[ShabelleMedia] The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems.... terror group’s small but influential affiliate in Somalia is growing, thanks in part to what the United Nations ...the Oyster Bay money pit... describes as an "influx of imported muscle."
A new report this week by the U.N. Sanctions Monitoring Team for Somalia warns that fighters, including some from countries in the Middle East, have helped the Islamic State’s Somali affiliate, also known as IS-Somalia, to more than double in size to between 600 and 700 fighters.
"Foreign fighters arrive in Puntland ...a region in northeastern Somalia, centered on Garowe in the Nugaal province. Its leaders declared the territory an autonomous state in 1998. Puntland and the equally autonomous Somaliland seem to have avoided the clan rivalries and warlordism that have typified the rest of Somalia, which puts both places high on the list for Islamic subversion... [Somalia] using both maritime and overland routes," according to the report, which is based on intelligence estimates from U.N. member states.
The imported muscle "have expanded and enhanced the group’s capabilities," the report said, strengthening IS’s presence in Somalia’s Puntland region while also helping it take territory from its key rival, al-Qaeda-linked terror group al-Shabaab ... the Islamic version of the old Somali warlord... Intelligence sources described the IS-Somalia advance, especially in Puntland’s Cal Miskaad mountains, as a "drastic change," crediting the imported muscle for IS-Somalia’s change in fortune.
The U.N. report said the IS imported muscle have come from at least six countries: Syria, Yemen ...an area of the Arabian Peninsula sometimes mistaken for a country. It is populated by more antagonistic tribes and factions than you can keep track of... , Æthiopia, 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... , Morocco and Tanzania. It also said some captured imported muscle have reported working with trainers who have come from parts of the Middle East.
The new report builds on previous warnings from U.S. and Somali officials, including the commander of U.S. Africa Command, in Germany, who told VOA last month that IS-Somalia had grown "twofold" over the past year.
Somali officials have likewise warned of hundreds of imported muscle flocking to Somalia to join the ranks of the IS affiliate.
"This reporting on an influx of foreign terrorist fighters in Africa is concerning," said Austin Doctor, the director of counterterrorism research initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center.
And while the flow of imported muscle to Somalia pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of fighters who flocked to join IS in Syria and Iraq during the height of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate, Doctor told VOA the trend is likely to continue.
"A number of factors present in the Horn [of Africa] and other Africa regions as well will likely appeal to aspiring travelers looking to join the rank and file of an bad boy bully boy organization," he said. "Global and local security forces should prepare to see more of this in the near term."
There are likewise concerns about IS-Somalia’s growing prominence on the global stage.
Since 2022, Somalia has been home to al-Karrar, one of nine regional Islamic State offices established to help sustain the terror group’s global capabilities.
The U.N. report cautions that despite some leadership losses, the al-Karrar office has become both more powerful and more decentralized, making it more difficult to disrupt its activities.
And the report confirms that former IS-Somalia leader Abdulqadir Mumin, who escaped a U.S. Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... this past June, has been elevated to head of the Islamic State’s general directorate of provinces, "placing him in a leadership role over [IS] affiliates in Africa.
IS-Somalia, according to the report, is now being led by Mumin’s former deputy, Abdirahman Fahiye Isse, with Abdiwali Waran-Walac running IS-Somalia’s finances. And the group’s finances appear to be in good shape.
"Given the relatively small size of [IS]-Somalia, the group can sustain itself and generate additional revenue for other [IS] affiliates through the al-Karrar office," the report said.
The Islamic State terror group’s small but influential affiliate in Somalia is growing, thanks in part to what the United Nations describes as an “influx of foreign fighters.”
A new report this week by the U.N. Sanctions Monitoring Team for Somalia warns that fighters, including some from countries in the Middle East, have helped the Islamic State’s Somali affiliate, also known as IS-Somalia, to more than double in size to between 600 and 700 fighters.
“Foreign fighters arrive in Puntland [Somalia] using both maritime and overland routes,” according to the report, which is based on intelligence estimates from U.N. member states.
The foreign fighters “have expanded and enhanced the group’s capabilities,” the report said, strengthening IS’s presence in Somalia’s Puntland region while also helping it take territory from its key rival, al-Qaida-linked terror group al-Shabab.
Intelligence sources described the IS-Somalia advance, especially in Puntland’s Cal Miskaad mountains, as a “drastic change,” crediting the foreign fighters for IS-Somalia’s change in fortune.
The U.N. report said the IS foreign fighters have come from at least six countries: Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Sudan, Morocco and Tanzania. It also said some captured foreign fighters have reported working with trainers who have come from parts of the Middle East.
The new report builds on previous warnings from U.S. and Somali officials, including the commander of U.S. Africa Command, who told VOA last month that IS-Somalia had grown “twofold” over the past year.
Somali officials have likewise warned of hundreds of foreign fighters flocking to Somalia to join the ranks of the IS affiliate.
“This reporting on an influx of foreign terrorist fighters in Africa is concerning,” said Austin Doctor, the director of counterterrorism research initiatives at the National Counterterrorism Innovation, Technology and Education Center.
And while the flow of foreign fighters to Somalia pales in comparison to the tens of thousands of fighters who flocked to join IS in Syria and Iraq during the height of the terror group’s self-declared caliphate, Doctor told VOA the trend is likely to continue.
“A number of factors present in the Horn [of Africa] and other Africa regions as well will likely appeal to aspiring travelers looking to join the rank and file of an extremist militant organization,” he said. “Global and local security forces should prepare to see more of this in the near term.”
There are likewise concerns about IS-Somalia’s growing prominence on the global stage.
Since 2022, Somalia has been home to al-Karrar, one of nine regional Islamic State offices established to help sustain the terror group’s global capabilities.
The U.N. report cautions that despite some leadership losses, the al-Karrar office has become both more powerful and more decentralized, making it more difficult to disrupt its activities.
And the report confirms that former IS-Somalia leader Abdulqadir Mumin, who escaped a U.S. airstrike this past June, has been elevated to head of the Islamic State’s general directorate of provinces, “placing him in a leadership role over [IS] affiliates in Africa.
IS-Somalia, according to the report, is now being led by Mumin’s former deputy, Abdirahman Fahiye Isse, with Abdiwali Waran-Walac running IS-Somalia’s finances.
And the group’s finances appear to be in good shape.
“Given the relatively small size of [IS]-Somalia, the group can sustain itself and generate additional revenue for other [IS] affiliates through the al-Karrar office,” the report said.
[IsraelTimes] One rocket launched from the southern Gaza Strip at the Israeli border community of Keren Shalom a short while ago was intercepted by air defenses, the IDF says.
Sirens sounded in Kerem Shalom amid the incident. There are no reports of injuries.
[IsraelTimes] In a fourth wave of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on Beirut’s southern suburbs today, the IDF says it struck a Hezbollah weapons depot, a command room and other infrastructure used by the terror group.
Before the strikes, the IDF issued evacuation warnings to civilians in the area.
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... ’s health ministry says Israeli strikes on several locations in the eastern Bekaa Valley killed 22 people today, with state media reporting four family members killed in one village.
"Israeli enemy" strikes on five areas in the Baalbek region killed a total of 22 people, the ministry says in separate statements, with the National News Agency reporting that a strike on the village of Maqneh killed at least four members of the same family. The figures don’t differentiate between civilians and combatants.
[IsraelTimes] Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich says he will inform the security cabinet this evening that he is considering not transferring this month’s batch of Palestinian tax revenues that belong to Ramallah following today’s ICC decision to issue arrest warrants against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant.
Israel is required under the Oslo Agreements to transfer the tax revenues that it collects on the PA’s behalf. The US has gone as far as to accuse Smotrich of theft when he has refused to do in the past.
Smotrich is also considering not extending the corresponding banking agreement between Israel and the PA, which expires at the end of this month.
“These steps would deal a severe blow to the PA’s economy, which could lead to its collapse,” his office says in a statement.
Smotrich will also demand in tonight’s meeting that the government implement a series of other sanctions against the PA — including the stripping of “VIP” permits allowing senior Palestinian officials to transit through West Bank crossings — which the cabinet authorized in June, his office says.
[IsraelTimes] US President-elect Donald Trump ...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania... nominates former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi to be attorney general of the United States, moving swiftly to replace former nominee Matt Gaetz after the embattled former congressman withdrew from consideration.
Gaetz, who faced opposition from Senate Republicans, was the subject of a House Ethics Committee ...think of a nudibranch pretending to be a vertebrate... probe into allegations of having sex with an underage 17-year-old girl. He has denied wrongdoing.
Bondi served as the top law enforcement officer of the country’s third most populous state from 2011 to 2019. She served on Trump’s Opioid and Drug Abuse Commission during his first administration.
Her resume contrasts with that of Gaetz, who has little of the traditional experience expected of an attorney general. Bondi would likely face less opposition from senators involved in the confirmation process.
Trump announces his pick of Bondi on social media, praising her for her prosecutorial experience and saying she was tough on crime as Florida’s first female attorney general.
#3
MSNBC contributor warns ‘we should all fear’ Trump’s new AG pick Pam Bondi ‘because she’s competent’
Posted by: Deacon Blues ||
11/22/2024 10:42
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#4
Bondi is Former lobbyist for Qatar. Qatar! The place that Hamas had offices until a week ago. The country that all the terror outfits have offices in.
Pam Bondi was also a lobbyist for Amazon and Uber and a whole host of other orgs that are Left of Center.
Pam Bondi is a dc swamp creature. She used to work with GOP RNC RINO Donor Firm, Ballard Partners, a huge dc swamp lobbying firm. Just like Trump's chief of staff Ms.Wiles - another prominent lobbyist Trump hire from the same lobbyist firm.
So much winning here. 4D Chess. Not. #TrustPami stinks a whole like 2016's #TrustSessions.
#5
The attorneys i know choose to represent clients that will pay the bills. They don't necessarily need to align with their beliefs. So who she has worked for is not a solid indicator.
#7
Bondi should work out O.K. Definitely, cuter than Garland and smarter. She has been AG in Florida. Ken Paxton would have also been a good choice. There are attorneys in Trump's sphere who are also very good.
[IsraelTimes] Military source says Staff Sgt. Ron Epshtein was killed by shrapnel from artillery shell amid fighting in the area; rocket fired from southern Strip intercepted by air defenses
An IDF soldier was killed during fighting in the northern Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... Strip on Thursday, the military announced, bringing Israel’s toll in the ground offensive against Hamas ..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",... in Gaza and military operations along the border with the Strip to 380.
The slain soldier was named as Staff Sgt. Ron Epshtein, 19, of the Givati Brigade’s Tzabar Battalion, from Nesher.
According to a military source, Epshtein was killed by shrapnel from an artillery shell that was fired at the Jabalia area amid an ongoing operation there. Another two soldiers were lightly maimed in the incident.
Separately, on Wednesday, a soldier with the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion was seriously maimed in the northern Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
The soldier was taken to the hospital for medical treatment, it added.
On Thursday, a rocket launched from the southern Gaza Strip at the Israeli border community of Keren Shalom was intercepted by air defenses, the IDF said.
Sirens sounded in Kerem Shalom amid the incident. There were no reports of injuries.
Inside Gaza, dozens were killed or unaccounted for after a series of Israeli strikes, health authorities, Hamas-linked officials and witnesses said Thursday.
One strike near the Kamal Adwan hospital in the north of the territory left "dozens of people" dead or missing, the facility’s director Hossam Abu Safiya told AFP.
Israel has said there has been regular Hamas activity at the northern Gaza hospital.
Another strike was reported in a neighborhood of Gaza City, with civil defense front man Mahmud Bassal saying 22 were dead.
"There is a headless body. We don’t yet know who this is," Moataz al-Arouqi, who lives in the area, told AFP.
The IDF did not immediately issue a comment on the matter.
COGAT, Israel’s civilian coordination agency for the West Bank and Gaza, said Wednesday that some 7 tons (7,200 kilograms) of humanitarian aid was delivered to the Gaza Strip today by eight Jordanian Air Force helicopters for the first time.
In a statement, the IDF said that the transfer was carried out as part of Israel’s "effort to increase the volume and routes of aid entering Gaza."
It said that the aid delivery was comprised of hygiene and sanitation supplies, food, baby formula, medical equipment, and 30 different medications.
The Jordanian military said the aid was being delivered to al-Qarara, an area near Gaza’s southern city of Khan Younis, where it would then be handed over to the World Food Programme for distribution.
"Code-word today is hunger everywhere in Gaza. Looters are sharing the occupation’s war against the displaced," said Tamer, a Gaza City man now living along
[Townhall] America and the United Kingdom have long had a special relationship, working closely as allies to protect the West from oppressive dictatorships that suppress their own people, arbitrarily jailing them and persecuting them for exercising their God-given right of free speech. Here’s the problem. The UK has become one of those oppressive dictatorships that suppress their own people, arbitrarily jailing them and persecuting them for exercising their God-given right of free speech. And I’m not particularly interested in having a special relationship with a country like that. Nor are many other Americans.
Great Britain has always had a fraught relationship with freedom, at least regarding people who aren’t British. In its glorious imperialist era, when its colonialism brought the light of civilization to a huge swath of the world, it presumed to tell us Americans what we could and could not do. At Lexington and Concord, 250 years ago this spring, a bunch of redcoats tried to take our guns. We shot them. And we kept shooting them until they went home. But no hard feelings — they even burned down much of Washington, DC, during the War of 1812 as a gesture of friendship to the American people.
Still, our special relationship was built upon a shared reverence for the basic tenets of freedom that the British themselves pioneered. From the Magna Carta to the rise of Parliament and the restraining of their inbred royal rulers, the British set the template for freedom, and we Americans took it to the next level. We wrote our Constitution with a Bill of Rights that addressed some of the presumptuous impositions the British had tried to inflict upon us Americans. The First Amendment was one of the key rights. So was the Second. The Brits had been jerks to us until we shot them and they went crying back to their godforsaken moist and frigid island, but they largely treated their own people well. You could speak freely. You could say things that offended the elite. The idea that you might be tossed into the stony lonesome for sounding off was completely alien to them. And that unique reverence for individual rights was why we could have a special relationship with people who have terrible teeth and food and insist on calling a car’s trunk a "boot."
#4
Diego Garcia was last straw. Second look at the Malvinas?
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/22/2024 9:19
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#5
^^
Was in The Falklands last year. Most British place I have ever been, only with nice people, decent food and good beer. And they are still pist about the invasion.
#6
Seems the standing government in London is summoning Elon Musk for what gets posted on X. Elon replied that those members of Parliament need to be summoned to the US to face US laws about Americans rights. I believe Parliament is about to get 'Trumped'.
[Townhall] We are witnessing a historic counterrevolution after Trump's victory, far different from his first election in 2016.
The orthodox and the supposed scripted future are now suspect. And they are likely to be dethroned -- from the trivial to the existential.
Critics claim Trump has no mandate to stage such a counterrevolution. They argue that he did not win 51 percent of the popular vote or achieve a Reaganesque landslide in the Electoral College.
Yet all the initiatives he advanced and won on polled landslide public approval.
Despite being the target of Democrat lawfare for years, a defiant Trump promised to end an open border, massive illegal immigration, rising crime, and soaring prices. He pledged to slash government and its administrative state, terminate racial and gender identity politics, and restore deterrence abroad.
The people overwhelmingly wanted those messages but were waiting for an unorthodox messenger who would actually deliver them.
The Trump messenger reassured weary citizens that they were not crazy.
Instead, they had good cause to be sick of being talked down to by a media, academic, bureaucratic, and political elite that never earned nor deserved such self-appointed status.
The FBI, the CIA, and the DOJ, not the massive crowds at rallies, were the ones truly out of control.
President Joe Biden was really suffering from dementia, not those who said he was.
[JPost] British Police said earlier that officers were investigating a suspect package in the vicinity of the US Embassy.
British police officers carried out a controlled explosion near the US embassy in London following the discovery of a suspect package, authorities said on Friday.
"We can confirm that the 'loud bang' reported in the area a short time ago was a controlled explosion carried out by officers," London's Metropolitan Police said on X.
"Enquiries are still ongoing and cordons will remain in place for the time being."
Earlier the US embassy had reported going into lockdown, due to a security threat, sources close to the matter told The Jerusalem Post.
The police force had said that they were investigating a suspect package and had put up cordons in the area south of the River Thames, adding that they were aware of speculation online regarding the incident.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2024
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[JPost] Israel Air Force warplanes struck and destroyed some 45 Hezbollah launchers in southern Lebanon since the beginning of the week, the military said on Friday.
The strike, carried out by the guidance of the Northern Command, targeted the launchers which fired projectiles at Israeli territory along with launchers that were ready for use and positioned towards Israel.
The IDF added that it had struck the launchers from which Hezbollah fired rockets at Nahariya on Thursday and at Haifa early Friday morning.
Hezbollah's Thursday rocket barrage to Nahariya killed Brian Director, 27, from Ma'alot-Tarshiha.
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2024
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[ZeroHedge] Via The New York Times (emphasis added):
“On the morning after the election, I walked up the staircase of my school. A preteen was crying into the shoulders of her braces-clad peer. Her friend was rubbing circles on her back.
I continued up the stairs to the lounge, where upperclassmen linger before classes. There I saw two tables: One was filled with my girlfriends, many of them with hollows under their eyes. There was a blanket of despair over the young women in the room. I looked over to the other table of teenage boys and saw Minecraft on their computers. While we were gasping for a breath, it seemed they were breathing freely.
We girls woke up to a country that would rather elect a man found liable for sexual abuse than a woman. Where the kind of man my mother instructs me to cross the street to avoid will be addressed as Mr. President. Where the body I haven’t fully grown into may no longer be under my control. The boys, it seemed to me, just woke up on a Wednesday.”
Of all the misogynistic hatecrimes, imagine the banal evil of playing Minecraft the day after the brave and stunning first-historic-whatever corporate robot-whore has literal violence committed against her by Deplorable voters!
Continuing:
“I am scared that the Trump administration will take away or restrict birth control and Plan B — the same way it did abortion. I am scared that the boys I know will see in a triumphant, boastful Mr. Trump the epitome of a manly man and model themselves after him. I was 8 years old the first time he was elected. Now I am 16. I am still unable to vote, but I am so much more aware of what I have to lose…
Eight years ago, I was too young to feel the full force of Hillary Clinton’s loss. Now at 16, I’ve had the wind knocked out of me. On Wednesday, I was flush with anger — but it was diluted by an even stronger feeling: defeat. I saw it in the eyes of women in my subway car that morning. I saw it in the barista at the coffee shop on the corner, the female security guard at my school and in the face of my history teacher.
In a terrible way, I’ve never felt more part of a sisterhood or more certain that pain is shared within that family. I wish the consequences of this moment for young women punctured the apparent indifference of so many men and boys I saw that day. I wish they could breathe in what the women and girls I know have been inhaling since Nov. 5.”
Looking back at the 1950s, would it be possible to have imagined a teenage girl getting paid by The Newspaper of Record to have an emotional meltdown disguised as a thought-provoking essay after, say, Dwight Eisenhower won the election?
Is this the bounty of feminism we were all promised?
Surely we can find some middle ground here.
Yeah, sure; the ideal isn’t Taliban rule with women de-personed, never to be seen or heard in public — women who, by the way, have real problems that extend beyond insurance companies covering their Plan B abortions after a night of boozing and wanton sex.
Via The Guardian (emphasis added):
“New Taliban laws that prohibit women from speaking or showing their faces outside their homes have been condemned by the UN and met with horror by human rights groups.
The Taliban published a host of new “vice and virtue” laws last week, approved by their supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, which state that women must completely veil their bodies – including their faces – in thick clothing at all times in public to avoid leading men into temptation and vice.
Women’s voices are also deemed to be potential instruments of vice and so will not be allowed to be heard in public under the new restrictions. Women must also not be heard singing or reading aloud, even from inside their houses…
From now on, Afghan women are also not allowed to look directly at men they are not related to by blood or marriage, and taxi drivers will be punished if they agree to drive a woman who is without a suitable male escort.”
[JustTheNews] Entrepreneurs Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, appointed by President-elect Donald Trump to make the federal government more lean and efficient, want employees to turn to their offices five days a week.
Musk, the founder of Tesla and SpaceX CEO, and Ramaswamy, a 2024 GOP presidential candidate, made their case in a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday.
Trump appointed them to run the new Department of Government Efficiency.
“If federal employees don’t want to show up, American taxpayers shouldn’t pay them for the Covid-era privilege of staying home,” they wrote.
Ramaswamy has suggested they to return the office five days a week – 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. – instead of a "mass firing" to trim the federal bureaucracy.
That’s more than the usual 9-5. Why?
A Federal News Network survey earlier this year showed roughly 30% of the 6,338 federal workers surveyed were working fully remote. Six percent was entirely in-office, which would leave about 64% with a hybrid work schedule.
The Office of Management and Budget conducted a survey in August which showed that "telework-eligible federal employees spent 61.2% of their work hours" at federal facilities as of May 2024, according to Government Executive.
Congress allocated billions to federal agencies during the COVID pandemic to setup employees for remote work.
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/22/2024 9:30
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#3
Need to review a few things boys; some agencies have signed contracts ( from the pandemic time) requiring at home work. Also agencies have terminated building leases, so there is no office to go to. Still haven’t seen the legislation that turned these guys loose; it concerns me a bit.
#7
Working from home isn't the issue. The issue is getting rid of the under producing employees, which is apparently very difficult. There are going to be good employees who will choose to find employment elsewhere rather than go into back into DC full time, leaving the bad employees who are just smart enough to know they wouldn't last in the private sector.
Full disclosure, I spent 16 years as an above average work from home employee.
[JTN] The Biden administration confirmed to Congress that it will forgive almost $5 billion in economic loans given to Ukraine.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller confirmed the forgiven loans during a Wednesday briefing.
"So we have taken the step that was outlined in the law to cancel those loans, provide that economic assistance to Ukraine," he said, according to Fox News.
Miller explained that when Congress passed a bill to aid Ukraine back in April of this year, $9 billion of the aid was structured as a loan and the administration was allowed to forgive it.
Congress could pass a resolution that could overturn the cancellation.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., earlier this week introduced legislation to overturn the cancellation, but it is unlikely to pass in the Senate, which has a Democratic majority.
[JustTheNews] Carey Dale Grayson, who was one of four teens convicted in the death of Vickie Deblieux, was declared dead at 6:33 p.m. at William C. Holman Correctional Facility in southern Alabama. He was 50 years old at the time of his execution.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas on Thursday declined to appear publicly before a U.S. Senate committee to discuss national security threats, provoking the ire of the panel's Democratic chairman.
In a statement, Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman Gary Peters called their refusal to publicly testify a "shocking departure" that runs counter to 15 years of precedent.
"Their choice to not provide public testimony about their departments´ efforts to address wide-ranging national security threats robs the American people of critical information and the opportunity for public accountability of what the federal government is doing to keep Americans safe," Peters said in a statement.
In a statement, the FBI said the bureau remains "committed to sharing information about the continuously evolving threat environment facing our nation," but that the FBI believes the committee "would benefit most from further substantive discussions and additional information that can only be provided in a classified setting."
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Traditionally for more than a decade, top officials from the FBI, DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center have appeared publicly before both the House and Senate homeland security committees to discuss threats facing the United States.
Earlier this week, the House Homeland Security Committee announced that its own hearing on the subject, featuring Wray and Mayorkas as witnesses, was being postponed until December.
These hearings would have marked the first time that Wray and Mayorkas appeared before Congress since Republican Donald Trump won the election on Nov. 5.
Trump has vowed to shake up both agencies once he takes office on Jan. 20.
#5
They are kind of busy right now. Only 2 months to implement whatever anti-Trump schemes they have in the works, plus they need to sanitize incriminating computer files and documents.
#12
Marokas and Wray blew off the meeting. A spox was reported at Axios as saying: "An FBI spokesperson said in a statement that the agency's leaders have "testified extensively in public settings about the current threat environment and believe the Committee would benefit most from further substantive discussions and additional information that can only be provided in a classified setting." Judging from other presentations by this pair, it would have a worthless use of time. The only value would have been to subpoena them before Congress and hang a contempt charge on them if they didn't show up.
#13
Shouldn't the public know about threats facing the US (other than the Orange Man destroying democracy)?
Or is this 'why should we just verify what the conspiracy theorists have been saying all along'?
#14
current threat environment
Has been internalized
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/22/2024 18:43
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#15
I think Grom has it, or worse trip up and get plugged for perjury. Either way, the cat gets out of the bag.
Either way, much easier and safer to flip the bird and downsplain that you already know enough because we told you so, even if it is a show the ass move.
But I think for us here, it all but confirms everything except the exact number of FBI agents involved in the Jan 6 crowd and the bus full of sappers. What they don't want is normies to catch on.
#17
With respect, and with no disrespect with the term 'Normie*', no you are not. By simply lurking at Rantburg before participating, I changed. Then I had a front row seat to a national issue with The Greensburg Tornado and started calling Bullshit!
At times I miss being a Normie 20 some years ago, but then I come across someone who has a dear issue and I can participate and surprise the hell out of my company.
I present the current cultural and political climate prior to and post election as evidence that there are fewer Normies.
*And there is nothing wrong with just doing your life, getting home and doing home things, and going with the flow. BUT....Education is Freedom. "Letting it Ride" is how we get California, or New York, Chicago, so on.
[Breitbart] Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Xavier Becerra said, “We do the best we can,” after being asked if he would change anything about his tenure. HHS, the Inspector General (IG) revealed, has lost contact with thousands of Unaccompanied Alien Children (UACs) after they were released to adult sponsors in the United States.
During a hearing before the House Immigration Subcommittee, chaired by Rep. Tom McClintock (R-CA), Becerra testified that he would not change any decisions or policies about his tenure.
“Would you change anything that you’ve done in the last four years, with 320,000 children unaccounted for by your administration?” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) asked Becerra, to which he responded:
We work tirelessly to strengthen and improve the program of the unaccompanied children that come before us and we work really hard to make sure that we first and foremost protect the safety and the wellbeing of those kids. Every day is a challenge and we do the best we can. [Emphasis added]
Some 365,705 UACs have been released into the United States interior from Fiscal Year 2021 through Fiscal Year 2023 — on Becerra’s watch. For comparison, the last two fiscal years of the Trump administration just about 83,100 UACs were released into the U.S. interior.
Tens of thousands of UACs are not showing up to their immigration hearings following their release into the United States interior and, more alarmingly, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has failed to provide Notices to Appear (NTAs) in immigration court to hundreds of thousands of UACs.
“Based on our audit work and according to ICE officials, UACs who do not appear for court are considered at higher risk for trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor,” the IG’s report states:
Although we identified more than 32,000 UACs who did not appear for their immigration court dates, that number may have been much larger had ICE issued NTAs to the more than 291,000 UACs who were not placed into removal proceedings. By not issuing NTAs to all UACs, ICE limits its chances of having contact with UACs when they are released from HHS’ custody, which reduces opportunities to verify their safety. Without an ability to monitor the location and status of UACs, ICE has no assurance UACs are safe from trafficking, exploitation, or forced labor. [Emphasis added]
Likewise, Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) pressed Becerra on whether he could state without any doubt that thousands of UACs whom the agency has lost contact with are safe from harm.
“Can you account for the whereabouts of those 400,000-something children — the 320,000 that were put in the report by the Inspector General and the 85,000 that we talked about before in 2023? Do you know where all of these children are and that they are safe?” Roy asked.
“Congressman, as I explained the process, we get these kids when they are referred to us by the Department of Homeland Security,” Becerra responded. “We then provide them with care while they are in our custody. We lose custody of those kids once we find a vetted sponsor with whom they can stay.”
In February, the HHS IG published a report revealing that in 22 percent of cases, the agency did not conduct proper and safe follow-up calls to check in with UACs released to adult sponsors in the United States.
The Labor Department in Fiscal Year 2023 found an 88 percent increase in child labor trafficking compared to Fiscal Year 2019. Last year, nearly 6,000 children, many of them UACs, were discovered illegally working brutal and often life-threatening jobs.
In April of last year, an HHS whistleblower testified before Congress and warned that the agency is operating a “multi-billion-dollar child trafficking operation” where UACs are being mass released to unvetted adult sponsors.
[Breitbart] Ontario Premier Doug Ford said on Wednesday that all of his fellow provincial leaders are united behind his call for a bilateral trade agreement with the United States under the second Trump administration, rather than a continental deal that would also include Mexico.
“I just got off the phone with all the premiers, and there’s a clear consensus that everyone agrees that we need a bilateral trade deal with the U.S. and a second bilateral trade deal with Mexico,” Ford said at a press conference on Wednesday afternoon.
Ford’s enthusiasm for a bilateral deal apparently stems from President-elect Donald Trump’s criticism that Mexico offers China a means of slipping cheap products past high U.S. and Canadian tariffs.
Ford said on Tuesday that the existing trilateral U.S.-Canada-Mexico Agreement (USMCA), which began in 2020 as the successor to the controversial 1992 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and comes up for review in 2026, allows Mexico to serve as a “backdoor for Chinese cars, auto parts and other products into Canadian and American markets.”
“If Mexico won’t fight transshipment by, at the very least, matching Canadian and American tariffs on Chinese imports, they shouldn’t have a seat at the table or enjoy access to the largest economy in the world,” he said.
“Instead, we must prioritize the closest economic partnership on Earth by directly negotiating a bilateral U.S.-Canada free trade agreement that puts U.S. and Canadian workers first,” he urged.
On Wednesday, Ford said he had successfully worked the phones and gotten all ten of Canada’s premiers, plus its three territorial leaders, behind his proposal. He said the next step will be a meeting with left-wing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to get him onboard, and then it will be on to Washington, where they will probably find a receptive audience in the new U.S. administration.
Trudeau might not be a tough nut to crack. He has criticized China’s unfair trade practices and his administration slapped a 100-percent tariff on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) and hybrids in October.
Trudeau prefers striking a better trilateral deal with the U.S. and Mexico, but he and his ministers have also expressed sympathy for the arguments made by Ford and Trump. On Tuesday, Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland said her government shares America’s “very grave” concerns about China.
“We are perfectly aligned with the United States and that means we are not a back door to unfair Chinese traded goods. The same cannot be said about Mexico,” Freeland said.
“We believe that China’s intentional overcapacity is unfair and a threat to key Canadian industrial sectors. It is a threat to Canadian jobs and that’s why we’ve imposed 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs, 25% tariffs on Chinese steel and aluminum,” she added.
On the other hand, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Wednesday that Trudeau “very clearly” told her that he “does not agree” with kicking Mexico out of the trilateral trade deal.
“They are also having their own elections soon, so they are also using these subjects as part of an electoral campaign. But the Prime Minister does not agree,” Sheinbaum said, implying that Trudeau and Freeland were lying to keep their sagging poll numbers up.
Sheinbaum was confident that when USMCA is reviewed in 2026, it would be only a “revision,” and “not even a renegotiation.”
Trudeau said on Thursday, independently of Pardo’s comments, that he discussed some “real and general concerns about Chinese investment into Mexico” with the Mexican president and, while he wants to keep USMCA alive, he is willing to look at “other options.”
As for Trump, he called NAFTA “disastrous” and “the worst trade deal in the history of the United States” on Wednesday when he chose Pete Hoekstra, former congressman from Michigan, as his ambassador to Canada.
“We brought Trade with Mexico and Canada to a level playing field for our wonderful Farmers and Working Families. In my Second Term, Pete will help me once again put AMERICA FIRST,” Trump said, with his usual exuberance for capital letters.
Not everyone in Canada is eager to end 30 years of trilateral trade management. Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters Association President Dennis Darby said on Wednesday he hoped Ford’s bilateral proposal was meant as a tough bargaining tactic to get a better trilateral agreement with Mexico.
“I hate when we negotiate with ourselves. Many Canadian companies are invested in all three countries. So I don’t think it serves anyone’s interest at this point to start saying, ‘let’s cut Mexico out,’” said Darby.
[BBC] Russia is estimated to have supplied North Korea with more than a million barrels of oil since March this year, according to satellite imagery analysis from the Open Source Centre, a non-profit research group based in the UK.
The oil is payment for the weapons and troops Pyongyang has sent Moscow to fuel its war in Ukraine, leading experts and UK Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, have told the BBC.
These transfers violate UN sanctions, which ban countries from selling oil to North Korea, except in small quantities, in an attempt to stifle its economy to prevent it from further developing nuclear weapons.
The satellite images, shared exclusively with the BBC, show more than a dozen different North Korean oil tankers arriving at an oil terminal in Russia’s Far East a total of 43 times over the past eight months.
Further pictures, taken of the ships at sea, appear to show the tankers arriving empty, and leaving almost full.
North Korea is the only country in the world not allowed to buy oil on the open market. The number of barrels of refined petroleum it can receive is capped by the United Nations at 500,000 annually, well below the amount it needs.
Russia’s foreign ministry did not respond to our request for comment.
The first oil transfer documented by the Open Source Centre in a new report, was on 7 March 2024, seven months after it first emerged Pyongyang was sending Moscow weapons.
The shipments have continued as thousands of North Korean troops are reported to have been sent to Russia to fight, with the last one recorded on 5 November.
“While Kim Jong Un is providing Vladimir Putin with a lifeline to continue his war, Russia is quietly providing North Korea with a lifeline of its own,” says Joe Byrne from the Open Source Centre.
“This steady flow of oil gives North Korea a level of stability it hasn’t had since these sanctions were introduced.”
Four former members of a UN panel responsible for tracking the sanctions on North Korea have told the BBC the transfers are a consequence of increasing ties between Moscow and Pyongyang.
“These transfers are fuelling Putin’s war machine – this is oil for missiles, oil for artillery and now oil for soldiers,” says Hugh Griffiths, who led the panel from 2014 to 2019.
UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy has told the BBC in a statement: “To keep fighting in Ukraine, Russia has become increasingly reliant on North Korea for troops and weapons in exchange for oil."
He added that this was “having a direct impact on security in the Korean peninsula, Europe and Indo-Pacific".
EASY AND CHEAP OIL SUPPLY
While most people in North Korea rely on coal for their daily lives, oil is essential for running the country’s military. Diesel and petrol are used to transport missile launchers and troops around the country, run munitions factories and fuel the cars of Pyongyang’s elite.
The 500,000 barrels North Korea is allowed to receive fall far short of the nine million it consumes – meaning that since the cap was introduced in 2017, the country has been forced to buy oil illicitly from criminal networks to make up this deficit.
This involves transferring the oil between ships out at sea – a risky, expensive and time-consuming business, according to Dr Go Myong-hyun, a senior research fellow at South Korea’s Institute for National Security Strategy, which is linked to the country’s spy agency.
“Now Kim Jong Un is getting oil directly, it’s likely better quality, and chances are he’s getting it for free, as quid pro quo for supplying munitions. What could be better than that?"
“A million barrels is nothing for a large oil producer like Russia to release, but it is a substantial amount for North Korea to receive,” Dr Go adds.
TRACKING THE ‘SILENT’ TRANSFERS
In all 43 of the journeys tracked by the Open Source Centre using satellite images, the North Korean-flagged tankers arrived at Russia’s Vostochny Port with their trackers switched off, concealing their movements.
The images show they then made their way back to one of four ports on North Korea’s east and west coast.
“The vessels appear silently, almost every week,” says Joe Byrne, the researcher from the Open Source Centre. “Since March there’s been a fairly constant flow.”
The team, which has been tracking these tankers since the oil sanctions were first introduced, used their knowledge of each ship’s capacity to calculate how many oil barrels they could carry.
Then they studied images of the ships entering and leaving Vostochny and, in most instances, could see how low they sat in the water and, therefore, how full they were.
The tankers, they assess, were loaded to 90% of their capacity.
“We can see from some of the images that if the ships were any fuller they would sink,” Mr Byrne says.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] An explosion of violence in Haiti has left over 150 people dead in the last week after vigilante groups left the corpses of mobsters chopped up and burnt on the streets.
Criminal gangs have took over most of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince under the leadership of former police officer Jimmy 'Barbecue' Chérizier.
Now he has threatened to attack any hotel that might be hosting politicians.
Haiti's security crisis dramatically escalated this month as gangs shot at commercial planes, flights into the country were halted, the prime minister was replaced, and armed gangs attacked parts of the capital previously spared the worst the violence.
However, following over a decade of violent political turmoil, locals and police have started to fight back against the gangs.
The Times reported that residents in the Pétion-Ville suburb of the city reported seeing police and vigilante groups joining forces to lynch at least 28 suspected gang members before they cut up their remains and left them burning in the street.
The once affluent area of Pétion-Ville has found itself at the centre of the now-chronic barbarity that afflicts the country ever since the then-President of Haiti, Jovenal Moise, was assassinated by a group of 28 gunmen while sleeping in his private home in the suburb.
Criminal gangs have attempted to take advantage of the often vacant government of Haiti which has struggled to control the country ever since the devastating 2010 earthquake which destroyed most of the infrastructure and displaced over a million.
Since then former politically aligned gangs have been replaced by younger gangs interested in using violence to assert control over the nation.
One of the most powerful gang leaders is Barbecue, who is believed to have his own ambitions of one day being president.
One Tuesday he threatened to hunt down politicians living in hotels across Port-au-Prince.
In a menacing social media post he wrote: 'If we can’t take the hotel, if I can’t find the owner of the hotel, then the employees of the hotel can pay.'
He has also demanded the resignation of the entire ruling Transitional Presidential Council,
This is a nine-member body that was installed in April and is nominally responsible for running the country which has been without a president since Moïse's assassination.
On November 10 this year, the presidential council abruptly fried the prime minister, Garry Conille with businessman Alix Didier Fils-Aimé taking his place.
Following the burst of violence, over 20,000 people have been displaced just in the last week and the US embassy, one of the most heavily protected in the world, announced all non-essential appointments have been cancelled.
Diplomats at the United Nations Security Council on Wednesday voiced broad support for converting a security mission helping Haitian police fight into a formal U.N. peacekeeping mission, though Russia and China remained opposed.
[Federalist] Federal bureaucrats within the Department of Defense (DoD) delayed the deployment of the National Guard on Jan. 6, 2021 and covered it up, according to a House Republican investigation of government conduct related to the Capitol riot.
On Thursday, Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., who is leading a review of the work completed by the partisan Jan. 6 probe run by then-Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, sent a letter to the inspector general for the Department of Defense demanding a correction to an agency report published in November 2021.
"This report was the final product of the DoD IG’s review into the events of January 6, and reviewed how the DoD responded to requests for support as the events unfolded," Loudermilk, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight for the House Administration Committee, wrote. "Throughout the Subcommittee’s extensive investigation into the failures of January 6, 2021, we have discovered numerous flaws and inaccuracies in the report that your office has yet to appropriately address."
Such flaws and inaccuracies, however, may have been part of a partisan cover-up after GOP lawmakers discovered the Pentagon was responsible for delays in guard deployment.
"After a thorough examination of emails and documents, including letters, memorandums, agreements, plans, orders, reports, briefings, statements made in congressional hearings, closed-door testimony to the Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol (’Select Committee’), and closed-door testimony made to the DoD IG," Loudermilk wrote, "the Subcommittee’s investigation has concluded that the Department of Defense intentionally delayed the deployment of the DC [National Guard] to the Capitol on January 6, 2021."
"Furthermore," Loudermilk added, "the Subcommittee also maintains that the DoD IG knowingly concealed the extent of the delay in constructing a narrative that is favorable to DoD and Pentagon leadership."
#2
An assault or 'open door tour' on the capital was the intended outcome. Destroying Trump in the courts with a false insurrection charge was the goal.
#3
They sent the help by a circuitous route that approximates JEB Steward path to Gettysburg. The people that conspired to do that ought to be held accountable.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
11/22/2024 12:07
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#4
And the commie bastards happened to have a film crew in the Capital that day, shooting a documentary. How convenient, as the SNL Church Lady used to say.
[Modernity] During a discussion with Joe Rogan, former Green Beret Evan Hafer, noted that if president-elect Trump decides to go to war with the cartels he could opt to use US Special Forces to destroy them.
Does this mean inside American borders, which runs into posse comitatus, or in Mexico and points south, which would be an act of war?
Hafer noted "if we declare war on the cartel, these dudes are not going to understand what the fuck is going on,"
"They are in for a world of ultra violence they’ve never actually felt before because you know, obviously this is a very capable violent organization," Hafer added.
He continued, "They have fucking no clue if we organize these tier one units against them this is gonna be — what I would be doing if I was down there... I’d be getting ready to retire right now,"
"That’s what I would be doing. Because if Delta Force is hunting me bro, I would be so terrified," Hafer further urged.
“I thought about this for a long time where I’m like if they turn loose Delta Force and SEAL Team 6 on cartels and pedophiles, we could just kind of like erase the problem in about two years. It’d be gone,” Hafer, the founder of Black Rifle Coffee Company, emphasised.
#5
Mexico is already in a de facto war with the USA due to corruption and bureaucratic laziness and collusion. I worry a bit about the retirees in Mexico, but it was their choice.
WRT posse comitatus, just declare war on illegals and their gangs. Hand wringing won't solve the problem. Kill them as they cross the river, all of them. I will be a bit sad about the corpse count, but that won't last more than a few days.
I hope and pray the despicable UN tries to get involved. UN out of USA.
Posted by: Whiskey Mike ||
11/22/2024 7:49
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#6
..in Mexico and points south, which would be an act of war?
One of the Hague conventions stipulates that if a belligerent is in a neutral country, that country must expel the belligerent. If that country can not, the other belligerent may take necessary actions.
In the 1880s there were several punitive expeditions into Mexico in hot pursuit of Apaches who were raiding Texas and the New Mexico Territory. Mexico refused to take action to end the raids.
The Pershing Expedition following the raid upon Columbus New Mexico in 1916 is another precedent.
If the government of Mexico is so compromised or unable to eliminate the cartels, they put themselves in the position of having to deal with the use of force by the American government.
The real danger is the cartels going terrorists upon American communities they have been allowed to infiltrate so deeply.
* If you are with a group of people in one of those long meetings and:
* You fart, and the others hear it, and smell it, and they know you are the one who did it -- that's OVERT.
* You fart, and the others hear it, and smell it, but they have absolutely no idea who did it -- that's COVERT.
* You fart, and the others hear it, and smell it, and they think you did it, but they are not positive -- that's LOW VISIBILITY.
* You fart, and the others don't hear it or smell it; i.e. they don't even know it happened -- that's CLANDESTINE.
* You fart, and all the signs point to someone else having done it, or at least they don't point to you -- that's PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY.
* You plan to fart, and the others are going to hear it, and smell it, but you don't look like the kind of guy who would do that in public -- that's COVER FOR STATUS.
* You are going to fart, and the others are going to hear it, and smell it, but you don't want them to hear it, so you cough at the same time as you fart -- that's COVER FOR ACTION.
* You fart, and the others hear it and smell it, but you turn to your neighbor and say "My God, what have you done!?" -- that's TACTICAL DECEPTION.
* You propose to fart, and you think the others should hear it and smell it, but you have to get someone to validate it -- that's OPERATIONAL REVIEW.
* You want to fart, and you don't care who hears it, or who smells it but the lawyers argue about who has to concur, authorize and approve it -- that's LEGAL REVIEW.
* You want to fart, and you don't know whether it's better for others to hear it, or smell it, or both, so the intelligence weenies study the feasibility of it -- that's TECHNICAL REVIEW.
* You plan on farting, but you delay to consider the potential of the effect of your fart on others in the room and how pissed off everyone will be at you - that's RISK ASSESSMENT.
* You mitigate the risk by moving over by an open door and farting outside- that's RISK MANAGEMENT.
* You fart and others hear it, smell it, and the TMO representative smells your butt to make sure you really did it AND that you didn't eat the expensive chili to cause it -- that's OVERSIGHT.
* You're going to fart, and you must know what course of action the others will take when they hear it and smell it, all based on your current seating arrangements -- that's a VULNERABILITY ASSESSMENT.
* You're going to fart, and you must know how much the others will hear and how much they will smell, so you check your butt placement, air currents, and your exact distance from the others within the surrounding area -- that's an OPSEC SURVEY.
#11
B. - I think covert ops have a place but maybe not the front and center method. The fear of God needs to be pervasive. Pour encourager les autres as it were. No one dared touch a Roman citizen fearing that entire villages would be leveled and salted fields ensured no food and a constant remembrance. Oderint dum metuant.
#15
Superb explanation V, but the redundant use of flatulence as a teaching technique gives rise to questions about your fixation on either your eating habits or time spent at the Silver Bullet's JBAB Furnari Taco Bar?
[IsraelTimes] Following PM’s offer of $5 million and free passage out of Gaza, Israel launches site with images of hostages and contact channels
During a tour of 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... on Tuesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a $5 million reward for anyone who can assist in the release of Israeli hostages held by Hamas ..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,... and other terror groups. The offer also included safe passage out of Gaza.
"Whoever brings us a hostage will find an open door for himself and his family to leave, and we will also give a $5 million reward for each hostage," the premier said. He had previously suggested Israel would pay "several millions" for their recovery.
To facilitate the provision of intelligence information, Israel has launched a rudimentary Arabic-language website called Machtoffin ("captives" in Arabic)ץ
The site features the names, pictures and ages of the hostages, along with links to WhatsApp and Telegram channels, and two phone numbers for contacting Israeli forces.
"Call us to provide information on the captives in the Strip and receive a financial reward — contact us on WhatsApp or Telegram," the webpage reads.
For unclear reasons, the site includes 136 hostages, including some who have already been recovered, either alive or dead (terror groups are now thought to be holding 101 people). For instance, at the very top of the page is a picture of Farhan al-Qadi, who was rescued by IDF troops in August.
The site also lists Noa Argamani, rescued in June, and six hostages whose bodies were discovered in a Gaza tunnel in August: Hersh Goldberg-Polin, Eden Yerushalmi, Ori Danino, Alex Lobanov, Carmel Gat, and Almog Sarusi.
It was not clear whether the inclusion of such individuals was an error or an effort to glean more information that may prove helpful in locating other captives.
This is not the first time that such an initiative has been launched. Last month, former SodaStream CEO Daniel Birnbaum offered $100,000 to anyone who could return living hostages to Israel.
In a video with Arabic subtitles, the entrepreneur addressed Gazooks directly, promising the reward and immunity and providing a WhatsApp and Telegram contact number. His offer was valid for only five days.
Such reward-based initiatives do not appear to have yielded tangible results thus far.
According to Channel 12, the ostensible failure of these reward plans is due to the inaccuracy of the intelligence provided or difficulties in conducting rescue operations.
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. The bodies of 37 hostages have also been recovered, including three mistakenly killed by the Israeli 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.
[FoxNews] Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., debuted the "Returning Education to Our States Act" in the Senate, which would abolish the Department of Education and charge various other departments with certain responsibilities and programs that are currently administered by it.
During his presidential campaign, Trump said, "One thing I’ll be doing very early in the administration is closing up the Department of Education in Washington, D.C., and sending all education and education work it needs back to the states."
Some experts contested his ability to do this, noting he would need congressional approval. However, with an incoming Republican trifecta in Washington, D.C., and Rounds' bill, he might have it.
"The federal Department of Education has never educated a single student, and it’s long past time to end this bureaucratic Department that causes more harm than good," Rounds said in a statement provided to Fox News Digital. "We all know local control is best when it comes to education. Everyone raised in South Dakota can think of a teacher who played a big part in their educational journey. Local school boards and state Departments of Education know best what their students need, not unelected bureaucrats in Washington, D.C.
"For years, I’ve worked toward removing the federal Department of Education. I’m pleased that President-elect Trump shares this vision, and I’m excited to work with him and Republican majorities in the Senate and House to make this a reality. This legislation is a roadmap to eliminating the federal Department of Education by practically rehoming these federal programs in the departments where they belong, which will be critical as we move into next year," he continued.
In the senator's plan, a number of Native American education programs will be redirected to the Department of Interior; loan and grant programs would become the responsibility of the Department of Treasury; disability programs would be overseen by the Department of Health and Human Services; career programs would move to the Department of Labor; and the State Department would become responsible for the Fulbright-Hays Program, which "supports research and training efforts overseas."
#1
Nothing more than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
"I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.” Petronius Arbiter
#3
Our Indian brothers and sisters get the shaft: Native American education programs will be redirected to the Department of Interior.
Have you ever driven through Navajo Country? I was driving through there once and had three hitchhiking flies fly into my car and they asked me to get them the hell out of there.
[THEINS via CFP] Today Vladimir Putin gave an unscheduled live address to the nation. He claimed that on Nov. 19, six ATACMS missiles — and on Nov. 21, several Storm Shadow missiles — had been used by Ukraine for strikes against targets in Russia’s Kursk and Bryansk regions.
According to Putin, Russia retaliated on Nov. 21 with a combined strike against a Ukrainian defense industry facility. In addition, "a field test was conducted in combat conditions" for one of Russia's newest medium-range weapon systems: a nuclear-free hypersonic ballistic missile. "Our engineers named it 'Oreshnik' [’Hazel’]," Putin declared with a smile.
Putin said Russia is within its rights to use ballistic missiles against "Ukraine's military targets" and to use weapons against military facilities of those countries that have authorized the use of their weapons against Russia.
More from Russian military journalist Boris Rozhin:
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
Text taken from a November 21st video presentation by Russian Federation president Vladimir Putin. "Hazel"
[ColonelCassad] Putin reported two episodes of the use of Western long-range weapons on Russian territory. The use would have been impossible without the help of Western countries.
The ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles were used.
The strikes did not achieve their goals.
These strikes will not prevent the achievement of the goals of the Strategic Defense Forces.
Nevertheless, the conflict is becoming global.
In response, Russia demonstrated the use of a ballistic missile in a non-nuclear hypersonic warhead. The object was successfully destroyed.
The new missile system is called "Oreshnik".
Russia considers itself entitled to use weapons against objects of those countries that allow their weapons to be used against Russian objects.
Russia will respond decisively and in kind to the escalation.
There are currently no means of countering Russian "Oreshnik" missiles.
The Russian Federation will decide on the further deployment of medium- and shorter-range missiles depending on the enemy's actions.
Russia prefers peaceful means, but is also ready for any development of events, "there will always be a response.
The newest Russian missiles attack targets at a speed of 2-3 km per second, the enemy's existing missile defense systems do not intercept them.
The Russian Federation will offer Ukrainian civilians in advance to leave the danger zone when missiles are used.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Leonid Tsukanov
[REGNUM] The IDF recently reported the elimination of another high-ranking Hezbollah official. The target was Mohammed Afif, the head of the information service and a close associate of several secretaries general of the movement, also known by the informal nickname "The Voice of Hezbollah."
Despite the fact that Afif's killing has seriously complicated the search for a compromise between Israel and Hezbollah, the US continues to rush them to cease fire. However, such haste may eventually lead to even greater problems for Washington.
There’s not much longer to rush — President Trump’s priorities are very different than those of the current team.
THE MOST VALUABLE FUNCTIONARY
Mohammed Afif belonged to the generation of the “founding fathers” of Lebanese Hezbollah; at the time of its liquidation, he had been in the movement for more than 40 years, more than half of which were spent in the information block.
He received his nickname "The Voice of Hezbollah" for his significant contribution to the formation and development of the movement's information strategy. It was Afif who brought the information coverage of Hezbollah's activities beyond the "party" media.
Official comments from the movement's functionaries began to appear in authoritative regional and international publications. Under his leadership, representatives of the Hezbollah press service began to hold full-fledged press conferences.
In addition, over the past decade, Afif has consistently served as a liaison between Hezbollah and the Lebanese population, providing detailed explanations of the movement's policies and goals.
“Here’s what you need to shut up about and accept from the Master Branch of the Master Religion, guys. Off you go and practice that while we attack the Zionist Entity to protect you from them.”
With the start of the IDF's limited operation in southern Lebanon, this part of its authority has acquired critical importance, especially in the context of responding to the increasing frequency of Israeli attacks on Lebanese population centers.
"You don't win your war by air superiority, bombing, or killing civilians, including women and children," he said.
That’s standard doctrine. And why the IDF has entered southern Lebanon on foot and in tanks.
It should be noted that Afif often acted not only as one of the key spokesmen for Hezbollah, but also as the Secretary General's envoy for special assignments. Active interaction with Lebanese and Syrian politicians, as well as with representatives of other groups of the pro-Iranian "Axis of Resistance" took place through him.
All this made Afif one of Hezbollah's most valuable functionaries.
ISRAEL IS LOOKING FOR FRIENDS
The elimination of Afif opened a new page in the confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.
For the first time in a long time, the Israelis chose as a target not a field commander or a top official, but a representative of a “related” structure not directly involved in military operations. Although the IDF Spokesperson’s Service tried to gloss over this point, indicating that the liquidated Hezbollah spokesman, due to his closeness to the movement’s top leadership, “made a significant contribution” to the planning and organization of operations against Israel.
Such actions are intended not only to decapitate key Hezbollah structures, but also to disrupt its interaction with other loyal forces in Lebanon. In particular, with the Shiite Amal party, which joined the “united front” against Israel in December 2023, but has lost its enthusiasm over the past year.
Israel is also trying to take advantage of Hezbollah's temporary absence of a new spokesman to sow distrust between the movement and other forces in Lebanon and beyond.
Thus, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar regularly calls on “oppressed minorities in the Middle East” to come closer to Israel in order to jointly confront Iran and its proxy groups. And the most convenient way to test such a strategy is within the framework of the current limited ground operation against Hezbollah, since Israel has sufficient resources to conduct such experiments without compromising the overall effectiveness of the campaign.
Among Tel Aviv's potential allies in the Lebanese direction, they see the Druze (more than 280 thousand of them live in Lebanon). The Israeli side is unobtrusively trying to win over the leader of the Lebanese Druze, Walid "Wally" Jumblatt, to its side, appealing, among other things, to the negative precedent of a Hezbollah rocket hitting the Druze village of Majd al-Shams in July 2024.
Although there has been little progress in the dialogue so far, tensions between Hezbollah and Jumblatt's supporters continue to mount.
EVERYONE IS STALLING FOR TIME
Despite the general complication of the negotiating environment caused by Afif’s death, the United States – as the key mediator in the dialogue between Hezbollah and Israel – continues to adhere to the previous settlement strategy.
US President Joe Biden's special envoy to the Middle East, Amos Hochstein, who is overseeing these negotiations, believes that a ceasefire agreement is "within reach" and that new rounds of escalation of the conflict do not affect the parties' intention to reach an agreement.
He keeps saying that, and technically it’s true — a small distance contains infinite points inside it.
He visited Lebanon the day before, and then met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel on November 21.
This conviction is dictated by the need for the Biden administration to obtain at least one successful example of a Middle East settlement before leaving office in January 2025.
Need and get are not necessarily the same. Oh well.
It is possible that, in pursuit of this goal, Washington will try to force both parties to conclude a formal agreement. This is indicated, in particular, by the White House's readiness to include in the draft treaty a clause on the parties' right to self-defense. Just a couple of months ago, this was considered an unacceptable step.
It still is unacceptable to Hezbollah, no matter what the Lebanese politicians and people might be willing to accept.
On the other hand, the question of the sustainability of the security guarantees offered by Washington remains open - especially in light of the imminent change of administration in the White House. Both Israel and Hezbollah understand this well, and therefore they are in no hurry to agree to the conditions put forward, although they do not reject them completely.
Each side is stalling for time as much as possible.
At the same time, Hezbollah still intends to respond proportionately to the death of its press secretary, as its high-ranking officials regularly remind us. As Secretary General Naim Qassem previously stated, a “blow to the heart of Beirut” will be followed by a counterblow “to the heart of Tel Aviv.”
Uh huh. But who will bell the Israeli cat?
And although Hezbollah does not disclose the details of the planned operation, the revenge action (given Afif's weight in the apparatus) will hardly be of a smaller scale than in memory of the previously liquidated Hassan Nasrallah. And this, in turn, threatens a new round of escalation between Israel and Hezbollah, with a rejection of previous agreements and guarantees.
However, the Democrats in the US are not too worried about this: it will most likely be Donald Trump’s team that will have to deal with the crisis.
It’ll be the Israelis regardless, if any of Hezbollah’s efforts actually get beyond the annoyance level.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited. by Denis Davydov
[REGNUM] The tenth anniversary of Euromaidan coincided with an important date in the difficult history of Russian-Ukrainian partnership - the liquidation of the Hetmanate, an autonomy within the empire that included the territory of the Zaporizhian Host. 260 years ago, on November 21, 1764, Catherine II ordered the publication of the imperial decree "On the creation of the hetmanate rank by Count Razumovsky and his release from all Little Russian affairs and on the granting of monetary sums and villages to him for life and hereditary possession."
At the same time, a decree was issued on the introduction of the Little Russian Collegium under the leadership of Count Pyotr Rumyantsev, and a little later (in 1782) the regimental military-administrative structure was liquidated. In the Ukrainian vision, all this, of course, is understood as the destruction of statehood, identity, with subsequent cruel enslavement. And in a simplified understanding, the unification of the system of state administration with the abolition of autonomy (and the subsequent destruction of the Zaporizhian Sich) looks like monarchical tyranny, the strangulation of the original Cossack "privileges".
Reflecting on the fate of Little Russia, as well as Livonia and Finland, the empress noted: "These provinces, including Smolensk, must be brought to the point where they become Russified by the easiest means and stop looking like wolves in the forest." And when there is no hetman in Little Russia, Catherine wrote to the prosecutor general Alexander Vyazemsky, "then we must try to ensure that the name of the hetman disappears, not just that some person is created."
But we have gathered here, of course, not to repeat stuffy cliches, but to once again delve into the reasons for the political decisions of the 18th century, which, of course, did not have such amazing simplicity as “hatred of everything Ukrainian.”
POLISH DIRECTOR
First of all, it is worth explaining where the Hetmanate came from and who ruled it. There were four hetmans in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth - two crown hetmans in Poland, one in Lithuania, and one who led the Zaporozhian Host.
It appeared (if we do not count the legendary period of Dmitry Baida-Vishnevetsky ) after the Union of Lublin in 1569, when the newly created Polish-Lithuanian state, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, began to think about stable protection of the “eastern outskirts”, the border of the Wild Field, from Tatar raids. On June 2, 1572, King Sigismund II Augustus signed the corresponding universal, according to which Crown Hetman Jerzy Jazlowiecki hired the first three hundred Cossacks for service.
They took an oath of allegiance to the king and were required, in full combat readiness, to repel the invasions of wild Tatars, participate in campaigns (including Moscow) and generally maintain order. They were entered into a special list - a register that confirmed the rights and privileges associated with state service. In the future, almost all "Cossack-peasant uprisings", presented in Soviet and early Ukrainian historiography as a pure struggle for justice, required an expansion of the register.
Nikolay Samokish. Attack of Zaporozhian Cossacks on a convoy. 1900s.
That is, they fought for wages. And the constantly growing registered army spread its regimental and hundred system over an ever larger territory, starting with the town of Trakhtemyriv on the Dnieper, south of Kyiv, where the Polish king transferred the kleinods, the main military symbols - the banner, the bunchuk, the hetman's mace and the seal.
Officially, it was called "His Royal Grace's Zaporozhian Army". Accordingly, having sworn allegiance to the Moscow Tsar in 1654, it became known as "His Royal Majesty's Zaporozhian Army". "Our great sovereign, against his sovereign enemies, has a large and countless army, and its structure is different:... the Don, Terek, and Yaik Cossacks fight with fire; and the Zaporozhian Circassians - with both fire and archery," reported the ambassador to Venice, steward Ivan Chemodanov, in his description of the Russian army.
In addition to the registered people, there were also the "lower class" who lived, in fact, in the Zaporizhian Sich, which periodically moved to a new location. Free lawless people who lived from robberies, fishing and simple farming in the farmsteads. The instigators of those very various rebellions for getting into the state, who were also free to choose their hetman. In fact, the nobleman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, who suffered from the Polish power, went to them. And the very concept of "Hetmanate", that is, a quasi-state formation under the hand of a military leader, appeared during the war of the "separatist and traitor" against his state.
On November 22, 1649, at the six-week Warsaw Sejm, the Zboriv Peace Treaty was ratified between Khmelnytsky and King Jan Kazimierz, following the victory of the Cossack-Tatar army in the Battle of Zboriv. Incidentally, another fact of treason in the eyes of the Poles: the Commonwealth should have been protected from the Tatars, and not attracted to war and plunder.
Naturally, here too, one of the main demands was to increase the register to 40 thousand Cossacks, and a separate point was made to record the ownership of the southern border town of Chigirin personally by Khmelnitsky, who expanded his holdings and increased the number of serfs.
But most importantly, the territory of the Zaporozhian Host was actually (albeit briefly) officially recognized as an autonomy with broad rights. Its borders included three voivodeships - Bratslav, Kiev and Chernigov. Cossacks were forbidden to be outside these delineated lands, and accordingly, crown troops were not allowed to be stationed on Cossack territory, nor were Jews allowed to conduct any economic activity.
As a result, the "Zaporozhian Host with cities and lands" went into service of the Russian Tsardom, and the territory under the control of the hetman (from some point on, two hetmans, right-bank and left-bank) became the Hetmanate. "Ukraine" was a nomadic name, and the more the Ruin devoured the "Ukrainian lands", the more often it was used to refer to the territory of Slobozhanshchina with its center in Kharkov, which was under the control of Moscow.
UNNECESSARY LIBERTIES
Trust in the politicians of Little Russia and personally in the hetman was seriously undermined by the ugly act of Ivan Mazepa, who became a natural oligarch in the service of Tsar Peter I. And it was not yet widely known that Bohdan himself entered into secret negotiations with the Swedes, who in the middle of the century began to devour Poland, almost immediately after concluding an alliance with Moscow. All the negativity went to his successor Ivan Vyhovsky, who in 1658 concluded the Gadyach Union with the Poles, which crossed out the Pereyaslav Treaty. And Bohdan's son, the weak Yurko, generally placed his bets on Turkey.
Catherine's expression "like wolves in the forest" seemed to generalize many similar events.
And the tension between the Hetmanate and Moscow had the same basis as in the case of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth: according to the concepts of the Cossack elders, they were supposed to receive financing from the overlord, and rule their territory and, in fact, the serfs independently. “Give us as much money as we ask for, and don’t interfere” - approximately the same political tradition has been preserved in Ukraine to this day.
For Russian boyars, voivodes and clerks, citizenship meant unconditional obedience, and the cities of the Hetmanate were administered by sent Moscow chiefs who did not take into account either local laws and traditions or the powers of the Hetman administration. Russia has accordingly retained this approach to this day. And in the 17th century, the unbridled behavior of the Cossacks, accustomed to looting and outrages against the civilian population over the long years of war, terribly irritated both the military men and the authorities in St. Petersburg.
So the "autonomy", which brought constant problems due to the lack of a sense of proportion, was gradually reduced one way or another. In general, the position of hetman, alien to Peter's Table of Ranks, was already presented to Count Kirill Razumovsky as a favor, and was not a real elective position. The Empress was in a love relationship with his older brother Alexei, and Kirill Grigorievich himself took an active part in preparing the coup d'etat that brought Catherine to the throne. In connection with this, he was promoted to senator and adjutant general.
Louis Tocquet. Kirill Grigorievich Razumovsky with the hetman's mace. 1758
The real reduction of the hetman's power actually began under Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, continued under his son Peter, and continued, primarily concerning financial issues. The first was the cost of maintaining the army and the Russian military administration, which the central government wanted to at least partially shift to the Ukrainian elite. The second was the collection of taxes locally and the movement of "excisable goods" across the customs border, which existed, imagine, even under Elizabeth Petrovna, the youngest daughter of Peter I.
The Hetmanate made good money from trading salt, Crimean tobacco and vodka. "Cherkasy wine" of poor purification was popular in the Moscow state due to its cheapness, and from the middle of the 18th century it began to be progressively made from potatoes (or with the addition of potato alcohol), which became a distinctive feature of Ukrainian "gorilka".
"In 1754, the empress asked about the abolition of Ukraine's customs immunity. Salt and tobacco were transported through Ukraine in unlimited quantities. Russian customs at other borders controlled these flows, but there was no such control at the border with Ukraine. Tobacco and salt were two items that took away significant revenue items from the empire," notes Kiev historian and researcher of the Cossacks Vladislav Gribovsky.
So those who sat on the streams perceived “oppression by Moscow” as a personal insult and a blow to the pocket, and not an attack on statehood.
When Catherine II confirmed all the rights and liberties of the Zaporozhian Host, all affairs began to be conducted by the Council of Elders under the actual leadership of the General of the Bagration Semyon Kochubey. Managing, as stated in the universal of Razumovsky, "all military and civil affairs on the basis of Military Laws, former customs and established points in... Little Russian Laws, confirmed by decrees to the Little Russian people."
This status provided incredible earnings, interesting information about the property owned by the Kochubey family in the house in Dikanka in 1753 has been preserved. The list of things recorded a huge amount of men's, women's and children's clothing, some of which was decorated with gold, jewelry (rings, beads, earrings), shoes, dishes, weapons, money and other things. The general baggage collector collected all the income from the taverns, and, having barely taken office, submitted a report to the hetman, where he asked to transfer all the income of the regimental artillery to his subordination and to order the artillery servants "to be in my full disposition and to obey my orders in everything."
The young hetman sat in St. Petersburg, distributing Ukrainian lands from there "into eternal and hereditary possession," which suited the businessmen completely. Their plan fell apart only after an attempt to implement a project of a constitutional monarchy with the capital in Baturin, where the hereditary dynasty of Razumovskys would reign, limited by a strong parliament. The openly insolent Ukrainian activists who decided to implement the Polish model inside Russia were dispersed, but not offended.
In exchange for the lost title of hetman, Razumovsky became a field marshal general, Kochubey received the rank of major general and joined the Collegium, retaining control over artillery and huge land holdings. According to his rank, he was entitled to 400 households, but there were fewer. Therefore, the "infringed Ukrainian" appealed to the empress for justice, and it was restored - soon he owned 477 households in different places.
If we talk about the Ukrainian people, then for them all this "destruction of statehood" was perceived rather as a plus - since the time of Bohdan, the gentry thought only about themselves and their incomes, and not about the rights of the rabble and the townspeople. But Catherine, along with the Little Russian Collegium, came up with a Commission in which ordinary Little Russians themselves, without the oligarchs, would express their wishes and needs, how they should live in the new conditions.
The Empress's manifesto was brought to the chanceries of all regiments, and was also published in cities, villages and farmsteads. And it must be said that it caused a positive reaction from the population, in contrast to the elite.
In a legal sense, the Hetmanate ceased to exist after the decree of 1764, but in fact everything dragged on for several years. The final act was the abolition of the Little Russian Collegium in 1786, during which time Little Russia merged with Great Russia administratively and politically, the Ukrainian gentry became the Russian nobility. By and large, nothing changed for it.
But at the national level, the cultural identity that developed during the Polish-Lithuanian period remained. And, by the way, it is very interesting that the liquidation of Malorossiya as an autonomous state in the Cossack-Hetman form also put an end to the name: it was increasingly replaced by "Ukraine".
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[NewsFront] 21:39 A reconnaissance UAV of the Sever group discovered a firing position of a mortar crew of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kursk border area.
The FPV operator of the 44th Army Corps performed a masterful job on the target, destroying it,video.
20:52 A German 155mm self-propelled gun "Panzer Howitzer 2000" was caught near the border of the Kursk region. As usual, they worked with "Lancet", -video.
19:42 Artillerymen of the "Southern" group of troops hit astronghold of the Ukrainian Armed Forces in the Kurakhovsky direction.
The scouts discovered an enemy stronghold located on the outskirts of one of the settlements and promptly transmitted the coordinates to the control point. The crew of the 152mm Msta-B howitzer received the task and, with the help of UAV adjustments, carried out a precise strike on the identified target.
18:24 Destruction of a combat vehicle of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Zaporizhia direction. Malye Shcherbaki settlement –video.
17:47 During reconnaissance activities, servicemen of the North group of troops noticed in a forest belt, a camouflaged position of a mortar crew of one of the units of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. After determining and confirming the exact coordinates of the enemy's location, a decision was made to fire. The detected target was promptly destroyed using an FPV drone of the reconnaissance forces of the "North" group of forces. Objective control means recorded a direct hit on the position of the mortar crew.
16:53 Crews of the Su-35S multi-role super-maneuverable fighters with controlled thrust vector completed air cover for Aerospace Forces crews in the border areas of the Kursk region – video.
15:44 Direct hit by Lancet:
Servicemen of the North group of forces using the Lancet loitering munition destroyed a self-propelled gun "PzH-2000" of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the border area of the Kursk region.
11:58 FPV drones of the Russian Defense Ministry's Rubicon Advanced Unmanned Technologies Test Center hit Ukrainian Armed Forces armored vehicles in the Kursk direction –video.
10:42 Jeweled precision: the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ pontoon crossing over the Seversky Donets was destroyed by a missile strike –video.
Footage of an air strike with guided missiles on a Ukrainian Armed Forces pontoon crossing over the Seversky Donets River in the Krasno-Limansky direction. As a result of the precise hit, the crossing was destroyed.
09:22 Su-25 crews carried out missile air strikes on armored vehicles and personnel of the Ukrainian Armed Forces units in the border areas of the Kursk region —video.
08:51 Telegram channel «WarGonzo»:
- Zaporizhzhya Front. Russian troops continue to be active in the Orekhovsky sector. There are small advances.
- Donetsk Front. After a short pause, the Russian Armed Forces continued to develop the offensive in the direction of Velyka Novoselovka. There are tactical successes in the Urozhainoe area. Fighting continues in Kurakhovo, where Russian troops, according to some reports, have taken control of about 40% of the territory of the settlement.
- Chasovoyarsk direction. Fighting continues in the city limits and on the flanks. Russian troops continue to methodically put pressure on the defense of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
- Kursk region. There are advances of Russian troops in the forested areas near Olgovka. The enemy has been concentrating its forces and resources there for a long time. Counter battles continue in several areas. The Ukrainian Armed Forces continue to conduct counterattacks, but they cannot achieve success.
08:00 Telegram channel «Fisherman»:
Chronicle of the special military operation for November 20, 2024
– Russian forces struck the Impuls plant in Shostka in the Sumy region, causing a powerful detonation at the facility. Ukrainian forces struck a facility in Maryino in the Kursk region with Storm Shadow cruise missiles.– In the Kursk direction, Russian soldiers destroyed another M1A1SA Abrams tank in the Sudzhansky district, and also completed clearing positions in the Olgovskaya grove area in the Korenevsky district.
– In the Pokrovsk direction, assault aircraft are fighting on the eastern outskirts of Petrovka, advancing on Pokrovsk along the railway.
– In the Kurakhovo direction, Russian troops have liberated Novoselidovka, are fighting in Sontsevka, and have also made significant progress within the borders of Kurakhovo.
[ZeroHedge] “Personnel is policy.” That aphorism about the realities of US presidential government was coined by Scot Faulkner, who was director of personnel for Ronald Reagan’s triumphant election campaign in 1980. What he meant was that, while US presidents can do almost anything, they can’t do everything. The day-to-day business of the administration is carried on by appointed officials. And if presidents want to make real progress towards their policy objectives, they need to make sure that their officials are as committed to those goals as they are.
That is why President-elect Donald Trump’s first two picks to be his senior energy officials are particularly significant. There is still a great deal of uncertainty around exactly how energy policy will play out in his second administration. But the announcements he has made give a clear sense of the direction he wants to set and the objectives he wants to achieve during his four-year term.
Last week, President-elect Trump named >Chris Wright, the chief executive of oilfield services company Liberty Energy, to be his energy secretary, and Doug Burgum, governor of North Dakota, to be the interior secretary and head of a new National Energy Council at the White House.
The common thread in the thinking on energy expressed by both Wright and Burgum is that they want to boost production of all types of energy, including fossil fuels. They do not deny that human-caused climate change is a real threat that needs to be addressed. But they argue that there are other priorities for policy that are more important and more urgent, and that oil and gas can continue to play the central role in the global energy system into the indefinite future.
If they get to take the reins of energy policy-making under the Trump administration, they will undoubtedly aim to help the oil and gas industry in every way possible. But several low-carbon sectors could also benefit, or at least not be hit as hard as they might have feared.
MEET CHRIS WRIGHT AND GOVERNOR DOUG BURGUM
Announcing their nominations, President-elect Trump said that Wright and Burgum would be working on cutting red tape, enhancing private sector investment and focusing on innovation, with the aim of boosting energy production to cut prices and “win the AI arms race with China (and others)”.
Chris Wright has become one of the highest-profile CEOs in the industry thanks to his tireless advocacy for American energy in general, and oil and gas in particular. He has made his case in a variety of public forums, including YouTube videos and in a 180-page report titled ‘Bettering human lives’.
That report makes its argument in 10 key points, which include: “Global demand for oil, natural gas, and coal are all at record levels and rising — no energy transition has begun” and “Zero Energy Poverty by 2050 is a superior goal compared to Net Zero [emissions] 2050.”
Wright summarises his position on climate change like this:
“Climate change is a real and global challenge that we should and can address. However, representing it as the most urgent threat to humanity today displaces concerns about more pressing threats of malnutrition, access to clean water, air pollution, endemic diseases, and human rights, among others.”
Tackling those other more pressing problems, he argues, would be helped by the strongest possible growth in US oil and gas production. This would displace supplies from authoritarian regimes and geopolitical rivals of the US and substitute for dirtier fuels, including coal and traditional biomass.
On policy, Wright warns that the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which extended and expanded tax credits for a range of low-carbon energy technologies, “appears poised to drive the U.S. electricity grid along the European path [to] higher prices and more grid stability problems”.
He is not opposed to all forms of low-carbon energy, but says the world needs a massive increase in research and innovation, as opposed to subsidies for existing technologies. His company has worked on low-carbon energy sources, including advanced geothermal, small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) and sodium-ion batteries. The world needs more and better energy, which means contributions from “all viable energy technologies,” Wright says.
One of the peculiarities of the US system of government is that the energy secretary – the job that Chris Wright is being proposed for – does not have primary responsibility for many of the decisions most relevant to the energy industry. A US energy secretary does have responsibility for overseeing energy policy, but the most vital part of the job relates to nuclear weapons. The secretary is tasked with “maintaining a safe, secure and effective nuclear deterrent” for the US, and reducing the threat of nuclear proliferation.
Many of the key decisions related to energy, such as oil and gas leasing programmes, lie with the Department of the Interior. So the proposal that Governor Burgum of North Dakota should head that department, as well as the new White House energy council, is also highly significant for the industry.
Governor Burgum, like Wright, has a record of recognising the need to act on climate change while also aiming to boost oil and gas production. In 2021, he set a goal of reaching net zero emissions for North Dakota – described as “carbon neutral status” – by 2030. That is a much more ambitious schedule than California’s – the Golden State is aiming for net zero by 2045.
Another crucial difference is that Governor Burgum has envisaged his state reaching net zero largely through carbon capture and storage (CCS). As he has pointed out, North Dakota hit the “geologic jackpot” in its potential for sub-surface storage of carbon dioxide. Its estimated capacity of 250 billion tons could take all of the US’s carbon dioxide emissions from energy for almost 50 years.
In a sign of North Dakota’s enthusiasm for CCS, the state’s Public Service Commission last week voted unanimously to approve the route permit for Summit Carbon Solutions’ proposed US$8 billion carbon dioxide pipeline system, which would take captured emissions from ethanol plants for storage.
But despite his support for decarbonisation, Governor Burgum has also been a strong critic of the Biden administration’s energy policies. He signed up to a joint statement with other Republican governors in June, arguing that the president’s “rhetorical and regulatory hostility towards traditional energy” was holding back US oil and gas production.
One sector that could be particularly favoured under the new administration is gas-fired power generation. President-elect Trump said in the statement announcing Governor Burgum’s nomination that he wanted to “undo the damage done by the Democrats to our Nation's Electrical Grid, by dramatically increasing baseload power”. That will certainly mean acting on his pledge to scrap President Biden’s emissions rules for power plants, which could potentially have ended up forcing gas-fired generation to shut down. But he could go further. A national version of the Texas system that subsidises gas-fired power plants is possible.
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[EngMilRu] The Armed Forces of the Russian Federation continue the special military operation.
In Kharkov direction, the units of the Sever Group of Forces have defeated units of the 116th Territorial Defence Brigade and the 5th Border Detachment of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine near Lebedevka and Kazachya Lopan (Kharkov region).
The AFU losses were up to 145 troops, two tanks, 11 armoured fighting vehicles, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer.
The units of the Zapad Group of Forces have improved the tactical situation and inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of 28th, 63rd, 116th Mechanised brigades and the 119th Territorial Defence brigades of the AFU near Kupyansk, Zagryzovo, Glushkovka (Kharkov region), and Krasny Liman (Donetsk People's Republic).
Five counterattacks of AFU 14th, 115th mechanised brigades and the 119th Territorial Defence Brigade have been repelled.
The AFU losses were up to 480 troops, two infantry fighting vehicles, one armoured fighting vehicle, six motor vehicles, one 155-mm U.S.-made M198 howitzer, two 152mm D-20 guns, two 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. Two Anklav-N electronic warfare stations and four field ammunition depots have been eliminated.
The units of the Yug Group of Forces have liberated Dalneye (Donetsk People's Republic).
Russian troops have hit 33rd, 54th Mechanised brigades, the 56th Mechanised Infantry Brigade of the AFU near Chervonoye, Seversk, Verolubovka, Dachnoye, and Kurakhovo (Donetsk People's Republic).
One counterattack of the AFU 46th Airmobile Brigade has been repelled.
The AFU losses were up to 380 troops, 12 motor vehicles, one 155mm UK-made Braveheart self-propelled artillery system, two 152mm D-20 guns, one 122mm D-30 howitzer, and four 105mm U.S.-made M-119 guns. One Bukovel-AD electronic warfare station and one ammunition depot have been eliminated.
The units of the Tsentr Group of Forces continued advancing into the depths of enemy defences, inflicted losses on manpower and hardware of the AFU 100th Mechanised Brigade, the 68th Infantry Brigade, the 425th Air Assault Brigade, the 38th Naval Infantry Brigade, 2nd, 14th National Guard brigades, and the 241st Territorial Defence Brigade close to Grodovka, Sukhoy Yar, Dachenskoye, Ulyanovka, Dimitrov, and Pravdovka (Donetsk People's Republic).
In addition, 11 counterattacks of assault detachments of AFU 117th, 151st Mechanised brigades, the 68th Jaeger Brigade, the 35th Naval Infantry Brigade, and the Lyut Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine have been repelled.
The AFU losses were more than 385 troops, two Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, one U.S.-made M113 armoured personnel carrier, one armoured fighting vehicle, two motor vehicles, one 152mm D-20 gun, two 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika self-propelled artillery systems, two 122mm D-30 howitzers, and one 100mm Rapira anti-tank gun.
The units of the Vostok Group of Forces have taken more advantageous lines and positions, defeated units of the 33rd Mechanised Brigade, the 71st Infantry Brigade of the AFU, and the 130th Territorial Defence Brigade near Zelyonoye Pole, Ulakly, and Novosyolka (Donetsk People's Republic).
One counterattack by units of the AFU 36th Naval Infantry Brigade has been repelled.
The AFU losses were up to 145 troops, one tank, one infantry fighting vehicle, one U.S.-made M-113 armoured personnel carrier, three motor vehicles, and one 152mm 2S3 Akatsiya self-propelled artillery system.
The units of the Dnepr Group of Forces have engaged manpower and hardware of the 31st Mechanised Brigade, the 141st Infantry Brigade of the AFU, 118th and 126th territorial defence brigades close to Novoandreyevka, Malaya Tokmachka (Zaporozhye region), Burgunka, and Nikolskoye (Kherson region).
The AFU losses were up to 85 troops, nine motor vehicles, and one 122mm D-30 howitzer. One field ammunition depot has been destroyed.
Operational-Tactical Aviation, attack unmanned aerial vehicles, Missile Troops and Artillery of the Russian Groups of Forces have engaged AFU manpower and hardware clusters in 142 areas.
Air defence facilities have shot down two UK-made Storm Shadow cruise missiles, six U.S.-made HIMARS projectiles, and 67 fixed-wing unmanned aerial vehicles.
In total, since the beginning of the special military operation, 648 aircraft, 283 helicopters, 36,467 unmanned aerial vehicles, 586 anti-aircraft missile systems, 19,420 tanks and other armoured fighting vehicles, 1,490 MLRS combat vehicles, 18,318 field artillery guns and mortars, and 28,573 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 losses on formations of 41st, 47th, 115th Mechanised brigades, 5th and 17th Tank brigades, the 82nd Air Assault Brigade, the 36th Naval Infantry Brigade, 112th, 117th and 129th Territorial Defence brigades of the AFU near Aleksandriya, Viktorovka, Daryino, Lebedevka, Leonidovka, Malaya Loknya, Nikolsky, Novoivanovka, and Sverdlikovo.
Operational-Tactical and Army aviation and artillery inflicted losses on enemy manpower and hardware near Agronom, Aleksandriya, Bogdanovka, Kruglenkoye, Kurilovka, Lebedevka, Leonidovo, Martynovka, Malaya Loknya, Melovy, Nizhny Klin, Nikolayevka, Nikolayevo-Daryino, Nikolsky, Novoivanovka, Plyokhovo, Sverdlikovo, Staraya Sorochina, Cherkasskoye Porechnoye as well as Basovka, Belovody, Zhuravka, Obody, and Yunakovka (Sumy region).
The AFU losses were over 150 troops over the past 24 hours. Five AFU servicemen surrendered.
Since the beginning of hostilities in Kursk region, the AFU losses amounted to more than 34,540 troops, 215 tanks, 147 infantry fighting vehicles, 120 armoured personnel carriers, 1,190 armoured fighting vehicles, 988 motor vehicles, 296 artillery guns, 40 MLRS launchers, including 11 of HIMARS and six of MLRS made by the USA, 13 anti-aircraft missile launchers, seven transport-loading vehicles, 68 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.
[IsraelTimes] Former politician denounces ‘political’ ban, says it’s because she opposes Palestinian state; Jewish groups slam decision as offensive; car burned in antisemitic attack in Sydney
Former justice minister Ayelet Shaked said on Thursday that she was barred from entering Australia, where she was slated to address a conference organized by the Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
The Australian newspaper reported that Shaked was denied a visa because she might "incite discord," noting that the act used to prevent her entry stipulates that applicants may be barred if it is believed that they may "vilify a segment of the Australian community, or incite discord in the Australian community or in a segment of that community."
Speaking with the paper, AIJAC chief Colin Rubenstein condemned the visa ban as "a disgraceful act of hostility towards a democratic ally."
"It is extraordinary that a government that refuses to take any meaningful action against an Iranian ambassador who effectively calls for genocide would act so undiplomatically towards a friend," he said.
Also responding to the reports, Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler tweeted, "The Australian Government’s decision to refuse a visa to Ayelet Shaked is both baffling and deeply offensive."
"Ayelet is a former justice minister in the most diverse and centrist Israeli government in history, which included an Israeli Arab party and minister. This refusal is particularly perplexing given that this very same government granted her a visa less than two years ago," he wrote.
"How is it conceivable that our government has granted a visa to a Paleostinian man from Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... who reportedly has had close family connections and personal interactions with terrorist organizations, yet refuses entry to a former government minister of a democratic nation and one of our Australia’s friends?"
In a later post, Leibler addressed Shaked directly, "I am embarrassed of my Government. Rest assured, most Australians do not support this outrageous decision."
Speaking with Channel 12 on Thursday, Shaked slammed what she called Australia’s "extreme anti-Israeli and pro-Paleostinian government, part of which is even antisemitic, which for political reasons and because I oppose a Paleostinian state does not allow me to attend a strategic dialogue between Israel and Australia."
Shaked’s visa denial came amid reports that Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong has recently signaled increased support for the Paleostinians, voting in May in favor of a Paleostinian bid to become a full UN member.
According to a Sky News Australia report on Wednesday, that vote went against the recommendation of Canberra’s mission to the United Nations ...an organization conceived in the belief that we're just one big happy world, with the sort of results you'd expect from such nonsense... , and blindsided Israel, the United States and Canada, who believed Australia would abstain.
Also Thursday, meanwhile, a car in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, which has a large Jewish population, was burned and dozens of others defaced with anti-Israeli graffiti.
In a post on X early Thursday, the Israeli embassy in Australia declared that it was "appalled by the antisemitic attack."
"Words are no longer enough — it’s time for action," the embassy asserted.
Jewish Australian suburb in Sydney was targeted by anti-Semites last night. Cars were torched and graffitied with “FUCK ISRAEL” and “PKK” slogans for the Kurdish Marxist Leninist militant group. pic.twitter.com/Nf6heeVxQh
I’m shocked. Since when do thr Kurds have a problem with Israel?
Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Thursday condemned the attack as “disturbing” and “deeply troubling.”
But not disturbing and troubling enough to let an Israeli politician reenter and pollute your precious country. Got it.
“There is no place for antisemitism in Australia.
Tell your foreign minister that, Mr. Prime Minister. She does not agree with you.
Conflict overseas cannot be made a platform for prejudice at home. I have trust in our law enforcement agencies to deal with this,” he said in a statement cited by Australian media.
Antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment have risen in Australia since Hamas’s October 7 massacre, which saw thousands of terrorists burst across the border into Israel, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages, mostly civilians, amid acts of brutality and sexual assault.
In October, a few days after the unprecedented onslaught, Jewish Australians who were holding a vigil outside the Sydney Opera House were faced with antisemitic pro-Palestinian protesters who chanted “F*** the Jews” and “Gas the Jews,” although law enforcement later claimed that they were chanting, “Where’re the Jews” and not “Gas the Jews.”
In an effort to combat the spike in antisemitism, Albanese appointed an envoy in July to deal with the issue, as well as an envoy to address Islamophobia.
[IsraelTimes] Prosecutors say Christopher Brown, 23, expressed support for Nazism; was caught after Jewish security group passed along threatening online posts to law enforcement
A man who was arrested in Penn Station in 2022 while preparing to carry out a terror attack against Jewish New Yorkers was sentenced to 10 years in state prison on Wednesday.
Christopher Brown, 23, had traveled to New York City after posting antisemitic messages on social media. Brown was arrested at Penn Station on November 18, 2022, along with Matthew Mahrer, with whom he had planned to carry out an attack and to whom he had paid $650 to buy a firearm in Pennsylvania.
After the arrest, police found a knife, a swastika armband, and a ski mask in Brown’s backpack.
In September, Brown pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal possession of a weapon in the second degree as a crime of terrorism. It is a Class B felony.
In a statement, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg called the sentence “a significant prison term” and added, “I know that the Jewish community in Manhattan is continuing to face rising antisemitism and violent threats, and I want everyone to know that we are using every tool possible in coordination with our law enforcement partners to keep them safe.”
The attack had been thwarted in part thanks to a tip from the Community Security Initiative, a local Jewish security agency. The group discovered threatening posts by Brown on Twitter, and brought that information to law enforcement.
On the platform, Brown had expressed intent to “shoot up a synagogue,” saying, “This time I’m really gonna do it,” court records and the district attorney’s office said.
Mitch Silber, the director of CSI, said Brown’s sentencing “underscores the critical importance of vigilance and collaboration in protecting our communities.”
“While justice has been served, this case serves as a stark reminder of the persistent threats our community faces,” Silber said in a Wednesday statement.
Brown also expressed support for Nazism, and considered getting a swastika tattoo over his heart, the district attorney’s office said. He also indicated a desire to imitate the 2019 white supremacist mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Brown’s co-defendant, Matthew Mahrer, is Jewish and the descendant of a Holocaust survivor. Mahrer’s attorney has said that he would not want to harm his own people. His case is still pending.
Brown’s sentencing comes amid a surge in antisemitic hate crimes since the October 7, 2023, Hamas massacre in Israel. The rate of anti-Jewish attacks has abated somewhat in recent months compared to a year ago, but Jews remain the group most targeted in hate crimes in New York City.
Not every hate crime reported to police results in an arrest or prosecution. The legal standard for proving bias is high, making prosecution difficult. Lengthy prison sentences like Brown’s are rare.
In a separate case, a man who allegedly demanded that “Zionists” identify themselves and leave a crowded subway car in June had some of his charges dismissed in the Manhattan criminal court on Tuesday. That incident took place on the same day as an anti-Israel protest of an exhibit commemorating the Nova music festival massacre.
Anti-Zionism is a modern manifestation of antisemitism.
Example:
An Anti-Zionist declaring on a NYC subway car: “Raise your hands if you’re a Zionist. This is your chance to get out.”
Anyone threatening to purge “Zionists” (i.e. most Jews) from public places is an… pic.twitter.com/e3Wh6Ztp32
— Ritchie Torres (@RitchieTorres) June 12, 2024
Anas Saleh, 24, had been charged with coercion and attempted coercion for the incident. Those charges were dismissed, but a charge of disorderly conduct remains. Under New York law, coercion involves a person forcing another to do something against their will, usually under threat.
The Manhattan district attorney’s office expressed disappointment with the decision to drop the coercion charges.
“Manhattan must be a safe and welcoming space for the Jewish community, and this alleged conduct contributed to the climate of fear that many Jewish New Yorkers currently feel on a daily basis,” a spokesperson said. “We are disappointed with this decision and are reviewing our legal options.”
[FoxNews] Texas has offered a massive tract of land in the Rio Grande Valley sector to aid the incoming Trump administration's mass deportation plans, but the move is inviting questions over what the space will be used for.
"Using this land for deportation purposes is just part of a multitude of strategies that we're involved in," Gov. Greg Abbott, R-Texas, told "America's Newsroom" on Wednesday.
"One is, as we speak right now, there are more orange buoys that are being put into the Rio Grande River to deny illegal entry. The second thing is we are working to make sure that we are going after the criminals… That's why I declared Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization, so that we would be able to muster every single law enforcement tool in the state of Texas to go after them and arrest them.
"We've made hundreds of arrests of Tren de Aragua,
…impressive!
which is working to expand across the country, but we're making it clear that Tren de Aragua made a mistake when they tried to put a foothold in the state of Texas," he continued.
Texas Land Commissioner Dawn Buckingham offered the incoming administration a tract of more than 1,400 acres in Starr County.
In a letter obtained by Fox News Digital, Buckingham wrote to Trump that her office is "fully prepared to enter into an agreement with the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or the United States Border Patrol to allow a facility to be built for the processing, detention, and coordination of the largest deportation of violent criminals in the nation’s history."
The prospect of nationwide mass deportations has not come without scrutiny, however.
Arizona Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and Boston Democratic Mayor Michelle Wu have pushed back, stating their refusal to cooperate with the effort. Los Angeles city lawmakers voted Tuesday to formally adopt a sanctuary city ordinance and prohibit any city resources or personnel to be used to help federal enforcement of immigration laws.
Abbott said the Democratic officials are "doubling down" on reasons their party was handed a resounding defeat in the 2024 election.
"What the Americans demanded were safe communities and to stop the illegal immigration into our country, especially of those who pose great dangers, and whether it be in Arizona, whether it be in Massachusetts or other places across the country where they're not going to be cooperating with ICE, with the borders, or with any effort to remove very dangerous criminals, they're going to see more crimes in their cities and they're going to see more losses at the ballot box because Americans are angry about this and these office holders, they have to be responding to that anger."
#4
Any state, county or city not following federal law on immigration should get no federal dollars for any program including Medicare, Medicaid, Education, Transportation,,,,,
[IsraelTimes] Three gunmen die in airstrike, others during gun battles, with no injuries to Israeli forces; troops find and destroy bomb-making labs and improvised explosives
The Israel Defense Forces said Thursday it was pulling out of the West Bank city of Jenin following a two-day operation in which nine terror suspects were killed by troops and several more arrested.
The 48-hour raid, which involved soldiers, Border Police officers, and members of the Shin Bet security service, was part of ongoing efforts against terror activities in the northern West Bank, the army said.
Three of the slain Paleostinians, who were armed at the time, were killed in an Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... , an increasingly common tactic used by the IDF in the northern West Bank, while the other six died during shootouts with troops, the army said.
There were no injuries to Israeli forces.
According to the army, the three Paleostinians killed in the airstrike were suspected of taking part in previous attacks on Israeli troops or towns. Following the airstrike, secondary explosions testified to the presence of weapons stored at the site, the IDF said.
Some of the other six Paleostinians were also involved in recent attacks on soldiers, according to the army.
During the operation, four workshops used to prepare improvised bombs were destroyed along with dozens of bombs concealed beneath access routes that had been laid with the purpose of targeting security forces, the statement said. Forces also seized dozens of weapons.
An unspecified number of suspects were detained and handed over to the Shin Bet for interrogation.
The army had earlier this week confirmed killing three of the Paleostinians during a raid in a town near Jenin, identifying them as members of the 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.
Border Police troops had entered the town of Qabatiya south of Jenin to arrest Raed Hanaysha, 24, a former terror convict 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 IDF, Israel Police, and Shin Bet on Tuesday.
While attempting to arrest Hanaysha, troops were fired on by two other button men, and killed them and Hanaysha. Islamic Jihad confirmed that the three had been members of the terror group.
Since October 7, 2023, when the Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... 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 Death Eaters 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 airstrikes in the West Bank, using drones, attack helicopters, and fighter jets.
The International Criminal Court is for countries that do not have a strong and independent judiciary and are members. Israel does not fit any of those criteria.
[IsraelTimes] Republicans in US Congress threaten to sanction international court, as human rights NGOs welcome PM’s new status as ‘officially a wanted man’
In the hours after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant on Thursday, European officials said they were prepared to obey the decision. American politicians panned it, calling to sanction the court instead.
Possibly the ICC has overreached this time.
The decision to issue the warrants, granted unanimously on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes during Israel’s campaign against the Hamas ..one of the armed feet of the Moslem Brüderbund millipede,... terror group 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... , marked the first time the ICC has ever issued arrest warrants against leaders of a democratic country.
Both Netanyahu and Gallant will be liable for arrest if they travel to any of the more than 120 countries that are party to the ICC. The court also issued an arrest warrant for slain Hamas military leader Mohammad Deif, noting it could not confirm his death.
The EU’s outgoing foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said Thursday that the decision was not a political one but made by a court and thus should be respected and implemented, writing on X, "These decisions are binding on all States party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU Member States."
The Netherlands’ foreign minister Caspar Veldkamp said his country was prepared to act upon the warrants, Dutch news agency ANP reported. Veldkamp was expected to visit Israel on Friday.
Does he expect to be welcomed warmly after that choice? Or is he bringing the left ears of all the Dutch Muslims who partook in the recent Jew hunt, with proof of their involvement and other nefarious connections, to make up for it?
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris, in a statement, said that "Ireland respects the role of the International Criminal Court. Anyone in a position to assist it in carrying out its vital work must now do so with urgency."
Harris’s statement also called for "an immediate ceasefire, release of all hostages, and unhindered access for humanitarian aid in Gaza," calling the situation in the enclave "an affront to humanity."
La Belle France’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Christophe Lemoine said the French reaction to the warrants would be "in line with ICC statutes" but declined to say whether
.style='border-bottom-width:1px;border-bottom-style:dotted;border-bottom-color:gray;' title='France'>La Belle France would arrest the leaders if they came to the country. "It’s a point that is legally complex," he said.
Not really. Either the ICC has jurisdiction and is correct that Bibi and Israel are irredeemably evil, with a supine court system, or the ICC does not and is wrong.
”Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani likewise hedged his response, saying, "We support the ICC, while always remembering that the court must play a legal role and not a political role. We will evaluate together with our allies what to do and how to interpret this decision."
The foreign ministers of Sweden and Norway both expressed confidence in the court, but did not say explicitly whether they would execute the arrest warrant if in a position to.
In the United States, by contrast, leaders on both sides of the aisle condemned the decision.
US President Joe The Big Guy Biden ...46th president of the U.S. We hold these truths to be self-evident. All men and women created ... by the — you know — you know, the thing... ’s administration, which had publicly denounced the initial request for arrest warrants, "fundamentally rejects" the decision, a White House National Security spokesperson told The Times of Israel.
"We remain deeply concerned by the prosecutor’s rush to seek arrest warrants and the troubling process errors that led to this decision," the spokesperson added.
When the ICC prosecutor announced his decision to request the arrest warrants in May, the US said at the time that he had failed to provide Israel with the opportunity to investigate the claims itself.
Stephanie Hallett, US deputy chief of mission at the US Embassy in Israel, said Thursday that the ICC "does not have jurisdiction in this instance," because "the complementarity principle has absolutely not been applied," referring to the principle that if a state is capable of investigating crimes committed there on its own, the international court does not have jurisdiction.
She added that ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan "absolutely had an opportunity to get on a plane to come here and engage with Israel. Instead, he chose not to get on the plane."
Well said.
Hallett said Thursday morning that an official response from Biden to the arrest warrants would be coming shortly, describing the imminent comments as "very strong."
While the Biden administration has spoken against the ICC and ICJ cases against Israel, it has to date rejected calls from Republican politicians to sanction the court as President-elect Donald Trump ...So far he's been unkillable, and they've tried.... did in his first term.
But GOP congressman Michael Waltz, whom President-elect Donald Trump has said he will appoint as his national security advisor, said: "You can expect a strong response to the antisemitic bias of the ICC & UN come January."
Ritchie Torres, among the most pro-Israel Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... in the US Congress, also called to sanction the court. In a lengthy post to X, the representative from New York said the arrest warrants represented "the weaponization of international law at its most egregious," calling it "persecution posing as prosecution."
"The ICC ignores the cause and context of the war," Torres said, adding that not only did the Hamas terror group start the war with its October 7, 2023 attack — in which murderous Moslems invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 hostages — the group also "carefully constructed a battlefield designed to maximize the loss of civilian life" in Gaza.
"None of that context seems to matter to the kangaroo court of the ICC, which cannot let facts get in the way of its ideological crusade against the Jewish State," he said.
He is rapidly becoming one of my favourite Democrats.
In June, the House passed a bill that, if it became law, would cancel the US visas of ICC officials, restrict entry of, and place financial restrictions on any of the court’s officials who are seeking to detain or prosecute allies of the United States.
Another thing to look forward to in January.
US President Joe Biden said at the time he was "strongly opposed" to the legislation which passed with a majority of 247-155, including with the support of 42 Democrats.
It has not been taken up by the US Senate, however, though Majority Leader Chuck Schumer ...Senator-for-life from New York, renowned for his love of standing in front of cameras and microphones. Schumer has been a professional politician since 1975, when disco was in flower, which is 48.96282 years. Senate minority leader as of 2017... , of New York, called the initial request for arrest warrants "reprehensible."
On Wednesday, roughly a third of Senate Democrats voted in favor of three failed bids to block the sale of offensive weapons to Israel, underscoring the internal divide among Democrats on the issue.
Republican Senator John Thune, who is set to succeed Schumer in January, vowed that if the ICC does not reverse its decision, the Senate will "immediately pass sanctions legislation, as the House has already done on a bipartisan basis," at the start of the next Congress.
Centrist Susan Collins and vocally pro-Israel Democrat John Fetterman also expressed their opposition to the arrest warrants, with the latter posting to X a headline about the decision, captioned, "No standing, relevance, or path. Fuck that."
Another of the good ones — a classic Democrat of the old school.
Also denouncing the warrants was Argentina ...a country located on the other side of the Deep South. It is covered with Pampers and inhabited by Grouchos, who dance the Tangle. They used to have some islands called the Malvinas located where the Falklands are now. They're not supposed to cry for Evita... ’s president, Javier Milei, who posted on X that his country "declares its deep disagreement" with the decision, which he said "ignores Israel’s right to self-defense against the constant attacks by terrorist organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah.’
International human rights ...which often include carefully measured allowances of freedom at the convenience of the state... organizations praised the decision and urged states to execute the arrest warrants.
Of course they did — they always enjoy a chance to pile on Israel, the details being utterly unimportant.
In the Middle East, several states were quick to welcome the decision.
Jordan and Turkey reared up on their hind legs to say stupidly nasty things.
The ICC’s warrants came some thirteen months after the Hamas terror group invaded southern Israel from the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
[IsraelTimes] Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar on Thursday said he had canceled a planned visit to Israel next week by his Dutch counterpart, Caspar Veldkamp, after the latter said the Netherlands would obey arrest warrants by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and ex-defense minister Yoav Gallant.
“Minister Sa’ar expressed his disappointment, in the name of the government of Israel and the people of Israel, over his announcement in the Dutch parliament following the decision of the International Criminal Court in the Hague,” Sa’ar’s office said in a statement following a discussion between the two men.
“In the discussion, it was agreed that the visit by the Dutch foreign minister to Israel that had been planned for next Monday — would not take place,” the statement said.
Hebrew media outlets reported Thursday that Israel suspects there may be more arrest warrants on the way, including in relation to activities in the West Bank, especially in light of expected decisions by the UN and the International Court of Justice regarding Israel’s policy there.
#6
The German government has not yet decided how to deal with the International Criminal Court's (ICC) arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced that the resulting “domestic steps” would be carefully examined.
Further steps would only be taken when a visit to Germany by Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant was on the cards, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit announced in Berlin. “It's hard for me to imagine that we would carry out arrests on this basis,” Hebestreit continued.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
11/22/2024 11:22
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[IsraelTimes] Measures applies to 24 entities depositing money with Lebanon’s Al-Qard Al-Hassan, which Defense Ministry says directly funds terror group’s activities and weapons purchases
Israel placed sanctions on dozens of clients of a bank closely tied to the Hezbollah terror movement in Leb ...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers... , Defense Minister Israel Katz’s office said Thursday.
The measures were applied to 24 entities using the al-Qard al-Hassan Association, a nonprofit financial institution affiliated with Hezbollah.
"We will lay our hands on all those who support terror, on every front and with every means," Katz said in a statement, describing the sanctions as part of efforts to "collapse the terror networks and hit those who provide them economic oxygen."
The Defense Ministry did not name the targeted entities or explain how the sanctions would be applied, making it difficult to assess whether the move would have any significant real-world ramifications.
Israel and the US say al-Qard al-Hassan, which has over 30 outlets across Lebanon, is used by Hezbollah for money laundering and terrorism financing, assertions the group denies.
On October 21, Israeli warplanes carried out a series of Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s on at least 15 al-Qard branches across Lebanon. Israel said it issued evacuation warnings ahead of the strikes. Many ordinary Lebanese keep their savings at the financial institution.
According to Defense Ministry, the sanctions are part of an ongoing financial campaign against Hezbollah and were made at the recommendation of the National Bureau for Counter-Terror Financing of Israel.
The targeted groups are clients who "deposited significant amounts with the association, which directly funds the activities of the declared terror organization Hezbollah," the ministry said.
The deposited funds are used, among other things, to purchase weapons, provide loans, and pay wages of Hezbollah members, it said.
The ministry said the sanctions program, led by the counter-terror financing bureau in cooperation with the Military Intelligence Directorate and other security bodies, was part of a "broad economic campaign to damage and thwart the finance routes of terror groups."
The sanctions will assist in "locating and foiling international financial activities of these entities and the bodies associated with them," said bureau chief Paul Landes.
Al-Qard al-Hassan is officially a nonprofit charity institution operating outside the Lebanese financial system and one of the tools with which Hezbollah entrenches its support among the country’s Shiite population.
In addition to its military wing, Hezbollah has branches that run schools, hospitals and low-price grocery stores, as well as al-Qard al-Hassan, from which hundreds of thousands of its supporters benefit.
The US Treasury has imposed sanctions on al-Qard al-Hassan since 2007, saying it is "used by Hezbollah as a cover" to manage the krazed killer group’s financial activities "and gain access to the international financial system."
Founded four decades ago, soon after Hezbollah’s inception, the association, whose name in Arabic means "the benevolent loan," offers interest-free loans and allows people to deposit gold as collateral in return for the credit, enabling them to pay for school fees and weddings, buy a car or open a small business. People can also open savings accounts.
#2
The article prose is a bit muddy, Grom, I agree. Perhaps sometime during the day it will be clarified. Though the impression I have is this is a prelude to another round of bombs, possibly after a random hacker emptied the accounts and scrambled the records on the server.
Worth noting, korrespondent.net has compiled its Invasion of Ukraine series into separate months, beginning May 9th, 2023. Linked in the title.
[Korrespondent] 19.37 The number of casualties as a result of shelling by Russian troops has increased in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Thus, 34 casualties are known in Dnipro and Krivoy Rog.
18.37 Main Intelligence Directorate fighters launched a missile strike on a concentration of Russian invaders in the Zaporizhia region - a platoon of occupiers was eliminated.
18.22 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with a UK delegation led by Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Anthony Radakin. They discussed further development and enhancement of the technological capabilities of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
18.03 As a result of the strike by Storm Shadow cruise missiles on the underground command post of the Russian army in the Kursk region, at least 18 Russian soldiers were killed and dozens were injured. This is reported by Russian publics.
17:15 If the strike by a Russian intercontinental ballistic missile on Ukraine is confirmed, it will be an extremely serious event, which will indicate a continuation of escalation by Russia, said French Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoyne.
16:16 The use of an intercontinental ballistic missile to strike Ukraine demonstrates yet another round of aggression on the part of Russia and shows that Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is not interested in peace talks, European Commission spokesman Peter Stano said at a briefing.
15.51 International human rights organization Amnesty International has condemned US President Joe Biden's decision to provide anti-personnel mines to Ukraine and called it "reckless."
14.04 Russia continues to test new weapons in Ukraine, once again demonstrating its disregard for dignity and freedom. This was stated by President Volodymyr Zelensky in an address to Ukrainians, reacting to the enemy's intercontinental missile strike on the Dnieper.
13.10 Another Georgian fighter, 24-year-old Levan Lokhishvili, has died in the war in Ukraine. The soldier died in the Kherson region when a homemade drone exploded.
12.19 A video has appeared online that may indicate the first-ever combat use of an intercontinental ballistic missile. According to the Ukrainian Air Force, the missile strike was carried out on November 21 from a test site in the Astrakhan region of Russia on targets in Dnepr.
12:10 Unknown drones were spotted Wednesday morning in Russia's Astrakhan region. It was from there that the Russians launched an intercontinental ballistic missile at Ukraine.
11.43 Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof Szalay-Bobrovnicki said he had ordered the deployment of air defense systems in areas of the country closest to the border with Ukraine, citing fears of escalation after Ukraine was allowed to fire Western weapons deep into Russian territory.
11.38 Russian invaders struck the city of Krivoy Rog. There are 15 known casualties.
11.22 Strikes by Western long-range weapons against Russia will change the nature of the war. This is stated in a report by the Institute for the Study of War. ISW analysts came to the conclusion that the series of strikes on November 19-20 indicate that Ukraine has already begun to use long-range weapons systems provided by the West to create more complex strikes, which will help it effectively wage war against the Russian aggressor.
11:00 The United States allows for an exchange of nuclear strikes if necessary, but the country must simultaneously retain part of its arsenal to further deter opponents. As a result of the use of nuclear weapons, the United States must "continue to lead the world," the Pentagon emphasized.
10.51 As a result of the missile attack by Russian aggressors on the city of Dnepr, two people were injured. The local OVA reported on the damage caused.
10.40 The NASAMS system from Canada is on its way to Ukraine. The air defense system is already in Poland and should soon be sent across the border, said Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair.
9.59 Russian troops dropped an aerial bomb on a residential area of Konstantinovka in the Donetsk region. The attack injured six civilians and damaged 10 apartment buildings.
9.45. Russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile and eight other missiles at the Dnieper. The Ukrainian Air Force destroyed six Kh-101 missiles.
9.01 As a result of Russian shelling, one of the two power lines at the Zaporizhia Nuclear Power Plant has been cut off. This was reported by the Ministry of Energy. It is noted that the plant is connected to the Ukrainian energy system by only one power line. If the last line is disconnected, another complete blackout will occur at the Zaporizhia plant.
8.49 According to the General Staff, 153 combat clashes occurred on the front over the past 24 hours. Missile troops and artillery of the Defense Forces carried out twelve strikes on areas of concentration of enemy personnel and military equipment, a command post and a field warehouse of the enemy were hit.
8.20 . An industrial enterprise was damaged in Dnipro as a result of an attack by Russian troops. This was reported by the head of the Dnipropetrovsk OVA Sergey Lysak. There were also two fires in the city.
7.50 . The Ukrainian Armed Forces destroyed 1,510 Russian occupiers in one day. The enemy's total combat losses from 24.02.22 to 21.11.24 were approximately 727,250 people. This was reported by the General Staff.
7.23. The Navy reported a threat from the Black Sea. As of the morning of November 21, there are 24 Russian ships there, 5 of which are carriers of Kalibrs with a total salvo of up to 28 missiles.
03:24 The Telegraph writes about major problems in Ukraine's air defense that could arise if Trump cancels arms supplies to Ukraine. The Patriot air defense systems currently in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces will very quickly cease to be useful, since Ukraine has a very small stock of missiles for them. Without permission from the White House, Ukraine will not be able to buy them even at its own expense. Theoretically, the Patriot air defense systems could replace the SAMP/T systems, but their number in the world is very limited. In addition, they could also have American components.
[Breitbart] World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus
…Ethiopian. Politically he came up through the The Tigray People's Liberation Front, the ethnic revolutionary socialist party that ruled Ethiopia from 1991 to 2018…
was hospitalized on Wednesday night in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he had been attending the G20 summit.
Hospital Samaritano Barra da Tijuca in Rio said the W.H.O. chief, 59, was admitted on Wednesday afternoon for "necessary tests, which confirmed clinical indicators with no signs of seriousness."
The hospital said Tedros spent the night under observation and was released on Thursday morning. He was reportedly given medication for high blood pressure.
Brazilian media reports said Tedros presented with "symptoms of labyrinthitis and an hypertensive crisis." He had complained of feeling unwell earlier in the week at the G20 summit and has previously been diagnosed with hypertension. Labyrinthitis is an infection of the inner ear that can cause vertigo and nausea.
"I am fortunate that I was diagnosed early and have access to good medical care," Tedros said of his condition last year. "Unfortunately, the same is not true for the majority of those with hypertension, especially for those in lower-income countries and communities."
Tedros confirmed on Thursday that he was discharged from the hospital and back to work.
"What saddens me the most is that I am unable to deliver on my promise to pick up my daughter from school today, as my departure was delayed due to the illness," he said.
"Even though it might seem like a small thing, these everyday moments are incredibly important. It’s in those interactions that we build our bonds and show our love. Those moments truly matter," he said.
"Please take care of your health — it’s your greatest wealth," he advised.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Korrespondent] Ukrainian Armed Forces Contain Russian Attacks in Eastern and Southern Ukraine.
The enemy has again concentrated on the Pokrovsky direction. The defense forces have repelled 22 Russian attacks, eight combat clashes are still ongoing.
Since the beginning of the current day, 114 combat clashes have occurred on the front. Ukrainian troops are repelling the Russian offensive in 10 directions and in the Kursk region. This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in a report as of 16:00 on Thursday, November 21.
Thus, in the Kharkov direction, the Russians stormed the positions of Ukrainian units in the Volchansk area six times. The fighting continues.
In the Kupyansk direction, the occupiers attacked 12 times in the areas of Petropavlovka, Kolesnikovka, Zagryzovoye and Lozovaya. Five clashes are ongoing.
In the Liman direction, the invading army also carried out 12 attacks near Tverdokhlebovoye, Novoegorovka, Grekovka, Terny, Torskoye and in the Serebryansky forest. 10 battles have ended, two more are ongoing.
In the Kramatorsk direction, since the beginning of the day, the enemy has attacked twice near Chasovy Yar and Stupochki. The battle is currently ongoing.
In the Toretsk direction, the aggressor attempted four times to penetrate the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ defenses in the areas of the settlements of Toretsk and Shcherbinovka.
In the Pokrovsky direction, Russian invaders made 30 attempts to push our defenders from their positions in the areas of Mirolyubovka, Promenya, Lisovka, Petrovka, Mlechnoye and Pustynka. The defense forces repelled 22 enemy attacks, eight combat contacts are still ongoing.
In the Kurakhovsky direction, the enemy army carried out 21 attacks near Berestki, Solntsovka, Zarya, Kurakhovo, Dalnee, Yekaterinovka and Antonovka. Nine assaults were repelled. The fighting continues.
In the Vremivsky direction, there were seven enemy attacks in the direction of Trudovoye, Konstantinopolskoye, Razliv, Sukhi Yal and near Novodarovka. Three battles are still ongoing.
In the Orekhov direction, occupation forces once stormed the positions of the Defense Forces near Pyatikhatki.
An enemy attack is being repelled in the Dnieper direction.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces operation in the Kursk region is also ongoing. Since the beginning of the day, Russian aircraft have carried out 15 strikes of the 22nd UAB on their own territory. Our soldiers have repelled 11 assaults. The fighting continues.
Let us recall that on November 20, the Russian army lost more than 1,500 fighters in one day. Since the beginning of the Great War, Russian losses amount to almost 730 thousand people killed and wounded.
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[Regnum] At least 38 people were killed and 20 were injured during an armed attack in northwestern Pakistan, local television channel Geo TV reported on November 21.
“At least 38 people, including a woman and a child, were killed after attackers opened fire on passenger vehicles in Ochat area of Kurram Agency,” the report said.
According to Pakistani police, the target of the attack was a convoy of cars travelling from Parachinar to Peshawar, when the militants opened fire on them.
Ambulances are at the scene. At this point, several victims are in critical condition. The TV channel, citing law enforcement agencies, notes that this attack has become the largest in the region in recent years.
On January 30, Regnum reported that an explosion occurred during prayers in a mosque in the Pakistani city of Peshawar. The bomb was detonated by a terrorist who died in the explosion. On January 31, it became known that the number of people killed in the terrorist attack had increased to 95.
While no group has grabbed credit, sources noted that the region has long been plagued by sectarian violence between Sunni and Shia communities.Sources revealed that among the 38 victims, 34 were Shia and four were Sunni. The dead also included three women and one child. At least 11 others were maimed in the attack.
The recent incident highlights the growing wave of murderous Moslem violence in Pakistain. Groups like Tehrik-e-Taliban ...mindless ferocity in a turban... Pakistain (TTP) and the Balochistan ...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it... Liberation Army (BLA) have intensified their attacks on Pak security forces, foreign nationals (including Chinese workers), and civilians.
In response to the rising threat, the federal government of Pakistain has approved a large-scale military operation in Balochistan. The operation aims to eliminate terrorist networks and restore security in the region.
Deutsche Welle weighs in:
A local government official told the AFP news agency that police officers were among the dead; the convoy was traveling with a police escort.
Witnesses said that attackers had fired indiscriminately at a convoy of vehicles from either side of the highway over a period of several minutes.
Crowds gathered outside the hospital in the nearby city of Parachinar awaiting the wounded.
SECTARIAN TENSIONS HIGH IN BORDER REGION
The attack happened in the district of Kurram in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where sectarian clashes between Sunni and Shiite Muslims have killed dozens of people in recent months.
Kurram is one of comparatively few areas in Sunni-majority Pakistan where Shiite Muslims make up the bulk of inhabitants.
It's also close to the border to Afghanistan, now governed by the fundamentalist Sunni Taliban, and an area of operation for anti-Shia militant groups like the Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and an "Islamic State" offshoot.
Around 50 people from either religious community in Kurram were killed in clashes in July connected to a land dispute, which led to an uptick in tensions and subsequent violence.
Thursday's shooting took place on a highway that had been closed for weeks following another attack on passenger vehicles last month; it was only reopened for those traveling with police escorts.
Local police official Azmat Ali told the Associated Press (AP) that several vehicles were traveling in a convoy from the nearby city of Parachinar to Peshawar, the capital of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
No group immediately claimed responsibility.
On Wednesday this week, a suicide attack in the same province at a security checkpoint killed 12 soldiers and wounded several others.
#4
Funny thing though, they went right out and arrested him. No problem locating, just went out n scooped him up and get this - they're still holding him. Weird!
Posted by: Rex Mundi ||
11/22/2024 9:06
Comments ||
Top||
#6
Schadenfreude. NY tried via lawfare, to hold up Trump, his corporatin and his sons for $368 million via lawfare. Moreover, Letitia James ran on an election campaign of destroying Trump and putting him in jail. How's that working out?
[Ynet] Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition organization based in London, reported Thursday evening that at least 82 terrorists and commanders in the pro-Iranian militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah organization were killed in the unusual attack in Syria attributed to Israel in Tadmor.
Tadmor is another name for the city of Palmyra, which is next to a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Not that the archeological treasure kept any of the parties in Syria’s civil war from merrily engaging in extreme violence in the area over the past decade, but the standard is different for Israel.
According to the group, 56 of the dead are Syrians affiliated with the pro-Iranian militias, and 22 are of non-Syrian nationality, most of them from the pro-Iranian Iraqi al-Nujaba militia. Next to them, four Hezbollah members also were killed.
If the reports are correct, it appears that this is a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad, who is hosting senior members of Hezbollah, and therefore Israel is increasing the pressure on the terrorist organization, precisely at the height of negotiations toward a cease-fire, and maximizing success in hitting it not only in Lebanon. Too bad some terrorists, like ICC or EU officials, are currently untouchable.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...a Moslem country located in the Horn of Africa. It is noted for its affinity for rule by ex- or current generals, its holy men, and for the oppression of the native Afro population by its Arab conquerors. South Sudan, populated mostly by the natives, split off from Sudan proper, which left North and South Darfur to be oppressed by the guys with turbans...
...an Iranian satrapy until recently ruled by Hassan Nasrallah situated on the eastern Mediterranean, conveniently adjacent to Israel. Formerly inhabited by hardy Phoenecian traders, its official language is now Arabic, with the usual unpleasant side effects. The Leb civil war, between 1975 and 1990, lasted a little over 145 years and produced 120,000 fatalities. The average length of a ceasefire was measured in seconds. The Lebs maintain a precarious sectarian balance among Shiites, Sunnis, and about a dozen flavors of Christians, plus Armenians, Georgians, and who knows what else? It is the home of the original Hezbollah, which periodically starts a war with the Zionist Entity, gets Beirut pounded to rubble, and then declares victory and has a parade. The Lebs have the curious habit of periodically murdering their heads of state or prime ministers...
...The Hero of Butler, Pennsylvania...
..a contraction of the Arabic words for "frothing at the mouth",...
[JPost] British Police said earlier that officers were investigating a suspect package in the vicinity of the US Embassy.
..the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood,...
[THEINS via CFP] Today Vladimir Putin gave an unscheduled live address to the nation. He claimed that on Nov. 19, six 
...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...
...mindless ferocity in a turban...
