of the region.
Later, the two officials met with commanders of reserve units on the Gaza coast, who reviewed the achievements and challenges of the ongoing fighting in the strip, a statement from the Government Press Office said.
It was Katz’s first visit to the enclave since he was appointed defense minister earlier this month. Netanyahu tapped him for the role after firing Yoav Gallant, citing a lack of mutual trust.
According to Gallant, he was sacked over disagreements with Netanyahu about the need to plan for a post-Hamas government in Gaza and the trade-offs involved in a hostage deal with Hamas, among other matters.
Speaking from Gaza, Katz identified the "rescue" of the hostages as "the most important mission," adding, "everyone here sees it," while also vowing, "We need to make sure that Hamas does not rule here on ’the day after.’"
President Erdogan thinks he is a big cheese, but really he’s just a little stink.
[IsraelTimes] Turkey’s decision prevented president from attending UN climate conference in Azerbaijan, as other route would have meant crossing over Syria, Iraq and Iran
Ottoman Turkish President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First ...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important... confirmed on Tuesday that The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... had barred President Isaac Herzog from using the country’s airspace earlier this week, forcing the Israeli leader to cancel a planned visit to the United Nations ...an organization originally established to war on dictatorships which was promptly infiltrated by dictatorships and is now held in thrall to dictatorships... COP29 climate conference in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Herzog’s office announced on Saturday that he would not be attending the high-level conference due to "security considerations."
However,
today is that tomorrow you were thinking about yesterday... according to the Ynet news site, officials in Azerbaijan took exception to the suggestion that their country was not safe for Herzog to visit, and said the real reason for the cancelation was Turkey’s refusal.
During a presser at the G20 Leaders Summit in Brazil on Tuesday, Erdogan confirmed that Herzog had indeed been prevented from flying over Turkey in the official Wing of Zion airplane, due to Turkey’s opposition to Israel’s war with 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... "With regard to the Israeli president going to Azerbaijan for the COP summit, we did not allow him to use our airspace," Ottoman Turkish media cited Erdogan as saying in response to a question about Ottoman Turkish pressure on Israel to end the fighting.
"There are other areas, there are other opportunities, we told him to travel from there... but I do not know whether he was able to go or not," Erdogan added.
The incident marked the latest instance in which a country that has diplomatic ties with Israel blocked an Israeli leader from using its airspace for a state visit to express dissatisfaction, after Amman in 2021 refused to allow Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to fly over Jordan, forcing him to cancel a trip to the United Arab Emirates.
Azerbaijan, an Israeli ally, is bordered by 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... to the south, and a direct flight to Baku from Israel would have to fly over the Mediterranean Sea and through Turkey and Georgia — which Erdogan prevented — or would have to travel over Syria, Iraq and Iran, which is not possible for an Israeli aircraft.
The rest of the Israeli delegation to the UN conference, which includes three ministers and dozens of officials, are attending as planned, having arrived in Azerbaijan on November 11, reportedly via commercial flights through Georgia.
The delegation is under tight security, given Azerbaijan’s proximity to Iran.
Israel and Turkey have had an on-again-off-again relationship for years, but extensive efforts by both Erdogan and Herzog in 2022 resulted in the two countries briefly enjoying warmer ties than they had in over a decade.
In March 2022, Herzog spent a whirlwind 24 hours in Ankara, in what was the highest-level visit by an Israeli official since former prime minister Ehud Olmert made the trip in 2008.
The success of the visit was made apparent in May of that same year, when Erdogan wrote to Herzog on the occasion of Israeli Independence Day, in which he wished for “The well-being and prosperity of the people of Israel.”
A year later, in May 2023, both Herzog and Netanyahu called Erdogan to congratulate him on his victory in elections considered free but unfair by international observers.
Ties soured and quickly deteriorated in the aftermath of the October 7 attacks orchestrated by Hamas, which maintains a strong presence in Turkey.
One hopes the next time President Erdogan says he wants to make up, neither President Herzog nor any other Israeli will bother to believe him.
An attempted suicide bombing attack in Tel Aviv in August was said by the Shin Bet and Israel Police to have been planned and carried out under the supervision of Hamas’s headquarters in Turkey.
The latest show of support for Hamas from Ankara came on Sunday when it was reported that the terror group’s senior leadership had departed Qatar for Turkey. Both Turkey and Hamas dismissed the reports as “rumors,” although the US said it would make it clear to Turkey’s governments that American allies cannot conduct business as usual with the Palestinian terror group.
#2
How delightfully childish! Is it just me or has international diplomacy turned into a giant game of Mean Girls? We don't like you so we're not going to play with you. And we're going to tell all the other kids not to play with you either. So there!
[Rudaw] An bomb on Tuesday killed the mayor of the Kafrnan subdistrict in the central Homs province, state media reported.
"Kafrnan mayor, Mohammad al-Ismail was martyred in an bomb exploding which was planted in his car in Tasnin village, northern Homs countryside," Syrian state media (SANA) reported on X.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that an Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was planted inside a kindergarten bus and went kaboom! before the students got on the bus.
An investigation into the incident has been launched.
Earlier this month, a Russian soldier, a translator, and a civilian sustained various injuries in an IED explosion in an ambulance belonging to Russian forces in Hasaka province, according to SOHR.
The incident took place in the so-called Security Square in Hasaka, which is controlled by the Syrian regime forces.
Syrians rose up against the President Bashir al-Assad’s regime in 2011, leading to a full-scale civil war that has claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and has left millions more in need of dire humanitarian assistance.
Over 13 million Syrians, half the country’s pre-war population, have been displaced since the start of the civil war, more than six million of which are refugees who have fled the war-torn country, according to UN figures.
[Rudaw] The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) said on Monday that it has thwarted an infiltration attempt near the town of Gire Spi (Tal Abyad), northern Raqqa province, leaving several casualties, amid conflicting reports.
"SDF forces thwarted an infiltration attempt by the Ottoman Turkish occupation mercenaries on the village of Abdouki, west of the occupied city of Tal Abyad, fierce festivities erupted resulting in the elimination of several Ottoman Turkish-backed mercenaries and the injury of others," read a statement from the SDF.
Following the attempt, the Ottoman Turkish army heavily bombarded the area with heavy artillery, according to the statement.
There are conflicting accounts of the incident with the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the SDF "infiltrated positions held by Ottoman Turkish forces and their allied factions in the village of Abdouki al-Kabir, west of Tal Abyad in northern Raqqa, with artillery and rocket support," targeting the village with over 20 rockets and mortar shells.
The Sick Man of Europe Turkey ...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire... has carried out three major military campaigns against the SDF since 2016 on the grounds that the multi-ethnic force is affiliated with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK). The SDF has denied any ties with the PKK.
Since the start of the operations in 2016, Turkey has invaded key towns near the border such as Afrin, Sari Kani (Ras al-Ain), and Gire Spi.
Ankara wants to complete its long-desired 30-kilometer "safe zone" along Syria’s northern border with Turkey, on the grounds of "resolving security issues".
The Syrian regime, on the other side, has repeatedly condemned Ankara and its plans for the zone, calling the Ottoman Turkish military presence in Syria a violation of the country’s territorial integrity. Russia has also condemned the Ottoman Turkish incursion.
[IsraelTimes] Lebanese speaker notes some details still need to be worked out after meeting with Amos Hochstein, who may travel to Israel Wednesday; IDF division expands southern Lebanon incursion.
A senior US mediator said Tuesday that a ceasefire agreement between Israel and the Hezbollah terror group in Lebanon was “within our grasp” as he arrived in the region to clinch a long-sought halt to the war.
Special Envoy Amos Hochstein’s trip to Lebanon Tuesday came as fighting showed little sign of easing, with dozens of rockets fired into northern Israel, an Israeli reservist killed in a Hezbollah drone attack in southern Lebanon and a key Hezbollah commander killed in an airstrike.
Hochstein said he had held “very constructive talks” with Lebanon’s Parliament Speaker Nabih "Knobby" Berri, an ally of Hezbollah who is mediating on the group’s behalf.
“Specifically today, we have continued to significantly narrow the gaps,” the envoy told reporters after the two-hour meeting.
“I came back [to Lebanon] because we have a real opportunity to bring this conflict to an end,” Hochstein said at a press conference after the meeting, adding that gaps between the sides had been “significantly narrowed” in the talks Tuesday.
Hochstein also met with Lebanese Armed Forces Commander General Joseph Aoun.
Berri said the “situation is good in principle,” though some unresolved technical details remain. The Lebanese side was now waiting to hear the results of Hochstein’s talks with Israeli officials, he told the Asharq al-Awsat newspaper.
The speaker said that Hochstein told him that the US had already coordinated with the Israelis about the proposal.
An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Hochstein would likely travel to Israel on Wednesday, though the visit is not certain.
The proposal on the table entails both the Iran-backed Hezbollah terror group and Israeli ground forces withdrawing from southern Lebanon, where a UN buffer zone would be bolstered by thousands of additional UN peacekeepers and Lebanese troops.
Israel has called for a stronger enforcement mechanism to keep Hezbollah from rebuilding its force near the Israeli border, where it could threaten northern Israel towns with anti-tank missile fire or an armed infiltration. Israel reportedly wants to reserve the ability to redeploy against any Hezbollah threats, something Lebanon is likely to oppose.
On Monday, a top Lebanese official told Reuters that Lebanon and Hezbollah had agreed to a US ceasefire proposal — though each had some reservations — describing the effort as the most serious yet to end the fighting.
“Lebanon presented its comments on the paper in a positive atmosphere,” said Ali Hassan Khalil, an aide to Berri, declining to give further details. “All the comments that we presented affirm the precise adherence to (UN) Resolution 1701 with all its provisions.”
Israel is highly unlikely to sign off without the additional clause allowing the IDF to return as it deems necessary.
UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended a previous war between Hezbollah and Israel in 2006, requires Hezbollah to have no armed presence in the area between the Lebanese-Israeli border and the Litani River, which runs some 30 kilometers (20 miles) north of the frontier — clauses the terror group violated from the get-go.
The resolution also forbids Israel from entering Lebanese airspace, which Beirut says Israel repeatedly broke over the years. Israel reportedly demanded last month that the Air Force have freedom of operations in Lebanese airspace as part of its ability to disarm Hezbollah, while Lebanon may be seeking to beef up enforcement of the airspace restrictions.
No IAF freedom of operations, no agreement.
According to Saudi-based al-Arabiya, Lebanon dropped some demands regarding “state sovereignty” that had constituted sticking points in favor of pressing its demands on the airspace issue.
Israel’s Channel 12 reported that Jerusalem was insisting on the deal including a cause allowing its troops to act in case of a Hezbollah threat, while Lebanon did not believe the deal needed to include such language.
Lebanon is wrong.
The sides have also failed to come together on the makeup of the bolstered buffer zone force, with Israel insisting on Western countries contributing troops and Lebanon seeking contributions from Arab countries, Channel 12 reported.
Are there any Arab countries currently ready and willing to put their own troops in front of the IDF firing squad? Not even Iran is ready for that, and they’ve been overtly and covertly at war with Israel for years.
A possible solution, according to the channel, would be a force made up of troops from the US, France, the UN and an Arab country to be named later, overseen by a general from the US’s Central Command.
But not Argentina. Argentina is outa there.
In the UAE, French defense minister Sebastien Lecornu urged wealthy Gulf states to find ways to bolster Lebanon’s armed forces, including “operational support,” saying they will be crucial for securing border areas after Israel’s war with Hezbollah.
“To secure the border between Israel and Lebanon, and to reinforce Lebanon’s sovereignty, the armed forces must be properly armed,” he told AFP.
Why? Against whom are they to fight?
Israeli troops have been fighting near the frontier in southern Lebanon since October 1, where they have carried out raids aimed at destroying Hezbollah infrastructure, including bunkers, tunnels, rockets and small arms.
It launched the intensified campaign against Hezbollah in September to halt a year of rocket attacks on northern Israel that have displaced some 60,000 people living near the border, with the goal of allowing them to return home safely.
A reservist was killed in the fighting early Tuesday, the Israel Defense Forces said, marking the 71st fatality among troops in Lebanon and near Israel’s northern border. Israel says 44 civilians have also been killed. Sgt. First Class (res.) Omer Moshe Gaeldor, 30, of the Golani Brigade’s logistics unit, was killed some two kilometers from the Israeli border in southern Lebanon, where his unit was providing security for soldiers fighting deeper inside the country.
According to an initial Israel Defense Forces probe, Gaeldor and three other soldiers were hit by an explosive-laden drone launched by Hezbollah.
Near the eastern end of the frontier, troops from the 98th division were expanding into new areas of southern Lebanon to locate and destroy Hezbollah infrastructure threatening the Kiryat Shmona area, the military said Tuesday. Before the operation, the IDF launched numerous airstrikes on the area, which had been used by Hezbollah for rocket attacks on the Galilee Panhandle and Kiryat Shmona, Israel’s largest city on the border.
The army also confirmed that it had killed Ali Tawfiq Dweiq, the commander of Hezbollah’s medium-range rocket unit, in an airstrike a day earlier on the village of Jouz, adjacent to the southern Lebanon city of Nabatieh.
The medium-range rocket unit is responsible for attacks on Haifa and other areas deep in northern Israel, as well as central Israel. The IDF said Dweiq was responsible for over 300 rockets launched at Israel since he took over the role.
A busy, hard-working man.
Hezbollah leader Naim Qassem was expected to give a speech Tuesday, but the group postponed the address moments after it was announced. No reason was given.
”Mahmoud heard a buzz, and screamed ‘Drone!!’ so everyone fled. But it turned out to be a bumblebee.”
The IDF said that since Sunday, over 150 strikes were carried out against Hezbollah targets across Lebanon, including 25 weapon depots and some 30 rocket launchers. At least 11 strikes were carried out in Beirut’s southern suburbs.
Lebanon said three of its soldiers were killed in an Israeli strike on an army post in southern Lebanon. The health ministry earlier said at least two people were killed in the strike near Beirut, and 28 others were killed Monday.
UNIFIL, the UN peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, said four Ghanaian Blue Helmets were injured when a rocket fired by a “non-state actor” hit their base.
That’d be Hezbollah or one of its allies. The IDF is a state actor.
The IDF said Hezbollah had twice fired rockets on Tuesday that damaged UNIFIL posts.
It tallied at least 70 rockets and drones fired into central and northern Israel Tuesday, where they lightly injured five people and caused damage to some areas. Hezbollah in the past week has launched some 400 rockets at Israel. Since Thursday, the IDF said, 22 out of 27 drones launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon were intercepted.
On Monday, one woman — Safaa Awad, 41– was killed, and dozens of others were wounded in several Hezbollah rocket barrages. Among the wounded victims were a woman aged 41 and a 4-year-old boy in serious condition, Rambam Hospital in Haifa said.
All Arab-Israelis, not Jewish ones. Way to make friends and influence people, Hezbollah.
According to Lebanon, 3,544 people have been killed by Israel since Hezbollah began firing over the border in October 2023. The figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters.
The IDF estimates that some 3,000 Hezbollah operatives have been killed in the conflict, most of them in Lebanon. Around 100 members of other terror groups, along with hundreds of civilians, have also been reported killed in Lebanon.
The UN said Tuesday that over 200 children had been killed in Lebanon in less than two months since Israel escalated its attacks targeting Hezbollah in September.
“Despite more than 200 children killed in Lebanon in less than two months, a disconcerting pattern has emerged: their deaths are met with inertia from those able to stop this violence,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency UNICEF, told reporters in Geneva.
“Over the last two months in Lebanon, an average of three children have been killed every single day,” he said.
Elder declined to comment on who was responsible for the killings, saying that it was clear to anyone who follows the media.
“It’s become a silent normalization of horror,” Elder said. “In Lebanon, much the same as has become the case in Gaza, the intolerable is quietly transforming into the acceptable.”
About that ceasefire to be enforced by the Lebanese army:
[IsraelTimes] Nation’s military, scraping by on limited resources, could find itself overwhelmed by task of keeping powerful terror group in check and maintaining peace along volatile border
#4
If Whitaker is approved by the Senate, he becomes a chess piece that can be plugged in where he is needed. He does not need to be reconfirmed.
The strategy should be to get Mike Davis through Senate approval for a position over Forest Service concessions or something else innocuous. Trump moved Ric Grenell and John Radcliffe as needed in his 1st term. Whitaker was last seen doing some overseas consulting so there may be another reason for this appointment.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 12:37
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#5
So a Head Fake appointment? The in the wings for the follow-on role after the Gaetz bloodbath at DOJ, where, curiously, a large shredding truck made a statement!
[Jpost] The unit will be drafted next Tuesday in the Combat Intelligence Corps, and soldiers will have spiritual and halachic guidance throughout their service.
The first cohort of women will enlist in the IDF's religious women-only combat unit within the Combat Intelligence Corps, the organization Ohr Torah Stone announced on Tuesday.
According to the organization, the unit enables soldiers to observe and uphold their faith while serving in combat roles in the IDF. Ohr Torah Stone, which is leading the initiative, is doing so in response to the surge of 3,500 religious women drafted to the IDF in 2024, including 350 who drafted to combat roles following October 7.
The unit will be drafted on November 26 in the Combat Intelligence Corps (Isuf Kravi).
The unit will include a female halachic and spiritual advisor, Rabbanit Hila Naor, who directs Ohr Torah Stone's "Maaminot BeMadim" institute and will hold this role for the first time in the IDF's history.
"This initiative by the IDF responds to the strong and growing demand from religious women eager to serve in combat roles in the IDF," Naor said.
"They are stepping up in numbers we haven't seen before, showing remarkable dedication and resolve in the face of the current situation. However, combat duty is difficult both physically and mentally, and the challenges posed to religious soldiers - particularly religious women soldiers - are many. We want to provide them with every support possible to make their service successful and meaningful."
[IsraelTimes] Despite PMO classified documents scandal, legislation establishes a ‘devil’s advocate’ unit, reporting directly to Netanyahu, that would challenge other intel bodies’ findings.
Despite an ongoing investigation into the alleged “systematic” theft of classified intelligence documents from Israel Defense Forces databases and the transfer of those files to people in the Prime Minister’s Office, the government on Sunday gave its backing to a bill establishing a new intelligence oversight body directly under the authority of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The bill seeks to create a so-called Ipcha Mistabra (devil’s advocate) unit — challenging the conclusions of other intelligence bodies — reporting directly to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that will be given the authority to demand intelligence information from “any intelligence body… or any other state institution” in Israel. This would include military intelligence, the Shin Bet, the Mossad. and the National Security Council.
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation’s approval means that the government will lend its support to the bill as it goes to the Knesset, where it must pass three readings to become law.
According to the legislation, the proposed unit would be tasked with synthesizing and analyzing this information and providing the prime minister, defense minister, and intelligence agencies with alternate takes on security challenges. It would also be required to report regularly to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.
According to the bill’s explanatory notes, it would act as an oversight mechanism “examining in an in-depth and unbiased manner the perceptions prevalent in the intelligence and security” establishment, presumably as a lesson from the profound failure of the intelligence establishment to predict Hamas’s mass invasion and onslaught of October 7, 2023.
Its head of the unit — which would largely operate independently and would be prohibited from employing anybody who has served in an intelligence agency within the prior two years — would be legally required to weigh in on any issue brought before the security cabinet for a decision.
In addition, they would also be required to submit such analyses to the heads of any relevant security bodies “regarding any plan or military operation” needing the security cabinet’s approval. Neither the security cabinet nor the leaders of security agencies would be allowed to make a decision without such input.
While such a devil’s advocate unit currently exists within the IDF itself, its influence is minimal and it has failed to challenge existing modes of thought within the IDF, claims Likud MK Amit Halevi, the bill’s primary sponsor.
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Speaking with The Times of Israel earlier this month, Halevi argued that the “fundamental” intelligence failure of October 7 came about because the IDF and other security agencies “are not used to challenging themselves with a different view.”
“I mean, the intelligence forces have a few conceptions, a few assumptions, and nobody actually challenges them,” he said. “This team was not independent, so it couldn’t actually criticize its own commanders.”
FLAG BANS
Separately, the ministerial committee also approved a bill prohibiting the waving of the flags of enemy nations, including the Palestinian flag, on the premises of any institution funded or supported by the state.
According to the bill, an amendment to the penal code sponsored by Deputy Knesset Speaker Nissim Vaturi (Likud), a gathering of two or more people at which such flags are waved would be considered an unlawful assembly, with participants facing a year in prison and a minimum NIS 10,000 ($2,700) fine.
The law would apply to institutions such as universities, where protesters have at times waved Palestinian flags at demonstrations.
Vaturi has been critical of anti-government demonstrations in the past, claiming this summer that protesters demanding early elections and the release of hostages held in Gaza are a “branch” of the Hamas terror group.
Vaturi later backtracked, in light of widespread criticism, claiming in a tweet that his comments were “taken out of context.” The protests “harm our national resilience,” but “the horrible actions of the Hamas Nazis are not fit to be compared to any protest or political act,” he wrote.
Similar bills, promoted by members of the far-right Religious Zionism and Otzma Yehudit parties, were advanced in the Knesset last year despite fierce opposition from university presidents, but were not voted into law.
The bill’s approval comes a week after the committee gave its backing to legislation requiring the government to adopt a national security strategy, extending emergency regulations allowing for the censorship of foreign media, and allowing the police to secretly spy on suspects’ computers using secret warrants.
[ToI] With legislation almost certain to fail given bipartisan backing for Israel, administration’s decision to weigh in shows desire for party to maintain pro-Israel stance after election
The Biden administration is lobbying Democratic senators to vote against legislation being advanced by several of the party’s most progressive members that would block more than $20 billion in weapon shipments to Israel, two US officials told The Times of Israel on Tuesday.
The series of Joint Resolutions of Disapproval co-sponsored by Senators Bernie Sanders, Peter Welch, Jeff Merkley and Brian Schatz are slated to come to a vote on Wednesday and aim to block six weapon transfers to Israel, which include guided missiles, tank rounds, mortars, tactical vehicles and F-15 fighter jets.
While the votes are all but certain to fail, given the strong support for Israel in both parties — particularly the GOP — they are likely to mark a watershed moment in a more divided Democratic Party that is still working to understand the lessons of this month’s election, which saw Republicans win the White House and Senate and keep their majority in the House.
The Biden administration’s decision to engage on the matter demonstrates its desire for the Democratic Party to maintain a pro-Israel posture post-election.
While moderates have argued that the party did too much to cater to its progressive wing, including by staking out adversarial positions toward Israel, lawmakers such as “Squad” member Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez have charged that the party catered to special interest groups such as the pro-Israel AIPAC lobby and therefore lost support — a claim denounced by several mainstream Jewish organizations.
Accordingly, the progressive flank is looking for a strong showing during Wednesday’s voting in the Senate to demonstrate that the party should take a harder line on Israel than under Biden.
In making the case against the Senate resolutions, Biden aides have argued that the weapons in question are essential for Israel’s defense and won’t be delivered for another year or two, “so the likelihood of them being used in this iteration of the Gaza context is very low,” explained one US official.
“At a time when Hezbollah is about to agree to a ceasefire, now is not the time to send a message to Israel’s adversaries that there is a break in the relationship between the United States and Israel,” the US official continued. “It actually only encourages Israel’s adversaries to be more obstinate and sends a terrible message to Iran, as Iran considers retaliation against Israel.”
The official went on to reject arguments from some Democratic senators who have expressed willingness to back the legislation while arguing that they still support sending defensive weapons to Israel.
Sanders also noted that other Western allies have taken similar steps to curb weapons shipments to Israel such as the UK, Germany, Italy, Spain, Canada, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
[IsraelTimes] Britain says state-owned Iran Air and Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines to face asset freeze and restrictions for supplying weapons for war against Ukraine.
[Gcaptain] A day after the C-Lion1 and BCS subsea data cables in the Baltic Sea, connecting Finland and Germany as well as Sweden and Lithuania, were damaged, specifics of the incident remain unconfirmed.
The incident is reminiscent of a similar event in 2023 when the Balticonnector between Finland and Estonia was damaged. Hong Kong-registered container vessel NewNew Polar Bear was later found to have dragged its anchor across the pipeline.
Danish authorities appear to have narrowed down a possible culprit to Chinese bulker Yi Peng 3, which traveled over the reported incident site at the time of the failure. Its AIS track shows the vessel drifting back and forth for around an hour the morning of November 18.
By the time Yi Peng 3 reached Danish waters the country’s Navy had dispatched several vessels shadowing the vessel. Online reports suggest that a Danish pilot was placed onboard the vessel during the afternoon of November 19 as it continued passing through Danish Straits.
AIS data show several Danish patrol vessels in the vicinity of Yi Peng 3 and shorebased webcams confirm Navy vessels loosely following in its wake.
The foreign ministers of Germany and Finland issued a joint statement expressing concern about the incident. “The fact that such an incident immediately raises suspicions of intentional damage speaks volumes about the volatility of our times,” the statement reads.
“A thorough investigation is underway. Our European security is not only under threat from Russia‘s war of aggression against Ukraine, but also from hybrid warfare by malicious actors. Safeguarding our shared critical infrastructure is vital to our security and the resilience of our societies,” the statement continued.
Incidents with damage to subsea cables and pipelines across Europe have increased in recent years, including in the Arctic. In 2022 Norway reported that an undersea fiber optic cable connecting a satellite ground station on Svalbard to the Norwegian mainland was severed. Norwegian media reported a Russian vessel traveling back and forth several times over the damaged section.
The Finnish investigation of the NewNew Polar Bear incident concluded that the vessel dropped its anchor during a storm dragging it over the Balticonnector pipeline. The vessel had been spotted with a missing anchor during its first port call following the incident.
After initial stonewalling by Chinese authorities Finnish counterparts launched their own investigation and eventually admitted that the pipeline’s damage was caused by NewNew Polar Bear. Like Yi Peng 3, NewNew Polar Bear had departed from a Russian port prior to the incident.
[X]
BREAKING:
The Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3 has been chased, intercepted, and boarded by Danish Navy vessel Y311 Søløven after the Chinese vessel destroyed 2 undersea telecom cables linking Finland-Germany and Sweden-Lithuania.
#1
The vessel sailed from Russia & the captain is Russian
The ship is a bulk carrier registered in China with a crew of Chinese nationals. Last made call on 15 November in Ust-Luga in western Russia. I'm guessing the "Russian captain" was actually the harbor pilot and not the actual ship captain.
Oh ho! From the Gruaniad, we find: Russian maritime pilot Alexander Stechentsev, who had boarded the ship to guide it out of port, told the Guardian there was nothing unusual about the vessel. The Ust-Luga port authority employee said he took the ship to a receiving buoy located 11 miles offshore before disembarking. He described the Yi Peng 3 vessel as “a standard 225-metre bulk carrier” with a crew of Chinese nationals.
[ZH] What’s not par for the course, and is a new phenomenon since 2016, is members of the GOP eager to denounce their own president-elect’s cabinet picks in full view of the public.
Via The Daily Beast (emphasis added):
“When it comes to Donald Trump’s new Cabinet picks, there’s at least one that his former second-in-command doesn’t approve of: Robert F. Kennedy Jr. for health secretary.
“If confirmed, RFK, Jr. would be the most pro-abortion Republican appointed secretary of HHS in modern history,” former Vice President Mike Pence said in a statement touting the “pro-life” record of the first Trump administration…
He pleaded with Republican lawmakers to shoot down Trump’s HHS choice.
“I respectfully urge Senate Republicans to reject this nomination and give the American people a leader who will respect the sanctity of life as secretary of Health and Human Services,” Pence said.”
Republican and The Atlantic writer Tom Nichols is highly upset about what Tulsi Gabbard might be allowed to do at the helm of the intel community.
Matt Gaetz, potential future Attorney General, is also getting piled on by his own party to a degree that perhaps hasn’t been seen ever.
Via Associated Press (emphasis added):
“Gaetz is unpopular with many fellow House Republicans…
Here are what Republicans are saying about him:…
JOHN BOLTON, former U.N. ambassador and national security adviser:
“It must be the worst nomination for a Cabinet secretary in American history. I think this is something that falls well outside the scope of deference that should be given to a president in nominating members of the senior team. Gaetz is not only totally incompetent for this job, he doesn’t have the character. He is a person of moral turpitude.””
The rub here is that a specific breed of Trump appointee in the vein of longtime Swamp Latinx boy-toy Marco Rubio appears to get a very generous pass from both RINOs and Democrats.
Why is it, one might ask, that “Republican strategist” and The View co-host Ana Navarro — who has been trashing Trump for years as a fascist — and many of her ilk would be so giddy over the Rubio nomination that she would go out of her way to praise him on television?
Via Entertainment Weekly (emphasis added):
“After months of sounding alarms over the dangers of a second-term Donald Trump presidency, The View cohost Ana Navarro has praised the president-elect after speculation arose indicating that he might appoint conservative senator Marco Rubio to his cabinet.
In a rare on-air move, the 52-year-old Republican panelist praised a member of her own political party on Tuesday's live show, admitting that she's known Rubio for a long time, though the pair haven't "spoken in years" on a personal level, she said.
"I will say this, Marco is qualified, he's been on foreign relations in the senate for many years. I'm happy because he knows Latin America, which, for me, is a region that's often forgotten. He speaks Spanish, he knows who these leaders are, he knows what the issues are," Navarro said, after speculation mounted that Trump would name Rubio as Secretary of State. "I think he's going to come in hot on places like Venezuela, Cuba, and Nicaragua, which I care about enormously."”
THE TL;DR TAKEAWAY
“Right” vs. “left” is increasingly anachronistic nonsense.
The cabinet war shows us that the real conflict now is establishment vs. populist, and the battlefield at this moment in history is for the president’s ear at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. come January.
[Breitbart] Multiple former and current DOJ and FBI officials are considering hiring lawyers "in anticipation of being criminally investigated" by the incoming Trump administration, three people with knowledge of their deliberations told NBC News.
The preemptive initiative underscores a serious belief that President-elect Donald Trump will make good on his promise to purge the federal government of rogue and corrupt actors within the administrative state.
Last week, Trump transition adviser Mark Paoletta warned DOJ career attorneys that subverting, undermining, or sabotaging Trump’s incoming agenda will be cause for termination.
Paoletta cited examples of potential policies the DOJ might have to implement, such as deporting illegal aliens, securing the southern border, banning race-based affirmative action, investigating antisemitism, halting big tech censorship, and granting pardons and commutations to January 6 defendants.
"Everything we did was aboveboard," a former senior FBI official alleged on NBC News. "But this is a different world."
#3
Illinois politicians have often ignored Federal rules and laws and flaunt their 'Struggle against Washington' to their constituents. They also have done the same with actual Illinois rules and laws, calling them 'antiquated' when it suits them.
It goes without saying that there is seldom any backlash except for maybe a 'strongly worded letter' or two.
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
11/20/2024 8:38
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#4
Chicago politicians. The rest of Illinois is truly MAGA country.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 12:22
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#5
re #4
I lived in Ill. back in the '60s. The '68 election was odd to me (hadn't been there long) seems all the downstate districts wouldn't report till after Cook Co. because of previous cases of "oh we need X thousand votes to win, well looked here...."
That's the only way Nixon won, they counted down state AFTER all the Daley crap had been seen.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 12:40
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#3
Better than tents AND they have their own electric heaters! Say, you think we should put in a charging station at that hobo village down by the river?
If EVs were a better mouse trap, people would be adopting them because it makes sense. Despite federal subsidies, arithmetic wins in the end.
EVs are not a plug-in replacement for conventional vehicles (no pun intended). In some situations, the reduced emissions* are an advantage, like a dense urban area or inside a factory. In others, the short range and recharging time are deal breakers. Forklifts and fleets of robot JohnnyCabs downtown - yes. Long-distance trucking and winter driving - no.
* not "reduced" so much as moved elsewhere. An EV still burns coal or uranium, the vehicle is just further away from the combustion.
[JustTheNews] President-elect Donald Trump and his political allies have long maintained that his first term was undermined by federal bureaucrats acting independently of the president’s authority to pursue their own ends.
An emergency response official’s decision to withhold vital assistance to hurricane victims that showed visible support for Republicans is a scandal that belies a larger issue, namely, an unaccountable federal bureaucracy left to police itself and which President-elect Donald Trump has eyed for reform and cuts.
The concerns were raised by House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer in a hearing on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s response to the dual crises of Hurricanes Helene and Milton that struck Florida and the wider Southeast earlier this year.
“While today’s hearing will focus on FEMA, the issue at hand is part of a larger problem: the urgent need to hold the unelected, unaccountable federal workforce accountable to the American people and to the duly elected President of the United States,” Comer said in his opening statement.
“The current system does not have strong enough mechanisms to ensure accountability. The disciplinary system is run by and for civil servants to protect civil servants,” he continued.
The hearing followed reports that during the hurricane response in Florida, one FEMA official instructed subordinates to bypass houses that displayed pro-Trump signs in Lake Placid, Florida, while they were canvassing to deliver assistance to the hurricane-stricken community.
At least 20 houses were reportedly skipped under the guidance, and therefore were not given the opportunity to qualify for FEMA assistance, Just the News reported.
"I WAS SIMPLY FOLLOWING ORDERS"
The FEMA official responsible, Marn’i Washington was terminated shortly after the public reports emerged of her conduct, but Comer says the accountability came too late, only after the conduct was exposed by reporting from the Daily Wire. For her part, Washington told NewsNation's Dan Abrams that "Firstly, I’m being framed,” said Washington. “There’s no violation of the Hatch Act. I was simply following orders."
Comer added at the hearing that "FEMA leadership didn’t take action against this supervisor until the press exposed this discrimination.” Moreover, Comer said “More importantly, FEMA officials did not immediately end the discrimination.”
Comer also warned that resistance efforts by an unaccountable bureaucracy could hamper efforts by the “duly elected president” to implement his agenda. He specifically warned that President Trump suffered resistance and “insubordination” from bureaucrats throughout his first term.
Media reports suggest that many federal bureaucrats are gearing up to conduct a similar resistance when Trump again assumes office in January.
FEDERAL WORKFORCE HIGHEST SINCE WW2
Comer said this poses a larger threat this time because the Biden-Harris administration has allowed, or encouraged, the federal bureaucracy to grow “in size, but also in power.”
“And this power is evident. Just ask the people in Highlands County, Florida. They needed help, but at least one FEMA official used her power to make help harder to get,” Comer said. “We only know this because one whistleblower was brave enough to come forward. But others knew about this and said nothing.”
The Biden administration has overseen federal spending that would bring the federal workforce to the highest level since World War Two, the Government Executive reported.
Nearly every federal agency announced plans for financial year 2024 to increase hiring, led by the Treasury Department which planned a hiring surge for the IRS to increase its workforce by 21% over 2022 numbers. The only agency expecting to cut its workforce was the National Aerospace and Aeronautics Agency, or NASA.
President-elect Donald Trump and his political allies have long maintained that his first term was undermined by federal bureaucrats acting independently of the president’s authority to pursue their own political ends.
A research report compiled by the Trump-aligned America First Policy Institute found that bureaucrats across the executive branch worked against Trump’s policy proposals during that first term. For example, political appointees in the Department of Education said that career officials would “conceal” documents those appointees wished to review to hamper policy changes.
This reality was apparent to American media outlets as well. Just weeks after Trump was first inaugurated, The Washington Post reported in an article titled “Resistance from within: Federal workers push back against Trump” that federal bureaucrats were working to undermine the president’s agenda, even consulting with former Obama-era political appointees on how to do so.
This dynamic dominated Trump’s first term and cemented his view that the federal bureaucracy needs to be purged and reformed. “They’ve got to be held accountable [for] what they’re doing. They’re destroying this country. They’re crooked people, they’re dishonest people,” Trump said in a YouTube interview earlier this year.
“They’re going to be held accountable,” he promised.
What happens when a candidate bypasses the usual vetting process, lacks public trust, and faces a campaign riddled with missteps? Victor Davis Hanson unpacks the story of Kamala Harris’s rise and fall, a political journey unlike any other.
From being selected as Joe Biden's running mate in a behind-the-scenes deal to becoming one of the most controversial figures in modern politics, Harris’s story is one of failed narratives and public skepticism. Hanson explores her inability to connect with voters, the disastrous strategy of running out the clock, and her repeated struggles to answer critical questions about her record, policies, and ties to the Biden administration.
Could anything have saved her campaign, or was it doomed from the start? Hanson delivers a scathing analysis of a campaign that will be remembered as a cautionary tale in American politics.
[JustTheNews] Federal judge grants further legal discovery into censorship pressure after SCOTUS setback this summer while censored journalist discloses "as close to a smoking gun as we could hope to find now."
The whole-of-government approach to limit the spread of purported misinformation, disinformation and "malinformation," from the White House to federal agencies and their private partners in Big Tech, think tanks and speech-policing organizations, is turning inside out.
Judicial scrutiny is supplementing the efforts of President-elect Trump's choice for Federal Communications Commission chairman to dismantle the "censorship cartel" and Department of Government Efficiency co-leader Elon Musk to slash and burn the administrative state, with the State Department's Global Engagement Center already a reported target.
A federal judge approved further legal discovery in a lawsuit by Louisiana, Missouri and censored doctors against federal officials and agencies including GEC for pressuring Big Tech to censor, months after the Supreme Court ruled they didn't have standing for a preliminary injunction.
Alluding to Vice President Kamala Harris's much-mocked verbal crutch, President Trump nominee Judge Terry Doughty ruled he was "burdened by what has been," the SCOTUS ruling.
But he said the plaintiffs showed evidence that is not "impermissibly speculative": a congressional investigation of Facebook parent Meta that found internal admissions it censored the COVID-19 lab-leak theory because it was "under pressure from the [Biden] administration” to do so, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's similar admission to Congress this summer.
The feds are "uniquely in control of the facts, information, documents, and evidence regarding the extent and nature" of the censorship pressure, and the already disclosed emails show "the pains that certain persons and entities went through to hide their tracks," Doughty ruled while limiting further discovery to resolve factual questions for jurisdiction.
"We end with the unignorable reality that regime change is imminent" – Trump's second presidential term – and the "wild" possibility that Robert F. Kennedy Jr., one of the "Disinformation Dozen" targeted by the White House, "may soon replace or control" the defendant Department of Health and Human Services as Trump's nominee for secretary.
But that by itself is too speculative to dismiss the case, the ruling concludes.
One of the censored doctors, Stanford medical professor Jay Bhattacharya, is reportedly a top candidate to lead the National Institutes of Health, whom then-NIH Director Francis Collins targeted as a "fringe" epidemiologist for opposing COVID-19 lockdowns.
Freedom of Information Act documents obtained by investigative journalist Jimmy Tobias and posted Monday show Collins' Principal Deputy Director Lawrence Tabak, who recently testified at the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic's final hearing, was involved in potential censorship within NIH in January 2021.
Tabak agreed to discuss "potential concerns/policy conformity" with a manuscript on gain-of-function research in light of the COVID-19 pandemic co-authored by National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences bioethicist David Resnik, who allegedly asked for then-Science Policy Director and Chief of Staff Carrie Wolinetz to review it.
Wolinetz warned Tabak the manuscript "suggest[s] parity between unsubstantiated manmade and/or laboratory origin theories and peer reviewed studies which provide scientific evidence that the virus is of natural origin" and connect the lab-leak theory to NIH-funded research in 2015, which she called "specious" given that "there is no evidence for lab release."
She also has "more global concerns with the notion that an NIH employee would be providing what amounts to critiques of HHS policy that is implemented by NIH, or suggestions that contradict messaging by NIH leadership, in this type of article," Wolinetz told Tabak.
The manuscript was not published for another three and a half years. It appeared this July in the Springer Nature journal Monash Bioethics Review, 14 months after Wolinetz left her final NIH post as senior adviser to then-acting Director Tabak, investigative reporter Alison Young noted.
Journalist Alex Berenson's opposition to the government's motion to dismiss his censorship-by-proxy lawsuit, which has gone further than the state-led lawsuit, disclosed what he calls "as close to a smoking gun as we could hope to find now."
Musk's X, formerly Twitter, gave him an Aug. 21, 2021, email from then-Twitter lobbyist Todd O'Boyle that told O'Boyle's boss he had just contacted "WH, Andy and Scott Gottlieb" – the White House, President Biden's COVID adviser Andy Slavitt and the Pfizer board member who was formerly President Trump's Food and Drug Administration chairman – "to keep the target off our back."
"It shows both that O’Boyle feared the pressure he and Twitter faced and that he viewed the conspirators as a group acting together," Berenson wrote Sunday. "Four days later - at the instigation of Dr. Gottlieb – he pushed through my permanent ban from Twitter, depriving me of a worldwide audience."
Slavitt, a defendant, comes up again in Berenson's argument that he can sue for conspiracy to violate his First Amendment rights as a member of a protected class, given that Slavitt said on a July 2021 podcast that social media companies need to "cut down on the amount of false information that people who haven’t been vaccinated see."
Berenson is also arguing he can sue for monetary damages because "I have no other way" to hold them accountable, such as through administrative claims, for violating his rights.
Echoing President Trump's first-term Federal Communications Commission Chair Ajit Pai, commissioner and next Chair Brendan Carr said Apple, Microsoft, Meta and Google parent Alphabet may lose their liability shield under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act for failure to show "good faith" in their outsourced content-moderation decisions.
Carr accused the Big Tech firms in letters made public Friday of playing "significant roles" in the "unprecedented surge in censorship" in recent years, working with the Biden administration and self-appointed "media monitors" to "defund, demonetize, and otherwise put out of business" media organizations that flouted preferred narratives.
He demanded they turn over information about their work through web browsers, app stores and social media with "the Orwellian named NewsGuard," which uses its partnerships with advertising agencies to allegedly censor media targets but may not qualify for the good-faith prong of Section 230 based on ideological and arbitrary enforcement of its ratings.
NewsGuard, which targeted Just the News among other insufficiently obedient outlets, is under House Oversight Committee investigation and was reviewed in a House Small Business Committee report on the "censorship-industrial complex" this year.
#7
Land mines are like radioactive fallout. They're the gift that keeps on giving long after the war is over and they don't care who gets it...cows, pigs, children...
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/20/2024 12:20
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#8
Biden should understand that these mines will be planted in what is now Ukrainian territory. So, if this war ever ends and if Ukraine somehow manages to regain some of this territory, it will be Ukrainian children who step on the mines.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/20/2024 12:23
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#9
But I'm sure that even if he understood he wouldn't care.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/20/2024 12:23
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#11
We should send the top brass from the Afghanistan bug out to be front line advisors.
Me? I've been Rootin'for Putin since 2020.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
11/20/2024 13:06
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#12
^5
yes Princess Di was a vocal and persistent proponent of banning land mines
however the process of dealing with the landmine issue (she walked across a land mine area in 1997 in Angola) has a long history that precedes Princess Di.
The US position is to use only non persistent land mines. I think many of these have been deployed in Korea
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/20/2024 13:37
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#13
^ Kimchi pots?
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/20/2024 14:05
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#14
I mean, when you're fighting for your life, you're gonna use whatever weapons are available. But Biden is not fighting for his life. He's fighting a chickenshit proxy war that his proxy is gonna lose anyway. All that Biden can do now, all he has ever done, is get people killed. He only has two months before he leaves office but, instead of waiting for Trump, he chooses to escalate, not only with long range missiles, but with a particularly cruel weapon which carries a high probability of killing innocent civilians long after the fighting stops. This is how you know the man and his handlers are evil.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/20/2024 15:36
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#15
Ukraine is already carpeted with mines. Now at least some of them might benefit the Ukrainians.
#17
My peers from back in the day were chanting that "Land Mines are War Crimes!" along with Cluster Munitions, because Shield/Storm. "Cluster Bombs kill Moms!" or some shit. Wonder how they are squaring this...or not squaring it.
But I was that asshole who showed up for 60's and 70's dress-up days as a US Soldier, so..
[Breitbart] Attorneys for Elon Musk’s X Corp. have filed a notice of appearance in Alex Jones’ Infowars bankruptcy case. Jones claimed that “The cavalry is here,” adding that “Trump is pissed.”
The judge overseeing the bankruptcy case said he is concerned with the process in which the satirical comedy site the Onion, backed by families of Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims, won Jones’ platform at a bankruptcy auction. The judge cited transparency issues with the auction and is calling for a new hearing on the bidding procedure, according to a report by Bloomberg.
“I personally don’t care who wins the auction,” Judge M. Christopher Lopez said. “I care about process and transparency.”
The Southern District of Texas judge added that the forthcoming hearing will determine whether those who ran the Infowars auction conducted “a full and fair process.”
While bidders had to submit their highest and best offer for Jones’ platform, they did not have to share the value of their offers with rivals, Bloomberg noted. The judge argued that this means other potential buyers didn’t know what they were bidding against.
“Nobody should feel comfortable with the results of the auction,” Judge Lopez said.
[Breitbart] Retired Deputy Border Patrol Agent J.J. Carrell tells Congress that Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas is responsible for “the largest mass invasion into America that the world has ever seen.”
During a hearing before the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Border Security and Enforcement Subcommittee on Oversight, Investigations, and Accountability, Carrell testified that President-Elect Donald Trump was the “greatest border President in American history” while referring to President Joe Biden as “the worst” in history.
Carrell retired from his position at the United States Border Patrol in Biden’s first year.
“On his first day in office, I watched in horror as ninety-four Executive Orders cascaded down from Washington, D.C. obliterating every immigration policy that had provided the most secure border in America’s history,” Carrell testified:
Border Patrol Agents were forced to carry out unconstitutional orders that violated every law in the Immigration and Nationality Act.
By the action of DHS Secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, President Biden was able to create policy out of thin air, ignoring federal immigration law, and facilitating the largest mass invasion into America that the world has ever seen.
Carrell estimates that some 50 million illegal aliens now reside across the U.S., though other estimates place that figure at around 11 to 22 million.
“Between one in six and one in seven residents in America is an illegal alien. America has suffered the greatest demographic shift in modern history,” Carrell said. “The fundamental transformation of America has begun.”
“I state, with complete certainty, that Biden, Harris, and Mayorkas intentionally, strategically, and purposely weaponized illegal immigration and used it as a tool to fundamentally transform America,” he testified.
U.S. Census Bureau data analyzed by the Center for Immigration Studies has found that under Biden and Mayorkas, the foreign-born population has reached an unprecedented 51.6 million as of March of this year.
The rise in the foreign-born population under Biden is equivalent to nearly two years of births in the U.S. and larger than the populations of 33 states.
#1
This year the House voted to impeach Mayorkas. Then the Senate voted not to consider the House action. Apparently the Senate did not consider this a "high crime and misdemeanor".
[X] HEH HEH! WW3 Alert! Russia Threatens Imminent Nuclear War After NATO Launches Bombing Campaign Inside Russia, Congressman Massie & Other Leaders Call For The Immediate Removal Of Biden Under The 25th Amendment!
I can’t imagine anyone will impeach President Biden at this late date. And the teams that have been running things behind his figurehead will carry on as poorly for the next few weeks.
This after a judge illegally sold Alex's Info-War
Posted by: 3dc ||
11/20/2024
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[11162 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
He should have been removed years ago. I blame Clooney.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 5:29
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#2
Couldn't Trump just tell Zelensky that there will be consequences after January 20?
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
11/20/2024 13:01
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All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
I think our boy Zel has done rather well for himself. He went from being a stand-up comedian, to a TV star in a sitcom about a high school teacher who becomes president of a country, to actually being the President of a famously corrupt country. Or at least playing the role.
#7
But he is still in charge of a country that has been invaded by a rapacious neighbor that has stolen parts of his country. While I understand he ain't poifect I think he's due a little slack.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The Federal Security Service of Russia has released a video recording of the moment when the car of the Russian Black Sea Fleet officer Valery Trankovsky was blown up by Ukrainian agents. The corresponding footage was shown on November 19 by the FSB Public Relations Center (PRC).
On November 13, a car exploded on Shevchenko Street in Sevastopol. The attack killed the chief of staff of the Azov Naval District of the Crimean Naval Base, Captain 1st Rank Valery Trankovsky.
The footage released by the agency shows a car moving down the street and slowing down before a speed bump. When the car's front wheels cleared the obstacle, an explosion occurred.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, after the attack on Trankovsky, the Russian Investigative Committee opened a criminal case on the fact of committing a terrorist act and illegal trafficking of explosives. The main version of the investigation is a contract killing.
The Russian Investigative Committee had previously shown a video recording of the aftermath of the explosion. The footage showed investigators photographing the damaged car from different angles, with its roof partially torn off and doors and interior seriously damaged.
On November 18, a farewell ceremony for Valery Trankovsky was held in Sevastopol. The city's governor, Mikhail Razvozhaev, expressed confidence that the terrorists responsible for the death of the captain of the 1st rank will be punished.
Text taken from the Telegram channel of @rybar
[ColonelCassad] On the details of last year's operation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Dnieper
A Ukrainian publication published an article about last year's operation to land the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the left bank of the Dnieper, the fighting in the village of Krynki, and the subsequent retreat after more than six months of clashes. The article contains some interesting details:
The main inspiration for the landing was Great Britain, which oversaw the creation of the Ukrainian aval infantry and called for it to be used "for its intended purpose, and not in the fields near Donetsk." At the same time, London demanded that the crossing of the Dnieper begin immediately after the blowing up of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Station in May 2023.
The minimum task was to create and expand a bridgehead with access to the M-14 highway, and the maximum was access to the Crimean Isthmus. All four brigades of the naval infantry were used for this, and the calculation was based on the fact that the Russian Armed Forces did not have a second line of defense.
During the landing, the village of Krynki was captured, but insufficient planning, a shortage of boats and electronic warfare equipment led to serious logistical difficulties. In other areas, the situation was even worse: in the Poima area, the 36th Separate Naval Infantry brigade was hit by Iskanders, with losses amounting to 90 people killed and wounded.
Although initially high hopes were placed on the operation until the course of hostilities changed, by the beginning of 2024, being on a poorly supplied bridgehead had demotivated the personnel. The situation was worsened by the transfer of reinforcements from the Airborne Forces by the Russian Armed Forces and bombing strikes that turned the area into a "lunar landscape".
As a result, in July, the Ukrainian Armed Forces completely left Krynki, but this decision was at least two months late and only led to unnecessary losses. Due to strikes on watercraft, they sometimes had to leave by swimming.
Although this was certainly not an "easy walk" for the Russian Armed Forces, the enemy did not achieve a single goal - the participants from the Ukrainian Armed Forces note that as a result, they only managed to pull the Russian Armed Forces to the area at the cost of considerable losses of "very valuable people". At the same time, the same naval infantry brigades of the so-called Ukraine could have been rationally used in the same Donbas.
And from a more global point of view, the operation is a clear example of how Great Britain is waging a war with someone else's hands. And all the costs are borne by the so-called Ukraine, which is losing its operational reserve in order to satisfy the demands of the sponsors.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. All articles from Regnum.
Bogomaz: Five more Ukrainian drones were shot down over Bryansk Oblast
Ukrainian military continues drone attacks in Bryansk Oblast. Since the evening of November 19, air defense forces have destroyed 17 enemy aircraft-type UAVs. This was reported by the region's governor, Alexander Bogomaz.
“Another five aircraft-type unmanned aerial vehicles were discovered and destroyed by air defense forces,” Bogomaz wrote.
Earlier, the governor reported the destruction of 12 UAVs over the Bryansk region.
According to preliminary information, there are no casualties or damage.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, in the skies over the Bryansk, Kaluga and Rostov regions on the evening of November 19, air defense units destroyed three Ukrainian drones.
The press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov has repeatedly emphasized that the Russian Armed Forces do not strike residential buildings and social infrastructure. In response to attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on civilian objects, the Russian military strikes energy, defense industry, military command and communications facilities throughout Ukraine. Air raid sirens are announced every day in Ukrainian regions, sometimes throughout the entire country.
"I have no comment on that," Pentagon deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said at a briefing for reporters.
She also did not confirm that Washington had given Kyiv permission to launch strikes from Ukrainian territory deep into Russia using American ATACMS missiles.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on the night of November 19, the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched six ATACMS missiles at the Bryansk region. During the anti-missile battle, Russian combat crews of the S-400 air defense missile system and the Pantsir air defense missile and gun system shot down five missiles. Another one was damaged, and its fragments fell on the technical territory of the military facility. A fire broke out. There were no casualties or damage as a result of the falling debris, the press service of the Russian Defense Ministry noted.
The head of the Kiev regime, Volodymyr Zelensky, refused to confirm that the strike on the Bryansk region on the night of November 19 was carried out by ATACMS ballistic missiles. According to him, Ukraine was "permitted" to carry out strikes with long-range weapons deep into the territory of the Russian Federation, but he did not specify who exactly granted this "permission". He added that the Kiev regime intends to use American long-range ATACMS missiles to carry out strikes on Russia. In connection with the "permission" received, Kiev is waiting for new deliveries of long-range weapons, Zelensky concluded.
The US decision to allow the Ukrainian Armed Forces to strike deep into Russia with long-range ATACMS missiles will lead to a sad end for Volodymyr Zelensky, according to American journalist Jackson Hinkle. He called the Ukrainian leader a walking dead man. If Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to do as he sees fit with the Ukrainian leadership, then, according to the journalist, he would not be upset.
On November 19, Putin approved the principles of the country's state policy in the area of nuclear deterrence. One of the grounds for using nuclear weapons could be the launch of ballistic missiles in the direction of Russia.
"Zelensky has just sealed his fate. His world will soon collapse, as it sooner or later happens to all US puppets. Goodbye, Ukraine. Goodbye, Zelensky. You can cry, stomp and scream... But don't call Russia's response "unprovoked," the journalist wrote on social media H.
In addition, Hinkle called Zelensky a walking dead man. If Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to do as he sees fit with the Ukrainian leadership, then, according to the American journalist, he would not be upset.
As reported by Regnum News Agency, on November 17, The New York Times wrote that outgoing US President Joe Biden had authorized Ukraine to use long-range ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory. The State Department neither confirmed nor denied this information.
On the night of November 19, Russian air defense systems shot down five American ATACMS ballistic missiles over the territory of the Bryansk region. Another missile was damaged, the Russian Defense Ministry specified.
The use of ATACMS ballistic missiles to strike the Bryansk region indicates that the United States wants to escalate the military conflict, noted Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
On November 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin approved the principles of the country's state policy in the area of nuclear deterrence. One of the grounds for using nuclear weapons could be the launch of ballistic missiles in the direction of Russia.
The UN Secretary General's office expressed concern about the escalation of the Ukrainian conflict after the Ukrainian Armed Forces' strike with American ATACMS missiles on the Bryansk region. The official representative of the head of the world organization, Stephane Dujarric, noted the importance of finding peaceful ways to resolve the conflict. He called on all parties to exercise restraint in order to avoid casualties and escalation of tension in the region.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Rabble-rouser Marjorie Taylor Greene is stirring up drama on Capitol Hill yet again by repeatedly and purposefully calling the first openly transgender woman in Congress a 'man.'
Speaking to reporters on the Capitol steps Monday evening the Georgia Republican gave a full-throated endorsement of a proposal from Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., that would prevent the first trans member from using women's bathrooms.
Delaware Democratic Representative-elect Sarah McBride - who will become the first openly trans member of Congress - is expected to be sworn in come January 2025.
But Mace says they should not be 'allowed in women's private spaces,' like the ladies' rooms around the Capitol complex.
Greene doubled down on Mace's resolution, saying: 'He's a man. He's a biological male, so he is not allowed to use our women's restrooms, our women's gym, our locker rooms and our spaces that are that are specified for women.
'He's a biological male,' she said again. 'He has plenty of places he can go.'
Greene even shot down the idea of having gender-neutral bathrooms in Congress.
'No,' she said to the idea, adding 'he can go in the men's room and he has a bathroom in his office just like all of us do.'
'I use the restroom most of the time in my office,' Greene reasoned. 'He has a bathroom that will be designated for him.'
Mace's proposal prohibits House members and staffers from 'using single-sex facilities other than those corresponding to their biological sex.'
Greene even suggested expanding the trans bathroom measure to 'all taxpayer funded facilities.'
Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday told the Republican conference at large that Mace's proposal will be included in an upcoming legislative package.
#13
I don't care what anyone says -- tax dollars should not be used for Ms. McBride's prostate exam.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/20/2024 12:52
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#14
At least one of them has balls. lol
Posted by: Marilyn Shoger7185 ||
11/20/2024 16:20
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#15
“Modified male” is the term I prefer.
I just mentally replace the word "trans" with "fake". A trans woman is a fake woman, AKA a man.
It is nice to see someone standing up to this bullshit. As an American, you have the right to go to Hell in your own personal way, but there is nothing in the Constitution that says the rest of us have to play along.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 23:57 Official summary of the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC from 00:00 11/19/2024 to 00:00 11/20/2024.
A total of 19 cases of armed attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces were recorded by the DPR Representative Office in the JCCC over the past 24 hours.
There were reports of five civilians being injured, including one teenager.
DAMAGED:
One car,
One residential building,
One civil infrastructure facility.
A total of 19 artillery attacks in the Gorlovka direction.
A total of 54 units of various ammunition were fired.
21:02 Three Ukrainian UAVs were destroyed over the Rostov and Kursk regions in an hour, the Russian Defense Ministry announced.
19:47 Crew of the 152mm Giatsint-B gun of the Dnepr troop group struck camouflaged M-777 howitzer of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Zaporizhia region.
19:20 Destruction of Ukrainian Armed Forces vehicles by artillery of the North group of forces in the Khar'kov region. Objective control obtained in real time shows an explosion of Ukrainian Armed Forces militants’ vehicles and a fire.
18:57 Russian troops have five km left to encircle the Ukrainian Armed Forces group south of Kurakhovo. This is evidenced by data from the Ukrainian resource Deep State. According to various estimates, there are from several hundred to one and a half thousand Ukrainian soldiers in the emerging "cauldron".
18:35 Russian Army destroyed crossing over the Kazeny Torets River on the Slavyansk-Krasny Liman highway. Now it is possible to get from Slavyansk to Krasny Liman only through Svyatogorsk.
18:05 The crew of the Su-34 attacked personnel, equipment and a stronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of the Kursk region –video.
17:52 Russian attack aircraft entered the territory of the Chasov Yar Fireproof Plant, the last major stronghold in the city.
17:45 The situation along the entire line of combat contact remains tense for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the Ukrainian General Staff admitted.
17:40 An explosion occurred in Khar'kov in eastern Ukraine. This was reported by the Ukrainian publication "Obshchestvennoe. Novosti".
16:59 Ukrainian troops attacked positions of the Russian Armed Forces in large numbers near the village of Liptsy in the Khar'kov region. During the repulse of the attack, the Ukrainian Armed Forces were completely routed.
Fighters of the "North" group destroyed 80 Ukrainian militants out of 100 who took part in the attack. In addition, a tank, two infantry fighting vehicles and two armored personnel carriers were destroyed.
16:05 Russian Aerospace Forces carried out massive airstrikes on targets in the Khar'kov region.
15:45 Russian troops were able to “throw back” Ukrainian units from the railway in Berestki in the Kurakhovsky direction.
15:10 Scouts of the North group of troops revealed a camouflaged Ukrainian Armed Forces pickup truck in a forest belt in the Khar'kov region. The target was destroyed by an FPV drone crew.
15:00 Russian troops were able to gain a foothold in the north of Pustynka in the Selidovsky district, taking a bridgehead near a reservoir.
14:55 Crews of the Molniya-2 UAV aircraft type of the North group of forcesare striking armored and automotive equipment, as well as manpower of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the border area of the Kursk region.
14:22 An explosion has occurred in Khar'kov, the Ukrainian publication "Public. News" reported.
14:10 Russian military personnel are clearing the industrial zone of Kupyansk in the Khar'kov region from the enemy, said the head of the military-civil administration (MCA) of the region, Vitaly Ganchev.
13:50 The Russian army entered the settlement of Pustynka in the Pokrovsky direction and consolidated its position.
13:34 Artillerymen from the Dnepr group of forces continue to deliver precise and powerful strikes on the enemy –video.
13:10 Enemy reports: “in the Kurakhovsky direction, the Russian Armed Forces advanced in the Berestki area, “aiming” at further advancement towards the settlement of Starye Terny.
The situation for Ukrainian troops is also worsening further north: Russian units are pushing the Ukrainian army out of positions north of the village of Zarya and are continuing their advance towards Pushkino and Ukrainka."
12:49 Assault units of the Russian Armed Forces advanced in Kupyansk and Petropavlovka. During the attack, nine strong points were destroyed. The enemy is faced with the problem of low staffing of its battalions.
11:47 Russian troops hit a temporary deployment point of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the village of Lobkovoe in the Stepnogorsk direction in the Zaporizhia region, Vladimir Rogov reported.
11:31 Fighters of the Dnepr group of forces revealed and destroyed the enemy's camouflaged mortar.
09:44 A 122mm BM-21 Grad MLRS crew from the Russian 44th Army Corps of the North grouping hit a concentration of Ukrainian infantry in the Khar'kov direction and disrupted the rotation –video.
09:40 The Russian Armed Forces have a new type of guided aerial bombs, the OFZAB-500, in the Kupyansk direction.
The bomb contains a large amount of incendiary mixture and is used by the Russian army to destroy defensive positions of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, infantry and equipment.
09:29 Enemy reports: “Russian Armed Forces have advanced in Kalinovka, Toretsk, Kurakhovo, Berestki, near Chasovy Yar, Pogrebki, Yuryevka, Razdolnoye.”
08:41 Russian military doctors are actively help to attack aircraft in the border area of the Kursk region.
Being at the command post and communicating with the assault units gives them a real picture of the battle, as well as the ability to quickly evacuate the wounded, said a medic with the call sign "Ice".
08:21 Objective control of the LMUR strike on the substation in the village of Nikolskoye, Kherson direction –video.
08:09 152mm "Msta-B" of the "Dnepr" group of troops destroyed Ukrainian drone control center on the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kherson region.
08:06 Russian attack winged drone struck a building with repeaters for Mavic and kamikaze drones and UAV crews located in it in Kurakhovo, which is controlled by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
08:02 Footage of combat work of the Iskander of the West troop group.
The operational-tactical missile system strikes military infrastructure facilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the area of ??the special operation.
08:00 Calculation of drones of the Dnepr group suits aerial ambushes for Ukrainian Armed Forces drones, said the crew chief with the call sign “Vokhan”.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Kirill Velesov
[REGNUM] Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree approving a new version of the doctrine "Fundamentals of State Policy in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence." The basic principle of the doctrine has not changed, it states that nuclear weapons (NW) are an extreme measure to protect the country's sovereignty. At the same time, adjustments were made against the backdrop of a new round of escalation provoked by the United States and its allies.
At the end of last week, it became known that the United States no longer objects to Ukraine's strikes with American long-range missiles on Russian territory. In particular, this concerns the ATACMS system, which the Ukrainian Armed Forces have already used several times - then the strikes hit Donbass and Crimea. Now, with the permission of outgoing US President Joe Biden, such missiles can be sent to all Russian regions.
Ukrainian authorities have long asked the West to remove this barrier, arguing that such attacks could significantly affect the situation on the battlefield. Russian officials have called this view wrong: these strikes will not have a fundamental impact on anything, but will only hasten the end of Ukraine.
Washington has not officially confirmed the information about lifting the ban, but the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell said on November 18 that the US had indeed made such a decision, and it was discussed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers. According to him, we are talking about missiles with a range of about 300 kilometers.
And already on November 19, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense reported that air defense systems shot down five American ATACMS ballistic missiles over the territory of the Bryansk region on the night of Tuesday.
It is noted that the Ukrainian Armed Forces launched a strike with six missiles: five of them were shot down by the S-400 and Pantsir systems, the sixth missile was damaged. Its fragments fell on the technical territory of the military facility, causing a fire. There were no casualties or damage as a result.
At the same time, the possibility of allowing the Kyiv regime to strike Russia with its missiles was first seriously discussed in the United States back in September. At that time, Biden said that the issue was under discussion.
In response, Vladimir Putin stated that if such attacks on Russian territory do occur, this would mean NATO’s direct entry into conflict with Russia – Moscow would take appropriate measures and give its response.
Soon, the head of the Russian state announced changes to the country's nuclear doctrine, the necessity of which was dictated by the changing international situation.
WHAT HAS CHANGED?
The nuclear doctrine of a state is not a dogma established once and for all, but a strategy that must keep pace with rapidly changing times. In the US, for example, it is rewritten for each new president.
The current updates to the Russian doctrine are precisely a response to the challenges facing the country. Russia is demonstrating to its enemies the line beyond which a potential enemy will face brutal retribution.
Russia's updated nuclear strategy illustrates the very essence of the idea of nuclear deterrence.
“Nuclear deterrence is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation and/or its allies,” the document says.
The doctrine lists the conditions for the use of nuclear deterrence. In particular, it states that the conditions for neutralizing threats are "the presence of a potential enemy and its deployment of missile defense systems and means, medium- and shorter-range cruise and ballistic missiles, high-precision non-nuclear and hypersonic weapons, strike unmanned vehicles of various basings, and directed energy weapons that can be used against the Russian Federation."
In addition, it is stipulated that nuclear deterrent forces may be used in the event that a potential adversary takes actions aimed at defeating (destroying, annihilating) ecologically hazardous facilities of the Russian Federation, which may lead to man-made, ecological or social disasters.
It is emphasized that the use of nuclear weapons remains an extreme and necessary measure in the event of a threat to statehood; Russia “is making all necessary efforts to reduce the nuclear threat and prevent the aggravation of interstate relations that could provoke military conflicts, including nuclear ones.”
"We have been discussing changes to the nuclear doctrine for a long time. Moreover, it has changed before. As threats to us grew, we had to create response options, which Putin spoke about directly. No one is particularly hiding the fact that changes to the nuclear doctrine are the creation of that very counter-threat to the events that are happening around Russia. Everything was said directly and openly," political scientist Vladimir Kornilov said in a conversation with the Regnum news agency.
An important point: under the nuclear umbrella now is not only Russia itself, but also its allies, in particular Belarus.
If in the earlier version of the doctrine a response with nuclear weapons was allowed when the enemy launched ballistic missiles, now such a measure can also be applied when attacking Russia using conventional weapons. For example, when reliable information appears about a massive launch of aircraft, cruise missiles, drones, etc. towards Russia.
"The previous version of the principles of state policy only spoke about the launch of ballistic missiles as a condition for a retaliatory strike. Now we are talking about the launch of aircraft, tactical and strategic cruise missiles, as well as drones, hypersonics, and in general any massive launch of aircraft," Dmitry Suslov, deputy director of the Center for Comprehensive European and International Studies at the National Research University Higher School of Economics, told Regnum earlier.
Another key addition is the use of nuclear deterrence in the event that an attack is carried out by a non-nuclear state, but it acts with the support of a country that possesses such weapons. In addition, aggression by any country that is part of a military bloc will be qualified as participation in this attack by the entire bloc.
In addition, nuclear deterrence can be used against a country that provides its territory or resources to an aggressor for an attack on Russia. Also, the basis for the use of nuclear weapons is the creation or expansion of military blocs, which leads to the approach of their military infrastructure to the Russian borders.
As before, the decision to use nuclear weapons is made by the country's president.
RETRIBUTION IS INEVITABLE
Deputy Chairman of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev emphasized the importance of the changes made to the nuclear doctrine on his Telegram channel, linking them to the US decision on long-range missiles.
"The use of alliance missiles in this way can now be qualified as an attack by the bloc's countries on Russia. In this case, the right arises to launch a retaliatory strike with weapons of mass destruction against Kiev and the main NATO facilities, wherever they are. And this is already WWIII (the third world war. - Ed.)," Medvedev wrote.
The innovations in the nuclear doctrine were also commented on by the press secretary of the Russian president Dmitry Peskov. According to him, it was necessary to bring the document into line with the current situation.
"Russia has always viewed nuclear weapons as a means of deterrence, the use of which is an extremely necessary measure. <…> Nuclear deterrence is aimed at ensuring that a potential adversary understands the inevitability of retaliation in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation or its allies," Peskov told journalists.
The West has not yet had time to react to the changes in Russia's nuclear doctrine, although one can guess what this reaction will be. It is enough to recall the comments of American and European officials after the announcement of the updates in September of this year. At that time, the Western political establishment criticized this step.
“Changing Russia’s nuclear doctrine is irresponsible,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
In turn, the Western press was more reserved in its assessments and acknowledged that Russia made the decision to make changes to its nuclear doctrine because of the Ukrainian conflict, or more precisely, the actions of Kyiv’s allies, which continue to escalate the confrontation.
As for American missile strikes on Russian territory, they may continue, Vladimir Kornilov admits.
"Once the command has been given, the go-ahead has been given, then they are preparing to use it. I think that the Rubicon has already been crossed. And this was done deliberately, including in order to add problems to the future US president," the source told Regnum.
Linked article is available only through a VPN
[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, units of the Sever Group of Forces defeated units of the 57th Motorised Infantry Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU), 13th Territorial Defence Brigade, and 5th Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine near Volchansk, Glubokoye, and Izbitskoye (Kharkov region). Two counter-attacks launched by enemy assault detachments have been repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 135 troops, a tank, two infantry fighting vehicles, four armoured fighting vehicles, a 122mm D-30 howitzer, and an electronic warfare station.
The Zapad Group of Forces has improved the tactical situation. Moreover, the Group inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the 14th, 28th, and 115th Mechanised brigades of the AFU near Kupyansk, Zagryzovo, and Kruglyakovka (Kharkov region). In addition, three counterattacks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 510 troops, four motor vehicles, a 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system, a U.S.-made 105mm M-101 howitzer, and an Anklav-N electronic warfare station.
The Yug Group of Forces improved their position along the front line. Russian troops inflicted fire damage on 24th, 33rd, and 54th Mechanised brigades, 79th Air Assault Brigade, 46th Airmobile Brigade, and 10th Mountain Assault Brigade of the AFU near Yantarnoye, Antonovka, Dachnoye, Uspenovka, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic). One counter-attack launched by an AFU assault detachment was repelled.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 550 troops, a tank, three U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carriers, an armoured fighting vehicle, eight motor vehicles, a Polish-made 155mm Krab self-propelled artillery system, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, and four U.S.-made 105mm M-119 guns. One Nota electronic warfare station was destroyed.
The Tsentr Group of Forces liberated Novoselidovka (Donetsk People's Republic) as a result of intensive offensive actions.
They also inflicted fire damage on manpower and hardware of the 53rd, 100th, 117th Mechanised brigades, 38th Naval Infantry Brigade, 12th and 14th National Guard brigades close to Leonidovka, Belitskoye, Dzerzhinsk, Mirolyubovka, Grodovka, and Novoekonomicheskoye (Donetsk People's Republic). Six counter-attacks of enemy assault groups were repelled.
The enemy sustained losses of more than 310 troops, two armoured fighting vehicles, three motor vehicles, a 152mm D-20 gun, a 122mm D-30 howitzer, and a 100mm Rapira anti-tank gun.
The Vostok Group's units have taken more favourable lines and positions. They hit units of the 58th Motorised Infantry Brigade of the AFU, 101st, 110th, 120th, 123rd, and 129th Territorial Defence brigades near Razlif, Novoselka, Makarovka, Ulakly, Velikaya Novoselka (Donetsk People's Republic), and Temirovka (Zaporozhye region). Russian units repelled a counterattack of an AFU assault detachment.
The AFU losses amounted to up to 140 troops, a German-made Leopard tank, two armoured fighting vehicles, seven motor vehicles, two U.S.-made 155mm M-198 howitzers, and one 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery system. One field ammunition depot has been destroyed.
The Dnepr Group of Forces engaged personnel and hardware of the 31st and 118th Mechanised brigades of the AFU and 3rd Territorial Defence Brigade close to Malaya Tokmachka and Novoandreyevka (Zaporozhye region).
The AFU losses amounted to up to 65 troops, 11 motor vehicles, a 152mm D-20 gun, and an Anklav-N electronic warfare station. One field ammunition depot has been destroyed.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, and Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces delivered strikes at infrastructure of military airfields, power objects ensuring operation of the Ukrainian defence industry, as well as engaged manpower clusters and military hardware in 146 areas.
Air defence units shot down five ballistic missiles, four French-made Hammer guided aerial bombs, a U.S.-made HIMARS MLRS projectile, and 85 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 648 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 36,259 unmanned aerial vehicles, 586 anti-aircraft missile systems, 19,386 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,490 MLRS combat vehicles, 18,181 field artillery guns and mortars, and 28,525 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 units of the Sever Group of Forces inflicted fire damage on formations of 41st, 44th, 47th, 115th Mechanised brigades, 82nd and 95th Air Assault brigades, 36th Naval Infantry Brigade, 117th and 129th Territorial Defence brigades of the AFU near Daryino, Zeleny Shlyakh, Leonidovo, Nizhny Klin, and Novoivanovka.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted fire damage on enemy manpower and hardware close to Bogdanovka, Daryino, Martynovka, Mirny, Nikolayevka, Nikolayevo-Darino, Novaya Sorochina, Plekhovo, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, and Cherkasskoye Porechnoye, as well as Basovka and Zhuravka in Sumy region.
The enemy sustained losses of up to 320 troops, two tanks, to include one German-made Leopard 2 tank, one U.S.-made Bradley infantry fighting vehicle, an armoured personnel carrier, 15 armoured fighting vehicles, 10 motor vehicles, three self-propelled artillery systems, and one electronic warfare station. Six AFU servicemen surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses have amounted to more than 33,990 troops, 215 tanks, 141 infantry fighting vehicles, 116 armoured personnel carriers, 1,190 armoured fighting vehicles, 968 motor vehicles, 294 artillery guns, 40 MLRS launchers, including HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 67 EW stations, 13 counter-battery warfare radars, four air defence radars, 27 units of engineering and other materiel, including 13 counterobstacle vehicles, one UR-77 mine clearing vehicle, six armoured recovery vehicles, and one command post vehicle.
The operation to neutralise the AFU units is in progress
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] The court extended the investigation period in the case of the terrorist attack in Crocus until February 22, and also increased the arrest period for its alleged perpetrators.
“The investigation’s motion is to be satisfied and the accused Dalerdzhon Mirzoyev, Murodali Rachabalizoda, Muhammadsobiru Faizov and Shamsidin Fariduni (all four are included in the list of terrorists and extremists) are to be remanded in custody for a period of three months,” the judge said.
The investigation period was extended for approximately the same period (until February 22). The hearing was held behind closed doors.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, the terrorist attack in Crocus took place on the evening of March 22. A group of terrorists burst into the concert hall filled with people, opened fire, and then started a fire. As a result of the terrorist attack, 144 people were killed and 551 were injured. The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation opened several criminal cases, including under Article 205 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation ("Terrorist attack"), under which 12 people were arrested.
On March 23, four people suspected of directly committing the attack were detained in the Bryansk region. They were driving a car towards the border with Ukraine.
In early October, it became known that four defendants in the Crocus City Hall terrorist attack case were members of the Vilayat Khorasan group (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).
That’s ISIS in Afghanistan/the Indian subcontinent. I’ve never understood what they’re doing in Russia…
They were transferred to Moscow from Dagestan. According to investigators, these individuals were engaged in the manufacture of a homemade explosive device and weapons.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] Five suspects in the attempted assassination of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and Vice President Geraldo Alckmin in 2022 have been detained in Brazil. This was reported by the local publication G1.
On November 19, four special forces officers and one police officer were arrested by federal police on suspicion of attempting a coup. They are also accused of plotting to assassinate President Lula da Silva weeks before his inauguration.
The documents seized by police described a plan to shoot or poison Lula da Silva and Vice President Alckmin, then install National Security Adviser Augusto Heleno and former Defense Minister Braga Netto as leaders of the country and hold new elections, Reuters reports. According to the documents, the detainees also planned to kill one of the country's Supreme Court judges with an explosive device or poison.
The men involved in the coup attempt were special forces trained and planned to use “advanced military operational techniques” in an operation called “Green-Yellow Dagger” and then create a “crisis cabinet” of ministers, the report said. Before their arrest, the suspects were in Rio de Janeiro, where they were taking part in a mission to provide security for the G20 leaders’ meeting.
As reported by the Regnum news agency, on January 9, 2023, a state of emergency was declared in Brazil due to protests against the results of the presidential elections. Protesters stormed the buildings of Congress, the Supreme Court, and the presidential residence. More than 400 people were detained for participating in anti-government protests.
[Rudaw] Iraq on Tuesday reacted to an Israeli letter to the UN Security Council holding Iraq responsible for the activities of 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... groups in the Middle East. Baghdad deemed this a "pretext to justify aggression" and said it seeks peace in the region.
In a letter to the Security Council on Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar urged "immediate action" against "attacks on Israel conducted by the Iranian-backed militias in Iraq" and ensure that Iraq "fulfills its obligations" to "prevent the use of its territory as a base for attacks against other nations."
Some Iraqi militia groups backed by Iran have launched rocket and dronezaps against US military installations in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for Washington’s support for Israel in its war against 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... . They have also targeted Israel with drones and missiles.
Iraq’s government on Tuesday responded to Israel’s letter in a statement from 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’s office following a council of ministers meeting, describing it as "a pretext to justify aggression against Iraq and an attempt to expand the ongoing war in the region."
"The Prime Minister reaffirmed Iraq’s rejection of such threats, emphasizing that decisions of war and peace rest solely with the Iraqi state," the statement read, adding that "Iraq refuses to be drawn into war while maintaining its principled stance of ending the conflict and providing humanitarian aid to the Paleostinian and Lebanese peoples."
The US also commented on the matter.
"Iraq should do everything within its power to stop terrorist attacks, both within its borders and against targets outside its borders," State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller told Rudaw’s Diyar Kurda during a press briefing on Tuesday.
On October 7 of last year, Paleostinian Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... launched an unprecedented attack on Israel, which retaliated by invading Gaza with the conflict now having spread to Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... In October, the Israeli army announced that two of its soldiers were killed and 24 others were maimed, when a suicide drone launched from Iraq hit a military base in the Golan Heights.
These attacks by the militia groups have raised concerns that Iraq could be dragged into the war - something Iraqi officials have said they want to avoid.
In early November, the Iraqi government denied similar reports of its lands being used as a launchpad to attack Israel, stating that the reports are being used as an excuse to drag Iraq into war.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani dismisses an Israeli complaint to the UN Security Council about strikes by Iraq’s Iran-backed Shiite militias on Israel as a “pretext and argument to attack Iraq” and to “expand the war in the region.”
“Please don’t hurt us!”
Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar had earlier posted on X a letter to the Security Council saying that “Israel has the inherent right to self-defense… and to take all necessary measures to protect itself and its citizens against the ongoing acts of hostilities by Iranian-backed militias in Iraq.”
The Iran-backed Islamic Resistance in Iraq has claimed to have launched dozens of drones at Israel since war broke out last year with the Hamas terror group’s October 7, 2023, attack.
Most of the group’s attacks have failed to cross Israel’s border or were downed by air defenses, according to the IDF. Last month, two soldiers were killed by a drone launched by the group at an army base in the Golan Heights, and in September, one struck the Eilat port, causing damage and lightly wounding two people.
Sa’ar said some of the militias are part of the Popular Mobilization Forces — a coalition of mostly Shiite armed groups that’s technically part of the Iraqi army although it operates in practice largely outside state control
…and in practice its members draw a second salary from Iran’s IRGC, which is also where they get their orders…
— and urged the Iraqi government to “take immediate action to halt and prevent these attacks.”
Al-Sudani’s office says in a statement that Iraq has refused to enter into the regional conflict while “seeking to provide relief to the Palestinian and Lebanese people.”
[Rudaw] Iraq’s influential Shiite holy manMoqtada Tateral-Sadr ...hereditary Iraqi holy man and leader of a political movement in Iraq. He had his hereditary rival al-Khoei assassinated shortly after the holy rival's appearance out of exile in 2003. Formerly an Iranian catspaw, lately he gagged over some of their more outlandish antics, then went back to catspawry when the check cleared... on Tuesday called on the government and parliament to ban imports from pro-Israel states in a way that it does not damage the country’s economy.
"The Iraqi government and parliament must work to enact a law that prohibits imports from some countries that support the Zionist entity, especially those that support it with arms, on the condition of not damaging the Iraqi economy," Sadr said in a statement on X.
"That is the least the relevant Iraqi authorities can do, out of loyalty to the Paleostinian and Lebanese people," he added.
Iraq is a staunch supporter of Paleostine, condemning the lack of global support for the Paleostinian people on multiple occasions.
The current Shiite-led cabinet has also sided with Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... in the fight with Israel. It has so far only provided humanitarian aid, but Iraq’s 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... militia groups have carried out dozens of drone and rocket attacks on Israel since Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... ’ unprecedented attack on Israel a year ago triggered the escalation in the decades-old Israel-Paleostine conflict.
Since the start of the conflict in Lebanon, Iraq has opened doors to thousands of Lebanese refugees fleeing the war, calling them "guests" in the country.
In late July, Sadr called on his followers to boycott all products of businesses that support the United States and Israel’s war on 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, stressing that the boycotts should be peaceful.
There have been a number of calls in the Arab world to boycott Western brands and companies over their alleged links to Israel, slashing the earnings of many popular chains including McDonald’s and Starbuck
Argentina has notified @UNIFIL_ of its decision to withdraw from the UN peacekeeping mission. Over two decades, UNIFIL has failed to stop Hezbollah from reclaiming southern Lebanon and attacking Israel on a large scale. pic.twitter.com/o9D2AypSee
Argentina has informed the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) of its decision to withdraw from the force, a UNIFIL spokesperson confirmed on Tuesday, according to Reuters.
"Argentina has asked its officers to go back [to Argentina]," UNIFIL spokesperson Andrea Tenenti said in response to a question about a report on the matter.
Tenenti refrained from elaborating on Argentina’s reasons for the withdrawal, directing inquiries to the Argentine government.
Argentina is one of 48 countries contributing to UNIFIL, which is tasked with monitoring the border area between southern Lebanon and Israel. According to the UN website, the country currently has three personnel stationed in Lebanon.
Tenenti emphasized that there is no widespread indication of diminishing support for the mission. "The idea is to stay. So there is no discussion of withdrawing at all," he said, according to Reuters.
While Argentina has not yet responded to Tenenti’s remarks, its reported decision came after UNIFIL posts were struck twice on Tuesday by rockets fired by the Hezbollah terrorist organization.
UNIFIL has repeatedly accused Israel of deliberately targeting its peacekeepers in Lebanon when striking Hezbollah posts that have been placed near UNIFIL positions.
The IDF has stressed that it has instructed UNIFIL personnel to enter into protected spaces before the strikes and added and explained that Hezbollah deliberately operates with the intent to harm Israeli civilians from civilian areas and near UNIFIL posts.
Tenenti again made similar accusations on Tuesday, claiming, "We're still working on fixing some of the positions, but this has been definitely a very difficult moment, because we've been deliberately attacked by the IDF in recent months, and we're doing our utmost to rebuild the areas."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu recently responded to accusations that the IDF has targeted UNIFIL forces in southern Lebanon, calling these accusations "completely false."
"The charge that Israel deliberately attacked UNIFIL personnel is completely false," Netanyahu stated. "It's exactly the opposite. Israel repeatedly asks UNIFIL to get out of harm's way. It repeatedly asked them to temporarily leave the combat zone, which is right next to Israel's border with Lebanon."
Netanyahu also again urged UNIFIL to relocate its peacekeepers so they are away from IDF activity. However, UN peacekeeping chief Jean-Pierre Lacroix outright rejected that request.
[Jpost] Italy's defense ministry admits Hezbollah staged an attack on itself when a UN Interim Force in Lebanon base was hit by rocket fire that it initially blamed on Israel, Barron's reported on Tuesday.
Last week, Italy said an unexploded artillery shell hit the base of UNIFIL base, putting the blame on the IDF.
According to Barron's, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto had initially said in Brussels that the IDF had staged the attack on the UN base in Lebanon. "Our (proud) mission is to help Arabs kill Jews!"?
"The headquarters of the United Nations (UN) is on 17 to 18 acres (6.9 to 7.3 ha) of grounds in the Turtle Bay neighborhood of Midtown Manhattan in New York City."
The view from Somalia. No, really — this is a staff editorial by a Garowe Online editorial page staffer.
[Garowe] Amidst the fervor of forming a new administration, House Speaker Mike Johnson has endorsed President-elect Donald Trump ...The cad! Twice caught beating wimmin!... 's controversial cabinet nominations, describing them as "disruptors" needed to rattle the bureaucratic norms of the nation's capital. Speaking on CNN ...formerly the Cable News Network, now who know what it might stand for... 's "State of the Union," Johnson, who is now the leading Republican voice in Congress, defended the selections that have polarized political observers.
Johnson articulated his view that the appointees, though unconventional or embattled by past controversies, are precisely what the American electorate has signaled they desire in their leaders. "The American people have believed and delivered a mandate for change," he stated, insisting that these individuals were chosen "not just for their loyalty to Trump, but for their capacity to reform and revitalize the government's inner workings."
His comments reflect a broader narrative within the Republican Party that seeks to distance itself from traditional Washington politics, embracing instead a more aggressive approach to governance. Critics of the picks have raised concerns over qualifications and the potential for ethical lapses, pointing to the likes of Pete Hegseth, who has faced allegations of sexual misconduct, and the polarizing figure of Robert F. Kennedy Jr., among others.
As Trump prepares to take office, the discourse around his cabinet continues to reveal deep divisions. While some within the GOP and outside commend the fresh faces and outsider perspective, others fear the implications of placing individuals in key positions who may not have the necessary experience or who might bring their own set of controversies into the fold.
Johnson's endorsement of the "disruptor" strategy underscores the tension between political innovation and the established governance norms, a theme that is likely to dominate discussions as Trump's administration takes shape.
#7
We need Johnson to be BG John Buford until Jan 20.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 12:25
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#8
Interesting story on Lutnick. Never heard it before.
Posted by: Regular joe ||
11/20/2024 13:02
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#9
Sunny Hostin was forced to read this by network lawyers after claiming Gaetz was guilty. “Matt Gaetz has long denied all allegations, calling the claims, quote, ‘invented,’ and saying in a statement to ABC News that ‘this false smear following a three-year criminal investigation should be viewed with great skepticism,’” Hostin read. “The DOJ investigation was closed with no charges being brought.”
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/20/2024 16:20
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#10
If just being accused is tantamount to being guilty, someone should accuse Sunny of being a prostitute. See how she likes it.
[NYP] The vicious Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua has expanded its territory to at least 16 US states — an area that includes half of America’s population, The Post has learned.
Homeland Security officials last week were warned in an internal department intelligence memo about TdA’s growing presence across the country, most recently in Washington, DC, Virginia, Montana and Wyoming.
The gang already has footholds in California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin, according to the memo and previous reporting by The Post.
Oboy! A project for the freshly rejuvenated FBI, to replace hunting down J-6ers and white Christianists.
[Rudaw] The British consulate general in Erbil on Tuesday expressed its "heartfelt" condolences for the loss of two commanders and a fighter from joint Kurdish and Iraqi forces earlier this week.
In addition to the death of the three members of the joint brigade, three others were also maimed when an improvised bomb (IED) went kaboom! on them in Salahaddin province’s Tuz Khurmatu, located about 65 kilometers south of Kirkuk city.
"The UK remains steadfast in its partnership with the Joint Brigades, committed to supporting Iraq’s security, stability, and illusory sovereignty," the British diplomatic mission said in its message of condolence on X.
On Monday, the US consulate also extended its condolences to the victims of the attack which was claimed by ISIS.
The attack has been condemned by Iraqi and Kurdish officials, with some of them reiterating the need for greater cooperation between Peshmerga and Iraqi forces to counter terrorism.
Iraq and the Kurdistan Region continue to carry out regular operations against ISIS Death Eaters, and officials have said that the threat from the terror group is contained.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Yaroslav Karpikov
[REGNUM] In the last week, there have been reports of the advancement of the Russian Armed Forces in the north-east of the Kharkiv region - our military is leveling the front line along the Oskol River, on November 14, an assault group managed to gain a foothold on the outskirts of Kupyansk. The Ukrainian Armed Forces group finds itself in a difficult situation, which is also recognized on the other side of the front line. The gradual liberation of the Kharkiv lands means, among other things, the restoration of unity in that part of historical Russia that was called "Slobozhanshchina".
It is the current Kharkiv region that is the core of this historical region, which also includes the modern Sumy and Belgorod regions, the Kursk border area and partly the north of the DPR and LPR.
The historical (and in fact ideological) narrative adopted in Kyiv implies that the south of the Sloboda lands, that is, “Sumy” and “Kharkiv”, are essentially original Cossack, read - Ukrainian lands.
The Kiev regime, despite all its ostentatious decommunization, made the works of academician Dmitry Bagaley, a pre-revolutionary historian and public figure who made a successful career under the Bolsheviks, during the era of the formation of the Ukrainian SSR and indigenization, the actual historical basis for such assertions.
EXPERIENCED IDEOLOGICAL SABOTEUR
On the one hand, it was thanks to the work of Bagaley, a native of Kyiv and later rector of the Imperial Kharkov University, that a systematic study of the history of Slobozhanshchina began.
But, on the other hand, Bagaley, a student of the Ukrainophile Nikolai Kostomarov and a native of the Polish gentry, the " khlopomaniac " Vladimir Antonovich, was himself, to put it mildly, not impartial. He could well have subscribed to the phrase of another left-wing radical from science, Mikhail Pokrovsky : history is politics, overturned into the past.
Bagaley had been sympathetic to Ukrainian "separatists" since his student years. At the same time, the historian-Ukrainizer did not suffer from persecution by the "bloody tsarism": in 1914-1917 he was elected mayor of Kharkov. Under the conditionally independent Ukrainian state of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, Bagaley almost took the post of prime minister. But he prudently refused the offer, preferring to become one of the founders of the national Academy of Sciences, created by decree of the same hetman. It is interesting that the Soviet government preferred "not to notice" these facts of the biography of the author of the fundamental "History of Sloboda Ukraine" (1918).
Actively welcoming Ukrainization, Bagaley covered the predominantly Cossack history of "Kharkovshchyna". As a result, the history of settlers from central Russia "accidentally" ended up in the background and the idea of Slobozhanshchyna was created as a region exclusively populated by Little Russians.
And since Bagaley was a teacher of many, already Soviet specialists, the history of Russian settlers in the modern Kharkov, Sumy regions and part of Donbass was lost. The descendants of Russian Kharkovites and residents of Sumy lands, receiving truncated knowledge in school and universities, gradually lost their historical connection with the "big" Russian people, who remained on the other side of the administrative border of the RSFSR. And post-Soviet generations have been repeating the Jesuit formula "Kharkiv is Ukraine!" since school.
The descendants of Russian service people of Slobozhanshchina live compactly in the modern Kharkiv and Sumy regions. Most of these people do not even imagine the history of the origin of their ancestors with Russian surnames ending in "-ov", "-ev", "-in" and as a result of the Ukrainization carried out, they firmly believe that they are "true Ukrainians - descendants of the Zaporozhian Cossacks".
To detoxify public consciousness, we must turn not to the “nationally conscious” manipulations and distortions of the Bagaley school, but directly to the archives, to historical documents. We will mention some of them in this article.
"FROM ANCIENT TIMES THEY CONSTITUTED A SPECIAL KIND"
Parts of the Kharkov, Kursk, Belgorod, Sumy, Voronezh regions, the LPR and DPR were part of the Slobodskaya or Slobodsko-Ukrainian province in 1765–1780 and 1796–1835 (the “Ukrainian” was the historical name for the outlying lands of the Russian state).
The term "Slobozhanshchina" was subsequently borrowed by historians from the name of the Slobodsko-Ukrainian province. And from archival documents it follows that the authorities of the Russian Empire considered this region as lands that had been inhabited for centuries by people from Great Russia. More precisely, settlers - "odnodvortsy".
One can understand who the odnodvortsy were, for example, from the decree of Emperor Paul I of November 3, 1798 (on the allocation of these subjects 15 dessiatines of land for each male soul). The decree explains:
“ Since ancient times, single-householders constituted a special kind called streltsy, gunners, Cossacks, boyar children, stanichniks and vorots ( vorots are gate guards whose duties included unlocking and locking the city gates and keeping the keys to them).
Emperor Paul refers to the "construction books" of 1648-1649. At that time, under his ancestor Alexei Mikhailovich, settlers were given "plots of land for each person separately, and they settled in separate households, which is why they adopted the name of single-householders."
In this decree of Paul I we see that the government remembers and values the services of the ancestors of the single-householders, which they rendered to Russia from ancient times.
And by the end of the 18th century, Great Russian single-homesteaders made up to half of the state-owned villagers “in the most affluent Russian provinces.”
CITIES OF REITERS AND GUNNERS
"Odnodvortsy" are the descendants of Russian service people (streltsy, soldiers, reiters, city service of boyar children, gunners, etc.), who formed the backbone of the population of new cities on the southern Russian border in the 17th century.
In the second half of this century, the Russian state began to expand into the steppe, to the south and west of the Belgorod line. New cities were founded and built: Akhtyrka, Valki, Kharkov, Kolontayev, Volnoye, Aleshnya, Kamennoye, Chuguyev, Ostrogozhsk and others.
Both Russian "settlers for eternal residence" and those who were sent to serve "in turns" - so to speak, on a rotational basis on a business trip - took part in the construction. Later, the Russian service people were joined by Little Russians (Cherkasy), who came to the tsarist land beyond the Belgorod line.
Often, taking into account the unsuccessful experience of Great Russians and Cherkassians living together in the city, the tsarist government left the fortress or prison in the jurisdiction of the Great Russian voivode and Russian service people, and settled the Little Russians next to the city, in the "Cherkassian" settlement. It turned out that only settlers from the central regions of the Russian state lived in the cities.
One can judge who made up the Russian service corporations of Kharkov and other tsarist cities by the “fairy tales” – as the settlers’ reports about themselves, their property and service were called in the 17th century.
THE TSAR'S "FAR SOUTHERN HECTARE" PROGRAM
The first example is a document that was submitted to the Duma clerk Semyon Titov at the congress in Kharkov in 1675. From it one can understand what “social groups” lived in the Kharkov district at that time.
Let us mention one more important point. The "fairy tale" indicated which of the settlers received the "local salary", that is, land holdings, thanks to which the single-homesteaders, their families and their descendants "settled" in the Sloboda Ukraines, on the distant southwestern borders of the Russian state.
So, the estates were owned by: three of the four heads of Kharkov families mentioned in the “tale” - spearmen, 63 of 75 reiters, 73 of 94 soldiers and fifty of 106 “city service of boyar children”.
The actual size of the estate varied from 20 to 30 quarters, that is, approximately from 11 to 16.5 hectares, if we consider that 1 quarter (chet) in the 17th century was equal to approximately 0.55 hectares.
For example, in the village of Tishki near Kharkov (the village still exists today under the name Russkie Tishki), the tsar allocated about 676 hectares of land for 42 settlers. One and a half kilometers from Russkie Tishki is the village of Borshchova of the Slobozhansky village council, or Borshchevoe, as it was called in the "fairy tales" of the 1670s. Here, the Great Russian settlers received over half a thousand hectares from Tsar Alexei - for houses and arable land. About the same amount was allocated to the sovereign's people who settled further north, in the village of Liptsy near Volchansk.
Liptsy is still on everyone's lips - in the first days of the SVO, the Russian Armed Forces entered the village. During the withdrawal of our troops from Kharkov in September 2022, control over Liptsy was lost. But since May 2024, after the offensive in the Vovchansk direction, our troops have once again been fighting to liberate the ancient Russian outpost, known since 1660.
In February–August 2022, battles took place near the village (formerly a Russian border town) of Zolochiv, 39 kilometers from the border with the Belgorod region. Soviet historical sources indicated that Zolochiv was founded in 1677 by Cossacks from the Dnieper Ukraine. But archival documents clarify the picture.
Yes, the Cherkasy Cossacks of the Zolochiv hundred who entered Russian service also lived here (according to the 1691 census, they were commanded by two centurions of the Kharkov regiment, Yakov Semenov, son of Kovalevsky, and Ilyash Vasiliev, son of Gonchar ).
But no less significant part of the population were Russian odnodvortsy - city service people, soldiers and reiters under the command of the Great Russian city governor. Earlier, IA Regnum told in detail about this system of governing the Slobodskaya land - when two parallel verticals of power existed for the Cherkass and Great Russians.
PANKOVS AND ESKOVS ARE WAITING FOR THE RUSSIAN ARMY
In general, judging by the documents from the archives, Russian service people received estates and served under the command of Russian governors in many settlements to the north, east and south of the city of Kharkov - in the Kharkov, Zmievsky, Chuguevsky, Saltovsky, Zolochevsky, and Volchansky districts.
But the settlement area was not limited to the region that the current Ukrainian government calls “Kharkiv region”.
There were especially many Great Russian settlements to the south of Sumy: Kamenovsky, Aleshansky, Volnovsky, Miropolsky districts and to the northeast of Sumy: Miropolsky, Sudzhansky districts.
If you look at the maps, it is easy to see that the Russian Slobodskaya land covers both parts of Russian regions and territories that currently remain under the control of the Kyiv authorities.
Single-farmers as a separate class in the Russian Empire (including in the Kharkov province) were officially abolished by the opinion of the State Council “On the land arrangement of state peasants”, which was approved by Emperor Alexander II in 1868.
But, according to ethnographers, until the beginning of the 20th century, the descendants of the first settlers of the Slobodsky lands preserved their own traditions, which differed from those of Little Russia - including trying to marry their own people, without mixing with people of other classes. Some of the odnodvortsy were registered as petty bourgeois of the Kharkov, Kursk and Voronezh provinces, and some as peasants. Those descendants of the odnodvortsy who became wealthy villagers were registered as "rural bourgeoisie" after the revolution, and they were subjected to dispossession.
Many old-time families were “decimated” by the terrible famine of 1932–1933, a disaster that also shook many regions of the RSFSR and Kazakhstan, but which current Kiev historiography considers to be an allegedly “exclusively” Ukrainian tragedy – the Holodomor.
But even now, typical single-court surnames - Pankov, Yeskov, Golovin or Vityutin - are not uncommon in the same Kharkov region. Incidentally, the Voronezh Vatutins also come from single-court surnames, to which the Soviet military leader General of the Army Nikolai Vatutin, the liberator of Kiev, who died at the hands of Bandera militants, belongs.
It is impossible to rule out that the descendants of Great Russian settlers are among those Kharkiv residents who indicated Russian as their native language in the 2001 census (44.3%), and also among the 53.8% of officially “Ukrainian-speaking” people. But first, the indigenization of 1921–1930, and then the post-Soviet derussification (which began long before the 2014 coup) are doing their job. If in 1991 Russian was the language of instruction for 72% of students in the Kharkiv region, then in 2005 this share fell to 45%, and in 2023/24, for obvious reasons, it was reduced to zero (formal 0.56% with 99.4% of instruction in the “mova”). Naturally, the “purely Cossack-Ukrainian” history of the region is taught in the right way — in the spirit of the Bagaley school.
Only the liberation of our historical lands can save the Russian language and Russian culture in Slobozhanshchina and once again instill in generations of Kharkovites and residents of Sumy an objective view of history.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 21.24 British Prime Minister Keir Starmer stresses that Ukraine "must get what it needs, and as much as it needs, to win the war." He also added that irresponsible rhetoric is coming out of Russia, but it will not stop support for Ukraine.
20.41 Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Europe's largest countries are ready to help Ukraine even if the US reduces its support. This concerns both military and financial aid.
19:29 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a press conference with Danish Prime Minister Matt Frederiksen that Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin is showing by changing the nuclear doctrine that he is seeking to continue the war and destroy Ukraine because the world's countries have not shown a strong reaction.
18.05 Ukraine has significant long-range capabilities and will use them to deter Russian aggression. Now they have been supplemented by ATACMS missiles, President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference in Kiev.
17.13 The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense denied the information from the Russians about the alleged successes of the Russian army near Liman.
16.24. Denmark will finance the Ukrainian defense industry for 130 million euros. This was announced by Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during a joint briefing with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
14.53. Russia has concentrated about 50,000 troops in the Kursk region. Most of them are from the Marine Corps and Airborne Troops. In addition, the Russian Federation is moving another division to Kursk. This was stated by the Commander of the Ground Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Lieutenant General Alexander Pavlyuk in an interview with Ukrinform. Over the past three months, the enemy has transferred one division, two brigades and a regiment of airborne troops to the Kursk region; two brigades and one regiment of marines.
14.39 On Tuesday night, a military facility in the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation was attacked by allegedly American ATACMS ballistic missiles. This statement was made by the Russian Ministry of Defense.
14.25 Every day today is the best moment to put even more pressure on Russia. This was stated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during his address to the European Parliament.
The head of state stressed that the Russian Federation would have no real motivation to participate in meaningful negotiations "without fires at ammunition depots on Russian territory, without disruption of military logistics, without destruction of Russian air bases, without missed opportunities to produce missiles and drones, and without confiscation of assets."
13.50 Next year, Ukraine will produce at least 30,000 long-range drones, as well as 3,000 cruise missiles and drone missiles. This data was announced by President Zelensky.
13.12 Ukrainian military for the first time launched a strike on the territory of the Russian Federation with American ATACMS ballistic missiles. This was reported by sources in the Defense Forces.
12.50 Russia has begun production of mobile shelters for protection against nuclear and chemical weapons. Production is underway in Dzerzhinsk, Nizhny Novgorod Region.
12.27 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in the Verkhovna Rada and presented a 10-point Sustainability Plan.
12.27 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in the Verkhovna Rada and presented a 10-point Resilience Plan.
12.04 The administration of US President Joe Biden has indeed allowed Ukraine to use American long-range weapons to strike Russian territory. This was stated by US Deputy Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere Brian A. Nichols.
10.50 The Armed Forces of Ukraine addressed the Ukrainians on the 1000th day of the war. The address notes that the Russian-Ukrainian war is not a sprint, but a marathon. The Armed Forces of Ukraine called for support for the Defense Forces of Ukraine.
10:48 Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has approved an updated nuclear doctrine of Russia by his decree. The document, entitled "On Approval of the Fundamentals of the State Policy of the Russian Federation in the Field of Nuclear Deterrence," was published on the official portal of legal information.
10.23 Two residents of the annexed Crimea have been detained in Sevastopol. According to investigators, they blew up the car of Captain 1st Rank Valery Trankovsky. This was reported by Russian media with reference to the FSB. A 38-year-old resident of Sevastopol, who conducted surveillance, and a 47-year-old resident of Yalta, who planted the explosives, are suspected of committing the crime. They allegedly acted on instructions from the SBU curator.
10.00 Over the 1,000 days of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kiev has experienced 1,369 air raid alarms, lasting a total of more than 1,553 hours. The Russians fired more than 2,500 missiles and drones at the capital.
9.45 President Volodymyr Zelensky released a video for the thousandth day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which shows the key moments of the fight against the Russian occupiers. The video mentions the main moments of the war: the resistance of the Ukrainian people, the liberation of cities, Snake Island, the return of prisoners, visits by leaders of states and international organizations.
9:35 At night, Russian troops attacked Ukraine with 87 Shahed-type attack drones and unidentified drones, 51 UAVs were destroyed. As a result of active counteraction, 30 enemy UAVs were lost in different regions.
9:30 US President Joe Biden made the right decision by allowing Ukraine to use American weapons to strike Russian territory, French leader Emmanuel Macron said.
9:27 The General Staff confirmed a strike on a weapons arsenal in the Bryansk region. It is noted that units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on the night of November 19 hit the arsenal of the 1046th logistics center near the city of Karachev in the Bryansk region. As of 02:30 that night, 12 secondary explosions and a detonation were recorded in the target area. According to the head of the Center for Countering Disinformation under the National Security and Defense Council, Andriy Kovalenko, artillery ammunition was stored at the arsenal in Karachev, including North Korean shells "for their systems." In addition, there are guided aerial bombs (UABs), anti-aircraft missiles and ammunition for multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS).
9.01. As a result of the attack by Russian drones in Glukhov, Sumy region, the death toll has risen to seven people. This was reported by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. "Tonight there was a drone strike on Glukhov. There is destruction of a dormitory of one of the educational institutions. At present, it is known that seven people, including a child, died as a result of this attack," he noted.
8.53. Over the past 24 hours, 143 combat clashes have been recorded at the front. Yesterday, aviation, missile forces and artillery of the Defense Forces carried out nine strikes on areas where Russians were concentrated, and also hit a UAV control center, an artillery system, two warehouses of material and technical resources, the Zhitel electronic warfare station and two other important enemy facilities. This was reported by the General Staff on November 19.
8.15. As a result of the Russian strike on a dormitory in the city of Glukhov in the Sumy region, six people were killed late in the evening of November 18, including a child. There may be more people under the rubble. This was reported by the Sumy OVA. As of 7 a.m. on November 19, 12 people were also known to have been injured, including two children.
7.50. Ukrainian military killed 1,610 Russian occupiers in 24 hours. Total combat losses of the Russian Federation from 24.02.22 to 19.11.24 were approximately 724,050 people. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
7.39. As of the morning of November 19, there are six Russian ships in the Black Sea that are carriers of Kalibr cruise missiles with a total salvo of up to 24 missiles. This was reported by the Ukrainian Navy.
03.54 In the city of Karachev in the Bryansk region of the Russian Federation, after a missile threat was declared, a powerful explosion thundered near a large weapons arsenal, social networks reported. After the explosion, a glow appeared in the sky and less powerful explosions thundered.
01.40 In the city of Glukhov in Sumy Oblast, an enemy drone hit an apartment building. In one of the entrances, apartments on all floors completely collapsed. There are dead and wounded, their number is being clarified.
November 18
22.41 Head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell confirmed at a meeting of the European Commission that the United States has allowed Ukraine to use ATACMS missiles on Russian territory. According to him, Kiev has received permission to strike at a range of up to 300 km.
21.34 The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Ukraine's strikes on Russian territory with long-range ATACMS missiles will be regarded in Moscow as direct US participation in the Russian-Ukrainian war. The corresponding statement was made by the press secretary of the department, Maria Zakharova.
20.33 Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the scaling up of the production of Neptune cruise missiles, the development of new drone missiles, and cooperation with Ukrainian and foreign partners to strengthen Ukraine's defense potential.
19.54 Average daily losses of Russian troops in the war in Ukraine reached a new maximum in October. Over the past month, the Russians lost about 42,000 personnel in battles, the press service of the British Ministry of Defence reports.
19.19 As a result of Russian attacks in October this year in Ukraine, at least 183 civilians were killed, including nine children. Another 903 people were injured. About 45% of the dead were over 60 years old, according to a report by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine
18.22 President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Kharkiv Oblast and visited the frontline city of Kupyansk. The head of state heard reports from commanders and local authorities regarding the security and social situation in Kharkiv Oblast.
17.40 Russia does not want to freeze the war in Ukraine along the line of military conflict, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan allegedly proposes. Dmitry Peskov recalled Vladimir Putin's ultimatum.
17.06 Since the beginning of the current day, 87 combat clashes have occurred on the front in nine directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a report as of 16.00.
16:57 US Deputy National Security Advisor Jonathan Finer said that the intensification of Russian shelling of Ukraine in recent days is a "massive escalation." The US is ready to evolve its decisions to support Ukraine and continues to make "strategic decisions based on the situation on the battlefield."
16:18 President Volodymyr Zelensky got acquainted with the process of building fortifications in the Pokrovsk direction, where most of the planned 600 objects have already been equipped. The head of state talked to the builders and thanked them for their work.
15.59 Russian invaders shelled the cities of Konstantinovka and Seversk, killing three civilians, the Donetsk OVA reported.
14.59 A Russian Iskander-M missile fell on Odessa, shot down by air defense forces. This was reported by the Ukrainian Air Force. As of today, 10 people are known to have died and more than 40 injured.
14.55 Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto criticized the US decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike Russian territory.
"The pro-war mainstream has made a last, desperate attack on the new reality. These forces do not even seem to shy away from the worst: expanding the war in Ukraine to global proportions," he said.
14:45 President Volodymyr Zelensky visited the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk Oblast. He visited the location of the 25th separate airborne Sicheslav brigade and heard a report from its commander.
14.36 The Russian army is building up its forces, the occupiers are creating new brigades. Ukraine is working to ensure that the enemy does not have any advantages, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said.
14.20 The US's permission for Ukraine to use American weapons to strike Russian territory could be a decisive moment in the war, Polish President Andrzej Duda said.
13.44 The aggressor country Russia has launched a demonstrative attack on Odessa. It is only interested in war. President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote about this on Facebook, commenting on the Russian attack on Odessa on Monday.
13.20 Russian troops struck residential buildings in Odessa on November 18, there are dead and wounded. This was reported by the head of the Odessa OVA Oleg Kiper. According to him, civilian infrastructure, including residential buildings, was damaged. "Preliminary, as a result of the Russian attack, 8 people were killed and 18 wounded. Among the victims, one child. Four people are in serious condition," he noted.
12.23 Official Beijing did not criticize the possible US decision to allow Ukraine to use long-range ATACMS missiles on Russian territory. This follows from a comment at a briefing by the press secretary of the Chinese Foreign Ministry, Lin Jian.
12.03 Possible US permission for Ukraine to strike with American weapons deep into Russia would mean "a qualitatively new round of tension." Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said this at a briefing on Monday.
11.26 Russia is trying to overload the Ukrainian air defense with decoy drones made of plywood and foreign electronics. This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate. Electronics from China, the United States, the Netherlands and Switzerland are used to produce the Gerber plywood drone. This was reported by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense.
10:40 Germany is preparing to provide Ukraine with 4,000 drones with artificial intelligence. The Mini-Taurus drones are equipped with modern systems that make them virtually invulnerable to Russian electronic warfare systems and GPS interference.
10.02 On the night of November 18, Russian troops attacked a healthcare facility in the Kherson region from a UAV. Two ambulances were destroyed when explosives were dropped from an enemy drone.
9.45 Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to present his "peace plan" for Russia's war against Ukraine at the G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Erdogan's proposal calls for a freeze on the current positions of the parties. The Turkish president also proposes postponing discussions of Ukraine's accession to NATO for at least 10 years.
9.50 Over the past 24 hours, 149 combat clashes have been recorded at the front. Most of the fighting took place in the Pokrovsk and Kurakhovsky directions. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Ukrainian defense forces destroyed 13 areas of personnel concentration, one command post, a radar and electronic warfare station of the Russians.
8.47 On the night of November 18, Russians attacked Ukraine with ballistics and drones. Most of the "shahids" were destroyed. Air defense shot down 8 drones in the Poltava, Kharkiv, Cherkasy, Chernihiv and Kyiv regions. Three UAVs were lost.
8.16 The death toll from the Russian strike on Sumy on November 17 has risen to 11. This was reported by the acting mayor of Sumy, Artem Kobzar, Suspilne reports. The number of wounded has risen to 68. Among them are ten children.
7.50 Ukrainian military killed 1,560 Russian occupiers in 24 hours. The total combat losses of the Russian Federation from February 24, 22 to November 18, 24 were approximately 722,440 people.
7.21 On the night of November 18, 59 aircraft-type UAVs attacked targets on Russian territory. This was reported by the Russian Defense Ministry. It is noted that all the drones were allegedly destroyed. Two were over the Moscow region, 45 were over the Bryansk region, six were over the Kursk region, three were over the Belgorod region and three were over the Tula region.
01.20 Russia launched two missile strikes on Sumy at night. The first hit a multi-story building. At least ten people were killed, including children. Dozens of people were also injured. The second strike after midnight hit critical infrastructure and left the city without power
[ComservativeTreehouse] It should not come as a surprise to see the same methods deployed against President Trump in 2024 that were used by the FBI in 2016. The difference is now that President Trump understands the full power of his office in the security clearance process and that he doesn’t need the FBI.
In 2016 the FBI used their power to conduct security clearances as a tool to stall and block President Trump appointments. Historically this is one of the ways a very corrupt and political FBI interfere in any system that might be against the interests of the Intelligence Community that controls them. However, in 2024 President-Elect Trump and his transition team have already taken a different approach.
First the report:
WASHINGTON DC – An official at FBI headquarters in Washington is warning that the bureau’s security clearance division is politicized and can’t be trusted to screen President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees for top administration jobs.
The allegations of political bias at the FBI’s security division, or SecD, were revealed in a protected whistleblower disclosure sent to the House Judiciary Committee, which The Washington Times reviewed.
The official said the security clearance process has been “contaminated by the political agendas of [security division] officials and other executives in the FBI.” (more)
This is not any earth-shattering revelation. We painstakingly discussed this in a multitude of prior research discussions. The motive of the Whistleblower to come forth now, is likely because President Trump is already working around the problem.
WASHINGTON DC – President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is skipping the protocol of using the FBI to conduct background checks, according to a report.
Instead, the president-elect’s team is turning to private companies to vet administrative appointees, people familiar with transition planning told CNN. Trump has criticized the FBI for its slow investigation process and feared it would delay his ability to roll out his agenda.
A security clearance is needed for some Cabinet positions, such as attorney general, and the process of obtaining one includes an FBI background check.
Dan Meyer, a national security attorney, told CNN Trump’s mistrust of the FBI and the deep state has made him go completely rogue. [They] “don’t want the FBI to coordinate a norm. They want to hammer the norm,” Meyer told CNN.
The Trump transition team’s decision to bypass the FBI background check comes as Trump has nominated former Reps. Matt Gaetz and Tulsi Gabbard for attorney general and National Intelligence director, respectively — both controversial picks. (more)
Because President Trump is making civics great again, it’s worth reminding everyone that President Trump has unilateral decision-making authority to grant anyone a security clearance. The President (atop the executive) can give anyone he chooses a top-secret security clearance status, simply by saying this person has top-secret security clearance. Yes, it really is that easy.
The President can choose his advisors and choose to share anything – even the most top-secret information in the country – with his advisors and cabinet members. That’s what we elect him/her to do; to use his/her judgement to make decisions.
This is one of the powers within the office that cannot be challenged by any other silo, branch or institution. The security clearance rules are what President Trump says the security clearance rules are.
There is no outside silo in the Executive Branch, who can supersede the decision of President Trump.
Mic drop.
Posted by: NoMoreBS ||
11/20/2024
00:00 ||
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E-Mail||
[11146 views]
Top|| File under: Tin Hat Dictators, Presidents for Life, & Kleptocrats
#1
But they gave Sam Britton nuclear clearance.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 5:24
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Top||
#7
Trump can pull the security clearance from anyone. First day he needs to pull them from all the active and retired CIA and military that supported the russia scandal. Then if the FBI slow rolls his cabinet he can start cutting the clearance at the top of every department that they are slow rolling, to include the heads of those departments. It would be a good start toward draining the swamp. hey can, of course appeal the decision, but that can take years...
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
11/20/2024 10:16
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#8
Trump can pull clearances and he can grant clearances. He does not even really have to do it in writing, but I am sure he will.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/20/2024 12:16
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Top||
#10
This is the single most potent tool to tame the IC swamp! Clearances are the literal life's blood of the IC world. Ruthless action to gut a few leading enemies access to the SCIF and those in the IC world with careers left to pursue will settle down, at least overtly, with many just bunkering in to see how long they are being monitored.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Dmitry Polyakov
[REGNUM] A month and a half after the start of the ground operation in Lebanon, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced the start of the second stage. The main goal is to destroy Hezbollah's missile potential.
The Israeli army has made its largest attempt to break into its northern neighbor's territory. At the same time, the Jewish state continues to carry out daily airstrikes on the "land of cedars." Not only the border areas in the south are under fire, but also the Bekaa Valley and the suburbs of Beirut.
However, behind the military component of the operation there are other aspects.
BETTING ON COLLABORATION
As a result of Israeli bombing in the border zone of Lebanon, more than 40 thousand residential buildings in almost 40 settlements have already been destroyed.
There is a price for hosting vicious, genocidal scum who turn out not to be strong or clever enough to carry it off.
It is noteworthy that there are several completely untouched towns in the area. Among them are Rmesh, Ain Ebel, Maroun ar-Ras, Dbel, located in the Bint Jebel region, and al-Klaya in the Marjayoun region. These small towns are populated mainly by Maronite Christians.
In other words, towns that are not hosting the vicious, genocidal scum, etc..
Formally, the reason these cities are not under Israeli attack is the mediation efforts of the Catholic Church. Residents regularly receive assurances from the Apostolic Nuncio (Vatican Ambassador) in Lebanon that the Christian border areas will remain safe. In addition, a diplomatic representative of the Holy See has repeatedly visited the Lebanese-Israeli border since October 7, 2023, including on a humanitarian mission.
But Israel may also have other reasons for leaving Christian cities untouched.
One of the stated goals of the ground operation is to create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon.
Said buffer zone having been defined by Israel as not hosting that vicious, genocidal scum, etc., exactly like those Christian cities/towns.
In the recent past, such a project was already implemented in the form of the so-called "South Lebanon Security Zone", which existed from 1985 to 2000. Formally, it was controlled by the South Lebanon Army (SLA), a paramilitary formation consisting of Maronites, Shiites and Druze. However, in reality, the zone was an Israeli protectorate with a military presence of the IDF.
It is noteworthy that many of the AJL commanders came from the cities of Rmesh, Dbel and Ain Ebel, which remain untouched today. In addition, it is known that the inhabitants of Marun ar-Ras and Klaia collaborated with Israel. It is quite possible that today the Jewish state is again returning to the tactics of interaction with the Maronite population. And there are some prerequisites for this.
Currently, Lebanese society is extremely polarized. There is no single position on the Israeli invasion. One part of the citizens supports the continuation of the resistance, while the other blames Hezbollah for the conflict and supports its disarmament, as well as negotiations with Israel.
This position is most often taken by supporters of right-wing nationalist parties, dominated by the Maronite Kataeb and Lebanese Forces. Moreover, during the Lebanese civil war (1975–1990), prominent Maronite families such as Gemayel and Chamoun briefly collaborated with the Jewish state to achieve their own political goals. Israel’s bet on the Maronites may therefore be a well-founded move.
DESTABILIZATION STRATEGY
Israel's current actions are aimed not only at inflicting a military defeat on Hezbollah, but also at significantly reducing support for the movement. This strategy is being implemented through the internal destabilization of its northern neighbor.
The systematic bombing of southern Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley and the suburbs of Beirut suggests that Israel is seeking to displace more than a million Shiites, which in turn is expected to lead to social tensions in the "Land of the Cedars."
Already, about half a million Lebanese have fled the war to neighboring Syria, and almost 900,000 to the interior of the country. This has immediately caused tensions within Lebanese society. In addition, Israel has also begun to strike Shiite areas in cities where the majority of the population is made up of members of other faiths, which makes them see Shiites as a threat to their security.
…because they are…
Therefore, massive Israeli bombings are aimed not only at the military component, but also indirectly intensify interfaith confrontation.
Another goal the Jewish state likely wants to achieve through its attacks is to reduce support for Hezbollah within Shiite society.
The insight is blinding.
In Lebanon, the Shiite voice is not only Hezbollah, but also the Amal party. It is important to note that there are significant socioeconomic differences between their electorates. The first party has always been the focus of the disadvantaged strata of the population, while the second party has been the focus of the middle class and the bourgeoisie, which has created the image of Amal as a more respectable party in the Lebanese political system.
Does Amal also have a terrorist army, or is that Hezbollah’s special role?
Moreover, the stratification of Shiites also depends on their places of settlement. The Bekaa Valley is generally home to a poorer population. In southern Lebanon, on the contrary, citizens are more affluent. Most of the leaders of the Shiite community also come from this region. Understanding these differences, in recent years Hezbollah has been actively expanding its support base in the south of the country, taking away the electorate from Amal.
However, it is the southerners who have suffered the most in the current conflict. In order not to lose their support, the Party of God is allocating small compensation: $300 for a family of four and $100 for each adult male.
They have the funds for that after that billion dollars of gold and cash was burnt up?
However, these amounts are unlikely to cover all the damage incurred. As a result, there are already signs of discontent in the Shiite community, which may appear in the future.
Another consequence of the Israeli operation was the deepening of differences between Hezbollah's allies. First, tensions increased between Hezbollah and Amal. Following the assassination of Hassan Nasrallah, Amal Secretary General Nabih Berri called for an unconditional ceasefire. His position was supported by Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati and Druze leader Walid "Wally" Jumblatt.
All three agreed to a cessation of hostilities and the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 1701, which calls for the disarmament of Hezbollah and the redeployment of the Lebanese army to the south of the country.
Secondly, Gebran Bassil, the leader of the Free Patriotic Movement, another Hezbollah partner in the March 8 Coalition, also criticized the Shiite party. In his opinion, the “united fronts” strategy chosen by the “Axis of Resistance,” which implies the unification of all pro-Iranian forces against Israel, was a fatal mistake.
It is noticeable that as the conflict grows, Hezbollah's domestic political partners are increasingly distancing themselves from it and advocating for a ceasefire rather than continued resistance. In the current circumstances, the Party of God will be forced to either take their position into account and not put forward excessive conditions in the negotiations, or it will remain in the minority.
Thus, the current Israeli ground operation pursues several goals at once, and the military aspect is only one of them. In a month and a half of military action, the Jewish state was unable to destroy Hezbollah's military potential. However, it managed to change the conditions in which the Shiite movement exercised its power.
Lebanese society is becoming increasingly divided. Hezbollah is losing support among both its political partners and its supporters. Moreover, it no longer has control over the entire south of the country. These factors, rather than military superiority, may be decisive in the current conflict.
Those factors result from the IDF’s military superiority, not separate from it.
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.
..not a terrorist organization, even though it kidnaps people, holds hostages, and tries to negotiate by executing them,...
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
...the only place on the face of the earth that misses the Ottoman Empire...
"lawyering up", resigning, and retiring. They have no desire to face a legitimate congressional investigation and truthfully testify. 
